Monday; March 29
Eight people killed in Georgia … ten more murdered in Colorado … another three were gunned down in Virginia. Wow! As bad as this sounds, it is just the tip of the iceberg. How many single homicide victims were there in our communities last week? How many more were sexually assaulted? How many were shot, but survived? How many children and spouses were abused? How many were sold drugs – and how many of them died of overdoses?
You might be wondering why I am getting this week off to such a morbid start. The answer is simple – we have a problem in our nation! However, the problem isn’t with laws and lawmakers. The problem isn’t the police or an ineffective criminal justice system. The problem isn’t COVID … or an upside educational system. The problem is much greater, but much simpler than that. Our problem is the evil that satan has sown in the world! When we focus on the various aspects of what is amiss in our society but don’t address the prince of darkness, we seek to treat the symptoms while avoiding the cause. The answer to our woes does not merely lie in changing laws, judicial reform, social programs or abuse programs … there needs to be spiritual revival as well. Before we reform our world, we must renew our spirit.
When the apostle Paul addressed false teaching in the First Century he mentioned people, ”… in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (II Corinthians 4:4). As I reflected on this passage, I see it playing out in our world today – not just in the one who seeks to mislead the church but the one who is causing a worldwide spiritual blindness. Satan is the heart and soul of our problem. Let’s make war with him, not become distracted with our minor skirmishes with manmade organizations. Once we defeat satan, then we can invest our energy in fine-tuning our disagreements with each other.
Think About It