Simeon and Anna – Ponderings

Luke 2:25 – 38

Preliminary thoughts: Why didn’t any of the religious leaders go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem? (Matthew 2:1 – 6).

In Luke 2:21 – 38 Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to Jerusalem; neither Herod nor the religious leaders knew what Child was in their midst. The same can be said for the religious leaders in Luke 2:41 – 47.

But then we have Simeon and Anna, they knew – they may not have known much, we don’t know how much they knew, we don’t know the breath of their understanding, but they certainly had a depth of understanding, of connection, they knew the Child…and knowing the Child was enough. Is knowing the Child enough for us? Not that we shouldn’t be growing in the grace and wisdom of our Lord Jesus, but if simply knowing Him and being in His Presence is all we had would it be enough?

Simeon was “looking for the consolation of Israel”. Anna, after seeing Jesus, spoke “of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” It appears that there was a “people within a people” in Israel, a remnant within a people. The perfunctory, and often political, practice of religion in Jerusalem was not what this remnant understood to be in keeping with the Law of God. Christ came to two representatives of this remnant, Simeon and Anna.

Since the fastings of the Bible are related to intercession (and if there is an exception to this forgive me for missing it), I think Anna’s fastings must be related to seeking the God of her fathers for “the redemption of Jerusalem”. (Yes, intercessory fastings result in our continued spiritual formation; and I do not mean to suggest that we may not fast for clarity and devotion in our individual and familial lives, but the thrust of Biblically – based fasting is not ourselves but God and others. When Jesus fasted in the wilderness He fasted, I think, in preparation for what was to come, and also as the Representative New Man, New Humanity – just as we were once in Adam, we are now in Christ.)

Daniel fasted and interceded in relation to the deliverance of his people from captivity – what we see played out in Ezra and Nehemiah is the result, in some fashion, of the workings of God through the intercession of Daniel (and others perhaps?). God spoke a promise of deliverance from captivity through Jeremiah, Daniel read the promise and Daniel engaged in intercession in response to the promise.

Simeon and Anna knew the promises of Yahweh, their covenant-keeping God, for the redemption of His people Israel and all nations of the earth, hence their hopes, their prayers, their intercessions.

Well, what about us? What are we looking for? Are we looking for our Lord Jesus?

Paul writes in Philippians 3:20 that we are “eagerly waiting” for our Lord Jesus from heaven. In 1 Thessalonians 1:9 – 10 we read that we have been redeemed “to serve a living  and true God and to wait for His Son from the heavens.” Hebrews 9:28 speaks of those who are “eagerly” awaiting Him. What about us? We are eagerly looking for Jesus? Are we eagerly awaiting Him?

The Holy Spirit was upon Simeon. Simeon comes into the Temple in the Spirit. How do we come when we assemble as God’s People? Do we come in expectation? Do we come prayerfully? Do we come in the Holy Spirit?

It had been revealed to Simeon by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. This reminds me of Hebrews 11:33, that our fathers and mothers of faith “obtained promises”. Note that the promise given to Simeon was for Simeon and that it was not normative for Simeon’s contemporaries, including those of the remnant.

I have seen much heartache and confusion within the church when people, especially people in authority, attempt to make an understanding or perspective that is particular to them and their relationship with Christ normative for others. Often such a perspective or understanding is in its infancy, often it is misunderstood, often it does not reach maturity in a context of Biblical support and understanding, and often (perhaps nearly always) it is not vetted and tested by mature brothers and sisters. We have a common relationship with our Lord Jesus, and we, of course, have our individual relationships with our Lord Jesus – there is a mystical reciprocity and interchange in all of this, it is Trinitarian in nature for it is rooted in the Trinity.

What was it like for Simeon to awake each morning? Will this be the Day? Will this be the Day?  What about us? Are we looking for our Lord Jesus? Will this be the Day? Certainly our Lord will come to us today, if it is not the Day it is assuredly a Day – a Day in which Jesus comes to us, lives with us and in us, comes to us in other people, comes to us in the vicissitudes of life, comes to us in and through the Scriptures and prayer, comes to us as we see His hand in creation.

Are we looking for Jesus today? How is He coming to us?

Musings on the Incarnation

“Christmas” is nice, but I think “Incarnation” is better. Yes, “Christmas” does have historical roots, but I’m not sure it makes us stop and think the way the word “Incarnation” can. Yes, I agree, “stopping” is seldom done, as is “thinking”, but we can keep trying.

There is something about “And the Word was made flesh and tabernacled among us, and we saw His glory” (John 1:14). Have we also seen His glory? Have I? Have you?

Hebrews Chapter Two unveils the Incarnation in its many-faceted mystery, which quite frankly, even though I see it I don’t pretend to understand it. God’s love is so utterly unlike who I am that it overwhelms me, to think that God in Christ would die for me, His enemy (Romans 5:6 – 11), is more than I can comprehend.

Christ came to “taste death for every person” (Hebrews 2:9). He came to deliver us from the “fear of death” (Hebrews 2:15). He took on “flesh and blood” (Hebrews 2:14) and was made like us “in all things” (Hebrews 2:17).

Then there is the enigmatic suffering which Jesus Christ experienced, He was “made complete…through sufferings” (2:10); “through death” He rendered the enemy “powerless” (2:14); He “made propitiation for the sins of the people” (2:17); He faced temptation “in that which He has suffered” (2:18).

In Hebrews Chapter Two we also see that Jesus came for His brothers and sisters, and that through Jesus Christ the Father is bringing “many sons [and daughters] to glory” (2:10). In 2:11 we see that Jesus Christ calls us “brethren” because those who He is sanctifying are from His Father (see also John 15:16; 17:6, 14 – 26).

As Athanasius wrote in the fourth century, “He became as we are, so that we might become as His is.” Jesus is calling us back to our Father, ever calling us, ever sanctifying us. John writes, “By this, love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; because as He is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 1:16).

We now call out to God, “Abba, Father!” (Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6).  As Paul writes (Galatians 4:7), “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”

The Incarnation continues in the sons and daughters of the living God. The Creator has come to re-create us into His image. That which was marred is being restored. That which was dead is brought to life.

