In this episode, we are joined by Brenda Leavenworth, Jody Ponce, and Rosemary Cady to discuss how we can more effectively disciple through generational shifts. We pray that this conversation encourages you to continue to lead with humility and transparency by the filling and empowerment of the Spirit.

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When She Leads is a podcast for women in ministry hosted by Brenda Leavenworth, Krista Fox, Jody Ponce, Rosemary Cady, and Kelly Bell.

Email us at whensheleadspodcast@gmail.com

Follow us on Instagram at @whensheleads

Right now it seems as though the Church is changing in many dramatic ways, and it can feel a bit scary. The thing is, the Church has always been changing. Regardless of the tradition you come from, it has changed. Historically, we can see that the Church reconsiders doctrines, and it reflects and reforms. Martin Luther — the great reformer — knew this. The Reformation was a mammoth shift in the way the Western Church looked: It was a shaking, a sifting and ultimately, a renewal.

There is much discourse in the contemporary Church about the “falling away” of young people from Christian belief. A Barna Group survey from 2019 shows that 64% of young people stop attending church between the ages of 18-24. The pandemic has also left a lasting mark on church attendance.

But perhaps the most relevant and influential shift that I see taking place in the contemporary Church is the shift of power dynamics away from the traditional senior pastor into a diffusion of influential voices across the digital space, from blogs to YouTube channels to podcasts. These days, some of the most influential voices in the Church are not pastors, and never will be pastors. Instead, many of them are podcasters.

What does it mean for the global Christian Church when many of its most influential voices do not have any particular church affiliation?

If you google the top 50 most popular Christian podcasts, you will find most of them are not associated with a church or run by a pastor. They are run by “Christian journalists, researchers, scholars, apologists, influencers and artists,” to name but a few.

Why are people choosing to listen to these podcasts? Why are they so popular among young Christians?

I believe these are questions the Church should be asking. It may be that many pastors already recognize that the seat of power and influence is moving to the digital space because large numbers of them are moving there too.

From Pastors to Podcasters

On December 24, 2021, the Washington Post published an article entitled “The first Christmas as a layperson: Burned out by the pandemic, many clergy quit in the past year.” On February 21, 2022, the Wall Street Journal ran an article entitled “Houses of Worship Face Clergy Shortage as Many Resign During Pandemic.” Even the secular outlets are noticing the changes.

The Wall Street Journal article reports that the pastors they interviewed repeatedly admitted that “the job of being a pastor, while always demanding, has become almost impossible during the pandemic: Relationships with and among parishioners have frayed, and political divisions have deepened, fueled by fights over Covid-19 protocols.” A Barna Group survey of Protestant pastors published in November 2021 found that 38 percent of Protestant senior pastors surveyed have considered leaving the ministry over the past year. Among pastors under age 45, that number rose to 46 percent.

I can think of quite a number of pastors who have stepped down in recent times. I am sure you can too. Many of them are starting non-profit organizations or different discipleship ministries outside the context of the local church. And, of course, many of them are starting podcasts.

These changes are in large part due to the pandemic we have just been through, which rapidly and dramatically shifted the “way” we do church. All over the globe, Sunday morning services transferred to the digital space. I ended up watching many different sermons, in addition to my own local church, as YouTube suggested videos to me. In many ways, it was wonderful to engage with other Christian voices and perspectives. It was also formational for my faith in unexpected ways, as I am sure it was for you too.

The point is, we are not the same. The Church is not the same. We have been through a dramatic season of change. And we need more than ever to meet God in the present, to find Him in what might seem like unfamiliar or confusing settings.

The secular journalist Ian Lovett (writer of the above-mentioned Wall Street Journal article) states that “The labour shortage within the clergy, which parallels shortages in other industries, is reshaping worship in some parts of the country as more congregations search for ways to operate without a pastor. Lay people are filling more roles and congregations are sharing leaders.”

How is the Church reshaping? Where is God taking us?

I would suggest that God is taking us to the MISSION FIELD. What do I mean by this? I do not mean that you need to get on a plane. No. This new season of dramatic change is our mission field.

In the past decade, we have watched the trickle in the decline of church membership turn to a geyser. Young people doubt their faith en masse. There is persecution and war. Dogmatism and confusion are epidemics because of the proliferation of digital echo chambers. Politics is king, and confusion abounds.

This is our mission field. This is the space that needs God’s truth spoken in love. It is the place that needs the light of the gospel, now more than ever.

A missionary must learn the place in which they are called to, i.e., the language, the culture, the people. But now, in 2022, we need to learn how to navigate the changed face of our culture so we can effectively reach it.

How do things work on the mission field?

First, I would say that everyone is used on the mission field. Hierarchies break down if you are ministering in the jungle, so anyone willing to serve is given a chance. The Church cannot afford to strain out a gnat when the world is in such desperate need. I would suggest that our hierarchies are already being undermined by all the podcasts our congregants are listening to anyway.

Paul, our great example in missions, was willing to use all kinds of people. He was innovative and flexible rather than rigid and legalistic. He had Timothy circumcised when he felt it would help the mission (Romans 3). He worked in a secular job outside of ministry (Acts 18). He spoke to secular politicians (Acts 26). He advocated for enslaved people to be freed and then used them in the ministry (Philemon). He willingly used women in extraordinary ways (Romans 16 and elsewhere). It was these early God-directed, flexible choices Paul made that enabled the successful spread of the early Church.

The Church in 2022 is still vitally important in the world.

How can we be a connected and useful body if we are just dispersed across the digital space?

In the digital space, we can choose not to be challenged by choosing to listen only to voices we fully agree with or affirm us completely. Yet, sometimes we need to be challenged. The body of Christ is bone, muscle, and sinew that are closely connected and work together for God’s Kingdom (1 Corinthians 12).

If the real live Church is to continue toward renewal, we must be willing to have a missionary mentality because 2022 is our mission field.

So let us throw open our doors, roll up our sleeves, and decide to work together. We need everyone in this mission. We need all the outlets at our disposal. We need NGOs, podcasts, cathedrals, and school gymnasiums. The Church is made up of women and men, those with disabilities along with the able bodied, all colours, nationalities, genders, and races. We are the body of Christ, together reaching out to this contemporary mission field.

In 2022, we need everyone. The harvest is ripe, but the labourers are few. But God is in control. He will bring renewal from this turmoil, but it will not be a return to something: It will be a new work.

And all of us are needed on the field to work together for God’s Kingdom.

Bibliography:

Boorstein, Michelle. “The first Christmas as a layperson: Burned out by the pandemic, many clergy quit in the past year.” Washington Post. December 24, 2021. https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/12/24/christmas-covid-pandemic-clergy-quit/

Lovett, Ian. “Houses of Worship Face Clergy Shortage as Many Resign During Pandemic.” Wall Street Journal. February 21, 2022.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/houses-of-worship-face-clergy-shortage-as-many-resign-during-pandemic-11645452000

Sometimes we think that only Christians doubt, but that is not the case. If you abandoned your faith today and became an atheist, do you realise that you would still doubt?

Occasionally, even the most devoted Christians, during seasons of pain or suffering, when God seems utterly silent, lie in bed at night and wonder, “Does God really exist after all?”

Recently the topic of doubt and deconstruction has become a central conversation in the Christian church. These issues of doubt and deconstruction have become a part of the conversation largely due to massive cultural and political changes and the subsequent large drop off in church attendance and people identifying as Christian. In addition to those issues, the Church has also seen many Christian leaders deconstructing or abandoning the faith over the past two years.

In many ways, the struggle with doubt that Christians are experiencing in our contemporary context is not a uniquely Christian experience. We live in a world in which doubt is growing across all spectrums; not only is Christianity being questioned but everything is being questioned, and people do not know where to find their footing.

Exploring the Nature of Doubt

The purpose of this article is to explore the nature of doubt in our current cultural moment. How is doubt expressed in a world grounded in a materialistic scientific worldview? Where do we find space to explore existential questions about human purpose and worth, and does science adequately answer these questions?

The eminent evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins argues that science can answer all of our “how questions.” He asserts that science explains how the universe and humanity came to be and how we have evolved, but he states that the “why questions,” that is, existential questions, are “just silly questions.”¹ His statements leave no room for doubt, but despite Dawkins’ scientific dismissal of the “why questions,” these questions remain. And so, of course, we do doubt his confident scientific assertions. Indeed, Albert Camus wrote that “the meaning of life is the most urgent of questions.”² Where then does this leave us? How do we negotiate doubt and belief in this climate of the problematization of everything?

Doubt & Uncertainty

Have science and rationality replaced doubt? Or does doubt still permeate the human experience? The secular sociologist Pierre Bourdieu writes that science is now considered a form of “outmoded certainty,” arguing that science “has taken on all the past and present science of all other scientists, and is a kind of collective superego inscribed in institutions which constantly reassert the rules.”³ Do scientists like Dawkins represent these “outmoded conceptions of certainty and logic”? Where “certainty and logic” are “outmoded,” of course, doubt must abound, but does this doubt reveal itself by being unsure and tentative or does it somehow morph into violent criticism? Is the current western epidemic of panic and anxiety, which affects both the old and young, an indicator that doubt and uncertainty are at an all time high in our rational western secular experience?

Uncertainty Amid Conflicting Expert Opinions

These days, it often seems as if everyone is sure of themselves. A quick internet search leads to diet experts, exercise experts, parenting experts, breastfeeding experts, and social media experts, to name but a few. Each of these experts is sure of what they are saying. They believe strongly in the guidance they promote. The problem with our cultural moment is that we live in such a flood of internet-provided information that the strongly held beliefs of many experts very often contradict each other.

