Moses is still continuing with his
speech and as he is, more and more life lessons are presented to
us. Even though this speech is directly for the Israelites, we in
the 21st century can still learn and benefit from
it.
In Deuteronomy 4:32-40 Moses
proclaims how great God is and that there is no other. He recounts
the awesome miracles that God did and how God had helped the
Israelites to come as far as they have. And in verse 39 he
says:
"So remember this and keep it
firmly in mind: The Lord is God both in heaven and on earth, and
there is no other god!"
This made me realise once again how
amazing our God is. He is God in heaven and He is God on earth.
Everywhere He goes, He is God. And today is no different, even
though it may feel as if another force is prevalent on the earth. I
don't know about you, but sometimes I cannot help but feel that
things are spinning out of control in our society. Women are raped,
children are used as sex slaves, human trafficking is prevalent,
corruption is at the order of the day, governments are not
following God's ways, people are killed for their faith, the poor
is only getting poorer and the rich richer, the internet is full of
pornography and so I can go on. And when I see these things
happening all around me, I cannot help but feel that God is not in
control.
I actually have a whole CD on this
topic. I ask the question whether God is in control or whether the
devil is in control. But I don't have enough time to focus in
detail on that today. Today however I want to console you and
reassure you that God is still the God of heaven and the God of
this earth as He was in the Old Testament. God never changes and is
always the same. Jesus came to show us just that and with His death
on the cross He obtained victory over the sinfulness of this world
and the Father placed all things under His authority:
"Now He is above any ruler or
authority or power or leader or anything else in this world or in
the world to come. And God has put all things under the authority
of Christ, and He gave Him this authority for the benefit of the
church. And the church is His body; it is filled by Christ, Who
fills everything everywhere with His presence." Ephesians
1:21-23
Notice that this authority was
given to Jesus for the benefit of the church because we are His
body. And remember when the Bible talks about the church, it means
believers, not the physical building or congregation. And now this
authority has been given for our benefit and what a responsibility
it is. That means that we are now Jesus' hands and feet here on
earth. I recently heard a song where the singer asks God when is He
going to do something about this evil world? And then God answers,
'I already did, I created you."
And because He did we cannot
participate in the evil of this world, we simply cannot. We are not
allowed to read questionable magazines, we cannot look at
pornography, we cannot dodge the tax collector, we cannot speak
even a white lie, we cannot participate in corruption, we simply
cannot. We need to be His body on this earth, walking around with
His authority and helping where we can. But if sin still has a hold
over us, we will slip and fall and not be the representatives that
we are supposed to be.
We need to proclaim Jesus as King
over this world and we should show the world what it means to
follow the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We need to attract
them to a better world, one without pain and sorrow and one where
we can all live in harmony. That is our purpose in life,
make sure that you do not miss it!
Father thank you that You are in
control. Thank you that we can know that. Thank you also that we
can be part of the body of Christ. Please help us to be good
representatives of Who You are and to let go of the sin that
strangle us. We love You and want to proclaim You as King over our
lives and King over our countries and the world. In Jesus' Name.
Amen