Week of 4/15/01

Be that as it may, there is one thing for certain and that there is a tendency for a believer to adopt a false humility, not as a façade or with any dishonest intent, but in an effort not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think (Romans 12:3) and so deal with one's pride and (at least) appear humble before both God and man. While this is admirable (I suppose) in its intent, it is not the way we should think of ourselves, if Peter is correct in his appraisal of us.

It is also crucial to remember that this is not Peter talking off the top of his head, but Peter writing Holy Spirit inspired words. This is not Peter's appraisal, but God's. This is who He says we are. He says we are a chosen generation. This word chosen (Greek, elektos), means to pick or gather and implies someone chosen from a larger group and given special rights and/or duties. The same word is used to describe Jesus Christ as the chosen Messiah. This denotes extreme favor.

The Lord next describes us as a royal priesthood. This concept is reiterated in Revelation 1:5-6 where it describes how Christ washed us from our sins and has made us kings and priests to His God and Father. This is one major difference between the Old Covenant and the New: we are all priests, we can all approach God. We need no human intermediary. We can enter the Holy of Holies and approach the throne of grace boldly. In fact we are instructed to do so (Hebrew 4:16).

We are further named a holy nation. This has no relation to ethnicity. It is a nation, separated to God (holy), that is comprised of those born again, be they Jews or former Gentiles. Naming Jesus Christ as Lord is the only requirement for citizenship. But again, there is a benefit here, in that God considers us holy, His nation. This is no small thing.

Again, we are His own special people. This is not cause for boasting, but the enabling power to proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Still, it is comforting to realize we are special to God. He has demonstrated what this means over and over. There is no one better to have in your corner. Period.

This is where the humility can be allowed in. While we have this impressive description of how we appear to God, how He thinks of us and would like for us to see ourselves, we did nothing to earn this special status. It was a gift, bought with the blood of Jesus. We can never be worthy (on our own) of any of it. But we have it nonetheless. This thought should keep us humble. Now try that as you think of yourself as a chosen priest in a holy nation comprised entirely of God's own special people. Yes, the tests just keep getting harder, don't they? But here's a hint: Praise Him. 

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

Genuine praise cures Christian smugness.

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Week of 4/8/01

Remember that Paul wrote his letter to the Colossians around 61 AD, a mere 28 years after the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, and as today's verse demonstrates, he was already dealing with a corruption of the original message and intent of Christ's ministry. It did not take men, even well-meaning ones, very long to start messing the whole thing up.

One thing we should look at, however, before we launch into this is that word So that begins our verse of study. This so means here as a result of something Paul has already expressed in the verse immediately preceding it, that being the all-sufficiency of Christ. He relates in verses 11 through 15 how we were circumcised in Christ, buried and raised with Him, made alive and forgiven of all our sins in Him. He talks of Christ having wiped out the handwriting of requirements (certificate of debt) that was against us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. If that were not enough, Paul goes on to tell us that not only have we been so completely forgiven that no record of our transgressions even exists anymore, but Christ was not satisfied with that alone. For our sake He went a step further, and having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. In other words, Jesus has done it all.

This leads Paul to this most important So, and he tells us in a very firm and stern manner, not to allow our selves to be judged in by man-made rules that have no effect on one's salvation whatsoever. Now this is a hard thing for many Christians, who like the Colossians, just want to give God a little help in saving us. But the truth is, the job is already done. And whether you drink coffee, or even alcohol, eat meat or are a vegetarian, dress in black or tie-dyed tee shirts, shave your head or grow your hair to your shoulders, you aren't going to be any more saved than Christ has already made you.

This is not to say that there is anything wrong with deleting things from one's life that cause one trouble. That is something that should be done. Nor is there anything wrong with wanting to look more like a redeemed sort of individual. But what Paul is saying is that to let anyone force these man-made doctrines on us, with the implication that any of them are necessary for salvation and holiness is to deny the already accomplished, finished and perfect work of Christ.

Paul sees this acquiescence to religiosity as utter nonsense. He continues, Therefore if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations -- "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle," which all concern things which perish with the using -- according to the commandments and doctrines of men? This is not as tame a statement as it may appear to be. Paul believes, as he makes clear in Galatians 4:3-10, that these basic principles, or as he refers to them in Galatians, these elements of the world, and again these weak and beggarly elements, are actually demonic spirits, that use man's rituals and religions to enslave their creators and instill in them a sense of condemnation. This is the very antithesis of Christ. That alone should give us pause. 

This is reason enough to avoid these petty and superficial practices, but Paul gives us yet another reason, and it's a typical Pauline zinger: These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect (severe treatment, asceticism) of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. In other words, these superficially pious, outward acts of asceticism that we assume will make us holier not only deny the sufficiency of Christ, rob us of the freedom He died to give us, but don't do a darn thing. 

Now is all of this to say that we can just do whatever we want, live any way we choose and not worry about our behavior or our lifestyle? Don't be silly. But the answer is to, instead of striving to live a life of sacrifice, abstinence and self-denial in hopes of attaining holiness through works, let the living, holy Christ who made the ultimate, eternal, perfect and all-sufficient sacrifice live and work through us. That was the original plan. Don't mess it up.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

If asceticism were the key Christianity, the Dalai Lama would be the greatest Christian alive.

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Week of 4/1/01

We have had some discussion in the past few weeks as to the nature and character of God. One verse that got a particularly large response from readers and prompted a follow up article was the one from Job wherein Elihu states, Far be it from God to do wickedness, and from the Almighty to commit iniquity (Job 34:10). Several people had a difficult time understanding how God could allow suffering and evil to exist if He is in fact wholly good. I dealt with this in some detail, but then today's verse was brought to my attention. It seems on first reading that there is a conflict, an inconsistency between the two representations of God. By the way, here's a good rule of thumb: Whenever there appears to be inconsistency in the scripture, look first to your own understanding. The flaw will always be found there. The Word of God is inerrant.

