Memorial Day Thoughts

I watched an interesting DVD last night called "The Perfect Stranger". It is a story about an unbelieving lawyer who gets a mysterious invitation to dinner. The invitation is signed Jesus Christ. Thinking it was a prank, she decides to go. The man she met was supposedly Jesus. In the course of their conversation, the lawyer brought up many objections and posed many questions which the Jesus figure answered. They were on the topic of Jesus being the only way to God in light of other religions. She brought up the religion of Islam. The mysterious guest asked the woman what was a human's greatest need. The answer she gave was to be loved. Knowing that Islam is a religion of pure submission with no concept of love, he answered with a question (paraphrased): "Why would God create man with the greatest need to be loved and never fulfill that need?"

One witness to the truth of the message of Christ is that of love. Only in the suffering and sacrifice of Christ do we see a God that with a perfect love--a love that can meet that great need the human heart yearns for and is unable to find. We find love in this world, but it is always an imperfect love, a love that falls short. Our longing is to be loved perfectly.

On memorial day, we remember the fallen heroes. Those individuals who gave the greatest sacrifice to secure our freedom--their lives. Jesus said "Greater love has no one that this, than to lay down one's life for his friends" (John 15:13 NKJV). These men and women never got to live out the full span of their lives. Many of them barely reached adulthood. The very fabric of our being cries out "honorable" and "noble" and "virtuous".

Christ laid down his life for us so that all of our sin and rebellion against God could be laid upon him instead of us. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16 NKJV).

That is why there is no other path to God. To choose another religion or no religion at all is to say no to the greatest love gift. It would be like going to the cemetery where the fallen soldiers lie and curse and deface the gravestones of those who gave their lives to secure your happiness. Such an act is so blatantly disrespectful and ungrateful that it cries out for comdemnation. Listen to the seriousness of rejecting the One who gave all to secure our eternal happiness:

Hebrews 10:29 How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?

In the end the lawyer from that DVD saw the message of Christ in a new light that she had never seen before. When the love of Christ has clearly presented, it is not difficult to see why it is reasonable to believe and forsake all that tries to rival his love.

The Need of Strength

Why am I so often surprised when God intervenes?

Last week seemed to be especially stressful. Our life is normally filled with responsibility--four kids, one autistic, one a toddler recovering from cancer. Susan fell ill with a bad cold and sinus infection and work was particularly demanding as we were at a project deadline. Then the doctor told Susan she looked exhausted and might be fighting symptoms of depression as well. I felt helpless and overwhelmed.

As we were discussing these thing, I blurted out, "We need the strength of the Lord!" And then I spontaneously prayed out loud, "Lord, we need your strength." Soon after I was by myself and a peace came upon me and it seemed as though God spoke to my heart saying, "everything is going to be alright." I repeated the phrase to Susan.

What amazes me is how things can look helpless and hopeless at one moment and in the next "it is well with my soul." Nothing changed with my circumstance, but I was changed. The only explanation is that God intervenes. Here is a verse that I found that sums it up:

Psalm 29:11 The LORD gives strength to his people; the LORD blesses his people with peace.

What a heritage for people of the Lord! What a precious promise. After Jesus had risen and before he left, he told his disciples "Peace I leave with you."

Notice how the verse ties strength and peace together. I asked for strength and he gave me peace. The peace of the Lord is strength to the soul. I have found that some of the most amazing promises in the Bible deal with the peace of the Lord. There is the promise of perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3), a peace that passes understanding (Philippians 4:7), the peace of Christ (John 14:27) and a peace like nothing in this world (John 14:27).

Are Christians Intolerant?

With the passing of the reverend Jerry Falwell this week, I was reading a website where readers were able to leave comments. Many Christians who were associated with the reverend spoke with great admiration of the great example he left and things he accomplished for Christ. At the same time, there were others who felt quite the contrary. One fellow wrote of Mr. Falwell's "intolerance" in that he believed that all non-Christians were going to hell.

When I read this, I felt a sad pit in my stomach. It's the same feeling of grief I often get when I hear of people speaking the way this fellow did. Yes, it is true that we believers believe as Jerry Falwell does. But it is not out of intolerance. That is what is so frustrating. If we Christians decided that we wanted to make ourselves better than others so we made up this belief that everyone else was so much more worse than us that they are going to hell, then that would be intolerant. But we are not motivated that way. The Christian response to those who are apart from Christ is driven by love. We warn about the dangers of hell because we don't want anyone to go there. It is out of love that we share Christ.

The apostle Paul wrote, "Since we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade men...For the love of Christ compels us because we are convinced that one [Jesus] died for all..."

Christians are those whose lives have been turned upside down by the love of Jesus; who have had their eyes open to this "love that surpasses knowledge". Our message is that someone has suffered and died in your place to pay for a debt that wasn't his. Is that intolerant? No.

The unwillingness, or maybe just spiritual inability, of people to see Christian truth any other way than intolerant, is a sober reminder of what the Bible describes as the world under the deception and blindness of the prince of darkness. Of course, if such a soul were to read this, they would shout "intolerance".

