Evil Needs No Reason
This past Wednesday, in New Mexico, a stepmother walked up to give her high school graduating son a hug, and he shot her in the neck. She survived. This incident illustrates the confusing and irrational state of our nation.* A male gay couple is suing New York City because the health program denies them access to IVF treatment.** Pedestrians walk down streets fearful of being punched out by a player in the knockout game. Ladies are fighting for the right not to compete with males, while many athletic directors, past and present, stand silent in fear. Illegal immigration, war, riots, inflation, and division are at the top of conversations. The far-right and the far-left have finally found a way to unite, but it is united in the hatred known as antisemitism. It seems the world has been turned upside down by a radical element that hates anything that is God-ordered.
There are those who are anarchists and desire to burn everything down to build something new. There are those who have been organized and funded to hate a common enemy and to promote antisemitism. Leaders have no business making alliances with wolves. You cannot make peace with someone who wants you dead. This is the Achilles heel of our culture. The desire to affirm or understand everyone’s cause, no matter how evil or unrealistic the cause is: To believe that all the murderer, rapist, anarchist, or lawless need is to be understood. Many attempt to reason with the irrational, unscrew the inscrutable, and tame the untamable. This has led to the soft on crime agenda and how is that working for us? Just recently, San Francisco announced a pilot taxpayer-funded program to provide free vodka and beer to homeless alcoholics.*** You can’t make this stuff up!
Protect Your World
I am not here today to get us all crying in our beverages, but I am here to say the world is a mighty mess. I am also here to say that we are not helpless or hopeless. We know that all things will be reviewed and adjudicated by the Righteous Judge at the end of the age. It will not be an attempt to understand but simply a binary judgment of sheep and goats, right and wrong, light and darkness, saved and lost.
I saw a billboard a few years back that read: Protect Your World! It was an insurance advertisement. Protect your world? Insurance may assist in helping us with incidents that occur, but it does not protect us. It may make us feel more secure, like the covers of our bed, but it can’t protect our world. When our children were young, I had a can of Lysol that was a monster spray. It dispersed monsters in all rooms, crevices, under the bed monsters, closet monsters, shadow monsters, you get the idea. Why did it work? It was not the can of Lysol; it was the trust in the parent who held the can and made the promise. Blankets and Lysol may bring comfort but offer us little protection. Our world lies unprotected. 9/11 taught us that security is often an illusion, and nearly twenty-three years later, many have already forgotten, and many living today never experienced that day.
Protect your world. Why is my world more important than the other 8 billion people on Earth? It is a priority because we are given responsibility for our family. Protect my world, cover up, hide, evade, slide deeper into the covers. I know how life events can blow up a world, crush dreams, and send you running in panic. I have been there more than once in my lifetime. I also know that I can’t protect my world or yours. Christians have amassed many covers for their fears, doubts, and insecurities. We can speak them forth with all the false security we can muster; however, we know they usually fall empty and spare few from the ravages of the world.
We Need Assurance, Not Insurance
We can lie to ourselves and say the world is getting better. We can lie and say that there is good in all people. We can ignore the presence and reality of evil; however, we do so at our own peril. Some people do bad things out of selfishness and unlawful desires, but others have accepted a darkness in their souls that can only be described as evil. I have read of it, I have seen its results, and I have seen it in action with my own eyes. I have read of it Scripturally. I believe it sincerely, yet I know there is hope for anyone who turns to Christ. However, there is a great danger for us to deny evil and believe all can be redeemed and rehabilitated. It sets us up for an unrealistic look at the world and the heart of humanity. It also lacks an understanding of the doctrine of hell, which, as far as I can see, has no rehabilitation program and no path to understanding.
Protect your world. We need more than insurance: We need assurance. Assurance that justice is served in the end. Assurance that heaven awaits us. Assurance that we are covered with the grace and mercy of God. Assurance that Jesus is our Friend, even when our world blows up. Assurance that Jesus will not only care for us but assure us of his care. The protection we seek is in the one who holds life and death in His hands and fills our hearts with peace. The Holy Spirit will settle over us like a blanket. When the winds and the rain beat against our house, our world, we go deeper under His cover and rest in His assurance. He is the Rock, the foundation of our security.
No one appreciates fire more than a stranded person in a wilderness of snow. I never appreciated a fire more until, while hunting, I fell through the ice of a creek that looked calm but was roaring beneath the surface of the ice. My friend rescued me from the icy waters and built me a fire. (Thank you, Pete.) No one appreciates the assurance of the Lord more than the person who is in doubt. No one appreciates the Lord Jesus more than the person who has had the world turned upside down. No one appreciates the covers of others’ prayers more than the person who truly needs and relies on them. No one appreciates His mercy more than the one who sees his own sin in the light of Christ.
Peace is found in the cover of the assurance from Christ. Protect Your World! I wish I could offer that to others, but I can’t. I can, however, point you toward One who offers assurance and can give you peace.
Insuring your world may be helpful, but assurance is vital!
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.
May the Lord bless you today.
Dr. James D. Allen
** https://www.foxnews.com/politics/nyc-sued-denying-vitro-fertilization-coverage-gay-male-employees
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Dr. James D Allen
Dr. Allen served as a seminary VP, pastor, and as a trustee on a Christian mental health Board. He has earned a BA, MA, MA Biblical Counseling, Doctor of Ministry. Dr Allen has also preached on 5 continents, lived in 3 nations, and so has a diverse Christian experience. He has a distinguished career of being a pastor, consultant, author, and educator. MY FIRST LOVE--Being a Pastor and encouraging others!
