YOUR PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

Col 1:16-17 For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1: 16-17 NIV)

Have you ever considered your place in the universe?

Everyone that takes the time to reflect: to stand on the seashore and feel his own insignificance, to walk in the forest and be overwhelmed by the complexity and beauty of the natural world, to stand ant-like amidst the majesty of Yosemite Valley or the Grand Tetons knows the longing for transcendence. These places whisper to us: there is something more.

Why should we alone be the ones able to appreciate the grandeur? And why are we alone able to feel that longing and wonder where it comes from?

It’s because we are made “in the image” of the Logos, the great creative mind who brings order out of chaos, beauty from simplicity, and splendor out of rocks, trees, sky and sea.

Through him all things were made. And then he became what he made. What does that tell us about who we really are?

We are not the random combination of genetic material accidentally deposited on some airless planet without a dust mite’s chance of survival. We are the brilliant creations of a fantastically powerful and singularly purposeful God who wants to know us and be known by us.

You are not junk. No one is junk. You and everyone else you will ever meet are beings of incredible value. You long for transcendence when you visit the grand cathedrals of nature because you were composed by the transcendent One, made for a relationship with him, made to dwell in harmony with him in the world that he created for us to enjoy.

That relationship, the intimacy with transcendence that we all long for, was lost in the Garden of Eden, when our first parents rebelled. The way back to that it, the door to the grandest cathedral of them all, was reopened when the babe was born in Bethlehem.

What is our place in the universe? Our place is at the cradle. Our place is at the Cross, where the door to the throne room of God was reopened and his rebellious children were welcomed home.

HAVE A COSMIC CHRISTMAS

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 men. (John 1:1-4 NIV)

Scientists face what Charles W. Petit calls a ‘fine-tuning' problem as they analyze the heavens. "The universe appears marvelously constructed to produce stars, planets, and life. Scientists have calculated that if the force binding atomic nuclei were just 0.5 percent different, the processes that forge atoms inside stars would have failed to produce either carbon or oxygen—key ingredients to life. If gravity were only slightly stronger or weaker, stars like our sun could not have formed. Yet physicists see no reason why the constants of nature are set just so. (Charles W. Petit, "The gods must be crazy," U.S. News & World Report (9-8-03)

Contemporary astronomer Allan Sandage, Edwin Hubble's successor at Mt. Wilson and Mt. Palomar observatories... told the New York Times, "I find it quite improbable that such order came out of chaos. There has to be some organizing principle. God, to me, … is the explanation of the miracle of existence, why there is something instead of nothing." On another occasion, Sandage said, "If God did not exist, science would have to invent Him to explain what it is discovering at its core." (Breakpoint with Chuck Colson, 7/14/2003)

The truth is that our ability to exist on this planet is due to the fact that the universe is balanced on a razor’s edge in order to facilitate life.

The earth-shaking thing that the apostle John tells us in the first few verses of his gospel is that the cosmos (ho kosmos in Greek, the orderly universe that we observe) was made through THE WORD (ho Logos in Greek, the organizing principle or force of life). In other words, Jesus Christ balances the universe in his hand.

John is clearly stating that the ‘Logos’ – the ultimate spiritual force behind the universe – is responsible for all that is visible. The mud you squish between your toes, the cold morning air rushing at you as you go out to crank the car, the water running through your hair as you shower all were made by Him. The fact that you and I exist in an incredibly complex yet orderly universe designed to sustain life is because this same Logos – who existed before the universe began – made it so.

The point is that the Logos created everything we can see and everything that we cannot see. He created it, he sustains it, he owns it, he rules it, nothing happens in it apart from his knowledge, and nothing can change in it apart from his permission.

And then he became material himself, a human being, an infant, totally dependent, completely identified with his creation, circling the star that he had balanced in space. That is what we call the incarnation. And that is cause for celebration.

So don’t just hand out gifts this Christmas. Go outside. Look up at the stars. Contemplate all that you see. And have a Cosmic Christmas.

BEWARE BLACK FRIDAY

“Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Jesus (Luke 12:15)

One of FCC’s regular attendees, who works in a well-known department store, mentioned something last Sunday that made me gasp. “I have to be at work at 2:00 AM next Friday morning.”

Then this morning, at the teen ministry I co-sponsor at the local middle school, one of the kids said, “I can’t believe it. My mom is waking me up at 1:00 AM Friday to go shopping!”

I confess that I am not a serious shopper. I know that it is sensible to try to save money by taking advantage of sales. But let’s be honest about this: Black Friday is a Greed Fest, a singularly American celebration of buying and selling that rivals any other holiday on the calendar. (Note: Holiday is a word derived from Holy Day – a special day for celebration of the deity). Our dedication to getting THE DEAL on the latest trendy toy or 4G gadget is so fanatical that we will stand in line in sub-freezing temperatures at two in the morning and then literally run over each other for the limited supply of DOOR BUSTING BARGAINS! (Lucky for you southerners this year, the temps will be mild).

Let’s not kid ourselves: this is worship. Worship includes sacrifice, adoration and celebration. Fanatical dedication to Black Friday shopping has all the ingredients. There is sacrifice: Can you remember the last time you got up at two in the morning to pray or give or serve or go to a worship service? There is adoration: “Wow! I’ve always wanted one of these!” And there is celebration: “Can you believe it? What a DEAL I got!” We don’t like to admit it but this kind of activity is what worship is made of. It is the great American sin that we never condemn. But the apostle Paul puts it right up there with the sins we do condemn.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these…( Col 3:5-8 NIV)

One day in the department store is no different from any other. Shopping on Friday is not a sin. Looking for bargains is not transgression. And if you are going shopping on Friday I hope you find what you’re looking for. But beware the ethos of Black Friday – the culture that celebrates the abundance of possessions as life’s highest good. There is much, much MORE to life than finding Friday’s best bargains.

