J's Cafe Nette

Archive for the ‘Jesus’ Category

With all the turmoil in the world today and the state of our country, I have found myself asking Jesus to cleanse my heart and soul of all unrighteousness and to let me focus on Him instead of the material things of the world.

I don’t know what the future holds for this country or for my husband and me. We don’t know if we will be wiped out financially or be able to survive until the Lord calls us Home, but we don’t worry about tomorrow because we know Who holds tomorrow and we know He hold our hands.

Michael W. Smith has one of the most beautiful renditions of the hymn “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus” I have ever heard and I want to share it with you.

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Paul Tripp wrote in Psalm 73: The Destiny Hermenuetic[1]:

…Human beings do not live life based on the facts of their existence, but based on their interpretations of the facts…

…everyone pushes life through the sieve of the personal worldview that they have built for themselves. This worldview is authoritative and life shaping. It does not determine what we see so much as it determines how we see it.

This interpretive function is called hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the science of interpretation. You carry around with you your own personal life hermeneutic; that is, your particular way of making sense out of life. Now let me take this one step further. Your hermeneutic is what gives sense to your behavior. Everything you do and say has underlying meaning and purpose when understood from the vantage point of your worldview.

Tripp later says:  Asaph’s problem was a defective hermeneutic.

That’s what we all have, isn’t it?  But where do we get a new hermeneutic through which to understand life?  To understand God?

Where do we go for those words of eternal life?[2]

We find, not just interpretation, but truth in the person of Jesus Christ.  He is the One to whom we go for truth; truth that will be a rock on which to build our lives, so that when those storms and floods of life come, the house of our life will stand.  In no area of understanding is truth more important than the truth of seeing and knowing God as He is.

The Bible speaks of God the Father, yet fewer truths are more difficult to believe and be at rest in because, while for some, calling God our Father is a wonderful thing, for many of us it is a struggle and brings with it painful memories of our earthly father. Read the rest of this entry »

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The Patriot Post has a special Easter Edition out this week. Their commentary is titled, Resurrection Observance, 2009–Real Hope.  The issue has this quote posted at the top:

“The Hand of providence has been so conspicuous in all this, that he must be worse than an infidel that lacks faith, and more than wicked, that has not gratitude enough to acknowledge his obligations. … The blessed Religion revealed in the word of God will remain an eternal and awful monument to prove that the best Institution may be abused by human depravity. … It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favors.”

–George Washington

The edition includes quotes from other Founders along with commentary and is well worth reading.

For I delivered unto you as of first importance, what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NASB)

Note from ~J~ It is Sue’s and my extreme pleasure to have INC onboard as a writer on this blog. She will be writing as time and circumstances allow her to write, and we are grateful to have her with us. Please welcome her to our blog.

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The age old argument of who killed Jesus is still alive. Was it the Jews or the Romans?

I think of this often, but especially at this holy time of the year. Here is a comment I left at The Anchoress’ site:

I saw a documentary on NatGeo last night (recorded from Monday) and they were speculating as to who killed Jesus.

Was it the Romans or was it the Jews who said to kill Him and let His blood be on their hands and their descendants.

In truth we all killed Him. I think hopefully that if I had been there I would have cried out for Him to be freed, but I fear I would have gone along with the crowd and called for His death, because that was the way God planned it. Even Peter denied Him three times and he was one of His disciples. Judas betrayed Him and he was one of his disciples.

Yes, we all killed His physical body and we are guilty of every stripe and cut on His perfect body. We drove the nails through His hands and feet. We cannot absolve ourselves of that guilt, but He did when He said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

How can I not love a Savior Who loved me so much He died that I might have eternal life with Him?

Yes, I’ll die a physical death one day, but because of Him I will never be again spiritually dead.

In order for me to be like Him, He had to become like me. He took on an earthly body. The King of Kings, the Son of God walked this earth as a peasant, showing us God in the flesh and most refused His message.

I killed Him just as surely as if I were there. But, praise God, my sins have been forgiven.

And praise God Jesus did not stay dead. He arose again on the third day just as He said He would. He showed Himself to at least 500 witnesses after His crucifixion and people who knew Him wrote of the torture, physical death and resurrection.

About 30 years or so ago I heard a message from our pastor that really hit home with me.

While growing up I was under the impression I should accept Jesus Christ as the only begotten son of God Who died that I might not go to hell. That was it. The fear factor.

And while that fear factor is real, it wasn’t until I was in my late 20’s (I said 30 or so years ago; so it was more), but that day our pastor, a wonderful godly man, preached on the love of Jesus for us.

It was then that I realized I had accepted Jesus for all the wrong reasons, although they were valid reasons. But, for the first time in my life I no longer saw God as a vengeful God but as a loving Father, who loved me so much that He sent Jesus to take my sins upon His shoulders and pay the debt I could never pay by all the good works or all the money in the world.

He gave me, an uneducated Indian girl from Maine, eternal life because He loved me. I was so touched by this that I answered the altar call. In the Baptist church you go forward to accept Jesus as your savior, to pray or to move your membership from another church.

I got down on my knees at the foot of the steps to the platform where the pastor stood for his sermons and I cried like I have never cried as an adult; not even when I have lost a loved one.

I had sinned in not believing Jesus died out of love for me and I confessed that sin and thanked Him with my words and my tears for what seemed like a half hour while my husband waited patiently and my children were in children’s church.

The sermon was so profound that I still weep over the love Jesus and God the Father and Holy Ghost have for me.

I emphasize the word “me” because He is that personal to me. He can be that personal for you too if you will just stop trying to out-smart Him and accept Him just as you are.

I pray you make that journey in your own life, and know the peace that passes understanding. It’s not fake or based on a bunch of writings from unknown people. The Bible is true from the beginning to the end and the end was told before the beginning.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow. They have continued to flow from the day I first accepted Him as my Lord and my Savior, even when I have strayed from the path. He has always had someone keep me from straying too far and getting back on the straight and narrow path.

Thank you, Jesus. I love you.

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Since the Illinois legislature failed to pass a bill to hold a special election for the vacant seat of the president-elect, and did not act to forbid indicted Governor Rod Blagojevich from appointing a replacement to the seat, Roland Burris is legally the new senator from the state of Illinois and should be seated. Period.

Instead the Secretary of State is playing games with his signature not really certifying Burris is the new senator and Harry Reid and Company seem to think the rules of the senate will prevail over the Constitution of the United States.

Like it or not, Blagojevich had the authority to appoint Burris and the new Congress was being sworn in. He had an obligation to fill the seat so the state of Illinois had two senators instead of one.

Adam Clayton Powell, the late Congressman from New York, had a similar thing happen to him before he died. Congress refused to seat him and after two years the Supreme Court decided against the stand of Congress and for Powell. This set a precedent and I hope it doesn’t take two years to settle this case.

Now in Minnesota Norm Coleman is contesting the election, claiming some votes were counted twice and in some cases more voters than were on the rolls were casting ballots.

It’s a long shot for Coleman and it looks as though we will have a real comedian in the senate. Al Franken isn’t very funny, though, and is such a partisan I fail to see how he can help in what is being called a “post-partisan” era.

But Reid and Company want to seat him.

Nancy Pelosi has laid down her iron hand and decided Republicans will not get a say in debates, if there are any, and if she decides to bypass committees she will do it.

Republicans will be unable to offer amendments or offer a resolution to recommit.

It seems in 2006 she was the one whining the most about not having certain rights as the minority in the House and now she’s clamping down on the very rights the minority party did have.

In normal times it would cause her party to be thrown out in two years, but we are not in normal times. Many people in this country have wool over their eyes and think this is the best thing since sliced bread.

But there is a downside to this. With the Democrats completely in control, to the point of not allowing Republican representatives a voice in legislation other than a yes or no vote, everything that happens in the next two years can be laid at the feet of the Democratic party. Maybe it will be good, as I hope, but maybe it will make things worse, as I fear.

It appears Pelosi and Reid think they have served longer than the president-elect so they don’t really have to take orders or suggestions from this young whippersnapper. After all, five years ago he was a state senator from Illinois. Who does he think he is now, the incoming President of the United States?

Bush will be blamed for the economy when many things and people caused it for years to come. The Democrats will try to milk it for eight years at least.

The president-elect wants to spend our way out of this recession, but the fact is Roosevelt did the same thing and extended the Depression by a couple of years.

We just are not ready to build that many roads and bridges to get the economy working, and even if we do, what of the people who are not doing the building? How do they make it while construction workers do?

I just go along with what Jesus said, Don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will take care of itself.” It’s worked so far for us and I can’t think of Anyone better to give me advice.

See you after jury duty, unless something inspires me in the middle of the night as it did tonight.

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The past two weeks have been very draining on me emotionally, which then causes physical exhaustion such as I have never known before.

People in my family are sick and my phone has been popping with someone calling me about something important while I’m speaking to someone else about something important.

