There is an awful lot in the Western world that doesn’t have a category for evil, that comes from sinners. For many, evil is merely a social construct. Evil is what a particular society defines as evil; maybe some other society defines some other way of looking at things as evil. Evil is either genetically determined, or it’s socially defined, but there is no real evil. As a whole the world sees no objective evil that is caused by Sin.

From the moment of his birth, Jesus lived in the shadow of the cross. but because he would die as a sacrifice, under the wrath of God. Jesus, even in his perfect humanity, shrank back at the utter horror of it and so he cries out to his Father to remove this cup from him. He was using the Jewish image of the cup filled with the wrath of God.

The background of this event is the week before His crucifixion. He’s coming into Jerusalem in what some call a triumphal entry. Some see Him coming as a king, but our Lord Jesus, humble as He was, came on a borrowed donkey, the symbol of humility.

Peace is not appeasement. Appeasement never brings peace. We are not honor-bound to get along with everybody. There is something disconcerting and wrong with the person who can get along with everybody

The heart is the core of the individual. Reference to the heart is talking about the seat of our emotions. It’s talking about our master control center. It is the part of us that dictates our character, directs our will, and dominates the affections.

It’s been stated that when David wrote, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” he was in a place where evil was an ever-present reality. Yet he refused to give in to fear. He wasn’t under any ideology that God would abolish evil, so he could pass through the valley safely, No, he was saying that the presence of God with him, gave him the confidence to pass through difficult places without fear of God deserting or leaving him.

Thank goodness, God does not deal with us on the basis of fairness. God deals with us on the basis of mercy. We don’t deserve anything, yet He offers mercy.

Today, almost none of us knows real hunger or thirst. But, in a desert country where the sun was scorching, where sand and wind storms were frequent, thirst was man’s constant companion. To such a world, hunger meant the hunger of a starving man, and thirst, that of a man who would die without water.

Do you think of Jesus was weak? He fasted forty days and forty nights alone in the wilderness with wild beasts. Just envision a picture of Jesus making a whip and driving the money changers out of the temple. Does a weak person stand up against the majority? No, the weak person always gives in to the majority. They just choose to go along in order to get along, whether it is right or wrong.

The followers of Jesus are to be different, different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. Here is a Christian value-system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, life-style and network of relationships—all of which are totally at variance with those of the non-Christian world. And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the kingdom of God.