Good versus Evil

 Which list describes what I want or should choose?
Order               Hate
Love                 Anger
Peace               Chaos
Honor              Cheat
Truth                Lie
Do right           Steal
Compassion    Revenge

 In the future, maybe soon, maybe in a few years, there will come a time when evil will seem to triumph. There will be much done against the godly and it may seem to them that they are helping God by bringing down these good folks. I want to be counted among the godly and I hope you do too because Psalm 52 is pretty clear about what happens to the evil people:

 Psalm 52: 1-5
Why do you boast, O mighty man, of mischief done against the godly?
All the day you are plotting destruction.
Your tongue is like a sharp razor, you worker of treachery.
You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking the truth. 
You love all words that devour, O deceitful tongue.
But God will break you down for ever; he will snatch and tear you from your tent; he will uproot you from the land of the living. 

But I say also, in that time, it will seem very tempting to be among these powerful people because they will be prospering while most folks are barely getting by or are in fact dying of starvation. They will not care for the poor, they will care only for increasing their power and wealth.

Jeremiah 5: 26-28
For wicked men are found among my people; they lurk like fowlers lying in wait. They set a trap; they catch men.
Like a basket full of birds, their houses are full of treachery; therefore they have become great and rich, they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of wickedness; they judge not with justice the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper, and they do not defend the rights of the needy.

But I say we must not be like these wicked people. No matter how little we may have, like the loaves and fishes in Christ's hands, it will be enough for our needs and enough to share with our friends and neighbors. You must show compassion and mercy, remembering that we are to be holy as God is holy.

Deuteronomy 15:7-8, 11
If there is among you a poor man, one of your brethren, in any of your towns within your land which the LORD your God gives you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him, and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be. ....For the poor will never cease out of the land; therefore I command you, You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in the land.

Soon you must choose: will you walk with the wicked or delight in the Lord? More and more the words of the Old Testament and New Testament seem as if they are written for today. They are being fulfilled in this age and we, as much as the early Christians, must choose whom we will serve.

Psalm 1: 1-2
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.

So I say we have our work cut out for us. Today's culture more and more is one of entitlement and receiving without putting in. And now that we are very close to having no money at any government level to pay and pay and pay, people are getting angry and others are telling people to get angry and be violent in protest, to seek to take what others have. But that is not to be your way. You must seek peace and pursue it.

1 Thessalonians 5: 13b - 15
Be at peace among yourselves. And we exhort you, brethren, admonish the idlers, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that none of you repays evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to all.

Look up! This earth is not our home. It is only a place of journeying, a way-station - not our eternal home.

Colossians 3: 1-2, 12-14
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 

I am really working on being aware of what is going on and making decisions about whether or not I want to do what everyone else is doing. I do not want to be rioting. I do not want to be destroying property. I do not want to be coveting what my neighbors have to the point of grabbing it from them. As in the early days of the Church, Christians may have to give everything, including their lives to be numbered among God's holy people. I want to be willing to give it all, do you?