However, we do have what appears to be the Lord admitting to being a cause of grief and affliction. Does this imply that He is not really incapable of evil, that He is able to commit iniquity? This is an example of where one's vision of who God really is comes into play. Your interpretation of this verse is determined by whether you see God as simply a powerful Creator, a vengeful, jealous tyrant or a loving Father.

I do not have children myself, but like everybody else, certainly started out as one. Occasionally, my parents were forced to punish me. Usually this took the form of some suspension of privileges or some onerous task (like weed pulling). It most certainly caused me grief, though I eventually realized, if it wasn't already apparent, that I was getting something I deserved and had brought upon myself. Funny, but I don't ever recall being punished for good behavior. (And by the way, discipline does not automatically equal physical violence. There is a big difference between a spanking and a Turkish prison.)

I also remember that many of my friends had parents that were very lax in applying discipline. They threatened their children with punishment, but rarely (if ever) acted on these threats. As a result, these kids were prone to trouble, had a difficult time with basic concepts of right and wrong, and actually had minimal respect for their parents, or anyone else for that matter. Many of them, years later, are still obviously suffering from this lack of strong guidance. While I'm sure their parents loved them, they deprived them of something very necessary to us all and cheated their children out of something priceless.

Often these same parents simply gave their children things in lieu of actually having a true parental relationship with them. The worse they behaved, the poorer they did in school, the more disrespectful or unlawful they acted, the more stuff they got. Many Christians would like for God to adopt this policy, too. Dream on.

What God is stating here in Lamentations through the prophet Jeremiah, is that as a Father, He has an obligation to correct His children. He would be a careless, ineffective and irresponsible Father if He didn't. This is love in action. 

There are also some comforting words to be found in today's verse. First, we can see in line one that when God corrects us or punishes us, it is not a life sentence. It is only for as long as it needs to be to turn us around. We are then promised His compassion, which is limitless. Good parents reward their children for enduring and understanding punishment. Good parents never punish out of anger and their children never hate them for taking these necessary steps. There is nothing wrong with celebrating the end of a "grounding" with a trip to Baskin Robins or the movies. This is what God does all the time.

There is also more revelation to be found in the very next verse, For He does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men. Newsflash: God does not enjoy this. No (good) parents enjoy punishing their children. It is painful to them. It is painful to God. That word willingly translates as from His heart. This duty He has undertaken to correct us for our own good provides Him with no joy, His heart is not in it, but He does it because it is the responsibility of a loving Father. He can't wait for the punishment to end and the restoration to begin. He truly enjoys seeing us happy.

Of course the obvious goal for all of us should be to avoid making it necessary for God to act in this fashion. He has enough trouble to deal with without us adding to it and He has no end of ways for rewarding positive behavior. You should also abandon any thought that you can slide something by Him. You can't. You may have fooled your parents and gotten away with all sorts of stuff, but He has some advantages your parents did not have. And by the way, you didn't fool them as often as you thought you did.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

I stand corrected.

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Week of 3/25/01

A  couple of weeks ago I received this email. I'm leaving in the reader's compliments (you can do this when you're the writer and editor), but deleting her name:

Aloha, Kona. This was a really great message!!! I am keeping it for sure. How about another one on staying filled with faith (not fear) when faced with the possibility of big changes in life?

I gave this considerable thought, but went with my very first impression. To me there is no one who personifies this situation better than Abraham.

It's important when discussing Abraham, or Abram as he was named at this time in his life, to remember that he was not a Jew. Born ten generations after Noah and five generations after the destruction of the tower of Babel, he lived in Ur of the Chaldeans, believed to be in present day southern Iraq. His father, Terah, moved the entire family to Canaan, where they settled in Haran. Here Terah died at the (over) ripe old age of 205. How Abram knew Yahweh, the Lord, is a mystery, as he did not come from a strictly monotheistic background. We know that his father, Terah, was polytheistic (Joshua 24:2).

However, one day, when Abram was still a young man of 75, the Lord decided to have a talk with him. He told Abram to leave his home and family and basically head out into the unknown to a place He would later reveal. The Lord also told him at this time that He would make Abram the father of a great nation through whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Now here's a key scripture if you want to have the faith to meet big changes in your life: So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran (Genesis 12:4).

This is a pretty amazing thing when one considers it. We have no indication that Abram had ever seen God do anything before. The Lord has just made some incredible promises to an older man whose wife happens to be barren. He is fairly settled and not at the age when one normally considers a major life-change, yet he believed God and acted on what he was told to do. That action was the foundation for his faith (and ours).

Of course you are familiar with the rest of the story, and to be honest, there were times when Abram did not exactly shine as a faith role model. But he always kept trying and God remained faithful to His promise.

It's difficult to say exactly how much Abraham knew about God or His plans. He had no Bible to read, and Moses wouldn't come along to set down the Pentateuch until much later, around 1400 BC. We have it somewhat easier, as we can read the end of the story that Abram began in faith and know that God was true to His word. And this is how we can further supercharge our faith when facing great change: meditate upon what God has already done in our lives and in the lives of others.

There are aspects of God's character and powers He possesses as well that, if we keep these in mind, will also buttress our sometimes tentative faith. We know for instance that God does not lie. He will not break His promises. We know that He loves us and wants us to be happy. We know He does not want us to worry, and makes a point of equating worry with sin. He asks for our complete trust. He will not lead us into a swamp. He will never desert us. When facing change, these traits that make God who He is, if we focus on them, can keep us strong.

