Ones Perspective

Luke 11:27-32

With age does ones viewpoint change?  I’m not sure, it may have always been that with age ones perspective is that the current culture is heading for hell in a hurry.  I do believe it to be an accurate evaluation that we are living in a time vastly different from any other in the history of mankind in these areas; technology and information.  I also believe this generation has some of the most ignorant and shallow people who are not willing to receive any view but the one they believe, and it is often not based on deductive logic or facts, and totally void of what Scripture teaches.    

The shame and the judgment of a culture where so much has been given to it and the Scriptures are very clear that to such people much also is required of them.  Jesus deals with this issue in Luke 12:48, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”

Now it matters not the time or the culture when a person comes on the scene and has the power to make the blind see and the lame walk, people are going to come to observe what is taking place, this was true in Jesus time and it is true today.  So doctor Luke tells us the crowds were increasing and Jesus began to say: “This generation is an evil generation. It seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah. For as Jonah became a sign to the people of Nineveh, so will the Son of Man be to this generation. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.”  (Luke 11:29-32 ESV)

When I was very young someone planted this thought in my mind; “a word to the wise is sufficient,” my prayer is that you will desire to be wise in this most important area of life.  For though we have advanced in technology and information, have you noticed we have not advanced in wisdom; we have not advanced in morality; or in loving our neighbors as our self, in fact a case could be made that we are more of a godless generation than the people of Nineveh. 

If my facts are correct; Church, what does that say about us?  As the old song goes, “it’s not my brother or my sister, but it’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer, not my mother or my father, but it’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer, it’s not the deacon or the preacher but it’s me O Lord standing in the need of prayer.”  Church, Jesus is very clear; “No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness.”  (Luke 11:33-35 ESV)

So a sufficient word to you who are wise; let this prayer of Jesus become your prayer; “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in (Jesus) me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”  May the light in your eyes be bright and may the word of God fill your thoughts, your heart, and your actions.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice