Death is Inevitable

Today I performed another funeral and was reminded of the brevity of life. Death can catch us off guard, leaving us unprepared when a loved one dies. There is a time appointed unto every man to die and that's one appointment we cannot break. 

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. James 4:13-14 

From this passage in the book of James we see that life is fragile. We don't know what's going to happen ten minutes from now, let alone tomorrow or next year. These people mentioned in this passage arrogantly assumed they would wake up tomorrow, travel safely to a city, spend a year there and make a profit. They were making presumptions about an unknown future, over which they had no control or guarantees.

Jon Blunk was a 26 year old Navy veteran who loved to help people. He served five years in the U.S. Navy, including three tours in the Middle East and had hoped to re-enlist and become a Navy SEAL.

On the night of July 20, 2012, Jon Blunk and his girlfriend decided to take in a movie. During the screening of "The Dark Knight Rises", James Holmes opened fire in that Century 16 movie theater, and Blunk instinctively threw himself on top of his girlfriend. He was killed by the gunfire, but his girlfriend survived. The Aurora, CO massacre left 12 people dead and 58 injured. Life is fragile.

These verses also remind us that life is short. It's just like a mist, one moment you see it and a few seconds later it's gone. Like the steam from your morning cup of coffee, you see it and just that quickly it disappears into thin air. Life is like that. The book of Job describes the frailty and fleetingness of life as a shadow, a breath or a cloud. The Psalms describe life as a wildflower or a vapor.

Moses compared life to the grass of the field that sprouts in the morning and by evening it has faded under the hot sun. He also wrote, "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty; yet their span is but toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away." Psalm 90:10  No wonder he prayed, "So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom." Psalm 90:12

We also know is that death is certain. George Bernard Shaw was exactly right when he said, "The statistics on death are quite impressive. One out of one people die." You would think that because death is certain, everybody would be desperate to get right with God. Just the opposite is true. We don't want to think about death and live as though we're immortal and invincible. We see footage of catastrophes, shake our heads in disbelief at the dead bodies and continue life with no thought of repentance. It is truly unwise not to prepare for something that is 100% certain. Death is certain.

Prepare yourself. "...if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved." Romans 10:9-10

 

 

Sleeping with the Enemy

Obviously there were some divisions and disputes among the early church. James wrote his epistle to the Jewish Christians who had been scattered abroad because of persecution. He addressed problems they had with prejudice and partiality, problems the tongue, and now he discusses fights and quarrels among them and shows them where these problems originate.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you?   James 4:1

When we choose to follow Christ we’re given the Holy Spirit and a new nature, but we still have to battle the old fallen nature. We will have this struggle within until the day we meet Jesus.

When we get into a fight or argument we are quick to shift blame to the other person. We've all said, “You make me so mad!” Nobody makes you mad other than yourself. Frankly, most of our relationship problems exist because of unmet expectations.

You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. James 4:2-3

These believers desired what others possessed, but rather than praying for what they wanted they would fight, quarrel and murder. And when they did pray they still didn’t get what they wanted because they prayed with selfish motives. We don’t know if this means literal murder, but remember the scripture says, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer…” 1 John 3:15. God promised to supply all of our needs but not all of our wants. Jesus said whatever we ask according to His will, he would give it.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”? James 4:4-5

Adultery is when you are married to one person and yet you are sleeping with someone else. Spiritual adultery is being married to Christ and sleeping with the world. You would be jealous if your spouse was an adulterer, and God’s indwelling Holy Spirit is jealous when were guilty of spiritual adultery with the world. 

Worldliness elevates creature comforts to the point of idolatry; sex, money and lots of material goods become our god. Worldliness is preoccupation with temporal things of life and giving them more importance than the things which are eternal. We are not part of the world system, so why do we act as though we were? Engage the world but keep Christ at the center.

