Why does the sun lighten our hair, but darken our skin?
Why can’t women put on mascara with their mouth closed?
Why doesn’t glue stick to the inside of the bottle?
Why don’t you ever see the headline “Psychic Wins Lottery?”
Why is “abbreviated” such a long word?
Why is a boxing ring square?
Why is it called lipstick if you can still move your lips?
Why is it considered necessary to nail down the lid of a coffin?
Why is it that doctors call what they do “practice”?
Why are vegetarians allowed to eat animal crackers?
Why is it that rain drops but snow falls?
Why is it that when you’re driving and looking for an address, you turn down the volume on the radio?
Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?
Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
Why is it impossible to swallow and spit at the same time?
Why isn’t there a mouse-flavored cat food?
You know that little indestructible black box that is used on planes, why can’t they make the whole plane out of the same substance? (Especially Ethiopian airplanes)
Why does God love someone like me?

Just a few thoughts- I guess you can tell its Friday.

To be buried in the Promised Land had been Joseph’s request recorded four hundred years earlier in Genesis 50:25. That means Israel had been carrying around this guy’s ancient bones for at least forty one years in the desert; one year at Mt Sinai after the Exodus and forty years wandering around before Joshua led them into the Promised Land. In other words, if a generation is defined as a thirty year span, it means Joseph’s request was remembered and acted upon by the thirteenth and fourteenth generation from his death.

What an amazing commitment that one generation had to another! Do a word study on “generation” in the Psalms and meditate on the awesome privilege and responsibility that one generation has for another- especially the older to the younger. “One generation will commend your works to another; they will tell of your mighty acts” (Ps. 145:4). “Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord (Ps.102:18). “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation” (Ps. 71:18).

Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon in 1888 entitled, Holding Fast the Faith, in which he said: “Look you, Sirs, there are ages yet to come. If the Lord does not speedily appear, there will come another generation and another and all these generations will be tainted and injured if we are not faithful to God and to His Truth today. We have come to a turning point in the road. If we turn to the right, maybe our children and our children’s children will go that way. But if we turn to the left, generations yet unborn will curse our names for having been unfaithful to God and to His Word.” (The whole text can be found at www.spurgeongems.org/vols34-36/chs2007.pdf)

Who are the young folks in your life: children, grandchildren, associates, kids at church or in the neigborhood? Are you taking initiatives to build relationships with them or do you fall for the cultural assumption that they don’t want to hang out with you because you’re old? Do you pray for them, encourage them in their faith, and take opportunities to declare to them God’s faithfulness in your life? You may not like their music, but if you love them their music will not be an issue. Have you ever thought of volunteering in the nursery or the youth program at church? Let us commit ourselves to being a blessing to the next generation and not a curse.

By the way, who are the older folks in your life: parents, grandparents, associates, neighbors? Do you realize how much wisdom and experience are rattling around in those old brain, even though the retrieval systems have slowed down? Do you take the time to ask them questions and then take some more time to listen to their stories? You will not have them for much longer. Soon you’ll become the old one and someone will be carrying your bones to their rest.

Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah, who lived to be like a million or something. One of the next important person was Noah, who was a good guy, but one of his kids was kind of a Ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check. After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than His brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph who wore a really loud sports coat. Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston.

Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh’s people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then he gave them His Top ten Commandments. These include don’t lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor’s stuff. Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: ‘Humor thy father and thy mother.’

One of Moses’ best helpers was Joshua who was the first Bible guy to use spy glasses. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and made a fence fell over on the town. Joshus led his people to fight off the Aminites, the Kanenites, the Parisites, and the Moskeetobites. After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a rock and got into big trouble kissing somebody named after a bath tub. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn’t sound very wise to me. After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed upon the shore. He probably smelled like my little brother. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don’t have to worry about them.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, ‘Close the door! Were you born in a barn?’ It would be nice to say, ‘As a matter of fact, I was.’) During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.

Jesus was a great man and the sun of God. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount. But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn’t stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead because his wife told him to. Anyway’s, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. When he comes he will raise up those people who are dead but really quick. That doesn’t make sense to me and there are lots of other confusing things in the book of Revolution.”

