Any Day Now

“The LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.”  Psalm 14:2

I have been reading a book by Ray Stedman entitled “A Nation in Crisis”.  It is based upon the book of Jeremiah which I have been studying.  I have written before about how much Jeremiah’s writing parallels our world today.  God was about to bring His wrath down upon Judah because of their rebellion against Him.  They had become an extremely idolatrous people and had abandoned Him for false gods.  In yesterday’s blog, I wrote that the Russian leader is a man whose heart has deceived him.  But he is not the only one.  Many are deceived, perhaps not to the extent that he is, but nevertheless deception has caused just about every problem that the world has experienced.  Of course, the “deceiver in chief” is Satan.

Mr. Stedman wrote that God’s view of man’s deceitful heart has divided humanity into two categories.  The first category includes all the folks who believe what God says about His creation–that we are all sinners in need of a Savior.  The other category of folks believes the opposite–that man is basically good and can be “fixed with the right social condition, the right upbringing, the right education, the right caring”.  It astonishes me that folks are that naive, but that idea is prevalent among a large percentage of earth’s inhabitants.  Perhaps that is why some folks want to do away with prisons and let the criminals run free.  Maybe they think that the criminals will get tired of their evil ways and become upstanding citizens or that they can be taught to behave because they are basically good and just need some freedom to discover themselves.

He goes on to write that the secular world considers God’s view of mankind as “harsh and negative”.  I remember when the movie “The Passion of the Christ” was released, and a Hollywood celebrity was asked her opinion of the movie.  I don’t remember her exact words, but she said that Mel Gibson should be ashamed to make a movie with all that blood.  Her statement only revealed how little she knew about Christ’s sacrifice for sinners.  Perhaps she is one of those folks who thinks that mankind is doing OK on his own without any help from Christ.

God’s view is the realistic view.  We want to do the right thing, but we are not capable of doing the right thing without God’s intervention.  Paul made that point in Romans 7:7-25 wherein he wrote that he desired to do the right thing and not do the evil thing, but the sin within was stronger than his good intentions.  They, whoever they are, say that the “road to hell is paved with good intentions”.  We can intend all day long to do those things which are pleasing to God, but somehow we get sidetracked and at the end of the day, discover that we didn’t follow through with our intentions, but likely spent too much time pleasing ourselves.  Thank God that there is forgiveness when we repent.

Good only originates with God.  Those who forfeit the privilege of knowing Him have not the capacity to do good.  God is always on the lookout for those who will love and worship Him in spirit and truth.  The wicked do as they please, treat God’s people unjustly, and never even consider calling upon the Lord because of their pride, believing that they are good enough to pass muster.  Their number will be up one day, and then they will stand in fear before the very One they chose to ignore.  However, God will be a refuge to the humble.  Any day now would be a good time for the Lord to come, rescue, and redeem His people.  I might be wrong, but it sure seems like that day is not very far away.