But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. James 4:6-7

We you read, study and memorize the Word of God, you have an effective offensive weapon to use when tempted and the Holy Spirit will enable you to resist the Devil. Remember the Word is an essential part the armor of God. You’re no longer a slave to sin. You can choose to resist temptation.

God wants to give us more grace, but He can't help you when you're proud and refuse to repent of sin. First submit to God; then you can effectively resist the devil.

 

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 1 Peter 5:6-9

Taming the tongue

It’s the little things in life that make a big difference… a virus, a tiny rock in your shoe, a speck in your eye, or a splinter.  These small things that can have a great impact on the body. So it is with our tongue. It’s not very big, but it has enormous power. The epistle of James has much to say about the tongue.

 

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.  For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well.  Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.  So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.  James 3:1-5a

The tongue has the power to direct like the bit and the rudder, two small items that exercise great power. A small bit enables the rider to control a massive horse, and a small rudder enables the pilot to steer a huge ship. The tongue is a small member in the body, and yet it has the power to accomplish great things. 

Both the bit and the rudder have to overcome opposing forces. The bit has to overcome the wild horse, and the rudder has to fight the winds and waves that could drive a ship off course. The tongue also has to overcome contrary forces from within and without. 

The bit and the rudder have to be under the control of a strong hand. When we allow the Spirit to control our tongue we don’t have to worry about saying the wrong things. Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks”. When Jesus is the Lord of your heart, He's going to be Lord of your lips too. 

The bit and rudder have the power to direct, which means they affect the lives of others. Likewise our words can hurt or heal, encourage or discourage, build up or tear down.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.  For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind,  but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. James 3:5a-8

The tongue also has the power to destroy like fire or a wild animal. Like a spark that causes a great forest fire, some tongues blaze out of control and the result is destruction. A hot temper leads to burning words that later we will regret. 

Fire spreads, and the more fuel you give it, the faster and farther it will spread. A person’s entire life can be injured or destroyed by the tongue. The words we speak have the power to destroy. 

The tongue is also like a wild animal. It’s restless and seeks its prey, then pounces and kills. Some animals are poisonous, and some tongues spread poison. Poison works secretly and slowly, and then kills. An untamed tongue accomplishes the same thing.  

With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.  Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water?  Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water. James 3:9–12

The controlled tongue has the power to delight. Nothing quenches the thirst like water.  The tongue can be delightful like a drink of water. Water is life-giving and our words can give life. When water or words are uncontrolled, they bring death and destruction. 

The tongue can be delightful just like a tree. Trees help to hold down the soil, they provide beauty and shade and they bear fruit. Delightful words can bring the beauty of encouragement to others. 

The most important thing about a tree is the root system. If the roots do not go down deep, the tree will not grow in a healthy manner. If we are rooted in the things of God, our words will impart grace to the hearer.

If your tongue is inconsistent, there is something wrong with your heart. The tongue that blesses the Father, and then turns around and curses men made in God’s image, needs spiritual medicine! 

In order to have tongues that delight, spend time with God daily. Get your spiritual roots deep into His Word. Pray and allow the Holy Spirit to fill your heart with God’s love and truth. 

Remember Jesus said, “What comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person.” Matthew 15:18.

Humility and Unity

The Philippian church was a model church but there seemed to be some division. It was a multi-cultural church and they were also being persecuted for their faith. Whatever the source of the division, the apostle Paul wrote to encourage them to conduct their lives in a manner worthy of the gospel. He exhorts them to stand together in unity, practicing and proclaiming the gospel. He reminds them not to be alarmed by the enemy who opposes them and challenges them to diligently pursue unity and harmony with their fellow believers.

Our enemy Satan still causes division today. He divides and then conquers. He prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. With thousands of years of practice, he's good at what he does. We see division today between Christians of different denominations and there’s even division within specific churches. How quickly we forget that we have an opponent, an unseen enemy. We fall into his trap when we promote our own selfish interest, escalate petty differences, gossip or slander each other because somehow we think we are better.

