Come Down to Earth and Be Still

I first published this post and podcast in October 2016 on the eve of the historic election when Donald Trump became our 45th president and heralded a great shift of power and purpose in our nation--a restoration of America's founding principles and a long prayed for cleansing of a nation. This could only be done through the shaking of all things--as God promised to do in Hebrews 12:25-29--shaking all things so that only what is of Him would remain. We are currently living through this unprecedented moment in history .

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The corona virus may have been the devil's tool for global chaos and destabilization, but God has turned the tide of the enemy's plans as we've stepped into 2020, yet another election year. Possibly the MOST critical election of a world leader in all of history.

If you're feeling a little shook up during this national call to "social distancing" and are homebound for two to three weeks, I pray you resist the enemy of FEAR and begin to PRAISE the Lord for His mercy upon us in the storm. He has called us to cross over, in effect, the Sea of Galilee to the other side and is unfazed by stormy seas calling out, "Peace! Be still." In essence: "Come down to earth and be still." 

            The pendulum swings from side to side
            A slice to the left and there to abide
            Delayed in the air
            Till Gravity beckons,
            “Come down to earth and be still.”
 
            The pendulum swings from left to right
            Holding position, hovering tight,
            Seeming to rest
            Till Gravity beckons,
            “Come down to earth and be still.”
 
            The pendulum swings from Truth to Error
            From Error to Truth and back again,
            Slicing and slashing
            Till Gravity beckons,
            “Come down to earth and be still.”
 
            It’s good to come down to earth.
           
That was the example of Jesus Christ. In the centerpiece of time, in the flux of worldly confusion, He came down to earth. He brought Truth down to earth—the focal point of all history—God’s Word and Will made manifest: Peace on earth.
 
The turbulence of the human spirit could now be still. At Rest. He swung not a pendulum in an endless sway back and forth, but a sword, with a singular slice cutting straight. Separating out Truth from Error. Once and for all. It is finished. Truth reigns at the center.
 
All history, before and after Him, hovers at extreme pendulum angles—but never for long. Gravity’s force pulls it ever closer to the center place of Rest where Truth resides.

Man’s agitated existence is a pendulum passing through that center place, grabbing fistfuls of Truth and clear thinking along the way, continuing through history on an upward swing. Seeds of Truth exchange for Error—exchange for Truth—in the swaying, sown and grown from generation to generation. Here, and back again through time. And, to the present, forming the mind, heart, and spirit of the human condition. The worldview of individuals, cultures, and nations.
 
Our finite minds cling to short seasons of Rest afforded to us when we pass through the center in Christ. But, we are not stilled to stop there. We swish, speeding in tumult, back and forth.
 
Life at the center, down to earth—at Rest—is a life of Peace even when we only possess a handful of Truth seeds. There, we come to a stop, stilled enough to evaluate what we’re sowing in our swinging. Have we picked up any Error in our mad dashing to and fro?
 
Separated out and sown well in the place of Peace, a handful of Truth multiplies with the riches of heaven. Spiritual Truth planted in the soil of an earthly realm produces good fruit because Christ brought Truth down to earth and showed man how to live with it there in every sphere of life. 
 
The day will come, perhaps very soon, when we’ll take the fullness of our earthly harvest to the infinite realm of the Spirit. There we re-invest ourselves in the further purposes of God, walking in a rewarded life with Him.
 
Until that day we must live down to earth here, where God placed us in time and space, cultivating Truth and bringing forth its unique fruits accordingly. We have responsibilities to sensibly tend all aspects of our life in His Truth, affecting our family, church, work, as citizens in our communities at large—and in our nation.
 
But the finite realm of earthly soil is not without miry bogs, evil pits, and erroneous chasms of ignorance. Wolves in sheep’s clothing swing through the ages wearing the name of Christ, compassion, goodness, and beauty. Beware and do not be deceived. Underneath they are razor-sharp as the slash of the pendulum’s edge seeking to supplant Truth for Error.
 