The question, of course, leaves us asking who should we believe? The doubt that modern individuals are forced to live with in the midst of such vast access to information is an enormously anxiety inducing state. Charles Peirce writes, “The irritation of doubt is the only immediate motive for the struggle to attain belief…. With the doubt, therefore, the struggle begins, and with the cessation of doubt it ends.”⁴ The problem we live with today is that the doubt never seems to end. We are living in an endlessly liminal state, where it is very difficult to find one’s footing. When we live in the midst of constantly contradictory information, how can we ever know what to believe?

Living in a Permanent State of Doubt

This gradual deconstruction of scientific authority had been crystallised most recently in feminist studies, transgender identities, and even the deeply questioned scientific claims around different Coronavirus issues. Biology is embattled and scientific understanding of evolutionary biology is being deeply questioned, not by religion or superstition but by educated academics. Here again we are introduced to doubt. In the Post-Christian West, we live in a permanent state of doubt. We lost our faith and replaced it with science. Science became our new authority. We explained humanity through evolutionary biology and the universe through physics and mathematics.

For a time, science appeared to fill the gap, however, it did not help us understand our own individual identity or purpose in this world.

Uncertainty Amid Unchecked Information

The days of unencumbered belief are behind us. The paradoxical irony is that there is simply too much information available to us today to believe anything fully. Pub quizzes are much less fun now that everyone is googling away furiously under the table. We can immediately find all of the answers about everything by checking our phones. With this vast access to information then do modern individuals struggle less with doubt? By no means. Now more than ever, people doubt everything.

Mark Davis writes, “the internet has made available a media environment in which traditional gatekeepers are easily bypassed, where extreme and misleading content is easily spreadable and where the sheer volume of available information itself gives rise to uncertainty.”⁵ Misinformation, fake news, cyber bots, fake accounts, doctored videos, partisan media, and conspiracy theories dominate our worries now more than ever. Indeed, in 2016, the Oxford English Dictionary’s word of the year was “post-truth.”⁶ The following year, 2017, former President Donald Trump’s Senior Counsel explained the Press Secretary’s account of inaugural crowd size as simply “alternative facts.”⁷ And in 2018, Oprah Winfrey gave her famous Golden Globes speech where she encouraged everyone to speak “their own truth.”⁸

In a post-truth world, everyone is entitled to their own version of truth. Both religious and scientific authority have been deconstructed. Concerns about the nature of truth lead us to ask, is everything eventually deconstructed?

A Kingdom-Centered Approach

Christianity, of course, claims to have ultimate truth, but historically it has also claimed to have a perfect hermeneutical understanding of every single aspect of it and this has led to so much historical pain. If doubt were allowed to exist in the midst of faith, perhaps these pains would have been avoided. If the Spanish inquisitioners more fully questioned whether torture and burning people at the stake was the best method of advancing the Kingdom, Christian history would have one less stain.

Perhaps, as Christians, we should simply state the following: I have faith and I have it because my belief in the Gospel of Jesus Christ is stronger than my doubts, but I do have doubts. And I cannot claim to walk in perfect hermeneutical light in all aspects of my faith in relation to every aspect of society, so I live my faith as fully as I can, empowered by the Holy Spirit. I wrestle with my doubts. I own them without shame or fear, and I apply them as fully to my doctrine as I do to the plurality of the differing views I encounter in the world I inhabit.

God’s Mercy & Grace

To doubt is human — but to believe is also human. To quote Mulder, “we want to believe.”⁹ But we cannot escape doubt. Abandoning your Christian faith will not eradicate doubt from your life. Just look at the epidemic of doubt and uncertainty sweeping across the secular world that we have examined in this article. In the secular world there is very little mercy for those who doubt. The polarised nature of our secular societies means there is only denunciation and cancellation for differing views. But there is mercy for the Christian who doubts: Jude 1:22 says, “Be merciful to those who doubt.”

Our God is so great that our doubts do not offend Him. He does not denounce us or cancel us but pours out mercy on us. He meets us in our doubts and walks with us through them. Let us walk humbly in the tension of our unresolved faith and trust God to meet us in our gaps of understanding. In the words of Dominic Done, “If all we care about is certainty, we lose the beauty of mystery. If all we value is explanation, we lose the joy of exploration. Deep faith is about progress, not perfection.”¹⁰

_NOTES

_{¹Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006).}

_{²Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus, and Other Essays, trans. Justin O’Brien (London: H. Hamilton, Ltd., 1965).}

_{³Pierre Bourdieu, Science of Science and Reflexivity, trans. Richard Nice (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 83.}

_{⁴Charles Sanders Peirce, The Fixation of Belief (Scotts Valley, CA: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017), 4-5.}

_{⁵Mark Davis, “The Online Anti-Public Sphere,” European Journal of Cultural Studies 24, no. 1 (February 2021), 143-159.}

_{⁶Jennifer Schuessler, “Post-Truth Defeats Alt-Right as Oxford’s Word of the Year,” New York Times, November 15, 2016.}

_{⁷NBC News, Meet the Press (January 22, 2017).}

_{⁸Giovanni Russonello, “Read Oprah Winfrey’s Golden Globes Speech,” New York Times, January 7, 2018.}

_{⁹Ella Morton, “The X-Files ‘I Want To Believe:’ Poster’s Origin Story,” New Republic, December 29, 2015.}

_{¹⁰Dominic Done, When Faith Fails: Finding God in the Shadow of Doubt (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2019).}

We have a tradition in the West where the groom carries the bride across the house’s threshold on their wedding day. Do you know where that tradition comes from? In ancient Greece, women were only considered as having an existence within their family home. The domestic sphere was their life, and they existed only in relation to their father, their brother, and the “gods” of their household. Society did not believe women intrinsically had independent value or humanity. When they left their household to marry their new husband, they would have to be carried from their house to that of their husband’s because they ceased to exist in the space between households. When their husbands carried them across the threshold of their new home, they existed once more in their new domestic sphere with their husbands, fathers-in-law, and new household “gods.”¹

Often, you will hear people talk about Christianity as a misogynistic religion, but do you ever wonder where women in the West would be today if Christianity had not intervened in the Greek and Roman attitudes towards women? What changed the way society viewed women in the West? Well, many things, but inevitably, the most cataclysmic intervention in the story of women was the coming of Jesus Christ and the birth of Christianity.

From the beginning, Women have played a central role in the story of the Gospel and the Early Church’s history.

It was weeping women who first told of the resurrection of Jesus Christ when Mary sat at the feet of Jesus to learn from him with the men, while Martha inhabited the domestic sphere, Jesus said, “Mary has chosen the better part” (Luke 10:42). He did not condemn her for her desire to learn. He went out of his way to speak to the Samaritan woman at the well and sent her to become what many theologians see as one of the first Evangelists, as she went to her town and told her neighbors to come and meet the man who “told her everything she had ever done” (John 4). Phoebe carried Paul’s letter to the Romans, and as was the tradition of letter carriers at the time, it is very likely she read it to the Church on Paul’s behalf. Of the list of early church leaders, in Romans 16, 10 of the 28 leaders listed are women. Imagine a culture where women often did not receive an education and were kept almost entirely in the domestic sphere, where women had no existence outside of relational connection to their male relatives. What would it feel like to hear Paul declare that, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” It can be challenging to grasp how revolutionary these teachings were at that time, and how Christianity was a vital catalyst in the dignifying of women to engage their God-given gifts and be used mightily by the Lord throughout history of the church, across the globe.

Jesus made it possible for women to walk across the threshold; he opened the door and invited them to walk through. Now, we realize that there are many differing views on the roles women should play in the church within the body of Christ. We have hard complementarians, soft complementarians, egalitarians, and of course, those who are on the fence about where they stand. However, for women who are reading this and are already in leadership, we need to be reminded that Jesus opened the door, and we each must humble ourselves and walk through it, laying down our lives in service to him. When it comes to walking through the door of service to Christ, no one can carry us; it is for us to walk through to Christ.

As I went for an evening walk, I was praying and listening to the Lord, and I felt him speak to my heart and say, “It’s time to get serious.” I know this applies to certain aspects of my own life, but I also believe the Lord spoke about women in ministry in the church. For a long time, women have served in the church, but often, we believe the lie from the enemy that God only uses men for serious work. Often, we have not been taken seriously, and consequently, we have not considered our roles and services as important or worthy enough. Though we may have been content playing secondary, less significant roles in the past, it is time for us to get serious about our service to the Lord. God wants to use women; he has opened the way for women to be an integral part of his mission to save and renew the world.

We have been a part of it from the start, and it is now time for us to walk into our God-given callings with new vigor and anointing from the Lord.

The world has drastically changed in the past year and a half. The global coronavirus pandemic has forced the Church to rethink local church gatherings and Gospel proclamation. And this transitional moment has provided a significant opportunity for women to engage in the needs of the Church. In large part, this article is a call (and an exhortation) to women:

1. Take up your crosses and serve the Lord in whatever ways he might call you to.

2. Be ready to walk across the threshold into the call God has for you.

3. Get serious; devote time to the study of scripture and daily rhythms of devotion to Jesus.

4. Humble your heart, and be ready for service to Christ.

The church has been through a time of crisis, but as Mark Sayers says in his recent book, Reappearing Church, “Crisis precedes renewal.” For renewal to occur in the church globally, the remnant of faithful believers need to step up and move into what God has called us to at this moment; this must include women!

It is time for the equipping of women, for the service God is calling them to.

Seeing this great need, Calvary Global Network has started a “Woman in Leadership” task team to build and encourage women in leadership and ministry for the service God has called them to. Women are important to God, and training and guiding women in the service of the Lord is vitally important. I have often observed that women in ministry feel inadequately equipped, isolated, and unsupported in ministry. But if women are to take up their cross and step into their call to serve and lead, they need to be supported and equipped for the task.