Unity is rooted in humility. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the model for the mindset of humility. His incarnation, life, and death provide us with the ultimate example of humility. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians 2:3-4

Selfishness seeks personal gain at the expense of others. Humility desires the advance of others at our expense. Pride and empty conceit are a part of our fallen human nature, it causes us to compete with others, rather than to contribute to their well-being. If we are truly humble, then we are not desperately seeking to enhance our own standing. We are to treat one another as “better than” ourselves. Their interests are to come higher on our agenda than our own selfish interests. The cure for selfishness is servanthood. Humility prompts me to serve others, assigning my interests a lower priority than their needs.

Paul reminds them of the ultimate example of humility - our Lord Jesus Christ.
You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Philippians 2:5-8

Though equal with God (or equally God) our Lord did not seize this as an opportunity to further His own interests. Instead, He “emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant”. Jesus never ceased to be God; He divested Himself of self-interest, so that He could glorify the Father and bring about our salvation. Jesus did not reduce His deity; but He added sinless humanity and this was prompted by His humility.

The humbling process had several facets.

1) He left the splendor and glory of heaven to dwell on earth. Since the glory of heaven is beyond our human ability to comprehend it, we have difficulty grasping the sacrifice that was required for our Lord to leave heaven and to live on earth.

2) Then He humbled himself to take on the form of a man, a servant. The Creator became the creature. He came as the “Lamb of God” who would become sin for us. He came to die the most cruel and ignoble death possible—crucifixion. It is one thing to come as a servant, but Jesus' service consisted of being condemned as a common criminal and a sinner against a holy God.

3) Jesus stooped so low in His humility that He was elevated to the highest possible place of honor by the Father. As a result of His humility and obedience, God highly exalted Him, giving to Him a name above every name. Jesus dwelt among men, was rejected and crucified; and one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:9-11

We don’t have to promote our own interests. God will take care of that when we humble ourselves.God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God and He will exalt you in due time. 1 Peter 5:5,6

It’s a Strange Thing Being a Pastor

April 23, 2012 by Julian Freeman 

Being a pastor is a strange thing.

We proclaim a message with the power of God to change people, but we can’t even change ourselves. We call others to perfection, as Jesus did, but our lives are full of imperfection. We must shepherd like the Shepherd though we’re just one of the sheep.

We seek to make Christ increase (though he’s invisible to human eyes) as we seek to decrease (though we stand in plain view week-by-week). We say numbers don’t matter, but long for many to be saved. We labour to grow the church, even though we realize each soul increases our accountability before God.

We try to express the Infinite and Eternal in 45 minutes or less; obviously we fail, so we try again next week.

We spend our lives studying a book that we’ll never fully grasp and we labour to explain it to a people who can’t understand apart from the work of a third party. The more we study, the more certain we become of the wisdom of God and our own foolishness; and yet we must preach on.

We are told that not many should be teachers and that there will be stricter judgement for those who are, and yet, we cannot fight off the compulsion to preach. We call people to something they can’t do, with an authority that is not our own, and then at the end of our lives we give an account to God for the souls we pastored.

We are called to toil in the word of God and in prayer; yet there is nothing our enemy opposes more actively. We work to build a community where people are connected, while occupying an office filled with temptations to isolation.

We preach a gospel of joy, but preachers are hard pressed with temptations to depression.

We must preach with passion but pastor with patience. We must be gentle with the sheep and fierce with the wolves. And we must somehow discern the difference.

We must plead with people to repent and believe all the while knowing that it is God who must save. We plead with God in prayer until our wills align with his. We must earnestly seek the presence of the Spirit, knowing full well that he moves where he pleases.

We must labour with all of our strength but never, ever trust it. We are paid to satisfactorily do a job that never ends: When have I studied enough? When have I prayed enough? When have I mentored enough?

When have I counseled enough? We who are never finished are called to lead others to rest in the finished work of Jesus.

