I say: "Gimme strength for round 5"
He said:"You don't need no strength you need to grow up, son"
I said: "Growin' up leads to growin' old and then to dying, and dying
to me don't sound like all that much fun!"
~Authority Song - John Mellencamp~
There was a saying back in the sixties which said, "Don't trust anyone over 30." Over time, this phrase has evolved into, "Never trust authority." That, unfortunately, is where we find ourselves today. A nation of people who believe with all of our hearts that it is we ourselves which shape our own destiny. This could not be further from the truth I'm afraid. For to hold this line of thinking is to ignore our heavenly Father who not only created the earth and the universe, but gave us life as well. We do well to trust in our hearts of the creation story of our Lord, but in our arrogance we've dropped the ball. I say arrogance because it is we ourselves who have given God a back seat in our own desire to be in control of our life. We decide our circumstances, our actions dictate our lives...I...I...I! Tell me, where is God in this line of thought? Dennis has a good analysis of this line of thinking, that there indeed is NO independent self. There is only one true self, and that is God Himself. Everything besides that ultimately falls under His control. Our lives, the trees around us and all which surrounds us, all are a direct result of the one true self...God. Telling someone that they are not ultimately responsible for their lives or the world around them can bring some resistance. It did for me. I was like everyone else, with a deep seated knowledge that I was my own independent being who decided my own destiny. How far I was from the truth. For it is our very flesh which will bring us to believe that "We got this" and falsely lay claim that we ourselves control our lives. It is this very same arrogance which compells us to question the authorities around us.
13He has delivered us from the power of darkness and cconveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. 15He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or eprincipalities or fpowers. All things were created through Him and for Him. 17And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 18And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
Colossions 1: 13 - 18 NKJV
As the apostle Paul tells us in Colossions 1, it is Christ Jesus who is before all things and for whom all was created. In Jesus all things consist. Now, this might just deflate more than a few egomaniacs out there who hold fsat to the belief that it is we ourselves who control what happens to us. It is this very same independent self thinking which led satan to rebel against his creator. Satan thought that he himself would be more important than God. How did that work out for him? If we hold on to this line of thinking that we ourselves are our own independent self, then it won't be too long before reality smacks us in the head. If we are truly independent, then why is it that we require something in order to survive? For we all need food, water, shelter and a hospitable environment in order to survive. Would a truly independent being need such things? Yes, we can grow our food, and build our dwellings, but then what? Don't we end up yearning for rain to give us water we need to survive? Who is it that brings that rain? Indeed, there are many who hold fast to the belief that they are truly a independent self while praying to God to provide for them, go figure. We do well to realize that it is God Himself who is the one and only true self and all else revolves around Him. That authority we cannot question.
~Scott~
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