Killing Lightning Bugs

“Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” (Romans 12:19)

 

Summer time is upon us, and one of the best parts of that is how we can do all sorts of neat things outside like playing sports, cooking on the grill, and just enjoying God’s creation. If you are like any human on this planet, when you were a kid, you would go out at dusk and catch lightning bugs. Maybe you put them in a jar with some grass clippings and took them into your room for the night. It was pretty cool to turn off all the lights and watch them glow. It set off a surreal aura to the room. When I was a kid, some of the girls would pull the “glow part” off and put it on their finger and pretend it was a wedding ring. Maybe you had your favorite thing to do with them that is different. By the time we got a little older, we discovered how cool it was to take a whiffle ball bat and try to hit them with it. That is clearly the best way to “hunt” lightning bugs. You would see them rise from the grass, and begin “stalking” them with bat in hand, poised for the opportunity to drive a double into the gap (a little baseball analogy). Positioned just right, as the unsuspecting bug would light up, a skillfully placed swing would explode it into few little pieces of light, and if you hit it just right, would leave a “remnant” of glowing bug juice on the bat. We called it “poor man’s fireworks”.

 

I know… I know… That sounds really cruel and vicious. It is a bug. God makes plenty of them, and despite all the thousands of them that each one of us have killed in our lives, the supply is still as plenteous as ever. Besides, it is far more cruel to capture them, rip them from home and family and put them in a jar prison to starve them and make them die a slow and agonizing death. Sending them to bug heaven instantly with one swing of the bat is far more compassionate.

 

When my son Jeff was young, this was one of our favorite summer activities. A couple of times a week, we would hit the yard and hunt lightning bugs. Invariably, as I was stalking one, Jeff would seem to find the same one. Just as I was about to blast one into eternity, I would see Jeff coming up from the corner of my eye after the same one. In mid swing, I would have to pull back or run the risk of smacking my son upside the head with a bat. Sometimes we had to just divide the yard so this would not be a problem.

 

Every one of us has “enemies”. I put that in quotes, because quite frankly, I don’t think that in my short 59 years on this planet that I can really say that I have ever had a real enemy – someone who would be actively plotting my demise and seeking every opportunity to carry it out. You are probably no different. I am not talking about general enemies like terrorists. They don’t know my name and their hatred is not directed at me personally. We just have people we don’t like, and people who don’t like us. There are some out there who might even do some bad things to us, but they are probably not consumed with a daily relentless pursuit of our destruction. When those bad things happen to us, we want pay back. We live in such a hyper-litigious society that whenever something goes wrong, the courts are filled with frivolous attempts to make someone else pay for it. Vengeance is a multi-million dollar industry in our culture.

 

God tells us to give place to vengeance and let him handle it. He knows how to do it, and he will take care of real enemies at the right time, and in the right way. Just about the time he is ready to land one on their kisser, if he sees us out of the corner of his eye aiming for the same thing, he has to stop so he doesn’t smack us. A far more important issue is to remember where you came from. Jesus reconciled you to God when you were his enemy (Romans 5:6-10). His grace trumps all our perceived wrongs. Instead of taking your pound of flesh, put it in God’s hands. Take the blessed gospel of grace and turn your enemy into a friend by bringing them to Jesus.

I Really Don't Get It Sometimes

“For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” (II Chronicles 16:9)

 

I know God is in control. I know that nothing escapes his eyes or takes him by surprise. I know he has a purpose for everything that happens. I know and believe with every ounce of my being that Romans 8:28 is true, and that “…all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” It is OK to ask questions of God, but we can never question God – and I hope you understand the difference in those statements. So as I share this latest story with you, I will readily admit that I am often puzzled by these things, while at the same time I am curious and interested to see how God moves to work this one out.

 

As many of you know who read this blog, we have been involved with a group of churches in the Central American country of Belize for a number of years. We actually took our first trip there in 2001, one month after the attack on theWorldTradeCenter. That was 11 years ago. We have developed some very wonderful relationships as a result, and have watched churches grow and seen people “grow up” over those many years as well. We met Artemio and Noemi Cal on our very first visit. They are some of the most passionate servants of Jesus Christ I know. Temy (pronounced “Timmy”) is a pioneer. He has done church planting in Belize for many years. About 5 years ago, they bought a piece of ground in a village called Copper Bank, a fishing village on the very northern tip of Belize. They knew absolutely no one there. They dug a well and built a house and started going through the village sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. They were met with immediate resistance and hatred. It took a long time, but they finally got a few of the women in the village to trust Jesus as their Saviour. The men of the village became even more obstinate because they thought Temy and Noemi were upsetting their world. In a way, they were. Jesus stirs up controversy everywhere he goes. But his changes are always for the better. They have been threatened with everything you could imagine. One of the men came to their house with a machete. He was swinging it around and threatening to kill Temy, but Temy just stood there and held his ground and talked to him about Jesus. The man said, “I would kill you right now, but I know I can’t. If I did, you would go to heaven and I would go to hell.” He finally backed down. A couple of years ago, Temy and Noemi got there first male converts. A couple of the men in the village finally realized that Jesus loved their souls and trusted him as Saviour. Their church is growing and thriving, and they have started outreach church planting missions in a couple of other villages.

