Did you ever wonder how gravity works?  Take a ball.  Put something on it. And then give it a good spin.  What happens?  Whatever you placed on it goes flying out in some random manner.  How is it then that the earth spins around and we don’t go flying off?  Hmmm!  We call it gravitation, the physical force that is responsible for interactions between objects with mass.

We have no idea what makes it work. 

Have you ever wondered how that cut on your finger heals?  Just keep it clean and you can watch the human body repair itself.  How does the body heal itself from some things but not others?  Hmmm?

There are rocks that seemingly move across the desert floor, leaving a clear path or trail behind them.  How is that possible?  Hmmm?

We know that in the beginning there was this giant explosion of mass that sent particles flying out through what seems to be an infinite universe. 

And yet many of these objects formed solar systems that interact with one another.  How can an explosion that sends things flying out randomly form galaxies that are more accurate than any time piece man can create?   Hmmm.

What about cold?  What makes something cold?  Cold doesn’t exist by itself. Cold is an absence of heat?  What if there was no heat?  Could there still be cold?  Hmmm.   

What about the dreaded “Black Holes” in the universe.  How could something be so dark, if there were no light?  Hmmm. 

There are many things in life that we don’t understand.  That does not mean that they are not real or that they don’t exist.  It simply means that our finite minds cannot comprehend so much of this vast creation of God on either end of the spectrum of life, microscopic or telescopic.

Without heat we could not define cold.  Without light there would be no way of comprehending the darkness.  God created Light, and He created light before He created the sun and moon and stars.  Hmmm.   

Everything that God created was good!  Once good was created by God then that allowed for the possibility of evil.  God didn’t create evil.  God created only that which was holy and pure and good.  But in creating goodness,

God in His infinite wisdom allowed for the possibility of evil, giving mankind that moral choice between obedience and disobedience.     

So why is there so much evil in the world?  Evil is not something that you can pour into a bowl.  It has no physical presence in and of itself, no more than you could can a jar of “dark”.  It only exists when God’s moral creatures, you and I, decide to turn away from the goodness that God has created.  Evil exists because of you and me.  God created all the goodness and then gave men and women (created in His image) the moral freedom to go along with God’s goodness or rebel against it. 

Why is there so much evil in the world? 

Easy answer, all I have to do is look in the mirror. Hmmm.   

Veritas vos Liberabit!  Pastor Mike

I am back in Thailand for a few days.Here the major religion is Buddhism. 

Most of the people I ask about why they are Buddhist,they are puzzled.  They don’t know why.  Finally they just say that their parents were Buddhist, and their grandparents and so forth.  They don’t go to temple.  They are big believers in “luck” and “karma” – but when I push for details, I discover that I know more about Buddhism than they do.  They are left pondering, “why?”  Why am I Buddhist?  Of course you run into a lot of people who are serious about their faith. 

Those people are most challenging. I was speaking to one lady in a Buddhist temple who said that she was willing to talk to me about it, but I would never change her mind.In reaching Muslims in Bangladesh, instead of confronting them in argument form, they find the common ground between Following Jesus and Islam.

As it turns out, there is quite a bit, which is a natural place to begin witnessing to them.  Of course this approach takes time and patience.

But this is how millions are coming to Christ out of Islam.  In the same way, finding the common ground between the Buddhist beliefs and Christianity is a great place to begin the conversation.  They believe in Heaven and Hell, but they also believe a lot in re-incarnation.  The sales lady I spoke to this afternoon, said she believed in both.  I appealed to her logic, trying to show them how the two beliefs could not stand together.  Another customer came in, but she asked if I would come back tomorrow to do more conversing about faith.  It will be interesting for sure, as she is very confident about her faith.  I don’t know how it will work out, but hey, what have I got to lose.

And she has everything to gain.  The Buddhist men are much more about materialism, making more money, so they can enjoy themselves more. That is quite a divergence from Buddha’s teaching, but they don’t seem to concerned about that.  They believe because they are basically “good men” they will be OK in the afterlife. 

So I ask them, how did they become such good men, I have tried all of my life to be good, but I always fail.  How is it that you have become so good?  They respond with a puzzled look.  Of course we know that no one is good except God alone.  Are attempts at goodness are miniscule indeed.  They believe in the Buddha of works righteousness and salvation.  The more successful they are, the more good they are.  Sounds just like America to me.  Indeed people are the same all over the world. 

 Veritas vos Liberabit!  Pastor Mike

As I made my journey to the far east the news was filled with the death of 1,000’s in India, and then 100’s in China, and then in Dhaka, Bangladesh the people were on the verge of rioting over the trial of a man suspected of aiding Pakistan over 40 years ago during the war than Bangladesh won, separated and became its own nation.  In America the BBC was showing the crowds of people marching all over the country because of the results of the trial of Zimmerman on the shooting death of a young man, Trevon.  Egypt is in an uproar, Syria is a huge mess of fighting and killing, and there is rioting in Brazil where the middle class is raising up against the government.

To be honest, it was most depressing, but I was able to throw it out of my mind.  So many people dying, so far away, and I had no personal connections.  We know it will only get worse until Jesus returns.

It is all so sad, and yet it did not take any personal toll on me. After all, what could I do?  And who were these people to me?

But then I arrived at my hotel in Bangkok, The Grand Tower at Rama VI.   I was inquiring about a former tour guide that I had met some five years ago.  Soon I received a message to call a certain phone number.  It was about Sutikan Satipanya, (Kan) my tour guide.  I called the number and spoke to a man who spoke in broken English, but the message was very clear, my friend “Kan” was dead.  She had died as she had lived, alone.

A failed marriage and an estranged son left her pretty much on her own to make it in life.  Her life ended in a single car accident late at night some 3 years ago, hitting a bridge abutment.  She must have fallen asleep. It was not noticed until the next morning and by then she was gone.

All of a sudden, death meant something very real to me. Death visited Kan and ended her journey in this world.  She was a beautiful and kind lady who enjoyed sharing her country with groups of tourists.  I will never forget her smile.  But now I am stunned.  I had been witnessing to her about her Buddhist faith, but she was pretty well entrenched in the beliefs of her ancestors.  And I had not really done my homework in understanding her faith in Buddha.

I had been living as if she was alive, but in fact she was dead and most likely dead without Christ.  Her journey to death ended abruptly. I don’t think she was prepared to die.  It grieves me to think about that.   I wish now that I had written to her & witnessed to her in a stronger way.

Jesus said a good deal about this dying journey. Often, He called His followers to a single-hearted allegiance, and yes, even to death.  In Luke’s Gospel, He tells the great multitudes following Him that“if anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes and even his own life,he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

He is not asking for a little, He is asking for a lot.  He gave His everything so that we might have a share in His Everything.  And now He wants us to reciprocate His love by living for Him. And if we do the walk with Him, this journey to death holds a huge surprise and great hope.  The journey to death becomes transformed through Christ into a journey to Life.

The followers of Jesus will never taste death. As this physical shell gives way to lifelessness, we instantly find ourselves in His presence.

John 11:25-26

25     Jesus told her, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.   Anyone who believes in Me will live, even after dying.(body’s death)

26     Everyone who lives in Me & believes in Me will never ever die.

O how I wish that Kan had had that confidence.  Our business here as witnesses for Christ is unfinished. There are those all around us who don’t know about the Truth.  They are living pell-mell on the journey to death.

My time with Mannan in Bangladesh became all the more important to me.  Millions upon millions of these people believe in the God of Abraham, yet one man led them into centuries of heresy and apostasy.   They continue on in their journey to death, and only Jesus can save them.  They need to hear the Gospel in their culture, in their language, and in a way that is relevant to them.  I will share much more with you when I get home.

Veritas vos Liberabit!  Pastor Mike

July 11, 2013  Thursday,

From Dhaka, Bangladesh

Faith is one of the unique features of the Christ Follower.  It is a must. 

We need to place our faith in God, in the saving work of Christ on the cross. 

Faith in the resurrection is where our hope for all eternity lies.  If Christ has not been raised then as Paul said, we are wasting our time. (Loose translation)  In the book of Revelation, 7:9-10 we find our faith in Christ for all of these years will be vindicated.  Then it will be by experience and by sight and hearing and all of the tangibles.  But right now, it is all by faith.

That makes a bit of a problem for a lot of believers.  The problem is doubt.

It seems to plague us time and again.  We find ourselves saying with the early followers, “I believe Lord!  Help me in my unbelief!”  We often find ourselves slugging through the slough of doubt. 

Those who don’t believe in God don’t have to worry about faith, they put their confidence in what they feel, see and experience.  Of course that leaves them on the outside looking in when it comes to a robust spiritual life where we know that our lives are not by chance or luck, but we have an eternal God who is looking over us, guiding, directing, allowing, stopping, etc.  The atheists are stuck in a totally materialistic world which has no ultimate purpose or direction for life, let alone eternity. 

If you ask an atheist what he thinks about faith in God, he will reply that it is just “imagination” – a fool’s dream, with no concrete reality to base it upon.