The wise one knows to hold tight his fistfuls of Truth scooped from the center as he passes to and fro through the seasons of his life. He removes himself from the path of the swinging pendulum, to the “down to earth” place of ordinary stillness where Truth may well be rooted, tended, harvested, and feasted on, season after season. The substance of that Truth, when planted in good “down to earth” soil, remains the same—as Christ is the same—yesterday, today, and forever.
 
When the world around us is uprooted and the ground beneath us begins to shake, the pendulum of our mind and heart—our understanding and emotions—swings in a sway of changeable thinking. But, Truth is unchanging.
 
In like manner, the foundation of a building remains the same. It must not be changed. It is laid to give stability to what is built upon it—the subsequent floors, rooms, and architectural elements, according to its purpose. A house rises or falls on the integrity of the foundation, and the quality of its workmanship and materials.
 
Is our Truth planted in good “down to earth” soil?
 
Is the foundation that Jesus Christ fist laid in our hearts being built upon according to how it was first designed?  In Truth?  With gold, silver, and precious stones?
 
Or have the pendulum swings of history, and the Truth and Error slashing to and fro, stunted the maturity of the garden grown and the house built?
 
For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.  According to the grace of God which was given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid the foundation, and another builds on it. But let each one take heed how he builds on it. For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw, each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is.  If anyone’s work which he has built on it endures, he will receive a reward.  If anyone’s work is burned, he will suffer loss; but he himself will be saved, yet so as through fire.
                                                                                                              1 Corinthians 3:9-15 NKJV
 
We should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ.
                                                                                                                Ephesians 4: 14-15  NKJV
 
From the moment we are stilled enough to allow Christ His foundation in our life, the pendulum swings back and forth as we work through sanctification in an earthly realm that is constantly shaking. Powers seek to supplant His Truth and Rest from our lives.
 
Even on a larger scale, we see this to be true historically. From the earliest roots of our Judeo-Christian nation’s history, powers have sought to supplant the Truths our Founding Fathers sowed into our national character and purpose. Every election has had contenders entering the race with diametrically opposed ideologies to our culture and Constitution. As history marches on, like a pendulum swinging back and forth, every four years we have the potential to destroy ourselves and the noble aspirations of our foundations, through the election process. Each election builds on that which came before it, leaving its mark for good or ill, Truth or Error, in what is erected. Or dismantled.
 
We are called to steward our earthly days in His Truth and to choose wisely how we shall live and build on the foundations laid in the moment in history allotted to us. How will we swing this time? As builders with gold, silver, and precious stones laid on the Judeo-Christian foundations set by our Founders 240+ years ago? Or will the pendulum swing cluttering the path with wood, hay and straw?
 
Wolves in sheep’s clothing have weaseled their way into the popular culture, our schools, and yes—our churches, to some extent—with pendulum swings of re-direction and re-defining of terms for over 40 years. Corruption, seeded from Error, cuts away at the roots of our Constitution like a sickle swaying and slashing . . . back and forth . . . back and forth.
 
When we find ourselves overwhelmed with the headlines of the day, shaken and swaying, we must jump off the pendulum swing of the sickle. Be still. Come down to earth and take an inventory of the Truth seeds gathered swinging through these historic days we’re living in. Stillness gives us the needed pause to discern them, sheltered from Error’s distraction and re-definition weapons seeking whom they may devour.
 
In that stilled place, we are not alone. The Lord is our Shepherd there, leading us in green pastures, beside still waters, restoring our souls. He doesn’t swing sickles in pendulum strokes. His rod and staff gently corrects and confidently guides us, pointing straight as a compass to where our focus should be. On Him. And the full counsel of His Word. Seeking His Will to be done and Kingdom to come on earth as it is in Heaven.
 
If you’re swinging on a pendulum or two, be it family crisis, work or health matters, or the quandary and confusion of this critical upcoming election, ask the Lord to help you “come down to earth and be still.” You’ll see all things more clearly, and will know how to walk in God’s Truth as you steward it in the many spheres of your life here on earth.  
 
            The pendulum swings spent and slow
            Energy ebbed as time doth flow,
            Coming to center,
            Finally focused,
            Still . . .
 
            And Gravity speaks with a sigh,
            “Be still and know that I
 
            Am God.”