Whiter Than Snow

We woke up this morning to a fresh coat of snow this morning.  God opened up His storehouses and gave us our first snow to blanket the ground this season.   It was bright. It was pure.  It covered all the deadness of the leafless trees and thistles left over from autumn.  It was beautiful.

My son, not realizing the allegory in his words, said 'Dad, I love the snow, God must love us alot to give us snow'.

My mind immediately raced to Isaiah chapter 1 and Psalm 51.  "Though your sins are as scarlet, they will be as white as snow" and "Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow".  What could be whiter than snow?!  It's pretty white!  And yet God promises to wash us until we are whiter than snow.

I love snow for that very reason... it reminds us of the cleansing we received from the blood of Jesus Christ.  The thistles of sin are covered by the atonement made possible by what Jesus did on that bloody cross.  

I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas?  No need to dream about that.  It's already a reality for those who put their faith and trust in the soul cleansing blood of the Savior whose birth we celebrate next week!

Depart From Me...

Back in 1987, Oral Roberts conned a whole bunch of people into sending him money by boldly stating that God was going to 'call him home' unless he raised 8 million dollars.  Well, yesterday God called Oral Roberts 'somewhere' - and only He and Roberts know where that is.  Was it 'home'?   One of the Pittsburgh newspapers mentioned that he was known as the 'patriarch of the prosperity gospel'.  You know... the health, wealth and prosperity... name it and claim it... blab it and grab it...

If the Bible is true, then Oral Roberts did more in his storied career for the kingdom of Satan than we'd care to imagine.   How many unsuspecting and undiscerning people got suckered into his damnable heresies?  How many people went unwittingly to hell because the true gospel of Jesus Christ was trampled underfoot and confused by slick talk of healing, profit, worldly gain, position and materialism.    How many hurting people ended up rejecting Jesus Christ, because Roberts' fatally flawed theology left them disappointed because 'God didn't come through for them' as advertised.   Unfortunately, the passing of Oral Roberts isn't the end of his influence.  There are untold thousands - maybe millions - who will in the future embrace his skewed thought process and ultimately his false gospel.

Lord, Lord, did we not prophecy in Your name... and in Your name do this... and in your name do that...?
"Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness".
What a legacy.

Photo Op

I had my picture on the front page of several national newspapers!  

It all started when a quick trip to the mall turned into a photo op with the President and First Lady.   I didn't even know they were supposed to be around here.   An art show was being staged in the middle of the mall and the Secret Service grabbed me by the arm and told me I was going to be in a photo with the President.    Not me!  I didn't want to be in this picture.  No way!  And the First Lady was rather annoyed about me being there as well.  But no one had a choice.   So rather reluctantly, I stood there and played the part - all of us posing for the camera as if it were a candid shot of us all looking and pointing at the hideous artwork hanging on the wall in the mall corridor.   When it was all over my face was plastered all over the internet news sites and on the front of several national newspapers.  I was getting phone calls from everyone ranging from 'congratulations' to 'threats'.   "Why does this have to happen to me", I thought.  

Then I was suddenly jolted out of my sleep by the welcomed alarm clock.   What a dream!  Or should I say, nightmare...

Goodbye Larry

Yesterday, my family attended a memorial service for  a man we knew who went to heaven a week earlier.  It was an awesome event.  It sounds weird to say that a memorial service could be awesome.  But I will share with you some of the reasons why I thought that.    This friend of ours was a regular guy - a simple man - who loved Jesus Christ.  Many people stood up to give testimony that there was no doubt that this man loved the Lord.   It wasn't a fake service where everyone built him up to be some perfect individual who never wronged anybody.  No, people talked about his rough edges, his flaws, his funny side, his compassion, his hurts, his health problems.   See, he was a normal, average guy... in one sense.   But in another sense this man left us all wanting to be like him.   He had gained the respect of every life he touched.   And in that regard, he is a hero in my mind.    He loved his family.  He loved his Bible.  He loved his God.  And now he is in the presence of his Savior.   And that is what we celebrated yesterday.   Awesome.

Merry CHRISSmas??

Merry Chrissmas?!  Who is Chriss?  Are we celebrating Chriss's birthday this year?  Is this some kind of a practical joke?  Is this some subtle attempt at political correctness?

There are any number of websites out there that allow you to upload your own pictures and put them on a greeting card.   They are just simply templates designed by someone hired by the website.  I found what I thought was an attractive design and color that matched what I was looking for in a family Christmas card.

