What Price Safety?

A few years ago the President said  that if we want to be 100% safe from terrorists, we must balance this safety with a forfeiture of some political liberties.  The problem is not only the forfeiture but the goal:  100% security.  It sounds good. It sounds right. Beloved in the Lord:  We cannot be 100% safe in this world.  Ask any parent watching over and caring for their children know that. “Helicopter parents” have done great damage to the recent generation trying to keep their children 100% safe.  We can do a lot for their safety but 100% will not be achieved.  But once that 100% security goal is accepted, then I/we will do anything to get there.  Darkness has a toehold.

Beloved in the Lord! The devil is the chief terrorist. We can be 100% safe in Jesus Christ from that terrorist the devil who accuses the brothers and sisters day and night (see Revelation 12:10;  1 Peter 5:7-9): “You can be really free in  this world by having everything you ever wanted” and it is never enough. Or the devil says,  “You are no good, you are not a good Christian”.  “Tell me something, I don’t know, foul devil, but I have a Lord, His Name is Jesus Christ, He fights by our side with weapons of the Spirit, for the right hand and for the left  (See 2 Corinthians 6:7).  To Him I confess, to Him I lay down my sin, Who has come to me a lost and condemned creature.” The devil also says, just give up a little bit of your freedom, then you will be safe.  The devil does not want a”little bit of your freedom”! Jesus gives us all His freedom by His grace alone, through faith alone.  We flee for refuge to Thy infinite mercy. All sinners are refugees in the Lord. Beloved in the Lord, don’t look to your flesh, but walk in the Holy Spirit as you are baptized in the Name of the Father, and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Let us pray…O God, You have prepared for those who love You such good things as surpass our understanding.  Cast out all sins and evil desires from us, and pour into our hearts your Holy Spirit to guide us into all blessedness; through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

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“…let us make a name for ourselves…”

Genesis 11:  ⁴ Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

The Babel builders sought on the plain of Shinar absolute and eternal security.  How?  Spiritually, by making a name for themselves and physically, by building the world’s first skyscraper.  This is still the lust of the Old Adam because he turned his back on the Lord. 

Years ago, I preached on the tower of Babel and as an example of “making a name for ourselves”, I used Trump Towers, named after it’s builder Donald Trump.  At the time, in Virginia, the response to my illustration was from a couple of members: “Who’s Donald Trump?”  We can not say that any longer. 

Genesis 11: 4 has become a commonplace tag on the lust for security:  I’ll make a name for myself, even to the point of crime.  This contrasts sharply with the next chapter in Genesis, verse 2, “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”  The Lord’s Word came to Abram as sheer promise and gift without any asking on Abram’s part.  “Gifts are given to be received, not to be repaid. They thereby establish and define relationships”(Mark A. Seifrid).  The Lord graced Abram and thus He established and defined the relationship.  Abraham could never repay the gift of walking with the Lord in his journey.  When presidents, prime ministers, tyrants, dictators are forgotten, the name of Abraham is remembered on account of his descendent according to the flesh: Jesus Christ.

We are easily awed by the rich and famous and all their works and ways. If we did not want what they have, then the lottery would not exist. Remember:  the rich and famous exact from the ‘gift’ of their largesse more than you and I could ever give.  It is never a gift.It’s the devil’s deal and his deal is always the art of the deal. The hold they have over us is our own fears, like the Babel builders: not to be scattered and supposedly  have in ourselves eternal security but it has never worked that way:  see the pharaohs of Egypt, the Caesars, the Hitlers, the Mussolinis and the like.  All dust but who we remember  is Abraham and his name is on no tower.  It is better to follow a presidential candidate who at least has a veneer of humility and  knows what he/she can not do as the President of this most powerful of all nations: offer eternal security in wealth and power. No skyscraper can ever touch  God and reach heaven, only the Lord who has touched us, the beloved and only-begotten Son of God.  Only the Lord does that by His Son Jesus Christ by sheer grace for the haughtiest of men, that is, for us all.

Let us pray…Almighty God,   our heavenly Father, Your mercies are new every morning;  and though we deserve only punishment, You receive us as Your children and provide for all our needs of body and soul.  Grant that we may heartily acknowledge Your merciful goodness, give thanks for all Your benefits, and serve You in willing obedience;  through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

 

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