Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
It's backward from current wisdom, but it's the words of Jesus: "Blessed [happy] are those who mourn" (Matt. 5:4). Why and how can people who are sad be so truly happy?
It's not only the elderly who "mourn." There are also young people who swim upstream against the current and dare to think seriously; they are burdened with the reality of the world. They may not know why they are so serious, but they are unconsciously aware that we are living in the solemn time of earth's history known as the great Day of Atonement, when God Himself is on trial before the universe and its fate is in the balance. Will the leader of the Great Rebellion win the final battle of the "great controversy"? Even teens can see that a mysterious evil is permeating our world.
But that's old news; what's disturbing are its inroads into the "body of Christ," His church. Thoughtful youth are unsettled. They can't help being serious.
There are pastors who declare that raucous, uncontrollable laughter is a sign that one has received the Holy Spirit. Well, here's a different idea: "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools. For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool" (Eccl. 7:5, 6). God made us so we can laugh; but the reason truly happy people can be so serious is that they are uncomfortably aware that a false and counterfeit "holy spirit" is enveloping the world and seeking to capture the church.
This is the most lethal danger the church has faced since Christ established it. He is concerned; so should we be concerned. Blessed are those who mourn with Him--positively. He is at work; so should we be.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: February 10, 2006.
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