New World Order, coming to an IHOP near you....

I have a friend, who will remain nameless to protect her from being associated with me and of course her reputation, has been trying to convince me that our planet has a “world order”. I refrain from calling it a “new world order” because they are really not so “new”. Some call it the “illuminati”, others call it the “trilateral commission”, some call it the Bilderberg group (not to be confused with “Build a Bear”), while still others think our planet is being run by George Soros. I was a skeptic until now….

I found proof positive tonight while watching the “Conan Show” on TBS. He did this montage of media personalities all over our country saying the same thing, and I quote “isn’t it time our pets had a social network of their own”. You may say to yourself how could that be possible, but for once it wasn’t a talking point being put out there by the Republicans or Democrats, it was as all American as baseball and IHOP….unless…stay with me….there is a third party trying to overthrow our government and they want “pets” to be an influencing factor on their owner’s who can vote. We are totally on to something here!!

Okay, so I am joking. But truth be known, as I watched Conan tonight, there was a part of me that was thinking that these bone heads could not possibly be able to get the wording of their phrases exactly the same….coast to coast. Not to be confused with George Noory’s “Coast to Coast”. I know that they get some Reuters or AP article and they just run with it….but…hey, it really sounds suspicious to me. And this is the best news story that they can come up with?

The bible says that there is “nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Does this apply to some of the new “new age” stuff that is spreading its way across the globe? I would hazard a guess that there is something behind all of it.

“…as in the days of Noah” (Matthew 24:37 and Luke 17:26). Do a web search on this quote and see what you get! Blessings to all of you who can discern the truth. “He who has an ear” (Matthew 11:15). Life just doesn’t get any puzzling than this.

 

My Favorite Headlines:

Raising money for Planned Parenthood gets down home, mid western…Bowl-a-Thon Group Touts Raising Funds for 14-Year-Old’s Abortion (CNS News)

Taxpayer’s money for research? Unbelievable!!!…Did Dinosaur farts cause global warming? (Standard)

Now that’s a mom who cares…Mom Arms Bullied Teen with Stun Gun (CNN)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

 

I just didn't think it would happen to me...

Peer pressure is defined as: the influence exerted by a peer group, encouraging individuals to change their attitudes, values, or behaviors in order to conform to group norms. Personally, I didn’t bend much to peer pressure when I was in High School, which of course is the time in which we think of peer pressure as being a real issue. However when I got into college I was an ROTC cadet and being a nonconformist was not an option. You will be assimilated, that is the Army motto. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I loved the Army. Hooah!

Anyway, I did something that I said I would never do. I joined the ranks of the millions of people on facebook. I just couldn’t take it if one more person asked me if I was on facebook. And I have a few dear friends who will only communicate with me through facebook. I held out as long as I could but I finally gave in to peer pressure. Maybe I’ll rebel and delete myself from it one day soon....if I could only figure out how?!?

This whole thing made me think very seriously about peer pressure and how it affects all of us. I am honestly writing about peer pressure, not because I am a weak example of what not to do, but because it is often overlooked as the culprit in our own lack of spiritual growth. Becoming a mature believer often requires us to cut our ties with those around us who are holding us back, but many of us lack the courage. Let’s use the charismatic church as an example. Being “baptized in the Holy Spirit” is a big deal within this church community. If you are not, then you are often looked upon as an unbeliever, sneered at and rejected. You don’t get invited to many prayer groups. Speaking in tongues is the “evidence” that the charismatic community judges your spiritual “baptism”. Some bow to this peer pressure and just start talking gibberish in order to fit in, but only God really can discern the genuine. “Slain in the spirit”; that is one of my personal favorites. You go to some charismatic church meeting where 20 or 30 people go up for prayer and they get shoved to the floor. Now if you don’t want to look like you are resisting the “spirit’ then you lay there for a while and wait until some brave soul decides to stand up and return to their seat. Of course, there is a proper time allotted for the spirit to do its work. (Insert eye roll)

I apologize if I sound harsh or like I am picking on the charismatic movement, but I’ve seen so much phoniness in this group that it makes me cringe when I hear people talking about it in a positive way. I am certain that there are legitimate times in which people are actually moved by the spirit to just rest quietly in the Lord. However, it is not when someone is pushing you to the floor. But sadly, so many bow to this peer pressure and they go quietly home asking God, why didn’t I feel it too?

Peer pressure is not just for charismatic’s, it also abounds within a majority of other church communities. In certain church’s you must buy into their particular doctrines or you will be shunned, such as Calvinism, or believing that Mary was a virgin her entire life, or the notion that certain sinful behaviors are acceptable. Many times the pressure that is exerted is limited to some form of man’s doctrine and really has no biblical substance at all.

In the Old Testament, which is what I have been studying this year and what I will be mostly writing about, you can see clearly how the Israelites succumb to the pressures of other nations around them. They made treaties with evil dictators. They allowed shrines to tyrannical “gods” to be erected in their midst. They married foreign women to establish military and national alliances. They appeased their neighbors by overlooking clearly defined, moral indecency. Sacrificing babies, prostitution of both children and adults and not caring for the widow’s and orphans was a behavior that was tolerated in order to fit in with their neighbors. And then they got up on Saturday morning and went to synagogue to hear the reading of scripture. What’s up with that?

I struggle with wanting to “fit in” as I’m sure many of you out there do. I don’t talk much about my strongly held beliefs in the social circles that I travel in. Only those closest to me, and those of you who read this blog, really know what is in my heart and where I stand theologically. I honestly don’t like to impose my beliefs on others, unless of course they ask. I think most people need to experience Jesus in their own way and they don’t need me lecturing them…unless you decide to read this…then let the lecture commence.

I loathe “man’s theology” and I detest fraudulent, outward displays of “spirituality”. Instead of being followers of man, why don’t we just try being followers of Christ? His theology really isn’t that complicated!

 

My Favorite Headlines:

Proof positive that we are living in a strange, parallel universe….Gov’t $15.6T in Debt Funds 16 Programs to Teach Citizens ‘Financial Literacy’ (CNS News)

Let it RIP…Billionaire vows to make Titanic II (New York Daily News)

Giving you a head’s up…May is Mental Health Month (Today’s THV)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

 

 

I Agree with Russell Moore! Women Stop Submitting to Men!

Since I am spending time in the Old Testament (OT) this year, I would like to discuss one of my favorite topics: women’s roles in the OT, especially this call for us to submit.

You may find it interesting that the OT does not ever specifically spell out a woman’s role and most importantly the role to “submit” is never directly spelled out for her at all. Most of the dictates of how a woman should behave and conduct herself comes from the culture in the time in which we live. This concept of submission in the way in which we are often instructed by our church today is, although not a new biblical concept is really a New Testament (NT) ideology and many additional burdens have been added through “man’s” man-made traditions and laws. The way in which culture treats women is not at all the way in which Jesus treated women.

So what does the OT really say about women’s roles? Well, not much. So we have to go by the next best thing which is the way in which Godly women behaved and how they honored God through their conduct. A woman to whom I find extremely fascinating and who gets very little face time within the church is Abigail. As you may recall, she was married to an evil, but wealthy man named Nabal who when asked to donate food and supplies to David and his army, refused, in spite of the fact that David and his men had protected him and his property from marauding invaders. When David, who had not yet become king, heard this from his men he immediately went out to find Nabal and kill him. However, Abigail finding out David’s plans went out and intercepted him with food and supplies. She begged him to withdraw, if not for her “foolish” husband, but to spare himself the sin and condemnation of killing a man in cold blood. God rewarded her faithfulness to her husband and to David by ending Nabal’s life. Once she became a widow, David married her and very shortly after that became royalty. A far cry from some sheep herder’s wife living out in a tent in the desert.

What does this story tell us about her character? What does this story tell us about a woman’s role?

When she approached David she approached him in a position of humility and respect. Her heart attitude was in the right place. When she told her husband what she had done she told him the truth. She had not submitted to her foolish husband’s desires. God made sure she was rewarded for her faithfulness. (1 Samuel 25) The OT gives us a somewhat cloudy picture of what women’s roles were, but it was clear that a woman who honor’s God does not always “submit” to her husbands will.

When it comes down to women’s roles in government, society and in the home I would like to explore briefly Deborah’s role as a leader of Israel in the responsibility of a judge and a prophet. She was declared wise and honorable in the eyes of those who sought her out for help which includes the military commander of the time named Jabin. There is a beautiful song that was sung to her in Judges 5. During this time, prior to the reign of Kings, it was the judges who ruled over the land. No one tried to stone her for being a feminist or going outside the boundaries that was set up by the Hebrew society of the time, so we are left to assume that this role was an acceptable one in the eyes of her culture and God. It appears that her husband had no objections either. (Judges 4-5)

These are just two excellent examples of a couple of amazing women who didn’t fit the stereotypical profile of what we are told Christian women should emulate. In fact, they are the opposite of what we are told in many Christian churches we should be like today.

Now the NT proclamation to “submit one to another in reverence to Christ” is for everyone, both male and female. (Ephesians 5:21) Wives are then encouraged to submit to their husbands also. This is not a doctrine that women should submit to every male, in or out of the church that may cross their path. It is a woman’s duty to be very discerning when she CHOOSES to whom she will submit to outside of her own home. And when it comes to her husband a wife should be very diplomatic and wise as to what she will submit to if her husband is an unbeliever or acting in a way that does not honor God.

It should go without saying that a woman should NEVER submit to a person or governing body that does not give glory to God in everything, but sadly, many are told that you are to submit in all things to men in general no matter what. We are told that the 1 Corinthians 14:34 to be “silent” applies to everything. That is NOT the case. I hope you will read the following article. This is a great article from Crosswalk on this very topic and it is well worth the read! Please take a few minutes and check it out. Women, Stop Submitting to Men by Russell Moore.