Then there are His powers to keep in mind. Our God is omnipotent, all-powerful. There is absolutely nothing He cannot do. We have all the power of God at our back. There is no reason for fear. He is omniscient, all-knowing. There is nowhere we can go that God has not been before. He is not bound by time. He knows our beginning and our end. If He says go, He knows where we are going even if we don't. And God has given us a power, too, that if used will keep us from wavering and wondering, will encourage us and strengthen us in spite of any unforeseen fear or trouble. It's called prayer. It works.

Several years ago my wife and I faced a major change when we sold our home, quit our jobs, and moved back to Hawaii. I had been away for some twenty years and had no idea as to even which island we would be living on. We left all that we hadn't sold or given away in storage with instructions to ship it when we found a place to live. Many of our friends thought we were absolutely nuts, though they had, for the most part, the tact to keep this to themselves. To top it off, my wife, Chee, was offered a very lucrative job by one of her clients just two weeks prior to our leaving. The amount was more than the two of us together had previously been earning. She turned it down instantly; she knew it was not in the plan. And exactly 15 days (!!!) after our house closed, we were on a jet to Hawaii.

This was, needless to say, a big change. We got through it just fine, with God doing his usual amazing things time and again, and have never regretted the move or questioned whether we did the right thing. But we acted on what we felt we were being told to do. We went where we were told to go. We also consulted with our spiritual head, our pastor, and made sure we were not being presumptuous. This was not a whim, but a change that was prayed over for many months.

Here's one more point to consider when facing any sort of change: God is no respecter of persons. What He did for Abraham, He was willing to do for me. What He did for me, He'll most certainly do for you. I am the Lord, I do not change (Malachi 4:6). Even if everything around you is changing, He never will. And though you are heading into the unknown, it is only unknown to you, not Him.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

Wherever you go, there He is.

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Week of 3/18/01

Sometimes it's not easy for us to remember that God gave Moses the Ten Commandments to help us, not to restrict us or make our lives more difficult. It is also important for Christians to remember that while we are indeed no longer under the heavy burden of the Law, the Ten Commandments still apply to us. Jesus Himself confirmed this without ambiguity.

Since most of the Commandments began with a "thou shall not", it's hard to see the positive impact God was trying to have on us. We tend to see this as a list of taboos. Today we'll look at the positive side of each of these ten principles for a happy, healthy and successful life.

1. I am the Lord your God. You shall have no other gods before me. The most important commandment comes first and all others hinge on it. But notice this: God is telling us He is ours. This is cause for celebration. If you put other gods in his place, He obviously cannot work on your behalf. So this ban is not based on solely on God's jealousy, but on His desire to be the God of His people and continue to help them.

2. You shall not make any graven images. Take a good long look around the world and witness just how much good idol worship has accomplished. It is an incredible waste of energy and a stupid practice that produces nothing. This of course does not mean that you can't be a sculptor or an artist, unless you plan on worshipping your creations. Again, God wants success for his people. This is a sure way to fail.

3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. God is His name. They are inseparable. It is full of His power, just as His words are. By its misuse, as an incantation, an oath or a curse we not only insult Him, but decrease the power of it in our lives. He wants His name to be a source of power in our lives. Use it wisely.

4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. This day, and I think it totally irrelevant if you choose Saturday or Sunday to do so, is to be set aside to God. However, the primary directive in Scripture is not to go to church (though that is great), but to rest. God does not want us working non-stop. It destroys not just us, our health and mental well-being, but most importantly, our families. He knew when to take a break. He wants us to do the same. This is a forced holiday. And most of us really, really need it.

5. Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long. Just reading this one you can see the promised benefit of following this instruction: long life. People who have regard for their parents tend to not involve themselves in actions that will disgrace their family. This serves to keep them much of the time out of harms way. And I have never known one happy person who was disrespectful (as a matter of habit) to their parents. Parents should also see this as a challenge to give their kids something to actually honor. 

6. You shall not kill. This means murder specifically. It cannot be twisted to mean a ban on combat or even capital punishment. Scripture is painfully clear on this. We are talking about the wanton, selfish taking of a human life, something God holds sacred. The reasons for not killing someone are obvious. The punishment will ruin your life, though forgiveness is always possible (example: Moses or David). God doesn't want you in this situation.

7. You shall not commit adultery. Ever see any good come from this one? Think adultery will make your life better? Angry spouses of either sex are not something any of us want to deal with. See commandment number 6.

8. You shall not steal. Ultimate lack of faith and slap in the face to God, your Provider. Also carries harsh penalties and great risk of personal danger. If you don't do this, you decrease your odds of spending several years in a cell wishing you hadn't done it. Big time waster. Lousy wardrobe choices.

9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. If you don't lie, a short memory is not likely to be a handicap. There are also considerable rewards in this world for people who are considered honest and trustworthy, not the least of which is friends.

10. You shall not covet. Your neighbor's anything. Guess what happens if you don't do this, if you don't covet? You don't make yourself absolutely miserable. It's fine to want things, but not to the extreme of being jealous of someone else and losing one's self control. See commandments 6, 7, 8, and 9.

We can easily see that God gave us these ten injunctions for our own good. They are like those signs on a mountain highway that warn us of dangerous curves. We don't look at those signs as things designed to spoil our driving fun, but as helpful information that can keep us from ending up in a flaming heap at the bottom of a ravine. If we look at the Ten commandments the same way, they're not so bad.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

Stop complaining. It could have been the 20 Commandments.

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These words that begin today's article were delivered in complete frustration by members of the Sanhedrin, a sort of Jewish senate and supreme court rolled into one. The cause of their exasperation was the apostles, notably Peter and John, and their proclivity for random and grand scale performance of miracles all over the capital city, in front of everybody. Their latest display of Christianity, the unauthorized healing of a 40 year old man lame from birth with a mere word, is what landed them in front of this panel of religious lawyers.  

