It’s in the lap of the gods

It was not until I undertook to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people in my community did I learn of the high price one pays for their ignorance of it, or in fact, for one’s rejection of it.  Having discovered the reality of this biblical truth first in my own life, I continued to learn it as I involved myself in the lives of others. I learned by experience and observation that if God Almighty, in the name of Jesus Christ is not the Ruler of a person’s life, then the devil is, just like the New Testament tells us in 2 Corinthians 4:4. As the god of this age I saw him working overtime with people I was trying to reach.

Very few of those people acknowledged the devil’s reality but they did acknowledge that they were fearful, fatalistic and superstitious. Those fruits are part of Satan’s nature.  He’s the father and the dispenser of them and he uses them relentlessly.  Fatalism’s, “whatever will be, will be” was a common mantra in that community intermingled with, “what can ya do? There’s nothing you can do.” When I contradicted that belief and offered them an alternative view it was amazing how many would not take me up on it. They were happy to continue wallowing in the mire of their own making, it seemed.

Due to an economic downturn at the time, there was quite a lot of unemployment in my community. My message from the gospel was always one that offered hope, not only for the next life, but here right now regardless of what they were presently experiencing. But rather than embrace the message through what the Bible calls faith, their preference was to embrace the devil’s lie which secularism calls fate.  There’s only one outcome from such a choice and that is to be swamped in hopelessness. When they learned of others getting a job as a result of prayer and trust in God, they discounted that and called it luck.

The same applied to sickness. One man in his early thirties told me that his father was once a heavy smoker who had since died of lung cancer. He had a cigarette in his mouth when he told me this. When I suggested that the Lord Jesus could set him free from his own nicotine dependency if he would entrust himself to Him, he said, “No mate. If I’m going to get cancer I will, and if I don’t, I won’t. It’s in the lap of the gods.” That lie was rooted deep within him and he was happy for it to be so. No matter what I tried to offer him as an alternative in God, he politely but happily rejected it.

It was no different when speaking to people about the Bible’s promise of heaven for those trusting in Christ as Saviour or hell for those who reject Christ. Rather than see this as something that required them to make a serious choice about, they preferred to embrace the lie of “luck” or “whatever will be, will be.” Again they would come up with something like, “If I’m going to go to heaven I will and if not, well then I won’t.” That was the comment of a man who told me of his family, young and old, who were dying all around him. He reeked of booze, he was riddled with fear, but he was, “off to the races!  Maybe I’ll strike some luck there.” 

Another man in his late thirties told me his worry and anxiety came about as a result of, “everything going wrong” for him.  He saw himself as unlucky in life.  The prize always went to the other person, but never him.  “I guess some people are just lucky in life,” he said.  He had a victim’s mentality, which was continually being fed from hopelessness, which is one of the products of fatalism.  Up until the day we met, this man had been ignorant of the fact that he could change his thinking.  He told me that he’d always thought that the way he was is the way he’d always be.  He thanked me for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, but gave no indication that he would seek Him out.

I stood in the doorway chatting to elderly Mrs Stucke.  She didn’t believe in the existence of God and was most reluctant to listen to anything to the contrary.  She too was a fatalist, and like them all, believed all events are determined by fate and are therefore unalterable and inevitable.  All she received for her “faithfulness” to that lie was depression, which in her words was, “getting worse every day.”  Being told that it is God alone Who is in control of all things and that He wanted to release her from the devil’s clutches, was rejected.  The Bible is true when it shows us that we are lovers of lies rather than truth Romans 1:25.

“It (the gospel of Christ) is probably good for those who get something out of it – if it gives you hope.”  That was the comment of Mrs Degan, another unbeliever in God’s existence.  When I asked her what gave her hope, she said she had none.  She too had a victim’s mentality.  Her husband had failed in business and had experienced much trouble in finding a job that suited his particular skills and qualifications.  The job he currently held was neither suitable nor stable but, “what can you do?”  Christ’s offer of peace, purpose, plans and direction in life for her were responded with, “perhaps he (her husband) would be interested in talking to you.”

The Bible tells us that we reap what we sow.  It matters little if we, “don’t believe in the Bible” – it changes nothing. The truths and principles revealed within its pages are as unfailing as the universal laws of physics and gravity.  In other words, if we reject or violate them, they will come back to bite us. Rejecting God’s truths, plus the gift of faith given to believe them, is a serious sin in God’s eyes. If this is willingly continued in a person until the day he or she dies, then they will give an account to God for their actions on Judgement Day. But in the meantime, one of the judgements from God is that He sees to it that such people believe lies to be truth.

So, as a rejecter of God, if we sow lies, knowingly or unknowingly and keep it up over a long period, the reaping will be that of many things, but certainly that of living a life without hope – or – living a life filled with hopelessness.  That’s the lot of the fatalist.  That is why sickness, sadness, depression and suicide are all so rampant in society today and increasingly so.  There is no peace outside of God either.  Believer or non-believer, Jesus Christ is the Prince of peace, which means He is the owner of peace.  Any fatalist that believes they are living in peace are, in reality, living in false peace – Satan’s counterfeit “peace.”             

The word “hope” is mentioned in the Bible nearly one-hundred and thirty times and its theme is everywhere to be discerned.  Rarely is the word used however, in any doubtful form such as, “I hope so” or “I hope not.”  Rather, it used in the manner of confident expectation – something like, “There’s no doubt about it, it’s gonna happen for sure.”  Biblical hope focuses on God as He reveals Himself in Jesus Christ.  It also focuses on His nature, His character and His promises which, when embraced, fill us with peace, patience, encouragement, enthusiasm, meaning and purpose.  That’s why the word ‘gospel’ means good news.

Biblical hope fills us with eternal life.  That’s God’s life – it is eternal in quality and eternal in quantity.  That’s what Jesus meant when He said He came to give us life and that we would have it “more abundantly” – meaning: vehemently, exceedingly, beyond measure.  Jesus also told us that if we seek to hold on to our life, then we would lose it in the process.  That’s the price we will pay.  It is the highest price of all, because not only was He referring to life after physical death, He was also referring to the present.  I have found that those who hold on to their own lives, knowing but rejecting Christ as the alternative, suffer great internal insecurities.

The Bible describes each and every one of us born into this world as “lost.” That means that in God’s eyes, none of us has a clue who we really are, what we are, where we are, or where we are headed in life. We can kid ourselves, lie to ourselves, deceive ourselves to the contrary, but it changes nothing. As well, we can work overtime in our endeavours to hide or deny those internal insecurities but they will never fail to show up. These are: the fruits of fear, fatalism and superstition. But the good news is, the Bible also tells us Jesus came into this world so that each and every one of us may be “found.”

As people, we may not know who we are, what we are, where we are, or where we are headed in life, but Jesus does. He knows our every thought, word and move and He is calling each one of us to come to Him. Jesus calls. Just like a shepherd in the Middle East who’s out in front leading his sheep and calling each one by name, that’s what the Lord is doing for us. He knows your name, He knows my name.  However, it is never by chance that one is found, it is always by choice – our choice.  “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”  Romans 15:13.