MONK

No not the kind that live in monasteries or on the top of a mountain somewhere in Tibet.  What other kind are there?  The guy on TV. MONK.  Most of you have watched him.  For the few that have not, he is a private investigator that is paranoid, germaphobe, obsessive and compulsive.  The theme song to the show is a catchy tune “It’s a jungle out there!”  The lyrics allude to his many fears and warn that some degree of cautiousness is necessary to stay alive, given life’s everyday dangers.

It's a jungle out there
Disorder and confusion everywhere
No one seems to care
Well I do
Hey, who's in charge here?
It's a jungle out there
Poison in the very air we breathe
Do you know what's in the water that you drink?
Well I do, and it's amazing
People think I'm crazy, 'cause I worry all the time
If you paid attention, you'd be worried too
You better pay attention
Or this world we love so much might just kill you
I could be wrong now, but I don't think so!
'Cause there's a jungle out there.
It's a jungle out there

In reality, IT IS A JUNGLE OUT THERE.  Many of you may think that I am a nut and seeing Satan around every corner or behind every bush.  I assure you that I am not a spiritual MONK!

Paul told the Romans:

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³²He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;

We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

³⁷Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Paul told the Corinthians:

^“3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,”

Paul told the Colossians:

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.

If I am crazy, I’m in good company!  Was Paul the MONK of the New Testament!  I think not!

For all the armchair, Monday morning quarterbacks out there:

IT IS A JUNGLE OUT THERE!  A SPIRITUAL JUNGLE!