Jesus Crucified? It Only Means Something If It Goes Beyond the Head!

Now it was the third hour, and they crucified Him. And the inscription of His accusation was written above: THE KING OF THE JEWS. With Him they also crucified two robbers, one on His right and the other on His left. So the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "And He was numbered with the transgressors." And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying, "Aha! You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself, and come down from the cross!" --- Mark 15:25-30

Today is a very special day in the lives of a limited number of persons in this world of confusion, conflict, and fear. I say “limited number” because for the majority it holds no significance and Good Friday is just a combination of two words, stirring no emotions nor memories in which life has been dramatically impacted and transformed!

Earlier this AM in my daily journal I noted some things about Good Friday and why my life is different because of what happened in the city of Jerusalem a little over 2,000 years ago.

I knew about God and Jesus dying on a cross at a very early age due to having been brought up in the church by my God fearing parents. I learned a lot of facts about the Christian faith in worship services, Sunday School, and Bible School. Those items were stored in the memory bank of my brain, but that was as far as it went for a few years.

The teen years and early 20’s were what could be appropriately called the “rebel years” – graduation from high school, a year of college, some time in employment, and three years in the U. S. Marine Corps. It was the experience of a “prodigal” in a far country – but I could still tell you there is a God, that His Son was crucified on a cross and came back from the dead three days later! But it didn’t mean a thing to me in terms of my way of life.

But the day came when God in mercy began to deal with me about my way of life and opened my eyes to the fact that I was guilty of countless sins. My final destiny because of this was a horrible Hell. But God did not stop at that point leaving me suspended with a sense of hopelessness and condemned – He went on to show me that when Jesus was crucified on that Roman cross He took all my sins upon Himself, satisfied the demands of God’s justice, and paid the penalty of those sins in full so that I could be totally forgiven!

I received Jesus as my Savior and my Lord – my life was transformed and I experienced peace with God for the first time and had the positive assurance of possessing eternal life! The knowledge of Jesus’ crucifixion moved from my head to my heart, and my life was miraculously impacted by that. It’s never been the same since that day many years ago.

Today, Good Friday, will not pass by without those few who follow Jesus Christ remembering and again giving thanks that He was willing to leave the splendor, purity, and serenity of Heaven, come into this sin-saturated world, and ultimately be nailed to a Roman cross on behalf of each member of the human race.

The tragedy is that the vast majority of the members of the human race living in the world today do not realize that nor do they in the least bit appreciate it!

How about you? Has the reality of Jesus’ crucifixion moved beyond some facts in the head to the heart and life is radically different and most hopeful because of that experience?

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. --- 2 Corinthians 5:17-19

A Tightrope Christmas!

Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house nor greet him; for he who greets him shares in his evil deeds. --- 2 John 1:9-11

Here we go again – do we dare mention the word, Christmas, or back off and simply refer to the days of December as a holiday season and wish people a cheery “Happy Holidays?” It seems to be an adventure similar to walking a tightrope!

Reaction to the Christmas controversy is varied again this year – from allowing atheists to post a sign near a nativity display in one part of the country to the aggressive distribution of badges and bumper stickers boldly stating “Merry Christmas.”

Mike Huckabee on his Fox News program perhaps best expressed thoughts about Christmas to which those professing to be “evangelical” would say a hearty “Amen!” I just happened to accidentally catch those remarks while surfing a bit during the ad blitz on a channel showing a Christmas movie which I was attempting to watch. I very rarely view Fox News – you know, the channel that highly qualifies as a competitive beauty pageant for females, jam packed with oodles of ads, has flashy and splashy graphics and throws in a few tidbits of news with a ticker tape moving across the bottom when the ads aren’t running!

Anyway, Mike got into explaining about Christmas and the Biblical account behind it. He mentioned that God came and took on human form. He then became almost apologetic and stated that he did not want to offend those of other faiths such as Muslims, Hindus etc. but that his intent was to explain what Christmas means to those who follow the Christian faith. His explanation will probably be accepted by many with no offense.

However, the real hostility against Christmas lies not so much in a few people believing that God became human at some point in the flow of human history – it is due to a fewer number who believe and proclaim without apology that Jesus Christ is absolutely the only way of forgiveness, experiencing peace with Almighty God, and eventual entrance into God’s eternal Kingdom after death ends our existence on earth! You see, by doing this, one is stating that all other religious expressions outside of Christianity are false and without a reliable foundation! This does not sit well with most who are devotees of something other than genuine Christianity. The consequence is resentment, hostile responses and in some places, violent acts of persecution. Unfortunately there are within the ranks of professing Christianity those, including church leaders, who have backed off from being in agreement with Jesus on this issue, and have indicated one way or another that other religions in the world have legitimate claims to speak on issues related to deity, life's purpose and eternal destiny. In taking such a compromising position it has also been necessary to shift in one's view of the Scriptures with the conclusion that they are simply human produced writings with errors here and there! You can go for many miles once you start down that trail, but it will cause the vehement objections from religionists outside of Christianity to settle down a bit!

It is not a theory or some far fetched idea that bring these few to such a conclusion of what some describe as being very intolerant and narrow minded. It is based on the personal and very radical exclusive statements made by Jesus Himself – each of those statements begins with “I am…”

Further, these statements rest on the solid facts of His sacrificial death on behalf of every human being, His subsequent resurrection from the dead 3 days after crucifixion and His ascension back to Heaven after a 40 day period spent with a number of His followers. He has also specifically promised to return to this planet again and we are informed that He will rule it with a "rod of iron!"

