I was thinking about how my anticipation and excitement of watching the USA women’s soccer team advance in the World Cup playoffs had eventually turned me completely off, to the point that I was apathetic towards the “grand finale.”
Meghan Rapinoe was very open and proud of her lesbianism, her having to have the spotlight, her prancing in front of the crowd with arms wide open to accept the accolades from her countrymen, her non-professional cussing in front of the media, then the latest intentional and attention-grabbing “wardrobe malfunction” etc. left me with little but disdain for her, despite her athletic prowess. It reminded me of the Proverb in the Word of God (11:22) which very aptly states, “Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman who lacks discretion.”
I even had some initial admiration for Alex Morgan for all her athleticism on the field, her many goals, and sportsmanship towards her opponents and teammates. But during a brief interview after one of the last matches, she used the “a–” word in responding to a question from a reporter. Not the worst word to be using and she did immediately apologize for saying it, but I couldn’t help but realize the reason it came off her lips so quickly and easily on national TV was because she was used to saying it all the time in her personal, off-camera life. Proverbs 11:22 strikes again.
The Lord connected this to another instance I have gone through recently with trying to clean up and eventually sell my mom’s house. She passed away almost a year ago, but everything connected to the estate and her will has been slow-going, to say the least. She was 91 when she died and very mobile until the last couple of years. Because of this and my not living close enough to help on a regular basis, the house was not as clean as it once had been for so many years. As a result, we started to have a mouse, and even a rat, problem, especially after she passed and there was no human activity in the house to ward them off. I had some trappers come out on a few occasions over the course of a month. Some were in the attic and some in the crawl space, but we got them all.
Very recently, I had to contact another company to come out and give me an inspection and quote for some mold removal which had grown over the last 10 months. During this process, the men had to get in the crawlspace to assess its mold damage and the likelihood of it being the origin of what was inside. There, they found one or two dead rats that had died sometime after the wildlife guys had paid their last visit. So, yesterday and even more so today, Holy Spirit spoke to me in my spirit and showed me a Kingdom reality and principle that applies here, and one we can all-especially the unbeliever- gain wisdom and truth from. And it’s not a small lesson.
Just to use her as an example because we mentioned her earlier and because these events are all very recent–not to single her out, by any means– she seems to be, from all secular and worldly plumb lines, on top of the world right now! She is co-captain (the other ones don’t get much, if any, mention; I don’t even know who they are) of the best women’s soccer team in the world, she received two athletic awards, many people who had never heard her name or seen her face a month or two ago, now recognize her, she has been on the ESPY awards, has been on the cover of at least a couple of magazines, has been on a well-known, late-night TV program, has played her best soccer in front of tens of thousands of people, has a platform to advance her (sinful) lifestyle, been awarded very good prize money and more! Wow!
But in all of this, the Lord Jesus revealed to me a profound truth that is sure to offend many. That while she may be “on top of the world,” she is not even the least in the Kingdom of God. She is in a dark world, with ungodly goals and pursuits, has very questionable character and integrity, low morals, abounds with pride, and has more than a modicum of hubris at times. She seems to have it all, but she is still in the crawlspace.
There is little to no light, there are nocturnal creatures who find comfort there, it is damp, the atmosphere is ripe for and spawns mold and fungus, its spores only grow and destroy virtually everything close to it, and it smells very bad. Suddenly, all the world has to offer– even if it can be achieved and obtained, and at a young age– doesn’t even last or scratch the surface of the dwelling place of the eternal kingdom of Almighty God. The top of the heap is still the crawlspace in our Father’s eyes and in the life of the true Christian.
The holy and wonderful Word of God tells us that once we are adopted into His eternal family, we are considered a holy (clean, pure, righteous, just) nation of people, we are a royal priesthood in His eyes; priests because we serve Him and royal because we are no longer simply His creation, but sons and daughters of the King of the universe! It tells us we are a chosen people, chosen by God Most High (but our gift of a will that is free to make our own choices most often refuses what He offers), not because we have somehow earned or deserved this place of honor but simply because of His profound love for us! And this same passage tells us that the reason He has bestowed on us these lofty privileges is so that we can “PROCLAIM THE EXCELLENCIES OF HIM WHO BROUGHT US OUT OF DARKNESS AND INTO HIS MARVELOUS LIGHT.”
In Psalm 51, which is a song of repentance that the Lord used for almost a full year back in 1999 to show me my then-present state before Him and how much I needed His grace, mercy, forgiveness, cleansing, and love, King David refers to the truth that we, as humans, are not only “born in sin” but “conceived in sin” as well. In this, he is stating the truth that from the moment we come out of the birth canal (indeed, even before) we are in darkness. So, the reality that you may not have ever known or pondered is that, either in the forefront or the back corners and recesses of our minds, this dark world is all we have ever known. We think this is all there is. We accept its limitations and faults. We have never known the Light.
