"All Is Well. All Is Not Well"

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

"All Is Well.  All Is Not Well"

    Ultimately, all is well.  God's eternal purpose in Christ will be fulfilled.  His trusting children in Christ will be glorified.  And His determination to exalt Christ proceeds to the inevitable culmination of His Son's exaltation and rule.

   "Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father, when He shall have put down all rule and authority and power.  For He must reign until He hath put all enemies under His feet" (I Corinthians 15:24-25).

   In temporal, earthly terms, however, all is not well.  God is not satisfied with things as they are, nor should we be.  The Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done," clearly confirming our need to long for a coming day of righteousness that has not yet arrived (Matthew 6:10).  The peace we have in Christ does not preclude a restless discontent with a "world which lieth in wickedness" (I John 5:19).  Bible believing Christians are not "que sera, sera" fatalists who blithely and without compassion assign all things to God's determinate will.  Scripture loses all meaning if we fail to see a Lord whose ultimate purposes will be fulfilled, but who grieves about the world as presently constituted.  

   Again, however, in the ultimate sense, all is well.  Thus, we live in the spiritual dichotomy of assurance and disturbance.  We rejoice in the Lord Jesus and His abundant provision for a heart maintained in peace and joy amid the turmoil of a fallen world.  We also sorrow as we see the effects of sin and its horrific degradation.  Reality demands that we journey upon these dual rails of awareness so plainly laid down by the revelation of Scripture.  "As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing" testified the Apostle Paul who so well knew both tracks of "all is well" and "all is not well" (II Corinthians 6:10).  We must join our brother of old in the challenging perception and response that requires both gratitude and grieving.  "Serve the Lord with gladness… Blessed are they that mourn" (Psalm 100:2; Matthew 5:4).  We look into the heart of Christ and find our own hearts filled with light.  We also, however, look at the realities of this present fallen planet and find our hearts hurting and often even broken.  It must presently be this way, and it will if we walk in the light of God's Truth.  "Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep" (Romans 12:15).

   The mystery of God's way transcends our full understanding.  An all powerful Being made angels and people with the freedom to reject Him and bring utter catastrophe upon His creation.  He did so knowing that this would require His beloved Son to suffer and die by His own "determinate counsel and foreknowledge" (Acts 2:23).  Moreover, God knew He would have to pour out His fury against sin upon the Lord Jesus so that He might save us from the "wrath to come" (I Thessalonians 1:10).  He nevertheless created all things according to the perfection of His love and wisdom.  He made a universe that would bring Him both joy and grief, a creation that would ultimately become all He intended it to be, but not before grave darkness and sorrow descended upon it.  Yes, all is well when we look at the full picture.  But all is not yet well when the scenes of a fallen and dying world disturb our hearts.  These are the rails, the rails of Truth upon which we presently journey.  All is well.  All is not well.  We must accept the blessed but difficult perspective, joining Paul in being "sorrowful, yet always rejoicing."

"Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness."

(Proverbs 14:13)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ." 

(Ephesians 1:3)

   

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