HERMAN, JOE AND THE REST OF US

Deut 19:15 One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. (NIV)

I’m a news junkie. I read two newspapers, two news magazines, and multiple news websites daily. So even though I would like to I can’t avoid seeing at least the headlines of some pretty scurrilous stuff. If it is shallow and salacious (read: Michael Jackson and Kim Kardashian) it gets skipped. But if it is serious it gets analyzed.

The allegations against Herman Cain are pretty serious stuff. Do we want a man like that, if he is like that, in the highest office in the land? And what about Penn State Coach Joe Paterno? Is he the icon of integrity that he has preached and promoted? Or is he a bum who sold out helpless kids in order to protect his football program?

Or is the truth about both men, both situations, something none of us really knows? I believe it is.

I had a taste, just a tiny taste once, of Washington Politics, and I saw the viciousness of those whose summum bonum is power. It would not surprise me to find that the charges against Cain are fabricated.

And I once had a good friend, a colleague in the church choir, who to my utter shock and surprise showed up on NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” clearly caught in the act of preying on teenage girls. I learned then the deceptive power of sexual predators. It would not surprise me to learn that Joe Pa was deeply deceived by his former apprentice.

That is why I wish, I wish very deeply, that the rest of us would take these kinds of situations – where careers, character, honor, and justice are concerned – as seriously as God takes them. Over and over again, the Spirit-inspired writers of scripture quote the command stated above: “Every matter must be established by two or three witnesses.” (Nu. 35:30; Dt. 17:6-7; Matt. 18:16; 1 Tim. 5:19). And that not in the media “mob”, which cares more about eyeball counts than impartiality, but in an orderly court of law. If we did that, if we took them as seriously as God takes them, we would grieve over the possibility that men could be guilty of such evil, we would pray more often to be delivered from it, and we would wait for truth to be established before we take up stones to throw.

DID DAVID AND JONATHON HAVE A HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIP?

DID DAVID AND JONATHON HAVE A HOMOSEXUAL RELATIONSHIP?

By Dane Skelton

I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.

"How the mighty have fallen! The weapons of war have perished!" (2 Sam 1:26-27 NIV)

Some people in the homosexual community have found in this passage (and others in 1 Samuel, see below) support for their lifestyle: that David and Jonathon had a homosexual relationship. It says something about the desperate need for validation in “gay” society that it would go to such lengths as to ascribe homosexual behavior to two of the most revered characters in scripture.

But the people who take that position are doing something that is called isogesis: Reading into a passage of scripture something that comes from your culture or point of view. I suppose all of us are guilty of that from time to time. But isogesis is always wrong and usually destructive to sound doctrine and healthy living. What we want to do instead is known as exogesis: Reading out of scripture what is actually there. Accurate exogesis, and therefore interpretation, takes into account the historical and cultural setting of the people in the story as well as its original readership, the vocabulary and grammar in use at the time, as well as the type of literature and its context. The goal is to understand what the writer actually said, what it meant to the first readers, and how that meaning translates to our time.

Here then is a brief exposition of 2 Samuel 1:26 with the earlier passages taken into account.

Vocabulary and Grammar - 2 Samuel 1:26 “Your love for me was wonderful…” – The standard Old Testament verb for sexual activity is ya-da (Note: I cannot reproduce the proper Hebrew punctuation marks). It is never used to describe the relationship between Jonathon and David. However, the Hebrew noun for love (ahaba, derived from the verb ahab) used in this sentence (and in 1 Samuel 18:3) is used about 55 times in the OT with a variety of meanings. It can mean the sexual love between a husband and wife. But it can also mean the love between a father and a son (as with Abraham and Isaac Gen. 22:2); the loyal love of a servant for his master when the servant refuses his freedom (Ex. 21:5); the love between two friends as with David and Jonathon etc. Ahab is also used in Leviticus 19:18 when God commands: “…love thy neighbor as thyself.” Finally, Dr. Bill T. Arnold, director of Hebrew studies and professor of Old Testament and Semitic languages at Asbury Theological Seminary explains the word “has important political and diplomatic connotations. Since David and Jonathon’s relationship has already been marked as a covenant sealed by their love (same word), this part of the poem is referring to the depth of that relationship.

Context – “…more wonderful than that of women.” ? How could David say that and not be referring to sex? Context is king in interpretation. The most significant thing to recognize about the context of this statement is David’s relationship to Saul’s daughter Michal. Whoever killed the giant Goliath was promised the king’s daughter in marriage (1 Samuel 17:5). That was a huge deal in that culture. (Imagine being engaged to Bill Gate’s daughter and you will get the idea). It meant wealth, power and security as part of the king’s family. But that deal didn’t work out very well for David. David did marry Michal. But Saul then gave her to another man when he became jealous of David and drove him out. Jonathon, on the other hand, made a covenant with David that he never broke, even at the risk of alienating his father the king. Little wonder then that David would refer to this noble trait in his friend on hearing of his death. Jonathon’s love was more wonderful than Michal’s.

Historical & Cultural setting – The homosexual culture, and our culture generally, tends to sexualize every relationship. Thus when we read 2 Samuel 1:26 or 1 Samuel 20:41 (…then they kissed each other and wept together) we think it was the affection of lovers instead of friends, Eros love versus Philos. Nothing could be further from the truth. Kissing between male friends and relatives was and remains a normal mode of Middle Eastern expression. On the other hand homosexual acts were universally condemned in Jewish law and culture. The laziest reading of 1 & 2 Samuel clearly reveals a writer (or writers) determined to portray David as the greatest hero Israel ever saw after Moses. It is inconceivable and totally out of sync with his purposes to depict his hero in a homosexual relationship.

Perhaps the saddest thing about this is that the relationship between David and Jonathon displays the noblest ideas of friendship, loyalty, mutual protection, mentoring and brotherly love. When it (along with other scriptures on this topic) is misinterpreted, as it has been in the homosexual community, it supplies a rationale for the exploitation of the innocent: young men, looking for affirmation and friendship, find themselves seduced into a world they never sought and robbed of the reasoned, Biblical arguments they need to escape.

I pray that this article will become a useful tool for you and for them.

CLARITY

Have you ever said something to someone and, having listened to their response, realized that they didn’t grasp the tenth part of what you were saying? Or felt like they weren’t listening?

