Crags or Cages?

 

“And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go…” (Acts 16:10).

     Charles Spurgeon once said, “I’d rather be a lean bird in the woods than a fat bird in a cage.” What a sad sight to see a caged eagle beating its wings against the bars. But what a sadder sight it is to see a Christian who has given up and resigned to low living among that which is carnal and natural.

    There were a brand of pioneers who braved dangers, crossed 3,000 miles of ocean, and blazed another 3,000 miles of wilderness and desert to make a trail for America. Rugged spirits flocked here from every land. The Fathers of liberty risked security for liberty. Today we have traded liberty for security. And the soul is more fettered than ever because of it.

    What about us and our children? If we feather the nests too well the eaglets will never fly. The baby eagles might complain because they are no longer comfortable, but eaglets do not fly that way. If we feather our nests and feather their nests, taking out as much as possible the thorns, thistles, and prickly things, then be assured that eaglet will not fly as soon as it should, or as powerful as it could.

    Find a crag! Find a mountaintop and climb. Avoid a cage and find a solitary place to meditate “far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife.” Build your home high. An eagle needs an eyrie. You and I can see the whole battle from the distance. A prophet or a parent sees the whole picture like an eagle from a mountain crag.

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         When I was a kid, I used to go the fair. It was a big deal in those days. We would have a great time eating cotton candy, riding the little Ferris Wheel, playing games in the arcade, and walking on the sawdust. When you went to a fair, you left all the responsibilities of normal life behind, at least for a little while. Life was lots of fun at the fair.

         Maybe that is the reason why some call an adultery an affair. It’s leaving behind your responsibilities. Real men do not leave their places of responsibility. Real men do not have affairs with other women. Nor do real men have an affair with the world around them. They know it is the cause of being at hostility against God.

         What is an affair? It is an escape from reality, or a search for meaning outside of marriage, either to your mate or even to Christ. God said do not become an adulterer or adulteress with the world. Do not join up with the things of this world. Do not have an affair with the world and leave your responsibilities behind.

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    “And that, knowing the time, that now is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Romans 13:11).

        There is an old song that was produced and sung in 1978 by the Cars.  It is entitled “Let the Good Times Roll.” Well, America was rolling in good times. She had more influence, more freedom, more stuff, more games, more concerts, more movies, more jobs, more self-absorption, more pornography, more Internet, more travel, more news, more cell phones, and more four-dollar cups of coffee than any nation in the world. Then September 11, 2001 happened!

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        Remember the game of checkers? Two opponents sit down across from each other and try to move their checkers forward on the board. At the same time you are endeavoring to remove their checkers. But the crowning moment comes when you are able to get your checker all the way over to your opponents side and say, “Crown me.” They place a checker on top of your checker. Now you have the opportunity to move your crowned checker forward and backward. You now have an advantage.

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  • Silencing the Voice of God

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    Religion and flesh silences the voice of God in the soul of man. The chief priests and the scribes knew of the prophecy, birth, and location of where it would all take place, the birth of Christ, but to them God’s Word made little impact, condemning them instead of commemorating them. The signs of the Sent One were all around but not within.

     

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    God’s people are going to a tangible place, a real place, that is designed on God’s geographical map. It is not a place of disembodied spirits, for human beings are not suited for such a realm. What we are suited for–what we’ve been specifically designed for–it is a place like the one God made for us: Earth. God has never given up on his original plan for human beings to dwell on Earth. The climax of history will be the creation of new heavens and a New Earth, a resurrected universe inhabited by resurrected people living with the resurrected Jesus (Revelation 21:1-4).