What made matters worse, and even more embarrassing, for these bastions of religious conformity and dogma, was that these two miracle workers were not even trained rabbis, they were just regular guys off the street, laity, without even a day of Theology 101 in the rabbinical school. Worse still, they knew that these men had been with someone they were doing their best to forget, and make others forget, too, Jesus.

It was not an easy situation for the Sanhedrin to deal with. First of all, these apostles were something of local celebrities. They had a huge following that trailed after them through the streets of Jerusalem. People seemed to genuinely appreciate what they were doing and appeared enthusiastic towards the idea of losing life-long afflictions. The crowds also seemed to warm to the concept of forgiveness and salvation preached by these blue-collar prophets. Worse, these bumpkins actually knew the Scripture, quoted it masterfully, applied it logically and appropriately and with unfeigned passion. There was no way to explain this sudden and apparently inspired insight. 

Then there were the undeniable miracles. There, standing before them was a man whom everybody knew, a fixture among the beggars of the city for forty years, healed, happy beyond words, and praising God. They, with all their education and refinement had never healed anybody of so much as a runny nose. And this wasn't the only instance of such marvelous displays of power. It was happening constantly. It was the non-stop talk of the town.

Added to all these dilemmas was the sudden resurgence of that most awful and disastrous name, Jesus. These apostles did everything in that Name. That Name appeared to be unbelievably powerful when in their mouths. People heard them utter it when doing these amazing things and were beginning to suspect that maybe He was who He said He was. That made them, the Sanhedrin, and all their fellow Pharisees and Sadducees look like, well, murderers, maybe even murderers of the long-awaited Messiah. That Name must be forbidden, forgotten and most of all, unused.

Though most of these difficulties could have been dealt with, brushed aside or legislated out of existence, the problem was those stubborn, spectacular and all too frequent miracles. They just couldn't be denied. If all that these upstarts did was to preach about their dead friend and try to start another new cult or sect, it would have been no big deal. But the miracles set them apart from other would-be reformers, revolutionaries and charlatans. They actually could do something that no one else could do. They had power, irrefutable, overt power that they demonstrated time and again publicly, in front of increasingly larger crowds. It looked just like the power of God.

There seemed only one thing to do: forbid the name of Jesus to be spoken. Then maybe the miracles would go away and the people would return to their rightful place, under the thumb of the Law and its interpreters, enforcers and beneficiaries, the Sanhedrin. These brazen and dauntless men of dubious antecedents would then, perhaps, fade back into the obscurity they came from and all would return to normal.

We know today, of course, that this plan of the unrepentant Jewish religious leaders was not wholly successful. The name of Jesus was not stamped out, but has become a name most people have at least heard of. For some it is power, for some a religious word, for still others a word used to express dismay, surprise or anger. But the Sanhedrin, and their heirs, the religious rulers of this world, have won a partial victory. They have convinced most people that miracles don't happen anymore, at least not at our behest. They have convinced us that the name of Jesus is just a name. They have promulgated the lie that we are, as Christians, powerless; that the marvelous things that Peter and John and Paul and all the others did in Jesus' name were through specially bequeathed powers for a special and limited time only. In this they have won, for most of us, sadly, believe this lie. We would not dare presume to expect the miraculous, or to assume we could help to bring it about.

So in many ways the Sanhedrin have got their wish. In most places the miracles have stopped. What remains are primarily Sunday morning meetings of either political conservatives (pushing the judgmental Jesus), social liberals (pushing the tolerant Jesus), the religiously atrophied (pushing the dead Jesus) or new age pseudo-Christians (pushing Jesus as Buddha). But more and more, in places throughout the world, there are those waking up to the realization that the only thing that ever worked, that ever really brought people to God, was actually doing something no one else could do. They believe in the healing, miraculous, loving Jesus, the powerful Jesus, the Jesus Peter and Paul lived (and died) for. The One that scared the Sanhedrin silly.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

Christianity is the miraculous.

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This is, of course, the granddaddy of theological questions. There are several answers that, as a whole, give us clarity on this tough issue. I will attempt to explain it as concisely as possible.

1) Free will. God has given us the power to choose what we believe, what we do and how we do it. Without this gift, as burdensome as it can sometimes be, there would be no such thing as faith. And faith is the only action we can take that actually pleases God. He made us men, not robots. Man chose, through Adam, to give this world to Satan. Man continues to renew his lease. God again makes this very apparent in Deuteronomy when He tells the Israelites (and us), that He has set before us life and good, death and evil, blessing and cursing and instructs us to choose which we would like to have in our lives (Deut. 11:26, Deut. 30:15). Satan chose to rebel. He was not created evil.

2) God is limited by our lack of faith. People don't like this answer, because it requires something of them. Today's verse points out that God, though He is sovereign, omnipotent and The Almighty, does not impose His will on us. He requires our faith in order to act on our behalf. This is again evident when Jesus was rejected in Nazareth and "could do no mighty works because of their unbelief." As small and powerless as we are, when compared to the Lord, we do have the ability to preclude His involvement in our affairs. This is His choice. 

3) Satan is limited. He is neither omniscient nor omnipresent. He has no creative powers. He can only corrupt that which God has made, pervert that which already is. He has never yet, nor will he ever, get the better of God. He knows it, God knows it. He is working against the clock. Though Satan is the ruler of this world, he has his limits. We can see this in the opening chapters of Job. God forbids Satan to kill Job. Yes, He allows him to work him over. In the end, it turns out to be for Job's own good. His suffering lasted a very short while. This is not what the devil had hoped for. It is also important to remember that we have been given power over Satan through Christ. Jesus has already defeated him. We are already victorious, but we must claim that victory through the application of our faith. We are not powerless against suffering.

