Are we provoked yet? Bankrupt? Heart failing? Heart growing cold? The typical and success driven answer is "NO!" (I don't think so?)
The measure of a successful life today is truly not being weighed against eternity. A solitary individual that truly gives his life for others is seen as an awkward splinter in the posterior of the "success-purpose driven machine". Amidst the pummel of C.Y.B. rules, laws, regulations, processes and peer pressures that are being sublimely coerced upon this last generation of believers, a solitary heart-wrenching-ache for the welfare of the eternal life of others has no place. Politically correct? Socially acceptable? Culturally relevant? Faith muted? Emotionally neutral? Expressionally blank? What monster has ripped the true God connection out of life? What is this Leviathan(Stop here and read Job 41 to get a feel for this monster)?
Their plan seemed noble enough, "The CL Team - Conquer Leviathan"(that was the name they coined for their Monster Demolition Enterprise - yep , you read right! They were going to take on the most dreaded monster that had plagued mankind since the first dawn in the Garden). There seemed to be a great rallying around this idea exploited by the media that surrounded the "CL Team, especially among their peers and contemporaries. Strangely enough it was mysteriously funded by an anonymous but solid, well connected lender. And the team was sent off with great fanfare on its journey to what they felt was an almost guaranteed success. But there was a fatal flaw in their endeavor: They underestimated the reach of the monster that they were up against, for the Lender and monster were one in the same. Oh if only they had hearkened unto the Voice from the vanishing point --- Job 41:8 - "Lay thine hand upon him, remember the battle, do no more".
Leviathan has a subtle goal - lead men into idolatry. Many a modern man will think of idolatry as a form of primitive worship of personally fabricated statues or a fearful worship of natural elements such as storms and volcanoes. But this is where Leviathan steps in and encourages us to not be so ignorant; be true to yourself because you are the master of your own destiny ... listen to your heart and obey that voice inside you. Sounds pretty good, especially if Leviathan has already turned his screw-like tentacles deep into the fear side of our conscious existence.
Leviathan, secretly joins in on our fears, and attends to our trembling by creating an airtight defense for our self preserving reactions. "It is only natural!" He borrows from our pain's natural reflexes and gains a "buy in" by preying hard on potential catastrophic results, and offering "better" choices for comfort. Then he causes his constituents: to desire more self preserving motives, and to borrow more and more self entitled philosophies, until the monster becomes the Only Lender. Under the guise of "We deserve better", he lays the snare with a utopian idea of that we control the outcome of our destiny. This is where idolatry is most acceptable and the Voice of God becomes refutable.
Danger - Danger - Danger!!! (Unless God is in control, we are out of control.)
Acts 17:16 - The Apostle stood amidst those that were now bankrupt to idolatry, like many believers are doing today...Job 41(Enter Leviathan) ...We will never be provoked to desire the direction and presence of God if our minds are being loaned out to a culture of pride, if our living borrows against the future of others, and our heart is in debt to a culture that has a place for God... He is at our disposal??
Here is the kicker --- Emilio passed away and I didn't even know. Who even cares? Some may ask Emilio who? If I were to tell you, you will be relieved to know that he was no one truly important to you ... that way you will not have to challenge or charge your heart with any accountability. And the song plays on "Another one bites the dust!"
Revelation 20:15 - "And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." ---- We are far too Sophisticated to believe in a place of literal eternal torment - and Leviathan said, "GOT YOU!"
Does that remotely provoke you?
HLFA,
Jeff