What he does not want to see (willful blindness) that there is plenty of history and reality that we can be assured of that tells us that our faith in God is spot on.  But to be honest, even the most stout Christian comes to times of doubt.  Seeing the un-seeable, feeling the untouchable, hearing the inaudible, can only go so far in this material world and at times it seems like the heavens are encased in brass, so that our prayers bounce back, our seeking out God feels all so empty. 

At times we just want to shout out, God, if you are there, please give me a sign.  Like Gideon of old we throw out our fleeces hoping that God responds.

Even the most devout Christians can be overwhelmed with doubt. 

We all experience this.  It is not a sign of weakness or failure.  It is a sign that we live in a material world where so much of our lives are planted in the physical.  At times we feel like we are peering into the abyss where we seen no God, no light, no eternity, no salvation, and no peace.  So what are we supposed to do?  How do we get out of this slough of despond?

We must do that which at the time, we really do not want to do.  We must get our Bibles, find that spot where you have heard God before, get alone, begin to read and pray.  You are not there because you have failed.  You are there because you are human, subject to doubts and worries.  God knows this.  He knows our weakness.   These times of doubt can last for days, weeks, even months.  But don’t stop reading, don’t stop praying.  Don’t stop calling out to God in your dark night of the soul.  He will bless you for your faith, when you couldn’t see, feel, or hear Him.  You will come out the victor shouting, “I know who I have believed!”  You will be affirmed in your faith and trust in God.  You will have passed through the fog and find yourself once again in God’s marvelous light, brighter than ever.   And you will be the stronger in faith for your persistence.

Sola Fide, Pastor Mike

It all began in a 1939 movie, “Gone with the Wind”.  At the very end of the movie, Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) is ready to leave Scarlett O’Hara (Vivian Leigh) for good.  Scarlett asks Rhett, “Where shall I go? What shall I do?”  He says, as he walks out of her life, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn”   It has been voted the most famous line in movie history.  The line is memorable because it demonstrates that Rhett has finally given up on Scarlett and no longer cares what happens to her, but it is also remembered for its profanity.  This is first time a cruse word was used on the big screen in a major motion picture.

In linguistic trivia, people have sought the origin of the profanity itself.  “I don’t give a damn” ought to be “I don’t give a dam.”
The dam is an Indian (East India) copper coin with the value of one-fortieth of a rupee. In other words, nothing at all.  Other Indian words have crept in to our English vocabulary: toddy, gingham, verandah, chatting, loot, bungalow, pagaoda, typhoon, jungle, dinghy, and cutter.  Therefore this certainly makes more sense as to the origin of this particular profanity.

Others trace the etymology of the curse phrase back to something or someone who was “not worth a tinker’s dam”.  Katharine Hepburn playing Eleanore of Aquitaine in “The Lion in Winter”, used that phrase. She was saying that someone was worthless.  A “tinker’s dam” is a “single use” piece of clay, mud, or paper, used to keep liquid solder in place while the tinker was repairing a pot or kettle.  It doesn’t run when liquefied by heat, but was considered pretty worthless, thrown away after but one use.   Thus it was a thing of little or no worth.

Unfortunately the phrase is not so benign today.  It is a curse, wanting or wishing that someone or something would perish in hell for all eternity.      It is a judgment made by man, usurping the power of God, for only God is Pure and Holy.  Only God can judge perfectly.  Hence Jesus tells us to “Judge not, lest we be judged” (Matthew 7:1)

Many people point to the arbitrariness of the cuss-word system.   What if “car” was a swear word or “tree”?  There is something confusing as to which words get designated as profane.  The majority of swear words or phrases have earned their designation because they are associated with God and using His name in an irreverent way.  Note that Satan’s name never makes the list of profanity.   Only Jesus and God get their names drug through the muck and mire of filthy talk that seems to revolve around associations with biological function in the areas of sexuality and waste elimination.  The expletive using Jesus name is the most egregious.

The language we use is a kind of social contract. We agree—as heirs of centuries of etymological development—to call certain objects by their name; house, boat, land etc.  In the same way we agree to label things we find despicable with words we identify as profane. Words themselves hold only the power we give them.  Some of this language we deem not polite in mixed company, others are said to be profanity regardless of who is listening. Unfortunately, what Clark Gable began in 1939 quickly became a slippery slope, and within a few generations, our public language has been  inundated  with filthy language, deemed improper by most moral people.

Do Christians have a unique call to avoid such strong language?  Yes! Unfortunately for some, they think it is cool to be a Christian who swears.  It gives the one cursing an “I’m into Jesus, but I’m not legalistic” badge.  Curse words tend to be powerful because to linguistically reduce something or someone to the level of biological functions (and their resultant products) is almost always an act of contempt. And contempt is toxic. It fosters hatred.  To hear it come from the mouths of children is stunning to say the least and does not bode well for American civilization.

