God Loves Charleston

On Wednesday the 17^th June, Dylan Roof, a 21-year old male walked into the Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina and shot dead nine people who were attending a Bible Study in the church. Among the dead was the Reverend Clementa Pickney the church pastor and a state senator. Immediately after the killings, the usual questions and statements were asked and raised. “God’s dead”, “Is God alive?”, “If there’s a God, why didn’t he stop it?”, “Maybe God is not as powerful as they say he is”. Sigh!

The troubling thing is that Christians, even pastors have these thoughts and ask these questions. However while it’s okay to have these worries and doubts, the only way they can erase these doubts and answer these questions is only by going to God’s revealed word, the Bible. Psalm 115:16 says that “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth has He given to the children of men.” John 4:24 goes further to say that “God is a Spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” Hebrews 1:14 tells us that “Are not the angels all ministering spirits sent to minister to the heirs of salvation?” If we understand that God is a spirit and the angels and God live in the same place, then what these verses tell us is that the Heavens are for spirits while the earth is for humans.

The Bible makes us understand that we are spirits with a soul and we live in a body. With our spirits we connect with the heavens, God’s own or the devil’s own. With our souls we feel and express emotions. With our bodies we interact with the world around us. While we know that God is a spirit, the fact is that spirits are not legal in the earth. God is only legal in the earth through human agents in answer to the prayers of individuals. That is mainly how miracles happen. But the fact is that we live in a fallen world where crazy things happen because as the Bible says “The heart of man is desperately evil.”

Tragedies will happen. At times we will lose loved ones when we are not ready to let them go. Horrible things will happen in the world that will be broadcast on the news that will make us wonder: “Is God in control?” Yes he is. The Bible tells us that the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof. He owns the earth. Which then leads to the question, “Why did he let it happen?”, the answer to that is “He didn’t. He gave the earth to men. The evil in the hearts of men makes them commit heinous crimes. “Does that mean God is helpless?” No. God set the rules by which the earth runs. While he is God, he chooses to abide by the rules he has set to govern the world in that spirits are illegal in the earth. However because crazy things happen in the world, at times we fail to see or understand the love of God because of the bad things that happen. No matter how long we live on the earth, we will never have the answers to all the questions we have. We should however take comfort in the fact that he has promised to never leave nor forsake us. He also promises to comfort us when crazy things happen. That should comfort us in the midst of our troubles.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers and LOST, BUT FOUND.

We Are What We Believe

Elijah had just won a decisive victory over the pagan gods Baal and Asherah at Mount Carmel. In a great display, he had called the fire of God down from heaven in front of the people thereby showing people who the true God was. In the aftermath of his display, he had killed around a thousand of the prophets of these false gods. He should have been feeling good with himself and confident in the power of God. However, shortly after this great display, he receives a message from the Queen Jezebel who threatens to kill him like he killed the prophets of the heathen gods she worshipped. Instead of being confident of the God who had just displayed such naked and awesome power on his behalf, Elijah runs away from the threat of the queen, abandoning his servant along the way.

Elijah ends up in the wilderness in Beersheba in the country of Judah, far from Jezebel’s reach and falls down tired, asking God to take his life. While resting under a juniper tree, God sends an angel twice to feed Elijah for the journey ahead. After a long journey, God catches up with Elijah in a cave. God then asks Elijah what he’s doing there in the cave. Just like he asked Adam where he was after he had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and his eyes were opened and he knew he was naked, God was not asking Elijah a question he didn’t already know the answer to. Elijah then launches into a sob story of how he had been quite zealous on God’s behalf and everybody had abandoned God and he was the only one left serving God. God then tells him to stand on the mountain so that he could speak with him. While on the mountain, a strong wind, an earthquake and a fire pass by Elijah. The Bible says that while these things passed by him, God was not in it. It was until a still, small voice was heard that he heard God’s voice. When God spoke, it was to ask the same question he had asked at first. Again Elijah answered God with the same story of victimisation and abandonment he had rehearsed earlier. After this God gives him instructions on the people to anoint and to prepare himself for death.

At times we all go through circumstances that debilitate us. Circumstances like anxiety, depression, fear and other negative emotions come to test us and to try our faith and belief in God. They come to taunt us, to make us doubt the presence of God and his saving power. They want us to forget the numerous God has come through for us. Ultimately, they want us to confess negatively and speak words that agree with the circumstances we are going through. While the Bible says God was not in the wind, earthquake or fire, I believe those phenomena were sent by God to remind Elijah of his awesome power that was available to Elijah if only he could correctly discern what was happening. Instead of seeing God’s power at work, all Elijah could see were his present circumstances (which were temporary) and he therefore could not see the power of God. The Bible urges the weak to declare that he is strong and for the poor to declare that he is rich because of what the Lord has done. This is about recognising that while we go through things in life, the things we go through do not define us. What defines us is what God says we are.

God didn’t want Elijah to die. I believe he still had a lot for Elijah to do. However there was nothing God could do because of what Elijah believed about himself. Even after seeing a display of the awesomeness of God, he still could not look past his circumstance to lay hold of God’s goodness and grace by faith. Hence he died. We live in a fallen world and most and generally it’s a terrible place to live. But God want’s us not to look at the world with natural eyes, seeing those things that are temporary. He wants to look with eyes of faith to those things that are eternal, resting our hope and trust in him.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers and LOST, BUT FOUND.

