The Offense of Christ

Matthew 11:1-6  And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. ²  Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, ³  And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? ⁴  Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: ⁵  The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. ⁶  And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

John 16:1 These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not be offended.

Psalm 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.

There is undoubtedly not a person alive or dead who has not been offended at some point in life.  Someone has called you a name; someone has criticized you; someone has disrespected you; someone has falsely accused you.  Maybe you have been hurt by a racial slur.  Maybe you have been branded as a rebel, a perverted person, or someone worthy of disdain.  The old saying that our parents taught us about sticks and stones went down the tubes a long time ago. 

Sometimes, it depends on who offends you.  It is easy to brush off an offense committed by a stranger.  It is harder to ignore an offense against you by someone you know.  It is hardest to deal with an offense committed by someone you love.  These are the kinds of offenses that incite a reaction—sometimes an act of violence.  When someone you love offends you deeply, it can end a relationship, lead to divorce, or many times it has resulted in murder. 

When Cain felt he was disrespected by Abel, he killed him.

When Amnon violated his own sister, Absalom hunted him for two years and finally had him killed.

When the Haman thought Mordecai insulted him and the king, he orchestrated a plot to hang him.

In our socially turbulent times, we deal with an over-the-top reaction to offenses through what we call political correctness.  Offensive people have been court ordered to undergo sensitivity training.  We have seen a number of laws passed that outlaw “hate speech.”  We hear references to the “thought police.”  Just recently, the NFL Team Washington Redskins has been told they can no longer use the team name “Redskins” because it is offensive to native Americans.  A high school student was reprimanded for including a reference to “Jesus Christ” in his graduation speech.  Whether you agree with any of these things or not, it still points up the visceral human reaction that many people have to being offended.  We don’t like it.

John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, was a good man.  He preached a gospel of repentance, he had disciples and followers, and he baptized his converts to the message of repentance.   Yet, for all his goodness and right intentions, he was denied the spotlight.  The Apostle John wrote about him:

John 1:6-8 ⁶  There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. ⁸  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

Think for a moment how John must have felt.  He was a prophet.  He lived a sacrificial life, camping out in the wilderness, eating locusts and wild honey, despised by the religious people and the hierarchy.  Here was a capable, intelligent, honest-hearted man who was 100% sold out to the will of God.  And yet, he seemed to get nothing for all of his sacrifice.  In fact, he seemed to be belittled and punished for his work.  People began to compare John to Jesus, saying Jesus baptized more disciples than John.

Matthew 11:1-6  And it came to pass, when Jesus had made an end of commanding his twelve disciples, he departed thence to teach and to preach in their cities. ²  Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples, ³  And said unto him, Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? ⁴  Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: ⁵  The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. ⁶  And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.

Why would Jesus pronounce a blessing on those who would not be offended in Him?  The answer is plain and simple:  Jesus planned on being offensive!  His disciples may have believed that this was just a religious quest, an interesting detour into philosophy and superstition, an opportunity to expand their minds and have new experiences.  Jesus had to make sure that they understood the seriousness of His mission.  You see, in the classrooms, in the courtrooms, on the barstools, over the backyard fences, you can debate about words, semantics, sensitive feelings, and whether or not someone called you a name.  It is possible to think this Apostolic way is only a mild disagreement over baptism, or tongues, or whether the Godhead is Trinitarian or Oneness.    

But when you get out on the battlefield, when you find yourself in life or death situations, when you suddenly realize how high the stakes really are, then your carnal feelings go out the window and you understand the reality of your relationship with God.  Jesus was about to turn up the heat with his disciples, and set the bar so high that the Jewish leaders would not be able to get over it.

John 6:50-66 (KJV)
⁵⁰  This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. ⁵¹  I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. ⁵²  The Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give us his flesh to eat? ⁵³  Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. ⁵⁴  Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. ⁵⁵  For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. ⁵⁶  He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷  As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. ⁵⁸  This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

Do you understand how offensive this language was?  Nothing could have been more repulsive to the Jews than cannibalism or drinking human blood.  We know that these were metaphors about His crucifixion as a sacrifice for sin.  But Jesus didn’t put it in soft, persuasive, easy language.  He laid it out there in the boldest terms possible.  And, when he did this, he got a huge negative reaction from his audience.

⁵⁹  These things said he in the synagogue, as he taught in Capernaum. ⁶⁰  Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it? ⁶¹  When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you? ⁶²  What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? ⁶³  It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life. ⁶⁴  But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. ⁶⁵  And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. ⁶⁶  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

So, today, no one is seriously bothered by these hard sayings of Jesus.  We understand them to be metaphors.  They were a sort of code language that had to do with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  They represented the core of the Gospel, and all we have to do today is put our faith in Christ rather than in the Old Testament rituals and the Mosaic law.

But, that doesn’t mean that the offense of the cross is any less today than it was two thousand years ago.  We just see it in a different light; we see it from a different perspective.  The offense is still there, as real as it ever was.

There are four reasons why people were offended by the message of Jesus.

1. He professed to be the Savior of the World

1. He claimed to be the Almighty God.

John 10:22-33 (KJV)
²²  And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. ²³  And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. ²⁴  Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. ²⁵  Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. ²⁶  But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. ²⁷  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: ²⁸  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. ²⁹  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰  I and my Father are one. ³¹  Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. ³²  Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? ³³  The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

The Apostle Paul understood that Jesus was the Almighty God.

Colossians 1:13-19 (KJV)
¹³ Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son: ¹⁴ In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:
¹⁵ Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: ¹⁶ For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
¹⁷ And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. ¹⁸ And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. ¹⁹ For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

2.  He demands to be the Lord of your Life.

Matthew 19:16-22 (KJV)
¹⁶  And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? ¹⁷  And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. ¹⁸  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, ¹⁹  Honour thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ²⁰  The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? ²¹  Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. ²²  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.

This man had no problem with the theology.  He had no problem with the high moral standard.  He did have a problem with Lordship.  But, Jesus wants to be more than the God you believe in.  He demands a personal relationship with you.  If money is your God, Jesus will offend you.  If pleasure is your God, Jesus will offend you.  If sports, or talent, or prestige, or human pride is your God, Jesus will offend you. He doesn’t want any competition. 

