{"id":1525,"date":"2017-02-15T12:03:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-15T17:03:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anglicanconnection.com\/?p=1525"},"modified":"2017-02-15T12:03:40","modified_gmt":"2017-02-15T17:03:40","slug":"a-higher-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anglicanconnection.com\/a-higher-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A HIGHER PLAN’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/b>W<\/span>riting in\u00a0The\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/i><\/b>\u00a0last week (02\/09\/17), Peggy Noonan wrote:\u00a0<\/b>Let\u2019s step back from the daily chaos and look at a big, pressing question.<\/i>\u00a0Last fall at a defense forum a significant military figure was asked: If you could wave a magic wand, what is the one big thing you\u2019d give the U.S. military right now?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019d all been talking about the effects of the sequester and reform of the procurement system and I expected an answer along those lines. Instead, he said: We need to know what the U.S. government wants from us. We need to know the overarching plan because if there\u2019s no higher plan we can\u2019t make plans to meet the plan.<\/i>\u00a0This was freshly, bluntly put, and his answer came immediately, without pause.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The world is in crisis. The old order that more or less governed things after World War II has been swept away. The changed world that followed the fall of the Berlin Wall is also over.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been absorbing this for a while, since at least 2014, when Russia invaded Crimea. But what plan are we developing to approach the world as it is now?<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a very good question.\u00a0<\/b>However, it\u2019s not my purpose to consider it as a political question, but rather as a biblical and theological one. Assuming there is a higher supernatural realm, that there is a good and all-powerful God who rules, is there a higher plan so that we can \u2018make plans to meet the plan\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n

A HIGHER PLAN<\/h2>\n

In a world where, despite every human attempt to change things for the better, injustice and suffering continue unabated,\u00a0is there in fact \u2018a higher plan\u2019?<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

To answer the question we need to ask another question: Is there any evidence that there is a God who has a\u00a0bigger plan<\/i>?<\/b>\u00a0<\/i>If so, what is it? The answer turns on the Person of Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Colossians 2:13-15<\/b>\u00a0we read:\u00a0You, who were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, having canceled the bond which stood against us with its legal demands; this he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public example of them, triumphing over them in him.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

Captives.\u00a0<\/b>The Bible sees history as divided into two great epochs. Before Jesus came there was the present age\u2014\u00a0the world<\/i>. Now that Jesus has come a new epoch has begun\u2014the age to come<\/i>. For the present, this new epoch stands alongside the first. Yes, God has always been in control but the present age is in bondage to self-interest and evil. We are captive to moral laws we can\u2019t keep.<\/span><\/p>\n

Satan,\u00a0the<\/i>\u00a0accuser<\/i><\/b>, has power over us because he holds ready the file of our failures to present to God\u2019s court of justice. And God, being righteous, has no alternative but to condemn us to death. Self-interest is treachery against him\u00a0and a capital offense.<\/span><\/p>\n

C.S. Lewis<\/b>\u00a0captures these elements in his\u00a0Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe<\/i>\u00a0when Edmund betrayed Peter, Susan and Lucy, and Aslan himself. The white witch demanded Edmund\u2019s life saying he had broken \u2018the laws of the deep\u2019. \u201cHis life is forfeit,\u201d she shrieked.<\/span><\/p>\n

THIS IS OUR CONDITION<\/span><\/h2>\n

Alienated from God we are in the power of spiritual forces we cannot defeat and are\u00a0en route<\/i>\u00a0to a grave we can\u2019t avoid. We are captive to the pain, suffering, and evil we have brought upon ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then came Jesus.\u00a0<\/b>Paul tells us that Jesus smashed the bars of this spiritual prison of the present age when he died. He wiped out\u00a0the moral debt<\/b>\u00a0of the laws we couldn\u2019t obey and he disarmed the\u00a0demonic powers<\/b>\u00a0we couldn\u2019t overcome. Further, he abolished\u00a0the death<\/b>\u00a0we couldn\u2019t escape.\u00a0The cross is where Jesus Christ has potentially turned our captivity into a glorious liberty.<\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s higher, bigger plan<\/b>\u00a0has been to\u00a0destroy\u00a0<\/b>our hostility towards him and towards one another, and our subsequent suffering and pain. And he did it\u00a0without destroying the enemy\u00a0<\/b>\u2013 you and me.<\/span><\/p>\n

God\u2019s plan is one we would never have dreamed of \u2013 God himself providing the means of restoring our true\u00a0glory<\/i><\/b>. No wonder Paul the Apostle wrote,\u00a0The sufferings of this present age cannot be compared with the glory that is to be revealed<\/i>\u00a0(Romans 8:18).<\/span><\/p>\n

When we begin to understand this bigger plan of God\u2019s<\/b>\u00a0we come to see the \u2018plans we need to make\u2019 in a world that continues its giddy course of instability, injustice, and suffering.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is more than time<\/b>\u00a0to play our part in reaching family, friends and many others with the good news that God has a plan for a world where there will be no more dying, no more tears, but one where there is true peace and lasting joy.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u00a9 John G. Mason<\/span><\/p>\n

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riting in\u00a0The\u00a0Wall Street Journal\u00a0last week (02\/09\/17), Peggy Noonan wrote:\u00a0Let\u2019s step back from the daily chaos and look at a big, pressing question.\u00a0Last fall at a defense forum a significant military figure was asked: If you could wave a magic wand, what is the one big thing you\u2019d give the U.S. military right now? We\u2019d all […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1527,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-word-on-wednesday"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018A HIGHER PLAN'? - The Anglican Connection<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In a world where, despite every human attempt to change things for the better, injustice and suffering continue unabated, is there in fact \u2018a higher plan\u2019?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/anglicanconnection.com\/a-higher-plan\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018A HIGHER PLAN'? 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