FINDING THE REAL JESUS!!!

 FINDING  THE  REAL  JESUS

by  Jefferson  Bethke

What do you believe?

No, really. What do you really believe? I'm not talking about what you put on your Facebook profile or what box you check on an application. What do you put your faith in? What drives you? What's your identity? I'm sure we all have some canned answers to those questions, but when it gets down to it, we know that's a load of crap.

If you are anything like me, you probably grew up thinking there was a God—whatever that means, right? Soon enough reality started to clash with this idea, and the idea of a real God seemed to become more distant. I still held on to the Christian tagline simply for identity purposes, but once I got to high school, it all seemed pretty ridiculous. There really was no need for him. Sure I could still call myself a Christian, but only when it seemed to benefit me. Other than that, I didn't want him anymore.

My true religion, as it is with most of my American peers, was the religion of moralism dressed in Christian clothes. I believed there was a god out there somewhere, that he wants us to be good kids, and that if we are, he tells us how much he loves us, puts our pictures on the fridge, and gives us a trophy—because everyone's a winner, right?

I was a Christian by default. Everyone else said they were Christians; my mom took me to church; there was a Bible in the house. So I thought all that made me a Christian too. Saying I was a Christian seemed to get me further with my friends, family, and society than saying I was not. Being a Christian made life easier for me. But I didn't actually love or serve Jesus.

Isn't that the story for many of us in America? Christianity is our default setting. We say we're Christians because it seems nice, makes us look moral, keeps the parents off our backs, and keeps us out of hell—that is, if we even believe in hell.

My mom and I went to church enough to know the rituals and songs, but I never felt like a "church kid." I heard enough sermons to know Jesus died for me, but I also had such a broken and painful life that I figured Jesus wasn't relevant. My parents never got married, so I grew up with just my mom. She is an amazing woman who did everything in her power to give me every opportunity possible. However, a physical handicap and mental struggles made it so she was unable to work very often. This meant Section Eight housing, welfare, social security, and food stamps. We moved around a lot—I went to eight schools from kindergarten through high school—and didn't live in the nicest areas.

I remember going to church and enjoying the games, the felt board, and the songs; but it always felt so disconnected. All the other kids seemed to have it together, and I never felt completely comfortable in that crowd. So I decided to fake it. I figured that if I could out-good the good kids, then I'd fit in. If little Johnny got a gold star, then I'd make sure to get a platinum one.

I became prideful and religious. This attitude festered and solidified itself in me all the way into my teenage years. When I got to high school, I thought I was good because I didn't smoke, drink, or have sex. I constantly thought I was better than all those people. I had just enough church to think that I could be' good enough for God. I had just enough Jesus not to need him at all.

The funny part is that—even though I thought I was—I really wasn't a good kid. Starting in middle school, I was a troublemaker. I had a careless attitude toward school, my mom, and my life. I had bad grades, got kicked out of school for fighting and stealing, and developed a porn addiction that lasted more than eight years.

High school began, and things only got worse. I didn't even attempt to turn in any of my assignments, and so I flunked out my freshman year. I went to school just to keep in touch with friends and talk to girls. My mom knew my friends weren't good influences, and so we moved—again— to another town about thirty minutes away.

To some degree this was an awesome fresh start. I immediately got plugged in with the "good" kids who didn't party or drink, and I loved them. I also loved baseball and made it onto the school team. My life was baseball and my friends—it was looking good.

Then, my junior year of high school, my mom told me what was devastating news at the time. She came into my room, sat me down, and told me she was gay. She went on to include that she had fought it all her life and that the woman whom she had invited to live with us months earlier under the pretense that she was just a friend who needed help was actually her partner. (She fessed up after a fight between them.)

I felt betrayed by my mom, embarrassed for not figuring out why another woman lived in our house, and ashamed that my mom was gay. What would my friends think? My attitude was so self-centered back then. All I could think about was myself. I was a good Christian kid, so I couldn't have a gay mom, right?

After that, my mom threw in the towel on the traditional Christian faith. The treatment of gays by conservative Christians finally got to her. My initial thought was, Well, if Jesus didn't work for her, why would he work for me? So I gave up on God too. I was in pain. I was lonely. I wanted to escape but couldn't. I went from religion to rebellion. I figured if it felt good, I should do it. I worshiped girls, relationships, and my reputation. If getting more girls and drinking more beer meant I'd be "cool," then why not? But I soon discovered that lifestyle was like drinking saltwater. If you are extremely thirsty, you'll settle for it, but it just makes you thirstier. Every girl eventually became tiresome, and it was on to the next one.

On top of all this, I began to resent my mom. I despised her. Bitterness grew heavy. We lived in the same house but rarely spoke. I partied even harder and cared even less. I stopped looking for the right girl and started looking for an easy girl. I had the world's idea of pleasure at my fingertips, but something deep inside kept gnawing at me. Most of the time I was going too fast to notice it. It was only those few minutes before I'd fall asleep at night that my soul would be quiet enough to tell me what I was doing wasn't working.

I hear a lot of people say that the fear of death and the fear of public speaking are two of the main fears in my generation, but I disagree. I think it's the fear of silence. We refuse to turn off our computers, turn off our phones, log off Facebook, and just sit in silence, because in those moments we might actually have to face up to who we really are. We fear silence like it's an invisible monster, gnawing at us, ripping us open, and showing us our dissatisfaction. Silence is terrifying.

Then I graduated, had a fun summer, and headed off to a Christian college. In San Diego. Completely on my own. I didn't go because the school was Christian. I went because they had an awesome baseball team and a beautiful field. The campus—and baseball field—is literally on the beach; you can almost hit a home run into the water. It's no surprise that within the first semester, I got put on academic probation, cut from the baseball team, and dumped by my first serious girlfriend. Because baseball and girls were my life, I felt I had lost everything important. It was devastating, and for the first time in my life, I wasn't "good enough." I was broken.

