God... Sovereign or Impotent?
Continued...
Take abortion. Is it murder? Yes! Is it the taking of the most innocent and helpless human life? Yes! Is it sin? Yes!
Do we, however, fail to remember that God is permitting this slaughter of children among us? We act as though our hands are clean and that God isn't in control of this calamity as we take up our swords to do battle with the world, as though we are righteous.
"If a trumpet is blown in a city will not the people tremble? If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it? Surely the Lord God does nothing unless He reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets. A lion has roared! Who will not fear? The Lord God has spoken! Who can but prophesy?" Amos 3: 6-8 NASB
Have we ever stopped to consider that our holy God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, might be allowing this modern day holocaust to take place as a means of awakening us to our failures? We, the church, so often times are caught up in a spiritual slumber as we try to blend Jesus with our love of materialism, greed, jealousy, war mongering, all sorts of sensuality, and even freedom. It's like we want to have our cake and eat it too. Art Katz said, "Heaven and everything else".
There is little cost to following Jesus today in North America, and when we see wrong happening in society so often all we want to do is get on our political soap boxes and avoid the cost of following Christ by trying to win another war. And the world goes on dying, wondering where truth exists, because we're not trying to win people to Jesus.
"Jesus answered (Pilate), “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.” John 19: 11 NASB
If millions and millions of people across the world, many of those even claiming to be Christians, do not fear God and are willing to put babies to death for their own reasons... that is a horrible tragedy and revelation of the truth of the times in which we are living. I guess we should ask ourselves, fearfully before God, how I might have, or even continue to contribute to the confusion the world has with truth today. But no matter our conclusion, clearly those women and men who choose to kill their preborn babies have been given the authority to commit that sin... by God. Just like you and I had the same authority to carry out dozens of other sins, if we chose to do so, before He chose us and we began following our Lord.
No one is going to get saved because of what you or I do apart from Christ, including babies in the womb. To tell the truth about abortion when that truth is required of us, as followers of Christ, is our obligation. To go looking for fights and to go calling lost people out on their sin, isn't our job as followers of Christ at all.
"Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'" Matthew 7: 22-23 NASB
It sounds like the "many" on that day will be people who thought they did great things in Jesus' name. To love the Lord our God, and to love others, these are the greatest commandments. But to keep a holy fear of God ought to nurture that love.
Adolf Hitler didn't surprise God; neither did Joseph Stalin, Karl Marx, George Bush, or Barack Obama.
"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God." Romans 13: 1 NASB
That's right. Communist leaders are established by God. Fascist dictators are established by God. Left-wing liberals are established by God. Right-wing conservatives are established by God. For what reasons? Because God said so! Enough said.
"First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying) as a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." 1 Timothy 2: 1-7 NASB
So God desires all men, including pro-abortion, pro-gay marriage... all men, to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Maybe we need to re-evaluate our politics and our fighting natures? Are we fighting with Spirit or flesh? Are we trying to have our cake and eat it too? Living the American Dream and Heaven too? Are we trying to maintain control of what God has allowed upon us? Are we willing to learn from God? Or do we think we've got Him figured out in all of this?
Jesus Christ came to be crucified and resurrected. Jesus Christ came to pay for ALL sin... and He did. We need to tell people the good news and let God sort out the details. Maybe we need to be willing to lose for a change, then God will be glorified. After all, are we better than Jesus? Or would you and I be fighting for our rights if it was our time to face the injustice of following our Lord?
I pray God will bless this word, and that you and I are changed by Him for His glory.
Thanks for reading.