 

My Favorite Headlines:

And “church goers live longer”; of course they do….Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer (Newsmax)

Scary truths….Half of All Americans Believe Bible, Quran, Book of Mormon Hold Same Truths (Christian Post)

Warning: As TSA protests continue these are the places to avoid if you have young children or if you want to sleep well at night, well, ever again…Police: Man strips naked at Oregon airport in TSA protest (CNN)

Social Security doesn’t go as far as it used to…Druglord Granny Busted in Oklahoma (MyFox/DC)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

 

Is the Resurrection of Jesus a Hoax?

It was widely circulated throughout Judea and the Roman Empire that Jesus’ body had been stolen and that He had not actually “risen” as the Disciples and the over 500 other people who saw Him claimed. According to 1st Corinthians...

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me [Paul] also, as to one abnormally born. ( 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, NIV)

But is there any non-biblical proof that any of these events occurred? A man named Josephus who was a Jewish historian in the first century and according to Wikipedia devoted much of his writing to the 1 st Century Jewish Roman War had this to say about Jesus resurrection….

“Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man; for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men as receive the truth with pleasure. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. He was [the] Christ. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us, had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; for he appeared to them alive again the third day; as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him. And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."

Josephus did not have first hand knowledge of these events, but he most certainly would have met others who did…..because, for those of you who are unaware….the “bible” as we know it with the New Testament was not actually canonized until around, oh, say 500 AD, give or take an AD or two. (The conflict comes in as to the apocrypha and other books not currently included in the Protestant bible; but this is a post for another day) This man, Josephus, would have had many dealings with these men and women who would have had first hand knowledge of these events; his writings are simply recording what he had been told. So, there would appear to be others, not just scripture, that would make these same claims.

Is there any other evidence?

According the Catholics, the Shroud of Turin, to them a Holy relic, was the actual burial cloth of Jesus himself. The Real Face of Jesus, a documentary aired last year on the History Channel, made some very interesting points that helped, to the Catholic’s vantage point at least, show that there is evidence to believe that it is an historically accurate relic that could not have been forged at the time of Christ. There appears to be scientific and technological evidence to support this claim.

Is this enough to say Jesus did in fact return to life in a new body simply to mess with the minds of atheists worldwide? Hmmmm…in the end it I think it really comes down to a matter of faith.

For many of us, we haven’t encountered Him in this new, resurrected body yet; we have only encountered Him in our life’s circumstances. We have felt His presence at those painful crossroads of life and we’re given hope. We were given an internal peace that defies all explanation in moments where it would appear that no peace could be found. We found strength to forgive the almost unforgivable and find meaning in the meaninglessness of life. We credit God for the good and give Satan his due. We have questions answered in dreams and visions and our future destiny is foretold in the pages of a 5,000 year old book. Its life lessons hold as true today as they did all those years ago. We find comfort in the humanity of the prophets and inspiration in the most obscure of verses. We cry out to Him in our pain, to find ourselves later wrapped His loving arms. These things can not be explained by scientific research or the accounts of by standards. It can only be explained in relationship with something that is supernatural. That is beyond us and a part of us all at the same time.

To define Jesus’ resurrection as a hoax would be like saying the birth of our own children wasn’t a miracle. To define Jesus as just this nice guy that lived a few thousand years ago is to not know Him at all.

 

Source: Is There Scientific Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ (Christian Post)

 

My Favorite Headlines:

And this little ditty needs no introduction…Federal employees in sunglasses rap about extravagant spending at Las Vegas conference (Washington Post)

Special Note: This is not for Fire Dept employees….Arlington to host Va. pole dancing championship (Washington Post)

Maybe Darwin had it backwards, we go boy to man to girl and back to ape....Student painting a boy-to-manhood mural at school was told to consider other life choices for the man (Providence Journal)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

 

The Schizophrenic Bible

I apologize if I have offended any of you schizophrenics. Or maybe I should call the bible bipolar. It has so many highs and lows, so many competing voices it is hard to make any sense from it sometimes. Many say that you can make scripture say just about anything you want; it just depends on the verses you are willing to NOT include when you do it.

After my last post, you know the one, where I renounced the name of Christian and have embarked on a quest for something more meaningful, I was reminded by those who are the closest to me, that I am a heretic. And that made me smile. Mostly because I think back on all those amazing men and women of God (many of whom lost their lives) who were also called a heretic; although, I’m certain, that those closest to me didn’t mean it in its kindest form. I’ve always been my biggest supporter….and there goes my humility…which is why I could never be put in the same category as those Godly men and women. It does, however, give me something to strive for. In the future, when someone asks me if I’m a Christian I can simply say in all honesty “I’m a heretic.” You know that will get me more questions than it will anything else, but so be it.