Initially I blamed God for the pain in my life, but slowly I started to hear the whisper of his grace. I didn't know it then, but God broke me to fix me because he loved me. Author C. S. Lewis said, "God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."1

Because of this, I was finally ready to listen. It was a messy process, however.

Looking back, I can't pinpoint one day when it all seemed to click. It was more like a period of three to four months when I stood at arm's length with Jesus. I really had nothing to lose, but this whole grace thing didn't make much sense to me. My mom said I was the annoying kid who always asked "why" after everything. (I pray to Jesus this particular character trait doesn't get passed down to my future kids.) I am still like that to this day, and it played out when I finally started to get drawn in by grace. I had to investigate. I had to have the answers. I had to know if grace was real.

I still remember going to the college library one day and asking how many books a student could check out at one time. The answer was fifteen, so I went back to my dorm room with fifteen books on Jesus, Christianity, and apologetics. Through some of those authors, God's grace slowly melted the crust off my heart. I started to see an enormous difference in the Christianity I thought I knew and the Christianity proclaimed in the New Testament. I finally started to see:

The Bible isn't a rule book. It's a love letter. I'm not an employee. I'm a child. It's not about my performance. It's about Jesus' performance for me.

Grace isn't there for some future me but for the real me. The me who struggled. The me who was messy. The me who was addicted to porn. The me who didn't have all the answers. The me who was insecure. He loved me in my mess; he was not waiting until I cleaned myself up. That truth changed my life, and I'm convinced it can change yours.

FINDING THE REAL JESUS

After my head-on collision with grace, I couldn't get enough of Jesus. It wasn't that everything difficult disappeared, but I now felt an anchor amid the pain. Being a new Christian, however, I didn't know what to do, how to act, what Bible studies to go to, or what CDs to listen to. I had a lot of friends, but not many of them were Christians. The first six months of my new life with Jesus, I was alone and guessing how to "do" the Christian faith. I spent a lot of nights in my dorm room reading my Bible—which was better than going out and partying like I did the semester before.

Though I didn't have many Christian friends, I was at a Christian university. So I decided to copy what "being a Christian" was all about by watching others. I took off my earrings, stopped wearing basketball jerseys, tried my hardest to memorize Hillsong United's greatest hits, and listened to the Christian radio station. I thought that if I did enough Christian things, it would bring peace to my life. It didn't work.

Six months in, I had done everything I thought I should be doing as a Christian, but I still had desires I thought were supposed to disappear—lust, pride, and pleasure. Wasn't Jesus supposed to make my life better? I had been duped. My "Christianity" was once again just the American religion of work hard, do good, feel good, and maybe God will say, "We good."

I realized I was following the wrong Jesus—not that there is a "wrong" Jesus—but I was following a fake version of the real one. This realization came to me as I listened to a Christian radio station one day. During a commercial break, they did a fifteen-second spot about the station that consisted of kids laughing, happy music, and the slogan, "Music you can trust, because it's safe for the whole family!"

I remember thinking, Safe for the whole family? Is Jesus really safe for the whole family?

I realized we had created a Jesus who's safe for the whole family. But if we were honest, we'd ask, how is a homeless dude who was murdered on a cross for saying he was God safe for the whole family? Not to mention that Paul told us if we choose to follow his example as a follower of Jesus, we will be treated the way that he was.

We've lost the real Jesus—or at least exchanged him for a newer, safer, sanitized, ineffectual one. We've created a Christian subculture that comes with its own set of customs, rules, rituals, paradigms, and products that are nowhere near the rugged, revolutionary faith of biblical Christianity. In our subculture Jesus would have never been crucified— he's too nice.

We claim Jesus is our homeboy, but sometimes we look more like the people Jesus railed against. The same scathing indictments Jesus brought against the religious leaders of his day—the scribes and Pharisees—he could bring down on many of America's Christian leaders.3 No wonder the world hates us. Most of the time we're persecuted not because we love Jesus, but because we're prideful, arrogant jerks who don't love the real Jesus. We're often judgmental, hypocritical, and legalistic while claiming to follow a Jesus who is forgiving, authentic, and loving.

Sometimes people will hate us because we preach the same gospel Jesus preached, and sometimes people will hate us because we're jerks. Let's not do the second one and blame it on the first. If we honestly reflected on Scripture and the state of American Christianity today, we'd be hard-pressed to say we haven't exchanged the real Jesus for one of our own invention.

God didn't create us to work at the food bank once a year and feel good about ourselves. He didn't create us to say looking at porn only once a month is a victory. He didn't create us to walk by a homeless guy begging for money and think. He'll probably just buy some beer. God didn't create us to come to him only when we need him—like he's our eternal dentist or something.

The Jesus of the Bible is a radical man with a radical message, changing people's lives in a radical way. In the Scriptures, Jesus isn't safe. No one knew what to do with him. The liberals called him too conservative, and the conservatives called him too liberal. I mean, think about it: His first miracle was turning water into wine. He made a whip of leather and went UFC on people who'd pimped out his father's temple. He completely disregarded any social, gender, or racial boundary his society imposed. He called himself the Son of God. He called himself the judge over everyone, determining who goes to heaven and hell. He said things like, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you."4 That's dangerous—and weird.

I don't care what church you grew up in, that sounds less like the Jesus we think we know and more like Hannibal Lecter. Jesus also forgives sins, which is dangerous because only God can forgive sins, yet the religious people claimed Jesus was just a man.5

But we don t like a dangerous Jesus because a dangerous Jesus isn't a profitable Jesus. So, weVe made a safe Jesus:

We don't celebrate the gift of Jesus on Christmas.