This past Monday there were two pressure-cooker bombs that exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon killing three and injuring 170, some severely. There was a quote making its way around social media; a quote from Mister Rogers from years ago: “When I was a boy and I would see scary things on the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” Boston is not the Neighborhood of Make-Believe, but we did see the helpers, didn’t we? We saw people running toward the devastation; rushing to help in any way they could.

It was a great illustration of what Jesus meant when he told the parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10:25-37. You know the story. Did you ever notice the subtle twist in the answer that Jesus gave to the teacher of the Law who asked him, “Who is my neighbor?” After telling the compelling story, Jesus answered the question by asking another one; “Which…do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?”  The emphasis went from who is my neighbor to whose neighbor are you? In other words, it is not about you and your relationship to the person, but about them and their need. Thus as a follower of Christ, my neighborhood is wherever I am and my neighbor is to whomever I show mercy.  

The other day, I was walking a few blocks from my home and saw a very frail old woman (even older than me) in a house coat and slippers in her front yard. She had a shovel and was trying to dig a hole (I assumed) in which to plant a flower. I said good morning and she didn’t answer, but looked at me with a mixture of desperation and fear. I kept walking, trying to process what I saw and thinking that if I had stopped to help her she might have freaked out. Suddenly it hit me; I was justifying myself by trying to figure out whether she was my neighbor and capable of receiving my help. In reality, I was her neighbor by virtue of the fact that I saw she needed help. So I circled back and found that she had collapsed… just kidding. I found that she was just going into her house, so I walked home realizing that I had missed an opportunity to show mercy.  

The “helpers” in Boston may have hesitated because of fear, but they rushed back into devastation because there was a need in the “neighborhood.” And Jesus said, “Go and do likewise.”

I was reading the testimony of a woman who became a Christian in Iran. When she was fourteen, she joined a Zeinabiyeh (the house of the Imam Hazrat Zeinab), a sort of holy club where women would study the Koran and learn how to please Allah. For seven years she awoke every morning to pray from 1- 5 am. She would go to school and then back to the Zeinab House to pray from 5 pm to the early evening. Sometimes there would be a special program and she would be there until midnight, go home for an hour or so of sleep, and then begin the regimen again. There were certain “dark celebrations” in which the women would mourn for the dead Imams. They would fall down and scratch their faces, bang their heads on the floor, and pull out their hair. They would beat their chests so hard that they would be black and blue. All of her prayers, all of her tears, all of her service were to please Allah.

She feared death. She was always aware of her sin and believed that Allah was angry at her and would judge her when she died. “I feared that if any of my hair stuck out of my scarf, Allah would hang me from my hair in heaven. Heavy black socks covered my legs. If I accidentally revealed my ankles to anyone, Allah would drop me repeatedly into hell to burn my legs. I could reach heaven only if I wore all this stuff and cried all the time. Finally a young woman of twenty-one, I left the Zeinab House. My studies were complete. They had shown me a very angry God.” Here was a woman who had memorized the Koran and was able to translate portions from Arabic into Farsi, and yet she could not find a God who loved her.

After a suicide attempt, she began watching a Christian TV program. It was actually a worship service beamed in from another country and as the camera panned the congregation she saw people who actually looked happy. They were singing and clapping their hands. There was no music in her worship. She was immediately drawn to a God whose worshippers were filled with joy—something that she had never experienced. She had always observed that holy men in her country, such as Imam Khomeini, never cracked a smile. They always looked sad and angry as they lashed out at this or that. So when an international number appeared on the TV screen, she called it. Over the next several months she was given a Bible in Farsi, which she read voraciously. She also continued to watch the TV program and soon came to know a God of love revealed through Jesus Christ.

What an amazing joyful gospel we have to share with the world! “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:16, 17). If your worship service this weekend were beamed into someone else’s living room, what would they conclude about your God?

Are you wondering if I am losing my mind? You see, the charming young lady was my 4 year old granddaughter, Sophia (now 8). She and her little brother and her mom were visiting from out East for awhile. I have always enjoyed the opportunities to bond with her, especially at D and D’s. However, I found that in order to relate with her I had to study up about princes and princesses because these things were very important to her. I tried to pose a theological question, but she just continued to drink her chocolate milk and make faces at me. Can you believe that? Of course you can.

When you are trying to build a relationship with someone—anyone, you must become interested in what interests them. How do we expect people to listen to the gospel when we have not listened to them? Have you ever had the experience of having someone talk at you and not to you? So, you know how that feels. Proverbs 18:13 says “If one gives an answer before he hears, it is his folly and shame.” We want to engage people in conversation and an essential ingredient of that engagement is to listen to what interests them. If not, they may just drink their chocolate milk and make faces at us.

Back to Sophia… towards the end of our conversation we did get theological, but she brought it up— honestly! I had shared a little story about having a dog when I was young. She correctly assumed that the dog was dead by now and asked me whether I thought that dogs go to heaven. Like a good conversationalist I turned the question around and asked her whether she believed that. She said she did not know, but she believed that the little baby her mommy miscarried some years before was in heaven. Wow! I learned a lot that day from listening and talking to my little princess. It motivated me to do a better job with my neighbors.

The Court will vote today (Friday) and the outcome will be pivotal to our culture’s entire value system not to mention its understanding of marriage, which has from our nation’s inception been based upon the biblical mandate of Creation. Although this day has been coming for decades (and is already here in some states), it is sobering to see the direction in which the Supreme Court is leaning. And it will be the height of irony that the very constitution which provides us with freedom to worship the God of the Bible will at the same time render unconstitutional His very definition of marriage. It should be acknowledged that this is not an issue for the theologically liberal Protestant who believes that God is still speaking, and this new understanding of marriage is part of Her/His message.

Our culture has clearly broken through the ice of God’s protective care and is now struggling for survival in the icy waters of its own moral decline. Eradicating gender from the marriage equation is the tipping point to more confusion. Mark my word, the “polyamorous” relationships of today will cry out for constitutional freedom and equality and will produce the polygamous marriages of tomorrow—and so on. This culture cannot rescue itself; it needs the Church which has been marginalized and viewed as “out of step.” What an opportunity to have an impact and be the salt and light described by Jesus! The Church in every age should be out of step with its culture and increasingly so as the culture suppresses what it intuitively knows to be true about God (Rom. 1:18, 19). However, the American Church has no footing or place to stand in order to stage a rescue. Its own moral track record has given it little credibility with which to speak to the sins of the culture or to show the higher road of following the commands of Scripture.

Its own performance within the arena of marriage and family has been slip-shod. The Church matches the culture in its divorce rate and probably in the numbers of people addicted to pornography, not to mention other sexual abuses. It has more of a reputation for toxic church-splits than for being a loving and cohesive community. We have failed not only to do justly and love mercy, but to walk humbly with our God. Our dying culture has little reason to believe that we can offer much of an alternative. Every time the Church tries to pull the culture out (through political activism, culture wars, or legalism), the ice cracks underfoot and the Church itself is in danger of also slipping into the water.

The only hope of rescuing someone who has fallen through the ice is for the rescuer to get face down on the ice and move toward the helpless victim. The only way the Church can rescue the culture is by getting face down before God in repentance and moving humbly and slowly toward the helplessness of our culture. “If my people…” You know the verse I mean in 2 Chron. 7:14. It is as the people of God humble themselves, pray, and seek the face of God; it is then that their sins will be forgiven and their land will be healed. For when we are humble, the ice won’t crack beneath the weight of our own sin and we can go out onto thin ice and extend our hand to those who are slowly freezing to death in the icy waters of moral decline.

The United States Senate may vote Friday afternoon on several pro-life amendments to the Budget Resolution. Please consider calling your Senators through the Capitol Switchboard: 202-224-3121 to express your support for these efforts to protect the unborn.

