Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

THE PRESENT CRISIS

This entry was posted on 03-11-2008 and is filed under uncategorized.

"Carry out these injunctions because you know the crisis that we are in..." (Romans 12:11-a (Centenary Translation).

Paul gets to the crux of the matter. Why should we be concerned about the practice of righteousness? He has been on this theme since Romans 12:1. It is because of "the crisis we are in." TCNT says, "the crisis that we have reached." Remember to whom Paul is writing - Christians in Rome. There is corruption, immorality, and pending persecution. They needed to love one another because that mutual love would soon be put to the ultimate test!

The NIV reads, "understanding the present time." They did. Do we? There is corruption all around us. Immorality abounds. Persecution is just around the corner. (For many people in other parts of the world persecution is a present-day reality.) During the Civil War a poet named James Russell Lowell included the following words in his poem "The Present Crisis."

Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide;
In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side;
Some great cause, God's New Messiah, offering each the bloom or blight,
Parts the goats upon the left hand and the sheep upon the right,
And the choice goes by forever 'twixt that darkness and the light.

We are to "redeem the time" because "the days are evil." (Eph. 5:16).

Prayer: Dear Lord, give us more of Christ that we may meet the present crisis.