We celebrate the gifts we get. 

We don't celebrate his triumphant resurrection and victory over Satan, sin, and death on Easter. We talk about the brunch. 

We don't call Jesus God. We call him good. 

We don't tell people they're sinners in need of a savior, because they might stop coming—and giving—to church.

In many ways, Christianity has become all about those green pieces of paper with dead presidents on them. In 2010 Americans spent a little over $135 billion on Christmas and another $13 billion on Easter.6 Who would have thought a little baby born in a filthy animal barn some two thousand years ago would be such a great excuse to feed our material addictions?

We have branded Jesus beyond recognition. Church has become a business. Jesus is our marketing scheme. We create bookstores, T-shirts, bracelets, bumper stickers, and board games all in the name of Jesus. In 2007 some woman even made national news for selling a pancake with Jesus' face on it on eBay.7

Now don't get me wrong. There's a degree to which that stuff is okay. I mean, chances are you bought the book you're reading right now. I know I buy my fair share of Christian books—in fact, my wife says I buy too many, and I'm going to make us broke. But questions continue coming back to me: Are we really getting it? Have we made that stuff more important than Jesus? How come American Christianity is so different from the Bible's vibrant, uncontrollable, and unpredictable Christianity?

The reason we aren't fulfilled or satisfied by our version of Christianity is because it isn't Christianity.

We have religion, but we don't have Jesus.

We have a good role model, but we don't have God.

We have theological debates, but we don't have the living Word. 

We have good works, but we don't have the source of good works. 

We have love, but not the God who is love.

We have completely neutered grace (my good works save me, but we still call it grace), made God a math equation (God will like me if I'm good), and turned Jesus into Mr. Rogers ("Howdy, neighbor"). But Jesus isn't rocking a cardigan, and he doesn't talk softly through his nose. He's a roaring lion.

In author C. S. Lewis's classic book The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the kids ask if the lion, Asian—who represents Jesus—is safe. "'Safe?' said Mr. Beaver; 'don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.'"8

That's what the real Jesus is like. He isn't safe. His words, his life, and his cross completely destroy the notion of him being safe. His grace is dangerous, ferocious, violent, and uncontrollable. It can't be tamed. Does it bother anyone else that seemingly the first, and sometimes only, prayer people pray when they go on mission trips is that they'd stay "safe"?

It's important that we discover the real Jesus by seeing what the Bible says about him. I think you might be as surprised as I was.

NOT YOUR MOM'S JESUS

Looking back on my time in Sunday school and Christian summer camp, I remember two verses that were often shared to encourage us kids:

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;

they shall mount up with wings like eagles; 

they shall run and not be weary;

they shall walk and not faint.

And,

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.9

These verses say that God has a beautiful plan for our lives, that we're precious and unique snowflakes, and that when we wait on him, he'll raise us up on wings of eagles.

Are these verses true? Yes. But not in the way we might think. God does have a great plan for our lives, but it probably isn't our plan. In the early years of Christianity, most Christians were enemies of the state, and some were used as food for the animals in the Roman gladiator games. So next time you quote those verses, remind yourself that they were just as true for the people having their flesh ripped apart by lions as they are for you. Would you be down with God if that was his plan for your welfare?

Looking back, though, I realize I'd completely prostituted those verses and made them fit my feel-good Christianity. Surely God disciplining me or putting me through trials wouldn't be his "good plan" for my life! It must be from the devil, right? The truth is, sometimes the good plan he has for our lives is to make us look more like him, which more often than not takes pain. But we don't use the verses in that context. We'd rather just put them on T-shirts and bumper stickers.

Just once, I'd like to see a T-shirt that reads—even if it doesn't all fit on the front—"From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords."10

But we don't like that verse. It's dangerous and doesn't fit with our modern view of God. Yet that verse is just as true as the ones we put on our bookmarks. When Jesus comes back the second time, he isn't coming to sprinkle love dust on everyone. He's coming to make war on sin and rebellion.

Do you believe in that Jesus?

Once I began to realize the packaged Christianity I grew up with didn't tell the whole story, I began to see this dangerous Jesus everywhere in Scripture. I would come across passages that completely confronted my sanitized Christianity.

Jesus was homeless?

Jesus called people sons of the devil?

Jesus actually told his disciples they needed to physically follow him, not just sign a card and raise their hands? 

Jesus told people they couldn't be a follower of him until they took up the most brutal torture device ever invented, the cross?11

One of my favorite verses can be found in the book of Isaiah: "All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags."12 We often miss that our "righteous acts" are "filthy" before God. Not just our bad days, but our extremely good days too! Praying, reading the Bible, giving to the poor, and going to church nine times a week? Filthy rags apart from Jesus and his cross. Tell me that isn't just a little bit controversial.

And if that God isn't shocking enough for you, author Francis Chan shares in his book Crazy Love that the Hebrew word for "filthy rags" can be interpreted as "menstrual garments."13 In that verse God says our good works are no better than a bloody tampon. Next time you're in a public restroom and you see the waste can, feel free to remind yourself that's your righteousness apart from Jesus. (Gross, I know.)

This abrasive message wasn't just from God the Father either. Jesus delivered his fair share of one-liners to the most religiously zealous of his day—"hypocrites," "brood of vipers," and "murderers."14 Would this Jesus get kicked out of your church or criticized on your blog for not being gracious or kind enough?

And don't you find it interesting that some of Jesus' harshest words were reserved for the most devout religious people of his day? You would think he would condemn the bad sins of marginalized people of society such as prostitutes, drug dealers, and tax collectors, right? Instead, speaking to the religious leaders, he said stuff like, "Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John [the Baptist] came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him."15

If that won't make a religious person faint, I don't know what will.