 

One of those villages is Santa Marta. After Sunday morning services in Copper Bank, they grab a quick lunch and drive an hour to Santa Marta and go door to door sharing the gospel. A group of people in Santa Marta has trusted Jesus as Saviour, and they are in the process of buying a small plot of land there to build a church building. Temy and Noemi’s oldest son Ahiezer (that’s a Bible name – Numbers 1:12) is 22 years old and he was going to move to Santa Marta and become the pastor of this new young group of believers. On January 3, he was on his motorcycle trying to dodge one of the ubiquitous pot holes in Belize when he lost control and was hit by an oncoming truck. It tore up his leg so badly that he has not walked since. Medical care in Belize is “third world”, and they did not help the matter much. An infection set in and caused enough damage that he now needs a total hip replacement. The doctors in Belize told him, “Wait five years for our technology to catch up.” If he waits five years, he will never walk again. So we are “nosing around” in the medical world here to see if there is anything we might be able to do. It is a long shot, but pray with us that God would direct us to some answers. God does indeed “show himself strong” in cases like this. We have seen Ahiezer grow up to be one of the finest young men I have ever known. We eagerly await God’s strength to meet this very serious need.

Vote for Jesus

“Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” (II Peter 3:13)

 

My phone is ringing off the hook with politicians calling for my vote. I am thinking about getting rid of my home phone because I continue to be bombarded by sales calls and political pitches and surveys, and they always come when I am in the bathroom or taking a nap or have my hands full of dishwater. I have registered on the national do-not-call list several times, yet the sales calls for time shares and alarm systems continue. Despite reporting them to the registry, they have the boldness and audacity to keep calling. I actually got my first political call on my cell phone today. The ad campaign will kick off in earnest very soon with television and radio saturated with the latest promises of utopia if you vote for me, and apocalypse if you vote for the other guy. When you get a Biblical perspective on man’s dominion of this earth, it changes your whole outlook on things such as this. We invest so much money and passion in our attempt to “make the world a better place to live”, and it just keeps getting worse with every passing day.

 

The Presidential candidates will spend hundreds of million dollars each to get an office that pays $400,000 per year. That does not sound like a very good business model. But to them, the power and prestige of the office is worth it, especially considering that they spend the donation money of other people. But there are cases when someone spends their own money for the campaign. I recall a case in California recently where some wealthy woman spent millions of her own dollars to run for Governor, and she still lost. That money would have never been recovered even if she won (unless I am missing something here – which maybe I am with all the graft and corruption an office like that can bring). The lure of power is a strange animal.

 

The only solution for the mess we have made of this world is Jesus. I think we should launch a write-in campaign for him this year. Of course, he is not here now, so even if he somehow won the election, we still would not see Jesus as President. Even that office is beneath him. I cannot imagine Jesus wanting to take such a lowly meaningless job as President of the United States. He was there on creation morning speaking the Universe into existence. One day very soon, Jesus is coming back to take all the kingdoms of the world. He will be crowned “King of kings and Lord of lords” then. Anyone in a position of power will be his servant. There will be no need to spend money to get an office, because he will appoint them based on character and service. There will be no personal benefit to political power because all graft and corruption will be stopped. Man will no longer be obsessed with trying to make the world better without Jesus, because he will be here to take care of it for us and show us how it is supposed to be done.

 

Probably the most amazing thing about this – at least to me – is that when you tell people about this, they rebel and reject the idea. I get it (because of man’s sin nature), but I really don’t get it. How could someone not be in favor of a world where righteousness reigns? How can anyone in their right mind look at the state of the world today and say we are making it better? During the upcoming political season leading to the election this November, pay attention to all the empty promises – from both sides – and consider the source. It is certainly valid to be informed and involved in the process. I will cast my vote, and I will watch the proceedings and take interest in the outcome. But don’t ever think that any one of these candidates will really solve anything of true significance. When Jesus splits the clouds and sits on the throne of his glory in Jerusalem, he will take care of the mess with the “sharp sword that goeth out of his mouth.” (Revelation 19:15) Until then, look for him to solve the individual problem of a soul in need of a Saviour. If he has done that for you, work on bringing another soul into his kingdom. If you can win just one soul to Christ, you will accomplish more good than a hundred politicians in a hundred lifetimes.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame

“And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee.” (Mark 1:28)

 

Everyone by now knows about this supposed “fifteen minutes of fame” that we are all entitled to. The problem comes in when we get it in the wrong way. With viral media the way it is these days, you can have the most embarrassing or shameful things you can imagine make headlines overnight. You can even become “famous” (or infamous) for evil and wrong beyond just the typical embarrassing stuff we all do. Who ever heard of George Zimmerman before the incident a few weeks ago that thrust him into the national spotlight? For those of you who have been under a rock lately, he is the guy in Florida who shot and killed a 17 year old boy because he thought he was a threat to the neighborhood. It is a little hard sometimes to figure out what is going on the minds of people, but we can all be sure that Mr. Zimmerman had no idea he would be so “famous” for something like this. He unfortunately has earned way more than his share of the fifteen minutes, and his life and the lives of both families involved are changed forever.

