PastorTim

THE RIGHT THING THE WRONG WAY

May years ago, in a land far far away there was a Pastor late for a meeting who after dressing noticed a wrinkle on the front of his dress shirt. Attempting to save time and noticing the hot iron sitting close by, he picked it up and very gently touched the wrinkled region pressing in ever so slightly to avoid great pain. His plan worked seamlessly until; he accidentally pressed the steam button on the iron! Ouch! Full disclosure, I was the knucklehead Pastor above who by the way escaped with only minor burns. Looking back, I really can laugh at myself! You see I was doing the right thing, but I was doing it the wrong way! It’s humorous when it involves an iron and a little burn, but it’s not very funny when it comes to our spiritual life.

There is an account in the Old Testament where Kind David is trying to bring the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem where he can build a permanent dwelling place for the Lord. In 1 Chronicles 13:3-5 we read: “And let us bring again the ark of our God to us: for we enquired not at it in the days of Saul. And all the congregation said that they would do so: for the thing was right in the eyes of all the people. So, David gathered all Israel together, from Shihor of Egypt even unto the entering of Hemath, to bring the ark of God from Kirjathjearim.” Now here’s a great idea, but David went about it the wrong way.

As they tried to carry the ark the wrong way, Uzza, David’s servant touched it as it was about to fall, and he died. You see it’s very dangerous to handle the things of God in a careless manner. Finally, after searching out the correct way to carry the Ark, it was successfully brought to Jerusalem where there was great celebration. It was a great idea, and God longs to be close to those who love him, but there is a right way and a wrong way to bring this to pass.

We live today in a culture that says very blatantly that you are intolerant when you say that there is only one way to God and that way is through knowing Jesus Christ as one’s personal savior. Well, I suppose that I fit snugly into the category of the intolerant, and gladly so. I still happen to believe Jesus words when he said that he is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. And that no man can come to the father but through him.

There is a right way and a wrong way to Heaven, and no amount of bargaining and debating can change the words of the Lord. Regardless of what famous athlete’s and celebrities claim, what world leaders embrace, or what anyone else says, Jesus Christ is the only way to eternal life.

H. A. Ironside shared the powerful illustration of the danger of doing the right thing the wrong way. Some years ago, a fearful railroad wreck took a dreadful toll of life and limb in an eastern state. A train, loaded with young people returning from school, was stalled on a suburban track because of what is known as a “hot box.” The limited was soon due, but a flagman was sent back to warn the engineer in order to avert a rear-end collision. Thinking all was well, the crowd laughed and chatted while the train-hands worked on in fancied security. Suddenly the whistle of the limited was heard and on came the heavy train and crashed into the local, with horrible effect.

The engineer of the limited saved his own life by jumping, and some days afterwards was hauled into court to account for his part in the calamity. And now a curious discrepancy in testimony occurred. He was asked, “Did you not see the flagman warning you to stop?” He replied, “I saw him, but he waved a yellow flag, and I took it for granted all was well, and so went on, though slowing down.” The flagman was called, “What flag did you wave?” “A red flag, but he went by me like a shot.” “Are you sure it was red?” “Absolutely.” Both insisted on the correctness of their testimony, and it was demonstrated that neither was color-blind. Finally, the man was asked to produce the flag itself as evidence. It was then that the mystery was explained. It had been red, but it had been exposed to the weather so long that all the red was bleached out, and it was but a dirty yellow!

Countless lives have been eternally derailed by the yellow gospels of the day and the bloodless theories of unregenerate men that send their hearers to their doom instead of stopping them on their downward road! What kind of flag are we waving today? Let’s not be caught doing the right thing the wrong way. Take it from me friend, you could get burned!

 

 

 

 

It’s about God, nothing else!

With the trees decorated, gifts being purchased, and Bing Crosby’s music being heard once again, the Christmas season reminds us of many things, including an age-old conflict between good and evil. A dynamic of the nativity story that is not often a part of the yuletide focus is found in Matthew’s Gospel, ^“Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.  Then was fulfilled what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah: “A voice was heard in Ramah, weeping and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her children; she refused to be comforted, because they are no more.” There was in that day a hatred for the Jewish people, that hatred still exists today.

Cal Thomas in the Washington Times writes, “The worldwide media are playing their familiar role. After expressing shock and outrage over the murder of 1,200 Israelis by the jihadists, news outlets in the United States, Britain and elsewhere have mostly pivoted to a more sympathetic treatment of Hamas “fighters” or “militants,” words many prefer over the more accurate “terrorists.” Anti-Israel, anti-Jewish and pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue in America and in other parts of the world.

At a Queens, New York, public high school, hundreds of students stormed hallways and waved Palestinian flags after they heard a teacher, who is Jewish, had attended a pro-Israel rally. The teacher locked herself in a room for two hours. The poorly informed teens are reportedly being suspended. But first, they should be asked what they know about the history of the Middle East and the declared intentions of those who want to eliminate the Jewish state.

Joshua Arnold, senior writer at The Washington Stand observing worldwide attacks on Israel and the Jewish people in a column entitled, “Left-Wing Anti-Semitism Motivated by Hatred of God” quotes Al Mohler who described it as “deep-seated anti-Semitism that has just arisen to the surface.” Anti-Semitism is “one of the world’s oldest and certainly its most deadly hatred throughout all of human history,” said Mohler. “There’s something that is unique in terms of the hatred of the Jewish people. And you see this in the Old Testament.”

