CHAPLAIN’S PAGE: A NEW BEGINNING
About four thousand years ago the Lord looked upon the earth and what He saw was so terrible there was only one answer,, that was to destroy mankind. However, Genesis 1:31 clearly states “And God saw everything that He made, and behold it was very good”. Yet, only fifteen hundred years later He says that He would destroy man. What went so seriously wrong in such a short time? Was God’s creation so transient that it packed up in fifteen hundred years? Had the Creator made a basic mistake in His blueprint? There are those in every generation who believe that He did. Today, theologians and academics declare ‘God is dead’. The public take up the cry and rejoice in their new found freedom, freedom from what? Freedom from the fact that a superior being is looking over their shoulders! ‘We are now free, and all those restraints that kept our grandparents in straight jackets have been cast into the sea!’.
On the other side of the curtain we see a rejoicing angel by the name of Satan, wounded but not out by any means. He was grievously wounded at Calvary but he and his angels fight on for they know that their time is short. Many Christians ask, if God is all powerful Why does He allow Satan to gain the upper hand? How did Satan get started in the first place? The answer is given in verse seven of Isaiah 45, “I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil; I the Lord do all these things”. Christians find it hard to accept that the God of love would do such a thing. However, the reason is not difficult to fathom; for without an opposing force every human being would automatically accept the Divine Creator. That there is a choice leaves us with only one possible conclusion; that there is something wonderful in store for the followers of The Way, The Truth and The Life.
This is a promise which is our main building block upon which we must base ourselves. Without it we are like Solomon when seeing life without a creator, as recorded in Ecclesiastes “For without God all is naivety”. Carnal knowledge will pass away and leave only a void. Satan, ever watchful, sees a sleeping church and a government passing laws which grieve the Holy Spirit. ”Alas! For that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it” (Jeremiah 30:7). Jeremiah continues, and brings us to these present days: “For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of Hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck and will burst thy bonds and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him (v8). We see here a new beginning for the nation. Just as Israel of old burst her bonds and came out of Egypt, so we today have another opportunity to fulfil the destiny which is ours by Divine Right.
There are many who prefer the fleshpots of Europe. They have no concept of our national mission and see us as nothing more than a spent force, a poor relation that needs Mother Europe to show us the way. A glance at our history will reveal that there have been many occasions when we have been given opportunities to make A New Beginning. Sadly, after a spirited start we ran out of steam and returned to sleep mode. This has been our national weakness times without number. The lessons of history are never learned. The writer has often wondered why the Lord chose Israel and why He loved her, especially in view of what Jeremiah was ordered to set down in chapter 50:6 “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting place”. It is clear from this text that the thrust of the accusation is directed at the pastors who have been sleeping on the job! They are pleased to label believers in God’s word as fundamentalists and scorn the fact that we actually believe what the Holy Spirit inspired the writers to set down for our learning. The scoffers are saying in effect “We know best” and are leading this generation into a void, which as we know, has to be filled.
The only way out of this current unholy mess is A New Beginning. That this will surely come about was shown to Paul in Phil 2:9 -11 “Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father”.
It is our sacred duty to follow in the footsteps of those blessed men and women who looked for that eternal city to come, A New Beginning indeed! Our brief journey gives us an insight into the mind and purposes of the Creator who will give us the greatest gift yet to be bestowed upon the overcomers, “Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. (2 Peter 1:4). Paul continues in the same vein in 1 Corinthians 2:9 “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”. This is our eternal destiny, A New Beginning when all worldly things have passed away!
Come quickly Lord Jesus.
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