Seek God In A Secular World
Word-Of-The-Day: ‘But if from there <from secular things> you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.’ (Deuteronomy 4:29)
Some have asked how I prepare for the Monday Night Bible lessons each week, and how I come up with the plethora of information and Scriptural knowledge for the Word-of-the-Day posts. I am not a know-it-all, I am really a no-I’m-not. While the Lord has gifted me with a bank of memory where I can recall a lot of trivial data off the top of my head, I more value the common sense He has shown me over the years, much of it learned through that higher educational process known as the ‘School of Hard Knocks’. Some lessons, like ‘wear gloves when turning wrenches’, needs repeating several times before I get it.
I prepare the old-fashioned way for the lessons; I do the lesson outlines with my old NIV Bible open; the best thing ever was being handed a Bible that was in modern English, and not old English, as I could never get into all the ‘thou’ and ‘yea, verily’. Often, I refer to Matthew Henry’s Commentary and in a new-fangled twist to old-school I also use the ‘Blue Letter Bible’ web site that I can have all the Scriptural translations and refer to other commentaries so I can get as much accuracy as possible. Of course, I rely heavily on the Holy Spirit to guide the lesson preparation where it needs to go and flow to. (The picture in today’s post is a reasonable representation of this prep, though the gentleman needs another 50 pounds or so added to his frame to be realistic.)
For the Word-of-the-Day, it usually is whatever is occurring in the secular world at that particular moment when I start writing. Things occurring in current events seem to be the most exciting things occurring right now. Sometimes the topic is something that someone brings up (like this), and I try to find the way I can turn it into a lesson. I look for the lesson in the event, type in ‘Scriptures on …’ the particular topic that sticks out, and search the web for sites having the Scriptures by that particular topic. I then go through and pick out the verse or verses that best convey what the lesson is about, then write to those verses and how they relate to the topic, through the Word.
When keeping the Lord in the forefront of your life, you will begin to see the Lord in places where one would not normally think to look for Him. Deuteronomy 4 is a set of ordinances by God to the Israelites via Moses to obey, and cautions the Israelites to stay away from that which can corrupt (namely idols and false gods). However, we need to function in the secular world; there are bills to pay, people to deal with, and with some exceptions we work (or use to work) in jobs that are secular in nature. Our entertainment and news come from mostly secular sources.
God understands this, of course. He knew the Israelites would eventually have ‘good times’ in this secular world which creates ‘weak people’ in Faith, and ‘weak people’ will turn the secular into a religious concept. Look no further for an example than ‘climate change’; people who are weak in Godly Faith are driven by a fanatical desire to get to ‘zero carbon emissions’ to the point of our collective detriment in terms of power shortages (while pushing electric vehicles) and heading us to potential economic/societal collapse.
But Deuteronomy 4:29 gives us the secret in surviving the secular world, namely seek God in all things. As mentioned previously, I like my music (metal) as I like my woman, loud and screaming at me. (I mostly listen to it now only on the radio, as it is edited and cleaned up for public consumption.) Usually, there are songs of a secular nature that one can find within it a basis for a Scriptural lesson, where people are looking for good and the Truth within the not-so-good times we experience. There are secular movies, like the Marvel movies, where good eventually triumphs over evil. The secular world through its messaging is seeking for hope and a better situation, a better life. Even communism, as evil and demonic as it is, desires the end result of ‘utopia’, or a world without problems or issues, only good.
This is where we, the Christians, can come in. We have the answer, Jesus Christ! One old secular metal song has the lyrics, ‘I’m waiting here for anyone – to wash it all away’; well, we know who and what can wash away the sins of the world, Jesus through the blood He shed at the cross. We know as Christians what ‘utopia’ is, Eternal life with our Father. Look for the pleas that the secular world is seeking answers to, and it is easy to find a Scripture that answers the question. God has the answers for anything and everything!