Is the Incarnation continuing in me?

In you?

Born of a Woman

“Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which He promised in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection of the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord…” (Romans 1:1 – 4).

“But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4 – 5).

God Himself was born of a woman, sharing in our flesh and blood (Hebrews 2:14), being made like us all in all things (Hebrews 2:17), yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15; 2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus shared in our flesh and blood so that we might share in His flesh and blood (John 6:53 – 52 – 58). This is something to ponder.

Jesus is born of the seed of David according to the flesh (Romans 1:3) and He gives help to the seed of Abraham (Hebrews 2:16). Jesus shares in humanity that He might taste death for every person (Hebrews 2:8 – 9). So we have this great cosmic mystery in which Jesus Christ comes to us through the seed of David, the seed of Abraham, the seed of humanity made in the image of God (Matthew 1:1; Luke 3:38).

Can we see this vast flow of Divine purpose? Do we see this promise of the Gospel of God? Are we participants in this unfolding mysterious drama – playing out before things seen and unseen?

Jesus Christ was “born of a woman” that He might be born in us; that from Christ and in Christ and through Jesus Christ a new humanity would rise from the dead and cry “Abba Father!” (Galatians 4:6; Romans 8:15).

And so in Christ we are His Bride; He “gave Himself up” for His Bride (Ephesians 5:25 – 32); and from the union of Christ and His Bride children are born; that which Adam and Eve did not do, Jesus Christ came to accomplish – perfecting His Bride and bringing many sons to glory (Ephesians 5:27; Hebrews 2:10 – 13).

This is something to ponder.

Angels and Prophets

Now it happened that while he was performing his priestly service before God in the appointed order of his division, according to the custom of the priestly office, he was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And the whole multitude of the people were in prayer outside at the hour of the incense offering. And an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing to the right of the altar of incense. Zacharias was troubled when he saw the angel, and fear gripped him. But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will give him the name John. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord; and he will drink no wine or liquor, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the sons of Israel back to the Lord their God. It is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous, so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Zacharias said to the angel, “How will I know this for certain? For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.” The angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And behold, you shall be silent and unable to speak until the day when these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled in their proper time.”  (Luke 1: 8 – 20.)

This is the first of much recorded angelic activity surrounding the birth of Jesus Christ (see Matthew chapters 1 and 2 and Luke chapters 1 and 2). It is also the first prophetic – angelic activity recorded in the Bible since the prophet Malachi, who lived around 400 – 450 years before Zacharias and the birth of Jesus Christ. There has been 400 years of silence – and now, in the above passage, God is speaking once again to His people and to the world. After 400 years of darkness the true Light is shining, the Star is appearing, God is coming to earth to recreate humanity. “Let there be Light” is playing out once again.

Gabriel’s words to Zacharias concerning Elijah turning the hearts of the fathers back to the children are from Malachi; in fact, Gabriel’s words contain a portion of the last verse of the last book of what we call the Old Testament, Malachi 4:6.  God had not spoken for 400 years and when He begins speaking again He takes up where He left off.

(Just to be clear, I am not suggesting that God wasn’t speaking to individuals during this 400 years, God is ever looking for those who desire to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth and desiring relationship with them).

There is another connection in Luke Chapter 1 with Malachi; much of Malachi is focused on the degenerate priesthood and the degenerate worship of Judah. In Zacharias we see a priest serving in the Temple – so again the prophetic Word of God picks up where it left off. There is a contrast, however, in that in Zacharias we see a man “…righteous in the sight of God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord” (Luke 1:6) contrasted with the degenerate priests of Malachi.

Was Zacharias’s petition (Luke 1:13) concerning a child, or was it concerning the People of God and the coming Messiah? Could it have been both? Would Zacharias not have prayed for a child? Would he also not have prayed that the Messiah would come and that God’s People would be delivered from Roman dominance? While I do think that prayer for a child is the most immediate sense (a prayer that he had no doubt ceased to offer quite a few years prior to Gabriel’s appearance), I don’t think we need discount prayer for the Messiah.  

Sometimes we just don’t believe when our prayers are answered (Luke 1:20). Here is Zacharias, a righteous priest, performing acts of worship in the Temple, chosen by lot among the priests to offer incense, with people outside praying, and an angel appears at the altar of incense, the angel is quoting Malachi – the last words of the Law and the Prophets – Malachi, a prophetic book judging a corrupt priesthood, corrupt Temple-worship, and a corrupt people; and yet a book with promise, promise of restoration, promise of true worship, promise of the Messiah. O if Zacharias had only made the connection between the present and the past and the future, if he had only “seen” the Word of God from eternity past to Malachi to the words of Gabriel. But of course, God knows we are frail both in body and in understanding – His mercies are everlasting.

How is the Word of God coming to us today? Are we living in the Word of God? Are we breathing the Word of God? Has God’s Word taken up residence in our lives? In our souls?

Or…as Zacharias…are we mute?

Gloria Jacobs

During the early hours of Monday, November 26, 2018, Gloria Jacobs, my dear friend, went to be with Jesus. This is a great loss to Vickie and me. While I have known Gloria since around 1989 or 1990, during the past seven years Gloria and I became exceptionally close as business colleagues and friends – as I reflect back on this, when I began working with her in 2011 we became instant friends – it was as if we had a shared history and already knew each other.

Gloria touched hundreds, if not thousands, of lives. The tears that were shed when news of her passing was relayed were many and they are still flowing.

Her relationship with Jesus Christ entered a new depth after her retirement; she read the Bible through and then said to me, “Why did I wait so long to do this?” Then she started to read it through again. While we worked together (we had adjacent offices) we had many times of prayer. These times continued during her retirement, and then mine, over the phone. I used to talk to her at least once a week; usually calling her after my Tuesday- morning men’s group. This past Tuesday felt different with no Gloria to call.

Gloria was always looking out for the disenfranchised, the people without a voice. She cared for her employees deeply, and while holding them accountable was kind and generous. If you worked for Gloria you were pretty much adopted into her family.

