In 2005, the year Israel turned Gaza over to Palestinian control, my wife Jana and I had the privilege of going into Gaza with one of our missionaries who served there. We were warmly welcomed into the homes of several Palestinian Christian families. As the wives served tea and the children played on the floor around us, I asked about their lives as believers in such a hostile environment.
They openly shared how isolated they felt – distrusted, even hated, by most Israelis because they were Palestinian. Yet, they were despised infidels and traitors to most Palestinians because they were Christians. My eyes were opened as they shared stories of atrocities they had suffered from both sides. Continue reading →
Last month, while Jana and I were with our missionaries in Rwanda, East Africa, I received this alarming text.
Two of our long-time missionaries in the jungles of Guatemala, Jim and Bonnie DeHart and Bonnie’s sister, Ellen Coon, were killed in the crash of Jim’s small plane. The shock wave it sent through our staff and missionary family reminded us again of the dangers missionaries, in fact, all of us, face every day.
A few days later, I received this text from another CTEN missionary, Continue reading →
I know a fellow who was considering asking a girl to marry him. At the church he attended they closed each service by calling everyone forward to kneel and spend some time in prayer. As he was diligently seeking direction about asking his girlfriend to marry him, he decided to ask God to specifically guide him.
“Lord, if you want me to ask her to marry me, have her come and kneel by me to pray. If you don’t want me to ask her, then don’t let her come pray beside me.” A few moments later he sensed a person kneel beside him. By the sweet smell of perfume, he could tell it was her. Excitedly he opened his eyes knowing for sure he had heard from God. But there, beside him, knelt another girl he barely knew. What was he to do? He tapped her on the shoulder and proposed.
The first part of that story is true but obviously, he didn’t propose. Instead, he got up totally confused. Can you relate? Do you ever have a hard time finding specific direction from the Lord? Am I supposed to do this or do that or none of the above? In my last post, I shared a time Paul the apostle seemed to bounce from option to option trying to find God’s direction. After a couple of false starts, he got what seemed to be clear direction in a vision. But wait… Continue reading →
The blogger was ranting about Christians who claim God got them a good parking spot at the mall. “With people starving, dying from easily curable diseases and lack of clean water, terrorism and hatred on the rise and the world basically going to hell, do you really think God cares about being your personal mall valet?”
At first I cheered him on thinking, “Yeah, how can we be so self-focused to think God cares about us getting a good parking spot.”
Then I remembered a story a Bible translator told me. Continue reading →
Sometimes it seems like God is hiding. We pray and … nothing. I discovered something in Psalm 146 that might help us find Him the next time He seems away on vacation.
Psalm 146 talks about the “oppressed”, the “hungry”, the “prisoners”, the “blind”, “those who are bowed down”, “the foreigner”, “the fatherless and the widow”. Right in the middle of this suffering and oppressed group of people it says one line about the righteous that seems out of place. Why would this statement about “the righteous” be found among a list of oppressed and broken people?
Perhaps because when Righteousness walked the earth in human form He gravitated toward that group of people. Jesus spent His time among the sick, the sorrowful, those who knew their need of a Savior but felt far from God as He was presented by the religious system.
True Righteousness will always walk among the poor, reach out to the lost one, run to embrace the one who has been among the pigs, wreaks of the slop trough and comes acknowledging, “I am not worthy”.
Jesus could have come as a king, lived in comfort and opulence proclaiming His message to the masses from a solid gold chariot drawn by a team of magnificent horses. Certainly this would have made his divinity seem more palatable, more believable. He could have maintained a respectable distance from the dust and filth of humanity but it was from dust He chose to make man. He chose to once again get His hands dirty to redeem man.
What a remarkable love that caused Him to descend to the lowest depths in order to make it possible for us to ascend to the highest heights. What a Savior! What a God!
So where are we likely to find God? Right at the point of our most desperate need – among the poor in spirit, the broken, the contrite and humble. If that is where you are, go and do something to bless someone who is worse off than you and I guarantee you will find God right there beside you.
__________________ James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
For years Christians have been routinely slaughtered around the world but with the coming of the Islamic State of Iraq it’s finally front page news. The focus on it and graphic awareness that news coverage brings is causing Christians to get discouraged, frightened, angry, saddened and confused. Undoubtedly there has been “a great disturbance in the force” but could it be that the disturbance is one of rejoicing?
Scripture says “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints” (Psalm 116:15). Wherever the church has gone martyrdom has always followed. As Tertullian stated, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”
In fact, we get our word “martyr” from the Greek word translated “witness”. So, when Jesus said, you shall be my witnesses, the first disciples heard, “you shall be my martyrs”. A martyr is simply one who testifies to the truth of his message by his willingness to sacrifice his very life rather than deny the message.
