To fear or not to fear? That is the question.

"Fear" by Skogalfar

     Fear.  We are gripped by it.  Compelled to act through it.  And, as of recently, seem to be in a constant state of it.  And rightly so.  Countless people have died at the hands of terrorism.  I'm not just saying this as an American either.  I say this as a human being, a member of this earth.  Too many people have died at the hands of extremists.  Sadly, terrorism has come to a point where it's almost not even news anymore.  We are less and less shocked that there was a bombing, or a shooting, or a bomb threat, etc.  It's madness.
     And with this madness, our fear has led us to say some pretty outrageous things in response.  Things that we cannot take back.  Things that aren't pretty.  Things that border on the lines of racism.  Things that are full of hatred and anger.
     Even our leaders and politicians are even guilty of it.  The people we put in charge, the people we elected to protect our homes and our borders are controlled by fear.  There have been talks and pushes to register people based on religion or race.  And I have to admit, I entertained the idea for a bit.  Even tried to justify it.  Then I started thinking..."this is pretty reminiscent of that time when the Nazis made all the Jews wear a Star of David" and my heart sank into my chest.  It retreated even further when I thought back to my history class and remembered what we did to Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor.  But nothing hurt my heart as much as when I reflected on the words of Jesus.

You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.'  But I tell you, do not resist an evil person.  If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. ..."You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.
(Matt 5.38-39, 43-45, emphasis mine)

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.  ...But love your enemies, do good to them...then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.  Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.
(Luke 6:27-28, 35-36, emphasis mine)

     As Pastor Tom Mercer always says, "Jesus was right about everything.  And when I say everything I mean: Every. Thing."  And we as God fearing, Bible reading, Jesus loving, Sabbath church going, Christian living people need to live it.  Period.  There is no gray area on this.  Are these terrorists our enemies?  Absolutely! and Jesus said we need to love them.  Are these terrorists killing people without any rhyme or reason and with an unparalleled fury?  Undoubtedly! and Jesus commands us to pray for them.  Are they hijacking our way of life, hiding in the shadows, perpetuating fear with chaos and destruction?  Yes! and Jesus says we need to turn the other cheek.

     We cannot claim to be followers of Jesus and not actually follow Him.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say to treat people with hostility, or malice.  In fact is says the opposite.  "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Mark 12:31).  Since terrorists are our neighbors, Biblically speaking, then that includes them too.  And do you know why Jesus said this?  Because God does not treat any of us like that.  God has every right to condemn us, hate us, and kill us because of our sins against Him...but He doesn't.  You know why?  Grace.  We do not deserve anything we have.  We don't deserve the air in our lungs, the clothes on our back, the love and friendships we enjoy, or even our next heartbeat.  We deserve death, for the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23) and we all stand guilty.  But God showed us undeserved favor in the person of Jesus.
     Now, I know what you're thinking.  "But these people cannot get away with this!  Something has to be done!  They need to pay and we need to protect ourselves.  Are you saying we just do nothing?!?"  First of all, no.  That's not at all what I'm saying.  1 Timothy 5:8 says to provide for your family, and I think protection is something that needs to be provided.  So, by all means, take steps that directly ensure your family and your home are safe.  These things include buying food and water, stocking up on supplies, and maybe even a owning some guns.  Notice I said "directly".  Racism, hatred, prejudice, and segregation is not only NOT a solution, but it's un-Biblical, unjust, and would only fuel the fire.

"The Four Horsemen" by Yayashin 2012

     Secondly, we seem to be forgetting that vengeance solely belongs to Him, and Him alone.  Romans 12:19 says, "Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord."  Psalm 94:1 states, "The LORD is a God who avenges.  O God who avenges, shine forth."  Deuteronomy 32:35 reads, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay.  In due time their foot will slip; their day of disaster is near and their doom rushes upon them."  Proverbs 24:29 says, "Do not say, "Ill do to them as they have done to me; I'll pay them back for what they did."  And the book of Hebrews 10:30 states, "For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people."  
     The question then is simple.  Do you believe Him?  God says in His word that He is all powerful (Isa. 43:13, Jer. 32:27, Matt. 19:26, Job 42:1-2), all knowing (Ps. 147:4-5, Isa. 46:9-10, Job 21:22), all seeing (Heb. 4:13, Psalm 33:13 Job 28:24), and completely Just (2 Thes. 1:6, Heb. 6:10).  That means that He is strong enough to do something about it, and that His something is a lot more than you or I could ever do in a thousand lifetimes.  It means that He knows what is going on in our lives and knows exactly what we are going through.  It means that He sees our suffering, sees our pain, sees our struggles.  Furthermore, it means that He is not going to let these things go.  Something will be done and there is nothing anyone can do to stop it.
     I sometimes feel that we as Christians only remember that God is love, or gracious, or merciful.  While they aren't weak traits, when things go sour and we are backed into a corner, we forget to turn to Him.  It's as if we forgot that God is also just, powerful, and protective of His people.  Maybe we do this because we can't merge these two ideas together in perfect harmony.  Therefore, we only see God as some forgiving teddy bear that just wants to hug and love on everyone.  As such, when the going gets tough we don't turn to the teddy bear, but instead roll up our sleeves and try to take matters into our own weak and limited hands.  We feel the need to take action and try to go it alone.  But, friends hear me on this.  God is all of those things perfectly wrapped up and seated on the throne!  Don't over look that!  It is true that God is all loving, but He also will not withhold His might hand from His enemies.  It is true that He is full of grace, but that grace is coupled with complete and perfect justice.  God's got this guys.  He really does.

