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September 23, 2024

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Church & Worship, God's Plan, God's Word: The Bible, Salvation: A New You, Sharing Our Faith, Wisdom & Guidance

THE ONLY PATH

Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” [John 14:6 (NLT)]

Pope Francis recently visited Singapore and, when speaking to young people at an interfaith meeting, he is reported to have said “All religions are paths to God.” After comparing the various religions to “different languages that express the divine,” he added, “There is only one God, and each of us has a language to arrive at God. Some are Sheik, Muslim, Hindu, Christian, and they are different paths [to God].” While the pontiff was encouraging interfaith dialogue, his words are troubling. I will not presume to know the Pope’s meaning or intention with his comments. Nevertheless, I find it important to address how the world understood the pontiff’s message.

Jesus is not one of many ways to God; He is the one and only way! He spoke of Himself as the only path to heaven. He said His words are life, called Himself the ”bread of life,” and promised that His believers would have eternal life. Jesus is the only one who came down from Heaven, lived a perfect sinless life, fulfilled the Law and the Prophets, sacrificed Himself for mankind’s sins, and conquered death! As Christians, we believe salvation comes through Christ alone and that the Bible teaches us everything we need to know about God. At best, all any other religion offers is an incomplete, inaccurate, and deceptive understanding of God and His creation.

From where we live, there are no direct flights to my son’s home in San Diego. Although we have a choice of routes and airlines, we must change planes in Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Charlotte, Chicago, or Washington. While there are different ways to get to California, if we stay in a connecting city, we’ll never get there. If we hope to see our son, we need to board the right plane—the one headed for San Diego. If, by mistake, we get on a plane going to Paris, we’d land more than 5,600 miles away from our son’s home. But, if we landed in Tijuana, we’d only be 20 miles away. Nevertheless, whether 5,600 miles or only 20 away from our destination, we wouldn’t find our son waiting there to welcome us to his home! While some flights might get us close to our journey’s end, there only is one correct place to land! It’s said that “close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.” That’s important to remember when it comes to both airports and God! Unless we get on another plane headed for San Diego, we won’t be seeing our boy. If we want the Son to welcome us to His heavenly home, we eventually must take the only path that leads to Him!

If we believe Christianity’s claims are true, then the claims of other religions must be wrong wherever they contradict it—and there are plenty of contradictions. For example, Islam’s condemnation of the Trinity and its rejection of the deity of Jesus, His death, resurrection, ascension, and atonement for our sins along with its denial of His Holy Spirit and the salvation of His believers don’t seem remotely close to our path. Islam seems more like deliberately heading to Paris when you’re supposed to be going west to San Diego!

While we may find wisdom and inspiration in Hinduism’s Bhagavad Gita, the Buddha’s words in the Dhammapada, the Chinese philosophy of the Tao Te-Ching, and in the rabbis’ discourse in the Talmud, we know those texts are not sacred and the words in them are man’s, not God’s. Christianity doesn’t allow for a mingling of faith in other philosophies or gods.

Saying we all worship the same God is what David Limbaugh calls “intellectual laziness.” The claim that all paths can lead to God is a statement we should never make or accept. It’s an insult to Jesus. As God incarnate, He came, suffered, and died on the cross for our sins—something totally unnecessary were there any other way to God. Whether you call them languages or paths, all religions do not lead to God. Then again, no “religion” leads to God; only faith in Jesus Christ does!

 Jesus is not one of many ways to approach God, nor is he the best of several ways; he is the only way [A.W. Tozer]

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him. There is no judgment against anyone who believes in him. But anyone who does not believe in him has already been judged for not believing in God’s one and only Son. [John 3:16-18 (NLT)]

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September 19, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Family, Friends & Fellowship, God's Grace & Love, Nature

WEED OR FLOWER?