As we see the horrific pictures of butchered Christians we are repulsed and can easily wonder, “where is God, where is our government, where is hope in the midst of this mess?” But there is another level which sees that each of those who bowed their head rather than bow their knee was screaming with their own blood, “Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”
The first martyr of the church, Stephen, proclaimed forgiveness and witnessed to the truth of his message in a way that surely impacted the future apostle Paul. In the early apologetic story, Octavius points out that Romans praise to high heaven men who suffered great agonies for the cause of Rome but among Christians even the women and young boys “treat with contempt” the tortures heaped upon them rather than deny their faith. In the same way, the death of each of these in Iraq and around the globe –men, women and children – screams to the executioner that Jesus Christ is Lord and worthy of their very lives.
We can be certain that with each death a roar of applause goes up from that “great cloud of witnesses” as these runners cross the finish line and are triumphantly welcomed home by their Lord and Saviour. “Well done. Race well run. Enter in to the joy of your salvation.”
I am not saying we should do nothing to oppose the evil. We are still called to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God” but we must see this world from a higher plane. The news media will not give us this exalted perspective. We must get it from the Word and from God’s messengers to the church, its leaders.
Pastors, we must draw back the curtain and allow Christians to see a higher, a more glorious picture of what is happening around us. Our response was laid out by Paul in his letter to another church familiar with martyrdom.
Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Romans 12:14, 15, 21 NIV
Any institution is only as solid as the foundation upon which it is laid. The foundation of this new Caliphate is being laid upon the “seeds of the church” – the death of God’s saints.
Yes, we pray the Lord will “deliver us from evil”. Yes we pray for God to forgive those guilty of these horrors. Yes we take what actions we can righteously take to put a stop to it. But we must never forget God is still at the helm of the universe. These and even greater evils to come were all foretold thousands of years ago but just as surely as these prophetic nightmares are being fulfilled, so will the glorious prophecies of a coming kingdom of peace, justice and righteousness.
Look up saints. Lift your head. Your Deliverer is coming.
Babe Ruth was one of the greatest hitters and perhaps one of the greatest baseball players of all time. I recently read a story about this great hitter striking out. He let the pitch pass and the umpire screamed, “Strike three. You’re out.” Babe turned to him and said, “There are 40,000 fans in this stadium that all think that was a ball.” The ump calmly responded, “That might be true but my opinion is the only one that counts.”
The 40,000 voices from the stands today make some pretty bold declarations about what is moral and what is immoral, about what is right and what is wrong, about what we should tolerate and what we should not tolerate. The majority of the experts proclaim God’s Word to be outdated, out of touch and irrelevant. As a believer it may seem like you are swimming upstream against Niagara Falls.
But, there is only One whose opinion counts. Disagree with Him and “You’re out!”
_________________ Proverbs 21:30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
Psalm 2:2, 4
The kings of the earth prepare for battle; the rulers plot together against the LORD and against his anointed one. … But the one who rules in heaven laughs. The Lord scoffs at them.
And David was greatly distressed; because the people spoke of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.
1 Samuel 30:6
______________
David had been through some rough times but this was the lowest point of his life. He had led his men off to a battle that they had no business being involved in. Then, they return home to discover an enemy has raided their home town stealing everything, taking their wives and children and burning all their homes to the ground.
David was discouraged. He had lost everything. His men were grieving. They had lost everything and everyone knew it was David’s fault. The men became so angry that these loyal friends of his considered killing him.
I’m not sure what I would have done in this situation but we know what David did. Times like these separate the victors from the victims. He could have rolled over and quit. He could have “cursed God and died”. But “David encouraged himself in The Lord his God”! Continue reading →
Psalm 101:7, 8
No one who practices deceit will dwell in my house; no one who speaks falsely will stand in my presence.
Every morning I will put to silence all the wicked in the land; I will cut off every evildoer from the city of the Lord. ________________ I absolutely love this passage. Here’s why. A number of years ago my family was enduring a brutal time. The church I pastored had severe financial pressures (we had nothing to do with creating the debt we just “inherited” the consequences of someone else’s “faith”).
I had outspoken critics in the congregation who with syrupy sweetness regularly told me all I was doing wrong as a pastor. (The most vocal of them had been saved almost 3 years so surely had great insight into church leadership.) Some of the critics were self-proclaimed prophets who would spout as “the Word of the Lord” any bird-brained idea that flitted through the canyons of their cranium. Others thought nothing of slandering me and harassing my kids because they actually acted like children. Though their children were in rebellion and running from God, they knew exactly how “pastor’s kids” should be raised. Continue reading →
Judges 11 is one of the weirdest stories in the Bible. It leaves us wondering: Did Jephthah do what it sounds like he did – offer his daughter as a burnt sacrifice to God? To answer that it’s important to know some things about the man and his story. Continue reading →
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