January 14, 2020 – Click here to listen
Yesterday I received a letter from a reader who is living out his version of what Job endured. He was unjustly fired from his job when the company changed hands; shortly thereafter his wife divorced him with 3 kids in high school while in the midst of building their dream home, and if it weren’t for Godly friends, he might have just decided to end it all.
Each morning I try to read the news. I cannot bear to watch it on television anymore because it is so biased and filled with lies, but in reality, it’s all but impossible to find the truth online either. I scan several websites skimming headlines and occasionally find one to read that at least allows me to know whether we are at war or not. Sometimes I get sucked in and read the junk and I always regret it.
This morning I read about baseball scandals where the Houston Astros were caught red-handed using electronic devices to steal signs from their opponents. It would be nice to know whether or not you are going to get a fastball or change-up with the next pitch and it can definitely tilt the game over time. Imagine cheating in sports, is it so necessary to win that coaches and players will collude and participate in such unethical conduct?
As I further perused the internet, I saw article after article detailing the unraveling morality that is overtaking our world. Some just seem plain stupid like the royal squabble. Who cares if Megan and Harry leave England’s royalty and move to Vancouver or to the arctic circle in order to get richer and pursue their liberal agenda?
Another “explosive” article “broke” this morning with news that Actor Vince Vaughn was actually seen talking with President Trump at the National Championships football game last night. Oh my God – my God please don’t let it be so. The Hollywood crazies are pitching a fit and want his show cancelled and his career ruined.
Surprise – surprise Nancy Pelosi is trying to distract the successes of Trump by sending over her month-old impeachment articles to the Senate to deflect the news cycle from his recent success in Iran. And blah blah blah . . .
I thought of the plight of my friend in relation to his problems versus the headlines of the day. Can these clowns understand that there are real people out there who have real problems? Does reading all of this junk help anyone? Ask yourself are you better off by reading it?
C.S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity that “we are living in enemy occupied territory.” Who is the enemy? Satan and his hordes. Some are saying these days there is no Satan and no good or bad. C.S. Lewis commented on that as well:
“If you do not take the distinction between good and bad very seriously, then it is easy to say that anything you find in this world is a part of God. But, of course, if you think some things really bad, and God really good, then you cannot talk like that. You must believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will. Confronted with a cancer or a slum the Pantheist can say, ‘If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would realize that this also is God.’ The Christian replies, ‘Don’t talk damned nonsense.’ For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world — that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colors and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God ‘made up out of His head’ as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made, and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.”
We fight a formidable enemy, but we are tasked to fight the good fight. Bad things happen to good people and sometimes it seems as though we along with God are losing the battle. Even a cursory look at the Bible will dispel those notions. Our current state was prophesied many centuries ago and everything is going according to plan. The world will continue to become more and more evil, I believe right up until that last person who will accept Christ as their Savior does so. Then He will step in and deal with the evil in devastating fashion as described in Revelation.
I tell my friend and any others who suffer to draw close to God and His followers for comfort, because you will not receive it from the world. Surround yourselves with Christian brothers and sisters and fight the good fight.
1 Peter 5:8
Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.