“They glory in their shame.”  Phil. 3:19

I´m approaching the eve of my life.  You may not appreciate that feeling yourself.  Don´t ask for it either.  However, when you do, you will, as a child of God, not be sad about it.  In our small home group we have a happy old man (86) who is very conscious of his imminent departure.  But he is so happy about it.  He has made all the practical preparations for it (alas, I have not!), but he is also very much present in this world and would hand out a gospel word to those he happens to meet.

In this country and abroad I avail myself very much of my little “card”, I hand out to people.  I´ve  told you about it, I´m sure.  But there are many, many ways of “gossiping the gospel”, of saying a word about the Lord.  We can´t resist doing it, can we?  I know that´s what you want to do too, and the Lord is using you in a way he can´t use me.  Just like He´s using the old man in question in a way He can´t use others.

The need for a saving answer was accentuated yesterday.  It was a day of shame.  The majority of our parliament passed a bill about same sex marriage to be implemented in our state sponsored “Evangelical Lutheran Church” (and other churches).  I watched the debate on the TV screen, and I can´t recall ever in my life that I was so shaken.  That abominable law passed by those “who enact evil statutes”  (Isa. 10:1) is cherished by all political parties so to speak (and by, of course, most state employed pastors), so our parliament has become a wicked stronghold of lawlessness instead of law and respect for Christian values.

But there´s nothing new under the sun.   The same sexual perversions existed in the days of the apostle Paul, exposed in his first chapter of Romans.  That didn´t make him start a political party or campaign, but increased his passion for the gospel.  In this he is our example, isn´t he?

It´s pretty easy to become a moralist, a politician, a strait-laced denouncer, a castigator or the like.  It takes supernatural grace and power, however, to “do the work of an evangelist”, but to that end the Lord will equip us small “common people” by His Spirit at grass-roots level at this juncture.

June 8, 2012 – jn