The Racket of a Fallen World

This world is not a peaceful place.

People who come to my little community here in the Alleghany Highlands often comment about how quiet it is.  Others who visit here complain about how quiet it is. A couple of weeks ago, about an hour away, a guy claiming that God told him to do it, and by some reports yelling "Allahu Akbar," stabbed two people.  Just the other day a young man from right here in my town, suited up in body armor, got his guns and went to the Dam that creates one of the prettiest lakes in the world.  He had heard from God as well.  He was calling the faithful to join him in protecting the dam.  "ISIS was going to blow it up." My little place on God's earth might not be as loud as your place, and the racket this fallen world makes might not rise to the level that its groans become audible as frequently, but"the whole creation" is involved. We can't hide from sin and its consequences.  But, we can be victorious over it.  After speaking with great eloquence about just how broken this world is, the Apostle Paul kicks his rhetoric into over-drive.   “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:31–39, NASB95) It's STTA. The question is, "Are you in Christ?"  Find out more at this site.  It's a message we all need.

Choose Life

Something To Think About Choosing Life:

Genesis one declares that God made people in His own image.  Just what does that mean?  Jesus told the Samaritan woman that God is a Spirit, so the image of God is not visual.   Genesis 3, the story of the Fall gives us an important clue.  After Eve and Adam disobeyed their creator, we read that God came looking for them. “When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees.  Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”  (Genesis 3:8-9) It appears that God not only created the first couple and placed them in Eden, but that He regularly came by to be with them.  Now that sin had come between them and their God, He called out to them, not because He didn’t know where they were, but so they would realize what they had done.  When we come to the other end of the Bible we hear John declare about the New Jerusalem, “I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them. . . . The throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.  And they will see his face, and his name will be written on their foreheads.”  (Revelation 21:3 & 22:3-4) In between we see the God seeking out a people who will be His very own.  So often we misread God’s motives.  Adam and Eve’s rebellion caused them to be cast out of the beauty of the Garden Eden into a world of thorns and weeds and pain and death.  The alternative to that home in heaven that we read about in Revelation is the one place in the universe where all of the blessings God gives to those who yield to Him are absent.  Why, between these two poles of God declaring His desire to be with His creation and bless them, do we think that we are better off without our Lord?  The enemy of our souls continues to convince women and men that they are better off as rebels. Get quiet and listen.  Can you hear the voice calling, “Where are you?”  He wants you to answer so you will know.  Are you living in the realm of His blessing, or are you continuing to follow the voice of the tempter? The Apostle Paul tells the story of some who made the right choice. You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world, obeying the devil—the commander of the powers in the unseen world. He is the spirit at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God.  All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else. But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much,  that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that you have been saved!)  For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.  So God can point to us in all future ages as examples of the incredible wealth of his grace and kindness toward us, as shown in all he has done for us who are united with Christ Jesus. God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God.  Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.  For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.   (Ephesians 2:1-10) It’s STTA.

Sin's Consequences:

Something To Think About Sin's Consequences:

