Panic!

The evening TV news and our evening meal is becoming more and more an elixir for disaster! I sat relaxed at the table after a busy day, reflectively contemplating the thoughts of delicious food and family warmth. 

Then it started! “The Federal Government is spending $1.5 million per month on airfares transferring illegal immigrants from Christmas Island to the mainland ....”, “Pensioners are facing severe hardship in not being able to afford food and heating in the oncoming winter ....”, “Many Queensland flood victims are living in houses without walls, the victims of ruthless insurance companies and government ineptness . . .”,“With overcrowding in Christmas Island detention centers, the Federal Government is providing accommodation for illegal immigrants in 4 star resorts at the tax payers expense . . .”.

My thoughts of food and family slide into oblivion. My stomach churns at the absolute stupidity of government mismanagement. Anger stirs my emotions as my mind sifts the underlying motives in political gymnastics. I attack my steak as though I am in hand to hand combat with every politician and decision making official in such positions of power.

And then I thought of Jesus. . . .

John the fisherman recalls the time He sat at an evening meal (John 13:1) with His “family”. Knowing His time had come, and knowing who He was and where He was going, He established in their minds one incredible absolute:  Jesus is the Messiah! Messiah: the centre of highest human expectation; liberator of a country or people; the One sent by God to set people free. Politicians and governments neither concerned Him nor misdirected Him from His objective. They knew it, so they murdered Him. That assumed their plans would continue unhindered. They were wrong. What they did not know was that His plan included their plan . . . and  they were mere puppets that jumped as the Almighty God pushed their buttons. So the prophet wrote, He makes the rulers of the earth as nothing (Isaiah 40:26).

And so, fellow pilgrim, as we journey together into what may well be a chaotic future, take heart. The evening news is merely the tragic babbling of godless fools, endeavoring to convince themselves they are invincible. They are simply the deity of their own imaginations. Created man thinks he controls the world. Temporarily, it does lie in the power of the devil one (1 John 5:19).

But our God is in control. When enough is enough, and all that is said is said, and all that is done is done, the trumpet will sound heralding the royal decree: JESUS IS COMING! WOW!