     I am writing these words, still being convicted by His Holy Spirit.  To be honest, I am afraid of what is to come of our world.  I'm scared for the future, not only my own but also that of my young children.  I can't even imagine the world my son and daughter are going to live in...and that scares me.  A lot.  But, as a Christian who believes Jesus was right about everything, that God is all powerful, and that my eternity is secure, should I be afraid?  And the answer is no.
     Jesus tells us, "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body..." (Matt. 10:28).  Read it for yourselves.  Jesus is telling us to not be afraid of anyone (i.e. - the terrorists) who murders, beheads, destroys, burns, etc. our bodies.  But, that sounds kind of...weird, doesn't it?  I imagine having a conversation with the Almighty, saying something like: "So, Jesus, You're telling me that we're supposed to just live our lives without having fear of being killed for our beliefs, our way of life?"  And He would lovingly respond, "That's exactly what I'm telling you."
     What's amazing is that if you really step back and understand the Gospel, then this crazy, weird statement actually makes sense!  God is telling us that we are (or can be) on the winning team.  Thats because when we fear God we recognize who is in control.  We realize that this life is a blip in eternity, one that has no tears, no hurt, no pain, and no sorrow.  We are then filled with a peace that only He can provide because we rest in knowing that we are secured by His love, His grace, His justice, His mercy, and ultimately protected by His mighty hand.  "Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?" (1 Cor. 15:55).  Let me put it another way.  If you were playing football, and knew with absolute certainty that at the end of the game your team would win, would really anything that happened in the game bother you?  Would you be worried if the QB threw a pick-6?  Or if your team was down by 17 with 4 minutes to go in the 4th?  Of course not!  That's how it is when you are His child.  We are going to win the game, we just don't know how much time is on the clock.
     Because we don't know how much time is left, that can cause some anxiety.  But the Bible tells us quite a few times to "fear not".  So, I propose that instead of all this hatred, all the racism, all the propaganda, all these destructive "solutions", all our acting on our fears and turning it into something unholy and dishonoring to God...

...we just obey God's word and trust Him.

Sound good?

The Power of Prayer

Not too often do I blog about things when I am pretty hacked off.  Most of the time I am eager to share knowledge with you guys or just wanting to write something that I find interesting.  Generally, I am fairly easy going and I try to be as joyful as I can be.  I try my hardest to make each of my blogs enjoyable and educational, with just a hint of humor.  And maybe some sarcasm.

However, this is not one of those times.

I write this pretty furious.  I'm mad at the world, and the deviant that it has become.  I'm angry that God has not only been placed on the back burner, but His very existence is not even in question anymore.  The world, as it seems, is in full agreement that God does not exist, the Bible is about as reliable as the Mother Goose stories, and Jesus never existed.  How infuriating!  What I hold so dear to my heart, my Lord and Savior Jesus and His gospel message, is openly being mocked, ridiculed, and we (Christians) are being thought of as idiotic, uneducated, close-minded bigots that pray to a big giant Santa in the sky and force our nonsense on the world.

I was on a semi-popular social networking site, one that tends to look unfavorably on the people of faith - ironic since most of the people there would tell you they believe in tolerance, education, and togetherness, but whatever.  I normally just brush over the few times I would encounter snide comments, the blasphemous depictions of God, and the hatred for His word.  But today, I just couldn't do it.  I had to say something!  Even if just to you few.

