Dazed And Confused

Anyone who isn't confused really doesn't understand the situation.
- Edward R. Murrow

Dazed And Confused

Psalms in the Night…

With so many wonderful Biblical promises and powerful examples of God's interaction with mankind, see Psalms of Delight, Psalms in the Night are a way of exploring and sharing some of the difficult and challenging thoughts, feelings and experiences God's people encounter while endeavoring to fully enjoy His presence and power, protection and provision. In ever more genuine and meaningful ways. For themselves and their children, family and friends.

Psalms in the Night are written in concert with Psalms of Delight. Both series contain Modern Psalms meant to comfort and inspire those seeking the Omni-God revealed in Scripture.

Dazed And Confused Summary

At best modern society and Churchianity are dazed and confused. With all the fantastic revelation of Scripture and power of the fruit and gifts of the Spirit at our disposal, modern Christianity should be "kicking butt and taking names." Yet as a whole, particularly within the modern world, we seem to daily be loosing ground. Even among church attenders sin is up and Christian disciple is in decline. From Bible study to prayer, serving others to social action, all the indicators are heading south. Are there reasons for such an alarming trend? Should we continue turning a blind eye, trusting ignorance is bliss, or is it time to shake the gates of Heaven until our prayers are heard on High?

A person who isn’t spiritual doesn’t accept the teachings of God’s Spirit. He thinks they’re nonsense. He can’t understand them because a person must be spiritual to evaluate them.

- 1 Corinthians 2:14 GW

Dazed And Confused
Modern Psalm in the Night 22

If it's clear to me it must be crystal clear to Omnity that modern society is dazed and confused. Tweaking the title of a recent country music hit a bit puts it pretty well, "God is great, Your word (rather than beer) is good and people are crazy." Sadly, much the same can be said about modern Christianity, seeing our lifestyles bear an unfortunate resemblance to those of the worldly counterparts You commissioned us to save. It's easy to see why You say, "My people perish for lack of knowledge."

What's less clear is why such an awesome and awe-full God as Yourself continues to tolerate such destructive personal and corporate ignorance and foolishness. With the glories of Heaven and horrors of Hell at stake, it's hard to understand Your distance and silence at this juncture of human history. The sad rift between us is a long running reoccurring theme of scripture revealed in the words and lives of patriarchs and judges, psalmists and prophets. Yet we're assured in the New Testament that the curtain between us was rent in two by the costly atonement of Christ and coming of the Spirit. We've been granted access to, and even commanded to boldly appear before, Your "throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Unfortunately, more often than not our prayers seem to go unanswered, a fact aptly demonstrated by how little the average Christian stops and prays today.

I understand the Bible warns against such times as these. I'm aware there's a cosmic battle raging across Three Heavens. That at this very moment in Eternity's Supreme Court mankind and the Church are being denounced and accused by the Devil of high crimes. I've read in Your word that our trial will soon escalate into full scale war, with Satan and his fallen angels once and for all cast out of Heaven and onto the Earth. Full of rage and knowing his time's short, "the god of this world" empowers his Antichrist to, among a host of other terrible atrocities, "make war against the saints and overcome them."

Prophets and apostles both repeatedly warn of big problems in the last days culminating in Divine justice and judgment. Anyone paying attention can see the pages of the Book of Revelation unfolding as the stage is being set for the Great Tribulation. And if all this weren't bad enough, society, and even Your Church, is already bewildered and perplexed during this current period of relative peace and prosperity. What's to become of us during the worst period of adversity the world's ever known? And just how will the faith of Churchianity fare when they fail to be Raptured before trouble begins? How many of Your people are prepared to patiently endure two thirds of Revelation's woes? Millions fall like flies today. We're hardly ready overcome the Antichrist "by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of the their testimony, and not loving their lives to the death."

A Question

This brings me to an all important question, but first a final disclaimer. On the one hand, I appreciate the utter absurdity of the likes of me hoping to council the Tri-Omni God of the Multiverse. On the other hand, what's intercessory prayer if not believers humbling themselves and pouring out our hearts to our faithful Creator and Savior who's not willing that any should perish? How shall we prevail in prayer if after studying Your desires as revealed in scripture we fail to come boldly before Your Throne of grace to press for Your will to be realized on Earth today as it is in Heaven? What's it mean to wrestle with God, as did the holy men and women of old, if not to refuse to take "no" for an answer when assured by the Spirit we're on the right track?

All this been said, desperate times and eternities require desperate measures. So I fearfully ask for permission to speak even more freely than usual. Okay. Here it goes. What on Earth is Omnity thinking? Though it should, is Your continued distance and silence drawing us to You? Clearly we've sinned and badly. Through abortion alone, the innocent blood of a billion babies cry to You for justice. Tolerating and even participating in such evil, the Church may well be aborting its prayers, worship and very salvation. Obviously we're providing the Prosecutor unprecedented evidence day and night. Yet isn't he that accuses and condemns us the same who first tempted and deceived us? Didn't the Devil first beguile a myriad of ancient, holy and glorious angels dwelling with You in Heaven? Compared to such an ancient and advanced Adversary and his army wasn't the whole of humanity born yesterday only to die tomorrow?

