final days forum

Where is Joseph?

Wild West Railroad: Pecos Texas, originally uploaded by longhorndave.

Look around. Where are the innovators who know the Lord? Joseph, the biblical patriarch, was an innovator at the right time. God gave him the innovative idea. He boldly shared it with Pharoah and was subsequently put in charge of the innovation: Save Egypt from starvation.

Isn't Joseph a worthy role model for Christians in 2008? Instead of wringing our hands like everybody else, are we spending time during Bible studies, Sunday sermons, youth activities and even small group potlucks to think about prayerfully solving the problems in our country?

Think about what our nation faces:

• Why can't $20 dollars in the gas tank go farther than the next subdivision?
• Does anyone notice that when applying for a job, you can expect a stampede of equally-qualified applicants?
• Have any of the financial talking heads on cable television noticed that juggling funding for your 401k (if you have one) must be balanced with paying bills, eliminating debt and buying groceries? 
• Talk to anybody lately who is financially reeling because their retirement income is suddenly dwarfed by unexpected expenses?
• Why is it so difficult to extend the amortization of mortgages from the traditional 30-year program to 40- or 50 years so that millions of families can keep their homes?
• Why aren't the railroads that criss-cross the U.S. used for extensive lines of public transportation that could ease the nation's dependence on oil?
• Why would city zoning laws allow a crematory to be built next door to a Popeye's restaurant on a bustling thoroughfare? (No joke. I saw this in a major city.)
• Why hasn't someone come up with a comprehensive plan for helping homeless people?
• Why hasn't anyone figured out a way to revive dying urban centers in the Rust Belt and recycle their old factories and other buildings for profitable, contemporary use?
• Why can't we fix our public school system for all of our kids?
• Why is it that quality organic food is expensive, often making it out of reach for the poor?

By no means is this list exhaustive. Add your own questions and refuse to sit on the sidelines. Ask God what Joseph-role He wants you to play in your sphere of influence. Once He gives you the innovative idea, unleash it. Unleash hope.

If Christians won't believe God, who will?

Superman, originally uploaded by aka Kath.

Kids can really make life very simple. Last week, I went to Texas to play Aunt Judy with my two nieces and nephew. It was spring break and we were having a Bible study about the fruit of the Spirit. God led me to use some time every day during their spring break to talk about Him. And they got it. I'll remember these moments the most:

• My four-year-old nephew, John, initially not believing that God could possibly be greater than Superman. He shook his head; his eyes filled with thought: That just can't be. Then truth dawned and it was his truth for the week: God is better than Superman, and, for that matter, all of his superheroes.
• My 14-year-old niece, Allison, retelling the entire story of Abraham. It was lovely hearing her tell the story about the father of faith. The Word had been hidden in her heart.
• My eight-year-old niece, Lesley, drawing picture after picture, with encouraging words and lots of color. My favorite one: A rainbow will come.

We lose that childlike understanding of an incredible God as we "mature" in the faith.  Life tests us and God's miracles morph into theological debates, not experience. God's willingness to be there for His children is qualified a zillion times -- just in case He does not come through for the faithful. God's power is doubted and we believe more in the Federal Reserve's ability to rescue ailing Bear Stearns instead of being fully persuaded that God has the power to do everything He promises.

Small surprise when the world portrays God and His people as ineffectual and irrelevant. Maybe we should recapture Abrahamic audacity. Believe God, even when it pits hope against hope... For God is better than Superman and a rainbow will come.

God and Moses seen in a purple haze

Moses, originally uploaded by roblisameehan.

A psychology professor at Jerusalem's Hebrew University hypothesizes that Moses was high when he met with God on Mount Sinai. Apparently, when God was laying down the law in such a spectacular way not even director Cecil B. DeMille could have imagined it, Moses was lighting up. Hmm. What better way to amuse yourself while waiting on God to speak. Reuters reports:

"Writing in the British journal Time and Mind, Benny Shanon of Jerusalem's Hebrew University said two plants in the Sinai desert contain the same psychoactive molecules as those found in plants from which the powerful Amazonian hallucinogenic brew ayahuasca is prepared.

"The thunder, lightning and blaring of a trumpet which the Book of Exodus says emanated from Mount Sinai could just have been the imaginings of a people in an 'altered state of awareness,' Shanon hypothesised.

"In advanced forms of ayahuasca inebriation, the seeing of light is accompanied by profound religious and spiritual feelings," Shanon wrote.

" 'On such occasions, one often feels that in seeing the light, one is encountering the ground of all Being ... many identify this power as God.' "

Shanon also wrote "that he was very familiar with the affects of the ayahuasca plant, having 'partaken of the ... brew about 160 times in various locales and contexts.' "

If we are to believe Shanon's hypothesis, the human heart can experience the voice and works of the Almighty only through hallucinogenics. That line of thinking is as tragic as those who say Jesus Christ was a neighborhood rabbi who married and died at a ripe old age and that hell is a great place to see your pals.