The land produced vegetation—all sorts of seed-bearing plants, and trees with seed-bearing fruit. Their seeds produced plants and trees of the same kind. And God saw that it was good. [Genesis 1:12 (NLT)]

Egyptian crowfoot grassWhen I saw a wildflower that looked like a helicopter’s rotors, I showed it to the park’s naturalist for identification. Not as impressive as Scarlet Hibiscus or as colorful as Butterfly Weed, she found the plant unworthy of name or notice and wrote it off as “just a weed!” What some people call “weeds,” I think of as wildflowers and a little research told me it was the floret of Egyptian Crowfoot Grass (Dactyloctenium aegyptium). Native to Africa and widely distributed throughout the tropics and subtropics, it is one of the most drought-resistant of grasses.

While Crowfoot Grass may be a weed to some people, it is relished by ruminants like sheep, cattle, deer, and their relatives. Suitable for silage, it makes valuable pasture, excellent hay, and its seeds are fed to poultry. The plant material is used for making paper and weaving mats and baskets. In traditional African and Asian folk medicine, decoctions of its seeds have diuretic, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, antipyretic, and antibacterial effects. Its highly nutritious seeds make it a “famine food” and, when food is scarce, those seeds are used to make porridge and cakes that can sustain people’s lives in times of need.

Ralph Waldo Emerson described a weed as “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered,” and the naturalist’s quick dismissal of the Crowfoot Grass was because she didn’t appreciate its unseen qualities. Nevertheless, some of God’s best work is evident in His unusual and underrated “weeds” and the same might be said about their human equivalents. Like the unimpressive and humble Crowfoot Grass, God’s prophets were out of the ordinary, overlooked, unappreciated, and rebuffed by many. Nevertheless, even though they were disregarded and disparaged as if they were weeds in a rose garden, they continued in faithful obedience to God.

Like Crowfoot Grass, Jesus didn’t meet people’s expectations or conform to the norm. To Pilate, Herod, Judah’s religious leaders, Rome, and many others in 1st century Palestine, Jesus was little more than a troublesome weed that needed to be eradicated. Appearances, however, are deceiving—that unpretentious weed was the Son of God, the Prince of Peace, and (like Crowfoot Grass) the Bread of Life!

Crowfoot Grass doesn’t look like much but appearances are deceiving. Just as the naturalist dismissed it as “just a weed,” I wonder if I ever do the same with people! Judging by appearance, do I fail to take the time to discover their hidden virtues? After all, a weed is simply a flower in disguise! Let’s never make the error of failing to look beneath the surface to appreciate the value and beauty of both the plants and people we encounter in God’s garden.

There is not a flower that opens, not a seed that falls into the ground, and not an ear of wheat that nods on the end of its stalk in the wind that does not preach and proclaim the greatness and the mercy of God to the whole world. [Thomas Merton]

O Lord, what a variety of things you have made! In wisdom you have made them all. The earth is full of your creatures. [Psalm 104:24 (NLT)]

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September 16, 2024

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Bible Stories, God's Plan, Love & Works, Obedience, Today: Make it Count

SUPPORTING ROLES

And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. [Hebrews 11:32-34 (NTFE)]

pipevine swallowtail butterflyHebrews 11 lists the great examples of faith found in the Hebrew Scriptures. Every story, however, has a supporting cast and, while we may not remember or even know their names, they played an important role in everyone’s story. We know Moses is one of those heroes of faith but what of the midwives Shiphrah and Puah? If they hadn’t defied Pharaoh’s orders to kill newborn Hebrew boys, Moses wouldn’t have lived long enough to be found by Pharaoh’s daughter let alone lead Israel to the Promised Land!

We know the promised Messiah was to come from David’s line but that line nearly became extinct in 841 BC when Judah’s king Ahaziah died and his mother, Athaliah, seized the throne for herself. To secure her position, the queen mother murdered Ahaziah’s children (her grandchildren) and the rest of the royal family! The Davidic line remained only because Athaliah’s sister, Jehosheba, rescued Ahaziah’s infant son Joash. At great risk, she kept the boy hidden for six years until the time was right for him to be named king.

