Good morning,
If
you are the kind of person who enjoys challenge and change, this year
has been a wonderful year. I think that most of us like some change, so
long as we feel we have some control, but this year has been special.
It’s not just our personal worlds that have changed. The whole world is
going through changes that are more dynamic than we have seen in over
half a century. The countries that seemed to be in control for good or
evil have all changed. The personal values of what was important and
right have all been turned upside down. The countries that we used to
speak of as the developing world are now in many cases the power houses
of our economies and the leaders in world wide decision making. The
biblical values that were primary or background values in the past have
now become the enemies of the rights of free thinking peoples
everywhere. It seem like God may be losing control of the world he has
made. Could that really be true?
When Paul was talking to the
great thinkers of his day at Athens, he made some points that keep our
world today in proper perspective. First, he pointed out that all of us
are here because we are a part of God’s intentional creation. Then he
pointed out that God also decided long before any of the nations became
dominant, who would rise and fall and what boundaries they would have.
Then Paul explained that God has a really wonderful reason for the ups
and downs of nations and nationalities. The changes that go on in this
process are a part of the fear and unrest that force people to see the
need for someone beyond themselves to bring safety and purpose back into
their lives. Comfortable people don’t think they need God. They can
do it themselves. Frightened people look for help, and the Creator God
is right there waiting for them to see the need for the love and peace
that he offers them. Finally he pointed out that it is in a
relationship with this living God that we live lives that have direction
and a satisfying purpose in being here. God is fully aware of what’s
going on. God is using us as witnesses to his love and saving power and
is creating an environment of instability that will produce the
outcomes he has laid out for us in the promises he has made about our
future. May the Lord help us to follow our Good Shepherd through these
dangerous times for the glory of his name.
Acts 17:26 From
one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He
decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined
their boundaries. 27 “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God
and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far
from any one of us. 28 For in him we live and move and exist.
Roy Wisner
