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I love reading commentaries about Bible passages. These are explanations from learned scholars to help us understand the background and the true message. However, sometimes they just lead to more questions. Case in point: Luke 22:54-62

Then they seized him and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.” And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.” And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.” But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed. And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.” And he went out and wept bitterly.

I’m not going to go through the entire commentary but one single sentence had my mind screeching to a halt and wondering, “Is that right??” While Jesus was under trial, Peter joined the servants that were huddled together, warming themselves. These were non-believers that Peter joined instead of standing by Jesus. If he hadn’t been among them, would he still have denied Christ? OK, yes, because Jesus said he would and those words are as good as them being done already. But I have to wonder. It implies that we should not intentionally be in the company of bad people or unbelievers. I had to dig.

DO be among them

“To the Jews, I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law...I became as one outside the law...I became weak that I might win the weak…” (1 Corinthians 9:20-23)

“...you will be witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8b)

“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” (Matthew 28:19-20)

“...Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel t the whole creation.” (Mark 16:15)

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?"  (Romans 10:14)

I could go on and on. It’s very plain. BUT

DON’T be among them

“Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.” (Proverbs 22:24-25)

“Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.'” (1 Corinthians 15:33)

“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

“Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take, or sit in the company of mockers.” (Psalm 1:1)

Well, I did my homework and now was more confused than ever. It was time to go to my pastor to get the knots straightened out. Here’s his explanation:

“I believe you can quell your dilemma by remembering how Jesus talked of being in the world, but not of the world in His priestly prayer (John 17:6-19). As such, we are to go, be hospitable, loving, caring, and truly concerned for all people, especially by speaking His Word. This includes both Law and Gospel. But we must always live in the tension of not becoming “entangled”. This can lead to the “Don’t” verses. It is stressful and painful but life in this world is often painful.

We often forget, because of the world’s camouflage and our own unwillingness to see, that we are still in a war. We have a safe refuge, a fairly comfortable hiding place behind the Rock that awards us defense. From this place of shelter, we call and entreat others to come to safety, but if we venture too far in reaching out, or if we stay too long in ‘No-Man’s-Land’, we ourselves can be picked off. So we go to all nations, but we strive to keep from being overwhelmed by the nations temptations, lures, and false hopes. These often get blurry with personal relations, unevenly yoking ourselves (as Paul talks of it in 2 Corinthians 6:14).

Going back to Peter, the second he entered the area, he was attacked by a silly maid, a nobody. Without taking time to think, he immediately answered in the negative. He would have done better ignoring her. The servants were most likely sitting around the fire scoffing at Christ, at what He had said and done, and triumphed over their victory in capturing Him. Noticing that Peter was not one of them, they asked if he was a disciple. After all, why else would a stranger be there? Peter had to deny again. Now he was in it good and deep. He couldn’t change his story if he wanted to. Jesus knew all this. He didn’t call Peter out after the third denial or embarrass him, He just looked at him. I don’t imagine any anger in that look; disappointment? Not even that. In that look was compassion and power to strengthen his faith when it was currently taking a dive in his shame. This was a honest and true, “Bless your heart.” Peter messed up; there’s no arguing that fact. It bothered him, as it should have. Now was the time to put on his big-boy pants and get back to work. We can’t let a little set-back, or even a seemingly big one, bring our purpose to a halt.

Witnessing is not just an action, it’s a core identity of who we are as a follower of Christ. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to share our personal testimony and the message of salvation.

Liar, liar, pants on fire; nose as long as a telephone wire. This may be a cute rhyme we learned as children but to say such a thing as an adult has ramifications we can’t begin to understand. Oh, how we love to judge each other and get angry over supposed indiscretions. Many faiths teach that you must blindly serve your god and you have no right to question his/her judgments. Christianity is something altogether different. You can be angry with God (it’s OK, He can take it), but you must not let your anger lead you to sin. Even Jesus became angry, but He didn’t sin over it. There are many reasons we become angry with God; “it’s not fair”, “God didn’t answer my prayer”, “He lets bad things happen”, etc. We are human and as such, have feelings. If you think about it however, when we become angry with God, it’s usually stemming from personal suffering, perceived injustice, or a lack of understanding of God’s sovereignty. We expect the ‘Garden of Eden’ life instead of the one we made through sin. Well, it’s past time to get over that.

Let’s go back to the topic of judging people. In our finite wisdom, we judge everyone and everything around us, be they strangers, spouses, relatives, cars, businesses, refrigerators, etc. Personally, I like the illustration of the Titanic voyage. When the ship set sail, all classes of people were aboard; wealthy, famous, highly educated, illiterate, poor, and all ages. But a few hours later, when they posted the list in the office in New York there were only two categories: LOST and SAVED. That’s how God sees us. “Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” (1 John 5:10-13) You can’t get much plainer than that but I’m going to break it down anyway.

The privilege and stability of a real Christian:

a. He has not only the outward evidence that others have, but also his testimony for Christ in his heart because he can speak about Christ, what Christ has done for his soul, and what Christ sees in him.

b. He has deeply seen his guilt and misery and his abundant need for a Savior.

c. He sees how such a Savior meets all his spiritual wants and sorrowful circumstances.

d. He knows the wisdom and love of God in preparing and sending a Savior to deliver us from sin and hell.

e. He knows that God raises him to pardon, peace and communion with God.

f. He feels the power of the Word and doctrine of Christ.

g. He realizes that the revelation of Christ is the greatest discovery and demonstration of the love of God.

h. With such knowledge and strength given him by the faith of Christ, he can overcome the world.

It sounds quite powerful when you break it down. Unfortunately, those that reject all God has given them, call God a liar. They say that God lied when He said He gave His only Son, and that Jesus is not His Son. When men devise new religions and personalize the parts of it to match their wants and needs, they make God a liar when He said He created the world for man and cares for him. As I said at the beginning, calling God a liar has ramifications you can’t begin to understand.

Quick background: “You are a liar” – here, ‘liar’ is a noun and describes what you ARE. “You’re lying” – here, it’s a verb and is something you’re DOING. Calling someone a liar is a serious accusation that goes beyond stating that something is false. It implies that the person is dishonest by nature (their identity) and cannot be trusted. From about the 16th century onward, people would duel to the death if their honor or reputation was discredited. Insults like ‘stupid’ and ‘ugly’ are still not nice and are things that can’t really be changed because that person didn’t choose to be that way. Telling lies is a choice.

Now comes the best part, the second half of the Scripture. God has given us eternal life. He designed it for us in His eternal purpose. He prepared all the means necessary to bring us to it. With it, we have His covenant and promise. He bestows a right and title to those who believe and actually embrace the Son of God. The Son is life; eternal life. Those united to the Son are united to life. God put this honor on Jesus and so we must also. Those who refuse the Son, refuse life. Those who reject the Son, provoke God into delivering them over to endless death for making God out to be a liar. It just can’t be said any clearer.

Believers that know they have eternal life through faith in Christ should be encouraged, excited, and comforted with the prospect of it. They should also value the Scriptures which are written for their consolation and salvation; for their confirmation and progress in their faith.

This blog is dedicated to my sibster, Cyndi, a life-long Snoopy fan.

Because God is in this world but is not of the world, we occasionally forget or have trouble finding Him. I can see Him in movies but never thought to look for Him anywhere else. I was recently introduced to a great book, “The Gospel According to Peanuts”. Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts, said, “I have been told that quotations from the Bible should never be used in such a lowly thing as a comic strip...I am extremely flattered when I heard...some of my strips were considered as inspirational background for spiritual thinking. I am always amazed that Charlie Brown and Snoopy can prompt some good theological discussions.” Beginning in Chapter 1, I found several interesting and informative points (ways of looking at the commonplace in a different way). If you want to see the many comic strips that he references in the book, I invite you to read this book yourself. In the meantime, I’d like to share several points that touched me along with a few thoughts that came to me while reading.

The Evangelism Message

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” (Psalm 137:4) The direct approach, “I am a Christian, you are not.” doesn’t work. You have to begin where they are. “To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win the Jews. To those under the law, I became as one under the law…” (1 Corinthians 9:20-22) There are two barriers to a modern man’s understanding of the Christian message: 1. No clear-cut decision for or against the gospel has been made possible for the hearer. 2. The inclination of the human heart is evil from youth. (Genesis 8:21) We are trapped in our own humanity but we also want people to change their hearts instantly because everything else in our life is instant. Apart from God’s mercy, we have no ability to turn to Him so every time someone does, the angels rejoice because it occurred in spite of our best efforts and not because of them. I needed to hear this because I occasionally get frustrated for not seeing fruits of my efforts. This opinion reminds me that I’m not judging anyone but telling them what God did for me, changed me, uplifts me, etc. and that’s the best I can do with the help of God.

Why cartoons?? Why not?

Every artist has a message to convey in their art, be it by sculpture, paint, film, etc. Most of us enjoy these things just for the pleasure of it but like 1 Corinthians 14:28 reveals, they cannot be understood if no one can interpret it. Like the parables that Jesus often spoke in, most could not understand because they were not given the secrets of the Kingdom of heaven like Christians. They enjoyed the outward appearance and did not know to look deeper for the real meaning. It is this same reason that people judge the church and worship services; they don’t want to see the real meaning. For a heart to be receptive, we must first break through the shell surrounding it. Showing human love not only mirrors God’s love for all but can sometimes break a heart (or the shell). “If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink; for by doing this you will heap burning coals on their heads” (Romans 12:20, Proverbs 25:21-22). If we stay quiet and make no attempt at all, we will confirm the believe that the Church is the world’s largest non-prophet organization. Must we find a deeper meaning in everything? No. But to never try does the artist no favor by insinuating that their work is only for our amusement.