We recall the names of Esther and her uncle Mordecai but probably not that of Hegai, the eunuch in charge of the king’s harem. Without his coaching and assistance, Esther never would have captured the heart of Xerxes, become queen, and been able to save the Hebrew nation from extinction. We revere the name of David but probably don’t know the names of his thirty-seven “mighty men” listed in 2 Samuel 23. We know of Jeremiah but not Ebed-melech, the court official who risked his life to rescue the prophet from the cistern where he had been left to die.

What of those heroes of faith whose names we don’t know—people like the slave girl who told Naaman about the Samarian prophet who could heal him of leprosy? It was her testimony that introduced the Syrian warrior to the one true God of Israel. What of the king’s cup-bearer who told Pharaoh that Joseph could interpret his dream? Without his action, the story of Israel could have ended in Genesis! We only know her as the widow of Zarephath but this nameless woman fed Elijah the last of her oil and bread during a time of famine. We know Gideon but not the names of his 300 valiant men who bravely fought 135,000 Midianites. When outnumbered by 450 to 1, most soldiers would have fled, but those nameless men belong in the “Hall of Faith” along with Gideon!

The New Testament is not without its unnamed heroes of faith—consider the boy who gave his lunch, the widow who gave her two mites, and the four friends so committed to the paralytic’s healing they cut a hole in the roof and lowered him down to the Lord! What of the nameless shepherds and Magi who worshipped the newborn king? We don’t know the names of the woman at the well, the hemorrhaging woman, the Ethiopian eunuch, the repentant thief on the cross, or the Syrophoenician woman who was determined to have Jesus heal her daughter, but they were just as much heroes of faith as were Moses and Abraham.

Every story, play, or movie has both major roles and a supporting cast. While we may have the lead role in our own personal story, we are just supporting actors in the Kingdom’s story. Nevertheless, we are as essential to God’s scenario as were Shiphrah and Puah, Gideon’s 300 and David’s 37, the woman at the well, and those four faithful friends! For the most part, those supporting actors didn’t even know their own importance; nevertheless, acting in faith, they simply followed God’s direction. Let us take the small (but essential) roles God has given us and play them as well as all the unsung heroes of faith did!

There are no small roles, only small actors. [Konstantin Stanislavski]

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God. [Hebrews 12:1-2 (NTFE)]

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September 12, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Challenges & Difficulty, Faith & Hope, Fear & Doubt, Obedience, Sharing Our Faith, Today: Make it Count

OUTSIDE THE LINES

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. [Romans 12:2 (NLT)]

Several years ago, I purchased a beautifully drawn coloring book featuring scenes from the Colorado mountain town that had been part of our lives for thirty-five years. Since it was a gift for one of my grands, I asked the artist to sign the book. She added these words to her signature: “Don’t be afraid to color outside the lines!” Was the artist’s advice limited to her book or was it about something more?

“Coloring inside the lines” has come to mean thinking or acting within the generally accepted guidelines. It’s staying within your comfort zone by doing what’s safe—the way it’s always been done. Creating a new and better picture, however, requires coloring outside the lines! Although it can get a little messy, coloring outside the lines means thinking outside the box, seeing new possibilities, stepping out of the norm, using different colors, and drawing new lines. It must be willing to get uncomfortable. Doing God’s work often requires coloring or living outside the lines draw by society!

The unconventional John the Baptist lived outside the lines. A Nazarite from birth, he was an ascetic who practiced self-denial, wore a rough robe of camel’s hair with a leather belt, and ate locusts and honey. Not one to play it safe, he called the Pharisees and Sadducees a “brood of snakes!” and dared to call King Herod and his wife adulterers! Nevertheless, it was by coloring outside the lines that the Baptizer fulfilled God’s purpose to be the voice in the wilderness that prepared the way for Jesus.

