Sermon: Who Do You Trust? (Part One)
Our Perfect Example
#1716B
Mark Schindler
Given 01-Jul-23; 43 minutes
description: To properly read a book, it is important to read the preface, table of contents, index, and the credentials of the author before exploring the innards of the document. We live in an unhealthy time in which cynical finger-pointing has destroyed confidence in every human institution— political, educational, scientific, and religious. Because lawlessness abounds, the love (or trust) for anyone or anything has become ice-cold (Matthew 24:10-2). If we do not lift our focus above the sun, we will not be released from the spiral into distrust. Genesis 1:26 reveals an explicit and implicit trust between two Spirit Beings, planning to reproduce themselves. We must trust unconditionally in Their perfect plan for us (John 14:6-23). Only those called from the beginning can see what God has been planning. We must constantly look from God's perspective, even when we cannot understand what is going on (Romans 8:28), realizing that if we do not see God, we will have no commitment to the His work. As the world becomes chaotic and lawless, our focus needs to be on God's plan for building His spiritual family (Genesis 1:26-27) developing the same trust that Our Heavenly Father and Savior have for one another.
transcript:
We are going to begin this sermon where I told you the last few times I spoke, with what I feel compelled to give as the baseline of every message God gives me the opportunity to present to you. So if you would please turn with me to John 1, and we will start this message right there.
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was the life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
John 1:10-17 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, "This was He of whom I said, 'He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.'" And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
Let us add a few more of verses from the absolute truth of God's Word that must be a reality in our lives. Turn with me a few chapters ahead to chapter 14 of John.
John 14:1-3 "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, you may be also.
John 14:6 Jesus said to them, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."
John 14:10-14 "Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority, but the Father who dwells in Me does the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me, or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves. Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in My name, I will do it."
John 15:4-5 "Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing."
Richard Ritenbaugh wrote the following in the beginning of his May 2005 Prophecy Watch Forerunner article entitled, "The All Important Introduction to Revelation." I think there is a good overall principle for us to pick up here.
How many times have we opened a book and read every single word from cover to cover? Introductions, prefaces, forwards, acknowledgements, notes from the author, dedications, and copyright pages are sadly neglected opening sections of most books. However, bibliophiles will scream that ignoring these vital early sections is tantamount to sacrilege! Think, they would say, about all the necessary information that is being passed over! Sure, the innards of the book are where all the really fascinating material is, but the introductory material sets the tone for the "good stuff."
Skipping down a bit, Richard continued with a hypothetical regarding someone trying to learn critical lessons from a book without the vital introduction.
It would be also behoove him to check the credentials of the author, as well as those who worked with him in researching, composing, and checking the text. The introduction, perhaps by a different author, might give him a needed perspective on the author and his aims, the scope of the work, and the relevance of the material to the young person's area of interest. What he finds in these opening sections of the book could spell the difference between a satisfied customer and a career boost or a disappointed youngster and poorer to boot!
Richard finishes:
As students of God's Word, especially when we are delving into prophecy, we are often impatient to get to the "good stuff" a few chapters into the book. However, if we skip the material that lays the vital groundwork for what comes later, our understanding, accuracy, and application will probably suffer for it. We would do well to remember that not one of God's words is irrelevant!
Brethren, what we have just read about Jesus Christ is the vital groundwork for every message that each of us may have been given the privilege to share with you whether spoken or written. Our vital introduction, Jesus Christ, representing Himself and the Father together is everything to us. And without Him we can do nothing. He is the vital groundwork for everything that comes later.
Of course, just repeating over and over does not make it a reality in our lives. And that is not my intention. But I do hope in vocalizing this vital preface it will help us keep in front of our minds what we all know intellectually as we try to continue this walk in faith through the power we have been graciously given through Jesus Christ and the Father together.
With all that being said, today I plan to give what I hope will be the first in a series of sermons that I have entitled, "Who Do You Trust?" We are living in a world where confidence and trust, whether in individuals or institutions, is at an all-time low and driving everyone into the cynical mindset of finding fault wherever we look.
Brethren, this is incredibly dangerous because we live in this world under a barrage of cynicism that is destroying relationships all over the place. We live in a time of shotgun finger pointing, as mentioned, and looking for conspiracies under every rock. And as we know from history, sadly, what goes on in the world goes on in the church. If we are not careful to keep our focus on what the Father and Son are doing in perfect unity, we are going to get overwhelmed by perceived conspiracies, bombastic gossip, and everyone else's sins that will destroy our relationships with Jesus Christ and ultimately with one another.
But for those called by the Father to the Son and chosen to faithfully navigate through these times with eyes focused "above the sun," the bond of trust must be coalescing, not shredding. This is not possible in a carnal-minded world that is enmity against God and falling farther away from truth. But through Jesus Christ and the power and strength that only He can give, we must move forward in trust, knowing that God is absolutely going to accomplish exactly what He said in the beginning.
At this point, I think it would be good to remember what goes on when we fail to keep our eyes focused on Jesus Christ. Back in 1997 we, the Church of the Great God, published a small booklet entitled, "For the Perfecting of the Saints." It basically dealt with the scattering of the brethren that had taken place with the distrust that comes from not keeping focus where it belongs, on the real work of God. It would be good at this point to refresh our minds concerning a bit of what John [Ritenbaugh] wrote in the first part of that book, under the heading of "A Church in the Grip of Distrust," as he pleaded with us to get our focus where it belonged. John began,
Most of us are aware of a phenomenon that too often takes place within the church of God. It should not happen, but it does. This phenomenon is that if an attitude or trend begins to develop in the world, we can expect that it will soon enter the church. When it does, it shows that we are not as attuned to the Kingdom of God as we should be—that we are still too attached to the world.
As a July 23, 1995 article in the Washington Post by Liz Spayd, reports the findings of the National Opinion Research Center in Chicago, "Faith in both Congress and the White House is hovering at a 20-year low. Only 12 percent of the public say they have a great deal of confidence in the executive branch, and slightly less than 8 percent characterize their confidence in Congress as substantial.
Trust in other institutions is also on a gradually descending slope. Expressed support for science, medicine, organized religion, labor, and education are all near their low point since researchers began their biennial surveys in the mid-1970s. Earlier Lou Harris polls patterned on similar questions suggested that the decline may have actually begun in the 1960s.
'This is one of the most erratic developments in public opinion in post-World War II era,' said Darrell West, a professor of political science at Brown University. 'There is a deep-seated distrust, not just of government, but of all kinds of institutions that people once had great confidence in.'
Brethren, how much worse is this plague of mistrust now, 25 years later? And how much is it affecting our relationship with Jesus Christ and each other because we are failing to keep our focus where it belongs? John continued a bit further down in his introduction:
As members of God's church, we do not live isolated from what is going on in the larger society. When the massive doctrinal changes took place in our former association, many within the church reacted in much the same way as those in the world react to disturbing events in the areas that greatly concern them. From both within and without, we have been very masterfully set up to withdraw, accuse, and very possibly rebel again.
A little further down in this introduction, John wrote:
In my opinion, the most damage was caused in the area of trust and loyalty. Members of the church have become suspicious, fearful, and distrustful, alarmed and confused by the doctrinal changes. We are fearful of being hurt and misled further. We are unsure whether anybody, especially the ministry, can be trusted, so we do not trust many lay members either. As a result, our loyalty to God, His truth, and to each other has broken down even while we deny that it has happened. [And he cited Matthew 24:12.]
So let us too turn to Matthew 24. But we are going to pick it up a couple of verses earlier than the verse he cited. We will be picking it up in verse 10.
Matthew 24:10-12 "And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold."
We are surrounded by lawlessness. How much is the lawlessness, conspiracy theories, divisiveness of groups in this world, etc., pulled our focus off of the perfect work of the Father and the Son and on to these things around us so that our perspective has been so skewed that we are drifting from the revealed perfect work that needs to be always in front of us?
So this is where we are going to start this series of sermons today: with the bond of trust that is absolute between the Father and the Word and Their work to accomplish what They know is going to be accomplished, exactly as They have determined from the beginning within Their own unbreakable bond of trust. It was always John Ritenbaugh's mission as a faithful shepherd entrusted by God to keep those placed in the Church of the Great God focused on Jesus Christ in preparation for His return. And it is now certainly the focus of Richard, Martin, and myself, God willing, to continue to keep your focus on Jesus Christ and the perfect work of the Father and the Word, while knowing that this world is exponentially spiraling farther into distrust and love waxing cold.
We will be picking up a bit more of this from the booklet in the next sermon. But for right now, I would like to quote one more short paragraph that John wrote and it is important for the rest of this sermon. John wrote under the heading of "The Real Work of God."
Genesis 1:26 expresses the specific purpose statement of the Bible. God, the Creator, the Master Potter, is reproducing Himself! This is THE work of God. He is in the process of making man in His image. That project is completed in two stages, the physical and the spiritual. When the physical aspect was completed at creation, the spiritual one began. This is the overall project He is supervising. God is already a unit: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one!" (Deuteronomy 6:4). God is one, but consists of more than one Person. When Jesus came, He proclaimed the gospel of the Kingdom of God. In doing this, He publicly announced the expansion of this unit to include others besides the two Beings already revealed.
With this in mind, please turn with me back to Genesis 1. It seems that we are starting off today there a couple of times except we are going back to Genesis 1.
Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
I hope, in this next little bit, we are going to see evidence that this was the first declaration of absolute trust, not only between the two of Them, but also Their trust in Their own perfect plan to accomplish what They have set out to do as a master potter designing and building without any encumbrance from the clay. In his comment on this verse, Albert Barnes wrote here,
We evidently enter into a higher scale of being. This is indicated by the counsel or common resolve to create, which is now for the first time introduced into the narrative. When the Creator says, "Let Us make man," He calls attention to the work as one of preeminent importance. At the same time, He sets it before Himself as a thing undertaken with deliberate purpose. This intimates that a new being of higher nature is associated not so much with any part of the rest of the creation, as with the eternal uncreated Himself.
Brethren, I propose to you not only did the Word and the Father trust one another implicitly to take care of Their own parts in getting this done, but They trusted in Their perfect plan and ability to get to the finish of the project exactly as They had laid it out.
We began this sermon in the book of John and with Jesus Christ's own declaration as recorded in John the 14th chapter, where we skipped from verse 6 to verse 10. I did this purposely, because at this point I would like us to turn back to John 14 once more. And this time, we will pick up the critical verses we skipped and we will be starting again with a verse we read because it is important.
John 14:6-9 Jesus said to them, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me [these are the verses we skipped], you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him." Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and that is sufficient for us." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, 'Show us the Father?'"
John 14:15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments."
John 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."
John 14:23 Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him."
Brethren, this was the plan from the beginning and the first and second example are to us of trust is number one, the absolute trust in each other of the Father and the Son. And number two, Their trust in the plan as They determined to accomplish it, to create us in Their image and ultimately, with Their Spirit, binding us all together in unity—a unity of absolute trust that cannot be broken when They have finished Their project to perfection.
We must get firmly in our minds and hearts, as carnally-minded men who cannot see yet with clear perspective our Great God, who inhabits eternity and declares the end from the beginning, the first thing God reveals to us is a lesson in perfect trust as exhibited by God Himself within both relationship and carefully planned and executed work. We are going to turn to God's declaration about Himself in Isaiah 46, but first I would like to begin with a few other verses in Isaiah that speak to our limited perspective and the limits we may be setting on our Great God in our hearts and minds because we do not really see and believe Him.
We are going to begin in Isaiah chapter 40. His words here are to physical Israel, but they should mean much more to us who have been given the privilege of literally walking with Him and His Spirit in us.
Isaiah 40:1 "Comfort, yes, comfort My people!" says your God.
So words of comfort to us.
Isaiah 40:4-8 "Every valley shall be exalted and every mountain will be brought low; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough place is smooth; the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." The voice said, "Cry out!" And he said, "What shall I cry?" "All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it; surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever."
Isaiah 40:12-18 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, measured heaven with a span, and calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales in the hills in a balance? Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or as His counselor has taught Him? With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of justice? Who taught Him knowledge, and showed Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop in a bucket, and are counted as the small dust on the scales; look, He lifts up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor its beasts sufficient for the offering. All nations before Him are as nothing, and they are counted by Him less than nothing and worthless. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare Him?
Isaiah 40:21-23 Have you not known? And have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its habitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing; He makes judges of the earth useless.
Isaiah 40:25-26 "To whom then will you liken Me, or to whom will I be equal?" says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high, and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number; He calls them all by name, by the greatness of His might and the strength of His power; not one is missing.
Isaiah 40:29-31 He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
Brethren, do we really see our Great God, who in absolute trust in what They are doing together are working out Their perfect plan down to the last detail so that we can patiently wait on Them so that we can walk in faith and not be weary in these days by following Their example? Although addressed to physical Israel, how much more to the spiritual Israel at this end time do these words need to be spoken? What we are about to read in Isaiah 43 should be a reality of perspective to those with God's Holy Spirit upon whom the end of the age has come. It must be the reality of seeing God so that nothing around us will distract us from believing the perfect example of trust that God has set before us. So if it would turn now as an example, right from the beginning of the Book (Genesis 1:26), of perfect trust that They have laid everything out.
Isaiah 43:1 But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and He formed you, O Israel: [just consider this to the spiritual Israel of God] "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine."
Isaiah 43:4-13 "Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honored and I have loved you' therefore I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west; I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not keep them back!' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth—everyone who is called by My name, whom I have created for My glory; I have formed him, yes, I made him." Bring out the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together, and let the people be assembled.
Who among them can declare this, and show us former things? Let them bring out their witnesses, that they may be justified; or let them hear and say, "It is truth." "You are My witnesses," says the Lord, "and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides Me, there is no savior. I have declared and saved, I have proclaimed, and there was no foreign God among you; therefore, you are My witnesses," says the Lord, "that I am God. Indeed before the day was, I am He; and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand; I work, and who will reverse it?"
God has gathered spiritual Israel from all over the world, from all corners of the earth. And we know these scriptures apply to when Jesus Christ is leading Israel back. But how much more should we take them to heart now?
Please turn with me to that scripture I wanted to go to in the first place as we remember what we just read.
Isaiah 46:9-10 Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times things that are not yet done, saying, "My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure."
Only those who have been called by the Father to His Son and are sharing Their Holy Spirit of truth, can have eyes to see that God's plan, purpose, and execution has been working from the beginning exactly as the Father and the Word declared it. We must not try to limit God with our limited perspective that makes Them subject to anything that happens within Their plan. Brethren, everything is on the schedule and in order that They have determined in trust to create us in Their image. We must be looking at all that is going on around us from God's perspective of absolute control over everything, even when it seems to be incomprehensible to our limited human thinking.
Let us look at three scriptures that will continue to be head scratchers to any who focus on what is going around around us rather than on Jesus Christ. We are going to start with two and we will comment after the third.
Proverbs 16:4 The Lord has made all for Himself, yes, even the wicked for the day of doom.
Now please turn back to the book of John and Jesus Christ's words in chapter 17.
John 17:1-2 Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son may also glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him."
John 17:6-8 "I have manifested Your name to the men whom you have given Me out of this world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came from forth from You; and they have believed that You sent me."
John 17:12 [this is the head scratcher] "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.
And now please turn with me to Romans 8.
Romans 8:28-30 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He predestined, those He called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
Brethren, we have read through these scriptures because, as I said, they are head scratchers to those who continue to try to make sense of things through what is going on around us from the humanly considered perspective. When we do this, we are limiting God to our rationalized perspective rather than seeing God beyond the limits of human reasoning. Do we really see God so in faith we can understand there is freedom to choose distinctly involved in God's plan as He is creating us in His image and likeness. But He is totally and absolutely moving His plan forward exactly as He has declared from the beginning, without having to rely on the folly of men to allow Him to accomplish His predetermined plan.
As we continue to see things unfold all around us, how much do we limit God's limitless power, authority, and foresight to accomplish His declared plan from the beginning in our own minds every time we think He is merely allowing something to happen to accomplish His very deliberate plan. We need to be very careful, brethren, not to get caught up in the traps set on both sides. On the one side, considering that everything, every little thing, is predestined to happen or on the other side where we cannot see God in absolute control, purposefully driving everything in the direction He has determined.
