Christian Questions Bible Podcast

So, if you are a little kid it’s time for the excitement of “trick or treat” – costumes and candy. If you are older it’s time for parties, horror movies that look and feel so real they make your skin crawl, the undead, dark spells and generally unfettered behavior. Yup, we are talking about Halloween and all of the trimmings that come with it. Here is the thing – no matter what age you are, when Halloween comes it is also time for a strong and convincing dose of witchcraft. That’s right – no matter what age you are, witchcraft is not only entirely mainstream, it is enticingly mainstream and very much within reach. So, is this something to be worried about? Are we dealing with some big dark and deceiving practice or is it all just harmless home-brewed storytelling?

What has happened to us? We live in an age where ego and emotion are more important than virtue and values. An age where personal preference outweighs personal worth and “I want it now” trumps integrity. We live in an age where absolutes aren’t (unless we decide they fit into our personal plan) and standards are only something to customize and remodel to our personal satisfaction. Ours is an age where the ancient principles of sin and objective morality are being relegated to the trash heap of history. So, what are we supposed to do? Should we go along with the flow of thoughts and emotions that are reshaping our social structure? Should we abandon what is considered to be the old and worn out moral thinking of the past and embrace the new and vibrant personally-based principles of the present?

Peer pressure.  When we say those words we typically think about teenagers, school and bad decisions and those thoughts are accurate.  Young people face inordinate amounts of peer pressure on a regular basis and its effects can be devastating!  Here’s the thing – adults are also subject to peer pressure and its place in our lives and its effect on our lives is far greater than we might anticipate.  So, for the sake of not only our young people but for our own sake as well, what do we do about it?  How do we recognize address and deal with the pressures of life that press us into compromised circumstances and bad decisions?  Even more importantly, how do we reverse the process and create an environment in which positive, righteous and loving peer pressure is the order of the day?

As time goes on, many of us will look back at 2017 and remember it as a year of storms. We have had storms of political division and unrest, storms of tragic events ranging from terrorism to the senseless taking of innocent lives, and we have had literal storms - specifically three major hurricanes that came back to back-to-back and left a wake of devastation, homelessness loss and death. It is the hurricanes, the natural disasters we will focus on today. Are these events a coded message from God? Is God punishing us for our blatant sin or is He telling us to mend our foolish ways? Now, if you don’t believe in God, could these natural disasters be a coded message from “Mother Earth” letting us know that we have messed with her precious and vital ecosystem for too long? Are there lessons here for us to learn?

A few weeks ago we began a conversation about the Bible and its inherent challenges of understanding and interpretation.  As we discussed the book in all of its complexity, we suggested a very straightforward and simple conclusion:  the Bible is difficult to understand because it was purposely written to be difficult to understand.  Such a conclusion really disturbs most common Christian thinking about converting the world here and now.  As we continue to lay out what we believe to be the reasons for such an avoidance of world appeal by the Scriptures, we now turn the focus on the really big question of results.  Why would God, why did God set up a plan where everyone does NOT get a fair chance to come to an understanding of the Bible in our present environment?  What good could possibly come from such a strategy?

In the immensity and complexity of the book we call the Bible, there are some verses that have become somewhat famous…like the Christmas text “Good tidings of great joy…”  The football stadium text “For God so loved the world…  the character of God text “God is love…”.  Another text that is well known and deeply meaningful is spoken by Jesus to one of the thieves dying on the cross next to him, Jesus said “today shalt thou be with me in Paradise…”  This text shows us the power of God’s love as expressed through the compassion of Jesus and his sacrifice and it is truly inspirational in the hope that it portrays.  Now, here is a simple and very legitimate question - what was Jesus saying to this thief?  What was he promising and why was he promising it?  As we find out by examining so many verses of Scripture, what seems to be said is not always what is really meant.  So, did Jesus really say what most think he said?  

Pick up a book or an article and start reading...if that book or article is well-written, it will bring you to some kind of conclusion, some kind of understanding or realization that you didn’t have before.  Now, these realizations can be across a wide scope of subjects and learning, but the bottom line is you picked up that well-written book or article and now you have some greater knowledge or insight.  Now pick up the Bible and start reading…it starts out all good and wonderful and then just six chapters later it seems like God gets mad and pretty much scraps His whole creation thing.  Why?  Read further and the confusion grows!  So, what's up with this, anyway?  The Almighty God, creator of all things, surely could have had the Bible written in such a way that it would be universally understood!  Well the fact is, He didn’t!  Why not?  There is actually a really cool answer to this!

You hear the word "temptation.” What do you think of? For some of us it might be best to NOT answer this question out loud. For others it might be dark chocolate or getting even or pushing the envelope or wanting to take what is not ours. In every case, temptation is directly built upon our human desires, and our human desires left unfettered will continually fabricate webs of attraction, entitlement and deceit. These webs are binding, sticky and tenacious, and once we allow ourselves to touch them we may find ourselves too close to walk away, too weak to resist and too willing to try it out – you know, "just this once!" Temptation has shattered many relationships, disrupted many positive pathways and broken the contentment of many lives. Temptation is unfortunately not only alive and well, it is being fed, fostered and flaunted by our present society! What do we do! How do we get that temptation genie back in its bottle?

In many ways we are daily in a fight for our lives.  There are so many choices that present themselves to us each and every day, many of which can distract and derail us from what is most important.  The biggest factor that determines whether we stay on track with life or go down some rabbit hole of distraction and disruption is simply...me.  Yup, I am the decision maker - the gatekeeper of my own mind and body - and I alone have final say as to what kind of victory or what kind of defeat I will experience.  Now, wait a minute!  As a Christian shouldn’t I be subject to the will of God through Christ?  Absolutely!  Then why am I saying that I am in control?  It’s simple!  I decide how much influence the will of God will exercise in my life at any given moment and that makes ME my worst enemy!  Great!  Now what do we do?  What do we do?  We learn how to identify, fight and win the battle!

It was just a few weeks ago the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, sparked a firestorm of vitriol and reaction throughout our country.  What happened, what didn’t happen, who reacted and how - all of these things became the fuel for more protests and more protests against the protests and reaction of a very negative kind everywhere you looked.  Let us be abundantly clear on one point – those who would paint themselves as any form of supremacist, white or otherwise, are servants of a deep and destructive darkness.  Period.  Those who take the law into their own hands and use violence and threats as their primary tools to eradicate all whom they consider supremacists are also choosing to borough down that dark hole as well.  NONE of this is good!  All of this provokes hatred, and rightfully so.  Shouldn’t we as Christians hate such evil?  Yes we should.  The bigger question here, however, is HOW do we engage our hatred for evil in a Christlike manner?