Elisha lived outside the lines when he left his prosperous farm and team of oxen to become Elijah’s successor—an odd choice his family and neighbors probably didn’t understand. The young shepherd boy David stepped outside the lines when he dared to take on Goliath—something none of Saul’s seasoned soldiers had attempted. Abigail went outside the lines when she kept David from taking vengeance on her foolish husband as did Rahab when she helped the Israelites. Joseph colored outside the lines when he remained with the pregnant Mary rather than breaking their engagement. Mary of Bethany went outside the lines when she sat with the men rather than help in the kitchen and again when she anointed Jesus with expensive perfume. Peter colored outside the lines when he stepped out of the Jewish code of ritual purity and ate with the Gentile Cornelius as did Paul when he insisted Gentiles didn’t need to become circumcised.

Coloring outside the lines is what we do when we allow God to take control of our lives; it’s leaving your livelihood and tax booth as did Matthew or stepping out of the boat onto the water as did Peter. Staying inside the lines is failing to trust God enough to answer His call and follow His lead. Staying inside the lines is what the Pharisees did. It’s being more concerned about what others think than what God says; it’s being more concerned about how we appear than who we really are.

Coloring outside the lines is refusing to compromise our faith; it is obeying God before man. The artist’s advice to my grand applies to us all: “Don’t be afraid to color outside the lines!” Let’s not be afraid to live outside the lines—honestly, boldly, creatively, faithfully, and joyfully—fulfilling God’s purpose and trusting in His promises.

For God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.” So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?” [Hebrews 13:5b-6 (NLT)]

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September 9, 2024

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Bible Stories, God's Plan, Obedience, Trusting God

THE RIGHT TIME AND WAY

“No!” David said. “Don’t kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord’s anointed one? Surely the Lord will strike Saul down someday, or he will die of old age or in battle. The Lord forbid that I should kill the one he has anointed!” [1 Samuel 26:9-11 (NLT)]

But God removed Saul and replaced him with David, a man about whom God said, “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” [Acts 13:22 (NLT)]

In the Gospel stories of the two miraculous catches of fish, experience told the disciples that fishing in the light of day was the wrong time and casting a net from the right side of the boat was the wrong way to do it. Nevertheless, that’s exactly how Jesus told them to fish. If we look at those stories more figuratively, we see that night time was man’s time and the boat’s left side was man’s way. Those miraculous catches, however, tell us that the right time is whenever God says it is and the right way is however God says it’s to be done!

It’s not just in His fishing instructions to the disciples that we find Jesus’ way counter-intuitive and unconventional. Man’s way is to hold grudges but Jesus’ is to offer forgiveness. Man’s way is to get even; Jesus’ is to be merciful. Man’s way is exclusive; Jesus’ is inclusive. Man’s way values power, authority, and wealth; Jesus’ way values the meek, humble, and poor. Man’s way declares certain people unclean, disgraceful, worthless, or untouchable; Jesus’ way loves and touches them all. Man’s way is to be self-sufficient; Jesus’ is to be God-dependent. Man’s way doesn’t turn the other cheek, find strength in weakness, or go the extra mile, but Jesus’ way does! As strange as it sometimes sounds, God’s way always is the right way!

Seeing the oppression of his people under Pharaoh, Moses initially tried to do things his way in his own time. After observing an Egyptian beating a fellow Hebrew, he killed the offender and hid the body in the sand. While his motive was good, Moses accomplished nothing by killing one Egyptian. Doing it his way meant fleeing Egypt, separation from his own people, losing his position and power, and 40 years as an alien in a foreign land. Meanwhile, the Hebrews spent another 40 miserable years in slavery! It was only when Moses abided by God’s timing and way that he brought Egypt to its knees and the entire Hebrew nation to freedom!

On the other hand, when David was on the run from Saul, he passed up two opportunities to kill the king and take the crown. Even though he’d been anointed king by Samuel, David knew that God anointed Saul first. David trusted that, in God’s time and His way, Saul would fall and he faithfully waited until God’s time. He was, indeed, a man after God’s own heart!

