SeniorSeeker
Active member
"[size=x-large]O[/size]ne does not need to be chained in a Marxist dungeon to know the struggle, the controversy, between good and evil, right and wrong, faith and unbelief that rages around and in us. Two souls are lodged within our breast and struggle there for undivided reign. Malcolm Muggeridge described the "human drama" as unfolding an "obvious dichotomy" between two forces; "One is the Devil," he wrote, "and the other God." Expressing the same idea, American jurist Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote: "We are all soldiers in a great campaign, the details of which are veiled from us." However we personally frame the terms of this "great campaign" or understand the issues involved, the battle rages, in one form or another everywhere and with everyone. Only two ways out of it exist - never to be born, or to die.
For most of us, the struggle for faith, dignity, or obedience isn't as violent, as stark, or so instantly consequential. The battle is, nevertheless, just as real, just as profound, and ultimately just as consequential even if its manifestations often appear more subtle. Who can pass even a single day without making moral choices or having the conscience twiddled, prodded or tweaked? Though not usually confronted by extremes, we're always tipping, or vacillating, in small steps toward them. And as we slowly approach the extremes, the far edges, they don't seem so distant or extreme after all.
Through no choice of our own, we exist in a world in which good and evil, right and wrong, law and lawlessness, dignity and dishonor, faith and unbelief vie for supremacy. Everyday our thoughts, actions and words place us on one side or another in this great spiritual conflict" (The Day Evil Dies by Clifford Goldstein). I pray none of us are "convenient" listeners, Father, often hearing only what we want to hear. Please keep prodding and don't ever give up on us. Amen.
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:15 Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (not just the ones we choose to keep).
Luke 6:46 Jesus speaking, "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord', and not do the things which I say?"
For most of us, the struggle for faith, dignity, or obedience isn't as violent, as stark, or so instantly consequential. The battle is, nevertheless, just as real, just as profound, and ultimately just as consequential even if its manifestations often appear more subtle. Who can pass even a single day without making moral choices or having the conscience twiddled, prodded or tweaked? Though not usually confronted by extremes, we're always tipping, or vacillating, in small steps toward them. And as we slowly approach the extremes, the far edges, they don't seem so distant or extreme after all.
Through no choice of our own, we exist in a world in which good and evil, right and wrong, law and lawlessness, dignity and dishonor, faith and unbelief vie for supremacy. Everyday our thoughts, actions and words place us on one side or another in this great spiritual conflict" (The Day Evil Dies by Clifford Goldstein). I pray none of us are "convenient" listeners, Father, often hearing only what we want to hear. Please keep prodding and don't ever give up on us. Amen.
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:15 Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (not just the ones we choose to keep).
Luke 6:46 Jesus speaking, "But why do you call Me 'Lord, Lord', and not do the things which I say?"
God Bless! Betty