“Don’t love the world and what it offers. Those who love the world don’t have the Fathers love in them. Not everything that the world offers – physical gratification, greed, and extravagant lifestyles – comes from the Father. It comes from the world, and the world and its evil desires are passing away. But the person who does what God wants lives forever” I John 1:15-17.
As Christians, we don’t live in fear or despair in these craze times.
“Don’t love the world and what it offers. Those who love the world don’t have the Fathers love in them. Not everything that the world offers – physical gratification, greed, and extravagant lifestyles – comes from the Father. It comes from the world, and the world and its evil desires are passing away. But the person who does what God wants lives forever” I John 1:15-17.
You don’t have to look very far these days to see worldly thought at work. In our haste to set God aside, we in the West lurch from error to disaster at every turn.
One of my favorite pundits (who just passed away), Rex Murphy, wrote this:
“The follies and hypocrisies of the world multiply and breed, at a pace and with an extravagance far beyond satire’s ability to keep up with them. Every day’s newspaper carries stories that defy the sternest credibility, and wrench common sense from its tether. Reading them invokes the cry: can such things be? They are items in some huge Diary of a World Gone Mad. Before this great flood of inanity, self-contradiction and megalomaniacal self-righteousness, satire lies disarmed and exhausted, bleeding and in wounded retreat from a million headlines or television lead items.” Well said, Rex – and said in 2009 – 15 years ago.
John reminds us that all of these things are passing away. They are like smoke – a fad that has no lasting power. God’s purposes march through the halls of time while wicked people strut across the stage for just a moment.
As Christians, we don’t live in fear or despair in these craze times. Instead, we focus on and apply ourselves to God’s purposes. He is not shocked – He is not nervous. His Kingdom will come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
The question to think about today is: “Lord, what is important to You and how can I be involved in that – here and now?”
Pastor Leon Throness