4) Fear. There is no way to be full of fear and full of faith. They are the antithesis of one another. Fear, as we see in Job's case, opens the door for Satan to work. It is his favorite tool. Look at the fear that controls the actions of so many in this world and then ask yourself, were this not fear, but faith, we would see as many hardships, as much suffering, as we do? An interesting side note, courtesy of Ken Smith of *Trinity Fellowship International, is that Job's wife was unscathed. Why? Job was never in fear of anything happening to her. His concern was for his wealth, his health and his children. It is my belief that this fear opened the door to Satan in what was otherwise a godly life.

5) Presumed innocence. There is no such thing, for adults at any rate. We have all sinned. Most of the troubles that afflict us are brought about by our own sinfulness, stubbornness, laziness, greed and foolishness. Satan helps to turn these flaws in our characters into disasters, sometimes on a truly biblical scale. The innocents, the children, suffer most often because of our failings. I can think of very few catastrophes that have struck the earth in my memory that were not caused directly by Man. Harder to explain are natural disasters, plane crashes and the like. But I have no problem seeing Satan's hand in these things, either directly or indirectly, at least so far as he brought death into this world.

6) God is not callous to our suffering. The greatest proof of this is the gift of His only Son to our world. This was to all peoples, good, bad and indifferent. The overt healing ministry of Jesus shows without a doubt how much God cares for us. He could have made Christ a philosopher, a simple teacher of do-goodism, but He made Him a healer. He further shows His concern by allowing Jesus to pass this authority over sickness and evil on to us. Believe me, God feels sadness. Christ demonstrated this several times. Listen to what the prophet Isaiah said of Him, "He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. Surely, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed" (Isaiah 53:3-5). Does this sound to you like a God who is immune to suffering, who is unconcerned or unfamiliar with our pain and sorrow?

7) Mystery. There will always be mystery. There will always be events and situations that we don't have answers for. But as a friend pointed out to me this morning, if you understand the reason for 90% of what's going on, you can use your faith to accept the rest. And you can use this same faith to look beyond this sometimes painful, troubling world to a place where there is no pain, no fear, no suffering and no evil. We are really here for a very short time. Satan's time is almost up. I've read the end of the Book. We win.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

God is not the cause of suffering. He is the cure.

*Trinity Fellowship International

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One of my favorite books of the Bible, Job, also happens to be one of the most misunderstood and inappropriately quoted. One must be careful as to what one selects when enforcing a particular belief in that much of what Job's friends say to him is simply false. It is a difficult to extract a piece of Job from the whole, therefore, without making allowances for their confusion and error. This is not to say that any scripture is in error, of course. But God did allow some wrong thinking to be recorded so that it could, at the end of the story, be refuted and set right. 

Today's verse is one statement that we know to be accurate, that being that God does not commit evil. In the light of the Old Testament, with the image of a vengeful, angry God constantly destroying whole nations, this may seem a fairly modern sentiment. But the fact is that Job is one of the oldest, if not the oldest, book in the Bible, written sometime around 2,000 BC. Another interesting factoid is that Job was not a Jew; he was a Gentile, possibly a descendant of Abraham's brother. He was a real person, not a literary contrivance.

Of course you know the story of Job, how he lost it all: family, wealth and even his health. If you have read to the end of the book you also know that he came through more than alright and was blessed beyond his original position in life. But the main point of Job, the whole thrust of the writer, is that God did not cause Job's downfall (though He certainly was responsible for his miraculous recovery).

After Elihu, the youngest of the friends counseling Job (and the sharpest), makes the statement that began this article, he continues with the same thought, reinforcing it: For He repays man according to his work, and makes man to find a reward according to his way. Surely God will never do wickedly, nor will the Almighty pervert justice. In other words, much of what happens to us can certainly be ascribed to our own actions, good and bad. God is not going to reward us for evil. He will also not overlook our attempts to please Him and do what's right. But there is one more thing that is very evident in Job that is not mentioned in this passage. That is that there is a real devil, our sworn enemy, and as we know from countless scriptural references, he really hates our guts. There is no uncertainty as to who caused Job's suffering. It was not God. It was Satan.

We should remember this when we are faced with misfortune. God is not our enemy. But at no time has He ever promised that this life would be carefree and without problems. In fact, He unambiguously declares that it will be otherwise. He does promise, however, that He will be there to see us through any trouble that comes our way and give us victory, if we believe and trust in Him.

With this in mind, we should be exceedingly careful about giving God credit for lousy things that happen in this world. By this I mean using terms like "acts of God" to describe utter destruction brought about by natural disaster. God wasn't involved. We should shun the easy way out when faced with the loss of a loved one by attributing the death "to God wanting another rose for His garden" or some similarly awful and unbiblical sentiment. God is not a murderer. We should never blame God for sickness. He is our Healer. Though God can use all these trials, and turn them to some good, He is not their cause.

We need to stop confusing the actions of Satan with the actions of God. And it is really not that difficult to tell the two apart (God's the good one: does good things. Satan's the bad one: does bad things). Elihu was capable of this over 4,000 years ago, and my bet is he never even went to seminary. With our additional understanding we should be able to succeed at this in no time.

I saw a very impressive moment once on CNN. I was watching Larry King interview Bill Cosby shortly after the death of his son, who was murdered in a car-jacking in LA. King asked him if he was angry with God for killing his son. Cosby calmly replied that God did not kill his son; Satan did, that Satan was the killer, the thief and the destroyer. While I have never really considered Bill Cosby a spiritual role model, he certainly was correct. Hopefully the millions who heard him that night took to heart what he said. It might not make their troubles less painful, but at least they won't blame the wrong person and lose sight of the only One who can ever replace the sorrow with peace and restore them to actual happiness and wholeness.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

He is not the Almighty Schizophrenic

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I think that today's verse is one of the most overlooked in the New Testament. I also think it is the primary reason that we as Christians continue to fail in our number one mission, that is to bring people to Christ.