But, now, let me go into something even more intrusive.  Jesus wants to get involved in your relationships.  He wants to get into your feelings.  He wants a hand in who you love and who you hate; who you admire and who you despise.  Many people today are offended by the demand that they have to forgive their enemies; that they have to forgive people who have offended them.  (“Our Father, which art in heaven; hallowed be thy name; they kingdom come; thy will be done; in earth as it is in heaven;  give us this day our daily break; and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors…”)

There are few things that are more personal—and more offensive—than Jesus walking right into your marriage, your family, your job, your school, your friendships, your grudges, your likes and dislikes and telling you what to do.  “What?!  Forgive him?  Forgive her?  Stop hating this person who has done me so much wrong?  I can’t!  I have a right to be offended at that person and at you for telling me to forgive them!” (Victimized by hatred, prejudice, discrimination, disrespect?  I condone none of these acts, but neither do I believe that these offenses should keep you out of heaven!)

And I say to you that whatever offenses you have had to deal with in life, Jesus had more.  He is not asking you to do anything that he did not deal with himself.

Luke 23:33-34  And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left. ³⁴  Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots.

That’s why there is so much power in this verse: 1 John 1:7-9  But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. ⁸  If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

3.  Jesus professed to be the Savior of the World

You might ask, why is this so offensive?  But this is exactly why Christianity is so despised by the world today.  It flies in the face of political correctness.  It disrespects every other religion, every other deity, every other way of life.  If you read much religious news, you are aware of the precipitous decline of the old, mainline denominations.  Why is that?  Because their liberal theologians have back away from their original message of Jesus Christ, the Savior.  Now, they believe that Christianity is just a message to love the world as you find it.  Don’t try to change it, just respect it, affirm it, tolerate it, and let it be.

Let’s go back to John the Baptist.

 John 1:23-29  He said, I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Esaias. ²⁴  And they which were sent were of the Pharisees. ²⁵  And they asked him, and said unto him, Why baptizest thou then, if thou be not that Christ, nor Elias, neither that prophet? ²⁶  John answered them, saying, I baptize with water: but there standeth one among you, whom ye know not; ²⁷  He it is, who coming after me is preferred before me, whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose. ²⁸  These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan, where John was baptizing. ²⁹  The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

It is the name of Jesus—and that name alone—that will save from sin.

Philippians 2:5-11   Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: ⁶  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: ⁷  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: ⁸  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. ⁹  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: ¹⁰  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; ¹¹  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.Many people today are offended by the demand that they have to lose themselves in order to find Christ. 

4.  Jesus demands a change of identity.

This is the greatest offense of all.  That Jesus should zero in on you—your person, your identity, your character, the real you—and change who you are.  And yet, this is the very purpose of conversion!

2 Corinthians 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

Picture this.  Nicodemus was a religious, highly respected Jew, schooled, acclaimed, and in a high position.  If Jesus should have avoided offending anyone, it should have been Nicodemus.  But here’s the way this encounter went down.

John 3:1-8  There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: ²  The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. ³  Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

It would seem that Jesus not only offended the pedigree and birth of this man, he also insulted his intelligence. 

⁴  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? ⁵  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. ⁶  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷  Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. ⁸  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

And so, Jesus told Nicodemus, and the world, the formula for salvation.  Water and Spirit.  The water refers to baptism.  The Spirit refers to the gift of the Holy Ghost.  This is the message Jesus preached.  This is the message Peter preached.  This is the message Paul preached.  This is the message I preach!  This is the only saving message!  To many people, this is what is so offensive about the Apostolics.  But nobody is commissioned to preach any other gospel than what we find in Acts 2:38!

But was Nicodemus offended by this bold, exclusive message?  I don’t think so.  Look at what happened:

John 19:38-42  And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus. ³⁹  And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. ⁴⁰  Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. ⁴¹  Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid. ⁴²  There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

Now, let’s go back to verse six of my opening text:

“And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.”

If you can believe that Jesus is God and not be offended, you are blessed.

If you can believe that Jesus is your Lord and not be offended, you are blessed.

If you can believe that Jesus is the only Savior and not be offended, you are blessed.

If you can believe that the new birth is the way to salvation and not be offended, you are blessed.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18  But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. ¹⁴  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. ¹⁵  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. ¹⁶  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: ¹⁷  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. ¹⁸  Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

John 20:27-29  Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. ²⁸  And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. ²⁹  Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.

The final appearance of the word “blessed” in the Bible is this:

Revelation 22:12-14  And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. ¹³  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.¹⁴  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

Dietary Supplements for the Soul

Vitamins and dietary supplements are all the rage today, due to the lack of quality in much of our food.  Our grocery shopping habits lead us to buy processed foods, foods with non-organic additives and produce from corporate farms that are more mindful of dollars than quality.  While we must continue to eat meats, vegetables and other primary foods, more and more we are supplementing these main courses with ingredients that have been stripped from them.  It’s a daunting task; the sheer array of choices staggers the mind (specialized stores exist that only sell food supplements), but with a little research and advice, we can usually figure out what we should get. 

But, what about our spiritual diet?  Far too many believers live in survival mode, eating only the main course of prayer, hearing preaching and attending church.   These necessities may keep them alive, but they need spiritual supplements to grow and thrive.  I compare them to patients in the hospitals versus workers in the factories and offices.  You may be spiritually alive—and not much more than that—but, you need to enhance your soul with some supplements that will give you what you may be missing.  Here are some suggestions to get you going.

Memorize the Word.  Committing the Word of God to memory serves as a pantry for your life.  The Bible passages remain on the shelf until the time comes when you need them.  Memorizing is easier than you think.  Get some help if you need to.  Time is never wasted when you memorize Bible verses.

Manage your days.  You wouldn’t eat anything at any time you have a whim; you eat certain things at certain times of the day.  Likewise, avoid chaotic consumption of spiritual junk in your daily life.  Planning may seem like drudgery, but you will love the end result and the feeling of accomplishment.

Witness.  Telling a hungry soul about Jesus injects purpose and enthusiasm into your life.  You have a story to tell, and you will spice up your own life each time you tell it.  It is the impact you have on others that makes you feel like a significant person.  Don’t withdraw from life; engage life by interacting with other people. 

Read a book.  Your life consists of the people you meet and the books you read.  Books feed your natural craving for knowledge.  They help you stay fresh, alive, alert and informed.  They keep you from being stale, dull and predictable.  The most interesting people are people who read.

