Coming to America?

Some of you may be aware that Congress is working on a new bill that will give homosexuals special rights and protections not afforded to other citizens. This bill and others are commonly referred to as “hate crimes legislation.”

Let me go on record saying I don’t support “hating anybody” – homosexuals or others. I also want to go on record to say I do “hate homosexuality” which is an aberrant, harmful, and detestable lifestyle that goes against nature. I can still say that in America – for now.

If I were in Canada, for example, and said anything even close to what I just said, I’d be spending up to 340 hours under the supervision of a homosexual therapist three hours from my home. At least, that is how one pastor learned about Canadian “hate crimes” legislation when he criticized Islam for its violent tendencies. Muslims may not like the facts, but they are what they are: “not all Muslims are terrorists but nearly all terrorists are Muslim.” You do the math. Ignoring this fact will not serve those Muslims who are in fact peaceable and productive citizens, nor will it serve society. But, under “hate crimes” legislation, Canadian pastor, Mark Harding, received two years probation and has to travel 3 hours to a mosque where he is serving 340 hours of community service under the supervision of a Muslim cleric.

“Under the threat of jail, Harding was forced to undergo Islamic ‘re-education',” according to a recent news article. What was his crime: “hate speech.” More correctly his crime was speaking the truth – but a truth under Canadian “hate crimes” legislation that is considered politically incorrect and punishable by jail time.

Now, “hate crimes” legislation is coming to America. Who will be the first preacher jailed for saying what the Bible clearly teaches: “homosexuality is an abomination to God.” Think it won’t happen in America? Sooner or later, the politically correct mob will be coming for Christians -- and have been for some time. In fact, "Christian-hate" is really at the core of the homosexual agenda. If we do not stand up and fight now, we may not be able to stand up later.

I’m reminded of the words of Pastor Martin Niemöller when Hitler came onto the scene:

First they came for the Jews and I did not speak outbecause I was not a Jew.Then they came for the Communists and I did not speak outbecause I was not a Communist.Then they came for the trade unionists and I did not speak outbecause I was not a trade unionist.Then they came for me and there was no one leftto speak out for me.

Are they coming for you, next?

More Than Robots

Talk about humiliation. How would you like to lose your job to a cute, three-feet tall robot?

That’s what is taking place in Japan. A large temp staffing agency in Japan has announced hiring ten receptionist robots. The bright yellow robots are to be dispatch workers and are ready to work businesses in the central area of Japan. The robots move around on wheels, weigh 66 pounds and stand one meter tall. Mitsubushi originally developed the robot as companions. Human interaction is its specialty.

A home version of the robot can connect to Internet news and has remote camera observation. Other programming provides face recognition, basic manual tasks, voice recognition, 10,000 word vocabulary, singing cheerful songs, and the ability to escort people to different locations in an office building. Robot pay scale is comparable with the cost of a human temp worker. Possibly as low as $25,000 a year.

Man can hardly wait to create a robot in his own image. What strikes me in reading the above article is how different our approach to life is from God. We love to have robots and tech toys that we can manipulate to fulfill our every whim and desire – but not God. God could have created us to be “robots” and always obey His every command and fulfill perfectly His every desire. Instead, he made us. God created us even though He knew one day we would reach such a state of rebellion that we would cruelly and mercilessly kill His only Son.

Sure, robots are efficient. I’m so glad God chose free-will over efficiency. God chose love over His own self-interest. The Bible says, 9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his only Son into this wicked world to bring to us eternal life through his death. 10 In this act we see what real love is: it is not our love for God but his love for us when he sent his Son to satisfy God's anger against our sins (1 John 4:9-10).

God knew we would not always please Him, but He loved us anyway. We are more than just robots to God.

Man Playing God

Playing God: can man do a better job? Sounds like a strange question doesn’t it? If man can do the job, we obviously don’t need God and if God isn’t doing a good job – well, in what sense is He really God? These types of questions seem to lead only to more questions so most people don’t consider them important at all – but, we all soon will be faced with these types of questions and more.

Mark Bedau is a philosophy professor from Reed College in Oregon. That doesn’t make him particularly unique but his “second job” does. He also serves as the chief operating officer of the synthetic biology firm, ProtoLife in Venice, Italy. Here’ what Bedau had to say recently about the work of ProtoLife:

“We are doing things which were thought to be the province, in some quarters, of God – like making new forms of life. Life is very powerful, and if we can get it to do what we want. . . there are all kinds of good things that can be done. Playing God is a good thing to do as long as you do it responsibly.”

This man has an incredible ego. He is applying for the job of “God,” and seems to think he’d be pretty good at it.

I must admit, I’m tempted to laugh out loud as I write this. But, Bedau and those of his ilk are not joking. They believe absolutely in the sovereignty of man – man’s ability to manipulate and control his environment without limits. We are entering very dangerous territory.

The history of man pretty much disposes of any illusion that man – given absolute power – would do more good than harm. History proves just the opposite as one historian remarked, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The Bible clearly prohibits man acting as God, in any capacity. In fact, that’s the first of the Great Commandments, “Thou shall have no other gods before me.” This includes man “playing God.” That story just won’t end well.

Better Living

A news headline caught my eye: “U.S. Slipping in Life Expectancy.” According to the article the US has slipped from 11th place to 42nd place in the last twenty years. That is quite a drop!

Apparently, we Americans are eating ourselves to death. Obesity is given as one of the reasons for the drop in life expectancy. Our food is killing us.

I don’t know why exactly but I thought of what Jesus had to say in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness.” I thought to myself: “is there a link between America’s increasing disinterest in the Word of God and our decreasing life expectancy?” My conclusion is that there is a link.