 

No matter how much a person tries to shy away from his “fifteen minutes”, every one of us will someday be famous in the eyes of the entire Universe. Romans 14:12 says, “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.” Every secret thing that everyone has ever done will be exposed to the light of the true God who made us and has a claim on our lives. I would think that very few people would actually want that type of fame. While I am sure that no one reading this has probably ever killed another person like George Zimmerman did, you still would not want all your “dirty laundry” paraded in front of a holy God for all to see. That is one of the best benefits of knowing Jesus as your personal Saviour. Obviously the best benefit is the home in heaven he guarantees us. Regardless of fame or embarrassment or any other issue, salvation from a lake of fire and eternity in heaven with our Lord sure is a good deal! But all of us have things about our lives that we would just as soon forget about and never bring up anywhere. If the “movie” of my life was played for all to see – with every thought acted out as well, I would take the next slow boat to China and you would never hear from me again. You would do the same.

 

Hebrews 12:2 says, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” He took my sin and shame on the cross. He “despised” it when he was there so that I don’t have to have the whole world despise me for it. Now I can have purpose and meaning in life and work for him to further his kingdom. We all still do things we shouldn’t, and I am no exception. The “Rev” attached to my name does not do anything for my flesh. But with the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ covering our sins, we can live in his light as he intended, and “Be not ashamed before him at his coming.” (I John 2:28)

 

Speaking of fifteen minutes of fame, some day very soon, “This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11). When he does, he will be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, and he will be the ruler of the world. A recent survey question was posed to people: “If you could have dinner with any person, dead or alive, who would it be?” Abraham Lincoln finished first. Jesus came in 11^th. He didn’t even crack the top ten! We might think Jesus is a pretty famous person now, and he is, but wait until he sits on the throne of his glory in Jerusalem. If you know him as Saviour now, you will be a “joint-heir” with him then (Romans 8:16). I will some day be best friends with the King of the world. I will be famous because he is famous. Tell as many people as you can about him, and serve him faithfully now, so that when he comes, he can say to you, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord.”

Dandelion Wine

“And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.” (Genesis 3:17-18)

I love spring time, but one of the few things I dislike about it is dandelions. My yard is full of them every spring, and they are a nuisance. Of course, my yard is full of just about every type of weed and bramble you could imagine. A horticulturalist would have quite the time of it in my yard, investigating things he may have never seen before. It seems like the dandelions come out of nowhere. One day you look in the yard and it is a sea of yellow that sprung up overnight, and before you can do anything about it, the yard turns into an ocean of white. Then those fuzzy little things float all over the yard and it looks like it is snowing. You just know that those weeds are reseeding themselves for an even bigger crop the next spring. They say you can actually eat the dandelion leaves in a salad, and there are even recipes to make wine out of them. I don’t know. I just can’t bring myself to that point with those nasty little weeds.

Our first parents had it pretty good. God gave them a garden paradise with all the fruits and vegetables they wanted and no weeds. I am a fully dedicated carnivore, but if I lived in a place like that, I can easily understand not eating meat. I have been to Hawaii three times and Belize and other tropical climates more than a dozen. The idea of being able to walk out your door and pick avocados the size of grapefruits is pretty awesome. If I could fill up on fruits and veggies like that all the time, there wouldn’t be much room left for meat. But I guess that wasn’t good enough for Adam and Eve. They thought they had to try the one thing God told them to leave alone, and look what it caused. Before any of us holler about it, we would have done the same. But now we have to live in a world with weeds and poison ivy (which I have on my hands right now) and all sorts of other stuff like it.

When we read the stories of the Bible, so many of the details seem to go under the radar. We all know they “platted a crown of thorns” and put it on the head of Jesus, but the significance of this escapes many believers. Nature was cursed in the garden when Adam and Eve sinned. Thorns and thistles (and dandelions and poison ivy) came forth out of the ground as a result. The crown of thorns on the head of Jesus represents his payment for that curse as well. We all focus on his crucifixion as the payment for our sins, and rightfully so because that is the main issue. His death on the cross secures a home in heaven for those who have placed their trust in him as Saviour. But it secured much more than that. The benefits of his sacrifice will not just “cover up” our sins and give God a reason to let us into his paradise, but it will actually restore what was lost in Eden and then some. Someday the desert will bloom as the rose, and the lion will lay down with the lamb and eat straw like an ox. Nature will be restored to its original garden paradise.

So much is made today of the “environmental issues” facing us. Without diving headlong into the controversial argument, don’t miss the point. Isaiah 45:18 says, “For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.” God created this world for man to dwell on it. No matter how big a mess we might make of it, we will not overturn his purpose for the earth. Right now we have to live on a planet with weeds and thorns and tornados and ice storms, but when he returns, the earth will be renewed just like we will have a new body. Until then, the reminders of man’s sin are paraded in front of us through the mess we have to live in. Tell others about the wonderful Saviour, then get ready for paradise to be restored – spiritually as well as physically.

