Holiness and Happiness

An article appeared on Livescience.com today. It is called, "Don't Worry: Happiness Levels Not Set in Stone". The main point of the article is that happiness is not genetically prewired. Happiness can change for all of us throughout our lives. They point to things that really happy people have in common. One of those things is going to church. I find this interesting for a very good reason. In my interactions with people who call themselves Christians I have often heard a comment about happiness. It usually comes from someone facing a challenge in their lives. It goes something like this, "God wants me to be happy doesn't He?"

What always strikes me as interesting about these comments is that they usually come from people going through situations where they are being pushed by the circumstances to lean more on God. God will place us in situations that strip away the earthly things that we depend upon. He does this to bring us into a greater dependence on Him and to help us to know Him better. Job went through this very thing. God led Job to a place where he looked back on what he went through and declares that he has seen things too wonderful for him (Job 42:3). What Job went through stripped him of everything that he had to enjoy and depend on except for God. Yet Job appears to count it as all worth it because He has come to know God better. James says a similar thing in James 1:2-4,

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

It appears that James point is that God wants us to be holy or set apart to Himself more than He want us to be happy. But here is the great irony for those who come to embrace knowing God. In coming to know and depend upon God we will find that there is greater peace and joy in knowing God than in not knowing Him. You see when we are depending on Him we know that the things our heavenly Father takes us through are for our benefit. When we realize that even the challenges are there to help to shape us we can rejoice in them (Philippians 4:4). Does God want us to be happy? No God wants us to be Holy, but in the midst of embracing the holiness that He is producing in us we will find true and lasting happiness and joy.

Why no alien life forms exist other than demons

There is an article on Foxnews.com called, "Proof of Aliens Could Come Within 25 Years, Scientist Says". Every time I see one of these articles I think of the myriad of alien movies I have seen in my lifetime. They all have some things in common as basic assumptions.

1. There are other planets with life on them
2. The life on those other planets have a sense of moral right and wrong
1. We see this in their defensiveness and deceptiveness (think V)
2. We see this in their aggressiveness and disregard for all life but their own (Think War of the Worlds)
3. We see this in our attempts to communicate with them or negotiate with them (Think ET, Close Encounters or Men in Black)
3. Man has the ability and responsibility to bring peace or resolution

The first assumption in the list above must be accepted in order to have a meaningful discussion about the potential of alien life. How does the first assumption on the list stack up in the light of scripture?

When does the Bible tell us that the sun, moon and stars were created? Genesis 1:14-19 tells us that it happened on the 4th day of creation.

Why did God create them? He created them to separate the day from the night and to be for signs and seasons, days and years. In other words they were all created for the earth.

Hebrews 2:10 tells us that all things were created by Jesus and for Jesus. This means that even the sun, moon and stars were created by Him and for Him. They were all created for God's glory. They do not have to be populated with life in order to magnify God. The shear size and expanse is enough to magnify His power and His infinite greatness.

The problem with a life on other planets conclusion is that the fall was part of God's plan. In Romans 9:22-24 Paul tells us that God is able to reveal His power, His patience and wrath to the vessels of His mercy because He has vessels of wrath on which these aspects of His nature can be displayed. Since the fall helps to reveal more about God and since the supposed life on other planets have a sense of moral right and wrong, then God would have to allow similar falls into sin to happen on other planets. A fall on another planet would require a similar sacrifice for another sentient non-human race. Yet Peter declares in 1 Peter 3:18 that Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God. To believe in alien life is to crucify Christ all over again. Scripture tells us that He died once for sins. So what are all these alien sightings? If there is any validity to them they are probably demonic in origin. There are others who have studied this extensively that have come to this very conclusion. You can find their books on Amazon.com. The central and most important thing about this discussion is to remember that Jesus is the reason for which all things were created. Man is not at the center, God is. Keep your eyes on Him and seek His face and you will find rest for your soul (Matthew 11:29).