God is Light. Our sinful natures and sin separate us from Him like a chasm. He made us eternal beings, so our spirits live forever. We are either with Him forever in the Kingdom of Heaven or without Him forever in Hell. This is not a fable or a myth, it is a stark truth. The only way to dwell in the presence of utter and complete perfection and purity is to have those qualities ourselves. Almighty God is holy and nothing stained, impure or unholy can mingle with Him. So, how, since we are sinful from birth ever to have the hope of dwelling with our loving and awesome Creator without being doomed to the fate our natures and subsequent daily, hourly and momentary choices have led us to? JESUS CHRIST, THE SAVIOR AND REDEEMER OF THE WORLD!
Jesus the Messiah is God. As the central and living component of the Father’s amazing, loving, merciful, compassionate and powerful plan of redemption, He set in motion His rescue operation by allowing a part of Himself to become human (one of us), to be born of a woman (one of us), by the great power of the Holy Spirit (another part of Himself). He lived among us, is very familiar with the pain, tears, doubts, fears, loneliness, rejection, torture, mocking, misunderstanding and all of the other real downsides of the human condition. He has experienced all this and more from the very people He not only gave life to, but willingly subjected His human life to (instead of crushing us for our evil, wicked ways, for our disobedience and rebellion) SO THAT WE MIGHT BE RECONCILED TO GOD. He willingly offered up His life in payment as, and as a ransom for, our lives. God is life. Apart from Him, there is only death. So, the wages (consequences) of sin is death, both naturally (temporally) and spiritually (eternally). The book of Joshua says concisely and emphatically that we have set before us life and death, blessings and curses. It urges us to choose life! We can choose the dankness, darkness and disease of the crawlspace. Most do. Do most of us in this life attain what we think will make us happy, satisfied or fulfilled? Money, influence, power, sex, drugs, drink, a big house, cars, boats, celebrity, recognition, significance, limited human love? Probably not. Many who do still leave written or oral legacies of how there is yet a gaping and disappointing hole in their lives and hearts. That’s because these things are temporal and cannot satiate the need(s) which are eternal (lasting and permanent). These innate desires are only met in God, our Maker and Father.
Ephesians 2:8-9 shares the ultimate crossroads-of-life truth. It stares us in the face with an embedded, underlying question we must each answer for ourselves. It says, “For BY GRACE you have been saved THROUGH FAITH. And this is NOT YOUR OWN DOING; it is the GIFT OF GOD, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” It is not framed as a question, grammatically. But what it is asking each of us, confronting each of us with, is this: Do you want eternal life with Me or eternal death without Me? This life is not something you can obtain through anything you do– good or bad. Even what you might consider as your own “righteousness” is like filthy rags to Me. It is only through My grace, My undeserved, unearned free gift of true love and mercy that you can have this. Because Jesus came from Me, only He knows the Way–and IS the Way– back to Me. In the book of Acts, chapter 4, verse 12 I have shouted clearly to all of you, “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other Name under Heaven given among men by which we (you) must be saved.”
Meghan and so many others, known and unknown, small and great (in their own eyes), rich and poor, educated and not, celebrated and overlooked, diligent and lazy, hard-working and entitled, male and female (these are the only two forms in which He made us), young and old, healthy and infirm, no matter where you find yourself on this scale, no matter how you see yourself, no matter what you hope to achieve, you will still be in the crawlspace. You can, through Jesus Christ and what He did FOR YOU on the Cross and by the spilling and outpouring of His precious blood, have the hope– not the wishful thinking or the crossing of the fingers, but the FULL ASSURANCE and PROMISE from Almighty God Himself– of forgiveness of sins and eternal life! Trust in Him alone for the salvation of your soul, acknowledge and confess your sinfulness, turn from your life of transgression to Him and His ways, be baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. He will make you a new creation. Christ Jesus is that bridge that spans the chasm of where you are and where God is, of who you are and who God is. I pray fervently that you will have what I have come to call an “Isaiah Experience.”
Read Isaiah 6:1-7. Then read Psalm 51. If your heart is hearing, listening to and receiving the words and sentiments of the heart of God He has so graciously spoken to me to share with you, surrender your life to Him now, and COMMIT your life to Him. There is no halfway and there is no turning back. He gave His earthly life for you; you must do the same for Him. He deserves nothing less. He was resurrected, and you will be too. That is why, of all the people on the face of the earth, Christians do not fear death. Why? Because we KNOW where we are going and what awaits us. We have hope. We have expectation. We have full assurance. You can too, including Meghan, because we are ALL dead in our sins without Jesus.
Christ View Versus World View 