Read a daily devotional.  Each day is different, so a specific thought or idea for any given day may be exactly what you need to keep you going.   

Subscribe to spiritual magazines.  Keeping up with current news, reading about concepts or events that are generating widespread interest, and gleaning ideas from the thoughts of writers will enrich your soul.  Often, you will find that the popular take on a story may not be accurate.  Stay plugged in.

Listen to recorded sermons.  Hundreds of CD’s and DVD’s are available to broaden your spiritual horizon.  Some preacher may address the very subject that has concerned or confused you.  Hearing the Word in sermon form allows you to feel the passion in the message as well as the words of the message.

Meditate.  You read for knowledge and information; you meditate for meaning and experience.  The Word used for knowledge is important, but you meditate on the Word, it soaks into the very fiber of your spirit and soul.  Meditation makes you slow down helps you to build bridges and discover connections with other passages of Scripture. 

Listen to spiritual music.  Music nourishes the soul.  It fulfills the emotional needs of your life in ways that the spoken word cannot.  Music in the background tends to fill in the cracks and the blank areas of your life.  It’s like a color photograph rather than a black-and-white picture.  Music may form the closest bond that the human spirit can have with the divine.

Write or keep a journal.  Thoughts are treasures.  Unless you preserve them, you will lose them.  How often have you had a profound thought that totally escapes you a day later?  Writing out your ideas gives them structure and substance.  Don’t worry about your grammar or sentence construction.  Those details are minor.  In this instance, it truly is the thought that counts.

Adopt a missionary friend and correspond with him/her.  Anytime you can identify a specific friend, you will develop a keen interest in that place.  Knowing what a missionary needs on a more personal basis will add a dimension to your life that general knowledge about a mission field cannot create.

Converse with others about your faith.   In a word, talk!  The reason many people don’t talk is that they don’t think anyone else is interested in what they have to say.  Not true!  Talk about your faith.  Talk about your experiences.  Ask questions about the other person and find out what they think or believe.  It will become the basis for dialogue and will make your life purposeful and inviting.

Get involved in a ministry.  Throw yourself into a ministry that will made demands on your time, finance and energy.  Failure to get involved leads to paralysis and isolation.  The default position for the uninvolved becomes selfish concerns.  When you get involved, however, you make contributions that highlight your skills and talents.  Using those attributes brings a huge amount of satisfaction to your spiritual well-being.

Do good deeds.  Look around you.  Even casual observation will notice needs, problems and sad situation that must have attention.  When you lift a hand to help, you will elevate your own spirit.  The only way to feel good about helping someone is to help someone!  There is no feeling without the actual accomplishment.

Encourage.  Be a lifter, an encourager, a person who strengthens.  Criticism should be a last resort in your dealings with others.  As you encourage, you will find that you have much more influence than you might have imagined. 

All or any one of these actions will make your world a better place, but they will have an even greater impact on you than others.  They will not replace the main course of spiritual meals in your life, but they will make you feel stronger, more alive and more useful in the kingdom of God.  Your goal should not be to live at a subsistence level.  Live revived and thriving!  You should feel challenged, your talents should be tapped to the limits, and your imprint on the world should be the result of all-out living for God! 

Breaking Rules

Rule-breakers intrigue me.  Protocol, peer pressure, fear of consequences—nothing stops them.  Good rules, bad rules, silly rules, important rules—it doesn’t matter.  They even break their own rules!  The question is: why?  Well, the question is too general because people act differently in different scenarios.  Instead, let’s talk specifics. 

Why do people break speed limit laws? The obvious answer is that they want to go faster than the posted speed limit.  They may be in a hurry to get somewhere, they may be trying to get away from someone, or they may just like the thrill of going fast.  These answers take into account the need for speed, but not the aspect of breaking the law.  When we consider the fact that the law says no, suddenly we introduce another dynamic into the behavior.  Regardless of why someone wants to go fast, to actually exceed the speed limit in violation of the law means something else.  Drivers break speed laws because 1) they think the posted limit is too slow; 2) they don’t think they will get caught; 3) the consequences of getting caught are minimal; 4) the speed limit is silly; 5) no one is around; 6) the car is built to go fast; 7) the road is built for speeds higher than the posted limit.  All of these, and perhaps more, are common rationales used to justify violating speed laws.

Equally fascinating is this question:  how should society deal with rule breakers?  In our example of speeders, what should be done to those who violate the limits?  Well, that question is complicated too! (I know.  Maddening, isn’t it?  But follow me.)  First, answer this question:  What does society hope to accomplish by enforcing the law?  Terminate the behavior?  Modify the behavior?  Benefit from the behavior?  Use the behavior as a leverage to control drivers?  The fact is that we could drastically reduce the incidence of speeding by a few simple actions.  First, we have the technology to track the bulk of our streets and highways with cameras.  It would be far more expensive than it’s worth, however.  The return on investment would be sharply negative.  Or, we could place the burden on car manufacturers by making them install governors on every engine to prevent vehicles from exceeding seventy mph or some other arbitrary number.  Even more expensive would be beefing up the highway patrol force with two or three times as many officers.  Another, much more effective method would be to raise the fines to exorbitant amounts.  Instead of $200-300, we could make a speeding ticket cost $2000-$3000!  If a driver knows that a speeding ticket is going to cost that much, then the likelihood of speeding is going to plummet significantly. 

Trust me.  None of these punishments is going to take place.  Speeding tickets will never exceed the average person’s ability to pay.  Why?  Because a steady stream of revenue flows into government coffers from speeding tickets as they exist today.  Raising the fines will not increase the amount of money going into law enforcement agencies.  Instead, the opposite would happen.  Raising the fines to astronomical levels would mean that only the rich and famous will speed, and there are not enough of them to make up for the loss of revenue from thousands of average speeders.  To put it another way, society cannot afford to totally wipe out rule breakers.  Resign yourself to it:  speeders we will have with us always.

Speeding is one thing.  There are other crimes, however, that have far more tragic consequences.  Yet, society treats them much the same way as speeders.  Murder, for example.  The homicide rates in Chicago are the highest in the country.  Curfews, marshal law, intense neighborhood sweeps to rid them of gangs, heavily increased police presence, surveillance cameras—all of these preventative measures originate out of a law enforcement paradigm, and the city seems to lack both the finance and the intensity of commitment to undertake such initiatives.  The preferred objective seems to be containment, that is, keep the violence confined to the worst neighborhoods.  Ensure that the best neighborhoods stay relatively crime-free. 

