Satan is alive and well and living on Facebook (too)

Yes, Satan is alive and well on earth and social networking hasn't skipped his radar...why would it? Satan is cunning and will use every method you can think of and more because he is DESPERATE.

So, when we as Christians see things like the "F**k Jesus Christ" group on FaceBook we shouldn't be surprised. In fact, we should expect such nonsense as a desperate attempt by the prince of darkness to push one more soul over the brink and away from God. We should see it for what it is and realize that HE IS LOSING!

Does that mean we can relax and let our guard down because he is losing - NO - it means that we should continue with God's good work. This includes praying for just such people as Derek Munson, Costas Katenidis and Adam Ajaja; the officers of the FaceBook group and others like them that are lost and hurting.  Jesus came to this earth and died for these three lost souls just as much as He came for you and for me.

We as a Christian community should also stop being afraid to deal with nastiness like this because we don't want to get our hands dirty even talking about such things.  When we fear such frontal attacks Satan wins the battle.  Satan will lose the war, but we Christians need to stand firm against this nonsense, defiance and blasphemy and bring it out in the light - out in the open - because, "everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed" (John 3:20).

I'm not asking you to join a new FaceBook cause asking FaceBook to delete the group - there are plenty of those and the group is still there, besides FaceBook is not the culprit.  FaceBook is just another normal, everyday thing that Satan is using in his desperation to collected broken souls.  I am asking you to make your presence known each day as Christians and show the darkness the light.

Yes, Satan is alive and well - but he will lose the war.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  John 1:1-5

Jesus is Coming Soon...

"...morning or night or noon..."

Robert Emmett Winsett wrote this song and it made it's way into the "Gospel Music Hall of Fame", I grew up singing this song and pretty much know it by heart. It wasn't until I attended a Winston-Salem Church of Christ that I found it (to some) suffers from stigmatization not originally intended by it's writer.

The preacher at the Church that I attended for about 12 years (who was also an elder) all but banned this song from being led in worship - I knew this because I led it and found out pretty quickly after I was done that day. The problem with "Jesus is Coming Soon" is not the message, which I'll get to in a moment, but that it was perceived (by some) to be the "theme song" for the premillenialist movement. Soon after this I realized that I was an amillenialist and just didn't know it. The ridiculous thing about banning this song to me was that (as far as I can tell) "Jesus is Coming Soon" is an amillenial song!

In 2nd Peter 3, Peter (yeah, I know it's debatable if Peter himself wrote this book, but it is God-breathed word) addresses "The Day of the Lord" and makes if very clear that the people of that time believed that Jesus would be returning soon. I would suggest reading the entire chapter, but just to point out a couple of statements from the Holy Spirit through Peter.

"By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men." 2 Peter 3:7

"But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him."
2 Peter 3:13,14

Peter was reminding the Christians of his time that they needed to be ready because Jesus would come soon - possibly in their lifetime. He also states that "the day of the Lord will come like a thief..." (v.10), quickly and without warning.

Sunday, our teacher asked the class to name some things that led them to believe that the end times were approaching. The class listed a number of things that - for me - were irrelevant because Peter made it clear that the "end-times" are now - meaning when he penned the words of the Holy Spirit.

But even if you allow yourself to enter into a discussion about "end-times" it's all academic. Like many theological discussions of our time, it's interesting at best, but serves no purpose in our personal salvation. Peter says all that really matters to us..."make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him".

I love my new Church, but I get tired of this academic discussion...

Jesus IS coming soon and the reason it seems like it is taking so long to us is that "He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance" (v.9), thank the Lord for that....

“Love ‘Em Anyway…”

Sometimes you just have to love people anyway – regardless of what they are doing or what they are saying.

What do you do when confronted with a terrible, completely fallible statement from someone that you believe "knows better"? From a mature, knowledgeable, stable "elder" – the kind of person you typically look to in times of confusion. I'm a firm believer in giving those around me the benefit of a doubt as we go about our lives around each other. Not a one of us is perfect, especially me, so why would I expect it from anyone else?

One of my favorite shows is "Dharma and Greg". That might seem strange to you, but I love Dharma's character – yeah, if I met "Dharma" in real life, I would probably think she was really weird. There are so many things about her character that people are drawn toward. In one episode, a greedy real estate lawyer is trying to squeeze her parents into selling their home so he can build a golf course on it. Greg knows the guy and describes him as a "snake" - Dharma disagrees even once she has met him and his wife. They ARE pathetic – a cliché about money, greed and all the trappings of the world. After she meets them for the first time, the first thing she says is "I feel so sorry for them…" – Greg can't believe it and she points out that there is good in them, even if they don't see it.

As I have said before, one of my most favorite accounts in the Bible is when Christ meets the woman at the well. She is low – an unwanted person in her community. Christ sees through all of the muck and garbage tied to her and sees her heart and speaks to her heart and she responds. Here is an ultimate example of how to look at others from our God, a man that walked this earth and felt our pain and looked deep into those around Him.

When I read the account of Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well, it's sensational, it's wonderful and once you know the whole story about who she is and who He is, it all makes sense. I think that it can be easy (…er) to reference that account when I encounter people similar to the woman at the well. We normally have compassion for those of low or (seemingly) no fortune. Our hearts easily break when we see someone that has fallen on hard times and they are not dealing with it well. We want to help them; we may be less inclined to "judge" them harshly because of the extreme nature of the situation.

But what do we do when someone that "knows better" says something really, really irrational?

It's harder to feel compassion, to look past that statement or action and remember all of the good in them. When another Christian says something that just knocks you off your feet or tendency is to attack, to smother the person with reprimand and correction. In some situations, that may be necessary…however, sometimes I think it's just better to move on. Remember all of the great things that person has done in the name of The Lord, how tirelessly that person has worked, how much given – sacrificed.

Sometimes we just have to let it go and just love them anyway…

Reflectors

"Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD" Psalm 4:6
"The LORD is my light and my salvation" Psalm 27:1
"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house." Matthew 5:14,15

Our God, Jehovah, is the light in a world of darkness.

There are so many times in God's word where the light and darkness are contrasted, where God or His son, Jesus is referred to as light - bright light. Paul "...saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun..." (Acts 26:13) that blinded him when Jesus spoke to him on the road to Damascus.

God is light...and we are His reflectors.

In the bible we read of accounts where God showed himself and it was always brilliant. Other than those times when God came down and showed us a bit of Himself (just enough so that we could handle it) His light is reflected to the world through us. All of those that wear His son's name - Christians - reflect His light to a dark world.

I've known this all of my life. In fact it's one of the first things you are taught as a child about God. Don't believe me? Ask a child to sing a couple bible songs and after "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Love the Little Children", you will probably hear "This Little Light of Mine". We are taught as children that it's our mission in life (OK, so the kids don't understand that it's a mission - but it is) to let our light shine "all around the neighborhood" (which is a child's understanding of the world). So, I get the light thing - I've understood it all of my life - or have I?

When you think about that song you envision a candle because if you also go through the motions you make a candle with your finger. That's a great illustration - for a child.

However, a candle radiates light from it's own source of power, and one candle is not really all that bright. My point here is not to poke holes at the idea of a light or a lantern....

It occurred to me yesterday that we are actually reflectors of God's light. If you take a mirror, a shiny piece of metal or any other object that reflects light and put it in a dark room what do you get? A dark room. However, just take a light source (like a flashlight or the sun) and point it at the reflector it can cast light around the room. If you have ever seen the movie "The Mummy", Evelyn Carnahan (the librarian looking for the mummy) showed how the Egyptians used mirrors to illuminate dark rooms. I don't have any idea if this is based on any reality, but it looked really cool in the movie.

The source of the light that we shine to the world is from God, it is His light and the only way the world will see it is through us. Here comes the part that hit me yesterday...

Every "reflector" is different. Every Christian that reflects God's light reflects it in a different way. There is no way to take God's perfect light and transfer it through us - imperfect - and it not look a bit different. It's just not possible. Every bit of God's light on this earth is reflected through imperfect people. There was only one exception and that was when God sent His perfect son, Jesus to walk among us and reflect His light - perfectly.

When I first thought about this I thought I must be missing something. Am I saying that God's light on earth is not perfect? No. His light is perfect, but He designed it to be shown (reflected from) through us - imperfect children of His. Does that really make sense?

Of course it does!

Different light catches different people...er...differently. When God's light reflects off of one person it looks a little different than when it reflects off another - but it's still His light. The beauty of this - one more evidence of His perfect design - is that it brings more people to Him! Each child of His that walks this earth reflects His light in different ways because each person on this earth is different - individual reflections bring INDIVIDUALS to HIM.

More on this later....

"Ok, break's over..."

That's a line from the song "Saint Augustine in Hell" by Sting. No real significance to anything, it's just one of those lines that sticks with you.

Sometimes you lament because life is uninteresting and stale - other times you pray that life will just give you some "normalcy". I think I can say with conviction that life as I know it is over. Most of the time when you say that you infer that life is over. That's not what the line really means, it just means that things are different and they probably won't be "the same" any more.

The hollywood version of this line is "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore". The newly recruited Apostles must have said something similar to each other when they saw Jesus drive out an evil spirit at Capernaum.

Life as they knew it was over...or just beginning.

The difference is hard to identify, except in retrospect. How many times have we looked back on hard times, painful times, stressful times and realized that even though it was hard things were different from then on. Looking back on it, you realize that you are still here and that the experience changed you.

Peter was simple fisherman, hot-headed, stubborn...strong. We think of Peter as the "leader" of the apostles, a strong, brave man. He spoke at Pentecost, when we were first called Christians. He is someone we look up to and read about - we study what he did, what he didn't do we learn from his mistakes.