Front Runners

“That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.” (Ephesians 4:14)

Well, it is that wonderful and magical time of the year again – baseball season! I love baseball. Anyone who doesn’t is a communist. I have followed it even more over the last few years since I have gotten into a fantasy league. I was always ambivalent about fantasy baseball because of what I thought was a lot of work. Being a part of a fantasy league gets you much more connected to what is going on in the sport on a regular basis, and it doesn’t take a whole lot of time. I don’t have a lot of time for stuff like that. I only get to play golf a couple of times a year because of the time commitment, and I don’t watch a whole lot of movies for the same reason. So I was always worried that fantasy baseball would consume too much of my time. But it really doesn’t, except for one time in the year when the draft is done and the league is set. After that, it is pretty much maintenance, and since I like to follow baseball anyway, not much more is involved.

We just held our annual draft a few days ago. It has always been the prevailing philosophy to draft hitters first, and try to build your pitching staff through the middle rounds. Pitchers can be “feast or famine” and when they are famine, it really costs you dearly. Hitters are usually a little more consistent. But over the last couple of years, the landscape of baseball has changed. The steroid era has come to an end, and you no longer have so many gorillas with their knuckles dragging on the ground lugging their big wooden sticks to the plate. Pitchers have a little better chance now, so the pendulum is swinging back in their direction. The winner of the league the last two years did so with pitching, so now everyone is on that bandwagon. Almost without exception, team “owners” went after pitching first in this year’s draft. I was going to do the same, but as the draft unfolded, I saw very quickly that they were leaving the best hitters alone. So I shifted my draft direction in mid-stream and loaded up on hitters. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I am a rebel (without a clue). I always naturally trend away from the “prevailing winds”. I have been like that from the womb. It has carried over to my Christianity as well. Sometimes it gets me in trouble, but most of the time, it saves me from a lot of grief.

Christianity is dominated by “prevailing winds”. One of the leading “experts” in modern church movements is George Barna. His work is done in surveying church trends and gathering statistics on the state of Christianity today. Since his work is so “national” in scale, he has to include everything that ties itself to “Christianity”, whether it is actually Biblical or not. As a result, he can give trends for church movements, but he may not really be showing us where God is at work. Statistics often do not tell the correct story, especially as it relates to individuals. For example, if you stuck your right foot in a bucket of ice water, and your left foot in a bucket of scalding water, statistically, you would still be very miserable. On the average, you might be “trending” in a certain direction, but individually, your feet would tell a much different story, and I would still have to visit you in the hospital.

Romans 3:4 says, “Let God be true, but every man a liar…” A principle that has always served me well is “the majority is always wrong”. When man gravitates to some “movement”, I am always suspicious. Be careful of movements. They often create a mess that someone else has to clean up. (Sorry for that mental image). James 1:8 says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Set your course of life on the rock of ages. His anchor always holds. When the mobs flock to the latest fad, step back for a moment and look at the word of God. While the world moves in one direction, the “Spirit of God moves upon the face of the waters” (Genesis 1:2) in the other direction. Jump on his bandwagon, it always leads to peace and truth.

Building A Better Mouse Trap

“Thy word is true from the beginning: and every one of thy righteous judgments endureth for ever.” (Psalm 119:160)

We caught a mouse a few weeks back. It was during that time of the year (winter) when they come in from the cold looking for shelter and food. Everyone has them at times. No matter how clean you keep things, you cannot keep mice from getting in the house. We saw the tell-tale signs of our little furry visitor, so we got some of those old fashioned spring loaded mouse traps and set one for him. A little peanut butter on the tip lures the unsuspecting rodent, thinking he has hit the mother lode for a five-star dining experience. Then… SNAP! Out of nowhere, the metal bar of judgment drops instantly from the sky across his neck and sends the unwelcome freeloading non-rent paying tenant to mouse heaven or hell, based on whether he ever got baptized and kept the golden rule and the ten commandments. I’m guessing mouse hell for our friend, since he clearly violated the “Thou shalt not steal” by helping himself to our food without leaving his little mouse dollars on the counter.

This wonderful device was invented well over 100 years ago, and ever since then, there has been a relentless attempt to make it better. I am sure you have seen the other products. We have even tried them. We got one of those little “sticky pads” that is supposed to be more “humane”. It’s not. We caught a mouse on one last winter, and he chewed up half of the sticky pad trying to free himself before he finally gave up and died. Instant death is a lot more compassionate than making the mouse go through all that fear, suffering and turmoil. Of course, the “bleeding hearts” among us would object to my supposed “cruelty”. It’s a mouse. Get over it. I am not trying to rid the world of mice and “upset the delicate eco-balance” (not!), I am just trying to keep them out of my house so they don’t eat up all our food and bring disease to our family. God keeps making plenty more of them, and if I caught one alive in a “humane and compassionate” tender loving way, and then delivered him to your house, you wouldn’t want him around either.