The Wages of Sin is “Aaaughh!”

All phony gods have one thing in common: it kills your soul to worship them. But it is your god, you love it, you are a slave to it, and you will stick with it to the bitter end come hell or high water. Well, they got it half right. The wages of sin is death...in hell...for all eternity...away from God. All of the Peanuts characters are guilty of this. Linus’ blanket is intended to cover a multitude of sins for him but turns out to only drag him down. A god, by definition, is all we have “to keep us going”. Charlie Brown is kept going by his desire to win anything; friends, football games, and kite-flying contests. Schroeder covets his piano and Lucy covets him. But it is not until we seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness that our other passions can find satisfactory places in our lives.

Great Pumpkin vs. Santa Claus

Linus’ faith in the ‘Great Pumpkin’ rising up on Halloween and giving treats is comparable to Charlie Brown’s faith in Santa. He says, “The way I see it, it doesn’t matter what you believe just so you’re sincere!” But sincerity is no more a guarantee of truth than it is a guarantee of success. This is when you have ‘faith in faith’ rather than faith in God. The attitude Linus has toward Santa is the same as most Christians have toward God: by obeying His “law,” God then owes them something. This turns God’s gift of grace into a reward for our actions.

Good Grief

This is obviously Charlie Brown’s favorite oxymoron but good grief and bad grief actually exist. “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death.” (2 Corinthians 7:10) This is why we call it Good Friday. The cross was the shadow that Jesus had to pass through to overcome death. Likewise, suffering is the necessary path for anyone who would walk in the “newness of life”. This is why the Gospel (Good News) is for those who are weak and lowly with a contrite spirit. It’s also where the “why does a good God let bad things happen?” comes into play. We think we have a right to have a life with all “ups” and no “downs”. God’s answer to Job was, “frankly, it’s none of your business”. Paul tries to soften this answer with, “I consider that the sufferings at this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.”(Romans 8:18) A person must be lost before he can be found and you must seek before you find...and grief can be for good.

The Hound of Heaven

Snoopy is: one of the meanest members of the Peanuts cast, lazy, a “chow hound”, sarcastic, a coward, and often weary of being what he is basically—a dog. We can call him a typical Christian. In spite of his other qualities, he also has a great deal of love. The dog is a great symbol for faith because man must become “as a dog” before he can become a Christian. He must take on the dog’s lowliness of complete obedience and humility at the feet of his master and in service to others with the realization of absolute dependence on his master. He shows not only concern for others but also for “things” of nature like falling leaves. “Withered” and “falling leaves” are used frequently in the Bible as images for those in whom the wellspring of faith has dried up.

Conclusion

Every person can be a minister for Christ regardless of age, race, location, etc. It is imperative that each of us express our faith not only in words but our entire lives. Not every cartoon contains profound, theological thinking but...to borrow Paul’s formula, “To the readers of cartoons, I became a cartoonist.” As Christians, we should be all things to all men regardless if we take children to church, drive friends to the doctor, host workshops, or write a blog. There are millions of ways of expressing your faith and the single, most important thing to remember is to not be disappointed if your witness is never really heard or understood by loved ones. The “success” of all Christian witnessing lies in the hands of God. Amen.

Some of my favorite assignments in school were to take a section of verses and break them down. It will never cease to amaze me how I can just gloss over so much when reading the Bible. In Luke 12, Jesus is teaching His disciples, telling parables, chastising Pharisees and lawyers, etc. while the number of His followers continue to grow. I want to focus on Luke 12:13-21. These nine verses are overflowing with gold nuggets.

V. 13 - “Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.” (Do you want some cheese with that wine (whine?)) It sounds innocent enough. How many times have we heard our children, “MOM! Tell …. to share!” But this wasn’t innocent. It was a deliberate attempt to steal from his brother. The laws back in Deuteronomy gave the elder brother a double portion of the estate and there was nothing anyone could do about it. He wanted Jesus to alter the law to ‘share and share alike’. It was disguised as a lawful desire but was a sinful one to get more than he was allowed.

V. 14 - “Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Already we have surprise and drama. Jesus starts with “man”. This was a severe form of address at the time. With this one word, Jesus put him in his place. He then asks basically, “Who made me the boss of you?” Technically and ironically, Jesus is the boss of us all. Can’t you just hear a slight tone of sarcasm in the words? It’s almost like Jesus is challenging the man to admit that He is not only a Teacher but Lord over all. Jesus Christ was no usurper and took no honor or power to Himself; only what was given Him. Whatever He did, He could tell by what authority He did it, and who gave Him that authority. (Ref. Hebrews 5:5) His kingdom was a spiritual one and not of this world.

V. 15 - “Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” It’s just the third verse and we’re told we won’t know how the story of the brothers ends. “Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions.” How many times have you heard, “He who dies with the most toys, wins.” Wins what? “My job is my life.” “My car is my life.” Really? Your possessions are the only things that make your life worth living?

V. 16-17 - “And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man yielded an abundant harvest.  He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’” Talk about misplaced allegiance. Instead of thanking God for the extraordinary crop or rejoicing that he would have more ability to do good, he goes off the deep end. He speaks as a beggar that cannot see his next meal. He’s at such a great loss over what to do that he’s about to panic. This is the common fault of those with abundance. The more they have, the more perplexity that have with it and the more anxious they are to add to it.

V. 18 - “Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.” Verses 17-19 are nothing but “I”, “my”, “I”, “my”, etc. He thought the smartest thing he could do would be to tear down his storage and build bigger. Again with the my crops and my grain. How naive to believe that abundance and wealth in this world is so easy to hold onto. Just as one apple spoils the bunch, so one match can burn down a barn, no matter the size. Larger doesn’t mean impenetrable.

V. 19 - “And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of grain laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.”’ Some translations say, “I’ll say to my soul”. What an unusual turn of phrase. Why would you speak to your soul? The definition of the soul is that it’s the core, heart, and spirit of who we are as a person. It’s our immortal spirit and it cares not for crops or grain. He was patting himself on the back for what he did and looked only to himself for the glory. ‘Eat, drink, and be merry’. Boy, couldn’t we make sermons from just these 5 words? It’s probably one of the most mis-quoted phrases in the Bible. “Be good to yourself”, “You deserve it”, me, me, me, I, I, I. Repetition to make you loony. He was a fool to think of not doing anything with his wealth other than indulging the flesh and the appetite. There was no consideration for doing good for others as a way of serving God for the blessings he received. He lived to eat but did not eat to live. There’s a big difference.

V. 20 - “But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’” I often talk myself into circles when trying to understand Bible passages and this one is no exception. Jesus is telling the story and God talks to the rich man. Well, Jesus is God also so maybe Jesus should have said, “God, the Father..” But then it would seem like He’s saying to obey the Father and not Himself…?” But they saw Him as a teacher and not God…?” I’ve stopped the brain-train. You can deboard here. Then, more contrast, “your life (soul) will be demanded from you.” The man talked to his soul and his soul was taken away. The overwhelming pride in himself cost him his life. His wealth was his life...literally… because when God took one, He also took the other.

V. 21 - “This is how it will be with whoever stores up things for themselves but is not rich toward God.” And now we arrive at the moral to the story. The man wanted to insure his inheritance even though the laws were against him so Jesus told him how to gain true inheritance in eternal life. Our inheritance is a gift and doesn’t depend on how we keep the law. It’s received through God’s covenant through Jesus (Hebrews 9:15).

Final thoughts:

1. Giving our possessions to the poor is not buying our way into heaven. It’s putting our faith in God instead of our money to provide us with what we need.

2. The Gospel is for everyone and this story is a good example to show those who were taught they must work their way into heaven with prayers and good deeds. It’s also good for those who feel they are unworthy of God’s love.

3. Like the young man at the beginning, we all have apprehensions about the future. The unknown can be very frightening. Examples: 1. When I was a teenager, I cut off the end of my finger. I was calm but the longer it took to get to the doctor’s office, the more unreasonable my thoughts became and soon enough, I knew I would die! I was wrong. 2. This would be a good opening devotion for a church council meeting when a big decision has to be made. God will guide us because He knows the outcome so we don’t need to worry about it. “...each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:34b) 3. We all carry extra baggage with us like the ‘bag of burdens’ with all its “whatifs” and “howells”. “What if I lose my job?” “How’ll I pay for my kid’s college?” You can’t give this bag away but you can drop it, preferably at the foot of the cross. 4. It’s covers today’s priorities and tomorrow’s problems; things you face at the death of a loved one.

4. Jesus does not allow Himself to be drawn into a domestic squabble. Greed is destructive to life because it has no end. You become blind to everything you do have. There’s no evil in having wealth or Abraham, David, and Solomon would be evil incarnate. The evil comes from hoarding and not sharing the bounty we have.

5. Jesus gives us six reasons in the following verses why we should not worry about material things: A person is more than a physical body; food and clothing are not top needs; God loves and cares for you more than you could ever realize; worrying doesn’t accomplish or fix anything; the best we can do doesn’t come close to what God can do; and if God takes care of the valueless, He’ll care even more for you, His child. Amen.

Who do you belong to? In a recent study of the book of Revelation, I found an interesting theory.

Then I saw in the right hand of him who sat on the throne a scroll with writing on both sides and sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming in a loud voice, “Who is worthy to break the seals and open the scroll?” But no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth could open the scroll or even look inside it. I wept and wept because no one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside. (Revelation 5:1-4)

Under Jewish law, whenever you sold property, there was always a redemptive clause in the deed. You always had a right to buy the property back within a specific period of time providing you could fulfill the terms and the requirements that were written in the deed. The theory that I read was that this scroll is a title deed to the earth. Let your mind wrap around that for a minute.

