Meaning

Meaning

“Not until the creation and maintenance of decent conditions of life for all men are recognized and accepted as a common obligation of all men and all countries—not until then shall we, with a certain degree of justification, be able to speak of mankind as civilized.”
                                                                               Albert Einstein.
I firmly believe that mankind cannot provide a decent condition of life for all men. Even in the richest countries of the world there are those who are extremely poor. There are those who don’t have access to good food, housing, health care and other essentials of life.
There are those even in the western nations who are prejudice and refuse to respect the rights of others. Crime is also a very big concern.
All of this is magnified a hundred or a thousand fold in so called third world countries.
    On top of that over the past few years terrorist groups have been on the rise. Men and women who have a perverted idea of what civilized society and true faith in God is all about.
These groups are further sending our global society into an abyss. This however is not a new thing.
One dusty book I found in my wife’s library  "Essentials in Christian Faith" by John B. Harrington, published in 1958, could have been written yesterday.
   It opens with this quote from Paul Gallico in Esquire Magazine in 1948:
"A writer in a popular magazine has written the following words; 'We are all, if you will pardon the expression, Headed for Hell in a handbarrow. If, ever the people of the world stood in need of a spiritual revival, it is now. We are beginning to poison the face of the earth with our miserable presence. The brakes are off. The cart of the world is sliding down the way greased with hatred, ambition, lies, self-seeking and avarice toward the pit.’"
Harrington notes that Gallico makes no pretense of being "a religious man" noting that "...for him it is precisely religion in its organized forms which has in part caused the situation he deplores. He is careful to state that it is not "religion" for which he is looking. For in his opinion, religion throughout the history of our culture has advanced its control over human beings by the investment of bigotry and persecution. 
Yet, out of despair over the current human situation he says; ‘The voice for which my heavy spirit is yearning must reach us all... For if it is not heard, we are lost. Something beyond our material enrichment and lust for power and position, some rewards founded on good will, selflessness, and the innate dignity of the human spirit...honour, humility, decency courage."
Another Paul writing to a member of the first century church wrote the following,
"But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God"
                                                                                                        2 Timothy 3:1-4
If Paul Gallico is right and I believe he is, mankind is considerably nearer the bottom of that slope than he was in 1948. Moreover at the bottom of that slope is a very deep lake filled with fire and brimstone.
And I truly believe the only way to get off that slippery slope is to turn to God in spirit and in truth.
For me at least, as I’ve looked at the world in my sixty plus years on this earth. I have seen western society turn further and further away from God. As this has happened and we have slipped more and more into a secular society our society has it seems got worse.
Abba Hillel Silver wrote,
“Faith in God is the strongest bulwark of a free society.  Human freedom began when men became conscious that over and above society and nature there is a God who created them...who fashioned them in His likeness, and that they are, therefore, possessed of intrinsic and independent significance and are endowed, as individuals, with original and irrevocable rights and authority.”
                    Abba Hillel Silver
What we need today is for people to look at the truths Jesus spoke. Truths that are universal it was Jesus who when asked,
 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” 
Jesus replied: “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’  This is the first and greatest commandment.  
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’  
All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 
                                                                                            Matthew 22:37-40
He also said,
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’  
But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  
that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous...”
                                                                  Matthew5: 43-45.
The apostle Paul even giving us the true definition of Love, writing,
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.  
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.  
It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 
Love never fails....” 
1 Corinthians 13:4-8a
This is what our society as a whole needs to be proclaiming. Unfortunately our society here in the west has wandered far from God into materialism, and materialism has little meaning to those young people who are going to join terrorist groups. Young men and women who are looking for meaning in life in all the wrong places.
Think about it.