Criminologists have succeeded in elevating the prevention of homicide to levels not even remotely implementable.  (Yep.  For you word policemen, that’s a word!)  Take the study of crime prevention in Jacksonville, Florida for example.  In 2006, the Jacksonville Community Council drafted a paper with twelve recommendations for combating crime in the city.  Here they are: (Don’t really read them.  Just scan through them.)

“Recommendation 1. Target the killing among young adult men: Jacksonville has many young men (ages 18-35), particularly young black men, who tend to associate in groups drawn into illegal and violent behavior that directly leads to murder rate. While these groups may not be organized as “gangs” (as the term is popularly understood), the reality on the street is that they are affected by group dynamics that often escalate into violence over perceived insults and “disrespect.” The group norms they set and exhibit influence the upcoming generation of youth in these neighborhoods, who begin to form similar groups while in middle school.

• The Mayor, through expansion of the Seeds of Change: Growing Great Neighborhoods initiative, should partner with local neighborhood leaders and organizations, faith-based leaders, and MAD DADS, to implement the Ceasefire process used successfully in Boston’s

Operation Ceasefire. This approach enlists the community in communicating a clear, combined message to targeted young people that they are part of the community, their behavior is damaging the community, and these behaviors must stop. This proven process has quickly and dramatically reduced murders in Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, and other U.S. cities.

• For this approach to work, it must be led by a catalyst (individual or organization) from within

Jacksonville’s black community. While government can and must support the initiative, too much mistrust exists for this effort to be led by existing government institutions. The committee strongly recommends bringing in an outside expert facilitator to assist with this process and train local facilitators to continue the work.

• The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office and State Attorney’s Office should fully support this initiative by sending young people the message that the entire group will be held accountable if a member of the group kills.

• In conjunction with this initiative, all community social service organizations, education institutions, and employers should step forward with assistance to young people seeking a way out of violent, self-destructive behaviors.

Recommendation 2. Get illegal guns off the street: Anger and violence more readily result in murder if a firearm is present. Jacksonville has too many illegal guns in the community, too many people with guns who should not have them, and too easy access to firearms.

• The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office should increasingly target those who use guns to commit crimes, and work to ensure that violent offenders with firearms are arrested and removed from the community.

• The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, with support from the Mayor and the business community, should implement a Gun Bounty Program, similar to the one in Charleston, South Carolina.  The gun bounty program (not a gun buyback program) should include substantial financial rewards for information leading to arrests and confiscation of illegal guns. With law enforcement, the State Attorney’s Office, and the judicial system working together, the program should include other incentives for turning in illicit guns, such as reduced sentencing in a plea bargain agreement for offenders facing criminal charges.

• The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office should continue to work with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms to attack on illicit firearm trafficking through the Operation Safe Streets initiative, using the Operation Ceasefire model.

 (Preventing future murders requires addressing a series of underlying problems and risk factors identified in this report. While actions to lower the murder rate cannot wait until Jacksonville solves all social ills, serious efforts to reduce violence must include strong, sustained efforts to deal with the specific factors that often lead to violent behavior.)

Recommendation 3. Admit and address racism: The cycle of violence in the community will not end until Jacksonville admits and addresses its racism problem. Racial discrimination and race-based disparities fuel a cultural divide and a sense of hopelessness that breeds violence.  Previous JCCI studies, including Young Black Males, Beyond the Talk: Improving Race Relations, and the Race Relations Progress Report, have outlined racial disparities and incidents of racism in the community and recommended actions to address the problems.  Rather than creating new recommendations, the committee strongly recommends the implementation of the recommended actions from these studies.

Recommendation 4. Fund successful programs: If Jacksonville is serious about addressing the murder rate, it must dramatically increase dedicated funding for successful programs and expand them where appropriate. Prevention efforts cost money up front, but provide an enormous return on investment. Successful efforts to reduce violence too often are limited in the numbers they can serve or eliminated in future funding cycles in favor of untried programs. The Human Services Council should assess existing prevention programs and recommend to its funding partners, including the City of Jacksonville, to increase funding for early violence prevention and intervention programs that work, such as the Intimate Violence Enhanced Services Team (INVEST) and the Ready4Work program.

Recommendation 5. Provide strong positive male role models: The community must do more to provide strong male role models for young men in Jacksonville, especially those currently lacking a positive father figure in their lives. Murder is primarily a male phenomenon in Jacksonville, with 91 percent of known murder suspects and 76 percent of victims being men.  The Human Services Council and the United Way of Northeast Florida’s Helping At-Risk Students Achieve initiative, in partnership with the City Council and other leaders of the local mentoring movement, should support, fund, publicize, and expand the capacity of its mentoring programs, such as the Big Brothers Big Sisters program for children with an incarcerated parent, to target these young men. Mentoring can help these young men not only academically, but also professionally as they become a positive contribution to society and become positive role models for others. For example, the PACE Center for Girls is a successful school program targeting at-risk girls; similar programs directly targeted to young males, such as Jacksonville Marine Institute, should be created or expanded.

Recommendation 6. Improve economic opportunity: Jacksonville needs to break its cycle of poverty and exclusion by providing more economic opportunity and resources, especially to young people. Job skills training, a public transportation system that better links jobs and the workforce, and access to jobs that pay a living wage are critical. WorkSource, the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce, the African American Chamber of Commerce, the Jacksonville Transportation Authority and the City of Jacksonville need to direct specific attention to the needs of alienated young black men. The strategies outlined in the Blueprint for Prosperity (and other economic development initiatives) to raise per capita income should include measures of geography, racial disparity, and age, such as unemployment data by race and neighborhood, to focus efforts on improving opportunity in the highest-risk neighborhoods.

Recommendation 7. Improve the relationship between law enforcement and the community: The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office should accelerate its efforts to implement community policing techniques, using models successfully implemented in communities such as Tampa and San Diego. For too many people in too many neighborhoods law enforcement is not seen as a partner or protector. To change these attitudes toward the police, the community and law enforcement must work together to address the murder rate. In addition, employees of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office should expand participation in community dialogues with the neighborhoods they serve, using the Jacksonville Human Rights Commission’s Study Circles model, as outlined in the Growing Great Neighborhoods initiative.

