The Passion of the Christ

I recently watched Mel Gibson’s ‘The Passion of the Christ’. True to it’s advertising it was very brutal… But it brought many things to mind. The first thing I thought was that people haven’t changed at all since that time. There are still politicians that make decisions not out of conscience but out of pressure from the populous. There are still cruel people who take pleasure in inflicting pain on others. And there are still hypocritical religious leaders that are more concerned with their positions among men than they are with the things of God.

For God the Son to step out of eternity and into the form of a human being is still mind boggling to me. For God to love me so much that He was willing to suffer indescribable pain on every level…I take that very personally. Knowing that He could have wiped humanity off the face of the earth at any moment during His humiliation at our hands serves to make His sacrifice even more incredible. These are thoughts that many of my fellow Christians share.

The thing that stuck me the most was that Christ made it possible for me to go straight to the thrown of God. Christ is my High Priest and my Intercessor. I don’t need to belong to a church to go to God. Even among many Christian churches that is a fact that is barely addressed. It is even underplayed. To focus on that fact would be to undermine the authority of the church. Too many religious leaders couldn’t have that! Remember that the ones who wanted Christ dead were the religious leaders. The people loved Him. The leaders of the synagogues feared Him. They still do.

The thing that was missing from the movie was the message of the Christ. Almost all Christians agree on the person of the Christ…that may even serve as a loose definition for a Christian. His message is in dispute among the various sects however. And of the number that actually believe He meant what He said…the number that really try to live by it is infinitesimally small. He loves us…scripture tells us that if we love Him we’ll keep His commandments. Instead too many Christians would rather argue with each other about what is necessary… It’s a shame.

I can just imagine a national football team spending millions on a new coach because they ‘believed in him’…then not doing what he told them to do on the field. We agree on the coach. How many of us trust Him enough to actually ‘DO’ what He commands on the field? The world could be a much better place if we’d stop our in-fighting and simply live what we understand. Now that would spread the gospel!

Life Lessons

When I was a boy I was fascinated by all things Native American and everything that had anything to do with the outdoors. Spending so much time out of doors I was bound to encounter some of the ‘less-than-desirable’ aspects of nature. When I was about twelve I had one such encounter…with poison ivy. I got it all over me! I was miserable for two weeks itching and trying not to scratch. My favorite uncle, who shared my love of outdoors, told me that he knew a sure fire way to never suffer so again. He told me when he was a boy an old Indian woman taught him the secret to avoid my misery. “An old Indian woman”…that got my attention! He told me she taught him to spit on poison ivy and poison oak whenever he saw them in the woods and he would never suffer their ill effects. I had to try that!

Sure enough over the years when I would see poison ivy or oak I would spit on them. And I have never suffered their ill effects since! I guess it was sometime in my early twenties I was backpacking through the woods when I came across a thick patch of the evil weeds and, true to the old Indians teaching, I spat on them. I then walked around the outgrowth and realized in that moment that every time I had spat on the plants over the years I walked around them. I had to smile at my uncles’ wisdom. He knew that if I would consciously identify the plants I would avoid them and their ill effects. The spitting was just a way to get me to pay attention. I have wondered over the years if there ever really was an old Indian woman. My uncle has long since been dead but I owe him so much for the things he taught me and the ways he did it. That was just one of many things…

I have long suspected that God has attempted to teach us in a similar fashion. He didn’t try to explain to the ancient Israelis that bacteria was the cause of many communicable diseases, He simply gave them laws of sanitation and quarantine and ordered them to follow the law or be cut off from their people. They observed those directives in a ritualized manner for centuries. During the Bubonic Plague in Europe, in the mid fourteenth century, it is estimated that 25 million people, about a third of the total population, died from the disease. The bacteria was carried by rats but the fleas that infested them transmitted it to humans. Once in humans it spread rapidly.

The Jews were the segment of the population least infected by the outbreak. Many Christians accused them of an international conspiracy to kill Christians since they didn’t seem to be so devastated by the plague. But the Jews were simply observing the laws of sanitation and quarantine that had been passed down for centuries as a part of their faith. When the cause of the disease became understood centuries later the importance of sanitation and quarantine practices began to be understood more widely. Had the Jews not practiced the laws that had been revealed to them in the Bible they would have been just as devastated as the rest of the population of Europe.

Our Creator wove spiritual laws into the fabric of the universe just as He wove physical laws into it. Human beings seem to intuitively know that we need to live in harmony with the universe we are a part of. We sense, on a semi-conscious level, that to fulfill our ultimate purpose we must find a way to live in harmony with the laws of Creation. To the extent that we obey those laws we are blessed because we are in harmony with the fundamental operations of the universe. Ultimately every religion teaches some form of this concept. Though our understanding of why may be lacking…God has revealed the ‘what’ to us.

Parents universally teach their children what to do before attempting to teach them why. As the children grow up they learn the whys. Just like a child may want to eat only deserts at a meal, a wise parent knows better than to let them because to do so would eventually harm them. What is needed is a more balanced nutritional approach…even if it must be forced at first. Sometimes to to encourage their children to eat more nutritionally, parents give their children a reason to that may not be related to "just because it's good for you". In a like manner the Israelites would not have been ready for understanding the real purpose behind some of their laws had it been given to them, but they did understand..."if you don't do it, you'll be cut off from your people". The Christian population of Europe had flat out rejected the very knowledge that had been handed down to them in the form of scripture. They threw out the very thing that could have saved many of their lives.

God’s laws were given for our good, some were given to aid in our understanding of spiritual things and some to ensure that the physical, psychological, and social aspects of our lives would be in harmony with the way the universe works. We may not know why some of His laws were given and we may never be able to find their ultimate purpose in this life. An element of faith is always present in the practice of religion. Perhaps to have faith is also to live in harmony with a fundamental law of creation.

In Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the three great Western religions who base their respective faiths on a body of scripture, there is the additional element of obedience or submission to the will of our Creator. Some laws revealed in scripture may simply exist for the purpose of teaching us obedience. To yield one’s own desires to the laws of God is a true act of worship. To reject those laws is to find ourselves outside of the harmony of creation...dis-ease and death often follow. Our understanding of some of those laws has grown and our observance of them may no longer be necessary because they’ve taught those who have obeyed them the lessons they were intended to teach. Often times, in our stubbornness, we have rebelled against the laws of God because we, like the average seventeen year old, think we already know better. The Christian population of Europe during the Black Plague didn’t think the laws of sanitation and quarantine were any longer necessary because they ‘knew better’. They were privy to the same body of scriptures that the Jews they hated were privy to. The Christians rejected obedience to those laws and they paid a heavy price.

Christians today argue over what parts of the law bind us. We believe many are unnecessary because we ‘know better’. What I have come to wonder is whether we have indeed learned the lessons the law was meant to teach us? Like my experience with poison ivy in my youth, perhaps we should simply obey the advice of a much wiser source and err on the side of obedience rather than rashly disregarding it. If we really believe it's for our own good...what could it hurt? It could be that what is has to teach us…we have not learned yet.

Generations...

It’s funny to me how the things we are drawn to in life can teach us the lessons we need to learn. I have always loved gardening for example. I’m one of those folks who have always had potted plants everywhere but when I bought my home I finally had my own place to have a real garden. I never expected to learn the lessons it would teach me. I learned to let things take their own course instead of trying to control them every day. I can’t make things grow! I learned patience on a much deeper level than I had known. And I learned the importance of a healthy environment in which to allow things to grow. Now, you might think those things are fairly obvious and I should have already known them. I did…in my head. I just didn’t understand them in my being until gardening instilled them in me.

Another thing I’ve always been drawn to, and found so many lessons in, is genealogy. I find it related to gardening in a way. Seeds are planted, plants grow, they bear their fruit and they die. Human life is pretty much the same.

I’ve spent years scouring the countryside for old family photos and stories. I’ve asked everyone I know and met cousins I never knew about. I’ve found other genealogist’s around the country in every branch of family I have. I have to say that as a group they are some of the most generous people I’ve ever encountered. I’ve had people I’ve never met send me reams of information just because I emailed them once!