My step-mother has had major back surgery, my cousin is battling dementia and cancer and having a daughter who wants her to herself, my aunt on my father’s side is now in ICU because it looks as though she will need another bypass operation, my husband is still waiting for results from a capsule endoscopy after already having an endoscopy, colonoscopy and barium enema to determine where the bleeding is originating, my niece having problems which seem to be clearing up now and on and on.

We got a respite last Thursday when our son’s daughter flew in from Dallas and was here until Saturday, when we dropped her off to her other grandparents who had paid for her trip to visit with them for three weeks.

Thursday night we had three of our four grandchildren with us. We had offered to bring our other grandson from Texas to stay with us for the summer and perhaps take him to DC so he could see the museums and monuments, but his Mom said no because she wanted at least one child home this summer.

We thoroughly enjoyed having our grandchildren get to know each other as cousins as they don’t get together very often, but by Saturday I was completely wiped out. I went to bed Saturday night and couldn’t even get up to go to church on Sunday.

With all the commotion going on in my life I have had to turn it all over to Jesus because He is much stronger than I am. I had to quit fighting Him and stop worrying when worrying does no good anyway. I have received a great peace since then and now He is resting my mind and my body.

Jesus is my best Friend. He has promised He will never leave us or forsake us and that He will provide our needs.

I’ve been getting relaxation Sunday evening and this morning by listening to Southern Gospel music. It always soothes my soul because it is from the heart, as so much Southern music is.

I will leave you with two songs that have deeply moved me last night and this morning:

The first tells you how you can know Jesus too, and the second tells you and me what Jesus can do if we just let go and let God.

And now, listen and get the peace that passes all understanding.

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14But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 19:14 KJV

As I was reading this story the Bible verse quoted above kept going through my head.

A local woman is accused of beating her young grandson so badly he lost consciousness, police said.

According to police, Delores Henderson, 55, was walking down the street, hitting the two-year-old in the stroller and slamming it into the curb.

“People driving in the area of Dixon at this boulevard were witnessing this woman hitting this child,” Barbara Matthews with Cocoa police said.

The incident occurred at the intersection of Fiske and Dixon Boulevard in Cocoa.

Police arrived after being contacted by witnesses. Police said the beatings didn’t stop, even after Henderson dumped the boy out of his stroller and on to the concrete.

“As he drove up, he saw her hitting the child in the head. She was slapping him with her open hand,” Matthews said. “The officer described it as looking like a rag doll. She threw him back in the stroller and started to hit him again.”

An officer was eventually able to wrestle Henderson away from the child. The boy got up after being briefly unconscious.

There are times when you don’t feel like watching your grandchildren because you want to do something else, but you watch them anyway and you love them for all you’re worth.

I’m sure all grandparents feel the same way my husband and I and Sue and her husband feel about our grandchildren: If I knew they were so much fun I would have had them first!

To hear the voice of a little boy trying to sound grown-up, calling to ask for money for the American Heart Association makes my heart melt and, though he doesn’t know it, I would give everything I have to please him.

Not spoil him because we realize they have certain responsibilities, but we spoil them a lot more than we did our own children, even though we make them mind. I can’t tell you how much I love our four grandchildren.

Children are a gift from God. Why in the world would an adult slap a child until he lost consciousness for a few minutes? I was going to say, “And in public”, but I’m glad it was in public because she got reported and the little guy got saved from abuse.

The story doesn’t mention his mother or where he is now, but I can imagine Jesus was in Heaven intervening on that boy’s behalf. Who knows what plans God has for this little innocent?

When the disciples tried to hold back children who had been brought to Jesus to be touched and blessed Jesus got angry and told them to let the children come to Him because such is the Kingdom of Heaven.

He has time for all of us regardless of age and I somehow think He has a special spot in His heart for children.

May this little boy grow up knowing and loving Jesus, and may he be used by the Lord to lead many more people to Him.

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Here are the simple words to the song:

For some reason I feel the Holy Spirit tonight. I have been down all day, and the Lord has put this glorious music and the message from Jack Kinsella on my heart and has lifted me.

May God bless you and cause His light to shine upon you, both now and forevermore.

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After writing the post below this one I just had to find Eva Mae LeFevre singing “I’ve Got a Mansion”.

Thank you, Lord, that you have a mansion built just for me.

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Death of a loved one is the saddest thing a human can endure. Separation from that loved one. No more will you hear his/her voice, see his/her smile, smell his/her scent. Emptiness follows in your heart for a long, long time. Sometimes even until we ourselves die.

That’s all natural, but the worst thing imaginable is for us to have a loved one die who never knew Jesus as his/her Savior because we then know they are in Hell and there is no hope for him/her forever.

I’ve known saints who went to heaven and I miss them so very much. I have also known loved ones who rejected the invitation so freely given by Jesus to save them from eternal death and separation from God, and the fires of hell where they can look over the chasm and see those of us who believed, but we won’t be able to see them.

In a way, what they have done in rejecting Christ has been a very selfish act on their part because they have made sure we will never again have fellowship.

My mansion is built or being built. At my age I can at least say with a certain amount of certainty it’s well on its way to being finished. The finishing carpenters are right there either doing their work or waiting to do it.

It will be a mansion like nothing seen on this earth no matter how rich a person gets. And when the world’s richest person dies we are all equal. His money means nothing to God.

If you are unchurched you need to get back to church and find your Savior before it’s too late for you. You will never regret that decision.

Below is Saturday’s Omega Letter by Jack Kinsella. I hope you gain some knowledge from it.

When somebody dies, it is always an occasion for grief, even among Christians.

I know, I know. When a Christian dies, he goes home to be with the Lord, it is cause for celebration, his suffering is past, and all that.

But I’ve been a Christian for more than half my life, and in that time, many of my loved ones have gone home to be with the Lord.

I have to admit that I grieved their loss, in each and every case. For some whom I particularly loved, that grief is only diminished, but not gone, even after many years.

Paul was writing of physical death when he penned;
“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.” (2nd Thessalonians 4:13)

Does that mean I am ignorant? Or faithless? I don’t think so. I believe in the certainty of salvation, the literal existence of a loving God and the literal existence of a place called “Heaven.”
My grief isn’t for the person who has gone to be with the Lord. My grief is for my own loss.

Knowing I will see my loved one in the ’sweet by and by’ is a source of immense comfort, but it isn’t the same as seeing them now.

You don’t fully appreciate the measure of comfort offered by the certain knowledge salvation until someone you love dies without that hope. When that hope is absent, the grief is magnified beyond measure.

Your personal loss is now inconsequential to the complete and permanent loss of the hopeless. Your grief isn’t for yourself, it is truly and tragically for that lost one.

Your loss is over, his is just beginning.

We’ve discussed at length in previous briefings what kind of eternity is in store for those who enter eternity without Christ.
Let’s take a brief look at what the Bible tells us awaits the saved Christian on the other side.

Is Heaven a Real Place?

“In My Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2-3)

This is a proof text for the Rapture; Jesus promises that He will come again and receive us personally unto Himself.

That isn’t the 2nd Coming, where He comes astride a white horse, with ten thousands of His saints, wielding a sword and exacting judgment on a rebellious earth.

The purpose of this secret ‘coming’ is to take the Church, the Bride of Christ, to the honeymoon mansion prepared for us.
But note that also that He is speaking of a real place. Heaven is His Father’s house; within which are contained ancillary houses, (mansions) and “if it were not so, I would have told you,” Jesus promises.

Elsewhere, Jesus teaches: “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:” (Matthew 6:19-20)

That could only apply to an actual, literal, real physical place.
What Does Heaven Look Like?

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.” (1st Corinthians 2:9)

Since the Bible says it is beyond our capacity to imagine, those images we are shown are simply that — images.

John describes it in Revelation 21 and 22, streets of gold, inlaid with precious gems, but I like the picture in Revelation 22:1 of a “pure river of water of life, clear as crystal,” with the Tree of Life growing on its banks, “and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations . . . and there shall be no more curse.”
Heaven is a place of indescribable beauty, but it appeals to me as a place of perfect peace.

Do The Saved Go To Heaven Immediately?

Emphatically, yes. 2nd Corinthians 5:8 says: “to be absent from the body,” [is] “to be present with the Lord.”
Paul wrote to the Philippians: For I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better.” (1:23)

Man is not ‘a body’, but rather, man has a body. My body is not me, it is my possession. These are my arms, my legs, my eyes, and my hands.

This is also my keyboard, my monitor and my computer. They are in both cases, my possessions, they are not me.
When I leave this body behind, I leave behind a possession, but that part that is ‘me’ is the eternal part, that which was created in the Image of God.

But From Body to Disembodied?

There is considerable Scriptural support for the conclusion that we already have some kind of temporary, physical body awaiting us in Heaven — even before the resurrection of the dead in Christ at the Rapture.

Paul writes to the Corinthians;
“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens . . . .
Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: . . .
We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.” (2nd Corinthians 5:1,6,8)

Paul reveals here that when our bodies die (and are dissolved) there awaits us a “new building of God.”

Since our resurrection bodies are our actual physical earthly remains, reformed in the image of Christ’s Resurrected Body, the ‘building of God not made with hands’ that awaits us in Heaven cannot be one and the same.

Further, Luke 16 teaches that Lazarus had a finger to dip in cool water, that the rich man had a body to be tortured by the flame, and that the rich man recognized the forms of both Abraham and Lazarus.

Chronologically, this all took place prior to the death and Resurrection of Christ.

But they had bodies of some description, notwithstanding.
If Heaven is a Real, Physical Place, Where is It?

We tend to think of Heaven as ‘up’ and hell as ‘down’ — but the earth is round.

If, when I die, I go ‘up’ to Heaven, does that mean that a guy in China who dies at that same moment goes ‘down’?

The idea of Heaven being ‘up’ is derived from the points on a compass. Straight up is ‘north’.

Christians often refer to the passing of a loved one into Heaven as a ‘promotion.’ Many obituaries announce one’s ‘promotion to Glory’ rather than a death announcement.

The Psalmist reveals: “For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.” (75:6)

Isaiah recorded the indictment of Lucifer as follows: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north.” (Isaiah 14:13)

Heaven, therefore, is a fixed location in ‘the sides of the north’ from our universe, orienting due north from our North Pole and somewhere north of the highest star.

Will We Know Each Other?

Undoubtedly. Jesus told the Pharisees; “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.” (Luke 13:28)

Clearly, if they can see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets, they will also recognize them for who they are. Otherwise, why the weeping and gnashing of teeth?

At the Mount of Transfiguration, both Moses and Elijah were there. Moses and Elijah had never met. (But not only did they know each other, note that they still had the same names.)
The rich man recognized Abraham. Ok, but that’s Abraham! (He also recognized Lazarus)

Paul writes: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”(1st Corinthians 13:12)

The Apostle Paul expected to be known when he entered Heaven. So do I.

Assessment:
Heaven is a real, literal, physical place that will we will inhabit with real, heavenly, physical (but temporary) bodies that we begin to inhabit at the moment our physical bodies are ‘dissolved’ (die).

According to the Bible, we will know and be known by our loved ones who have preceded us in death.

Although the literal, physical Heaven is beyond our capacity to imagine, we are assured by our Maker that it will exceed our most optimistic hopes (He should know), that it will be a place of eternal peace, and that our existence there will be one of unimaginable joy.

The curse will be lifted, man will no longer exist by the ’sweat of his brow’ there will be no more sickness, no more death, and all our ‘tears will be wiped away.’

We began this morning talking about grief and loss. We went on to examine Paul’s admonition that ‘we sorrow not, even as others who have no hope’ — yet we know that we do sorrow at the death of a loved one, blessed assurance notwithstanding.

But Paul began by saying, “I don’t want you to be ignorant.”
We can’t imagine Heaven, but we can be certain that it exists, and that every single Christian who ever lived and died is still alive and well and physically in the presence of God and all their loved ones.

And we can be equally certain that they will still be there, waiting, when we get there.

If Heaven is such a great place, why is it that we can’t really imagine it? Think that through. God put us on this earth with a mission.

It is our job to spread the message of Heaven and the path that leads to it. We are given to know just enough to fulfill that message.

There is an old saying to the effect that “everybody wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die.” It’s only true because we really can’t imagine the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.

That’s how good it is. And how important the message we carry is. So important that God can’t trust us with too much information about the Prize that awaits us at the end of the race.

Because if we really knew what awaits us, there’d be nobody left down here willing to wait and carry the message to the next runner.

For now, we’ll just have to take His Word for it. On faith.

Maranatha!

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The Lord Jesus Christ is perfectly capable of taking care of Himself, and ultimately needs no defending from—or by—we mere humans. His truth would stand even if no one on earth believed it. Nevertheless, we who believe must defend Him against the atheists and agnostics and Muslims and etc. who are attacking the historicity of Jesus Christ the divine man/God who walked on this earth 2,000 years ago.

The attacks have come from many quarters in recent years and have gotten much popular press. They include Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great, Bart Ehrman’s well-written and runaway bestseller Misquoting Jesus (written by a former highly educated Christian-turned agnostic), Dan Brown’s popular but laughably ludicrous The Da Vinci Code, Bill Moyers’ books What Jesus Really Meant and What Paul Really Meant, the “discovery” of the Gnostic so-called “Gospel of Judas,” which has liberal scholars all a-twitter, James Cameron’s phony “Tomb of Jesus,” and so on.

What’s the answer, and more importantly, how can Christians equip themselves properly, instead of just saying “I believe the Bible!” when the very foundations of the Bible and Jesus Himself are under attack?

Never fear: Lee Strobel has done it again. The author of The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith and The Case for a Creator has turned his considerable investigative talents toward responding to the ferocious attacks on the Lord Himself. The former atheist and hard-hitting investigative reporter, now a born-again-Christian, published The Case for the Real Jesus earlier this year. As with his earlier works, he sought out the absolute best experts in several fields and asked the tough questions on a quest to discover the real Jesus. The results in this book are stunning. It’s Strobel’s best work yet.

What sets this book apart is that Strobel plays much more of the devil’s advocate (heh—in this case, literally) than in previous books by really digging into the atheistic and etc. objections. And when he interviews his experts, he challenges them several different ways to “prove it!”

One of the best sections is Strobel’s interview with Michael Licona, one of the world’s foremost New Testament scholars. During the two-chapter interview recorded by Strobel, Licona uses five pieces of minimal historical evidence that even most ultra liberal, atheist and agnostic scholars agree on to make the case that Jesus Christ rose from the dead—that He was/is who we believe Him to be:

1. Jesus was killed by crucifixion
2. Jesus’ disciples believed that he rose from the dead and appeared to them in the flesh
3. Saul’s conversion from church persecutor to the Christian champion, Paul
4. Jesus’ half-brother, James, converted from skeptic during Jesus’ ministry to believer and leader after His resurrection
5. The tomb was empty

Again, a large majority of historians, including liberal, atheist or agnostic scholars, accept those central facts AS undeniable facts, says Licona. And he definitely would know.

And that’s just a small taster of what’s in this book. It’s intensely scholarly, thought-provoking, challenging and, ultimately, edifying. If you truly know who you worship and why, you won’t have your faith knocked flat by the latest attack from an Ehrman or Hitchins, or from a breathless media frenzy over a “lost” gospel. However, if you are ignorant about what you believe, you can and will be knocked flat and will question what you believe, because you will not know better.

Don’t be an ignorant Christian (as in “lacking knowledge and understanding”). Arm yourself with knowledge, as we are commanded to do. As the apostle Peter wrote (2 Peter 1:3-11):

“His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.

“Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

In 1 Peter 3, the apostle says: “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”

“Add to your faith…knowledge…” Or, to quote the old cartoon show, “Knowing is half the battle.”

Get Strobel’s book, read it, absorb it, and, above all else, absorb your scripture—which is the final (and only) authority. You won’t be disappointed.

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1And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.

2(And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria.)

3And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.

4And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David)

5To be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.

6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.

8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.

10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.

11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

14Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

15And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

16And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

17And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

18And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

19But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.

20And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.

21And when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called JESUS, which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

22And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought him to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord;

23(As it is written in the law of the LORD, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord)

24And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons.

25And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him.

26And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

27And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law,

28Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,

29Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:

30For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,

31Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;

32A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

33And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.

34And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;

35(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.

36And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of a great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;

37And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.

38And she coming in that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord, and spake of him to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.

39And when they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.

40And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

41Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the passover.

42And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast.

43And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not of it.

44But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day’s journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.

45And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.

46And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions.

47And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.

48And when they saw him, they were amazed: and his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.

49And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?

50And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.

51And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them: but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.

52And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.

No need to say anymore.

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A few years ago, my wife and I attended a conference at Calvin Theological Seminary in Grand Rapids, Mich., which focused on music and arts in worship. One of the presenters was Dennis Dewey, who has a passion for oral presentations of the Bible.

His methodology makes perfect sense, because the Bible—scripture—was always read to people until relatively recently, before the printing press (and literacy) made the Bible physically accessible to everyone. If I remember correctly, Dewey said to take note of how some passages seem repetitive, possibly because the text often lends itself more to oral presentation than written presentation.

During the weekend conference, we were given a copy of the following, which I think is magnificent. We always seem to think of the warm and cuddly baby Jesus and how indescribably wonderful a gift He was. But how often do we reflect that the gift of the baby Jesus culminated at the cross?

This is meant to be spoken aloud, performed during a service or Christmas play—or Easter play, which would be equally apropos. Enjoy, and have a merry and blessed Christmas!

ONE: In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. (This was the first enrollment when Quirinius was governor of Syria.)

TWO: Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people and said to them, “You brought me this man as one who was perverting the people; and after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him. I will therefore chastise him and release him.”

ONE: And all went to be enrolled to their own cities. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

TWO: But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified. And their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave sentence that their demand should be granted. He released Barabbas, the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, whom they asked for, but Jesus he delivered up to their will.

ONE: And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered.

TWO: And when they came to the place which is called the skull, there they crucified him, and two criminals—one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

ONE: And she brought forth her first-born son and wrapped him swaddling cloths…

TWO: And they cast lots to divide his garments.

ONE: …and laid him in a manger because there was no place for them in the inn. And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

TWO: And the people stood by, watching.

ONE: And an angel of the Lord appeared to them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with fear! But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for, behold, I bring you good news of great joy which shall be for all the people. For to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

TWO: But the rulers scoffed at him, saying, “He saved others! If this IS the Christ of God, God’s chosen One, let him save himself!”

ONE: And this will be a sign for you…

TWO: And while the sun’s light failed, the curtain of the temple was torn in two. And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!”

ONE: ….You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths…

TWO: Then Joseph of Arimathea took down the body of Jesus and wrapped it in a linen shroud…

ONE: …and lying in a manger.

TWO: …and laid him in a rock-hewn tomb.

[PAUSE, as the tellers switch stories]

TWO: And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and earth peace among people of God’s favor!”

ONE: The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid, and returned and prepared spices and ointments.

TWO: When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened that the Lord has made known to us!”

ONE: And on the first day of the week at early dawn they went to the tomb.

TWO: And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger.

ONE: And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb! But when they went in, they did not see the body!

TWO: And when the shepherds saw the babe lying in the manger, they made known the saying which had been told them concerning the child.

ONE: While they were perplexed about this, suddenly, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel, and they said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? Remember how he told you when he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinners and be crucified and on the third day rise?”

TWO: And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds had told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.

ONE: And they did remember his words, and, returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest!

TWO: And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as it had been told them!

ONE: But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them.

– Composed by Luke’s Community/Rearranged by Dennis Dewey, 1995

(If you pass this on to anyone else, please include the credit line!)

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What do you think of when you think of Christmas? Lights, trees in your house, wreaths, gifts, meals, family time?

We traditionally have all these symbols at Christmas and spend gads of money so we can buy gifts the recipients don’t really need and we could give to them all year long without a holiday.

To the kids it’s Santa and the reindeer, school vacation and excitement on Christmas Eve to see what kind of haul they will get this time.

To some it’s a culmination of a year’s worth of shopping and hiding for the big day.

How many think of what Christmas really is? You don’t get gifts when you tell the story of God made flesh and born of a virgin, come to earth to save us from our sins and eternal spiritual death. But if you believe it and accept Jesus as the Messiah you get the Greatest Gift of all: eternal life and fellowship with God Himself.

Christmas and Easter are so holy we actually celebrate both in Christian churches of any denomination.

Some people think they have never sinned, but fail to understand that when Adam and Eve partook of the forbidden fruit they passed along a gene in every person’s DNA that was labeled “Sin and Eternal Spiritual Death”. Every person except for One.

Today it’s trendy to say anything to do with the Bible is fiction written over 2,000 years ago and not applicable today and certainly not proven science.

It’s strange, though, that when one studies the Bible he or she can follow the thread from the Old Testament prophesying the birth, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ to the New Testament showing exactly how it all came about just as the prophets wrote.

Just as the mother of Moses hid her son so he wouldn’t be killed by Pharoah’s men, so did Joseph and Mary flee to Egypt to escape the death sentence placed on the heads of all boys under the age of two by Herod, who was afraid this King of the Jews was going to take his throne.

We think of Mary and Joseph as being homeless and Jesus being born homeless when that is not the case at all. They had a home in Nazareth, but a decree went out by Caesar Augustus that all men would return to the city of their birth and register and pay taxes. It was on this trip that Mary gave birth. They were homeless only in the sense that all the hotel rooms were full and they took refuge in a kind man’s stable, where she gave birth to the King of Kings.

Everything the prophets wrote about Jesus came true down to the tiniest detail.

Isaiah wrote that He went as a lamb to his shearers and spoke not a word when accused. He wrote that by His stripes we are healed.

He did have stripes on His body, you know. It wasn’t the sanitized version of crucifixion we have always imagined until we actually saw a depiction of it in “The Passion of the Christ”.

Yes, I knew He was beaten, I knew He had a crown of thorns placed upon His head, I knew He willingly lay down and had the nails put through His feet and wrists (it had to be the wrists or the hands would have torn and defeated the purpose of execution), I knew He gave the care of His mother to John, and I knew He cried out when the Father turned His back on Him as He became sin for you and for me. I just never imagined how extremely horrible it was. But, remember, He came down off that cross and went to the grave but only for three days. He lives even now!

Good Friday and Easter are the reasons we celebrate Christmas. It was to die and rise again that He stepped into space and time. He committed no sin, but became our sin that we might have the fellowship with God the way He intended it before Satan successfully tempted Eve.

Yes, by His stripes we are healed and by His blood we are sealed—forever if we just accept Him on His terms as a child would do. Accept by faith He is the One and only begotten Son of the One and only God Who died that we might have eternal life and fellowship with this God Who loves us so much He gave His most precious Only Begotten Son because He was the only Perfect Lamb Who could take away the sins of the world.

You can’t reason God; you have to believe as a child believes, only this isn’t a fairy tale and the consequences of not believing are eternal.

I honestly believe that when He was on that cross He looked down through the ages and saw you and me as individuals. Why couldn’t He? He’s God.

So enjoy the gifts and relax from the shopping and just think of what Christmas and its companion holy day are all about, because without one we couldn’t have the other, and without either we would be eternally separated from God.

We don’t deserve His love and we still sin because we are human, but our goal is to accept Him as our savior and try to walk in His footsteps. We won’t completely succeed until we are physically with Him for eternity, but it’s so much better than believing everyone who doesn’t believe will have their heads lopped off. That’s only physical, and what He offers is spiritual.

For some strange reason some people, most people, will not choose Jesus over Satan and will be doomed to eternity in Hell, where the physical punishment won’t be as bad as the mental anguish of knowing they could have prevented it and could have had fellowship with God. They will see those they loved in Heaven while those they loved will not be able to see or remember them.

This is because God gave us all free choice to decide for ourselves. It’s not what He wants and the Bible says that one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God. For some that confession will come too late.

I wish you all a Happy Birthday to Christ, the Messiah still rejected by His own people. One day, soon I hope, they will see He is the King God promised them, and you will too if you haven’t already.

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Sometimes I just think this world is going to hell in a handbasket, and I long for the day when I will be in God’s Eternal Kingdom and no longer have to worry about what’s going on in this world.

I feel that God has begun to withdraw His blessing from our own country and yet I pray for the sake of the believers He will not completely withdraw His blessing from us.

We turn our heads and look the other way on sin that God declared is sin from the beginning of our awareness of Him. We try to justify it as being a sign of modern times and modern thinking, but if God said it was wrong a million years ago it’s still wrong today.

We allow our unborn to be killed in utero because it’s the woman’s body. Guess what? Our bodies are God’s and not ours.

Yet, because we are human, we constantly sin. That’s why we should go to Him daily confessing our sins in order to be sanctified by Him. Sanctification is not something you can grab onto and keep unless you treat your mind and body as God wants you to treat it. It does not affect your salvation, but we are to be as pure as possible before our Lord. That’s why we pray for forgiveness of our sins, and we do it daily.

Our bodies are not our own and when people realize that maybe we can get back on track.

Unfortunately I just see us getting worse with demands of same-sex marriage, pedophilia, doing anything that is pleasurable to us and nothing that is pleasing to God, our Creator.

I have felt strongly about these issues for a long time.

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I was distressed to read that Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon wants to cede part of control of Jerusalem to the Palestinian Authority.

“The government does not have a majority (to support) Haim Ramon’s opinions on anything to do with Jerusalem,” Pensioners Party Chairman Rafi Eitan said Tuesday following the exposure of the vice premier’s letter calling for the division of Jerusalem and the establishment of joint sovereignty over the city’s holy sites.

I totally agree with that statement.

Where does this man get off thinking he can give away one grain of sand of the land given to the Jews by God Almighty Himself? He holds the deed to that property and Jesus even instructed us to pray for peace in Jerusalem, the city He loves so much.

There will never be real peace in that city until Jesus sets foot on it again, but praying for the peace in Jerusalem is something I do daily.

Israelis shed their blood and lost their sons and daughters in battles brought against them when they recaptured the land that had been taken from them for 2000 years.

Since the election of Olmert we are seeing a policy which is disturbing in that he seems willing to bend over backwards to do the bidding of the Palestinians, all in the name of a peace that will never come.

The Palestinians and all Muslims are sworn to destroy Israel. Not just destroy it, but push the people into the sea.

Now it seems members of the government are doing their level best to see to it the Palestinians get their way.

I’m not an Israeli citizen so I have no say in their internal affairs, but I can say I hope someone who is stronger against the threats to Israel will get elected and soon.

