I can close my eyes and see my dad on his old Harmony guitar, strumming away and earnestly singing, “I serve a risen savior he’s in the world today, I know that he is with me whatever men may say, I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer, and just the time I need Him He’s always near. He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me and talks with me along life’s narrow way. He lives, He lives, Salvation to impart … You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart.”
But let’s be honest, the world wasn’t in the chaos it’s in right now when Dad sang a song that praised an ever present God. Oh there was a war going in in Southeast Asia, there were student war protests going on in a few places around the country and Christian parents were convinced that long haired British rock & rollers were corrupting the kids. But nothing like a global pandemic combined with the anarchy & murder in our major cities was going on in those days. Murder rate in Chicago is up 190% over last year and those types of increases in homicide mark the times in several American cities.
It’s possible that you don’t feel the nearness of God right now. If you’re the type of person who will take the time to read a pastor’s blog, I’m guessing you’re a person who doesn’t like that lonely feeling and the type of individual who would like to rediscover the presence of God. Perhaps you’re not that type of person at all, but a cynic who dares me to prove to you that clinging to our Bibles and religion has not finally been proven futile.
Let me tell why I can still, with integrity, sing, “He lives.”
- Abandoning God and the principles of scripture has all to do with how we got in this mess.
People who stop believing in God over the suffering and strivings of a fallen world are missing a key component of Biblical understanding and accurate anthropology.
Genesis 1 : 26,27> (The Message) God spoke: “Let us make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature So they can be responsible for the fish in the sea, the birds in the air, the cattle, And, yes, Earth itself, and every animal that moves on the face of Earth.” God created human beings; He created them godlike, Reflecting God’s nature. He created them male and female. God blessed them: “Prosper! Reproduce! Fill Earth! Take charge! Be responsible for fish in the sea and birds in the air, for every living thing that moves on the face of Earth.”
I can’t think of much about our present crisis that doesn’t lead me back to human irresponsibility. For me to pull away from God at a time like this is to deny my own culpability and ignore the covenant God made with Adam and Eve, which is obviously his contract with you modern human, as well.
A brother in the church reminded me yesterday about the shipwreck that Apostle Paul survived in Acts and Paul’s little, “I told you so speech,” in Acts 27:21-22 After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed.”
Again I remind you, before you conclude that storms mean God is dead or doesn’t care, revisit the ancient and irrevocable contract of Genesis 1, that affirms, although God created the world, we’re in charge. He’s the owner, but we’re the managers.
- In crisis we need God more than ever.
Two Key passages come to mind right now.
Psalm 61: 2,3 > From the ends of the earth I call to you, I call as my heart grows faint; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the foe.
And, Matthew 8:24,25 > Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”
Neither passage points to cynicism and self reliance as the answer. The tendency of humans to not only blame God for our problems but to conclude he has no wisdom for getting through the crisis, will turn tragedy into hell. The disciples weren’t giants in faith but at least they had the good sense to try and wake up Jesus.
When I don’t know how to think, which is often these days, I turn to C. S. Lewis for my souls vocabulary. Lewis says, “We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; and in that case the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive man.“
There will be those who will turn away from God in these days, but then there will be those of us who experience God at a deeper level than ever before. I am determined to be in the number who are led to “the rock that is higher than I.”
- The only things being threatened are temporary and lacking in substance anyway.
I know that’s hard for materialistic modernists to hear, but it’s true. Tim Keller wrote recently in response to his Pancreatic Cancer diagnosis, “Kathy and I are being weaned from the joys of this life.” We used to sing, “put your hope on things eternal, hold to God’s unchanging hand.”
The writer of Hebrews says it this way in Hebrews 12:25, “See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”
Now if you think it’s just about hanging on ’till Christ comes back then you haven’t experienced the Holy Spirit that is ready to fill those who are at first willing to be empty of the joys of this world; those ready to be led to the higher rock. I know I am opening up a different subject, but I don’t apologize because, mark my words, a wind of the spirit from the eternal realm is blowing right now for those who are willing to stop just looking out and start looking up.
I close with our friend, C.S. Lewis from the marvelous little book, “Screwtape Letters.” This is the head demon talking to his protege “Wormwood.” “Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”
