We just spoke about this in group discussion. I missed my chance to catch Colin afterwards, but kudos on a well-led discussion! Give him a pat on the back when you see him.
But, it turns out I posted this in another blog. Here it is so you have it for reference.
My Conversation with God
I had no idea what God would do when I asked him to use me.
Anonymous | posted 3/02/2007 10:32AM
Does God still speak? I grew up hearing testimonies about it, but until October 2005, I couldn't say it had ever happened to me.
I'm a middle-aged professor of theology at a well-known Christian university. I've written award-winning books. My name is on Christianity Today's masthead. For years I've taught that God still speaks, but I couldn't testify to it personally. I can only do so now anonymously, for reasons I hope will be clear.
A year after hearing God's voice, I still can't talk or even think about my conversation with God without being overcome with emotion. That's one reason I know it was real; I'm not a person who shows emotion easily. Plus, I'm a skeptic about things supernatural. Not that I don't believe they can happen; I just doubt most miracle stories except the ones in the Bible. I've even been known to criticize publicly what I consider to be overly experiential forms of Christianity. I suppose that makes this story especially ironic.
Meeting the Twins
About five years ago, my wife and I visited an elderly and very sick man who had once been our pastor. We discovered that he and his wife lived not far from us, and we renewed our old acquaintance. During one of our first visits, the man's grandsons—14-year-old twins—came for a visit. The moment I met them, an inner voice told me that some day I would play a role in one of their lives. I brushed it off as a "brain hiccup" and thought little more of it.
During the next five years, we drew closer to that family and got to know the twins well. Gradually, one of them shared with us his call to the ministry of music.
When the twins were 17, they and their parents visited us and toured the campus where I teach. The one called to music ministry was immediately struck with the impression he was to attend this particular university and none other. Over the next year, it became clearer to us that he was very serious. As far as I could tell, it had nothing to do with the fact that I teach there; he was following an inner tug of divine guidance.
But my university is expensive, and his family is of modest means. During his senior year of high school, he applied for scholarships, but the results were not encouraging. Still, his enthusiasm for studying for ministry at this university didn't flag.
I felt a strong burden to help him, but contrary to popular perception, Christian university professors are not prosperous. And my book royalties had never added up to any large amounts.
The Voice
One bright and beautiful morning in October 2005, I went out alone, walking and praying. I began to cry out to God for my young friend. "Oh, God, please use me to make it possible for him to go to this university!" I don't know what I expected to happen, but I committed to letting God use me however he wanted to on this young man's behalf.
The next week, I was at the same spot in my morning exercise when something amazing happened. Out of the blue, a book title came to me. It was so clever I knew two things instantly: It wasn't mine, and it would sell.
Then, in almost the same instant, the entire outline of the book was there in my mind. Every chapter and its title. No discursive thought preceded it. I immediately went home and began writing. As I wrote, I had the distinct feeling that this was not me. I had never written like this before. The words poured out. Two weeks later, a 200-page manuscript sat on my desk. I knew it was good.
But what to do with it? I had never before written a book without a contract. As I sat and looked at the printed pages, the name of a well-known Christian book publisher suddenly came to mind. I had never dealt with the company before, but I had met the chief editor at professional society meetings. I felt directed to contact him, even though I knew the publisher's procedure for considering book proposals and manuscripts was quite different and more complicated.
I sent my acquaintance an e-mail message containing the title and the outline. A day later, I received an encouraging response; he wanted to read the manuscript. So I sent it to him. Within weeks, I had a contract; it required only a little tweaking of two or three brief portions of the manuscript.
While talking to the editor assigned to this project, I discovered something astonishing. The publisher wanted to pay me a handsome royalty in advance for the book. It was approximately ten times anything I had ever received up-front before. I felt like I had won the lottery!
Later, I took another brisk walk through my neighborhood. My mind was concentrating on the financial windfall and how to use it. Coincidentally, the estimated cost of my house's much-needed roof replacement was the same as the royalty advance paid by my new publisher. The answer seemed clear—a new roof.
Then God spoke: "It's not your money."
Those were the first words of a conversation that lasted on and off for several days. Knowing instantly it wasn't a "brain hiccup" but something more real and serious, I asked, "What do you mean it's not my money?" My tone was resentful and defensive.
