Ensign: Past The Olympic Truce

All ye inhabitants of the world, and dwellers on the earth, see ye, when he lifteth up an ensign on the mountains; and when he bloweth a trumpet, hear ye. Isaiah 18:3

AN ENSIGN ON THE MOUNTAINS 19 August 2016 

Sunday is the last day of the Summer Olympic Games that began two weeks ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It's the first to be held in a South American city (if you're thinking of Mexico City from 1968, that would be Central America, which is technically North America to the end of Panama) and the first to be held entirely in winter because the Southern Hemisphere has winter when the Northern Hemisphere has summer, and vice versa. Is that appropriate or ominous? I'll leave that to you, but let me share a message I wrote on the eve of the Summer Olympic Games in Athens that I'm called to believe fits our time. In the world of ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were also held every four years. During the two weeks they were held as well as just before and after the games, all Greek city-states declared a truce among themselves, a "cooling off" period during which no battles could take place. After the Games, of course, the warring Greeks were free to take up arms once more. But in the ancient Western world, the Olympic ideal of physical and mental fitness displayed "the best" for more than a thousand years. If you must get technical, from 776 BC to AD 395. The organizers of our modern Olympics (AD 1896 to the present) also call on the nations of the world to observe a two-week ceasefire. Since neither our worldview nor our population is confined to the Peloponessus any longer, it's far less likely that we'll see this. Particularly in light of terrorism, the Olympic Truce seems unrealistic. But what is the underlying cause for terrorism, what is the underlying cause for war, not only between nations but also within families? The books written about the first two would fill the room you're reading this in, but many of them neglect the separation from God, the sin, in our lives. When we're separate from God, we become separated from each other as well because we share no common purpose; we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26), but that doesn't affect us. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Romans 3:23 is pretty specific; all of us have the sin that keeps us from God by its existence. John 3:16, "that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life," offers all of us through Jesus new fellowship with God, the glory of God in our lives. The potential is there for all of us, but we can't earn it, we can't buy it, and it's not owed to us. It's a gift, but like any gift, it will collect dust on the shelf if we don't use it. In his second letter to Timothy (and scholars suppose his last letter before he died), Paul says in chapter 4, verses 7 and 8, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give . . . not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." Paul compares his own growth in the Christian faith to winning a prize in a race twice more, in 1 Corinthians 9:24 and Ephesians 3:14. Until we die or until we are raptured, we have to grow and become more like Jesus Christ Himself in what we do and say and think. The forgiveness we can receive from Him if we ask is far more than a truce.

David

 
P.S. I write this weekly devotional to keep in touch with all of you, and I hope to be an encourager to action too! If you find I'm not or you want me to get lost, just let me know – please and thank you!

 

Thank You, Lord, that we can come to you in prayer and that You provide for all our needs according to Your riches, even when we don't know what those needs are. Let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem on both sides of the fence, there and around the world.

 

Let us thank You, Lord, for all of us and all those in leadership and service both here and abroad. Also, thank You for the opportunities we have and the ultimate promise of a new life through You O God. And I pray we will all seek and have a blessed week! Amen.