Alternative View - October 20, 2017
. . . rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer . . . - (Romans 12:12)
When you look at the news from your community or your nation, would you describe it as chaotic or peaceful?
The third missing ingredient in Israel was God’s law. When a culture has a false view of God built on bad information, God begins to remove the restraint of His law, and evil grows unbridled. What you and I are witnessing today in the rapid worsening of our culture is the reality that God is removing more and more of His restraint.
Even sinners who respect God won’t do certain things. But once God is removed from or marginalized in a culture, then the standard for a society is gone and God becomes one’s worst enemy and worst nightmare. That’s what had happened in Israel.
When the rule of God’s law is missing, chaos replaces community. You cannot have order and structure in society without God. Men become enslaved by the very freedom they seek.
We have ungodly people in our culture who don’t want any divine standard to which they must be held accountable. But when God leaves a society, hope goes with Him.
As long as you have God, you have hope. He’s the one thing you can count on. If God is still in the picture, and as long as His agenda is still on the table, it’s not over until it’s over.
Even if circumstances collapse, God will keep you. As long as God is front and center in a culture, life, family, or church, there’s hope. But when He is removed, just like when people and their taxes leave the inner city and go to the suburbs, God goes to the spiritual suburbs, and the inner city’s cultures crumble.
Reflection: How does a false view of God harm an individual? How does it harm a community or a culture? In what areas has our own culture gone astray from God’s Word? How has my family followed culture instead of God’s way—and how can we correct that?
Heavenly Father, help me to always keep You front and center in my life. And I also pray that You will help the believers in this nation to do the same as well. Remind us of Your preeminence over all.
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