5 Dec 10
            Dear ones…
            Whew! It’s been pretty intense…yesterday and today.  Lots of congestion and unexpected developments.  We were scrambling yesterday to prepare for a church group last evening, our place being the first stop in a progressive dinner…you know, that social dinner event where you go to one home for one course, then to another for the next, etc.  I mentioned to a friend on the phone the other day that we would be participating in a progressive dinner.  There was a brief pause on the other end.  Then he finally said, “I thought you were a conservative.”  I am definitely NOT a “liberal progressive.”
            Not sure how tomorrow will come together.  We’re thinking of making a dash to see some old friends in Yakima—their family reunion surrounding their father’s 90th birthday.  If we go for it, tomorrow will be another very full day.
            Blessings. Have a good night and great week.
                        Love, Dad/Ray
 

5 December 2010
Passage: 1 John 5
Focus: “…the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” 1 John 5:19.
            In order to process this concept properly, we need to bear in mind the clear meaning of the word “world” as it is typically used in the New Testament.  It encompasses the whole realm of philosophy, morality, entertainment, politics, education, etc., that exists in human society independent of, and resistant to, the Kingdom of God.  It is a world system that “is under the control of the evil one.”  At the same time it must also be understood God is Sovereign over ALL, including this opposing kingdom, which is allowed to temporarily exist only by His permissive will.  The great plot and overview of Biblical revelation is that all creation is headed for a great climax when God will eradicate (destroy) the entire world system, including its “head honcho” (Satan), as well as anyone who sides with him.
            John states that “everyone born of God overcomes the world.  This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.  Who is it that overcomes the world?  Only he who believes that Jesus is the son of God” (vv.4-5).
            Is it any wonder, then, why John would give this instruction back in chapter 2?  “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world.  The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.  Dear children, this is the last hour; and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come.  This is how we know it is the last hour” (1 John 2:15-18).
            And is it any wonder that Jesus instructs us to look to the Sovereign God to “deliver us from the evil one” (Matthew 6:13)?
 
“Triumph of wrong is never final victory.”