“Now may the God of peace—who brought up from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, and ratified an eternal covenant with his blood—may he equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ, every good thing that is pleasing to him. All glory to him forever and ever! Amen” (Hebrews 13:20-21- 20-NLT).

Women who love Jesus, Jesus loves you! Jesus calls you to his service. He sees you; he knows you; he has gifted and anointed you! It’s time to get serious. It’s time to lay down what has been holding you back. It’s time to throw off your concern about what others might think of you and lay your life entirely on the altar of God. It’s time to let our lives be a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2), which is our reasonable service to our King so that we can play our part in seeing the Gospel communicated across the globe and the Kingdom of God come in all its fullness.

“Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonourable, he will be a vessel for honourable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21, ESV).

Join the conversation. In our most recent episode of “When She Leads,” a podcast for women in ministry, our team discusses “Being a Leader God Can Use.” Each month, we gather around the table to consider the complexities and realities of leading as a woman.

What do you think? If you have a topic in mind, email us at: whensheleadspodcast@gmail.com. You can also stay in touch by following us on Instagram @whensheleads

Notes

1. Siedenthorp, Larry, Inventing The Individual – The Origins of Western Liberalism (London: Penguin Books, 2014), 12

Perhaps many of you have, at some point in your lives, heard the famous quote by Fredrick Nietzsche: “God is dead; we have killed him.”

This quote comes from Nietzsche’s book, The Gay Science written in 1882. In it, Nietzsche tells a parable of a mad man who runs into the marketplace. The parable is relatively short, so I will include most of the text below:

Have you not heard of that madman who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace, and cried incessantly: “I seek God! I seek God!” — As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. “Has he got lost?” asked one. “Did he lose his way like a child?” asked another. “Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?” — Thus they yelled and laughed.

The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his eyes. “Whither is God?” he cried; “I will tell you. We have killed him — you and I. All of us are his murderers. But how did we do this? How could we drink up the sea? Who gave us the sponge to wipe away the entire horizon? What were we doing when we unchained this earth from its sun? Whither is it moving now? Whither are we moving? Away from all suns? Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Do we not need to light lanterns in the morning?

How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers?”

Here the madman fell silent and looked again at his listeners; and they, too, were silent and stared at him in astonishment. “I have come too early,” he said then; “My time is not yet. This tremendous event is still on its way, still wandering; it has not yet reached the ears of men. Lightning and thunder require time; the light of the stars requires time; deeds, though done, still require time to be seen and heard. This deed is still more distant from them than most distant stars — and yet they have done it themselves.”

On the same day the madman forced his way into several churches and he said, “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?”

– The Gay Science, Fredrick Nietzsche

This story takes my breath away. I’m not sure if it is wonder at the prophetic accuracy of this story, or the fear of the nihilism it foreshadows, or the recognition I feel as I look out into the world, and realise, I am living in the future foretold by Nietzsche. Indeed, if the madman ran out into the “marketplace” today and declared, “God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him.” Everyone would already acknowledge the truth of it.

NIETZSCHE REALISED, BEFORE MANY OTHERS, THE COMING OF THE SECULAR AGE.

He saw how God would one day become irrelevant in the “marketplace,” which is a metaphor for the public sphere as well as the capitalist market. We now live in the secular age. Both religious and non-religious people live within this secular age. Even though there are still many believers, the age we live in is secular; the waters we swim in are secular, and the overarching narrative of the world is secular.

In this story, the madman realises what happens when God is removed from society. He understands that, without God, there is no light to light our path; that is why he “lit a lantern in the bright morning hours,” because, without the light of God, even the “bright morning hours” are thrown into darkness. He saw how a future with no story, no through-arch, and no purpose would descend into total nihilism, as the meaninglessness of existence and the universe became ever clearer. He writes:

“Are we not plunging continually? Backward, sideward, forward, in all directions? Is there still any up or down? Are we not straying, as through an infinite nothing? Do we not feel the breath of empty space? Has it not become colder? Is not night continually closing in on us?”

Without God, meaninglessness is all we have to turn to. Nietzsche perhaps harboured some hope that humans would be able to one day write their own story, to find a way to infuse existence with some meaning, but the world is churning, “plunging continually,” totally devoid of something worth living for. The secular thesis has failed; we have not managed to write a story of peace and love, instead, we have written a story of distraction.

DISTRACTION IS THE WORD FOR THE SECULAR AGE.

All of our technological development and our hubristic murder of God has not lead to a secular utopia, instead, it has led to the construction of a web of distraction; so thorough that, we no longer have to face the meaninglessness of life and existence. We can just switch on Netflix, or social media, or Disney+, or any other infinite number of technological distractions that blind us to the emptiness of life. We can wash it all away by binge watching Cobra Kai.

We have done all this, murdered God and built a world filled with emptiness and distraction, all with an inflated sense of our own cleverness. We scoff at those silly people who still believe in fairy tales like God. When the madman enters the marketplace, he shouts:

“‘I seek God! I seek God!’ — As many of those who did not believe in God were standing around just then, he provoked much laughter. ‘Has he got lost?’ asked one. ‘Did he lose his way like a child?’ asked another. ‘Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone on a voyage? emigrated?’ — Thus they yelled and laughed.”

Those who seek God have been scoffed at, and those who have dismissed his existence have felt progressively more clever. But, that is only because they do not look into the abyss. Nietzsche also said, “If you gaze long enough into the abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” Few secular people today take much time to consider the ramifications of the meaning of a life without God. It means that all of life and existence is one big accident, and that one day it will all end in a heat death; none of it will have mattered, and nothing will be remembered because there is nothing out there. This is the abyss that people do not look at, because if you look at it long enough, it will look back into you; and the enormity of it will be too much.

Even though we are experts at distracting ourselves, on some level, the reality of “meaninglessness” remains, and the “lack of a story” to explain our existence and give our lives purpose, still presses in. It manifests in crippling anxiety and epidemic narcissism. We have not freed ourselves from the bonds of religion; we have bound ourselves to meaninglessness. In place of a loving God, who has a story for each of us, resides emptiness.

THE WONDERFUL STORY OF THE GOSPEL GIVES PURPOSE AND MEANING TO OUR UNIVERSE AND TO OUR LIVES.

We do not have to face the abyss alone, in fact, the abyss is filled up with God. He is the creator and sustainer of the universe. He is the one who turns ashes to beauty, even in all the broken parts of our story. He infuses us with purpose and fills our eternity with hope. He wipes every tear from our eyes and ensures that every pain we’ve suffered and every tragedy we’ve endured will be remembered and turned into something beautiful in his eternal plan. With God, it will not all end in a heat death, and humanity will endure in the loving grip of Christ.

Nietzsche ends his parable with a stark prediction; he writes of the empty churches that remain after the death of God, “What after all are these churches now if they are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?” I take this as a challenge to the church in 2021. God’s not dead; he is very much alive and working. But have we made our great story, the story of the Gospel of Jesus Christ so amenable to this secular age, so palatable, so relevant, so secular that our churches resemble sepulchers of God?

The coronavirus has forced humanity to stare at the abyss en masse, in a way that has not occurred in many generations. People are afraid; they are aware of their mortality, and they are lonely, and isolated, and depressed. People are still shouting, “I seek God; I seek God.” The world still laughs at this cry, but let us hope the church still stands with the answer, “God is here.”

Do we still have God to offer those who seek him? The world needs the Gospel to bring God’s love, and comfort, and healing, and strength into their broken and fear-filled places. “How shall we comfort ourselves,” cry the people in the story. The church has the answer to that cry in the age old story of the cross, as true and as needed today as on the day Jesus died. Is the church of God still alive with the gospel? Do we still believe in the power of God to break chains and set the captives free, to save the lost?

God has you in the palm of his hand. He knows you. He loves you. You are not alone. God has a plan for you; God holds your eternity in his hands. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. Oh, what a great comfort these truths are to me. The world is crying out for this comfort, to know the God who made them. Though we have tried to kill, both God, and our personal need for God, neither attempt has succeeded. People feel their need for God through this pandemic in new and raw ways that all the distraction cannot hide; let’s be there to offer them the truth of the Gospel and not keep this great comfort to ourselves: It is for everyone.

_Notes:

_{. Nietzsche, Friedrich. Beyond Good and Evil. Dover Publications, 1998.}

. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm, 1844-1900. The Gay Science; with a Prelude in Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs. New York: Vintage Books, 1974.

What a year it’s been! 2020 has felt to me as if the whole world has been shaken – a global pandemic, lockdowns and restrictions, death and tragedy, political polarization, economic catastrophes, riots and fires and pain. As I said, what a year!

Where is God in all of this you might ask? He is working his eternal plan (Romans 8:28)!

It is interesting that even as we observe the world being shaken, we can also see that the church itself has been shaken. Normal church practice has been stripped away by the restrictions and lockdowns implemented across the globe.

Gathering together was banned, music was banned, congregational singing was banned, time restrictions were placed on services, hospitality was banned, and even hugs were forbidden. The apparatus of the church in many ways was stripped away. Hebrews 12:27 says, “‘Yet once more,’ indicates the removal of things that are shaken—that is, things that have been made—in order that the things that cannot be shaken may remain.” What is left for us Christians when all of this is removed?

For some in the church, nothing remained, and their faith failed; the apparatus of the church was where their faith was placed. And when it was removed, there was no foundation to stand on, no Christ to stand on. The shaking of the church has been intense and painful, but what remains?

What remains in the heart of every Christian is their personal relationship with Jesus.

