Clergy/Leaders’ Mail-list No. 1-052 Sunday 11 Mar 2001

Reading: PSALM 53 – ONLY A FOOL DENIES GOD

(From ‘Encounter with God’ Bible Reading Notes)

If perfect love casts out fear, ask the God of love today to help you to know the peace of which he is the prince.

I remember my father chuckling years ago about some self confessed atheist whom someone had called ‘worse than a fool’. When the man demanded to know why he was so abused, the reply was, ‘Because the Bible states that a fool says in his heart there is no God, but you’ve gone and blurted it right out’!

We live in a world of fools where God is denied and his name is blasphemed. I have been asked in formal interviews whether my faith might make me a work-place embarrassment. One might have thought that a declared allegiance to the ways of truth and love would be an asset!

Those who have ‘liberated’ themselves from godly obligations are not, however, consequently free. Apart from being corrupt and vile, as the psalmist suggests (v 1), they remain fearful when they don’t have to be (v 5) and can fall victim to superstition and the occult. Shades of New Age spirituality, where superstitions as old as primitive man dictate allegiance to all kinds of crystals, charms and fetishes and freedom is sought in nature or drugs.

Given the prevalence of this lifestyle, especially in the West, we can become dulled to the reality of what we are seeing, even lured into acceptance of it. ‘Spirituality’ without God cannot be just another way of searching for God. The devil has few new tricks, but a host of disguises.

‘Oh that salvation would come out of Zion’ (v 6). It is still only God who can restore the fortunes of his people. True, he may use avenues that we may find diverse and obscure. We should not be too hidebound in our expectations or reactions. But let us also be discerning and not be deceived by the nonsense offered by a godless world looking desperately for peace.

Give thanks to God for the salvation he has accomplished. Jesus reigns, now and for ever. Pray for some individuals you know that they may seek God and learn to call him Lord.

– Ken Edgecombe

Copyright Scripture Union, 2001