Phyllis Beveridge Nissila

I’ve been thinking more about a previous post where I explain why I think the picture of a recent Portland, Oregon, riot that reveals a Bible along with an American flag on a burn pile is so representative of this summer of Marxist muscle-flexing in the United States.

I explain why I think photos of that event might one day show up in history texts as a symbol of the prelude to a totalitarian takeover of the United States unless the massive, awakening majority of Americans take a definitive stand and push back not only in the upcoming election but also in days, months, and years hence in all the institutions the Marxists have infiltrated.

As I reflect, I keep coming back to this quote because in a sense it includes the seed of our salvation, though likely unbeknownst to the speaker:

“Let me tell you: You take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you.” –Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, 1/17

Because the thing is, God (the God of the Bible)  owns Sunday.

You might say.

In the hubris that often plagues the race, we may think and believe we have unending power, knowledge, and capability to do whatever we want–including figuring out how to live forever in the flesh, especially now with a little help from our AI friends (once we figure out how to program them for that).

But hubris is a hard-hearted hombre–also blinding.

One whose righteousness relies on self (or intelligence communities up to no good) can stare for hours straight into the face of evil, for example, and call it good and even believe the lie, no matter how big it is.

But truth and the search for it among sincere and the honest people is something that even the great power of the most sophisticated of psychological operations still cannot, in the end, best.

We see evidence of this today where despite the cleverest of media wordsmiths plying their trade 24/7, there’s still plenty of critical thinkers who can identify a naked emperor as such when they see one.

It can be difficult, however, as our real enemy (Deceiver of deceivers) wielding the firepower of terror and intimidation behind the scenes can still set the world in a spin and the streets on fire to distract, disorient, and destroy.

For a season, anyway.

This is why my encouragement for all of us today is to take a a few moments to quiet our understandably disquieted minds, emotions, and hearts to put things in perspective; to look up and around; to step away from the narrowing, choking fray for a spell and breath deep of the knowledge of the vastly greater power behind truth and goodness.

In the midst of the dark power desperate to keep us busy with bad news which binds the mind and stifles resistance, it is both encouraging and healing to take the long view, the eternal one, to ponder that greater power that has not only survived but yet thrives against the pricks and jabs of momentary adversity.

Until our shoulders start easing down from our ears and we realize, “Oh yes, I almost forgot…”

The source of this eternal respite?

He Who “owns Sunday”.

Here are a few reminders of HIS power put in His own words to the beleaguered Job of Old Testament fame who, for a season, was caught up in not only his own multiple miseries but also in the presumptions and accusations of self-righteous locals:

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? [said God]
Tell me, if you have understanding.
⁵ Who determined its measurements—surely you know!
Or who stretched the line upon it?
⁶ On what were its bases sunk,
or who laid its cornerstone
⁷ when the morning stars sang together
and all the heavenly beings^* shouted for joy?

⁸ ‘Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb?—
⁹ when I made the clouds its garment,
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
¹⁰ and prescribed bounds for it,
and set bars and doors,
¹¹ and said, “Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stopped”?

¹² ‘Have you commanded the morning since your days began,
and caused the dawn to know its place,
¹³ so that it might take hold of the skirts of the earth,
and the wicked be shaken out of it?
¹⁴ It is changed like clay under the seal,
and it is dyed^* like a garment.
¹⁵ Light is withheld from the wicked,
and their uplifted arm is broken.

¹⁶ ‘Have you entered into the springs of the sea,
or walked in the recesses of the deep?
¹⁷ Have the gates of death been revealed to you,
or have you seen the gates of deep darkness?
¹⁸ Have you comprehended the expanse of the earth?
Declare, if you know all this.

Now that’s power!

Figurative, literal, and real.

And Job, mind and heart settled, recovered–and once again thrived.*

Below is another of my favorite illustrations of God’s power that puts the puny dark forces into correct perspective.

(I mean, really, Senator, not to mention all you Marxist Bible-burners, you think you can come against THIS for long?)

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*Here are two more reflections on the messages in the book of Job:

What Job Knew (And It’s Good News–No, Really!)

Another Take on Job as Prophetic and How God Foiled Satan’s Plan and Revealed Grace