A Common Place Of Disgust...

I love Dr. Cox. But not in the way you think. Let me explain. While I do enjoy the ferocious rantings of Johnny C McGinely in the hit show Scrubs, I'm talking about a different Dr. Cox. Some reading this will instantly know who this is. Others won't have a clue.



Ted Cox is one of the greatest speakers that I've heard in a long time. One of many doctors in the physics department of UCD, he also happens to be a speaker in City Gates, the church that I now call home. Beneath the rugged exterior is a man who has spoken many truths into my life. While it may only be church that I have heard him speak, he has a great ability to converse the many and wondrous ideas in God's word.



I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent for this paragraph. I was glancing around the internet, and on the TV, when I came across this pole; "Is it OK to have sex before marriage?" Obviously my answer to this question is no, but that is a story for another day. But that's not why I went off on this tangent. The station (I think it was GMTV) released the result. Nearly 3 quarters of the British public thought it was OK to have pre-marital sex...I was shocked. That may have not been the exact figure, but it was definitely above 60%. I couldn't believe it. For a country who has strong Christian roots, I found this shocking. And I'm sure if you pose that question to any other country, you'll get a similar figure...


I went to church not long ago, and I was delighted to see Ted was going to speak. I was also delighted to see the worship team comprised of all youth. But back to the point, Ted was speaking on "Living In Uncertain Times" a topic which intrigued me immensely. He was going to be speaking from Psalm 1, a psalm that I had never read before. But perhaps what I drew most out of the talk was not the solution to living in uncertain times, that solution being Jesus, but something which is incredible.

Psalm 1 describes the evolution of man accepting wickedness. Before I go on, let me show the actual verse;

"Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers."

Psalm 1 v 1

The creation of sin was almost instantaneous, but through the creation of society, Satan had to adapt his plan. The progression is this; 1st we begin walking with the wickedness, just going along with it. 2nd, we stand with, now standing for it in defence of it. Finally, 3rd, we sit with it, immersing ourselves in it, conversing with it.

The human race has reached a common place of sin. But while major sins such as murder is still not respected by the common people, a lot of which upsets God has become uniform in today's society; debauchery, drunkenness, jealousy, ruthlessness, pre-marital sex, envy, lust, hatred, all have been accepted in some way or another by the world today. Everything which has been mentioned above, and much more, disgusts God. We have reached a common place of disgust, and seen as we are designed to adore God, and love Him, this is completely the wrong direction.

They say the greatest trick the Devil ever played was making the world believe that he never existed. But by far the greatest ploy of his is making the human race grow ever distant from Our Savior.

The world has fallen. It has been in this state since the fall of man. And God couldn't stand being disgusted with His own children. And so, he Himself sat down with us and the world, in the place we have become engrossed in, and snatched us from the brink of destruction. He gave His Son, Jesus, to take our place in the coming death. He took His Father's disgust, and poured it on himself.

If you haven't noticed by now, I usually take most of my talks back to Jesus. That's because I believe in letting Him be the centre in our lives, or in my words, the nexus. But there's more to this. Because while Jesus' death is significant, His resurrection holds something amazing...


His display of His perfect love...


He gave us the second chance, a chance to stand up and walk away from the wickedness of the world. He has given this, and while what he offers is so great, much of the world has become engrossed in the lies of the world. But the next verse in Psalm 1 shows us how to respond to His call of a second chance;

"But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night."

Psalm 1 v 2

If we engross ourselves, not in the lies of the world, but in His perfect word, and His perfect love and grace, we begin to live the life He has designed for us. Later in the psalm, it talks about being anchored by the streams of water, or in our case, God's love, and that the fruit we will bear will not wither, unlike those who follow the ways of the wicked, who the psalmist describes as being like chaff, who will simply be blown in the day of judgement.

But we have the choice to make. We must choose to be anchored in God's love, walking away from the council of the world, and engrossing ourselves in His truth, the ultimate truth, that He loves each of us so much, that He would bear the punishment of all humankind, and take our place, just so that we can walk with Him in the new Eden...

Anchor yourself in Him; May you forever hold Him as your Nexus...