Jesus hung out with the most marginalized and disrespected people of society, and he was fiercely opposed to anyone representing him in a hypocritical way. His words should not only shock us but also make us fear, because they were written just as much to us Christians today as they were to the religious leaders of his day the Pharisees.

I certainly have focused on outward appearance and made extra to-do lists to add to my salvation, all while neglecting the simple needs of others. I'm often more Pharisee than saint. I'd rather people tell me how awesome I am than how awesome Jesus is. I'd rather concentrate on other people's sins before I look at my own. More often than not, I sense the toxic Pharisee spirit rising up within me.

THE REAL THING

Do you ever have internal arguments with yourself? When you know something is wrong but you can't seem to beat it? That's me when I have a self-righteous or legalistic attitude. Sometimes I hate the way I treat people. I often get bothered by how words come out of my mouth. I occasionally even get depressed when I read the New Testament because I read the stories of the Pharisees and humbly have to admit I act more like them sometimes even though I want to be more like Jesus. Whenever I'm stuck in a rut, it is Jesus' sharp words that wake me up. There's something about the tone and force of Jesus' words that shocks me back into reality. It's important to understand that Jesus never says something without a purpose. He desires everyone to come to repentance, and if he speaks harshly it's so that we'll come to know the real thing. Sometimes soft words don't penetrate, don't cut, don't wake us up. In the same way we need a hard shovel to break up hard soil, Jesus sometimes has to use hard words to break up hard hearts. He does it in hopes of bringing us to joy.

I think Jesus was using those harsh statements to say that we've traded in the real thing for things that don't matter. We've completely missed what God is after, what he's doing, and how to relate to him. He made it very clear that he's not after our external behaviors but instead after our hearts.16 He doesn't want what you do. He just wants you. Have you ever sat in that? Have you ever had a moment where that sank in?

Jesus is so much greater than "don't smoke, don't drink, and don't have sex." As Christians, we need to stop forcing the Bible into our own judgments and instead humbly and prayerfully open our minds in hopes that God might reveal himself deeply. It's a dangerous and scary proposition for sure, but there is so much freedom and life in no longer defending or molding Jesus to our own liking, and just letting him be who he says he is—a cultural iconoclast who makes it difficult for any of us to put him in our nice, cute, and tidy "Christian" box.

When I was trying to earn Jesus by being good, I missed the real Jesus who wants us to love him and serve him not for what he gives but for who he is—dangerous, unpredictable, radical, and amazing.

………………..

SADLY  WAY  TOO  MANY  "CHRISTIANS"  DO  NOT  READ  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS; THEY  CAN  QUOTE  PAUL,  READ  AND  STUDY  PAUL'S  EPISTLES  MORE  THAN  THE  LIFE  OF  CHRIST  AND  WHAT  HE  TAUGHT.

IT  WAS  ONE  OF  THE  BEST  BLESSINGS  I  RECEIVED  AS  A  YOUNG  TEENAGER--- A  LADY  IN  CHURCH  GAVE  ME  A  RED  LETTER  NEW  TESTAMENT;  THE  WORDS  OF  JESUS  IN  RED.  I  HAD  NEVER  SEEN  ONE.  I  THINK  IT  WAS  A  NEW  THING  THE  PUBLISHERS  OF  BIBLES  WERE  DOING  IN  THE  MIDDLE  1950s.  THE  LADY  SAID  TO  ME,  "KEITH  THIS  IS  FOR  YOU  AND  ALL  YOUR  FAITHFULNESS   IN  ATTENDING  THIS  CHURCH,  SINCE  YOU  WERE  7  YEARS  OF  AGE."

WHAT  A  BLESSING  IT  WAS.  SO  EASY  THEN  TO  READ  THE  WORDS  OF  JESUS.  AND  I  DID  SO  OVER  AND  OVER  DURING  MY  TEENAGE  YEARS.  I  MADE  IT  A  HABIT  TO  READ  SOME  OF  JESUS'  WORDS  EACH  NIGHT  BEFORE  FALLING  ASLEEP. 

I  REALLY  GOT  TO  KNOW  MY  SAVIOR,  HIS  WAY  OF  LIFE,  AND  HIS  TEACHINGS  TO  US  AS  DISCIPLES  OF  HIM.

THE  REAL  JESUS  IS  IN  THE  FOUR  GOSPELS!

Keith Hunt

 

Trials, Tests, and Troubles? #3

When God doesn't make sense

by Keith Hunt A little saying I came across some time ago goes like this: Just when you thought you were winning the rat race, along come faster rats. Have you experienced times in your life, situations in your life, happenings in your life or in the life of your family, when you seemed to be winning the race, you had really got the handle on the use of wisdom, there was no big sin in your life that you were hiding from people, no skeleton in the closet, you were honestly trying to live by every word of God, and all seemed to be going on a win win playing field. Then out of the blue, like a thunderbolt from a clear cloudless sky, you were hit it would seem "below the belt" to have the wind knocked right out of you. I had entered the Church of God during the very early 60's, when we had our first local minister about 1965 I was soon being used for various duties within the church. As I had some music ability it was my responsibility to keep in touch with others in the group who had musical talents. A family came into the church with such gifts, it was not long and I was a good friend of theirs. They had 3 or 4 children(my memory escapes me now on the exact number). I soon got to know all of them. They were a quiet serene type family, very humble and deeply dedicated to serving the Lord. I was very spiritually impressed with their eldest daughter, she was about 14 or 15. A pretty young teenager with all of her life ahead of her. When visiting her parents I had often spoken to her about the way of the Lord. She was very mature for her age and sincerely wanted to know and serve God. I knew it was only a matter of time before she would be baptized. One week I received a phone call from the minister telling me this young lady was sick, he had anointed her, but would I go and visit the family and keep close in touch with them letting him know how things were going (the sickness was one of those very rare and odd "house polluted" viruses, you hardly ever hear of it in the Western world). Some of the others in the family were only partly sick. Of course I was off to visit those parents and their lovely sick daughter. We talked about the Lord, and how we were all in His hands. We all, including this young lady, looked to God for healing. Because things did not get any better after a few days, the minister advised the parents to call in the medical doctors. So done, they also seemed lost as to what to do, but they finally said she should be admitted to the hospital, and she was. I can not remember now what the doctors diagnosed this teenager with, but it was serious. I do remember that back in the middle 1960s the medical doctors had nothing to fight this decease with, they were hopeless to know how to treat or kill this strange virus infection she had. One evening I decided to visit this sick young lady in the hospital. What a great visit, again we talked about the Lord, His healing power,there was no doubt on her part or mine, that God of course can heal any sickness, if He chooses to so do. I had no problem talking to her about the seriousness of her sickness, it was life threatening, she knew it, I knew it, the minister knew it, her mother and father knew it, the doctors knew it. I had already visited with her parents, they knew her life was in God's hands. The doctors in the 60's could not help, it was beyond their medicines at that time. What a spiritually mature young lady she was. I talked openly to her about life and about death, and about all of us being in God's hands. She believed all that, she told me she was ready for whatever was the will of God. The next day I was told she had died. I must admit to you I was somewhat shocked to hear that news. I was confident God would heal her. A beautiful, clean living, spiritually maturing girl, one that was obedient to her parents, loved to attend church and read God's word. Here was a young lady that one day would have made a lovely Christian wife and mother for some man, and the Lord allowed her to DIE! I could not understand WHY! It just did not make any sense to me. I still have no answer to this day as to the reason why the Lord did not heal her. He could have that is for sure. He has and still does heal people from what otherwise would be sure death. Yet this young lady died at the beginning of her prime. At times it would seem to us moral flesh that God just doesn't make sense. A number of years back I heard about a family (did not know them personally) who were on their way to observe a Christian festival. Travelling to this fall festival they had done faithfully year after year. This was nothing new to them, it was a regular custom. Here they are minding their own business, doing nothing wrong or illegal as they were driving along, when out of the blue, through no fault of their own, along comes some truck and SMASH BAG! I believe 5 or 6, all of them from one family - wiped out, KILLED!! And this happened on their way to attend a feast of the Lord. Why you ask? I asked the same question, but it did happen. There are times when to us mortals God just does not seem to make sense. Why didn't He send His angel to protect them from that disaster, He has and does give protection through His angelic beings. Why did He not do it for them on that day? I have no answer for YOU. I will quote for you what I consider are some very pertinent passages on this topic, from the book "When God Doesn't Make Sense" by Dr.James Dobson. "Unfortunately, many young believers - and some older ones too - do not know that there will be times in every person's life when circumstances don't add up - when God doesn't appear to make sense....My chief concern at this point, and the reason I have chosen to write this book, is for my fellow believers who are struggling with circumstances that don't make sense. In my work with families who are going through various hardships, from sickness and death to marital conflict and adolescent rebellion, I have found it common for those in crisis to feel great frustration with God. This is particularly true when things happen that seem illogical and inconsistent with what had been taught or understood. Then if the Lord does not rescue them from the circumstances in which they are embroiled, their frustration quickly deteriorates into anger and a sense of abandonment. Finally disillusionment sets in and the spirit begins to wither." (pages 9,12). You may be asking the question concerning my first true example above: How did the parents of the young teenager who died take it all? Like spiritually seasoned veterans, a real inspiration to all of us. They did not doubt God, they did not blame Him, did not get angry at Him, or loose their faith in Him or His word. Back to Dr.Dobson's book: "......those who live long enough will eventually be confronted by happenings they will not understand. That is the human condition. Let me say it again: It is an incorrect view of Scripture to say that we will always comprehend what God is doing and how our suffering and disappointment fit into His plan. Sooner or later, most of us will come to a point where it appears that God has lost control - or interest in the affairs of people. It is only an illusion, but one with dangerous implications for spiritual and mental health. Interestingly enough, pain and suffering do not cause the greatest damage. Confusion is the factor that shreds one's faith....The God whom he has loved, worshipped, and served turns out to appear silent, distant, and uncaring in the moment of greatest need. Do such times come even to the faithful? Yes, they do, although we are seldom willing to admit it within the Christian community. " (pages 13,15). Confusion along with the whispers of Satan the devil at such times of pain, sorrow, trial and trouble, can cause some to reject God, throw in the towel, give up the battle, declare defeat and turn back to wallow in the muck of the unconverted world. Sadly, I have seen that happen among ones who knew and lived the truth at one time. A very good friend of mine at one time in the Church of God, an older man than myself, but we were very close because he, his wife, and I, were three of the six founding members of the church in our city. This man had one of his two sons killed one night by a hit and run driver. He was hitch-hiking from one part of the county to another when someone hit him into the ditch with their car. They may not even have known they hit him, but if they did they never stopped to help, and he died shortly after. In their grief, both his father and mother left the church and turned away from following the true God and His way of life. As Dobson has written in his aforementioned book: "When the heat is on and confusion mounts, some believers go through a horrendous spiritual crisis. They 'lose God.' Doubts rise up to obscure His presence and disillusionment settles into despair. The greatest frustration is knowing that He created the entire universe by simply speaking it into existence, and He has all power and all understanding. He could rescue. He could heal. He could save. But why won't He do it? This sense of abandonment is a terrible experience for someone whose entire being is rooted in the Christian ethic. Satan then drops by for a little visit and whispers, 'He is not here! You are alone!'" Then as James Dobson goes on to say: "What does such a person do when God makes no sense? To whom does he confess his troubling - even heretical - thoughts? From whom does he seek counsel? What does he tell his family when his faith is severely shaken? Where does he go to find a new set of values and beliefs? While searching for something more reliable in which to believe, he discovers that there is no other name - no other God - to whom he can turn....Christians who lose God during a period of spiritual confusion are like the vine that has been cut off from its source. They are deprived of nurture and strength. They seem to cope at first, but the concealed wound is mortal. They begin to wither in the heat of the sun....Indeed, some of the most bitter, unhappy people on the earth are those who have become estranged from the God they no longer understand or trust....If you are among those people who have been separated from the Vine because of disillusionment or confusion, I have written with you in mind." (pages 18-20). Yes, and if there is anyone reading this article who is in a state of confusion over this subject, then I recommend you go out and buy or borrow Dr.Dobson's book "When God Doesn't Make Sense" and read it in its entirety. We must realize that it is God who made the universe, made all there is, established the laws of nature. It is He who made mankind and not we who made Him, although some like to make God into their own image. We are finite, He is infinite. We are lacking in and growing in knowledge, He is all knowing and perfect in knowledge. We can not see what lies beyond in the next hour, He can see far into the future. Although He does give us a portion of searching a thing out, there are many things He conceals from us in this physical life - Proverbs 25:2. Sometimes and in some ways God does hide Himself from us - Isaiah 45:15. There are things that the Lord has chosen to keep to Himself, for now at least - Deuteronomy 29:29. We need at times to remember Ecclesiastes 11:5 which says, "As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in the mother's womb, so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things." Isaiah 55:8-9 teaches,,"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."' As Dr.Dobson has written: " Clearly, the Scriptures tell us we lack the capacity to grasp God's infinite mind or the way He intervenes in our lives. How arrogant of us to think otherwise! Trying to analyze His omnipotence is like an amoeba attempting to comprehend the behavior of man. Romans 11:33 (KJV) indicates that God's judgments are un-searchable and His ways 'past finding out.' Similar language is found in 1 Corinthians 2:16: 'For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?' Clearly, unless the Lord chooses to explain Himself to us, which often He does not, His motivation and purposes are beyond the reach of mortal man. What this means in practical terms is that many of our questions especially those that begin with the word 'why' - will have to remain unanswered for the time being. "The Apostle Paul referred to the problem of unanswered questions when he wrote, 'Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known' (1 Corinthians 13:12). Paul was explaining that we will not have the total picture until we meet in eternity. By implication we must learn to accept partial understanding" (When God Doesn't Make Sense, pages 8,9). It can be very easy when in a time of severe testing, trial, or trouble (if not with all the amour of God - Ephesians 6), to say things with our mouth that we ought not say. Some have said such things as: "It has been an error to become a Christian" or "It is a waste of time to serve God - I have all these troubles - I should quit." Take note what is taught us in Ecclesiastes 5 and verse 6. Such thoughts and words are from the mind of the Adversary - Satan! He is able to tempt us to sin by these very thoughts. He can even put such thoughts into our mind. If that should happen we need to be able and ready to say "get behind me Satan, for you say not the things that be of God." It may seem hard at times to understand God. There will probably be times when it may seem God does not make sense. But the word of this God says "the just shall live by faith and not by sight." No matter how hard it may be for our fleshly finite mind to handle certain situations that may arise in our lives, the true Christian must believe with all faith and trust the verse of Romans 8:28, "And we know that all work together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose." GOD IS WITH TO HELP YOU - HE WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU! I know it may be of little comfort to quote to you Romans 8:28 when your daughter has just been raped by some beast of a man, or your neighbor has sexually molested your son or daughter. It is hard to understand that verse when you have just lost your wife or husband in a car crash due to a drunk driver, or when a gang of thugs has beaten up your son on his way home from school. Yes, a hard to comprehend verse in the light of all the things that this life may dish out to us. During the time Job was going through all his pain, suffering and troubles, he couldn't at the time comprehend the why of it either. Yet Job knew that tests, trials, and troubles, are not given to us with the view in mind to turn us away from God and His way of life. We need to pray and ask the Lord to help us ingrain in our minds the attitude that Job exhibited when he was under pressure from his troubles, pain, and sorrow - his words were: "Shall we receive GOOD AT THE HANDS of the Lord, and shall we not receive EVIL. The Lord GAVE and the Lord hath TAKEN AWAY, blessed be the name of the Lord." Consider the account of Elijah in 1 Kings 17. Verses 3 and 4 say, "Get thee hence, and turn thee eastward, and hide thyself by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there." That was very good news for Elijah because of the drought in the land at the time. At least he was not going to die of thirst. But now look at verse 7, "And it came to pass after a while, that the brook DRIED UP...." Elijah was human, I suspect he may have questioned if God was making any sense. He sends him to a brook to sustain him AND THE BROOK RUNS DRY! He may even have wondered if God had left him, forgotten about him. But no, the next verse tells us God was still with him. He had other plans for him in the overall scheme of things. There may be times when everything looks like it is unravelling in our lives and the Lord is busy doing something else more important than watching over us. But for the Christian nothing could be further from the truth. I personally have experienced times like this. I just could not understand the Lord and what was going on in my life. I was trying to serve Him with all my heart, soul and mind, I wanted to do His will. I had prayed and prayed. And things were just not working out the way I wanted or thought they should. I