Originally the earth belonged to God by creation. "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof and all they that dwell therein" (Psalms 24:1). When God created man, God gave the earth to man. He said to Adam, "have dominion over the fish of the sea, the foul of the air, over every moving and creeping thing for I have given it unto thee. It is yours"(Genesis 1:26). So God gave the earth to man. But Adam turned the earth over to Satan when he disobeyed God and obeyed the suggestion of Satan. He forfeited the earth over to Satan and it became Satan's. We sing this is my Father's world. Yes, in a technical sense. Yet, in a very practical sense at the present time it is Satan's world because we STILL allow Satan to rule. Paul said, "He is the god of this world. He has blinded the eyes of the people" (2 Corinthians 4:4 ). Jesus called Satan the prince of this world a couple of times.

You remember when Jesus came; what was the purpose of His coming? It was to redeem the world back to God. And what was the first thing Satan did? He took him out into the wilderness and tempted Him. The first was to turn the stone into bread. But the second, he took Him up unto a high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world. And he said, "I will give these all to you and the glory of them, if you will bow down and worship me, for they are mine and I can give them to whoever I will"(Luke 4:6-7).

What a boast Satan is making. "Hey, the whole world is mine. I have the capacity to give to whomever I will." And Jesus did not dispute that claim. It's right. The world is in rebellion against God. Because of this, when you receive Jesus Christ, you become an alien to the world. Jesus said, "If you were of the world, than the world would love you, because the world loves its own, but you are not of the world"(John 15:19). This world is under Satan's power and control. That is why it is so obviously wrong to blame God for all the problems that exist in the world today; yet, man wants to blame God for all of the suffering that is going on just like Adam blamed God for his own mistakes. (There is nothing new under the sun.)

If God is the God of love, why are children suffering here, there, and in other places? Why this? Why that, if God is a God of love? Because man has joined in Satan's rebellion. So Jesus came to redeem the world back to God. He paid the price of redemption, His blood shed upon the cross. This redemption was once and for all. The world belongs to God again. His children know this but others still question the intensity of Satan because they don’t know the difference.

Although the idea that the scroll was a deed is a nice thought, it’s not truth. The truth is that the scroll is the prophetic “coming before the fact” history of the whole of creation firmly rooted in Christ and the redemption. Our brains want to say, ‘Well, Jesus redeemed the world at His death and now we’re in Revelation which happens later.’ You can’t split it up into parts 1 and 2. Our limited human understanding needs to separate things for comprehension but the redemption was complete and total. If it helps, you can think of them as little mirrors on a glitter ball; hundreds of parts, one item.

So what about the verses? Well, God is the one seated on the throne, holding the scroll. He wrote it originally and set up the qualifications for it being opened. The angel asks, ‘Who is worthy?’ because without that question, we might not even think about it needing special qualifications for opening. He’s answering a question we didn’t know we had. John was told that he will see what is to come. If no one can open the seals, he won’t see anything and the world will forever be under Satan’s control. Like us, his grief comes from lack of knowledge. How often do we really have the patience for God to reveal His solution to us? Thankfully, we know how the story ends and we don’t have to wait the rest of eternity for redemption that was done and finished a long time ago.

A mom looks through the comic books she finds in her 7-year-old boy’s room. She sees nudity, violence, and demons. She tells him, “I’m taking these because you don’t need to be seeing stuff like this.” The boy replies, “Then you’d better take this as well, mom, because it has all that and much worse.” He hands her the Holy Bible.

Does the Bible have all that? Of course it does. It’s God’s way of saying, “Look, the world is messed up. Here’s how it happened and everything you’re having to deal with has happened before and will again. It’s called living in a world of sin. Now, let me tell you how to escape it.” Our lives are so penetrated with sin, we don’t know how to live any other way. One method of coping with it is to make it funny. It’s really not funny but depression is part of humanity as well so we do the best we can.

You see, Satan was one of God’s angels but he turned to the dark side so he also could be in charge. He became a perversion of what was once good. That has become our definition of evil and it can be seen in our horror examples. To hit closer to home, we have to go beyond Satan in a red onesie with sparkly horns, a pointed tail and a pitchfork. In the 1800’s and early 1900’s, we began bringing creatures to life with this concept.

Vampires – live on blood taken, not sacrificed, resulting in death; parasite

Frankenstein – play at being God and creating something alive from dead parts

Werewolves – man that becomes animal (separate creations never meant to be joined)

Mummy – physically prepared for the afterlife on earth, not the eternal afterlife

Invisible Man – no need to sneak around in the dark, he makes his own dark for the purpose of doing evil

Creature of the Black Lagoon – evil under the seas is brought to life (people in Bible times believed that the sea was evil and/or held evil)

Witch – dark forces and earth gods used for immediate gratification

The more a story normalizes monsters, the more it also normalizes the monstrous. Sound familiar? Sins are OK because everyone’s doing it. Even these characters aren’t scary anymore so we have to make them attractive and sexy to hold the public’s interest. Let’s make a cute, teenage girl a witch and two handsome men as vampires and werewolves so girls will fantasize about them and pick a team. GAH!!! We are so stuck on the perversion of good that we forget the real good; the sacrifice, forgiveness, and redemption found in our Savior, Jesus Christ. Sure, the calendar reminds us twice a year with Christmas and Easter but that’s not enough.

The Bible is not a video game or story with fictional characters that we root for. It’s the Word of God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1:1-4) These words are God’s love story for us. He loves us so much that He sacrificed His only Son. Would you let your child be tortured and killed because of something someone else did? I don’t think so. The Word of God is in us and part of us. “All Scripture is breathed out by God…” (2 Timothy 3:16) Something that is breathed out is an expression of your heart; this includes words.

So, instead of focusing on things that pervert the goodness of God, let’s look at the other side of fantasy. Have you ever heard the expression, “Kill the dragon, get the girl”? You can see it, can’t you? A large, gloomy castle with a beautiful, long-haired blonde looking out the top window and a huge dragon circling the castle with it’s body and tail, breathing out fire. What an image! This is not a perversion of God but His ultimate truth and one we can get behind. Oh, yes.

“Kill the dragon. Get the girl.” is not a video game promotion but the Gospel in a nutshell. The dragon is Satan, “the ancient serpent” (Revelation 20:2) who is hunted down and killed by Christ (who rides in on a white horse – Revelation 19:11) and saves us to be His holy bride. Christ kills the dragon and saves His people who become His bride. After throwing down death, He throws a huge marriage feast. It doesn’t get better than that. This is an imaginative way of seeing how monsters need to be opposed and ultimately overcome. We can nourish and shape our imagination on this kind of story because even monsters can be used by God for His purpose (Proverbs 16:4).

This is how we need to talk to our children about the Bible, as a story. Bad and good will happen but God can use it all for our benefit. The great men and women of Scripture knew the Story they were in and acted with faith. They showed the rest of humanity how you can make mistakes and God still loves and cares for you. The Sadducees believed this life is it, and when it’s over, it’s over. Scribes and Pharisees only read the law and they were condemned (Galatians 3:10). They just went to theology conferences and didn’t read fun books with their kids. They didn’t realize they were lost so they missed the whole point. God redeemed us but we cannot accept that redemption until we admit we are lost.

Apparently, I’m the only person in my immediate family who is a “sharer”. I can’t change it, that’s just the way I am. With that in mind, I’m skipping this week’s blog and sharing something with you that happened to me this past week that was “first-in-a-lifetime” event.

As a child, my father would tell me I don’t have to worry about how I’ll die because I’ll worry myself to death. I’ve worked on that over the decades and I think I’m much better now. That’s the honest truth. It’s not like, “Oh, I’m just anxious because I want this to work out the way I want it to” or “Oh, I’m just concerned for their sake.” Here’s this week’s story.

I don’t think there’s a person alive that doesn’t have at least one thing wrong with their body. In the past several months, mine’s been misbehaving to a point that it’s really stressful and somewhat alarming. No details. Trust me, you’re welcome. I went to the doctor and expressed my concerns and asked for a test to find out one way or the other. Turns out, the test required me collecting samples for 24 hours. This was a problem because my body, out of my control, was not very cooperative; hence the misbehaving. I delayed because I was trying to figure out when would be a good time to do it and the next day, the conditions were more than perfect. But, it was too late because I didn’t realize it soon enough. So angry at myself. I sat down and had a long talk with God. We discussed the situation and what I had done wrong (I thought I could control the timing) and what needs to happen.

He reminded me that He loves me and will always be next to me, no matter what. I admit that I’ve been having trouble with that lately. I’m very insecure and often think I’m not worth all the trouble. Others need help from God more than I do. He reminded me again that He’s strong enough to care for everyone and take it all on, including me. I don’t have to wait in line for Him to let everyone else go first. I can go first too! Faith is not about everything turning out OK. Faith is about being OK now matter how things turn out. I’ve been told my entire life that Jesus loves me but my insecurities kept me from “KNOWING” it. So at this point in my conversation with Him, the Holy Spirit breaks in to give me complete peace. I’ve never felt that before because I’ve never accepted it. I told God I would do it the next day regardless of what my body wanted because I truly trusted Him to take charge. The next morning, things started out as expected but I prayed harder. “God, I’m going to deal with whatever happens. I know it’s important that I get the test results and I have complete faith that you will make it happen for me today. I did, and He did. I felt it in my heart that it would work out and was at peace like I’ve never felt before. The rest of the day went smoothly and it was sent off to the lab. The following day, my body was back to misbehaving as normal.