I think it's safe to say that at some point after he dropped his nets and followed Christ he said to himself..."life as I know it, is over...".

Praise God for that.

Zacchaeus

Remember the story of Zacchaeus? I heard it again today during our worship service. It's one of those almost "forgettable" accounts in the Bible about a man touched by Jesus in Luke 19.

As a kid we sang "Zacchaeus was wee little man...", but Zacchaeus was not just short, but was also a person that was governed by the will of Satan. He wanted to meet Jesus and once that happened... Have you ever wondered what happened on Satan's end that day? That day, Satan lost and lost big. Imagine a large corporation just finding out that one of their biggest clients just broke off from them and went to their competitor. This was bad news, and hard to take.

Here's how it might have went when Satan heard the news from one of his assistants:

Assistant: "Sir, we...er...have a problem."
Satan: "What's going on, can't you see I'm busy?"
Assistant: "We've lost Zacchaeus"
Satan: "What do you mean by 'LOST'? I just talked to him the other day and he was fine. A bit distracted, but nothing out of the ordinary."
Assistant: "We lost him to...um...Jesus."
Satan: "Nonsense, Zacchaeus is one of our best and oldest clients, have you tried calling him?"
Assistant: "He's not answering his phone, in fact, all we get is a recording saying that the line is been disconnected."
Satan: "Oh, this is no big deal, have you sent some agents to remind him of his past?"
Assistant: "Of course! We sent our best men and we thought we had him for a minute but he just told them to go away."
Satan: (Now pacing)"Watch your tone with me. What about taking things away from him? That usually works."
Assistant: "Forget it. He's already done it himself, he's given almost all of the stuff you gave him back to Jesus and others that he has taken from in the past."
Satan: "Ahh, we'll just wait him out, we have time. He'll come back after he sees how hard it is and the stuff he misses."
Assistant: "I hope you are right, if Jesus keeps this up he's going to put us out of business."
Satan: "Yeah, well at least we still have Saul of Tarsus..."

"Jesus Loves the Little Children"

"...Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Mark 10:14,15

Jesus loved children and God gives them to us as a blessing. I am saddened by many of the depictions of Christ as a sullen, introspective, morose person. How much the opposite!

When Jesus was on this earth thousands followed him for many reasons, but I am assured that one of those was his charisma...you KNOW he was a joy to be near. He loved to laugh, he has a great sense of humor. It's hard for us in this time to read the Bible and see it because of the great differences in culture and time but it's there.

For example, sometimes Jesus called Peter by his old name Simon. It's interesting to think about, but if you look close it was Jesus' way of slapping his loved friend on the side of the head and saying "Duh!"..."remember where you came from..." Not much different than your big brother calling you a "dork" again as an adult when you do something stupid and you both have a quick laugh about it.

Anyway, it's no wonder that children were drawn to Jesus, the fact that they were is proof enough that he was fun to be around. Believe me, kids don't go looking for the old "skulky" guy in the corner, they make a bee-line to the person that makes them laugh, is full of life and spends time with them.

My youngest son is a precious gift that God gave us (so is my oldest) and one of the little things that makes me smile during this time of year is that he wears a droopy little Santa cap around...even in public! At 11 years old, it shows me how confident he is with himself, but it also reminds me of how much fun he is and that one little gesture gets me more in the "Christmas spirit" than just about anything else.

Rock Star

If Jesus walked the earth today would he be treated like a rock star?

OK, I know that seems like a strange question, but consider this. In this country (and others) we hold rock stars in highest regard.

We follow their every movement, memorize every verse they utter, sing their praises when they do something we like, get mad when they do something we don't. They are often followed by an entourage that either loves and adores them or just wants to be around when something happens (good or bad). They are usually loners that are often misunderstood but studied profusely. Most came from humble beginnings and emerged to household names.

Rock stars, we either love 'em or hate 'em. Either way we know who they are.

All of that sounds like someone else I know...Jesus.

He came from the humblest of beginnings, born in a stable from a family out of a little wide part in the road called Galilee. He proceeded to vex those around him with his talent to understand people and His Father's business. He eventually was followed by thousands that just wanted to see him, touch the hem of his clothes, feel a drop of his sweat as he walked by, hear what he had to say, or be there when he messed up...

Still, those closest to him still didn't really understand him and often argued about what he might say about this or that. Everywhere he went he had little privacy and had to seek it out (remember the boat?) , in fact at least 4 books were written specifically about him, the larger context of those is the biggest selling book of all time! He was loved by the masses and hated by those that had the most to lose.

There is at least one difference...when Jesus spoke, what he said was really worth listening to...in fact it's his words that have the power to save our lives.

Jesus,

he makes me want to get up and yell and jump up and down and
dance and scream his name until I have a headache and I lose my voice.

..just like at a concert from my favorite rock group...only a whole lot better.

I must be crazy... (wink)