The End of the World

When disappointments would come my mother would say, “its not the end of the world.” Since those days I have had many “end of the worlds.” Perhaps some of us are having a doomsday even as we write — a grand parent, mother or father, even a son or daughter have gone away.

Friends, Jesus is the glory and the lifter of our heads. Psalm 3:3

Robert Nathan wrote his poetic cry:

God of pity and love, return to this earth,

Go not so far away, leaving us to evil,

Darkness is loose upon the world, the Devil

Walks in the land, and there is nothing worth.

Death like a dog, runs howling from his lair;

His bite has made men mad, they follow after

All howling too, and their demoniac laughter

Drowns like a sea our solitary prayer.

Return, O Lord, return. Come with the day,

Come with the light, that men may see once more

Across the earth’s uncomfortable floor

The kindly paths, the old and loving way,

Let us not die of evil in the night.

Let there be God again, let there be light.

Karl Marx made an observation (a short-sided one) : “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people”.

And what does he call his own big philosophical ideology of future utopia?

I call it the opium of the fool.

Why? Because it promises to deliver a man from present realities in the name of the coming “exaltation of mankind.”

But where is it? Where is this so-called betterment? It has failed.

Men like Foucault have observed: “…the heirs of the enlightenment had promised that they would provide a unified answer on the basis of the rational.”

“…it has not fulfilled its promise.”

“Foucault follows Rousseau’s thought to its conclusion: ‘the ultimate in autonomous freedom is to be crazy. It is a fine thing to be crazy, for then you are free.'”. Taken from Francis A. Schaeffer “Escape from Reason”

WHAT? That’s right folks — to escape reason for the freedom of a becoming a madman is the best we have to hope for?

Don’t drink the cool-aide fellow humans!

But, what of our depressions, our sorrow, our downheartedness?

These come in many forms: A fear of self, a fear of nature, the gigantic nature of the task, fear of sin within our self, fear of the devil. Then there is the fear of failure, fear of the future, regret etc. What can we do?

Sometimes it feels like nothing can be done, our downcast soul gropes for a remedy.

So,

• Peter is downcast after his great betrayal of Jesus. Jesus calls for him.
• Thomas doubts. Jesus comes to him.
• Lazarus dies. Jesus goes to the family and then to the grave.
• Daniel prays without result. The angel appears to him
• Elijah runs from Jezebel for fear of his life. Jesus comes to him.
• Jesus meets Joshua in the battle. He is Captain of the Lord’s host.
• Two disciples walk downcast on the road to Emmaus. Jesus appears to them.

1. Psalm 32:7 teaches, “Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance.”
2. Job_5:19  “He shall deliver thee in six troubles:”
3. Psalm_41:1  ” Blessed is he that considereth the poor: the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.”
4. Psalm_50:15   “…call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me.”
5. .Psalm 72:12  “For he shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper.”
6. Psalm_91:3  Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.

Psalm_91:14 ” Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him.” Psalm_106:43  “Many times did he deliver them.”

Psalm 3:3  “But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head.”

The Lord may sever an attachment, smooth something over, strip away, snatch away, stretch, cause you to slip through.

Call on Him, He will answer you. Whatever way needed, He will come. Love ya