Day 3016 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

Acts 17:30 NIV

Seems the only ones still overlooking ignorance are the very ones lost within its bliss.

Across the last few posts there's been this overarching idea of lazy faith and the resulting complacency within the death that is sin that has shone forth quite clearly, at least I hope. It's a product of a few more days spent watching a little bit more of the downfall spurred onward at increasing speed by more of the wicked goings on going on all around us in this place that is so clearly set upon wasting itself in the most depraved and therefore depressing manner possible.

There's just this relentless realization that I pray never leaves me alone that reminds me constantly that what's coming is coming and that it's our duty to remain ready as well as to help others prepare and encourage them to stay ready themselves.

And although I know other topics need to be discussed as well, and God does place differing things upon my mind and in my heart that I feel compelled to write about in these daily posts, the danger of remaining where we are is by and large a reality that never seems to wane nor waver from the forefront of my contemplations. Perhaps it's because much of the world is playing as if it's all a joke. Maybe it's because the mocking of our Savior is growing more and more blatant and egregious.

Or maybe it's just because zeal and passion and priorities properly placed really do wear us out in ways we've not quite known in the past.

Whatever the case and whyever the reason, the point is that to assume that God's patience is as unlimited as our ignorance and arrogance is what's sure to be both an incredibly sad and eternally fatal mistake to make. And yet, as we look around at what's happening and beginning to be accepted, embraced, applauded and encouraged, I believe firmly that this culture being cultivated on continually remaining committed to cantankerous controversies is hastening yet another date with the destiny faced by those recounted in 2 Chronicles 36:16.

"But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy."

There was no remedy.

Not sure if you've been reading along over the past several days but a couple of days ago I talked about this thought I often find myself wondering that considers whether there's a point, a line, a corner around which a society stumbles from which there is no coming back. The very same night after I wrote that post, I read that verse in 2 Chronicles. Friends, the Word of God is truly alive and active, and He is still very much speaking to those with the courage to humbly listen.

Alas, deaf ears have rendered many incapable of hearing His warnings spoken clearly against the many deeds clearly done against Him. And so we find a world plummeting perpetually deeper into the darkness of sinful indulgence with heads lifted high as if they were winning something. We see a society seeking the utter severance and final separation from self-control and righteous responsibility. We are indeed among the breeds highlighted and rebuked in the opening of 2 Timothy chapter 3, a passage many know quite well.

You see, that’s where ignorance ultimately lost this game. God has gone to incredible lengths to make known to us enough to implore us away from the cliff we’ve collectively sought with all our might. He has gone so far as to give us His very Word, to send His only Son to help teach us away from the foolishness we’ve always felt this need to live within. He’s given us all we need to help us know all we should be aware of concerning His definition of sin and His clear stance against it, and against those who adore it so.

Oddly enough, those of us in the western world especially, live in a place doing all it can to erase and eradicate its history, oblivious to the fact that history repeats itself. Yes, even history thousands of years removed from the present. It's a very dangerous thing to not learn the priceless lessons offered by those who learned them the hard way before us. And a place filled with so many who hate history as much as many do today, well, it shouldn't be any surprise that lessons like those taught by Sodom and Gomorrah are among the lessons so obviously missed by ears still deaf.

And while it does seem to be at the moment fairly harmless, this mocking of God and rejecting of Christ and refusal of truth, something happened a couple of thousand years ago that removed all possible excuse to live a life willfully lost in this kind of refuse. A Man came to earth and walked and talked and taught among those living back then, and the things He said and the message He shared carried with it such a power that many opted to write it down for the benefit of those who would come after.

This Man ended up being 'removed' from earth by the same wanton wickedness which is still running this show straight into the ground today. And even though the arrogance then, as the arrogance still now, thought they'd won, this Man left a couple of things behind by which to testify against all who lived at that time as well as at any time thereafter.

A cross on a hill and a stone rolled away.

And in those two immutable reminders stands the promise that we've no excuse left by which to ever absolve ourselves of our guilt.

He made perfectly sure that all people knew the truth so that they could be set free from the sins to which they'd always chosen to be enslaved. Thus our ignorance only remains as powerfully potent as it still is simply because those same sins still retain the power over society that they've always had. In short, history actually never stopped repeating itself. The world is still just as lost as it was when Christ came to find us.

Many just don't want to be found anywhere other than happily content within their pits of indulgence and ideology. And that choice being so clearly chosen by so very many is an altogether heartbreaking, mind-blowing, gut-wrenching, soul-shaking, anger-provoking reality that we today are called to walk through and serve in whilst we're here for the few days we've remaining.

