Conscience Or The Crowd - Luke 23:24

   
So Pilate gave sentence that it should be as they requested. - Luke 23:24   

    We often speak of the stunningly powerful effect of “peer pressure,” especially upon our young people. And as true as that may be, there is a much more insidious pressure we all (both young and old)  face as Christians today - it is the insistent, demanding, and loud voice of the crowd. “But they were insistent, demanding with loud voices that He be crucified. And the voices of these men and of the chief priests prevailed.” - Luke 23:23.
    To understand how powerful such pressure can be we must take a closer look at Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judea. Pilate was appointed governor, despite historical allegations of incompetence, because his superiors saw qualifications in him that lent themselves to making him an effective leader. He was both articulate and a man of finely honed political skills, as well as being a skillful negotiator. “When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the Man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. . . That very day Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other.” - Luke 24:6-7; 12.
    Pilate was no fool, yet he acquiesced to the “insistent, demanding, and loud voices” that cried out for Christ to be handed over to them for crucifixion. “So Pilate, wanting to gratify the crowd, released Barabbas to them; and he delivered Jesus, after he had scourged Him, to be crucified.”- Mark 15:15.
    Allow me to pause for a moment to clarify that no insistent, demanding, or loud voice could ever overcome the will of God. Christ’s death upon the cross had been prophesied and that prophesy had to be fulfilled. Pilate was merely one of the human agents God used to accomplish His will.
    So what we see here is a man of law and worldly honor being manipulated by the voice of the crowd in spite of his better judgment. “Then Pilate, when he had called together the chief priests, the rulers, and the people, said to them, ‘You have brought this Man to me, as one who misleads the people. And indeed, having examined Him in your presence, I have found no fault in this Man concerning those things of which you accuse Him; no, neither did Herod, for I sent you back to him; and indeed nothing deserving of death has been done by Him.’” - Luke 23:13-15.
    The question we must all ask ourselves is, “How often have we gone against our better judgment to pacify the insistent, demanding, and loud voice of the crowd?”
    Pilate could easily have gathered a contingent of Roman troops and given Jesus and His disciples safe passage out of Jerusalem and refused to give in to the demands of the crowd, had he chosen to. He had the power to do so yet he balked, and he did so to appease the crowd! Despite what his conscience was telling him he chose the path of the least resistance which is often the path of cowardice rather than stand up for what his conscience was telling him. Even his wife warned him of giving in to the crowd. “While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, ‘Have nothing to do with that just Man, for I have suffered many things today in a dream because of Him.’” - Matthew 27:19.
    Our consciences should scream at us rather than allow us to give in to what we know is wrong in the eyes of God! Our consciences should beat us into holy submission rather than allow us to choose the way of the world! Our heavenly Father’s declared will should be firmly engraved in our hearts so that no matter how insistent, demanding, or loud the crowd becomes, we should always make the right decision, rather than go along with the madness. “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” - Romans 12:2.
    Incidentally, according to the 4th Century historian, Eusebius, Pontus Pilate fell out of favor with Roman Emperor, Caligula, and committed suicide around 37/38 A.D. We see that despite both Judas Iscariot’s and Pilate’s role in helping to fulfill the Scriptures, God will not be mocked and we are still responsible for our own sinful behavior.
    Let us vow to always follow God’s will within our Christian hearts regardless of the insistent, demanding, and loud demands of the crowd.

Reshaping The Culture - Malachi 4:5-6

“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”- Malachi 4:5-6

    One need only pick up a newspaper or turn on the news to see what a deplorable city, state, nation, and world we live in. I have neither the fortitude nor stomach to recount the gross examples of iniquity I see around me every single day. Things that would never have been tolerated just a few years ago are now not only tolerated but validated, advocated, endorsed and accepted by large sections of the population. I have even heard people who are secularists and without any religion whatsoever ask, “Where are we headed?”
    I can say without hesitation that I have never seen as much outright hatred displayed in the world today. Not that this should come as a surprise. Christ Himself detailed the conditions we will face as the day of the Lord draws near.“And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.” - Matthew 24:12.
    Perhaps one of the most haunting situations today is this seemingly pestilent hatred between the generations. Sure, I remember when I was young and still “wet behind the ears,” thinking that my parents were old fashioned buffoons, but I didn’t remain that way, at least not for long. I grew to understand their concerns, their priorities, and what they revered. And soon those concerns and priorities became my concerns and priorities and what they revered became what I revered. God, family, and country became three non-negotiables. And to the very day they passed from this earth we shared a deep and binding love for one another. “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.” - Deuteronomy 5:16.
    I remember as a child watching the tv with my parents and enjoying the programs they enjoyed. These were times when the family tv set was the purveyor of the popular culture; today it remains so; however, the culture is much changed since I was a child growing up and our innocence is long gone. I implore you all as parents to take note of what you allow to influence your children. Whether it be unsupervised time on the phone, internet, in front of the tv, or the very company you allow them to keep. The world doesn’t care about your rights as a parent nor does it care about your children, and it will be their undoing . . . if it is left unchecked. The modern world would just as soon see parents and children at odds with one another; it allows the culture (and the social scientists) to become the unquestioned influence in a child’s life! “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”- Proverbs 22:6.
    As Christian parents, we live in a culture by one of two means: consent or assent. I could show you examples of the luridness of our present day culture and I can assure you, you would never deliberately consent to allow such a culture to corrupt your lives or those of your children. So for most Christians, we live in this sewer culture by assent. We yield to whatever the culture says is popular. Whether it is dressing like tramps or allowing our young girls to do so, we meet the culture with a shrug of our shoulders rather than rounding them with our fists up. As the old adage goes, “Silence is assent!”
    Yet we can still have a positive effect on our children, and they, upon their own children but we need God, “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.” - Deuteronomy 5:6-7. We need  family, “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up”- Deuteronomy 6:6-7. And we need our country, “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” - 1Timothy 2:1-4. These three things must be the bedrock upon which we reshape the current culture of hate into the Christian culture of love.
    As it happens, we have no one in the public forum to lead us in the way that is right. No one! But we do have a sure place to find our way - “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” - 2 Timothy 3:16-17.
    We must let God’s word work deeply into our hearts as men and women, parents and children, young and old. If we return to God we can and will reshape the culture. Without God, we are left with the alternative, and the depths of its sinfulness are unfathomable!