"It's not your money. It's his." The voice inside my head was as real as if it were audible. I knew with terrifying certainty it wasn't my imagination, because I didn't want to hear it.
"Whose?" I asked.
The voice named the young man for whom I had been praying only a few weeks earlier. "It's for him to go to the university and study for the ministry."
"All of it?"
"That and the rest."
I knew "the rest" meant any further royalties the book might earn after it was published.
Absolutely flabbergasted, I raised my fist in the air and asked aloud, "What about my roof?"
The voice said, "I'll take care of your roof, if you'll be obedient."
Then I said, "If you want to use me to help him go to the university, why not give me everything it will cost? Why this amount that will make a difference but not pay his whole way?"
"Others have to be obedient, too," I heard in reply.
When I arrived home, I shared the conversation with my wife, who had been looking forward to a roof that wouldn't leak. I couldn't talk about it without sobbing almost uncontrollably. I was shaking with emotion. Nothing like this had ever happened to me before. My wife is more spiritual than I am. She immediately agreed; we would wait for a new roof.
Confirming the Call
Over the next few months, I sent letters and e-mails and made phone calls about my young friend and his financial needs. I felt driven and couldn't stop talking about him. Because the university's deadline for need-based financial aid had passed without him or his parents applying, it looked like he would have to live with us to save money. But this would violate campus policy for first-year students, who are required to live in dorms. I sent an e-mail to the dean of student development, almost begging him to make an exception.
A couple weeks later, I received an e-mail back from the dean, saying the university was awarding him a very large scholarship that would more than cover his room and board. Soon a foundation kicked in $2,000. Then two more scholarships came. It became apparent that God was working miracles through several people.
During this time, I wondered whether I should tell my young friend anything. Something inside urged me to. One early afternoon in April, I drove to his house and took him out for dinner. We talked about the call to ministry and the commitment it requires. I was convinced again that he was truly called and destined to be used by God in great ways. So I shared with him my conversation with God and told him the source of the funds that would make it possible for him to attend my university; I explained the origin of the book and the role it would play in his education.
Clearly this was something he had needed to hear; he became choked up as he shared with me his own struggles and doubts. Others in his church youth group had received prophetic messages about their future ministries, but he had not. My story confirmed his call. Today, my young friend is living in a residence hall and taking courses, including courses in preparation for music ministry.
'To Be Used of God …'
Does God still speak today? I know he does.
So what does all this mean? I'm a theologian, and I should know. But I can't spin out a fancy theological formula for God's guidance and provision. What I know is that God spoke to me and used a gift he had already given me to provide for a young man being called into his service. It all started when I said, "God, please use me!"
I wonder how many times I've passed up an opportunity to be used in such a way. I'm reminded of an old "camp chorus" from the 1960s: "To be used of God to speak, to sing, to pray. To be used of God to show someone the way. I want so much to feel the touch of his consuming fire. To be used of God is my desire."
I used to sing those words with passion as a teenager, but I was never sure God answered my sung prayer. All it took was a specific need and a specific plea combined with the determination to be obedient. I don't know if it always works that way, but it did this time for me and my young friend.
So what has this done for me? Probably more than for the young man bound for ministry. We now have a new roof, for one thing, which came under circumstances that can only be described as oddly providential—but that's another story. More importantly, my faith in a living, personal, loving, and providing God has been renewed and deepened.
Now I know, more than intellectually, that God still speaks.
The writer is a professor, author, and CT contributing editor.
Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
An incredible interview..
Because they hate
Posted: April 12, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
"Because They Hate: A Survivor of Islamic Terror Warns America," is written by Brigitte Gabriel. This is an edited version of our interview.
Larry Elder: You are of Christian Lebanese descent. When you heard what Rosie O'Donnell said, that Christian extremism is as bad as Islamic extremism, how did you react?
Brigitte Gabriel: Well, I do not know what land she is living in, but I do not recall when the last time I saw a Christian behead anybody on television, or behead somebody and advertise it on the Internet. I do not recall hearing a Christian preach that Muslims are apes and pigs because they are cursed by Jesus, the way that Muslims are teaching that we are apes and pigs. I do not recall the last time a Christian went into an elementary school, hijacked children and started shooting them in the back like the Muslims did in Beslan in Russia when they went into a schoolyard and took over the children and started butchering them and killing them. [Rosie] better be thankful that she is living in America, because if she were living in Iran and spoke against her country – or any Arabic country – she would be beheaded or actually buried halfway in the ground, to be stoned to death.
Elder: Did you study Islam?
Gabriel: No, I did not study Islam; I lived Islam. I lived in the Middle East. I read the Quran in the Arabic language – I do not need translation. There is something about living in a place and being an eyewitness and coming from a culture and blowing the whistle on that culture, and that is very different from someone majoring in Islam and living in the Middle East for two months so they can write their thesis.
Elder: You were raised in Lebanon. You were 10 years old and living in southern Lebanon when militant Muslims ... poured into your country and declared jihad against Lebanese Christians such as yourself.
Gabriel: Yes, my 9-11 happened to me in 1975 when I was a 10-year-old child, living and minding my own business [in] a small town in south Lebanon. I was an only child to a businessman and his wife. I was blessed with a wonderful childhood. ... They showered me with love and everything life had blessed them with. However, our lives were turned upside down because in 1975, the Muslims declared holy war on the Christians of Lebanon. My home exploded around me, buried in the rubble, wounded as the perpetrators shouted, "Allahu Akbar" [God is great]. My only crime was that I was a Christian living in a Christian town. I learned at 10 years old the meaning of the word "infidel." I had a crash course in survival not in the Girl Scouts, but in the bomb shelter that I lived for seven years of my life in freezing cold, pitch darkness, drinking stale water and eating grass to live. I remember at the age of 13, I dressed in my burial clothes going to bed at night, waiting to be slaughtered. By the age of 20, I had buried most of my friends, who were slaughtered by Muslims.
Elder: You call your book a wake-up call. Tell us what the West does not understand about what I call Islamo-fascism. And, do you think "Islamo-fascism" is an appropriate term?
Gabriel: Yes, it is an appropriate term. We are fighting Islamo-fascism, we are fighting a war that is much worse than Nazism, anything we have fought before, because even the Nazis did not encourage their children to strap bombs onto their bodies and then rejoice at their deaths, as well as the deaths of their victims. Islamists are encouraging their children to die.
Elder: There are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world. I want you to analyze them by ideology.
Gabriel: Not all of them are radicals. We estimate that the radicals are between 15 and 25 percent; that translates to between 180 and 300 million people like Mohamed Atta who are willing to strap bombs to their bodies and commit martyrdom operations. Now, that is still a minority, 15 to 25 percent, but 300 million Mohamed Attas ready to unleash their blood upon the West. ... Now, the rest of them ... despise the West, they hate our westernization, they think we are morally corrupt, that we are corrupting the world, and they think we are such a bad influence on the world that we need to be stopped at any cost. They may not be willing to commit martyrdom operations themselves, but they will sit there and cheer on and rally those who are willing to kill us.
Elder: Are we winning?
Gabriel: No, we are losing.
Larry Elder: What caused Lebanon's 1975 jihad invasion?
Brigitte Gabriel: ... In the early '70s, Lebanon was a majority Christian country ... a republic very much like America. We prospered. We focused on growing our economy. We were multicultural, fair and tolerant, and had an open border policy. We welcomed everybody into our country, because we wanted to share the Westernizations we had created in the Middle East. ... Sadly, many people who came didn't want to assimilate and adopt Westernizations, but wanted to drag us down to their tribal Islamic culture. ... By 1974, Christians stopped traveling. We became prisoners in our homes and cities because Muslims would set up fly-by-night checkpoints. ... Our religion is written on our national ID. ... So, Muslims would stop cars, look at their IDs and if a Christian family was traveling, they would shoot them in cold blood – the whole family. ... Extremist Muslims started coming from all around the Arabic world to fight alongside the Muslims in Lebanon.
Elder: Tell us about Islamo-fascism in the West.
Gabriel: The Center for Religious Freedom went undercover last year and collected 200 publications from some of the most prominent mosques in the United States. Those books, provided by the government of Saudi Arabia to American mosques, teach Muslims living in an infidel land how to deal with infidels. These Saudi publications repeatedly exalt Muslims to, and I quote, hate them for their religion – meaning Christians, Jews, atheists and everybody in between. ... They say that democracy, justice, freedom, brotherhood and equality cause all of the world's problems. This is being taught in the mosques. And it gets worse. They say it is the religious duty of every Muslim to impose functionally Islamic government on every country in the world. This religious duty is binding ... and a sacred obligation of jihad. ... Many people do not realize that under the banner of Islam the Muslims killed children in Israel, massacred children in Lebanon, killed cops in Egypt, murdered Armenians in Turkey, killed Hindus in India, and expelled over 900,000 Jews from Arab land. All that happened before they turned their eyes to the West and before Sept. 11, 2001. ... This is the religion of Islam. ...
Elder: Are there moderate Muslims who condemn the radicals, who don't feel threatened by democracy?
Gabriel: Yes. ... I call it a practicing Muslim and a non-practicing Muslim. I think it is a better description than "moderate" and "radical." A practicing Muslim goes to mosque, prays five times a day, doesn't drink, believes God gave him women to be his property – to beat, to stone to death. ... He believes Christians and Jews are apes and pigs because they are cursed by Allah. He believes it is his duty to declare war on the infidels because they are Allah's enemies. That is a practicing Muslim. A non-practicing Muslim no longer goes to mosque or prays five times a day, has an occasional glass of wine and believes that a woman is equal to a man. ... He believes he cannot murder his wife just because he wants to. He does not believe in taking four wives just for sexual pleasure. ... He no longer believes that, as a Muslim, it is his duty to kill the apes and pigs that have been cursed by Allah. A non-practicing Muslim is educated, an intellectual who believes the Quran – written in the seventh century – doesn't apply to today's standards, and Islam needs to be reformed. Those Muslims do exist and live in the West. However, they are such a minority – we estimate about 2 percent – they are irrelevant because it is the majority that is causing the problem now.
Elder: What should be done?
Gabriel: Shut our borders. We have terrorists coming through our borders. Al-Qaida is working with the MS-13 gang [El Salvadorian gang Mara Salvatrucha], smuggling al-Qaida terrorists into the country. Hezbollah is doing the same. ... We estimate thousands have already been smuggled into America. ... Hamas is here. ... They have cells in over 40 states. ... We also need to reform our immigration and visa programs. We need to monitor who is coming into our country and why. ... We need to increase human intelligence. ... To get that human element that gets you the information, it takes years to establish trust with the enemy in order to get the secrets out of them. ... As for profiling, I want everyone who fits the terrorist profile to be profiled. We have men between the ages of 16 and 40 who have committed terrorist acts around the world in the name of Islam. They are not little old ladies from Ohio with blue hair. They are not children going to Disney World on their Easter vacation.
Elder: What happens if a Democrat wins the 2008 election?
Gabriel: We are doomed. Our enemies want the Democrats to win. This last election, jihadist websites were playing victory songs and declaring the Democrats are our allies in the war against America. ... Whoever comes next is going to have to deal with the same things Bush is dealing with.
If you agree with the premise stated, just what should news organizations do? How much should parents withhold from their kids as far is information goes?
THE MEDIA IS PSYCHOLOGICALLY SICK
Written by Jack Kelly
Friday, 20 April 2007
For the sake of a few dollars more, NBC has brought closer the day of the next public mass killing in America.
"This was a sick business tonight, going on the air with this," acknowledged NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams of his network's decision to air portions of the "multimedia manifesto" Cho Seung-Hui mailed NBC in the interval between his murder sprees on the Virginia Tech campus.
It was indeed a sick business decision. Mass killings inspire copycats. "School campuses in at least 10 states were locked down or evacuated in the aftermath of a Virginia Tech student's shooting rampage," the AP reported Wednesday.
NBC is not alone in its guilt. Every news organization which rebroadcast portions of the video, or newspapers (like mine, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for which I write a column) which published still photographs of Mr. Cho posing with his weapons is complicit.
We say we do this to protect "the people's right to know." The real reason, of course, is we hope the titillation will increase our number of viewers or readers.
But as we fatten our bottom lines, we send a message to every sociopathic loser: Wanna be famous? Go kill a lot of people. We'll put your face and your story and your alleged grievances into every home in America.
So, what do you think about revival?..Evel Overcome With Good
Daredevil Knievel's testimony triggers mass baptisms at Crystal Cathedral.
Brad A. Greenberg | posted 4/13/2007 03:03PM
On Palm Sunday, hundreds responded to Robert "Evel" Knievel's testimony by asking to be baptized on the spot at Crystal Cathedral. Speaking alongside the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, Knievel told the congregation in Orange County, California, how he had refused for 68 years to accept Jesus Christ as Lord. He believed in God, but he couldn't walk away from the gold and the gambling and the booze and the women.
"I don't know why I fought it so hard," he said. "I just did."
But Knievel knew people were praying for him, including his daughter's church, his ex-wife's church, and the hundreds of people who wrote letters urging him to believe. And then something indescribable happened during Daytona Bike Week this March.
"I don't know what in the world happened. I don't know if it was the power of the prayer or God himself, but it just reached out, either while I was driving or walking down the sidewalk or sleeping, and it just—the power of God in Jesus just grabbed me. … All of a sudden, I just believed in Jesus Christ. I did, I believed in him! … I rose up in bed and, I was by myself, and I said, 'Devil, Devil, you bastard you, get away from me. I cast you out of my life.' … I just got on my knees and prayed that God would put his arms around me and never, ever, ever let me go."
Pastor Robert A. Schuller, who took over for his father last year, looked out on the church and noticed most people were sobbing. He couldn't simply continue with the service's script and proceed to the offering.
"I went up front, and I said, 'I believe there is somebody who needs to be baptized here. Maybe up on that balcony or by that door or by that wall. So come forward,'" Schuller told CT. "We started singing 'Amazing Grace,' and I started baptizing people, baptizing them as fast as I could. I had a little candy dish of water. 'What's your name? Okay, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit'—crying the whole time and going to the next one."
Schuller continued this for 30 minutes, not realizing that four other pastors were baptizing the convicted just as quickly. During the second service, the response repeated itself. Together, Schuller estimates, between 500 and 800 people committed or rededicated their lives to God.
"I don't want to make grandiose claims; I'm not a prophet," said Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, who spoke with Schuller the next morning. "But I think it is a sign that in God's own sovereign goodness, he sends these moments to remind us that we are all sinners and reaches out to us in surprising ways. This is something the Christian community in general, and particularly the evangelical community, needs to take very seriously."Revival trade
Mouw also met with couples from Crystal Cathedral who described the spontaneous response as one of the most spiritually significant events they had ever experienced. Historically, religious awakenings have played a significant role in Christianity, particularly evangelicalism. Charles Finney, a leader of the Second Great Awakening, revolutionized revivalism by arguing that churches could incite revivals through faithfulness and diligence.
"Since that point forward at least, it has become a trade; it has become a profession; it has become a series of techniques," said Joel Carpenter, director of the Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity at Calvin College. "It is fair for any discerning Christian, when he hears a revival is happening, to be a little skeptical, not to be cynical, but to ask questions that are meant to help discern what is going on there spiritually."
At historic moments when God seems to be moving mountains, the emotional and physical strain of a revival can be exhausting, said Edith Blumhofer, director of the Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals, noting the reaction of missionaries in Korea at the start of the 20th century.
"After it was over, the people said they never wanted to go through a revival again," she said. "It was so agonizing, there was such depth, such conviction for sin, and the things people felt they needed to confess publicly was so difficult."
Blumhofer said that though revivals sometimes are considered evangelistic tools, their real role—whether planned or spontaneous—is to reinvigorate church regulars. "It is a deepening conviction of one's sinfulness, one's need of grace, one's need of God that transforms—and then evangelism flows from that."Powerful Hour
A Reformed Church in America congregation with no walls and 10,000 windows, Crystal Cathedral was founded in 1955 by Robert H. Schuller. Shaped like a star with its points aimed north, south, east, and west, the church reaches people in more than 100 countries via the Hour of Power, the largest component of Crystal Cathedral Ministries. The video from the Palm Sunday service will be broadcast on April 22.
The ministry, though, has been struggling recently. A week before Christmas 2004, the congregation's longtime orchestra conductor killed himself in a church bathroom. And last year, revenues for Hour of Power, which has a $40 million operating budget, were $3 million short, Schuller said. But he said he and his leaders hadn't been praying for a revival. They simply had been praying—for the congregation and the community, for tragedies and triumphs. Now Schuller is trying to discern God's response.
"It may be too early to call it a revival," Schuller said. "But it was clearly a moving of the Holy Spirit, and everybody has been talking about it. Our congregation and church keeps saying, 'Okay, where do we go from here?' I'm not exactly sure. But I think the Holy Spirit will assist me in the doing the right thing."
Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Good advice, or bad? Wise to seek advice from this source or not?
Hanging on for Dear Life
Thu Apr 19, 2:00 AM ET
DEAR MARGO: I am 32 years old and in school earning a second bachelor's degree. I currently live with my parents, though I did spend 11 years on my own. I moved back with them four years ago, after leaving a relationship, thinking that when I was able to support myself, I would. However, I've found that has not happened. My parents are paying for my schooling (tuition and books) and do not charge rent. They have bought me a car and a laptop. They are very generous, and I am grateful for what they have done for me. I work hard at school and have a decent GPA in a difficult major (engineering). I also work 20 hours a week at an internship.
When I discussed moving out with my father, he refused to hear my reasons for wanting to move and became irate when I continued to talk about it. He says it isn't wise to move out now, because then I can't save money. My argument is that at 32, I should be on my own.
I am willing to give up the free tuition and books, but I fear that it may damage my relationship with my parents if I just leave. They have also told me that there is no reason for me to date, and that I need to stop being so "boy crazy" and concentrate on school.
In spite of that, I have been dating a wonderful, smart and loving man for over three years, but it's beginning to take a toll on both of us, because I have to lie to my parents in order to spend time with him.
I am an only child. I know I can move out at any time, but I want to be independent without losing my parents.
--- SAD AND TIRED OF LYING
DEAR SAD: I'm afraid you may have to lose your parents if you are looking to be independent. To be a 32-year-old woman who is accused of being "boy crazy" and told "there is no reason to date" is to be victimized by nutty parents.
And having to lie about seeing a lovely man -- for three years, yet -- means your parents are working extra hard at infantilizing you. Leave "home" now, and take your chances with tuition. Do not enable Mom and Pop in their effort to keep you their little girl forever.
--- MARGO, AUTONOMOUSLY
Below, Mr. Earley introduces a great thing to practice in dialog.. Especially as you grow up in a hostile world.
Anger in Public DiscourseThe Rules of Engagement
April 17, 2007
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
As I mentioned on yesterday's broadcast about Peter Wood's new book, A Bee in the Mouth, anger has become the new norm for public discourse today. Just think about any arguments you have had—or heard—lately about the war in Iraq, global warming, gay "marriage," or abortion.
Clearly, our nation and our culture are polarized. Discussion and debate have been replaced with yelling and demonizing. We Christians cannot retreat from the public square. We are called to speak the truth in love. But how do we engage others in a world where sound bytes compete and angry rhetoric is the order of the day?
As I have thought about this cultural trend, I have been reminded of a famous speech by Dorothy Sayers, "The Lost Tools of Learning," presented at Oxford in 1947. In it, she discusses the three pillars of a classical education: fact-gathering (or "grammar" as it is referred to), logic, and rhetoric.
We can apply this classical way of learning to our own discourse: Gather facts, apply logic, and then use effective principles of communication. Thankfully, there are a number of Christian classical schools across the country teaching kids exactly this.
But this does not get us quite far enough in this postmodern world. How do we engage with others who may have tossed logic to the curb long ago?
For starters, we might look to Jesus Himself as a model. Throughout His ministry, Jesus engages in conversation by probing people so that they examine themselves. How does He do it? He asks them questions of His own: Why do you call me good? Whose image and word are stamped on this coin? Who was the neighbor to this man? Some eighty-two questions of Jesus are recorded in the book of Matthew alone.
Take a look, for instance, at the story of the woman caught in adultery. The Pharisees come dragging a woman before Jesus to put Him between the rock of the Mosaic Law and the hard place of a public bloodbath. Stewing in their anger against Jesus, the Pharisees asked Him what they should do with the woman. Jesus could have responded in anger. Instead, He stoops and scribbles in the sand, creating a silent moment in a volatile situation.
Then, knowing that this teachable moment has more to do with exposing the Pharisees' hearts than the heart of this already-exposed woman, Jesus says, "If anyone is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." It's an implicit question: Who among you is sinless?
Jesus was not merely trying to win an argument, nor was His main goal even diffusing anger. He was trying to win the hearts and minds of those who might listen.
The Pharisees had come with an agenda, and their anger, like the anger of so many around us today, was merely a symptom of a deeper problem. Of all people, Jesus could have shown a judgmental attitude. Unlike us, He is, after all, a righteous judge. But instead through a humble heart, and an implicit question, Jesus gently exposes the real issue.
You know, if our priority is winning over our opponents, instead of merely beating them in an argument, God can give us grace to do the same as Jesus did.
We have a pretty cool lineup for the next couple of weeks. FYI, Mr. Dennis will be joining us to share about the reliability of Scripture this week.Next week, I am hoping Colin will lead discussion.Following that, Pastor Ed is happy to come back and talk about how to continue the healing process after trust has been broken.Look forward to seeing you guys.
Are schools doing this (using homeschoolers as an example) to be sarcastic (too crazy an idea to be considered realistic), or because homeschoolers are an easy target to pick on?Are Christians Terrorists?What Schools Are Teaching Our Kids
April 13, 2007
Note: This commentary was delivered by Prison Fellowship President Mark Earley.
Two-and-a-half years ago, Islamic terrorists took 1,200 people hostage at a school in the Russian city of Beslan. They ultimately slaughtered 344 people, including 186 children. The attack brought back memories of the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School, in which two disaffected students shot to death twelve classmates and a teacher.
It is no surprise, then—especially after September 11—that a New Jersey school district felt the need to practice anti-terrorism drills. What shocked students was who the mock terrorists were supposed to be: homeschooling Christian fundamentalists.
It's another example of how openly those hostile to any forms of Christianity express their contempt.
The anti-terrorism drill was organized by the Burlington Township Police Department. According to the Burlington County Times, the drill scenario described intruders as "members of a right-wing fundamentalist group called the 'New Crusaders' who do not believe in separation of church and state." The storyline also says the mock terrorists were angry because the daughter of one gunman was expelled from school for praying in class. The drill "specified that two armed men invade the high school . . . shoot several students in the hallways, then barricade themselves in the media center with 10 student hostages."
Not surprisingly, Christian students, parents, and local pastors were upset about Christians being portrayed this way, and conservative media outlets expressed outrage. In response, Burlington township and school officials claimed the scenario was "generic" and did not specify any particular religion.
Oh, please. This is like garbing the police in Arab headdresses, naming them the "New Jihadists," and then claiming the scenario had nothing to do with Islam.
Nor is this the first time schools have run drills featuring Christian terrorists. Three years ago, a school district in Muskegon County, Michigan, had a similar drill. The terrorists in that case were called "Wackos Against Schools and Education"—homeschooling nuts who detonate a bomb on a school bus.
These drills are more than troubling. They deliberately ignore reality: The killers who have struck at schools—or who attempt to—are either Islamic radicals or disturbed students who are angry at other students or teachers.
Ironically, school districts probably stick the terrorism label on Christians in part because they are too afraid of what Islamic radicals may do if they dare suggest that Muslims might actually be the ones they have to worry about.
These drills are also disturbing in that they are giving impressionable kids an ugly and distorted picture of Christian believers: that we are crazed killers who go after anyone who crosses us. While I suspect older kids will roll their eyes at this depiction, younger children may well absorb the message that Christians really are dangerous.
We ought to protest that message wherever we see it—especially when the mainstream media ignores it, as they have in this case. But we should also be proactive in terms of what message kids do absorb about our faith. We should reach out to local, unchurched kids, offering after-school tutoring, game and movie nights, and camping trips.
