Unfragmented: Shalom in Shattering World

By Paul W Martin

Once upon a time, in the Garden of Eden we were whole. And then we weren’t.

Since that time we have lived in chaos and confusion as all of the earth groans. We all yearn to return to beauty, balance and harmony, but find it increasingly difficult as we become more fragmented and torn by the ragged shards of the world we live in.

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Outreach, Inc (DBA Equip Press)
• Release date: Jul 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781946453013

Paul W Martin

PAUL MARTIN is a speaker and author. He served pastorates in Louisiana, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Kansas. He, along with his wife Sharon, pioneered their denomination's ministry into Sierra Leone, West Africa with a focus on leadership development and theological education. The Martins live near Wichita, KS. They are parents of two married children and six grandchildren.

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PREFACE

Was this for real?! I couldn’t believe what I was seeing and hearing!

In a media interview, a pastor of influence cited Scripture as his life guide and authority regarding a lifestyle issue. Driving for his agenda, the reporter then responded, But aren’t there times in today’s world when we have to bring the Bible kicking and screaming into modern times?

Hmm…. Mythoughts were immediatelyreeling! Upon reflection I have had more. That would have made an interesting media view for my grandfather! How might it be playing with my heavenly Father?

On the issue under consideration in this interview, the word of the Maker could not be clearer. God’s intent is set forth with no ambiguity; several passages in the Scriptures address the issue.

My sense as I watched and listened, however, was that, at least in some circles in today’s world, human thinking and wisdom are to be regarded as the authority rather than God’s wisdom as expressed in holy Scripture. What was more, as I watched other pastors interviewed over a period of time, I had the impression that the in thing with some media outlets now is to sport at God’s thinking in the Scriptures. Bringing in pastors who teach and preach the Scriptures for media interviews and making them the target of the sporting is to send the message that historically esteemed Judeo-Christian values, at least those that don’t meet the new agenda of today’s societal norms, are now to be marginalized, if not disregarded.

I often ponder steeples, including those in my country of origin. In cities, towns, villages, and across the landscape of the country and through the years of its history, they silently speak—volumes. Pointing upward, as poignant symbols, they have echoed our currency motto, In God We Trust.

When the thinking expressed by the reporter is accompanied with a pervasive attitude in society that seems to say that we, the human family, know better than our Father what is best for this family throughout our world, what is our spiritual standing? Is it possible that purported progressivism has spiraled retrogressively back to that moment in Eden when the first human couple expressed the same word and spirit to their Creator?

It was the spring of 2015. My wife and I had served eleven years out of our home country. We had returned from missionary service in Africa for itineration, conferences, and vacations every one and a half to two years during that period. On this return trip from Africa in May 2015, we had occasion to spend several days in Israel. While there we spent time with a pastor of a mega church in the US who was on tour in Israel. This is a pastor who stays closely attuned to current events and who analyzes significant issues for faith and Christian living in relation to those events. In a clear statement he confirmed to several listeners in the tour group what Sharon and I had sensed as we returned the last few times to our home country. He shared of a new agenda, of forces at work undermining God’s Word and ways, including increasing instances of persecution of those embracing the message of holy Scripture. In fact, he noted that after his thirty plus years of ministry, evil is exponentially on the rise, in ways he has never seen before. He shared his perspective thatifthis agenda, antagonistic to that of holy Scripture, continued to be pressed to this degree, authentic Christ followers may have some serious decisions to make. The Judeo-Christian values that had made America a beacon of light, the honoring of God that had brought His blessings in measures not seen by any other nation in history, were now under all-out attack. Yes, the soul of this nation had been tampered with. The floodgates had been opened; the tides of spiritual and moral relativity were now swirling and rising at an exponential pace.

The ideology of this agenda now pressured that core spiritual values of the nation be un-anchored. Moral and spiritual truth was now to be subjected to human reasoning as the final authority. In God We Trust was still on the currency. Clearly, however, in numbers of this society’s sectors God’s Word was no longer respected. Not respected, that is, in the sense of a profound desire to heed it and to humbly submit to the Word and ways of its Originator and Inspirer. Despite the motto on the currency, God had been shoved aside. Now morally and spiritually at sea, where would the nation drift? What would be its final destination?

Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people (Prov. 14:34).

In the intensity of the pressure, how do God’s people stand true? Forever, the Gospel, the Good News, is powerful! It brings wholeness where there was sin sickness. It needs no apology—as though in some way we’re embarrassed—for this incredible healing power! It rather is designed to impel its beneficiaries to be agents of their Physician’s healing to all who will be open to His work. So long as our human family experiences this sin sickness, this Grand News will beam forth its brilliant transforming rays, undimmed by enemy powers!

As in my heart I process personal spiritual reality, and as I strive for balance in today’s headwinds, for me spiritual basics must remain a part of the equation. If I allow my devotion to Christ to cool, if I allow a spiritual fatigue to overcome real spiritual issues that require intentional vigilance and energy, the enemy of authentic spiritual life in Christ will shove me to his side. May I be frank? I don’t like what I see as his intention, nor do I like to consider the further reaches of what could too easily be a very wrong destination.

I share observations. I get a sense that these are times when the enemy has found clever ways to play upon the thinking of believers. This we know: the enemy has a mega agenda—to sabotage the work of Christ in our world! And, of course, our world is already quite sufficiently broken! How much more accommodation to the enemy’s agenda do we allow him?! This mega agenda, this overarching metanarrative, of course, plays out in an infinite variety of micro narratives. When these stories serve the enemy’s overarching objective, any of the effective in-life micros bring him gleeful delight.

This enemy has numerous subtle tracks for pressing the church. The timeless truth forever holds that God loves all people, that God loves the sinner, but hates sin. The shove of the enemy to today’s church, however, is under the rubric of loving all people, to also accommodate matters that God clearly designates as sin—sin that has been well stated as moral and spiritual sickness.¹

It seems to me that these are times when the enemy is using various pressure tactics:

•   to lower respect for the holy Scriptures as God’s authoritative guide for salvation, for spiritual formation, for the navigation of the holy life through the minefields of corruption and evil—and, yes, including the systemic evil of this world’s societies.

•   to press Christ followers to settle for life at levels less than spiritual victory, to diminish God’s vision and His grace that bring assurance of His life within.

•   to press authentic believers to allow the cares of this life (Matt 13:22), the pace and technology of our age, to steal deep meaning from our walk with our Creator, our Father.

•   to push pastors and other believers to excuse sin, to euphemize it, to airbrush it with the Oh, I’m sure our heavenly Father understands kind of thinking—a diminishing of who God is, of the holiness of His nature, of His clear call in the Scriptures to the human family to holy wholeness.

•   to diminish Christian faith in our world, with that faith’s profound meaning and significance. "When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

In addition to my quest for balance, I need to see the big picture. I love maps. I can be quite focused on detail and on getting details right. But I navigate better when I have a grasp of the big, the whole. I like first to see the continent, the country, the province, the state. Then the road details, the relationship of cities and towns to the whole and to each other. I find it also interesting to understand the topography of the various regions in relation to the larger geography. I make more meaning of the lesser segments as I relate to the larger.

The reflections in this book are an attempt to contemplate a bigger picture. As I relate to daily life in our uncertain and tumultuous times, I need to anchor and nurture my faith in the Creator-Sustainer-Redeemer. We learn of Him through nature, as well as from the incredible mosaic that takes shape as we contemplate the holy Scriptures. And other inspired writers also help me as I process the big picture