The Dangerous Delusion of Control

Any of you remember the Caesar games for the PC?  I was introduced to the third one - called (appropriately) Caesar III - when I was in college.  It was one of those standard strategy games where you oversee the construction and operation of some sort of organization.  In this case, you were in charge of building Roman provinces.  You controlled farming, mining, fishing, and a whole host of other natural resources.  You were in charge of trade, festivals, employment, and so on.  Games like this were so popular - and are still so popular - because you, the player, have total control of the system.  And when things went wrong - an earthquake, perhaps, or barbarian invasions - it was your reactions and rebuilding that got the whole thing back on course.  I believe, in other words, that the games are popular because they appeal to our very human desire to be in control.  We think that if we can be in control, then things won't go (as) wrong as they otherwise would.


It's why we take vitamins and avoid bacon, right?  If I get all the nutrients I need and avoid all the stuff I don't, then I'll live a long and healthy life.  That's why I take cholesterol medicine, so that I won't die of a heart attack when I'm 40.  If I eat right, then I can control the span of my life.  It's also why I have an IRA - if I save for retirement, then I can live comfortably later without being a burden to my child. 



But it's an illusion.  If I don't take the medicine, if I eat lots of a bacon, if I stop taking vitamins and eating salads, will I die when I'm 40?  The answer is that I don't know; I'm not in charge of how long I live.  I could be hit by a car tomorrow, and then what did my diet get me?  What did the pills do?  Nothing.  What good was saving all of that money?  I don't know the number of my days . . . only God does.  "Eating right" is only the illusion of being in control.  Large bank accounts are only the illusion of being in control.

None of us can control our lives.


Now, don't misread this.  Our mission, as disciples of Jesus, is to bring as many people to Jesus as we possibly can, and to keep at it for as long as we can.  So we take care of ourselves in order to be at our peak performance as witnesses to the Gospel, knowing, at the same time, that our lives are no longer ours to control.  Our mission, as disciples of Jesus, is to take care of those around us, so that they can know the love of Christ.  So I save money, I spend wisely, and I am learning to give generously, knowing that my money is no longer mine to control. 



David's Fear
King David starts out Psalm 4 with a very intense - and human - cry of frustration:  "Answer me when I call to you, oh my righteous God!  Give me relief from my distress; be merciful and hear my prayer!" 


How many times in my life have you and I said the same thing when our prayers go unanswered?  How many times have I cried out in frustration when God was silent?  "Where are you, God?  Answer me!" or "Do something!"



How many times did I cry that as I watched my mother die?  "Heal her, God!  DO SOMETHING!"


How many times did I cry that when my struggle with lust and porn got the better of me?  "Take it from me, God!  DO SOMETHING!"


How many times did I cry that when relationships crumbled, when things went wrong, or when life got hard?  So when David says, "Answer me, God!" I can relate  My guess is that if you're reading this, you probably can, too.  Now we don't know exactly what was going on with David at this point, but we get a glimpse of it in verse 3.  After asking God - pleading with God - to answer him, David turns his plea to his subjects:  "How long, oh men, will you turn my glory into shame?  How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?" 


David's people were slandering him.  They had turned on him, perhaps they were blaming him for their problems.  Maybe it was a famine, a war - who knows - but his people turned their backs on their king.  More than that, they had turned their backs on God, too, and David wanted it to stop.  "How long?" he asks.  "Answer me when I call to you, God!"


Do.  Some.  Thing.


But then David seems to take a step back and remind himself of three things, three concepts that change his whole perspective on life.  The first is that no matter what happens, God is still God.


Check out verse 4:  "The Lord has set apart the righteous for himself.  The Lord will hear when I call to him."  No matter how silent God might be at your moment of crisis, He's still God and He's still on His throne.  He doesn't step out for a latte, He doesn't sleep, He doesn't have a potty emergency . . . He's God.  He's the God of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and, no matter what the situation is, He's in control.  God works all things for the good of those who live Him and are called according to His purpose, Paul reminds us.  This means that God's silence wasn't out of absenteeism or apathy, but was for David's good, our good and, most of all, God's glory. 


The second thing David reminds himself is that anger and fear are never an excuse to sin:  "In your anger, do not sin.  When you are on your beds, search your hearts and be silent" (5).  Note that very important phrase:  "When you are on your beds. . . ."  Sounds like it was written by someone who knows what it means to toss and turn, doesn't it?  The control he had was slipping away, and David, in the dark watches of the night, was afraid.  But God is still God, and we are to search our hearts and root out that fear, knowing that God knows the plans He has for us, and we should be awed into a reverent silence at His mercy and holiness. 


Then David hits us with what I think is the hardest point:  keep living out our faith.  "Offer right sacrifices and trust in the Lord" (6), he writes.  It's not enough to not overtly sin, we must continue to live and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Our fear of losing control is never an excuse to commit sin, but neither is it an excuse to sin by omission.  In David's time, that was the sacrifice offered at the temple.  In our time, it's ourselves.  "Offer yourselves,"  Paul writes, "as living sacrifices."  Remember when I said that our lives were not ours to control?  That, friends, is what it means to be a living sacrifice.


Now, after all of this, David reminds us that things haven't gotten any better:  "Many are asking, 'Who can show us any good?'" (7).  The problems still remain, morale is low, people are slandering him, but David's entire perspective has changed.  Instead of praying, "Answer me!" David prays, "Let the light of your face shine upon us, oh God."  In other words, "Be who you are, God."  And then. . . .


. . . "You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.  I lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety" (8).  David is more content, more at peace, than when his entire country is well-fed and drunk.  The man who was tossing and turning in his bed in verse 5 now sleeps like a baby.  And it wasn't - get this - it wasn't because circumstances had improved.  People were still hopeless and without morale, but David's entire perspective had changed because he realized one very important point:  God is our only security.


"For you alone, oh Lord, make me dwell in safety."


Think about it this way.  If God, for whatever reason, wanted you to be destitute, would He be capable of wiping out your entire savings account?  If God could bring a person to faith in Jesus Christ by having your home broken into, could He cause your fancy security system to malfunction?  These are not necessarily bad things to have, but we must always - always - remember that God alone makes us dwell in safety.  I am not guaranteed my next heartbeat, and neither is anyone else. 


Including my loved ones.


So I will fasten my seat belt, I won't leave my dryer running when I go to the store, and I will teach my daughter to look both ways before crossing the street.  But at the end of the day, I will try to remember that the belief that I can control my life is about as fruitless and pointless as believing that I was actually building the Roman Empire whenever I turned on my computer.  God is in control, and He will receive glory.  So if by my life - or death - that will happen, then all I can say is "Amen."

War on Women

By now, you have probably seen the video in which a woman at Planned Parenthood discussed harvesting and selling body parts from aborted children.  Outrage has been swift and fierce, with many Christians (and many politicians) crying for the defunding of Planned Parenthood.  Now, if the idea of harvesting and selling organs and body parts seems okay to you, you're not going to like what I have to say in the rest of this post.  However, I sincerely pray you finish reading this, because I want you to understand where most of us Christians are coming from when we say we are "pro-life," but I also want you to understand what we're not saying.


In a 2013 address at a Planned Parenthood conference, President Obama accused members of congress of telling "millions of women . . . you're on your own."  That "they've been involved in an orchestrated and historic effort to roll back basic rights when it comes to women's health," that they "want to turn back the clock . . . to the 1950s."

That's not what this is about.  I can't speak for all politicians, but for me, I'm not interested in denying health care to women.  I'm not interested in waging a war on women, or turning women out into the streets to die of cancer.  The President makes it sound as if we're trying to undo cancer screenings and that we don't care about women's lives.

But that isn't true.

What we aren't saying is that women belong in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.  What we are saying is that no one has the right to kill a child, which is really what abortion boils down to.  In fact, I think that anytime the debate arises, we should ask the question:  "In this situation, is it okay to kill a child?"  The answer is always a resounding "no."

But what about rape?  This is the accusation thrown out every single time anyone discusses abortion (even the President brought it up): that if you're against abortion, you're a heartless bastard who doesn't care about rape victims.  Firstly, I think it's interesting that people who say "Stop killing children" have become the monsters in society's eyes.  Secondly, I have absolutely no illusions that rape is okay.  I have no illusions that rape is something to "get over," nor do I have any illusions that carrying a child who was a product of rape is easy.  If - God forbid - my wife were ever raped, and was pregnant as a result, would I be okay with that child?  I'd like to think so, but in all honesty, I'm not sure.  I'm not sure there wouldn't be some emotional pain - for either of us.  But let's go back to my question:  is it okay to kill a child?

The answer is still no.  Why would my wife or I have the right to take the life of someone whose only crime is to be conceived?  Would we keep the child, or give it up for adoption?  I don't know, and I'm not sure I can know unless we're in that situation.  But the fact remains that neither of us have the right to murder a baby; we simply don't.  Let me put it another way by borrowing some logic from Canadian journalist Michael Coren.

