In God We Trust?

As I prepared a lesson for a Bible study recently, something jumped off the page at me. It’s one of those moments in scripture that make you realize why we refer to God’s Word as the "Living Bible." No matter how long our world exists, the Bible will always be completely applicable.

In the Hosea 8:1-3, we read:

8 Put the horn to your mouth! One like an eagle

comes against the house of the Lord, because they

transgress My covenant and rebel against My law. 

2 Israel cries out to Me, "My God, we know You!"

3 Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.

The nation of Israel at this time was in full-blown rebellion to God, as verse three states, rejecting what is good. And, although they might have symbolically cried out "My God, we know you!", Israel lived perversely. They worshiped idols and false Gods.
 

What really jumped off the page at me was the word ‘eagle’ in verse one. "...an eagle comes against the house of the Lord." An eagle...the national symbol of our country. I mulled about it for a minute, then realized how perfectly applicable it was today. Substituting the word ‘eagle’ with ‘United States’, how real it seemed today. "...the United States comes against the house of the Lord, because they transgress My covenant and rebel against My law."

The unthinkable tragedy of the past week at Newtown, Connecticut is a blistering reminder of how our country has painstakingly removed any sign of God from our public places, as if any spiritual reference is some sort of virus that needs to be scrubbed from societal walls. At public school Sandy Hook Elementary, the mere mention of God would no doubt been challenged by forces of opposition who have won battle after battle to disregard the spiritual roots this country was founded upon. A word of prayer, a posting of the Ten Commandments, a Christmas manger scene, all would have been viewed not just as inappropriate, but illegal, all in the misguided name of freedom, liberty.

On the contrary, like at every public school in the land, Sandy Hook Elementary is mandated by law to teach doctrine directly opposed to God’s word. Lifestyles considered perverse abominations in the Bible, and at one time, in our country, now are presented as normal alternatives in our culture and in our classrooms. Teaching the scriptural-preferred practice of abstinence is considered controversial in modern sex education classes, though a recent study indicated it was preferred by 80% of all parents. By the way, that’s where the instruction should begin, at home, with the parents.

I could write ten pages on the subject, but you get the drift. As long as we continue to drive God further and further from our lives and from our country, the void will fill with ungodliness.

Like Israel in the Old Testament, the United States has our own version of the false cry,

"My God, we know you, " >>> In God We Trust.

How realistic is that motto these days? Do we as a nation put our trust in God? And sadly, how long will it be before that, too, is declared illegal??

Nightmare in Connecticut

Genesis 3:6 - When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Genesis 4:8 - Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let’s go out to the field." While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

 Like all of you, I sat, once again, in disbelief as the atrocity of the day’s news unfolded before us. Twenty kindergartners were killed in a Connecticut grade school this morning. Another school, another massacre of children, this time, unimaginably, a classroom of five-year old kindergarten kids.

As the grandparents of two kindergartners, my wife and I sat watching the horrific scenes from a Connecticut grade school in mostly stunned silence, only interrupted by Teri’s occasional sobbing as her heart broke over the loss of these precious lives.

The news broadcasters are in unison. No matter what pundit you turn to, they all seem to be asking a form of the question, why. What is going on in this world? Where did all this evil come from? Reread the above passages. Genesis 3:6 documents the fall of mankind. Adam and Eve escorted sin into the world.  One generation later, one of their sons, Cain, murdered his brother Abel.   Sin’s effect on mankind moved quickly then...and continues to do so.

In 1962, the United States Supreme Court abolished what we commonly knew as school prayer. A routine part of the school day was a simple moment of prayer. But now days, school is a place where God is not welcome in any way, shape, or form. And yet, there will be those who, upon hearing today’s tragic news, cry out "Where was God in all this?!?"  I wonder if those same folks think it mere coincidence that these type of mass killings in schools did not exist before the 1960's.

A few minutes ago, I watched from our back deck as a young mother waited for her child stepping off a school bus. She walked him back to their house about a block away.  I’ve seen her on that walk dozens of times, but today she must have had a sense of reflection about the 20 Connecticut mothers and fathers that won’t have their children home with them tonight.   I know I did...

Please Lord Jesus, comfort those parents, grandparents,and other family members who are suffering through this nightmarish night. Love them in a way that only You can. Forgive us, Lord God, for the measures we’ve taken as a nation to move further and further from You, for the evilness we’ve legislated, for the ungodliness our country’s embraced. We fall on our knees and cry out to You for mercy.

Amen

Thanksgiving Leftovers...

The Thanksgiving holiday came and went with the usual overeating on my part. The wife made a particularly delicious corn casserole that I relished the thought eating for days with leftovers, only to find that she’d unceremoniously dumped it after a day in an effort to make room in the refrigerator. I was not happy about it in the least bit.

