Shaken not Stirred
Shaken… not stirred - a phrase made famous by the author Ian Fleming when describing his character James Bond’s preference for the mixing of his drinks. The action of stirring is intended to slowly, gradually, and smoothly blend ingredients together. When a drink is shaken, there is the rather vigorous and intentional effect of the rapid mixing up of ingredients.
This world, under the direction of satan, has been subject to much stirring. Consider the change in our everyday language which is one indication of this. Recent generations of young people commonly use the term ‘wicked’ or ‘sick’ when they describe something that they consider good.
If the term is used often enough, as with a gentle stirring, a gradual blending, it becomes accepted as a term meaning the opposite of its original intended meaning. And all that is good that slowly and subtly blended with the things which are not so good, such that it is almost imperceptibly changed – can and is changed from good - to bad.
The recent situation during the Corona virus pandemic, that happened the whole world over was a blending of what we would never in the past have accepted as normal, such as not holding our loved ones in our arms or putting an arm around a colleague or friend to bring comfort in difficult times – even a firm handshake as a greeting. We saw a move from the compulsory wearing of face masks in crowded places, to protect one another, to commonly seeing people walking down the high street, or driving alone in their cars wearing them?
Two years of it and it became what was popularly accepted as the ‘new normal’ and it was slowly being stirred, and blended, into something we previously would have never accepted as any kind of normal.
Churches were called to conform to rules that do not line up with God’s calling upon His people, and gradually the church moved further away from what God expects when the church assembles together. When some churches did meet, it was joining together in a ‘virtual event’ and not actually assembling physically together.
You cannot throw a box of watch parts into a pile in a room and call it a watch. It has to be assembled together in such a way that each component plays its allocated part, in the fully assembled and functioning watch. Sadly, many church were coming together without, real fellowship or any of the blessings that God calls us to - friendship, encouragement, prayer, the study of His Word, worship, and praise and teaching. It was been subtly stirred into a blend that on the surface appeared to be church, but it was way off from being as God intended.
But God always gives warnings before He intervenes. and in the Bible, in Hebrews 12:25-28, there is a clear warning to all – to those who do not follow after God and have not yet received His Son Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and to the church – to those who profess to have done so.
It says:
See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.
The Bible is clear that Jesus will soon return and call out His church to meet Him in the air.(1 Thessalonians 4:15-18)
That time will signal great joy and eternal salvation to all who are trusting Jesus, but it will also herald in a terrible time upon this earth as the restraining of the Holy Spirit will also have been removed and there will be a time when there will be more evil and more wickedness than has ever been known. (Read Matthew Chapter 24.) Verse 21 says:
For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Don’t be stirred – slowly blended to accept the unacceptable with the acceptable, the evil with the good, but instead take heed to the warning of the shaking to come, and repent and trust Jesus for your salvation.
Jesus Himself says in Marks 1:15
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”
If we do have to endure yet more upside-down times – we pray that you will come to personally know Jesus Christ – who, in this uncertain and changing world, is still the Saviour of the World.