I Know Whom I Have Believed

When God called Abram (before he was Abraham) he informed him that one of the reasons he had called him was because God knew that Abram was not only going to tell his children about God, he was also going to instruct them in the worship of God. As an aside, that tells us the responsibility we have to instruct our offspring in the knowledge and worship of God. When God called him, he promised him that not only was he going to have his own child (Abram was at the moment childless) but that his descendants were going to be like the sand on the sea shore. Abram was 75 years old when God spoke to him the first time and made those promises to him.

In the end, Abraham waited 25 years for the fulfilment of the first part of God’s promise. Isaac was born when Abraham was a 100 years and the Bible tells us in Genesis 25:8 that he ended up living an extra seventy five years after the birth of Isaac. A further reading of Genesis 28 tells us at verse 26 that Isaac was 60 when Jacob and Esau were born even though he married Rebekah when he was 40. That means that Abraham had around 15 years to spend with Jacob and Easau before he died.

By the time we get to Genesis 28, Jacob had not only got Esau to forfeit his birth right but in connivance with their mother Rebekah, he has obtained their father’s blessing which legitimately belongs to Esau. Isaac asks Jacob to go his uncle in Padan Aram to not only take a wife but to stay there till Esau’s anger cools. While in the wilderness at a place called Luz, Jacob lies down with his head on a stone for a pillow and dreams about angels going from earth to heaven and back on a stairway with God appearing at the top of the stairway. God’s makes him a promise and based on God’s promise when Jacob wakes up he makes a deal with God. He promises to serve God if he would provide for him and preserve his life. He creates an altar there and names the place Bethel to commemorate his encounter with God.

Abraham lived with Jacob and Esau for about fifteen years before his death. He must have spent a lot of time with the twins on his knees, telling about the God who also wanted to be their God and have a relationship with them. Which was why when God showed up when Jacob was a fugitive and desolate and in despair at being separated from his family; he wasn’t a stranger to Jacob. When Jacob wasn’t really looking for God, God was looking for him. Another thing was that just like his grandfather; God introduces himself to Jacob with a promise.

Wherever we are in our walk with God, I believe that as much as we want to be in fellowship with God, he wants to fellowship with us even more. The love and the purpose of God is such that he is reaching out and speaking to us each and every day, hoping that we listen. I believe that like Abraham and Jacob, God makes promises to each and every one of us regarding our lives and our purpose. At times, the promises God makes to us are not as pleasant as those made to Abraham and Jacob. When he called Saul of Tarsus who later became Paul the Apostle, he promised Paul that he was going to be a witness for him throughout the earth. I doubt when Paul heard it, he thought his witnessing would be in chains.

Abraham, Jacob and Paul all followed after God’s promise. They never knew how God’s promise was going to come to pass but one thing they all had in common was that they followed God in faith. They could not see the end of the path God was leading them on. However as a result of having a relationship with God, they were able to walk the path set before them. That was why Paul was able to say with conviction “I know whom I have believed.” That is what God is asking of each and every one of us. To find out what his promises, purposes and plans for our lives are and walk in it without wavering to the right or to the left. So that like Paul at the end of our stay on this earth, we can tell the people coming after us “I know whom I have believed.”

 JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

Everything Is About Love

The book of 2 Chronicles 25:2 tells us about a king called Amaziah who did right in God sight but not with a perfect heart.He was a man who did all the right things he was expected to do in relation to worshipping God but he did all he did with the wrong motives. (I wrote a blog post earlier about motives which you can see here (http://herstheword.blogspot.com/2013/10/we-all-have-agenda-whats-yours.html). Technically that means that everything he did not meet with God's standard. If Paul were the one referring to him, he would have said that his works were put on a scale, burnt and all that was left was ashes.

Jesus took the Ten Commandments that God gave to Moses and distilled them into two new and distinct commandments which said love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and strength and love other people as yourself. We understand that the central story of the Bible is all about God's love for and search for mankind and about how we are to receive his love and share it with others but at times we seem to forget that. I was struck by this this thought recently while going through some of the chapters of the book of Corinthians. As an aside, most times as Christians, we take a verse of Scripture in isolation that corresponds with our feelings and we ignore the the rest of the verses. At times, we need to read more than one verse or the whole chapter to be able to get the meaning of the verse.

Church historians and theologians tell us that the books of the Bible were only recently divided into chapters for easy understanding. I was reading 1 Corinthians 14 and I found out that if I wanted to fully understand it, I needed to read Chapter 13. Then I found out that Chapter 12 was also needed as well. In a nutshell, what Paul was saying in those chapters of the Bible is that not only is love the most important thing, your motive for doing anything must be love. Therefore it's not enough to believe that something is a calling or that it's your purpose in life. You must be motivated by a love for God and a love for people.

Therefore it's not enough to want to be a pastor because you believe you have a pastoral calling. You must be motivated by love. It's not enough to join the volunteer workforce in your church because there are not enough workers or because you want to give something back to your spiritual feeding place. You must be motivated by love. It's not enough to desire to speak in tongues or prophesy, your desire must be backed by and propelled by love. If your desire is not as a result of love then the motive is fuelled by a selfish desire for self aggrandisement or duty. God is not looking for people bound by duty. He is looking for those moved by love.

The Bible tells us that our works will be tried by fire. I believe that when our works will be tried, it is not the quality of the work we do that will be judged but the heart with which we do it. When our works are tried by fire, I honestly believe that what will determine whether our works survive will be determined whether or not our hearts were moved by love or a sense of religion or duty. The Bible tells us that love is the evidence of being perfect, of being mature. We should grow up and leave duty and thoughts of the praise of men behind and focus on love. I believe therein lies our salvation. Doing anything else, like Amaziah, we might find out too late that we didn't walk before God with a perfect heart. Today when the world celebrates a love that is different from that which God says, we need to let them know that there's something more.



JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

Piers Morgan Thinks Pope Francis Is A Religious Bigot (And Mohammed Too)

Thanks to the interview with GQ Magazine, we all know that Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty fame is true to his faith. In the firestorm that has followed his comments; we have discovered some other interesting things along the way. One of those things we have discovered is that Wilson Cruz believes that those of us that believe the Bible is the word of God and obey it are not good Christians while those that disregard it and support the homosexual lifestyle are the good Christians. We have also discovered that CNN anchor, Piers Morgan thinks that Pope Francis is a religious bigot. So probably does the leader of all liberals, President Barack Obama, CNN and all liberals.

When I heard about Piers Morgan’s comments, it got me thinking. When I hear such incendiary comments, I like to think about what the comment means. It occurred to me that what Piers Morgan meant was that, I along with other Christians who shared Phil Robertson’s view that sex and marriage should be between a man and a woman were all religious bigots. When I thought about it some more, it further occurred to me that not only was he calling us all religious bigots, he was also calling Pope Francis, the head of Catholics, a religious bigot. Make no mistake, from Piers’s comments; we can deduce what CNN, TIME Magazine, GLAAD and all liberals really think of the Pope. While some people might say that Phil Robertson could have been subtler or less coarse with his comments or that the Pope would never say such things, the fact remains that the Pope and Phil Robertson literally believe the same thing. While Pope Francis has come out to say that Catholics should focus less on hot button social issues, he has never come out to disavow the Catholics church teachings on the subject, especially on same sex relationships.

At the last Democratic convention before the elections, there were reports that the party wanted to remove all references to God from their constitution. It reportedly took concerted efforts from President Obama to avert that. Not that he believes in God but he realised how that might look during an election year. The fact is that liberals really don’t believe in God. At best, they think that we are crazy to believe in the myth of God. At worst, they think we use the myth of God to spread hate and prejudice. They don’t believe in God but their gods are fame, money, position and power. The liberals say they want equality. That’s a lie. What they want is homogeneity where everyone looks and sounds the same. Which is not possible. Camille Paglia in her recent article in TIME Magazine, liberals are now even denying Biology and the very obvious differences in gender by saying gender is not something that comes naturally with birth but something forced on a child by society. Yet this is the same Biology they have always relied on in their support of the theory of evolution. Now it seems they have decided to pick and choose the parts of Biology they want.

Their denial of the existence of God means that they think that all of us, Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Hindus and members of all other faiths in the world are crazy, hateful, religious bigots. That means everyone the world over who doesn't adhere to their secularist view is a hateful, religious bigot. So if Muslims think it doesn't concern them, that’s not true. The last I heard, Prophet Mohammed’s teachings in the Koran prohibit same sex relationships. So in essence, this is bigger than Phil Robertson. To put it bluntly, what CNN, Wilson Cruz, Piers Morgan, Martin Sheen, President Obama and all liberals are saying is that Prophet Mohammed and every devout Muslim who adheres to his teachings are all religious bigots. How do I know President Obama thinks this way? He along with Prime Minister David Cameron has at several times threatened to withdraw aid from sovereign countries that do not do their bidding and decriminalise same sex relationships. Even deeply religious and conservative countries. So if we are to take their word for it, then the US and United Kingdom will cut aid to Saudi Arabia, Iraq and other countries because the leaders of those countries are religious bigots. Now King Abdullah, Mr. Karzai and Muslim leaders, you now know what Piers Morgan, President Obama and CNN think of you.

I am an ardent Anglophile and that might be as a result of the fact that we were colonised by the British. I love their traditions and sense of history. But it pains me to see the depths the country that gave the world Smith Wigglesworth and C. S. Lewis hand sunk to. Martin Bashir, a compatriot of Piers Morgan gave us a glimpse of the general hatred liberals have of people who hold conservative views with his attack on Sarah Palin. Now Piers Morgan along with CNN has just told us what he thinks of the Pope and all of us who don’t agree with him. A few weeks ago, TIME Magazine honoured the Pope with the prestigious TIME Man of The Year Award. Now a sister company to TIME has told us what they really think of him. Make no mistake, an attack on Phil Robertson is an attack on all of us. Even the Pope.

Just because we don’t see eye to eye on issues, does that mean we have to resort to name calling and threatening people’s livelihood? GLAAD, CNN and Piers obviously think so. They talk about tolerance an acceptance and they talk about taking the high moral road. However when someone says something they don’t like, they attack like vipers. We say what we believe and they respond with insults and abuse. And they say their tolerant. They’re only tolerant with those who agree with them. But it’s not something that should surprise us. Jesus said a servant cannot be greater than his master, if the world hated him, it would definitely hate us. I respect the Pope as the head of the Catholic. And neither he nor Phil Robertson nor I or any other person deserves such abuse.  

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers, http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.  

  

Musings On Love (Part I)

I have recently been ruminating on what love is all about and the present perceptions about love in today’s culture. I intend to spend some time talking about these perceptions and what I believe should be the correct attitude to have. They are my own views based on the Bible and you may agree or disagree with them.