God put a perfect Bible in our hands many hundreds of years ago, and for some strange reason, man keeps thinking he has to find a way to make it better. But there is nothing that can improve on the blessed simplicity and beauty of our good old King James Bible. Just like our mouse traps, it has stood the test of time. Those old fashioned mouse traps are really simple to use once you figure it out. The first couple of times you try to set one, it takes a little getting used to. You have to know how to load the bait and hold it just right to set the spring. Then you have to be very careful and set it down gently so it doesn’t snap your fingers. But when it is operated properly, it works every time.

The same is true with the Bible. The first few times we pick it up, we are not sure how it works. We read a bunch of lists of “begats” and stories from cultures we are totally unfamiliar with, and we are afraid the Bible is going to “bite” us. We see the “-eth” on the end of all the verbs, and it scares us. We have flashbacks to our High School when we were forced to read Shakespeare. It would have been less painful to shove an ice pick in our eyes. So everyone wants to find a way to “make the Bible better” and in the process, they make it worse. There has never been an “update” of our beloved Bible that improves on the clear way God communicates to his people. You just have to know how to operate it. Operating a mouse trap can be mastered in a few minutes, but a Bible takes a lifetime. Unfortunately, in our “instant” society, most people will not invest the time to do so. But the health of your soul is far more important than the comfort of your home. Ridding your home of unwanted pests is not nearly as vital as ridding your life of the influences of the pest of the “god of this world”. Open your book and learn how to use it. The blessed pages of the word of God work every time.

On The Road Again

“In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

The next line of this famous Willie Nelson song says, “Just can’t wait to get on the road again…” He has to be crazy. I just got back from four solid days of driving. I close my eyes and see nothing but white lines and green signs. For those of you who attend Crest Bible Church, I have announced over the past few weeks the story that led to this marathon road trip, and I will summarize here for the rest. My mom and dad for the last 19 years have done the “snow bird” thing and spent the winter months at South Padre Island at the very southern tip of Texas. They love it there, evidenced by the fact they have done this for 19 years in a row. My dad is 87, and my mom is 81, and she does all the driving since he can’t see very well anymore. He only drives when the fog is thick, because it doesn’t matter if you can see then. As their age has advanced, the trip has posed greater challenges each year. But it is one of the great loves of their lives, and they continued to make this trip despite the challenges. We kids were increasingly squeamish about it, but you can’t roll up in a fetal position and quit living. There is risk in any venture of life, and if you don’t take a few of them, you aren’t living. Within reason, it is usually better to do the things you love rather than fret about what might happen.

This year’s trip went off the deep end. About 6 weeks ago, my dad took very ill and ended up in a hospital and then an assisted care facility in Texas. It became gravely serious, and my 81 year old mother was left with the burden of trying to manage this completely by herself while being exactly 1,062 “mapquest” miles from home. Some of my siblings took time to fly down and stay with her for a few days, and we tried to manage some of the medical decisions by phone and email from Kansas City. We almost lost him, but as time went on, he began to recover, and plans were made to “Medivac” him home. I volunteered to take this portion of the mission, and with the help of my brother Keith, we drove 1,062 miles down to Texas, loaded dad in a car, and drove them home another 1,062 miles. Including running around southern Texas for half a day taking care of last minute details, we traversed about 2,300 miles from 7AM Monday to 8PM Thursday. God gave us a great trip, mom and dad did fine with all the struggles of that type of travel, and we were able to get them home so that dad can continue his recovery and his life with his family.

I love driving. Road trips are always fun for me, but I don’t want to see another freeway for a while. Instead, I am looking forward to the next big trip on the itinerary – the rapture of the church. This world is in a mess. Its inhabitants are sick; yea nigh unto death. We are thousands (upon millions) of miles from home, and we are holding on for dear life. While we are here, our job is to rescue the other sick inhabitants and figure out a way to get them safe at home in the loving arms of the Saviour. Our only solution for the ills of this world is a “Medivac” mission to transport us to the home that Jesus has been preparing for us. Since he was a carpenter when he was here, and since he has the power to create from the spoken word alone, and since he has had a full 2,000 years to work on the place, I can only imagine that it must be awesome!

Luke 19:10 says, “For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” If your faith is fully deposited in him, you have nothing to worry about. He will get you home. While you are biding your time here, holed up in the infirmary of this world, figure out a way to add a few more souls to the trip. Don’t worry about space. He has plenty of room. As the old hymn says, “Though millions have come, yet there is still room for one. There is room at the cross for you.” Get ready to take the “road trip” of the ages. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!

Upset

“Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.” (Proverbs 24:17-18)

This is that magical time of the year called March Madness, and a more fitting name could not be found. Anyone who knows me knows that I bleed “Crimson and Blue” during basketball season for my beloved Kansas Jayhawks. Every year they seem to disappoint us with a mind-numbing loss to a team that they would beat 99 times out of 100, unless it is in the tournament. But this year, it happened to their greatest arch rival, the Missouri Tigers.