Gloria had the ability to interact with wealthy clients, and to politely but firmly ask drug dealers to move their business off her properties. She had properties in some of the most dangerous areas of Richmond; the good people were glad to see her and the bad people gave her room and moved away from her.

There is so much more I could say, some of which I’ll share at her memorial service this Saturday. She loved her husband Jake and daughter Susan, and was devoted to them. I am blessed that she also loved Vickie and me and that she adopted us into her family.

As you view the photo, Gloria is on my left, Deb Eure on my right. This was taken at my retirement luncheon about a year ago. Both of these women have had a powerful impact on my life - all three of us love Jesus. 

Lina and Her Tree

You may recall that last year our basset-mix Lina developed an affection for one of our Christmas trees. Well, the tree is back and so is Lina (photo below).

It’s hard to see puppies grow old, you know it’s going to happen and you enjoy the time you have with them, but you know what’s ahead and they don’t. Lina will be 14, the Lord willing, in April. We have been blessed to have dogs who live long, and we always grieve with others who lose their pets before their life expectancies.

Not too long ago we visited friends and asked, “Where is Betsy?” Betsy was a sweet yellow Lab around four years old. They told us that Betsy died of cancer. As I heard the words I could imagine the pain of our friends; the tears, the sorrow, the hurt.

Lina can’t see well anymore; her cataracts have gotten worse. Thankfully she can still hear well and we talk to her a lot so she’ll know where we are. When we had Mitzi years ago, her eyesight held up in her senior years but her hearing didn’t so we learned to speak loud and make a little noise when we entered a room she was in so we wouldn’t startle her if her head was turned away from us.

Lily turns ten in a couple of weeks. When we got Lily, Lina was almost four. Lina thought Lily an intrusion – we had recently lost Darby and it was obvious that Lina missed her, every morning she checked out the place where Darby had slept. Darby and Lina were always together, and often they were touching. While Lina and Lily are often together, they aren’t as inseparable as Lina and Darby were.

Well, in a world of insanity it’s nice and comforting to have puppies (they are always puppies to us).

Who knows, when we get to Narnia we may recognize that our relationship with puppies was one of the great miracles of life here in the Shadowlands – or we may realize it now.

An Agony of Soul On Thanksgiving

Parades and football games and turkey and pumpkin pie. A national celebration – to write or not to write?

Here is a Biblical text for today, speaking of Abraham’s nephew Lot, Peter writes, “…and if He [God] rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds)…” 2 Peter 2:7 – 8.

If we are disciples of Jesus Christ, if we are living in union with the Trinity, then while as individual sons and daughters of God, and as families and churches within the Kingdom of God, we ought to be giving thanks to God for His mercy and goodness and kindness toward us – but how can we possibly do anything but sorrowfully repent on behalf of our nation when we think of this day, Thanksgiving Day, as a national holiday?

We live in a nation which, along with the rest of the West, has codified the rejection of the image of God. The attack against God’s image extends from the highest levels of academia to primary education; to government, to business, to the arts, to science, to sports – there is no area of our society that is not under coercion and ever-increasing pressure. The Scriptures begin with the image of God, we then see the image of God desecrated, then we see the Image of God come to earth to restore God’s image in mankind, then the Scriptures reach their crescendo with the image of God restored in and through Jesus Christ.

If we have not become a nation worshipping the beast then what have we become?

We live in a nation that now makes no pretense of morality and justice. When money is the overt determining factor in our foreign relations then our leaders have sold our collective soul.

Make no mistake, we, as all peoples, have always had much to repent of and it has been in the best interests of our leaders to perpetuate one-sided ideals and myths to maintain our social fabric. Let us not deceive ourselves in this, as with individuals, so with nations, there is “none righteous, no not one.” However, a fair reading of the Bible teaches us that nations are nevertheless weighted in the inscrutable Divine scales of justice and that God’s mercies and blessings are worked out in history, as are His judgments. Our nation has been both a blessing and a curse in the world – this is the state of human affairs.

I think the distinction between today and yesterday lies in the stripping away of pretense and the overt attack on the image of God, morality, justice, and righteousness. It has always really been “America First”, but at least there was typically some acknowledgment of America’s duty to maintain morality and to help others – again, let us not deceive ourselves, we often cloaked our appetite for power and economic growth with manipulative myth – our sins have been many, but those who sought a better way were usually given room to speak and serve within “reason”.

But now pretense has been stripped away; Administration after recent Administration, with the cooperation of our elected representatives, and the support and fiat of our judiciary, along with the concurrence of our citizenry, has frankly made a policy of pulling down the image of God, economically and otherwise destroying those who resist, offering our children on the altar of pornographic demons in the guise of curriculum, and making the dollar the arbiter of foreign and domestic policy without apology.

Give us parades, give us sports, give us food, give us drink and weed, give us electronic cocaine – and we’ll give you our children, we’ll give you our vote, we’ll give you our hearts and minds…we’ll give you our souls to mold them as you will.

This ought to be a National Day of Mourning.

Man’s Significance – He Is A Sinner!

“And this is the very proof of Christianity’s being the highest religion, that none other has given such a profound and lofty expression of man’s significance – that he is a sinner. It is this consciousness that paganism lacks.” Kierkegaard.

Dignity is bestowed upon men and women when they are recognized as sinners outside of Jesus Christ. This is one of the great tragedies of our churches – in becoming places of entertainment, whose highest function is to make us feel good, they (certainly not all) have robbed us of our significance. For when we affirm that outside of Christ we are sinners, we also affirm that we are created in the image of God and that we are now alienated from the life of God (Ephesians 2:1 – 10; 4:17 – 24).

When we justify our sins, when we explain away the evil in the world which is in us, when we are such fools as to believe that we can educate evil away, or that money and food will eliminate evil (just look at how many of the rich and powerful and famous live and die and exploit humanity) – when we look at ourselves as products of time plus matter plus chance – when we do these things we strip away the image of God within us, we desecrate the Divine image, we enslave our fellow man making them less than they are – we snuff out any vestige of Divine Dignity that shows a glimmer of life, of light, of sympathy, of decency. We offer ourselves and our children on the altars of demons – yes, I wrote demons. For what other than the demonic can possibly account for the self-destruction we see around us?

