Tuesday, November 27, 2012

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. ... I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. .... Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." Matt. 10:34





"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this."-Isaiah, the Prophet 9:6-10

Our Lord truly is the Prince of peace, and yet he came into a sinful wicked world that hates Him, and so he knew He would be the cause for division. Jesus causes relationships to become fractured and embittered.
And yet, Jesus also causes sinners to come together and to have love one for another, doesn't He.
He wants us to know the whole of His truth, and some of it is not that pretty, as we might want it to be.

In the world today, and the Church, the bad things are being pushed aside, and every thing is supposedly "positive". That's how my local Christian radio station, WRBS wants it to be:--and they try very hard to make it seem like there's nothing to be negative about, because we can look at life as positive; always positive.  Yet, the Bible will have us hear the whole truth of the good and bad in this age. And this is a healthy way to walk through this world. The truth is in us, and so we walk in the truth; the entire truth of God's Word. The truth about sin, hell, and as our Lord puts it, "the sword" He brings into this world, and even our families is a necessary truth for our hearts to know and consume.
May we learn to embrace all of God's truth. Amen.

2 comments:

Craver Vii said...

I can see the purpose of a radio station that is created to offer only positive, family-friendly programming, and if I might come to their defense, I believe it has its place.

But I am also very much aware that many Christians get more of their doctrinal training from KLOVE, than from the pulpit and/or small group studies. And unfortunately, if that's all a Christian knows about things is what they get from the Christian pop station, that's just sugar-milk and they're missing a whole lot of meat.

Grabbing doctrine from the Christian top 40 is about as reliable as doing a term paper from Wikipedia. The student might maybe have some true information, but they can't know for sure.

We can't cut out the "negative" parts of Scripture. Otherwise, what to they do with "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good..." or "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated?" God's holy attributes as well as the doctrines of humanity (the fall, sin and depravity) need to be learned in every detail that the Lord has graciously provided for us.

donsands said...

Thanks Craver for those wise words. I take them to heart, and agree with you, and am exhorted as well about "the positive" having its place.

I suppose the wide and broad problem with shallow truth is that we have it in many of our pulpits.