The Authors of Confusion

I don’t often address controversial topics in blog posts.   My main purpose in writing is to give Biblical encouragement to struggling Christians in an increasingly confusing world … but the simplistic world that I grew up in has taken another disturbing moral turn with the very public transformation of one of the “world’s greatest athletes” from the man that he was into the woman that he wills himself to be. Who would ever have thought that the 1976 gold medal winner in the MEN’S decathlon at the Montreal Summer Olympic games would arrive at a point in life where he would even question such a thing as, “Am I really a man”. He was, after all, a MALE role model for an entire generation of aspiring young athletes at the time.

Gen. 1:27 seems to be a very simple statement of fact to me: “So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” What a revolutionary God was to think that He was wise enough to choose our sexes FOR us! When I was a kid, I don’t recall ever really having a problem with that. Now, they’re creating ‘camps’ for kids with “identity confusion issues” to “help them” to transition into the sexual people they were “meant to be”.  WHAT? God has a serious question for those of us who entertain such thoughts.

But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, “Why have you made me like this?” (Rom. 9:20)

Today, we have adults in the fields of Education and Psychology purposefully posing these confusing “sexual identity and preference” issues before children too young to even comprehend the meaning of the questions being asked. To compound their sin, they inject their own biased, anti-Christian, and anti-God views into every aspect of the “curriculum” being foisted upon little kids. Instead of helping one very confused adult to get the help he obviously needs to correct his own mental problems, they are holding him … oops, her up as some kind of iconic role model for young children to follow.

As if the world weren’t already “bad” enough, “we” are creating an even darker, and more confusing future in our obvious rebellion against God. A whole new generation of children hangs in the balance, and responsible young Christian parents would be wise to consider their educational choices.

Therefore, “Come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord. “Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you shall be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.” (2 Cor. 6:17-18)

The choices before us, between good and evil, light and darkness, are becoming clearer and clearer as time goes on. 1 Cor. 14:33 tells us that “God is not the author of confusion.” As time goes on, in this up-side down world we live in today, it becomes more and more obvious that the disturbing truth about who does “author” confusion … is … US.

Advertisement

A Prophecy YOU Can Fulfill!

In my 35 years of church experience, it seems like no subject creates more excitement than Bible prophecy, particularly prophecies that speak of the second coming of Jesus Christ, and His rule and reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That really is a beautiful thing to contemplate, especially as the world around us becomes more and more violent, and ungodly with each passing day.

There are many prophecies in the OT that have already been fulfilled, and thoroughly documented in the pages of history — events foretold hundreds of years before their actual fulfillment in the lives of flesh and blood people, kings and their kingdoms who were actually used by God to make it all come true. In some cases, the rise and fall of kingdom after succeeding kingdom covering centuries of time can be seen in single OT chapters.

We usually think of prophecy as something that is fulfilled by God and God alone, and view ourselves as powerless beings swept along on a virtual tidal wave of God’s mighty will … and to an extent, I suppose that is true enough. We are unable to have much of a personal effect on the major prophecies that will effect end-time events in this world.

But what if I told you that YOU can BE the fulfillment of at least one major prophecy in God’s Word of life. It’s a prophecy that is of great importance to God, and one that is very important to the coming Kingdom of God. That prophecy is found in Isaiah 55.

For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. (Is. 55:10-11)

At first glance, most of you might not think these verses are even “prophetic” as we usually think of “prophecy”, but I’ll just ask you to take a closer look. Think about one very major ingredient required to make up the Kingdom of God: PEOPLE! There will be people — people converted to the ways and thoughts of the God-Kingdom through the study of every aspect of God’s Holy word.

So I would challenge you to take a good look at what you are doing every time you pick up the Book that God sent into this world. Each and every day as you study its precepts, I challenge you to implement them into your daily walk with God, following the pattern and example of Jesus Christ, Himself “the Word of God.”

This “prophecy” of God says that His Word will “accomplish” His will, and “prosper” in what He sent it into the world to do. He sent His Word into this world to transform the lives of human beings … not “other” human beings, but YOU and ME … through study, prayer, meditation and interaction with God the Father, and God the Son.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Is. 55:8-9)

We “think” of prophecy in terms of great earth-shaking, history-altering events, but God doesn’t think on the same plane as we do.    In His mind, the greatest fulfillment of prophecy might just have something to do with … YOU!

Forsaken

This time of year always brings to mind the real humanity of Jesus Christ as He approached and then endured His last Passover as a human being. It’s hard for me at times to fathom a great God who so loved His human creation that He wanted to experience every aspect of human life … especially as I myself experience some of the real frailties of the flesh, and see so many of my closest friends and relatives going through severe trials.

To think that a Being who was actually God would leave the throne of the universe, even for a brief 30+ years, to live in human flesh with all of its pain, temptation and frustration so that He could be of greater service to us is a bit beyond my grasp

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell (Col. 1:15-19)

bg image credit: Sean MacEntee

These verses provide us with one of my personal favorite assessments of the real greatness of this Being  …of how highly esteemed He was by His Father in heaven, and how much He was actually giving up to live a mortal life. Yet even He was required to come to a point where He was totally deserted by His closest friends, and left in the hands of the executioners to be tortured, shamed, and humiliated, and to suffer one of the most heinous forms of execution ever devised, and then … to feel the emotional emptiness of Matt 27:46, and separation from His father.

I’ve heard and read for years that the reason for Christ being forsaken was that the Father is so Holy that He can’t abide being in the presence of sin, so when the sins of the whole world were shouldered by His totally innocent Son, He had to temporarily turn His back on Him. I DO understand the reasoning behind that, but I’d like to bring up a scripture that points to a reason for this separation that is even more personal for each man and woman who has ever lived.

 For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. (Heb. 4:15-16)

This great Being, who sacrificed everything for human beings, also came to experience and identify with every major emotion and weakness that we have in the flesh. There isn’t a one of us who has not, or will not  have this feeling of being forsaken as we reach our lowest points in life … even by God Himself.

It is the greatest comfort to realize that our High Priest and Savior has an intimate knowledge of ALL that we are experiencing in this fleshly form. Knowing that He, with His experiential knowledge of what we feel, can so readily sympathize with us, we CAN come boldly to the throne of grace, and obtain His mercy and help having His enduring promise that He will never leave us or forsake us (Heb. 13:5).