The meaning of this quote from Paul is fairly obvious, but some of the language could use a bit of clarification. The tongues of men I take to mean simply our own human languages. For Paul that would have been the languages of his region, most of which I believe he was fluent in. The tongues of angels is open to more interpretation. Some believe this is simply poetic terminology for flowery and beautiful speech, while others take it literally, meaning the language spoken in heaven by these beings. For our purposes it hardly matters, though it is interesting to consider.

We all know what a clanging cymbal is, what it sounds like, and you will notice an involuntary tendency to wince a bit when you conjure up this image. Sounding brass may not be as obvious. My first reaction to this, as a musician, is to think of horns (brass). The word blaring comes to mind. However, in looking up this verse in the Amplified Bible, sounding brass had been replaced with a clanging gong. Immediately I thought of the Chinese Opera, with the constant noise of the gongs and cymbals. Now I happen to like Chinese Opera, but it isn't what you would call soothing. Anyway, whichever meaning of sounding brass is correct, the effect is the same on one's ears. It is annoying, noisy and likely to cause one to stop one's ears.

So basically what Paul is saying here is, "It doesn't matter how you say it, if love is not in it, it's just noise. Annoying noise." He hammers this point home in the next two verses, stating that it matters not at all what gifts or knowledge one may possess, how much faith one can muster, or what heroic deeds or sacrifices one may perform; if love is not one's motivation, if it is not the impetus for all one does, there is no value.

This is something we are not particularly good at addressing. While we see love evident in many ministries, some show absolutely no signs of it whatever. Several famous TV preachers immediately come to my mind. I know these men to have superb and deep, insightful knowledge of Scripture, exemplary faith and obvious gifts. At the same time, I have felt no love in their delivery. Their venom towards all they disagree with spews out endlessly, to the delight of their congregations. While this may be fine for those already in the fold so to speak, it is not enticing to those who are not. But isn't that the point of preaching, to save the lost, to bring them into the family of God, to introduce them to Jesus? To the unsaved they are as difficult to listen to as Chinese Opera, and certainly nowhere near as much fun to watch. 

We also see Christian groups valiantly taking stands on various social and political issues. While this can be a good thing, and is certainly our birthright as Americans, it is usually undertaken with a shrillness and total lack of empathy that reveals an absence of love, even of understanding. Clang, clang, clang. This produces nothing but division and enmity, and sometimes makes the opposition even more determined and unified against us. If we are messengers of Good News, why this reaction?

Now many Christians will give an excuse for this negative reaction to their efforts, never for a moment assuming that they could be at fault. They will repeat self righteously that Christ Himself warned that all would hate us, etc, etc. But Christ said people would hate us for being like Him, not for being insensitive jerks. In all He did, Jesus acted out of love. It was His motivation for all His actions. He drew people to Him, He didn't chase them away. He wasn't shrill and angry, determined to have His own way. He accepted all who came to Him, regardless of their pasts, station in life, race or lifestyle. He still does. We can none of us think of anyone less deserving of the punishment He received. That's because we see Jesus as the very personification of God's love. He hurt no one, was unkind to no one. Even nonbelievers see Jesus that way to a great degree. That's good. Now we just have to get them to see us the same way.  

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

The message of  God's love loses something when shouted through a bullhorn.

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Today's verse from Psalm 46 is another good example of a completely misunderstood piece of Scripture that has become a part of American thought, speech and religiosity. Like "money is the root of all evil" and "the truth shall set you free" this one is also improperly applied with great frequency, but even more so in the restrictive confines of hyper-denominational religion.

Of course if you've spent any time at all in a dead church you've heard this line preached as a reason to keep your mouth shut, behave properly and be solemn. It is why the organ still dominates church music and why so many new Christians who desperately want to be part of a church feel not so much that they are at a celebration of Christ's life but mourners at His funeral.

If we look at the full verse, the first line only of which I quoted, we begin to see a different meaning: Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in truth. We can see from this little additional bit that just maybe we are not being told to be quiet in church; but if we add the preceding verse we really begin to understand the message: He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.

We can now see what this really means. People initiate war for their own selfish and greedy reasons (nations usually means peoples, not countries). They engage in these violent actions to establish their own superiority, to appropriate some other peoples' land, for wealth, resources, political power or simply because of basic human pride. God sees this for what it is and is not at all pleased. He tells the warring parties, addressing them personally, to stop what they're doing (be still). He reminds them who is speaking to them and that He is in charge (I am God). He tells them that He is the one who will be the winner, His name will be the name. They have absolutely zero chance for victory.

Now how this became the mantra for keeping worship services noise-free, boring, dirge-like and free of interruptions from the Holy Spirit I cannot say, but I suspect it is the same as with other misrepresented Scripture: people don't know what the Bible says. They take someone else's word for it. They hear a partial verse over and over and eventually it becomes truth. The average churchgoer couldn't tell you which words precede or follow "be still and know that I am God" if you put a gun to his head. And that's why we have (or I should say had) people like Jim Jones, David Koresh and Marshall Applewhite and their pitifully deluded disciples. We don't know the Word of God.

Certainly there will be those who do not agree with my interpretation of this verse. They remain convinced that God wants them to be still, meaning cataleptic. So let me travel down the page here to Psalm 47, a mere two lines distance and quote the sons of Korah again: Oh, clap your hands, all you peoples! Shout to God with the voice of triumph! Please notice the exclamation points, and the words clap and shout. These are not manifestations of quietude. This is not solemnity, black suits and minor chords groaning from the organ loft. This is not sit in your pew and wait for the benediction. This is instruction from God as to how He wants us to worship Him, to show our appreciation, to celebrate His achievements, His power, His help, His forgiveness and His unfathomable love.

