Life Matters - September 25, 2024

The presupposition that facts somehow become subject to feelings is nothing new in the human experience. It moved Adam and Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit, Cain to kill Abel, the wicked to refrain from entering the ark, Lot to choose the fruitful plain wherein lay Sodom and Gomorrah, the Sodomites to try filling their spiritual emptiness with worse and worse perversions, Esau to pursue his twin brother, the sons of Leah to sell the eldest son of Rachel into slavery then cover their sin by lying about it to father Abraham. The idea that facts are subject to feelings moved Saul against David, carnal kings against the prophets, and finally, the Jews against Jesus. Plus much more too numerous to mention. And it continues to this day.  

Within that larger scheme of things was a man named Job, whose wife and then his friends turned against him, convinced by the way it all felt to them that Job, somehow, had incurred the wrath of Almighty God and thus brought these horrific afflictions upon himself. None of this felt fair to Job who thought surely if God, whom he called upon for fairness, were to draw him before his throne of judgement, God would find Job guiltless. Job felt justified and went on justifying himself. He seems to have misapplied the thought that Epictetus later put to words when he wrote…  ‘’A man is not finished when he is defeated, he is finished when he quits.’’ Job went on and on until his three friends finally gave up on him; ‘’because he was righteous in his own eyes.’’ (Job 32:1) 

I have many times gazed in uneasy wonder at the God-preserved recordings in Old Testament Scripture when the Israelites again and again fell away from God to idols. In the good times. When they were being materially blessed by God is usually when they fell away, as a nation, from the very One blessing them.  

But in observing the fickleness of human nature, and yes, including my own, I have ceased to wonder. Is it not in the good times that we tend to feel more self-sufficient? Is it not in the good times when we tend to rejoice in our gains rather than in God our Savior? Is it not in the good times when we tend to rejoice in our gifts instead of the Gift-giver? Is it not in the good times when feelings, our emotions, tend to take over the precedence formerly reserved for Almighty God? I would say yes to all of those questions, a thousand times yes. 

The Constitution of the United States of America is not perfect but let us never forget, always remember, that it was founded upon the presupposition that God’s Word is Truth. So much so that John Adams is quoted to have said; ‘’This Constitution has been written for a moral and religious people, it is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.’’ 

We are now suffering the fallout of a massive shift away from the Bible as being Truth. And is with uneasy wonder that I have observed the America I knew as a boy become less and less recognizable.  

Never, in the annals of world history, have there been as many material blessings as today. Never has there been so much ease, abundance, and entertainment. Never have there been so many people in one country with such plenteous wealth. People keep flocking across our southern border with visions (hallucinations?) of the ‘’American Dream.’’ America has been a desired place, the envy of nations. One would think we would be a most thankful people continually praising God for the blessings He has bestowed upon us, acknowledging Him as our Good Creator. But no, we find the opposite to be true for far too many.  

If the polls are correct, then we must conclude that around half of American voters are supporting Kamala Harris, a woman running for the office of U.S. President, who has morals closer aligned with Sodom and Gomorrah than of The Holy Bible. Her policies are devastatingly wicked and foolhardy. She even believes that gender is determined more by feelings than factual biology, going so far as to support taxpayer-funded sex-change surgery, i.e. butchery, which she refers to as ‘’gender affirming care.’’ Affirming what? That’s right. Feelings. 

Be not deceived, we cannot expect to retain Constitutional freedoms and blessings from God—as a nation—if a woman like her can get elected through a lawful voting process. Behind those pearly whites brood feelings attempting to change facts. 

No matter which way the election turns out let us never give up on God, who saw fit to allow the testing and refining of Job, and who also allows hard things into our lives. Not for our destruction, but for our betterment. There comes a time when it is good to remember that maxim from Epictetus; ‘’A man is not finished when he is defeated, he is finished when he quits.’’  

Let us stay close to God who is never defeated.  

Never quit.  

Life Matters!