A good bit of pastoral life involves hanging around--simply being with people.  I did that this morning.  In addition to the lovely people with whom I spent several hours, someone, or really something, else was with us. Nothing exciting was happening, in fact our time passed in much the same way it would have had we been watching paint dry--old oil-base, wet-for-hours paint.  As I thought about it, it seemed rather perverse that events of such great importance were unfolding as we waited, and yet our experience was so mundane.  The clear, yet unspoken reality that hung all around us, and was hanging-out with us, was that sin had been let loose, and the consequences of that sin--or those sins--could not be--indeed, should not be stopped.  We were there in quiet vigil waiting for the dreaded other shoe to drop, not knowing precisely how bad its fall would be. James talks about sin's life-cycle.   Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death. (James 1:14–15, NLT)  Someone had already died, their life horribly ended because a temptation had become an all-consuming craving.  The decision had already been made that another life, young and full of promise would never again be lived outside a prison.  We were gathered in a place where we didn't quite feel welcome, but where we had an official right to be, to get what news we could about the beginnings of another phase of the unfolding of this evil.  Will sin, in particular this sin, claim yet another life?  All around us were those playing their part--a judge, lawyers, witnesses, advisers, clerks, bailiffs, guards, prospective jurors, reporters, even janitors--each summoned by some authority to come and fulfill their role.  Then there was the family of the victim, and members of the family of the man on trial--in a sense, victims as well.  Some of us were there because we thought it the right thing to do.  I sure there are more than a hundred of us.  We had received the summons.  In a sense it was a summons from evil.  God has so ordered his universe that evil is like gravity.  It has a force that appears to be all its own.  Once evil is set in motion it calls far and wide.  That summons cost me a morning of my life.  The sentence already handed down from sin's gruesome bench to some who are involved, is "Your life will never be the same.  You will bear this mark." Pandora's box, version one billion, seventeen has been opened, and the imps let loose on humanity, even what we consider to be innocent humanity, have yet to be counted, and their mischief is ongoing, and will continue, in some cases forever.  Like watching the clock I watched evil unfold this morning.  I couldn't actually see it move, but its results are plain, and undeniable.  It's not pretty. It's STTA. A great deal of the story of the Bible has to do with sin and it's consequences, but the story of God's word is bracketed by paradise lost because of sin, and paradise regained because of Christ's victory over sin.  On Easter of 2014, I shared God's Story In His Own Words all in one message.  Click the link to listen or watch. You will find information about stopping the consequences of sin in your life, here.

Kids Who Get It:

Something To Think About, Kids who get it:

My lovely wife, Kathy, teaches preschoolers on Sunday Nights.  She really enjoys hanging out with the Gopher Buddies.  You can look at the  picture and see why.  This was at a little hayride we set up for them last fall. This past Sunday night she was teaching them a foundational Bible story, Eve and Adam's eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. (Genesis 3) Kathy had spread rocks around the room to illustrate the abundance of trees in the Garden of Eden from which Adam and Eve could have eaten.  Their snack helped them realize that God had given the first couple all they needed, and more.  At a critical time in the lesson a three-year-old announced with wide eyes, "They disobeyed." Indeed, and we have been doing so ever since.  "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God."  (Romans 3:23)  And as Eve and Adam discovered, "The wages of sin is death."  (Romans 6:23)  The same God Who provided for the our first ancestors with the abundance of the garden, has provided salvation in Jesus Christ for all who turn to Him in faith.  Last night when Kathy told me about Gopher Buddies, she was still excited.  "He got it!" she told me and a couple of after church guests. Have you gotten it? Look at this link below to find out more. It's STTA Here is a site where you can find out about Jesus Christ and His plan for you.  You'll find several opportunities to explore.  If we can help you, let us know.  covingtonbiblechurch.com