As Pascal taught, only Christianity accounts for the fact that mankind can be angelic one moment and evil the next – this is not the way it was meant to be. We are broken, we are sinners, and only in Christ and by Christ can we experience and discover and begin to understand what it is to live in intimate relationship with God and with one another – only in Christ can the true measure and fulness of our significance be restored.

Are We Uncomfortable?

Here is a fine piece by Brett McCracken that ought to challenge us. What do these "vital signs" look like in our lives? In our churches?

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/8-signs-your-christianity-is-too-comfortable/

The Nature of Our Salvation

P.T. Forsyth writes, “The absolute nature of our salvation brought to our faith can only be secured by the absolute nature of him who brought it.” (From The Person and Place of Jesus Christ). 

To many professing Christians, the nature of salvation is contingent. It is contingent on their own performance, on their own measuring up to their own standard of holiness and righteousness. Now you may be thinking, “Oh no, it is not my standard of holiness and righteousness that I must live up to, it is God’s.”

But how can such a thing be? For to truly “see” God’s righteousness and holiness is to also truly “see” that we can never attain (nor maintain) that which is God’s and God’s alone. With Isaiah we must cry, “Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5). With Peter we must cry, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8). 

If we must live according to our own efforts, if we must base our sense of righteousness on our own behavior – then we must conjure up our own set of standards, for God’s Law is designed to bring us to our knees in repentance, confession, and to an utter realization that in and of ourselves we can produce nothing acceptable to God (Romans Chapter 3). It is a fool who makes the nature of his salvation contingent upon himself. 

On the other hand, if God was made flesh and lived among us, and if that same God died to bring us back to Himself, and if that same God called us to Himself – then the nature  of our salvation is the nature of God; in completeness, in assurance, in certainty, in essence. Indeed, our salvation is “secured by the absolute nature of him who brought it”.

Thought Article by Patrick Schreiner

Michael Daily left a comment on Friday's post that included a link to a thoughtful article by Patrick Schreiner, here is the link - I encourage you to read it. We really should learn to be a distinct people.


https://erlc.com/resource-library/articles/why-we-should-follow-pauls-example-in-our-political-moment

Who Are We In This Political Season?

The Epistle to Diognetus was written most likely in the second or third century A.D. by an unknown (to us) Christian to those outside the church - it is a “tract”, a witnessing tool.

Here is a quote, “For Christians are not distinguished from the rest of humanity by country, language, or custom. For nowhere do they live in cities of their own, nor do they speak some unusual dialect, nor do they practice an eccentric way of life. This teaching of theirs has not been discovered by the thought and reflection of ingenious people, nor do they promote any human doctrine, as some do. But while they live in both Greek and barbarian cities, as each one’s lot was cast, and follow the local customs in dress and food and other aspects of life, at the same time they demonstrate the remarkable and admittedly unusual character of their own citizenship. They live in their own countries, but only as nonresidents; they participate in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign county is their fatherland, and every fatherland is foreign…in a word, what the soul is to the body, Christians are to the world.” [italics mine]. (The Epistle to Diognetus, in Michael W. Holmes, the Apostolic Fathers in English, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2006), 295-96.

The very word “church” speaks of the followers of Jesus Christ as a people “called out” from the world, a distinct people. Paul tells the Philippians that their citizenship is in heaven (Phil. 3:20), and Peter teaches that we are a “holy nation, a people for God’s own possession” (1 Peter 2:9).

Every nation-state wants the hearts of its people to be totally devoted to the state. This simply cannot be the case with those who follow Jesus Christ. In order to serve the state and our neighbors we must first be citizens of the Kingdom of God. We must learn to view ideas and events through the Kingdom of God, seeking God’s Kingdom first (Matthew 6:33). And we must never lose sight of the fact that he who would love the world-system and be a friend to the world-system is an enemy of God (James 4:4; 1 John 2:15 – 17). We are to love the people of the world but not those systems which enslave them – and there is no system that is without the toxicity of total depravity.

The above words of the early-Christian writer to Diognetus, along with the words of the Holy Spirit through Peter and Paul, ought to challenge us. Where are our hearts and minds? Where are they really? Are we (the church) truly a “city set on a hill” (Matthew 5:14), or are we bound up (and in) political, social, and economic systems that have robbed us of our love for Jesus Christ, our love for our fellow man (including our witness), and our true service to the lost men and women around us?

Do We Mourn?

"Those who cannot find time to mourn for their sins also lack time to mend." Fulton Sheen

I wonder if confessing sins, when we do stop to do so, is more like using a drive-thru bank, with God as the teller, than a deliberate pondering and repentance. Or perhaps God is the traffic cop who writes us a ticket and we mail the fine to the court - never having to appear before the judge. 

How can the Holy Spirit work His conviction and deliverance and mending in a people who believe in cheap grace, cheap confession, cheap forgiveness, and cheap deliverance and obedience? 

If sin were cheap Jesus Christ would not have given His life. We were not cheaply redeemed...why do we cheaply confess? Why do we cheaply live? 

Reformation Day – Does Anyone Really Care?

During the past week or so I’ve found one person, out of quite a few professing Christians, who knew that October 31 is the day that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517. (While there is some discussion whether October 31 is the actual day, and that it may have been within a few days afterward, there is agreement that October 31 is the day that he sent letters to bishops expressing the concerns laid out in the 95 Theses).

Does it matter what we believe?

Ligonier Ministries recently commissioned a survey which, among other things, found that 97% of professing Evangelicals agree with this statement: “There is one true God in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.”  However, 78% of these same respondents also agreed with this statement: “Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God.”  

The two statements are, of course, contradictory, which doesn’t appear to have bothered 78% of the people. If Jesus is “created” then He cannot be God. What have we descended to in our Biblical and theological illiteracy?

Does it matter what we believe? Does it matter that we know who Jesus is? It mattered to Martin Luther, but it does not appear to matter to us. Give us a nice religious or “spiritual” experience and we seem to be okay. Rather than love “abounding more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that we may approve things that are excellent” (Philippians 1:9-10), we seem to be abounding more and more in all ignorance.

