WE’RE NOT INVINCIBLE

If you’ve been in church for very long you may be familiar with the story in I Kings 18 about Elijah & the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. You may have heard preaching about that story or the one that immediately follows it in chapter 19, where Jezebel threatens his life & Elijah flees as far south as he can to escape her.

I was just reading those 2 chapters & it reminded me about something that is really important for all believers. It reminded me that no one is invincible or immune from getting hit hard on the gridiron that we call life. 

Something very notable in chapter 18 is that every step Elijah took in confronting & overcoming the challenge was taken in conscientious obedience to God’s direction. God directed Elijah to confront Ahab (18:1, 36). Every word & action of the prophet reflected the boldness & confidence of someone who had clearly heard from God.

The execution of the Baal prophets, along with the miraculous end of the 3-year drought likely caused Elijah to believe that Israel had turned a corner & could now be restored to right relationship with God.

Boy, did he get a surprise the next day!

When Ahab told Jezebel what had happened, she didn’t take it lying down. Instead she went on the offensive & threatened to have Elijah killed. Instead of the great victory he anticipated, he got hit in the face with a huge disappointment. Instead of Jezebel folding, the “invincible” man of God folded & ran.

We can fall into the trap of seeing ourselves as invincible. Sometimes because of youthful energy, faithfulness in spiritual disciplines, previous ministry victories, etc. we think that nothing can stop us. True, God’s redemptive plan cannot ultimately be stopped. But it may experience what appear to us to be setbacks. We can be disappointed when what we expected doesn’t happen as we hoped. We can experience emotional highs & lows.

In a word, we’re not invincible.

But the Lord is. 

Let’s be encouraged today by that, not by our own feeling that for whatever reason we won’t experience setbacks & disappointments.

WHY ECONOMICS ISN’T BORING TO ME

I’m neither an economist nor the son of an economist. But I have been puzzling over something for a while. It’s how individuals could each have a degree in economics & come to totally different conclusions.

For example, the new heartthrob of the Democrats, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, apparently has a degree in economics & is a full-blown socialist. 

On the other hand, Walter Williams has spent much of his adult life teaching economics at the university level & is a rock-ribbed economic conservative.

My question has at least in part been answered. There are at least 2 basic theories about how economic transactions should be done.

The first (objective view of economics) is based on the idea that the process is more equitable & just if an economy is managed. This view necessitates there being a governing authority over a nation’s economic system. What is the expression of this belief? Socialism. Planned or managed economies. 5-year economic plans. Government intervention to pick winners & losers.

The other major view (subjective view of economics) sees the process of economic transactions as a dynamic thing that in a sense has a life of its own. People simply participate in it, & it is constantly changing based on the changing desires & demands of the participants. What is the expression of this belief? A free market, where people are at liberty to make their own decisions as buyers, sellers, producers, etc.

This difference in views determines how someone will see the process of economic transactions. The objective view requires that there be a class of people who can predict what will happen in the future. They will (hopefully) base economic policies on what will be the fairest for the most people.

This view assumes a lot. First, it assumes that these “smart people” can somehow predict the future. Second, it assumes they will use this power for the benefit of the people they are supposedly smarter than. These are the assumptions that have brought us such failed experiments as the Soviet Union, Cuba, & today’s Venezuela.

IS THE HEX A HOAX?

Do you remember the movie, “The Exorcist?” A lot of people see such things as just entertainment, but not reflecting a dark demonic reality with actual beings exercising power to influence the visible world & destroy people’s lives. At least that’s what good, obedient post-Enlightenment secularists &

materialists are supposed to believe.

Biblical references to spiritual warfare involve a lot, including individualized demonization & exorcism & localized demonic activities. In addition to that, passages such as II Corinthians 10:3-5 & Ephesians 6:11-12 seem to imply satanic activity & influence that affect the way people reason & think. Satan seeks to control the thought processes of masses of people, not just individuals. He seeks to trivialize or drive away all biblical concepts from the way people view themselves & the world.

II Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

Ephesians 6:11-12 “Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

http://insider.foxnews.com/2018/10/12/brett-kavanaugh-be-hexed-witches-brooklyn-new-york-liberal-sherpa-says

According to this report, a group of witches will host a public event for the expressed purpose of placing a hex on Justice Kavanaugh. Notice the clear difference in how the interviewer & interviewee regard the event & the potential danger.

As incredible as it may seem, we’re seeing the merging of radical secularism & a return to some of the traditional pre-Christian religious beliefs & practices of the Western world.

The battle is real. God’s people need to pray. And we need to pray in the authority of Christ, who is:

“Raised from the dead and seated at His (the Father's) right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all” (Ephesians 2:20-23).

THE INQUISITION COULD NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN, RIGHT?

I’m going to paint some broad strokes, but my hope is you can see the parallels I’m trying to point out. Those parallels are between the regression that is in danger of happening in our legal system now, & what we left behind centuries ago.

All of the things I’m going to mention have one thing in common. Here goes...

Many people in our country believe that the Inquisition was a pre-Enlightenment occurrence. They believe that was carried out by religious bigots who persecuted people they thought who wanted to leave a church organization. There is some truth to those ides, but the reality is that the Inquisition was more a reaction to the political changes that were affecting the ability of the Roman Catholic Church & various European monarchies to prop up each other.

The French Revolution was really not much different in its attempt to acquire & maintain political power. It simply targeted a different group of people. In claiming to right the wrongs that were committed by the monarchy, the revolutionaries executed those associated in any way with it. People who happened to be part of the aristocracy, regardless of age or any other consideration were assumed to be the enemy of the new regime & of the people.

Each of these historical processes, the Inquisition & the French Revolution, was similar to today’s class warfare that is waged by the Left; certain classes were assumed to be guilty & others were assumed to be in the right. The individual was judged based on what class he or she was part of. Does that sound familiar?

There is good reason to be alarmed at what is happening in the Kavanaugh hearings. Elected officials are attributing guilt to him simply because he is a white male. His accuser does not have the responsibility to prove guilt because she is in a class that is by default to be believed.

That’s the way the Inquisition worked. You were lucky if you weren’t in the guilty class. Too bad for you & your loved ones if you were.