A phrase that has been used so often that it has lost much of its meaning. A personal relationship with Jesus. Jesus has often been drowned out of our lives by the busyness of ministry, church life, community and perfect worship music. Are these things bad? Of course not, they are wonderful! But if they are all you have, what are you left with when they are removed? Nothing.

The “nothing” of people’s relationship with God is being exposed. God is always working – we know that (Romans 8:28). God is working in every situation; he is working even now in this global pandemic. In this time of “crisis” for the church in this “great falling away.” God is working and weaving his good plan, just as he has from the start. Where is your faith? Now is the time to look to God’s new beginning, for his rebirth of the church, with those who remain. “As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy” (James 5:11).

We have had a dependency on the apparatus of the church that has distracted us for our need to come to God, on our own in the secret place. To know his presence in the quiet of our room. To come before him, to pray for guidance, renewal; to come to him in confession and repentance, and to lay our lives daily before him; to know his touch, to feel the presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our time alone with God. Without that, what do we have? Hip churches, wonderful music, coffee community – but with an empty place at the centre where Jesus should be enthroned. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me” (John 15:4). It is time to abide again with Christ, for him to be our life blood and our source.

Can we worship without music? Yes! Can the Holy Spirit move even if church looks a bit different? Yes! He moved in power in an upper room when the “church,” the 12 disciples, were scared and in hiding. Now is the time to see the spirit move in a way that we have never seen before! Don’t despair – look forward in faith to the new thing God is doing in the world!

I am so excited to be a Christian in this season, because the Lord is doing a new thing! This is not a season of defeat; it is an integral part of God’s great plan of salvation! This is not based on a shallow faith defined by distraction, but on a deep and personal faith, where Jesus is king and our lives are fully his.

What will our new normal be?

It will begin in the secret place with Jesus. Followers of Christ who have a deep abiding faith – who’s trust is in God – in his sovereignty over all the chaos and in his continuing plan for the world- those followers will stand, even though shaken, they will see the renewal of God’s church and his work internationally.

As we come back to gather together again, we are not re-starting church, instead, we are starting anew. The power to stand comes through a posture of kneeling in prayer (kneeling is not banned!). The rebirth of the church will be birthed out of a place of prayer and repentance.

Let’s be a part of God’s coming plan. Now is the time for us to go to God in prayer, to ask him to forgive us for building our faith on things other than him – even good things. Things can be stripped away- as we have seen this year – but our relationship with Christ is eternal. He is the rock on which we build our faith, our lives and the church!

This year the anxiety level of the global community has gone through the roof. For the first time, some secular people are thinking about the big questions of life; they realise they are facing the void alone, and they are terrified. They want an answer to their pain, confusion and fear. The Gospel is that answer, and we will see the gospel go out in power again. The “West” is the great new mission field.

The “West” has forgotten the Gospel, and we are who God is calling to tell it once again. Now is the time.

God told Esther she was made “for such a time as this” (Esther 4:14) – if you are still standing in Christ, then he is going to use you in this time. Come to him even now as you read this article; kneel down before him and offer him your life once more. Then come to prayer and hammer heaven with your requests to see God’s renewal in your communities and internationally. It might feel like the tide is going out on Christianity – but just as one wave rolls out, a new one is rolling in!

Together, in prayer, in the secret place with Christ, in our personal relationship with Jesus, we will see his church be renewed.

“On Christ the solid rock we stand, all other ground is sinking sand, all other ground is sinking sand!”

What does “advent” mean? Well, the word itself means: “The arrival of a notable person or thing.” At this time of year we celebrate the arrival of the most notable person of all time, Jesus Christ. Advent has taken on different traditions throughout the course of Christian history, the advent calendar, lighting the advent candles, and in some Christian traditions, it is marked by a time of fasting.

Advent is a time to prepare for the celebration of the birth of Christ.

To help us think more deeply about the significance of Advent, let’s examine the first few verses of the Gospel of John to learn about the incredible gift of God that the world received when Jesus was born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago.

The first four verses of the Gospel of John state: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1-4).

Each of the four Gospels highlight a different aspect of Jesus. The Gospel of John emphasizes the deity of Jesus. Why didn’t John, like the other Gospels, begin with the story of the stable in Bethlehem or the beginning of His ministry? Why doesn’t he refer to Jesus as Jesus, but instead calls Him “The Word?” Well, it was to indicate that Jesus existed long before there was ever a stable in Bethlehem, long before He was ever given the name Jesus, He was.

Moreover, John emphasizes here that Jesus was not merely a man who walked the earth for 33 years, doing some miracles, but that He is God, and that it was Jesus who created our universe. When we think of the beauty of our planet, sometimes we must take a step back and just wonder at God’s creation. But even the wonder of our planet rotating in its place is dwarfed by the magnitude of our raging, fiery sun and the pristine, swirling rings of Saturn, the raging storms and murky atmosphere of Jupiter, the comets, meteors, moons and stars, the vast expanse of our solar system, spanning for thousands of light years. The spectacular phenomenon of dark stars existing invisibly, still pulling moons and planets with only the void of the place they once held in the universe. Black holes and dark matter bend the capacity of the human mind. Yet even the wonder of our galaxy and the billions of stars found in it are eclipsed by the multitude of countless other galaxies which exist and swirl in the realm of God’s creation. As you sit and read this, out there the universe moves and shapes, stars explode, meteor showers clash and crash, and God knows it all.

God made it all, and God holds it all together. This universe was spoken into existence by “the Word.” How unfathomably powerful is God? Yet, to me, what is even more incredible than God’s creation, is that He chose to come to earth as a baby. He, whom all the wonders of the universe emerged from, the intelligence, the science, the creativity, the power, the detail, the size, scope and enormity of Him, He became “made.” He came as a baby, powerless, tiny, helpless, dependent, insignificant, impoverished, vulnerable, and from the beginning, threatened by the very ones He had made. This is what God did, this is who Jesus is. He came to live as a human, so He could understand our humanity, He lived as a man, and we are told, “He was tempted in every way, yet was without sin” (Hebrew 4:15). He was and is, God, clothed forever in the body of a man, He is fully God and fully man; He is Jesus.

This period of Advent is a time to celebrate the coming of Jesus into our world.

But let us also remember that Christmas foreshadows Easter as birth foreshadows death; the Christmas tree eventually becomes the tree of Calvary.

As we read here in John 1:4, “In Him was life.” This is true in the most literal sense. He literally was life. The tiniest proton to the most enormous sun comes from Jesus, and yet He who was “life,” died. He died to take the sin of mankind upon Himself; He died to once again bring life to us. And the most wonderful part is that death could not hold Him. He rose again. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.” Nothing is more powerful than God, no matter how dark things may seem to you today. Do not forget His magnitude. Do not forget His power. Do not forget His great love for you. If Christ is in you, the darkness cannot overcome you, so put your trust in Him.

If you are reading this today and you have not chosen to follow Jesus, I just want to remind you of the verse we read today in John 1:4, “In Him was life, and that life was the light of man.” Jesus is the source of everything, you included. He is the one who throws “light” on our lives, how can we know or understand ourselves; how can we discern why we are here, or why we exist at all without knowing the one who made us? Come to Jesus during this Advent season, so that you can know His love, grace and salvation in your life; and so that He can fill you with light and understanding to know your God given purpose on this earth.

Merry Christmas to you all!

There is a question that lurks at the back of our minds, niggling, scratching, attempting to penetrate our consciousness. We keep it at bay with busyness, distractions, vanity, and ambition, but it still scratches. The question is this: What is the purpose of life? What is the point of it all? What will remain of me when I take my last breath? That is the question that has scratched at the brain of every thinking person from the start.

Albert Camus wrote about the character of Sisyphus, who is found in Greek mythology. He was condemned to roll a stone up a hill until he was ten paces from the top, and then let it roll back down again only to roll it up again and repeat ad infinitum.

Life sometimes feels this way: eat, sleep, work, repeat. What is the point? Bertrand Russell said we are nothing more than an “accidental collocation of atoms destined to end in the heat death of the universe.” He went on to say, “Only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.”

Dawkins said we live in a universe of “blind, pitiless indifference.”

If human beings are here by a biological accident, then what is the meaning of life?

Do we live and breathe and die all for nothing? Is there any arc to our story? Or is it a plotless existence that simply happens and then ends?

Many of the great thinkers of history have embraced this idea of material meaninglessness. Steven J. Gould argues that we must “construct our own meaning,” but what gives our “construct” any meaning? Who determines it? By what standards do we measure whether or not we have been successful?

If God is not a reality, then we can be our own master. We can do as we please. We can construct our own meaning. But without God, none of it means anything; life has no ultimate purpose. Our “freedom” becomes utterly meaningless.

Aldous Huxley said very honestly:

“I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning; and consequently, assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason why he personally should not do as he wants to do. For myself, as no doubt for most of my friends, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation from a certain system of morality. We objected to the morality because it interfered with our sexual freedom. The supporters of this system claimed that it embodied the meaning – the Christian meaning, they insisted – of the world. There was one admirably simple method of confuting these people and justifying ourselves in our erotic revolt: we would deny that the world had any meaning whatever.”

This is an interesting and honest quote. To be a free, moral agent, we must remove God, but if we remove God, we lose our life’s meaning and purpose. Here Huxley acknowledges that total human, moral freedom comes only when we “deny that the world has any meaning whatever.” This is a high price to pay, and we are seeing the consequences of it throughout our world today. The void of meaninglessness is eating at people’s souls.

Anxiety is at an all-time high in the West, as we leave young people to face the void alone.

The temporary distractions of our imminent frame – social media, Netflix, pornography – can only temporarily keep the abyss at bay. In reality, in the face of eternity, we need God standing with us.

