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| Volume 27 Number 10 October 2025 |
Page 6 |
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| Volume 27 Number 10 October 2025 |
Page 6 |
Ed Benesh
For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:17–18 NKJV)
All too often, at least when it is convenient, mankind often views life from a perspective that can only be describe as spectatorial. There is not only a minimal investment through the lens of a spectator, but that investment is rather impotent in its ability to really make any sort of difference in the way a game is played or in the outcome of a game. It is, instead, the powers that be that hold all the cards, leaving us very little recourse to genuinely pursue an engaged and effective assertion of our energies.
Unfortunately at times the powers that be also have the same attitude. While thrusting themselves upon others as the vital and dignified pieces of this game—the brains and brawn of the operation—everyone else is simply a pawn to be moved about at whim, becoming the sacrifices so the vital ones may find success. The masses of men are the political or financial doorstops who are beaten and abused so that door to vast wealth may open for the few. Have you ever felt that way?
No doubt most of us will find some truth in those words. The majority has worn the clothes of the pawn and has felt that there was little they could offer to overcome the system which is stacked against them. Maybe you have felt trapped in the cogs of our giant political system—a mere grain of sand trying to slow the wheels of progress in ways with which you don’t agree. Perhaps you have experienced these feelings at work, where if you were gone tomorrow, it just wouldn’t seem to matter much.
Perhaps you constantly stare at that bucket from which your hand was recently pulled to find the space that was your life is quickly filled with another that will also one day be replaced by those who do the pouring and decide the water’s level. It can happen in families. It can happen in churches. It can happen anywhere men dwell.
Yet, we must understand that such thinking is faulty at its core. One of the defining characteristics of man is that he is given the ability to choose, even though our God is Sovereign. We have the inherent ability and the obligation to think, decide and act. When we do so with the wisdom of God, then, we are not simple spectators of life but empowered beings who can turn the world upside down. While God has the best in mind for you and seeks desperately to save your soul, your choice will ultimately lead you to it or away from it.
I have often heard folks ask things like, “Do you really think God will condemn people to Hell? How could an all-loving God do that?” While it is God Who creates the standard, exacts that standard in judgment and pronounces sentence, we condemn ourselves. On that day when the books of life will be opened and our life will be laid bare and judged, it will not suffice for us to say, “Well, the great cogs of the spiritual machine kept me from being effective, and so, I simply chose passivity and assumed You would do all the saving, God.”
Seek salvation through planned proficiency in spiritual pursuits and disciplines. Choose today to engage and to take control of the gears that run your thoughts, emotions and spirit. Choose today as the day of your salvation.