There is nothing like knowing a few real followers of Jesus for kids to realize that neighborhood Christians are not murderous wackos, but indeed are followers of the Prince of Peace.
Here is a defense of the war in Iraq. Do you understand it? Do you buy it? Are you willing to promote it?
The Iraq war's other front – my doctor's office
Posted: April 5, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern
The "Bush Lied, People Died" yahoos lurk everywhere. Few can escape them.
Standing at the check-in window of my doctor's office, awaiting my annual prostate exam, I heard a staff member yell out with a smile, "Hi, Mr. Elder. How does it feel to be one of the last guys who supports the war?"
The 20-something-year-old receptionist, who was signing me in, then narrowed her eyes, and the volcano erupted. She tore into an emotional, convoluted, fact-challenged barrage against the president. He lied us into the war, and too many of our soldiers are dying. He's incompetent. He sent young men and women to die for oil and for Halliburton. While he plays commander in chief, the middle class shrinks. He cares only about the rich. His racism showed in his handling of Katrina. Yadda, blah, etc. …
I tried to remain calm while considering the source. In general, depending upon the setting, I try to conserve my mood and my energy. But, then there are other times – and this was one of them.
"You talked about the number of our military personnel who have died in Iraq," I said, "3,500 and counting. Do you happen to know how many died in World War I?"
"No."
"What about Korea and Vietnam?"
"No."
" What about the Civil War – both sides?"
"No."
"What about World War II?"
"No."
"We lost over 100,000 in the First World War, with a much smaller population than today. During the Civil War, 600,000 died on both sides, and the population was about 10 percent of today's 300 million. So, adjusted for the population, 6 million people died during the Civil War."
Soon the other staff members behind the receptionist began to listen, as did the patients sitting in the waiting room.
"By the end of World War II," I continued, "400,000 Americans died. Again, adjusting for today's population, that means nearly 800,000 people – those killed so far in Iraq represent less than one-half of 1 percent of that number. Of course, every life is precious, but I suggest that before you talk about the 'huge' amount of deaths, you gain some perspective."
"But, what about the lies?" she said.
"Why bother," I said, "maybe my prostate could wait another year. I'll just go down and grab a hamburger."
But I said, "Are you familiar with the Robb-Silberman Commission that concluded the president did not lie about the intelligence on Iraq?"
"No."
"What about the Senate bipartisan panel that concluded the same thing – that Bush didn't lie?"
"No."
"What about David Kaye?" I said.
"Who?"
"He's the guy Bush sent to Iraq to find stockpiles of WMD. While he didn't find stockpiles of WMD, he spoke of the possibility that Saddam transferred WMD out of the country during the run up of the war. Perhaps more important, he said that no intelligence analyst – all of whom, by the way, thought Saddam had stockpiles of WMD – felt pressured to lie simply to provide a motive for Bush to go to war."
"But, we have been in Iraq longer than we fought the whole World War II. This is crazy," the receptionist replied.
"Crazy?" I said, "I know of no stopwatch for war. During the Civil War, both sides expected it to last just a few weeks, no more than a few months. During the Revolutionary War, Gen. George Washington lost battle after battle such that some wanted him replaced by a more competent general. The early years of World War II seemed particularly gloomy, but President Franklin Delano Roosevelt didn't say, 'Well, we've been at this for a bit. Let's call it a day and go home.'"
That was too much for a guy sitting in the waiting room, who chimed in, "But the war has made things worse."
So now, I am getting it from all sides.
Turning to the gentleman, I said, "I guess you assume that everything was going swimmingly until Bush stuck a stick into the hornet's nest. Do you remember the 1979 seizure of American hostages, who were held for over 400 days? Do you remember the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia? Do you remember the attack on the Marine barracks during the Reagan administration, or the attacks on our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya? What about the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993? Not to mention the attack on 9-11 that killed over 3,000 on U.S. soil. Yeah, if only Bush hadn't ticked off so many people, the Disney Company, by now, would've built a theme park in Pakistan."
And so it went. To paraphrase Osama bin Laden, if we lose the war in Iraq, it will not be lost on the battlefield, but in places like my doctor's office.
"Mr. Elder," said the nurse's assistant, "the doctor will see you now." And not a moment too soon – for them.
