It is no revelation to us that the mentality of this age is becoming, at a blindingly rate, more twisted, perverted and untoward exponentially. “Calling evil good” is the normal rather than the exception and “intolerance” has become completely intolerant of the tolerance soaked masses. The “negative” print has become the “keeper” while the true picture being discarded in the trash bin. “Accept it” rather than “except it” is the mantra of the age. The dog no longer wags the tail but the tail wagging the dog is the standard operating procedure today. Truly, the time of “neither day nor night” is here!
Reminds me of an account I read back in the seventies about a tribal people, the Sawi, of Western New Guinea, Indonesia. For centuries, the Sawi lived as cannibal-headhunters, each Sawi village warring with the others. Ordinary murder was nothing to them. To be a “legend maker,” you had to create a special scenario in which you pretend to make peace with someone, then kill him when his guard is down. This Sawi ideal is called “tuwi asonai man” which means “to fatten with friendship for unexpected slaughter” as one would fatten a pig.
The account went on to tell how that when a certain missionary told the Sawis the story of Jesus, they brightened at the part where Judas betrayed Jesus. To the missionary’s disappointment, the Sawi culture led them to view Judas as a super-Sawi and the real hero of the biblical account. Yes, Judas Iscariot actually became the hero of the Bible to them!
This present age is nearing, at an alarming rate, due to a famine of real values and principles a mentality that is making the Judases of this world the heroes of their lives!
Brethren we are dealing with such a jaded mindset today that the “labor” of Word and doctrine needs all the impetus of divine aid that we can muster. Time is past of “off the cuff” sermonetts and the time for “on the knees” divine impartation of the Word is in dire need! To be able to reach the heart and minds of those that might fill a seat in our congregations we need so much more than an indifferent conversation when a difference making conviction is the answer!
The next time you mount the sacred desk remember that some of the faces represented may well have a Judas for a hero!
–jlg–