There were a couple of other things about the Thanksgiving holiday that raised my dander a bit. Okay, maybe more than a bit...

Thanksgiving itself has become more and more just a prelude to commercialistic Christmas. Black Friday has seeped into Thanksgiving night (or afternoon) shopping. I went into the local Walmart on Thanksgiving morning to pickup some last minute items for the big meal that afternoon. I walked by pallet after pallet after pallet of cellophane wrapped items marked with the times, i.e. 8:00PM, 10:00PM, etc, that each pallet of stuff would be unwrapped for shopping availability.

I didn’t look too closely at the items, but I did notice that there wasn’t anything there that I would wade into the masses to fight over. In fact, I couldn’t imagine why anyone would, but the next day I watched a video of a chaotic crowd fighting over the items on one such video. If you have a minute check it out here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AdTdacgp1Y

It’s beyond bothersome that as a society we’ve come to this point of materialistic idolatry. I think it’s safe to say that Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12:15 "...be on your guard empathically against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" was pretty much thrown out the window in that crowd.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I don’t lay the blame on WalMart or any other business. They are merely taking full advantage of what we’ve become as a society. But the real victim is a once-cherished holiday tradition of giving thanks to God for our many blessings that has deteriorated to this current sad state of affairs...

On Thanksgiving weekend, I took the family to a afternoon matinee of the movie Life of Pi. It was a 3D flick about a boy and a tiger, or at least that’s what I thought. What we sat through was a movie which had a not-so-subtle spiritual message that there exists many paths leading to God, and, as long as you believe in something, anything, you’d experience your spiritual awakening and a relationship with the Almighty.

The main character was a Hindu/Muslim/Christian. As the narrator of the film, he told the story of being a believer in all three religions. Let me say emphatically, there is no such thing as a Hindu/Muslim/Christian. Pi’s own father said it best when he told his son, "If you believe in everything, you believe in nothing." I can’t speak on first two religious beliefs, but when Jesus said, "No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6)," He meant just that. This movie was basically making Christ a liar and I’m regretful that I supported it with my money. Don’t go and do likewise.

I long for the day when as a nation we fall on our collective knees and cry out to God for forgiveness for our waywardness and truly thank the Almighty for how blessed we are as a country. In his original proclamation that set forth the holiday we now know as Thanksgiving, President Abraham Lincoln stated it was "a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens." It speaks volumes about our country, and our President, that this year,  Barack Obama’s Thanksgiving proclamation failed to mention God completely...for the fourth year in a row.

A Special Moment from Brazil

There was nothing out of the ordinary about the woman that caught my attention. She sat unemotionally quiet with the other women, not interacting with anyone. She appeared to be around 30 years of age. I wasn’t sure she’d listened to a word I’d said through my interpreter that afternoon. As I spoke to the women of a drug and alcohol rehab clinic in Goiania, Brazil, the woman’s expression was apathetically distant.

During my message about Jesus lifting up and redeeming troubled women in the Bible, I noticed another young woman becoming emotional, quietly sobbing to herself, while others around her tried to comfort her. It was obvious that God’s word was touching her heart, and I wasn’t surprised to have her respond during the invitation to receive Christ. But the whole time I was speaking, my attention kept being drawn back to the first woman. The more detached she seemed from my message, the more my attention was drawn toward her.

 

The weeping young woman was the only one that came forward during the invitation. We celebrated the new sister in Christ with a commitment prayer and song. Pictures were taken and her once downcast, tearful face was now beaming brightly with the joy of a new Savior, and new life in Christ. But the quiet woman didn’t take part in the celebration. Instead, she sat quietly off by herself, seemingly just waiting for us to leave the facility so she could continue her regular routine.

 

We gathered our things, and the international team started leaving the area, along with most of the staff and residents of the facility. I packed up my backpack and started following the others out when I noticed the quiet woman still sitting off by herself, staring ahead with not a hint of emotion. As I walked toward her, I attempted to make eye contact, wanting to acknowledge her with a nod or a smile, but she didn’t look up at me.

I walked on, but as I got to the woman, something stopped me dead in my tracks. I can’t exactly tell you the feeling I had in words, but I definitely felt a message in my head, in my heart.

 

"Don’t you walk past that woman..."

I can’t say it was the booming voice of God or something written in the sky, but it was clear and it was evident that I could not continue on with the others. Oh, by the way, my interpreter just happened to be walking past at the very moment I stopped...

"Hello, what’s your name?