From my meditations on the treatise on love in 1 Corinthians 13, it is quite clear that loving is directly linked with doing. And the feeling in today’s culture is that if you love someone and they do something wrong, you do nothing. There seems to be a general perception that if you say you love someone, then you have to condone everything they do even if you think it’s wrong. Doing otherwise would be “judging”. We live in a society where nothing is wrong or right anymore and there are seemingly no absolutes. There’s nothing like correction or repentance any more. Cheating on a wife or a husband or a boyfriend is nothing to be frowned on anymore as someone will make an excuse for you. In fact cheating is to be praised and encouraged. I recently came across the excerpt of an interview granted by the actor, Ethan Hawke. According to him, we have a childish and naïve attitude to fidelity in a relationship. He rehashed the old argument about how man is not meant to be monogamous. My understanding of what he was on about was that we should be more tolerant and understanding of people who cheat on their spouses and partners. Which leads me to the question, if you know you can’t commit to one person, why be with that person? Especially when you know that that person expects you to be with them alone?

It’s not only fidelity in relationships I’m referring to. Let me ask a question. If your teenage son or daughter came to you, scared and with tears in his or her eyes and told you that something they had done had led to the death of someone else, what would you do? After the initial shock had worn off, would you:

(a)    Hand them over to the police and let them face the fate that their foolishness deserved, or;

(b)   Would you help them cover their tracks, bury the body and if possible help them escape the country so they wouldn’t have to face a trial?

Sometime ago, I read the story of a boy who was under the age of ten who fatally wounded his younger brother. The parents of the boys tried to cover up the injuries, going onto the internet looking for ways to care for the younger son at home. In the end they had to take him to the hospital where he eventually died. The parents tried to cover up for the older brother but the authorities investigating the matter noticed the internet searches on the computers and were able to piece the events that had happened together. There was an outcry when the older brother was charged for the murder of his younger brother. People asked the District Attorney to forgive the boy. Refusing to do so, she said, “It’s not my job to forgive, it’s my job to apply the law.” Today, the statement still resonates with me as on the day I read it.

The average belief of everyone is that we should shield our loved ones from hurt and pain. But the question the DA’s answer throws up is, who then gets to fight for those we hurt? My personal belief is that apart from the fact that it’s illegal, helping your children escape the consequences of their actions shows a lack of love and respect for those hurt by their actions. And we are called to love everyone.

What if there was a third way? A better way? What if I was to say that there was nothing wrong with going to the authorities with your child and then hiring the best legal team to try and get him off? Would that not be showing greater love rather than trying to hide the offence and doing something illegal? Love will force us to confront ugly situations with a view to sorting them out. Condoning only makes us run from the situation in the hope that things will sort themselves out by themselves. And that usually doesn’t happen.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson publishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

We All Have An Agenda (What's Yours?)

That's right. You heard me correctly (or is that "read me correctly?). Everybody you interact with in any way has an agenda for their interaction with you. A boss has an agenda when he interacts with a subordinate. Either he has the interest of the business, the subordinate or his own at heart or a combination of either of them. He does not speak in a vacuum. In the same way, a husband or wife has a motive or agenda when they speak to their spouse especially if there is a decision to be made. Even Jesus had a motive and an agenda for the words that he spoke. He came to the earth as a result of prophecies that had gone before him. Therefore when he came to the earth, he spoke words that would ensure that the prophecies would be fulfilled. Jesus had a simple agenda, to turn the hearts of men back to God and to draw men into a thankful and honest worship of God. Like Lecrae said, if someone tells you that there is no truth, the first question you should ask is why you should believe him. Even the atheist who says there is no God has an agenda. He wants to convince you of the truth of his own way of thinking.

I know a lot of people reading this have a problem with the words motive and agenda because they feel it connotes something negative and would rather deny that they have a motive or agenda when talking with their friends or spouse. However, the definition of motive simply is that it's the reason for doing something. Therefore having a motive or an agenda is not a bad thing. It's okay to have a motive. What is important is what drives the motive and how it is expressed. I recently saw a post on Twitter by Bishop T. D. Jakes for his new programme on BET, Mind, Body and Soul. According to him, the woman at times goes into marriage thinking she can change her husband while the man goes into marriage hoping the woman won't change.

That really got me thinking. On the one hand there's a man who didn't expect his wife to change but then after four children he notices changes in her body due to childbirth that he can't deal with. So he want's the wife to take up jogging. The wrong motive would be that he want's her to do it not because it's healthy and it would prolong her life but he wants her to do it for him. All his friends have exchanged their first wives for a younger, more svelte model. He hasn't done that yet so he feels embarrassed when he goes out with his friends. They are there with their slim wives who haven't had any children and probably don't want and he's there with his wife who's carrying a few extra pounds. So he thinks up a great programme for her for his sake. The right motive would be that he encourages her to do it for herself, her health and her own self esteem. That would be having a motive based on love.

On the other hand, the motive might be based on love but the method of achieving the motive might be extremely cruel. The Bible says in 1 Cor 13 vs 4-5: "Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, Does not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil." While there might be a place for tough love, I do not see how tough love would necessarily equate with nagging, jeering, mocking, insulting or abusive words. Rather than making fun of her, he might get more joy with encouraging her to take up jogging and suggesting that they establish a new routine of running together. Suggesting something positive that both of you can do where you get to spend time together will work wonders for her weight and the marriage.

It also works the other way as well. I remember hearing the story of a girl who came from a well to do family who was going out with a boy who was just finding his feet. The girl first of all gave him conditions on how many times in a week they would go out on dates. Then she told him he needed to change his car because she was ashamed of being seen in his car. It wasn't surprising the guy took off. Trying to change a man is nigh on impossible and then you you want him to change because of you so as to prove his love. Which in essence is blackmail. Which is no different from the immature and selfish 16 year old boy who has an itch and tells the girl she needs to sleep with him to prove her love. Like the boy, when you ask someone to prove their love, it most and generally shows that you don't love them in the first place. Also, nagging and complaining never really works. He might end up doing what you want and you think you're victorious. Then you notice he spends less time at home. Not because he's having an affair. It's because he just want's peace. The Bible in the book of Proverbs says that it's better to stay on the edge of a roof than stay in the same house with a quarrelsome woman. Selah.

So it's okay to have motives and to express them. It just depends on what drives the motive and how it is expressed. If the motive is out of love and a desire to make the other person or thing better, things will generally work out fine. However, when we put ourselves first, we can be sure that things will go awry soon or later.

So what's your motive?



JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelsonpublishers.http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx and LOST, BUT FOUND availableat http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/ 

God is Love But is Love God?

To ask that God’s love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God – C. S. Lewis

When people mean when they say that God is love is often something quite different; they really mean love is God – C. S. Lewis

Recently I saw a tweet that brought a wry smile to my lips. On the 24^th September this year Nicole Scherzinger tweeted the following passage of the Bible from her account:

“A new commandment I give unto you, That you love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

The above passage is John 13:34. Jesus was speaking to his disciples during the meal known commonly known as the Last Supper. Jesus knew that he was about to be crucified and he was effectively given his last sermon to the disciples before he would be taken away. Earlier in his ministry, he had broken down the entire law that had been given through Moses, comprising over 600 rules and regulations into two, to love God with our whole heart, mind and soul and to love our neighbours as ourselves. After Jesus died, even Paul wrote an entire chapter in the book of Corinthians on the topic of love. One then might be forgiven for thinking that the only important thing in Christianity is love. However, while it might be the most important thing, it’s not the only thing.

The Bible says that “while we yet sinners, Christ died for us”. He died for us because he loved us. The Bible also says we love him because he first loved us. That means we are able to love him back because he first loved us. The Christian group had a song that said, “Love is a Verb”. That means that you cannot say you love without doing something to show it? How do we know he loves us? Because he died to save us from our sins. But he also wants us to love him back. In the book of John 14:15, Jesus said: “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Therefore, the only way we can show we love God is by keeping his commandments.

I've said before that I do not believe that Christ came to establish a religion called “Christianity”. I believe that Christianity is a contraption formulated by man to allow us fall short of what Christ expects of God since we are “just men” even though Christ said that greater works than he did we would do. Christianity is a crutch we lean on that allows us to conveniently fall short of what God expects of us. Christ came to set up a kingdom known as the Kingdom of God (or the Kingdom of Heaven) with the Holy Spirit as his representative when he left, not to set up a religion. From the book of Acts, we understand that Christians were called by that name first in Antioch. I believe the people who started using the term were not people of the same faith and there is every likelihood that the term might have been derogatory. We shy away from the concept of a kingdom with a king because somehow prefer the concept of presidents and democracy where everybody is “equal”. However, God is not some equal opportunities employer, he is a king.

Romans 8:2 talks about the “law of the Spirit of life”. Isaiah 9:6 talks about the government being upon the shoulder of the child that is born. If there is a kingdom or government, it presupposes that there must be legislation. We seem to think that the kingdom of God has no rules. However, what kingdom, or government can stand without rules? We seem to think that because we operate a new covenant that we are under no obligation to keep any of God’s commandments. While I will admit that quite a number of the laws were personal to the Jews, the laws known as the 10 Commandments are not. For instance, from Jesus words, it’s quite clear that God is still interested in us honouring our parents. So, if we still need to obey laws, how then is this dispensation of grace different from that of the law? The main difference is Holy Spirit. Under the law, we tried to please God with our own efforts. We did all we could and we still fell short. When we sinned, we tried to pacify God with the sacrifice of animals because the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Therefore we needed something to take our death when we sinned. Under grace, before we even sin, we understand that Christ has shed his blood for our past, present and future sins. We also understand that God himself through the Holy Spirit is working in us to help us keep the laws. We also don’t need to beat ourselves up when we fall or run away from him when we sin. We are to run toward him and fall at his feet and receive his forgiveness.

The Bible says Christ is returning for a Church without spot, wrinkle or blemish. If Christ died for us while we were yet sinners, do we presume to think that God is happy if we continue doing the same things that made him consider us sinners even after we accept Christ?I think not. God said that in these times, he would write his laws not on tables of stone but on the tables of our heart. The heart is a symbol of love. It means therefore that in these days, God’s laws will be dear to us. His laws will not be grievous to us because we love him and want to please him and because we understand that they are for our good.

God is a God of love. But he is also a God of judgement. Any attempt to gloss over this is wrong. While God is love, love is not God. We should stop trying to excuse or justify the wrong we or others do by saying “God loves us the way we are”. It's even funnier when people who don't acknowledge Jesus as their Lord and Saviour try try to preach love to Christians. If there was a man who was married but had an anger problem and every time he got angry he beat his wife. When he’s asked why he doesn't deal with his anger issues, he replies, “God loves me the way I am”. I wonder which one of us would agree with that. Jesus said he did not come into the world to condemn it. However, he did say that in the end, we would be judged by the words he had spoken. Everything we do should flow out of love but we should use love as an excuse not to move on to maturity. How does maturity come about? By being obedient to God’s laws.The Bible makes it clear that one day, Heaven and Earth will pass away and we all we will stand before God’s throne in judgement. Then we’ll discover just how far God’s love extends. But by then, it might be too late. 

