9-11 Reflections

I joined the Marine Corps after 9-11-01 to kill fanatical Muslims who wanted to die for a faith that professes to "love death more than we love life." Well, as the Marines would often say, "It is up to God to forgive and up to the Marines to arrange the meeting." That resonated deeply within me and gave me an outlet for the rage that consumed me in those days after nearly 3,000 people were killed. So off I went to the recruiter's office. How times have changed for me.

Many would say that my change was due to the resultant "mellowing" of one's nature as the years elapsed. I must disagree with that statement. Truthfully, I was adrift at the age of 19 with a religion that left me hopeless and seething. Anyone of a religion that is their own making will eventually come to such a conclusion. But now I have Jesus and He changes everything. It is written of Him:

"Remember that you were at that time se
parated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility."

I have since become a man more in touch with sorrow and grief for those who are perishing. As for God, it is my desire that "no man should perish, but that all should reach repentance" so, though I was again full of anger for the wickedness of the terrorists of ISIS, I was directed towards an approach of life-giving instead of life-taking. Don't get me wrong, their actions are deserving of death, but I began praying for the brutal men who found their sense of purpose in the slaughter of innocents. After all, was I not the same brutal man whose sin spilled precious Jesus' innocent blood on that cross? But God had mercy on me and gave me life. I must now do the same for God's enemies if I am to proclaim myself to be a friend of Jesus.

Addicts.

Two young women at my school are addicts. One thrives on anger and the other finds acceptance in drugs. How do I know this? They told me. Now for the story! My first meeting with them was detailed in a previous blog post titled "YOU ARE SUCH AN IDIOT"! After that encounter, I applied myself to pray for a conversation with the girls. I knew I would get one.

A couple weeks later, after school had been dismissed, Angry was standing at the corner waiting for her drunken father to show up. Seeing the chance to fulfill my prayer I approached her with the light-hearted comment, "I never got to introduce myself before yelling at you." I reached out my hand and she accepted it with a smile on her lips and a name on her tongue. Not what I expected! We only shared some simple small talk but it was a beginning!

I began seeing the two girls at school more often and gave a smile and "good morning" to them when I saw them. Knowing I didn't hate them, they returned the favor. This continued up until a few weeks ago when they came out of their class all riled up. I happened to be in front of the school and they walked my way with what can only be described as "the look".

Miss Addict suffers from what I can only be described as diarrhea of the mouth. In other words, she has no filter between her brain and her tongue. She immediately jumped into a conversation with me about all the problems she and miss Angry suffered from. This is how I came to know of their troubles. I listened and made some comments suggesting that I understood what she was talking about. In truth, I did understand, being a spiteful addict myself. I have been to group meetings to fight it. Maybe we will get into that another time! Suffice to say that my sins lined up very effectively with theirs. The girls went on their way after setting their dark, not-so-secret secrets on the table in front of me.

I prayed for them some more and today the addict showed up, sans miss Angry. "I'm moving to Tennessee," she said. Some small talk later, I simply said that I would, "pray to the Guy upstairs" for her. "Thank you" she said. Fifteen minutes later, both exit to the front of the school. Seeing them both together, I asked how anger management and the addictions were coming along. With a shrug and an "All right" I responded with a chuckle and told them a joke from Alcoholics Anonymous circles: You know you've only recovered from alcohol when you've given up the coffee and the cigarettes. I told them that I knew it wasn't going well because, no matter how much progress they had made on one point of anger or addiction, they simply fortified another segment of it. " 'Progress' is often a transfer from one bad thing to another" I said.

With agreement between us, miss Angry and miss Addict began to walk off. That's when I did it. That's when I tossed the subtle bomb at them with the comment, "You know, there is only one way that you can be healed." With a turn, miss Addict asked, "Oh yeah? What is that?"


"To know a God who can fix your heart."

"I need to have that," she murmured as she turned away.

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.
~Acts 4:12

Attractive prayers.

I called a good friend of mine tonight and she immediately said to me, "I was just going to call you!" I asked her why and she responded by telling me that she wanted my prayers for her mom. My heart was really touched by her trust in me. She told me about her mom and I gratefully and wholeheartedly accepted her request for prayer.