Perhaps this is only common to preachers. After all, preaching, as they say, “is just talking in someone else’s sleep.” But I have a feeling that you know what I’m talking about, that you’ve experienced communication frustration. Where does it come from? Why is communication, especially communication about spiritual things, so difficult? Well before you take a mega phone to the next person that doesn’t listen consider a few things.

A friend who is an engineer for a large utility company tells me that when he had to hire some new engineers he required applicants to hand write sample repair instructions to a mechanic. Something like two out of ten could do it with any competence. Our education system is not what it used to be. More and more people are graduating from high school and even from college without the ability to communicate.

We are also in a much denser communication environment than ever before. Television segements and commercials are shorter and faster, cell phone calls and text messages come at us fast and furious, ipods, emails, pop-ups, dual screens – all of these technologies force feed us with hundreds more messages than earlier generations had to process, causing us to erect thicker message filters than we did forty or fifty years ago. We humans can only absorb so much information at a time. As a result, attention spans have shrunk. We are also becoming more reliant on pictures and music and less on words. We are a nation of receivers tuned to the elemental frequencies of image and melody. Language is becoming harder to digest.

But there is a third reason that people often cannot hear what we’re trying to say, especially if our message concerns the kingdom of God. Spiritual forces are at work. Consider Jesus and Paul’s comments on the matter:

Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. (Jesus in Mark 4:15 NIV)

And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (Paul in 2 Cor 4:3-4 NIV)

The ability to communicate clearly and powerfully is a skill that can be learned. But in the end only God can penetrate the darkness, the spiritual veil that covers the heart of men and women. So no matter whom you’re talking to or when, before you begin to speak, pray for the Lord of light to open the eyes and ears of the soul in your listeners. He alone has the power to make his light “shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Cor. 4:6).

Dad Is a Powerful Word

Dad is a powerful word, because Fathers are molders of young lives.

I once asked a violent friend what he remembered about his father, who had died when my friend was only twelve. He said, “I remember a loud, angry spanking machine.”

In Ramsey Count, Minnesota, ninth and tenth graders were interviewed about their dads. They were asked this question: "What comes to mind when you think of the word 'dad'?" Answers came from both ends of the spectrum. One end of the spectrum said, "I think of the word jerk." Others thought of the words angry, mad, and absent.

On the other hand, some of the young people said, "I think of wholeness, kindness, security, safety." Dad is an immensely powerful word.

Isa 64:8 says: O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (NIV).

Dad we are the potters in our children’s lives. So we need to be careful how we shape that clay. One of the ways to do that is to catch them doing something right.

Do you ever catch your teen doing something right? Or do you only call out the infractions?

One teen was always in trouble at school, so when his parents received one more call to come in and meet with his teacher and the principal, they knew what was coming. Or so they thought.

The teacher sat down with the boy's father and said, "Thanks for coming. I wanted you to hear what I have to say."

The father crossed his arms and waited, thinking, “What can I say this time?” The teacher proceeded to go down a list of ten things—ten positive affirmations of the junior high "troublemaker." When she finished, the father said, "What else? Let's hear the bad stuff."

"That's all I wanted to say," she said.

That night when the father got home, he told his son what he had heard. And not surprisingly, almost overnight, the troublemaker's attitude and behavior changed dramatically. All because a teacher looked past the negatives.^[1]

Colossians 3:21 says “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; that they may not lose heart.” Sometimes that means, catch them doing something right.

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[1] Citation: Bonne Steffen, editor of Christian Reader; true story from a Florida Christian school; source: Peter Lord, former pastor of Park Avenue Baptist Church, Titusville, Florida

A Pilot Paul from Papua story

How ironic that the day after I posted an article on a man with fifty mishap-free years as a professional pilot my equally professional pilot friend Paul Westlund, who had over 11,000 hours of experience flying in the most difficult aviation environment in the world, would lose his life along with his two passengers in a crash in the mountains of Papua, Indonesia. He was on what amounted to a “milk run.” A full investigation into the cause is underway.

Paul was laid to rest yesterday and all of Papua mourned. He was beloved by the people he served. He and I were nearing completion of a book on his adventures as a mission aviator. In honor of my friend I post here today one of his first stories. Please take the time to read it and contemplate the life of this great servant of God. DTS.

LOSING MY PROFESSIONAL PILOT FACE
By Paul Westlund, with Dane Skelton
Papua, Indonesia. Spring 1987

The apostle Paul once wrote to his protégé Timothy, “Keep your head in all situations…” That is good advice for anyone but especially for bush pilots. Our “situations” often run from the super serious to super comical in a single day, as my first flight with a translator revealed.

The path from student pilot to mission aviator is a long and difficult one. Mine had taken ten years of hard work from the first flights with Moody Aviation School all the way through eighteen hundred hours of flying experience to the Airline Transport Pilot rating.

All of that work, all of that training and expense and struggle to make it out to the field was, and still is to me, due to the importance of Bible Translation. When animistic people enslaved by fears of the spirit world are finally able to read and understand the message of Jesus in their own language it gives them hope beyond their wildest dreams.

So the main thing is to make sure that translator can get there in one piece. If something bad happens to a translator all of the work on a new translation can be lost. I had worked hard to be the best pilot that I could be so that would never happen. Now I was taking my first translator to his assignment in the field and I was so happy I was almost giddy.

The beauty of the blue morning sky, the deep emerald forests, the silvery rivers and majestic Papuan mountains outside my window were overwhelming. I thought: I get paid to do this? I kept looking away from the translator so he wouldn’t see the silly grin that my professional pilot face couldn’t mask.

But soon I saw something that rapidly wiped the grin from my face. We were over the village, making a high altitude pass to inspect the airfield. There was a wadded up white and green blur just off one side of the runway. What’s that? I thought. I turned and made another pass. O Lord! That’s an airplane! That’s what’s left of one of those aircraft called an Islander. That sobered me up quick. This is serious business. Bad things can happen out here kid. You better get your game on. You better be paying attention. I focused in hard on the task at hand, to get the airplane on the ground and parked as best and professionally as I possibly could.