When To Walk Away - Matthew 10:14-15

   
And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!
- Matthew 10:14-15

    Holy Scripture has instructed us in the ways of God. And it has instructed us in the manner we are to respect and adhere to God’s ways. “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” James 1:22.
    In the title verse, we see Christ’s position on those who have had the Gospel preached to them and yet ignore the instruction and admonitions. He tells His disciples to “shake off the dust from your feet,” an old Jewish sign of contempt. There are yet other cases of this “shaking effect” as a symbol of contempt. We find the same Jewish custom in Nehemiah 5:13, Acts 13:51, and Acts 18:6. Clearly, this action was a resolute sign of contempt for the people who rejected the Word of God. And finally this instruction is also repeated twice in the Gospel of Luke (9:4-5 and 10:11-12), so it is not a mere anomaly which happens to runs counter to Christ’s instruction to love others. This is God’s command for us to avoid being sullied by a world that rejects Him. If you offer the Gospel, the Holy word of God, and the people you offer it to reject it - you shake off the dust from your feet . . . and walk away! This old Jewish sign of contempt could rightly be compared to someone in contemporary society “spitting” in disdain. There is no doubt that this is a reflective reaction to someone’s complete and total rejection of the Gospel. It is not a reflection of a hardened Christian heart. There have been times in all our lives when we have encountered someone we simply couldn’t talk to. Raging and offering insult for insult is not an appropriate response for a Christian. In those times, Matthew 10:14-15 is the appropriate Christian response: walk away!
    Mind you, we’re not talking about those “as yet undecided” or merely doubting. We’re talking about those who are adamantly “in your face” scoffers. It is Christ Who tells us -  “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!” - 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Again we are admonished by Christ Himself to “turn away” from such people. The words are clearly written in Holy Scripture. For those who have resolutely rejected the Gospel, we are to terminate our association with them with extreme prejudice. Upon the contrition of such an individual we may continue to prophesy to them, but while they rail against hearing the word of God and blaspheme the Holy Spirit we are to have no part of them. “Depart! Depart! Go out from there, touch no unclean thing; go out from the midst of her, be clean, you who bear the vessels of the Lord.” - Isaiah 52:11.
    Let us not allow the vain imaginings of pseudo-evangelists to convince us that we are to stay in the breach regardless of the outcome. We believe in the regeneration by the Holy Spirit in the of hearts of God’s elect. And we believe that there are many who will be left to their reprobate hearts and souls. Where the Spirit is rejected by man we need not remain too close to the coming fire. “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” - 2 Corinthians 6:14.
    We are to remember the words of Solomon - “To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak.” - Ecclesiastes 3:1, 7.
    Let us always seek God’s will, His entire will, when preaching to those whose hearts will receive them and those who will not.