Recommendation 8. Address the culture of violence: Jacksonville needs a community culture that has greater respect for others and values life more highly. The Mayor’s Office of Faith and Community Based Partnerships should coordinate efforts of faith-based organizations and coalitions as they work together to engage the community in speaking out forcefully against violence and participating in anti-violence initiatives. Duval County Public Schools should place greater emphasis on its existing nonviolence curriculum, involving the community as needed to share the message.

Recommendation 9. Differentiate drug traffickers from users: Illegal drug markets are a scourge in Jacksonville, feeding addiction and encouraging violence and murder. Traffickers in illegal drugs should be targeted and punished; users of illegal drugs should receive treatment. The committee supports a two-pronged approach:

• The committee by no means endorses drug use. However, Jacksonville’s criminal justice system should continue to focus law enforcement efforts primarily on drug traffickers, rather than users.

• The Florida Department of Children and Families District 4 Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Office should lead a community effort to provide more treatment facilities for those already addicted to drugs and successful prevention programs to keep people from becoming addicted.

Recommendation 10. Target domestic violence: Jacksonville has effective programs to assist children who witness violence and programs for intervention in potentially lethal domestic violence situations. The problem is that these programs are insufficiently funded to meet the community’s needs. Jacksonville needs to reprioritize its funding because violence is a learned behavior, and too often that violence is learned at home.

• The City of Jacksonville, the United Way of Northeast Florida, the Department of Children and Families, the Jacksonville Children’s Commission, and faith-based institutions must fully support and expand existing domestic violence prevention and intervention projects to meet community needs.

• In addition, the Fourth Judicial Circuit Court should create a Domestic Violence Court, similar to the Drug Court model, to improve consistency in intervention in domestic violence cases.

• The Fourth Judicial Circuit Court should mandate ongoing judicial training in domestic violence issues for all judges.

Recommendation 11. Help children succeed in school: Jacksonville has too many children who leave school without graduating. This is of particular concern because education is critical to creating an engaged, productive life in the community. Poor education and low literacy are risk factors for criminal activity and violent behavior, with high rates of high school dropouts among those incarcerated.

• Duval County Public Schools should eliminate out-of-school suspensions as punishment, since that sends children away from school and can provide opportunities for delinquent behavior.

• The Duval County Public Schools should expand its work with the community to reduce the dropout rate, decrease truancy, and keep children in school, regardless of FCAT implications.

• The United Way of Northeast Florida’s Helping At-Risk Students Achieve initiative should work with the Jacksonville Children’s Commission and other entities to expand after-school programs that encourage student achievement and help parents get involved in their children’s education.

Recommendation 12. Rehabilitate inmates and ex-offenders: Offenders need to be punished. However, for those who go to prison and pay their debt to society, the obstacles to re-entry into society are often far too high, encouraging marginalization, hopelessness, and a return to antisocial activity and violence. Lower barriers to re-entry and transitional services for released offenders can help reduce violence in the community. For those already involved in criminal activity and the criminal justice system, rehabilitation efforts can decrease recidivism and bring people back as contributors to and protectors of a safer community.

• Facilitate re-entry into the community: The Jacksonville Re-Entry Center is a major step forward in addressing the service needs of ex-offenders. However, the transitional needs of ex-offenders continue to outstrip the services available. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office Department of Corrections should lead a community effort to provide more transition support for ex-offenders, enhancing current transitional programs and increasing the number and availability of such programs. Businesses should partner with agencies helping ex-offenders. Models such as the Delancey Street Project in San Francisco should be considered for Jacksonville.

• Mentor inmates to help turn them around: The Jacksonville community should expand on current successful efforts like Inside/Outside House to provide support for juvenile and adult offenders to turn their lives around. The Department of Corrections should involve the faith community, businesses, and others in providing mentors for those in the system who will continue mentoring the ex-offenders as they transition back into the community.

• Prepare inmates for employment after release: The Florida Legislature should make employment skills training mandatory for all inmates of the state prison system.

• Review sentencing guidelines: The Florida Legislature should review state sentencing guidelines, especially those that classify certain non-violent offenses as felonies, to remove lifetime stigmatization and employment barriers for those who have served their sentences. The continuing long-term impact of passing a $300 bad check should not be the same as engaging in drug trafficking, for example. At the same time, the Legislature and the Governor should review the process for restoration of rights for ex-offenders, easing restrictions for rehabilitated ex-offenders.”

Okay.  Back to me.  (Whew!) One cannot read through these hysterically complex iniatives without an overwhelming sense of hopelessness and a realization that they will never happen.  Most of these programs have been in place for years, if not decades, and their impact on the prevention of crime has been negligible.  That’s not to say that the intentions weren’t noble or that some good has not been done.  It is to state—emphatically—that rule-breaking and rule-breakers will never be wiped out.  Nor, is it to our advantage to attempt to make the behavior absolutely extinct.  Why?  Because they MAKE MONEY!  Crime, law-breaking, rogue behavior and illegal acts constitute a MULTI-TRILLION dollar business.  Don’t think so?  Add up the cost of all penal institutions in the world.  Add to that all the law enforcement agencies and personnel, and all the equipment they own.  Add to that all the tertiary industries that law enforcement support, like manufacturers of firearms, uniforms, vehicles, radios and various pieces of equipment.  Add to that all the educational institutions that teach criminology, train cops, buy printed textbooks and … had enough?  Yes, we’re talking trillions!

Let’s bring in all back down to the individual rule-breaker.  It has always been, and it will always be a matter of the heart.  Ultimately, the responsibility to abide by the law or violate the law is a choice made in the confines of the single person’s heart.  The law cannot universally, nor perpetually, force compliance.  Unless and until the heart is changed, rules will be broken.  This is all said for us in Romans 7:4-25.  Read it from The Message Bible:

4   So, my friends, this is something like what has taken place with you. When Christ died he took that entire rule-dominated way of life down with him and left it in the tomb, leaving you free to “marry” a resurrection life and bear “offspring” of faith for God.
5  For as long as we lived that old way of life, doing whatever we felt we could get away with, sin was calling most of the shots as the old law code hemmed us in. And this made us all the more rebellious. In the end, all we had to show for it was miscarriages and stillbirths.
6   But now that we’re no longer shackled to that domineering mate of sin, and out from under all those oppressive regulations and fine print, we’re free to live a new life in the freedom of God.
7   But I can hear you say, “If the law code was as bad as all that, it’s no better than sin itself.” That’s certainly not true. The law code had a perfectly legitimate function. Without its clear guidelines for right and wrong, moral behavior would be mostly guesswork. Apart from the succinct, surgical command, “You shall not covet,” I could have dressed covetousness up to look like a virtue and ruined my life with it.
8   Don’t you remember how it was? I do, perfectly well. The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me. Without all the paraphernalia of the law code, sin looked pretty dull and lifeless,
9   and I went along without paying much attention to it. But once sin got its hands on the law code and decked itself out in all that finery, I was fooled, and fell for it.
10   The very command that was supposed to guide me into life was cleverly used to trip me up, throwing me headlong.
11   So sin was plenty alive, and I was stone dead.
12   But the law code itself is God’s good and common sense, each command sane and holy counsel.
13   I can already hear your next question: “Does that mean I can’t even trust what is good [that is, the law]? Is good just as dangerous as evil?” No again! Sin simply did what sin is so famous for doing: using the good as a cover to tempt me to do what would finally destroy me. By hiding within God’s good commandment, sin did far more mischief than it could ever have accomplished on its own.
14   I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison.
15   What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise.
16   So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.
17   But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help!
18   I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it.
19   I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway.
20   My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.
21   It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up.
22   I truly delight in God’s commands,
23  but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.
24   I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?
25   The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.

It’s Harder Today than It Was Back Then …Really?

The defectors’ mantras are all boringly similar.  “It is harder to live the disciplined life today than it was when you were growing up.  We have a lot more to deal with.  Pop culture is much more pervasive, the schools don’t back us up anymore and the whole society has changed its direction about the way we should live.”  These tiresome excuses, to be frank, insult the integrity of past battles fought and won.  Am I to suppose that the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are braver than those of the Civil War?  Are present day Christians assailed and afflicted more than the saints of former years?  Are the issues of the twenty-first century more deadly than those of the first twenty centuries?  Is Satan more insidious today than he has ever been?  Is the Bible less relevant and more difficult to understand than it used to be?

The honest fact is that the slope is no more slippery today than it ever was.  Every generation since the establishment of the church has faced deadly enemies; every Bible-believing Christian has wrestled with enormous forces of discouragement, distraction and intimidation.  By saying that it is harder today to serve God is to say that it used to be easier.  Used to be easier?  Really?

Tell that to the Christians who hunkered down in their caves and humble houses desperately trying to escape the wrath of Saul of Tarsus.  He virtually “breathed out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord.” 

Tell the Christians of Nero’s day that it was easier for them than it is for us.  They huddled together in the bowels of the labyrinthine Coliseum, awaiting their turn to be drug out to the arena.  They knelt and prayed while wild beasts tore them limb from limb, all to the delight of the packed-out pagan audience.

Tell that to our brothers and sisters of earlier centuries who were impaled on stakes and set afire to light the nights of Roman orgies; or the precious men and women who were tied to the backs of chariots and drug through the streets of Rome until they were nothing but raw pieces of blood-soaked meat; or the devoted disciples who refused to recant even while being sawn in two by Roman executioners.

Tell Michael Servetus or John Huss who were bold enough to stand for righteous living and stand against false doctrine of the predominant church power of the day.  They were discredited to the world, stripped of their possessions and burned at the stake.  Perhaps their fire was not as hot or their possessions less meaningful than ours today.  Really?

So, is it harder today to stand up for truth than it was for our forefathers?  Tell that to religious expatriates who boarded disease-ridden, rat-infested ships and sailed dangerous seas at subsistence levels for months at a time—all for the privilege of worshipping according to their own conscience.  Tell that to whole communities who suffered terrorism, starvation, deprivation and massacre.

Tell that to our Apostolic forebears who proclaimed loudly and publically that there is only one God and that His name is Jesus, even though they were persecuted by many denominations for their “heretical” views.  Tell that to those spiritual giants of bygone years who were humiliated and reviled by the religious powers-that-be as though they were ignorant of the Scriptures and orthodox teachings.  Tell that to pioneers of this Gospel who held tent revivals and planted churches while being pelted with rotten tomatoes, egged, and shouted and cursed at through open windows during services.

No.  It all comes down to the same thing.  “Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world.”  Demas, the defector, left for the same reason that people of every generation have left:  in love with this present world.  I’m sure he found refuge in the reasoning of his contemporaries to justify his actions.  It is not strange that the world loves it when we capitulate to the favor of the world.  Demas’s rationale, however, contradicted the doctrine of the original apostles.  “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world…“  Some would say those “things” stand for money, houses, cars, boats and other big-ticket items.  Perhaps.  But they also include those intangible things that align us with the spirit of the world, including immodest fashion, apparel that violates Biblical standards, behaviors that emulate worldly practices and attitudes that deviate from the thought processes set forth by the Apostles.  Serving God involves the body as well as the brains, the heart as well as the head, and our literal appearance as well as our good intentions.  Submission to God is actual, not virtual.  Jesus did not live a digitally construed life and die on a virtual cross.  The cross I am to bear must have a real definition, not a hypothetical one.

From the standpoint of human wisdom, serving God has always been hard.  There has always been a price to pay, a price that makes the insincere balk.  Discipleship cannot be bought on the bargain tables of the world.  I am, and continue to be suspicious of any compromises that the world demands of me in order to make me more acceptable to it and in concert with its prevailing philosophies. 

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”  Romans 12:1-2 (KJV)

A Politically Correct, Sanitized Testimony

This testimony is all about an unknown person who means so much to me.  Since I live in a nation that guarantees me the right to religious freedom, I want to share with everyone the good news about this unknown person in the hopes that all who read this may come to know this unknown person as well as I do.

First of all, I would like to give honor to my unknown person, because he saved me and changed my life for the better.  It all happened when I received this unknown person into my life and understood what he did for me.  Before I knew this unknown person, my life was filled with darkness and despair.  This unknown person drove away this darkness and gave me the chance to have true light.  Also, this unknown person took depression and hopelessness away from me, and took up residence in my heart.  Now, I have the pleasure of the company of this unknown person every day of my life.

