State of the World

Any thinking person alive today knows that there’s something drastically wrong with this world.
It doesn’t matter if you are a believer in Christ or not there is overwhelming evidence that points to a world where that which was once good is now viewed as bad and what was once bad are now viewed as good.

Things on the outside look pretty good, at least, in the western world, where even the poorest of people are wealthier than 90% of the rest of the world.

We have a great abundance of material goods, however, there’s an underlying problem with this seeming prosperity.

We’re used to people we like to label cranks, religious nuts or conspiracy theorists ringing the bell of doom and gloom and we mostly cast these folk into the “irrelevant” basket. But what about when an organisation, like the United Nations, starts ringing that bell?

Recently, the UN Office of Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) released a stunning report.

According to UNDRR, “between 350 and 500 medium- to large-scale disasters took place every year over the past two decades.” That’s an almost unbelievable increase of 5-times the disaster rate of previous decades. And, the UN says, it’s getting worse.

Some of those disasters were naturally occurring, such as hurricanes and earthquakes. Others came as a result of what UNDRR calls “a broken perception of risk based on optimism, underestimation and invincibility.” Mami Mizutori, the Head of UNDRR, said, “By deliberately ignoring risk and failing to integrate it in decision making, the world is effectively bankrolling its own destruction.”

Our optimism about our continued prosperity appears to be blinding us to danger.

For those of us that know and enjoy a relationship with God, the words “optimism, underestimation, and invincibility,” should make us look deeply at our world’s leaders.

There’s an almost universal rejection of God throughout the leadership of the world today that simply was not as common in past generations.

Even amongst politicians and judges who profess to have a relationship with God, there is both ignorance and wilful disregard for what God says, even to the point of ridiculing both the existence of and the wisdom of God.

Leadership today is naively going its own way. In their pride and haughtiness, they disregard right and wrong, fully convinced of their own brilliance.

As they assure us that everything is okay, they willingly and knowingly risk long-term catastrophe for short-term gain. They blatantly pander to the majority in an insane race for votes while knowingly risking the economies of the world.

Almost every decision is based on, “What will they think, what do they want” rather than what is the wisest and best decision that provides the greatest good for the greatest number.

In almost every area of public life. Leaders repeatedly choose immediate political or monetary gain over what’s really best for their nations and their people.

We see it when politicians try to buy elections using deficit spending. We see it in the courts where criminals are given pathetic sentences because of bleeding heart judgments.

To try and sit through a news broadcast and listen to politicians and other leaders is an exercise in self-torture. How hard it is to listen as they ignore long-term solutions in favour of quick and easy actions that turn out to be nothing more than symbolic rather than real, meaningful, long term solutions.

We instinctively know that we, the public, are being lied to and treated as inferior creatures.

There are too few men and women with the vision to prepare nations in good times for difficulties ahead. For an example of short term pain for long term gain and the illustration of the greatest good for the greatest number, we need only look at the incredible story of Joseph in Genesis chapters 37 to 50.

From a young boy, hated by his brothers and sold into slavery to a man of great power and wisdom, Joseph’s life reflects the ultimate benefits of believing that God is real, that he exists, and that His ways are unfathomably higher than our ways.

In today’s world, we place our trust and our vision in the material world. We have a nature that insists that within our own self we know enough about everything to make informed decisions about what is right and wrong. Because of our pride, we all believe we’re something special. We believe we are basically good and righteous and that we “deserve” the rewards of the prosperity of this world and the peace of the next.

The unfortunate reality is that the material world does not have enough wealth to make us “happy”. Our pride in our own goodness and our faith in our own great knowledge is not enough to save us from life’s catastrophes.

Do we know how to make a drop of water? Can we name every star in the universe? Do we understand the immeasurable complexity of an information-packed strand of DNA?

Are we even knowledgeable about our earthly history and the forces that combined to create the great disasters of the Wall Street crash, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean and Vietnam wars, and the rise of the many cruel and inhuman dictators?

No, we so obviously do not know these things, yet we continue to trust in this massively floored personal belief in self to provide the peace, joy, and contentment we all desire.

The good news for every human is that God is alive and well and does know these things. More than that He loves each and every one of us so much that He was prepared to offer Himself in death to pay for a way that we could know and love Him.

Through His earthly incarnation in the form of a man, Jesus Christ, He suffered and died, was buried, and rose again so that the sin that we inherited at birth, the sin that deceives us into believing that we have the power and knowledge to conquer life by ourselves is paid for in full.

In today’s world that seems orderly on the outside but is a bubbling cauldron of catastrophe, we look to governments, the courts and other leadership to know the way out. J Vernon McGee put it like this.

Philosophy says think your way out.
Human indulgence says drink and fornicate your way out.
Politics says spend your way out.
Socialism says legislate your way out.
Science says invent your way out.
Industry says work your way out.
Labour says strike your way out.
Fascism says bluff your way out.
Militarism says fight your way out.
However, the Bible says pray your way out.

Our Lord, Jesus Christ said, “I am the way! I am the way, the truth, and the life no man comes to the Father but by Me!”

Those who know Jesus Christ need not live in fear, even when the world is “bankrolling its own destruction.”

Remember Psalms 91:1. “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty” (NASB).

To dwell in that place of shelter and experience the joy of trusting in the One who knows everything, not only about you but everyone and everything, we must take a different walk through life than the vast majority of people on earth today.

We must trust in the all-knowing loving God who has clearly revealed Himself to every human. We must realise that For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9.

Even when we “feel” through ignorance that God is wrong or unjust when He does this or that, we must trust that His ways are far above our ways and His knowledge far above ours and that His love for us drives Him to do what is ultimately best for us, even though we may not see it through our natural senses.

1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “no temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it”.

He won’t allow us to be exposed to what we can’t bear. If we are experiencing it, we can stand it.

Billy Graham once said it like this, “The will of God will never take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”

Today, my friends, let’s see beyond the disappearing wisdom of this world and look to our eternal home and to the One who really does have all the answers.