could have easily got myself into the attitude that God had turned His back on me. Satan wants us to do just that during such troublesome times. The Lord had not left me at all. He was working His work in my life, although I could not understand it at the time. Now as I look back on it all years later, I see that without those experiences I would not be the man I am today. Those sore trials and troubles of yesterday are able to help me be a more considerate, patient, sympathetic and understanding minister of the gospel today. Remember the disciples at the time of Jesus' death and the days shortly after. They had been with Christ for three and one half years. They had heard Him preach the wonderful truths of God, they had seen the many great miracles He had performed. They were convinced that He was indeed the very Son of the Most High God. Then they had seen how mortal man was able to beat and tear Him apart, then nail Him to a stake and there they heard Him cry out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!" It seemed to them that God had left them. Peter said, "I'm goin' fishin'." They had a severe problem of perception. All they saw was what the facts seemed to say and they could not harmonize them with all the facts of the previous three years. They thought God had left them, that He was no longer with them. It was only later that they could see where the Lord had never left them, but was working out His purpose in His time and at His will. David knew God was intimately interested in human beings ALL THE TIME: "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" (Psalm 8:4 NIV). And again in Psalm 139: "O Lord, you have searched me and you KNOW ME. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with ALL MY WAYS. Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, 0 Lord" (verses 1-4, NIV, emphasis mine). The word teaches us that God loves His children infinitely more than we, "being evil," (as Jesus once put it) can express to our own flesh and blood. Jesus said that the heavenly Father knew each sparrow that falls, He provides food for them, so how much more is He concerned about us humans who are made in His image and after His likeness. God knows the very number of hairs on our head. He never leaves those who are truly His children, begotten with His Holy Spirit, heirs of His Kingdom, co-heirs with Christ Jesus (Romans 8:14-17). Jesus promised His disciples of all ages that He would never leave them. He said that those who loved Him would be loved of the Father. That those who would keep His words both He and the Father would come and live within them (John 14:21,23). God the Father is not some whimsical fellow who uses us, plays with us, and then casts us aside to forget about us for a while. NO NOT AT ALL! Once we have been converted and are filled with His Spirit, He is always there with us even in our darkest and roughest trials and storms of life. The story in Matthew 8:23-26 is a fine example. Jesus, during His ministry while on earth, could hardly be accused of "making it easy" or "soft touching" the men whom He chose for His inner circle. You are familiar with the story I believe. Picture them in a small boat late one evening. Jesus had had a busy day, so He grabs a cushion and goes off to a corner of the boat for a "cat nap." While He slept a "furious storm" came up. Remember some of the disciples were professional fishermen and they knew very well what a storm could do to a small craft and those in it. They became ever more frightened, possibly naturally so you may think, but Jesus, when they awoke Him, for fear they would all drown:, did not think they should have been so afraid. He said to them: "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" (NIV). Stop and think about it, there was Jesus the Christ, the very Son of God, indeed God in the flesh, WITH THEM in the boat, unconcerned, asleep, but yet with them. He had not said, "Oh, guys please excuse me, I'm staying on land for I know what is coming later out there on the sea." He did not leave them, even when the stormy billows blew, He was there while they struggled through it. They should have had faith that with God in the boat with them all would work out okay in the end, for God never leaves us especially when we need Him the most. Let me go back to Dr.James Dobson's book "When God Doesn't Make Sense" and quote some pertinent thoughts of his on this point. ".......a person who really believes that all trouble will be swept away for the followers of Christ, is left with no logical explanation when God fails to come through. Sooner or later an illness, a business collapse, an accident, or some other misfortune will leave him in dismay. What is he to believe when he discovers 'life as it is' turns out to be very different than 'life as it is supposed to be'? He stumbles toward one of several conclusions,, all of which are potentially damaging to his faith: (1) God is dead, irrelevant, bored, or uninvolved in the affairs of man; (2) God is angry at me or some sin I've committed ; (3) God is whimsical, untrustworthy, unfair or sinister; (4) God ignored me because I didn't pray enough or display enough faith. All four of these alternatives serve to isolate that individual from God at the precise moment when his spiritual need is the greatest. I believe it is a ploy of Satan to undermine the faith of the vulnerable....There are so many other sources of pain. I am mindful of those among my readers who are hurting for less catastrophic reasons, such as adult children of alcoholics, those who have been overweight from childhood, those who have been physically or sexually abused in the early years, and people who are blind, quadriplegic, chronically ill, etc. I'm also concerned for the single mothers who wonder how long they can carry the load that is upon their shoulders. A million different scenarios exist, but they all point to a similar kind of frustration. And most of them bear theological implications....No, I can't provide tidy little solutions to all of life's annoying inconsistencies. That will not occur until we see the Lord face to face. But his heart is especially tender toward the down-trodden and the defeated.   HE KNOWS YOUR NAME AND HE HAS SEEN EVERY   TEAR YOU HAVE SHED.   He was there on each occasion when life took a wrong turn. And what appears to be divine disinterest or cruelty is a misunderstanding at best and a satanic lie at worst. How do I know this to be true? Because the Scriptures emphatically tell us so. For starters, David wrote, 'The Lord is CLOSE to the brokenhearted and SAVES those who are crushed in spirit.' (Psalm 34:18). Isn't that a beautiful verse? How encouraging to know that the very presence of the King - the Creator of all heaven and earth - hovers near to those who are wounded and discouraged. IF YOU COULD FULLY COMPREHEND HOW DEEPLY YOU ARE LOVED,   YOU WOULD NEVER FEEL ALONE AGAIN.   David returned to that thought in Psalm 103:11: 'For as high as the heavens   are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him.'"   (pages 110, 111, 235-236, emphasis mine). Then we have that wonderful section of inspired scripture in Romans the eighth chapter beginning with verse 26. When in times of such mental and emotional distress that it is practically impossible to put the words together in prayer to the Father in heaven, then the Spirit - Christ Jesus (verse 34) - makes INTERCESSION "for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." No matter what may be our trials, tests, and troubles. No matter how small or LARGE, God is ALWAYS there, He never LEAVES US! Remember the famous little poem called "Footprints." The person relating the story tells you about two sets of footprints in the sand. Their own and those of the Lord as He walked alongside them. Then in the most difficult and troublesome time of life there was only one set of prints. Our story-teller asks the Lord why He left them at the time they needed Him the most. The Lord answers them: "Oh, my child when you saw only one set of foot prints that was not when I left you, that was the time I CARRIED you." ................. TO BE CONTINUED Written August 1995