When this unknown person lived on this earth, he was raised in an unknown village in an unknown country, he walked the shores of an unknown sea, and he worked many unknown miracles.  He traveled as an unknown itinerant person with an unknown occupation, he taught many unknown people with wise and powerful unknown stories and doctrines.  There were some people, however, who did not like this unknown person.  They constantly criticized and attacked him because they knew that this unknown person claimed to be someone that they actually knew.  However these enemies of this unknown person did not really know him, even though they thought they did.  They were so convinced that they knew this unknown person that they unknowingly knowingly put him to death in an unknown manner, by use of an unknown method in an unknown city in an unknown country at an unknown period of time in the world. 

The enemies of this unknown person believed that they had rid the world of his unknown presence and power.  What they did not know, however, was that this unknown person came back to life in an unknown way, from an unknown tomb, loaned to him by an unknown friend.  He is alive even to this day, but it is unknown how many people have received him and how large a following he has because he must remain unknown to the world.  Today, all who know this unknown person rejoice in this knowledge that they do not know.  All I can say is that to know this unknown person is to love this unknown person, and to love this unknown person is to accept him and exalt his unknown name.

Aren’t you glad that in this free society, in this great nation that gives its citizens the freedom to worship according to the dictates of their conscience that all of us have the freedom to worship this unknown person without fear of reprisal, censorship, suppression or denial?  Yes!  In this nation, people can worship Mohammed, Satan, Humanism, the Great Spirit—and even this unknown person—or any other deity they believe in!  Even in our public schools that the citizens of this country support through their tax dollars (including citizens who worship this unknown person), children have the right to worship this unknown person and can pray to, speak of and write papers about this unknown person as long as this unknown person is known only as an unknown person.

We are indeed fortunate to live here where we are guaranteed such wide latitude in exercising our religious liberty.  May this unknown person help us if we ever take away the right to worship this unknown person and banish the mention of his name into anonymity.

This little piece is written in the light of a child who recently had the temerity to write a paper in a public school about this unknown person.  The problem with her paper was that she used an illegal name for this unknown person.  She was summarily given an “F” and told to remove the name that she assigned to this unknown person.  Only a hateful, bigoted, insensitive extremist would dare to use the actual name of this unknown person.  Such a violation of other people’s religious freedom cannot be tolerated. in a public school.

“For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.”   Acts 17:23 (KJV)

Morgan County Morning

(This is the first chapter of a fiction book I have written.  The setting is in Morgan County, Ohio.  The publishing date has not been set.  It will go on sale sometime this summer, I hope.)

Chapter One

Pops smashed his gnarled fist into his open left palm. The worn metal clasp on the stainless steel Bulova Chronograph which fit his wrist nicely although it would have been too big for most men, sprang apart, sending the timepiece skittering across the wooden planks of the porch floor.

“He knows betta! You know he knows betta!” His eyes flashed steel. There was no charm in his Georgian drawl, only anger laced with pain. “I guess I raised a fool, didn’t I?” He stood and slowly paced to the railing, his boots leaving muddy deposits with each step. Laboriously stooping down to pick up his watch, he couldn’t stop the briny tears that blurred his sight.

Cindy closed her eyes so she couldn’t see her husband’s misery. “Now, Pops, the Bible says don’t call anyone a fool,” she began. “I—“

“I know what the Bible says, Cindy. Forgive me, okay? I’m jist so torn up right now that I cain’t think straight.”

“We’re all torn up, Pops.” When Carson became a dad, Cindy started calling her husband Pops. “Cassie’s hurt, and little Joe—”

Pops jerked his head towards his wife. “Little Joe? He don’t know, does he?”

Cindy’s eyes closed tighter. “He heard me and Cassie talkin’. I shoulda been more careful, but I couldn’t help myself.” Her hand covered her mouth as she shook her head.

Pops’ sigh trailed off into silence. The southeastern Ohio air now heavy at twilight, normally a pleasant folding of the day when rural families ate their suppers and talked quietly, offered no sympathy. The incessant clicking of cicadas and the bullfrogs belching obscenely down at the pond’s edge would usually draw a comment at this time ofday. This evening, nothing—not even the diesel engine of Wally’s late herbicide application across the road a half mile down— penetrated the dark thoughts of Carson and Cindy Morgan.

“Well, Babes, what are we gonna do?” Pops finally broke the silence.

“We’re gonna pray, that’s what we’re gonna do.” Cindy dabbed her nose with some shredded tissue she dug out of her apron pocket. “That’s all I know to do.”

“I know, I know, Babes, but we gotta do something. I want to be mad. I want to kick his backside all the way to Zanesville and back.” Pops arms encircled Cindy’s slight form and they clung to each other.

“But I can’t be mad. Well, part of me is, but—“

Cindy interrupted. “But part of you knows betta. Right?”

Pops smiled in spite of himself. “You don’t miss a shot, do ya?”

Cindy grinned back and stared up into his eyes. “I know you Carson Morgan. And I know you’re gonna figure this out.”

“Nope. That’s where you’re wrong, Lady. Me…and Jesus…and you!”

“And you don’t miss a shot neither!” Cindy slipped from his arms and went back into the house. She didn’t catch the screen door in time and it slammed hard against the jamb. The noise drowned out the anguish of an old man’s heart. (Forty-five isn’t old, but today he felt seventy.) Good timing. He couldn’t stifle his groan in time either.

Pops grabbed the door handle to follow his wife inside. The phone rang. He relinquished his grip and dropped his arm to his side. He stood in place, listening to Cindy’s tearful voice. Probably the pastor. Backing up, he eased into his rocker. “I cain’t deal with this, Lord. Not yet.”

Morning, he hoped, would bring relief.

The Asymmetry of Functionality

While the purpose of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian man was to satisfy the mathematical and philosophical conundrums of his day in circles and squares (it’s complicated), it also illustrates the symmetry of the human body.  Conceptually, the left side is a mirror image of the left side. Like an equilateral triangle, there is balance and evenness to both aspects of the human form.  Medical science uses the term “bilateral symmetry” to explain the anatomy of the body—as opposed to asymmetry, radial symmetry or spherical symmetry.