And then, I stepped out of the airplane, and lost my professional pilot face for the second time that day. I had never been in a Papuan mountain village before. It was National Geographic in living color right in front of me! The men were wearing their only clothing, tall, thin, conical shaped gourds fitted over their genitals, tied just below the waste and pointing straight up. And the women were in grass skirts. Only they weren’t skirts, more like flat, dried, twelve inch blades of grass stacked atop one another and folded in half and tied over a string that circled the waist. And that was it. Nothing else.

It was more than this modest mid-western preacher’s boy could take! I joke with my friends that where I come from we take showers in our clothes! I could feel my face going full red. I turned around and stuck my head in the cockpit and studied my map. I wrote in my log book. I inspected the airplane! Anything I could do to keep my eyes off of the people. I couldn’t eat the rest of the day. I was just toast! This is a whole nother world, I thought. Have I landed on Mars or something? It took a long time for me to regain my composure.

The Papuan people are like anybody else on the planet. When they see an improvement on life they want it. Today, with better transportation and the availability of baled used clothing for pennies on the pound more Papuan people groups are wearing clothes. They really like wearing them because the mountains get cold. But they weren’t wearing them on that day and I was embarrassed.

Now, after twenty-five years on the field, the Papuan people are very dear to me. I no longer notice what they are wearing but what is in their hearts. And I keep my professional pilot face in place…most of the time.

OF AIRPLANES AND ECONOMICS

By Dane Skelton

Two themes seem to dominate the news of late: Airplanes and economics. Specifically, some horrendous crashes - the Reno Air Race crash, the Russian hockey team crash – have grabbed the headlines along with the Greek debt crisis, America’s persistent nine percent unemployment rate and the ongoing foreclosure crisis (not to mention the national debt!).

Bad news always gets the headlines. That’s what made me want to share some good news, and some good economic advice, that came from an unlikely place. An article in AOPA Flight Training Magazine caught my attention this morning. It was by a pilot who was retiring after fifty mishap free years in the air as an airline pilot and Flight Instructor. We never hear about these guys do we?

Now, I know you must be thinking: “Dane, what on earth does this have to do with economics, with paying my bills and achieving financial security?” Bear with me. The pilot boiled all fifty years of his accident free experience down to one simple principle: Always fly with the idea that if anything can go wrong it will and work hard to prepare for it. For example, you wouldn’t believe how many airplanes crash each year simply because they run out of gas. The veteran’s advice? Never assume the gages are correct. Unless you have personally drained dry the gas tanks on the airplane you are flying and refilled them so that you know exactly how much they hold and exactly how many gallons per hour that ship burns land and refuel when you think you have one hour of flying time remaining. Simple right? Self impose a one hour fuel margin and NEVER break it.

Now to the economic side of the story. We live in a world of economic hazards. Any thing can go wrong and usually will at the worst possible moment. We need to prepare for it. A hurricane can blow your house down or flood it; a trip to the emergency room can hammer your wallet; the car can break down and you will miss work. Yet few of us – including national political leadership - operate with any self imposed financial safety limits. We fly along on credit, with little to no reserve, blowing right past any kind of sensible margin assuming that all will be well. Until the bottom drops out, the sky closes in, and our personal economic engines start to sputter. Safe landings are hard to come by in those situations.

But the biblical principle (see the Proverb below) is quite simple: Work hard, spend less than you earn, set aside funds for future contingencies, and do it consistently, year after year. Then that tsunami called Poverty won’t be able to outrun you nor the bandit Scarcity overpower you.

Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander, no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest. How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-- and poverty will come on you like a bandit and scarcity like an armed man. (Proverbs 6:6-11 NIV)

There is no such thing as security apart from God. Even the best prepared person can be overcome by an economic hurricane. But as I have seen time and time again, God provides for his people through his church. When we follow the biblical principles of economic discipline we will know the peace of financial security and the blessing of being able to help others when the crisis comes.

CHANGING IDENTITIES

By Dane Skelton

What are you known by among your friends? In other words, what are the identifying characteristics that make you, you? As adults most of us are known by our professions, or former jobs. I’m “the preacher” who used to be “a car guy” (and still is most of the time). What sets you apart or makes you unique among your peers? It might be a talent, or a theology you’re attached to. He’s a Calvinist, she’s a singer. Or social / political views: He’s a vegetarian, she’s a conservative. Most of us find some comfort, some level of personal worth by identifying ourselves that way. It helps us know who we are.

Now what if God was to suddenly call you out of that comfortable identity and open a door into a whole new world that you had never considered before? Would you walk through it? That’s what happened to the Apostle Peter in Acts chapter ten. It’s the story of how the gospel was first introduced to a gentile audience. A Roman centurion, a gentile who feared God named Cornelius, is visited by an angel. The angel tells him to send for Peter. At the same time Peter, an observant Jew who ate only kosher food and never entered a gentile home for fear of defilement, has a vision of all kinds of hitherto “unclean,” as defined by Old Testament dietary laws, animals. In the vision the voice of the Lord says, “Rise Peter, kill and eat.” Peter struggles with that command until God says, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

The point of the story is that Peter is no longer to consider the gentiles “out of bounds” for the gospel. When Cornelius’ servants call for him Peter welcomes them, travels with them to Cornelius and wonder of wonder for a Jew, enters his home to preach. It’s a great story of the spread of the good news.

But the thing that brought me up short was how quickly God expected Peter to exchange his old identity for a new one. The Old Testament dietary laws are key identifying marks of a Jew. They are one of the things that make a Jew a Jew. How hard it must have been for Peter to discard them! You can see it in his response to the vision: “Surely not Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” (Acts 10:14). Yet God clearly calls Peter to walk through that door into a new identity. He is no longer simply Peter the Jewish follower of Jesus. He is Peter, the Jew who makes friends with gentiles and even eats and sleeps in their homes.