But imagine my horror and embarrassment when I received them in the mail with the word 'Christmas' misspelled!   When I picked the design on the website, the picture was very small and it was tough to see the cursive script, but it appeared to be what I was looking for.   I don't go for 'Happy Holidays' or 'Seasons Greetings', even though those are nice enough to say...  but we say 'Merry Christmas' around here.   And so I picked the artwork you see in the picture above.   My blood boiled and my anger reached a fevered pitch when I opened up my package to see my 'Chrissmas' cards.    If someone doesn't want to use the radical 'Merry Christmas' greeting, then OK, use something else, BUT DON'T CHANGE THE SPELLING OF CHRISTMAS in a subtle manner!   I sent the company a note telling them that they need to either correct the spelling or at least change the design to make it more clear.   And... to any of you who receive our family's card, this blog posting is my disclaimer that this was not my design!
Merry ChrisTmas!
Mark

The Only Way Out of the Woods

There's no end in sight to the coverage of Tiger Woods.  He seemingly had everything he ever wanted.  Fame and riches go far in some people's mind.   How could he do these despicable things, we ask.   The fact is, you and I have much in common with Woods in that we're in desperate need of Christ every minute of every day.  Sure, Woods needs help getting house in order, his marriage back together and gaining back his reputation, but his greatest need is a relationship with Jesus Christ.   That billion dollars of his will one day be squandered by his heirs (if he doesn't squander it first), but none of it will amount to a hill of beans when he stands before the Judge some day.    How easy it would be for me to sit in judgment of him myself... how easy it might be to just turn off the TV and try to forget about all the media sensationalization of the man's sin problem...  maybe I could spend some time in prayer for the man.    Maybe we all could... and maybe his eyes may be opened to the truth someday.    We could all pray that maybe these events will bring him to his knees in ways that a billion dollars never could.

Fear Not

What are the fears that grip us?  What kind of things paralyze us?  And what is the antidote to those fears?
As we learned this past week in a great Sunday School class conducted by a guest speaker, the answer can be found in Isaiah 41:10 - "Do not fear, for I am with you; do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."

In this verse we find five pillars of truth regarding fear:
1).  God is with you
2).  God is your God
3).  God will strengthen you
4).  God will help you
5).  God will uphold you

To put it in a more personal way, you could say:

1).  God is with ME!

2).  God is MY God!

3).  God will strengthen ME!

4).  God will help ME!

5).  God will uphold ME!

Is there any more effective way of handling fear?

Admission of Wrong

Genuine remorse goes a long way.  Asking forgiveness is not the easiest thing for someone to do.    A couple weeks ago, someone lied to me.  They were slick in their deception, but it wasn't slick enough.  I saw through the weave of lies.   I haven't fallen off the turnip truck yet.  I was angry and hurt, but I moved on... hoping that this person would be convicted in their hearts after I had questioned them on the truthfulness of their 'story'.

Well, today that person approached me and told me that they were sorry for their actions.  They admitted that they hadn't been entirely truthful and they asked... begged... for my forgiveness.  I was ready to extend that forgiveness to them because it was the right thing to do.   I have been forgiven much in my life.   It wasn't necessarily ME that was wronged anyway... it was a sin against God.   I was happy to hear this person be man-enough to admit a transgression.  It made me have an enormous amount of respect for him...  it goes a long way in restoring the trust that was breached.    A very short time after he had asked for and received my forgiveness, he approached me again and said, 'I feel SOOOO much better now!'    Of course he did!  When someone lies, if they have any conscience left, they will be eaten up with guilt.   Making things right lifts a heavy burden that our souls are not meant to bear.     Had I not forgiven this person, then BOTH of us would have been carrying around that load.   And now both of us are free from that brutal heaviness.

Truth and a Christian Worldview

There are several reasons why I write things on this blog.  One reason is completely selfish:  when I write out things I am learning, it helps me to remember.  I can put my random thoughts together about what I am learning, hopefully in a meaningful manner.  In most cases, it doesn't even really matter if anyone else ever reads it.   I really don't know who all reads the things on this blog.  Hopefully, if there is anyone reading it, that it's helpful or encouraging... but even if there isn't, it's helpful for me to transfer the thoughts out of my head and onto the computer via the keypad.    In some cases it's to get things off my chest.    This blog posting is just for that purpose.   It is usually never my intent to have a critical spirit.   When I sound critical, it just may be that it is myself I am criticizing...  but today, I need to criticize someone else - without mentioning any names.  This involves contending for the truth as we are instructed to do in the book of Jude.  