The part that I think is beginning to become more difficult is that it is a choice that we all do have the right to make. Each of us have the right to determine for ourselves what we make of this truth of this Gospel, and what we do as a result of our hearing of it. Each of us are entirely responsible for the lives we live, how we live them and why we choose to live them as such in light of all the information we can never possibly claim we never knew.

He tore that veil, and in doing so, He ripped away our every excuse to keep living like idiots. So if we choose to keep living like idiots, that choice is fully ours. And to think that He won't ask us why we chose that path of rampant foolishness is potentially the most foolish undertaking of all! But we're stuck in a place that obviously thinks it's the only best choice. We're surrounded by many who think mocking God or denying Him is the best kind of life.

We're truly in a land lost within themselves still seeking a freedom that cannot be had within the clutches of sinful death.

And yet, that cross and that stone and that empty tomb still testify against each of us in a way that nothing we do, nothing we say, nothing we have, nothing we hope can ever possibly overturn or overrule. The blood of Jesus is either our every hope or our worst nightmare. The only difference is found in how we receive it. It gives hope to those who humbly repent in response. And it gives punishment to those who arrogantly refuse.

Ignorance may be bliss, problem is that none are truly ignorant of His message or His sacrifice. All have heard, all do know, all will bow. All that remains is for each of us to choose how and when.

You see, that's the gift offered upon that cross. It's the chance to change our ways before our ways render us an eternity wishing we'd have changed. It's the opportunity to turn and repent and leave behind all we've wanted in exchange for all we will never deserve. It's the gift of complete forgiveness, but forgiveness is only available to those who realize, who will let themselves realize just how badly they need it.

And that's the problem. While the world isn't ignorant of His Name nor His Gospel, many remain willfully ignorant of their many mistakes simply because their hearts refuse to humble. And while there is some passing sense of satisfaction in that kind of lunacy, it's a satisfaction that has an expiration date that is growing closer by the second. And society’s refusal to accept that clear warning given us in kindness displays the alternate definition of ignorance.

There’s ignorance of actually not knowing, and there’s ignorance of being so asinine as to fail and fall short of truth and reality due solely to a personal decision to do dumb things.

Some are ignorant of things like rocket telemetry and the translation of ancient cuneiform writing. Most are ignorant of things like that simply because we’ve not studied them. Others are ignorant of reality, they’re ignorant of law, they’re ignorant of human intelligence, and friends, that’s not because of a lack of study! It’s a lack of personal effort or interest.

What we see here in Acts is that God gave humanity a bit more leeway in the days before such an obvious turning point was given. Lambs and goats and rams without blemish quenched His anger as their blood was splashed against alters in ancient times. Priests baked bread and made atonement and tried to keep the people living clean lives. But still they stumbled, wandered, left and looked away because the blood of something replaceable is only so powerful.

The blood of the Lamb though, well that’s not something that can be so easily discounted as so many are seeking to do today. Thus the ignorance of simply not trying to live intelligently.

And that's why what's coming is going to be so very bad for so very many. There is no reason to keep living in such filth and frivolity. No excuse to reject what is the ultimate expression of love. No sense in turning away the only One who found us worthy of His life. How many are still rejecting Him makes no sense, and if it makes no sense to us, how do you think He feels?

Wrath isn't a big enough word. Vengeance isn't either. Damnation comes closer but still fails to capture it. But many will captured in it, completely without need. Friends, there is no need in refusing Him. What do you get, a few more days of passing pleasure? A warm embrace from a world so cold it's becoming unlivable? A life of freedom to do as you please that still ends? Have we forgot that it still ends? It all ends. And that end is nearing.

There will be no ignoring of ignorance when that end has arrived. All that will be left is an admitting of it or a rejoicing of having spurned it in time. I know repentance is hard for hearts still at least partially convinced that there are no consequences. But again, we know better now. And proving otherwise is simply going to prove impossible, no matter how many may be seeking to make a similar argument.

The whole point is that we simply shouldn’t take that risk as we now have absolutely no reason to do so. There is death, but now there is the chance at life. There is guilt, but there is now forgiveness in Christ. This is punishment, but there is the gift of peace given freely to all who finally give away all their misgivings. So why hold onto the things that He says are death when eternal life is so easily found in Him? It makes no sense, unless someone insists on clinging to their ignorance, that is.

Friends, there’s no gray-area. No room for miscommunication. No grounds for us to expect a loophole we can climb through at the end of lives clearly never surrendered to the One who surrendered all for us. It’s literally all there in black and white, so claiming we didn’t know isn’t going to work. To keep fighting a losing fight is true insanity, truly ignorant. Especially when He made it so easy to find victory and the peace that comes because of it.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold