Month: November 2018

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Wait for What?

Have you ever been told to “Wait!”? As a kid I waited for my sisters and walked to school with them. At mealtime we waited for everyone to get to the table before we could startPICT0070B eating. As a teenager I had to wait to get my driver’s license. With five sisters and four brothers, even with two bathrooms in the house, we had to wait – sometimes with great apprehension – until it was our turn. Waiting was not always pleasant.

But my parents made it more complex. We were raised in a Christian home, and one of the more frequent exhortations I heard was, “Be patient now; you must wait on the Lord.”

Wait for what? I could neither see nor hear God. I had a hard enough time waiting for people I could see.

One day I decided to check it out. Isaiah 40:28-31 (NLT) says:

“Don’t you know that the Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth? He never grows faint or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to those who are tired and worn out; he offers strength to the weak. Even youths will become exhausted, and young men will give up. But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”

Studying those verses presented quite an eye-opener and I found three possible applications.  

1.                  Sometimes we are emotionally and physically tired. If we push ourselves too long and too hard we wear out and can get sick, but God wants us to rest and rejuvenate our strength. He wants us to physically take care of ourselves.

2.                  Without waiting for God’s timing or for His direction, some folk require, expect, or demand God to bless their decisions. And when things don’t work out, they incredulously ask, “I had faith! What happened?”

3.                  However, upon further study, I discovered another concept. In a restaurant DSCN7919the host says, “Your waiter will be with you soon.” Then the waiter or waitress asks the customer, “May I bring you something to drink?” Upon returning, he asks, “Are you ready to order?” Later, he asks, “Is the meal to your liking?” or “May I get you some desert?”

Do you see it? The waiter is serving the customer. He doesn’t wait for, but waits on the customer – therefore, his title: waiter. This provides the most appropriate application of the passage.

By the way, although seniors may receive discounts at certain restaurants, there are no discounts in heaven. We all are judged by the same criteria: we must live to honor the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now read Isaiah 40:28-31 again. God is the infinitely understanding Master or Customer, and we are the finite servants or waiters. We often don’t know what God wants. That’s why we wait on Him to find out. It’s equivalent to asking the Lord, “Are You ready to order?”

What does God want? He wants what is best for us. We don’t know what we want or need; but God does. And if we wait on God – tune in to His desires by praying to Him and serving Him – then He will assure that we receive timely guidance. He will let us know what He desires, and our needs will be taken care of. He will help us make proper decisions.

As we wait on the Lord, the instructions He gives us include everything we need for living a healthy life. We’ll fly high above the problems in life. As we “run the race” that the Apostle Paul mentions, we will not become weary, and we will not quit.

As we cooperate with God we will be physically strengthened, depression will not be a factor in our lives, and we will add joy and inspiration to those around us.

So how do we wait on the Lord? We start with what Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, obey my commandments”; and in verse 21, “Those who obey my commandments areBible.docx the ones who love me.” The two commandments mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 22:36-40 (love the Lord your God, and and love your neighbor) encompass “The Ten” presented to Moses; and those Ten encompass all of life. So we wait on the Lord by obeying Him. We take His order.

Please note: NEVER give God an order; God is not your waiter.

Joyful obedience is the purest form of worship, and through true worship – a lifestyle, not music – we build the kingdom of God. Waiting on the Lord is not a chore; rather, it brings us into the presence of a loving God where there is fullness of joy.

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Introduction to Prejudice

For all but two years of my childhood, I lived in Southern California; but we did move DSCN1743around within the state. In several towns people cautioned our parents “Watch out: be careful if you have to drive through [a certain part of] town. Lock your doors!” Ethnic prejudice prevailed; but as a child I rejected it, and it never took hold in my mind.

There were not many black kids in my schools, but the ones who did attend were usually lonely, and I chose to befriend them. Several times I saw adults insult people of a different ethnicity, and I disrespected them for their ignorance. Although dad was born and raised in South Texas, he taught me that we all are equal in God’s sight – and that was good enough for me.

But living in Charleston, S.C. in 1963-1964 presented an eye-opener for me. In my senior year in high school I was in the school band, glee club, and in the senior play.

But my life changed around 1:45 PM (ET) on Friday, November 22, 1963 when an uproar broke out throughout the high school. It sounded like our football team had just scored the winning touchdown.

President John Kennedy had just been murdered in Dallas, Texas.IMG_1564

I was flabbergasted, stunned, and didn’t believe it. I didn’t want to believe it! Why would anyone want to murder the president of the United States? And why would any American citizen cheer when our president was killed? Even Christian kids were cheering!

My feelings of disbelief quickly changed to hatred of those who would raucously cheer over our President’s murder. The only animosity toward a people I had ever experienced previously was in reading about the Nazis and Japanese whom we fought in WWII, and the Communists – although I never disliked them personally.

But now, I experienced a deep-seated hatred for some of my own countrymen. Not black, but white! At seventeen years of age, being raised in Church and in the military, I disdained anyone who treated human life as a disposable item. Voicing my feelings, my reputation took a turn. You see, I also had the stigma of being a Californian, and California supported the North in our Civil War. But President Kennedy, a Northerner, was hated by many in the South because he had been endorsing ethnic integration which the Deep South rejected.

My black friends in Charleston had been nervous about being seen with me. But now several of them took me aside and said: “We can’t spend any more time with you. You are not one of us, and you being with us is making our life harder. We are going to get hurt if we don’t stop being with you.”

I said, “I don’t understand. You are my friends, and I will fight anyone who tries to hurt you!”

Then the clincher. One of them said, “But next year you will be gone, and we will still be here. Who will protect us then? Don’t come around us anymore!”

THAT is when ethnic bigotry and prejudice took on a new – and contemporary – PICT0942meaning for me. I viewed the American Civil War in somewhat of a different light. It broke my heart to be deprived of friendship with the black kids. It broke their hearts, too, for apparently, I was the first white kid who ever wanted to spend time with them. I was still in the band, glee club, and the senior play, and I still got along with most the white kids, but my life had changed.

When that school year was over, I rode the Greyhound Bus back to Southern California. At midnight, I was the only passenger from Charleston to Atlanta; but from Atlanta to New Orleans, the bus was as full as a sardine can.

With only two seats available (one in the middle of the bus near a white woman, the other in the back near a black man), all eyes were on me as I walked to the back of the bus. The black man told me that I couldn’t sit there because that was the black section; but speaking so that everyone could hear me, I informed him that this was America and I could sit anywhere I chose. When he said, “You could git awful hut if you sit heah.” I said, “I’ll take my chances.”

I couldn’t see them, but in retrospect, I am sure that several Angels were accompanying me on that bus ride.

On our way to New Orleans, that black man taught me, a naïve teenager, a college course on the plight of black Americans – a lesson I have never forgotten. Prejudice is a manifestation of ignorance at best, and demonic hatred at worst – depending on how people act – and I dedicated my life to teaching truth; for it is the truth of Jesus Christ that sets people free. 

 Jesus said in John 8:33; “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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THANKSGIVING DAY

“What did you say?” The man just looked at me. He made a statement that I found very img_1798[1]interesting and I wanted to hear his reasoning, so I asked again, “What did you say?”

He hesitantly reiterated: “It seems like we’re getting ready for Armageddon instead of for Thanksgiving.”

That was a powerful statement. When he realized I was not challenging him, he relaxed and we began discussing international events and the perplexities of the nations as mentioned in Luke 21:25-26 which says, “And there will be strange signs in the sun, moon, and stars. And here on earth the nations will be in turmoil, perplexed by the roaring seas and strange tides. People will be terrified at what they see coming upon the earth, for the powers in the heavens will be shaken.”DSCN1112B

That was interesting because what Luke said approximately 1,974 years ago seems to be happening now. Strange signs in space could be thought of as: solar flares, blood-red moons DSCN0406with eclipses on Jewish holy days, and comets approaching (or hitting) earth.

How about nations in turmoil and perplexed by roaring seas? 1) Roaring seas could be the increased number of massive hurricanes, while strange tides could be increased tsunamis and hurricanes. 2) Nations in turmoil and perplexity could also be thought of as nations and kingdoms in such political, religious, and economic messes that they seem impossible to resolve. 3) And people around the earth are terrified by the wars, rumors of wars, political intrigue, and horrendous, outrageous murders taking place.

There is a lot happening and much of it has not been pleasant. Massive hurricanes creating myriads of problems across the eastern and southern USA, while horrendous forest fires devastate states on the other end of the country.

     The international political scene is heavy with uncertainty. The Israeli predicament looming continuously on the horizon directly affects the entire world. And Islamic terrorism continues to push throughout the world which generates confusion and fear – the magnitude which has not yet been imagined by most world leaders.

     Our own government has been actively endorsing various foreign religions, yet continues to denigrate the very religion – Judeo-Christianity – upon which our nation was founded. Thus, we have been gradually losing our right to espouse our own beliefs while being forced to accommodate the beliefs of others. This has been going on for decades – but with current leadership, it might be turning around. We pray that it does.

     With all this in mind, what in the world do I have to be thankful for? I’m glad you asked. Question Mark

     According to the Bible, we have freedom to turn to Almighty God for help. Our own founding fathers knew this and appealed to God numerous times for divine assistance. Even Benjamin Franklin wisely advised the colonial leaders to beseech the Almighty for help when they reached a stalemate in forming our government.

     So, can I be thankful today in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds? Yes!

     Henry Morris IV (Director of Donor Relations at Institute for Creation Research, Dallas, TX) pointed out that we are “not to give thanks FOR everything—rather, we are to give thanks IN everything (1 Thessalonians 5:18).” Did you catch the difference? Read his statement again. The ATTITUDE of thankfulness is equally important – if not more so – than the ACT of being thankful.

     But when I add Romans 8:28 (And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. NLT), I realize that I actually can thank God FOR things that happen to me.

     And because we humans are so easily distracted by the problems, predicaments, and perils of life, I am grateful that on December 26, 1941, President Roosevelt and Congress officially established the fourth Thursday of November as our annual Thanksgiving Day celebration. This resulted from repeated proclamations by most or our US Presidents and the US Congress.

     Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith no one can please God. Anyone who comes to God must believe that he is real and that he rewards those who truly want to find him.” And we find that a person who is habitually thankful is usually a patient and loving person. Why is that important? Patient and loving people help solve problems.

     dscn0464[1]Back to the statement the man said, “It seems like we’re getting ready for Armageddon instead of for Thanksgiving.”

     All I can say to that is, focusing on Armageddon cannot prepare us to face life’s challenges; but placing our faith in Jesus Christ can help us prepare; and we can be thankful for Jesus Christ, our Savior and Friend.

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Life After Death

Joe asked, “Stephen Hawking made the statement that there is no life after death. Wouldn’t that mean that Jesus is still dead? How might Scripture respond to his comment?”

The following is a quote from No Heaven? Why Stephen Hawking’s Comment Doesn’t Matter by Stephanie Pappas on May 16, 2011. “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail,” Hawking said in The Guardian. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”

I appreciated Joe’s question, but here is an eye-opener: Hawking’s statement is nothingIMG_1085B less than a statement of faith. Why? Because believing that there is no God is a religious conviction. Hawking was a dedicated scientist with a background in mathematics, physics, and cosmology; not religion or theology. Also Hawking had Lou Gehrig’s disease, was a quadriplegic, was confined to a wheelchair, and had no use for a god who wouldn’t heal him. His humanistic faith was based on the fact that he could not see God and couldn’t prove that there is a God.

Going one step further, Mr. Hawking placed his faith in science. In reality, that made science his god.

This is indeed a shaky foundation, because many scientists throughout history were and are devout followers of Jesus Christ and Jehovah God. Their scientific endeavors have verified to them that there IS a God.

I am continually surprised by the number of people who put faith in famous actors, theologians, scientists, and philosophers who disavow faith in Almighty God. We need to wake up. Fame doesn’t grant access to sources of spiritual knowledge that are inaccessible to the rest of mankind.

Some say that we Christians and Jews cannot prove there is a God, and they are correct. By the help of the Holy Spirit and through Scripture we can know Jesus, but we cannot prove to others He is alive or that He is God. Believing in someone or something we Atheist Symbolcannot prove is, by definition, faith.

But hold on now: NOT believing in someone or something without proof is also, by definition, faith. Hawking did not believe in life after death because that includes heaven and hell; which, in turn, requires a belief in a Creator: God. Mr. Hawking had a very strong faith that declared there is no god.

Psalm 14:1-3 describes the condition of those who refuse to believe in God. Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1 say that whoever does not believe in God is foolish. I didn’t say that; Scripture did. Also, Proverbs 18:2 informs us that whoever is not interested in gaining [spiritual] understanding is foolish, for they are interested only in expressing their own opinions.

There is no scientific proof for or against life after death; either way it is a matter of faith. And believing that God is either real or a myth are both matters of faith. But there is more to faith in God and Jesus Christ than mere believing.

In the Bible and throughout history many people have spoken of their interaction with God. People have experienced, in powerful, personal ways, strong affirmations of God’s healing, presence, and provision in this world as well as His promises concerning life in the next (Luke 23:43; John 14:1-6; Rev. 21-22). Untold millions of people have studied Biblical claims and extra-Biblical claims; some have returned after dying and have a dynamically different conclusion from Hawking’s. Scripture teaches us about life after death which is called eternal life. Scripture alone is proof for us, but we cannot, in turn, prove it to anyone else. It’s a matter of faith.

Billy Graham could not speak authoritatively on science or the universe, but he was aSatellite Dish giant in the kingdom of God. In like manner, Mr. Hawking has credibility in cosmology and physics because of his work in the field (although I don’t agree with him on several scientific issues); but he has no credibility in the realm of Scripture or spiritual matters.

We all have faith, but the Bible leaves it up to each individual regarding where we will place our faith. Nevertheless, the historical declaration in Scripture is: Jesus Is Alive! There is life after death.

The darkness to which Hawking refers is reserved only for those who reject God. And that statement refers to God as found in the Holy Bible – not some other god. Therefore, examine Scripture, seek the truth, and choose life.

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Authentic Christianity

Rev. Charles Swindoll said: In order to change our world, we must live authentic Christian lives.”  But what does that mean?

Some of you may not like today’s blog, but read it anyway and see if you can understand what I am attempting to convey.

A. W. Tozer was born in 1897. He had no earned college degree but wrote many booksuntitled that impacted the 20th Century Church. During a trip by train from Chicago in the late 1940s, Tozer was inspired to write again. When the train pulled into McAllen, Texas the next morning, the rough draft of The Pursuit of God was completed. The depth of that message has made it a book in high demand – about 2 million copies in at least fifteen languages are in print.

Pastor Tozer had a drive to know God. He was not content to be merely a Godly pastor who could preach from the Bible. Tozer could be gentle with those who were actively searching for truth, but tough on those who were faking it. And his parishioners knew what it meant to be authentic Christians.

In his book Apprehending God, Tozer clearly says God wants to interact with us, but that the church around the world is basically ignorant of it. I agree with Tozer. Here are several of my own observations from around our nation:

  • People often treat the sanctuary as a secular auditorium.
  • Pre-service conversation is often not about the Lord.
  • However, as though a power switch has been turned on, people instantly enter a “worship” mode. (Is it authentic, or a trained response?)
  • After the meeting, most people go out as they came in because nothing in their lives has really changed. But some of them say, “I enjoyed the worship.”

This, in part, is what Tozer was talking about. Most people don’t understand the nature of God or what He desires. Worse yet: many of our ministers, also, don’t understand the nature of God and don’t know what it means to be an authentic Christian. 

Why do some folk have deep spiritual experiences with the Lord while others do not? The answer doesn’t lie with God, but with people. God is willing to bless all who sincerely come to Him, but many people don’t seriously study the Bible; they don’t meditate on or think about who and what God really is. Instead, too many of us prefer (as Tozer said) “glamour and fast flowing dramatic action” in our church services. Sadly, that is true today more dynamically than it was in 1948!

In our church meetings we often compete with the world for the attention of the world rather than focus on leading people in righteousness. Tozer said in 1948, “…worst of all, we have made the Word of Truth conform to our experience and accepted this low plane as the very pasture of the blessed.” In other words, most people think the hoopla and excitement in the church services is actually worshiping God and receiving God’s approval. But that might not be correct.

A.W.TozerTozer also said, “The shallowness of our inner experience, the hollowness of our worship, and the servile imitation of the world which marks our promotional methods all testify that we, in this day, know God only imperfectly, and the peace of God scarcely at all.”

How true! Since many in church leadership don’t really know what God wants, they are using the world’s methods in an attempt to accomplish God’s work. Therefore, we are pursuing the world instead of pursuing God. By placing an emphasis on being relevant to the people, we have effectively reduced the necessity of living a life dedicated to Jesus Christ. Thus, we essentially have watered down the Gospel.

I hope you readers will think about this.

Tozer said, “We have within us the ability to know Him if we will but respond to His overtures. (And this we call pursuing God!)  We will know Him in increasing degree as our receptivity becomes more perfect by faith and love and practice.”

This happens only by spending time getting to really know God. 

Authentic means not false or copied. It is something genuine, real, trustworthy, reliable; being accurate in representation of the facts. To be authentic Christians, we must stop living and acting like the world, but honor Jesus Christ in every facet of our lives – both in and out of church.

Come on now: What do you watch on television? What do you watch at the theaters? What kind of social activities do you enjoy? Would a Holy God approve of it? And don’t think God’s not watching. He most definitely is.

IMG_1799BTo be an authentic Christian, we must have an in-depth relationship with Jesus Christ. This relationship does not happen by going to church and enjoying the show. It happens by spending time with Jesus Himself through prayer, Bible study, meditating on the Life of Christ, and living in a manner that He would approve.

Authentic Christians change their world because of their Godly core values.

This life will be over somewhat quickly, and the way we live now sets the stage for what happens next. Think about it.

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Living With Conviction

The newspaper headline was: “With conviction, the elderly pastor conned the former convict into surrendering after the ex-con attempted to con the pastor out his life savings. And with conviction the jury convicted the ex-con.”

Are you dizzy yet? When I read that news brief, it made my head spin. So, get a cup of coffee and let’s look at the word “Conviction.” What does it mean?

It comes from Latin: convincere; which means: “to conquer, to overcome decisively; to firmly persuade.” Today the verb form is “to convince or convict”; and the noun isConviction1 “conviction.”

So, a conviction is a firm belief that we hold on to; and many times a conviction is not just an idea that we believe. It is often a value or set of values (such as wedding vows and Biblical principles) upon which we have based our lives. Therefore, convictions are the criteria by which we make important decisions, and are the foundation of our character. And when we act on convictions, society often changes.

Thomas was a man of convictions. He saw a problem. He felt a conviction in his heart and mind about it. He prayed about it. Then, facing derision and opposition, he decided to do something about it.

Born in Glastonbury, England in 1845, Thomas was a dentist, a minister in the Wesleyan Methodist Connexion (which became the Wesleyan Methodist Episcopal Church), and disapproved of both slavery and alcohol.

Already understanding the detrimental results of alcoholism on society, Thomas became concerned about the use of alcohol (the sacramental wine) in Holy Communion. He objected to the use of alcohol anyway, had a pastoral concern for recovering alcoholics, and wanted children to partake in the sacrament of communion. As a communion steward in the church, Thomas Bramwell decided he had to do something about it.

He read about Ephraim Wales from Concord, Massachusetts who had finally achieved his goal of “developing the perfect sweet and palatable grape.” Ephraim named the grape after his hometown, Concord. Thomas also knew about Louis Pasteur’s process of retarding the spoilage of milk, called pasteurization, and applied that process to the Concord grape to prevent the fermentation process. After developing his unfermented communion alternative, he eventually convinced his church and many others to use the unfermented wine.

So there you have it. A centuries-long practice of using alcoholic wine in communion was overturned by a prohibitionist. Today entire denominations decry any use of alcohol in any form, including in Holy Communion.

220px-Thomas_Bramwell_Welch (1)But society also changed in other areas because of this man of convictions. His full name is Thomas Bramwell Welch, and he – with his son, Charles – had developed Welch’s Grape Juice. This achievement not only gave us unfermented wine for both sacramental communion and a safe beverage for home, but marked the beginning of the processed fruit juice industry.

Here are a few more tidbits of Welch trivia.

In 1913 Secretary of State William Jennings Bryan served Welch’s Grape Juice at a state diplomatic event instead of the traditional fermented wine. In 1914 the Secretary of the Navy, Josephus Daniels, forbade wine on naval ships and [temporarily] substitutedDSCN6260C Welch’s Grape Juice. In 1918 the Welch Company developed its first jam and called it “Grapelade.” The U.S. Army bought the first entire batch, and the G.I.s clamored for it when they returned to civilian life. In 1923 the world-famous “Concord Grape Jelly” was introduced, and it is my all-time favorite jelly. And in 1949 Welch became a pioneer in the frozen fruit juice industry by introducing Welch’s Frozen Grape Juice Concentrate. An added bonus is that in 2002 researchers reported the potential cancer-fighting benefit of the purple grape juice.

One man who had strong convictions changed society for the better. But a simple, diligent research can reveal thousands of others who, with conviction, changed our world: some for the better, and some for the worse.

How about you? Are you a person with convictions, or do you just float through life and let other folk establish your political, religious, and personal ideology? Living with and acting on convictions will produce the foundation in life you need to determine your direction and set your goals in life. Living with convictions produce character and integrity.

How do you become a person of conviction? I’m glad you asked.

Establish your core values – the values and ideas that you absolutely cannot and will not change. Now, if you say that you absolutely believe there are no absolutes – go meditate on that contradiction – that will be one of your core values.

Once you have determined some of these foundation stones of life, think about them; meditate on them and see where they might lead you. If you don’t like the result, go back and think it through again.

Reading about people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Welch,  Charles Finney, and Billy Graham can assist you in defining and learning about convictions. Reading about Biblical characters such as Moses, Joshua, the Wise men from the East, the Apostle Paul, and especially the teachings and examples of Jesus can help you, because personal convictions help establish and confirm our identity.

May the Lord bless you as you live with and act on Godly convictions.

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An Important Question

Other than the church condemning me for living with my girlfriend, is there a real 1 - ChurchBible prohibition against it? We are going to be married anyway, so what’s the problem?

Thank you for your openness, and your apparent honesty. Let me start with a story.

A man was notified that he would inherit $200,000 and the money would be in his bank account in six months. However, the man wanted to build a house immediately which would cost $150,000. Since he needed the money now and the money would be his anyway, he wrote a hot check to the builder for the full amount. He was going to get the money eventually, so what’s the problem?

It’s called breaking the law. He attempted to take the money before it was legally his, and he was arrested for it.

Back to marriage. That’s the problem here: experiencing the husband-wife intimacy prior to marriage is taking what is not rightfully yours. When men and women (at any age) indulge in sexual activity outside of marriage, they are stealing what is not theirs. It is breaking the law – GOD’s LAW.

It is also gambling on the shaky future. Supposing the expected marriage doesn’t take place? Thousands of times a year we hear the cry, “We were going to be married; but after all I gave him, he left me.”

Once that boundary (of illicit sexual activity) has been crossed, it is rarely re-established. We have often heard people complain, “But he promised that after we were married he would remain faithful to only me.” However, even if they remain physically true to each other, the underlying doubts of continued fidelity often evolve into open suspicion and conflict. “He did this with me outside marriage, I wonder if he will do this with someone else outside OUR marriage.” And often the infidelity continues.

Those who experience the intense joys of the physical union with someone other than their spouse rarely develop true loyalty or a deep-seated relationship with their spouse. Why? There is often a comparison taking place. Therefore, it is difficult to establish loyalty, faithfulness, love, devotion, and trust after you are married.

This is not only a “church” issue: it’s a physical, psychologica,l and mental issue. And yes, it is definitely a spiritual and Biblical issue.IMG_1799B

Starting with Exodus 20:14 and ending with Revelation 2:22, adultery is mentioned 45 times, fornication 44 times, whoremonger 5 times, and the Bible gives a strong admonition against it.

In the Old Testament, the adulterer was to be put to death. In the New Testament, Jesus didn’t merely condemn the adulterer; He went further: Jesus reminded us that to even look on a woman with the wrong intent was equivalent to adultery. Hebrews 13:4 says, “Marriage should be honored by everyone, and husband and wife should keep their marriage pure. God will judge as guilty those who take part in sexual sins of any kind – heterosexual, homosexual, pornographic, child molestation, and all the rest.”

The issue goes deeper than lust or co-habiting out of wedlock. It is rooted in the comparison between marriage of man and woman, and mankind worshiping God. God created marriage (Genesis 2:18-25) to be holy, special, one man to one woman. Marriage was to be a human reflection of the relationship between humanity and God, and anyone or anything that corrupts this picture is an abomination or repugnance to God. That’s why the Bible equates adultery with idolatry and pagan worship (Jeremiah 3:8-9).

Remember the nagging question that will linger in the back of the mind: “Nothing prevented him/her from having sex with me before marriage; what will prevent him from doing this with someone else after we get married?” Committing adultery, fornication or whoredom creates a fault in the relationship that is almost impossible to repair.

To honor God and protect each other, wait until you’re married.

One last comment: if you have broken God’s law in this area, God will forgive you if you truly repent, and turn from this sin. God is a gracious and loving Father Who wants you3 - Cake to have a wholesome, happy life. If you truly ask for forgiveness and marry your girlfriend, God can help you to have a strong marriage. But it will take extra effort, extra precaution, a purposed devotion and care for each other to verify your faithfulness.

Don’t live life YOUR way. Do it GOD’S way. You’ll be glad you did.

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Remember The Goal

Have you ever reached your destination, but found out it was the wrong date?  Dad Tabernacles 50th Anniversary18bdid. On October 13, 2002, Dad and Mom drove seven hours to speak at a Minister’s Retreat. He checked into the motel and called the pastor to let him know he had arrived. Guess what? It was the right place, but the wrong time. Dad was one week early. What could he do? He turned around and drove the seven hours back home. That was an inconvenient 14-hour round trip on his birthday.

Have you ever arrived on time, but found out it was the wrong place?  I did. I wasDSCN9071B working for Metropolitan Insurance Company in 1979. My appointment was two hours from Tulsa on a Saturday morning. I followed the directions – except for one thing: I was supposed to drive two hours SOUTH, but I drove two hours NORTH. I turned around and went back home. That was only a 4-hour round trip and I missed sale that would have netted me $100. Dad was at the right place at the wrong time. I was at the right time at the wrong place.

But have you ever started a project and forgot why you were doing it? That’s a tough one! Let me tell you about Christopher Columbus.

Columbus has been described as: one of the greatest sailors in history, a genius, a man of faith, a hero, an administrative failure, and a greedy imperialist. It depends on who you talk to. Columbus’ confidence in finding a westward route to India grew out of the practical experience of a long maritime career, as well as out of his knowledge in geography and cartography (map-making).

His journey to sail and chart the route to foreign lands took place just after a long war had been fought between Muslims (the Moors) and Christians in Spain and Portugal. (This kind of war is not new.)

In ancient times sailors knew that the Earth was round, Columbus had studied cartography with his brother, and scientists of the day had even estimated the earth’s size and its volume. (Their incorrect estimate of the earth’s diameter was about 3,000 miles, but of course, today we know the diameter is about 7,900 miles.)

Further examination of Columbus’s writings, and related sources, reveal that Columbus had a very important reason for sailing to India. Christoferens (Christ-bearer) was another version of his name. He believed that he was divinely ordained to carry Christianity across the westward ocean to the people of the Orient. Columbus’ desire was that “the Indian nations might become dwellers in the triumphant Church of Heaven.” That was his goal. That was his calling in life.

What happened to the potential Missionary? He got side-tracked. He got Gold Fever and missed God’s will for his life. He was also deprived of the conditional promises the king had made: riches, his own naval fleet, a title of nobility, and the prestige of having the new lands named after him.

His first trip was in 1492; his 4th trip was in 1504; he died in 1506. To his dying day, he tried to rebuild his fortune, his reputation, and his status in life; but he died a broken man. He had put God’s will aside, and went after the gold. He forgot that Scripture said, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” He took his eyes off the goal that God gave him, and focused on another god: gold.

Hebrews 12:1-2 says, “Noting that we are surrounded with such a great a cloud of witnesses, let us put aside everything that might take our eyes off the goal, and the sin which so easily distracts us, and let us persevere as we run the race that God has set before us. Lock your sights onto Jesus the author and completer of our faith; who, because of the joy He would receive, endured the cross, ignored the shame, and now is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Find out what God’s goals are for you. Do what it takes to fulfill them, and your life will take on a richer and deeper meaning.

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BibLe cOdeS?

You might think the Bible Code fad had faded into oblivion, but that isn’t the case. When IMG_1799BI was asked about it, I found it is alive, and it’s been thriving for millennia. I don’t believe in hidden messages in so-called Bible Codes, but it is interesting.

     From the Gnostics in Jesus’ time who prided themselves for possessing hidden knowledge, to the Rosicrucian’s who held to “esoteric truths of the ancient past concealed from the average man”, to Sir Isaac Newton who predicted that the world would NOT end before 2060, to Dan Brown’s novel “The Da Vinci Code”, the concept of hidden knowledge in the Bible has attracted world-wide interest. The original Bible Code was known as the Torah Code.

     There is a Jewish tradition about “hidden text” in the Pentateuch (the Torah, first five Books in the Bible), consisting of words or phrases expressed in the form of Equidistant Letter Sequences (ELS’s); that is, selecting sequences of equally spaced letters in the text. Since this tradition was passed on orally, not much is really understood of the early legends. Rabbi H.M.D. Weissmandel was the first modern scholar to try to show the possibility of such a “hidden text” in 1958 by finding patterns consisting of ELS’s. This concept has been described as “a method by which specific letters from the text can be selected to reveal an otherwise obscured message.”

     Using the ELS system, I’ve been told every 50th letter of the Book of Genesis (in Hebrew) starting with the first taw (“T”), the Hebrew word “torah” is spelled out. The same may happen in the Book of Exodus. Computers have been used to search for similar patterns and more complex variants. Bible code proponents usually use a Hebrew Bible, and most Jewish proponents use only the Pentateuch. The Jewish group Aish-HaTorah uses Bible Codes in their Discovery Seminars to persuade secular Jews of the divinity of the Torah, and to encourage them to trust in its traditional Orthodox teachings.

     The general public learned of Bible codes due to Michael Drosnin’s book titled “The Bible Code.” Instead of reading the words of a text normally, hidden words are found by picking every 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, (etc.) letters, skipping over the letters in between. This can become very complex, and a skip pattern can be over 8,000 letters. Using pre-programmed spacing, computers are used to look for matches for selected names or words, and the skip spacing is adjusted until the programmer “discovers” what he/she wants. This produces self-fulfilled predictions. Not good, but interesting.

     Dr. Dave Thomas, physicist and mathematician, wrote in 1997, “Hidden messages can be found anywhere, provided you’re willing to invest time and effort to harvest the vast field of probability. All you need is the power of chance combined with the brute force of computers.” And he proved it by applying code programming to Tolstoy’s “War and Peace” finding many words, names, and predictions “imbedded” therein.

     The theologian Grant Jeffrey said, “Hebrew codes do not contain any hidden theological or doctrinal messages. There are no secret sentences, detailed messages, or sentences about theology in the [supposedly] encoded words. God’s message of salvation and His commandments for holy living to humankind are found only in the open words of the Scriptures.” And I say, “Amen!”

     Those who favor Bible codes ask, “How could words and “messages” be a product of random chance?” But I ask, “With a computer, imagination, and innumerable attempts, how can we NOT find them?”

     As mentioned above, I do not believe in so-called “Bible Codes” because we also find numerous negative concepts. If “Bible Codes” are really inspired by God, then how do we account for the following “codes” which have all been found in the Torah?  ‘Jesus is Satan”; “Please drive out Jesus”; “God is not YHWH”; “There is no God”; “Jehovah is a liar”; and many others. 

     We must get back to what the Bible is, and its purpose. Second Timothy 3:16-17 says, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”

     And Jesus said in John 14:26, “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.” Jesus does not want anything to be hidden.

     Let’s invest our limited time in studying the revealed word of God, not in self-generated revelations.