This might not seem like much to you but the complete peace I felt was stronger than I’d ever known and I believe my faith was strengthened with it. Those who leave everything in God’s Hand will eventually see God’s Hand in everything. Amen.

Committal – “Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.”

This comes from Luke 23:46. Jesus could have taken himself off the cross and exerted His full, divine authority. Instead, He intentionally chose to no longer hold onto life and gave it up for the sake of the whole world. He was not helpless because He alone had the authority to lay down His life and take it up again (John 10:14). After these words, He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. Those who were crucified would stretch up their head to gasp for breath but Christ, to show Him giving Himself intentionally, bowed His head first, composing Himself as it were, to fall asleep. Some believe that the bowing of His head showed the intense weight that was on His shoulders but instead, it showed submission to His Father’s will and His obedience to death.

In these words, He repeats what David said in Psalm 31:5. Not that He needed to look for something to say but He chose to use these words to show that He was the Christ, testified in the Old Testament prophets, that came to fulfill Scripture. He died with Scripture in His mouth and by it, reminds us to use Scripture when we address God. Notice now that it’s not, “My God, My God” anymore but “Father”. His words show Him as the Mediator. He was both the priest and the sacrifice that must be paid into the hands of God. The goodwill of the one offering was necessary in the acceptance of the offering. Christ cheerfully offers Himself as we should cheerfully offer ourselves to our Heavenly Father. He commends His Spirit into His Father’s hand, to be received into paradise, and returned the third day.

Last words are powerful. We can learn much from Jesus’ last words. Obedience: He could rejoice because He was obedient to the Father in all things, even when it cost Him everything. Trust: Jesus trusted God with His life and death and committed His spirit into the loving hands of the Father. We can do the same. Joy: Even when our path is painful, joy can be found as we walk in obedience and trust in God with our life. Each phrase teaches us about His ability to empathize with our humanity. They demonstrate His unwavering commitment to His Father’s will and His complete fulfillment of the prophecies found in Scriptures. Amen

Despair – “And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lemasabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

This comes from Mark 15:34. There was darkness over the whole world which signified the withdrawing of the light of God’s countenance. Jesus had been with the Father, and was His light from eternity, but taking on the sin we deserved could only be done completely if He was severed from the Father. The fire from heaven that God had used in the past to fall upon the sacrifice instead of the sinner was a token of God’s acceptance. This now fell upon Christ as the true sacrifice causing Him to cry out. The men standing around said, “He calls for Elijah”. They knew very well that He was calling for God but tried to show Him abandoning God or God abandoning Him. This would make Him more hated by the people. Again, they had asked for a sign that He was God and got the whole land covered in thick darkness in the middle of the day and still they mocked Him.

This was Jesus’ true moment of glory because He did not give in to temptation and took full punishment from God.

This all goes back to the 15th chapter of Genesis where God makes a covenant with Abram. For the Abrahamic Covenant of blood, Abram had to kill some animals, cut them in half, put them opposite each other, getting all the bloody pieces lined up. This was the practice in ancient times. Both people walked through the pieces to seal the covenant. In this case however, Abram was put to sleep and only God walked through the pieces. It was a unilateral, unconditional covenant so Abram had nothing to fulfill. God made it with Himself. Here we go: “When the sun had gone down and it was dark, behold, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch passed between these pieces.” When God showed up, He showed up as darkness. He showed up in judgment form. Then again in Exodus 10, cue the plagues: “Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand toward heaven, that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, a darkness to be felt.” So Moses stretched out his hand toward heaven, and there was pitch darkness in all the land of Egypt three days.” Over and over in the Old Testament, you find God coming to earth with darkness, thick clouds, smoke. The people of Israel knew well that the presence of God was associated with darkness so thick, you could feel it. But there was more to it. The darkness side of God was always associated with judgment. The Day of the Lord (when He returns again) is described in Joel 2, “The earth quakes before them; the heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. The Lord utters his voice before his army, for his camp is exceedingly great; he who executes his word is powerful. For the day of the Lord is great and very awesome; who can endure it?” Destruction, devastation, no one survives; the sun turned to darkness and the moon into blood.

Over and over they knew that darkness meant divine presence and judgment. It had to have struck them as they were sneering and mocking Jesus. Fun time was over. There’s a new actor on stage; it’s God and He’s taken center stage. He showed up in darkness to unleash judgment on the godly One for the sins of the world. What is really going on here is deeper than any understanding, beyond the physical suffering, beyond the sacrifice of Christ. What’s happening is eternal wrath being released. As one pastor said, “God brought hell to Jerusalem”. God destroys both soul and body in hell. He is the king of hell, Satan is not. And He gives His Son eternal hell on behalf of all who had and would ever believe. No one speaks for three hours.

I’ve always been told that hell is the complete separation from God but it’s not the absence of God, it’s the opposite. It’s the presence of God in full judgment, vengeance, fury, and infinite wrath moved by infinite righteousness to release infinite punishment on the infinite Son who can absorb an eternal hell for all who will ever believe; and He can do it in three hours. It’s beyond stunning to think about. The darkness lasted until the ninth hour; three o’clock. Darkness disappears, the sun lights up again and Jesus cries out. Theologians have thought and talked and written volumes on this sentence. One theory is this…maybe the expectation of Jesus ‘the man’ was that after He bore the fury of God fully, there would have been some comfort. His humanity said He should sense the fellowship with the Father again, but He didn’t. There was no comfort, no sympathy, no relief. If Jesus is to endure a full hell, it is both the punishment of God and the absence of comfort. I believe that this statement and the fact that He sweated blood in the Garden show His human side. I appreciate that we are told about them. Without them, it would be hard to imagine going through all that as a human. We would naturally attest more of it to His Divine side which would not fulfill the prophecies at all.

This is the only time in the New Testament when Jesus calls the Father; My God, My God. It sounds as strange to us as Him calling His mother, ‘woman’. Jesus uses double expressions on many occasions. The first one is, “Martha, Martha”. It wasn’t the absence of affection but the presence of disappointment. Later, He says, “Simon, Simon”, which is not a lack of love but an expression of intimacy with disappointment in it. Then there’s, “Jerusalem, Jerusalem” which is affection with disappointment. You can hear it the other way in Matthew, “Many will say unto Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and I’ll say, ‘I never knew you.’”. They think they have an intimate relationship with God but will be disappointed.

“Why?” is a prayer of passion. There’s a fine line between the passion that trusts God and the passion that curses God. Sin separates us from God and so the “why’s” of our lives are the “ways” of God because He’s using us for His purpose.

Affection – “When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.”

This comes from John 19:26-27. What an amazing show of faith we see from Mary standing by the cross. She knew the truth of the resurrection probably more than most, but we still do not see her wailing, wringing her hands, tearing her hair, etc. at the sight of her first-born son suffering. Just a quick note here. Some passages say she stood by the cross and others say far off. Most likely, she was close enough to hear Jesus speak to her and John but then the soldiers moved everyone back. This was part of His suffering as Job’s was (Job 19:13). Because we do not hear of him, we assume her husband, Joseph, has been dead and Jesus had been supporting her. During His entire life, He spoke of serving others more than saving others. Unlike us in pain, He was not so taken up with His own suffering that He forgot His family and friends. He owned nothing so He provided for her through others. When He calls Mary, “Woman”, He makes it clear that she is not His mother any longer. His favorite disciple, John, is now her son. His message is that He was always care for us but when He returned to heaven, it becomes our responsibility to care for each other as He did.

“Woman” in this verse is not a sign of disrespect as it would be if that’s what we called our mothers. If He would have called her “mother”, it would have been a cutting word to her heart. He had to separate them because she was already filled with grief and He could not put more grief on her. Sometimes when God removes one comfort from us, He raises up another where we would not have expected. Next, Christ teaches children to provide, to the utmost of their power, for the comfort of their aged parents.

When He gives John to Mary as her son, it shows the utmost confidence in His disciple. It was an honor given to John and a testimony to his judgment and loyalty. It’s a great honor to be chosen by Christ and entrusted in His interest in the world. John proved himself worthy because he immediately took Mary into his home cheerfully without care of trouble, expense, or obligations to his own family. We must also note that the book of John is the only place we see this occurrence. The other gospels don’t mention it happening at all because John was the only one to stay by Jesus through it all. The other disciples abandoned Him in the garden and Mary’s other children, Jesus’ stepbrothers and stepsisters, never showed. They did have a legal responsibility to care for their mother, but they were not supportive or sympathetic to His ministry.

While on the cross, Jesus only speaks to three humans directly: once regarding forgiveness and once regarding care for widows (others). With eternity from the past and future coming together at this climax, the two things on His mind were the salvation of the sinner and the care of those left behind.

This is not to say John was the only one Jesus trusted. He would later commission His disciples to share the gospel, make more disciples, and teach others all He had commanded. He would tell Peter to “feed My sheep” (John 21:17). To put it in perspective, it’s one thing to ask a friend to finish something you started and another thing to ask them to care for the most important person in your life after you are gone. Knowing all things, Jesus knew that John would be the best person to choose for this job and he would do it happily. He knew where John’s ministry would take him and how long it would last. He also knew that John would outlive the other disciples so he could care for Mary until she passed. Love was at the center of the relationship between Jesus and John and by this action, he proved to be a true brother of Christ. A friend, a follower, and a fisher of men to the very end, John served His Lord by serving those entrusted to his care. A lesson for us all.

Salvation – “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

This comes from Luke 23:43. Of the two thieves on the cross with Jesus, one had the same attitude as those who crucified Him. ‘Save your skin and mine; show me a miracle and I’ll believe.’ The other thief saw Jesus for who He really is and what He was doing. He asked Jesus not to save him but to remember him. He did not ask for forgiveness because he knew he was not worthy enough to be saved. But he was wrong. Jesus’ words tell us there is no waiting period after death. No purgatory.

