Fear or Friend – Psalm 46:1–3

“God is our refuge and strength,
a very sufficient help in troubles.
Therefore we will not fear though the earth change,
and though the mountains totter into the midst of the sea,
though its waters roar and foam,
though mountains shake with its surging water.”

May I be bold enough to add, “though a virus infects throughout the earth, and though people fall, though economies totter, though our healthcare system shakes”.

We are not a people accustomed to uncertainty.  We are accustomed to regular returns, predictable profits, and a pill for every malady. We are accustomed to the refuge of a regular wage and the strong towers of a robust hospital.

Where does the anxiety of this time come from?  Why do we hear of despair from COVID’s destruction?

The earth has changed, and our response has been an innate cry for help in these time of trouble. That cry has been direcred largely toward the government.  The government, who according to the news, should possess all the resources for sufficient help.

Yet, this fact reveals the greatest deficiency of our modern world.  Society’s cry reveals it’s misplaced trust for refuge and strength.  Our greatest help in times of trouble is never the institutions of man nor the strength of one’s net worth.  

COVID is a merely another revelation of our greatest vulnerability.  We are a society in a fallen world, full of sinful people without sufficient help against the troubles of coming eternity.

Therefore, COVID is a blessing.  Any crisis that awakens a misplaced cry, serves the helpless by informing them of a trust that has drifted from the true source of strength and refuge to an illusion.

Uncertainty is a friend.  A friend does not allow loved ones to meander into destruction with insufficient refuge.  This current uncertainty can be that friend if we allow it to reveal were we have placed out trust.
https://ref.ly/Ps46.1-3 via the Logos Bible Android app.

“ENSLAVED” – Feb. 24

“Then He said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.'” Matthew 22:21

Photo by Engin Akyurt on Pexels.com

I am a slave,
but I am not unique.
I am a slave,
but so are you.
We are slaves but
not in the way you think.

We are slaves of many masters.  We serve them all, typically without title but all hidden while still in the open.  Yet, their authority is enforced when the bounds of their reigns are transversed or challenged.  We were born into the bondage of our initial master, whose realm was established at the beginning, when it demanded our lungs to accept this new product called air.  Next, the bounds of nutrition were delineated through pangs in the belly.  The bounds of consciousness were defined by the needs of sleep.  As we mature, new bounds were yearly discovered.

We all labor to serve the Master of Flesh.  Our bodies demand obedience to biological needs, requirements for the preservation of life.  This realm redefines slavery as “self”.  You may say, “my body is not a master,”  I say, “are you free from it?”.  Try not obeying the Master of Flesh.  Try to exert your freedom from hydration.  Try to exert your freedom from food.  Soon, your flesh will punish your liberty with pain until you yield or die.  The Flesh is an unyielding task master.

Many live their entire existence solely under the tyranny of Flesh, laboring to satisfy its demands.  Some even cede more authority to the Flesh through addiction and/or neurosis.   Yet, all yield to the essential demands of the Flesh from the dawn of every day to its setting.

However, the flesh is not our only master.  As we mature, we enter the realm of another, the Master of Work.  Work’s realm includes all those activities mitigating Flesh’s tyranny.  I want leisure.  Therefore, I must work to be able to take a vacation.  I want amusement.  Therefore, I must work to be able to have a hobby, go to a movie, eat gourmet food.  I want more comfortable housing.  Therefore, I must work to be able to have a better home.  I want to be happy.  Therefore, I must work to be able to consume and feed my craving for happiness.

Work is not a private affair.  Work is a public engagement and therefore ruled by the cultural and governmental masters.  This realm redefines slavery as “citizenship”.  You may say, “my government is not a master.  I live under a constitution.”  I say, “are you free from it?”.  Try not obeying the Masters of Work.  Try exerting your freedom from taxation.  Try exerting your freedom to take another’s property.  Try exerting your freedom to live without clothing.  Try exerting your freedom to cry ‘fire’ in a fireless theater.  Transverse the bounds established by the Masters of Work and you will find your time relegated to satisfying the Master of Flesh.  You will become preoccupied with the necessities of existence because the means to mitigate the tyranny of the Flesh will be removed by the tyranny of Work.  Work is an unyielding task master.

We all yield to the essential demands of society in order to have a slice of the prosperity ensuing from our obedience as cogs in the economic mechanism of Work’s realm.  Even if Work could be freed from the Masters of government and culture, it can never be truly free because it resides in the realm of a third master.  Work cannot be free because work is not an end in itself.

The extent and quality of freedom in the flesh and work can only be experienced through obedience to the Master of the third realm in which we all reside.

The Master of the Divine inhabits a realm that was before the Flesh and before Work.  This realm defines the freedoms of those realms and our allegiance to those Masters.  God created the realm of the Divine.  He is the Master of all.  Yet, Satan rebelled against Gods’ rule and when he fell so did all of humanity.  You and I have been born into rebellion against the Master of the Divine.  Yet, we were not born free.  We were born under the tyranny of Satan, who bent the Masters of Flesh and Work into wicked task masters.  It was never meant to be this way.  The Divine has been redefined as “enlightenment”, “science”, “atheism”.

