8/3/2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 2. 5-6)

“[Solomon advises] ‘My son, pay attention to what I say; turn your ear to my words. Do not let them out of your sight, keep them within your heart; for they are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it. Keep your mouth free of perversity; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look straight ahead; fix your gaze directly before you. Give careful thought to the paths for your feet and be steadfast in all your ways. Do not turn to the right or the left; keep your foot from evil.’” (Proverbs 4.20-27)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

Yesterday, I considered our personal gateways. These are the portals through which information enters into our lives. These portals are our eyes, ears, mouths, noses, skin, intuition and spirituality. We see it, hear it, taste it, smell it, touch it, sense it and are moved by something far greater than ourselves internally knowing without any other sense that it exists beyond us externally. What the corners and corner makers of this world want to do is to dull our senses so that we may never get to the greatest experience and validation of our lives. To darken the corner where we are is the intent of the enemy of humanity and God. The purpose is to propose far more than “there is no God.” What could be greater than no God? What is greater and more dangerous to our lives is not the absence of God. What is greater and more dangerous to our lives is the thought, the consideration that “we have no need for God whether there is one or not.”

You see, if there is no God then there is no real accountability in life nor for life. If there is no God there is only life and only death. Both would be based on the achievements, the works and the stored resources of each person. There would be a beginning and an end; a start and a finish. There would be no true sense of justice or fairness. Life would merely exist as the “survival of the fittest.” The only test of strength that would exist would be “the last person standing.” In that world, what good would that existence be? If the test is passed when there is only one person standing, then who would be there to share the victory? But, that is not the true test of the strength of life. The true test is how many people would be standing together as one people without fear, without doubt, without hopelessness, without concern for tomorrow because today is sufficient to accomplish all the good that is needed for the day. For those the challenge is to brighten the corner where they are. They are the ones who realize that “a city set on a hill cannot be hidden nor is a candle the most useful placed under a bowl.”

But, without gates and gatekeepers, what every city and community has is the opening to attack from the enemy. A city and community without such protection and protectors has simply surrendered to the enemy. That city and community has laid down “their arms” and given themselves over to the most certain end of that world which is death. But, there is something far worse than death. What could be far worse than death? Dying is worse than death. Death would be the end of dying. There would be no more living but what living is there in dying, suffering, angst and the burden of impossible survival. Yes, many are engaged in the efforts to “cheat death.” In order to do so, they would have to eliminate dying. From the very moment of our conception, perhaps even before that moment, we begin to die. We are impacted by the world beyond us which endeavors to be the world inside us. Yet, it was not the world that created us. We do not originate “in the world.” Even as we have been created from the dust of the earth, our origin is “not of this world.” But, it would be if we believed that there is no God and far worse: that we would believe there is no need for God.

So, we are challenged to live by “brightening the corner where we are” so that we may get straightway to the true and authentic meaning and purpose of our lives. In the realization of authenticity, we find ourselves confronted with the truth of “life after death.” Even if we consider for a moment living without a God or living without God and base it on good works, philathropic endeavors and seek “liberty and justice for all,” we cannot do so successfully if there is no sense of a higher power which exists beyond us. The very consideration of a better tomorrow cannot truly exist if there is nothing beyond today. Knowing those todays will eventually cease to exist becomes the evidence that there is no “true tomorrow.” But, if we grasp that there is a “true tomorrow,” then we are daring to consider there is a God. Not only do we dare to consider it but we dare to consider that our only hope is to accept God as real and necessary in order for life to have hope. Such hope is the basis of faith. Remembering those words again from Paul the Apostle, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not yet seen.” With such faith, we establish the need for “gates and gatekeepers.” We become protectors of the realm of life and living because we do not wish to be committed to an eternal dying. Such a place where dying never ceases is figuratively and literally: Hell.

So, as I move forward to consider this further, I ask you to consider those places in your neighborhood, city, community and country where the gates are being torn down so that the enemy may simply waltz in and lay claim to your living so that your are reduced to dying. Consider the place where the gatekeepers are being eliminated and/or replaced with blind guides who welcome anything and everything as if nothing is bad, evil or wrong. They declare that all is good with a sense of “eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we will die.” No, mighty ones of God, we will not die tomorrow. Either we will be blessed with eternal living or be caught in eternal dying. The directions are clear, the roads are straight and the decision has been made and is ours for the choosing. There is no “getting around it,” we will go in straight through the door.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed Yourself to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain the eternal life and our place in eternal rest, living for You always. Show us more and by Your Holy Spirit instruct us in the way we should go, the truth we should reveal and the life we shall live with you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. AMEN.