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

He doesn't grade on the curve.

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We adults, usually because we're at a loss for something more intelligent to say, are constantly asking children in the most casual way this actually profound question, "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Looking at today's verse, the more appropriate question might be, "What does God want you to be when you grow up?" 

This may seem like a weighty question to pose to a youngster, but I don't think it is ever too early to instill the idea that God has a plan for each of our lives. It is difficult to feel useless or unwanted when you know God had a purpose for your creation. You are less apt to be confused if you are sure God is in control of your future. And you are far less likely to worry about anything if you are convinced that God knew you personally, loved you, and began making plans for you before your parents even had their first date.

There are several comforting thoughts put forth in today's autobiographical verse from Jeremiah. One that may not be particularly obvious is that we are not so much a product of our parents as we are a product of God's imagination. He just used our parents to get us here, but he knew us independent of them. To some people this may be a very encouraging point: you are not limited by parentage. Nor are you limited by any other condition of your birth, such as place, race, sex, caste or income.

Now when the Lord spoke these words to Jeremiah, he was not anymore convinced than you may be right now. Jeremiah said to God, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth." In other words, 'find someone else to be a prophet. I'm too young." Moses said much the same thing, remember? But God was not (is He ever?) deterred. He replied to Jeremiah's weak excuse, "Do not say, 'I am a youth', for you shall go to all to whom I send you, and whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of their faces, for I am with you to deliver you." 

This is the second really encouraging point Jeremiah makes: God is going to assure the success of anything He has us undertake. It is His business to make sure His plan comes to fruition, not ours. And please remember that Jeremiah, though famous now, was not better than you, was not more loved by God than you are, and had probably as many faults as you do, maybe even more. He was not born again, did not know Jesus Christ. He became Jeremiah the Prophet because God ordained it, not because he earned the position. He was Jeremiah the Prophet before he was born. 

Now what if Jeremiah had just flat refused to obey the Lord, to do what he was told to do, to live the life God had planned for eons? I don't know. We have free will. I suppose we can always reject God's plan, and I'm sure thousands upon thousands do, which is probably why so many of us struggle through life. I imagine God has a plan B. He will get the thing done somehow.

The fact is that we should be encouraged by Jeremiah's revelation. None of us are unnecessary. None of us are here by chance. we are not accidents of birth. Every one of us has a reason to be alive, a job to do, a life to live a world to leave our imprint on. And we can count on all of God's help, if we pursue his calling.

One other thing worth considering: When does life really begin if God knew Jeremiah before he was even conceived? 

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

You were in God's mind before you were in your mother's womb.

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There are few things in life more frustrating for me than trying to argue the truth of the Gospel with people who simply don't buy it. It's not that I don't have sufficient knowledge to build a persuasive argument, nor is it that I don't possess the ability to destroy any objection they might construct. The problem is one of dealing with a mind so closed to the truth that it would take Jesus Himself to open it.

Actually, whether we like it or not, that is how it really works, this salvation thing. We like to believe we go around and save souls, either by preaching, being a good witness or even writing little articles like this. But the truth is, nobody will ever believe you if Christ Himself does not open their eyes.

Today's verse dramatically demonstrates that the Scriptures, which contain really all we believe and know about Christ (outside our personal experiences), are in effect veiled to those whose minds have not been opened to them. Here we see Christ, just before He ascends to heaven, explaining to His disciples why He had to suffer and die, and why after all this, He was going to leave them. It becomes clear when reading this passage that this is the first time these guys ever really got it. And they had virtually lived with Jesus for three years! They had been witness to the greatest miracles, the most revelatory teaching and the most dynamic life and death the world has ever known. They sat and ate and talked with a Man who had been dead and was now alive. And until Jesus willed them to understand, they simply didn't get it.

This is not a negative thing. It's just the way it works. Paul tells us in Romans that we are called to Christ by Christ Himself. Yes, He may use our efforts and gifts to achieve this but it is Jesus who is heard calling by the unsaved. In the same way, one can read the Scriptures daily but without the Holy spirit inside him he will not fully comprehend (or believe) what he is reading. This is evident if you've ever talked with an average seminarian, theologian, professor of religious studies or a Branch Davidian.

Think about it a moment. We are asking people to accept a very strange set of beliefs and live their lives by them. Forget the Old Testament for a moment and all its bizarre and supernatural happenings, forget its impossible laws and extreme punishments, its wholesale violence and slaughter, and just look at what the New Testament demands we accede to: literal fulfillment of hundreds of prophecies; a virgin birth; angels appearing rather frequently to average Joes; a man who could walk on water, calm storms with an upraised hand, multiply food to feed multitudes at will, cure deadly diseases, heal birth defects and raise the dead; bodily resurrection of this same Man; the concept of eating this Man's flesh and drinking His blood; Pentecost; faith as a way of getting things done, achieving prosperity, wellness and eternal life in a place no one has ever seen. These are just a few things I could name and any one of them on their own might be plausible to an unbeliever, but when you start piling them up it gets to be a bit much. Unless Christ opens your eyes to their reality.      

The greatest obstacle to seeing the truth in all this is paradoxically one of God's greatest gifts to man: his mind. The more educated we get, the harder it becomes to believe in something so impossible, so unscientific as, say, the virgin birth. We know this is just not something that happens. Certainly you wouldn't buy it if it was your own daughter making the claim (I hope). Yet somehow Christ is able to cut through this (supposed) knowledge and give us the power to actually believe in such a concept. The same applies to the incomplete list I compiled above. I can believe in all of this, even though I'm pretty darn smart, and I don't for a moment feel that I've surrendered my intelligence, my curiosity or my skepticism. Christ has opened the eyes of my spirit to see the truth of His word.

