“DO YOU FEEL THE WORLD IS AGAINST YOU? YOU ARE RIGHT, IT IS”, by Scipio

Have your friends abandoned you when you needed them the most?  (Mark 14:48-50 “And Jesus said to them (the soldiers) “Have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did not seize me…and they all (the disciples) left Him and fled.”

Have you been misunderstood?

(John 10:10 “Many of them said, ‘He (Jesus) is demon-possessed and insane.”)

Have you been ignored?

(Matthew 24:1 “Do you not see all these things (the Temple)? Truly I say unto you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.” (30 years later the Romans destroyed the Temple)

Have you walked away from an unimaginable life of wealth to live among the poor and simple who need you?

(Romans 9:23 “And what if He has done so to make known the riches in glory, which He has prepared beforehand for glory, including us…”)

Has your family ever thought you were off your rocker?

(Mark 3:21 “When his family heard about this, (he was so crowded he couldn’t eat) they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind’.”)

Have you ever lost patience with someone you are trying to teach?

(Luke 9:40-41 “I begged your disciples to drive it (a demon) out, but they could not.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation”, Jesus replied, “how long shall I be with you and put up with you?”.)

Have you ever been physically and verbally abused, like a rose trampled on the ground?

(Luke 22:63-65 “The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. They blindfolded him and demanded, “Prophesy! Who hit you?” And they said many other insulting things to him.”)

Has anyone plotted to kill you?

(Luke 22:2 “And the chief priests and scribes sought how they might kill him…”)

Have you sacrificed your life for those who have done all of the above?

(Acts 7:55 “And Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.”

Have you ever been so physically exhausted that a raging dangerous storm couldn’t wake you?

(Matthew 8:23 “When He, Jesus, got into the boat, His disciples followed Him.  Suddenly a violent storm came up on the sea, so that the boat was engulfed by the waves; but Jesus was sleeping…”)

Have you been stigmatized by being born into poverty?

(Matthew 13:55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?)

Have you intervened in a mob’s intent on murder?

(John 8:5-7 “Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such (woman caught in adultery) should be stoned: but what say you?  So, when they continued asking Him, … He (Jesus) said, ‘He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”)

Have you taken action against the corruption around you?

(Matthew 21:12 “And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and said to them, ‘It is written, my house shall be called the house of prayer; but you have made it a den of thieves’.”)

Have you paid someone else’s enormous debt?

(Romans 6:23 “For the wages (something earned) of sin is death, but the gift  (not earned) of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Have you done what you were born to do?

(John 10:10 “The evil one comes only to steal, kill, and destroy: I am come that they may have life, and that they might have it abundantly.” Jesus came from Heaven to earth to bring to famishing men the Bread of Life.)

Have you chosen to live with the outcasts, the poor, the bedraggled, the sick, “the defeated, the damned, the demented”, and the beat up even though you came from a home of unspeakable riches?

(Luke 15:2 “But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, ‘This man welcomes sinners and eats with them’.”)

Have your children not understood or remembered anything you taught them?

(Matthew 16:9-11 “Do you not understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? Neither the seven loaves of the four thousand, and how many baskets did you take up? How is it that you do not understand…?”)

Have you faced any of these situations?

Well so did Jesus.  Jesus experienced every issue written above and more. All the forces of the darkest evil were marshalled against him, he was subjected to the worst mankind had to offer, but he loved his creation until the end. He still does.

We all can relate to, on some level, the listed occurrences above. Like it or not, that is the world we live in. On the other hand, you can choose how you are going to live in it.  We have been separated from God by this thing we call “nature” but God calls it “sin”.  But through Jesus, the Christ, our nature can be changed.  The world’s systems, whatever structure or form they may take, will not work for the greater good until those system’s occupants change their hearts.  Until then, all systems will work for the detriment of mankind.

Have you been mistreated and let down? It is what you should expect from the world system. However, there is a standard, Jesus, whom you can follow and know him in the power of his resurrection, join in the fellowship (camaraderie) of his suffering, and be conformed to the death of your sinful nature.