He gave a parting command to go into all the world, issue a call to repent from sin, accept Him as Savior and Lord, and exhort all to obey His teachings – there were to be no exceptions to this – never once did He say, “Do this except for those who are of the ________ faith.” (insert any one of the vast number of religious expressions of your preference in today’s world in the blank space.).

But He also stressed one other thing which we often overlook. And that was in regard to Christians who are faithful to carry out that parting command to confront the world about His call and claims upon all members of the human race – the radical nature of that message and witness will cause them to be hated among all nations! The reason? Simple – Jesus’ followers represent light and truth which is often rejected as stated by Jesus in John 3:19-21:

"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God."

In my years of hunting there were times as I walked through the woods that I would come across a piece of a dead log – I would kick the log over to see what would happen. Underneath were all kinds of creepy crawly things – as soon as they were exposed to the light they scurried quickly to find a hole into which they might crawl – they didn’t want to remain where there was light -- it made them too uncomfortable! A majority of human beings are much the same – the light and truth that comes through Jesus Christ Whose birth we celebrate at this time of year is more than they can stand – the reaction is hatred and hostility as they scramble to get back into the darkness and away from the light which exposes them for what they really are!

Actually, it ought not to be considered walking a tightrope at Christmas or at any other time in regard to our faith in Jesus Christ – just continue to bear witness to the fact that He is still the only way of salvation and hope in spite of the majority responding in a negative fashion – always bear in mind the inspired words of the apostle Paul – they give a powerful encouragement and challenge to keep on going because somewhere in the future when that statement is totally fulfilled we will wholeheartedly agree that it has been worth it all to have fulfilled the calling of Jesus Christ upon our lives each day of our journey on earth!

Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. --- Philippians 2:9-10

I Like Milk, But.....!

I grew up on a farm in my younger years until I left to work for Uncle Sam for three years at the age of 19.

We had a small herd of Guernsey cows. They had a reputation of having high quality milk with high butterfat content -- sometimes the expression "golden Guernsey milk" was used by dairies in promoting their milk.

We had lots of milk to drink each day and my mother made butter. My dad drank the buttermilk -- he was the only one in the family who would!

I averaged at least a quart of milk a day and sometimes more -- especially if my mother had just taken a chocolate cake out of the oven. You will find it hard to beat this combination -- warm chocolate cake just freshly baked and cold Guernsey milk to go with it!

But my desire for a drink of cold milk is totally annihilated if I become aware that someone has dropped a few drops of arsenic into it -- it may be just as white as before and just as cold as I'd want it to be -- BUT it's the few drops of arsenic which will keep me from drinking it. The last I had heard, arsenic is not a booster to better health -- in fact, the stuff will kill you!

For decades in this country there have been persons who have been slipping a few drops of spiritual arsenic into the diets of Christians in quite a number of places.

You may ask just who these person are -- and what is the nature of this "spiritual arsenic?"

The perpetrators come from all strata within those groups claiming to be Christian. They can be theologians, seminary professors, teachers in a variety of schools, church leaders, pastors, and lay persons holding offices in a church.

This group which dispenses the spiritual arsenic has one thing in common though the nature of the arsenic dispensed may vary a bit. The common thread is a denial of something revealed in the holy Scriptures (Bible) -- God has made a lot of things plain to us such as spelling out the basic root problem of the human race, what laws apply to all human behavior and relationships, what He has done to bring healing and wholeness to sinful human beings, the performing of many miraculous acts during the history of the human race, and what He has planned for the future.

Since the Holy Spirit (the greatest Theologian in existence) authored the Scriptures and Jesus promised that this same Holy Spirit would teach us, guide us into the truth, and would show us things to come, then we can be absolutely certain of a number of things, starting with positive assurance of sins forgiven on condition of our repenting of all sin and receiving Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of our lives!

But here's the problem -- Jesus warned of what He described as "wolves in sheep's clothing" making their dreaded appearances. He also warned of false teachers and prophets coming on the scene and this would be a worsening problem as we get closer to the moment of His personal return to this world.

So now the church at large more than possibly at any time in its 2,000 year history is plagued with those who deny the authenticity of the Scriptures, deny the moral standards which God has put in place, deny the miracles He has done throughout human history, deny the existence of a personal devil and a huge host of demon spirits, deny the significance of Jesus' atonement for the entire human race, deny He was literally resurrected from the dead following His crucifixion, and deny that He is going to return to this sin ravaged planet to take charge and rule the entire world at some point in the future!

It behooves Christians more than ever to spend much time on a daily basis searching the Scriptures and seeking to be spiritually sensitive to anyone who would try to convince you that something which God has made very plain in His revealed Word is not really so -- watch out for the subtle droplets of spiritual arsenic! And when such an individual attempts to lace your spiritual diet with the poison of unbelief you can write that person off as being as phony as a three dollar bill!

By the way, I do have a three dollar bill in my collection of unusual "currency" -- it has a picture of Bill Clinton on it -- but it could just as well have the pictures of some theologians to which I have been exposed over the years -- some pastors --some teachers -- even some United Methodist bishops and also some lay persons as well!

And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders, so as to deceive, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand."
--- Matthew 24:4,5,11-13,23,24

But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed. By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber. --- 2 Peter 2:1-3