An earlier reformer, Jan Huss, was condemned at the Council of Constance in 1415 and on July 6 of that year was burned at the stake. Huss prayed, “Lord Jesus, it is for thee that I patiently endure this cruel death. I pray thee to have mercy on my enemies.” He was heard reciting the Psalms as the flames engulfed him. His ashes were tossed into a lake so nothing of his body would remain. His followers took soil from the place of his execution and took it to Bohemia from Constance.

Huss had been greatly influenced by John Wycliffe (died December 31, 1384). The same Council of Constance decreed that Wycliffe’s body be dug up and burned and his ashes thrown into a river in England. As John Foxe wrote in his book of martyrs, "…though they dug up his body, burnt his bones, and drowned his ashes, yet the Word of God and the truth of his doctrine, with the fruit and success thereof, they could not burn; which yet to this day...doth remain."

From those in Bohemia who believed the Gospel of Jesus Christ which Huss preached came the Moravian Brethren, who were influential in the conversion of John and Charles Wesley. Huss’s writings also encouraged Martin Luther. John Wesley, walking into a Moravian Chapel in England heard Luther’s preface to his commentary on Romans being read and, as Wesley writes, “My heart was strangely warmed.”

Does it matter what we believe? Ask Huss and Wycliffe and Luther and Wesley.

On 6 October 1536, William Tyndale was tried and convicted of heresy and treason and put to death by being strangled and burned at the stake. By this time several thousand copies of his New Testament had been printed and distributed in England. It was reported that Tyndale's last words before his death were "Lord, open the king of England's eyes."

Does it matter what we believe? Ask William Tyndale.

In Oxford, England on October 16, 1555, as Hugh Latimer and his friend Nicholas Ridley were about to be burned as heretics for their teachings and beliefs, Latimer encouraged his friend, “Play the man, Master Ridley; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never be put out.”

Does it matter what we believe? Ask Latimer and Ridley.

Western Christians live in a prison of comfort and pleasure. Instead of souls being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ, our souls and bodies are satiated with pleasure and comfort while our neighbors and coworkers and families live in spiritual death, alienated from the life of God. While our brothers and sisters elsewhere are suffering for the Gospel, and while many live on a subsistence level (even in our own developed nations) we seek teachers who will make us comfortable and require only that we acquiesce in entertainment and non-threatening man-centered “church” (2 Timothy 4:1 – 5). We preach a “gospel” that requires little if anything. We play intellectual theological games without risk to our lives or livelihood (thankfully there are exceptions).

Do we really want to know Christ in the koinonia of His sufferings (Philippians 3:10)? Do we really want to be conformed to His death? Do we really count everything as loss for the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:8)?

Does it matter what we believe? Does it matter how we live? Or is today just another day?

Oh…that’s right…how foolish of me…it’s Halloween…what was I thinking. Forget the whole thing about Reformation Day and the Gospel.

Experience?

“It is not the sense of the [religious or spiritual] experience that is the main matter, but the source of the experience. It is not our experience we are conscious of, but it is Christ. It is not our experience we proclaim, but the Christ who comes in our experience.” P.T. Forsyth.

In commenting on the above, Arndt Halvorson writes, “To know Christ is to experience him, since he is a living person, for as we know, anytime we say we ‘know’ another person, we are saying we have experienced that person.”

Is it possible to work in Buckingham Palace and not think and speak of the Queen? I suppose there are two types of people in the Palace, those who know the Queen, who have a relationship with Her Majesty, and those who don’t. Then there are those who visit, and those who stand outside the gates and look in. Buckingham Palace would not have the same aura about it were it not the residence of the Queen.

I imagine that when those who know the Queen get together for tea or a pint of ale that they can’t help but talk about the Queen, about her desires, her wants, her personality, her sorrows, her joys.

How is it that professing Christians often refrain from speaking to one another about Jesus Christ? How is it that often, when we do talk of religious or spiritual things – that they are just that – “things” or “experiences” without reference to our Lord Jesus? Can we experience religion and not experience Jesus Christ? Of course we can. Can we focus on spiritual experience and not experience the Person of Jesus Christ…I think so.

When I was young I don’t know that Jesus was anything more than a romantic idea, an idealism. “Church” was more like a baseball team, meaning that there were many teams in the league and I needed to figure out which team I wanted to play on and root for – and for the most part every team had its recruiters. Did I want to experience the “long ball” or “small ball” – did I want home runs or bunts and steals and a barrage of singles?

I recently asked a professing Christian, “Tell me about Jesus.” Every verb he used was in the past tense. I said, “If I asked you to tell me about your Dad, who is still living, you would use the past tense for some things, but you’d also use the present tense to describe him and your relationship with him today. Jesus wants a relationship with you today.”

Are we conscious of Jesus Christ? Is Jesus Christ our experience?

My Master

“The first duty of every soul is to find not its freedom, but its master…If within us we find nothing over us, we succumb to what is around us…He is not an other; He is my other.” P.T. Forsyth.

Our man-centered Christianity has led us to revolve our thinking around our “free will” and make ourselves the center of attention. I would like to know how a dead man or woman (Ephesians 2:1-3) can exercise free will. I would like to understand how a slave to sin (Romans 6:6, 17), whose nature is such that it is an enemy of God (Romans 5:10), can pronounce itself the center of the salvific universe, as if its will sits on a throne and bestows its approval on the work of Jesus Christ.

To be sure this is all a mystery, the workings of God in the hearts of men and women. But also to be sure, the Gospel is about Jesus Christ and His glory and not about us being the arbiters of our destiny. As someone once prayed, “Through grace let my will respond to Thee, knowing that the power to obey does not rest in me, but that Thy free love [and grace] alone enables me to serve Thee.”

If we could imagine the most abject condition of slavery, the most frightful conditions, conditions that would make us recoil in horror, become physically sick, and produce nightmares…we would not come close to our own condition of slavery outside of Jesus Christ. When darkness covered the land and Jesus Christ cried, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, it was because our darkness, our sins, our sinful nature, our own slavery…was placed on Him – the depth of that abyss on the Cross is such that we cannot penetrate it, and if we could it would kill us mortals.