In most states, it's no longer a capital offense to rape a woman.  In fact, in many states, capital punishment has been completely repealed.  So in the case of a rape in which a woman ends up pregnant, there are now three people involved:  the perpetrator, the victim, and the child.  To use rape as an argument in defense of abortion is to say that out of those three people, you are perfectly fine with the child receiving the death penalty. 

We're not against women, but we are for children.  We're not cutting off mammograms.  In fact, because of the ACA, mammograms are now free for most women.  To try to use that as a defense of Planned Parenthood . . . well, the President tried, but he shot himself in the foot on that one.  This is not a question about whether or not women can make decisions about their health, as if "pregnancy" is synonymous with "illness."  This is about whether or not anyone has the right to take the life of a defenseless and innocent child.

If saying "no" to that makes me a monster, then so be it.   

Book Release

Giants: Legends and Lore of Goliaths has been released!  You can purchase it here!

Fear and Loathing In . . . Everywhere (Part 2)

It seems as if there is a need to revisit this topic; somehow I was naive enough to think that if I blogged about it, I'd suddenly stop being afraid.

Nope, I'm still afraid, especially in light of everything happening in our country this week.  I feel as if we're hurtling faster and faster into the time that - at least in some circles - is popularly called The Tribulation.  Of course, the writers of the Bible were no strangers to tribulation.  David, in Psalm 2, writes, "Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot in vain?  The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His Anointed One.  'Let us break their chains,' they say, 'and throw off their fetters'" (2:1-3).

Habakkuk writes, "How long, O Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen?  Or cry out to you, 'Violence!' but you do not save?  Why do you make me look at injustice?  Why do you tolerate wrong?  Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict abounds.  Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails.  The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted" (1:2-4).

Malachi writes, "You have wearied the Lord with your words.  'How have we wearied him?' you ask.  By saying, 'All who do evil are good in the eyes of the Lord, and He is pleased with them' or 'Where is the God of justice?'" (2:17).

In 2 Timothy, Paul writes, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine.  Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.  They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths" (4:3-4).

Even Jesus remarked, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).

But you know what?  In all of these instances - every single one of them - God is in control.  In Psalm 2, "The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them."  And "He rebukes them in His anger, and terrifies them in His wrath, saying, 'I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill'" (Psalm 2:4-6).

In Habakkuk, God responds, "The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth be silent before Him" (2:20).

In Malachi, He says, "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before Me.  Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to this temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come" (3:1).

In 2 Timothy, Paul goes on to explain, "The Lord stood at my side and gave me strength, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the gentiles might hear it.  And I was delivered from the lion's mouth" (2 Timothy 4:17).

In Luke, after Jesus has been crucified and then come back to life, He says, "This is what is written:  The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations" (Luke 24:46-47).

You see, ultimately, our hope is in Jesus as Judge and King:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him Who was seated on it.  Earth and sky fled from His presence, and there was no place for them.  And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened.  Another book was opened, which is the Book of Life.  The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.  The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what they had done.  Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.  The lake of fire is the second death.  Anyone whose name was not found written in the Book of Life was thrown into the lake of fire.

Then I saw "a new heaven and a new earth," for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.  And I hear a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look!  God's dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them.  They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.  He will wipe every tear from their eyes.  There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 20:11 - 21:4).

See, I keep hearing and seeing people proclaim the greatness of certain politicians, certain parties, and certain news stations.  We've become polarized in our thinking, convinced that "our side" can fix everything.

One man says, "I only watch CNN!  Fox is nothing but a bunch of liars!" Another retorts, "Fox is the only honest news station out there!" Some proclaim, "Rand Paul will fix everything!" Others believe that only Bernie Sanders can make America great again.

I'm not trying to go all conspiracy theory on you here, but take a look at this short video.

Hopefully, you noticed that the "scripted" clips included CNN, ABC and affiliates . . . and even Fox.  During his term as President, George W. Bush admitted that the government was churning out "propaganda" stories and distributing them to every major news network.  We are being played.  My point, though, is not political, rather, it is that we cannot trust our government to fix human nature . . . only Jesus can do that.  And only Jesus will.

So, yes, I am afraid.  I'm afraid of the coming collapse of America (because, honestly, who can't see that coming?).  I'm afraid of the lengths to which these self-serving maniacs in power will go to in order to secure their wealth.  But I also know that at the end of time, Jesus will come to make all things right.  And my prayer, my honest prayer, is becoming less and less, "Lord, let the right person win the next election!" and more and more, "Lord, change hearts and bring people to You!"

All That Matters

So I had planned an elaborate and (I thought) brilliant post about South Carolina, the shooting, racism, the Confederate flag, gun control, and so on.  It was going to be epic, convicting, and theologically astounding.  But I have come to realize this week that time is short, and we may not have many more opportunities to talk about what really matters in life, and that is the Gospel.

The Gospel is all that matters. Period.  So, while we've discussed these things before in numerous other posts, I want to bring it together here:  The Gospel is God loving you even though you don't deserve it.

I'm going to lay out a fundamental, yet painful truth:  you do not deserve God's love.  Yes, you.  You, right here, right now, reading this, do not deserve God's love; He owes you nothing, because you have lived most of your life pursuing yourself.  You have lived for your dreams, your desires, your wants.  Even when you've been selfless, it's mostly because you wanted to feel better about yourself.  And you've done it all at the expense of God.  We call this sin, and, as I've said a hundred times before, sin is nothing short of treason against the Creator.

In order to grasp the Gospel of Jesus, we must all lay hold of this fundamental truth.  We cannot gloss over it, ignore it, or downplay it.  You and I - for I am right here with you - deserve God's wrath.  Sin has no boundaries, but extends through religions, sexualities, gender, political parties, and any other category we could possibly think of.  No one is without sin.  There are none who are righteous, not a single one of us.

But here's the good part:  God loves us still.  When we sin, God loves us.  When we fight against God's will, He still loves us.  When we pretend (or even convince ourselves) that He doesn't exist, He still loves us.  He became one of us in the person of Jesus, lived a life in complete submission to God, died for us, and then got back up.  All God asks is that we trust Him.

That's really all He's ever wanted from us.  And so, even though we trust ourselves more, even though we trust other people more, He died in order to prove that He's trustworthy.  And where sin is limitless, Grace is even more limitless.  Grace is available no matter what your religion is, your sexuality, your gender, your political party, or any other category you could possibly think of.  John writes in 1 John 2:  "He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."  Get that?  Everyone has the opportunity.   

But you have to believe (John 3:16).  You have to believe that you don't deserve God's love, and you have to believe that Jesus is the proof we need that God loves us anyway.  One day, you will stand before God, and He will ask for an account of your life.  What will you tell your Creator?  That you lived selfishly, without regard to either Him or others?  That you tried to do right by others, but only to impress Him?  His answer is going to be swift and terrible:  "Get out of my sight; you were never Mine."

The late Brennan Manning once said (and I'm paraphrasing, because I can't find the written quote):  the only honest people in the room are going to look at their shoes and say, "Well, frankly, Sir, I screwed up most of my life, but I believed You love me, and I desired to shape and mold my life as a response to that love."  And that, Brennan says, is the difference between true believers and everyone else.  God has saved you.  He's already done it.  Lay hold of it, and watch your life be transformed.

Because time is running out.
    

Meatballs and Sauce

Few things go better together than beef and a nice cream sauce.  Few cream sauces are better than easy-to-make sauces.  You're welcome.  :-) 


1 lb. ground beef                 1 can condensed cream of mushroom soup
1 t dried dill                            1/8 t paprika
1 t salt, divided                       1 c sour cream
1/2 t pepper, divided               1/2 c milk
1 egg                                       1 lb. pasta
1/2 c bread crumbs                 


1)  Combine beef, dill, 1/2 t salt, 1/4 t pepper, egg, and breadcrumbs in a bowl.  Set aside for 5-10 minutes.
2)  Heat large skillet over medium heat.  Form beef mixture into twelve golf ball-sized balls.  Brown meatballs on all sides, approximately five minutes per side.  Remove and keep warm.
3)  Combine soup and paprika in skillet, stirring until thoroughly combined.  Add sour cream and milk.  Heat over low heat until bubbling, approximately five minutes.  Add meatballs to sauce, cover and simmer 10-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4) Cook pasta according to directions.  Serve with meatballs and sauce.


(Hopefully) Useful Suggestion:  for a little variety, substitute ground turkey for the beef!

Free Book Giveaway Winners!!!!

Here they are, the three winners of the free book giveaway!


Joan Heard
Bev Schlomann
Matt Fisher


We'll be in touch with you shortly!  And a BIG thank you to everyone who entered!