I expect in a sinful world of lost people for some to react to opportunities to riot, loot, steal, kill and destroy with those very things. And I expect people who don’t have the power, love, and self control that comes from the Holy Spirit to act like idiots and burn their own communities to the ground.
I am not justifying it, but the Bible teaches me to expect natural man to be this way.
I expect some people who don’t value and love and serve others, but whose jobs put them in situations where they are afraid of dying (because they have no confidence in God to guide their steps) to sometimes unjustly shoot and kill others out of the fear, anxiety, and stress of an unknown situation that might end their life before they are ready.
I am not justifying it, but the Bible teaches me to expect natural man to be this way.
I expect that people who push the limits of fighting against authority, resisting authority, and causing a menace to society might end up at the wrong end of a deadly escalation of resistance being met with the understandable increasing levels of force necessary to bring a dangerous situation under control.
I am not justifying it, but the Bible teaches me to expect natural man to be this way.
Natural men reacting in the flesh will produce works of the flesh. The wages of sin are death. It leads to destruction. So none of this should come as a big surprise to us.
But don’t try to sell me that it is just a black and white thing. Don’t try to sell me that it is just a rich and a poor thing. It is a sin thing. It is a lack of love thing. It is a failure of our people, our community, our nation to turn to God, so we are being divided and conquered just as we should expect to be if we are unwilling to change.
Those unseen enemies want us divided and conquered, pointing fingers at each other, and running from each other in fear – but I have a different proposition to offer:
If the news shows us that races hate each other, let’s go out there TODAY and prove them wrong, Christian, with an outpouring of love towards that group they say you hate. You say, but they are my enemy, they are acting like terrorists – and I say that Jesus called us to love and pray for our enemies, because He explained that our true enemies are not flesh and blood.
If the news shows us that the rich hate and oppress the poor, or that the poor live lazily off of the rich, let’s go out there TODAY and prove them wrong, Christian, with an outpouring of love and support and working as if unto the Lord and giving freely and openhandedly that proves that people are more valuable than money and possessions – because Jesus told us to be satisfied with our needs being met and to sell and give to the poor and needy, for those with less not to envy those with more, and for those with more to be humbled by their blessings and convicted to help others.
But as I call out for action, for love, for a demonstration of the very nature of Christ who you say lives and abides within you, Christian, for that fruit that is evidence of a good tree – will it be found?
Or just talked about, thought about, philosophized about but never followed?
Will the only touch of Christ for so many lives be only to wither the fig tree that has no fruit to offer? Will the door be found shut?
I hope and pray that we will humble ourselves, not only in long winded prayers, but in loving demonstration towards one another the good works that He has laid out before us along this narrow path.
If your idea of grace prevents you from serving the Lord, if it leaves you enslaved to your sin, if you find your vessel empty and devoid of that promised Holy Spirit, if you find your religion falling short of that new creation and renewing of your mind to be like Christ, either repent and yield today and decide to serve the Lord your God, or clear the way – for the enemy knows that his time is short and that His defeat is already accomplished.
Chose your side or clear the way,
Awake and arise or depart into the darkness,
you who are either asleep or dead,
You who have decided through your indecision and doubt,
Hear my cry and repent,
Receive the breath of life,
Hear the voice of the Good Shepherd,
Decide today,
For every knee will bend,
Every head will bow,
And every tongue will confess,
That Jesus Christ is Lord.
You have chosen?
Then do not look for me to strike you down, brother,
I am not the accuser or the judge,
I am only a Herald of the message of God,
I leave room either for the mercy or the wrath of the Father,
For He knows the hidden desires of men’s hearts,
He knows the underlying motives and intentions of men,
He will being everything into the light that is hidden,
And the secrets will be revealed for eternity.
Where will you stand?
Or will you sit?
Or will you weep at His feet?
Or will you see His face?
These are the questions that I wonder whether others even wonder about?
And if our thoughts are set upon eternity, dear Christian, then how can we miss the opportunity to love today, to testify today, to walk with Him, in His will and purpose today?
Is there some greater calling on your life, than to BE Christian?
Harold J. Ballinger 