As a very young boy child, I have a memory of being at Panama City Beach and being caught in an undertow. Maybe my memory has gotten embellished with the years of remembering, but I do know for sure that I was over my head, not going anywhere but out and down, and my cousin somehow got me safely to shore. The details are remembered in a sketchy manner, but the big picture is very clear. Had it not been for someone else, I would have drowned. Someone came to rescue me from a situation beyond my control.
From somewhere in the old gray matter this memory surfaced as I read the ending verses of Matthew's rendering of the Lord's Prayer. The New Revised Standard Version takes those words learned from the King James Version "...deliver us from evil..." and renders them to read, "...rescue us from the evil one..." (Matthew 6:13). Of course, few people today think of themselves as needing to be rescued from the evil one. The Apostle Paul understood the reality of the struggle against evil. Toward the end of his letter to the Ephesians he wrote, "...Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11) And in the letter to the Colossian Christians he wrote, "He (God) has rescued us from the power of darkness..." (Colossians 1:13)
When we move into the spiritual realm, there is more to be seen than what is seen by the eyes. To walk by faith into the Kingdom of God which Jesus opened for us through the cross and the empty tomb is to constantly be surrounded by mystery. Some of the mystery speaks of God and some of it points us into a realm that seeks only to destroy everything God is about in the world and in our lives. To ignore this reality is to risk great peril. To ignore it is to declare that the battle fought against evil on the cross was an illusion. The One who died on Golgotha fought against every form of evil and before the last breath was drawn, the victory had been won. Evil was beaten, but not vanquished from the face of the earth, nor the hearts of men. In the meantime the living Lord through the power of the Spirit always stands ready to rescue us that we might finally be delivered into the eternity being prepared for us.
When we move into the spiritual realm, there is more to be seen than what is seen by the eyes. To walk by faith into the Kingdom of God which Jesus opened for us through the cross and the empty tomb is to constantly be surrounded by mystery. Some of the mystery speaks of God and some of it points us into a realm that seeks only to destroy everything God is about in the world and in our lives. To ignore this reality is to risk great peril. To ignore it is to declare that the battle fought against evil on the cross was an illusion. The One who died on Golgotha fought against every form of evil and before the last breath was drawn, the victory had been won. Evil was beaten, but not vanquished from the face of the earth, nor the hearts of men. In the meantime the living Lord through the power of the Spirit always stands ready to rescue us that we might finally be delivered into the eternity being prepared for us.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment