Dinosaur Discoveries Rock Evolution

Bruce Malone:

Only seven Tyrannosaurus Rex specimens have been found which are more than 50% complete. Because these fossils are assumed to be over 60 million years old, evolution believers have historically failed to look for non-fossilized material within the bones. Dinosaur bones are generally found in a fossilized condition with silica and other minerals having completely replaced the carbon structure of the original bones—although bones with the appearance of recent burial have been documented.[1] Fossilization is a well understood process that can take place very rapidly under proper conditions. There are many documented cases of the rapid fossilization of organic matter in silica rich water exposure.[2]

Yet, a recent T. Rex discovery sent shockwaves through the scientific community. Evolution believer, Mary H. Schweitzer, of North Carolina State University has discovered flexible blood vessels inside the fossilized bones of a “68-70 million year old” T. Rex from the Hell Creek formation in eastern Montana.[3] In fresh bones, any weak acid can be used to remove the calcium, leaving only organic material such as fibrous connective tissue, blood vessels and various cells. By comparison, if one were to use acid to demineralize a typical mineralized fossil, nothing would be left because everything has been turned to stone. Yet, this acid-treated T. Rex bone fragment left flexible and elastic structures very similar to what one would get from a fresh bone which appeared, “so flexible and resilient that when stretched would return to its original shape”[4]

Close examination of the broken thigh bone also revealed round microscopic structures that appear to be blood cells inside hollow vessels. Dr. Schweitzer stated, “I am quite aware that according to conventional wisdom and models of fossilization, these structures aren’t supposed to be there, but there they are. I was pretty shocked.”[5]

The entire evolutionary community should be far more than shocked. They should be rethinking their dogmatic faith system requiring millions of years of earth history. How could a fossilized bone, buried under enormous heat and pressure, and after millions of years exposure to the environment have intact organic structures? The soft tissue would have completely degraded, no matter how fortuitous the preservation process.

This is not the first soft tissue to be unearthed. Nucleic acid (DNA) with up to 800 base pairs has been taken from “fossil” magnolia leaves allegedly “17-20 million years old.”[6]  Yet, DNA exposed to water and oxygen rapidly degrades. A “25-40 million year old” bee was also found encased in amber containing living bacteria spores.[7] Dr. Cano, the discoverer, took careful measures to avoid contamination and his analysis of the bacteria showed it to be very similar to the DNA found in modern “bee bacteria.”

These finds -- soft tissue, bacteria spores, and DNA in fossils and amber -- are not isolated examples, but part of a growing number of scientific discoveries which are rocking the evolutionary time frame to its core! However, don’t expect to hear about them in your child’s textbook, popular science magazines, or museums any time soon. Why? Because it is easier to deny, ignore, or explain away the implications of these finds rather than to admit that the pre-suppositional assumptions of the evolutionary belief system -- huge periods of time, no recent worldwide flood, and no interaction of God with creation -- could be wrong.

Footnotes:

1. Buddy Davis, Mike Liston, John Whitmore, The Great Alaskian Dinosaur Adventure, Master Books, 1998.

2. Carl Wieland, ‘The Earth: How Old Does it Look?’, Creation ex nihilo 23(1):8–13, December 2000.

3. Schweitzer, M. H., et al.,Science, 307, no. 5717, pp. 1952-1955, 25 March 2005.

4. www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7285683/, March 2005.

5. Boswell, E., Montana State University News Service, 24 March 2005.

6. Golenberg, E., et al., Nature 344:656-8.

7. Cano, S., Science, vol. 268, no. 5213, p. 977, Research News, 19 May 1995.

Read More

Just One Life

Just One Life! By Maria Fontaine

Do you ever ask yourself, “What can I do that will change this world for the better? How can I make a positive impact on others? What meaning can my life have in the context of the world and mankind? For my life to actually matter, do I have to do something truly earthshaking? How much difference can one life make in a world of billions?”

Here’s an account of one man’s life which began in obscurity, was lived without power or popularity as man measures it, and was terminated ignominiously. Yet this one life brought something extraordinary into this world.

He was born in an obscure hill town in a small Mideastern country. In early childhood his family had to flee as refugees from political injustice and attempted infanticide.[1]

The son of a manual laborer,[2] he showed little promise of greatness. He had no opportunity for higher education as we know it, never learned anything about technology, never even possessed a TV, a computer, cell phone, or mp3 player. There is no record of him owning a home or even any form of transportation.

In his thirties he was living hand to mouth,[3] wandering from town to town, never going more than 100 miles from where he grew up. Yet his deep and caring love for mankind inspired a small group of others to travel with him to learn more.[4] He often spent his time around social outcasts and the seamier side of society.[5]

For a period of three years he managed to gather some crowds through the use of what some called miracles. But false charges[6] that he associated with suspected terrorist elements seeking to overthrow the government, and accusations that he was claiming to be the king of his own nation resulted in his arrest, torture, and subsequent execution[7] at the behest of some influential enemies.

His friends and associates claimed that the charges were trumped up and that the whole incident had been a conspiracy by top religious and political elements to discredit what they saw as their competition, but none were ever brought to justice for what happened.

His life on this earth ended as it had been lived: focused on giving all that he had in order to rescue others. From a life of obscurity, poverty, and oppression, he showed that the simple truth was greater than the greatest intellect. Through his love and care for the weakest and neediest, he proved that power and wealth were truly weak and worthless unless used for God.

Instead of his death being the end of an obscure life, his subsequent resurrection triggered a kind of uprising in the hearts of men, a revolution of freedom and truth and mercy[8] that the armies of the earth throughout history have been unable to crush, that the superpowers have been powerless to suppress, and that the deceits of greed, malice, and hatred have never been able to silence.

The attempt to stifle his voice by a torturous and brutal death was futile. It has burst out in the voices of those whose lives down through the ages have been transformed by the truth he gave and the spirit he provided and the love he instilled in their hearts. What he gave to those who chose to live the example he set has proven to be greater than all the forces that have tried to prevent it spreading throughout the earth.

The result: All the powers that have tried to sway this world throughout history, all the wealth of nations and influence of kings and queens, czars and emperors, presidents and dictators, and all the revolutions and wars combined have failed to have as great an impact on the lives and hearts of mankind as this one extraordinary life.[9]



How could this one life, lived two thousand years ago, continue to have such a monumental effect on the world to this very day? Because this was the life of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, whose purpose in coming to earth was to help us understand what the nature of God is.

“For God loved each one of us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” God sacrificed His Son, and Jesus sacrificed His life in payment for our sins to show us the love and mercy of God. Jesus rose from the dead to offer us the chance to return to the full relationship with God that sin had severed. Receiving this gift is as simple as the simplicity of that life that provided it. It is yours to accept by allowing His love to become a part of your life now and in the life to come.

That seemingly insignificant life that had little to offer, according to how man judges things, possessed the ability to change the world through the lives of His followers and to change the hearts of billions down through the centuries.

