Expensive Good friend,
I ponder what number of instances within the first six months of this 12 months you discovered your self asking, “What’s going on?”
The context could have been the state of the nation, the collapse of your workforce within the playoffs, or a visitors jam on the way in which to the airport. I keep in mind discovering myself trapped in an enormous visitors jam in Mexico Metropolis and, in a really British method, anticipating the arrival of the constabulary to deliver order out of chaos, solely to comprehend that the police themselves have been caught up in the chaos.
Are we to think about that our lives are like a soccer sport with out goalposts, touchlines, or perhaps a ball? This very notion sounds absurd, and but it isn’t unusual to search out our neighbors and pals dwelling with a worldview that presumes the whole lot that occurs is the results of random indifference.
Making sense of a world with out God, based on Ecclesiastes, is like chasing the wind. In certainly one of his earliest songs, Paul Simon describes himself mendacity in his bed room within the early night gloom, the place “impaled upon my wall my eyes can dimly see the sample of my life and the puzzle that’s me.” That line of poetry could also be unfamiliar to the current era, however the sense of futility they nicely perceive. We dwell in a time that invitations us to imagine three huge lies: one, that there is no such thing as a creator God; two, that there is no such thing as a absolute morality; and three, that there is no such thing as a final reality. It isn’t troublesome to hint a line from succumbing to those lies to dwelling an more and more joyless and miserable life.
Right here is a chance for the Christian teenager, school scholar, carpenter, or homemaker with an open Bible to interact kindly, creatively, and imaginatively with others by declaring that historical past shouldn’t be cyclical however linear. Earlier than there was time, earlier than there was something, there was God. He’s the Alpha and the Omega, the start and the tip. The universe was made by Him, is sustained by Him, and is accountable to Him.
The apostle Paul places it this fashion:
“By him all issues have been created, in heaven and on earth, seen and invisible, whether or not thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all issues have been created by means of him and for him. And he’s earlier than all issues, and in him all issues maintain collectively” (Col. 1:16–17).
I write this conscious of the truth that each our applications this month (research within the books of Ruth and Daniel) reinforce the providential care of God in all issues, and never least of all within the peculiar issues. In case you’re involved as a result of you’ve gotten kids or grandchildren quickly heading off to varsity or out into the workforce, then be heartened by the reminder of God’s look after Daniel and his pals in an surroundings that challenged the foundations of their religion. Our assets this month will enable you to dive deeper into each these research and have been chosen to remind all of us that we are able to relaxation comfortably in God’s loving care and sovereignty.
I hope you’ll get pleasure from celebrating the Fourth of July and, in flip, the lazy days of summer time. Having stepped away from the pulpit at Parkside, I’m having fun with my redeployment at Fact For Life. We actually find it irresistible if you come for a go to, and we’re regularly grateful in your prayerful and monetary partnership, which makes it doable for us to satisfy our mission.
With my love within the Lord Jesus,
Alistair