The person who is the master of his or her own soul has a fool for a master. In Christ alone can we find that enigmatic slavery that makes us free (Galatians 5:1; 2 Corinthians 3:17 – 18; Romans 6:11; 8:15).

Ponderings on this Week

I have been hearing that our nation is divided between Red states and Blue states; but where is the Christ-state? Where is the Church of our Lord Jesus? Surely we have failed in our testimony if we cannot be identified as a distinct people, a people separate and apart from the present age and a people consecrated and dedicated to our Lord Jesus.

I have heard talk of civil war. I find this hard to believe, I think most of my neighbors would just as soon be left alone to live their lives as they see fit. Let’s face it, civil war would interfere with football and I doubt that we would tolerate such an intrusion. However, for the sake of argument, let us grant that a shooting civil war is likely, then ought not the people of Jesus to be praying how they can witness to both sides? How we can serve both sides with the Gospel?

Perhaps there is a cultural civil war occurring now? Well then, ought not we to be seeking ways to witness to the Right and the Left, and to anyone remaining in the middle? Does not Jesus say, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God”?

If we are strangers and pilgrims (1 Peter), and if we are citizens of the Kingdom (Philippians 3:20), and if we are a distinct people (1 Peter 2, Ephesians 2); then ought we not to be living like such a people? Ought not the Presence of God to be permeating our speech, our actions, our attitudes? Should we not be showing our generation a better way? A better way than arrogant leadership? A better way than mocking our enemies (who, by-the-way, we ought to be blessing and loving)? A better way than embracing winning at the cost of compassion, morality, holiness, kindness, propriety and faithful witness to the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ?

Are we so foolish as to think that an alliance with the powers of this world can provide us a safe haven? That the powers of this world can further Gospel-witness? Do we think that we can ride the Beast with the Harlot and not become harlots ourselves (Revelation 17)?

Are we selling the soul of the professing church for a mess of potage? For access to power? (Whether that power lies in the Right or the Left or elsewhere). For money? (Perhaps we should just be forthright and replace crosses with dollar signs in our churches – at least that would be honest).

If we cannot say with Paul that we are determined to know nothing than Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2), if Jesus Christ is not our North Star, our center of gravity, if our very existence is not dependent on Jesus Christ…then can we please call ourselves something other than Christians, can we please call our organizations something other than churches…so that people earnestly seeking God will not be confused by us and the Gospel polluted.

Praying Like Paul

Occasionally someone will say to me, "I don't know how to pray for so-and-so." The Scriptures give us many prayers to pray for one another, and among them is Paul's prayer for the Ephesians found in Ephesians Chapter 4 - in italics below. 

We can pray this for ourselves, that we might know the fullness of God, and we can certainly pray it for one another. Are we praying it for our family? Our coworkers (in context)? The families in our churches? 

Who can you pray this prayer for today? Right now?

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

Floating Downstream

More than 40 years ago, in 1974, Archbishop Fulton Sheen made the following observations:

“First of all, we are at the end of Christendom. Now not Christianity, not the Church. Remember what I am saying.”

“Christendom is economic, political, social life as inspired by Christian principles. That is ending — we’ve seen it die. Look at the symptoms: the breakup of the family, divorce, abortion, immorality, general dishonesty.”

“The press that we read, the television that we see, is in no instance inspired by Christian principles. As a matter of fact, there is, on the part of many of us, the tendency to go down to meet the world — not to lift the world up. We are afraid of being unpopular — so we go with the mob.”

“Today the current is against us. And today the mood of the world is, ‘Go with the world, go with the spirit.’ Listen, dead bodies float downstream. Only live bodies resist the current. And so the good Lord is testing us.”

“And he is testing Western Christians with worldliness, and how many of us are falling?”

Well, we can only wonder what the good Archbishop would say today.

Psalm 119 (6)

Musings on Psalm 119

He: Verses 33 – 40

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes;

    and I will keep it to the end.

The Way of God’s statutes is, of course, our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Word, the Logos, of God; as we follow Jesus we guard and keep God’s Word. We may know the Bible without knowing Jesus Christ (John 5:39 – 40). We may know the Bible as a member of any number of religious traditions, but until we encounter Jesus Christ in the Scriptures we are numbered with the religious leaders of John 5:39 – 40, or we are like those in 2 Timothy 3:7 who are “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

As Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians Chapter Two, only God can teach us His Word. Our Father teaches us horizontally and vertically; we hear from Him both ways as He communicates to us directly and as He communicates to us through other members of the Body of Christ – we ought to seek harmony and confirmation in our understanding of God Word.

We can trust our Lord Jesus to keep us so that we may keep His Word to the end of life in this world and into the age to come. We cannot keep God’s Word by ourselves, but only as we abide in the Vine (John 15). All that we do must be done as we abide in Christ – He must be our Way of Life; without Him, outside of Him, we can do nothing that is of any worth.

Give me understanding, that I may keep your law

    and observe it with my whole heart.

We ask God to teach us, and we ask Him to give us understanding in what He teaches us. It is one thing to recite a verse or a paragraph or even an entire chapter of the Bible. It is another thing to understand it. We often sing hymns we do not understand. We read Scriptures that we do not understand. When we view the Scriptures we do not “see” their interconnectedness, we view many small pieces without “seeing” that they all combine to present a comprehensive portrait of God and His purposes. We are often like children playing with bricks at a construction site, not knowing that those bricks are to be joined together to produce a home in which people will live. We stack a few bricks together and think we have produced an award-winning structure, when all the time God’s wants us to build His Temple. We mistake our stack of bricks for a palace – God has so much more for us in His Son.

Lead me in the path of your commandments,

    for I delight in it.

Teach us, give us understanding, and now “lead” us in the Path of your commandments – again, Jesus is the Path, the Way. Jesus promises us that the Holy Spirit will lead us into all truth (John 16:12 – 15). Jesus greatly desires to reveal Himself and His ways to us through the Holy Spirit, are we coming to Him expectantly? Are we anticipating the revelation of Jesus Christ through His Word and the Holy Spirit? “All things that the Father has are mine; therefore I said that he [the Holy Spirit] takes of mine and will disclose it to you” (John 16:15). Is this our experience? Our Father wants to give to us, do we want to receive?

