Prepping For The Inevitable - Psalm 39:4

 
“O Lord, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!” - Psalm 39:4

    With the current pandemic in full flower, we should take some time to consider the fragility of our lives as well as the inevitability of our deaths. But how many of us actually do? It seems that such thoughts are morbid to most of us, especially those who are without faith. So death, specifically our own, remains a taboo subject for us. Yet from the moment of birth, death’s locus remains before us like the sunset which is also by the mandate of God. “And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” - Ecclesiastes 12:7.
    Sickness befalls all of us at one time or another. There are no guarantees. Yes, God can heal us if He so chooses. If He so chooses. With that in mind, why would we not want to be in His good graces? Certainly, we pray for our loved one’s recovery from illness but such recoveries are not always granted. How do we deal with our own impending departure from this silenced mortality?  
    For people with faith in God, death comes the same as for those without. But the lives we live here in the flesh are but a shadow of the lives we will live in eternity. Those who do not believe in the afterlife hold a darkened view of death the hereafter. And well they should since the lives they have lived in darkness result in everlasting darkness. “Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” - Matthew 22:13. The faithless worry not because they have no faith. They fear not because they do not believe.
    We are, however, assured that the day is coming and for many of us the time will be upon us without warning. “For, ‘Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay . . .’” - Hebrews 10:37. In Christ’s own words we must prepare for the inevitable. “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” - Matthew 24:44. We have been given fair warning.
    As for those who have been saved by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, God has been very specific. “Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’” - John 11:25-26. It is only through faith in Jesus that we will enter an eternity in heaven. There is no other way.
    Just as there is no other way to eternal life for those who have accepted the gift of Christ’s atonement, there is also no further fear of our past sins because our faith in Christ has unburdened us. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” - Romans 8:1.
    Our sins have been forgiven and Christ has delivered us from the depraved state we were born in. We have been washed in the blood of Christ and we have been renewed before God. Our parting of this earth is no longer subject to the power of death’s sting “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints.” - Psalm 116:15. For we must remember that death is the last obstacle keeping our souls from reconciliation with God. Death is the last bulwark between God and ourselves. After the death of one of God’s own there is nothing but bliss. “The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” - 1 Corinthians 15:26.
    Death will knock on many doors today. It could knock upon mine or yours. It is a fearful contemplation that fills our minds when we consider that possibility. Many fear what they perceive as ‘the unknown.’ While others fear the process of death and how we will feel during our final reaping. Many will tremble at the mere thought of both. But faith in God through Jesus Christ will prepare us for the inevitable. Our fear will be turned into awe as our beliefs are reflected in our behavior. “And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile . . .” - 1 Peter 1:17.
    May we all experience God’s loving grace and mercy as we approach our earthly sunset.

A ‘Broken Home’ Defined - 2 Corinthians 6:18

“ . . . and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” - 2 Corinthians 6:18

    When we use the term, ‘broken home,’ we are usually talking about a home that has been torn apart by divorce. Indeed, divorce, no matter how amicable, shreds the love and stability that nurtures a healthy family through this fallen world. But a broken home can be the result of many things such as alcoholism, drug addiction, sexual sin, abuse, neglect, or rebellion. The term ‘broken home’ merely means that the home is . . . broken.
    Marriage between one man and one woman was the first social institution created by God. The family was the second. Seeing it was God’s intention that this husband and his wife should be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28), this family unit, as created by the mandate of God, is not to be damaged or divided. Whether there is physical or emotional abuse from the top, down or from the bottom, up, the factors that typify such an unstable family condition stand in opposition to Christ’s very words -“But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”  - Mark 10:6-9.
    As I stated before, the human family has been one of the primary social units ideally designed to best serve the individual’s needs, the family’s well-being, and society’s best interest. Then came the Fall of Mankind and sin. And all things changed for the worse. The Fall explains things like sickness, neglect, drug and alcohol addiction, rebellion, sexual sin, and abuse. Just as mankind’s fall from grace was determined by his own willful actions, so are all the sins that go on to ruin relationships in and out of the family. “And he said, ‘What comes out of a person is what defiles him. For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’” - Mark 7:20-23.  They defile not only the person but everything within that person’s sphere of influence, including their family.
    If we are living in a family that rejects God, embraces sin, and approves of a sinful lifestyle within the family, we are sinners who devoutly encourage others to sin! Romans teaches us - “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” - Romans 1:28-32.
    Is this an example of the family we live in? Fathers, you will be held accountable. Mothers, you too will be held accountable. Children, despite poor Godless parenting, your sins will be your own. There will be no mitigation, no amnesty, no forgiveness unless you come forward and repent. As Jesus Himself said, “And he answered them, ‘Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.’” - Luke 13:2-3.
    Sinners don’t see the writing on the wall because they are convinced that they know better. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” Isaiah 520-21.
    Like a broken home, our spiritual life can be broken. But all is not necessarily lost; our spirits can be repaired. We don’t need hammers or buckets of paint; we need only what our Lord and Savior Jesus has already provided for us. “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. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.” - John 3:16-18.
    Let us gratefully accept what Christ has done for us and begin to mend these broken homes.