As I’ve looked into the faces of my ancestors through their photos and heard their stories I’ve learned so many things about myself and about life. Besides just learning where my bald head comes from I’ve learned something of just how temporary this life is. All who came before me were born, lived their lives, and passed on. Sometimes they left their marks in the lives of their descendents. Sometimes the only testimony of their lives are the silent monuments in forgotten cemeteries. They, like all of us, had a certain number of breaths. How they spent them has been largely forgotten.

When I began I wanted to be able to claim a famous ancestor somewhere…someone who had made their mark in history. What I found for the most part were farmers and blacksmiths. Oh, I have one ancestor who fought in the Revolutionary War, another in the War of 1812 and several who fought in the Civil War, including one who served on both sides! None were famous though. I find that I’m just as happy knowing that as if I’d found one who was a king. In a way I’m even happier to know they were all just ordinary people.

The long lines of begotten in the scriptures took on a new significance to me. Adam begat Seth, Seth begat Enos, Enos begat Cainan and so on, down to today. I now see in them a direct connection to God. All of us had ancestors that lived during every event in history. We are all directly connected to the past. Somehow that makes it all more real for me.

I’ve learned in a visceral way that we really are all related. And I’ve learned that we let most family connections just slip away through the years. We forget that we are connected because we become focused on our own day-to-day lives and the people in our immediate families. That’s what family reunions are supposed to remind us of. We are connected. They Re-unite us. I’ve become close to cousins that I never knew existed a year or two ago. I can only wonder what life on earth would be like if we all realized that we’re related. We’re family.

Finally, I’ve realized that what I do as a genealogist is not ultimately for me. The photos and histories I’ve compiled belong to the next generation. They are the lessons yet to be taught...the insights waiting to be shared. I think everything we do should be seen in that light. My garden is healthy because the people who farmed my land before me took care of it. It falls to me to take care of my environment so it will be healthy when I pass it on. It falls to all of us…because our time here is only a few breaths and then we’re gone.

Believing In...

I’m not a gambler. I’ve never even bought a lottery ticket. It’s not from any particular doctrinal belief…it’s from thinking: “I have a dollar in my pocket now that I’m sure I have…why should I give that away for a one in a 25 million chance of winning more?!”
I’m told it’s a Scottish thing…

There is one thing I would gamble on though. I’d gamble on God’s picks…. Imagine that you were at a racetrack and you knew God was there…incognito of course. Say you found out which horse He was betting on… Which one would you bet on? See what I mean?!

Now I know the scriptures seem to be against gambling and my analogy of God coming down as a human being and picking out a specific horse to win a race some may find less than flattering, but you get my point.

From the beginning of my association with the CoG I’ve wondered about the concept of God’s ‘Calling’. Who are the elect?

I’ve come to believe that being ‘called’ happens in degrees. If someone reads the Bible and God opens their mind to understand one thing and that person goes away and lives that one thing as an act of worship because they believe God expects it of them…I think that is the first step. They’ve been called to understand one thing. Whether they are capable of more understanding or more obedience is for God to determine.

I expect, though I don’t ‘know’, that if God opens ones mind to understand one thing and that person goes away and doesn’t live it…their calling may end there. We will be judged by what we understand…and to give someone more understanding if they are not faithful in the little they know…well, that could greatly endanger them.

To whom much is given much is expected… That’s a scary scripture to me! We in the CoG believe we have been made privy to a correct understanding about quite a few things. Now it seems to me that whether we are correct or not…we are bound by what we believe we ‘should’ do. We’ve bound ourselves by what we accept as truth.

If in fact, we are called…I think of it as being picked by God. They Real Good New is that He believes in us! He’s put His money down…so to speak…and the race is on!

I’m always moved by the power of belief in someone. King David had some pretty shady friends early on in his career. He let them know that he believed in them and it transformed them into “Mighty Men of Valor”!