Middle finger musings

Several times over the years I have witnessed someone cutting someone off with their car and receiving the reaction of a hand extended with only the middle finger pointing upwards. I have seen the same reaction when bikes cut off cars or when cars cut dangerously close to pedestrians. This gesture is used with the intention of causing great emotional stress in retaliation for the stress that someone else's actions have caused. 
What makes a person think that flipping someone off is going to elicit any sort of agitating feelings in the object of the gesture? Further what causes the person who is flipped off to take offense at the gesture? There is no animal that takes offense at the motions of other animals. If we are nothing more than higher animals you would think that we would surely have evolved past this silly self destructive behavior. Survival of the fittest would require it. But for some reason we seem offended by this waving of a limb in a mean spirited manner perhaps accompanied by an expletive or two. Why? I believe that this action and response is an assault on man's dignity. Which begs the question where does this dignity come from? It assumes that man has intrinsic value. But if he is just another animal why does he have intrinsic value? Why does the individual matter? I believe that without realizing it that every time man makes an assault on another persons dignity they are giving an acknowledgment that man has dignity and value. I believe that if you look hard you will be hard pressed to find a reference point for man's dignity and value in nature. Certainly the animals do not exhibit anything even close to this. So where does it come from except God. I believe that the fact that God created man in His own image is the answer and true reference point for man's dignity and why he has dignity at all. Ultimately when you see someone flipping someone off remember that unintentionally they are acknowledging that man has dignity derived from His creator that he can effectively assault. Once again we see that pagan man cannot get away from admitting he has a creator no matter how much he may want to. As we seek to live a God focused life things like this should strike us more and more with the constant reality that God truly is with us (Romans 1:20). Every day all men every where live before His face. Sometimes pagans end up pointing to God in a way that they never intended.

Sports director calls the God play

I read a lot of different articles staying abreast of what's happening in the world and always have my eye peeled for something that might be a good topic to discuss the way a God focused life would change or impact the outcome. (My goal here is to make this a practical discussion of a spiritual relationship with God impacts or should impact the physical life that we lead.) I saw what I thought would be an article to discuss on Christianity.com. It was called, "Reviewing the video might be key to ending spiritual slumps..." I'll be honest my first thought was OK this David Burchett is a sports director. Given the title I thought he was going to talk about how we look back at our lives to see how to do better. I had my thoughts churning out a reply as I started to read the article. This was going to be an easy reply. Contrast David asking us to look at our own lives with the real answer which is to look at Jesus...And then as I got half way through the article I realized that I had just run across a brother who was living a God focused life in the real world. His article is great!!! Go read it (the title above is a link to it). His main point is that the good times in our lives are when we are living our lives looking to our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. The article is well written and short and well worth the read. So go. Go now and I will be back with more tomorrow.

The God who establishes our steps

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to share my faith with a couple of guys at a street fair in Pleasanton. It was a great conversation and time of interaction. The guys I was speaking with did not believe that there is a God but walked away with a gospel of John (pray that they read it). One of the reasons that I believe I was speaking with them on Wednesday evening is found in Proverbs 16:9  “The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps.” It is easy to see God establishing our steps for things like interactions where we get to share our faith. But how about the things that don't seem so kingdom of God oriented. Did God establish your steps to the grocery store? Did God establish your vacation? Did God establish the car accident you were in? How about the cancer you were diagnosed with? You see if we really believe that God establishes all of our steps and all of our interactions then the things we see as challenging that happen are to shape, restrain us, mold us and ultimately cause us to depend on God more. When we really see God as the establisher of our steps we come to realize that no matter what we have planned God has something more. So that little interruption that messed up your train of thought or the traffic that made you late all are God's hand directing us to trust in Him and the way that He establishes our steps.

Grassfire or misfire???

I receive e-mails from a political action group called grassfire because I signed a petition at the urging of a friend a few years ago. I received a new request to sign a petition on May 17th. It was for another group called the Media Research Center. Here are the opening lines of the petition request.

The Media Research Center has just launched an important
petition opposing Comedy Central's plans to air a cartoon
series about Jesus Christ called "JC" where he would move
to New York to "escape his father's enormous shadow."

I'm urging all members of our team to read the details
below and then sign this important MRC petition.

Before you just close this window I really want you to read this and consider what our response as Christians ought to be. I looked up the source material on the Media Research Center web site. The first is an article called "Jesus, Mohammed, and Comedy Central". The second is the actual petition that you can sign called, "Petition Opposing Comedy Central’s New Faith-Bashing Show and the Anti-Christian Double Standard". These are links that will take you to these sites if you so desire.