One of the thieves was hardened to the last. He demanded of Jesus as the others on the ground saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” He was in pain and agony also, and knowing he was close to death, it made no difference in his proud spirit. Despite his torture, his wicked heart challenged Jesus to save Himself and them. He had the impudence to rail at Christ and then expect to be saved by Him.

Now here’s something interesting about the other thief. If you look at Matthew 27:44, it says the ‘robbers’ (both of them) reviled Him (Jesus) in the same way. So what happened to the attitude of the one and why the sudden change of heart? Just as he was ready to fall into the hands of Satan, he was snatched up by God’s mercy and grace. This example is a false comfort to many who believe they too can wait until on their deathbed to repent, and all will be well. While repentance is never too late, no one is given the certainty that they will have time to or think to repent when death comes for them. The Father used him as a singular example of the power of Christ’s grace at a time when He was crucified in weakness. Having conquered Satan in the destruction of Judas and the preservation of Peter, He has a further trophy of his victory over death at the conversion of this criminal. Gives you something to think about, doesn’t it?

Let’s look at all he says in Luke 23:40-42. First, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?” Usually, people that are in the same bad situation band together and feel a sense of camaraderie. Nothing good comes from insulting people that are in the same boat as you. You don’t kick a man when he’s down. (Pick your idiom.) Second, “And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds…” In this statement, he ‘owns’ the punishment he’s receiving. It’s possible they are suffering for something they did together; hence the ‘we are…our deeds’. They were comrades in sin and suffering then one was taken and the other left. Those that are truly repentant acknowledge the justice of God in the punishment for their sin. “…but this man has done nothing wrong.” Although Christ was condemned in two courts and treated as the worst of sinners, the thief had enough sense to know that Jesus did nothing wrong. “And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” It was the prayer of a dying sinner to a dying Savior. Although Christ was reviled by most around Him, He was honored with prayer to Him. It was the happiness of the thief to pray. It may be that he never prayed before or that he knew he was heard. Where there is life, there is hope and where there is hope, there is room for prayer.

His prayer had so much faith in it as well. He claims Jesus to be Lord and have a kingdom that He rules over and he only asks that Jesus remember him. It’s strange that this criminal could see that Jesus was about to return to His kingdom when all the disciples and others around thought Jesus would die, period, end of sentence. The criminal’s soul asked Jesus to remember him; no more, no less. But Jesus granted so much more. He became one of God’s children that Jesus prepared a place for in the heavenly kingdom. Jesus told him, “I say to you”; I, the Amen, who made all and rules all. “today you will be with me in paradise.” Christ on the cross is the same as Christ on the throne and judgment has come to this man at his death. By saying He was “going to paradise” is assurance for us that His sacrifice was accepted and the Father was pleased with Him. Saying He was going is as true as if it already happened.

We looked at the thieves, now we look at Christ. It was not only humiliation to be crucified, but to be crucified between the two thieves as if He had been the worst of them. The chief went in the middle. While He lived, He was separate from sinners but was placed among them in death because He became sin with us. At His death, He was among the wicked so we at our death, may be among the saints. The public that jeered at Him took it for granted that He could not save Himself so He obviously didn’t have the power that He claimed to have. In reality, He would not save Himself because He would die to save us. They said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself…” (Matthew 27:42). It never occurred to them to wonder why He would not save Himself if He could save others. It must be insinuated then that because He did not save Himself, the saving of others must have just been an illusion.

The conversion of the thief is an example of Christ triumphing over principalities and powers even when they seemed to triumph over Him. Christ was crucified between two thieves and in them represented the different effects the cross of Christ would have on the children of men. We are all guilty before God and the cross brings life to some and death to those who refuse it.

Side note: Many people say that baptism is not necessary for salvation because the criminal was not baptized and went to heaven. Technically, we don’t know much about the criminal or if he was baptized but you have to remember the order things happened. Jesus didn’t give the command for us to baptize until AFTER His resurrection. At the time of His death, when this happened, baptism was not yet a command of God.

The opposition and “attacks” on the institution of marriage previously mentioned might actually be considered something “new under the sun” (pardon me, Ecclesiastes 1:9). What I mean is that in the world of the Early Church, life was full of sexual immorality but it never came to a point that people would question the definition of marriage; at least the Bible doesn’t mention if they did. God sometimes allows chaos to come for His own good purposes. With every heresy that challenged Christ’s church, there is a silver lining. “God’s Word shines brighter through the cross.” For example: Arianism led to the writing of the Nicene Creed, and the medieval papacy led to a clearer articulation of the doctrine of justification. What blessing God will give us through this present turmoil remains to be seen. What’s clear is that the path to seeing this blessing is not in avoiding, but a full engagement of the heresies with the Word of God, repentance, and prayer.

God’s intention was to have the family unit mirror the Holy Trinity. Marriage, life, and family form a unity of three that echoes the reality of God. Those in Christ are of the Bride married to Him (Ephesians 5:25-33); the Father raises the dead and gives life (John 5:21); and together they form God’s family called, gathered, and enlightened by the Holy Spirit always leading us to “hear the Word of God and keep it” (Luke 8:21). Remember last week when God said it was not good for man to be alone? Mankind was not created for autonomy but for relationships; man for woman and woman for man. Two distinctly different beings in body and mind so that they fit together in order to become one in marriage. Marriage was not an afterthought. Man was created for communion with God and marriage was instituted as an icon of that union.

The other part of this trinity is children. Matrimony comes from the Latin mater (mother) and the suffix monium (an action, state, or condition). It creates the state of motherhood. This later evolved into the word, marriage. Marriage is directly and inseparably, the act where God makes mothers. He creates life. Same-sex couples do not and cannot produce children because children aren’t products even if society views them as such. They aren’t manufactured. They are conceived and born, requiring a man and woman to do so. Can you say ‘BIOLOGY’? But what do children have to do with marriage? Marriage is the one institution that unites fathers and mothers in a way for their benefit and the benefit of any children they have. Those without children are just as married but marriage doesn’t depend on having children, it exists for the children’s relationship with their parents.

(Just a quick note here about one more reason the world is so messed up – antinatalism. Let me break it down, anti-natal-ism. Now you get it. An Indian businessman sued his parents (both lawyers) for giving birth to him without his consent. Antinatalism is a position that argues against procreation because bringing more people into the world subjects them to suffering, death, and risks without their consent. The argument behind the lawsuit was that because his parents gave birth to him for their own pleasure, they should support him financially for life. His mother agreed to consent to it being her fault if he could explain how they could have obtained his consent beforehand. This is different from “wrongful life” lawsuits that are filed against doctors for failing to prevent the birth of a child with severe, foreseeable disabilities.) This is the world we live in.

While Adam slept, God created the object of his love (Eve), and Adam’s self-giving love for her. In the same way, the union of husband and wife expresses and generates love so the egg-sperm union generates both life and a new family member who will love and be loved. The child exists through their love and depends upon it, unconsciously returning their love to them. Remember that God instituted marriage before the fall into sin. This was the Lord’s plan for marriage and family and is not just a band-aid that becomes necessary because of sin. Marriage between a man and woman is a gift of God, given in a sinless world before the fall, while homosexual activity is a manifestation of the fall into sin.

Marriage also has the honor of illustrating the relationship between Christ and His bride, the Church. This is important. In present times, marriage is seen as an optional commitment (like three-fourths of the parable) between two people. This makes it easier to see it as a viable plan for two people of the same sex. Homosexuality may have a greater impact on society than other sins but each sin, regardless of severity, deserves eternal condemnation. Hate the sin, not the sinner. When homosexuality is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:9 and 1 Timothy 1:10, it is among a list of many other types of sins. This goes back to not taking the speck out of someone else’s eye until you take the log out of yours.

Following are a few of the discussion points concerning the sanctity of marriage and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to legalize homosexual marriages (“The Sanctity of Marriage”, written by Rev. Dr. Peter Scaer, Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne).

1. The Supreme Court’s decision changes nothing about our Christian faith. We believe that there is still a higher court and that Christ will be our final Judge. As Christians, we obey the government (Romans 13), but we recognize that our greatest allegiance is to God and His Word, and that in matters of conscience, “We must obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29).

5. We are all called to repentance. As a people, we have not treated marriage with the respect that it deserves. Divorce is far too common among us, and too often we condone and support even our fellow Christians as they live together outside of wedlock. Knowing that we cannot rely upon worldly wisdom, we are called to hear and reflect upon God’s Word and once more come to Him for forgiveness.

8. The Court has been wrong before. In the Dred Scott decision, African Americans were counted as less than human. In Roe v. Wade, the rights of the littlest children were ignored leading to the deaths of 57 million children. The Supreme Court, like any human institution, is prone to error. As Christians, we recognize that there is a higher, heavenly court and that God’s Word does not change. We also recognize that unjust decisions must be challenged for the good of our neighbor.

9. …Traditional marriage discriminates against no one. The real discrimination will come against those who hold fast to God’s Word.

10. Same-sex marriage is not a civil rights issue. Whether you are black or white makes no difference, but men and women are different biologically, psychologically, and emotionally. From our differences, new life comes into the world, and with our complementary differences, we are best able to support and nurture the next generation.

14. So called “gay marriage” is not the end of the debate but only the beginning. There is now no consistent logical argument against polygamy, group marriage, or temporary marriage. Such arguments, once thought to be extreme, are now commonplace. In the midst of such confusion, the Church must continue to speak the truth in love.