Our inward desire for liberty is an echoing call of creation.  We misunderstand it to be an inherent right of mankind.  It is actually a memory of creation, longing for a world ruled by the true Master; longing for a world where the flesh and work have no power to harm.  Our desire for freedom is incomplete.  It actually is a desire to be completely free to serve the Master as we were created to serve.

Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Freedom is the freedom to do what we want.  When we are truly free, our nature takes us fully to God, the Master of the Divine.

So, I am a slave.  I am a slave to the Master of the Divine.  I live as an ambassador in the realms of the Flesh and Work.  I pay the requisite requirements to inhabit these realms, but they are not my Master.  I owe them no allegiance.  I will readily say my farewells to the Master of Flesh when the Master of the Divine bids me to return.  I will readily give what is due the Master of Work and give unto God what is His.

I am a slave to only one Master and He is good.  I will serve no other.

PRAYER: Lord, forgive me for serving other Masters.  Forgive me for forgetting that you have set me free to serve you fully as I was intended.  Thank you for binding me to yourself.  Lord, you know that I am prone to wander.  Let your grace, like a fetter, chain my wandering heart to you.  Take my heart and seal it in servitude for your courts above.    I pray this in the precious name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen

 

QUOTE (George Washington) – Feb 22

“In politics as in religion, my tenets are few and simple. The leading one of which, and indeed that which embraces most others, is to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others, meddling as little as possible in their affairs where our own are not involved. If this maxim was generally adopted, wars would cease and our swords would soon be converted into reap hooks and our harvests be more peaceful, abundant, and happy.”
~ George Washington

In honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States, who was born on this day in 1732.

Resources:
This Day in History for 22nd February
George Washington > Quotes

 

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A MONARCHIST IN A LAND OF REBELS – Jan. 4

“And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” 1 Samuel 8:7

I love democracy.  I think that it is the best form of government for those who are ruled.  I have read history books of how various forms of government have functioned and there is no perfect system in which one man or group of men rule the others.

It seems to me that the checks and balances of a democratic system is the best form because it acknowledges the corruptibility and fallibility of men and women.

However, my opinion is based on theory and not experience.  I am expressing my opinion about the best form of government that has ever existed, which also happens to be the only system that I have ever known.

There was once a form of a government that no longer exists.  It was the government of Israel when God was their recognized king.  I don’t know what that was like. I have never lived in a country where God was the recognized king. However, I do know that God as King is the way it is supposed to be. I know this because God tells us in His word that Israel sinned by rejecting Him as being King over them.

We all have grown up with some form of governmental system ruling over us. I wonder if that may skew how we relate to God.

Just as a person, who has had a horrible father figure, may have a difficult time relating to God the Father, I think that I have a difficult time relating to God the Monarch.  All I have ever known are the checks and balances of a democratic system.  I was taught that I have enumerated rights.  I was instructed how I can appeal to the higher authorities of the judicial branches if the legislative or executive branches impinged my rights.  I have grown up in an environment where opinions and editorials flow out on a daily basis.  I have seen how these opinions influence the gears of government.

I don’t know what it is like to live under the rule of a King.

I don’t know what it is like to be a monarchist.

No one knows what it was like when God was the king over Israel.

That has to affect me. Democracy is what comes naturally to me – it is all that I have ever known.  It is important for me to check my bias for democracy from entering into my spiritual life. Whether we realize it or not, we are all under a monarchy. We live in a universe ruled by the King of Glory.  Our God is called the King of kings – that means that we are in a  monarchy.  It just so happens that we reside in a realm of His kingdom that is in rebellion.  The little kings don’t believe that the King of kings is still ruling over them. We are in a realm that is delusional enough to think that they are in control.

I never want my biased mindset to deny that reality of the King of kings.  I never want to make the mistake of seeking my security in a governmental system of man.  I never want to believe that my prosperity resides in the policies of bureaucrats. Now, I am not saying that Christians should not function within their established governmental systems.  We know that God places the governmental system into existence.  However, those systems are not where my hope resides.  I never want my actions to deny the King of kings.

I am a servant of a King.

What about my rights – opinions – possessions? What if I don’t like the type of pot that I have been molded into? None of that has a claim over the authority of the King.

Servants do what their King tells them to do.

All we have ever known is a kingdom in open rebellion. That doesn’t change the reality that there is still a King. A King, who will one day, reestablish his kingdom.

How are you living in the mean time; as a monarchist or rebel?

PRAYER: Father, you are my King.  I acknowledge that you reign supreme in all areas of my life.  Father, I don’t recognize any authority higher than you.  I am your servant.  Where you say, I will go.  What you command, I will do.  I am yours – all of me.  Father, thank you for being such a good King.  Thank you for not leaving me as mere servant but adopting me as a son – an heir of the King; a Child of God. Lord, you know that I don’t really grasp what that means; that I cannot fully understand the gift you have given me.  I look forward to that day, when my eyes are fully opened.  Until that day, Lord help me to be a faithful servant – remind me that you are the King of kings and no matter what these lesser kings may do on this earth, that you are still on your throne.  Amen