Is It Good?

We live in unsettling days in the western world. Many things that were for hundreds of years considered good and to be desired, are now considered bad, or even evil. Once, having strong beliefs and principles, seeking to walk in a way pleasing to God, was to be admired, but in the 21st century, at least in the western world, it seems things are very different. Out of man’s wisdom new ‘truths’ have been declared out of which many now live.

Believing in God is labelled stupidity. Following the Bible is called bigotry. Telling the truth is simply naivety. Looking towards heaven is unrealistic fantasy. Humility is subservience and timidity. Wanting to teach your children Christian principles is indoctrination. Christians may find themselves increasingly undermined by those around them who’re living by these world-accepted tenets, that denigrate the very ways that the scriptures urge us to live our lives.

Our belief that Jesus, the one true light, is the only way to have relationship with the one true and living God, our Heavenly Father, is now often considered unacceptable. It’s increasingly frowned on to teach and train our children about a godly lifestyle, enjoying abundant life on earth as disciples of Jesus, but living in the certain knowledge that we’re bound for heaven, our eventual and eternal home. It’s becoming extremely hard because the world seems set on calling good evil, and evil good.

Isaiah prophesies in Chapter 50:11, that those who walk in darkness will turn to making ‘flaming torches’, that is, with no true light, they’ll construct their own man-made light. In other words, they’ll walk in their own ‘truth’ and formulate their own reality. But, it’s clear from the end of the same verse, that walking in their own illumination will have dire consequences; ‘they will lie down in torment’ (or some versions say ‘in sorrow’). True light brings abundant life, false light brings distress or worse.

I haven’t seen the new blockbuster film ‘La La Land’, so I don’t really know what it’s about, but I can’t help wondering if this much-publicised title says something quite profound. The phrase, has often been used, in the past, to indicate those living in complete denial of an obvious truth, they are ‘in la-la land’. But the question is, are we confident about who is living in the true reality and who in the unreality? Who is living in la-la land?

We need to encourage each other to stand firm on the truths of scripture and the example of Jesus’ life. We must be confident that man-made light and truth can never be the same as God’s true light and absolute truth, that what is evil can never be good, however many people say it is, what God says is good, is good indeed, and what God says is evil, is evil, always. His truth stands for all time.

Prayer: Father God, we seek to walk in Your ways, illuminated by the true light of Jesus, and seeking Your truth in all things. We ask that, through Your Holy Spirit, we might increasingly receive Your wisdom and grow in discernment, so we’ll be clear what’s truly good, follow Your ways and increasingly recognise and turn our backs on what You say is evil. We pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.