Albert Camus argued that, “If my freedom has no meaning except in relation to its limited fate, then I must say that what counts is not the best living but the most living. It is not up to me to wonder if this is vulgar or revolting, elegant or deplorable. Once and for all, value judgments are discarded here in favour of factual judgments.” According to Camus, because nothing matters, we should spend our lives in pursuit of pleasure. In a meaningless universe, we are free to do this, and ultimately, the only thing worth anything is the quantity of pleasure we experience.

The French Poet Beaudalaire rigorously pursued hedonism in great “quantity.” However, his friends would recall that he experienced a persistent twitch: images of his pursuits involuntarily flashed before his mind, tormenting him. Perhaps you have had this same experience on occasion: unbidden flashes of your pursuits of pleasure, or images from an incognito internet tab, passing before your eyes.

It would seem then that, yes, we can have moral freedom, but we must give up any meaning our lives might hold to attain it. And, as Baudelaire (and I, for that matter) will testify, even having the moral freedom to do as we please can lead to more torment than pleasure.

The truth is, we were created for a purpose.

As trains are designed to move along their tracks, we are designed to move along the tracks of God’s will for our lives. His purpose stretches out ahead of us, curving and winding, climbing and descending according to his will, his good and perfect will. To step into our purpose, we must agree to travel on his track (Philippians 2:13). We “lose” our moral freedom as we submit our will to God the creator, but we gain meaning, purpose, and eternal life. We learn quickly that his good standard brings joy and peace into our lives, and that his “law of liberty” (James 2:12) is what brings true freedom, the freedom to be who we were created to be.

When Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before the crucifixion, he prayed, “If possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not my will but yours be done” (Matthew 26:39). We serve a God who loves us so much that he submitted his will, his freedom, and his pleasure to the Father. He did that, all the way to the cross, all the way into death, for you and me. He did it because of his eternal love for us.

When we think about the reason to keep going every day, we must remember the love of Christ for us; that his death frees us from death and imbues our life with eternal purpose.

Speaking as one who tried it, being the master of your own life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. However, it is possible to hand over the reins to God today. The God of love, who gave up everything for you, is waiting for you. He waits for you to come to him, and in him, find life eternal.

What is the purpose of life? God created us to know him, to know his voice (John 10:27-28). He gave up his power and glory; he came to earth, lived as a man, died, and rose again, all so that we could be close to him. He wants us to hear his voice. It is so difficult to make our way through the unstable ever-shifting world we live in, but when we choose to follow God, we have access to His mind and his voice, as he guides us faithfully day by day.

“The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace” (Psalm 29:10-13).

Yes, life can feel like a flood. I have often felt as if I were drowning; even the world around me appears to be drowning. But we have a God who sits enthroned above the storm. He wants to speak to you; he wants to guide you; he wants to fill every day of your life with his touch and his presence (James 4:8).

Knowing that the God of the universe is guiding your life makes everything you experience eternally significant.

R.C. Sproul wrote, “Everything that we experience, every pain we endure and every tear that we shed is significant – forever.” This is what gives our lives meaning. No suffering is unseen; no pain passed over; God is working everything for our good eternally (Romans 8:28).

Because God is real, because he is personal, that means “what happens in history matters” (Charles Taylor). It all matters to God, and he wastes none of it.

The Lord is speaking; his word is as alive today in our secular age as it has ever been. As he guides our days and directs our paths, we see his will and plans unfold; we see how God and only God can turn the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of our lives into something beautiful as he uses them for his good purposes. It is God’s hand on our lives, his involvement, that fills our life with purpose.

_Bibliography

_{Camus, Albert, Justin O’Brien. The Myth Of Sisyphus, And Other Essays. New York: Vintage Books, 1991.}

_{Huxley, Aldous. Ends and Means. London: Chatto & Windus, 1937.}

_{Russell, Bertrand. A Free Man’s Worship, and Other Essays, London: Unwin Books, 1976.}

_{(Stephen J. Gould quote) Kinnier, Richard, Jerry Kernes, and Nancy Tribbensee, eds. The Meaning of Life: According to the Great and the Good. Palazzo Editions, 2007, P. 108.}

_{Dawkins, R. River Out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1995.}

_{Sproul, R. C. Surprised by Suffering (Robert Charles), 1939-2017.}

_{Taylor, C. A secular age. New York: Walker, Harvard 18th ed., 2007.}

Tim Keller once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

Self-forgetfulness is the key to living a happy life.

In the book of Esther, we meet a very interesting character named Haman. He was an extremely successful, wealthy and powerful man. He was second in command to King Xerxes, who ruled over the globe-spanning Persian empire. Haman seemed to have it all, but he was not content with his life.

There was a man named Mordecai in his city who refused to show him respect and would not bow to him. Haman was so enraged by Mordecai’s lack of respect that he lost all pleasure in his life, accomplishments and success, all he could think about was destroying Mordecai and his people. He states in Esther 5:13, “Yet all this is worth nothing to me, so long as I see Mordecai the Jew sitting at the king’s gate.”

Haman is such a fascinating example of a totally self-absorbed person. People who think about themselves all the time don’t necessarily have to be outwardly prideful and abrasive, in fact, they might feel quite inferior and insignificant.

The point is that both these types of people, be it the superior type or the interior type, are totally self-absorbed.

Being self-absorbed means that we don’t engage our ministry, our job, our volunteer work or whatever else we do with our time for the joy of doing the thing itself, rather we engage in these activities, first and foremost, for how they will reflect on us, for how it will make people think well of us, admire us and praise us. The joy is not in the thing itself but only in the response we get from others.

If we do not receive the admiration and praise we feel we should have, it leads us to becoming resentful and critical of those who have, in our view, “let us down.” All the pleasure we might have gained from the service we gave in our ministry or volunteering or career dissolves into bitterness; our joy is gone, and we find ourselves in Haman’s shoes.

C.S. Lewis writes in the Screwtape Letters how God wants people to get to the place where one could:

“Design the most beautiful cathedral in the world and know it to be so and rejoice in that fact without being anymore or less glad at having done it than if it had been done by another. Jesus, you see, wants to turn our attention away from ‘self’ altogether and direct it towards him and our neighbours. Both vainglory and self-contempt equally keep the mind on the ‘self’ – both therefore lead to contempt of others and cruelty towards others” (C.S. Lewis, Screwtape Letters).

Whether our personal bent leads towards a sense of superiority or inferiority, both those things keep our minds on ourselves, and then ultimately, leads to joyless lives of never being fully satisfied. We look to people to validate us and never feel our cup is full because we are only ever thinking about ourselves.

What is the answer then?

Well, the answer is to truly take ourselves out of the mix, to just forget about our “approval rating” and engage in life’s activities for the joy of the things themselves and not for the praise we might get for doing them.

“Yes, but that’s hard,” you say, “How do I really practice self-forgetfulness?” Well, interestingly, we can look back to Haman for the answer here.

Haman was asked by the king, “What should I do for the man the king delights to honour?” Haman’s response is very interesting. Thinking that he himself is the man the king delights to honour, he suggests that the king should have the king’s robes placed on him and that he be led about the city on a horse having someone shout how the king loves this man and honours him.

This might seem like a somewhat pompous request but, in fact, it was not a bad thing to ask for. Having the king’s robes placed on your shoulders meant that you were partaking in the kingship; you were loved by the king. You were receiving the praise of the most praiseworthy person in the kingdom. To receive the praise of the praiseworthy is above all else.

Haman, in fact, asked the king for a good thing, it’s just that he asked the wrong king. There is a king who is greater and higher, the most wonderful, the most praiseworthy, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords: Jesus. We, as Christians, have had the most praiseworthy King, declare to the world that he loves us with an everlasting love. Jesus had his robe ripped from him at the cross so that he could place his robe of righteousness on us. His actions on the cross proved once and for all his great love for us, and it can never be taken away.

So when we think of our “approval rating,” we can know that we are approved of and loved and adopted by the God of all. We can just put it to bed and know from this day on how greatly loved we are; we can stop looking to the “wrong kings” to feel good about ourselves. In fact, we can stop being self-absorbed. We can look outward and engage in our lives’ activities for the joy of them and in seeking to help others without constantly being crippled by how people either praise us, or fail to praise us for our work, but rather know without a shadow of a doubt that we are loved and seen and precious to our king and saviour, Jesus.

Self-forgetfulness isn’t a way to punish ourselves, no, it is the door to a truly happy life, resting in the love and acceptance of our saviour.

Of all the problems in the world, suffering is the hardest to face. Why is there so much suffering in our world, and why does God allow it?

Recently, Psalm 91 has been helping me to understand suffering in a new light.

It might strike you as a little strange because Psalm 91 would seem to indicate that we will never suffer any harm at all. It says things like, “A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.” No “disease,” no “pestilence,” indeed, “No harm will befall you” at all.

It can be a bit confusing to read this psalm in light of the suffering that many of us go through in life. It might even lead us to ask the question: “Am I doing something wrong?” But this is not the correct way to read this psalm. In fact, the only way for us to understand this psalm correctly is in the light of the cross of Christ.

Let me explain that a bit more. It is interesting that the main extended metaphor in this psalm is the image of a mother bird. For example, “He will cover you with His feathers and under His wings, you will find refuge.” This image is one of a God who draws close to us, who pulls us in under His wings and protects us. This is God’s heart toward us. The whole psalm is God’s heart toward us. But, we live in a broken and fallen world, filled with pain and suffering; how can God ultimately protect us from all of the evils of man? Well, there was really only one way, and Jesus did it.

I’m speaking of the cross.

The way God comes through on His promises in Psalm 91 is on the cross. There is a story of a farm in the Midwest of America that suffered through a terrible hail storm. The hailstones were so big they destroyed many of the crops. When the farmer went out to check the damage the next day, he found a bird’s nest knocked to the ground. In it was a mother bird with her wings spread wide. When the farmer lifted her from the nest, he realized she was dead, but he found all her little chicks under her totally unharmed. How does God protect us from all harm the way He tells us He will in Psalm 91? He does it by dying for us. He did it on the cross.

In Luke chapter 4, when Jesus is being tempted in the desert, Satan quotes Psalm 91 to Jesus, saying, “Throw yourself down from the temple; the angels will catch you and not let you strike your foot against a stone.” Satan was trying to tell Jesus that nothing bad had to happen to Him, and He didn’t need to suffer. God wouldn’t let Him harmed, never mind sent to the cross. But suffering had to be a part of Jesus’ story, and sometimes, of ours too. Thankfully, Jesus didn’t succumb to Satan’s temptations. He stayed the course and walked bravely to the cross so that the promises of Psalm 91 could truly be fulfilled one day, and He could “wipe every tear from their eyes” so, “there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain” (Revelation 21:4).

Suffering is a bitter pill to swallow. But we serve a God who also ate the bitter pill. He suffered. He did it to defeat sin; He did it for you; He did it for me. When we read Psalm 91 in light of the cross, we realize that all of the promises of God’s heart to us in that psalm are “yes” and “amen” in Jesus Christ. No matter what befalls us on this earth, we can never be snatched from His hand.

Death itself has been defeated.

Jesus said in Mathew 23:37, “How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.” Jesus suffered; we suffer. But there is comfort in the suffering. There is comfort in the knowledge that our eternity is secure. Let us come close to Jesus and allow Him to gather us under His wings. Let us find peace in our Savior who gave everything for us.

Dominic Done wrote, “When we choose gratitude, we aren’t denying our frustration and pain; we’re planting seeds of hope in the midst of those fractured places. Gratitude leverages life’s brokenness to allow the light in. Gratitude is the soul’s war against despair.” In Christ, we have so much to be grateful for. He is our high tower, our ever-present help in time of need.

If you are in the midst of a broken and fractured place, know you are still surrounded by the love of God. Draw close to Him, and let Him draw you to Himself. He is a God who truly understands your pain. He is with you in your trouble, and one day, He will literally wipe every tear from your eyes.

In the movie Beauty and the Beast, we see how looking beyond an outward beastly appearance to the beauty within can be a positively transformative experience. Beauty is heralded and powerful. The poet John Keats said, “Beauty is truth, truth beauty—that is all.” If beauty is truth, then all the base and ugly things in our existence are coverings, clothing which conceals the true beauty and value of people created in the image of God, much like the curse placed on the Beast in the movie.

If beauty is truth, why then are we, as an advanced, progressive western society so consumed by analyzing and dissecting and examining all that is base and beastly in this world with an insatiable, consumptive appetite?

“We don’t,” you might say.

Oh, but we do. Our entertainment is so often based on the themes of violence, cruelty, betrayal and inhumanity, or, when we consider reality TV, simply the most base forms of unthoughtful humanity. Shows like The Bachelor or The Kardashians do not promote the high order thinking or the transcendent values humans are capable of. They utilize low forms of gossip, ridicule or scandal to appeal on the most base level.

No thought of human value or purpose is attributed to either the figures on-screen or those watching from their couch.

When we consider the Christian worldview and the value placed in people as created beings and as expressed in the death of Jesus Christ for humanity, then the time we spend in our day to day lives, dwelling on the base and brutal aspects of this world, is an indictment on our claim to be image-bearers of God.

The world we live in is riddled with anxiety and depression. I myself battle anxiety. But I wonder if these struggles are exasperated by our cultural fixation with the darkness we see around us. The darkness is real and pervasive, but why do we let it pervade us so much more than we need to, particularly through popular entertainment? If fear is a battle for you in your life, why dwell so much on fear?

There is a better suggestion. Paul states in Philippians, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Think about these things.

How much of popular culture is created around truth and excellence?

Rather, it largely feeds on broken humanity, scandal and all that is base about our world. Let me encourage you to reject cynicism and callousness when considering people. We don’t have to be hard-boiled toward and suspicious of others. The second part of Romans 16:19 says, “Be wise as to what is good and innocent as to what is evil.” Which are we more adept in recognizing? What do we spend more time contemplating or being entertained by? Good or evil?

I had a sociology lecturer back when I was in university. He was a sociological genius and the head of the sociology department at University College Cork. I will never forget what he said in a lecture one day when discussing society’s obsession with mindless reality TV. He said, “When you take something and bring it down to zero, and then multiply it, you get an infinity of zero, an infinity of mindless, worthless totality, unprofitable rubbish.” He was so right. Human persons are capable of so much beauty. We are, after all, created in the image of God. But how will we ever reflect the beauty, goodness and kindness of God, His excellence, purity, honor, commendation or truth when we are not looking at beauty, particularly God’s beauty, and His reflected beauty in creation and humanity? Instead, with blinders on, we stare abjectly at the “Beast:” the cruelty, violence and depravity of the world.

“But these things (cruelty, depravity and violence, etc.) exist,” I hear you say. “Should they not be given our consideration?” Yes, of course, they must. As Christians, we are mandated to combat these forces with the love of God for humanity, but this is a very different form of consideration than hungrily being entertained by these themes.

Paul also says in Philippians chapter four, verses 4-7: “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

According to Paul in these verses, how do we find peace?

I would suggest Paul is saying we find peace through dwelling on God. When we are happy, rejoice in the Lord, when we are anxious, look to the Lord for help, when we are grateful, thank God. God is purity and beauty, so look to Him and dwell on Him. Jesus said, “When you see Me, you see the Father.”

For true beauty, look to and dwell on Jesus as He is revealed to us in the Bible. Remember that humanity is made in the image and likeness of God, so do not dwell on the aspects of humanity that have become base and beastly.

Do not entertain yourself with the base things of the world, when we have been imbued by God with the capacity for so much more. Psalm 8 states humanity is “crowned with glory and honor.” Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.” We so easily forget the glory of God, of His creation and how He loves the people of this earth; this is largely due to the amount of time we spend dwelling on the corruption and darkness in the world.

Even the hard atheist Nietzsche said, “If you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.” If you dwell so much on darkness, the darkness eventually permeates you. So dwell instead on light; it too will permeate your being. Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.” So let us then be light (Matthew 5:14). Colossians 1:13 says, “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.”

Just ask yourself, What am I spending my time dwelling on?

Is it darkness and fear? Is it inhumanity and brokenness? Or is it the beauty and power of God? Is it His excellence and purity because whichever one of these you dwell on will affect how you view the world, society, your own life and the people around you. You will see people either as high and capable of great beauty and creativity, or as low, base and beastly, not worthy of the love and respect given to them by God.

Christopher Hitchens, the renowned atheist thinker, states, “The biggest problem facing a post-religious or superstitious world is the lack of beauty and the transcendent.” Well, this is a very good point. Without God and His glory in the universe, where can we find the transcendent? What a great loss this would be; what an empty existence. The point is that, as Christians, we believe we do live in a universe that was created by God and that displays His glory. Why then do we often live as though this was not true, as though we live in this post-God world that even Hitchens describes as being empty of the transcendent? Instead of lifting our eyes to the beauty and glory of God and allowing this to inform how we love our fellow humans, we focus our eyes away from all that is worthy, beautiful and great, and we dwell on brutality, inanity and worthlessness.

Psalm 1 says: “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.”

This man in Psalm 1 made his choice. He dwelled on the beauty and greatness of God. He rejected the low and scoffing ways of society, and this choice affected his life. He was rooted in the reality and foundation of God.

If we believe in God, let us live like that is true. As Paul so wisely tells us, “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

To think about the glory of God seems like a grand endeavor indeed, but Jesus said in John 14:9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” God gave up His power and glory to become a man, if we need to consider the beauty of God, then we need look no further than Jesus. God made Himself known to us in Jesus. Jesus is kind, powerful, humble and self-sacrificing. He is our inspiration; He gives value to all humans because He loved them so much He died for them. Let us then see the people we encounter in our lives as beautiful and worthy of love, because that’s how God sees them.

So what it’s to be, Beauty or the Beast? What we think about is important, so let’s choose to dwell on Jesus, on the glory of God, rather than dwelling on the base and beastly things found in this world.

The philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, “All persons are owed respect just because they are persons.” There was a time when philosophy could be engaged in a safe space, where those with differing views could come and reason together without being offended by other people’s divergent opinions. Indeed, the very idea of having your views questioned and being given the opportunity to respectfully defend your point of view was welcomed. Philosophical discussion could be enjoyed respectfully, and the value of a human was not found in whether they held the same views as you. It is clear that that is not the kind of world we live in today, but it is still within our power, as Christians, to personally choose to love and respect those who have opposing views to ours.

In addition, many of the reasonable voices in our world seem to have been relegated into silence. Fear is the cause.

The French philosopher Foucault used the Panopticon as a metaphor for social policing that is more real today than it was in his day. The Panopticon was a kind of circular prison designed so that all of the inmates could see into each other’s cells all the time, by this means, they sort of “self-policed” by constantly observing each other. Does this sound familiar? Constant use of social media is creating a modern-day panopticon where we are all watching each other all the time. Through social media, we are policing each other’s opinions and views, categorizing, placing people into camps, either for or against us and our tribe — we are drawing lines in the sand, creating invisible internal borders, walls, dividers, etc. Our opinions are becoming so embroiled in our identities, and we are all so fearful of each other that we are either spurred into rebellious bombast, rage and hate vociferously decrying the evils of everyone not in our own tribe; or we are relegated into total silence for fear of putting a foot wrong and offending the sensitive masses.

There was a time when the realm of philosophy, discourse and debate existed in its own space.

People would come together to debate views, to propose ideas and engage in fruitful discourse. Today, however, all discussion becomes inflammatory almost instantaneously, people become so easily offended that the possibly profitable discussion descends into name-calling and nitpicking.

Social media is so often ruled by a sort of mob mentality. A wayward comment is jumped on and pummelled by the virtual mob. Others jump into the fray until the comment is throttled to the dust. It happens on my feed daily; I observe it with a sort of squeamish disquiet. This behavior is subconsciously filling us with fear. We are afraid to share an opinion, especially a minority opinion for fear of the virtual, violent reactions. Because of the vitriol of reactionary modern culture, particularly on social media; free speech is unintentionally being dissolved into the annals of history, as we willingly “self-censor” for fear of putting a foot wrong. But surely we can do better. Surely we understand that not everyone will always agree with us. Surely we can cope in a respectful manner with those who hold differing views to ours. Can we?

I see Christians also join the social media mob, sometimes even when expressing Christian views. On social media, Christianity is occasionally expressed with a root of bitterness and sometimes even hatred for those who are not believers. Christians can sometimes allow the views of others (that are so wholly different to theirs) to diminish that person’s humanity, and so the Gospel comes out sounding unloving and undesirable. Ed Stetzer in his book, Christians in the Age of Outrage, states that people seem “intimately aware of how others are being angry toward them or their community, but shockingly ignorant of how they are displaying the same level of vitriol toward others.” It is not, “us against them” – It is us for them – the Gospel for them – the church for them – Christ for them. Let us remember always that, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). God loves those who don’t agree with you.

I would argue, that as Christians, we should be the least easy to offend.

If we believe that we have the truth, then what can a person’s rigorous questioning of our faith do to us? I believe the word of God and the Christian faith stands up to the most rigorous of questions. We have nothing to fear from those who oppose our views. If we do fear the questions of those with differing views, what does that say about our faith? Are we worried that they will uncover something that is untrue? Surely not.

In addition, I suggest that we as Christians should welcome the questions, even the angry questions of the world around us. Instead of becoming offended by them and shutting them down, let us answer them. Let’s give them God’s truth for their lives; let’s give them the hope we claim to have. What good does shutting down the questioner do? “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” (Ephesians 4:15). Let us speak the truth IN LOVE to those who so desperately need it.

The world is often hostile to Christianity, but I would encourage us, as the body of Christ to not (in turn) become hostile to the world. We cannot, for how can we share the Gospel of Christ if we don’t love the lost. Bearing this in mind, let’s endeavor to create a safe space for those who have questions, concerns and oppositions to what we believe. Clay Worrell, in his article, “Why you should take no offense,” states, “It is easy to reject a community and a message that you feel has first rejected you.” Let us not reject people. Let us not turn them away; instead, let us invite them in and give them Jesus. In our face to face discussions with people who are not Christians, let’s allow space for those with differing views to air them so that we might, in turn, have the opportunity to meet their concerns with the beautiful hope of the Gospel of Christ.

I feel a daily sense of walls closing in around me, as my personal Christian views often differ from Ireland’s young populace. I often remain silent as I worry about offending people or being seen as hateful. I am not. But, because today’s general discourse continues to bombastically place people in partisan camps that are held to be either one thing or the other, without any nuance or allowance for the intricate complexities of people’s opinions, we continue to vilify our fellow humans for fear that they might think differently to us.

We cannot necessarily change the path of society around us, but, as Christians, we can certainly correct how we react to those with differing views to ours.

My pastor, Mike Neglia, told me he was once having a Twitter debate with a stranger who lived in Cork, and he stopped the chat and asked that person if they would like to meet up and discuss the topic over lunch, which they did. I love this because he realized that person was more than just words on a screen. I think this is something we always need to remember; there’s a person who God loves behind the typed words.

Let us embrace their questions, for their questions hold no fear for us. Let us embrace them as fellow humans, for it was for them, (as for us) that Christ died, and let us remember we have a God who holds (in His purity) the moral high ground, but for us – His humble servants, this is not the case. We are simply sinners saved by grace. We possess a gift that is available to all. We hold no high ground in and of ourselves. We are right on a level with the most broken souls of this world. So let us approach our fellow humans first and foremost with the love of Christ; let’s not fear their questions or be offended when they differ from us. “It is the love of Christ that draws people to repentance” (Romans 2:4), so let us be instruments of His love in the world today on all platforms.

How can we expect to hear the Holy Spirit when our lives are filled with constant noise?

If we would like to see the gifts of the spirit and the fruit of the spirit working in our lives then we must make a choice to turn down the noise. if we wish to hear the Holy Spirit lead and guide us, we must make the conscious, intentional choice to carve out time to be quiet and listen to Him.

Also, we must face every day, humbly willing to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit. We must put our will into submission to the Holy Spirit and commit to following His guidance.

Do you ever feel distant from the Lord?

Do you feel as though your prayers are not answered and you can’t hear Him speaking or see Him working in your life? I would suggest to you that this has more to do with your posture toward God than His posture toward you.

The Bible tells says in Matthew 10:29-31: “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.” The father is attentive to you. Psalm 139:4 tells us, “Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O LORD, you know it altogether.” The Lord is watching you, listening to you, you are precious to Him; He attends to you. But, do you attend to Him? Do you reciprocate His attention? Does your life allow time for you to listen to His voice? Are you interested in what He has to say to you?

In the first two paragraphs, I mention two life choices that are imperative in order for us to hear from and be directed by the Holy Spirit. In the following paragraph, I will explain these choices in more detail.

Life can be noisy! I have a five-year-old and three-year-old twins. I am used to going through my days accompanied by a very loud soundtrack of requests, complaints of sibling injustices, outright tantrums and thankfully, boisterous fun and laughter, not to mention Peppa Pig or Paw Patrol blaring in the background. By the time the day is done, I feel as though all I have left is the ability to flop on the couch and watch some mindless TV.

But honestly, what does that profit me? In reality, it is only adding to the noise of my already noisy life. There is a God; His name is Jesus, and He is waiting for me to turn it down and come to Him. In Him is true rest and refreshment. In Him is the guidance of His Holy Spirit.

God tells us in Jeremiah 29:13, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” He also tells us in James 5:16, “The fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much.” Just the act of getting quiet before the Lord, asking Him for His guidance, inviting Him into the challenges of your life, shows our heart that is surrendered to God. Our time seeking God’s counsel shows we are willing to listen to Him and follow His lead.

1 Kings 19:11-12 tells us, “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.” The Lord whispered gently to Elijah; He did not roar at him in the wind, fire or earthquake, but in a still, small voice. My question to you: Is your life ever quiet enough to hear the whisper of the Lord?

He is speaking to you. Can you hear Him?

Choose to turn down the noise today, give room for God’s Holy Spirit to speak into your life. If your life is anything like mine, then you desperately need His comfort, guidance and wisdom on a daily basis. He is present; you need to be present too. That is the only way to have a close relationship with God.

Secondly, we must face every day consciously submitted to the leading and direction of the Holy Spirit. For example, the spirit makes the word come alive to us, revealing God’s truth, but if we choose not to obey God’s truth, then we are like the man in James 1:22-24: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.” Hand in hand with hearing the leading and direction of the Spirit of God must be a commitment to obey.

The spirit prompts. He directs. He instructs us on a daily basis; are you willing to go and speak to that person He has put on your heart? Are you willing to pray for that person He is burdening you for? Are you willing to surrender your will to His calling, the calling that keeps knocking on your door? Are you willing to obey?

In Galatians 5, we are given a list of the fruit of the spirit and then in verse 25, the text says, “Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.” What does it mean to be “in step” with the spirit? Well, it means to walk together. You cannot walk together if you are going in different directions. Are you “in step” with God’s Spirit that dwells in you? He wants to lead you. Are you willing to walk with Him, to go when He says go, to yield when He says yield, to serve when He says serve?

Jesus loves you. As many times as that statement is made, it will be true. Jesus died for you, for you! He knows every tiny part of you, every dark corner; He knows your shame, your anger. He loves you, He died for you. He made you righteous. I just want to encourage you to remember His goodness so you can be inspired to give Him your time. Turn down your noise, and humbly commit to following His lead. There is no downside. There is no downside. There is no downside.

Nothing compares to the greatness of God. Nothing is more mind-boggling than His infinite attention toward us. No other thing in your life can compare to knowing Him. Give Him your time. Give Him your obedience, and see how He will guide you as your Good Shepherd.

What is the Lord building in your life right now?

The Lord is always working in our lives. We might know about two or three of the things He is doing with us, but in fact, there are thousands of areas He is working in us, minute by minute, that we don’t even know about. “It is He who works in us both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).

So I ask again, what is the Lord building in your life right now? Think about it for a minute.

Is He building perseverance, patience, faith, trust, peace, relationships, faithfulness…? We know the areas God is moving in our situation. Whenever God is leading us toward growth or a new calling or season, there is always a temptation to try to do it in our own strength. But God knows it must be His work, not ours; it must be a work of the Holy Spirit.

In Zechariah chapter four, we read about a vision that came to Zechariah about Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the civil leader of Israel in the time after the Babylonian exile. He was engaged in rebuilding the temple after the people had returned home. It was a huge undertaking, and there was much opposition from the surrounding peoples. God sent this word to Zerubbabel through the prophet Zechariah in chapter four, verse six, He says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit, says the Lord Almighty.”

What is the Lord building in your life?

