1 Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD, O my soul! I will praise the LORD as long as I live; I will sing praises to my God all my life long. Do not put your trust in princes, in mortals, in whom there is no help. When their breath departs, they return to the earth; on that very day their plans perish. Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. The LORD will reign forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD! Psalm 146:1-10 (NRSVA)
Tony Evans is the speaker for ¡§The Urban Alternative¡¨ which is committed to turning urban ethnic families and communities to God. You may have heard him on the radio; he is a preacher who is a perfect fit for radio. I stood near him in a convention once, and couldn¡¦t believe it; the little man I¡¦d been listening to for several years with the high-pitched squeak of a voice, was huge. The top of my head would barely touch his chin. The voice and the man definitely don¡¦t match!
However, the man and his connection with God are a match made in heaven. In one sermon Dr. Evans grabbed my attention forever with a line of deductive reasoning about preserving the family so we can change the world for better. It goes something like this:
„Ã If a man will get himself right with the Lord he will have an impact on his family¡K
„Ã And that family will begin to have an impact on their neighborhood¡K
„Ã And then that neighborhood will begin to change, and impact the surrounding county¡K
„Ã Which will transform and begin to affect the state¡K
„Ã And that state will begin to impact our nation¡K.
„Ã And if our nation ever gets right with God¡Kthis world will change.
There is a principle contained within that deductive reasoning concerning the ever-widening circles of influence for our world:
Individual commitment to obey God is the key to changing our culture to child-friendly and family safe!
Children do turn our hearts. Images of children, especially children at risk, or in danger or suffering are particularly moving¡K
„Ã This past month the Jon Benet Ramsey epic jumped into our lives again, only to end in anti-climactic head-shaking over a man arrested, who then was revealed as a pathetically-twisted pornographer portraying himself as a victim.
„Ã And then we all winced as the news reported the fate of two small boys drowned in the Dan River.
„Ã In 1994 Kevin Carter won a Pulitzer Prize for this picture taken during the famine in the Sudan. This famine-stricken child is crawling towards a United Nations food camp a kilometer away. The vulture in the background is waiting for the child to die. Carter (the photographer) was so haunted by the vision of this suffering child, which he did nothing to help, that three months later he committed suicide.
We have a tendency to look to the powers that be for answers.
„Ã If children are being abused, we want social legislation from Congress.
„Ã If people are in poverty, we want the government to raise the minimum wage or create jobs.
„Ã If the stock market tanks¡KFDIC! Uncle Sam, save us!!!!
Now there is nothing wrong with holding our government accountable, and voting for good government, expecting moral responsibility from our leaders. But, if we look to Uncle Sam as our first response, we have put the cart before the horse!
God says:
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD their God,
In reading Adam Clarke¡¦s commentary this week I read:
In the son of man, there is no help, no saving principle.
No saving principle ¡V this is our dilemma. The children of our families, the nation and the world are in danger because we expect solutions to our deep problems of society from men. We give our trust to man¡¦s governing powers when our trust rightfully belongs in God, not man! Man is mortal; perishing¡Kthe statistic on the mortality tables of every insurance company is one out of one. Everyone dies; everyone returns to the dust.
In our text we are told God is forever (cp v.10)¡Kthe LORD reigns forever! The word translated ¡§forever¡¨ is „À„¿„yƒ²„Ńnƒvƒß„Ń܃фŃ݃wand it means ¡§the concealed¡¨¡Ksomething just out of sight at the vanishing point; the farthest point on the horizon. The Hebrew language describes it as time out of mind, either past or future. God sees back farther than we can recall, and past the point of our horizon; we can¡¦t see as far back or forward as God does. That is why He is to be trusted above men. We are to entrust our suffering to God.
The Argument
The worn-out argument always surfaces when you talk about suffering ¡V if there really is a God, why doesn¡¦t He do something? If He can see all this suffering, and He can see the future ¡V see it all coming, and He is all-powerful, then why does He just let children starve and tornadoes destroy, and plagues wipe out thousands? How can God DO that to His creation?
The Rebuttal
The rebuttal that silences the argument is that God isn¡¦t doing these things to His creation. To kill and destroy and cause suffering is a corruption of the perfect creation from a perfect Creator. And corruption is what man initially brought upon himself in the Garden of Eden; it is what we still choose today in our sinful waste of resources and our abuse of His creation, including children. In short, it is our choice to do the things that bring on suffering.
God created this universe so there are natural consequences for all choices. As the One who is holy and righteous, God judges the sinful choices, and he arranged for some of that judgment to happen instantly. For instance, when I make a poor choice of putting my fingers on a hot stove ¡V the consequence is immediate!
God HAS Done Something
The Bible teaches how corruption entered the existence of mankind, and how God in Christ addressed our suffering:
Therefore just as one man¡¦s trespass led to condemnation for all, so one man¡¦s act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all. Romans 5:18
The sacrifice of Jesus on the cross reconciled Adam¡¦s sin, and the creation¡¦s fall. However, each of us chooses the way of Adam, and this is where the line of responsibility falls.
What are We Doing?
If we are to be obedient to the command of God to embrace Christ and therefore be embraced by God¡¦s grace, that obedience means each one of us must fully understand and accept the responsibility for our own sin. Simply put ¡V if you want to be forgiven, admit to being lost!
¡¨But¡¨ you say, ¡§that is only about me. What about all the suffering in the world?¡¨
Recall the principle¡Kone man gets right¡Khis family is impacted, the neighborhood changes, the county notices, the state adjusts, the nation understands, and the world changes.
All because I confess my sin and get right? Absolutely! God¡¦s plan is for each individual to ¡§get right¡¨ and share the good news with his neighbor.
In His wisdom God has placed us in time and space, and in relationship to each other for the express purpose of glorifying Himself in us. He expects us, one by one, individually to confess our sins, accept His grace, and have an impact on the person next to us.
I had a long day recently. Stuff piled upon responsibility; too little time, too many ¡§to do¡¦s¡¨. I got in line at a very busy Wal-Mart with one little item to buy. There was a woman paying for her cart-full, and behind her two African-American ladies, each with a buggy-full¡Kall ahead of me. That was the shortest line in the store. Inwardly my spirit groaned at the idea of another 20 minutes standing in line, when on the inside I was already sleeping on the couch.
The first African-American lady started unloading the eight million items in her cart. On one of the ¡§down-and-ups¡¨ her eyes fell on me. She looked at my old tired, sour face ¡V glanced at the single item in my hand, and told the cashier to hold up on ringing her out. I thought, ¡§Oh great, now she¡¦s gonna make us wait while she goes back to exchange something for the prettier red one.¡¨ But, instead she looked right at me and said (with a volume heard throughout the store) What¡¦cha doin¡¦ back THERE, darlin¡¦? Git on up here!
Bless her heart! I could not have felt more lifted if the rapture had taken place. Suddenly I felt lighter¡Ka little foolish for thinking the woman was going to delay me, when she was willing to delay her own schedule for me! I thanked her profusely and left Wal-Mart with a new attitude.
Now, that is the God-principle of the responsibility we have to impact one another. It may be as little as smiling at someone, or giving your place in line; who knows how far down the line it could go.
This principle of our responsibility as believers to love enough to do good is contained in the rules that Methodism¡¦s founder, John Wesley adopted for his life:
On this special day when we celebrate Children¡¦s Sabbath, it should impress upon each of us that the little ones of our society are certainly included in what Mr. Wesley wrote¡Kand what Jesus meant when he taught his disciples to let the children come to him.
To paraphrase my new African-American friend, What are we doing back here in these pews¡K? Let¡¦s get ourselves on out where the children are.