Incline my heart to your testimonies,

    and not to selfish gain!

We need to be taught by God, we need the Holy Spirit to give us understanding in what we are taught, we need to be led by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:14) into Christ, and we desperately need the grace and mercy of God to incline our hearts to His testimonies and away from self-centered lives. Our hearts and souls are bent inward, they are made crooked by sin and self-deceit, what we consider gain is loss, and what we consider loss is gain. The way of self-denial and of Christ-confession is the Way of the Cross; the Cross is the Way of Life.

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;

    and give me life in your ways.

Not only do we need our hearts inclined toward God, we need our eyes turned away from worthless things. Jesus says, “The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear (or healthy), your whole body will be filled with light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness…” (Matthew 6:22 – 23). Then Jesus says in the next verse, “No one can serve two masters…You cannot serve God and wealth.” We are be “Looking unto Jesus” (Hebrews 12:2), our eyes are to be on Christ and His Word as we are transformed into His likeness (2 Cor. 3:18; 1 John 3:1-3). The ways of this age can bring nothing but death, the ways of our Father give us life in His Son.

Confirm to your servant your promise,

    that you may be feared.

Hebrews 11:33 tells us that our fathers and mothers of faith “obtained promises”. This speaks to us of our intimate relationship with God; an intimacy that includes the Parent making promises to the child.

In 2 Corinthians 1:20 – 22 Paul writes, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him [Christ Jesus]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”

In Christ not only does God say “Yes” to His promises, all His promises point to Christ, reveal Christ, and have their substance in Christ. God’s promises are to establish us in Jesus Christ, to root us deeply in Him. The seal of the Spirit of God is the Promise of the Father given to us by the ascended Christ Jesus (Acts 2:33).

How does God confirm His promise? He does so through His Son, the witness of the Holy Spirit, and His Word (Hebrews 6:17 – 20; Romans 8:15 – 16; 1 John 3:23 – 24; 4:13). As the writer of Hebrews tells us (Hebrews 6:17), we are “heirs of the promise”. This promise is eternal life in Jesus Christ, this is the Promise above all promises – koinonia with God, living in the Trinity, by the Trinity, through the Trinity.

God is “other” than we are, and the more intimate we are with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit the greater our awareness of His “otherness” will be. The otherness and awesomeness of God leads to a holy fear and recognition that our God is indeed the Almighty One; we fall on our faces, we bow before Him, we worship Him – and in the midst of our holy fear we hear Him say, “Fear not.” Only those who fear God and stand in awe in His Presence hear Him say, “Fear not.”

Turn away the reproach that I dread,

    for your rules [ordinances] are good.

What does this mean? What is this reproach? It is linked to the ordinances of God. As Paul makes clear in Romans Chapter Three, we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, not one of us is righteous, not a single person on earth. Can there be any greater reproach than the reproach of sin? Of our unrighteousness? Of our rebellion against the holy One?

“Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.” (Romans 3:19 – 20).

There is only One who can take away our reproach, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 3:21 – 26). As we believe in Jesus, as we trust in Him, as we come into a relationship with Him, acknowledging our sin and rebellion and turning from our evil ways by His grace and following Him, a twofold miracle occurs; on the biological side we receive the very life of God in Christ Jesus, on the forensic (legal) side we are justified in Christ and by Christ and through Jesus Christ.  God’s Law convicts us of sin and drives us to Christ and delivers us into the hands of grace and mercy, which are the hands of Jesus Christ – the wounded hands.

Behold, I long for your precepts;

    in your righteousness give me life!

Here is a second cry, a second plea, of “give me life!” Is this not the cry of the dead man who knows he is dead? Isn’t this the plea of the man who knows that he is on a trajectory of death? Might not this be the request of the woman who realizes that she lives in an atmosphere of death? In a society that is dead and dying? God does not desire to resuscitate that which is dying – the Cross is here that we might die to the world, the flesh, and the devil; that we might die to ourselves and live unto God (Romans Chapter 6). We will only find life in the righteousness of God, and that Righteousness is Jesus Christ.

As Paul writes (1 Corinthians 1:27 – 31), “But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.””

Jesus' Strange Choice

Matthew the Tax Collector and Simon the Zealot

Matthew and Simon – what a strange choice Jesus made.

Matthew, not only aligned with the occupying Roman “establishment”, but also a tax collector – a job known (at the time) for its dishonesty; the idea was to “Give Rome what it requires but make sure you keep plenty for yourself” (Luke 19:1 – 10).

And what of Simon? Zealots were intent on the overthrow of not only the Roman occupying force, but they were also keen in exacting retribution on corrupt Jewish civil and religious leaders. A tax collector was fair game for a Zealot.

Before Jesus called Matthew and Simon, all that separated them was the edge of an assassin’s knife. These two religious, political, cultural, and economic enemies would learn to be united as brothers in Jesus Christ; they would bury the knife of separation and be united in the Cross.

Perhaps Peter and James and John thought Jesus was nuts to call both Simon and Matthew. Perhaps they thought Jesus was inviting division into His small group of followers. Perhaps they thought Jesus lacked common sense.

Perhaps Satan thought that Jesus just made a huge mistake and that he, Satan, would be able to use the prejudices and biases of Simon and Matthew against each other to create division and confusion with the disciples.

Well…the Christ of the Cross and the Cross of Christ united Matthew and Simon. They exchanged their political, cultural, economic, and religious identities for Jesus Christ and His Cross.

What is our identity? Who is our identity? How do our words and decisions provide the answer to these questions? If we were placed on trial accused as men and women whose identity is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ would there be overwhelming evidence to convict us?

The Oxygen of the Word of God

What do a deep-sea diver, an astronaut on a spacewalk, and a mountain climber on top of Mount Everest have in common?

They all need oxygen to survive and they are all in a hostile environment that will kill them.

In mountain climbing, once you ascend to 25,000 feet you are in a special zone – it’s the death zone – your body starts to die, your systems start to shut down. Using oxygen in the death zone does not stop your body from dying, from shutting down – it only slows the process. You can only stay in the death zone for so long.