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a political thriller about the persecution of Christians. DECEPTIO is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers and is available at http://www.bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND a story about love, loss, rejection and redemption available on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ. You can follow him on Twitter at @Cruz_JCReal

The Myth of Equality

The California legislature is at it again. In the name of equality and a fairer society (as they see it) the law makers just passed Bill AB 1266 into law. One of the provisions of the law which comes into the force next year is that a student who is male but feels he is female can choose to use whichever bathroom he (or she wants). That means a guy who has not even had a sex change to into whatever he feels he should be, can waltz into any bathroom he feels like, male today; female tomorrow. He doesn't have to choose either one. On the other hand if anyone tries to stop him from entering either one, then that person will be guilty of discrimination.

The California legislature, emboldened by the Supreme Court's striking down of Proposition 8 and other laws and by a strong liberal lobby have passed this absurd law with a view to creating a picture of 'equality' not realising that equality is a myth and a myth not worth chasing after. When you chase after equality all you end up with is absurdity. Instead of chasing after the myth of equality, what we should be seeking after is fairness. There is a difference between equality and fairness and I'll write about that some other day. However what we have now is the tyranny of the minority over the majority.

People may think that I'm a pessimistic or an alarmist but I don't think so. I just believe that I see things. I honestly believe that the Bible is the Word of God and is the final authority on our lives here on earth. When we fail to adhere to God's Word and we feel something that God says doesn't matter, we will begin to see things we never believed were possible. I believe that when a country establishes as law something that is contrary to God's law, it won't come alone. The spirit of the age is equality and reasonableness. Slowly and silently, the spirit of the age will come slowly with the 'cousins' of that thing that is against the Word. Like I said yesterday, things will get worse. Sometime ago, I heard a lawyer in the United Kingdom asked that the age of consent be lowered to 13. If that doesn't sound like paedophilia, I don't know what is. We need to pray like we have never prayed before. But I believe that just like the Church came together with other people to get Proposition 8 passed, we need to partner with other like minded people to get the law changed.

I Won't Judge (But Can I Say You're Wrong?)

Anyone who has read the first chapter of the book of Galatians would immediately realise that the Apostle Paul was quite annoyed, possibly extremely angry and livid when he wrote the letter. He could barely wait to write his usual gracious greeting before laying into the Galatians. The first few verses are a greeting blessing them and praying for the grace of God on their lives. Then he switches. While reading it, I thought to myself that the first verse should have given us a clue what was coming. In the first verse, Apostle Paul practically gave us his resume and the reason why he was qualified to write the letter. According to him, he was not an Apostle ordained by men both one ordained by God himself. Then he proceeded to tell the Galatians where they had got it wrong.

There is a constant refrain everywhere today both in the church and the world about how we shouldn't judge. I have begun to think this is another way of saying we shouldn't tell people about their faults just because we have our own. The other day I listened as a female artiste laughed away accusations of being a home wrecker even though she ended up with someone else's husband. We seem not to want to hear about the things we are doing wrong just because we feel no one is perfect.

For me, judging is not telling people what they've done wrong. It's about making a conclusion about what would happen to someone based on what they were doing wrong. For instance, telling someone it's wrong to have an affair with a married man is not judging. It's telling them what is biblically correct. However, saying the person will end up in hell and be damned and will never be happy is judging. Maybe I'm looking at it from a lawyers perspective. To put it another way, telling someone what they've done wrong with an attitude of love cannot be judgment. Telling them the consequences of their actions is judgment. And I think that is the way it should be. Or am I missing something? 

We Are Not At War (Are We?)

There were two quite interesting posts on Michael Hyatt’s blog on Tuesday this week. For those who don’t know Michael Hyatt, he was the former CEO of Thomas Nelson publishers and he is the current chairman. The first was a link to a post by someone called Anne Marie Miller. Her post (http://www.annemariemiller.com/2013/08/19/three-things-you-dont-know-about-your-children-and-sex/). She is a children’s counsellor and she was basically talking about the threat Google posed to children. According to her, children were searching for answers to questions they couldn’t ask their parents on the search engine. Not only were they finding unwholesome answers, they were getting pictures as well. Also, children were getting involved in unspeakable acts at a much younger age and there was a need for parents to be closer to their children and develop a rapport with them so that the children would trust them enough to ask them questions they needed answers to.

His other post, Whatever Happened To Modesty (http://michaelhyatt.com/whatever-happened-to-modesty.html) reflected on the attire worn by the artistes at the MTV Awards and some of the comments made. Personally, I think modesty is dead in America and that it has become a dirty word. Unfortunately, I think that has also become the case in the Church. What struck me was how there were people on the comments page who defended people’s rights to wear whatever they wanted. I have no problem with that argument as long as they aren’t Christians. However, there were those who saw the argument about modesty as an attempt by men to control women in the Church. Those are the ones I have a problem with. According to Rebecca Maynard, one of the people I disagree with, the “legalism” of modesty was designed by men to control women. This was allegedly done so as stop men from falling.

