Outlook Bleak? Try Uplook
There is an old saying: `When the outlook is dark and threatening try the uplook.’ This has proved true enough for hosts of people: but it is a tragedy that we have to be compelled by dark and threatening out look before we are forced to look upwards, beyond ourselves and human devices for the help, the deliverance and the perfect answer to our often self-imposed darkness. Why is it that only in times of imminent disaster and looming doom do we turn our thoughts upwards, singing: ‘O God our help in ages past; our hope for years to come’? Why do we not accept the reality that God has more than a passing interest in us and our national affairs? Why do we of His Family of Christian nations so often resist the truth that He has already given us, His blueprint for ourselves, and for comforting our Company of Nations, a blueprint of national purpose, prosperity and peace. Even more; He has committed Himself on His own Holy Word to see that this proclaimed Purpose is carried forward to its consummation.
The first point we make is crucial, namely that God has a Purpose for us, here and now on planet Earth; in the Isles of the West and wherever else He has placed contingents of His Servant People. It is not ‘up in heaven’, where all is already perfect there. God at this moment is dealing with us in our respective homelands.
Secondly, take the statement from His family `Guide Book’, the Bible: ‘Where there is no vision the people perish.’ Some translations read: `Where there is no vision the people go to pieces’ and ‘Where there is no vision the people do not cohere’. Do we see the point? A nation goes to pieces, lacks cohesion and binding cement when it loses its vision, its sense of purpose and mission. It loses its reverence for matters other than material the things of God. This is nothing less than an assertion that we are determined to go it alone, to have our own way, to cast off His moral and spiritual restraint which in every case is imposed entirely for our own good.
Where there is no vision!-no unifying National vision. No binding cement to hold the whole community on course. Where do we now look for such a vision? Are we going anywhere in particular as a whole heartedly united people? Or have we sunk, from being truly great, to become a much divided Hotch-potch, with multiplying sectional interests to such an extent that even those who have harped so loudly on `brotherhood of man’ now, at the drop of a hat, turn upon each other like animals. We have indeed reached the hitherto unbelievable state where any one who tries to prevent section from devouring section is screamed at as ‘Animals’, ‘Animals’.
This has happened to what was once the ‘greatest world-serving people on earth’. Why? Because dark forces have been at work ever since the days when Britain’s Prime Minister, Stanley Baldwin, proclaimed to a Canadian audience that the British Empire and Commonwealth was not merely an economic relationship between nations but that its real goal was the Kingdom of God on Earth. Can anyone today think of any present politician of so high a rank announcing his firm conviction in such a manner?
Alas! since then, forces have been at work to blind the English-speaking peoples to their glorious vision. Instead of purpose, there has been let loose the doctrine of permissiveness in every walk of life. This has polluted the whole stream of community life, in all its aspects. Few realize that to ‘do your own thing’ has no chance of securing the freedom which God wills for His children. On the contrary it becomes degradingly enslaving. This is the broad road to destruction which Jesus Christ warned His followers would lead back to the House of Bondage. This is literally the choice before our people: to become enslaved in the toils of permissiveness and grinding materialism; or to see and accept the vision of Life Abundant which our Creator has planned for us. What, then, is to be the deciding factor in all our lives-the Will of God or the will of Globalism which, under the cover of unity uses decadence and the selfishness inherent in man in its plans for world dominion.
To blur the vision is the constant aim of the enemy, as witness the trash and trivia which the media churn out for the demoralization of the people. A brave reporter on a television programme once made his appraisal as follows, on five showings: ‘Poor, Poor, Moderate, Poor, Poor.’ If one ordered a meal in a cafe and the waiter served up garbage, one would at once inform the appropriate authority. But what of a whole nation fed on garbage, week in and week out?
Another dangerous factor in the downward slide is the powerful forces at work to decry patriotism, that is, love of one’s own country and people, as social misdemeanors. A further powerful influence wherewith to blind the judgment of the citizen is when supposedly Christian leaders make Divine revelation appear trivial, simply a mere form of self-delusion.
The outlook is indeed bleak if there is no uplook. It is up to each one of us to rediscover the unifying, inspiring vision which has carried the Servant People along. This is patriotism in its highest form. This sublime Code is set out in our Book of Instructions-the Bible. This is the book which Wycliffe stated `was for the Government of the people’. We can relate its message to our history and see how God has developed a people for His purposes for mankind from the very founding fathers of our people: Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. ‘This people’, God says, `have I for Myself; they shall show forth My Praise.’ At Sinai they were brought to nationhood and constituted as the very core of His Kingdom on earth. A National Constitution, Statutes and Judgments were there given to them as their national code of living. This incomparable body of Divine Law. has been constantly under attack, recalling God’s warnings to His people: ‘See, I have set before you Life and Death: choose Life.’ The keeping of God’s laws is the only way to life.
Through all the changing scenes of the centuries, the moral, spiritual and material Divine Laws have held good for nations and individuals who followed them. God knows what is best for us. There are blessings in abundance for response to His Instructions-every need met. And there are stern consequences when they are disregarded. It is as simple as that. And it remains a matter of choice, as we are now experiencing. Our leaders are causing our peoples to break God’s Laws in many ways. We suffer grievous consequences thereby and these are piling up to such proportions that they have already become unbearable. So threatening is the future that we shall be compelled to seek the One Who, thirty-four centuries ago gave the vision to our forefathers in Israel. To achieve deliverance from their folly, our peoples, with repentant hearts, must get back to their God-protected highway of Destiny, there to demonstrate what it means to be a people governed by Almighty God. Then, as His Word says, the nations will `run to us’ to examine this new-found experience of a whole people united in reverent obedience to the most High God.
