SCRIPTURE: Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say, “God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer. James 1:13-15 MSG
QUOTE: Experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms of government those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny. – Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States; Author, Declaration of Independence
THOUGHT: I think the word choice of Thomas Jefferson, perverted, is almost inspired in its precision. It’s like a laser beam on a target. Synonyms for perverted include depraved, corrupt, debauched, warped, and degenerate – let that sink in for a minute.
Even 250 years ago, Jefferson had witnessed the cycle of entropy in history and in his own lifetime. Entropy is a disordered state that occurs in a system, and the word comes from Greek for “transformation.” It’s usually a law of thermodynamics and well above my pay grade, but its fifth definition is “a doctrine of inevitable social decline and degeneration.” I can get my head around that.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The system wasn’t created that way. I love the way James expresses it: God is impervious to evil, and puts evil in no one’s way. The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us.
We are the variables in an otherwise ordered universe. We can flow along with the perversion of our democratic republic, or we can shake off the sin that so easily entangles us and run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb. 12:1). No one said it would be easy to run up entropy mountain.
PRAYER: Oh God, deliver us from evil for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
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Blogger Amy Clemens is the author of Walking When You’d Rather Fly: Meditations on Faith After the Fall. In it she explores childhood sexual abuse and how it impacted her faith (or lack thereof) for four decades. You’ll find not only her story, but better yet, the Big Story of God.
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