On my part of the globe, though, Jessica Sanchez’ performance in American Idol and the Santiago/Tulfo airport brawl continue to be the top news people kept talking about.

The world significantly turned two days ago. History literally happened right before our own eyes. The (purportedly) most powerful nation on earth pronounced its sharp deviation from Biblical Christianity upon which almost all our institutions are derived from. And yet a broad swath of Christians are looking the other way, to celebrity scandals and reality TV shows when we should have been moved to intense prayers, to tears, to dust and ashes and wails of mercy.

God have mercy on this generation.

Lot moved his tent towards Sodom.
Abraham moved to Hebron and built an altar to the Lord.

From the very outset of their separation, it was clear what kind of future both men were gonna have. Lot pitched his tent toward sin city. He chose the land that was near the place infamous for sin and rebellion against God. It was well known to the people of that region that Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked. Lot intentionally lived there.

Abraham chose what providence gave him. He didn’t quarrel. He didn’t need to fight his way through his destiny. He believed that God was the one who calls the shots. He knew that wherever Lot chose to dwell, he would be living in the opposite direction. He was ready for any possibility. He knew wherever providence would lead him, it would be for the best.

Calm assurance. Faith that rests in the sovereignty of God. Healthy respect for the will of the God of heaven who knew better than his clumsy choices. Abraham knew where his true riches came from. He was willing to let God have His way. Whether he was to live near Sodom or far from it, he knew his security ultimately rests in the spiritual strength of the Almighty.

Lord help me to trust you that way. To be completely submitted to your will and to your sovereignty. Not to fight my way through my destiny. Not to force my way to success and victory but to be submitted to your divine will even if it means letting go of some things that look very promising and nice in human eyes.

Like Abraham, I want to bow myself down to you. Give me the grace to do it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Born in the East and clothed in Oriental form and imagery, the Bible walks the ways of all the world with familiar feet and enters land after land to find its own everywhere. It comes to the palace to tell the monarch that he is a servant of the Most High, and into the cottage to assure the peasant that he can be a son of God. Children listen to its stories with wonder and delight, and wise men ponder them as parables of life.

It has a word of peace for the time of peril, a word of comfort for the time of calamity, a word of light for the hope of darkness. Its oracles are repeated in the assembly of the people, and its counsels whispered in the ear of the lonely. The wicked and the proud tremble at its warnings, but to the wounded and penitent it has a mother’s voice.

No man is poor or desolate who has this treasure for his own. When the landscape darkens and the trembling pilgrim comes to the valley named of the shadow, he is not afraid to enter; he takes the rod and staff of Scripture in his hand, he says to his friend and comrade, “Goodbye, we shall meet again”; and comforted by that support, he goes toward the lonely pass as one who walks through darkness into light.

The great passion in the heart of every human being is to experience the awesome majesty of God’s presence. The highest accomplishment of humanity is entering the overwhelming presence of God. Nothing else can satiate this burning thirst.

The average person, unable to understand this passion for intimacy with God, fills his life with things, hoping somehow to satisfy his inward longing. He chases that which is exterior, hoping to satisfy that inner thirst, but to no avail.

St. Augustine captured the essence of this desire in his CONFESSIONS: “Thou hast created us for Thyself and we are restless until we rest fully in Thee.” This explains the spirit of restlessness pervading every generation and every culture- always striving but never coming to the knowledge of the truth of God’s presence.

Their tactics were so immature and childish, not to mention desperate. They knew they could not stand to reason with Jesus face to face so they approached His disciples to insinuate that something was wrong with Jesus’ having dinner with sinners.

Two things worth mentioning here:

One, when you have trouble with someone, take it up to the right person right away. You don’t need to go around telling other people about it. If you do, you will just sound like you are desperate for attention and approval. Be man enough and face the person. Let him hear those concerns from you.

Two, beware of people who whisper in your ears. If they don’t have the balls to bring their concerns to the right person, it’s probably because their concerns are unreasonable or plain wrong. These kinds of people sow discord. Avoid them.

And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. — Matt. 8:34

Strange of them to ask Him to leave. Never before in their lives have they seen someone who could cast out demons. Never before in their lives have they seen someone who could drive away what’s tormenting their town. Never before in their lives have they seen someone as miraculous.

And yet the one thing they focused on was not their gain of having Jesus in their town but their loss of a herd of pigs. Pigs! Those forbidden animals in the Old Testament they all knew about!

They exchanged Jesus for something that was not even kosher!

When Christ comes into our lives, He drives away the dirt and the dross and the impurities that have been stuck in our lives for a very long time. He cleanses our hearts. He does a major overhaul. Let us not pine for those things anymore. They are not worth the exchange.

Let the swine drown. Let the old ways die. Let the uncleanness be gone. Christ, I ask you to stay in my life.

And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus, and when they saw him, they begged him to leave their region. — Matt. 8:34

They asked Jesus to leave.

Really.

After all that He did, this is the thanks He got from Gadara. Cold stares. Unfriendly faces. Ungratefulness. They shooed Him like a disease. Until several hours ago, they were fine with having a demoniac in their land. Now they couldn’t stand the presence of holiness.

Generations ago, the Hebrew people asked God not to speak to them again. They didn’t like His thundering voice. It made them feel uncomfortable. Worse, it always made them tremble in fear. They’d prefer it if He’d just talk to Moses and Moses will relay the message to them.

The voice of man over preferred over the voice of God. That’s some twisted preference. But God, in His mercy, gave in.

But the Gadarenes made a mistake. Throughout the gospel narrative, there was never an indication that Jesus came back to their town again. His work was done. The demoniac had been freed. The Gadarene people made a choice at their own peril.

According to history, during the Roman- Jewish wars not many years later, the Romans first besieged the town of Gadara. The people who slammed their doors on Jesus’ face must have cried for mercy. They didn’t know that mercy has already been in their doorsteps. They were the ones who drove Him away.

Man is one of your creatures, Lord, and his instinct is to praise you. He bears about him the mark of death, the sign of his own sin, to remind him that you thwart the proud. But still, since he is a part of your creation, he wishes to praise you. The thought of you stirs him so deeply that he cannot be content unless he praises you, because you made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.

[Those] who are called to the most active life must yet have their contemplative hours, and must first find time to be alone with God. Those are not fit to speak of the things of God in public to others, who have not first conversed with those things in secret by themselves.

When Christ would appear as a Teacher come from God, it shall not be said of him, “He is newly come from travelling, he has been abroad, and has seen the world;” but, “He is newly come out of the desert, he has been alone conversing with God and his own heart.”

–Matthew Henry Commentary of the Whole Bible

When the dove from heaven came down to Jesus during His baptism, it was the physical symbol that the Holy Spirit was with Him. Then a voice was heard. God the Father affirmed the Sonship of Jesus. This is one of the rare passages of the Bible where the Holy Trinity were all present in one particular scene.

Few verses later, Jesus was led by the Spirit to the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. You know Satan’s first bullet? “If you are the Son of God… I dare you to prove it!”

Dirty old trickster. After the glowing affirmation and display of the Triune God, Satan had the gall to question Jesus’ deity.

Listen Christian, if Satan did that to Jesus, he will do that to you. Fasten your heart and mind in the truth that you are a child of God. Settle that in your heart. Engrave that in your mind.

There will be days when the devil will use your difficult circumstances to plant the idea of doubt in your mind. Brace yourself for those days. Fortify your life with the Word of God so that when it happens, you will be able to say, like Jesus, “it is written…”