Ultimately we labour and long for results that we can never achieve. Being a pastor is a lifelong journey to a place of utter dependence.

This is strange work, being a pastor. But I wouldn’t trade it for the world.

The Hunger Games

Set in a future where the Capitol selects a boy and girl from the twelve districts to fight to the death on live television, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her younger sister's place for the latest match. - IMDB


Katniss is a 16-year-old girl living with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of Panem, the remains of what used be the United States. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, "The Hunger Games." The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed. When her sister is chosen by lottery, Katniss steps up to go in her place. - Suzannecollinsbooks.com

Several weeks ago, someone told me they were reading The Hunger Games and relayed to me the basic story line. Since then the book and the movie have been the buzz all across the country. I really had no intentions of seeing a movie where teens are killing other teens, but when I had the opportunity to see the movie at no cost, I decided that I could speak about it intelligently having seen it.

The movie was well done as far as cinematography, and the blood and violence were kept to a minimum. As I watched the movie I was reminded of the ancient Gladiators and how people would cheer at this bloodsport. The Hunger Games seemed like a future version of Gladiators with the woods as the arena, mixed with the hype and hysteria of the Super Bowl. Sadistic government officials and television executives controlled the environment making things more or less difficult for the combatants. The wild hair colors, styles and clothing of the people in the Capitol are not far fetched in light of current trends and the whole concept of the movie is quite feasible in America future.

This story left me with a feeling of anguish. Maybe it was the concept of teens fighting each other to the death for the televised entertainment of the masses. Or maybe it's the idea of people today cheering for televised sports violence and realizing we could return to this type of bloodsport for amusement. Or maybe it's the fact that kids and teens are caught up in this hysteria. The showing I attended was filled with mostly teens and movies like this desensitize impressionable minds.

With the popularity of American football, Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing, watching this movie made me take a good look at myself and our society. We just continue to accept increasing amounts of televised violence in the name of entertainment. We already have televised bloody cage matches. How long will it be before we start calling for blood on the field or even worse a fight to the death until the last man is standing? We have not learned from our past, so maybe we are doomed to repeat it.

Resurrection Day

One of the things I love about this time of year is how various colors emerge as nature resurrects from its winter death sentence. This is also the time of year when we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. With remarkable accuracy, Jesus fulfilled over 300 Old Testaments prophecies concerning his life, death, burial and resurrection.

Here's the account from the Gospel of John...

Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him." When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'" Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her. So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. John 20 11-20

Not only did Jesus appear to his immediate disciples after His resurrection but He also appeared to over 500 of his followers! At the time the apostle Paul wrote about this fact many of the witnesses were still alive who would corroborate his story. Paul himself persecuted Christians until Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, years after His ascension to heaven. Here is how Paul describes the good news about Jesus death, burial and resurrection...

I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve. After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. Then he was seen by James and later by all the apostles. Last of all, as though I had been born at the wrong time, I also saw him. For I am the least of all the apostles. In fact, I’m not even worthy to be called an apostle after the way I persecuted God’s church. 1 Corinthians 15:3-9

I believe these things by faith, but still there are many skeptics today. However many agnostics and atheists like Lee Strobel and Josh McDowell took the initiative to actually study the claims of Christ. The overwhelming evidence lead them to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Even Josephus the 1st century historian attests to evidence of Jesus' resurrection...

" ... About this time there lived Jesus, a wise man, if indeed one ought to call him a man. For he was one who wrought surprising feats and as a teacher of such people as accept the truth gladly. He won over many Jews and many of the Greeks. He was the Messiah. When Pilate, upon hearing him accused by men of the highest standing amongst us, had condemned him to be crucified, those who had in the first place come to love him did not give up their affection for him. On the third day he appeared to them restored to life, for the prophets of God had prophesied these and countless other marvelous things about him. And the tribe of the Christians, so called after him, has still to this day not disappeared." Josephus' Testimonium Flavianum, from Antiquities of the Jews 18:63-64

The Gospel of John closes with the reason for his writing. His purpose in writing his gospel is that you will be presented with the factual truth about Jesus and hopefully come to believe his claims. We who believe in Him have hope beyond the grave... because He rose from the dead, so shall we!


Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name. John 20:30-31

What's Good about Good Friday?

I stand amazed at the great lengths God would go to just to save us. You might say, "Why do I need to be saved? What am I being saved from?" It all goes back to the Garden of Eden. The story is found in the Book of Genesis. God created Adam and Eve and gave them simple instructions which ultimately they disobeyed. God had warned them that their disobedience would result in death. They chose to listen to the temptation of Satan rather than the clear command of God. The result was their banishment from the Garden, eventual physical death and separation from God. However God promised that he would provide a way of reconciliation for them. Since we all descended from Adam and Eve, the same curse is upon us, we're born, we die and without God's intervention we would be eternally separated from him in a place of torment...fire and brimstone.

God says we are all born as sinners. Some will readily admit to being sinners but others believe we are basically good. The problem is that we have the wrong standard. We think we're good because we're not as bad as others who may be drunks, murderers or thieves. God is the one who sets the standard and His standard is nothing short of perfection. "...For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood." Romans 3:23-25

I don't understand why God loves mankind but I'm just glad that He does. He loves us so much that He provided a way of escape from eternal punishment. If we accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and allow Him to have control of our lives, we can become righteous in God's eyes. "...When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." Romans 5:6-8

I'm currently reading through the Gospels as we approach Resurrection Day. It's good to be reminded of the price that Jesus paid to redeem us from the penalty of our sin. The cross can be minimalized to jewelry or clothing adornment but it was the most brutal form of execution ever known to man. But God decided this would be the method by which Jesus would willingly give up His life. "... Pilate had Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip. The soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they put a purple robe on him. “Hail! King of the Jews!” they mocked, as they slapped him across the face." "...So they took Jesus away. Carrying the cross by himself, he went to the place called Place of the Skull. There they nailed him to the cross." John 19:1-3,17

That's what makes Good Friday "good". Jesus suffered the ignominious death on the cross but it was "good" for us because He became the substitute to appease a holy God on our behalf. I don't have to understand it, I just need to believe it and accept it by faith. "For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ." 2 Corinthians 5:21

Fresh and Flourishing

The psalmist wrote in Psalm 92:12-15

“The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon. They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God. They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green, to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.”

This passage suggests that there is a place of service for the elderly in service of God.  They are able to bear fruit and flourish despite their old age. Consider God’s use of older people in the Bible.

Moses and Aaron were chosen to lead the Israelites out of Egyptian bondage at the ages of 80 and 83. They served the people of God for forty years. Moses wrote in Psalm 90:10 “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.” So he and his brother were already past the normal life span when they were used by God.

After the death of Moses, Joshua was given the charge of leading the Israelites in the conquest of Canaan. He was 80 years old at the time.

Caleb, who had fought alongside Joshua since he was young, requested his portion of land from Joshua when he was elderly. We read his request in Joshua 14:11-12, “I am this day eighty-five years old. I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said.” He and his clan fought and drove out giants in the land.

And let’s not forget Daniel who was taken away from Israel as a teen during the Babylonian captivity. He served God for over 70 years. He was well over eighty when he served as one of three governors over Babylon. History shows that he was over 83 years old when he was thrown into the lion’s den, and after that God gave him a series of prophetic visions.

Just as God used the elderly in Bible times, God still uses older people today. Elders help the church function properly. God designed the church to be overseen by elders. The apostle Paul wrote this instruction to his young protégé Titus. “An elder, as God's steward, must be above reproach, not arrogant or quick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined.” Titus 1:7-8

Later in that same book Paul tells Titus that the older women are to serve as examples in the church. “Older women are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” Titus 2:3-5

God is not finished with you yet, no matter what your age. There are many ways you can serve the Lord. One of the best things you can do is spend your time in prayer. Maybe you can exercise your benevolence. Most elderly people are more financially secure that younger families are. You could encourage others with cards or letters or you could even have a Bible study where you live.