1. Senator Lee’s District of Columbia Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act Summary: This amendment expresses the Sense of the Senate regarding the abortion of pain-capable unborn children in the District of Columbia. As you may know, the DC Council repealed all limits on abortion, therefore making abortion legal for any reason to the moment of birth. The amendment states that abortion should be unlawful past 20 weeks fetal age (also referred to as 20 weeks post-fertilization age), except if necessary to save the life of the mother.

2. Senator Rubio’s Child Interstate Abortion Notification Act Summary: This amendment expresses the Sense of the Senate that legislation should be enacted to require that an abortionist, before performing an abortion on a minor from a different state, must first notify one parent, unless the minor is the victim of sexual abuse or faces a life-endangering emergency, or has received permission from a court. Further, it says that legislation should be enacted to make it a federal crime to transport a minor across a state line in circumvention of a state law requiring parental involvement in the minor’s abortion.

3. Senator Vitter’s Prenatal Nondiscrimination Act Summary: This amendment expresses the Sense of the Senate that legislation should be enacted to ban sex-selection abortions in the United States. There are now four studies from … academic institutions proving sex-selection in the U.S.: U.C. Berkeley, U. of Texas, U. of Connecticut, and Columbia University, whose 2008 report found that there is “strong son bias” within selected American communities as revealed in census data and “clear evidence of sex-selection, most likely at the prenatal stage.” The victims of sex-selection abortion are overwhelmingly female, and most sex-selection abortions are grisly, later-term abortions, likely occurring after the child becomes “pain-capable.” The United States is believed to be the only advanced country that does not restrict sex-selection through law. Sex-selection abortion bans consistently poll between 86% and 93% positively, making this initiative the most widely supported of all pro-life efforts.

One final thing: Next week the Supreme Court will hear two important cases concerning the legal status of marriage in our country. The Southern Baptist Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission has prepared an excellent guide to prayer, which can be accessed here: http://erlc.com/article/a-call-to-a-week-of-prayer-for-marriage. I will be making some hard copies of this prayer guide available on Sunday at our services. Please join in praying for the these important decisions.

Thank you for your efforts to safeguard the sanctity of human life and to protect and strengthen marriage by using our rights as free citizens. We do not take this privilege for granted.

The issue of intent raised a few red flags with some of my readers, so I want to revisit that. In the Chicago Tribune yesterday there was an article about gun-rights advocates calling Mark Kelly (the husband of Gabrielle Giffords) a hypocrite for buying a AR-15 assault weapon in Arizona. As you remember, since Giffords was shot and nearly killed she and Kelly have engaged in a high profile campaign to curb military-style weapon ownership. His intent in buying the weapon was to show how easy it was to obtain one with a minimal background check. So, is the charge of hypocrisy accurate given his intent? Even in Old Testament, Israel recognized the difference between murder and manslaughter as one of intent. Also, the key to the sacrificial system was not the bulls and goats, but the heart (the intent) of the worshipper. There is a very interesting example of intent in 1 Kings 5:18, 19. A converted Naaman asked Elisha if he would be forgiven when he had to accompany his king to the temple of Rimmon and there help the old man bow in worship, “and [consequently] I bow there also.” Elisha, usually very sensitive to idolatry, simply told him to “go in peace.” Elisha knew Naaman’s action of bowing, even in pagan temple, did not carry with it the intent of worship.

As well-reasoned as I think my arguments are, I know they will not be sufficient to convince those who have a strong conviction to the contrary. In the same way, they could not produce sufficient data on Easter and paganism to change my mind either. OK, so we have a standoff. Let’s solve the disagreement the good old fashioned American-Christian way; break fellowship and go start your own church. I think the tragedy in all of this is that in our attempt to love the Lord Jesus and to be faithful to His Word, we end up not loving each other and, therefore, being unfaithful to His Word. If we really desire to be biblical in our approach to dealing with disagreements on non-essentials (things not having to do with the centrality of the gospel), then we need to read Romans 14. “Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.”

This entire passage deals with disagreements between Christians in the church at Rome who were going after each other because of “disputable matters.” Luther called them “pebble in the shoe” issues; annoying disputes which cannot be settled because each person is convinced in their own conscience that they hold the correct position. There were those whose consciences were “strong” and were convinced that they had the freedom to eat the meat sold at the temple meat-market (the only one in town), even though the animals from which the meat came were first sacrificed to a pagan deity. There were others in the church, however, who became vegetarians because they had a “weak” conscience— they believed that eating meat sacrificed to idols would make them participants in the pagan worship from which they had been converted. Although Paul identified more with the carnivores, he believed they were both right as long as they were acting according to their conscience. Where they were wrong, however, were in their attitudes toward each another. “The one who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him… Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another… Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification… So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.”

According to the Scripture, then, being right about Easter and paganism takes a back seat to the love and unity which should be displayed by those who are in disagreement over the issue. If someone is fully convinced in his own mind on a disputable matter, even if we do not share that conviction, then God forbid that s/he should go against that conscience. “Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God” (Rom. 15:7).

What mattered most to the New Testament writers, especially the Apostle Paul, was the issue of intent. Paul used the method of contextualization in his ministry, especially in taking the gospel to the Gentiles. Some of his critics thought he was wishy-washy and inconsistent, but he believed he was exercising the freedom he had in Christ to frame the gospel in an understandable way to his hearers in order to win as many as possible. “To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews… To those not under the law I became like one not having the law…, so as to win those not having the law… I have become all things to all men so that I might by all possible means save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel” (1 Cor. 9:19-23). Paul had the freedom to do or not to do because his intent was to preach the gospel and save some.

There is certainly a danger that Christians can over- accommodate with culture to the extent that they lose their distinctiveness. In missiological circles this is called syncretism; when the gospel loses its integrity and message because it has been blended into the practices of the dominant culture. Paul warned the Colossians against syncretism because they were being tempted to follow the elementary principles and deceptive philosophy (“Stoicheia”) of their culture rather than Christ (2:8). “If you have died to the elementary principles of the world, why do you submit to their decrees?” (2:20)

When it comes to Easter, the New Testament portrays it as the occasion for celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The time of Christ’s Resurrection is clearly shown in the New Testament to be the Sunday following the Jewish Passover. The fact that in previous and subsequent centuries the celebrations of other pagan spring rites, along with bunnies and eggs, have made their way into our culture’s understanding of Easter in no way makes Easter a pagan event for the Christian. Again, the issue is one of intent. Easter can (and has for many) become idolatrous because the gospel has been pushed into the background. Should our response be to do away with the bunnies and the eggs or should we proclaim the gospel of the Resurrection?

I believe that Christians have the freedom to color eggs and hide baskets of candy for their kids, as long as it is their intent to have fun and not to substitute these activities for the real meaning of Easter. I also believe that we have the freedom to contextualize the gospel by using an Easter Egg Hunt as a way to invite our community to our church so that they can also have fun and hear the message of Jesus.

In summary, since you can find pagan roots in just about everything we do, the issue for us is one of intent. In other words, I am not participating in a pagan ritual just because I use the calendar, even though the months of the year and even some of our days are named after Roman gods. Nor am I a syncretist just because I celebrate birthdays, even though such celebrations find their roots in ancient astrology. We should always be concerned about the danger of becoming like the world and losing our integrity as Christians to the culture. However, I think our materialism, divorce rate, and our divisions pose a greater threat to our distinctiveness than the Easter Bunny.

*”It would seem from the translations of Luther and Tyndale that by 1500, the word oster/ester simply referred to the time of the Passover feast and had no association with the pagan goddess Eostre. Even if the word had an origin in her name, the usage had changed to such a degree that Luther was comfortable referring to Christ as the Osterlamm…. “Resurrection lamb.” Likewise, Tyndale was comfortable referring to Christ as the esterlambe. To suggest these men thought of their Savior in terms of the sacrificial offering of a pagan goddess is quite absurd in light of their writings and translations of other portions of Scripture. Even the translators of the KJV, who relied heavily on Tyndale’s work, chose to use Easter in the post-Resurrection context of Acts 12:4. Using a word that means resurrection would not make sense to describe the Passover festivals prior to the Resurrection of Christ. (http://www.answersingenesis.org/articles/2011/04/19/name-easter-pagan)