 

"Eliana"

She gave me the briefest of smiles, one which revealed a past use of methamphetamine. We talked a bit about this and that, then I asked Eliana whether or not she’d ever received the forgiveness that only Christ’s shed blood on the cross could provide and she lowered her head and said, "No, I’ve been too bad." It was at that point that the once stoic woman began to sob...

The truth of the matter is, we’ve all been "too bad." We’ve all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, as Romans 3:23 reminds us. But there is the hope that we find only through God’s plan of salvation through Jesus’s death on the cross. It is there and only there we find the promise of Isaiah:18:

 

"Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.

The precious blood of Christ cleanses us from all our transgressions, no matter how high they number, or how low they bring us down.

...Eliana spoke of a life filled with sin. Shameful remorse creased her once expressionless face. Tears flowed freely as she spoke openly, confessing a life she now wanted to leave behind. I explained to Eliana that her sin was not beyond Jesus’s redemptive blood, that no matter what her past had been, God loved her and wanted her to receive the Grace of salvation.

"God would not let me walk past you today, Eliana, without talking to you. What does that tell you?"

"He loves me...and still remembers me. Yes, I would like to receive Jesus in my life...please."

I told Eliana something that I’ve told many others while on mission trips. I told her we probably would never see each other again...in this world. But, someday, we’ll both be in heaven because of what she’d received that afternoon.

 

"And when that glorious day of rejoicing comes, you come find me, we will celebrate."

During the crusade in Goiania, 2731 made commitments to Christ. That afternoon, in a women’s rehab clinic, God allowed me to witness one of those confessions of faith. It was an experience that I’ll never forget. Thanks to the many who prayed for the trip. Thanks to my international coworkers, Americans, Brazilians, and Paraguayans who served alongside me. But mostly, I give thanks to a great God that gave me the opportunity to meet so many wonderful people...like Eliana.

Yes, we shall meet again, my new sister!

 

Time to Jump In

There’s an old story that I’ve heard several times about a tightrope artist who was performing his act of daring over the magnificent Niagra Falls. He’d made the perilous journey back and forth to the excited applause of the crowd that had gathered. Then, to make the feat more daring, he pushed a wheelbarrow across the falls and back. Then, putting a 100 pound sack of flour in the wheelbarrow, the daredevil proceeded to push the load again back and forth, atop the tightrope, bringing the crowd to a worked-up frenzy.

"Who believes I could put a person in my wheelbarrow and push them across the falls?" he asked the excited crowd. To a person, each one of the audience raised their hands in support of the man’s obvious talents.

"Okay, who volunteers to jump into my wheelbarrow and be that person??" Not a hand was raised...

It’s one thing to say we believe in God, In God We Trust and that sort of thing. But it’s quite another to actually live our lives reflective of that belief...to actually jump into God’s wheelbarrow with our lives in His hands. Since a fantastic revival at our church last week, I’ve been unable to get a certain passage off my mind. 2Corinthians 5:7 says:

                                          For we live by faith, not by sight.

This concept has persistently tugged at me since I heard evangelist Ronnie Smith talk on the subject last Wednesday night. I’ve had to stop and ponder how much of my life do I really live in full faith and trust in God vs. how much do I live by sight, attempting to control myself?

How much of my life have I placed in God’s wheelbarrow? Is my wallet in there, how I spend my money? Do I make financial decisions independent of God’s guidance? When’s the last time I laid out my possessions and asked God to remove those things that weren’t pleasing to Him, those things that I value too much, more perhaps, than I value my relationship with Him. How about my wristwatch, is it in the wheelbarrow? Is how I spend my time a decision that I make exclusively myself, or do I say, take the time you need Lord and use me as you see fit?

I could go on and on. This concept applies to every aspect of my life. The sinful truth of the matter is that only a very small percentage of my life is actually in that wheelbarrow. Instead, I have it piled up on the shore, where I can control it. Oh, when I foul up an area of my life, I call God over and then put the mess I've made in His wheelbarrow, at least until He’s gotten it straightened out. But generally speaking, my time, my money, my life as a whole, is basically organized in way that is pleasing to...me. And in that way, I’ve brought those things to the altar of the god of...me.

Maybe you can relate. When we hold a white-knuckle grip on our lives and fail to give God complete control, we’re saying three things:
           1. I don’t trust you God, to do what You say.
           2. I don’t believe you God, that you can do what You say.
           3. And, I don’t love you God, enough to hand it over to you.
Last Wednesday night, I made a commitment to begin to hand over the keys to my life, completely to God, to get in the wheelbarrow. I want to truly live a life of faith, not sight. It’s a process, but in the end, I believe it will be a much more rewarding life than with any period I’ve yet experienced. I invite any and all of you to join me...are you willing to take the ride of your life?

As always, I invite your comments and questions. My email address is allterp@yahoo.com. Thanks for taking the time to read what God has placed on my heart.