I’ve seen children go through some dark periods in their lives when they thought no one believed in them so they may as well continue on a downward spiral. When they met that one adult that saw something more in them they were transformed by that one person believing in them. If you let someone know you see integrity in them…many times they’ll make every effort to become the person reflected in your eyes.

Believing in someone and letting them know it is a powerful thing! It can reclaim lost lives. It can turn around someone headed for destruction. It can uplift and redeem someone who’s lost the power to believe in themselves. And it’s a gift that all of us can give someone else.

If you understand something that you believe God expects…live it. To do so is an act of worship to the Most High.

He believes in You…That’s His real gift to you. Now who would you bet on?

This is WAR!

I came into the church out of the military. I had planned to stay in much longer but circumstances and personal conviction put an end to that plan. I’m still drawn to the military lifestyle. When I became a Christian I made mental notes about how many military analogies there are in the Bible. It’s full of them. That’s because Christians are in a fight for their lives. This is war!

Make no mistake about it…this is a fight to the death! We have enemies that would like nothing more than to destroy us and they will use any means necessary to do so. We should never forget that.

It's easy to become distracted by the day to day things in our lives. But it would be a huge mistake to forget the Big Picture, to take our minds off our goal. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. Unlike a hand to hand fight our battles are with ourselves. That is where our enemies strike...inside us. They know all of our weaknesses far better than we do. And we are completely surrounded by them…quite literally.

This always makes me think of one episode of military history. During the Korean War when the U.S. and it’s United Nations allies had beaten the North Koreans back to the Yalu river some 200,000 Chinese came across the border and began what was in affect a new war. Seven divisions encircled 20,000 UN troops at the Chosin Reservoir. Beginning November 26th 1950 and lasting till December 11th one of the bloodiest battles in human history followed. It was fought in the dead of winter in some the most bitterly cold conditions anywhere on earth. The 7th Infantry of the U.S. Army retreated leaving their weapons and equipment behind. The First Marine Division with units of South Korean and British Royal Marines recovered the weapons and equipment.

When he was asked if the Marines were retreating too, the commander of the First Marine Division, General O.P.Smith said: "Retreat, hell! We're attacking in a different direction!"

Colonel Lewis B. “Chesty” Puller, who would become the most decorated Marine in history, replied: “They have us completely surrounded, that simplifies the problem...now we can attack in any direction!”

The Marines collected the weapons and equipment left behind by the 7th Infantry and proceeded to inflict more casualties against their enemy than any unit in history. They disabled all seven Chinese divisions and the "Frozen Chosen" made it out of North Korea safely leading to the stalemate that still exists between the North and South. The Battle of the Chosin Reservoir is considered one of the finest moments in the history of the United States Marine Corps.

General Smith and Colonel Puller set an example for their men of absolute confidence. They knew they would not survive, they would not adapt…they would prevail! Such were the leaders and the men that won that battle. As Christians we should be confident of the same thing. If God be for us…who can stand against us?!

There is an incident in the life of Elisha the prophet recorded in II Kings 6 when the Syrian army surrounded the city Elisha was in. When his servant looked out and saw them he was overcome with fear. Elisha wasn’t troubled at all. He prayed for God to open the eyes of that servant. When God opened his eyes he saw an army of angels surrounding the Syrians! I can almost feel the hair going up on the back of his neck!

In a like manner we are surrounded…but the army around us is too! A third of the angels in heaven followed Lucifer in his rebellion and became demons. But they are outnumbered two to one! Not to mention that they are fighting against the Most High God!

If you come to think in military terms, you can come to think strategically…how we fight in the big picture. We are in enemy territory. We are completely surrounded and our enemy will do anything it takes. There are no Geneva Accords here.

So how do we fight? We stay close to the Heavy Artillery…and we act as a unit. We stick together. And we call in an air strike when it gets too hot...That's what prayer is you know! Any Marine will tell you that in a fight he wants another Marine on his left, one on his right and one behind him! When We Christians are behaving ourselves we want our brethren around us to help lift us up when we fall. And we stay close to the Big Guns! (I don’t know that anyone has ever compared God to heavy artillery before!)

