An Ugly World

The lights of a police car blinked red and blue in the early morning haze. Up ahead, along the right side of the road, two policemen stared down at the edge of the pavement. A few cars had stopped to look. Slowing down, Martha and I passed the gathering crowd. Partially hidden by grass was a young man whose body, we would later learn, had been riddled with at least 20 bullets, a vengeance killing from the guns of a local gang, most of whom are minors.

Violence in a city of half a million is not uncommon. One of our friends, a taxi driver, shared Sunday morning about a string of holdups and killings of taxi drivers in recent weeks. Also in the news was the discovery of a young ladies brutalized body stuffed under a bed in a local motel of prostitution. Elsewhere, the raped body of a nursing student had been found ditched along a back-road canal. In the poor slum areas of our city, violence is a given.

1 John 5:19 says, “We know…that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Whether it’s outright violence, uncontrolled greed, hedonistic pleasure, unbridled ambition, or just uncaring apathy, we are surrounded by daily evidence that this world is under the dominion of what Scripture calls, “the ruler of darkness”, “the god of this world”, “the father of all lies”, “that old serpent”, “the Devil”.

Which is why we are here, to represent the One who came to free us from the “domain of darkness” and transfer us to the “kingdom of light”.

On a Sunday evening, a Filipino shared how God changed his life after a concerned believer had shared Jesus to him. Before giving his life to the Lord, this Filipino had made it his mission to kill Christians. He was following a legacy passed down from family members who were imams (Muslim leaders). In the church that night was Lyn Hyde whose husband, IMB missionary Bill Hyde, had been killed by a Muslim terrorist’s bomb at a Philippines airport in 2003. Seeing her, the Filipino speaker left the platform, grabbed Lyn’s hands and cried, “please forgive my people for what they did to you and your family.”

Though we try to sanitize our surroundings with comfort and pleasure, we don’t have to dig very deep to discover an ugly world. Neither do we have to dig very deep to discover a beautiful Savior, a Prince of Peace, a loving Lord who came to deliver us from our sin and transform us into His image so that we may share in His glory. In His kingdom is joy, forgiveness, purity, kindness, goodness, and a depth of love the world doesn’t understand.

For the young man along the road, it’s too late. But for those who live around you, it’s not too late. This Christmas, give the best gift, the message of a King born in a manger, who gave His life on a rugged cross, who now lives at the right hand of His Father, who will return someday soon to take us, His followers, out of this world forever. Amen!