Starry Starry Nights - Genesis 7:4

“For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” - Genesis 7:4

           Now just suppose God had indeed destroyed everything on the face of the earth. Every microbe, every bacteria, every insect, every walking, swimming, flying creature on the planet was destroyed. If God were to have done that, would there still be life elsewhere in the universe? It is an important question today because there are many people who insist that we are not alone.    I have actually heard the argument that this verse from Genesis is the lynchpin that “proves beyond a shadow of doubt” that there are alien life-forms. The argument goes something like this: God is only saying that He was going to destroy the life . . . on earth! With all due respect to those of you who desperately want to believe that we are not alone, both the Bible and the latest scientific evidence prove that you are not only misguided but resolutely wrong. “In it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air.” Acts 10:12. As just one example of God’s creatures, we can see Peter’s vision of animals coming down to earth . . . these are creatures OF the earth. No alien life forms here.
    We seem to be constantly barraged with news reports from the “authorities” that there is now evidence that there “may be, could be, is possible” evidence of life on another planet. And if that seems hard for you to follow then all I can say is “join the club!” Every statistic, photo, video, and sample extracted from the Moon, Mars and every other heavenly body we have ever observed show us nothing that would lead a logical person to believe there is life elsewhere in the cosmos. There isn’t a single shred of evidence that would lead us to such a conclusion. In answer to this, a recent scientific paper suggests that the reason we can’t find life on any planet is because they have moved “underground” to avoid being observed. This new claim isn’t only laughable; it’s pathological!
    Nowhere in our Bible is there any reference to alien life forms. There are ostentatious  suggestions that the vision described in Ezekiel 1 included an alien spacecraft, a conceivable “chariot of the gods.” Nothing definitive, mind you, but if there is an opening for those who would suggest such nonsense, there it is.   
    What does the Bible say regarding the life forms God has created? “And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, I heard saying: ‘Blessing and honor and glory and power be to Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, forever and ever!’” - Revelation 5:13 Such passages suggest that all of creation worships God. Again, “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!” - Psalm 150:6. I’m pretty sure that secular scientists of today would in no way endorse such a fiat from God. In fact, you have these same secularists taking the high moral ground, claiming abortion is a woman’s right, homosexuality is not a sin but a lifestyle choice, transgenderism is not outright insanity but a personal decision, and then they all agree that we are not alone in the universe?  I can only speak for myself but I just find all of their claims unbelievable. Again, such claims as these border certifiable insanity. We must never forget that these “intellectuals” are the same ones who claim a single bacteria floating through space would be LIFE! Yet they reject the very idea that a zygote, a fertilized human ovum, is the beginning of human life on this planet. The irony of this madness cannot be ignored.
    Finally, according to our Holy Bible, man has been given dominion over all the animals - “You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen— even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.” - Psalm 8:6-8. What man has dominion over is “the works” of God’s hands. Obviously, any secular scientist worth his weight in relativism, would have to disagree and say that for an alien life form to reach earth would require technological advances far ahead of our human understanding and capabilities at this time. Were such an event to actually take place, the Bible would be wrong about mankind’s dominion. We can’t have it both ways. Either God is in control and man is the highest form of biological life created by God, or secular science is right and we’re just floating haphazardly through space waiting for the next comet to hit.
    God has made the future of our world clear to us and He has made our responsibility clear to us - “But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” Matthew 24:13-14. The gospel will be preached in THIS world . . . and then the end will come. Let us concentrate on spreading the holy gospel of Jesus Christ in this world and leave the heavy lifting of galaxies and universes to their Creator - “Then He who sat on the throne said, ‘Behold, I make all things new.’ And He said to me, ‘Write, for these words are true and faithful.’” - Revelation 21:5.
    Our Holy Bible contains all the evidence I have shown to disprove life anywhere but here on earth; where is your evidence to prove the contrary? The starry nights have been given to us by God for the natural revelation of His holy being and His own glorification, not to be the subject of erroneous speculation.   

Hope For The New Year - Luke 14:11

“For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” - Luke 14:11

    Another year has come and gone. Again we have witnessed the angst, the wrath, the evil, and the hopelessness of mankind. We continue to filibuster upon things which we cannot control whether by coercion, legislation, or threat and we wonder how man has fallen into such a hapless state. And all the while we have already answered our own riddle - man IS fallen! “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned . . .” - Romans 5:12.
    The symptoms of man’s fallenness are apparent all around us and far too numerous to list. However, the precursor to all these hindrances relay on one common denominator; the human sin of pride. It is pride that separates a devote man from the secular man. It is pride that demands, cajoles, lies, steals, threaten,  fights, murders, rapes, and every other heinous sin imaginable. “You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” - James 4:2-3.  But none of this has come upon us unsuspectedly. We have been guilty of such behavior since the beginning of time and are guilty of it now. “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God . . .” - 2 Timothy 3:1-4.
    Take a look back at the year. Review it and what we’ve seen and heard whether from Washington DC or Hollywood or within our own homes! Pride is rampant in all its ugliness and God is watching and waiting for His time. “I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; I will halt the arrogance of the proud, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible.” - Isaiah 13:11.
    Whether we are star athletes, Oscar-winning actors, Pulitzer Prize-winning writers, politicians, TV celebrities, or simply common men and women - pride precedes us along with our sins. But this year, this New Year, our lives need not be a mere repetition of our previous years. To change the sinful patterns of the past we need merely do two things: “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.”  - Philippians 2:3.  And, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” - James 4:10.   
    This is what God wants. This is what God expects. This can be the hope for the New Year - “. . . if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” - 2 Chronicles 7:14. Let this be the year we recognize God as our Lord . . . and Savior!