You ask, how will this help me to make a difference in this world? The answer is that He has provided a way for His followers to carry on His legacy. He can empower you with His Spirit and work through you to continue His mission of changing lives. If you are His follower, you can continue to change the world through Him. His mission can become your mission. Having His Spirit working through you to change the hearts and lives of others brings lasting change—change that life’s troubles cannot take away.


You might not get to see the outward results in every person, but as you do your part to share the love and purpose you have found with all who will receive it, you will know that this world is a better place because you’ve been here.



[1] Matthew 2:13–23.


[2] Matthew 13:55.


[3] Matthew 8:20.


[4] Matthew 10:2–4.


[5] Mark 2:16, Matthew 9:10, Luke 15:1.


[6] Matthew 26:60–61; 27:18, 40; Mark 14:56, 58, 62–64; Luke 23:2, 5, 10, 14; John 19:7, 12.


[7] John 19:1–16, Luke 22:63–65, Luke 23:2–5, Isaiah 53:9.


[8] John 8:32..


[9] Adapted from the essay “One Solitary Life” by Dr. James Allan Francis, 1926.



Copyright © 2012 The Family International

Read More

The Heart of It All: Salvation

Propitiation and Redemption

In the previous article we saw that God’s plan for the redemption of humans was set in place before the creation of humanity, and that it was rooted in His love, mercy, and grace, which are part of His nature.

Now we’ll look at some specific insights as to how Jesus’ death on the cross brings forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God—how His death results in our atonement.
Atonement

The word atonement in the Bible is the translation of the Hebrew word kippur, which is derived from the word kaphar, meaning to cover, cover over, or be covered.

J. I. Packer defines it as follows:

Atonement means making amends, blotting out the offense, and giving satisfaction for wrong done; thus reconciling to oneself the alienated other and restoring the disrupted relationship.[1]

The biblical concept of atonement refers to the revealed way to reconciliation with God through the mediation of His Son.[2]

In the New Testament it’s very clear that the death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection is central to His mission on earth. Matthew devotes about one-third of his Gospel to the last week of Jesus’ life, Mark over one-third, Luke one-fourth, and John just under half.[3]

Jesus’ death on the cross, His shedding His blood for us as the Lamb of God, brought something unique into the world of humanity: eternal reconciliation with God. From that point on, human beings could be permanently reconciled with their Creator.

A question that is often asked is: Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? What did His death do that brought us forgiveness of sin and reconciliation with God? A combination of four scriptural concepts gives a well-rounded understanding of how Jesus’ death saves us from the punishment of our sins and reconciles us to God. These four concepts look at the same picture from different angles.
Propitiation

The first concept is propitiation. The basic meaning of propitiation is an offering that turns away wrath. This concept has to do with the wrath of God, in that due to His holiness and righteousness, God must judge and punish sin. However, the sacrificial offering of Jesus’ death, like the sacrifices made in the Old Testament, propitiates or satisfies God’s wrath. In His love for us, God made a way to pardon our sin, while remaining true to His nature.



He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.[4]



All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by His grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood, to be received by faith.[5]

How was it that Jesus’ death turned away the wrath of God from us? He turned it away from us by taking it upon Himself. We justly deserve God’s wrath, but Jesus took the guilt of our sin upon Himself and suffered the penalty for our sins. He bore the wrath of God in our place for our sins.

Authors Lewis and Demarest explain it this way:

The Judge of the world, whose moral law is constantly violated, found us guilty and pronounced the just sentence of death. Then, leaving heaven, the Son became a man, lived without sin, and paid in full the inestimable penalty for our sins. To demonstrate how He remains just while justifying the ungodly who believe, the Father sent the Son as a sacrifice of Atonement. The Judge who found us guilty came in the person of His own Son to atone for our sins.[6]

Some people object to the concept of an innocent person taking the punishment of the guilty, saying that it’s immoral. However, in this case, a member of the Trinity—God the Son—is the one taking the punishment. So God, who is the one that has been sinned against, is both the Judge who is passing judgment and also the one who is paying the penalty for the sin. The sacrifice of God’s Son is the propitiation that satisfies God. The wrath of God, His righteous judgment, is poured out on sin, but God Himself, having taken on the form of a man, bears that wrath in our place. This is something far beyond fairness and justice—it is the compassionate and loving plan of our very loving God.
Redemption

Another biblical concept which helps to explain how Jesus’ death has brought us salvation is redemption. The words translated to redeem and redemption come from the Greek family of words lutron in the noun form and lutroo in the verb form, which means to loose, to set free through a ransom payment, to ransom. Other variations are a ransom price, the act of ransoming, to pay a ransom price. Some of the verses using these words are:

Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.[7]

There is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.[8]

Waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession who are zealous for good works.[9]

Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.[10]

The use of the words ransom or redeem in these verses expresses the concept of paying a price, a ransom, to set someone free, to remove them from bondage or dominion.

Theologian Jack Cottrell gives clarity to this concept by explaining the redemption of the firstborn males in the Old Testament. He wrote:

The Old Testament practice providing the sharpest background for understanding Christ’s redeeming work is the redemption of the first-born males from their status of special consecration to God. God decreed that every first-born male, man or beast, belonged to Him. From those animals classified as clean, the first-born was to be sacrificed as an offering to God. With unclean animals such as a donkey, there was a choice. One could either break its neck, thus destroying it; or he could redeem it—buy it back—by paying the price of a lamb to be sacrificed in its place (Exodus 13:13). It was expected that everyone would choose the second option (Numbers 18:15). With regard to human beings, there was no choice. Every first-born male had to be redeemed—bought back from God—by paying the “money of the redemption,” five shekels of silver (about two and one-half ounces). This practice demonstrates the basic meaning of redemption; i.e., the payment of a price to set someone or something free.[11]



In the verses quoted above, Jesus said He came to give His life as a ransom for many. Through His sacrificial death, His blood shed for us, we are redeemed or ransomed. He paid for our freedom from the penalty for our sins by taking the punishment in our place.

The ransom is paid to God the Father, since He is the one who has put the penalty in place. Jesus, God’s Son, pays the ransom by way of His death. It is as if the judge passes a guilty verdict on a criminal, then he leaves his judgment seat and goes and pays the fine for the criminal. The criminal is judged guilty and by law must pay the penalty, but the price is paid by the judge. Justice is done, the penalty for the crime is paid, and the guilty one is now free. The guilty one is not only declared innocent, but is also transformed into a new creature, and ideally begins to live a life of love for God and others in gratitude for receiving God’s great gift.

We see in the above analogies that due to God’s love for us, He both judges and redeems us. His plan satisfies the need for righteous judgment, but God the Judge has also paid the price for our redemption by the shedding of the blood of His only Son.

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.[12]


[1] J. I. Packer, Concise Theology: A Guide to Historic Christian Beliefs (Chicago, Illinois: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1993), 134.


[2] W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Principles of Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2005), 51.


[3] W. H. Griffith Thomas, The Principles of Theology (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock, 2005), 52.


[4] 1 John 2:2.


[5] Romans 3:23–25.


[6] Gordon R. Lewis and Bruce A. Demarest, Integrative Theology, Volume 2 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1996), 399.


[7] Matthew 20:28.


[8] 1 Timothy 2:5–6.


[9] Titus 2:13–14.


[10] 1 Peter 1:18–19.


[11] Jack Cottrell, What the Bible Says About God the Redeemer (Eugene, Oregon: Wipf and Stock Publishers, 1983), 438–439.


[12] John 3:16–17

.

Read More

The Holy War!

By David Brandt Berg

Download Audio (10.5MB)

We are all in a holy war together. We are fighting together for our faith, truth, and freedom! We are determined that the poor of the world shall be fed, clothed, housed, and be enabled to labor in freedom, peace, health, and happiness to obtain their needs. We have pledged ourselves to lay down our lives in love for our brothers and sisters around the world. We have dedicated our all that all may be free to live lives of happiness together in cooperation.

Freedom from want, freedom from bondage, freedom from pain, freedom from evil, and freedom from fear—these are our united goals. Mankind cannot be happy when enslaved by oppression, tyranny, and exploitation, robbed by the rich, suffering the pains and pangs of hunger, malnutrition, disease, ill health, overwork, evil abuse, the tortures of war and constant conflict, and nightmares of perpetual fearful insecurity.

We believe that all of these evils are caused by men’s lack of love for God and each other, and their defiance of His laws of love and faith and peace and harmony with Him, each other, and His whole creation, which are the basic beliefs of true faith and every true believer in God and His love and His concern for His creations.

But we must not only know what we are fighting for and against, but also how we must fight. This is not a war of weapons and armies and bodies of men. This is not a war between man and man, nation and nation, race and race, rich and poor, socialism and capitalism, political and economic systems, societies and cultures, religions and faiths. This is not a war of hate and bitterness, killing and slaughter, revenge and vindictiveness, torture, dying and death.

This is not a war for the bodies and possessions and lands and pride of man. Such carnal wars of man have seldom ever settled anything or solved the basic problems of mankind. They have usually only resulted in more suffering, more agony, more pain, more hunger, more slavery, more bitterness, more vengeance, more fighting, more torture, more privation, more destruction, more waste, more misery, more poverty, and more death.

Ours is a war of the spirit in faith and love to win the minds and hearts and spirits and save the souls as well as the bodies of men. Ours is a war to free men from the evils of the spirit and mind and heart of man which cause them to be selfish and unloving and vicious and cruel and unkind to each other, man’s inhumanity to man because of his lack of understanding of how to be happy due to his lack of knowledge of the love and faith and power of God and loving laws of God designed for our eternal happiness.

Ours is a war to free men’s minds and hearts and spirits from the bondage of evil and the soul-slavery of the Devil which bring all these miseries upon us. We are in a war of the worlds—a war between good and evil, God and the Devil, goodness and wickedness, flesh and spirit, angels and devils, love and hate, life and death, joy and misery. Ours is a war of the universe between the good spirits of heaven and the evil spirits of hell contending for our souls as well as our bodies, not only on this earth but also in the spirit world.

Therefore we must fight the much greater warfare of the spirit with the far more powerful weapons of faith, love, compassion, and words and deeds of kindness. We must free men from fear with faith. We must free them from hatred with love. We must free them from sorrow with joy. We must free them from war with peace. We must free them from poverty with plenty, and we must free them from death with eternal heavenly happiness.

The pen is mightier than the sword. Ours is a war of words and ideas to thrill men’s minds with faith and hope, and fill their hearts with love and peace and joy to set their spirits free, as well as acts of love and deeds of kindness to free their bodies from pain. We must therefore wage a war of words against the ideas of evil, a war of faith against fear, a war of hope against doubt. We must inspire men’s spirits to believe in God and His love and His plan for the glorious future of man in the kingdom of God on earth run by the righteous, in which there shall soon be no more sorrow nor crying nor pain nor death, but all shall be light and health and happiness and peace and plenty for everyone.

We must teach them the loving, life-giving words of God Himself through His holy prophets in His holy book, the Bible, that they might have His life and love and happiness forever. Mighty empires of the sword have come and gone, but His words of love and life go on forever and continue to give joy and peace and love and life and hope to billions for generations. The Alexanders and Caesars and Genghis Khans and Napoleons and Hitlers have come and gone, but the words and ideas and religions of the philosophers and the prophets of God live on forever.

They know no boundaries, no nation, no race nor empire, and are not bound by time or space, nor limited by man or war or force of arms, but embrace all mankind and unite their hearts and minds and spirits in faith and love of God and each other for the good of all. The philosophers, teachers, prophets, and men of God seldom ruled empires, but they won worlds of men with their words, faith, and ideas which captured hearts, minds, and spirits and set them forever free. The followers of God are numbered in billions for millenniums, and God’s eternal kingdom of His words of life and love has conquered worlds of men’s eternal spirits, far greater, longer lasting, and happier than man’s mere worldly empires of the sword.

We cannot force men to be good; we cannot legislate righteousness. We must persuade their minds, win their hearts, inspire their spirits, and save their souls so that they will willingly want to do good and not to do evil. You cannot change the world of man without changing his mind, and you cannot change his mind unless you change his heart, and you cannot change his heart without the inspiration of God’s Spirit to save his soul and not only his body.

We must work to save all of man, not merely his body and his environment. He will never be happy with a heavy heart, a troubled mind, a discouraged spirit, and an unsaved soul. We must work to save the whole man, not just part of him. We must work to save the whole world, not just part of it. We must work to save them for eternity, not just for this present time.

Only the power and life and light and love and words of God can do this. We must get His words to all men by every means available throughout the earth. We must convey His ideas, hopes, faith, love and plans for His creations to the eyes and minds and thoughts of all men everywhere, that all hearts may be changed and all spirits inspired and all souls be saved.

We must have a world vision of universal salvation of all mankind. We must not confine ourselves only to the mere matters of the moment and the cares of this life and environment, or those of only one people or one nation or one race or one culture or one ideology or one political view or one economic system of East or West or North or South.

The salvation of man must be for all if it is for any and must include everyone if all are to be happy. Though ninety-and-nine were in the fold, the Good Shepherd was not content until the last lost one was found and saved and rescued.1 Their number was not complete and they could not have been completely happy as long as there was still one unhappy one astray. We must search and find them all, all of His lost sheep, with His loving words of life and faith and duty to both God and man, and we must bring them all into His fold that they may be of one fold with one Shepherd forever.

We must tell all, even though all will not listen nor respond nor be saved. We owe the message of God and His life of love to every man.

If God be for us, no man can stand against us, however great their power or numbers. “Have faith in God.”2 “If God be for us, who can be against us?”3 If you do good, who is he that will stop you?4 None can withstand the power of God nor His forces of heaven if He is on your side and you are on His, doing that which is right.

We are in a fight to the finish, and the victory is ours, praise be to God! We may lose a few battles, but we’re winning the war and the world will soon be won for God and His kingdom. Never give up. Be not discouraged, but be of good faith and of good cheer, for if God is with you, you cannot fail. “If God be for us, who can be against us?”5 We are bound to win, for God is with us, and we fight a holy, right, and just war of faith and love for God and others, and love never fails, for God is love.6

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but His words shall never pass away.7 They are settled forever in heaven8, and none can deny nor defy them forever. So use them andspread them and His love through every means at your command to give people light and hope and life and love and peace and heavenly happiness forever.

You are no fool to give a life you cannot keep for a love you will never lose.

Originally published May 1975. Updated and republished August 2012.
Read by Peter Amsterdam.


1 Luke 15:4.

2 Mark 11:22.

3 Romans 8:31.

4 1 Peter 3:13.

5 Romans 8:31.

6 1 Corinthians 13:8; 1 John 4:8.

7 Mark 13:31.

8 Psalm 119:89.

Read More

War crimes and the fantasy of controlling Syria´s rebels

By Dan Murphy, CS Monitor, November 2, 2012

If US officials think they’re going to find Syrian allies to prevent war atrocities, or be able to take swift control of Syria in the event of Assad’s defeat and steer it in a pro-US direction, they are going to be sorely disappointed.

As evidenced by a graphic video uploaded to YouTube yesterday that shows a terrified group of at least a dozen men, defeated fighters for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, huddled together on a bare concrete floor in a battle-scared building in the market town of Saraqeb, Syria, the other day as their scowling captors kicked and cursed them into a pile before executing them.

The jumpy footage shows the following: Men in rags, many stripped of their shoes. Some appear dazed from the wounds of a battle they’d just lost. Others appear to be hyperventilating out their last prayers and thoughts. One pleads for his life. A rebel walks among the prisoners, getting in a few last kicks to the head of one of them.

Then, the cries of “God is great” from the triumphant murderers are drowned out by a buzzsaw of automatic rifle fire.

This latest atrocity is hardly out of character for Syria’s civil war. (Both sides have been guilty of atrocities. War is man at his worst. It´s man´s inhumanity to man.)

Looking for good guys in this war? They are few and far between.

The execution appears to have been carried out by one of the jihadi militias that have grown ever more prevalent in the fight against Assad. Even the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based group that supports the uprising against Syria’s Baathist regime, suggests that the murders were carried out by an Al Qaeda-inspired rebel group. Rami Abdelrahman of the observatory told Reuters that the killings were carried out by the Jabhat al-Nusra militia.

But what happened at Saraqeb is about more than the prevalence of jihadis in Syria’s civil war. The “Free Syrian Army” is a nice concept. In practice, however, the fighters against Assad are a loosely affiliated patchwork of militias, with no unified command.

The behavior of these irregular units varies widely, as do their sources of funding. Some groups have received a trickle of communications and non-lethal aid from the likes of the US. Others have received weapons from states like Qatar or right private donors in fellow Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia.

The influence of the exiled Syrian National Council—which Secretary Clinton declared a failure Wednesday when she announced that the US was withdrawing support—over fighters on the ground is near zero.

So in that sense, the Obama administration is right to look to spend its money and political influence elsewhere. But if Clinton or anyone else in the government thinks they are going to find Syrian allies to steer it in a pro-US direction, they are going to be disappointed.

You have only to look to Libya to understand how difficult it is to exert influence after a triumphant rebellion in states where politics has merely been another word for patronage for decades, where the lust for revenge is strong, and where the rebellion itself is backed with Islamist militants who not very long ago were fighting US forces in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Libyan militias, it turns out, have ideas of their own about the future. They have fought among themselves over the spoils of victory, and continue to wield guns in what was hoped to be Libya’s emerging democratic politics.

Scott Peterson wrote for us yesterday from Aleppo:

In the final debate last week, President Obama said that the US was doing “everything we can” to help the opposition, but warned that “to get more entangled militarily in Syria is a serious step,” and that the US had to be “absolutely certain that we know who we are helping.” Likewise, Republican candidate Mitt Romney said he would “make sure they have the arms necessary to defend themselves,” as long as weapons don’t get into “the wrong hands. Those arms could be used to hurt us down the road.”

But on the ground, many Syrians say the US reluctance to support their cause is yielding more jihadists, and more radical ones. And it’s questionable whether American reluctance is significantly hampering the flow of weapons to jihadists.

The Syrian war, its factions and regional implications, grow more entangled and complicated by the day. Can the intervention of outside powers tip the outcome in favor of the rebels, in a general sense? Certainly. Will the weapons provided end up being used in further atrocities? Quite likely.

Atrocities happen in war, and far more frequently when there aren’t accountable officers to stop it. Perhaps that’s a price worth paying to be rid of Assad. (This type of callous comment shows this writer has no first hand knowledge of war nor compassion on those caught in its midst. What is the agenda of this writer? Is he a neutral? War is hell and those that promote it will suffer some day as God´s word warns us. We will reap what we have sown. Are you sowing love or hate? Are you supporting the war mongers? Dennis)

But trying to shape what comes next is another matter. Recent history indicates that usually eludes the grasp of America and its allies. ("Man purposes, but God disposes," said the Ambassador from Russia  to Napolian before his "conquest" of Russia.)

Read More

Smoking will kill up to a billion people worldwide this century!

Steve Connor, The Independent, 28 October 2012
It is described as the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world, with its perpetrators likened to terrorists. Smoking will kill up to a billion people worldwide this century, unless governments across the world stamp down on the half-trillion-dollar tobacco industry.

These are the words of John Seffrin, chief executive of the American Cancer Society, who was speaking this weekend at a high-level forum of the world’s 100 leading cancer experts gathered in the Swiss resort of Lugano, who issued a stark warning to governments worldwide. They said governments must do far more than they have done to control the global tobacco industry, either by raising cigarette prices dramatically, outlawing tobacco marketing or by taxing the multinational profits of the big cigarette firms.

Smoking kills more than half of all smokers, mostly from cancer, and yet despite it being the single biggest avoidable risk of premature death, there are about 30 million new smokers a year, scientists have calculated.

If current trends continue, with cigarette companies targeting the non-smoking populations of the developing world, then hundreds of millions of people will be dying of cancer in the second half of this century, they said.

Some of the experts attending the World Oncology Forum went further by calling for an outright ban on cigarettes and for the tobacco industry to be treated as a terrorist movement for the way it targets new markets with a product that it knows to be deadly when used as intended.

“We have a major global industry producing a product that is lethal to at least half the people who use it. It will kill, if current trends continue, a billion people this century,” said Dr Seffrin, who leads the US national society dedicated to eliminating cancer.

“It killed 100 million in the last century and we thought that was outrageous, but this will be the biggest public health disaster in the history of the world, bar none. It all could be avoided if we could prevent the terroristic tactics of the tobacco industry in marketing its products to children,” Dr Seffrin told The Independent.

“There is a purposeful intent to market a product that they know full well will harm their customers and over time will kill more than half of them. The industry needs to be reined in and regulated,” he said.

The science showing that tobacco is the single biggest cause of cancer is now well established, following the publication of the earliest evidence in the 1950s by the late Sir Richard Doll, the Oxford epidemiologist who was born 100 years ago yesterday.

Worldwide, tobacco causes about 22 per cent of cancer deaths each year, killing some 1.7 million people, with almost 1 million of them dying from lung cancer. Yet the numbers of new smokers among the young is rising faster than the numbers giving up.

The latest study into the health effects of smoking, published last Saturday in The Lancet, involved 1.3 million women. It showed tobacco is even more dangerous than previously supposed, but the benefits of giving up smoking are greater than expected.

Read More

Come Up!

A compilation

Download Audio (7.5MB)

You’re charging [ahead] with at least one major problem (probably several) eating away at your nerves.

What do you do?

It’s better to face your problems than to run from them. Everyone knows that.

But for those of us [who believe that] the supernatural favor of God is working toour advantage for His glory, might I suggest … there’s a third, and infinitely better, option:

Make the Spirit-led decision to elevate above your problem before you deal with it at all. Whatever you have to deal with today, first determine to access the perspective shaped by the promises and presence of Christ.

Now you’re ready to deal with your issue from the highest level—the very altitude and airspace of God. Your doubts and worries won’t loom so large from up there.

If you stand toe to toe with your issue, addiction, deficit, fear, or temptation, you’ll be intimidated by what you see and shut down before you get the chance to fight.

But if you get up above the issue, and refuse to wrestle around with it in the mud of self-centered thinking and faithless strategy, everything about your approach will change.

I love how, in the book of Revelation, in the midst of unbearable persecution and mind-boggling uncertainty, Jesus gave John a simple first step: “Come up here…”1

See, Jesus knew something about John that is just as pertinent to you and me:

If we get up where Jesus is, we’ll see what He sees.

When we see what He sees, we’ll know what He knows…

And we’ll be empowered to do whatever He calls us to do.

When we take our seats in heavenly places with Christ by focusing on Him, surrendering to Him, and trusting in Him, it positions us to descend on our problems with a divine confidence.

Lots of times, our main problem isn’t our problem. Our biggest problem is our perspective on our problem.

Get up above the domain of hand-to-hand combat today. You’re not strong enough to take much ground grappling like that.

Instead, take it to the Lord in prayer. And launch an aerial assault on the devil that will blow him back 10,000 miles away from the plans God has for you.—Pastor Steven Furtick

*

Rising above means that things which seem they would be a certain way don’t haveto be that way; you’re not held back or held down by physical circumstances; your surround­ings or even the situation you’re in doesn’t dictate your reactions, your victory, your fruit, your anointing, or your happiness.

Of course, there are rough moments. There are times when you’re affected by your circumstances, or you feel the press or the strain of the situation that you’re in. That’s human and normal. But you always have the choice to rise above. You always have that option, because I’ve made it available to you. There’s never a time when you’re destined to be bound to the things of the earth, because you have the power to always overcome.

You always have the choice to look up and let the connection that we share pull you up.

You have to choose to look up to My face. You have to choose to take your eyes off of the circumstances and conditions, even though they might be demanding, depressing, worrisome, or are begging you to give them your attention. You have to choose to look past it all, up to Me. When you do that, we share a powerful connection.

Your decision to look past it all, to look up to Me in faith, makes our connection strong. Even if you don’t feel the faith, your obedience to look to Me is a step of faith or a statement of faith, and then I am able to lift you up, to join your spirit with Mine so that you see things more as I see them, feel things more as I feel them, and in a greater way have My heart and My Spirit within you. This gives you greater faith, greater anointing, a broader perspective, and the peace and trust that you need.

The fact of the matter is, if you could see things more like I see them, you’d have so much less cause for worry and concern. You would joy in My perfect plan. You would rejoice at each new step that I bring into your path. You would rest securely in My care and foresight and protection. The way to keep that attitude of faith and realism—seeing things the way they truly are in the spiritual realm—is to keep rising above.

There will always be things surrounding you that are difficult to bear. There will always be things that the Enemy tries to distract you with. There will always be things that I allow in order to keep you humble and desperate with Me. But you’re not to stay down in them, wallow in them, or be held down by them. You’re to rise above them! In so doing, you’ll find that you’re even stronger than before.—Jesus, speaking in prophecy2

*

Let the Divine Mind flow through your own mind, and you will be happier. I have found the greatest power in the world is the power of prayer. There is no shadow of doubt of that. I speak from my own experience.—Cecil B. DeMille

*

The difference between a mountain and a molehill is your perspective.—Al Neuharth3

*

Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.—Arthur Christopher Benson

*

Life's battles are fought in the Secret Place,
Where we meet with the Saviour face to face—
Where the stubborn will is by Love subdued,
And our lagging faith by His pow’r renewed.

Life's vict’ries are won in the Secret Place,
When we cease from struggling and trust His grace:
When for our own weakness, His strength we claim,
And go forth to conquer in His blest name.

Oh the glory that waits in the Secret Place,
Where our pleading cries become hymns of praise—
Where we learn the wonder of being still,
And yielding all to His blessed will!

Oh keep me, Lord, in the Secret Place!
Oh keep my eyes on Thy blest face!
Oh keep me looking alone to Thee
For grace and power and victory.
—Avis B. Christiansen

Published on Anchor November 2012. Read by Simon Gregg.
Music by Daniel Sozzi.






1 Revelation 4:1.

2 Originally published November 2001.

3 American Publisher/Columnist/Founder of USA Today.

Read More

Who Lost the World?

By Ira Chernus, TomDispatch, Oct. 30, 2012
Who lost Libya? Indeed, who lost the entire Middle East? Those are the questions lurking behind the endless stream of headlines about “Benghazi-gate.” Here’s the question we should really ask, though: How did a tragic but isolated incident at a U.S. consulate, in a place few Americans had ever heard of, get blown up into a pivotal issue in a too-close-to-call presidential contest?

My short answer: the enduring power of a foreign policy myth that will not die, the decades-old idea that America has an inalienable right to “own” the world and control every place in it. I mean, you can’t lose what you never had.

This campaign season teaches us how little has changed since the early Cold War days when Republican stalwarts screamed, “Who lost China?” More than six decades later, it’s still surprisingly easy to fill the political air with anxiety by charging that we’ve “lost” a country or, worse yet, a whole region that we were somehow supposed to “have.”

The “Who lost…?” formula is something like a magic trick. There’s no way to grasp how it works until you take your eyes away from those who are shouting alarms and look at what’s going on behind the scenes.

The curious case of the incident in Benghazi was full of surprises from the beginning. It was the rare pundit who didn’t assure us that voters wouldn’t care a whit about foreign affairs this year. It was all going to be “the economy, stupid,” 24/7. And if foreign issues did create a brief stir, surely the questions would be about Afghanistan, Pakistan, or China.

Yet for weeks, the deaths of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, J. Christopher Stevens, and three other Americans became the rallying cry of the campaign to unseat Barack Obama. What made this even more surprising: when news of the tragedy first broke, it appeared to be stillborn as a political issue.

The day after the attack on the consulate, as the news about the killings was just coming out, Mitt Romney rushed to blast his opponent: “American leadership is necessary to ensure that events in the region don’t spin out of control.” A president must show “resolve in our might” and a readiness to use “overwhelming force.” Barack Obama had failed on all these counts, Romney charged, and the deaths in Benghazi proved it.

The Republican presidential candidate was duly blasted in return for “politicizing” the incident. It seemed like almost everyone chimed in critically. Even longtime Republican stalwart Ed Rogers wrote that “Romney stumbled,” while “the president said the right things and had the right tone.”

Romney never retracted anything he said on that first day—and somehow the same words, once scorned as unfitting and “unpresidential,” were mysteriously transformed into powerful arguments against reelecting the incumbent. A month later, a new story dominated the headlines: Romney’s criticisms on Libya were now said to be hitting the target, changing the dynamic, playing a major role in his campaign’s resurgence.

This change of tune surely reflected in part the media’s primal need for a close presidential contest to keep the public’s interest. At the time of the Libyan incident it was generally agreed that Obama was beginning to pull ahead in the race, potentially decisively, and anything that might boost Romney’s chance was undoubtedly welcome on an editor’s desk.

No matter how hard editors try, though, some stories just don’t stick. But the Libya story stuck. It struck a chord somewhere in the hearts and minds of a lot of Americans. You have to wonder why.

A big part of the answer lies in the power of the key words in Romney’s first statement: “might” and “control.” His strategists grasped a fundamental truth of American politics: The public has an endless appetite for gripping stories about challenges to America’s global might and its right to control the world. So they doubled down and sent their man out to tell the story again.

In his first major foreign policy speech, Romney absolved his opponent of any direct responsibility for the four American deaths, but he pilloried Obama for a far more grievous sin. By a wild leap of imagination, he turned this one incident into the spearhead of a vast assault on America: “Our embassies have been attacked. Our flag has been burned… Our nation was attacked.”

The president’s job is to protect us by dominating our enemies, the challenger proclaimed. It’s our consistent record of victory as well as our values that make America “exceptional”—and on Obama’s watch, as the incident in Benghazi proved, America and its exceptionalism had gone down for the count.

This was not simply an exaggerated indictment of presidential “weakness.” As he had on that first day, Romney was again raising a question even more crucial to any popular narrative of American foreign policy: Who’s in charge here?

After all, what’s the point of being the global superpower if not to keep control of events around the world? As Romney put it succinctly: “It is the responsibility of our President to use America’s great power to shape history.” And on that most crucial count, he insisted, Obama had failed dismally and a U.S. ambassador had paid for that failing with his life.

The debates gave Romney a chance to sharpen his attack. In the second of them, Obama deftly deflected the charges about Libya (though he never actually answered them). By the time the third debate rolled around, Romney’s strategists apparently saw no benefit and lots of risk in pressing the Libyan question. But they still saw plenty of benefit in keeping the broader issue alive. So Romney rushed past Libya, saying, “We’ve seen in nation after nation a number of disturbing events.”

He built his case using fearful images: “I see the Middle East with a rising tide of violence, chaos, tumult… You see al-Qaeda rushing in.” Power in Washington needed to be restored to the right hands so that, wearing “the mantle of leadership,” the U.S. could “help the Middle East” turn back “the rising tide of tumult and confusion” and subdue the terrorists.

Translation: For decades nearly all the governments in the Middle East, the energy heartlands of the planet, were our allies (more precisely, our clients, though that word was never used in polite company). We could build up their militaries, support their autocratic regimes, and count on them to quell any expressions of anti-American sentiment. Now, under Obama, this crucial area of the world, once well under our thumb, was spinning out of control. Lose control by failing to exercise our might and we lose our safety.

Strength, control, and national security are all parts of the same package; nothing matters more to America—and Obama was letting it all go down the drain. So the Republican story went (with copious document leaks on the Libyan “cover-up” and the like from Congress). What had been considered an Obama strong suit—he was, after all, the man who took out Osama bin Laden—suddenly seemed to have been trumped.

The Democrats actually responded by putting out a remarkably similar story about (as the president termed it in the third debate) “strong, steady leadership,” which, they claimed, was preventing the Middle East from spinning out of control. In other words, we hadn’t really lost Libya at all. But that was the only point in dispute.

The debate between Republicans and Democrats wasn’t about goals in the Middle East, where support for autocratic friends like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain is assumed, and both sides agree on the need for democratic elections, religious pluralism, a free press, empowering women, strengthening free enterprise capitalism, and destroying Islamist terrorists.

More broadly, both sides agree, as they have for decades, that Washington’s overriding foreign policy goal must be to shape history, control the world, and make it mirror American values and serve American interests. This mythic vision of American foreign policy is a rare example of long-term bipartisan consensus.

When I call it myth, I don’t mean it’s a lie. I mean it’s a foundational narrative of American power that expresses our most basic assumptions about the world, a story in which every nation on the planet is, theoretically, ours to lose.

To most Americans (though not to much of the rest of the world), this narrative does not reflect sheer hubris and intoxication with imperial power. It’s just good common sense. Throughout our history, at the heart of the dominant national mythology has been the assumption that the U.S. should be the world’s “locomotive” and all the other nations “the caboose” (as President Harry Truman’s Secretary of State, Dean Acheson, once said). The reason for this was simple (at least to Americans): we were the first and greatest nation founded on the universal moral truths that are supposedly self-evident to any reasonable person.

Sure, controlling the world would serve our self-interest in all sorts of tangible ways. However, our primary self-interest, so the myth maintains, always was and always will be the moral improvement—perhaps even perfection—of the entire world. By serving ourselves we serve all humanity.

The only question worth debating, then, is how we can use our preponderant power and wealth most shrewdly to maintain effective control. Most Americans expect their president to know the answer. At the same time, most Americans worry that he might not. A more recent pillar of the bipartisan narrative, the myth of homeland insecurity, suggests the opposite.

According to that myth, no matter how much military strength we have or control we exert, there is always “a rising tide of tumult” somewhere that threatens our national security. At every moment, somewhere in the world, we have something crucial to lose. The name of the threat can change with surprising ease. But the peril must always be there. It’s essential to the story.

And that story, in turn, is now essential to every presidential contest. As New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd once wrote, “Every election has the same narrative: Can the strong father protect the house from invaders?” (Think of Ronald Reagan and the Iran captivity tale or George W. Bush and 9/11.) If one candidate is the incumbent, the question becomes: Has he been a strong enough father to control the world and thereby protect the house?

Every challenger plays on that anxiety, picking the most obvious or convenient example of the day as a hook on which to hang the perennial charges of weakness and peril. Since the “Who lost China?” days, Republicans have played this card especially skillfully.

This year it seemed that a Democrat who “surged” in Afghanistan, killed bin Laden, and personally ran a drone assassination campaign from the White House had, for once, successfully protected his right flank against the predictable GOP attack. Then fate sent the Libyan killings to the Romney campaign, the newsrooms, and a big portion of the American public. Give Romney’s people credit: they sensed the opportunity from day one.

Mitt had to demand “Who lost Libya?” and then transform it into “Who lost the Middle East?”—not merely to boost his chances but because a big slice of the public yearns for such a “debate.” After all, every time the question of “Who lost [fill in the blank]?” arises, it reaffirms both the reassuring promise that we deserve to control the world and the disturbing anxiety that we might lose what is rightly ours.

What was, for all its tragic dimensions, a minor event in Libya became a central campaign issue because it proved to be this season’s code word for the whole mythological package. For many Americans, the deepest reassurance may come simply from sensing that our traditional mythology—the familiar lens through which we view our nation and its role in the world—is still intact.

On the horizon, though, we can dimly see a new question rising: How much longer can this mythology survive? It suffered a major wound in the Vietnam War era, when the fantasy of global control was rudely punctured by reality. That wound has been ripped open again by fruitless wars and conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.

Now, there are so many unsettling changes around the world that we can’t predict, much less control, them. Soon enough—perhaps by 2020, or even 2016—the political battle cry may be: “Who lost the world?”

It’s even possible to imagine that someday Americans will engage in the debate we really need—about choosing a new paradigm for foreign policy that fits today’s world, where the fantasy of global control has become irrelevant because the facts so obviously contradict it, as American power declines while other nations steadily gain strength.

Don’t expect the old mythology to disappear quietly, though. Old myth versus new myth is the fiercest political battle of all.

Ira Chernus is professor of religious studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder, a TomDispatch regular, and author of Mythic America: Essays.

Read More

Sistine Chapel ceiling at 500

By Eric Marrapodi, CNN, Oct. 31, 2012
Michelangelo’s fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, one of the world’s most iconic pieces of art, will celebrate its 500th anniversary on Wednesday in Vatican City. Pope Benedict XVI is set to mark the occasion with the celebration of Vespers in the chapel on Wednesday evening.

Nine centered panels in the ceiling fresco show stories from the book of Genesis, fanning out from the center of the ceiling with the iconic “Creation of Adam” that shows God reaching down from heaven and touching the finger of Adam. The vaulted ceiling also features images of biblical prophets and ancestors of Jesus.

Work on the ceiling began in 1508 when Pope Julius II della Rovere decided to make some changes to the room including the ceiling alteration. He commissioned Michelangelo Buonarroti to paint the ceiling and the lunettes, which are the upper parts of the room. According to the Vatican, Julius dedicated the newly decorated space with a Mass on the Feast of All Saints Day, which falls on November 1.

Michelangelo painted over a starry sky scene put on the ceiling between 1477 and 1480 according to Vatican records.

British Art critic Andrew Graham-Dixon writes in his book “Michelanglo and the Sistine Chapel,” that the artist did not want to paint the 12,000-square-foot ceiling, which is 68 feet high, because he thought it was a ruse by his enemies to get him to fail on a grand stage. “As they well knew he was a sculptor, not a painter, and would be bound to make a fool of himself,” Graham-Dixon wrote.

“He kept turning it down saying ‘I’m not a painter; I’m a sculptor,’” said Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, a Georgetown University professor who has studied the work extensively. She said Michelangelo had come to Rome to sculpt the tomb of Julius II, which he thought would be his masterpiece.

Originally the idea from the papal commission was to have Michelangelo paint the 12 apostles on the ceiling, but somewhere along the way the plans changed. “He was up on the ceiling, and the concept just was not working for him,” Apostolos-Cappadona said.

Apostolos-Cappadona said correspondence at the time suggest the subject shifted to Genesis after conversations related to the writings of Saint Augustine between the artist and a prominent theologian, Egidio da Viterbo.

It took a full four years to complete the sweeping painting which stretches out above the chapel’s 40.23 meters in length by 13.40 meters in width footprint, dimensions which are thought to mirror Solomon’s Temple as described in the book of Kings.

“He created paintings, that in many ways, the figures seem three dimensional. That’s something he does that other painters of the day did not do. From the ceiling you need the mass and volume,” Apostolos-Cappadona said.

Pope John Paul II called the Sistine chapel, “the shrine of the theology of the human body,” in a homily following restorations for the space in 1994.

“This is a priceless cultural and universal heritage,” the late Pope John Paul II said at the time. “This is confirmed by the countless pilgrims from every nation in the world who come to admire the work of the supreme masters and to recognize in this Chapel a sort of wonderful synthesis of painting.”

Visitors today can still see the Michelangelo’s fresco as the crown jewel of the Vatican Museum tour. The chapel space is still used by the Vatican for worship services, which museum staff loudly remind chatty patrons to keep quiet and not take pictures.

The chapel is also used for the secret conclave to elect the new pope. The College Cardinals, whose job it is to elect the new pope, gather there to cast ballots for the man who would become the next pope.

As cardinals cast their secret ballots they walk under the painted ceiling through the steps of the creation story and put their ballot in an urn on the altar. Above the altar is another gigantic Michelangelo fresco, “The Last Judgement,” which takes up the entire wall and was finished in 1541.

“The ceiling is almost a background for that extraordinary picture of “The Last Judgement,” Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the archbishop emeritus of Washington, told CNN. McCarrick was a member of the conclave that elected Pope Bennedict the XVI in April 2005.

“The ceiling sort of prepares you for that with the creation of man and all that. When you come to the altar, and you look right behind the altar is this extraordinary painting of “The Last Judgement,” he said.

Standing in front of the painting and casting a ballot for the next pope he said, “ceases to become an election and becomes more of a discernment, a discernment of what God wants you to do. A discernment of what you think God wants you to do, to pick the man God needs for the church today.”

“All those things go through your head when you’re in that extraordinary building, that extraordinary chapel. You are about to do an extraordinary thing,” he said.

Read More

Because Jesus Identified with Us!

A compilation

Download Audio (11.4MB)

Leslie and I burst into tears—and I mean that literally: we erupted into sobs when the grim-faced doctors broke the news to us at Leslie’s bedside. There was something terribly wrong with our newborn daughter [Alison].

The next several days were a stomach-churning blur. It was agonizing to see our firstborn child hooked up to machines and monitors, with an intravenous needle in her ankle. What’s worse, we weren’t Christians at the time—and without God, there was really nowhere to turn.

In the midst of that horror, I was walking in despair down the hospital corridor when a telephone on the wall rang. A nurse picked it up and then looked around. “It’s for you,” she said.

On the line was David, a man I had known years earlier but hadn’t seen in a long time. At first I was puzzled why he would be calling me, especially there. The truth is that in the course of interacting with David in the past, I had lied to him, misled him, made fun of him, broken promises to him, and ruthlessly criticized his church and everything it stood for. But he was a committed Christian, and that’s why he was on the phone that day.

“I heard what’s going on with your little girl,” David said, his voice laden with concern. “What can I do for you? Can I come down there and be with you for a while? Would you like to talk? Can I bring you anything? Can I run some errands for you? Lee, just give the word and I’ll be there as soon as I can. In the meantime, I’ll be praying for your daughter, and so will my friends at church.”

I was incredulous! I couldn’t believe he had bothered to track me down and was willing to drop everything, take time off from work, and drive sixty miles just to help me. Or that he and some strangers in a church were willing to get on their knees and plead to their God for the recovery of a child they had never met—the offspring of an avowed atheist, no less. There’s no way in the world that I deserved that.

I thanked David, although I didn’t take him up on his offer. Then after ten tense days, Alison simply recovered from her mysterious illness. The doctors didn’t know what to make of it and, by God’s grace, to this day she has never exhibited any lingering effects from it.

Since then Leslie and I have tried to forget the trauma that we went through when Alison was hospitalized. Yet today, more than three decades later, I could take you back to the precise spot where I received that call from Dave. That’s how deeply it’s seared into my memory.

David’s actions illustrate the kind of impact that Christians can have when we’re willing to go beyond mere words and put the love of Christ into practical action. After all, talk is cheap. Look at Jesus: he didn’t just say he loved the world, he showed his love by becoming a servant.

When we serve others as Jesus would, when we sacrifice for others as Jesus did, and when we put our love into tangible action as Jesus modeled, then this can open the hardest of hearts that would otherwise be impervious to the message of Christ.

Words evaporate quickly. Most of what a pastor says in a sermon will be forgotten before dinner. But people remember a selfless act of servanthood forever. I can attest to that because I’ll never forget David.—Lee Strobel1

*

I remember visiting a friend before surgery. He wasn’t especially close to God, and I knew he was nervous. I promised to stop by and see him before the operation, and I ended up praying with him, right in front of his wife, who was also not so close to God. It was a tiny bit awkward at first, but after I stumbled through a question, “Would it be okay if I said a prayer for you?” and received a quiet nod, it turned out fine.

In the hallway, his wife met me. “Elisa, pray with me too!” she begged through fearful and tearing eyes. I was more than surprised. Here was a woman who’d insisted she had little room for God in her life, asking me to pray for her. She was in a dark place and needed light to find her way. I prayed.

Through his light in our lives, God offers emergency lighting to those in dark moments of crisis. Whether cancer, unemployment, floods, divorce, teen rebellion, or death, crisis creates in people a need for hope and an openness to hear where they can find its source.

Those of us who’ve walked in light a long time sometimes forget this fact. Familiar with the steady beams of hope, we overlook others who are feeling their way through the darkness and are instinctively attracted to the hope we take for granted. Similarly, we who walk in light may sometimes grow indifferent to it. Stubbing a toe on life’s speed bumps, we look about and wonder what we have to offer another.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Or time-consuming. Or expensive. Simple gestures of comfort offer hope. A card to a friend after a miscarriage. A meal to a family with a hospitalized child. A visit to a neighbor whose dog was hit by a car. Go ahead and share a book or a CD or a scripture or a quotation that has meant something to you during a similarly painful time. Listen to God’s voice prompting you to express His love for another in word or action. Be amazed at what God will do through your little light!

When people are in crisis, they crave light. All around them are dark moments of unconfirmed diagnosis, unclear decisions, unthinkable circumstances. They can’t see themselves to the next minute, much less through the next step they need to take. They extend their arms blindly, wishing they’ll bump into something that will help them out of their misery.

We, who live in the light, are in the light. Remember, a little light goes a long way. I can offer help and hope to those in crisis. And even when we ourselves struggle to find our way in a moment of twilight, our twinkle is bright enough for another to find and follow.—Elisa Morgan2

*

Before we can help people connect with God … we must first connect with them on some shared level of interest and understanding. Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ begins with the search for common ground—some point of recognition and connection, some way of identifying with a person. It is what W. Oscar Thompson, in his bookConcentric Circles of Concern, called “building bridges.”

Becoming one with and identifying with people makes our witness believable and authentic. If we see ourselves as better than and superior to those “poor sinners,” a true connection will be impossible to achieve.

If, on the other hand, we consider ourselves fellow strugglers and pilgrims, common ground has already been discovered. Because Jesus identified with us in our needs and hurts, we can identify with other hurting people at the point of their need.—Woody D. Wilson3

*

There’s someone sad and lonely
Who lives along the way,
You’d like to go and visit
But you’d not know what to say?
My friend, you needn’t worry;
If good-will you have to spare,
You’ll do the job that’s needed
By simply being there.
—Author unknown

*

One of the best soul winners I know does not know she is a soul winner. In fact, if I mentioned it to her, she would probably laugh out loud. Lori does not know how to witness in any conventional way. She is not a part of any program of evangelism training or outreach. She is not a Bible scholar. What is her secret? She has lost friends and she wants them to be saved

Her approach? She takes it one person or one family at a time and stays with it until they gladly receive the Lord. She has discovered or rediscovered the biblical principle of investing her life into the lives of others. She does it by being a friend and doing what friends do, but with a different goal in mind. She does not view the friend as a means to her own fulfillment or to meet some need in her own life. She truly wants that friend to know the Lord.—Woody D. Wilson4

*

The world has changed, is changing, and will continue to change. To be effective in reaching others with the Gospel, it’s necessary to adapt to these changes, to find out what language people are speaking today and deliver the message to them in that language.

It pays to learn to understand their culture and relate to them within their culture—meaning both their national culture and the culture of the times. What are the people where you live talking about? What are their passions, worries, and concerns? What motivates them. What makes them tick? What principles do they hold? What are their value systems? What is their personal world like?


We need to learn all we can about a people as well as become one of them—in fact, in order to become one of them—so we can truly communicate with them in a language they understand so that they get the message loud and clear.5

Seek the Lord about how you can both show and tell the story of His love for those around you in a manner they will understand. Pray about whether your current delivery methods are relevant and effective in reaching people. Ask Him to show you what actions, what symbols, what words you can use that will make it possible for them to comprehend the love God has for them.

Ask Him to help you to relate, to become enough like them that you may win them. Similar to Paul, certainly one of Christianity’s greatest witnesses, let’s be able to say, “I have become as one of the people of the country I live in, in order to win them. I have learned to understand them, to sympathize with them, to live like them to the point where I can say I am one of them, that I may win them. I have become one with the people in my workplace, my school, my neighborhood, my club, in order that they may get to know me; and in knowing me and feeling the Holy Spirit within me, they can get to know Him who gave His life so that they may have life eternal.”

Do what you can, when you can, to let God’s light shine through you, so that you may lead others to Him.—Peter Amsterdam6

Published on Anchor November 2012. Read by David Salas.


1 The Unexpected Adventure (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009).

2 Twinkle: Sharing Your Faith One Light at a Time (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Revell, 2006).

3 The Shadow of Babel (CrossHouse Publishing, 2009).

4 The Shadow of Babel.

5 David Brandt Berg, March 1973, “Become One,” 208:14.

6 Originally published January 2012.

Read More