Norfolk State 86, Missouri 84. Who ever heard of Norfolk State?

With all the controversy and hype over this season, the drama of this loss is greatly intensified. These two bitter rivals fought it out for the Conference championship; Kansas winning the regular season and Missouri winning the Conference tournament. With Missouri leaving the Conference next season, the rivalry was even more pronounced. Basketball fans in this part of the country were licking their chops for a possible KU-MU showdown for the national title. But it is not to be with Missouri getting knocked out in the first round. This was an upset of epic proportions. Missouri was a #2 seed; Norfolk State a #15 seed. It had been eleven years since a #2 seed lost to a #15 seed, and the overall record of #15 seeds was 4-104. After the game, the trash talk went into warp drive as Kansas fans across the country rubbed salt in the wounds of their hated rivals.

We all need to lighten up a little. It’s just a basketball game. These kids are 19-21 years old. I actually feel bad for them. Imagine having to pull the jersey off for the final time under those circumstances. But our verse above leads us to a much bigger spiritual issue. Almost everyone on earth has people who are opposed to them. The term “enemy” in the verse may be a little strong, but the concept is nevertheless clear. When we see them take a “gut shot” like our friends across the state line did, the natural tendency is to gloat about it. We think, “Yeah, good enough for them. They are getting what they deserve.” Maybe they are. But that is never the issue.

God uses adversity and defeat in the lives of the lost to bring them to the knowledge of the Saviour. Sometimes when you are as far down as those young men feel, the only place to look is up. That is exactly where God steps in during times like that. When we gloat over the misfortune of others, God does not like that. He did not gloat over your misfortune; he sent his Son to the cross to pay for it. His anger is directed toward the lost every day (Psalm 7:11), but it is quickly tempered at the moment a heart begins to turn toward him. That often happens when the “upsets” of life beset the lost. When we taunt and trash talk them in the midst of their suffering, even when it is done in private (God sees our hearts), we actually frustrate his work in their lives. His anger turns to you because of your wicked arrogance and rejoicing at the calamity of another. For God to step up the pressure on them would result in you gloating even more, so he has to back off. Instead, we need to be ready with an answer (I Peter 3:15). In kindness and grace, pick up you fellow man, and walk him toward the Saviour whom he desperately needs. When you do, you will turn the enemy into a friend through the gospel.

Contrary to popular belief, the world does not revolve around you and your personal wants. I hate to be the one to break that news to you. The Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are in the same category. God’s number one purpose and mission is to “Rescue the Perishing” as the old hymn says. Jesus came “to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Luke 19:10) He asks you to get in on that mission by proclaiming his word to those who need it. When the heart-wrenching losses of life befall those without Christ, be ready to love them into the kingdom. Go Jayhawks!

Missing...In Action

“No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” (II Timothy 2:4)

I’m BAAAACK!

It has actually been about two months since I have posted anything on this blog. Perhaps you have missed me, although that is a little self-serving to say. I get in these phases at times when the world seems to race by at warp speed, and I find myself gripping the edge, hair blowing behind me, feet and legs extended out at a 90 degree angle, knuckles white, and expecting any moment to be sucked into the vortex of oblivion. One of the biggest reasons this happens is because of my inability to utter one of the shortest words in the English language: “NO”. I always told my kids that those two letters were placed right next to each other in the middle of the alphabet for a reason, but then I refuse to apply it myself. I get behind the power curve where I can only attend to the immediate, and other things have to go “back burner” for a while. Such is the case over the last couple of months with this blog. There was a book written a while back that talked about what they termed “The tyranny of the urgent”. Sometimes we place ourselves there, and sometimes it is thrust upon us, but it seems we have a non-stop barrage of immediate issues. We have no time to work out ahead or deal with the bigger picture because right in front of our nose is something that is required in the next five minutes. I have lived there for about the last six months, but there seems to be a little lifting of the fog. Hopefully I can get back to some of the things I enjoy like this blog, and have a little better handle on things. I know… I’m dreaming!

There are a whole host of “alphabet soup” acronyms used in the military like MIA (missing in action) or POW (prisoner of war), and AWOL (absent without leave), and I am sure many dozens more I am not aware of. Having never been in the military, the lingo and jargon is unfamiliar. Every profession has its terminology. I have been “missing” over the last couple of months in this blog, but I can assure you it has been “in action”. Unfortunately, many of God’s people go “MIA” in the wrong way. I know way too many Christians who “used to go to church”, but life or circumstances took them away, and they never came back. They are missing from the spiritual battle, and they are totally inactive in their service for the one who died for their sins. They have defected to the other side. They are AWOL, because God never gives us leave to get out of the spiritual battle. Ecclesiastes 8:8 says “there is no discharge in that war”. Obviously, there are times of “liberty” or R&R where we as soldiers of the Lord go on family vacations or have hobbies, but there is never a time when we are to take a break from walking with him. Others are POW’s. We have an enemy who seeks to destroy us at every turn. He is not God, and not able to override God’s ultimate plans, but he is nonetheless very powerful and has perfected his craft over many centuries. Paul describes these people in II Timothy 2:26 as being “taken captive by him (Satan) at his will.” We can pray for them, and we can also send out teams to try to “recover them” as the verse says. These are believers who need to be reminded of the price that was paid on the cross for their sins, and then get back in the game.