Mohler identified the root cause of anti-Semitism in the Jews’ special status as God’s chosen, or “elect,” people. “Israel is God’s elect nation. ... This was the scandal of the Jewish people,” he said. And because of that, they have “basically had the antipathy of the rest of the world” directed at them since the exodus. “we see that in the anti-Semitism that has so characterized human history, even Western civilization,”

“This is not, to me, just about anti-Semitism ... against Jewish people. This is a spiritual issue,” said Family Research Council Action President Jody Hice, guest host of “Washington Watch.” “It is much deeper than just hatred for Jews. It is a hatred towards God. It is a hatred towards the people of God.” Mohler agreed, “By extension, yes, this is a hatred of God.” So many churches refuse to get into these issues and equip their church family with a biblical worldview,” lamented Hice. “It is one thing to teach biblical principles from the pulpit. It is a different level to teach a biblical worldview and how to live out those biblical truths.” Paul urged believers in Ephesus to “put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).

“You’re going to be ‘mugged by reality’ if you don’t understand the responsibility,” Mohler agreed, adapting an Irving Kristol quote. “A lot of Christian pastors are going to end up saying, ‘What in the world happened? How did this happen? How is this showing up in my church? How is this going uncontested in my community?’ Well, hey, it’s about time you wake up and see the challenge here and understand your responsibility as a pastor.”

I deeply appreciate the perspective of Pastor Hagee, “How does our Christian walk intersect with Israel and the Jewish people? In every way… The Jews are God’s covenant people, and He intends for them to shine forth as a bright light to the gentiles. He loves and delights in the Jewish people and rejoices over them- they are His brethren, the apple of His eye. Be assured that God’s blessing or His judgement will come to those who have blessed or cursed His beloved nation and people.” For the sake of Israel, for the sake of our nation and for the sake of what lies ahead… may we never forget that! I am confident in saying that God will never forget!

 

What happens in Israel

As Thanksgiving fades into the background and Christmas season shifts into full gear, it’s easy to forget the real time events on the ground in Israel so here’s a portion of an update I received moments ago from a friend on the ground in Jerusalem. It has been 53 days since the beginning of the war, and we are currently in the fifth day of the pause in fire to allow the release of hostages from Gaza. A list of 10 hostages who are due to be released today was given to Israel late last night. Last night Hamas released from captivity 6 Thai workers, 2 Israeli mothers and 9 children. It is important to note that 5 fathers of the children released last night were torn away from their children and left in captivity. Hamas is still holding 167 hostages - of them, 9 are children, the youngest being Kfir Bibas who is 10 months old. One of the children still being held in captivity is Aisha Alziadna (17) an Arab Bedouin girl abducted with other members of her family.

As we hear misguided and outright disinformation daily it’s good to remember Israel’s history. Clifford D. May in The Washington Times wrote recently, start with this observation by the late Charles Krauthammer: Israel “is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God that it did 3,000 years ago.” Punishments for their rebellion against the Roman Empire in 132 C.E. included slaughter, slavery, and expulsion. Adding insult to injury, Emperor Hadrian renamed Judea, the land of the Jews, “Provincia Syria Palaestina.”

Palestine referred to the Philistines, a seafaring people from Greece who settled in the coastal territory of Canaan and became enemies of the Jews. Think David and Goliath, Samson and Delilah. The Philistines would later be defeated by the Assyrians and the Babylonians and cease to exist as a separate people. It was not until the seventh century C.E. that an army from Arabia, fired by the new religion of Islam, conquered, occupied, and ruled what Jews and Christians had come to call the Holy Land.

In the late 19th century, Jews in Europe, increasingly subject to pogroms and other forms of persecution, began returning to their ancient homeland, where they bought land, irrigated deserts, drained swamps, and built collective farms known as kibbutzim. In 1909, they founded a city on a sand dune north of Jaffa and called it Tel Aviv. The economic opportunities they created attracted immigrants, not least Arabs, from surrounding nations. After World War I, the British Empire displaced the Ottoman Empire, and with a hat tip to the Romans renamed the land Palestine.

In 1947, after World War II and the Holocaust, the U.N. proposed partitioning western Palestine into two states: one for the Jews and one for the Arabs. Jewish leaders agreed. Arab leaders did not and, joined by five neighboring Arab nations, waged a war to kill the fledgling Jewish state. They failed and called their failure the Nakba, the catastrophe. But killing Israelis was its obsession, with support from Iran’s rulers who for 44 years have threatened the Jewish-majority state with genocide because, in the brave new empire they intend to establish, there cannot be self-determination for infidels. Now we have this 21st-century holocaust which occurred on Oct. 7^th 2023.

My good friend Dr. Everett Piper in a Washington Times article entitled, What happens in Israel will not stay in Israel writes, “In Israel, as images of hundreds of mutilated Israeli bodies flooded the news, talking heads in the media repeatedly asked, “How could this happen?” For the answer, look no further than America’s ivory tower. At Harvard University, for example, more than 30 pro-Palestinian groups released a statement blaming the Jewish people for “all unfolding violence.”

Students at the University of California, Berkeley, followed suit. “We invariably reject Israel’s framing [itself] as a victim,” they said. Not to be outdone, 18-year-olds at George Mason University shouted their support for “all forms of resistance” against the Jews, which presumably includes the “moral good” of raping Israeli women and beheading their babies. This sad display of moral nihilism should surprise no one. It’s been coming for decades and is a sobering reminder of how far our educational system has fallen.”

Knowing who Israel is we join with King David, who called out to the Lord in his time of trouble, "The Lord lives, and blessed be my Rock; And exalted be my God, the rock of my salvation, The God who executes vengeance for me, And brings down peoples under me, Who also brings me out from my enemies; You also raise me above those who rise up against me; You rescue me from the violent person. Therefore I will give thanks to You, Lord, among the nations, And I will sing praises to Your name. 'He is a tower of salvation to His king, And shows favor to His anointed, To David and his descendants forever.'" Dr. Piper is correct, What happens in Israel will not stay in Israel!