I find it hard to understand why men are accused of misogyny or the oppression or suppression of women whenever they comment on female issues. I also fail to understand why it is that women, even Christian women, seem to retreat behind the wall of women liberation and give the impression that we are at war. Even in the Church. You’ll have to forgive me but I believe the Bible is the final authority on our lives as Christians and not the United States Constitution. Not the laws of the United States. I might have said it before but I do believe that most of the laws of the United States are against God’s laws. We have sadly taken the view that human concepts like equality are better than what God says. We believe democracy is better than theocracy. The Bible says women should dress modestly. It also says that a woman should cover her nakedness. I don’t think that’s misogynist. Unless of God and the Apostles are now misogynist. Don’t get me wrong, I believe modesty applies to both men and women. I have never understood why a man should walk about in his vest instead of a shirt. They say the law is an ass. When we take the concept of equality too far, we discountenance the differences between us all in the name of sameness. Whether we like it or not, we are anatomically different. Which is why I think the present rage of women bathing topless in public because “men can do it” is a step too far. Unless of course we take the view that anything the law says is right.

I honestly believe that God’s laws are better than man’s law. At times, we have made the mistake and error of presenting God as a God of do’s and don’ts who is trying to spoil our fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. When God asks us to do or not to do anything, it’s for our benefit. Besides, I really do not see how being naked in public glorifies the God we say we serve. How do we think God is represented to people when we can’t keep our clothes on? The Bible says in the book of Peter that a woman should be known more for her character than the type of clothes she wears. I would add that a woman should be known more for her character than her lack of clothes.     

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers (bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx). He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND,  (www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ) 

Truth

Jesus once told his disciples that they had the erroneous impression that he had come to the earth to bring peace. He told them that this was not so. According to him, he had come to bring conflict between father and son, mother and daughter. According to him, he had come to set fire to the earth. He even said he wished it was already kindled!

The book of Proverbs urges us to buy truth and not sell it. The other day I was listening to a preacher and he was talking about the difference between hard and soft messages. According to him, soft messages were to get people to seek Christ and come to church. Once they had come to church, then they could hear the hard messages. Jesus told his disciples that if they wanted any part of him, they had to drink of his blood and eat his body. Most of the disciples left him at that point. When he asked Peter whether he too would leave, Peter wondered why they would leave. According to him, Jesus had “the words of life”.

Truth is hard. Most times, the harder it is for us to accept something, the likelihood of it being the truth is greater. A lot of people accept that Jesus lived and that he was a “good” man but they have issues with him being the Son of God. Major news outlets refer to the Bible as myth but yet they accept that a lot of the places in the Bible like Babylon exist. The fact is that you can’t take one and reject the other. You have to accept the truth the way it is and not chose the truth you will accept.

Riches and the Kingdom

Rom 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”

When I newly became a Christian, I often wondered why there was no Christian that was among the first 10 richest men in the world. I knew Pat Robertson owned the Christian Broadcasting Network and that he must be rich, but he wasn't among the first 10 richest men in America or the world. My reasoning went along the lines that if God was powerful, then he could make it so that Christians would be the richest people on earth. Then non-Christians would see the benefit of being Christian and convert and so a lot more people would go to heaven. I must confess that thoughts about purpose and serving God for the right reason’s never entered my mind.

Now that I'm older in the faith, I have come to understand that calling yourself a Christian and having a fat bank balance do not necessarily go together. In fact, a man can be extremely backslidden and still be filthy rich. Paul talked about those who preached Christ for the sakes of their bellies. He also made remarks about people like Demas who had forsaken Paul and Christ for the pleasures of this world. There are a lot of people who started out following Christ, who wanted to do God’s will. Somewhere along the way, the pleasures, ambitions and cares of this world drew them away from Jesus. Some people love the applause of men rather than the applause of heaven. There are those who think that loving others is the greatest commandment. Some people have received ecclesiastical titles from other men and they and the people who look at them think that they and God must be first cousins. But if the truth were to be told, their hearts are far from God.   

Having riches is not evidence of a relationship with God. Conversely, a relationship with God could translate into riches. However, a relationship with God is characterised by the fact that we have right standing with God through his son Jesus and that despite all that goes on around us and in the world, there’s a peace in our hearts. Also, joy follows us because we know that we are in his will for us.

I know of quite a number of miserable men and women who have quite a lot of money. A few years ago, I remember reading the story of a German billionaire who committed suicide by jumping in front of a train because he had lost a few billion Euros in the stock market. But he was still a billionaire. God wants to give us stuff but he doesn't want the stuff he gives us to have a hold on us. We should be able to leave everything we have at the drop of a hat to follow Jesus, otherwise the things we can’t leave have become gods and idols to us, replacing God. That is not what God wants. He wants us to have a relationship with him such that whenever he comes looking for us, unlike the first Adam, we can boldly and confidently looking him in the face and say, “Here I am.”

JC Cruz is the author of the novel, DECEPTIO, a thriller which has the persecution of Christians for their faith as one of its themes. DECEPTIO, published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers, is available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx.  He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story about love, rejection and redemption available here   http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/

Can I Do All Things Through Christ?

I honestly believe that there is no substitute for reading the Bible ourselves. The book of Joshua enjoins us at Chapter 1, verse 8 that “This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein; for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success”. The simple fact is that if we want to ensure that the book does not depart out of our mouths or and that we meditate on what is written in the word day and night and observe to do all that’s in the word, there is no substitute for us to read the word and understand it ourselves by the help of the Holy Spirit. While our pastors, friends, colleagues and other Christians are there to help us with our understanding of the Scriptures, it does not absolve us of the responsibility to check if what they are saying is the truth.  