There’s an 85 year old gentleman in my church who spreads the word of God by giving away devotionals or Bible tracts. I have another friend who is 84 years old and he has ministered in the local jail for 30 years. He also feeds cattle daily and has pastored his church for the last seven years.

The Apostle Paul was still writing letters of instruction to the churches even in his later years. May the attitude of "Paul the aged" be in you.

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. Philippians 3:12-16

The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World by Ayaan Hirsi Ali

We hear so often about Muslims as victims of abuse in the West and combatants in the Arab Spring’s fight against tyranny. But, in fact, a wholly different kind of war is underway—an unrecognized battle costing thousands of lives. Christians are being killed in the Islamic world because of their religion. It is a rising genocide that ought to provoke global alarm.

The portrayal of Muslims as victims or heroes is at best partially accurate. In recent years the violent oppression of Christian minorities has become the norm in Muslim-majority nations stretching from West Africa and the Middle East to South Asia and Oceania. In some countries it is governments and their agents that have burned churches and imprisoned parishioners. In others, rebel groups and vigilantes have taken matters into their own hands, murdering Christians and driving them from regions where their roots go back centuries.

The media’s reticence on the subject no doubt has several sources. One may be fear of provoking additional violence. Another is most likely the influence of lobbying groups such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation—a kind of United Nations of Islam centered in Saudi Arabia—and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Over the past decade, these and similar groups have been remarkably successful in persuading leading public figures and journalists in the West to think of each and every example of perceived anti-Muslim discrimination as an expression of a systematic and sinister derangement called “Islamophobia”—a term that is meant to elicit the same moral disapproval as xenophobia or homophobia.

But a fair-minded assessment of recent events and trends leads to the conclusion that the scale and severity of Islamophobia pales in comparison with the bloody Christophobia currently coursing through Muslim-majority nations from one end of the globe to the other. The conspiracy of silence surrounding this violent expression of religious intolerance has to stop. Nothing less than the fate of Christianity—and ultimately of all religious minorities—in the Islamic world is at stake.

At least 24 Coptic Christians were killed in Cairo during clashes with the Egyptian Army on Oct. 9., Thomas Hartwell / Redux

From blasphemy laws to brutal murders to bombings to mutilations and the burning of holy sites, Christians in so many nations live in fear. In Nigeria many have suffered all of these forms of persecution. The nation has the largest Christian minority (40 percent) in proportion to its population (160 million) of any majority-Muslim country. For years, Muslims and Christians in Nigeria have lived on the edge of civil war. Islamist radicals provoke much if not most of the tension. The newest such organization is an outfit that calls itself Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sacrilege.” Its aim is to establish Sharia in Nigeria. To this end it has stated that it will kill all Christians in the country.

In the month of January 2012 alone, Boko Haram was responsible for 54 deaths. In 2011 its members killed at least 510 people and burned down or destroyed more than 350 churches in 10 northern states. They use guns, gasoline bombs, and even machetes, shouting “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) while launching attacks on unsuspecting citizens. They have attacked churches, a Christmas Day gathering (killing 42 Catholics), beer parlors, a town hall, beauty salons, and banks. They have so far focused on killing Christian clerics, politicians, students, policemen, and soldiers, as well as Muslim clerics who condemn their mayhem. While they started out by using crude methods like hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes in 2009, the latest AP reports indicate that the group’s recent attacks show a new level of potency and sophistication.