My wife and I considered sending our homeschooled son to a different Christian school than he'd gone to in the past.  It appeared their academics were outstanding... languages, science labs, technology.   Their claimed goal was to train up leaders by teaching them from a 'Christian Worldview'.   Christian Worldview is a term that sounds nice, but it needs to be precisely defined.    Their claim was that they were committed to the 'truth'.   It all sounded so good.

So I decided to find out exactly what the Christian Worldview and precisely how committed they were to the 'truth' by asking one simple question:   "What do you teach regarding the literal six-day creation?"
The response was astounding but very indicative of the sad condition of Christianity today:  "Well we don't go into controversial topics like that... some people believe in literal days, some people believe a day could be a thousand years... so we just skim over it and if there are any questions we let the parents teach their children so there is no divisiveness...".    

To have a proper Christian worldview and to have a correct grasp of the truth, we must rightly divide the Word of Truth from the very beginning.   The belief in a literal six-day creation is the cornerstone to understanding the rest of scripture, including the gospel message.    When we allow all kinds of interpretations about what a 'day' really is, we are really asking the same thing the serpent asked Eve, 'Did God really say...'    God has told us in His Word how long it took to make everything.  This has been made into a controversy needlessly - especially in Christian circles among professing Bible-believing people.   A plain reading of the creation passages, with no presuppositions, clearly tells us of the six-day creative process.  Even other passages support the literal interpretion of a 'day', including Exodus 20 when we read of the fourth commandment.    The passage 'one day is as a thousand years', is often used to support the day-age theory, but that is a misuse of the intent of that verse.  That verse is simply using language to explain the timeless nature of God... not to explain what a 'day' means.   There are many things to say in defense of the six-day literal creation, but the one verse that clearly dismisses any possibility of a day being 'ages' is found in Romans 5:12.   "Through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin".  If the days were long periods of time, thousands or millions of years, then there would be death before sin... which would make Romans 5:12 false.

So a proper Christian worldview means that we teach our children the TRUTH about creation.  Instead of leaving them out on a limb to discover this truth on their own, we should be heralding the creation account as it is told to us in the Bible.   If we want to create effective Christian leaders, the Bible must be made clear to them starting from Genesis chapter one.


We cannot say we are committed to the truth and then waffle on something as foundational as creation.    Labeling the creation truths as controversial, and then glossing over this part of the Bible is a weak, watered-down and ultimately damaging position.   It sets the stage for the questioning of other fundamental truths of the Bible.  Was Mary really a virgin?  Did Jesus really die?  Is He really the only way?  Am I really secure in my salvation?   Did God really say...

This issue is much more than 'is a day really a day'.  It comes down to what our view of scripture is.   We have a Bible where God has communicated to us certain things in language that we can understand.
Granted, there are tough theological concepts to grasp, but creation is not one of them.   It couldn't be any more crystal clear than it is stated in the first chapters of the Bible.   If a day isn't a day, then maybe Adam is figurative.  If the first Adam is figurative, maybe the second Adam is too? And so there is this slippery slope that began when we tried to explain that a 'day' is something other than a 'day'. 


It is vitally important for Christians to develop positions on the issues that define our faith through careful and proper study of God's Word.   And while parents are the primary molders of a child's faith, certainly a Christian school has a hearty influence.   So a wrong position or lack of a position runs contrary to what we are trying to do with our children.    Shame on any school, pastor, teacher or any self-professing Bible-believing person for not teaching the truth about creation.  

In the end, our son went back to the Christian school that he'd been a part of since kindergarten.  They, like other schools, are not without their own set of weaknesses or problems.  But one thing they do not equivocate on - the TRUTH about creation as we learn it in the scriptures.  And so they have our highest degree of respect.

Looking Forward

Today is the first day of December.  It marks the beginning of my annual month-long reflection on the year that has been.   It also is the time where I look to the coming year by setting a few goals.  I am not one to make New Year's Resolutions, but I don't like to stumble aimlessly into another year either.    I thought a little about what I'd like to accomplish spiritually.  They are subject to change of course, but these are the items that I hope to focus on in 2010...  these will probably show up in some form on this blog from time to time:

1).  An intensive book study of Proverbs.   Continue on with the Charles Bridges commentary.
2).  Memorize the first four chapters of Proverbs.
3).  Create a commentary on various themes from Proverbs.
4).  Study the religion of Islam so I can better understand the challenges that we face as a nation and as Christians.  Having had contact with Muslims in the past leave me with no doubt that I will encounter them again.  It would be nice to be able to know where they're coming from, using that as a springboard for sharing the soul-saving truth with them.
5).  Study a hero of the faith.  Possibly John Calvin or George Whitefield.