Unbelief is a pernicious devil.

The appeal of hell

The Devil Checks Out
Originally uploaded by CarbonNYC

Hell and death seem to be fun playmates. Grinning skulls seem more intriguing than placid-faced harp-strummers obviously addicted to Prozac. A capricious devil who allows you to express every feeling and who even ignites unknown passions is far more attractive than a loveless deity desperately clutching a Cosmic Thou-Shalt-Not Book.

Maybe that's one of the zillion reasons contemporary culture channels Halloween couture 365 days a year. Hell easily trumps stereotypes and myths about heaven and God.

Hell and death even emerge as fashion: from earrings to T-Shirts, from smoldering eye-makeup to death-wish bumper stickers, from playfully assuming demonic names like Incubus and Diablo to endless novels extolling blood and seductive vampires.  Death is cinema -- especially horror films with no full understanding of good and evil -- a relentless carnival where bodies are split apart like puzzle pieces and terrible apparitions torment the soul.

I recently thought about the attraction of hell during a Christian doctrines class I take at my church, Colorado Christian Fellowship. We are talking about the doctrine of heaven and hell and discussing the book used for the class,  Max Anders' "New Christian's Handbook: Everything New Believers Need to Know." Our class was filled with believers, but what if someone had been in the class and did not know Jesus?

I remember when I was 17. I was at the University of Kansas for a summer journalism program when friends started talking about God. As they chatted, I felt an odd presence that seemed to move about the room. While my friends basked in it unperturbed, I felt fear because the presence was unknown to me.

Those awkward, pensive, vexing emotions were unforgettable; I never felt them again after coming to know God that December on KU's campus. I know now that what I experienced that summer evening was the darkness of my soul clashing with the light of Jesus' heart. I did not know Love like His and it was true weirdness. My spirit was dead and I did not know what life I was missing.

And that's the incidious, reckless danger of hell's appeal. When you are dead to God, you don't know what you don't know.

Fearless: Christians in Turkey

I saw this compelling video on GodTube.com the other night. Christians today are not free to share the Gospel in Turkey. They cannot join the police force, the military or hold top government positions,  and many Christians are forced to gather privately in apartment churches, as this video describes:

Ironically, Christianity has deep roots in Turkey. Christianity Today's online site has a great story about what's happening with the church in Turkey now and recently published an amazing Christian History & Biography story about the martyrdom of Polycarp. He was mentored by the Apostle John and was the bishop of Smyrna, a city in Asia Minor, what today is the city of Izmir in Turkey.

An elderly man, Polycarp boldly embraced the prospect of his martyrdom and refused to "curse Christ" when the Romans encouraged him to do so. Polycarp chose death by fire. The Christian History & Biography article quotes what the Christians in Smyrna wrote about Polycarp's death:

"And when the flame flashed forth, we saw a miracle, we to whom it was given to see. And we are preserved in order to relate to the rest what happened. For the fire made the shape of a vaulted chamber, like a ship's sail filled by the wind, and made a wall around the body of the martyr. And he was in the midst, not as burning flesh, but as bread baking or as gold and silver refined in a furnace. And we perceived such a sweet aroma as the breath of incense or some other precious spice.

"At length, when the lawless men saw that his body could not be consumed by the fire, they commanded an executioner to go to him and stab him with a dagger. And when he did this [a dove and] a great quantity of blood came forth, so that the fire was quenched and the whole crowd marveled that there should be such a difference between the unbelievers and the elect."

Thinking about Polycarp and watching this video about what Christians confront in Turkey -- not to mention other believers worldwide -- can strengthen us when our faith wavers and warn us about the dangers of complacency.

Big truths can arrive in small packages

We were walking away from the graveside ceremony for a friend's mother. It was the conclusion of a beautiful homegoing service on a blazingly sunny winter day. I stopped to say hello to another person who attended the funeral, someone I want to know better.

She and her husband were doing fine, she said, but they faced a challenging time in their lives. She didn't detail the problem; she shared a powerful truth: God will not leave us in the shadows; He gives illumination.

Her words exploded within me.

Intellectually I understand that God is the Person With The Answers. That's Theology 101.  I've been waiting for God to download some understanding into certain areas of my life, and frustration was building because that understanding didn't show up yesterday. Or two minutes ago. I've been in these waiting places before, but now seems particularly vexing.  Anybody hear me on this one?

But this person at the cemetery spoke in faith about God's character and His intentions. I could have brushed her words aside as commonplace Christianese; we throw about pious statements like slices of pizza. But God touched my heart to hear her. Heaven nudged me to say He won't keep me guessing. Understanding will come.

Maybe He's nudging you.