Nobody Home, Nowhere To Run, Just a Dead End Alleyway (following quotes from the Complete Works Of Francis Schaeffer volume 4 & 5.
• “For man is not just a chance configuration of atoms in the slip stream of meaningless chance history”. NO, MAN, made in the image of God, has a purpose-to be in relationship to the God who is there.”
• “What marks our own generation? It is the fact that modern man thinks there is nobody home in the universe. NOBODY TO LOVE, NOBODY COMFORT HIM, even while he seeks desperately to find comfort in the limited, finite, horizontal relationships of life.”
• The Fragmentation of Humanity:
Theological: fragmentation between God and man
Psychological: fragmentation between man and his mind, his soul or heart
Sociological: fragmentation between man and his neighbor (humanity & nations)
What or who fills the fractures?
• Resulting ethos: The erosion of cultural norms (absolutes, form and freedom, the Constitutional authority) that has led to a vacuum thereby lending to an elite group who give authoritative arbitrary absolutes. To quote FAS “… if there is no absolutes by which to judge society, then society becomes absolute.”
TWO KINGDOMS
Our confrontation now in America is with the Kingdom of Man: TYRANNY>ONENESS
Our Hope for Humanity comes in an Invitation to the Kingdom of God:
Matthew 3:1
Matthew 4:17
• Repent: “RETHINK YOUR THINKING. Repent , as Jesus commanded in Matthew 4:17. REPENT just means to turn back on how you are thinking about things and reconsider”.(book by Dallas Willard, “Living In Christ Presence” p. 15).
Matthew 6:32-33
• Seek First the Kingdom of God:
Hebrews 11:6; Jeremiah 29:13
Authenticity in seeking
• The Story of Nicodemus: an example of authentic seeking
John 3:1-21
• Rebirth: Born IntoThe Kingdom Of God (Metamorphosis)
• A renewed existence, a second birth, the real you whom God indwells creating a masterpiece to accomplish great things in you and through you.
• A NEW PERSON: see 2 Corinthians 5:16-18
• A NEW IDENTITY: 1Peter 2:4-12
• A Kingdom Life: Colossians 1:11-14