The Well- Understanding The Times Part 17- October 22, 2021

Weather report from heaven: Sunny and bright with an abundance of light, and lots of singing and rejoicing. Scripture- “Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.”- Jeremiah 2:11 “For no one can lay any foundation other than […]

Written By Doug Hall

On October 22, 2021
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Weather report from heaven: Sunny and bright with an abundance of light, and lots of singing and rejoicing.

Scripture- “Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.”- Jeremiah 2:11

“For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.”- 1 Corinthians 3:11

Insight: As we continue our series on Understanding The Times, today let’s consider in more detail the great hope we have as Christians because of the sufficiency, strength and power of Jesus Christ and the eternal nature of God’s Kingdom. Today’s verses focus on the One truth that cannot be changed, no matter how hard people try to change it, complain about it, pretend it doesn’t exist or try to create their own god, and that is only Jesus is the One true foundation that will endure forever. Colossians 1:15-20 says God the Father has given His Son Jesus this supremacy over all things through his obedience to death on the Cross and He is the One who holds all things together: “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” There is no there is no other foundation, no other god who will sustain us, and when we turn away from the One true God, either individually or as a Nation, we bring the anxiety, consequences and the fear that comes from trading in the One who is worthy, for worthless idols. Matthew 7:24-27 likens that decision to move away from the stability of Jesus to a worthless idol as like a man who moves his house away from a solid and secure structure to one built on sinking-sand that cannot stand the storms of this life. We move from a fir foundation to a very unstable one.

So we must ask ourselves why would we do this? Well, it is an age old question and it has persisted throughout time and been applicable at one time or another to almost all people and every Nation. It seems there is something in the human DNA that is so desperate for recognition and affirmation, that we simply can’t handle the prosperity and blessings God often brings us for very long. Eventually, we want to take credit for it ourselves, or we want to run away from the very God who has so blessed us. Very counterintuitive indeed. I think the word that best describes this is pride, and the Bible is very clear that pride is a dangerous condition.  Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” As a Nation, Israel has often gone through periods of both blessing and pain, as they vacillated from dependence upon God, to turning away from God and trying to follow worthless idols or little G gods who are not god’s at all. ( as Jeremiah 2:11 refers to above ) The result was a rollercoaster ride of blessings and pain. The entire Old Testament is filled with this underlying theme. 

In the present day, we can see similar signs beginning to happen in America. America was founded on a firm belief in God. In God we trust is written on the back of our currency. God was at the center of the fabric of everyAmerican value and every walk of life until the 1960’s. Then we as a society have begun passing laws that have been in direct opposition to God’s authority and His Sovereignty. We decided to remove school prayer from our classrooms, and look at the state of our current education system. We decided it was legal to kill God’s unborn children, and look at the moral state of our Country. We decided that money was more important than God, and look at the state of our families and the greed in the marketplace. The lessons are simple: there is no other foundation other than Jesus who can and will ever satisfy, and yet we constantly seek a source that is more to our own liking. That is why sin first entered the world, and why brokenness is everywhere in the world today. We are prideful, and we reject the One true God who wants to give us all of love, and all of our deepest desires, but we keep choosing broken cisterns instead. How foolish we are. But we can turn back to Him at any time, and in His great love, mercy and patience He will accept us back as if nothing had ever been done. We need that now as individuals and as a Country, before it is too late.

Prayer: Jesus, thank You that You are the firm foundation on which we can build our life. We admit how many times we have foolishly turned aside to lesser things, things that can never satisfy. We admit our mistakes and ask for you to take us back, broken as we are, so we can begin again to trust in You alone. Amen!

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