How can that be? How can God just UNDO two thousand years of Jewish theology and spiritual identity in a single story in the book of Acts? Well, he didn’t undo anything. He fulfilled all of the requirements for holiness and righteousness and purity, things which the dietary and other exclusivity laws were made to illustrate, in the person of his son Jesus Christ. He fulfilled them perfectly and brought them to a conclusion at the cross. Now the holiness, and righteousness, the spiritual purity and identity that mark his people out in the world come not from how they dress or what they eat or where they go or don’t go or who they hang out with. Now it all comes from Christ. (See Colossians 1:19-23).

Peter embraced this radical change because of his identity in Christ. So what is your identity? What have you called unclean that God says is no longer unclean? What door is God calling you to walk through that would have been unimaginable before Christ gave you a new identity?

REMEMBER THE WARRIORS

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

Jesus

The peace and security that you and I have enjoyed for the past ten years is easy to take for granted. There have been terrorist attacks and attempted attacks. The Fort Hood massacre stands out in memory along with the wanna be martyr shoe bomber and the underwear bomber and Times Square bomber attempts at mass murder. Many other smaller, one man operations perpetrated by Muslims against people of various faiths and no faith at all have been carried out since 9-11. But no plot with the coordination and scale of 9-11 has succeeded. Thus most of us live without fear. We complain and make jokes about airport security, wonder if our rights are being abused by the phone companies, yawn lazily and go to bed not worrying if the world will still be the same tomorrow.

That is due in large part to the dedicated professionalism of the men and women of America’s Special Forces, the CIA and other clandestine services. They are invisible to most of us, avoiding the limelight by necessity as well as by preference. We hear about them occasionally, most notably Seal Team 6’s successful mission against Osama bin Laden. But then the headlines fade and we forget.

I’m writing this today to ask you not to forget these brave men and women. Their task is Biblical: “He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the evil doer.” (Romans 13:4). Theirs is a dirty job that requires a lifetime of dedication to personal discipline and the honing of warrior skills that are unknown to the rest of us. The training itself is often as dangerous as the missions and goes on unseen and unheralded for years, sometimes decades, before the moment arrives and a chief executive finds – as the President did with the bin Laden mission - that he has the tools to defend us.

I’m afraid I’m not doing this subject justice so let me encourage you to learn on your own about these brave men and women who lay down their lives for us every day. The two books I’ve read are: Masters of Chaos: The Secret History of the Special Forces by Linda Robinson and The Night Stalkers: Top Secret Missions of the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Aviation Regiment. There are others. After you’ve read them you won’t forget to pray for the warriors who protect us from the terrors.

EULOGY FOR JOHN STOTT

February 15, 1993, the sanctuary of Atlanta’s Church of the Apostles, is recorded forever in my personal Bible. It’s recorded there because I knew I would never want to lose the lecture notes I would take that day. They came from the same man who authored at least eight of the most important books in my personal library including his magnum opus THE CROSS OF CHRIST and over fifty others that will influence Christian leaders for generations to come. His name was John R. W. Stott. His clarity was legendary, his accuracy impeccable, his thoroughness indisputable. As Tim Stafford wrote in his Christianity Today Magazine eulogy, “He always turned to the Bible for understanding, and his unforgettable gift was to penetrate and explain the Scriptures. As editor Kenneth Kantzer wrote in CT's pages in 1981, "When I hear him expound a text, invariably I exclaim to myself, 'That's exactly what it means! Why didn't I see it before?'"

John R. W. Stott passed from this earth at age ninety on July 27, 2011. Stott was the Rector of the Church of All Souls in London from 1950 to 1975 whereupon he became Rector Emeritus so that he could continue to spend more time on his worldwide ministries. I want very much for you to know and appreciate him but I can’t begin to cover, in the few paragraphs here, the impact he has made. Instead I will share my notes from that day and encourage you to read the Wikipedia page about him on your own.

“Never take the attitude that you couldn’t be clearer, more accurate or more practical, no matter what kind of compliments you may receive.”

“Some of the Bible is hard to understand. Therefore, never be so arrogant as to think you don’t need a teacher.” (2 Peter 3:16).

“Never take your modern ideas and transplant them into the meaning of the Biblical writer. Take the meaning of the writer and say it, speak it into modernity.”

“Our ultimate goal and our constant motivation are and should ever be the supreme glory and honor of Jesus Christ.”

“The good news is just this: God’s righteousness – God’s way of putting us right without putting himself into the wrong.”

“In exegesis (Biblical interpretation) I feel the need to think myself prayerfully into the text until I am under it, not over it. It is meditation really, over and over, reflecting on the text prayerfully, until I think that I understand its message. It takes time. It begins with time.”

I hope you will visit Wikipedia and Christianity Today to read more about Stott. However, if you find that you do not have time remember this much: If there is some part of the faith that you do not understand, some place where you want to go deeper but do not know how, or some collision between the world as you know it and the gospel as you understand it – consult John R. W. Stott. You will be glad that you did.

3 STEPS TO DISCERNING GOD'S DIRECTION

3 Steps to Discerning God’s Direction Today
By Dane Skelton

How do you make important decisions? Do you know how to listen for the leadership of God, how to discern his direction for your life? Now I’m not talking about those puzzling grocery store conundrums like, “Which should it be, dark chocolate mint chips or classic Klondike bars?” I’m talking about expensive, long term, even life changing decisions like: where to go to college, what to major in, which house to buy, which job to take, which person to marry. These and many more decisions affect us for the long term, contributing either to personal happiness and effectiveness in life or to dissatisfaction, distress and even misery.

Jesus promised us that God loved us and was listening to our requests, that “if we asked him for a piece of bread he would not give us a stone.” He encouraged us to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking and the answers we need would be given to us. So what does that process look like? How are followers of Jesus Christ to discern his directions?