As counter-intuitive as it often seems, we’re supposed to do things God’s way in His time. It’s not a question of how or when it’s always been done or we want to do it; it’s how and when God wants it done! Remember, if we’re not fishing at His time from the right side of the boat, it doesn’t matter how many times we drop that net!

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord. “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine. For just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.” [Isaiah 55:8-9 (NLT)]

Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect. Romans 12:2 (NLT)]

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September 5, 2024

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Attitudes & Behavior, Bible Stories, Church & Worship, Family, Friends & Fellowship, Fruit of the Spirit, Money & Wealth, Temptation & Sin

MODESTY

Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or expensive apparel, but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness. [1 Timothy 2:9-10 (NASB)]

peacockDo these verses mean I can’t wear my pearl earrings, diamond wedding ring, or gold cross to church? Do I have to say “farewell” to Nordstrom’s and start shopping solely at outlets and discount stores? Although my hair is short, it’s hard to believe my grand’s lovely French braids are inappropriate at church or anywhere else. What did Paul and Peter mean with their admonitions about women’s attire and modesty?

Let’s put the Apostles’ words into cultural context. The early church was a mix of Jew, Gentile, men, women, free, slave, wealthy, and poor. In the Roman Empire, jewelry and expensive clothing of linen, silk, and embroidered fabric were valued as much for the status they gave the owner as for their beauty. Behaving like a peacock by showing off one’s extravagant jewelry and lavish apparel was the ancient way of openly boasting about one’s position, bank balance, and investment portfolio. While it was as crass and insensitive in the 1st century as it is today, some members of the early church were doing just that!

More valuable than diamonds at the time, pearls represented both wealth and power. Rich women often embellished their clothing with pearls; the more pearls a woman wore, the richer and more esteemed she (and her spouse) were. Because only people of great wealth or high status wore them, pearls set the wearer apart from the rest of the public.

As for braids—when wealthy women plaited their hair during the Roman period, they’d entwine strands of gold, precious stones, and pearls into the braid. The Apostles’ issue with plaited hair wasn’t the braid; it was with the showy embellishments in the braid! Like lavish clothing, pearls, and excessive jewelry, such braids implied a sort of social “pecking order” or class system that was unacceptable in a community where all are to be one in Jesus Christ!

While we think of immodest dress as attire that leaves little or nothing to the imagination, neither Paul nor Peter were referring to things like cleavage, bare midriffs, miniskirts, or “booty” shorts; those things were not an issue in the 1st century. A woman’s lack of coverage wasn’t what concerned the Apostles nor were they establishing a “modesty patrol.” Nevertheless, taking these verses out of context, some denominations have established rules regarding women’s attire requiring things like hemlines below the knee and sleeves that extend to the elbow while prohibiting things like make-up, jewelry beyond a wedding ring and watch, and women’s slacks because “they immodestly reveal the feminine contours of upper leg, thigh, and hip.”

It wasn’t excess skin that concerned Paul and Peter; it was an excess in attire that demonstrated pride, self-importance, and arrogance! The modesty about which the Apostles were speaking was economic and social rather than sexual in nature. Addressing those who were flaunting their wealth and social status, the Apostles took issue with the ostentatious displays of opulence that threatened a sense of kinship and unity within the early church.

Rather than turn legalistic with an external set of rules regarding proper attire, Paul and Peter set a much higher standard for us all—that of godliness. Qualities like respect, humility, love, trust, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, and reverence are conditions of the heart—not an issue of clothing. The way we present ourselves to others isn’t supposed to point to us; it should point to Jesus. No matter how we’re attired, if we haven’t put on Christ, we’re not dressed properly!

Many come to bring their clothes to church rather than themselves. [Thomas Fuller]

Your adornment must not be merely the external—braiding the hair, wearing gold jewelry, or putting on apparel; but it should be the hidden person of the heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is precious in the sight of God. … clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God is opposed to the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. [1 Peter 3:3-4,5:5 (NASB)]

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