This biological principle would seem to establish perfect equality between the left and right sides. Actually, this is not true from a purely anatomical perspective.  For example, many people have a slightly different shoe size between the right and left foot, some have arms or legs of differing length, and all have differences between the opposite sides of facial features.  Photographers can discern their subject’s good side and not-so-good side in terms of profile.  Few of us, if any, are exact matches on both sides of the entire body.

But beyond anatomy, the far more critical difference between the right and left sides of the human form is the difference in function.  According to neuroscientists, the left and right hemispheres of the brain function very differently from each other (although they overlap in many ways).  The bilateral development of the heart evolves early on in the fetus to complement—not match—each other for blood circulation.  These two phenomena develop autonomically.  The most interesting functional difference, however, is dexterity.  Researchers are undecided on how left-handedness and right-handedness are determined, but they believe that the answers most likely lie in individual genetics.  In many cases, however, persons have been forced to use their other hand because of injury or some other external cause, thus proving that dexterity can be learned.  Many people are ambidextrous.  Theoretically, dexterity is immaterial, but in practical matters, society as a huge bias against left-handers.  (Left-hander blogs constantly hammer on this point.) 

In light of the asymmetry of functionality, redraw da Vinci’s man to reflect giftedness, talents, abilities and disproportionate parceling out of traits and characteristics.  If a man is right handed, make the right arm big and the left arm little.  If he likes music more than mathematics, swell the right side of his head and shrink the left side.  If one eye has keener sight than the other, make that eye bigger.  The outcome for him, and for all other seven billion individual human beings on earth so analyzed and diagramed, would be unbalanced, lop-sided and pretty comical.  In terms of functionality, no one fits the Vitruvian man.  Our differences could not be more pronounced.

So, what is the point?  Simply this: do not be judgmental of people who don’t think the way you do.  Refuse to attach more significance to some trait you prefer rather than one you dislike.  Stop criticizing people (that is, if you do) for learning something slower or faster (or not at all).  Cancel your expectations that you impose on others that they should be as smart as you are.  Yes, there are standards and norms to which all of us must adhere (mathematics, gravity, physical laws, etc.), but there are also thousands of ways that we are legitimately, properly and appreciatively different from each other even within our universal boundaries. 

So, you don’t like art?  Well then, imagine a world without art.  Pretty bland.  Don’t like science?  Where would we be without it?  Resent people who are all about making money?  Well, stop participating in the economy (working, earning, saving, buying, selling).  Think we could live without music?  Trash all your CD’s, sound tracks, Bose systems and nursery songs.  If everybody were just like you (or me), this world would be as disproportionate and dysfunctional as we are!  Heaven, spare us!  However, this great multi-colored, intricate, variegated tapestry of human society consists of all these things…and much more!  Every red needs a green, every orange needs a blue, every yellow needs a violet—these are all complementary colors.   We need each other far more than we could ever imagine.  

One more thing, if we were all alike, then there would be no need for love.  We would automatically have an affinity for each other with no challenge to our affections.  It is precisely because of the asymmetry of functionality that the overarching need for love exists. 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.  He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.  In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.  In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us.  By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.  And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.  Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.  Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.  We love Him because He first loved us.  If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also.” 1 John 4:7-21 (NKJV)

Writing the History of a Local Church

“There they go again, talking about how it used to be…what they used to do…stuff that happened to people that are dead and gone…funny names, dates of things a half-century ago.  What does it have to do with me?”

History is about people of long ago who were human beings like you and me.  They wore funny clothes, had strange hairstyles, and bore names like Fannie, Bertha, Constantine and Aloysius. They talked of trains and trolleys, farmhouses and outhouses, brush arbors and tent meetings. They lived within the confines of their culture, but deep down, there’s really no difference between their generation and ours.

When you love people, you have a passion to know their history. We Pentecostals thrill at believers’ testimonies of their experiences with God, even though they happened a century ago. Every detail confirms the miraculous working of God’s power both in Bible days and in our own times. Their stories create a bond with us, and we see God from a new perspective.

Even more importantly, when we really examine who we are and how we have come to be, guess who we find in living color of the present? That’s right. We find all those same people we’ve squinted at in crinkled, sepia-toned photographs.  We are mistaken to judge them as irrelevant or their lives boring. The truth is that their ideas, values, experiences, words, music and stories still exert untold influence on us. Their beliefs define the bulk of our present doctrine and faith. They are us and we are them. The more we know about them, the more we will know about us. 

We have changed, of course. Our clothes, music, vocabulary, technologies, and so on, differ from them, but only superficially. The human commonality that joins us has not changed. They are our equals—neither less than nor greater than—but the same as us in all the important ways. We share bedrock beliefs. We are all souls saved by grace; we preach from the same Bible; we worship the identical God: Jesus Christ, the same, yesterday, today and forever!

If we wish our own memory to be cherished, then we must treasure the names, dates, people and events that comprise our past. Failure to value our history dooms us to be forgotten as well. Our decisions become the history of future generations, and we forge that history in our every act.

Here is a short list for compiling your local church history:

1. Appoint a detail-minded person to be in charge and provide plenty of help.
2. Collect and organize church bulletins, newsletters, flyers, news clippings, etc.
3. Archive recordings of sermons and Bible studies and include an index in the history.
4. Get copies of mortgage documents, bylaws, incorporation papers, etc.
5. Solicit pictures from members and write the names of those photographed on the back.
6. Record and transcribe oral histories from founding or eldest members.
7. Get written testimonies of healings, miracles and great spiritual victories.
8. Compile a list of all members’ names from the founding of the congregation.
9. List all the awards and certificates of achievement earned by the congregation.

10.  Ask pastors or evangelists who have a history with the church to share their memories.

11.  Include anything else that has made your church unique over the years.

12.  Announce the finished form of the effort ahead of time (book, CD, DVD, etc.)

13.  Set a deadline.

As a final word, every church should begin to record present and future events with the creation of history in mind.  Anniversaries, for example, give churches a chance to tell the story of the present. Revivals, conferences, concerts, special service weave meaning into the life of your church and fellowship. Don’t let people find meaning for themselves in someone else’s history. You have a history that needs to be recorded. If you have something to tell, tell it. If you have something to learn, ask. It is the stuff of heritage.