There are at least three steps to discerning God’s direction today. And like a three-legged stool, or finding your position using three points on a map, each one is important. The three legs are:

1. The Word of God speaking to our minds, teaching us many, many things that give us clear directions in areas like money, work, marriage, authority, charity, mercy, and managing conflict.
2. The Gifts to the Church - We also have, according to Paul’s list in Ephesians, gifts to the Church - “Apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Eph 4:11-13 NIV). Every member of the Church is gifted or experienced in some area of knowledge. We make our best decisions when we seek the wisdom of other members of the body of Christ.
3. We also have the Spirit of God. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever-- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.(John 14: 16-17 NIV). As we develop the discipline of quietness before God we learn to perceive the direction of the Spirit much as we would a gentle breeze blowing on our face.
Are you faced with a serious, life changing decision? Consult the Word. It will teach you to think Biblically about your values and priorities. Consult the Body of Christ, your gifted brothers and sisters for their wisdom. And ask the Spirit of God to show you which path to take.

God’s Love and Hell

By Dane Skelton

A recent book by a well known evangelical casts doubt on some things Jesus said about hell and judgment. The basic question is: If God is love why does he send people to hell?

First, there is a problem with the question: It assumes that we understand human nature and hell as they are presented in the Bible. We don’t.

We have a childish notion of human nature. We believe we are better than we are. We also have a mixed up view of God, we like to blame him for our choices. Therefore God’s holiness is beyond our comprehension and so is his wrath.

Second, we mistake God’s wrath for human rage. Tim Keller has a good definition of God’s wrath: “It is not an out of control temper. Wrath is the settled opposition and hatred of that which is destroying what we love.” We humans are capable of much evil, much selfishness, much that is perverse and opposed to that which God holds dear. We destroy the bodies he gave us with all kinds of toxins. We destroy the souls he gave us with things like greed, gossip, lying, self-righteousness and self-pity. And we destroy others with cutting words, with economic oppression, and with things like relentless criticism and betrayal.

Third, we assume that Jesus was too kind to mention hell. But Jesus had more to say about hell than anyone else in the New Testament. He sees hell as self-chosen; He said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (John 3:18-19 NIV)

C. S. Lewis said it like this: Unless someone wants God and God alone he would be utterly miserable in heaven. It would be a crime to send him there for heaven is all about God.

God wishes to save us from hell. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” That’s God’s love at work, doing what is best for us, making it possible for us to know him now and join him in eternity. Jesus said, “He who receives me receives the one who sent me.” He also said, “He who seeks to save his life will lose it. But he who gives up his life for my sake will save it.”

So the question is not, "Why does God send people to hell?" but rather, "What do I really want? Do I want Jesus Christ and the God who sent him? Or do I want my own life, my own way?" Either way, the choice is ours.

On Asking and Receiving the Power of God

Last night my daughter asked for lunch money for school for the week. Without a thought I opened my wallet, plucked out ten dollars, and handed it to her.

Now I want you to understand that my youngest child is a wonderful person. But she isn’t perfect. In fact, right after I arrived home from a recent trip to Canada she reported on her progress on certain tasks I had assigned her for the week: “I got this done and that done but I didn’t clean out mom’s car yet like I promised.”

It didn’t matter. I gave her the ten bucks anyway. You can tell where this is going right?

Now think back to the last time you felt like you failed God in some way. You failed to give your offering at the worship service, or you missed the service altogether. You skipped your devotions but somehow had plenty of time for your favorite TV show. You got exhausted and cranky and hurled invective at some one else who failed. You’re nodding your head aren’t you? We’ve all “been there done that.”

Jesus told a parable on prayer for people like you and me. It’s about a man who receives a late night visitor but has nothing to offer his guest. So he goes next door and asks his friend for bread. It’s recorded in Luke 11:5-13. The most well known verses are 9-10: Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened.

But the lesser known verse, the one with the message we often miss, is verse 8: I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. (Emphasis mine).

Jesus concludes: Which of you fathers, if you son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

Here’s the bottom line on answered prayer: You don’t have to be perfect to receive the power of the Holy Spirit necessary to live the Christian life. You just need the boldness to believe that God is a better parent than you are. God does not answer our prayers for his power because we’ve been regular in our devotions; or because we are faithful tithers; or because we’ve faithfully taught, or sung, or served in some other way for so many years. He answers them because he is good.

So be bold, ASK, even when you feel like you don’t deserve God’s power. He gives it because he is good.

TORNADO OF LOVE

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life… (John 9:1-3 NIV)
…Having said this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man's eyes. "Go," he told him, "wash in the Pool of Siloam" (this word means Sent). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing. (John 9:6-7NIV)

“How can a good God who loves us allow tragedies like the Tuscaloosa tornado happen?” It’s one of the most challenging questions posed when we talk about a loving, personal God who cares for his creatures enough to send his Son to pay for our sins. The technical term for the answers that theologians offer to such questions is theodicy, from theo – meaning God and the Greek dike – meaning justice.

Theodicy is an important part of the work of the apologist. But the truth is that John 9:1-7 is about as close as Jesus ever came to answering it. “…this happened that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” And from that day to this, whenever natural disaster, sickness, war or any other kind of tragedy comes into human life the followers of Jesus have stepped in to relieve suffering.

That’s what happened last week as a tornado struck FCC member’s Eric and Desiree Shaffer’s farm. The photos here don’t do justice to the damage nor to the recovery effort. But here are just a few brief facts: Sharon Stratton, Desiree’s Mom, was spared when two massive trees fell on her house; Eric, Desiree’ and the children were spared the destruction of their home and only escaped injury by mere seconds as all the windows on the back of the house were blown out and every tree in the immediate vicinity came crashing down. Eric’s father and step-mom Ed and Rose Shaffer were uninjured as the roof was lifted off their new home. That was the first tornado.

The second tornado was the tornado of love that poured out of the hearts of FCC’rs and others who spent the next four days supplying food, water, shelter, cars, trucks, tractors, chain saws and lots of heavy duty work to help them crawl out from under the wreckage and begin to rebuild. The work was so complete and so rapid that even though the Shaffers were grateful when the Red Cross showed up the legendary service organization didn’t have much to do. As Eric said, “I’ve learned a lot of things this week. But the greatest thing is that my worst nightmare has turned into the greatest blessing of my life.”

WHO ARE YOU?