There will be times when you just can’t do everything you want. In fact, that is most of life. But don’t ever be missing in action for your Lord. When the times come when things have to be put on hold, keep your daily walk intact. Time in the word and fellowship can never be sacrificed. Opportunities to share the gospel cannot be passed over. The good soldier of the Lord Jesus Christ knows how to enjoy life and participate in all of its blessings and even its fun. But he does not allow himself to get out of the game. Jesus is coming again very soon to reward his servants and judge his enemies. Stay in action so you receive a full reward.

The End Of The Law

“For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” (Romans 10:4)

I saw an article just after the New Year about some of the new laws going in to effect on January 1st of this year. It is common practice to set a “start date” for new laws, and picking the first day of the year is as good as any. I always sort of wondered about that. I mean, if you are going to pass a law, why should we all have a set period of time to violate it before it can be enforced? So, for instance, current “drinking age” is 21, but say we make a law that pushes it to 25, but the law does not go into effect until January 1, 2013. Doesn’t that give the 21-25 crowd even more incentive to go out and tie one on? You are just asking for a problem with a drunken bash of epic proportions on December 31, and there isn’t anything you can really do about it. But I guess a lot of our laws have to have some sort of time-line on them for some reason.

But the thing that really caught my eye in this article was the number of new laws that took effect at the beginning of this year. Over 40,000 new laws are waiting to be broken. Is there anyone on earth that can keep up with even a small percentage of that number? That does not include all the hundreds of thousands – dare I say millions – of laws already on the books. I am absolutely certain that simply sitting here typing these words, I am doing something that could be construed to be against the law. I would bet that it would not be very difficult to find some reason to arrest every single one of the 300 million citizens of the country right now. Yet the Federal, State and local law makers find another 40,000 ways every year to add to the list. Will it ever stop?

I thank God every day for the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary for my sins. Those who “believe in God” but have never trusted Jesus as their Saviour are on a non-stop relentless pursuit to try to please God by their own efforts. They are “God-fearin’ people” who keep trying to obey every law they can think of to please God. But it never ends. “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23) There never comes a time when a person can do enough good to overcome one sin. One drop of arsenic in a full gallon of water poisons the whole thing. One sin makes you short of God’s glory, and denies your access to his presence. Heaven is a perfect place reigned by a perfect God. If he let you in with just one little sin, it would no longer be perfect. The person who tries to please God by keeping the myriad of never ending rules and regulations can never know when he has satisfied the demands of a holy and righteous judge. Just like none of us even know all the laws of the land and cannot possibly keep all of them, the sinner cannot buy his way to heaven through the law.

Then there is the Christian who has trusted Christ to save him, but then he thinks that the only way to please God after his salvation is by keeping the myriad of rules and regulations of his particular “religion”. At least he is going to heaven because of his trust in the sacrifice of Christ, but he has the same problem. There is no end to his list. He can never know when he has really achieved righteousness, because he has his sin nature to deal with that cannot be tamed. Every time he turns around, there is another “twist” of the law that he has violated. He spends his entire Christian life in utter frustration trying to “appease” God rather than just letting God be pleased simply because he is his child destined for an eternity in heaven.

The verse above tells us that Jesus is the “end of the law” for a believer. That is because he already fulfilled it for us. There is a simple statement in Romans 8:4: “That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us…” The simple words of the Bible are important. The law is not fulfilled by us, it is fulfilled in us. Jesus already did it for us, so all we have to do is let him live through us. We still mess up because we are human. But God has given us everything we need to be fulfilled in him. Just let the light of Jesus shine.

Doing the Wrong Thing

“As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.” (Romans 3:10-12)

Why is it that no matter what happens, it always seems to be the wrong thing. Mankind just cannot get things right no matter how hard he tries. For example, hand a pair of shoes to any 3 year old on planet earth and tell him to put them on his feet. He will put them on the wrong feet 98% of the time. Statistics would tell you that it would be 50-50, but anyone who has ever had children will tell you otherwise. Here’s another one. Pick up any two-prong plug (without the ground) and without looking, try to plug it in. They make them now with one prong larger than the other so that the polarization is consistent. I don’t care how many times you try, you will have to turn to plug around virtually every single time because you will plug it in wrong. Then there is the one that frustrates the devil out of me. Go to the store, and when it is time to check out, pick a lane. No matter which one I pick, it will come to a screeching halt because I always pick the wrong one. It gets so bad sometimes that I will jump out of that line and get into the next one – and of course, that line will then shut down. Can I get a witness?

