MADNESS AND THE MASTER S
March means springtime is coming. With spring, comes two of the sporting world’s premier events: Basketball’s March Madness and Golf’s Masters Tournament. The latter’s preliminary festivities actually begin a week prior to the tournament and thus begin in late March. Both contests conclude in the first week of April. Both events begin with M and both events remind me of the far greater contest that takes place in the souls of Millions. Madness is an apt description for the world we live in. Each night the news reports on more madness—public, personal, political, prideful, and painful. Shootings, protests, rebellions, wars—all are the constant fare of the nightly news. David, in Psalm 2, describes our world with these words:
“The nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One” (Psalm 2:1,2).
We should not be surprised at these words. The nightly news bears them each evening. The words of King Solomon of the Old Testament ring true: “The hearts of men, moreover, are full of evil and there is madness in their hearts” (Ecclesiastes 9:3). But on the heels of the madness comes the Master—Jesus Christ. With the continual march of man’s madness, comes the arrival of the one who has Mastered the madness of sin, death, and the grave. In one more month we will celebrate the one whose mastery over the cross and the tomb allows us to cry out, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:55-57). So, as we enter March, let us begin preparing our hearts for the end of the march to madness and the celebration of the one who redeems the heart of man and becomes our Master forever. The words of David at the conclusion of his Psalm is the news the world needs most:
“Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned, you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. . . . Blessed are all who take refuge in Him” (Psalm 2:10-12).
Pastor Mike
FROM THE PASTOR’S HEART