WHO ARE YOU?

When you stand and look in the mirror what kind of person do you see? Who are you?

Some of us see people we are really disappointed in. Some of us see people who “haven’t lived up to expectations.” Some of us see failures. Some of us see the unlovely and unloved. But that is not what God sees. Consider the following scripture passages, what they say about you and what God thinks of you when you become a believer.

· Col. 2:13 - You have been “made alive with Christ” and are no longer “dead in trespasses and sins.”

· Col. 3:1 – You have been “raised with Christ” and your life is now “hidden with Christ in God.”

· Heb. 10: 10 – You have been “made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Christ once for all.”

· Rom. 5:1 – You have been justified – completely forgiven and made righteous in the sight of God. (See also 5:19)

· Rom. 8:1 – You are free forever from condemnation.

· 1 Cor. 1:30 – You have been placed into Christ by God’s doing.

· 1 Cor. 2:12 – You have received the Spirit of God into your life that you might know the things freely given to you by God.

· 1 Cor. 2:16 – You have been given the mind of Christ.

· 1 Cor. 6: 19-20 – You have been bought with a price; You are not your own; You belong to God.

· 1 Thess. 1:4 & Jude 1:1 – You are loved by God, chosen by him and called by him.

You are a righteous, complete, accepted, beloved and chosen person. This is what God says is true of you and every believer. This is what Easter accomplished for you and me. We have been forever changed, our status before God forever altered by the work of Jesus Christ, his death, burial and resurrection. But some of us have a hard time accepting that. We see ourselves as something less than God sees us, something inferior. And that has a negative effect on what we can become because: What we believe about ourselves determines who we will become.

What You Believe Determines Who You Will Become –
Proverbs says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” That’s wisdom.

Tom Friends of The New York Times asked Coach Jimmy Johnson what he told his players before leading the Dallas Cowboys onto the field for the 1993 Super Bowl.

"I told them that if I laid a two-by-four across the floor, everybody there would walk across it and not fall, because our focus would be on walking the length of that board. But if I put that same board 10 stories high between two buildings, only a few would make it, because the focus would be on falling."

Johnson told his players not to focus on the crowd, the media, or the possibility of falling, but to focus on each play of the game as if it were a good practice session. The Cowboys won the game 52-7.[1]

So if a Christian sees himself – focuses on himself - as unholy, unlovable, unworthy and incompetent, what kind of man or woman is he/she going to be?

Depressed, insecure, resentful and angry. Why? Because life for a defeated Christian feels like a game you can’t win, a role where you can never remember all the lines, a set of expectations that are impossible to meet. It feels like a two-by-four you have to cross that’s ten stories high. Jesus didn’t rise from the dead to leave us feeling like that!

Depressed people don’t dream dreams. Insecure people won’t take risks. Angry people can’t build lasting friendships.

But what happens to a man or woman who begins to believe in his worth, his value, his competence, and his goodness? That man or woman becomes a world changer. That person will invest himself in life, in dreams that change things and make life better for everybody.

So let me ask it this way: What does God think of you? Is he proud of you? Does he love you? Who are you?

Musings on the Resurrection

The last scene in Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is nothing if not brief. It lasts all of about two minutes. But those one hundred and twenty seconds, coming as they do on the heels of the betrayal and violence of Jesus’ last few hours on earth, are heavy with meaning.

Sunlight streams into the tomb, cascading down its walls as the stone, just off camera, rolls quietly out of the way. The light lands finally on the linens slowly collapsing on the ledge, no body in place now to fill them out. The camera pauses there and then slowly zooms out to the foot of the ledge, taking in the profile of seated Jesus, eyes closed, face to the light. His eyes open, looking up into the brightness, reflecting recognition, vulnerability. They close again, quiet, composed. Then they reopen, slightly narrowed, focused, horizontal, purposeful. He rises. The camera catches one last fleeting glimpse, the top of a nail scarred hand. Then in one stride he is gone, out of the tomb and into history. The scene is brief but the message is unmistakable. Nothing on earth, not even brutal death, is as it seems.

I spent some time musing on that this week. I hope that you will too. Here is what came to mind. I’d appreciate it if you would share what comes to yours.

The world as we know it, with all of its chaos and confusion, greed and brutality, disaster and tragedy, is not all there is. There is more, so much more goodness and peace, order and kindness, prosperity and joy that in the Apostle Paul’s words, we cannot even begin to imagine it.

The tiny glimpses of Jesus, the moments of spiritual clarity that have come during times of worship and prayer and meditation; the consciousness of the Presence, transcendent power manifesting itself in ultimate stillness as if one were sitting at the foot of the Red Sea watching the fish swim as Moses and the Israelites walked through on dry ground, feeling the weight of the wall of water yet not fearing it; that all of these things have been but the briefest shadow of the magnificent Power that watches over us flitting across the soul. The reality waits on the other side.

The Word of God, with all of its predictions, all of its promises, all of its wisdom and all of its judgments will ultimately be fulfilled to the wonder and awe of all the earth.

I will see Mike again, and Steve and Joseph and Dad.

And we – all of us - will see Jesus no longer, “through a glass, darkly” but face to face, and that will be enough.

THE PROSTITUTE AND THE PHARISEE

It’s a simple story told in Luke’s characteristically lucid style. Jesus is dining with a Pharisee named Simon. A woman who has obviously heard Jesus’ preaching steps into the room. Her name is not given but it is not needed. Everyone knows her, the town prostitute. But she is not composed, not there to impress or seduce. She is weeping with gratitude, on her knees over the feet of the reclining rabbi from Nazareth, pouring out years of pent-up guilt, little rivers of happiness, down upon his ankles and between his toes. She bends further now and wipes the watery dirt away with her hair. Then she withdraws an alabaster jar of expensive perfume and empties it on his feet, rubbing it in with her hands as the sweet aroma fills the room.

Simon is aghast. The Pharisees were known for their righteousness, their religious purity and high moral character. They were the successful middle class evangelicals of their day. They didn’t hang out with sinful people and didn’t approve of those who did. Scenes like this were too much for such men. “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is…” he groused within.

