A couple of postings ago, we reproduced a couple of exchanges spawned by last week's entries on John Fischer's blog. Beth, the sister of Bruce, who initially started the exchange by forwarding John's May 7th article to Amelia who sent it to me (are you still following this?), had a great response, and she's now given her permission to copy and paste it ...
I think I am a little between the two camps. I do believe that this is our Father's world, His great creation, His wonders all around us and even in some senses Heaven if we can see it that way. Some days when I feel really close to Him, it is, and there is so much beauty and truth in it, it takes my breath away. BUT I am also aware that we do not live alone here and there are always 2 forces at work swirling around us so that our guard has to be up to trickery and coercion into wrong thinking, temptation to be led into something "that isn't that bad", false teaching that masks as truth. Satan tried to tempt Jesus in the desert by using scripture as his arguments. Peter was trying to be gallant and honorable when he told Jesus that he would never let anything happen to him, but Jesus said "Get behind me, Satan" because Peter's thoughts were not God's thoughts. Even with good intentions and strong faith, we can be led astray. So I have to remember to take every thought captive... even while I'm enjoying the fantastic wonders of God's work in me and around my life's landscape. I consciously let love - not fear - lead my decisions and trust that my Lord will answer my prayers and keep me safe.
It doesn't matter what's happening with the politics of the church, or what other people are doing or not doing, what Christian is falling short, etc. Those things are Satan's ways of distracting us. We become Christ's church collectively when each of us individually stops looking at others and focus's on our own life and relationship with God. Standing side by side with eyes front towards Christ. Then we can link arms as brothers and sisters and we become indivisible followers. With our lights blended, we shine through the darkness and attract the moths looking for a flame.
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