The Christophobia that has plagued Sudan for years takes a very different form. The authoritarian government of the Sunni Muslim north of the country has for decades tormented Christian and animist minorities in the south. What has often been described as a civil war is in practice the Sudanese government’s sustained persecution of religious minorities. This persecution culminated in the infamous genocide in Darfur that began in 2003. Even though Sudan’s Muslim president, Omar al-Bashir, has been indicted by the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which charged him with three counts of genocide, and despite the euphoria that greeted the semi-independence he granted to South Sudan in July of last year, the violence has not ended. In South Kordofan, Christians are still subjected to aerial bombardment, targeted killings, the kidnapping of children, and other atrocities. Reports from the United Nations indicate that between 53,000 and 75,000 innocent civilians have been displaced from their residences and that houses and buildings have been looted and destroyed.

Both kinds of persecution—undertaken by extragovernmental groups as well as by agents of the state—have come together in Egypt in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. On Oct. 9 of last year in the Maspero area of Cairo, Coptic Christians (who make up roughly 11 percent of Egypt’s population of 81 million) marched in protest against a wave of attacks by Islamists—including church burnings, rapes, mutilations, and murders—that followed the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak’s dictatorship. During the protest, Egyptian security forces drove their trucks into the crowd and fired on protesters, crushing and killing at least 24 and wounding more than 300 people. By the end of the year more than 200,000 Copts had fled their homes in anticipation of more attacks. With Islamists poised to gain much greater power in the wake of recent elections, their fears appear to be justified.

Egypt is not the only Arab country that seems bent on wiping out its Christian minority. Since 2003 more than 900 Iraqi Christians (most of them Assyrians) have been killed by terrorist violence in Baghdad alone, and 70 churches have been burned, according to the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA). Thousands of Iraqi Christians have fled as a result of violence directed specifically at them, reducing the number of Christians in the country to fewer than half a million from just over a million before 2003. AINA understandably describes this as an “incipient genocide or ethnic cleansing of Assyrians in Iraq.”

The 2.8 million Christians who live in Pakistan make up only about 1.6 percent of the population of more than 170 million. As members of such a tiny minority, they live in perpetual fear not only of Islamist terrorists but also of Pakistan’s draconian blasphemy laws. There is, for example, the notorious case of a Christian woman who was sentenced to death for allegedly insulting the Prophet Muhammad. When international pressure persuaded Punjab Gov. Salman Taseer to explore ways of freeing her, he was killed by his bodyguard. The bodyguard was then celebrated by prominent Muslim clerics as a hero—and though he was sentenced to death late last year, the judge who imposed the sentence now lives in hiding, fearing for his life.

Such cases are not unusual in Pakistan. The nation’s blasphemy laws are routinely used by criminals and intolerant Pakistani Muslims to bully religious minorities. Simply to declare belief in the Christian Trinity is considered blasphemous, since it contradicts mainstream Muslim theological doctrines. When a Christian group is suspected of transgressing the blasphemy laws, the consequences can be brutal. Just ask the members of the Christian aid group World Vision. Its offices were attacked in the spring of 2010 by 10 gunmen armed with grenades, leaving six people dead and four wounded. A militant Muslim group claimed responsibility for the attack on the grounds that World Vision was working to subvert Islam. (In fact, it was helping the survivors of a major earthquake.)

At least 13 people were killed and 140 injured on March 8, 2011, when participants in a large Christian demonstration in a Cairo slum were attacked by residents of a surrounding neighborhood., Mohamed Omar / EPA-Landov

Not even Indonesia—often touted as the world’s most tolerant, democratic, and modern majority-Muslim nation—has been immune to the fevers of Christophobia. According to data compiled by the Christian Post, the number of violent incidents committed against religious minorities (and at 7 percent of the population, Christians are the country’s largest minority) increased by nearly 40 percent, from 198 to 276, between 2010 and 2011.