I hope you see the importance of this. Eliminating just one of these beliefs seriously dilutes your Christianity. For instance, if Christ was not born of a virgin, the prophecies are not fulfilled, His blood is not supernaturally purifying, and all the rest of the gospel is suspect. You need the Holy Spirit to open the truth, the complete truth, of the Scripture to you. He can do this. All you have to do is ask.

So the next time you find yourself in the presence of someone who mocks and derides what you call the truth, remember that they simply can't see it .... yet. They are not hopeless. Instead of arguing and coming across as belligerent and foolish, or even worse, intolerant and dogmatic, pray for God to open their eyes, to remove the veil of "education", the wisdom of man, the religion of science and give them the ability to see through Christ's eyes. He may be calling, even though you can't hear Him. 

The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

A closed mind and an open Bible produces at best, doubt, at worst, religion.

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You may have noticed that today's verse is in red. Right away that should tell you that it's important; it's Jesus talking. To a nonbeliever this is perhaps no reason to sit up and pay attention, but to believers in Christ it should be like an alarm going off in one's head; God's speaking. And since Jesus, as far as we know, never engaged in idle chatter, we can assume that He meant this instruction to be carried out. It is delivered as a commandment, not a suggestion.

The problem is, it's a tough one to perform. None of us are really good at this in a natural sense. Our human tendency is to retaliate whenever we are attacked. We are raised, especially us males, to defend ourselves. It is considered wimpy to let anyone walk on you. The females among us, while not taught to duke it out every time someone looks at them cross-eyed, grow up with an innate ability to tear other people to shreds with the sharpest of all weapons, words. Most of us men have experienced this and would prefer a good punch to the jaw.

So whether we consciously intend to or not, most of us view the action Jesus is demanding of us to be extreme passivity, even weakness. Yet few of us would consider Jesus Himself to be either passive or weak. He is our strength. He overcame death. He beat the devil. He bore more pain and suffering mutely than any of us will ever experience. He is strength personified. And what He is commanding us to do is far from passive, if you really understand it.

If you examine Jesus' words here closely, you will see four required actions: love, do good, bless and pray. It is your understanding of these four actions that determines whether you see them as weak or strong deeds and whether, when you perform them, you consider yourself as being passive or aggressive.

Few acts are more aggressive, more overpowering, or more powerful, than love. It has conquered more people than any other force. You were yourself overcome by it. It changed you to a greater degree than any whipping ever could have.

We also know that doing good has a wonderful reciprocal effect. The Lord told us that with whatever measure we give, that much multiplied would end up back in our own hands. So really, when we do good, we are in fact helping ourselves in a big way.

The Word is full of examples stressing the power and effect of blessing. It is a real force to a believer. It changes things. It also places your enemy in an unenviable position of being in your debt, whether he knows it or not. Proverbs tells us that this sort of behavior on our part "will heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you." Again, when we bless, we redirect our enemy's energy and help ourselves.

Finally Jesus orders us to pray for our enemies. This needs little comment. Prayer is so powerful we can't even begin to imagine all it can do. That we should be allowed to wield a weapon of this magnitude should be humbling to us all. And there is no doubt in my mind that to an enemy our prayer is much more dangerous, more overpowering, even when it is benign, than a .357 could ever be.

Armed and dangerous.

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I would love to sit here at this computer and tell you that this past week I had no need for God's mercy. That would, of course, be a lie. The fact is I'm very glad to know it's readily available to me because I need it daily. Sometimes I even need it hourly. And just like everything else the Father has (and is), there is no shortage. He will not run out of mercy any more than He will run out of love.

If you are anything like me this is exceptionally good news.

Not that I'm running around robbing convenience stores or committing what most people would call THE BIG SINS. I just mess up. I can finish an hour long Bible study, be full of peace and joy, get in my car and lose my cool with the first slow driver I encounter. I can still get angry and offended with people that don't treat me with the respect due someone of my godlike stature. I still have negative thoughts and a mouth that will say almost anything given half a chance. I can detect every little fault in others while conveniently overlooking those (few) I've been told I possess.

You get the idea. I could go on but I think I've dumped on myself enough, thank you. The point is, the better my life with God becomes and the more His Spirit guides me, the more I'm aware of the need for His mercy. These small failures wouldn't have bothered me a few years ago. Now I see how incredibly detrimental they can be to my success and happiness, as well as my usefulness, on this planet. One thoughtless word, one irresponsible action can have tremendous consequences. I don't need that.

Of course God knows this. That's why we have such a thing as mercy. If He didn't want to be merciful the very concept of mercy wouldn't even exist. But fortunately for us it does. It's just part of who God is. He knows how inclined we are to mess everything up. He remembers we're dust (and how much can you expect from dust?)

Look at Hebrews 4:15-16. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Jesus knows what we're going through down here. He's been there. He is not surprised when we blow it. And because of the sympathy He has for us we can boldly (without reservation, with frankness, with full and open speech) walk right up to the very throne of God and say, "Father, I really did it this time. I need your mercy and your grace to get me out of this mess." And we will get it. So will some others we don't think deserve it.

Notice that it does not say to come cringing to the throne of grace. We don't have to crawl through broken glass. We don't have to bribe any angels to gain entrance. We walk in as the children of God that we are and get what we need: mercy and grace. Don't make it any more complicated.

Don't be surprised at who you find in Heaven.

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The Bottom Line
(or get to the point, Kona!)

If God didn't want you to prosper, He wouldn't have told you how to do it.

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