Foreign Lands: Day 4

If you read the Bible you know quite a bit about how the world operates. 

First of all, there is evil. Evil is a force, but not just a “blowin’ in the wind” kind of force. It is always expressed in a tangible form, often referred to as sin. The CEO of the empire of evil/sin in all its forms, is Satan. He has lots of agents in his employ and the mission statement (also printed on the business cards) of his organization is “24-7-365 we are prowling around like a lion looking for someone to devour.”

As you also know, there is good. And, again, good is not something we wish for or simply believe must be (cue the glitter dust).  It is only found in the heart, mind and will of its founder, the God expressed in three personalities: Father, Son and Spirit. Again, all over the world, there are many in the employ of this organization and living out its mission statement “May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”

Scripture tell us that there is an unceasing war between good and evil that began with the first lie and will only end when Satan meets his final end. Unfortunately, most of humanity, even those who accept the Christian worldview conduct their daily life as if they were residents of Switzerland. Life is, well, life. Only when the evil that is always on the prowl injects itself into our circumstances, do we go on war footing.

Fourteen years ago, there was no same-sex marriage, one hundred fifteen people a day were not dying from the heroin/opioid crisis, and after-birth abortion (infanticide) was not being discussed openly as the next logical step in women’s reproductive rights. In another fourteen years, can we even imagine?

The point of citing these depressing facts is as a reminder that evil is both relentless and insidious. We may never experience the physical privations of our Third World brothers and sisters in Christ--or we may. But in our time and to the circumstances in which we find ourselves, we are called to our own war as we live out sacrificial love and the righteousness that marks out children of God.

For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ—for this will bring much glory and praise to God (Phil. 1:10-11 NLT).

Nancy Shirah