 

The Sun Shining

While I was in university, I remember that when examinations came around we were urged to pray and declare that our memories were blessed and that we would remember all that we had read. I really didn’t think much of this and I happily and fervently prayed along with the rest of the congregation that my memory was blessed and that I would remember all that I had read. No matter how little I had read or understood. However when I got round to reading the verse of scripture that gave rise to the prayer point, I discovered that we had been applying the scripture in error. Proverbs 10:7 says: “The memory of the just is blessed: but the name of the wicked shall rot”. Immediately I read it, it occurred to me that the verse had nothing to do with my memory or examinations. It also occurred to me that it had been taken out of context. I realised that what the verse was talking about was about how men who were considered just or wicked would be remembered when they’re dead. Case in point, Saint Francis of Assissi and Adolf Hitler. While people are grateful for the life of the former, a lot of people probably wish the latter had never been born.

Which then leads me to the verse of scripture that I think has been quoted of context the most, probably because a lot of Christians have not taken time to read it and understand it for themselves. They’ve heard their pastor, parents, friends, colleagues and even new converts to Christianity all quote it and so they’ve accepted it. Philippians 4:13. “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”. However, when people misquote it, the “which” somehow changes to “who”. What they then mean is that thanks to Christ who strengthens them, they could become a brain surgeon, an architect, an intrepid explorer, you name it. For a while, I accepted this misquote. But then, I began to wonder, why would Christ strengthen you to be able to do all things if he has a specific purpose for your life? I then went back to read the verse and I found out that people were quoting the verse all on its own. The more I read it, the more I was convinced that verse 13 was linked to and could not be divorced from the verses above it, especially verse 11 & 12. Verse 11 talks about how Apostle Paul has learnt to be content in whatever situation he found himself. Verse 12 talks about how he has learnt to abound or be abased, be full or be hungry. Verse 13 then talks about how he is able to all those things he talks about in verses 11 and 12 through Christ. The question then is, is it Christ that strengthens him to go through those experiences? Probably. However, I believe that in using “which” instead of “who”, I believe what he was saying was that the things he goes through strengthen him for the other trials that are to come. In short, they build character in him.

The Bible is full of rich texts which if we faithfully apply and follow, our lives will be full of joy and prosperous, just as God intended. However, we can’t continue to receive revelation on a second hand basis. We need to dig into the word of God ourselves and unearth it’s rich resources.      

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. DECEPTIO is available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love and redemption. LOST, BUT FOUND is available on Amazon,  http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/. You can follow him on @CruzJC_Real.

Love Christ, Not the World

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.” – G. K. Chesterton, The Everlasting Man, 1925

“Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.” – G. K. Chesterton, ILN, 4/19/30

“There are those who hate Christianity and call their hatred an all-embracing love for all religions.” - G. K. Chesterton,

As man deems to progress, cultures change. And as cultures change, men ditch moral values even as they make up new ones as they go along. A few centuries ago, it was frowned upon to break another person’s home and steal their wife or husband. However as society “progresses”, it has become quite acceptable especially in America to set your sights on another person’s wife or husband and break the home up. It doesn't even matter if there are children involved. After all, if you break the home up, the children are going to have a new mother or father in the person who contributed to the break up. I say contribute because I understand that it takes two people to engage in adultery. However it would help if the person who isn't a part of the couple had more discipline. But the current refrain is “We couldn't help ourselves, we were in love” and people are told not “to judge”. The person who was part of the initial couple also claimed to love their wife or husband. I was watching a programme on television the other day where a well known singer who contributed to the breakup of her present husband’s first marriage was being interviewed. She and the former wife have been engaged in an acrimonious battle on both social and publicity media. According to the singer, she found it amusing to be called a “home wrecker”. She seemed to take the whole thing with levity and seemed to find the fact that she contributed to the breakup of a home. All I have to say is there’s a saying that says: “The mistress who ends up marrying her married lover should recognise that the post of mistress has just become available.”

There are those who think Christianity is old fashioned and should be dragged, kicking and screaming into the 21^st century. Therefore, according to them Christianity should be more tolerant of new social developments, even if they are against the teachings of Christ and the Apostles as revealed to us in the Bible by the Holy Spirit and especially against the natural order of things. When Christians talk about how things should be, these people scoff and mock and talk about how we want everybody to be the same and it’s not possible. However they get angry and resort to name calling when we refuse to agree with them on other issues. They have found willing allies in governments and politicians who want votes. I am not so much concerned about the politicians as I am about the people who claim to be Christians but would rather support those who are against Christianity than Christ. They believe that Christ’s teachings should be subjected to culture and the feelings of our flesh. They talk about how Christ loved everybody. They fail to realise that Christ’s definition of love is different from that the world has put on it. Christ loved everyone yet never condoned what they did wrong. Love is a decision which is shown through acts of selflessness. Love is not sex. Cultures might change but truth will always remain the same. Cultures change everyday like quicksand but Christ is the only thing that will remain the same. He will never change. The saying goes, “Show me your friends and I’ll tell you who you are”. Especially when those friends hate Christ. The Apostle Paul talked about how all sins are either those of the "lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes or the pride of life." That is still true today.

The tide is turning and a time is coming where in the name of reasonableness and equality, laws are going to be passed by governments in the West that would make even China, Cuba and North Korea seem tame. However, those laws are going to make those who say they are Christians decide on whose side they are going to be, Christ (the Truth) or the world. Which side are you going to choose?

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-000194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/ a story of love and redemption.