I have read reports Olmert is even considering granting the right of return to Palestinians who left Israel of their own accord when the state of Israel was re-created.

These people or their ancestors were given the opportunity in 1948 to remain in their homes on their property and become a part of Israel.

They can be elected to the Knesset and enjoy full citizenship. That’s for those who decided to stay. The others left and gave up any claim to the land when they did.

If they were to get the right of return to Israel it wouldn’t be long before they would take over the government and run the Jews into the sea.

I don’t see God allowing that to happen.

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Commedian Kathy Griffin won a Creative Arts Emmy for her cable show, “My Life on the D-List.” I’ve never seen it, but that isn’t the point. (J mentioned this in an earlier post.) During her taped acceptance speech, she said:

“A lot of people come up here and thank Jesus for this award. I want you to know that no one had less to do with this award than Jesus … Suck it, J*sus. This award is my god now.”

She said backstage that she hoped she offended someone, because “I didn’t want to win the Emmy for nothing.”

Well, how charming.

The speech drew fire from a leading Roman Catholic group, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, which condemned Griffin’s remarks as “obscene and blasphemous.”

“It is a sure bet that if Griffin had said, ‘Suck it, Muhammad,’ there would have been a very different reaction,” Catholic League president Bill Donohue said in a statement posted on the group’s Web site. He called on TV academy president Dick Askin to denounce Griffin’s “hate speech” and on Griffin to apologize.

An edited version of the Creative Arts Emmys is set to air on cable television’s E! Entertainment Network on Saturday, the night before the live Fox network broadcast of the main Primetime Emmy Awards.

Griffin’s defense? “Am I the only Catholic left with a sense of humor?”

Really. “Suck it, J*sus.” That’s supposed to be funny? Where’s the joke?

Let’s pretend for a minute that Griffin is a Catholic who believes wholeheartedly in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Would she seriously think that saying “suck it, J*sus” would constitute a joke?

When she dies and mets the Lord, will she say, “Hey, J*sus, you had nothing to do with my success, so suck it”?

Yeah, right. I’ll tell you what will really happen. No, in fact, Isaiah will tell you. Here’s a man who was one of God’s most prominent prophets, a man who worshiped the Lord and turned his back on sin as best as he humanly could. In those days, no one was closer to God than Isaiah. But when he was brought face to face with the Lord (Isaiah 6:1-5):

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”

As powerful a servant of God as Isaiah was, he believed himself “ruined” to merely be in God’s awesome presence. Do you think someone would truly have the temerity to say, “suck it!”?

(Yes, of course, I know, athiests believe we bad ol’ Christians tell such stories of the afterlife to frighten our children. Well … boo!)

Instead of condemning Kathy Griffin for her stupid “joke,” or come out swinging with cries of “blashemy!” as the Catholic League did, I wonder if someone in Hollywood-land or elsewhee in the public eye has tried witnessing to her. Share Jesus’s good news of salvation, forgiveness and God’s grace that we don’t deserve yet is freely given.

Sadly, probably not. Tinsletown is a hedonistic place that continually assaults Christ and the cross; yet remember, even Lot was declared righteous in Sodom.

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The Anchoress has tagged me to tell you five things I love about Jesus.

1. Because He first loved me a nobody, who was a somebody to Him. Even the hairs on my head are numbered, and when He was on the Cross, I was on His mind.

2. Because He is God and there is no other. None before Him and none after Him.

3. Because in His earthly Incarnation He was also Man, and as such He experienced the things we experience. He wept at the deaths of friends, He felt sorrow and compassion for the sick and healed them as well as raising the dead. He knows how I feel under any circumstance and He cares and helps me through the bad times and rejoices with me in the good times.

4. Because He loves me enough He left all the glory of Heaven and became a man with not even a place to call His home. He slept outside or at friends’ houses, but owned nothing of His own while in His earthly Incarnation.

5. He is the Perfect Son Who obeys His Father, and because He is the Perfect Lamb of God His shed blood, burial and resurrection have made it possible for all mankind to be redeemed and to live with Him and the Father for all eternity in His home with many mansions.

“Come unto me all those who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

“For God so loved the world He gave His only begotten Son, that Whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.”

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As I’ve said many times on this blog I don’t usually watch TV, but last night my aunt called me and told me to turn my TV set to CNN and watch Larry King because Tammy Faye Messner was on.

I turned on the screen and I was shocked! She had colon cancer several years ago and it was thought cured until she found it had spread to her lungs.

She now weighs 65 pounds and says she has gained 5 pounds since her last appearance on the show.

I’ve seen movies and still pictures of Holocaust survivors and she looks like one of them. You can see every bone in her body and she says her back and stomach ache constantly.

She gasps for breath and yet she still has her smile and sense of humor. She has an unwavering faith in Jesus as her Savior and said when she dies she knows she is going straight to heaven, as she pointed her index finger upward.

I live about 10 miles from where PTL was in its hey day. I remember all the hateful press that dogged her as well as her first husband Jim Bakker.

I worked right down the street from the federal courthouse where he was tried and taken out in shackles and handcuffs, begging not to be treated that way.

I have seen closely how these two people hit rock bottom and had no way to look but up.

I saw the T shirts in the malls that had an imprint of makeup all over the front with the words “I ran into Tammy Faye at the mall today.” Funny then. She joked about it too, but it was cruel.

Through all of it Tammy was solid as a rock in her faith in Jesus. It was there for all of us to see, but we were too busy mocking her to see it.

She didn’t change, but I did.

I can’t begin to tell you how much I admire her after seeing the Larry King show last night.

Watch the video for yourself to see how thin she is, how she gasps for breath, and her smile and upbeat attitude based on her love and blessed assurance from Jesus Christ Himself.

May God forgive me for any laughing I did at her. I ask you all to pray that God will ease her pain and suffering and will be with her family when that pain and suffering are finished.

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What is an apostate? He or she is someone who becomes a Christian by hearing and believing the truth, then ultimately rejects it—but still walks, talks and acts like a Christian.

Identifying and calling out apostates today is not an easy thing to do. You are called intolerant, a “heretic hunter” and worse. Your concern for the truth is dismissed as divisive, and your efforts are not welcome in the “enlightened” church of the 21st century.

It’s nothing new.

I was prompted to write this when I heard about an Episcopal from Seattle named Ann Holmes Redding, who claimed last month that she is now both a Christian priest and a practicing Muslim. She claims that, since becoming Muslim while remaining Christian, “I have been, by my own estimation, a better teacher, a better preacher and a better Christian.”

What she claims is utterly impossible in the eyes of God. She is either an apostate or someone who never had the truth to begin with. But to call her out on her massive error is to invite attacks of “bigot,” “intolerance” and worse.

But first: what is “the truth?” That Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, is the only begotten son of God, and that His sacrifice on the cross was and is sufficient for the total remission of sins for those who believe in Him. The truth is that scripture is unerring and sufficient. The truth is that there are no new “truths” to be discovered in God’s word, and that the message that has already been revealed to us is IT.

But today, if you say that and boldly proclaim it, you’re in a hated minority.

And that, too, is nothing new. During Israel’s kingdom period, the prophet Jeremiah often felt as if he were the last true believer among all the people. And the people themselves ignored the repeated warnings of God’s prophets until it was too late, and they were swept to 70 years of captivity in Babylon. During Christ’s time on earth, the Lord repeatedly told the truth about Himself to the Pharisees, but they were so wrapped in their own religion and their own misunderstanding of what they had been given, that they refused to see the Messiah standing right before them!

All of the authors of the New Testament missives warn of apostates in the newly established churches, but none are so pointed as Jude. Jude was a son of Mary and Joseph, making him, along with James, a half-brother of Jesus in His earthly incarnation. Jude urged Christians to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What does this mean? That people who would pervert Christianity and turn it from the truth are being accepted as Christians, but what they’re preaching is poison—and they have to be stopped. Stopped being accepted as teachers and stopped being listened to. “Marked out for condemnation” means that God Himself will deal with them.

And who are some of these apostates? They are leaders of many mainstream denominations who think that they can change the word of God to mean whatever they want it to mean. They are people who think that what was written 2,000 years ago just isn’t hip enough for today, so the truth of Christ needs to be downplayed, even set aside, lest people get scared away from church. They are people who preach feel-good nonsense about getting rich, who claim to be miracle makers, and who try to conform Christ to popular culture instead of conforming themselves to Christ. These are people who reject authority—God’s authority—but still call themselves Christian. The popular Emerging Church movement definitely has problems with apostasy, because its leadership, especially its founder, throws out all doctrine. That movement has toubles because it essentially boils its message down to “Jesus loves you; isn’t that enough?” No, it isn’t. If it were as simple as that, everyone in the world would be Christian.

If you want to get an understanding of just how bad things are getting, and how apostates can so easily mislead people today, try this: compare a sermon of today from any “mainstream” church to one from the same church 50 or 100 years ago. What’s the topic today? Christ crucified for our sins—or your self esteem? Christ glorified—or being “slain in the spirit?” Christ the redeemer—or the “social gospel” of a political party? Try comparing Jonathan Edwards’ “Sinners in the hands of an angry God” sermon to one by Joel Osteen or one of the other masters of a megachurch. (I don’t know if Osteen is an apostate, but his sermons are light on substance and heavy on fluff.)

Why, then, is doctrine so important? Doesn’t it just limit people? Isn’t there enough Christ to go around for all of us? Doesn’t it cramp the style of a dynamic fresh leader in the church? Don’t ideas from 2,000 years ago just not apply to today? Aren’t they woefully out of date and don’t fit with today’s hip, secularized American culture? Isn’t Christ open to interpretation from one generation to the next? Shouldn’t those concerned with doctrine just lighten up?

Tell that to Paul, Peter, John, James and Jude.

The “lighten up” mentality puts little faith in God. Would not God hand His word down for all time? Would He not give us the means to deal, on a basic level, with all situations? Would He not reveal His entire plan for redemption? To act as if God’s word as handed to us through His scriptures is anything less than adequate for our needs is, frankly, telling God that He isn’t perfect, isn’t adequate, isn’t up to the task, isn’t all-loving, all-knowing and all-providing.

Again, this is nothing new. The means for apostasy may have changed, but the intent hasn’t. Ultimately, it places man before God. It places the human ego before God.

Thanks for reading.

—Truman

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I had to share this news with you now.

Today my daughter in law was in class doing her rotation at a hospital. She received a voice mail from the pathologist who diagnosed her cancer but couldn’t take the message.

He then called the hospital and asked to speak to her. He told her to go into a room, close the door and sit down. She told him she just couldn’t stand to hear more bad news as she had had a body scan of her cancer done yesterday. He commanded her to do as he said and she did.

He then told her of the 15 malignant spots she had in the prior scan, 7 are completely gone, 6 are what they call reactive, meaning swollen glands from something like a sinus infection (she has a sinus infection), and 2 are still cancerous but are under her arm and can be removed by surgery!

She has to go back tomorrow and repeat the scan just to make sure the machine didn’t make a mistake, and we are cautiously optimistic until we get the final word.

None of the lymph nodes got larger, as you have seen some have gone away and the color has not changed in any of them.

People all over the country have been praying for her, including my good friend The Anchoress, Kimsch from Musing Minds and many other bloggers whose names have escaped me at this moment of excitement.

Please keep her in your prayers that this is, indeed, a correct reading of the body scan. I’ll let you know something tomorrow as soon as I know.

Praise God! She asked me if I could believe it and I told her there were people all over the country praying for her and that my prayer has been thanksgiving for healing her body, whether it be directly by God, or by God using doctors.

He’s still in the miracle business. He made our bodies and He can certainly heal them if that’s His will.

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We’ve been able to read nothing except the tragic shootings yesterday at Virginia Tech. There is really no more we can add to it as all the blogs are covering it.

I want to turn your attention to the April 12 Omega Letter, which exposes the myth of the “found” Jesus grave and his “marriage” to Mary Magdeline and their “son”:

Cracks in the Foundation . . .

Now that the film has been broadcast and the damage done, a number of scholars who were interviewed for ‘The Lost Tomb of Jesus’ documentary are beginning to rethink their assessments.

Stephen Pfann of the University of the Holy Land in Jerusalem published a paper entitled; “Cracks in the Foundation: How the Lost Tomb of Jesus story is losing its scholarly support.”

The original premise of the film was that Oscar-winning director James Cameron and Emmy-winning Canadian filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici had ‘discovered’ the ‘lost tomb of Jesus Christ’ and His family in a Jerusalem suburb.

Never mind that Jerusalem was ninety miles away from the family hometown. Never mind that both the Romans and the Jewish authorities, desperate to disprove Jesus’ credentials, somehow ‘missed’ the evidence they were looking for despite the fact it was a large, expensive family tomb that could not have been kept secret.

Cameron, whose anti-Christian values are no secret, evidently set out to ‘prove’ that Jesus was nothing more than an extraordinary man who lived, died and was buried in the first half of the first century. By whatever means necessary — including cooking the evidence as needed.

The film argues that 10 ancient ossuaries – burial boxes used to store bones – that were discovered in Talpiot in 1980 contained the bones of Jesus and his family. When the ossuaries were discovered, the bones they contained were buried in an unmarked grave in keeping with Jewish tradition.

But Cameron claimed there was enough residual DNA to ‘prove’ his claims. He claimed that comparative analysis determined the DNA of ‘Jesus’ did not match the DNA of ‘Mariamne’ which PROVES, Cameron claimed, that Jesus was married to Mariamne, and furthermore, that Mariamne was really Mary Magdalene.

From there, Cameron extrapolated, a third bone box, inscribed, ‘Judah, son of Jesus’ was therefore the offspring of Jesus of Nazareth and Mary Magdalene. Now remember, Cameron deduced all THAT from the fact that there was NO DNA evidence linking ‘Jesus’ to ‘Mariamne’.

If there were ANY DNA that linked ANYBODY to ‘Jesus’, Cameron and Jacobvici kept that information to themselves.

Even the Discovery Channel, which aired the documentary, has begun qualifying or editing some of their claims about the film.

A statement on the Discovery Channel’s website that used to read, “a statistical study commissioned by the broadcasters…concludes that the probability factor is 600 to 1 in favor of this being the tomb of Jesus of Nazareth and his family,” was pulled down.

It was replaced with a statement saying, “a statistical study commissioned by the broadcasters… concludes that the probability factor is in the order of 600 to 1 that an equally ’surprising’ cluster of names would arise purely by chance under given assumptions.”

THAT is a far cry from claiming the odds 600 to 1 in favor of the conclusion that they found the ‘lost tomb of Jesus’.

Another way of expressing it would be like this: The odds would be 600 to 1 against there being another family that shared the same first names as ours living in the same town as us.

That is not the same as claiming a 600 to 1 probability that the other family IS us. That would be ridiculous.

Which is why so many of the alleged ’scholars’ are backtracking from the film’s claims. Because they ARE ridiculous.

Shimon Gibson, who was part of the 1980 excavation team (and appeared in the film) was quoted by Pfann, saying, “Personally, I’m skeptical that this is the tomb of Jesus and I made this point very clear to the filmmakers. We need much more evidence before we can say that the Talpiot tomb might be the family tomb of Jesus,” he added.

Prof. Frank Moore Cross, professor emeritus of Hebrew and oriental languages at Harvard University is portrayed in the film as having ‘no real doubt’ that the ossuary reads “Jesus, son of Joseph”.

However, Cross also claimed it proved nothing. “It has been reckoned that 25 percent of feminine names in this period were Maria/Miriam, etc. – that is, variants of ‘Mary.’ So the cited statistics are unpersuasive. You know the saying: lies, damned lies, and statistics,” Cross is quoted as saying.

The DNA expert who appeared in the film, Dr. Carney Matheson, was quoted by the documentary as saying, “these two individuals, if they were unrelated, would most likely be husband and wife.” Dr. Matheson says that he was selectively misquoted.

He later said “the only conclusions we made were that these two sets were not maternally related. To me, it sounds like absolutely nothing.”

To me, it sounds like LESS than nothing.

Finally, Professor Francois Bovon is quoted in the film as saying the enigmatic ossuary inscription “Mariamne” is the same woman known as Mary Magdalene. But when Professor Bovon saw the film, he issued a disclaimer saying he didn’t believe that ‘Mariamne’ ossuary was Mary Magdalene at all. He claims he was quoted out of context.

It appears that the ‘Jesus Tomb’ film was an unmitigated fraud. Read the rest of this entry »

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Many years ago I heard Johnny Cash sing a song on a Billy Graham Crusade. I had never heard the song before nor have I heard it since, but the title was “Matthew 24 Is Knocking on My Door”.

I want to quote a bit of that chapter from the New American Standard Bible. (I like that version because it’s easier to understand and is the one my pastor uses so it makes it easier for me to follow him when he’s reading.)

3 As He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

4 And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you.

5 “For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will mislead many.

6 “You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end.

7 “For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes.

8 “But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.

You can read the entire chapter here.

This is not another story about the war, but I had to include that part to put into context what Jesus was telling the disciples.

The part I’m interested in particularly right now is the part about earthquakes.

Remember the big tsunami that hit at Christmas a couple of years ago, and now another one that hit in the Solomons just recently? These are only two, but I have been reading an interesting article about the huge earthquake in the Solomons.

Check this out:

RANONGGA, Solomon Islands (AFP) – The seismic jolt that unleashed the deadly Solomons tsunami this week lifted an entire island metres out of the sea, destroying some of the world’s most pristine coral reefs. [my emphasis]

In an instant, the grinding of the Earth’s tectonic plates in the 8.0 magnitude earthquake Monday forced the island of Ranongga up three metres (10 foot).

Submerged reefs that once attracted scuba divers from around the globe lie exposed and dying after the quake raised the mountainous landmass, which is 32-kilometres (20-miles) long and 8-kilometres (5-miles) wide.

Corals that used to form an underwater wonderland of iridescent blues, greens and reds now bleach under the sun, transforming into a barren moonscape surrounding the island.

The stench of rotting fish and other marine life stranded on the reefs when the seas receded is overwhelming and the once vibrant coral is dry and crunches underfoot.

Dazed villagers stand on the shoreline, still coming to terms with the cataclysmic shift that changed the geography of their island forever, pushing the shoreline out to sea by up to 70 metres. [my emphasis.]

I read and hear of these natural disasters happening more and more frequently, along with the wars and rumors of wars, nation rising up against nation, people claiming to be the Christ, and I can’t help but believe we are witnessing Matthew 24 happening before our very eyes.

42 “Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

43 “But be sure of this, that if the head of the house had known at what time of the night the thief was coming, he would have been on the alert and would not have allowed his house to be broken into.

44 “For this reason you also must be ready; for the Son of Man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will.

I just wonder how many of us believe the Second Coming of Jesus could be very soon based on what we are told in the Bible. Judging by the way we are living, I would say not many of us are watching for that “thief in the night” but are out enjoying life as we’ve always known it.

I don’t know the day or the hour either, but the Lord Himself gave us the signs of the end times. We would be wise to heed His words and be prepared.

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From Today’s Townhall column by Paul Greenberg

“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away. Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.

“And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni;which is to say, Master.”

-From the Gospel according to John

I’ve become an old woman now, and it all makes a kind of sense to me, the way a joke does when it finally dawns on you, and you have to laugh out loud. Of course! Everything falls into its absurd, magnificent place in a blinding flash, like fireworks exploding out of the pitch-black sky, sending pattern after pattern high above and all around, ever closer and closer, and you’re a child again who’s never seen anything so beautiful or overwhelming.

What a solemn fool I was, don’t you know? I was expecting the worst, of course. As we all were, I suppose. Oh, we of little faith! Or else we wouldn’t have believed the worst when actually the best was at hand. The worst, we are always prepared to believe. The best takes faith.

Some more tea, dear? Yes, it is good. Orange pekoe, I think they call it, delicate but with sweet undertones, it says on the box, whatever that means. I myself have no idea. But I used to believe that sort of thing-that one could go by the label, by outward things.

That’s why I’d read the script so wrong that first Easter. I was all set to see a tragedy, you see, and instead it turned out to be a comedy, the grandest and most glorious of comedies, complete with the happiest of endings.

That’s the way it was with me, anyway, that Sunday morning. The sadness, the awfulness of it I understood instinctively. I’d been prepared for it by the kind of life I’d led. I knew what men were like, what life was like, and that neither ends well. I’d swallowed every cliche: Don’t get your hopes up, promises are made to be broken, never give a sucker an even break . . . and all the rest.

I was perfectly prepared for how bad Good Friday would be, but Easter Sunday? My dear, that was quite beyond me. How could I have understood? You might as well have tried to describe sight to the blind, music to the deaf, belief to the cynical. My reality was limited to the evidence of things seen, the substance of things feared.

The empty tomb should have been proof of hope; I saw it only as cause for despair.

So when I saw the gardener-for who else could he be?-I wept and wailed and pleaded. I wanted to wallow in my grief; that was one thing I thought no one could take from me. I held on to it like a treasure.

Then I heard my name. How puzzling: How could the gardener have known me? That’s when I turned. And I realized who had spoken to me, and who The Gardener was, and the whole, fake world was gone, the curtain lifted, the night shattered forever as the sun rose Easter morning. He had risen.

Funny how all you need is to be called by your right name and turn. You have to turn, you know. So you can really see. Only then does everything fall into place.

Surely you’ve felt that way when you’ve been in love, wanting only to serve the other, asking for nothing else, knowing it to be the purest happiness. This was like that, only forever.

More tea, dear? No? Perhaps something stronger? I’d join you in a sherry, but I don’t need it. I’ve been intoxicated with life and love ever since that moment when it hit me. The gardener! My dear, I had no idea.

I copied it in its entirety hoping I don’t get arrested for using his complete work, but it’s such a nice story I just had to share it with all of you.

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The Resurrection

1 But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

2 And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

4 While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing;

5 and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living One among the dead?

6 “He is not here, but He has risen Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,

7 saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.”

8 And they remembered His words,

9 and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

10 Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles.

11 But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.

12 But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened.

The Road to Emmaus

13 And behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

14 And they were talking with each other about all these things which had taken place.

15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them.

16 But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.

17 And He said to them, “What are these words that you are exchanging with one another as you are walking?” And they stood still, looking sad.

18 One of them, named Cleopas, answered and said to Him, “Are You the only one visiting Jerusalem and unaware of the things which have happened here in these days?”

19 And He said to them, “What things?” And they said to Him, “The things about Jesus the Nazarene, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people,

20 and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to the sentence of death, and crucified Him.

21 “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, it is the third day since these things happened.

22 “But also some women among us amazed us. When they were at the tomb early in the morning,

23 and did not find His body, they came, saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that He was alive.

24 “Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just exactly as the women also had said; but Him they did not see.”

25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!

26 “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”

27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

28 And they approached the village where they were going, and He acted as though He were going farther.

29 But they urged Him, saying, “Stay with us, for it is getting toward evening, and the day is now nearly over.” So He went in to stay with them.

30 When He had reclined at the table with them, He took the bread and blessed it, and breaking it, He began giving it to them.

31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized Him; and He vanished from their sight.

32 They said to one another, “Were not our hearts burning within us while He was speaking to us on the road, while He was explaining the Scriptures to us?”

33 And they got up that very hour and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven and those who were with them,

34 saying, “The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon.”

35 They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.

Other Appearances

36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.”

37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.

38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

39 “See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”

40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.

41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”

42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish;

43 and He took it and ate it before them.

44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”

45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,

46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,

47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

48 “You are witnesses of these things.

49 “And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

The Ascension

50 And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them

51 While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven.

52 And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

53 and were continually in the temple praising God.

Luke Chapter 24 New American Standard Bible

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E.J. Dionne, Jr. has an interesting column in today’s Washington Post.

I very seldom agree with Mr. Dionne’s opinions; in fact, this may be the first time for me.

He talks of what he calls “neo-atheists”.

The neo-atheists, like their predecessors from a century ago, are given to a sometimes-charming ferociousness in their polemics against those they see as too weak-minded to give up faith in God.

What makes them new is the moment in history in which they are rejoining the old arguments: an era of religiously motivated Islamic suicide bombers. They also protest the apparent power of traditionalist and fundamentalist versions of Christianity.

As a general proposition, I welcome the neo-atheists’ challenge. The most serious believers, understanding that they need to ask themselves searching questions, have always engaged in dialogue with atheists.

I can’t describe air to you but I know I breathe it. I can describe God to you the way I believe Him to be, and I can’t force you to believe in Him or His Son Who died in payment for our sins, but I believe it with all my heart.

My finite mind cannot grasp there being nothing—a great void and then this Spirit we call God, Jehovah, The Great I Am, The Great Spirit or any other names given to the Only God, spoke and whatever He spoke came into being, but I believe with all my heart God created everything that was, is and is to come.

My finite mind cannot grasp love so deep God would send His Only Begotten Son to die to pay the price for my sins and ask nothing in return but acceptance and the worship He deserves, but I know in my heart it’s true.

We are so held back by our minds that we fail to listen to the Holy Spirit of God speaking to our hearts.

Wherever I have travelled I have seen the majesty of something too beautiful to have just been an accident of a few cells happening to come together, and if they happened to come together why did they continue to do so without a Supreme Creator?

It is not my wish nor the wish of any true Christian to run the world. We want godly people to lead us, but I also believe no one is in office that God did not allow to be in office, for whatever reason. That does not mean God approves of all leaders, but only that He allowed them their leadership positions.

Before God laid the foundation of the earth, He knew all about me. He knows me better than I know me. He knows what I’m going to do before I know it. He knows the number of gray hairs on my head and the number of black hairs on my head.

My finite mind can only imagine Heaven from the description given in the Bible. I can’t imagine grass singing in praise or streets of such pure gold one can see through them. I can’t imagine the wonderful jewels adorning the gates of Heaven, but I believe it all.

God the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are all very personal to me. I don’t understand the Trinity, but I know God has three separate but equal parts and They are all of one accord.

You see, I have questioned and I don’t have the answers yet. I don’t know why I yielded to the calling of the Holy Spirit and people in my family whom I love dearly haven’t done so yet, but I’m grateful I did yield to the Holy Spirit and I pray urgently and fervently for my loved ones who have not accepted God’s free gift of salvation.

I go through troubled times and if I keep my eyes focused on the Lord I have peace that passes all human understanding. I can’t describe it, but I believe it with all my heart because I have experienced it.

The more I seek, the more I learn and one day if those questions that are unanswered in this life are still important I’ll ask the Lord Himself to explain them to me.

The problem with the neo-atheists is that they seem as dogmatic as the dogmatists they condemn. They are especially frustrated with religious “moderates” who don’t fit their stereotypes.

In his bracing polemic ” The End of Faith,” Harris is candid in asserting that “religious moderates are themselves the bearers of a terrible dogma: they imagine that the path to peace will be paved once each one of us has learned to respect the unjustified beliefs of others.”

Harris goes on: “I hope to show that the very ideal of religious tolerance — born of the notion that every human being should be free to believe whatever he wants about God — is one of the principal forces driving us toward the abyss. We have been slow to recognize the degree to which religious faith perpetuates man’s inhumanity to man.”

What’s really bothersome is the suggestion that believers rarely question themselves while atheists ask all the hard questions. But as Novak argued — in one of the best critiques of neo-atheism — in the March 19 issue of National Review, “Questions have been the heart and soul of Judaism and Christianity for millennia.” (These questions get a fair reading in another powerful commentary on neo-atheism by James Wood, himself an atheist, in the Dec. 18 issue of the New Republic.) “Christianity is not about moral arrogance,” Novak insists. “It is about moral realism, and moral humility.” Of course Christians in practice often fail to live up to this elevated definition of their creed. But atheists are capable of their own forms of arrogance. Indeed, if arrogance were the only criterion, the contest could well come out a tie.

As for me, Christianity is more a call to rebellion than an insistence on narrow conformity, more a challenge than a set of certainties.

In ” The Last Week,” their book about Christ’s final days on Earth, Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan, distinguished liberal scriptural scholars, write: “He attracted a following and took his movement to Jerusalem at the season of Passover. There he challenged the authorities with public acts and public debates. All this was his passion, what he was passionate about: God and the Kingdom of God, God and God’s passion for justice. Jesus’ passion got him killed.”

That’s why I celebrate Easter and why, despite many questions of my own, I can’t join the neo-atheists.

Stick to this kind of writing, Mr. Dionne. You are much better at it than you are writing op-eds about politics.

Also blogging on this: Captain’s Quarters.

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Luke Chapter 23 from the New American Standard version of the Bible:

1 Then the whole body of them got up and brought Him before Pilate.

2 And they began to accuse Him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.”

3 So Pilate asked Him, saying, “Are You the King of the Jews?” And He answered him and said, “It is as you say.”

4 Then Pilate said to the chief priests and the crowds, “I find no guilt in this man.”

5 But they kept on insisting, saying, “He stirs up the people, teaching all over Judea, starting from Galilee even as far as this place.”

6 When Pilate heard it, he asked whether the man was a Galilean.

7 And when he learned that He belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent Him to Herod, who himself also was in Jerusalem at that time.

Jesus before Herod

8 Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him.

9 And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing.

10 And the chief priests and the scribes were standing there, accusing Him vehemently.

11 And Herod with his soldiers, after treating Him with contempt and mocking Him, dressed Him in a gorgeous robe and sent Him back to Pilate.

12 Now Herod and Pilate became friends with one another that very day; for before they had been enemies with each other.

Pilate Seeks Jesus’ Release

13 Pilate summoned the chief priests and the rulers and the people,

14 and said to them, “You brought this man to me as one who
incites the people to rebellion, and behold, having examined Him before you, I have found no guilt in this man regarding the charges which you make against Him.

15 “No, nor has Herod, for he sent Him back to us; and behold, nothing deserving death has been done by Him.

16 “Therefore I will punish Him and release Him.”

17 [Now he was obliged to release to them at the feast one prisoner.]

18 But they cried out all together, saying, “Away with this man, and release for us Barabbas!”

19 (He was one who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection made in the city, and for murder.)

20 Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again,

21 but they kept on calling out, saying, “Crucify, crucify Him!”

22 And he said to them the third time, “Why, what evil has this man done? I have found in Him no guilt demanding death; therefore I will punish Him and release Him.”

23 But they were insistent, with loud voices asking that He be crucified. And their voices began to prevail.

24 And Pilate pronounced sentence that their demand be granted.

25 And he released the man they were asking for who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder, but he delivered Jesus to their will.

Simon Bears the Cross

26 When they led Him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, coming in from the country, and placed on him the cross to carry behind Jesus.

27 And following Him was a large crowd of the people, and of women who were mourning and lamenting Him.

28 But Jesus turning to them said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

29 “For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed.’

30 “Then they will begin TO SAY TO THE MOUNTAINS, ‘FALL ON US,’ AND TO THE HILLS, ‘COVER US.’

31 “For if they do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

32 Two others also, who were criminals, were being led away to be put to death with Him.

The Crucifixion

33 When they came to the place called The Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left.

34 But Jesus was saying, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing ” And they cast lots, dividing up His garments among themselves.

35 And the people stood by, looking on. And even the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if this is the Christ of God, His Chosen One.”

36 The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sour wine,

37 and saying, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!”

38 Now there was also an inscription above Him, “THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”

39 One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Him, saying, “Are You not the Christ? Save Yourself and us!”

40 But the other answered, and rebuking him said, “Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?

41 “And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.”

42 And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come in Your kingdom!”

43 And He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.”

44 It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour,

45 because the sun was obscured; and the veil of the temple was torn in two.

46 And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

47 Now when the centurion saw what had happened, he began praising God, saying, “Certainly this man was innocent.”

48 And all the crowds who came together for this spectacle, when they observed what had happened, began to return,
beating their breasts.

49 And all His acquaintances and the women who accompanied Him from Galilee were standing at a distance, seeing these things.

Jesus Is Buried

50 And a man named Joseph, who was a member of the Council, a good and righteous man

51 (he had not consented to their plan and action), a man from Arimathea, a city of the Jews, who was waiting for the kingdom of God;

52 this man went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

53 And he took it down and wrapped it in a linen cloth, and laid Him in a tomb cut into the rock, where no one had ever lain.

54 It was the preparation day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

55 Now the women who had come with Him out of Galilee followed, and saw the tomb and how His body was laid.

56 Then they returned and prepared spices and perfumes And on the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.

Courtesy of BibleGateway

Unfortunately, if I had been there that day I probably would have been one of the crowd. I’m no less guilty than they.

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It was the summer of the year when I was 12 years old.

I had recently returned from two weeks at Bible Camp, enjoying Christian fellowship and learning about Jesus.

I didn’t accept Christ as my Savior at camp, though.

I came home and I can still remember it as if it happened yesterday. It was hot so the windows in my bedroom were open and for about two weeks the Holy Spirit dealt with me.

I have heard people pray “may someone’s bed be a bed of rocks and their pillow a pillow of stone until they accept You, Lord.”

I’m living proof of that prayer being true in my life.

I resisted for about two weeks because I didn’t want my friends to laugh at me. After all, it’s easier to be of the world than of the Lord.

Night after long night I tossed and turned until I thought I was going to lose my mind. Sleep was something that wasn’t coming easily for me.

I wasn’t thinking idle thoughts, either. I knew I was thinking of Salvation, and I know now it was the work of the Holy Spirit.

One night I finally got out of bed and got down on my knees at the side of my bed and asked Jesus to come into my heart and soul and be my Savior.

I confessed my sins and acknowledged He is the One and only Begotten Son of God and because He died and was resurrected and lives at the Right Hand of the Father I am able to have eternal life.

The tears came a few years later when the Spirit finally got it into my thick head that Jesus loves me and I should love Him too, not just because I don’t want to go to hell, but because He has that Perfect love that gives me peace that passes all understanding.

I was baptized in a river (full immersion) at the age of 16 by a pastor who, with his wonderful wife, had a big impact on my spiritual life.

If ever I had a problem in my life and I called Mrs. Ludwig just to talk, the first thing she would say is, “Are you alright? The Lord has put you on my heart to pray for you.” What sweet words!

The road has been rocky and has sometimes curved, but I’m still following the path and one day we will all rejoice in Heaven together with the One Who made it all possible.

Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe.

Thank you for this opportunity to share my testimony.

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Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. I am not going to talk about politics today, but instead am going to give you the verses from the New Testament that show our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where five days later He would be crucified for our sins.

From BibleGateway is the New International Version of Luke 19:28-44:

28 After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.

29 As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them,

30 “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here.

31 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it.’ ”

32 Those who were sent ahead went and found it just as he had told them.

33 As they were untying the colt, its owners asked them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

34 They replied, “The Lord needs it.”

35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.

36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:

38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”[a]
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”

40 “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

41 As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it

42 and said, “If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace—but now it is hidden from your eyes.

43 The days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment against you and encircle you and hem you in on every side.

44 They will dash you to the ground, you and the children within your walls. They will not leave one stone on another, because you did not recognize the time of God’s coming to you.”

How sad that even today so many people do not recognize God came to us in the form of His Only Begotten Son Jesus.

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