Today, I saw a post regarding this:

And one of the comments was this:

First off, how insensitive do you have to be to mock people for praying to their God for peace and healing after 14 people were murdered?  I'm not even talking about a specific faith here either.  No one mocks people for the "sending good thoughts your way" comments.  No one belittles the person who says, "thinking of you guys in this time of need."  In fact, if Tom Cruise said he was going to pray, or whatever the Scientologists do, for the victims and their families, no one would bat an eye.  He'd even probably gain tons of followers and have thousands of re-tweets.  So why attack people who's hearts are going out to those affected by this tragedy?  Why use something like this to attack?  What I want to add is that these people - Ted Cruz, Dr. Rand Paul, Paul Ryan, Lindsey Graham - are all Christians.  They love Jesus.  So, not only are these people insensitive to the families affected, but the are using it to belittle Christians.  Notice any hostility towards ANY OTHER faith?  Me neither.

Secondly, I am amazed at the ignorance of these two statements!  "God isn't fixing this" is just the most idiotic statement possible.  Blaming God for all the evil in the world is an argument as old as Adam and Eve and stems from the belief that if God is all good and all powerful, and God hates evil, then evil should not exist.  But since evil does exist, then God must not.  This is a fallacious argument and is easily explained away.  You see, God designed us to be able to choose and live our own lives.  He didn't create mindless robots or drones that have to choose to follow Him.  As such, God allows allows us to make good and bad choices.  Unfortunately, some people choose really poorly sometimes and choose to terrorize and murder innocent lives.  Ultimately then, evil exists because of our own malice and sinful nature and rebellion towards a holy God.  We chose to sin, we are continually choosing to continue to sin, and evil is the result.  So to a non-believer it may make sense to blame Him for not "fixing" these problems.  But if He were to "fix them" then we would no longer be free to choose or not choose him.  Our love for Him would be forced and not genuine.  It is more important for Him to have people who truly and genuinely abide in Him, even if that means that evils will occur, than to have no evils and therefore no true followers.  So, for those of us who know and love God, we completely understand where the evils of the world come from - our own sinful nature - and know and trust that God is in control. 

Furthermore, people need to understand that God always answers our prayers, but He doesn't always answer them the way we want Him to.  Just like a kid doesn't always get his way with his parents, God doesn't always give us what we want.  Sometimes the answer is no.  And as hard as that is, we as people of faith need to believe that when He does reply, regardless of the answer, it's out of His perfect love and grace and for the best (Rom. 8:28).  I don't know why things like this happen.  I really can't grasp how God could make these shootings turn out for the best, but that's because His ways are not my ways (Isa. 55:8).  "But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'"" (Rom. 9:20).  I'm sure Joseph prayed for his release from prison in Egypt, or that Daniel prayed to not be thrown to the lions, or his three buddies prayed not to be thrown in the fire.  Even Jesus asked for things to be different (Matt. 26:39).  But, as Joseph said, we are in God's place and though there are evils against us, God meant it for good. (Gen. 50:20).  

Lastly, and more importantly, you need to know that God has already fixed this problem.  That's right, you read that correctly.  DO YOU HEAR ME DAILY NEWS?  THE PROBLEM HAS ALREADY BEEN FIXED! and was done so in the person of Jesus Christ.  Our biggest problem isn't terrorism.  It's not the NRA, as the democratic party would have you believe.  Our biggest problem is sin and the Hell that comes with it, literally.  Jesus paid our debts and forgave our sins on the cross.  So, He has fixed it.

 I am a firm believer in the power of prayer.  I've seen it work in my life many a times as well as the lives of my friends and family.  We pray because we are powerless.  We have no control of anything.  Of all the things that we go through in our lives, maybe a fraction of things are in our control.  This is why we need God to be present in our lives.  And in times like this, we need prayer more than ever.  One of my favorite comics, Jeff Allen, said, "Love, peace, and tolerance are God given traits.  If they weren't we'd be a much more loving, tolerant, and peaceful people."  Prayer is us asking God to give us what we cannot generate within ourselves.  Pray for peace in these troubled times.  Pray that God would grant these families a peace that overcomes all grief, a peace that only God can provide.  Pray that these thoughtless killings cease and that His love would be our response.

Lastly, I leave you with this:

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (1 Thes. 5:16-18).

My prayers go out to the families who are grieving.  Father, God, my heart breaks for the amount of sorrow and pain these families and friends must be feeling.  I don't know them, but you do.  You love them more than anyone can understand.  Please God, grant them your spirit.  Wash over them and comfort them.  I pray, God, that you grant them what they so desperately need in these next coming days, weeks, months, and years.  I pray for the children of the victims who now have one less parent and ask that you comfort them as well.  Grant them your peace, your love, and your security.  Amen.