No matter what it is, man seems to be able to make a mess out of it. Have you ever noticed that you don’t need classes on doing the wrong things? No one ever sits down with their children and says, “OK, Johnny and Susie, daddy is going to teach you how to lie today…” They pick it up naturally because sin is ingrained in our DNA. Psalm 39:5 says, “Verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.” Vanity in the Bible means “nothing”. The best we can produce is a big fat zero. I remember as a freshman in college taking an exam where the professor gave us a trick question. He had a whole series of one digit numbers that we were supposed to multiply to find the final answer. The string of numbers was huge. It was like 5x3x6x4x2x7x2… and the series spanned about 4 or 5 lines of text on the page. Right in the middle of it was a zero. The students were feverishly multiplying numbers and keeping track of the total until they hit the zero, and you could hear the audible groans when they realized that the zero wiped out every other number. It was cruel, but it taught us to look at the entire problem first before we plunged into trying to solve the details. That is a great illustration of the issue that mankind has in facing his Creator and trying to justify himself before a holy and righteous God.

No matter how hard we try, there is a big fat zero in the very heart of our existence called sin. It negates anything else we try to do to satisfy the claims of God upon our lives. You can try to multiply all the other “good works” of your life that you want, but you always hit the zero. You will always do the wrong thing. You might hit it right at times, because even the blind squirrel finds an acorn, but every day, you will run into the buzz saw of sin eventually, and usually sooner than later. Man wants so desperately to save himself by his own righteousness, but it will never work. Instead of looking at the individual details of your life, look at the whole thing first. The zero of our sin nature wipes out any effort we make to “add up” for God. Something needs to be done about that. Jesus died on the cross to pay your sin debt, and when you place your trust in him as Saviour, he removes your sin. The Bible says he places our sins in the depths of the sea (Micah 7:19), casts our sins behind his back (Isaiah 38:17), and separates us from them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Now we can do something. Only after we apply the sacrifice of Christ can our individual numbers be multiplied to produce a “bottom line” that God can count and reward us for at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

If you have not come to Christ to deal with your sins, don’t put it off another minute. If you know him, spread the word to a bunch of zeros who need him. The time is short.

Traditions

“Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” (II Thessalonians 2:15)

Christmas is the time of year when family and religious traditions are in full bloom. Everyone has them. Growing up in our family, our tradition was to always get our presents on Christmas Eve. My dad had a lot of reasons for that. There were seven children in the family, which meant a lot of gifts to open and toys to be played with. Mom would always feed us dinner about 5pm, then dress us in our jammies and let the party begin. That way we could play with the toys until we crashed on the living room floor. Imagine the hassle of trying to give toys to seven excited young children early Christmas morning and then telling us to stop to get ready to go to church. Sometimes we would do the Santa thing, but it didn’t take long for us to figure it out. One year, dad got the next door neighbor kid to dress up like Santa. He was about 6 years older than my oldest brother, so he was big enough to play the part. But we recognized him, and it blew the whole thing for us. My dad told us the reason we got our presents on Christmas Eve was because Santa was really busy, so he had to get a head start. Since our last name begins with “A”, we were at the top of the list. It never dawned on us how inefficient this system was for poor old Santa. Alphabetically, the next family could have been in Uzbekistan for all we knew. But we bought it. No one really ever complained because it just meant we got our stuff a day early.

Years ago, I had a call in talk radio program on one of the local secular stations. They gave us the evening slot on Saturdays because no one listens then anyway. One year at Christmas I did a program on all the exotic traditions from around the world. It was many years ago, and I have lost the notes, but one of the strange ones I remember was from France, where people celebrated the holiday with beer and cookies. Good grief. My gag reflex is kicking in just thinking about that. No wonder they can’t defend their country.

In the Bible, there are three types of traditions: good, bad, and neutral. The vast majority of them are neutral. Every church and family has certain things they do that are unique to them, and for the most part, they are harmless. Most family traditions have no real spiritual impact one way or another in your life. Our church has an annual tradition of a Labor Day picnic. We fire up the grills and BBQ about 150 pounds of pork ribs and 100 pounds of chicken, with all the trimmings. We have done this now for 18 years straight. It is one of our best times, and so ingrained in our lives that we wonder why every church doesn’t do one. But spiritually, it matters not one iota.

Jesus railed on the scribes and Pharisees regularly for their traditions. These would be the bad ones. He said in Mark 7:9, “Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition.” These are the traditions of religious men that plainly contradict the word of God and draw us away from a true relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why whenever I hear a religious leader talk about his “faith tradition”, it makes me cringe. It is like fingernails on a chalkboard to my ears. These are the traditions we need to get rid of in our own lives, and fear not to speak about in the lives of others.

Then there are the traditions Paul referred to in the verse above. These are the good ones – the type of traditions that anchor our lives to the truths of the word of God. Notice he said they are the ones taught by “word (OT) or our epistle (NT)”. Our rock and anchor of truth is God’s book. When it tells us to hang on to something, hang on to it for dear life. I Thessalonians 5:21 says, “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good.” Once you have proven something to be true in the book, live it, love it, learn it, and pass it on to others. God’s anchors will keep you afloat in this crazy sea of life in this insane world.