17. As Christians, we are called to be faithful to Christ, our Bridegroom. The days ahead will be trying and our faith will be tested. The world will call us haters and we will be mocked and ridiculed (John 15:18-25). Yet, even in the midst of persecution, Jesus calls us to rejoice, saying, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you” (Matthew 5:12). As Christians, we will listen to the Good Shepherd, knowing that His words are faithful and true.

What does all this mean? While we stand on the side of God, ready to suffer ridicule and mockery, let’s also be prepared to provide a clear and reasoned response to those who mock us.

Being at a loss, yet again, for a topic, I turn to my Bible. It opens to Jeremiah 24 which is Jeremiah’s vision of figs. You see, there are many times that God and Jesus used everyday life to explain about faith, guide us in the right direction, and help us understand what we could, or would, not. Parables are a great way of going about this but in Bible times, visions worked as well. I suppose it’s why most pastors start a sermon with everyday life and then link it to God. They’re just following God’s example of the best way to get through to us. Here is a vision we don’t hear of very often; the two baskets of figs.

To get a better understanding, I’ll start at the beginning with captivity. God used Babylon as His agent of judgment against Israel for their sin of idolatry and rebellion against Him. The time of captivity is mentioned in many books of the Bible, so the different sections can be difficult to piece together. They were exiled to Babylon in three waves covering a period of about 70 years. The first wave included Daniel (605 BC), the second, King Jehoiachin (597 BC); and the final was after the Temple was destroyed (586 BC) leading to the desolation of the city. It ended about 536 BC. This vision comes during the second wave.

This time, Nebuchadnezzar took not only officials but also craftsmen and artisans. This could be because they had too many astrologers and stargazers but few craftsmen with skills like this, or it’s because they didn’t want to leave them there. After all, they might be used to fortify the city or make weapons of war. After they leave, God explains His plan to Jeremiah by showing him two baskets of figs in front of the temple door. One basket had perfectly ripe fruit while the other had figs so rotten, they were inedible. The good fruit represented the people that had just been taken away into captivity. God promised to look after them, build them up, and bring them back one day. They would know God better and become closer to Him because of what He had done. The shock of their captivity would wake them up so they would see their sin and repent.

The bad figs represented the people left in Jerusalem and those who thought they would escape to Egypt. They thought they had God’s approval because they were still in their homeland while the others were punished with exile. Their decision then was to continue in their evil ways and trust Egypt to save them from Babylon instead of God. Instead of escaping trouble though, Jeremiah tells them they will come to a humiliating and horrible end.

This story reminds me of the many times that God gave me what I asked for just so He could show me the error of my ways. Instead of asking for His advice and guidance before-hand, I knew what I needed. Well, that guy I had a crush on finally asked me out and I said “no”. Four months later, I met my husband. Two jobs I worked hard for and waited to get, led me to nervous breakdowns; one after 6 months, the other by the second day. We can’t determine God’s love or His purpose for us by what is in front of us. Sometimes that suffering is what we need and proves to be the best thing for us. Parents know the sooner the child is corrected, the better effect it’s likely to have. Psalm 119:67, 71 says it very well, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.”

I believe every generation fondly remembers ‘the good ol’ days’. But life has never been perfect here. Those memories are individually chosen as the best and the worst are forgotten in time. As bad as we have things now, it’s easy to believe that we are being punished or are ‘in exile’ from life as we want it or remember it. Today, like it was then, our suffering will prove to be what’s best for us. The captivity they had was for their benefit and the things we go through today can be worked by God for our benefit as well. After all, one day our children will most likely remember today as a ‘good old day’. Who are we to say it’s not?

I was finally able to see the movie, “The War Room”. It was one of the most powerful movies I’ve seen in a long time. The qualities they emphasized were fight, prayer, and patience. We’ve all heard the Bible verse that “the devil prowls like a roaring lion, seeking who he may devour” 1 Peter 5:8. What we don’t remember is that this happens DAILY. Because we don’t physically see him and our days go pretty much as expected, we rarely think about it. What we more often focus on is how the people around us get on our nerves and how unfair life is.

The movie centers around a couple, Elizabeth and Tony, their daughter, and Ms. Clara. Elizabeth is a real estate agent trying to sell Ms. Clara’s home and gets more than she bargained for in the process. She and Tony are each fighting personal battles by day and fighting with each other by night. This is also destroying their daughter, needless to say. Clara’s faith moves her to help Elizabeth and asks her to write down everything wrong with Tony. 3 pages later, Clara stops her to ask one question. “Does he deserve grace? Does she?” We ALL sin and fall short of the glory of God but by His mercy, we all receive grace because of Jesus dying for each of us. Pastors have told me this my entire life but when I heard an old woman say it, it hit deeper in my heart than it ever had. Tony was not her problem as she believed him to be. The real problem was that Elizabeth was fighting Tony instead of the real enemy. Every day is a new fight. “If I were you, I would get my heart right with God. And you need to do your fighting in prayer! And you need to kick the real enemy out of your home with the word of God.” – Ms. Clara.

Clara had a closet she turned into a war room. The walls were covered with Bible passages with special meaning and prayers for individual people in her life. Among these pages of prayers for people were personal prayers like: “Raise up those that love you and seek you and trust you.” “Lord, we need a generation of believers who are not ashamed of the gospel.” “I pray for unity among those that love you; I pray that you open their eyes so that they see your truth.” “Raise up a generation Lord that will take light into this world...that will not compromise under pressure.” “Raise up warriors who will fight on their knees and worship you with their whole hearts.” “Lord, call us to battle!” It puts a fire in you to make your own war room but let’s face it, have you ever heard of a lived-in home with an empty closet? No. We are people of ‘stuff’.

Step 1: Fight. We don’t need to fight each other because the real enemy is Satan. He tells us lies and stretches out our imagination to see the worst of each situation. He invades our homes and does his best to keep us from focusing on God. This is how Elizabeth begins to fight. “I don't know where you are, Devil, but I know you can hear me. You have played with my mind and had your way long enough! No more! You are done! Jesus is the Lord of this house, and that means there's no place for you here anymore! So take your lies, your schemes, and your accusations and get out in Jesus' name! You can't have my marriage, you can't have my daughter and you sure can't have my man! This house is under new management and that means you are out! And another thing, I am so sick of you stealing my joy, but that's changing too. My joy doesn't come from my friends, it doesn't come from my job, it even doesn't come from my husband. My joy is found in Jesus, and just in case you forgot, he has already defeated you, so go back to Hell where you belong and leave my family alone!” Amen.

Step 2: Prayer. How often do we automatically pray for our children or parents but forget our spouse? They need prayer every bit as much as anyone else. If your marriage isn’t the way you want it, pray for them. Ask God to enter their heart so they can live the life that God wanted for them. Pray for their faith to grow, their will to fight evil be strengthened, and show in their actions the love they have for God. The more you pray, the more you think about adding to your prayers. God wants to know everything so make a list if you need it. Write down Bible passages that give you strength and fortify your faith. They don’t need to be on a closet wall but they need to be handy for when you pray. I confess that I often fall asleep while praying. When I found this post in Pinterest (Do you ever feel guilty about falling asleep while praying? Let me ask you this, how do you feel when a child falls asleep in your arms? Glad we settled that. Love, your Heavenly Father) it gave me some comfort but I’m still working on staying awake just to get everybody on the list.

Let’s take this a little more seriously. What is the real value of prayer? First of all, prayer changes us. More than just the outcome of the situation in front of us, it changes our relationship with God. Psalm 31 is a prayer for deliverance to deepen our relationship by asking God to hear us and rescue us. What it does not ask is a change to the situation being faced. It’s more important to be connected to God and become more peaceful and accepting rather than to win the lotto. Secondly, it aligns us with the will of God. God wants us to have serenity, courage and wisdom – regardless of the challenges we face. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Finally, prayer is work. It deepens our empathy and puts us in a place where God can change us and lead us to action we can take. Our prayers become a means by which God does good for others.

Step 3: Patience. My other favorite line in the movie is to ‘give it all to God, confess what you did wrong and tell Him what you want and then get out of God’s way and let Him work.’ That takes a special kind of patience because we must trust in God’s plan and endure difficult circumstances with faith. Any delays are all part of the divine timetable. Having patience for God means an active endurance; an active, faith-filled endurance that perseveres through difficulties, opposition and stress without worrying. ‘without worrying’ is the difficult, but not impossible, part here because we don’t know God’s time-table. Patience is definitely an expression of trust and faith and can bring us closer to God. It means giving it all to Him and then letting go and act like everything is fine. Sometimes, I write down things I can’t handle and put them in a box with a lid. Closing that lid is putting it in God’s hands so I don’t have to think about it anymore. Delays happen, annoyances happen, but if we use these times to focus on learning more about God, it puts our focus where it belongs instead of on ourselves.

This was an amazing movie and I strongly recommend seeing it if you haven’t yet. I didn’t watch through the credits but I learned that if God wasn’t listed as a co-producer, He should have been. Following are behind-the-scenes happenings during the making of this movie.

In the park scene, Danielle is seen feeding a squirrel. This squirrel was actually an answer to prayer, the script called for one, but there were none on the site. So they prayed for one and when they were ready, it came. In the audio commentary, Alex Kendrick say's "We prayed 'GOD we need one squirrel'. And when we had all the cameras ready, here comes one squirrel, comes right down the tree, we film those few seconds, we got it, and then the squirrel took off, never saw it again".

The building used as Clara’s house was one that they came across just two weeks before starting. It was owned by a Pastor who let them rent it for a month. He had been trying to sell it for 9 months, but hadn't had much luck. He was very gracious to them, so they prayed that GOD would sell it for him. The day they finished shooting, a couple showed up, fell in love with the house, made an offer and it sold.

