FOOD FOR YOUR JOURNEY
14 December
WHAT SHALL I GIVE?
The famous British statesman and Prime Minister William Gladstone, on his last visit to Oxford, sat in the senior common room of Christ Church College discussing the changes in Britain he had witnessed in his lifetime. One of the students asked him if he was worried about the future, to which he replied:
Yes there is one thing that frightens me, and that thing is the fear of God seems to be dying out in the minds of men.
I wonder what Mr Gladstone would say if he were on earth today.
I don’t think I would be far wrong if I say that in modern day Britain there is no fear of God anywhere. Apart from born again Christians, the fear of God has no place in the lives of millions and millions of people.
I remember many years ago discussing with a very Godly man, the influence Rock Music has had on people in general and his reply shocked me somewhat in that he maintained that in many respects Rock Music with its beat of the drum went hand in hand with demon worship. He cited the first rock concert of the Beatles when they were introduced to the U.S.A. and a conversation he had with a band leader who had attended the concert. The leader said that he had witnessed, first hand, the unbelievable behaviour of the young girls who were there.
In my own experience I am somewhat forced to say that the level to which modern pop or rock music has reached has sunk to well below ground level in most instances, where the lyrics openly mock God and Jesus and anything that is remotely Holy. The opposition to Jesus Christ is both patent and blatant. Sadly this is nothing new because the Beatles press officer, at that time, is on record as saying:
It is as if they have founded a new religion which is so anti-Christ that it is shocking. They are completely anti-Christ. I mean, I’m anti-Christ as well but they are so anti-Christ they shock me, which is not an easy thing! (end quote)
There is no fear of God before their eyes.
The film critic of Newsweek Magazine once wrote on a film that mocked the Lord Jesus Christ, saying:
It is one of the two fiasco’s of modern cinema. It is fatal foolishness everywhere….. We danced and sang and Jesus was crucified, and a good time was had by all. Lord, forgive them. They know not what they are doing. (end quote)
God spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us all. He did this because He longs to spare, and He will spare all who in reverence FEAR HIM and His pending wrath, and who repentantly trust the Saviour.
Blessed Lord, grant grace to all who would trust the Saviour, that they might live in reverential fear of God. In the name of the Lord Jesus we pray, Amen.