The litany of suffering could be extended. In Iran dozens of Christians have been arrested and jailed for daring to worship outside of the officially sanctioned church system. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, deserves to be placed in a category of its own. Despite the fact that more than a million Christians live in the country as foreign workers, churches and even private acts of Christian prayer are banned; to enforce these totalitarian restrictions, the religious police regularly raid the homes of Christians and bring them up on charges of blasphemy in courts where their testimony carries less legal weight than a Muslim’s. Even in Ethiopia, where Christians make up a majority of the population, church burnings by members of the Muslim minority have become a problem.

It should be clear from this catalog of atrocities that anti-Christian violence is a major and underreported problem. No, the violence isn’t centrally planned or coordinated by some international Islamist agency. In that sense the global war on Christians isn’t a traditional war at all. It is, rather, a spontaneous expression of anti-Christian animus by Muslims that transcends cultures, regions, and ethnicities.

As Nina Shea, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, pointed out in an interview with Newsweek, Christian minorities in many majority-Muslim nations have “lost the protection of their societies.” This is especially so in countries with growing radical Islamist (Salafist) movements. In those nations, vigilantes often feel they can act with impunity—and government inaction often proves them right. The old idea of the Ottoman Turks—that non-Muslims in Muslim societies deserve protection (albeit as second-class citizens)—has all but vanished from wide swaths of the Islamic world, and increasingly the result is bloodshed and oppression.

So let us please get our priorities straight. Yes, Western governments should protect Muslim minorities from intolerance. And of course we should ensure that they can worship, live, and work freely and without fear. It is the protection of the freedom of conscience and speech that distinguishes free societies from unfree ones. But we also need to keep perspective about the scale and severity of intolerance. Cartoons, films, and writings are one thing; knives, guns, and grenades are something else entirely.

As for what the West can do to help religious minorities in Muslim-majority societies, my answer is that it needs to begin using the billions of dollars in aid it gives to the offending countries as leverage. Then there is trade and investment. Besides diplomatic pressure, these aid and trade relationships can and should be made conditional on the protection of the freedom of conscience and worship for all citizens.

Instead of falling for overblown tales of Western Islamophobia, let’s take a real stand against the Christophobia infecting the Muslim world. Tolerance is for everyone—except the intolerant.

Love is the Greatest Gift

A Peanuts cartoon shows Lucy standing with her arms folded and a stern expression on her face. Charlie Brown pleads, “Lucy, you must be more loving. This world really needs love. You have to let yourself love to make this world a better place.” Lucy angrily whirls around and knocks Charlie Brown to the ground. She screams at him, “Look, you blockhead, the world I love. It's people I can’t stand.”

I don’t know why God loves us the way He does, but I’m just glad He does. God loves us with an everlasting love. Before God ever created man He knew the outcome. He knew we would rebel against Him but because of His great love for us, He created man anyway because He already had a plan to redeem His creation.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. John 3:16-17

The Son of God volunteered to complete the mission. He willingly decided to leave the splendor and glory of heaven, humble Himself, become human and live a sinless life in order to fulfill the law. He was obedient to the point of death on the cross, to satisfy the demands of a holy God, destroy the works of the devil and in the process redeem mankind. Jesus loves us enough to offer His life as a sacrifice for us. Jesus said, Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13

The English language is so limited when it comes to the word love. We use that one word for so many things. I love my wife, spicy food, seafood, cheeseburgers, my job, my house, my truck, beaches, mountains and sunshine. The Greek language is a little more specific. Storge means fondness or affection. Eros means carnal love or sexual desire. Fileo means brotherly love. God’s love is agape love. Agape is the kind of love that seeks the other’s highest good. That’s why Jesus was willing to let go of his divine privileges, be born as a human and give His life in exchange for ours. He put our needs ahead of His rights.

Paul tells us of the importance of love and then defines it. 

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. 1 Corinthians 13:1-8

Paul wanted us to see that spiritual gifts are great but without love we’re just making a bunch of noise. He lists many good things we can do but without love they’re really not worth anything.

Love is to be the defining characteristic of every Christian.

Jesus said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35