Can we still believe?
Because the world has a God-denying look I have never been more glad than now to know that the love of God and his holy purposes were made known on a cross, in the middle of bedlam and chaos, pain and cursing and evil and brutality. The shock of war, the depressing effect of war, the chaos and bedlam of war, however anguish-bringing, can't work ultimate harm to the faith of those who have seen God in the cataclysm at Golgotha working a wondrous work. More than ever I'm certain that what Christians need to be telling are the massive foundational doctrinal truths to people who are already in pain or soon will be.
The deep-rooted confidence that's possible in life isn't born out of endless summery days and pleasant experiences. What gives us the assurance of permanent blessing and joy is nothing less that the conflict that raged around the incarnate Lord on a cross in the Middle East. The Christian faith is born out of the clash between worlds when powerful evil forces combined and the world spirit met God who had come in and as the man Jesus Christ. The result is spelled out in Colossians 2:15. The world agony and evil we see everywhere we look is no new thing! And what we see is only the tip of the iceberg. The hideous and horrifying spectacles like Auschwitz, Cambodia and a million innocent looking houses that hide cruelty and degradation that defies description are only the masks that hide the evil behind the evil. Praise God for his work at the cross. What is true of war is true of ovarian cancer, lifelong depression or bone deep loneliness.
The Christ of the cross says to you who are crushed almost to despair: "Take heart, I have overcome the world in your name and for your sake."
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing to post from his website, theabidingword.com
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