“Whither Shall I Flee?”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Whither Shall I Flee?"       

     

     The professing atheist or agnostic disbelieves not because of intellectual reasons - "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and godhead" - but rather because of behavioral allowances made possible by unbelief - "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil" (Romans 1:20; John 3:19).

   God bears plain witness to all of His existence and being, and our responsibility to Him.  "The true Light… lighteth every man that cometh into the world" (John 1:9).  Regardless of bluster to the contrary, every unbeliever lives in a creation that teems with the Lord's reality and His communication thereof.  The Light shines, the Voice resounds, the Hand works, and the Heart moves upon and within the spirits of all to reveal the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ (Psalm 36:9; 19:1-3; Job 12:10; John 15:26).  One cannot help but see, hear, feel, and experience.  However, one can reject the Obvious: "the fool hath said in his heart, There is no God" (Psalm 14:1).  Note the internal venue where the rejection takes place: "in his heart."  Again, the issue is not fundamentally intellectual, but rather spiritual and moral.  "I do not believe" or "I cannot believe" are non sequiturs in those who "live and move and have their being" in God (Acts 17:28).  "I will not believe" - this constitutes the truth of those who rage against Reality.

   I am currently reading a book by a believer who in his younger days embraced the naturalistic notion that a universe which exists by continual causality somehow originated without cause.  The man was intellectually convinced, but he admits that the power of such darkness actually involved its allowing him to follow his natural disposition and carnal lusts.  This is the issue.  Unbelief allows that which faith will not.  The Light, the Voice, the Hand, and the Heart work in perfect coordination to reveal God and His truth to all.  We cannot avoid the Obvious.  We can deny it, however, as do all until we realize our foolishness, and even more, our moral culpability before our Creator and Sustainer.  As we seek to share the Gospel, we do well to remember that the most strident atheist has lived the entirety of his life seeing, hearing, feeling, and experiencing God's reality.  He may reject the Obvious on the intellectual surface of his brain, thus leading to the rage caused by the internal conflict of embracing darkness while being bathed in Light.  But deeply within, he knows.  He knows.

"Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me.  Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit?  Or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?"

(Psalm 139:5-7)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. 

(Ephesians 6:11-12)