She is not a Christian but she knows that I am and finds my faith to be ultra-radical. Because of this, I said that I didn't understand why she wanted me to pray for her mom since we didn't share the same faith. As we continued talking, some insights came to mind and I expressed them to her. I explained that I believed God to be a very jealous and angry God in the sense that He alone is worthy of our supplications. He made the world and everything in it. Why would the true God want His own creation to pray to a false god that had not given it life? As the saying goes, don't bite the hand that feeds you. For the biblical allegory, read this.

I told my friend that I too fought with God tooth and nail over these concepts when I was first drawn to Him. How could God hate anything? Why would God despise the prayers of those who pray to other gods? Isn't it simply their way of finding truth and seeking blessings? Wisdom came to me when I understood that the motivation behind God's jealousy and anger is what sets those emotions apart. Being the owner of my body and soul, God is jealous to keep me in His possession. Those things that seek to steal me from His grace give Him righteous cause to be angry. His jealousy and anger are, therefor, motivated by love to protect what is rightfully His. He will destroy those things that deny His children the full experience of His great glory!

I told her that I would never ask a Buddhist to pray for me simply because a Buddhist is not honoring the One God with their prayers. She was surprised but admitted that my argument did make logical sense...if actually true. I brought to her attention that, even though she found my beliefs to be radical (and wrong), by her request she saw something to be desired; something incredibly attractive bound up in those very prayers she asked me to present to God. By contrast, according to my explanation of the meaning behind prayer (to honor the One who gives us breath to pray), I could find no value in prayers that are offered to other gods. Ultimately, I suggested that my prayers are attractive because of the One who is represented in them.

I pray everyday that she, and all who hunger and thirst for righteousness, will be filled.

How NOT to preach the Gospel (Part 2).

In my first post of this series (a response to Mark Driscoll's tirade against abusive men), I gave some reasons to why his method is not an effective way to preach Christ's forgiveness. After meditating on how to share the Gospel with Christians who live in unrepentant sin, and arguing with some who believe Driscoll's method to be spot on, I have developed my argument more fully.

Preaching should include law and gospel (sin and grace), but where was the gospel in what Driscoll said? I'm really troubled that there are so many men in his congregation that live the way he says they do. Still, scripture, properly applied, does not simply mean yelling at people from the pulpit whether you are giving law and gospel, or not.

It is appropriate for such men who continue to live in unrepentant sin to be cast out after they have been properly confronted. A little leaven leavens the whole loaf! On the other hand, why is he not yelling at the women who stay in such abusive relationships? They are in sin that is just as revolting. Yet, the bar seems to be set abysmally low so that instead of encouraging women to be healthy and wait for godly men, he simply yells at the men for being ungodly. So how do we properly confront such people (men and women)?

Consider Matthew 18:15-17 and ask yourself if Driscoll applies it properly.

"If your brother [or sister] sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

That passage is directed towards individuals, is it not? The biblical way of pointing a man towards the grace of God is to direct him to see his sin through the lens of God's forgiving grace. This should be done firmly by showing him his fault while allowing him to know that he is still loved and supported. Importantly, loving support means that you do not accept a person living in destructive behavior. That being the case, you should send them from your midst when you gather if they don't repent.

If you preach sin and judgment without a gospel of grace and forgiveness you preach a crushing and unbearable burden upon the shoulders of people. Guilt brings death if it is not used to reveal God's love for sinners and forgiveness for them. I am concerned that many people who believe Driscoll was right in the way he addressed sin are suffering from unresolved and unrighteous anger towards abusive people.

Time lapse photography of the LA Station fire.

After watching the video again and considering nature's power I recalled a passage from Hebrews 10:

26If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, 27but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. 28Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? 30For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." 31It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

Our world is an unpredictable and terrifying place but it is only the dimmest shadow compared to the wrath of God and His burning anger towards sin. In a very real way, our Father in Heaven is infinitely more terrifying than "Mother Nature" and He demands justice for our sinful law-breaking. Thus, in Christ alone is there no room for fear for He only has taken our sins and our punishment upon Himself. He has eternally cast them into the lake of fire with our adversary Satan to be burned up forever. We find this hope in the prophet Micah's words in chapter 7 of the last book of the Old Testament:

¹⁸ Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives the transgression
of the remnant of his inheritance?
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show mercy.

¹⁹ You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

It is always good to put these truths to song so please listen to Audio Adrenaline's song about how God has forgotten all our sins and buried them on the ocean floor:

Psalm 100:5 - "For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."