Now let’s go back to our astronaut, mountain climber, and deep-sea diver – what do they have in common with a Christian? A Christian is also in a death zone – the world.

But now I’ll ask, what is it that they do not have in common with a Christian? They know they need help, they know they need oxygen to survive – the average Christian doesn’t know that he or she needs the oxygen of the Word of God to survive in this world; we may say we do, but our actions deny it.

Consider Paul’s words to Timothy (2 Timothy 3:12 – 4:5)

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

“I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

Note that the immediate context of 3:14 – 17 is false teaching and what our response ought to be to it; how we should engage false teaching, how we should live and suffer, and how we should be grounded in God’s Word. Christ in His Word is our center of gravity.

We are called to live in a mansion with 66 rooms. We are called to breathe the Word of God, to speak the Word of God, to allow the Word of God to form us into the image of Jesus Christ – individually and collectively.

If the Bible is not forming our thoughts then the world and sin are forming our thoughts. If the Bible is not directing our decisions, then the world and sin are directing our decisions. It’s really that simple (Romans 12:1-2).

As Craig A. Carter has written, “Nothing is more fundamental to the Christian life than reading the text of Scripture and submitting one’s life to the One who speaks His Word through the human words of the inspired text.”

Carter also writes, “If reading in faith is how we become Christians, reading without faith is how we become [functional] atheists. So the stakes are high.”

Are we living as people of the Living Word? Or are we counted among those who “will not endure sound doctrine”? What does the evidence of our lives demonstrate? The life of our church?

Is the Word of God our oxygen?

Deer and Japanese Beetles

I can’t recall a year like this one in which Japanese beetles are ravishing our pole beans. It’s a wonder that the vines are producing.

This morning my plan was to spray the vines before the sun had appreciably risen. With plan in mind, I was on my way to the garden when I saw a deer through the azaleas. I stopped and peered at it through the azaleas and I could see it looking back at me. I slowly walked through the opening in the azaleas, somewhat surprised that the deer didn’t take off in the other direction…it simply stood still and eyed me.

Then I saw why, about fifteen feet beyond the momma was her baby. Slowly I turned around and headed back to the house. Not far from where the fawn stood was our road, not far from our road was another well-traveled road – I didn’t want to spook the fawn and cause it to run in a panic onto either road, and I didn’t want momma and baby to be separated.

The beetles have a reprieve – what’s a few green beans compared to a momma deer and her fawn?  Besides, I can buy a can of green beans at Walmart for thirty-eight cents.

Some Books Can Kill You

My friend, George Bowers, pastor of Antioch Church of the Brethren in Woodstock, VA, sent me this piece yesterday. He writes a weekly column for the Northern Virginia Daily newspaper and this is his column for this week.

Here is a link to George's website: http://www.georgebowersministries.com where George posts many of his writings.

SOME BOOKS CAN KILL YOU, by George Bowers

                Last week, librarians in Denmark learned that three of their books from the 15 and 1600s could easily kill them.  While using x-rays to examine the composition of the inks used, they discovered instead that the covers of these books had very high levels of arsenic.

                Best known, perhaps, for its use to poison innocent bachelors by the spinsters in Joseph Kesselring's play, Arsenic and Old Lace, arsenic can cause numerous maladies from abdominal pain, vomiting, and diarrhea, to heart problems, delirium and death.

                How it found its way into these book covers is still a mystery although speculation involves its presence to deter damage by mice and insects or to provide an attractive green color.  Whatever the reason, it’s potential to cause serious illness and death should not be underestimated.  I think it’s safe to say we wouldn’t want our children reading those books, nor should we.

                Even less obvious but just as deadly is the possibility of the chemical becoming airborne by mixing with other components and causing similar symptoms for unsuspecting library patrons.  Because of their potential to cause multiple problems, the poisonous books have been removed from the shelves and are now stored safely to prevent accidental contact and death. 

                As I read about this shocking discovery, it reminded me that many publications are toxic to us spiritually even though they may not contain dangerous chemicals.  Instead of compounds being absorbed through the skin or breathed in through the lungs, lethal ideas and thoughts waft off the pages into our minds and create poisonous thought patterns.  That would be bad enough, but much worse is the fact that our thoughts often lead to actions when we live out what we’ve been thinking.

                Unfortunately, these dangers are not only present in written material such as books and magazines, but they become even more powerful when presented through dramas and disseminated as videos, clips, and programs via television, internet, social media, and the big screen.  Unsuspecting observers may laugh or cry along with the characters little realizing that they are being infected with worldviews and philosophies that undermine and contradict those of Jesus Christ.

                Gifted authors and producers have often helped audiences swallow the poison of sexual sin in movies such as Titanic, for example, by couching it in sympathetic and compassionate settings.  Others enable viewers to gulp down dishonesty, theft, bigotry, blasphemy, and even murder with generous doses of humor and situational ethics.  Such media, whether written or acted, is highly toxic and has infected our society to epidemic proportions.

                Even many video games that may be innocent in and of themselves become deadly as they erode the human conscience’s resistance to bloodshed and hatred.  News broadcasts, too, can incrementally poison the mind with cynicism or hopelessness as well as argumentation and antagonism.

                Such dangers rarely show up under normal conditions.  When examined in the light of God’s Word, however, the venom becomes readily apparent, even glowingly obvious, just the arsenic did under x-ray analysis.

                Harmless at first, constant exposure to such toxins leads to symptoms of anger, promiscuity, unkindness, cruelty, and other evil.  Eventually, if not treated with the forgiving blood of Jesus, all these sinful behaviors lead to a consequence even worse than the physical death caused by arsenic as they result in eternal spiritual death and separation from God.

                As we handle the books, magazines, newspapers, movies, internet, and other media all so freely available to us today, let us beware of the potential for soul poisoning that exists with each one and be sure to examine them in the revealing light of Scripture.  Let us invite God to cleanse us of whatever dangers have already found their way into our minds and hearts and to purify us from all unrighteousness.  Our spiritual vitality depends upon it.  Blessings, George