What are the areas He is knocking on, wanting to come in with His spirit and bring order? Where are you trying so hard in your own strength, to no avail? The Lord wants to remind you today that it is not your work; you don’t have to do it. All you have to do is let His spirit in; don’t resist Him. He is the one who will complete the good work in you and bring order to the chaos you are experiencing in certain areas of your life.

When we let God’s spirit in, to do the building in our lives then, it is just like God spoke to Zechariah in the next verse of chapter four. Verse seven says, “What are you, oh mighty mountain, before Zerubbabel you will be level ground.”

You see, as Zerubbabel understood, the building of the temple was not by his might or power, but by the spirit; as he invited God’s spirit to do the building work, then all opposition (the great mountain) became level. No opposition can remain in the path of God’s Holy Spirit.

What are the mountains in your life that seem so great, so impossible, so insurmountable?

I would encourage you to remember the word of the Lord. Your might, your power, your intellect, your niceness, your effort, your desperation are simply not enough to overcome, but if you will hand the work over to the Holy Spirit, He will bring order and peace to your situation. He will build the ruins of your life, just as He empowered Zerubbabel to rebuild the temple.

God goes onto say in verse nine, “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple; His hands will complete it.” God was encouraging Zerubbabel that the work would not drag on hopelessly with no end in sight. No, he was telling Zerubbabel that He would see the work completed. What are those areas in your life that feel so hopeless, where you feel you’ll never see an end to it, never see it finished? Well, the Lord is encouraging you today, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you will see an end to the struggle; it will not always be like this. “He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it!” (Philippians 1:6).

Today, it may feel like you’ve barely even taken the first step up what seems like a looming mountain of fear. Perhaps you feel you haven’t even taken the first step, you’re just living perpetually in the shadow of your mountain of impossibility; well, here in verse 10 God says, “who despises the day of small beginnings?” Maybe inviting the Holy Spirit into work on your mountain seems like a very small beginning, but remember, you should not despise this. This is the first step up the mountain. God’s Holy Spirit will do such beautiful work in you, you will see His goodness transforming your life, “with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

You can’t do it on your own.

You are not up to the task, but it is not by your might, not by your power, but by God’s spirit. Hand your hidden areas over to God; give Him your chaos, your ruins, your mess. His Holy Spirit will do the work that you can’t do on your own.

And remember, when the work is done, all we can say is “to God be the glory; great things He has done,” because we know we didn’t do it ourselves.

As Easter approaches, it makes me consider the way people think about Jesus in the world I live in. I live in Cork, Ireland. Ireland is a modern western society, embracing all things liberal and running full tilt away from its religious heritage. In Ireland these days, it seems you can be anything you want, but if you decide to follow Jesus with your life and put your trust in Him, there is an air of mocking and eye-rolling that is inevitably encountered. Jesus is the butt of many jokes. He is a meme, a parody, powerless and, if at all possible, He is completely avoided.

The modern western societies that many of us live in often tell us that it is ridiculous to believe in God, to put our trust in Him is a mere delusion.

These voices are loud, seemingly infallibly rational, and there have been times when they have shaken my faith. However, as time goes by and I look at the world around me, I become more convinced daily that, in fact, it is a place that needs Jesus more than ever, no matter how loudly it shouts to the contrary.

In Isaiah 41, the chapter opens with God calling the nations to come before Him in a sort of courtroom setting, to make their arguments as to why they serve other “gods” than Him. He says:

“Let the nations come forward and speak; let us meet together at the place of Judgement… The metalworker encourages the goldsmith, and the one who smooths with the hammer encourages the one who strikes with the anvil. One says of the welding, ‘it is good’ and the other nails down the idol so it will not topple.”

The nations come before God and encourage each other about the idols they are building with their own hands.

In our world, these idols are everywhere, depending on our bent, we pick our idol: “self,” power, recognition, fame, money, reputation, beauty… you name it. But these idols cannot stand in front of the one true God, as it says in verse seven, they “nail down the idol so it will not topple.” The voices of the world must be fortified with elaborate justifications so that they do not topple, but ultimately, they are powerless to save. The world we live in is a broken place; it is time we recognized that and stopped being so intimidated by it.

In verses 2-3 of Isaiah 41, we remain in the courtroom as God takes His turn to speak. He speaks of the coming deliverance of Israel out of their Babylonian captivity in 150 years, through a Medo-Persian emperor named Cyrus. This is a beautiful moment of Bible prophecy, declaring events that would not happen for more than a century. God goes on to declare in verse four:

“Who has done this and carried it through, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord with the first of them and with the last, I am He.”

Here, God is declaring how great He is, how He has no beginning and no end; He created time, the universe, all of history is in His hand and only in Him is truth and wisdom found. For the short time we have here on this earth, it is wise to submit our lives to the God who knows all of eternity in its infinity; it is the only option that makes sense.

Proverb 9:10 tells us, “The knowledge of God is the beginning of wisdom.” The world shouts the opposite of this at us very loudly, but only God is all-knowing, eternal, omniscient, only in putting our trust in Him can we know the truth. The Oxford English dictionary’s word of the year for 2016 was “post-truth.”

Apparently, we now live in a post-truth world.

There is no truth anymore; there is only your truth and my truth, but there is no absolute truth anymore. However, without truth, how do you know where to place your foot, where to take your next step? Without absolute truth, we are walking perpetually on shifting sands. I think we can agree with Isaiah when in said in Isaiah 59:14, “truth has fallen in the public square.” In a world like this, it is such a privilege to know “The Truth,” Jesus Christ, “The way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). When we build our lives on this truth, we have the word and the spirit to guide us; we are never alone. What a great honor and joy it is to know the truth, to know Jesus.

We have seen how, in Isaiah 41, God calls the nations to present their case to Him. The question is: Is the world in a good position to make their argument against God?

Has the world got it all figured out on its own? Let’s have a look at what some prominent social commentators have to say about the world we live in to see if it is ready to stand up against God. Henry Allen, a famous journalist for the Wall Street Journal recently wrote:

“For the first time in my 72 years, I have no idea what is going on. The most important thing in our culture is not change but the fact that reality itself is dwindling, fading like sun-struck wallpaper. Facebook enshrines banality, we have individualism but no privacy, we are all outsiders with no inside to be outside of. There is no arc, no through line, no destiny. As the British Tommies sang in WWI, ‘We are here because we’re here, because we’re here.’ Like many people, I used to think the world would go on as it would go on – with the arrival of better medicines, an Ipad and the occasional earthquake, but that was when I thought I knew what was going on. Now I fear reality is fading like the Cheshire Cat, leaving behind only a smile that grows ever more alarming.”

This is an insightful observation of the world we live in. I could analyze it all day, but the prominent point I think in this quote is that the world is lost. Allen says, “There is no arc, no through line, no destiny.” When we remove God from the picture, we lose our purpose. The enlightenment promised so much, but the world we live in is still dark and needs the light of Christ to shine for people to see their lives as God does, filled with purpose and intention.

The sociologist George Weigel says:

“We live in a world that has lost its story…a world in which the progress promised by the humanities of the past three centuries is now gravely threatened by understandings of the human person that reduce our humanity to a congeries of cosmic chemical accidents. We are a humanity with no intentional origin, no noble destiny, and thus no path to take through history.”

Without God, it is impossible to know our purpose.

We are lost. Remember, the world is loud, but it is in great need. It needs to turn from idols and know its creator, the God who made it, the God who loves it.

This year has been declared the year of the self. “Self-help” is more popular than ever. We are to look to ourselves for everything we need. If we are mindful and self-aware and in-tune, all will be well. But all will not be well, while these things are profitable to some degree, they cannot save your eternal soul. When we look only to ourselves for help, we are totally limited, but if we “lift our eyes up to the mountains, where does my help come from, my help comes from the maker of heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2 ). We have access to the God of the universe through Jesus Christ. We have limitless help, and God is desiring to give it to us.

In Isaiah 41 God promises us, that if we put our trust in Him, He will “take you by the right hand and say to you, do not fear I will help you. Do not be afraid you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you” (Isaiah 41:13-14). Without God, we are like a little worm, trying to figure out the world, but it is impossible without Him. That is why the world is so lost; its perspective is simply too small. But with God, we can understand our purpose and why we are on this earth. We can let Him take us by the hand and lead us through our lives. He knows the way. He wants to lead us, and He loves us. He will lead us with love.

The current views of the world we live in are becoming more and more confusing to me. There seems to be absurdity at every turn. The notions that are being put forward to help us are simply “wind and confusion” as it says in Isaiah 41:29. When we think about the power that is available to us when we put our trust in God, all other options pale in comparison. Their absurdity becomes clear. A Welsh comedian named David Walliams expresses absurdity beautifully in the following quote:

“A cup of tea is the answer to every problem. Fallen off your bicycle? Nice cup of tea. Your house has been destroyed by a meteorite? Nice cup of tea and a biscuit. Your entire family has been eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex that has travelled through a space/time portal? Nice cup of tea and a piece of cake. Possibly a savoury option would be welcome here too, for example a Scotch egg or a sausage roll.”

I love this quote, obviously it’s funny, obviously it’s absurd, but honestly, anything other than putting our trust in the God of the universe to guide us through our life is the equivalent to looking for salvation in a cup of tea.

There is a God. His name is Jesus.

He created this universe. He knew you before you were born. He has a purpose for you. You did not slip through His net. He knows you. He loves you. He wants to take your hand and lead you through your life.

This Easter, for those of us who are believers, let us not be quieted by the noise and nonsense of the world we live.

Let us remember the world is lost. We must love it. We must love the lost. We must tell them about Jesus. If it were not for Jesus, we too would be hopelessly lost. Jesus is the only answer; this has always been the case, and this will never change. I am so grateful to know Him. I am so grateful to know the truth. Lord, help us to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to this world.