That Good Part

I read a sad article in the news today. It seems that instead of enjoying a few hours of entertainment by going to see the movie "Avatar", some people are coming away from the film with depression and suicidal thoughts. They are flocking to online forums and chat rooms to lament the fact that life isn't worth living after being exposed to the land of Pandora that is represented in the film. I haven't seen the film. From the reports I've read about it, it seems that Pandora is a type of Eden, and after seeing it, comparing it to the stark reality outside the movie theater leaves some people with a growing sense of hopelessness about their own lives and the world in general. This morning I read this in the book "Jesus, Our Man in Glory" by A.W. Tozer: " It has been my feeling that the whole [human] race has harbored a yearning to go back to God's presence, to return to Eden. I do not mean that everyone in the race wants to be a Christian. Too...

From A.W. Tozer "Distractions must be conquered or they will conquer us. So let us cultivate simplicity; let us want fewer things; let us walk in the Spirit; let us fill our minds with the Word of God and our hearts with praise. In that way we can live in peace even in such a distraught world as this. "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." The Set of the Sail, 129-132.

"Important as it is that we recognize God working in us, I would yet warn against an over preoccupation with the thought. It is a sure road to sterile passivity. God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, ‘Oh Lord Thou knowest.’ Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God's omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints."