You'd Better Be Right!

Recently I was visiting an elderly man who is suffering from a number of physical ailments and complications. Right away he let me know he did not believe in God, and then proceeded to ask me all the difficult questions about life that he’d managed to store up over a lifetime.

Mostly, I just listened to him. Attempting to answer all his questions would have been pointless because no answers I might have offered, regardless of how much sound reasoning I used, would be sufficient to change his mind. Finally I made this statement to him: “Sir, suppose you are correct in saying there is no God. Then when you die, you’ve lost nothing. But – if you are wrong – you’ve lost everything!”

Those of us who are of the Christian faith celebrate Easter this week – primarily focusing on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. This is significant because it concentrates on the singular event that sets Christianity apart from all other religions, and that is the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Now, if the death and resurrection of Jesus did not actually occur, then all of us who claim to be Christians are wasting our time, and would have to confess that we have been duped, deceived, and otherwise seriously misled. It’s an all or nothing gambit.

Several books have hit the stands recently suggesting alternatives to the stories of the historical Jesus. Most notably is author Dan Brown’s controversial book, “The Da Vinci Code.” In his book, Brown suggests several alterations to the historical record. Most notably is the idea that Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. After his death, Mary escaped to Gaul (France) with their child, a girl named Sarah, who established a family line leading to the development of French royalty. Supposedly this line still exists, although secretly, and so the tale continues ad nauseam. Never mind that there is no basis of truth for this story – but in today’s culture of sensationalism, it sells. And what “might have happened” is often viewed as “what did happen.” Furthermore, there has emerged in today’s world a growing suspicion of anything that previously was considered sacrosanct. A Christian rebuttal to Brown’s book was written by Erwin Luther, called, “The Da Vinci Deception.” You might want to pick it up.

Then in the last few days we’ve been hit with the “Gospel of Judas.” The basic argument in this hyperbolic bit of second century writing by one of the many Gnostic creators of fiction for the day, is that “Jesus wanted Judas to betray him so his body would die and his soul would be liberated.” Huh? You see, in postmodern thinking, you can challenge with impunity the tenets of anyone’s faith, even if the basis for the attack is without substance or credibility.

In more recent years there has been the “Jesus Seminar,” where a group of supposedly learned men ask the question of the New Testament, “What did Jesus really say?” Then, using the backdrop of modern theology and a bias against the eye-witnesses who recorded the Gospel records, they proceed to postulate what Jesus said and didn’t say. It’s all very politically correct and rings well with today’s post-Christian thinking. It’s also very bad research, not to mention being theologically incorrect to the extreme.

Let me get back to my discussion with the man at the beginning of the article. He confessed to me that he’s afraid to die. He should be. When it comes to God, and who he is, and how he has presented himself to the world, you’d better not be wrong. Author Dan Brown and his ilk will one day have to give an account before that same God. An account having to do with their blasphemous drivel about Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and our Savior.

The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Jesus of the Bible, the real Jesus, is one of the best documented facts in all of history. This is why Christians celebrate. Others will come along and attempt to discredit this event. But unless they can irrevocably prove Jesus is dead, and rebut the eye-witness account of the disciples, the record stands. It’s not a matter of the Christian religion being better than other religions. It has to do with the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. That is the cornerstone of what we believe.

Happy Easter! He is risen!

Adios Santo Domingo

Our time in the Dominican Republic is quickly drawing to a close. It has been the most adventuresome of the four mission’s trips our church has engaged in since beginning this outreach in 2002.

Last Saturday night, the church we came to paint as one of our designated projects, held a service. Pastor Adolfo Perez of the Redwood City Communidad Christiana La Puerta de Abierta (Christian Community of the Open Door), a Free Methodist Church, was asked to preach. He and his wife, Maria, both from Baja California, Mexico, are members of our mission team. Their fluency in Spanish has been most valuable! Pastor Adolfo is a very animated and fiery preacher. It was quite an evening.

The next day I was asked to preach in the traditional Sunday service. I chose a passage from Matthew 19 where Jesus had an encounter with the Rich Young Ruler. Pastor Eduardo Paulino of our San Francisco Free Methodist Church was my translator since my ability to converse in Spanish is limited to greetings and asking where the “facilities” are located. Pastor Ed is originally from the Dominican Republic and had accompanied us on our mission’s trip to Peru last year. He does a great job of translating so it made my job easier in preaching to these folks there in the heart of Santo Domingo (abbreviated Sto Dgo), the capital.

On Monday the nine men on our team headed for the hills. Pastor Ed was taking us into the mountains northwest of Santo Domingo. The drive took several hours, partly on paved roads, and the rest on dirt and mud. We found ourselves being drenched by a continuous rainstorm that stayed for several days, making our travel on muddy uphill roads very challenging. We spent the next few days helping build a retreat center. On our first mission’s trip four years ago, we traveled to Ethiopia. One of the places we visited was a town called Arbegona which our team decided was at the end of the world. Well, in the Dominican we found the next closest town to the end of the world. Only there was no town – just this acreage on a mountain where Pastor Ed had a vision for a retreat site for families and ministers.

This retreat site is in rugged country with little having been done to the land because Pastor Ed and his family are the ones doing all the work when they can. We didn’t get to the camp until just about dinner time, so we ate traditional Dominican food prepared by the secretary of one of the churches. This was all done over open fires with big pots. We wolfed it down!

The next day we started in on several projects before breakfast was even served. Several of the men took rolls of barbed wire to finish erecting the last of the fencing along the property line. Why did we need barbed wire fencing when we were so far removed from any human population? Cows. The government owns cows that freely graze in the mountains and were a constant nuisance, nibbling off the vegetable plants that Pastor Ed was trying to grow.

Another project was to build an outhouse. The frame was there along with a wooden floor. Jake Bakke was assigned to complete this much needed facility. He labored for two days getting all the wooden siding up and a roof on top. A sheet of canvas served as the door. A porcelain toilet was precariously placed over a hole in the floor. It was comical because there is no such thing as running water and probably won’t be until the next century, if then. We all celebrated the completion of the outside john and dubbed it “Jacob’s John.” In particular the ladies were thrilled because they could bath in there using collected rain water instead of walking to the creek which was a fair distance away from the camp. This made Jake very popular with the fairer sex!

The main building was the center of attention for most of the workers. Siding on the frame, and the installation of windows was the order of the day. This was nothing more than hammer and nails work for hour after hour. The men attacked it with a vengeance, accomplishing far more than was expected in the amount of time we had.

As our time on this island came to an end, an island where Columbus first set foot on December 5, 1492, we were gratified to have accomplished several projects. But more importantly, we met some of the most gracious people on earth, who had little enough of their own, but freely shared with their American brothers and sisters in Christ.

In a closing service on our last night I shared with our Dominican friends these words: “We may never meet again in this life. But this much I know – we’ll meet again around the throne of God in heaven.”

Revelation 7:9, “After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb (Jesus).”

Amen.

Locks of Laughs

I’m sitting on the porch of a beach cabin overlooking the ocean on the southern shore of the Dominican Republic. The evening breeze is comfortable as it blows in from the water. Five palm trees loaded with coconuts are gently swaying in the breeze.

Earlier in the day, Nilda, the Dominican lady who is cooking for us had her young son climb one of the trees to bring down some fresh coconuts for us. This was served along with fried fish, fish soup, a traditional rice dish, and batter-fried bananas. This day at the beach is our reward for working hard all week painting the Free Methodist Church in Santo Domingo, the capital of this island nation.

My church plans short-term mission’s trips every year. When I was appointed to be the pastor of the Ripon church I challenged them to go on annual mission’s trips. They accepted my challenge. Our first two-week trip was to Ethiopia, Africa in the spring of 2002. There we worked in a new medical clinic in the capital of Addis Ababa. We also helped register children in a church run school in the truly remote village of Arbagona (You can’t get there from here!). Our next trip was to Malawi, Africa where we built a church for a Free Methodist congregation in the northern town of Mzuzu. This was all brick and mortar work. Last year we traveled to Tacna, Peru in South America near the Chilean border, where we again helped construct a church.

Our group of sixteen brave souls left Oakland International Airport Sunday, March 19 just before midnight. It was Jet Blue’s “red-eye” to Fort Lauderdale, Florida where we made a connecting flight on Spirit Airlines to Santo Domingo.

More than half our team is on their first mission’s trip. To volunteer for such a trip is pretty involved. You have to have a current passport; you have to pay your own way (anywhere from $1500 to $3000 per person); you need to make sure you are up to date on any shots that the host country may require (I had to get Typhoid, Tetanus, and Yellow Fever updated, as well as get my doctor to authorize me to take Malaria pills – something each member is to take coming to the Dominican); you have to fill out a raft of authorization papers which in turn must be notarized before you can go; and there is of course the obligatory requirements for each person, making each one aware of the responsibility they have to support the team and be a good ambassador for the Lord Jesus as well as for our nation. In addition, some folks take vacation time to go on these trips. This year four married couples came knowing our housing was not adequate to allow couples the luxury of having their own room. In fact, the men’s quarters are a ten minute drive from where the ladies are.

Some of the humorous things that take place on such trips are usually the most memorable. You are probably aware that the Dominican Republic is on the eastern side of the island they share with Haiti. Well, the two peoples are not very fond of each other, and it’s obvious. Haitians are Negroid, and Dominicans are Hispanic. Since the Dominican Republic was once a Spanish colony, and Haiti was a French colony, each country speaks the language of their one-time European colonialists. So the other day we men are leaving our apartment to start our work day when we realize the keys were left back in our room. The security guys for the building are Haitians. Not speaking Spanish, I attempted to communicate with them in my long-unused French. They in turn would convey my message to the apartment manager in Spanish. We went back and forth like this until it was understood and agreed as to what the problem was. It was comical! The owner of the building was the only one with extra keys, and she worked clear on the other side of the city.

Elwood Cooper and I decided we simply had to figure a way to get the door open before our guys were done for the day, knowing they would want to come back to the apartment to shower and get cleaned up for dinner. There was a Mormon church next to the apartment complex, so Elwood went over there to see if he could borrow a ladder, while I attempted to pick the lock with my Leatherman (a multi-tooled device carried on the belt). Though I came close in getting the door to open, Elwood was successful in obtaining the ladder and a piece of PVC pipe. By reaching through the louvered second story window, Elwood snagged his trousers with said PVC pipe from off the chair, thereby managing to get the keys out of the pocket, finally gaining us access to the apartment. Taking pride in the security provided for the apartments, the owner was very interested in knowing how we managed to gain entrance. I thought it prudent not to mention I was trying to pick the lock!

We all found great humor in this event, something that is essential when embarking on mission’s trips. A sense of humor is a must, and you have to expect the unexpected.

We’ll be back on April 2nd with many more had-to-have-been-there stories. In the meantime, I’ll just sit here a while longer enjoying the cool tropical breezes off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Taming the Tongue

In a few weeks I will be completing a twelve-week sermon series on the book of James. In the third chapter James talks about the trouble the tongue can cause in our lives.

Years ago I read a story about a woman in a small village in France who was known as the town gossip. Her tongue was always wagging about the latest bit of juicy news. Eventually, her conscience began to trouble her so she went to see the priest. She poured out her heart to the kindly old father. After listening to her tale of woe, he said, “My child, this is what I want you to do. Pluck chickens until you have filled a flour sack. Then walk throughout the village tossing the feathers into the air until you have emptied the sack. When you are finished, come back and see me.” Thinking this to be a rather odd request, the woman nonetheless, did as the priest asked. When she went back to see him, he gave her an additional assignment. This time she was to walk throughout the village just as before, only this time she was to pick up all the feathers she had tossed about. Stunned, the woman looked at the priest feeling she had not heard him right. He smiled kindly and assured her he was perfectly serious. The woman replied, “But Father, that would be impossible!” “Exactly!” he replied. Once you lose control of your tongue and speak badly of others, you cannot take it back.”

The amount of heartache that the tongue has caused is known only by God. James is right on the money when he says, “The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.” How many times have you found yourself saying, “I didn’t mean it” or “Why did I say that?”

As kids we were taught to think first, then speak. This goes right along with the admonitions of Scripture. James says, “Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry.” Now that’s wisdom! Just think! If you and I would discipline ourselves in first learning to listen, how much trouble we would avoid. And while you’re listening, I mean really listening, you won’t be occupied with preparing a rebuttal, or waiting for the other person to take a breath so you can jump in. To listen at that level means you would take your time in responding, assuming a response was even necessary. Further, you avoid the emotional trap of reacting too quickly. Instead, by listening well, the initial emotional reaction passes, therefore giving no opportunity for your anger to take over.

With the tongue we are able to “slice and dice” another person. We can harm a person in the very depths of their soul with a simple well-timed word. We Roots men are slow to grow to our full height. We eventually get there – it just takes a while. Anyway, I remember being much shorter than all the other kids as I was growing up – including the girls! The bigger boys used to call me names until the day I decided I wasn’t going to stand for that anymore. After decking the kid who’d been giving me the most trouble, everyone left me alone. But to this day I can still hear the hurtful comments as if it was yesterday. Like you, I heard the old adage, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” That’s utter nonsense! Like the woman in the story who spread the feathers, it was impossible to gather them back. Those words spoken some forty-five years ago are still with me.

Finally, James says, “No man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Ouch!

So let me ask you. How are you using your tongue? Do you constantly criticize your spouse, or make fun of them in front of others? Do you take time to compliment your employees, thanking them for the job they’re doing, or do you endlessly berate them? Is your child a target of your criticism? Can they do anything right in your eyes? Do you constantly spill out poison, spreading hurt as you walk through your village?

Consider Paul’s words in the book of Ephesians: “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.” Now that’s sound advice! Let no unwholesome talk come out of your mouths. That word “unwholesome,” literally means “rotten.” Be done with rotten talk. Instead, use words that build others up, which in the Greek, literally means to “build a house.” Catch the imagery?

It’s your call – positive or negative – using words that encourage or discourage. If you have trouble with your tongue, that’s okay. You see, God knows, and he’s the best one to help you clean up your act, starting with your tongue. Just ask him, and see what happens!
You’ll like the change!

Know Your Rights

I read a disturbing but not surprising article that said the vast majority of Americans cannot even name the rights listed in the original Bill of Rights. Hmmmm.

So, here’s where we’re going.

First question: How many rights do we presently have according to the Bill of Rights?

Second question: How many rights were Americans originally granted?

Third question: What are these rights called?

First, there are 27 rights. Second, there were originally 10. And third, our rights are called Amendments. These are attached to the Constitution.

Most of the rights in today’s arguments are centered on the original 10, specifically: Amendment 1 - Freedom of Religion, Press, Expression; Amendment 2 - Right to bear Arms; Amendment 3 - Quartering of soldiers; Amendment 4 - Search and Seizure; Amendment 5 - Trial and Punishment, Compensation for Takings; Amendment 6 - Right to speedy trial, confrontation of witnesses; Amendment 7 - Trial by jury in civil cases; Amendment 8 - Cruel and Unusual punishment; Amendment 9 - Construction of Constitution; Amendment 10 - Powers of the States and People.

Okay, that’s the short version, perhaps looking familiar to you from your days in high school Civics Class. If you look through a copy of today’s newspaper you will quickly notice that several stories pertain to these rights. The First Amendment seems to always be in the news. So, what does this amendment say? “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Let’s look at the first part of this right: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.”

Why did our founding fathers feel the need to establish this as a right? And why was it the first amendment? For the answer, you need to understand the strong historical influence of British laws. The primary reason pilgrims left England in the first place was the issue over the freedom to worship as one pleased, which became the greater cause we call “Freedom of Religion.” At that time (the mid-1700s) there was an established Church in England. It has been this way for centuries. Consider John Bunyan, the author of the much beloved classic, “Pilgrims Progress.” Bunyan was a Baptist street preacher in Merry Old England when it was illegal to preach on the streets without being a member of the Church of England. For his crime, he was placed in jail. It was twelve years before he was released when a new king removed the restrictions against Protestants. The year was 1672. It was this sort of state run abuse that our founding fathers sought in protecting a fledgling America.

Today, there are countries where you are expected to be a member of the state run religion. If you are not, then you can plan on being persecuted in any number of ways: you may not own property; you may not work in any government job (including the military); you may not even be allowed to purchase food items in a store; and of course, you may be tortured and/or killed for believing differently from what the state approves. The First Amendment protects us as Americans from such abuse. Each American may worship as they choose. Or they may opt to have no religious belief. People of faith are to be involved in all aspects of life, knowing that by their involvement they affect a positive force.

Consider the words of Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black in an opinion he wrote in 1947: “The ‘establishment of religion’ clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the Federal Government can set up a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another.”

Simply put, the freedom of religion provided in our First Amendment is to protect you and me as individual citizens from the uninvited and unwelcome pressures of a meddling government.

You may not like what other people worship or believe, but in America it’s each person’s right – a right that is insured and protected through our Constitution.

And it’s the first of your 27 rights.

Is this a great country, or what!

What's That I Hear?

This last week has had some pleasant news amidst the normal gloom and doom.

The governors of two states have had placed before them a bill to ban abortion, except in the case of a woman’s life being endangered.

Governor Mike Rounds (R-South Dakota) signed his state’s anti-abortion bill Monday, and Governor Haley Barbour (R-Mississippi) has said he fully intends to sign his state’s bill as well.

This hideous practice of abortion-on-demand has been a blight on the landscape of America for too long. Many who are opposed to this practice have been intimidated into silence by a very vocal minority, supported by the agreeable complicity of the main stream media (MSM).

Will there be an attempted backlash from those who have profited most – namely the abortion industry and the feminist agenda? Yup! And it will be shrill. Count on it. But, thankfully there are those like Governors Rounds and Barbour who have taken a stand for what is right, knowing they will be lambasted, impugned and otherwise have their character assassinated in the press.

Some will argue a woman’s rights. There are several problems with this argument. First, the rights of the unborn child are ignored. Anybody ever stop to ask the baby in the womb whether they’d appreciate having a chance at life? I suspect the answer would be a resounding “Yes!” In the Bible, the Psalmist David says to God: “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body.”

Second, the baby in the woman’s womb is a human being. Always has been – always will be. Unless of course, we sanction the tampering of DNA between animals and humans. Be very careful when you hear justifications such as, “All in the name of science.” As I recall from reading history, Hitler authorized human experimentation with a virtual carte blanche to his scientists/doctors. The victims in this case were Gypsies, mongoloids, the mentally and physically retarded, Jews, and anyone else who did not fit neatly into the demented Fuhrer’s world view. The unborn baby is not merely a “growth,” or a hunk of protoplasm, or a dog, or some other such nonsense.

Third, a woman has always had the option of aborting a baby if it was a threat to her own life. This was true before Roe v. Wade in 1973. I find it interesting that the dissenting opinion on Roe v. Wade on the Supreme Court was given by Justice William Rehnquist who died last fall while serving as the Chief Justice. In his dissent, he states that though most of the 50 states had restrictions on abortion prior to Roe v. Wade, abortion in special circumstances was always permitted. This, he said, was a precedent going back at least 100 years in our country.

Fourth, abortion conveniently became a means of birth control. With the rise of the 60s “free love,” relationships, unhampered by the constraints of traditional stodgy old values of morality, faced a basic problem: What to do with unwanted pregnancies? Try acting responsibly and commit yourself to the relationship by legalizing it. It’s called marriage. For decades now, we have reaped a terrible price for allowing unrestrained sexual activity.

Fifth, having an unwanted child is worse than abortion. This is nonsense! If the person or couple having the child does not want the child, then don’t punish the child by ending its life. Carry it full term and then put it up for adoption. That would be the mature thing to do. My wife works for a foster child agency and sees plenty of children who are not wanted, abused, and otherwise rejected. The world is not always a pretty place. But killing the unborn child is merely compounding the problem. And I can’t begin to tell you how many people would love to adopt children, but face nearly insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles, often giving up in frustration.

Lastly, there is the argument as to what to do with a child that is not “normal.” This is nothing more than a values concern. The child only has value if it is healthy, or normal. Not according to God. Every single person is of immense value. Our physical or mental frame does not give us worth. God determines the worth of an individual. We would do well to see things as God sees them.

So, what’s that I hear? It’s the sound of people stepping forward to do the right thing. It may not be real loud right now, but as it grows it will become a thunderous roar of approval all across this beloved land. It is also the sound of babies who will be allowed to have life because someone had the courage to say: Enough!