Day 2855 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

2 Corinthians 4:4 NIV

We've been discussing the "standards of this age" and the fact that current social standards harbor very little in the way of morality or even common decency. Rather, people have been fooled into believing that it’s actually better to be locked up within our selfish desires than to live a life free from thinking we can find lasting joy in a world that’s passing away. The god of this age tells us that there’s more to be gained in living like nothing matters than humbling ourselves to undertake a highly irregular and uncommon way of life lived according to true standards of morality, the only standards by which all of us will one day be judged.

Instead, the god of this age has instilled vile "standards" within which most of a fallen and happily disintegrating society has clearly chosen to excel, and by excel I mean falter, and by falter I mean display a beautifully disturbing mix of selfishness, arrogance, pride, vanity, gluttony, lust, anger, attitude, and hatred within hearts set on burning the world to the ground combined with a gross lack of kindness, compassion, love, unity, mutual edification, or spiritual growth.

Instead of igniting hearts to seek those upright and worthwhile deeds and characteristics defined as good and desired by God, the god of this age has convinced people to put themselves first, ignore all logic that speaks against doing so, and to fight like crazy against any and all who threaten to pull the rug out from under them and expose the poison that they prefer. The god of this age has convinced people that the darkness is better than the light, all because shadows provide the opportunity to hide the wicked deeds that are knowingly done.

Or at least that's the lie that has people comfortable and completely unwilling to change.

You see, truth is that everything that has been done "in secret" has never once been hidden from God. Our arrogance has always tried to tell a different story, but at some point we have to choose whether to keep believing our own "truth" and continue altering it as needed to keep us in the right, or to humbly admit that there's a truth that exists that we cannot alter, change, deny, or defeat as we didn't have the power to author it, and we definitely don't have the power to stand against the One who did.

This world's biggest problem is that we think we're bigger than we are. It's like humanity has this Napoleon complex in which we kind of realize our insufficiencies, our weaknesses, our shortcomings, but we puff our chests, speak boldly and brash, and yell as loud as possible so that everyone who can hear us doesn't dare question our power. Our realization of our small stature complete with an inadequate ability to uphold any kind of true moral standard, let alone actively content with the God who defines morality and set His standards in stone long ago, has rendered us terrified of reality and left to try like crazy to create our own.

It's all rather wonderful to imagine, but no amount of time spent building our own reality within the shadows can ever nullify the fact that God has the final word, has seen every vile deed, and knows the waywardness of our hearts as He's the one who fashioned them. You see, He gave us His Law, not because He just wanted to be overbearing and micro-managing, but because He knew that without any moral standards by which to hold ourselves accountable, we'd just keep on living like we're the bosses who get to call the shots and everyone else can just agree or simply shut up.

And yet, look at what doesn't exist as it's not welcome among the "truths" being adopted by the masses. If you guessed the Ten Commandments, give yourself a high-five, a pat on the back, and a roaring round of applause because you're today's big winner! That's right, in all of our rapid advancement deeper into the shadows of sinful living, society has chosen to toss aside those ten simple rules as they're apparently just too hard, too limiting, and too detrimental to the pride that tells us we don’t need any help being perfect.

In truth, it's not even all ten that humanity struggles with. We couldn't get past the first one. In our eyes, the eyes blinded by the lies sold by the god of this age, we are gods. Little g. Little ods. Little minds. Little people with big appetites for selfishness and apparently self-destruction. We've always had it in our minds that we are the masters of our own fate, the rulers of our own worlds, and the deciders of our own truth. And as such, well, we simply don't have room for a God we can't see because we can look in the mirror and see the arrogance we trust looking back at us.

You know, when you live for only yourself and only the desires you crave for yourself, anything that speaks to any kind of humility will be unwelcome as it threatens to undermine all the work done to convince yourself that you're stronger than you are. Flash back to the Napoleon complex I mentioned. Anything that dares threaten our illusions of control and power must be silenced, ignored, and overcome in any way possible.

Humanity has long lived as fierce enemies of God because God's divine authority not only contradicts our own, but it speaks to the non-existence of our own. We have no authority in the court of eternity. We have no authority when it comes to truth. We have no authority in regard to what's right and wrong. We cannot do any of what God has done, and so we have no ground upon which to stand that is stable enough or high enough to look Him in the eye.

And so, since we can't be God, we largely just settle for second best. We pretend we are. We live like we are. We load our lives with worldly treasures and point them out to everyone else as evidence that we're as special as we believe ourselves to be. We tune our ears to the soothing voice telling us to do as we please, to run wild without restraint, to live it up in this place as it may be all we have.

The god of this age is truly one of the most successful liars that has ever existed. In fact, he is the father of lies. And he's so darn successful because we uses our arrogance and pride to hit us right where we're vulnerable. He fashions his deceptions by learning what we crave, and then tells us that it's okay to idolize it. He learns what we want to hear, and he sends whispers that speak those messages into hearts that are just aching to give in and chase all the selfish indulgence we can stomach.