Is it then just a matter of irreconcilable differences? I don't think so. With the Lord, nothing is impossible. I, as well as others believers, were all one time at odds with the faith. I remember my own feelings of hostility when confronted with the message of sin and forgiveness. It is an almost irrational sense of offense that responds in anger. It is what the Bible describes as being in a state of sin. Yet the Lord was able to make his light shine in my heart.

All we Christians can do is to show as much grace, kindness and love as possible. It opens the door so that even those who may be offended by the faith will at least listen. And it is by hearing the word of Christ that faith comes (Romans 10:17). Our attitude that we project should be one of inclusion. We are not going to heaven because we are better. We are not superior, but it is simply one beggar showing another where he may find bread.

Miracles and faith and unbelief

Our pastor is doing a series on miracles. This last sunday he contrasted the effect of belief and unbelief on miracles using two case studies from the gospels.

The first case was the people of Jesus' hometown. In Mark 6, Jesus came to Nazereth and began to teach the people. But they took offense at him. In their pride they could not accept that he was more than the son of Joseph and Mary. The text of Scripture says he was not able to do any miracles there and he was amazed at their lack of faith.

The second case is found in Luke 7. There was a centurion who heard Jesus was coming to town. The centurion's servant was sick and about to die. The centurion was so humbled before Jesus that he didn't even want to trouble Jesus to come to him. He sent elders in his place and told Jesus that all he had to do was to say the word and his servant would be healed. Jesus was amazed at his faith and his servant was healed from that hour.

Seems to me I see a couple of extremes in the church. On one extreme any unanswered prayer is attributed to a lack of faith. On the other extreme, an unanswered prayer is NEVER attributed to a lack of faith. The first extreme can be motivated by a judgmental spirit. The second tries so hard not to offend or make a person feel bad that the unbelief is never addressed.

I think I tend to err on the later side. But I can not avoid the inevitable conclusion that Scripture teaches that faith and unbelief do affect God's hand in answering prayer.

I think one of the problems is that faith is often misunderstood. It is sometimes seen as an entity in itself. As if it is the faith itself that works some type of magic and is some sort of sign of self righteousness. This is where faith is viewed as a force. So there is a direct correlation between the faith a person has and the power to see prayer answered.

I think this is a gross misunderstanding of faith. Faith is something that looks to another. Faith is when we consider another faithful and so we trust in them. The people of Nazereth did not lack some type of spiritual force. They just did not trust Jesus. They did not like him for claiming to be more than just a carpenter. The centurion on the other hand was in awe of the Lord, had heard of his miracles and was humbled before his greatness. He trusted that Jesus was who he said he was and could do miracles because of it.

So when dealing with prayer, either mine or another, my focus should not be whether or not enough faith is involved, but rather look to Jesus in awe and humility trusting in His authority. If my prayer is not answered, I have to trust that there is a good sovereign reason and if it pleases the Lord to make that reason known to me. But if indeed I am trusting in the name of Jesus, I will see amazing things happen!

More on Faith and Presumption

I rececently posted on this topic a couple postings ago. Soon afterwards, my Bible reading plan had me in Numbers. I got to the account where Moses sent spies into the land of Canaan. God had promised the people of Israel that He would give them the land. He had performed great miracles to bring them out of Egypt to prove that they could trust him.

When the spies came back, two of them, Joshua and Caleb, told the people that the LORD was with them and would deliver the people of Canaan into their hands. The other 10, however, gave a bad report, saying that the people were too strong for them and that they would not be able to take the land. The Israelites believed the bad report. God was very angry with the Israelites for treating Him with comtempt and refusing to believe in Him. In His displeasure, He vowed that they would not be able to enter the promised land for 40 years:

Number 14:11 The LORD said to Moses, "How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the miraculous signs I have performed among them?...20 The LORD replied, "I have forgiven them, as you asked. 21 Nevertheless, as surely as I live and as surely as the glory of the LORD fills the whole earth, 22 not one of the men who saw my glory and the miraculous signs I performed in Egypt and in the desert but who disobeyed me and tested me ten times- 23 not one of them will ever see the land I promised on oath to their forefathers. No one who has treated me with contempt will ever see it.

Then the Israelites were grieved and decide they would go and try to take the land after the LORD told them not to because He would not go with them:

Numbers 14:39 When Moses reported this to all the Israelites, they mourned bitterly. 40 Early the next morning they went up toward the high hill country. "We have sinned," they said. "We will go up to the place the LORD promised."

41 But Moses said, "Why are you disobeying the LORD's command? This will not succeed! 42 Do not go up, because the LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, 43 for the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD, he will not be with you and you will fall by the sword."

44 Nevertheless, in their presumption they went up toward the high hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the LORD's covenant moved from the camp. 45 Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that hill country came down and attacked them and beat them down all the way to Hormah.

Here's what I have learned: If the Lord has made a promise and I don't believe that He will keep it, it is sin--the sin of unbelief. However, if God has not promised to do something or warned that He won't do it and I assume He will, then it is presumption. So if I am convinced by reading Scripture that God promises something to me, I must not treat the Lord with comtempt and refuse to believe Him. Instead I must consider Him who promised faithful to fulfill His word.