Christian Living

WHO'S IN CHARGE HERE?

by Charles (Chuck) Robey
06/22/17
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"The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.  For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:18-22)

THUS- THE TITLE OF THIS BLOG "WHO'S IN CHARGE- HERE"

The Scripture tells us that "In the last days, God says, I will pour out My Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.” (Acts 2:7) So, being one of those Retired Senior Saints my lot must be to dream dreams. Thus, this parable blog. 

I had gotten to sleep, or at least I thought I had gotten to sleep, when it happened. Suddenly, there was a tremendous bolt of lightning, followed by a loud crack of thunder, jolting through my large bedroom window. Was the purpose of this unusual event a wakeup call, to awaken me from my deep sleep? I wondered.

Then, as I looked around my room, I suddenly realized I was back in time, back to my old home place, to my old bedroom, staring at my new youth bed Dad had purchased for me, the one with the security side rails.

Just how did I get here, what does this all mean?  Then it happened. Appearing in my window was my old school friend, named Buddy. He was motioning for me to come out as he used to do back in our old school days. I quickly waved OK, ran through the house and out the front door. 

"Where are we going and for what for?" I cried.

"Just be quiet, and I'll show you", he responded.

So off we went, passing through our neighborhood, our town and over to our old schoolhouse.

“Well, I thought this school had been torn down,” I murmured.  Then my school buddy took me to a side schoolhouse window.

What I saw was the shock of my life, a school room completely out of control. Children were shouting, running around the room, pushing and shoving one another, throwing books and chalk and whatever they could get their hands on. Some were even throwing their lunch sacks against the walls!

My next thought was "Who is in charge here?” The fact being, no one was in charge.

Then, I happened to notice the strangest thing. All the students were wearing labeled T-shirts. Some were wearing red shirts labeled "Conservative,” others were wearing blue shirts labeled "Liberal.”  While some others were wearing plain white shirts with no inscription. When I questioned this, Buddy replied that the white shirts represented the "Independents" who couldn't yet make up their minds.

"How did Buddy know all this?” I silently asked myself.

"OK, I get it. It's kind of like the Red State-Blue State subject of discussion,” I concluded. Buddy nodded in agreement.

"So, what class is this?” I asked.

"It's the basic tenth grade Civics class,” Buddy responded. "They were supposed to be having a manifestation exercise on various political views. However, apparently it got out of hand somehow.” 

For some reason, Buddy seemed to have all the answers as he then gave a very precise synopsis regarding this chain-of-events. "All these students were in the mimetic mode.  They were simply mirroring their elders in the political arena. And what's so sad, these young people are our leaders of tomorrow,” Buddy added.   

"Like some of their surrogates, they had apparently followed suit by taking God out of the political equation.  The only logical conclusion being they were acting as if God was not in control.”   

"Much like in the Bible days, when no one was in charge, they all did what was right in their own eyes. (Judges 21:25)  Whatever they wanted simply became the norm of their living, be it right or wrong, good or evil. In other words, there was no control. No one was actually in charge,” he concluded.

"Oh, I think get it now,” I exclaimed. “The students are just products of their environment.  But we both know, from our Christian heritage, that there is definitely a God, and our God is in control.” (Proverbs 21:1)

"And if this mindset of theirs were to happened to then be reversed, these students, along with their elders,  would then be seeking to please God and to accept His principles, in all phases of their lives, including their politics,” I surmised.

"We know there is a divine purpose in all of this. God is in control, behind the seeming chaos we appear to be seeing. (Daniel 2:21, 4:17) However, having our finite minds limited to time and knowledge, we cannot comprehend His future plans for our country,” I concluded.   

We both then agreed that since God is in charge Psalm 76:6-7), we must find out what is expected of us as Christian citizens of this great country of ours. Our conclusion, we must both commit our country to daily prayer and supplication.

Then, as if by a dream world conclusion, my alarm clock began ringing, louder than ever before. I immediately jumped up to look out my window. The rain had cleared, and showing up in the distance was this beautiful rainbow. Remembering God's promise of the first rainbow, I immediately fell to my knees in prayer, thanking Him for all His blessing, including our God-sent political leaders. Amen! 

PLEASE VISIT MY WEB PAGE   http://ccrobey.wixsite.com/themessage

Author's Postscript:  (Taken in part from the book "Romans, God's Perfect Plan" by David Cook)

The basic theme of this blog is an ongoing struggle of good versus evil. Sad to say, this has always been the case with our human behaviour, from the Garden of Eden, throughout history on up to today's environment. And sad to say, this parallel has taken a foothold in America's politics. As a result of this mindset we are now experiencing a great divide in America's populace.

More than ever before, we see an upward trend in cynicism among the electorate, coming from both sides of the political aisle. And many people, also on both sides of the aisle, do not think highly of politics, politicians, or governments.

What must we do to reverse this mind-set? First, we must remove the "mote" from our own eyes, then work on those around us; our family, our co-workers, our neighbours and our friends.

Oftentimes apathy and ignorance of politics can be subtle forms of rebellion against God.  We must not let this happen. As citizens of this great country, we are to vote intelligently, seek the truth, make political assessments based on biblical conviction, and not be swept along by ungodly factions.

We know from Matthew 22 that the state and God have appropriate claims on us. However, God's authority and claim over us must always take top priority.

Our God is a God of order and the authority is an instrument of such order. Politics is an instrument of serving human need just as the denomination is an instrument of serving the gospel's broadcast.  When either a political party or denomination ceases to do that and so compromises you by turning you away from doing these things, then it's time to leave, for we have a higher loyalty to God and to His purpose.  Amen.