The man who's seen praying in the sunset at the very end had been praying for the city of Charlotte for 20 years so they decided to use him for the scene.

Last year, during a particularly rough bout of food poisoning, I was flipping the channels through daytime TV looking for something to take my mind off the pain. I happened upon a lecture given by Dr. Jerry Root from the C.S. Lewis Institute on The Screwtape Letters. Having already read the book, I was intrigued by a behind-the-scenes view as it were.

Let’s begin with the concept of hell. In the book, “Barchester Towers” by Anthony Trollope, it reads, “Only the preacher can compel people to sit still while being tortured.” Teachers can also do this by holding grades over the student’s heads but when you think about it, it’s difficult to communicate something to someone without being manipulative or discretely driving them to the conclusion you want. Lewis stands by us, shoulder to shoulder, and speaks of something in front of us. He eventually moves away so we are still enthralled by what is in front of us.

On August 29, 1979, Pioneer 11 was the first robotic spacecraft to take photos of Saturn and its rings. They discovered that Saturn has an outer ring, called the F-ring, and it’s braided. Although no human eye had ever seen it, God chose to braid it. Physicists have many different answers as to why it’s this way but maybe He just braided it for the picture. I have the same theory about dinosaur bones. Scientists age them at 45-90 million years old but I say God could have just put them there for the fun of it. One star should be enough to give us wonder over the marvels of God. But God went further and gave us millions of stars and moons and shooting stars, etc. It’s easy to worship God for the amazing, wonderful things but can we also worship God for the difficult things like AIDS babies in Africa or hurricanes in Haiti? Lewis said, “If our religion is something objective then we must never avert our eyes from those elements in it which seem puzzling or even repellent…for it is precisely the puzzling or the repellent which conceals what we do not yet know and need to know.” Truth is complex. Even the doctrine of hell needs to be something that if we look at it properly, should lead to some type of worship and adoration of God. There are mysteries but we should not play the mystery card too quickly. Some things will always be beyond our reach but we should still make the effort to reach out to understand. Even in hell, we see that there’s an occasion for redeemed souls to worship. (Rev. 19:1-3)

Lewis’ theology of hell: The fact that God made creatures with capacity for real choices makes something like hell possible and perhaps necessary. The Bible says God has the hairs of our head numbered which means He knows less and less of some of us every day. (Joke) We live in a stable universe and sometimes we come in conflict with those things and we blame God. Example: you open a cupboard door and something falls out, you bend over to pick it up and hit your head on the still open door you forgot about. The cupboard door has no reason to close but we blame God for our sore head. If God removes the consequences from the use of free will, He also removes free will. If God makes creatures of free will, then there are going to be consequences and hell is a possible consequence. The existence of hell and doctrine of hell reveals that it’s possible for us to make damn fools of ourselves forever. We’re quick to blame God and let the people off the hook who are suffering consequences for their actions. Hell is God’s last service to those who will let Him do nothing better for them. It’s the last, greatest expression of God’s love to people who will accept Him on no other terms. Hell is hell, not from it’s own point of view, but from the heavenly point of view. We are horrified by the thought of hell but the people that are there don’t want God and don’t want to owe their lives to Him.

“The Screwtape Letters” is a collection of 31 letters from Screwtape, a senior demon, to his nephew, Wormwood, a novice tempter, He offers his unending advice on how to corrupt a human soul. It’s a unique perspective on morality and temptation from the viewpoint of evil, revealing how demons use subtle tactics like distraction, flattery, and self-pity to lead their “patients” away from Christianity and toward sin. The letters detail Screwtape’s advice on exploiting human weaknesses and subtly twisting virtues, ultimately aiming to secure the soul for Hell. Lewis uses a form of satire here that reminds himself that the author is part of the problem. I’ve certainly worked for people like that. They give you constant advice on how to do your job. If it works favorably, they accept the credit, if not, you didn’t follow their instructions. Maybe that’s why I can somewhat connect to what’s happening. It’s also a kind of lop-sided story because we are only told one side. Not just the senior tempter to the junior but the evil side. To balance, a complete version would also include a senior angel writing to a nephew, guardian angel. This can’t be done however because every sentence would smell of heaven and the writing would be too perfect to fit in our sinful world as it is today.

One of the most dominant themes is Screwtape trying to woo his patient, through Wormwood, into this swollen sense of self into pride. Each of these 31 letters contains one to three themes: Pride, Rationalization of Evil, and Temptations of the Flesh. Pride transforms prayer into idolatry. Have you ever had a perfectly pure motive for anything you’ve done? Another piece of advice by Screwtape is that if you can’t cure a person of going to church, send them all around so they become a connoisseur of churches. The search for a suitable church makes the man a critic when God wants him to be a pupil. If you don’t enjoy going to church because they don’t sing the hymns you want to sing, your pride keeps you from hearing what God wants you to know. There are two kinds of evil people; the worst of evil people are religious people – the quicker I am to die for my faith, the quicker I am to kill for my faith. The other evil people are those paint the words of God with their own opinions. “And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken” Ezekiel 22:28

Screwtape advises to keep the patient in a party church where he can join a party which rejects others without reason. Subtlety dismissing them because they are not affiliated with the right party. Men and women go through ‘the laws of undulation’, peaks or glorious moments when we fly through life and troughs when we feel we trudge through quicksand. Pride directs us to determine reality from the perspective of the current peak or descending trough. Such perspective makes man the center of his world. Rather than peaks leading to worship and troughs leading to perseverance, Screwtape advises to make him long for everything to be smooth sailing. Then, when the disappointments come, let them draw him away from God.

In addition to pride, a lot is said about free will. As a human, free will is our greatest weakness (we can easily choose what is evil) and our greatest strength (when we choose God above all earthly things, we receive a great reward from our heavenly Father.) In the second letter, Screwtape speaks about God’s use of free will, “Desiring their freedom, He (God) therefore refuses to carry them, by their mere affections and habits, to any of the goals which He sets before them (us): He leaves them to “do it on their own”. And there lies our opportunity. But also, remember, there lies our danger. If once they get through the initial dryness successfully, they become much less dependent on emotion and therefore much harder to tempt.”

C.S. Lewis has this to say about demons: “There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.” By writing about devils in a light, and comic tone, Lewis presents them as petty, obnoxious, and sometimes clumsy. In doing so, he shows us the reality of the demonic influence but presents them in a way in which we will not become afraid or over-concerned about their involvement in our lives.

In the 8th letter, Screwtape expands on the difference between the opposing sides and differences between what God and the devil want for us. “He (God) really does want to fill the universe with a lot of loathsome little replicas of Himself – creatures, whose life, on its miniature scale, will be qualitatively like His own, not because He has absorbed them but because their wills freely conform to His… We want cattle who can finally become food; He wants servants who can finally become sons. We want to suck in, He wants to give out. We are empty and would be filled; He is full and flows over. Our war aim is a world in which Our Father Below has drawn all other beings into himself: the Enemy wants a world full of beings united to Him but still distinct.”

Rather than worry about how others perceive you, we can find comfort in learning how God perceives us as His child. The Screwtape Letters holds a mirror up to our faces so we see ourselves as we really are. A mirror of scorn and pity. Scorn because of our fallenness, pity because of the dignity of having been made in the image of God and yet so deficient in that area, yet hopeful because we can move toward growth in Christ. We are not bodies with a soul. We are souls that have a body. The soul is our true self and cannot be lost from the body. When we die, our soul goes to God and our body is left behind. There’s a Japanese proverb that says, “What sound does rain make?” and of course the answer is that it doesn’t make any sound until it hits something, an umbrella, a hat, a puddle. So what sound does grace make? It doesn’t make any sound until it hits something: a broken heart, a deep-seated fear and insecurity, an estranged relationship. Listen...wait for it…..it’s not coming, it’s here.

1 John 4:1-3 reads, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.”

In these passages, John speaks about false prophets whose teaching comes from spiritual deception. It’s also a good practice to use when hearing from your pastor. I'm not saying they are false prophets, but questioning them gives you a better understanding; and a better understanding of God is a good defense against the devil. For example, way back when, I was told that the Nephilim (NEH-fuh-luhm) were wicked, giant men that came from evil angels and human women having relations. I know, because I wrote it down but I didn’t write down where I heard it. I also hear this explanation on television so now I KNOW I got it wrong. All these years, I was told a falsehood and only recently realized it. This topic has nothing to do with our salvation but the knowledge may help in future questions.

The Bible says in Genesis 6:4, “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of man and they bore children to them. These were the mighty men who were of old, the men of renown.” So, the sons of God and daughters of men. What does this mean? We have to go back even further in Genesis. 4:14 describes Cain’s punishment for killing his brother. He is driven away from God and his face shall be hidden. We know this happened because when the generations of Adam are given in Chapter 5, Abel is not listed because he’s dead and Cain’s not listed because he had to leave the presence of the Lord. Now, another word for those who leave God is, unbeliever. Cain definitely knew God was real but he and his future generations were not part of those under God. So, the “Sons of God” were children of Adam and “daughters of men” were children of Cain. (Side note here: sons doesn’t mean necessarily just male. There could have been daughters of God and sons of man but it’s listed as son because as we learned from Adam, the man should know better.) Over time, the two groups became more friendly with each other proving that when you give into temptation, sin happens. The children of these two groups were called Nephilim. Again in Genesis 6:4 it describes them as ‘mighty men who were of old, the men of renown’. Mighty “MEN”, so not part angel. Their mistake of intermarriage is brought up again in 2 Corinthians 6:14 which says, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?”

