Thrust back into the world

 From Mike Mason's The Gospel According to Job, chapter 34.

‘All of us share in the maddening paradox of knowing in our hearts we are loved and redeemed children of God, and freer than the wind, and yet still being compelled to experience firsthand the cruelty and injustice of a world in which the righteous are unwelcome intruders, and in which all too often the strength of evildoers goes unchecked.’

‘The moment we are born again we are sent right back into the world of sin and death. In fact, we are sent back down into exactly the same circumstances in which we found ourselves before we were saved, and there we are told to take up the work of the Son of God in that situation, however painful it might be. And this is the lot we are to accept with increasing graciousness.’

This is something those bringing people to faith often forget to mention! 

Job and his comforters by William Blake

Up to date in every way

When people say the Bible isn't relevant, for the most part it shows they haven't read it. Here's the apostle Paul in full bore from Galatians 5 - he could be writing about the world we live in right now. 

Look at the first of the two lists: it shows awful behaviour, most of it not dissimilar to what's in the news every day about how people are behaving. 

Paul writes:

It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time:

Repetitive, loveless, cheap sex;
A stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage;
Frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness;
Trinket gods;
Magic-show religion;
Paranoid loneliness;
Cutthroat competition;
All-consuming-yet-never-satisfied-wants;
A brutal temper;
An impotence to love or be loved;
Divided homes and divided lives;
Small-minded and lopsided pursuits;
The vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival;
Uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions;
Ugly parodies of community.

This isn’t the first that I’ve warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom.

But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard – things like:
Affection for others;
Exuberance about life;
Serenity.
We develop a willingness to stick with things;
A sense of compassion in the heart,
And a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people.
We find ourselves involved in loyal commandments,
Not needing to force our way in life,
Able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.*

When I wrote out this list in a journal, back in 2009, I added the following note, which I still need to take note of. 'Dad' of course, is God our Father. 

Dad, a lot of the first list are still visible in me, perhaps not in the extreme, but certainly there. As for the second list, the growth of these fruits is fairly slow. Dad, help me lay aside the first list while growing the second in me. Only You can do it. 

This wonderfully up-to-date excerpt is from Eugene Peterson's translation, The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. 

Photo by Muhammed Ma'ruf, Pixabay