Inside the Heart of Darkness

No offense to Joseph Conrad, but we don't need to travel to the dark reaches of the globe anymore to find the evil that is in man's heart.  We were shown it once again this week with the cold-blooded murders of American soldiers at Ft. Hood by one of their own comrades.  The news media and investigators will be obsessed in the coming days with answering the question of "Why?"  Why would someone snap and go on a murderous rampage.  The same question was asked after the Virginia Tech killings, the same question after Columbine.  Culprits will be found who "missed the signs" and scapegoats will be blamed (as they were after the others).  But what was the real cause of this inhumanity?  Rebellion against God.  Rejection of the Truth that all men are brothers because we have the same father.  The placing of selfish motives or ideals above regard for the lives of others.
This is a familiar path, we've been down it so many times before.  The heart of mankind is dark.  In this darkness, even the basic notion that the lives of others are to be respected can be, and is, lost.  It should only takes another father beating his child to convince us of this Truth, and it should only take glance at a Hitler or a Mao to convince us that we will never fix this problem on our own.
The heart of man is dark; self-help is not the answer; Hinduism is not the answer; Scientology is not the answer; Buddhism is not the answer; Islam is not the answer; materialism is not the answer; secularism is not the answer...
There is an answer, there is a Gospel, there is salvation from our sin through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Every other solution, every other cure, is a fraud. 
Our prayers go out to the men and women of the Army who have bravely defended the freedom that Americans enjoy each day.  God bless you all.

Sometimes, I don't have any answers

Sometimes you just don’t have any answers. You’ve heard about a tragic situation, or maybe listened as a friend relates the agonizing details of a loss. Answers just don’t come. You could quote Scripture, and if you think of the right passage that might help, but sometimes your mind goes blank and all you have to give is, “I know” or “I’m sorry”. Then again, maybe that’s the right thing to do anyway; James said we should be quick to listen and slow to speak so maybe we shouldn’t be trying to think of what we should say and simply concentrate on listening. Bad things do happen to good people. Our world is neck deep in sin and rebellion toward everything that is good and noble and pure. Is it any wonder that good people suffer too? Death, disease, fire, storms, corruption, greed, hatred; they’re all a part of this world we’ve made for ourselves (in the sense that this is what it’s like apart from God; man’s rebellion is reaping only what it once sowed). How does anyone make it through a good week without the hope of knowing God? Should we be surprised that people try to drown out their sorrow in alcohol, sex, and drugs? Without God, we don’t have any answers.


Back to my original thought; sometimes I don’t have any answers; that seems odd because people count on me for answers all the time. If answers are what you crave, you’ll have to ask God, but I have a feeling that when you or I stand face to face with Jesus Christ the last thing we’ll be wondering about are the answers.

From the mountain "burning with fire" to "the city of the living God" - Hebrews 12:18-24

When Moses approached the presence of God on Mt. Sinai he did so "trembling with fear".  The people of Israel were unable to endure the sight of Moses when he returned because he face shown with the radiance of God's glory.  Fast forward about 1500 years to the Temple in Jerusalem.  A massive curtain separates the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies.  What does this all mean?  God's people still do not have access to the glory of his presence.  Their sin prevents them from enduring the holiness of God (God's perfection cannot be in the presence of such inperfection).  Only the High Priest can enter this inner room, and only once a year (The Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur), and that only with a blood sacrifice for his own sins.
That very curtain, the symbolic separation between God and man, is torn in two at the moment of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  The blood guilt has been paid, God's presence can now be approached by man through faith.
And so Hebrews tells us that we now approach Mount Zion, "the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God" where thousands of angels rejoice and celebrate with the "spirits of righteous men made perfect".  Here Jesus "the mediator of the new covenant" awaits us with open arms.
A far cry from a gloomy mountain covered in darkness, fire, and storm isn't it?

Run "the race marked out for us" - Hebrews 12:1

One of the first things that cross-country runners (both high school and college) do when they arrive at a meet is to run the course.  I know, some of you are thinking, "run BEFORE you race?"  I can't say that I was overly fond of these warm-up runs but they served an important purpose.  Not only did they get our bodies ready for the intensity of the race, but they allowed us to see the actual course itself.  It isn't that necessary to study the course if you plan on trailing the main pack, you can just follow them.  But, if you plan on trying to lead the pack you'd better know which way to go.  In most cases, there are clues already on the course (usually a white painted line in the grass and colored flags at corners and turns), and most of the time we were provided with crude maps detailing the course, but you don't want to come to a crossroad at full speed and have to decide which way to go on the fly.  When I was in H.S. it was customary for members of the home team to guide the visitors through the course and explain any unusual twists or turns.
How does any of this apply to what Hebrews is telling us about running the race of Christian faith?  We have a "great cloud of witnesses", the heroes of the faith from chapter 11, to show us the path that we should follow, and we have contemporary heroes in the faith who we can look to for inspiration and guidance (in my life, my grandmother, Pastor Frank, Andy Smith, Dr. Mayers, my dad, and many others).  We also have an amazing guidebook in God's Word to help us through the unexpected twists and turns of life.
This may all seem a bit dramatic but an example from my days in the middle school cross-country team applies here.  We were running at Central Montcalm (a big race where we ran only against our own grade instead of 7th and 8th together) and one of my teammates, now the wife of a good friend and fellow basketball player, shot out of the starting line to an early lead.  This was somewhat unusual for her, but on this day she was clearly leading the race.  There was only one problem with this scenario, she didn't know where she was going.  When she came to a crossroad in the course she went the wrong way and EVERYONE in the pack followed her.  The race officials scrambled to figure out where to direct the pack to try to get them to run a distance close to what was intended.  In the end her mistake was simply a humorous story because it was just a middle school race and not a life changing decision.

If you want to run the race of faith from the front of the pack, you'd better pay attention to course that has been marked out for you.

Entering God's Rest - Hebrews 4

I was asked to conduct a funeral this past week for someone from Palo (years ago) that I had never met.  This sort of thing can be difficult because as a pastor it's hard to know which Scripture passages will be of the most comfort for the family when you don't know much about the person who is being remembered.  In the end, two passages from the Gospels helped me, Jesus and the thief on the Cross (how wide is God's mercy and how easily obtained) and the 99 and 1 Sheep (God cares enough about each of us to not let us wander off) were able to guide me in my remarks.
Thinking back on that funeral, there was a lot of talk from the family and friends about how their loved one was no longer struggling against the troubles that beset her during her life.  That's certainly true, but I think it misses the point a little bit.  We often think of heaven as a place where we no longer have to endure physical troubles (an aching back, poor eyesight, a handicap); while this is certainly true, it doesn't reflect the real reason why standing before Jesus some day will be so amazing.
The burden that we are all carrying, a burden whose weight we are so used to that we don't even notice it, is sin.  We live in a world where sin is everywhere.  A world where our lives are beset by temptations and tragedies that come from sin.  The true peace of God that we will experience when standing face to face with Jesus will be finally knowing what it is like to be holy.  When selfishness is no longer an option, when fear and failure slip away.  On that day, you will find that a tremendous weight has fallen off your shoulders, never to be taken up again.  On that day, you will truly rest.
I'm reminded of the song, "I can only Imagine"  I love that song; the lyrics are amazing.  "Surrounded by your glory, what will my hear feel?  Will I dance for  you Jesus, or in awe of you bill still?  Will I stand in your presence, or to my knees will I fall?   Will I sing Hallelujah, will I be able to speak at all?  I can only imagine, I can only imagine."