So as this heretic, I don’t fit in with the other heretics of my day either. I don’t fit in the camp that denies portions of the bible to make my own theological position more palatable. I’m not in the red-letter camp who thinks that the only part of the bible that is legitimate is what Jesus actually said - hence the “red letters”. I’m not completely in the Hebraic roots camp because I just can’t get into some of the legalistic, almost ritualistic way in which they view the Torah while at the same time trying to renounce portions of the New Testament because they think it contradicts the Old. I don’t fit into the camp that embraces denominationalism in order to have a covering – you know, ‘cause everyone who is in ministry needs some sort of covering so you won’t go off on your own little theological bent, right? Riiiiiiiiiight! And of course there are those denominations that really think they do have the corner on the market of being right. I definitely don’t fit in there either. I don’t fit into the Protestant non denominations because I embrace the apocrypha and Enoch 1. I don’t fit into the Catholic Church because….well there really are too many reasons to count there. I don’t fit into the evangelical, charismatic group, although they are probably the best fit, because they have been overrun by a “different spirit” and no one really seems willing to discipline anyone, unless of course it is someone who makes an open renunciation of some of their crazy practices like holy laughter and chariot rides around the universe, then they are all to willing to openly criticize you by telling you “touch not, God’s anointed”….oh, brother (insert serious eye roll here)!

I know I’m not alone. I know there are many others out there because I hear from you. You may not post a comment, but you send me your emails…and I thank you for their encouraging words! I’m here to say that there are a lot more of us out there who read our scriptures…all of it…and we understand the ups and downs, the highs and low, the entire schizophrenic, bipolar book. The raw human emotions of Job, Lamentations and many of the prophets splashed with the joys and hopefulness of the Psalms woven into a beautiful tapestry of forgiveness, love and judgment. God declaring Himself to be abounding in love and kindness and in the next book destroying nations and His own nation that would kill babies, prostitute themselves, destroy families and not take up the cause of the widow and orphans. I get God’s anger, but many do not.

I know that I don’t understand everything in the Old Testament and I know that there is a great deal of prophesy yet to be fulfilled before Christ returns, but what I do know is this, that you can NOT ignore the parts you don’t like in order to make a “Christ” you do! So I lift a heretical glass of Jesus’ blood and make a toast: Here is to all the other heretics out there following, or at the very least trying to follow, in the footsteps of Christ!

 

My Favorite Headlines:

One tiny foot bone of man, one giant leap for mankind…Unearthed fossil foot could belong to new human ancestor, scientists say (Fox News)

A very sweet video…Excited dog greets returning soldier (Yahoo)

That would make 68% religious; what are they trying to say, really…Poll: 32% of Americans Nonreligious (Gallup)

Maybe I just need to love it more…Chocolate lovers are thinner, study says (USA Today)

Making a mountain out of a bug hill…Starbucks Strawberry Frappuccinos dyed with crushed up cochineal bugs, report says (CBS News)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

Would Jesus Call Himself a Christian?

Today I am embarrassed to say I am a Christian. I am being sincere about this. I am not sure how much longer I can continue to claim to be a part in this so called “fellowship of believers”. I very rarely ever watch TBN or INSP because I yell at the TV or at a person who just happens to be standing in close vicinity of me at the time.

When ever I watch these stations I begin asking myself very painful questions; questions I don’t like to ask or to face. Am I really a fellow sister in Christ with these people? Do these INSP and TBN people actually read the bible? The “name it and claim it – prosperity movement” have gone beyond all common decency. They are currently in some kind of money drive (I think) and have been scrolling across the screen scripture verses (taken out of context of course) that would lead you to believe that if you give your money to them then God will bless you; pressed down and over flowing. These so called Christians call it “sowing a seed” in your own future prosperity. Which leads me to think about Job’s friends. The people on these channels are like Job’s friends. As you all have figured out by now, the book of Job has a great deal of meaning for me. I read Job and realize all of the amazingly unbiblical things that was believed in his day and are still true today. Let’s take for example this “prosperity” movement. They tell every one that if you are suffering in any form you are either in sin or you have claimed this circumstance upon yourself and to make it all go away you need to deny its existence.

Then comes my most poignant question of all: Am I crazy for even putting myself in the same religion as these nut bags? I understand the whole “power of positive thinking” philosophy. It really does have some merit to it; but this idiotic “deny” what is happening to you and it will all get better. Claim your healing or wealth or job future or whatever; claim it and it will all be yours.

I have railed against the “blame God for all the problems in the universe” philosophy that most atheists have. Now I have to add these nut bag Christians to my list; these folks who treat God like He is the Christian churches version of Santa Claus! Really? Looks like I may not fit in any where!

