God Speaks

          It was Karl Marx who said that “religion is the opium of the people.” It always seems easy for the average man or woman to make claims about something they know nothing about. The assumption is that poor people who seem to be uneducated fall prey to a belief in Someone or Some thing greater than themselves and therefore end up creating their own god. In the first place, they have never read the Bible on their own and secondly they fail to account for several other important items. I, myself, never seemed to have a doubt that God was real and that He was and is responsible for everything as we know it and probably a lot more. I can't recall ever going to church until I was about twelve years old. The family just never went to church nor did anyone ever speak about God. On the other hand, we were not atheists either. It was always Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and no mention of anything religious as far as our household was concerned. I like the following passage of Scripture. Job 38:3-4 says, “ Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me. Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.” To me, it is like God saying to Job, “Sit down and be quiet while I teach you a thing or two.”

         Job had his problems and after all of the words of Job and his three friends, God makes a bold statement in chapters 38 and 39. The content is like a bold science lesson and covers material in several different categories from the weather, to animals, to the oceans and even out into the universe. Job could do nothing but listen and learn, a thing that we should often do in our own lives. Psalm 46:10 says, “Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.” There are those times that we need to be told those very words. In all of our complaining and lack of faith, we need to hear the words of God when He says to us, “Be still and know that I am God...” Karl Marx overlooked the Bible and most of all he overlooked the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Karl Marx would not even have had to argue the point if the Lord Jesus Christ had not been raised from the dead as religion as we know it wouldn't even exist, but it does exist and it exists because of the day in history when the Lord Jesus Christ stepped forth out of the tomb with nail prints in His hands and feet and a wound in His side, bearing the marks of the crucifixion where He had paid for all of our sins. Karl Marx overlooked the resurrection and a few other things such as DNA, finger prints, iris formations and even the spots on the leopard and the stripes on a tiger. They all point to First Cause and First Cause is God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Jehovah. Only God could ever do it all and keep track of it. Karl Marx never accounted for answers to prayer that are beyond human explanation nor did he ever explain the creation of life as mentioned in Psalm 139 nor in Jeremiah 1. it is easy for the average man or woman to claim to know something about life with their finite reasoning but someday they will know that they came up short when they find themselves standing at a final judgment. If you sometimes feel like a “Karl Marx” then you need to “Be still...” God has a special message for you from His Word. For all of us believers, we are not consumed by an “opium” of the people, but simply stand on the Word of God. God said it. I believe it. That settles it. Praise God for Who He is and What He is doing in the world today.