Jesus heard Simon’s thoughts. He knew exactly what she was, a broken woman who had experienced forgiveness and freedom through her faith. But Jesus also knew something else: exactly what kind of man Simon was, a successful man in need of humility, a man every bit as lost in his pride as the prostitute had been in her immorality. The only difference between the two was that the woman knew her sin and knew she needed a savior. Simon’s success blinded him to both things in his life.

Jesus tells Simon a story of two forgiven debtors, one who owed eighteen months wages and one who owed about two months. “Now which of them will love the forgiving moneylender more?”

Simon can’t help but answer, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled.”

Then Jesus said the most important thing in the whole story, the thing that reveals who he really is. “Correct!” He looked at the woman. “See this woman? I came to your house yet you have not offered to me the least of common courtesies. But she has not ceased, since the moment I walked in, to show me the greatest love and devotion. Therefore I tell you, her sins which are many have been forgiven, for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.”

In other words, “Simon, in the grand scheme of things I’m the lender, I’m the one that everyone is indebted to. I’m God. Your achievements in life and religion matter very little. Your relationship to me is all important.”

And as if to put an exclamation point on it he said to the woman something only God has the authority to say, “Your sins are forgiven. Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

It isn’t what we’ve done or not done in life that determines our salvation. It isn’t how religious we’ve been or how irreligious. The only thing that matters is our ability to acknowledge our sin to the one who “holds the note” on it and trust him to forgive it. Then every room we enter will be filled with the aroma of our love for him.

THE BIBLE, THE KORAN, AND THE KING HEARINGS

Congressman Peter King (R) New York is the chair of the Homeland Security Committee who’s recent hearings —"The Extent of Radicalization in the American Muslim Community and that Community's Response"— stirred great controversy. One of the reasons that they were controversial is that America is a pluralistic country. We accept all faiths. And most Americans would like to think that there isn’t much difference between one religion and another. But there are significant differences and the confusion over the differences is more widespread than you would think.

This came home to me forcefully one day when I was sitting in our local radio station office, explaining the differences between Christianity & Islam to the station manager and a friend. One statement that stuck with me was, “Hey, one religion is as good as another. The Bible and the Koran are essentially the same kind of book.”

The truth is very different. Christianity and Islam are entirely different religions and the Bible and the Koran are completely different books. But imagine that you are sitting in the office or shop of a friend and that topic comes up. Would you be able to say anything in reply? Would you be able to offer, in simple language that anyone could understand, what distinguishes these two books that are the basis of two of the world’s great religions?

I’d like to make one observation about authorship quickly and then spend more time on the impact of the two books because of its relevance to Mr. King’s hearings.

The Authorship is Different
The Koran was dictated by an illiterate man over the course of twenty-three years who claimed that he was hearing the voice of an angel. The Bible was written by dozens of men over more than a thousand years who claimed to be moved by the Spirit of God to write. Some were scholars, some poets, some Kings, some shepherds, some were priests, and some were prophets. Yet all had a uniform message: That God would save his people from their sins. The Bible is thus connected to thousands of years of human history. The Koran is connected to three decades in the 7th Century. Muhammad believed that he was reciting a book that already existed in heaven. It is like an assortment of instructions and advice not specifically tied to any historical event. The Bible, through all of its authors, tells one story of God’s work over time through actual historical events, most of which have been validated by research.

But most importantly for the King hearings, the impact of the two books is different.

The Impact is Different
In 2006 England arrested 24 suspects in a plot to blow up 10 U.S.-bound passenger jets with liquid explosives. In 2007 German authorities broke up a “massive” bombing plot against American interests in Germany. And of course, no one will forget the Fort Hood murderer or the would-be Times Square bomber. All of these actions were perpetrated by Muslims in the name of Islam.

Not everyone who reads the Koran ends up being a terrorist. But that’s not the issue. Why would anyone - why do so many who read it - end up believing that God authorizes terrorism and murder?

I’m a conservative, evangelical Bible teacher. That means I believe the Bible is God’s word and that it is my authority for faith and practice. It also means that I’m very careful about interpreting it. I use the historical, grammatical, critical method of interpretation. I’m looking for historical context – who was the author? When did he write? To whom was he writing? What did he actually say (vocabulary, grammar)? What did it mean then? How does that meaning apply to our cultural context?

Because of what the Bible teaches people from our church and many others participate in: Habitat for Humanity, Samaritan’s Purse, The Good Samaritan, Hurricane recovery, Crisis Pregnancy centers and countless other acts of love and service.

That’s the impact of the Bible – properly interpreted and taught - in our culture. Why does the Koran not have the same affect? I’ll let my friend Samer, a former Sunni radical and now a Christian missionary to the Islamic world, conclude.

"As Christians we must be very emphatic that Christians have and continue to do many shameful things in the name of Christ, BUT the issue is this: Christians who use violence in the name of God to destroy their enemies have no justification for their actions from Jesus Christ, his life and teachings as found in the New Testament. Whereas, Muslims who are engaged in violence and destruction of anyone who opposes Islam, have ample justification for their actions from the Qur'an (using the same Historical /Grammatical /Critical approach to interpretation that I would use were I interpreting the Koran D.S.) and the life and sayings of prophet Muhammad…it is beyond doubt that the prophet of Islam did encourage the killing and intimidation of his enemies, not just in self defense as it is commonly reported by Muslims, but in the promotion of the cause of God and the spread of Islam. Needless to say, the actions of the prophet were in direct contradiction to the teachings and actions of Jesus Christ and his disciples. So the point is not that Christians have never resorted to violence and other horrible atrocities. They have indeed committed many horrible acts, but when they have done this, they have betrayed the very person that they claim to follow. But when Muslims commit such acts, they can in fact claim that they are following the example of their prophet and thus fulfilling the will of God and promoting His cause. That, certainly, is a big difference!"

So hurray for Mr. King, I’m glad that he had the courage to investigate. I hope the rest of us will be as thorough in our thinking about Christianity and Islam.