John Ritenbaugh's signature sermon, as he himself considered it, "Do You See God?" was the very first sermon he delivered from God to the people God had committed to John's care as a shepherd to keep God's people pointed to God and not the ministry. He knew when we drop our sights down to the level of looking at men rather than the Great God, carnal minded men are going to miss the mark. We find ourselves looking merely to men and not the Great God who declares the end from the beginning and not believing what He clearly reveals in the truth of His Word as He sees it from His perspective.
John Ritenbaugh began his 30-plus years of shepherding this small work, focused not on himself or on any of the ministry, but on Jesus Christ, knowing without Him we can do nothing. And we are all here only by the grace of God for His honor and glory. John began that sermon in the Church of the Great God before he even knew this was the name God had chosen for this group, to keep us pointed at Him with these words and probably almost tongue in cheek, I guess, or just that he knew what the truth was about, what he started to say. John said,
It seems as though Someone designed the sermonette to go with my with the sermon. As a matter of fact, the title of my sermon was mentioned in the sermonette, and that is, "Do You See God?" I can guarantee you, on the authority of the Word of God, that if you do not see God, then you are going to have a very difficult time having any kind of deep commitment, either to your own marriage—or (most important of all) to the work of God.
We have an old saying in the United States of America that "seeing is believing." We even have a state, Missouri, that has the motto, "The show-me state." The implication is that, unless you show me, I am not going to believe what you are telling me is true. It seems as though we Americans have grown quite cynical and skeptical about things. We are constantly bombarded with television, movies, and the entertainment industry. We know that much of what we see is either staged or faked or blown out of proportion.
We take life very skeptically today. When we hear something, we are not at all sure that we believe it. I know that you know, but I do not know how deeply you know or understand that, just because one "sees" in the biblical context does not mean that one will understand or believe what is told him. Now, let us begin this sermon in John 1, where the apostle John writes:
John 1:14 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Let that set the stage for the subject of this sermon. Jesus Christ was seen—He was seen in the flesh. This was no ordinary human being! It was God that the people "beheld." Now go back to verse 10, talking about the Word"
John 1:10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.
The people in His day and age saw Him. Did they believe Him? Did they see God in the flesh walking with them? Teaching them? Giving them the eternal truths of life? Showing them how to live, the way they live—both by word and example? Were they just so overwhelmed by the awe of knowing that this was God? He even proclaimed Himself as being such! Were they so overwhelmed that they said, "Yes, I see. I believe. I'm going to follow." No. The Bible's own witness is that they did not know Him, even though they saw Him.
Brethren, do you see God? This was the focus that God provided for us through all who have gone before us in faith. This was the focus that John Ritenbaugh, by the grace of God, tried to shepherd us towards. It was not toward a relationship focused on John or a seat in the Church of the Great God. It was toward a profound relationship with Jesus Christ so that He and the Father would abide in us to finish the plan that we can trust has been perfectly designed and implemented to bring us into Their Family, where the bond of absolute trust is assured and will never be broken.
Do we see God and trust Him to do what He has already determined to make sure this bond of trust will never be broken? We have just begun to scratch the surface of this issue of trust that we are going to get into more detail when, God willing, I have the next opportunity to speak to you in a month. We will be examining more closely from God's Word how well do we see God, trusting Him so that He can continue to work and trust us? Do you see God has declared the end of His work from the beginning? But this is not predestination. We can still fall short, but only if we fail to trust God who Himself has absolute trust in His own carefully laid plan to create us in Their image and likeness.
Our perspective must be more in line with God's than what we can see as the chaos and confusion around us. If we do not see God and the clear truth of His control in creating us in His image is absolute. We need to keep our eyes focused on God, trying to see it all from His perspective. And right from the beginning, He gave us the perfect example of trust. Genesis 1:26-27, as developed through the rest of God's Word, shows us the perfect example of 1), the mutual trust of the Father and the Word in each other, and 2), Their own trust in Their plan and execution of Their work to bring us into Their Family.
As the times grow worse, please keep looking to see God's hand working for the glory, and do not—do not!—limit Him in anything He is doing because we still fall so far short. Brethren, do you trust God, our Great God who declares the end from the beginning? Or someone declaring opinions written within the growing chaos and around us.
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