As a boy growing up, going to the cinema was a rare treat. I only ever remember my Dad taking us twice
The first film we ever saw was called Albert Schweitzer. It was a documentary about the German doctor, musician and thinker who left his successful career in Europe to bury himself in the jungle of Africa as a missionary of Christ. It left a lasting impression.
The second time we went to ‘the flicks’, the film couldn’t have been more of a contrast. It was called It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World. When my Father laughed he really laughed….and so did we! I remember how good it felt leaving the movie theatre with aching sides after watching two and a half hours of the craziness of that “Mad” world portrayed on the big screen.
Reflecting on these two movies I realized they capture well the two worlds the bible describes in which we live at the same time. One is ”the world’ of people God so loved that he gave his only begotten son…….and for which Albert Schweitzer also gave up his comfortable life. The second is ‘the world’ as an evil system that is incompatible with Christ. Watchman Nee’s classic, “Love Not the World” is important reading today for everyone who bears the name, “Christian”.
In these days ‘the world’ of people who are of ‘the world’ are filled with and controlled by fear, because of the ‘madness’ of what is currently going on. Those, however who know Christ, can also live in another reality, for which I was given a poem….
To Be or not to Be? That is the question.
To die or not to die? That is not the question.
To die today? To die tomorrow? To die the next day? That is a question.
To die well? That is another question.
To fight the good fight?
To run the straight race?
To keep the faith?
To sing the sweet song?
But
….. to Be, with Him….or not to Be, with Him?
That is
…..THE question.”
In my last blog I mentioned the criteria I use for discerning the in-formation I am lead to examine. The first was FACTS THAT ADD UP OVER TIME. With that in mind I would suggest you might watch and discern this video
I have noticed that many of those in whom I detect, INTEGRITY, HUMILITY and FAITH, do not necessarily (at this point in time) profess to be followers of Christ.
“But Father!” I said. “They are not from our religious stable?”
Father replied. “They are not in ‘a stable’ anymore. They got down off their hobby horses, their high horses, to seek to ride in sync as part of the armies of heaven with the one whose name is FAITHFUL and TRUE……whoever is of the TRUTH hears my voice.”
As we have become unmoored from the wisdom of true fathers and mothers (all the way back to the book of Proverbs), we now find ourselves drifting downstream toward the falls in a boat with our children and grandchildren and the whole of humanity.
Is a disaster inevitable?
I also recall how in those boyhood days we had the luxury of two TV stations to choose from! In our naive enthusiasm we would ask my father. “Is BBC or ITV your favorite?” He would candidly answer, “I don’t trust either of them.”
When we moved to the US we had a ‘divine appointment’ with Lois who became a good friend. She was ‘a mother’ who carried the wisdom of her Native American ancestral chief line. A very prophetic sister, I remember just before she died she was prompted to send me this piece, which many will be familiar with……
“A few months before I was born, my dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer, and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around to welcome me into the world a few months later.
As I grew up, I never questioned his place in our family. Mom taught me to love the Word of God, and Dad taught me to obey it. But the stranger was our storyteller. He could weave the most fascinating tales. Adventures, mysteries, and comedies were daily conversations. He could hold our whole family spellbound for hours each evening. He was like a friend to the whole family.
He took Dad, Bill, and me to our first major league baseball game. He was always encouraging us to see the movies and he even made arrangements to introduce us to several movie stars. The stranger was an incessant talker. Dad didn’t seem to mind, but sometimes Mom would quietly get up while the rest of us were enthralled with one of his stories of faraway places. She would go to her room, read her Bible, and pray. I wonder now if she ever prayed that the stranger would leave. You see, my dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions. But this stranger never felt an obligation to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our house–not from us, from our friends, or adults. Our longtime visitor, however, used occasional four letter words that burned my ears and made Dad squirm.
To my knowledge the stranger was never confronted. My Dad was a teetotaler who didn’t permit alcohol in his home – not even for cooking. But the stranger felt like we needed exposure and enlightened us to other ways of life. He offered us beer and other alcoholic beverages often. He made cigarettes look tasty, cigars manly, and pipes distinguished.
As I look back, I believe it was the grace of God that the stranger did not influence us more. Time after time he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked and never asked to leave. More than thirty years have passed since the stranger moved in with the young family on Morningside Drive. But if I were to walk into my parents’ den today, you would still see him sitting over in a corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures.
He talked freely (too much too freely) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing. I know now that my early concepts of the man/woman relationship were influenced by the stranger.
His name?…..We always just called him…TV.”
The story is obviously from a different era, but ‘the world’ hasn’t changed, and it’s ruler is still ‘the prince of the power of the air’– waves. His tactics and agenda remain the same, “to steal, kill and destroy” that which is good and of God. He is also called, “the father of lies” (…..damn lies and statistics)’
In the words of another song* there is, however another “ inevitable”.
“We move inevitably onwards; God’s weapons held in our hands”.
We are given “the sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God” to wield which can discern the very thoughts and intentions of the heart.
This is a part we are responsible to play as we move “Toward the final conflict…….”
until…….
“The kingdom of this world shall become
The kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.
And He shall reign for ever and ever more.”
I guess those falls we are drifting toward believe it or not will prove ‘inevitably‘ in the end to be, “The Victoria Falls!”
*Born into A Battle on the Come Lord Jesus album