How do we fight tactically…in our small scale day to day skirmishes? We never surrender. We never compromise! Sin is sin…make no excuses for it. When you commit it…repent. When you’re near it put it away from you. Never compromise with it! Resist evil and it will flee from you. Keep your eyes on the goal...the Kingdom of God.

Besides having The Creator of the Universe on our side we have the aids He has given us for our fight. Put on the Armor of Light! Learn to use your double-edged sword in close quarters…you’ll need it! Never forget this is a fight to the death!

And finally…Be Strong and of a Good Courage! I’ve seen the end of the story and we win!

Goodnight Chesty!

The REAL Conspiracy!

I am hesitant to write this for fear of being uncovered… But with the state of the world such as it is I feel a sense of urgency to share some things that I have uncovered. It will no doubt bring the spotlight of government scrutiny down on me…but I cannot hold my silence any longer! Many of us have long suspected some kind of government conspiracy behind many of the events in recent history. I now have proof of such a conspiracy!!

A few years back while camping in the New Mexico desert just north of the Trinity site, the site of the explosion of the first atomic bomb, I made note of some very disturbing facts. The first was that there were so many dried old bones scattered across the desert. What, I asked myself, could have killed and eaten so many large animals right down to clean bones? The next thing I noticed was the number of old abandoned vehicles that had been stripped and rusted out. Now what could have done that I asked?

I thought at the time it was merely coincidental that the land there was pock marked with unusual mounds full of holes of various sizes. In the daylight no animals were ever near them? It wasn’t until I remembered the so-called ‘science fiction’ movies from the fifties that things began to fall into place! Stories abounded with giant grasshoppers and spiders having become mutated by the radiation given off by those early atomic tests… They were just too poorly acted to have truly been fiction. I realized that they were in fact documentaries produced by patriots during that time!! Oh, the government was quick to divert our attention with phony fears of Communism and the like. Joe McCarthy craftily diverted our attention from the Real conspiracy of our time to focus on the innocent peoples of Russia and elsewhere. All the while the Real story was contained in the documentary film ‘Them’… That’s right...GIANT ANTS!! They are among us! Most live in deserts you know...the rest in Los Angles!

And while our attention has been diverted to think Jews are the conspirators I, in fact, can prove that it is the French that are the real conspirators our government is secretly working with! Just think of the sheer brilliance of it! While groups of patriots are focusing their attention on innocent Jews and Communists they’ve allowed Frenchmen to come and go among us as they pleased! The French, who have been careful not to win any battle since Waterloo! What could we possibly fear from them? It is the French that have continued their atomic testing in the Pacific to continue to mutate ants to do their bidding! It was the French that didn’t want us in the deserts of the Middle East. Ever wonder why!?!? A second documentary film…”Phase IV” shows the real threat to our freedoms… Intelligent ants! That's right...ants with the same level of intelligence as Frenchmen!

It is a fact that ants have stripped the bodies and old vehicles left in the desert for food. And all while the world sleeps to their coming domination under the French! Do you think it was an accident that Fire Ants were introduced to the Southern United States? Just ask any Southerner how prolific they have been in spreading across the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave!

The Bible has tried to warn us of our impending doom in a verse that was intended to be prophetic…Proverbs 6:6 “ Go to the ant thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise:” But this godless generation has not heard that warning!

While we go our ways they are literally working beneath our feet! They scour the landscape to increase their numbers while their giant brothers hidden away in the deserts like weapons of mass destruction patiently await the day that they make their move!

How many of us have found ants in our homes? They are forward scouts gathering intelligence I tell you! How many of us have heard unexplained buzzing in our ears? They are watching!

Don’t be misled by tales of innocent Zionists America! Look beneath your feet for the real enemy! That is where the French machine of war prepares itself! If you doubt me…just buy a can of ant spray and the next time you see a Frenchman douse him in the face with it to see his reaction! They don’t want us using ant spray on them! Now why would that be?!?! They don’t bathe…so the smell shouldn’t bother them!

It’s time to wake up America!!! Just put your ear to the ground and you’ll hear French! THEY are coming!