In the Beginning

Many months have passed since I last wrote. As I sit to write this Christmas Eve day, a strange angle to the Christmas story comes to mind.

Blame it on my pastor, Dr. Rich Liverance. He's been preaching a series on Genesis. This has been a literary, scientific, and theological lesson. Though my brain has flashbacks to high school science class as he elaborates on Periodic Table of Elements and shows the interaction of these elements, I can appreciate the gist of the laws set up in nature.

In the Beginning...

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

Genesis 1:1a states: "In the beginning God created..."

As we've studied the literary writings of Genesis and other Scripture references to God creating the world and as we've analysed scientific theories for a young earth created in six days or an old earth slowly evolving to what we have today, it has become very clear that it takes faith to believe either theory.

You either believe that the conditions of the earth today have been constant for billions of years, therefore making it possible to test the existing minerals, etc. and know that they are so old. However, if the rocks, for example, were formed in conditions that would not be known unless you were there to observe, then the testing of them would not reveal an accurate age.

If you believe in the six days of creation, you have to have faith that the way God stated things was literal. In today's climate, you are a fool for believing this, as evolution is no longer consider theory.

None of this, however, matters as much as one huge theological point.

And God saw that it was Good...

Beginning on the third day, the Bible shares God's thoughts on His creative work.

10God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.

God called the earth "good." He called all He was creating "good." The important fact is that God looked down on a perfect world, one without sin and without death; a world filled with new beauty never imagined outside His own imagination. Proudly He admitted that His masterpiece came to life as He declared it should.

Sure, He could have had it take millions or billions of years. If you believe that God loves the earth as much or more than He loves mankind, He may have wished to see its forming and postpone mankind. Or He may have wished to savour His creation, knowing what a mess we'd make of it.

There is room to believe in large amounts of time passing and the Creator setting it all in motion like a set of dominoes. There is room until you realise one major fact that makes it impossible.

To Be or Not To Be...

Death. Evolution must include death. You cannot have evolutionary progress without survival of the fittest. In order for a species to evolve from sludge in a pond all the way to humanity, death had to happen over and over and over for billions upon billions of years.

If this was true, then Adam and Eve truly are a myth. God either created mankind as sinners or there really is no sin. Death couldn't be a result of sin, since death came unimaginably many years before there was a man or a woman.

So, there either was no sin or God endorsed it through creation, and God called all that and death good as the world evolved.

If God endorses death and the way we've lived (think back on your history books or listen to the news) since time began, there is no need for a Saviour.

Definitely, don't concern yourself with Christmas! Celebrate the holidays and the jolly old Saint Nick. Focus on love and giving, because you're as good as you'll ever get. There is no hope for you outside yourself.

Unto Us is Born This Day...A Saviour, Messiah God

If, however, God endorses perfection and eternity, then how grieved He must have been for centuries as He called out to people, who He made with such care, molding us and placing us specially in a world where all our needs and wants could be met.

There, in the perfect world, we listened to one voice saying that maybe God wasn't telling us the whole truth. Maybe there was something better than God. We listened. We responded. We doubted. We acted. We sinned. We lost. We died—first to the ability to choose God and then through physical decay.

God did not sit idly by and let us destroy ourselves as we deserved to do.

• At just the right time, He pierced through time and placed Himself in the womb of a woman. 
• He learned our struggles with sin firsthand, yet never sinned.
• He wept at the grief of death.

He declared Himself to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life, saying that unless we know Him, we would not know life again.

With one man—Adam—he brought sin in the world with his choice of one tree from which he could not eat. Believing Satan's words, he had faith that he'd have the best by this choice.

With one man, Yeshua, He brought righteousness into the world and life by one choice—following Him. By faith, we are asked to believe that this path, though painful, is better than life as we used to live.

God, promised Redeemer since the beginning of sin—He came to die that our sins might die. He came to rise from the dead, that we may die to our old life and live in Him.

This holiday isn't about gifts given, used, returned, forgotten.

This is an eternal Gift. This Gift begins in opening our hearts and ends in living for eternity. It begins with me and must be shared with you. It's a Gift that gives more and more the more it is embraced. It is THE GIFT that would be worth giving our physical lives for, because the life that comes from shedding our flesh will be never destroyed.

May you know this Gift this Christmas and in the New Year. May God grant us faith to live in this new Life the next 365 days.

I wish nothing more for you this Christmas than Yeshua.

Safe Landing

July 6, 2013: Asiana flight 214 made a crash-landing at the San Francisco airport. Two died and many were injured. Experts are investigating the cause, but it seems clear a connection with the pilots' failing to fully switch on the navigational landing controls may be at the heart of things.

Misunderstandings
It may look like I'm straying off-topic, but this morning my thoughts fell on an often pondered dilemma—why does wrong often look or feel so good and good seem sometimes so unexciting. It isn't always so and for some it isn't quite as strong a pull as for others. But why does the enemy seem so in favour of our having fun and being happy, and God seem so often against it?

My reading for this morning included this verse, which triggered all this:

The thief [Satan] comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. ~Jesus

Instead of the pitchforked, red, torturing creature of modern depiction, the enemy is described in the Bible as beautiful, an "angel of light," one of the greatest of angelic beings, but also one like a lion crouching to devour (us) his prey. So in summary, he can appear attractive but with your and my destruction as his aim.

(Authenticity test: the enemy has taken countless lives, but never once offered his own for you.)

James in his letter to the church wrote:

16Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. 17Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Using Proper Navigation

And what does this have to do with an airline crash? 

In flight, I imagine there are many times an inexperienced pilot must feel tempted to doubt his navigational equipment. When entering storms or dark clouds, uncertainty must creep in about the direction or altitude. Should you follow your own feelings and instincts or trust the controls? It is even possible, as with flight 214, to believe you are trusting the controls only to discover in a fiery crash that you never fully switched them on.

Landing the Plane

Doing what feels good or makes us happy is like ignoring the navigational system and choosing to fly on our instincts. The cost is greater than what affects you or me. The hurt jars many who depend on us. 

James knew how deceptive feelings are when he reminded his people not to be "deceived." Real and lasting good is from our Father, who does not change with modern ideas and fades. He truly desires what is for our best (that we may have "full" life), but we must trust His navigation of our way Home even when it doesn't feel right. Trusting anything else will lead to wounds, separation, destruction and loss.

Let's daily check who is in control.

Remembering A Kind Man

June 20th: I had a Skype chat with a Board Member of the ministry where I work. We were testing out the service before he spoke with the President and Chairman the next day. He told me of the horrible smoke in Singapore due to the fires in Indonesia. He mentioned he had had a doctor's appointment.  They said he had a couple leaky valves, but nothing for which they'd risk surgery.

He chatted for quite a while, and I had to remind myself to relax and just enjoy the conversation without worrying about work. He and his wife had tickets to fly here in about three weeks, but I rarely would have one-on-one time with him.

July 15th: Our friend had to have a triple by-pass surgery, instead of being here for the Board meeting the 16th. We found out only several days beforehand. But surgery went very well.

July 17th: Some complications started in his lungs, but nothing too alarming.

July 18th:

10:25 AM— From a co-worker: "He came out of High Dependency ward today, but his heart went into fibrillation at 6pm and his pulse rate was very high.  He was nauseous and was unable to eat and looked and felt unwell. He is back in the high dependency ward." 

5:40 PM— From his wife: "He collapsed three minutes ago. Docs have resuscitated heart but he may not make it." 

9:18 PM— From another friend: He's "with the Lord." "He didn't make it."

____________

And minus that one breath and one heartbeat, he is gone forever as we know him.

"I will go to him, but he will not return to me."

That's it. The ceasing of a normal physical "habit" of heart and lungs, and you no longer are as we have known you. You don't just resign from the Board. You disappear.

I'm new enough with death to be haunted by it. 

Tonight, I've pulled up his last emails to me. I've thought of the time I stayed in an apartment in South Africa with him and his wife and some ladies. I remembered how patient he was when twice I blew the fuse, darkening the apartment with my high voltage devices. 

Another friend reminded me of this past March of when he had spent a day driving us around—paid for all five of us to roam through some orchid gardens in Singapore, took us to a special Chinese restaurant for lunch, and wandered for hours through the Little India shops with us. Mr. Patience. 

I pulled up Skype tonight too. It was the last place I had seen his face, while I said I looked forward to seeing him and his wife in a short amount of time. 

Skype said he was just "offline."

I wonder. Is that all death is? You're still "out there," you're merely "offline" to the rest of the world. 

Jesus called it "sleeping" before He raised a good friend, who had been four days in a tomb. Although He used the term, eyewitnesses testified to seeing Him "weep" and noted how much "He loved him." He wept minutes before He brought him back to life. Why?

Truly, I leave it to the theologians and scholars to wrestle with the reasons. I stand with the people and note: "Could not this man who opened the eyes of the blind keep this man from dying?" 

And with Martha I say in faith, that I believe there will be a resurrection of the dead. 

25Jesus said to her, "I AM the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" 

We live with it. Death. 

Death has been named the "Grim Reaper." It's pictured as a figure in black waiting to steal you away in a black horse-drawn carriage. 

Innately, we understand it's an enemy. One to whom those we love and we ourselves will almost all succumb (barring Jesus appearing to call us directly to Him).

Scripture reminds us we're like "grass that the wind blows over," and we're gone. Song writers ponder our status as "dust in the wind."

Same old song, just a drop of water in an endless sea 

All we do crumbles to the ground though we refuse to see 

Dust in the wind 

All we are is dust in the wind  

~Paul Simon and Ivana Kindl  

So what's the point?

Life is short. We know that! It's short for me, and it's way too short for those I love.

Am I living the way I want to be remembered?  Not just at my memorial service, but if they should tell my story a hundred years from now? Is it all about me or is it of use in God's greater story?

I don't have a lot of time to invest.

Nor do you.


Goodbye, Mr. Hwang. I'll look forward to seeing you at Home. Soon.

Cleaning Up Debris After the Storm

After a period of chaos in my life, an urge inevitably arises to wipe away the old and begin again. This varies. A little storm...minimal organization. A hurricane...

Let's just say, recently, I've had the desire to delete my Facebook profile and this blog and disappear (as much as possible for someone who's job is mainly online). The impulse arose to do as my friend Marco--get rid of everything and wander Europe. However, the picture of my cat, a suitcase of books, and no shelter, quickly awakened my snoozing senses. I think I'll just clean my closets.

What compulsions surface when your life feels chaotic?

The Puzzle

Today I pulled out a puzzle and began the process of piecing it together.

Have you ever noticed how many times the shapes fool you? You think for certain you've found the perfect match. You put it in, hardly noticing there is a little stiffness in the fit. Suddenly, you find the real location for the piece. You have to wrench it out to put it where it belongs.

Unlike us, God knows where each of the pieces of life should fit. As you lay down one small decision after another, Jesus knows the whole picture you can't see.

You may think you've found the perfect fit. If you're determined enough, you may even make something work by pushing your will, cutting corners, ignoring patterns. The problem is, this mars the perfect picture. God can forgive and complete a plan for your life, but you'll always bear the scars of the wrong fit.

Whatever choices you're facing now--whether it's a job or a house that seems built out of dreams or someone you've met who seems made for you--remember to check with the Artist of your life. Don't force events, but pray, wait, and only act as God leads. It may seem to your mind that you know the solution, but wait on God's timing and seek His will.

Nothing is a good substitute for the best fit.

Staying Afloat

Regardless of whether or not you can swim, in the middle of the ocean when the boat capsizes, it is imperative you have something to cling to.

Life is a similar ocean. The economy, job loss, death, fire...so many things can sink the boat of circumstance. Something to hold you up is just as imperative in the ocean of life as in the physical ocean.

If you grab on to a talent, an experience, a person, you may be just prolonging the struggle to keep your head above water. An accident can take your ability to do what you enjoy, a person may leave, and other things, such as alcohol, that numb the pain for a while become a whirlpool beneath you, pulling you down.

If you want something that will outlast the storms and bring you safely to the other side, there is only one Saviour. If you know Him, it is a daily choice to look to Him to strengthen you and lift you up.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith..." Hebrews 12:2a

If you don't know Him, on what are you placing your hope? Is it something that will hold up through sickness, financial ruin, rejection, loss? Anything that gives you merely good feelings when the sun is shining or a distraction when the pain is great, will not be enough to carry you when emotions numb and things go dark.

It's your life. Make certain your hope is sure.

What Would You Die For?

Most of my life I have wondered if I would have courage to die for what I believe. I have honored heroes who have. I wonder the point they crossed, the thought, the reason that made life so small and the unseen so...worth everything.

Someone once said that dying for what you believe is easier than living for it. I think there may be truth there. But I'd take it one step farther. I say, unless you live for what you believe, you can never die for it.

It is so easy in the day to day mundane tasks to lose sight of the important for the urgent, to compromise in the small things until you have moved so far from the goal you don't know who you are anymore or where you are going. Or, maybe you have never known...

"How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to Your Word.
With my whole heart I seek You; let me not wander from Your commandments!
I have stored up Your Word in my heart, that I might not sin against You....

"I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not Your commandments from me!....

"Even though princes sit plotting against me, Your servant will meditate on Your statutes.

"Your testimonies are my delight; they are my counselors.
My soul clings to the dust; give me life according to Your word!...

"My soul melts away for sorrow; strengthen me according to Your Word!

"Put false ways far from me and graciously teach me Your law!
I have chosen the way of faithfulness; I set Your verdicts before me.
I cling to Your testimonies, O Yahweh; let me not be put to shame!

"I will run in the path of Your commandments for You have set my heart free!

"Teach me, O Yahweh, the way of your statutes; and I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law and observe it with my whole heart...

"Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things; and give me life in Your ways....

"Let Your steadfast love come to me, O Yahweh, Your salvation according to Your promise;
then shall I have an answer for him who taunts me, for I trust in Your Word....

"I will also speak of Your testimonies before kings and shall not be put to shame,
for I find my delight in Your commandments, which I love....

"This is my comfort in my affliction, that Your promise gives me life."
(Psa 119:9-50)

Is there anything for which you would die?

Life Map

A friend sent me a flair on Facebook that says, "My life has a superb cast, but I can't figure out the plot." If you are like most of us, you can relate to this. Most people don't know where their life is headed. A rare few feel called to do something in there life and, at least to us outsiders, it appears they follow the course to the end of their life.

I know. You may tell me God has the answers, that the Bible shows the way. I will agree with you. The Bible does show us the way to God and the way to life that pleases Him, but it stops short of explaining life, of showing us what we each should do with our life. It would be naive to think it did.

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon describes how he pursued life. He tried to find out what would make him happy, what would fulfill his craving to live a life of purpose. He describes a life most of us only dream about. He had pleasures at his fingertips. He built houses, vineyards, gardens, parks, pools, acquired possessions, whatever his "eyes desired." He also sought wisdom and God gave to him wisdom more than any other man. He, like we in our small way, found these pursuits, in themselves, empty, vain, void of lasting pleasure.

Solomon concludes his wrestling with the meaning of life by saying, "The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil." (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14)

It leaves me where I began. There are moments I wish I had a literal life map to follow. Sometimes I'm tired of the adventures of life as much as the mundane tasks.

Life is a mystery. It is meant to be lived fully. It's the prologue, but it sets the stage of life to come. The decisions you make in a moment will impact forever. But we don't have to go forth blindly. We have One who sees the end of our life, as well as beginning. In John 10:4 Jesus says, "When He puts forth His sheep, He goes before them, and the sheep follow Him for they know His voice."

To whose voice are you listening? Are you blindly going forth without a map or are you listening to the One who drew the map? There is a purpose. We don't know now, but we will.

God and Life

At the end of the book of Job, God addresses the questions raised about justice and Himself. Interestingly, He doesn't explain why horrible things happened to Job; He doesn't even comfort him. God merely points to His own intimate knowledge and control of every aspect of creation; then He asks Job if he considers Him injustice.

Many have analyzed this story. Many theories have been written about why God responds to these five people the way He does. The thing most striking to me, however, was how God held them accountable for what they said and did after they were confronted by Him. Not that He didn't care what went on before, but a change of heart in every one of them is what He sought. Only Job responded with spontaneous confession when his focus was changed from himself to God.

Many suffer all over the world every second of every day. We may ask why, but until it is our community, our friend, our loved one, we don't often ask with passion. When pain hits home, that is when questions often change from why suffering to who is God and is He someone I want to know? "We receive His blessings and know His word, but do we know Him?" author Oswald Chambers questions.

One of the greatest fears of my adult life has been the fear of grief. I have had a comfortable life, and yet have experienced occasions of internal pain, grief that felt like it would suffocate me, sorrow that felt so heavy that death was more welcome than living that way. Thankfully, the grief did not remain so intense, either because it was not tied to anything tangible or because the sorrow came over time in different ways. Some grief is like chronic pain; it is possible to go through a day or longer unaware that you feel pain until something happens that either intensifies the pain or reminds you of it. What I have experienced is no worse than anyone's experience who lives into adulthood. On the contrary, it is better than most. I internalize more and am intensely conscious of thoughts and feelings.

But it is this awareness of the intensity of grief which causes me to struggle to not give in to fear. I have often questioned my own allegiance to God. Is it built on the basis of what He has done for me? Is it contingent on what He will continue to do for me? Or is it based on a relationship, on years of spending time with Him? Is He strong enough to bear my grief when all other hope in this life has died? Can He carry me in victory to the grave?

I doubt myself more than anything. I cling to His promise that He has begun a good work in me and He will accomplish it completely on the day Yeshua the Messiah returns (Php 1:6). I say to Him when I am most scared, "I trust You."