He Said WHAT??

All the splendor of a beautiful fall morning was upon us as my wife and I tooled out and about Kansas City, stopping here and there at yard sales, bakeries, and wherever else our little Ford Escape would take us.

We’ve never been bumper sticker people, per se, but about a year ago, my wife brought home a couple of bumper stickers with the simple phrase "Read the Bible" on them. I liked the message and both our vehicles now proudly display them. Underneath the "Read the Bible" phrase is a passage reference of why we should "Read the Bible," II Timothy 3:16, which tells us:

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof,

for correction, and for training in righteousness...

As Christians, the passage tells us simply that the Bible is the direct word of God, and, as the phrase goes, it’s all good. But, during our Friday morning gallivanting, we encountered another driver who didn’t hold our views of the Bible.

As we were enjoying our morning outing and the beauty of the day, the peaceful bliss which enwrapped us was suddenly punctured by unexpected vileness, courtesy of the driver passing on our right. As I slowed to make a left hand turn, the man in the car next to us rolled down his window, leaned out, and stated his viewpoints about the Bible in a three word phrase that was chilling to the ear..."BLEEP YOUR BIBLE!!!" I apologize for putting a profanity in your heads, but I couldn’t think of any other way to report the incident.

It was jolting, to say the least. Initially, I felt angry indignation toward the offender. I wanted to follow him and find out exactly what his problem was. That feeling quickly changed to one of confusion and finally sympathy. Here was a man who was obviously spiritually lost, not knowing the joy of salvation that comes only through knowing Christ as Lord and Savior. Instead, hatred had moved into his heart, and it spewed out of his mouth that day.

I have a member of my own family who’s a self-proclaimed atheist, and displays the type of resentful anger toward Christianity that the poor driver demonstrated Friday morning. I’ve been praying for him for years. To date, his heart remains hardened toward God or, for that matter, anything spiritual. In his own way, he’s saying the same thing that the driver said toward me, as are so many who hear God’s calling, but refuse to respond. They are the folks, "whose minds the god of this age (Satan) has blinded, who do not believe..." (2Corinthians 4:4)


As Christians, we are to continue to pray for and pursue the lost. It isn’t always easy, but we can’t become derelict in our duties. God "desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4) By His Holy Spirit living in us, we have to have the same desire in us. Something I need to work on...how about you?

Seeing the Light

I suppose everyone’s heard the old Hank Williams song "I Saw the Light," released in 1948. Hank Williams is considered one of the great country singers of all-time, but he led a troubled life, cut short by the ravages of alcoholism at the age of 29. My father had a couple of Hank Williams records, and I grew up listening to his unmistakable sound.

The simple lyrics to " I Saw the Light" begin:

I wandered so aimless life filled with sin                                     
I wouldn't let my dear Savior in
Then Jesus came like a stranger in the night
Praise the Lord I saw the light.

Light is a common theme throughout the Bible. A quick search turns up hundreds of usages of the word light. None more clearly and simply defines the Light of the Bible more than Psalm 18: 28:

For You will light my lamp; The LORD my God will enlighten my darkness

Without Christ in my life, I was in darkness. As Christians, we are mandated to bring others to the light. I’ve named my blog "Reflecting the Light," because that’s what I want to do, reflect the Light of God’s love for me, expressed by His sacrificing his own Son, Jesus, for the sins of the world.

Before we were Christians, we didn’t necessarily know we were in darkness. Ephesians 5:8 tells us:

For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light

We are mandated here to "walk as children of light" first and foremost to give glory to God, but also to bring others to that same light that we walk in. Last week, I wrote about losing my money at a crooked carnival game. I’m also reminded of a time when I entered a carnival spook house as a kid. It was basically just a pitch-black maze which you had to weave yourself through. There were a lot of eerie sound effects playing and people screaming in fear. I wanted out badly, but couldn’t find my way on my own. Every once in a while the exit door would open, and a slither of light would appear throughout the maze. The key to finding your way out of the darkness was to keep following that light. The closer you got to the light the brighter it appeared.

That’s pretty symbolic of where we are without Christ in our lives, stuck in the darkness. As Christians, we are to shine the Light through our lives for others to see, helping them come out of their darkness. It has to be done in a loving way, not a blinding way. A preacher I heard in Minnesota last week likened it to using a flashlight to help someone find their way. You don’t shine the light directly in their eyes, blinding them. That would turn them away from the light.

But that’s what we do, sometimes, trying to beat the Gospel over someone’s head. Instead, we should try to shine our Light lovingly, in a way that displays Christ’s love for us. Now, go, and shine the Light of Christ for someone today, and show them the Way to their salvation.