The Word of God everywhere celebrates discipline and self-control. The Book of Proverbs is particularly ripe with passages talking about discipline and self-control. One passage says, “Where there is no strong preaching, the people cast off restraint, but happy is he who keeps the law” (Proverbs 29:18). There is a direct relationship between receiving the revelation of God enthusiastically and one’s well-being.

I’m not so much concerned with the quantity of one’s life, but with the quality. Not only are Americans living shorter lives, we are living less abundant lives. One indication is that we are the Aspirin Capital of the World. We consume a disproportionate amount of painkillers because we live such stressed-out lives.

Read and apply God’s Word. I can’t guarantee you will live longer (you might), but I can guarantee you will live better.

Foul Ball

Some cheer. Some boo. Some could care less. That seems to cover nearly all the emotions surrounding the most historic event in professional sports in the last 33 years.

Last night Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hit an 84 mile per hour pitch out of the park and into the record books. The question wafting on the sports airwaves is: was this record legitimate? Why? There is an integrity issue.

Thirty-three years earlier Hank Aaron eclipsed Babe Ruth’s lifetime homerun record with 755 (against Ruth’s 714). Though, Ruth will still be considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest, slugger of all time. How gratifying it must be to know your name will be in the record books.

Yet, for Barry Bonds his record will have, as the sportscasters say, an “asterisk” beside his record. It won’t be a literal asterisk but it will be there in peoples' minds just the same. Barry Bonds has been accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs (steroids) and regardless of how the legal game plays out, this will forever taint Bonds record – fairly or unfairly.

This is a good opportunity for parents to teach their children about integrity – about maintaining a good reputation. The Bible strongly warns a believer to “abstain from even the appearance of evil” (1Thessalonians 5:22, KJV). A reputation once tarnished is almost impossible to clean up. It is like living life with an asterisk over your head.

Probably, Barry Bonds would have broken the record without taking performance-enhancing drugs (if he did indeed take them). Muscle building steroids make you stronger (with horrible side affects), but they cannot give you the eye/hand coordination it takes to hit a baseball. Bonds is a great hitter. His record is a great accomplishment. But, his reputation will forever be tainted and his record will always have an asterisk.

God help us to maintain the integrity that will keep our reputation clean so that our testimony of being a Christ follower will have the impact that it should have in our society.

The One True Bridge

This past Wednesday tragedy struck America when a bridge spanning the Mississippi River in Minneapolis collapsed causing cars to plummet some sixty feet straight down. The death toll the last I checked was six people. I’m sure it will rise. Over 110 people were hurt. It was a horrific accident.

For me, this tragedy is a metaphor for a much greater tragedy. People trusted this bridge to carry them safely to and from their destinations. The bridge failed miserably in its task, for whatever turns out to be the reason. Bridges are supposed to be solid structures we can trust as we journey through life. This tragedy seems like such a betrayal.

I think of all the bridges that people trust in their lives, spiritually. Many people trust many different “bridges” to provide safe travel from this life into the next, when that time comes as it will for all. Some trust their good works as a bridge to heaven hereafter. Some trust this religion or that religion to carry them over into an eternal bliss. Even more tragic some are on a “bridge to nowhere” and expect nothing at all on the other side of this bridge of life. All these bridges provide a false sense of security. On that day there will be great tragedy and eternal heart ache as these unstable bridges collapse one by one causing wayward souls to plummet into eternity without Jesus.

The Bible says, “For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all men-the testimony given in its proper time” (1Timothy 2:5-6). That is, Jesus alone is the One True Bridge that can be counted on to safely carry us over into God’s presence at that appointed time. Unlike the bridges man makes, both physical and spiritual, Jesus will never fail. My heart’s desire is that all those who lost their lives in this human tragedy were trusting in the spiritual bridge of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. This is what gives one hope. May we all place our trust in Jesus, the One True Bridge.

Only One Step Is Needed

About 486 years ago a devoted Catholic monk by the name of Martin Luther stood trial before a religious tribunal in the city of Worms, Germany. Luther faced torture, imprisonment, and possibly even death because he no longer could accept the false teachings of the Catholic church in regard to salvation by works.

Luther had been a very devout monk. One day while climbing the Scala Sancta on bloody knees Luther had a spiritual awakening. Climbing the Scala Sancta was a common act of penance for a devout monk. It was in this act of penance, with the false hope of gaining favor with God by such an act, that the Holy Spirit brought to Luther’s mind a verse from the Book of Romans. It stated simply and directly, “The just shall live by faith” (Rom. 1:17).

The Scala Sancta' or Holy Stairs, consist of twenty-eight white marble steps, now encased by wooden steps, located at Rome. According to tradition, the staircases were part of the praetorium of Pilate in Jerusalem, hence were sanctified by the footsteps of Jesus Christ during his Passion. The climbing of the Scala Sancta is a fitting metaphor for the false hope a person puts in good works; for, after the painful climb up the steps, one is no closer to God than when one started. False hope is really no hope at all. In regard to salvation, only one step is needed--surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

This was a pivotal moment in Luther’s life that would lead to what history records as The Reformation. Based upon that simple understanding of what was true, Luther risked his life. At his trial when pressed to change his views by a court that held his life in their hands Luther declared, “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.” Luther shines as a brilliant example of what it means to Do Church Right. A community that is doing church right will risk all to defend the non-negotiable truths of God’s Word.

In a day when Christian faith is under so many attacks and so much false doctrine has crept into the church, may God awaken more hearts as He did with Martin Luther.