Dear WOL Chapel family,
Happy belated fourth of July! I sincerely hope that you enjoyed a good day of celebration. I still believe with all of my heart that we live in an amazing nation despite the abysmal division and promotion of sin. We are still “one nation under God.”
Hopefully Sunday’s sermon on God’s Kingdom helped you reconsider whether or not other nations are also “under God.” I think about the nations ruled by Muslims and Sharia law. I think about those nations that don’t tolerate a spec of Christ. I think about those nations who persecute Christians to a level that we only hear about. Could they also be considered “nations under God?”
As shocking as it is, they are as Psalm 103:19 says, “The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, and His Kingdom rules over all.”
Could that even include those nations who are clearly Satanic? Absolutely!
Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…”
You may ask how God rules over evil nations and kings while retaining His righteousness. It’s a good question and one that is hard to answer but I believe Acts 2:23 gives the best answer that we can receive:
“This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hand of lawless men.”
That verse, preached by Peter, shows how God’s greatest plan to show His love to us and save our souls for us, was also the greatest evil that mankind committed by killing the Son of God.
Somehow, both God’s complete sovereignty and man’s culpable responsibility synchronize together in such a way where God produces the greatest good by ruling completely over the greatest evil. However, only God is held responsible for the good and man held responsible for the evil.
I don’t expect that to be easily understood, but truth is truth weather we comprehend it or not! However, what we should understand is that the Gospel message is how God accomplished the greatest good through the greatest evil, and it was all His plan.
What does that say about God’s Kingdom and us as citizens of it? We can look forward and move ahead with complete confidence in God’s power over our life and the lives around us.
There is peace and confidence as we know that God rules over all. As I mentioned on Sunday, though, are we allowing “the peace of Christ to rule in our hearts (Colossians 3:15)? Many times we don’t but I pray that you experience His good rule in your life and submit to Him. We worship an unfathomably good King.
As for this next Sunday, please be meditating over Ephesians 6:10-18 as I will be preaching on the spiritual war that we find ourselves in as the Kingdom of Light battles the Kingdom of darkness.
But remember that we “fight from victory, not to victory.” The battle has been won in Christ and we wrestle, now, with Satan’s lies. I’m praying already that we as a Church stand strong in the Lord and the strength of His might! (Eph. 6:10).
Christ Bless you this week as you battle on in your weakness but His strength.
In Christ’s protection,
Pastor Aaron