And as we go along that cookie-crumb trail sucking every delicious morsel of immorality and impropriety, the message of the Gospel and the truth it's built upon just seems more and more foolish. After all, a life of sin gives us everything we want, and it affords us the opportunity to conceal our errors, should we ever make any, within its shadowy confines. So what is there to gain by stepping out of those shadows into the light of Christ where not only are our past transgressions laid bare for all the world to see, but we're also burdened by the responsibility to stop living like idiots?

Why stop being idiots when we find plenty of selfish glory and success in doing so?

That's why the world rejects our faith and thinks us fools for choosing to believe it. Because it's a choice. Because it's a choice that doesn't bring any immediate gain. Because it's a choice that doesn't bring any immediate gratification. And if there's no instant gain, or glory, or gratification, then what's the point? After all, sin offers all the above, so who in their right mind would walk away from freedom and the comfy shadows it offers for a life out in the light where there is no hiding, no illusions of power, and no semblance of the freedom that sins seems to offer?

Well, because although the god of this age is good at his job as his lies are appealing, they do have one seriously detrimental flaw: They're not true. They're not reality. They're not able to overwrite the tiny voice inside that tells us that we were made for far more than everything we want. You see, Satan is great at lies, but lies cannot compete with the truth. And while the truth of the Gospel does hurt, it also brings healing. Though it wounds, it bandages. Though it stings, it leads to soothing peace that all the lies and cover-ups and other nonsense simply couldn't offer.

We make this choice to walk by faith out in the light of Christ where our sins aren't hidden and our responsibility for screwing up from time to time isn't unavoidable because we know it's not avoidable. We have seen the light in the truth of God's Word, and that light has pierced the darkness we've always known leaving us unable to fool ourselves anymore. We know sin is real because they guilt it’s left is very real. And if we feel guilty for having done something wrong even though the world tells us that nothing is wrong, then maybe the world doesn’t get to decided what’s wrong after all.

The world will always think us fools for believing in Christ and humbling ourselves to living according to His truth as millions are happily writing their own. But the true fools are those who look at the cross and see wood. The fools are the ones who think the Bible is just a book. Fools are those who honestly think that responsibility is unnecessary. Fools are those who think that laws are meant to be broken. Fools are those who think all of this is just a series of random chances that all means nothing in the end.

Foolishness isn't found in doing something stupid or silly. Foolishness is doing something stupid and silly thinking it's intelligent.

You see, the god of this age has blinded people to the truth of the Gospel by speaking a lie that has them convinced it's all unnecessary. People all around the world think faith is stupid because it brings limits, self-control, responsibility, morals, divine standards, and a truth we can't change or deny. But what's really stupid is thinking that we can exist without any of the above.

The fact is that the light of the Gospel does hurt, and that fact gives everyone every reason they need to avoid it. After all, we don't have to accept it. We don't have to humble ourselves. We don't have to admit we've ever done anything wrong. All of humanity is more than free to go on living like nothing matters. But if nothing matters, then what is life? What is all of this for? Where is all of this going? Is it just a matter of happenstance that any of us are here? Is it all just death and taxes?

I can't buy that. I can no longer accept the lie that all of this means nothing. That's the way we've lived life, and oddly enough, living like this all means nothing and as if we therefore have the freedom to do anything simply never accomplished anything. And when you gain the whole world yet forfeit your soul, you can feel that you've lost something. And how can you lose something if there's nothing to lose?

My point is that there are all kinds of lies being told and sadly believed by a world that's horrified of the truth. I understand that responsibility and consequences and humility and moral values are all really hard, and clearly deemed unnecessary by the world around us. But what I can't understand is what we have to gain by pretending that all of those things are meaningless and without value. What do we gain from sin? What do we gain from believing lies? What do we gain the scope of eternity that is worth ignoring the God who made eternity?

Unbelievers continue seeking ways to disprove and deny our faith and the God it's placed in and founded by. If we weren't on to something, then why are they trying so hard to prove us wrong?

If sin is so great, go do it. Love it, most of the world does. But just know that darkness cannot bring joy, and that's a fact that every follower of Christ will vouch for. The only joy we have ever found is when we swallowed our pride, chose to ignore those oddly perfect lies, and took that first step out of the shadows into the light of Christ.

It doesn't make any sense, and to me, that's why it makes sense. Everything I ever wanted existed in a life I left behind. Why would I do that if there was nothing to be gained in doing so? Why would anyone live on the fringes of this world when it's so easy to be welcomed into the fold? Because a love that speaks the truth of who I know I've been and lays down His life for me to be forgiven and set free anyway is just more amazing than everything I ever found seeking everything I ever wanted.

The god of this age will continue blinding the eyes of unbelievers with lies that keep people comfortable in the darkness of sin. But as comfy as the darkness of sin may be for the moment, no amount of darkness can stop light from shining. The darkness of sin cannot extinguish the light of Christ, and to me, it's not worth risking living my entire life in the dark only to one day find out that the light was always unavoidable.

The world has seen the image of God in the Son who came down to carry our cross. We don’t need proof that our faith is real, that Christ is real, that eternity is waiting and that God is the judge of where we spend it. We have all the proof we need. What we really need is to stop pretending that we need proof, and to start living like His light is coming back to send all this darkness running back to hell once and for all. Don’t let the god of this age convince you otherwise, because he won’t be there to take the fall when you’re standing in that light that you spent your whole life trying to avoid.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold