December 19, 2023

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE READING:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” (James 1.27)

“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?” (Matthew 7.15-16)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

One of the signals that we are getting closer to the end of the Age of the Church is the volume of false prophets preaching “a gospel.” And I do not mean volume as in the level of sound when I say that; although many do, in fact, get loud and verbose when confronted with the truth. I am speaking of the greater number of teachers, preachers and practitioners of “a gospel.” What is this “a gospel” to which I allude? To give a simple illustration of this “a gospel,” I would use another word “amoral” to assist. An amoral lifestyle is one without any moral sense and lacks concern for the rightness or the wrongness of something, anything and nothing. Those who promote an amoral lifestyle are thinking about anything but advancing themselves and their choices regardless of the consequences they may have on others. Their “a gospel” promotes the same for others as it affirms for themselves. Do what is desired and I will do the same. I will leave you alone in your chaos which seems like peace and make my peace with you to avoid chaos within myself. It is in contradistinction to the Golden Rule of “Do to others as you would have it done to you.” It may not sound like it on the surface, but then the true meaning of the Golden Rule is not a surface level truth. It is an internal paradigm shaping and guiding the heart, mind and soul toward the melding of God’s will and humanity’s will. The greater will always redeem and refine the lesser. But, in the eyes of the world “self is always greater and God is either far less or ignored.” This would be one application of Jesus’ affirmation and profession to Pilate, “My Kingdom is not of this world.” In it we see the power of the greater light, using John’s illustration in his gospel, to overcome the lesser darkness. But, in lifting out of the prophecy of Isaiah concerning the appearance of the Messiah, it would seem that in the terms of the world: darkness is greater and the light is lesser. It would seem that way because “darkness is in a greater volume” and the light is piercing but small.

So, this “a gospel” is the promotion of the darkness. To its adherents, the darkness is a welcomed truth because in the darkness one can do what he or she desires. Sin loves the darkness and hates the light. The light pierces the darkness and searches through it to discover and uncover the truth which is hiding there. The Apostle Paul wrote of this reality in the world to the Church found in the Roman Empire. (Romans 1.18-31) As we read those verses and bring to light the truth of the culture and climate of that day, we can only imagine the volume of chaos and despair which exists in today’s world as an exponential reality. I would dare say that the realities are so well-defined now without fear that the “exchanging the truth for a lie” is now eliminating the gray areas of our thought, word and action. We are moving into a dichotomous reality: light and dark, right and wrong, good and evil, welcome and unwelcome, life and death. And the light which the darkness shall never consume appears now as a speck on the horizon, the light at the end of a tunnel, or a distant star in the heavens. Those who fear the Lord and hate the darkness appear to exist in shrinking number as the world and its “a gospel” declares them unfit, unsound and anti-establishment.

But, we abide as mighty ones of God knowing the truth which the darkness shall never consume. The paradigm of righteousness Jesus laid out before us in His “Sermon on the Mount[ainside].” The lines are drawn clearly which create the perimeter of His Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven. In Revelation we read about the perimeter as well in the description of the New Jerusalem. It is well-defined with walls and gates of great size as well as great beauty. It’s crowning glory is not a building, however, but the very presence of God in all His perfection and fullness. The New Jerusalem is not known by its external features but its internal reality. It is there that authentic worship is conducted without ceasing. Life is magnified with the abundance and uninhibited desire to love God, love neighbor and love one another. We will not even worry about loving ourselves because we will dwell in the midst of being loved without measure. The love of self will be the fruit of loving the rest. Our attention will always be outward but the joy will always be inward. This is not the reality of the false prophet, false shepherd, false teacher world. We see the fruits of that world in abundance in these days as life is disrespected, enemies are on all sides, hope is reduced to selfishness and the Word of God is rebuked, refused and remade into the image which best suits the world. It serves only itself; and serving others is merely the disguise for serving one’s self. It is the greatest example of replacement theory the world has yet to know. Beware of it because it will only get worse until it finally will consume itself and the light will be left out of it altogether.

PRAYER IN LIGHT OF GOD’S WORD:

Father, You have revealed to us best in Jesus the Christ. By Him and Him alone shall we gain this 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.