Revelation 9:5,6--They were not given power to kill them, but only to torture them for five months. And the agony they suffered was like that of the sting of a scorpion when it strikes a man. During those days men will seek death, but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.
Agony is the struggle that precedes death. We so often think of this state as prolonged, gruesome and slow—a patient fighting to beat some dreaded disease. Yet, agony may also be camouflaged beneath a happy exterior. While appearance suggests that life is good, underneath a desperate struggle to find meaning takes place.
Agony is the:
· headlong flight to reach the top only to wonder at the pinnacle what else is there?
· canard of naturalism as the passionate explanation for life mixed with an animus towards a Creator
· unsatisfied pursuit of new and better toys, homes, cars, computers, etc.
· proliferation of green paper that cannot buy joy
· reality of aging despite wonder drugs, plastic surgery and super vitamins
· fight for rights that result in guilt and endless rationalization
· song whose words cannot be understood but whose scream is loud and penetrating
· desperate desire to be loved yet repeated stiff-arming of the Lover
· scorn expressed for absolutes and pain experienced without their protection
· result of calling good "evil" and evil "good".
We are surrounded by a society in agony. A young boy of six guns down his classmate and a thousand attend her funeral asking, "Where did we go wrong?" Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) dangerously pollutes our water nationwide as underground fuel tanks leak. No matter how fast we run, what we invent, how splendidly we live, sin and death still stalk, unimpressed by human effort.
Agony! It doesn’t have to be so. Jesus came to seek and to save the lost.
Inspiration