POET'S CORNER #12

 The Poet's Corner

The House of Blessing

THE HOUSE OF BLESSING  By Patience Strong Out of Egypt God His people brought.  From Judah's branch came David's royal race,  But Israel another Canaan sought  And found in Britain her appointed place. Later, as God's wondrous plan unrolled  Came Joseph, drawing saints from far and near  With the greatest story ever told.  Christendom was surely cradled here. Glastonbury! Tor and Chalice Well,  Thorn of Spring that flowers on Christmas Day.  Charm with the enchantment of a spell  That stirs the hearts of all who pass this way. Here is the Divinely given ground,  The ground, they say, our Saviour walked upon.  Was it His abode that Joseph found  On the lovely Isle of Avalon? We of British blood and Christian creed  Who claim descent from Abrahamic seed  Come, like Joseph, to this holy place  To build a house of blessing and of grace ...... Dedicatory poem specially written by the well known poet and author, Patience Strong, for the opening of Mount Avalon at Glastonbury.                        ............................. To be continued

ANGELS ARE ALL AROUND US #18

 

Angels are Here!

They may come in Different Forms

ANGELS ARE HERE! Watcher in the Woods The very presence of an angel is a communication. Even when an angel crosses our path in silence, God has said to us, "I am here. I am present in your life." TOBIAS PALMER "AN ANGEL IN MY HOUSE" Saint John Bosco, as tradition has it, was often bothered by toughs who threatened to mug him as he passed them on his mission to serve the poor. Eventually, a large fierce-looking black dog began to appear alongside John and to accompany him through the danger woes. When John reached a place of safety, the dog would vanish. Perhaps guardian angels are not always disguised as people.... Barbara Johnson had completed her general-nursing training at the Royal Adelaide Hospital in Australia. She worked six months in Melbourne, then went to Sydney to train as a midwife at St.Margaret's Hospital. Barbara's brother and his wife lived in a suburb of Sydney, so on her first day off, she took the train to their home for a visit. Everyone had a lovely day, and Barbara left about nine a.m. for the return journey. "I was feeling proud," she admits. "Although I later got to know the underground subway system well, this was my first time traveling beneath the city. Yet I had found my way around and gotten off at the right stop." Confidently, she climbed up to a well-lit street and decided to take a shortcut through a park. Barbara wasn't apprehensive as she began her walk. "I had walked in cities at night, and had learned that you keep your pace brisk but not hurried, so onlookers don't think you're afraid." She moved purposefully down the path, and it was only after a few moments that she realized the park was extremely dark inside, and Oxford Street--and the hospital--was much farther than she had anticipated. There was no one else in the park, at least no one she could see. But Barbara had the feeling she was being watched. From time to time she saw a glow, like the end of a lit cigarette, in the shadows. Her heart began to pound. Was she in danger? If someone grabbed her and pulled her into the bushes here, there would be little she could do to protect herself. But if she bolted, she could lose her way in the darkness or fall and hurt herself. There was no choice but to keep going. Barbara quickened her pace and stared straight ahead, fixing her eyes on that distant glow, the streetlights that signaled safety. She was about halfway, through the park when she sensed movement to her right. Oh, no! As if everything wasn't frightening enough, there was a large white Alsatian dog right next to her. "This breed was very intimidating, because the police used them as guard dogs," Barbara says. "They were known to be vicious." Frantically, she looked around for the dog's owner, but the park was deserted. What would she do if the dog charged her? Barbara pictured herself lying bleeding on the dirt, vulnerable to attacks from both man and beast. Her heart raced even faster. Curiously, the dog seemed anything but bad-tempered. It simply trotted alongside her as if it belonged. Barbara slackened her pace, hoping the furry monster would pass her, but the dog slowed as well. Then she stopped "Go away, dog." Timidly she tried to shoo it. "Go away, now!" But the dog stopped too, as if rooted to the spot, and looked up at her. Its demeanor didn't change, nor was it agitated or responsive. It simply stayed, like an obedient guard assigned to her side. Barbara saw no other option but to keep moving, and that's just what she did, almost breaking into a run as she reached the welcome lights of Oxford Street. The dog stood beside her as she glanced down the street to check the traffic. Was it going to follow her across? But just as she stepped off the curb, Barbara looked to her right once more. The dog was gone. Relieved, Barbara hurried to the hospital dorm and made herself a cup of tea in the kitchenette. "You look exhausted," one of the nurses said. "I've had a traumatic experience," Barbara explained. "I took a shortcut just now through the park." "You went into the park at night?" another nurse interrupted. "Oh, you're new, you wouldn't have known. But many crimes take place in that park!" Aghast that she had ventured into such a dangerous and poorly lit area after dark, the two nurses related one horror story after another, and Barbara thought back with consternation to the cigarette glow in the shadows. Oh, what might have happened to her! God must have been watching over her.... "And suddenly I was filled with a sense of guardian angels, and I knew without question that the dog had been mine," Barbara says. "There was just no other explanation for his arrival, his behavior, and his sudden disappearance. I felt grateful that God chose to take such personal care of me, and that He was always ready to protect us, even from our own foolishness." Barbara eventually worked in New Guinea, where she met her American husband. Later she accompanied him to Wisconsin, where the family now lives. She never saw her angel again, but she has named him Guiseppe and feels a bond that has endured through the years. ................