Why Jesus Is The Only Way - Act 4:12

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12

We’re talking ‘Jesus!’ The point being: if we are trying to bring someone into the Christian faith, we need to bring them directly to Christ. We don’t take any detours through charity, forgiveness, political expediency, or social justice. ‘There is no other name under heaven... .’
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” - John 14:6. Jesus never said or even alluded to doing anything but following Him. Everything else was baggage because everything else was related directly to ‘works!’ Would following Christ result in good works on our part. Yes! But those works would come after we put our faith in Jesus, not before we did or in place of. In fact, Jesus said that such good works would be a sign that our faith is indeed genuine. “And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments.” - 1 John 2:3. If you don’t see following Christ’s commandments as ‘good work,’ it’s not Christianity you’re talking about.
Marching around carrying placards and signs, kneeling before our nation’s flag, raising our fists in the air, and endless apologies are no more a sign of faith in Jesus than any elementary profession. Mere belief in Jesus doesn’t prove a thing - “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” - James 2:19. What is necessary is an ardent belief that the Son of God is our living Lord and that he alone can save us from our sins. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” 1 Timothy 2:5. The ‘one God’ we’re talking about is the one true and triune God of the Bible and the only one between He and us is Jesus Christ, Period! You won’t get to Him by going through Buddha, Mohammad, or by burning white sage incense before a totem pole.
This is evidence that there is no other Savior and no other faith that will lead to eternal life in heaven. No pluralistic nonsense will stand against the truth of Jesus Christ. And because this is so, there are two truths which cannot be ignored; First, there is no other way that we can come into God’s kingdom. Neither Buddha, Mohammad, Wicca, Joel Osteen, or any other false hope or false God will bring us into eternal glory. And secondly, those who don’t believe this are not truly Christians, no matter what they think or say. Belief in Christ is not an ala cart item that can be subtracted from or added to one’s belief system. Either it is all of Christ or it is none of Christ. There is no third, fourth, or fifth way.
So what will be the end of those who refuse to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior? Perhaps we should all heed the words of Jesus. - “I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am he you will die in your sins.” - John 8:24. The alternative is stark and clear. “Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.” - 1 John 5:12.
The truth has been with us since Jesus first spoke to us during His earthly ministry.
 “ . . . because, 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.” - Romans 10:9. And as a result of that Christ-faith, we have nothing to fear. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” - Romans 8:1
Is bringing others to Christ really our goal? We aren’t commanded to build a better mouse-trap. We aren’t commanded to free anyone from bondage. We are aren’t commanded with ending poverty or hunger. And we aren’t commanded with seeing that social justice is ensured to anyone of any race, color, or ethnicity. We have been commissioned by our almighty Savior, Jesus Christ, with one over-riding command - “And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” - Matthew 28:18-20. Jesus said that He, and He alone, has been given ‘all authority in heaven and on earth.’ All authority means that Jesus Christ alone is ‘the only Way.’ Buddhists won’t go to ‘Buddha heaven.’ There won’t be 70+  virgins waiting on anyone. And no one is going to be absorbed into the ‘Universe.’ Consider your options as if there was only one. . .because there is only one.

On The Foolishness Of Flippant Oaths - Matthew 5:34

But I say to you, Do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God - Matthew 5:34

    It is all too common to hear people ostensibly verify their claims with words like, “I swear . . .”. It is so common in fact that few of us really understand the gravity of precluding our claims with such alacrity. Someone questions our claim with “Really?” We respond with, “I swear . . .”. Perhaps we would all do well to understand the basis of such flippant oaths. The Book of Hebrews explains the whys of an oath probably better than any verse in the Bible - “For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes an oath is final for confirmation.” - Hebrews 6:16.
    Yes, we want to cement our claims with something that hangs on a greater power than our words alone: our lives, our children’s lives, our mother’s life, etc. But Jesus was adamant about swearing oaths under any circumstances. “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” (Or according to the ESV, “the evil one,” Satan.) - Matthew 5:37.
    The idea that we need the validation of something greater than us is key to our understanding of why we use such oaths. It is as though our oaths somehow justify our words and certify our claims. When, in fact, neither is true for any man or woman. The evidence for this is apparent in how often we lie . . . even under oath! From the tiniest oath to our children to taking the stand in a court of law. We are not bound by our oaths. Our attitudes speak volumes about how concerned we are with such idle words. Either we dismiss them as unimportant as we do with children or we bank on our words not betraying us in the courtroom. But there is condemnation coming for every word we speak. “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” - Matthew 12:36-37. These are the words of Jesus; if they mean nothing to you now, be assured - they will on the that “Day.”
    The Bible continues to warn us of flippant oaths starting all the way back in the times of Moses. We are warned specifically not to lie nor invoke God’s Holy Name when we do so - “You shall not steal; you shall not deal falsely; you shall not lie to one another. You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.” - Leviticus 19:11-12. Lying is lumped in with stealing and false dealing or cheating. These are serious sins and we are assured they will not be glossed over on Judgment Day. Even the last book of the Old Testament warns of God’s approaching judgment. “‘So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,’ says the Lord Almighty.” - Malachi 3:5. Perjury has always and will always be a sin of the first magnitude, drawing our heavenly Father’s anger, perhaps because ‘lying’ is so inextricably linked to the ‘father of lies,’ Satan. So we are continually warned -  “But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your ‘yes’ be yes and your ‘no’ be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation.” - James 5:12.
    Understanding all this, why then do we swear oaths in a court of law or take a covenantal oath during the matrimonial ceremony? Truth is a matter to be determined by evidence in a court of law and vowed promises are equally required to represent the truth. That truth is so important that it can not be afforded a glib or flippant response. Let us look again to the previous passage from Leviticus - "You shall not swear by my name falsely, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord." Here, God is stating for the record that when we are called upon to give an oath it must be true because it is by His name that we do so. Both in court and before the witnesses to matrimony, the truth of the oath cannot be underestimated. In court, a lie amounts to the most serious charge of perjury. During the vows of marriage, we are making those oaths both before man and God!  In each situation, the vows are important beyond the mere words we use. We must remember that if we are required by law or we voluntarily choose to take an oath as in marriage, that oath is sacred because we have made it before God. “If a man vows a vow to the Lord, or swears an oath to bind himself by a pledge, he shall not break his word. He shall do according to all that proceeds out of his mouth.” - Numbers 30:2. These are the words of God Almighty.
    True, an oath taken just to enhance our claims or reputation should never be entertained. But an oath given righteously before God is an oath that must be kept. Will we break our promises from time to time? We’re human; that is why we are called to repent before God and why we must remember that every careless word will be judged. Let our yes mean yes and our no mean no.

Who Gets To Define Morality? - Luke 23:23

But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. - Luke 23:23


    The title passage describes a people lost in a moment of overwrought emotion, urged on by anger, duplicity, and conspiracy.
    On Monday, May 25th, 2020, a black man named George Floyd was brutally murdered by a white Minneapolis police officer named Derek Chauvin. What has transpired since that dark moment has been pasted across our televisions: the wanton destruction to countless American cities by anarchist’s demanding ‘justice’ for George Floyd and black Americans in general.
    No one who has seen the terrifying video footage of Floyd’s death can deny the fact that it didn’t have to happen and that the officer involved and the three officers who looked on were completely out of control, much like the crowds destroying and setting fires in our cities. Officer Chauvin believed he was administering justice when he placed his knee upon Mr. Floyd’s throat for 8 ½ minutes while the man died. The raging crowds are ‘urgent demanding with loud cries’ a justice of their own making by physically attacking and killing law enforcement officers, terrorizing the population, and destroying everything they can get their hands on. And this brings us to the point: how do we define justice as a moral imperative? What shall be our bedrock, our very foundation of morality? “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” - Judges 21:25.
    For approximately 3,500 years we have had the Then Commandments as given to Moses by God. Yes, people still broke the Commandments and sinned over the ensuing years but the Commandments were the accepted standard for righteous and moral behavior. Few would argue that it is wrong to murder or lie. Few would argue that it is appropriate behavior to honor one’s parents. Those were just three of the accepted standards for human conduct. Accepted, that is until the notion of moral relativism crept into the human psyche. Men like Nietzsche made the claim that “God is dead,” dismissing even God Himself as a  reliable source for moral claims. “But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.  For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,  having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.” - 2 Timothy 3:1-5. The Apostle adds a warning at the ending of his passage. Many of those now destroying our cities would be wise to heed it. So what then are we to make of the human source of morality?
    We must come to one important understanding: the moral imperatives of God did not find their source in surveys, committee meetings, or the popular vote. They come from the character of God Himself! They are part of His divine attributes including goodness, mercy, and justice.
Man is always declaring ‘and justice for all.’ But is it God’s justice we seek or our own version of justice? The justice and moral imperatives we boast of are tainted by our own depravity. The human interpretations of justice, liberty, and freedom do not accurately define the true nature of those terms. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” - Isaiah 5:20.
    Any human determination as to the foundations of morality is bound to be riddled with leanings, subjective agendas, and biases based on the current popular trends. In other words, there is no foundation for morality. This is why only God’s version of moral authority meets the definition that all mankind can benefit from. The very gravitas of true moral authority demands that it come from our unchanging God rather than the sin-born volatility of man since our depravity defies the sober restraint required to meet the litmus test for righteousness.
    Turning back to the pandemonium plaguing our nation, it seems clear that the cold-blooded murder of a man by a ‘law enforcement officer’ and the subsequent anarchy which followed is proof positive that mankind is incapable of developing and practicing moral grace without the hand of God!  So the question becomes: whose version of morality should we be looking to for the answers to our current enigma? Will we adopt the moral imperatives of Derek Chauvin or that of the riotous crowds?  For the moment, their voices have ‘prevailed.’
    The truth has been with us for over 3,500 years - “Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman stays awake in vain.” Psalm 127:1.