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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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Signs of the Times Australia / NZ edition — lifestyle, health, relationships, culture, spirituality, people — published since 1886 |
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with Errol Webster
Grunge singer Kurt Cobain had reached world fame when he put a shotgun under his chin. Grunge music in the 1990s was a revival of punk that, in the words of one music commentator, is “the glorification of powerless, soulless despair and nihilistic perversity.’’ Nihilism is the ultimate in despair, in which there is no hope, no future, no meaning, no values, no purpose, no God. Everything is absurd. Nihilism is a view of life that tries to smash any idea of values. In his suicide note Cobain said, “Since the age of seven I’ve become hateful of all humans in general.” That was when his parents split. How important family stability is for the nurture of children!
Matthew 19:4-6 “At the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.’”
Genesis 1:28 “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth.’”
Ephesians 6:1-4 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
‘Honour your father and mother’— which is the first commandment with a promise— ‘that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.’”
Leviticus 19:3 “Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must observe my Sabbaths. I am the Lord your God.”
It’s significant that these are the two positive commandments of the 10.
The first four focus on our relationship with God, hinging on the fourth, which tells us why we should worship and put God first—because He is our Creator. The last six focus on our interaction with each other, hinging on the fifth, which emphasises the importance of family relationships where we learn to relate to others.
Marriage and the family form the basis of society. Jesus’ summary is, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart” and “Love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-40)
Ephesians 6:4 “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, interbring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
Ephesians 1:4-8 “In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will. . . . In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace.”
1 John 3:1 “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!”
Paul says that as God’s children we are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ”
(see Romans 8:15-17).
Titus 3:5-7 “He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy . . . so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
1 John 5:13 “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God [Jesus] so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
I wonder how different Kurt Cobain’s life would’ve been if he had known God accepts us into His family?
Extract from Signs of the Times, June 2007.
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