Frank E. Peretti , New York Times bestselling author, wrote a forward to Ravi Zacharias’s book, “Deliver Us From Evil,” and describes our present generation as “a vast, teeming sea of people…boiling, agitated…some quite educated, but still lost. Some are lost but don’t care…all are shouting, chanting, bumping into each other as each tries to march in his own direction, spouting a favorite truism. There is no right or wrong, so no one feels ashamed; all opinions are equal, so no one is allowed to think; religious convictions are private, so they are meaningless in any discussion. It’s like a massive tabloid talk show gone berserk.”
Sounds like he wrote the leading article in this morning’s newspaper doesn’t it? Not so! Those words were written in 1997, but you would think they were written July 2020. Talk about being prophetic! Talk about how little human nature changes over time! Talk about how crazy our world appears to be, how undisciplined, how arrogant and rebellious, how inconsiderate of others, how lost!
Our world right now is like a sea storm with billowing waves that strike fear in the heart of a seasoned mariner. It’s like the earth quaking under our feet, a whirlwind of confusion and mistrust, a tsunami of an out of control deadly virus, a threatened economy and a democracy on the edge of collapse.
A song has been reverberating in my mind, it doesn’t want to go away and more important for me, I don’t want it to go away. I want it to take root in my life and spread like wildfire across our nation and around the world.
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love,
No not just for some but for everyone.
The sweet love that comes to my mind is the Love that God offers our lost world. He sent love in the person of his Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus not only brought love into the world, he brought kindness, compassion, grace, forgiveness and generosity and hope. He brought morality, ethics and righteousness to a people living in darkness, consumed by greed, thirsty for power and filled with evil intent.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that the present path our world is on is a path of destruction. It’s a wide road and many are on it traveling at break neck speed, demanding their rights and trampling on the rights of others without shame. Jesus offers a narrow road but one that leads to peace, fulfillment, joy, purpose, meaning and life eternal.
If the Book of Revelation has one message for this vast teaming sea of boiling, agitated people it is that the victory goes to those on God’s side and God’s judgment goes to those who are serving the Devil. Like it or not! Ignore it or Not! Believe it or not! Unlike spell binding books and movies that don’t give you the conclusion until the end, God has already clarified how the end will be. “All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right side and the goats on his left. They (goats) will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous (sheep) to eternal life. (Matthew 25:32 -33,46)
In His Love, Charles
