In the last couple weeks, it feels like we are moving through a jungle. It can be difficult to settle on a direction in a jungle. What is the proper direction to move?
News media people can be vicious in this jungle. Their personal goal is focused on o hurting and consuming people that do not fit their image. It would help to map out their intentions. To manage our journey we need truth — a compass for direction, and a map, to help to keep things in perspective and know truth.
Finding Truth
God provides the map and the compass. Many people have the idea that the Bible could never be their compass. I would say that it can be a map, and it will teach us how to live. Any map needs to be oriented to use it. To learn how to use the map/Bible, we need to learn to love God. That becomes our true north.
Surprisingly, there is another component that connects the dots for our moral code — a part which is living and dynamic, and ignored by people of competing religious perspectives. That additional component is the Holy Spirit. Jesus was quite aware in his time that many people would not follow the Bible, and he made it clear that our moral code is not solely dependent on the Bible.
In John 14 Jesus said: 15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.
18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
When Chaos appears
Laws and rules in the United States are usually fair, and provide a balanced system of justice when conditions are meted out according to procedure. We run into chaos and problems when people go to excesses –when people are uncooperative with rules, or when police exceed authority. In recent days, the liberal perspective in the U.S. has taken on the platform of “Defund the police”. It is a chaotic perspective.
They are not literally saying “Take all money away from Police”, but rather redirect money resources to fund education and community alternatives. Without appropriate timing and constraints first , defunding is dumb. To take away funding could be dangerous — because the withdrawal of funding leaves a void in community protection. When response time increases, the crime resolve rate goes down. In humans terms, we need police. in spiritual terms, we need God.
Finding God
For those who do not follow God they won’t be ready for a relationship with an invisible being. It is when we are supervised (by God) that we are most compliant with following ‘rules’. Being in a relationship with God is good. We have a perfect guide by way of the Holy Spirit; we have a built-in moral compass, and we have an expectation of what will happen if we do not follow the rules.
In Matthew 24 we read: 45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46 It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47 Truly I tell you, he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
48 But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49 and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50 The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51 He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