To begin who are the people who are promoting this hatred of Jesus Christ. And make no mistake they are bashing the Jesus of Christianity not the Jesus of Mormonism or the Jesus of the Jehovah's Witnesses (I know these are both cults but this is an important distinction). If they were bashing the Jesus of these cults they would not cast Jesus as the Son of God. The people at Comedy Central that are planning on making this cartoon series are natural men. They are spiritually dead. They are pagans and we can expect them to do pagan things. The truth is they hate God and the idea of God for good reason (Romans 1:18-25). They are under God's wrath for their unrighteousness. They cannot truly understand a Christians reaction to these things because our reason for not liking them is we have been made spiritually alive and they are spiritually dead (1 Corinthians 2:14). They particularly hate Jesus because He will ultimately testify of the evil of their deeds (John 7:7). In short we should expect the unsaved pagan world to hate Jesus and ultimately to hate us (John 15:18-19, 1 John 3:13).

This presents a dilemma for us as Christians seeking to live a life that is focused on God. The unsaved world has a certain amount of respect for Muslims because their faith is not a true faith. Their faith is a faith that claims you can repent and do good works that will appease their god. In a sense they make man powerful and able to influence God. The Muslim makes demands that comedy central not do something and they capitulate because there is no real condemnation from Mohammed or Islam. We are called by Christ to be different. In Matthew 5:39 Jesus called us to not resist the one who is evil...but to turn the other cheek. The actions of Comedy Central are evil and have a blasphemous and evil intent. Surely they have slapped all of us as Christians. Should we be responding by demanding to be treated with the same respect as Muslims and other cults? Wouldn't Jesus have us turn the other cheek? Paul in Romans 12:19 calls us never to avenge ourselves but to leave it to the wrath of God. After all vengeance is God's and He will repay.

The second part of our dilemma is how do we love these folks at Comedy Central? In Matthew 5:43-48 Jesus clearly calls us to love our enemies. He wants us to be different from the world. If you read the petition you will find that it is not different from the world. It is demanding that we be treated like the rest of the world. It asserts our rights and makes accusations. I do not see how anyone at Comedy Central will feel loved upon receiving this petition. We have an opportunity before us to do something different from the world and yet it looks like we are going to botch it. What we should be doing is seeing this as an open confession of their sinful hearts. Then we should figure out how to reach out to these guys and demonstrate the love of Jesus to them. At this point we would be demonstrating a trust in the ability of the Holy Spirit to convict them of their sins (John 16:7-11). Brothers and sisters lets not start a grassfire on this one. I believe it will only be a misfire that is bound to backfire. Lets instead seek to live a God focused life and realize that He has got this under control. This should free us to love those who are doing this evil in a way that perhaps might bring them to the feet of Jesus. After all isn't that what were here for anyway?

Who loses when Christianity becomes political?

In my conversations with people throughout the years about Christianity and Politics it seems like there is one thing that is consistent. Conservatives usually want to see Christianity plastered as a subtext to the campaign they support. Liberals get up in arms and defensive when they see Christianity plastered as a subtext to any campaign usually crying separation of Church and state. Who looses in these collisions between politics and Christianity. I think Jesus does. Before you liberals rejoice and you conservatives tune me out please hear my reasons. I am all for a Christian being able to take a political position or hold office. I am even for them having the freedom to base their position on the Bible. What I am not for is a whole church or denomination supporting a party. When this happens it becomes divisive. Christians who hold a liberal stance are offended. Christians who hold a conservative stance don't really gain anything in the end. The big problem here is really a foundational issue that arises out of the Bible. In Matthew 16:24 Jesus said to the disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” The foundational problem with Christianity and Politics is that Christians are not getting involved under a Christian umbrella in order to follow Christ. The main reason that they trumpet to get involved is to protect our rights. But the last time I checked if we have died to self (Romans 12:1), rights should be a distant second or ever much further behind the glory of Christ. I would like to feel I can support other Christians but when I see my saviors name used to advance a political cause that has very little to do with His kingdom I find it impossible to support. My goal in living a God focused life is to advance His kingdom. Jesus kingdom is filled with grace something I see very little of in politics branded as Christian.