Something To Think About Knowing where your going, 7/1

Palawan looks like a lovely place.  Unfortunately it wasn't where my friends wanted to go.  One can easily see how the mistake could be made, especially when you factor in different languages, accents and long distance communication, but the fact is Palawan and Palau are over a thousand miles apart.   Palawan--where my friends didn't want to go--is an island in the nation of Philippines.  Palau is one of the smallest counties in the world, but an independent nation.  The picture on the right is of a resort in Palawan.  The one below is of the Rock Islands, a lovely marine preserve in Palau (I was privileged to visit there week ago.). The Palauan Evangelical Church celebrated its 85th anniversary last week.  In keeping with the great commission, they are working on a partnership with The Evangelical Church in Indonesia, GIDI, to reach out to one of the unreached people groups on the Island of Papua.  I was privileged to be in Palau, last week for the celebration.  Some colleagues of mine have worked very hard on this mission partnership.  The church in Palau, my friends, and all of we guests were anxiously looking forward to the arrival of the the GIDI delegates from Indonesia.  We heard that they had departed from their home on the Island of Papua.  It was reported that they were in the airport in Manila, but then, from our perspective, they just kind of vanished. It turns out that when they bought their airline tickets, through an agent in Jakarta, they said "Palau" the travel agent thought they said "Palawan."  When the agent said "Pawlawan," they thought she was saying "Palau."  Everyone thought they were going to the right place, until they got there. More tomorrow, but for now let's see what we can learn from my new friends' experience. The near disastrous experience of the GIDI delegates was the result of an innocent mistake.  Satan, with complete lack of innocence, is the master of the "bait and switch."  Because of our falleness (SeeRomans 3:23 &Ephesians 2:1-3), we are apt to fall for his false advertising.  Just consider some of these statements from the Bible: "There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death." (Proverbs 14:12) “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it.  For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it."  (Matthew 7:13-14)  “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name performmany [n]miracles?’  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness."  (Matthew 7:21-23) In future STTAs I'll say some more about getting to the right place, right now you find out more at the link at the bottom of this email. Almost, isn't good enough.   Make sure you end up in the right place. It's STTA. Representatives of GIDI, the Palauan Evangelical Church, and Liebenzell Mission sign the cooperative agreement. Find out more about CBC at our website, or in a recent newsletter. God's Story in His Own Words. our Easter message that presents the flow of Divine Revelation from "In the beginning," to the final "Amen." You can find out about how to get where you really want to be here.

Futility

Preparing my Easter Sunday message, I have been very impressed with the futility of much of the Bible.  I don't mean to say that God's Word has no value, purpose, or effect.  No, working on this message, which is made up entirely of Scripture, has powerfully impressed me with the power of the Bible.  The futility I refer to, is the record of man's failed attempts to regain what was lost when sin entered the world.

• Adam and Eve vainly attempted to regain the feeling of innocence they had until they ate the forbidden fruit by making clothing from fig leaves.
• After sin separated us from God, people began, "thinking up foolish ideas about what God was like."  They created a distorted picture, that, of course, led to dead-end religions.
• There were troubling substitutions:  They "exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols."  They "traded the truth about God for a lie." And, "worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator Himself."  Though, in our alienated-from-God condition, we might claim "to be wise, instead [we become] utter fools."

Some of these attempts at redemption are incredibly sincere.  The people of Israel, following the pattern of the people around them, "even sacrificed their sons and their daughters."  Sincerity does not, by itself, produce results.

• A big reason people create distorted, and sometimes gruesome, routes to a warped image of God, is because God has declared that the one true way to the one true God passes through some uncomfortable territory, "Each of you must repent of his sins," and make no mistake,  "everyone has sinned."  "We all fall short of God's glorious standard," and, "the wages of sin is death."  Or as I have put it in other places, "The good news begins with bad news."  Rather than accept that, throughout history people have tried to make up their own way.  It is futile.

There is a link below that takes you to a page that has a great deal of information--both on the page itself, and by way of links--about God's way, The Way, The Only Way.
Don't spend your life in futility.

It's Something to Think About.

Could you really not see something that big?

Something To Think About, a Missing 777: 3/13

I've heard several people ask in recent days, "How do you lose an airplane?!"   "How do you lose an airplane?"  It's a question I've heard several times over the last few days.  My friends are referring to the tragic disappearance of a Malaysian Airlines flight in route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. You can read the news stories that are fraught with stolen passports, radio silence, and course deviation.  If somebody did something wrong, it wouldn't be the first time somebody tried a cover-up, but getting back to the original question, it could be that something as big as a modern jetliner really is lost.  A Washington Post article reports: "Despite the impression that people get when they use Bing and Google Earth and Google Maps, those high-resolution images are still few and far between,” said John Amos, president of SkyTruth, a nonprofit organization that uses such images to engage the public on environmental issues. The pilots of Flight MH370 never communicated distress. No one activated an SOS signal. No debris or fuel slick has been found. The plane’s flight recorders may be on the seafloor, buried in sand." Another story I read read gave the search area as being the size of the nation of Hungary. We forget that not too terribly long ago whole armies and fleets of ships remained hidden from enemy surveillance. Just because something is big, and apparently obvious, doesn't mean that it will be found. Jesus used an interesting metaphor that involves this "I can't see it." tendency:  "Why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye* when you have a log in your own?  How can you think of saying to your friend,* ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye?"  (Matthew 7:3–5, NLT) When I think about how often I've missed the obvious in my own life, it makes the story of the lost airplane a whole lot more believable, and more importantly, it causes me to realize the importance of the prayer of Psalm 73 with greater clarity. It's STTA. Explore the Good News here.

Spending Time With Evil

I can't say that I recommend it, but I found it profitable to spend a day with evil.

It's not something I sought out, or lingered over with anyinappropriate interest.  Some are interested in the kind of lust, greed, prurience, and downright meanness I saw.  I'm not.  I didn't volunteer, I was summoned.  You can draw your conclusions from that.

 

Though an experience like mine is depressing, disturbing, pity-inducing, and at times even revolting there are redeeming qualities about it.

 

I spent several hours with the human condition in its most awful state of corruption.  Some who serve us have to wade that cesspool on a daily basis.  Officers of our courts, social workers, police officers, jailers, and, I'm sad to say, many involved in our school systems deal daily with the dregs of society and those who are drug through the mire by them.  The innocent are scarred,by the guilty, who go about their wicked business with scarred consciences. The Bible speaks of those who enforce the law as "ministers of God."  After a brief excursion into their world my appreciation for what  they do is greater.

 

Literature, music, TV, and movies often glamorize evil.  The bad guys are frequently painted as beautiful, glamorous, to be envied, sometimes even noble.  What I saw was pitiful, ugly, repulsive, and markedly stupid.  The adage of an old preacher, whose name I have forgotten was born out by the sorry parade I saw:  "Sin makes you stupid."  These were folk driven by lust, blinded by evil, and made senseless by continuing lives that make no sense.

 

Too often we see laws as entities which limit freedom.  The result of the lawlessness that I saw is the complete loss of liberty. And I'm not speaking of concrete wall, tempered glass, or iron bars.  Many of these folk were so bound by fetters of their own making, that incarceration in society's jails will provide a measure of liberation for some of them.

Theologians speak of human depravity, or the totally depraved condition of people.  People who come from quite ordinary circumstances are capable of great evil.
We are fond of saying that there is a spark of greatness in every child.  If one goes God's way, I think that is so.  The evidence I saw is that the seed of evil is in each heart.  It's fruit is frightening to behold (see here).

 

It's STTA.

  

A day full of sin, death, grace, and angels:

When I awoke this morning, the hard drive in my headbegan to whir.  About the first thing I remember thinking was, "It can't be onlyTuesday."

It's been a full week already.

I know all the Theological reasons for starting the week with the Lord's Day, but in my little preacher world,Sunday is the end of the week.  Monday - Saturday is, in large part, spent getting ready for Sunday.  Sundaynight, Kathy and I exhale and crash.  So, when I woke this morning I was only thinking of one day.  

Yesterday was a microcosm of life on this sin-cursed planet.  Kathy and I were with a family, at a crisis point in the their lives.  Sin has done its work and these dear friends of ours were left to sort through the pieces and put things back together.  Don't get the idea its hopeless, far from it.  We can see God's grace shining through.  I'm expecting great things!

Part of that grace--much of it, in fact--is packaged in
human flesh.  A couple of other friends are reaching out to this family with love-in-shoe-leather.  It's the kind of thing angels do.  When you are at the end of your rope, they show up to 

 help.  

In the midst of that, I got word that my mom had died.  It was no surprise.  In fact the surprise was that she was still with us yesterday morning.  There was no "I better sit down." kind of shock, like there was when my dad died with a sudden heart attack, just a dull lump that settled somewhere in my lower abdomen, and wouldn't go away.  Again grace appeared.  God is good.

Miles were traveled, emails sent, phone calls made,conferences had, and plans put in place.  Surely it must be Thursday or Friday.

Life is not a smooth line.  It's like looking at the wave pattern of a speech, full of peaks and valleys.  Across those jagged lines that make up the whispers and the ear piercing screams of life, I find one constant.  I don't know how others live without.  Call it a homing beacon, a steady light, a constant tone, maybe, as a song says, it is the "rhythm of his 

Be Still and Know - Steven Curtis Chapman - Worship Video w/lyrics

unfailing heart of love."

 

Yesterday was full.  I'm glad I can say it was not only full of stuff that happened, I can also look back and see an abundance of God's grace.

 

It's STTA.

 

 

(The little angel at the top?  My mom made I don't know how many of them.  They are around the world.  This morning it is a pretty good reminder of God's grace.)

OK, You Can Straighten Up, Now.

I'm looking forward to not hearing about the "debt crisis," or the "debt ceiling" for a while. At least I'm hopeful.

Some of my smarter, better informed friends can correct me if I'm wrong, but I understand what just happened/is happening like this:
Everyday we spend more money than we take in. In order to finance this deficit we sell savings bonds to grandparents as birthday gifts for their grandkids, and treasury certificates to the Chinese because they have our best interest at heart..
Somewhere along the line somebody got the idea that this might not be the best way of doing things, so some law was passed that set a limit on just how much red-ink we could use.
That law, regulation, scout's-honor promise--whatever it is--has proven to be no real impediment to our continued, and increasing indebtedness, however, because whenever we feel the ceiling brushing our fiscal spike-hairdo we simply raise the limit. I read that we have done so 74 times since March of 1962. I have no doubt, though, that Congress felt really bad every time they did.
As this current debt ceiling approached somebody got the bright idea--who let this guy in?--that maybe this continually spending more money than we have coming in wasn't such a good idea. I mean, what if the Chinese show up and offer to break our thumbs? So, totally ignoring the long-standing rules this gang of thugs--he recruited some like-minded friends-- said we won't raise the ceiling unless we slow the flow of red-ink--turning it off completely would cause National D. T.s. so that was never seriously considered.
Thus the horse-trading, arm-twisting, back-scratching, and log-rolling began. We now have a piece of legislation that no one likes--giving it the GOLD-STANDARD BIPARTISAN Compromise Seal of Approval--but which will get enough nose-holding "Ayes." to stave off Debt-a-geddon one more time.

Whew!

OK, here is an undeniable debt crisis, and a totally real solution we should all--and I mean "all"--really--and I, likewise mean "really"--get excited about:

" . . . where sin increased [that brings about an indebtedness that will cost us out lives Romans 6:23*], grace [resulting in forgiveness of that debt] abounded all the more," (Romans 5:20

It's STTA.

To find out how you can infinitely raise your debt-ceiling look here.

(Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.")

Waking up beside the bed, with fleas:

Folks who sleep with hound dogs are liable to wake up with fleas. Then there was the little girl with the perfectly logical explanation about why she fell out of bed. "I went to sleep to near to where I got in." It is not only the fact that Samson was sleeping when he met his ruin at the hands of Delilah that causes me to think of those two proverbs when I read his story. The strongman of the Book of Judges is a poster child for the Brotherhood of Poor Choices. He went where he shouldn't go, desired what he shouldn't have, demanded that which would lead to his ruin, and refused to turn back thinking he was immune to fleas, and secure on his perch on the edge of the bunk.
A thousand years before it was written down Samson lived the deception of thinking he could sow without reaping. (Galatians 6:7).

Though his death resulted in a serious blow to Israel's enemies, there is no doubt, Samson's life was a waste. Incredible potential, in spite of heroic exploits, limited production. Hound dogs. Way too comfortable way too close to sin.

You can read his story in Judges 13-16. We'll be looking at this Sunday at CBC.

It's STTA.