That settles that but we need to dig deeper. There are many words and phrases in the Bible that have different meanings depending on their context. This is one of the most important reasons you can’t just pick and choose verses to mean what you want. For example, ark could mean the ship that Noah built or it could mean the Ark of the Covenant. Two completely different things. How about lion? In 1 Peter 5:8, Satan is described as a lion that roars and goes about looking for someone to devour. In Genesis 49:8-10, Jesus is described as a Lion of Judah, powerful ruler, majestic, strength, and kingship.

The same can go for the term, sons of God. In the book of Job, the term is not used the same as in Genesis. Here, the sons of God refer to the holy ones (angels). So how can you be sure they are not the same? Two words: the flood. After the passages about the Nephilim, God begins preparations for the flood. The only people that survived said flood were 8 people, Noah and his family. All of the Nephilim that had been born, died in the flood. No more Nephilim. In Matthew 5:9, sons of God are the peacemakers. In Luke 20:36, they are not angels but equal to angels. In Galatians 3:26, all those with faith are sons of God. Do you see what I mean? Context.

In addition to context, you have to think. After all, people in the Bible were just like us; at times, easily excitable and prone to exaggeration. I’m referring to the other time Nephilim were mentioned in Numbers 13:25-33. Moses and Aaron had sent Caleb and others to the promised land to spy it out. When they returned, Caleb told Moses they were more than able to take over the land. However, some of the other men went among the rest of the people and said the land ‘devours its inhabitants’ but yet all the spies came back with none being devoured. They said, “all the people are of great height” and “we saw the Nephilim and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them.” Well, we know there are no more Nephilim (duh, flood) and we must remember the Jewish men at that time were an average of five feet tall. While today, the average basketball player is 6’6”, it’s easy to see how a five foot man would feel like a grasshopper. The tall men there were said to be sons of Anak. Anak was not a Nephilim but was most likely a very tall man and so were his descendants. When Joshua drove them out of the promised land in Joshua 11:21-22, it’s written that a few remained in Gath and Ashdod. In 1 Samuel 17, we see that the Goliath that went up against David was from Gath and was anywhere from 6’9” to 9’9”. Quite a gap, I know, but suffice it to say, he was tall.

This battle between David and the Philistines carried on for quite a while. In 2 Samuel 21, we see more battles between the two forces and 4 giant Philistines were defeated including a man with 6 fingers. No, it’s not Count Rugan in the Princess Bride but giants? 6 fingers? Your mind naturally goes there. I hope you find this information as interesting as I did. It’s just another lesson to dig, dig, and keep digging. We’ll never learn it all but we can try.

It’s still winter but spring will be coming and with it, spring cleaning. It may be too early to think about cleaning but I’m only focusing on one kind, the mental cleaning. My problem is not my home but my mind. It’s so cluttered and confused that I can’t remember, can’t focus, can’t concentrate, can’t decide, can’t sleep, etc. All in all, it’s not a great way to start a new year. Most people I talk to have the same problem so I thought I’d look into ways to fix it without drugs or counseling. I’m not saying this is guaranteed to work, but it costs nothing to try. (Note: this is a long one so if you have no stress and confusion in your life, you can skip it.)

Naturally there are many verses in the Bible that are meant to bring comfort but it’s been my experience that I can read some verses and they have no impact now but if I read the same one 3 months from now, it stays in my heart longer. It just depends on when you need to hear it. The entire Bible is given to us for comfort and instruction but the Holy Spirit organizes when you need to hear which. I say this because if you don’t feel comfort from verses I have listed, don’t be disappointed; you just didn’t have to hear it right now. Don’t give up. Needless to say, I don’t have all the verses for help and comfort listed here. There are many more and part of your healing may involve looking for them yourself.

Question: What is a mental clutter? A cluttered mind is a state where excessive and overwhelming thoughts, worries, or concerns fill your mind to the point you can’t make a decision, focus, sleep, or feel at peace. It shows itself as excessive worrying, over-analyzing, decision fatigue, and obsessive thinking. Research indicates that clutter, both physical and mental forces the brain’s attention to constantly decide what to tune out and what to concentrate on. We are bombarded with information at a constant rate from the second we wake up until we try to fall asleep. Notifications come through fast and often on our devices and the news cycle is relentless. This leads to reduced productivity and that annoying feeling that you’ve worked all day and done nothing. Studies have shown that mind clutter increases mind overload which can reduce your memory, impair your processing and decision-making. It also leads to not being able to turn off your mind when you try to sleep.

Let me break it down for you. I mentioned decision fatigue earlier, do you know what that is? Have you ever stood in front of your closet and think you have nothing to wear? Have you stood in front of your fridge like a penguin in a blizzard? Do you end up picking up fast food because you get tired just thinking of what to cook? These behaviors are all signs of decision fatigue. You are so tired of making decisions that your brain just shuts down, which often leads to poor decisions.

Everyone deals with mental clutter to some extent but having it go to extremes is not the way we were meant to live.

‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27)

The solution is to get in the habit of doing things that declutter your brain. Following are tips to try. You don’t have to do them all, just choose the ones that will work for you.

1. Brain dump – grab a notebook and pencil and start a list. Empty your head onto the page. Don’t worry about order or spelling or how important you think it is. If it’s something your mind is thinking of, it needs to be written down so you don’t have to remember any longer. Once everything is in black and white, sort out the list. If it’s something you can get done quickly, do it and get it over so you can mark it off. Prioritize what’s left and add to your calendar if it’s a task. If it’s something you can’t control but are waiting for someone else to do, writing it down will help remove it from your memory tape. Add to the list as the week goes on. When the next week starts, make a new list and transfer anything left from the week before. Seeing it written down by your side helps your mind to realize the effort of that memory is not needed.

2. Journal – I did this in high school and it was unbelievable. I started with a legal pad and wrote it as a letter to a family member, telling them everything that happened to me and how I felt about it. No one read it but me. After one year, I was just into my fourth legal pad. Each time I wrote, it felt like a weight was lifted from me. Another trick that helped me was when I was in elementary school. I would be angry with my parents for something and I’d write it all out. Why I was angry and what should have happened. I then put the note on their pillow so they’d see it when they went to bed. When I heard them pull up in the driveway after work, I’d run to their room, grab the note, tear it up and trash it. They never saw the notes but I felt so much better being able to write it out of my system.

3. Talk – if you’re a verbal processor, talking it out can declutter your mind. It can bring clarity to your feelings by having to put them into words. Talking through a difficult conversation can help you better express yourself and talking through a difficult memory can bring closure. BUT the person you talk to needs to be safe. They must be a good listener and respect your confidentiality. You don’t want someone to tell you what to do or solve your problems for you but just listen and maybe ask a question to get you to see another perspective you hadn’t thought of.

4. Solitude – When was the last time you had quiet. Absolute quiet. TV off, phone on mute, no radio in the car, etc. gives your mind time to decompress. Thoughts and feelings that pop up during this time might be painful occasionally but they must be dealt with. Taking time to untangle the knots of our crowded thoughts can bring peace once again.

“Be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10)

5. Exercise – Physical exercise releases hormones that combat stress. Even just walking when overwhelmed can give you a chance to “step back” and re-organize your priorities.

6. Craft – During the COVID lockdowns, there was a renewal of the crafts of yesteryear, crocheting, painting, macrame, knitting, etc. Keeping your fingers busy with repetitive tasks while letting your mind wander is good for you. If you don’t feel creative, there’s always shelling peas and cracking pecans.

7. Transition – We live in a world that jumps from one thing to another without time for transition. If you can make time to pause between projects, you can reflect, celebrate wins, grieve losses, or just process what happened before you start something else.

“I can do all things through him who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13) Don’t take this the wrong way. We think we can keep going non-stop because God will give us the strength. Even God rested.

8. Turn off the news – They never have anything good to say and the tragedies in the world just add to our stress. We don’t need all the details. If you want to watch the top stories, fine, then turn it off. If something significant happens, someone will let you know.

9. Limit social media – Some aspects of social media are good but there are also a lot of angry people out there spreading misinformation.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

10. Technology – we can’t live without technology like our great-grandparents did but it’s easy to get too much of a good thing. Too much tech is not good for our minds or bodies. You set limits for your children with screen time, do yourself a favor and give yourself limits also. Be flexible but be wise as well.

I hope somewhere in this list you can find something that helps you.

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil – this is the gift of God.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11-13)

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:6-7)

(Quick side note: After writing this blog, I had several weeks of stress, high blood pressure, etc. Could not turn my brain off to save my life. It’s a woman thing. (Ref: Book titled: “Men are waffles, Women are spaghetti”) It’s a book that explains how the minds of men and women work differently. Men compartmentalize while women’s thoughts look like a plate of spaghetti with each strand (thought) fighting to be on top. I was obsessed. I couldn’t think straight to save my life. “What I need to do next week”, “Can I file my taxes correctly?”, “This topic may never come up but IF it does, this is what I need to remember to answer it”, “I need a doctor but I don’t want to know what she’ll say”, etc. etc. etc. I finally gave up trying and collapsed on my knees, crying, and prayed for help. The next morning, I woke up feeling different. The best way I can describe it is that I have two brains; one in front and one in back. The front brain works as usual; I remember my work passwords, I know what I’m making for dinner, etc. The back brain that usually rambles on non-stop….was quiet. Complete silence after weeks and weeks of rambling. I’m writing this to let you know that prayer does work and God WILL take care of you in the way you need Him to.)

Prayer is the strongest force on earth when spoken and acted upon in agreement with God’s will. Prayer changes things because God releases His supernatural power when He sees you taking strategic action by faith. Something to think about when uncluttering.