My friend Bob has sent this weekly post from his pastor. You know me, I have to make some observations. I’ll include the entire musing from Pastor Tim, as a comment in order to keep this post from being too long, otherwise I will quote him with my observations within this post.

First: Tim has a good want:

“I want better people to populate that world”

This is a good want, it’s a godly want, and it only comes from a faith journey as Tim points out later, but what he points out first implies that good and evil are produced on the same tree. Although this can be true, still people emphasize one over the other mainly because of their beliefs and desires. Scripture seems to agree with Tim’s initial want — that good fruit grows on good trees. Tim states it this way:

[What] “The good people can and will do is awe-inspiring and can leave you just as speechless as the evil they can do. I have wept tears of grief and horror at the atrocities of humanity and I have wept tears of hope and gratitude at the kindness of humanity. Sometimes all in the same day.”

I think I understand what Tim, is saying here, but it raises questions in light of other things being said by him:

He promotes a Faith journey over Information: yet faith without the knowledge of the word can be easily misplaced. He says:

“information is not the answer to the problems that reside in our hearts it is our current time.”

I think he is saying that information is over emphasized in this current time, or he may be saying that our current is more important than information. I believe either position is incorrect. So, I have a mixed response to this statement that I will explain later. But with the following I totally agree:

“It’s’ living in the utter trust and surrender to the creator’s will for us selflessly that we find the promised shalom and abundant life our souls were created and endlessly long for.

So when I say I want better people to populate the world that my kids and grandkids need to live in I guess what I mean is that I want people who have found themselves transformed by the journey of faith. Humble people whose hearts have been broken by their own capacity for darkness and whose souls have been reborn by the grace they’ve found in their brokenness. Selfless people who know that they have been loved in spite of their darkness and so can love others in spite of their darkness. People of hope for what we can be and courage to take the journey.”

I have highlighted two things here in an an overall statement with which I fully agree, but which at the same time seems in conflict with Tim’s statement and his seeming concern over the information overuse. I say this, because, to get to faith and a new heart, and the goodness they produce, we need to Know, as Tim points out in his statement, but in order for one to know, it requires knowledge or information. Knowledge of truth, even the truth concerning what evil really is, which most people won’t even acknowledge today; and Biblical knowledge is the only way that we can know.

Tim’s own musings carry with them the purpose of communicating a knowledge with a purpose. I would say that this age or time in history is promoting the information and knowledge of what is an acceptance of evil, rather than that of goodness; because the truth or the knowledge of God and His word is being rejected, or as we are hearing today is being cancelled. We can want these end results, which I fully agree with Tim about, but we cannot arrive at this conclusion within people without their proper understanding of truth or information being made known or communicated to all about their sin, and that comes in the form of information or knowledge about all sin. And unfortunately it is the understanding today of what is “Truth” that divides this country. When evil becomes the unchecked desire of man’s heart, the world is topsy-turvy. Cancelling anything and anybody with which or with whom we disagree, because they are promoting the knowledge of good and the truth about sin and evil, only found within scripture, is really our current problem. When men in large numbers decide for evil over God’s good; then there is nothing left but the destruction that we see going on in our communities; the attacks on what is good from within our institutions, including our schools,and often our churches; the weakened military with the propaganda against God’s values concerning His creation; and this all together is leading to the removal of God’s blessings, and the coming of His judgment. There needs to be first the knowledge that these things must be stopped by good Godly men. But it is my belief that until we are weeping over our own misplaced understanding of how our failure to see how much we ourselves are hurting God and causing Him to weep; then there is no hope. He sees all of us with a log in our own eye, and a disdain for others sin. This site loss on the part of most Christians needs removing and that removal is called revival. And it is necessary before we can ever reach the end result that Tim seeks. — good people…

We live in an imperfect world. But, up until now a world which because of free speech allowed man the choice between good and evil. More and more in our day we are looking only for politically correct speech, which is intended to limit the information to the good side of knowledge, while advancing the knowledge of evil, and the acceptance of sin.

If the Tim’s of this world are unwilling to use the courage of which he speaks to promote the knowledge needed to cause men to reflect properly on their own evil side and opt for what God offers to promote their good side; then there will be less and not more goodness in this world.

For a rather large part of the church to accept that only certain skin colors harbor evil; and that only certain lives matter; and that only certain political views must be cancelled out and caused to have no voice, is not going to lead Tim to what he desires for his grandchildren. Now maybe he knows this, and maybe I’m misunderstanding him, but this is not what I get from his musings. God speaks here to Tim’s and to our desire as well, because we as believers are all ministers. We are all a part of His holy priesthood:

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. (NASB1995)

Praying for myself to have clear vision and Hearing from Father God. Praying for all those desiring good to wake up. And for those seeking for forgiveness for their sin, to come to know just how much Jesus loved them to die for them even while they were disregarding Him. And for those who do not know that they have sinned to find that truth before it is too late.