Dear Friends of “Dial Daily Bread,”
Is it possible that our Enemy, Satan, could be pulling a fast one on us while we are asleep as Christians?
Just as Jeremiah's detractors begged him with the request, "Is there any word from the Lord?" so we would love to get some direct communication from Christ, some fresh, up-to-the-minute "bulletin" from Heaven's media office.
Well, we have it in Luke 21--a message as appropriate now as any could be in this cosmic Day of Atonement: "Take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day [of last opportunity to save our souls] come on you unexpectedly" (vs. 34).
It is phenomenal how in a time of pervasive world terror, our temptations to indulge in a life of entertainment are so insistent. The more distressing the news of widespread human misery, the more alluring are the solicitations that appeal to our native-born covetousness. Not only big cities like New York and London have their giant temple-like retail stores, but the "big box" stores have come even to our small towns. The malls [and online shopping] are our new cathedrals of heart-worship.
We have metamorphosed into that "certain rich man" whose "ground yielded plentifully" so that he had to build a "greater [barn to] store all [his] crops and goods" (Luke 12:16-18). One of America's big businesses now is public storage where all the "stuff" we can't crowd into our garage, we "store all [our] goods" there. And we say to ourselves, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take your ease; eat, drink, and be merry" (vs. 19). That's where we are, and that's who we are.
But wait a moment: we're living in the final period of Christ's ministry in the Most Holy part of the heavenly sanctuary; all Heaven is concerned that a people, a corporate body of saints, be prepared for the close of probation; yet never in 6000 years of human history has the ground of a "certain rich man" [us] "yielded [so] plentifully."
Is there a certain clever master intelligence behind this phenomenon? Maybe you can find some missionary work to do in the grand architecture of the mall; but if not, that's no place to spend hours worshipping. Not since Christ began the last phase of His heavenly ministry.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: July 9, 2004.
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