Christians have a unique mandate to avoid profanity.  It is not that we are trying to be holier than the rest of society.  It’s simply that we are called to live our lives with a servant’s heart, affirming the dignity of every human and the sacredness of existence, along with all of God’s creation.

Ephesians 4:29 “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths,
but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion,
that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Ephesians 5:4 “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking,
which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”

Jesus knew what the real issue was for those who speak in profanity,
Mt. 12:34 “For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart.”

Let the words and language we use be such that if we were in Heaven before the throne of God, we could speak with confidence, words to build up and not to destroy.  Let our speech be uplifting and filled with grace.

Pastor Mike

As I get prepared for my Bangladesh journey, I will no doubt encounter Christian believers who attend Traditional Christian churches.  The one that I am most familiar with is the Methodist Church that was founded and built by Korean Christians.  If you were to go to worship there, you would feel quite comfortable.  A lot of the service is in English.  They have crosses, pews and pulpits, altars, organ and pianos.  They also try to be contemporary and use guitars drums etc.  Even the hymns they sing would sound very familiar to us, though at times they are in the Bengali dialect.

This is the traditional Christian Church in Bangladesh.  Their ministry and outreach is to about 3% of the country that either have no faith, or are coming from pagan religions and backgrounds.  Their success in reaching Muslims (97% of the population) is very meager at best.  So they often ask me how they can do a better job of reaching the Muslims in their country.

The answer has to do mainly with their language and culture.   The western culture for church (pews, hymns, crosses, pulpits, western business attire) is not going to attract many Muslim, if any.  In fact it chases them further away.  To the Muslim, the cross is a symbol of western crusades and imperialism.  They are not fond of the west at all.  So if you are going to reach Muslims, you must do it on their turf and in their culture. This is what made Hudson Taylor and many other early missionaries to China so very successful.  They adopted the dress and culture of the Chinese. For the vast majority of traditional Christians in Bangladesh,  they refuse to do this.

Language is another big problem in reaching out to Islam.  Words mean different things to different people and cultures.  Much of that has to do with what they were taught growing up.  The Muslim children are taught early on that to be “Christian” is to identify yourself with Western immorality, a lifestyle that is repugnant to the Muslim.  It means that you accept pornography, infidelity, casual sex, homosexuality, alcohol and drugs, & the list goes on.

So in order to reach the Muslim population, using the term “Christian” is counter-productive, it works against you.  It is very acceptable in Islam to call yourself a follower of Jesus.  They believe that He is a great prophet of God, and to follow Him would be very acceptable.  Words are basically language symbols that are used to communicate ideas.  The word Christian communicates the wrong idea to the Bengali, so why use it?  The followers of Jesus were not always called Christians.  The term was first used in Antioch.

Another important term in talking about spiritual matters is the word for God.  What are you going to call Him?  Islam refers to God as Allah.  American’s refer to God as, God.  Which word is correct?

Remember, a word is a spoken symbol used to communicate an idea.  Before Mohammed founded Islam as a religion, he was part of the Coptic Christian church in the middle east.  Their word for God was “Allah”.  This is a word that comes from their culture.  And so this is the word that Mohammed used for God.

Where did we get the word “God”.  Well, it’s etymology goes back into Norse Mythology that impacted England through the invasion of the Vikings.  The word snuck its way into the English language, and we use it today.  Is either word more holy than the other?

What about the early Mosaic names for God.  The Hebrews used the term “El” in referring to God with a multitude of adjectives to give it more punch.
“El” was a word that came out of the Canaanite culture that Abraham moved into and called home.  So the Jews would refer to God as El-shaddai (All powerful God) or El-ohim (Lord God).  Which word is better, El or God?

In America the word “Muslim” is associated with the faith of Islam, so we wouldn’t dare call ourselves Muslim, as it would give people the wrong impression.  But the word itself has great meaning in the culture of the Middle East. To be Muslim, means to be “submitted to God”.  So in that part of the world, it would not be blasphemy for a Christian to call him or herself “Muslim”.  After all, there should be no one more submitted to the one true God than followers of Christ.

Which reminds me, the Hebrews referred to the One coming from God as the “Messiah”.  That is the Hebrew word for the One Who came to deliver us.  The Aramaic or Greek word would be “Christ”.  Christ and Messiah mean the same thing, that is they refer to the same person.

The best outreach to Islam today (around the world) is being done by folks who are not afraid to immerse themselves into the Muslim culture and world. They are using words and a language that make sense to the people to whom they are attempting to reach.

Blessings, Mike.