No offense Lord, but what did You think would happen when allowing such malevolence to pit itself against us? They were fully developed functional "gods" billions of years before mankind's existence. The IQ of the least of them must be off the charts, making Einstein look like an ameba. Apparently they travel the length and breadth of three heavens while we're Earth bound. For millennia these predators have stalked and trapped us, tempting and influencing us at will, without our even being able to perceive their presence. Frankly, wouldn't Bambi stand a better chance against a cosmic army of invisible Godzillas?

I'm thankful it's not quite that one sided. You had to be at work behind the scenes for us to have lasted this long. Through Moses and the prophets You provided Israel miraculous assistance and guidance. Of course, they were but one single tiny nation. So next Your reached out to all the world at tremendous cost by God the Son becoming man and offering Himself as the atonement for our sins. Then, not satisfied with Emmanuel, God with us, You birthed the Church at Pentecost by sending the Holy Spirit to be God in us!

Scripture teaches that by Christ's ministry and death, resurrection and ascension "He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross" and that taking "captivity captive gave gifts to men." Entrusting the Church to fulfill His Great Commission, Jesus ascended to Heaven were He "lives forever to intercede on our behalf." At this very moment we have God the Father who loves us reigning from the Throne, God the Son as our faithful High Priest and God the Spirit to fill and empower us on Earth!

Through the Spirit we have an unlimited supply of His fruit and gifts available, the very power of God to demonstrate the validity of Your word and authority of Your Kingdom on Earth. All this is more than "good news" it's great news! Still, based on an honest interpreting of scripture and in light of our quickly deteriorating situation, it looks like modern man and perhaps as much as half the Church are about to jump out of the frying pan into one hell of a fire! Why? Because just as You warned:

"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage." Matthew 5:13 MSG

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world." Matthew 5:14 MSG

”And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!" Matthew 6:23

I get it, that if the world's spoiled rotten it's because we've lost our savor. If society's shrouded in darkness it's because we've lost our luminescence. Yet, in many ways Christ's cry from the cross, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they're doing" is unfortunately as true now as ever. We don't understand the realities of eternity's cosmic war spanning three heavens. We don't fathom the influence of the demonic our our daily lives. We don't comprehend the horrors of hell and the glories of heaven at stake. So few fully appreciate the significance of Your word that even most modern Christians are Biblically illiterate, unable to quote more than a handful of verses in a row much correctly interpret their context and emphasis. And all this is true though six billion Bibles have been printed and You've blessed us with unrestricted instant access to dozens of versions and hundreds of thousands of commentaries and sermons by over a billion computers and cell phones!

Clearly, With all Your Kingdom has to offer You've more than leveled the playing field. Through the work of Christ and Your Spirit You've gone the extra mile to give humanity, or at least the Church a fighting chance. I appreciate You've made it perfectly clear Your on our side:

"What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else?" Romans 8:31-32

"The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." 2 Peter 3:9-10

"I urge you, first of all, to pray for all people. Ask God to help them; intercede on their behalf, and give thanks for them. Pray this way for kings and all who are in authority so that we can live peaceful and quiet lives marked by godliness and dignity. This is good and pleases God our Savior, who wants everyone to be saved and to understand the truth." 1 Timothy 2:1-4

I'm thankful for hundred of verses declaring Your eternal love, mercy and faithfulness to those who are faithful to You by showing love and mercy to others. But are we? In a single generation we've aborted four to six times the population of the entire Earth when Christ walked the planet. During that same period millennia of Godly morality's been turned upside down. Hollywood's covered the globe in tens of thousands of videos featuring every form of vice and violence known to man and then some. Motown's brainwashed billions to sing away the purity of their souls and pay for the privilege. Using sensuality and greed, Madison Avenue's enticed us to sell our salvation and trade our birthright for high tech pots of porridge.

Dearest Lord, again I'm so glad You choose to "take no pleasure in the death of the wicked." It's fantastic to know Peter and Paul both reveal Your not willing that any should perish. Yet aren't tens of thousands eternally lost daily with billions in lock step on their way to hell? So who's frustrating Your will? Or perhaps a better question is, who isn't? A third of Heaven's angels? Two thirds of humanity? And what of the third claiming on a survey they prefer Christ over Muhammad, Buddha or nothing at all?

Even among Christians regularly attending Church, hundreds of millions are so worldly minded their no Heavenly good. And of course there's Christ's many warnings to believers:

"Yes, just as you can identify a tree by its fruit, so you can identify people by their actions. Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter. On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws." Matthew 7:20-23

“Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom.Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish didn’t take enough olive oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil... But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came. Then those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, ‘Lord! Lord! Open the door for us!’ But he called back, ‘Believe me, I don’t know you!" Matthew 25:1-12

"Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" Luke 18:8

While many treasure the gospel's great and precious promises, too few make it a habit to study their conditions. From the free gift of salvation to answered prayer, Your word offers 1,260 wonderful promises accessed through 1,456 "ifs" and 6,468 commands. It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that just as You warned, most the world and much of the Church have and continue to merit Your justice and judgment.

You're our Creator and Savior. "You alone have the words of life." Forgive us for neglecting the work of God. Our Enemy has proven too great for us. Our lamps are flickering and going out. Like the Wedding of Cana, we're out of wine. Is it possible once again You might have saved the best for last? Having already given so much, I know it's asking much but please grant us just two more things. An unprecedented global repentance and a New Pentecost. Fully restore the gifts of the Spirit, particularly healing the sick and the miraculous, that we can arise, be Your Church, and become "more than conquerors through him who loved us."

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