Back to Job’s friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. They pretty much told him the same thing. If you are sick and all this calamity has come upon you then, well brother, you are in some sort of sin or denial of your past sinful behavior. God is a just God who uses these circumstances to punish you, they tell Job. They made God fit their version of what they think God should be. It is interesting to know that God was NOT angry with Job but those three buffoons for suggesting that they knew anything about Him. And for these TV preachers, well they put God in the very “box” they all claim they are letting Him out of.

Now I’m back to one of my original questions: Do these folks actually read their bibles? According to the book of Job, in the first verse to be exact, he “feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). Even God Himself says about Job “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright” (Job 1:8)

As Job sat in sack cloth and ashes, if he would have only claimed his healing and denied that any of this stuff was happening to him, he would have been healed and God would have returned everything Job had lost? Again, really?

I’ve had well meaning, albeit very ignorant, fellow Christians tell me that Job was the past. Not relevant today because Jesus paid the price on the cross so that everyone could be healed, everyone could be prosperous, everyone could live in complete freedom. Yeah? Have you met my friend Saint Paul?!?!?!?! What about any of the other apostles? All of them died less than prosperous and in extremely painful circumstances…well, except John, but he had been stoned a few times, he just lived to tell about it.

I am so losing all my patience with the Christian church, both Catholic and Protestant. I have long ago said I am neither; simply a follower of Christ. But as I look out upon the vast ocean of Christian believers in my nation who give a pass to premarital sex while having the hypocritical, audacity to slight homosexuals; while denominations in this crazy bunch now ordain homosexual ministers; and still others say very little if anything in the pulpit about abortion; the rest have tolerated all the changes in our public school system; and the remainder bend over backwards to make “man” happy so they can keep their jobs. Sometimes you meet a believer that has all these rolled up into one. This is surely a sight to behold.  This is the group to which I have affiliated myself, hitched my wagon and have tied myself irrevocably to because I want to be called a Christian? Have I really put all my eggs in this basket? Would Jesus call Himself a “Christian” today?

I know I just can’t go on claiming any affiliation to them anymore. I am no longer a Christian in the same sense as everyone else. Today I am turning over a new leaf. I declare myself free from this “assembly”. I haven’t decided what to call myself yet, or even where I fit in. But I know one thing for sure I don’t fit in with this crazy bunch of reality denying, sin loving, money grabbing hypocrites. And if one more person tells me “well the church isn’t perfect, we are all human” I may just have to publicly out THEM for their own personal hypocrisy. I know, I know, I have a few things I am a hypocrite about too….but right now, it is completely eclipsed by these TV preaching charlatans peddling their brand of the gospel for money. And what breaks my heart is all those who blindly follow them.

God claimed of Israel that they were making themselves detestable among the nations, making Him look bad in a sense and I feel that today’s main stream church has become just that….detestable. Who wants to be a part of that? And for the blind that lead the blind….

“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” Hosea 4:6!!!!!!!

 

My Favorite Headlines:

Husbands needed for EXTREMELY important job…Thousands of spiders blanket Australian farm after escaping flood (Yahoo/Slideshow)

Isn’t that how our economy crashed in the first place…Obama Will Make Taxpayers Guarantee Mortgages Without Checking Borrowers Incomes or Employment (CNS News)

THE example of frugality….Michigan woman who won $1M lottery but kept using food stamps loses benefits (Fox News)

Places to avoid while vacationing in China….Chinese build a 30-story hotel in Changsha in two weeks (Los Angeles Times)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

 

The Case for Suffering

As I continue with our trip through the Old Testament, I would like to stay on the subject of human suffering. This seems to be one of the oldest problems that Christians seemed so ill equipped to address. According to The Case for Faith* a documentary based on Lee Strobel’s book by the same name, he states that this is the biggest opposition to following Christ. In this documentary Lee Strobel interviews a man named Charles Templeton. He wrote a very popular book called Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Faith describing his own personal crisis with faith and the reasons he left Christianity behind. Most believers have gone through very similar times of crisis in their own personal walks of faith. If you have not and still claim to be a believer, well hold on to your hat, someday your crisis of faith will show up when you least expect it; be prepared when those questions knock at the door of your heart. Some find the answers while others do not. Some find peace, while still others do not. Charles Templeton chose to leave Christ behind. He passed away on June 7, 2001.

There is no easy answer to human suffering, believe me, as the bloodhound of controversial Christian issues, I am always sniffing out the answers to some of the biggest biblical mysteries, this subject included, and the theological discrepancies that keep us at one another’s throats, bickering over what is right and what is wrong. I have found that those who present their ideas, whether they are right or wrong, and encourage you to search it out for your self, well, they seem to be a little more trustworthy. This is the manner in which Lee Strobel presents his case for faith. Like Lee Strobel, they are usually someone who will love you even if you disagree; and love is THE cornerstone to our faith.

The question of human suffering that Lee Strobel faced daily as a journalist and former atheist when he was following stories involving very tragic circumstances led him to his own questions of faith. As he continued his investigation on faith he commissioned a study that asked very pointedly, if you could ask God any question and you knew He would answer it, what would it be? By far the most common response was: How could there be a loving God with so much pain and suffering in the world? As stated before, he found that this was the number one objection to the Christian faith. I would hazard a guess here, but I think it is probably the number one reason for leaving the faith; as in Charles Templeton’s case.

Is there any inherent meaning to suffering? Others of us, who don’t get to have a face to face meeting with God as Job did, can we ever have our questions addressed? Can we ever make sense of our own suffering? Can we make sense out of other’s suffering?

For many people, even those without Christ, often find there can come a sense of purpose and profound meaning when their hearts desire is to help others who have suffered in similar circumstances. Someone who has suffered the childhood abuses at the hand of a parent or loved one and they grew up to be advocates for the protection of children. A person who once went hungry and they now serve food in homeless shelters or Food Banks. A women who was sexually assaulted, overcomes her fear and pain and helps others do the same; a doctor who has been tragically affected by an illness or disease who dedicates his life and fortune to finding a cure; a person who sets aside their dreams of retirement and sacrificially cares for an elderly relative with dementia, Alzheimer’s or the like. The list goes on and on. Suffering goes on and on. People find deep meaning in their own suffering when they allow it to shape and mold them into a better, more caring person. Could this be what suffering is all about?

Most suffering on our planet, generally, comes at the hands of evil or selfish people, NOT a loving God. Why does He permit it to continue? The short answer is that He doesn’t intend to and that those who have perpetrated these evils will get their rightful punishment. The long answer is a little more complicated….

Of course this answer begins in a garden and a man and woman who decided that partaking of the “knowledge of good and evil” would be a beneficial thing. In the words of Satan “you will be like God”. And so we are, a creature knowing both good and evil. And knowing both good and evil, we also have the right to choose which one we will follow. Some knowingly follow after evil purposes. Others unknowingly follow it by their own selfish, albeit, socially sanctioned motives. But in the end, someone gets hurt. That is just the way evil works. When you decide to follow after God, He promises to put a Holy Spirit in your heart to help lead and guide you. Sorry, I skipped ahead to the New Testament now. But the reality is, sometimes we need a little help in deciding what is right and wrong. The bible gives us a great place to start and the Holy Spirit helps with the rest. He is also pretty great at helping us to stave off the unrelenting attacks by Satan who really wants YOU to pick the selfish and/or evil path. In the end however, we really are the ones responsible for our own choices and actions. And like I said, most evil in this world is perpetrated by someone only thinking of themselves.

There are also other forms of suffering out there that when WE stand by and do nothing to help, well, then again, it is on our conscience alone. Not God’s. Funny thing, way back in Genesis (yeah, I know, Genesis again) but He gave us dominion over this creation. We really are the ones who keep messing it up.

One other thing that I think we should take away from the book of Job is that clearly the one perpetrating the evil on Job and his loved ones was NOT God. He only allowed it. But what about those who are not under the direct covering of God; those folks who are not righteous, who don’t love God and shun evil? Are they and their families more of a mark for human suffering?

Maybe? You know those tricky Ten Commandments? One of them actually says this:

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.” Exodus 20, KJV

So, if you are one of these folks whose parents, grandparents, great grandparents could quite possibly have been an evil person or someone who worshipped something other than the God of the bible, could that make you an easy target for a little suffering? Judging from this commandment it certainly seems possible.

The other thing we need to take away from the book of Job is with all those natural disasters out there in the world, doesn’t it seem possible that if Satan is capable of causing all this disaster in Job’s life, he can also whip up a good tornado, hurricane, earth quake or some other natural disaster or a little personal suffering if he wanted to? Just something to think about next time you are blaming God for all the human suffering in the world.

I wish I could wrap up this topic of human suffering in a nice, pretty little bow or at the very least be able to answer most of the questions you may have on the topic, but I can not. Someday when I meet my Maker, I will have questions too, like Job had and hopefully God will see me as a friend, as He saw Job, and help me to understand what is infinitely impossible at this moment in earth’s history for me to grasp. Even the death of Christ on the cross, a man who did nothing but heal people and lead others to life, found suffering on the cross even more than He could bear, but He did it, for you and me. He did it so that we could have life and enjoy it to the full. Something even Satan dare not try to lay claim to!

“The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I [Jesus] have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10, NIV

Until next time….

 

(* The Case for Faith can be seen on Netflix)

 

 My Favorite Headlines:

Who knew? Despite Poor Economy, Study Finds Private Investment Offers Better Returns Than Social Security (CNS News)

Another John Stossel classic…I tried to open a lemonade stand (WorldNetDaily)

The sky is falling…or at least thats what Chicken Little says…Calling Chicken Little: Clouds Getting Lower (Weird Science)

Don’t forget a breathalyzer and a liver disease check…Plans to drug test welfare recipients get momentum (Yahoo/AP)

 As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

Everlasting Love!

Continuing in the Old Testament, I would like to give all of you out there that think of God as the almighty fly swatter, please keep this in mind! He said:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness.” Jeremiah 31:3, NIV.

Sometimes we just need to hear something encouraging!

 

 My Favorite Headlines:

Have a great Presidents Day! George Washington's Farewell Address (CNS News)

Insanity is also on the rise…Sex-Changing Treatment for Kids: It's on The Rise (CNS News)

Your tax dollars at work…Three Years Later, Some of the Stimulus’ Odder Projects: Basket Weaving, Polka Training, Rats on Meth (CNS News)

New way to find the baby you’ve always dreamed of….Couples 'Like' Adopting Babies on Facebook (CBN)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

May I Introduce Joan of Arc, Noah’s Wife!

Knowledge of the Old Testament seems to be a passing fancy with some and an enigma to others. The Old Testament (OT) – what does it really have to offer most modern day Christians? Many of us avoid the OT, rife with rape, murder, pillaging, slavery, buying of wives and a great deal of suffering for those less fortunate. You would think it was a book about pirates or barbarians in the jungles of the Amazon.

Today, the only ones who really spend much time rooting through its pages are seminary students, pastors or evangelicals searching for the nugget of gold to add to their New Testament philosophies. Kids get the Ten Commandments in Sunday school and of course the ever popular story of Noah and his ark; glossing over ever so slightly the global genocide that took place once the doors were closed. The OT is a hard read and often avoided due to its hard hitting theme’s, raw humanity and God’s obvious desire to eradicate all those who oppose His tyrannical rule.

The church is doing an appalling job at teaching those who sit in its pews the real word of God. Half of all adult American’s can not identify Genesis as the bibles first book and fourteen percent think Joan of Arc as Noah’s wife. (Barna Group) I think our churches as a whole are doing just as bad a job educating God’s “students” as our public schools are doing in educating their student’s. It is this reason I am against biblical education in public schools….they would come out knowing less or more misleading information about the bible than they did when they first went in.

So I think these are the real questions: Why read the OT at all? What’s in it for “me”? Who can answer those tough questions? Why did God want to kill the Amalekites? What did the Amalekites ever do to God anyway? What kind of God would let some celestial bully nearly destroy a man that loved Him? If God allows this kind of barbaric torture, what chance do I have? With theses questions swirling around in our heads, we simply decide to stick with the peaceful New Testament to learn about our God. We feel that this Jesus of the New Testament IS God and, well isn’t that all we need to know.

In reality, what we really miss out on is the Jesus of Revelation; the One who comes in power and strength, overthrowing a world terrorized by the Antichrist. THIS is the God that will be seen next, doesn’t it benefit us to know who that will be?

Sorry, back to my point…why read the Old Testament if we can’t relate and we don’t understand all its rules, regulations and genealogies? Who will help us to understand it? Who will answer our questions? It isn’t like the church we attend will have a question and answer session following the service. So we do what we usually do when things get too hard: we avoid it all together.

I would like to challenge you today to not “avoid” what is difficult, but to immerse yourself in it. Write your questions down and take them to God Himself. You may be surprised and humbled by what you learn. You may learn about your own humanity and God’s infinite kindness and patience as you take this journey through the OT.

I would like to start with Job. Job is one of my personal favorites and you will discover why as we look at its pages. (I hope you will join me) Much to the disappointment and extreme panic of all the Pastor’s who read this blog, I did not go to seminary, I have no formal training in the OT and just like the rest of you, will be discovering and uncovering some of the OT’s painful truths. The issues that have us questioning the love of a self proclaimed God and who may be described as mystifying at best and narcissistic at worst.

Job is considered one of the oldest books in the bible. It begins amazingly enough with a matter of fact statement that Job was “blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil.” Job 1:1. The next paragraph may stun many of you who think evil can not exist in the presence of God, another untruth perpetrated on the fabric of Christian believers. Satan appears in heaven before the Lord, charging God with not seeing Job for who he really was. Satan claims Job would curse Him if God did not protect him so completely. God knows what character that His friend Job has, so God allows Satan to systematically destroy his family, his fortune and his health, leaving Job with nothing but a complaining wife and three know-it-all friends.

The questions posed by the book of Job are vast and for God, very incriminating. What kind of a friend is God that He would allow His upright and blameless friend to be devastated in such a complete and atrocious way. In our minds, it is unthinkable. God is such a menace!

Let’s start with the obvious one: What kind of a friend is God that He would allow Job to be broken in such a way, and by what we think as God’s most virulent enemy. It begs the question: whose motives are being exposed here: God or Satan’s?

Job’s brush with Satan tells us a great deal about Satan than maybe it does God. Let’s look at what God tells Satan: "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."Job 1:12.

Interesting! God gives Satan limitations on what he can do. What would Satan do without limitations forced upon him by the God of the universe? I don’t think Satan would restrain himself in the least. He would completely destroy anything he could get his hands on. Wait, does Satan have hands? I thought they were removed in the curse in Genesis? Oh dear, more questions.

So God doesn’t allow Satan to destroy His friend Job, but He does allow Satan to kill his family and his fortune. Some of us look at this as being the ultimate price to pay. To loose a son or daughter would so completely devastate us we would never recover emotionally. But to God, who thinks eternally, this is not such a big deal. To Him we simply return to Him, the God from where we came, who knew us before He formed us in the womb.

Next Satan destroys Job’s health. For many of us, that is also something that we think we just could not bare. For me, and here is a little flashlight shining into my own soul, having a chronic, debilitating illness, and like Job’s, not fatal, has stolen a great deal of my earthly happiness and wellbeing, as well as being a tremendous burden to my family. Unlike Job, I was blessed with an understanding husband. But aligning myself with God’s eternal thinking, what is 40 or 50 years of pain, when I will, if I make it through the trials in life with my salvation in tact, spend eternity cleaning Mother Theresa’s toilets…just kidding, I’m sure my eternity in the presence of unimaginable beauty and peace will far outweigh the momentary anguish of my earthly existence.

It is not clear if Job while he sat in sack cloth and ashes scraping his open sores with pottery shards, if he had the Holy Spirit to comfort him. I have to be honest, I don’t think if I did not have the Holy Spirit along side of me as I encounter my own personal drama, that I could really hold up as well as Job.

In all of this, it says, Job did not sin by charging God with wrong doing. It is not clear either if Job even knew it was Satan who was the personal perpetrator of all this evil. Job only pleads for the chance to present his case. God hearing it all eventually addresses Job, face to face, and restores all that Job had lost and more.

This book of Job presents us with a God who sometimes allows pain in our lives to test our character. God ALWAYS has the eternal in His sights. But what I think we can take away from this book, the portion that is often overlooked, is the true character of Satan.

Satan isn’t the one interested in our well being, it is God. It is God that holds Satan back from COMPLETELY destroying you, your family, your good fortune and your health. For every blessing we have we should give all the glory to the God who watches over us and protects us. The One who sends a Comforter to help us in our trials, and we WILL have trials. It is just the way of our world.

We just need to remember that the prize is eternal. But why all the emphasis on good, upright character anyway? Who, other than people immediately in our own little sphere of influence really benefits at all? Why should God care a wit about whether I’m an “upright” person? Another question we will answer next time!

 

My Favorite Headlines:

Well if sanctions don’t work on Iran, we can always send Roseanne…Comedian Roseanne Barr Seeks Green Party Presidential Nod (CNS News)

That is not a good endorsement of us as followers…Christians Clash With Jesus on Abortion, Gay Marriage, Survey Finds (Christian Post)

Top place to move…Entire Spanish village wins lottery (Slideshow)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!

Ultrasound Bill Goes Before VA Senate

Very soon Planned Parenthood will have its giant maternity panties all in a wad. Why you ask? On Thursday the Virginia Senate Education and Health Committee passed a bill that would require all pregnant women to undergo an ultrasound prior to an abortion. This bill will now go before the Virginia Senate on Monday for a full vote.

SB 484 says that before a pregnant woman gets an abortion, an ultrasound exam must be performed and the woman must have an opportunity to view the sonogram image of her fetus and hear the fetal heartbeat. ( Suffolk News Herald, Jan. 29, 2012)

Currently the law only requires that the ultrasound be offered but the actually exam is not required.

Opponents say the proposed law would interfere with a woman’s right to have an abortion and with the doctor-patient relationship. ( Suffolk News Herald, Jan, 29, 2012)

How anyone could object to this astounds me and the lame reasons sighted above are ludicrous. If you are wondering why Planned Parenthood would really object let me tell you a little secret (which really isn’t a secret to those of us who follow this issue). Planned Parenthood is the largest provider of abortions in the United States. It’s their cash cow. They would do just about anything to make sure their little abortuaries stay in business and giving women the opportunity to see the precious baby growing inside would stand in the way. Simple as that; just follow the money.

It looks like SB 484 may have the votes it needs to pass in the VA Senate. It has a few more hurdles to get over, but be prepared those of you on their newsletter list….Planned Parenthood is going to be hitting YOU up for more money…you know to take care of their giant panty problem….

Just thought you ought to know!

 

[Sources: Ultrasound Bill Advances ( Suffolk News Herald, January 29, 2012); Nation’s largest abortion provider: Planned Parenthood ( Washington Times, April 18, 2011)]

 

Favorite Headlines:

Great story….Wounded Soldier Gets War Puppy Back (MSNBC)

Heads up….Failed Russian Space Probe Plunging to Earth (Newsmax)

As always, email me YOUR spiritual questions, top favorite headline picks or your “off the record” comments to NoShoes@charter.net. I will include your name and city, and if the headline pick is interesting, appropriate and not offensive, I will post them!