Grace Under Fire

 Shortly after the Hobby Lobby by the Supreme Court in America, Holly Fisher a West Virginia native posted a picture on Twitter. In the picture she was wearing a shirt displaying Hobby Lobby and holding a Chick-fil-A cup. In the caption to the photograph, she made reference to the fact that liberals were going to get enraged by the picture. I doubt even if she knew the outrage that would pour forth in reaction to the photograph. The photograph and the reaction to it by people on both sides of the political spectrum in America have made her something of a celebrity.

In American media, liberals are described mostly as tolerant while conservatives are generally referred to as bigots. Going through Holly Fisher’s timeline on Twitter, I was shocked, appalled and distressed by the comments from those who don’t share her views. Even elected Democratic representatives in Congress from her state have joined in on the act of insulting her on Twitter. There were not only those who wished her dead and who wanted to do her harm, there were those who were determined to call her every hurtful name under the earth. I felt not only distressed and alarmed by the abuse she was receiving on Twitter. However I was quite struck by the grace with which Holly Fisher answers those who abuse and wish her hurt.

It is a well-known fact that that the American media supports liberal causes. It is also a known fact that they believe liberals can do no wrong and every idea they have must be imposed on others. They do not take dissent very well. Anyone who does not agree with their opinion is labelled with the word bigots. Yet how anyone can refer to the people who insult and abuse Holly Fisher on a daily basis as “tolerant”. The people (both male and female) are quite definitely outraged by the fact that Holly Fisher obviously supports something they disapprove of. While I find it hard to believe that anyone would swallow the liberal line without critical thinking, it seems the people who hurl abuse at Holly Fisher actually do. The newspapers and other media outlets have been pushing the lie that the Supreme Court decision was a denial of contraceptives to women. All those who come to her Twitter feed to abuse all spout the same lie because that is what they have been made to believe. Whenever I see another comment by another enraged liberal, I ask myself why the media is determined to push lies as the truth. However there is a book titled Letters To America by Ayoade Oluwasanmi that seems to answer the question. The book is written in the form of letters from a friend in Nigeria to another living in America. They are based on the author’s perception of several social issues in America from gun control to the contraceptive mandate. The writer posits that the media and other liberals are determined to push the lies as truth because of the incitement value. In other words, liberals are determined to incite those who are moderate or sitting on the fence with regards to issues that liberals hold dear to hate conservatives to the point of wanting to harm them. The book can be found here. While others might think that the idea is far-fetched, looking at Holly Fisher’s timeline on Twitter, I don’t think so. While liberal heroes like Sandra Fluke are feted and anyone who dares say a word against them is demonised, no one stands up for people like Holly Fisher because the media do not like their message. Which is sad.

I admire Holly Fisher. In spite of the hate and opposition and criticism she has faced, she has stuck to her beliefs. I wish her all the best. However what gives me great joy is the fact that Holly Fisher is inspiring conservatives like her who were prior to her act, afraid to stand up for what they believed. If the liberals don’t like Holly Fisher, they should watch out for those who are following in her footsteps. Holly Fisher is an example for in the way she answers her critics, just by being who she is.

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/.

While Men Slept, Culture Came In Unawares

The whole Miley Cyrus thing has got me thinking about the insidious nature of culture. The whole country seems to be disturbed by the whole dancing and tongue thing. I think the problem is that people are not comfortable with the 20 year old singer trying to act more grown up than she is. The question I would ask is, would people complain if it was Lady Gaga? I doubt. I saw the outfit Lady Gaga wore to the event and it worse than anything Miley wore. So what then did Miley do wrong? I think her problem was that people thought she was too young to do what she was doing. Also, her Disney and Hannah Montana connections didn't help. If it was Madonna, would people find it acceptable.

Before you get uppity, I'm not saying what she did was right. I think it was outrageous. But my problem is that quite a lot of people having been complaining about Miley Cyrus before the VMA’s and nobody took notice. For me, that is the insidious nature of culture. Culture creeps up on us insidiously until something that was previously unacceptable becomes of no issue because we no longer think it matters. Not only does a previously unacceptable behavior become acceptable, it drags along its nasty cousins who are similar to it and we don’t notice anything wrong till it’s too late.

The recent rage is to take nude pictures in the name of art. In years past, posing naked was exclusively reserved for models. Now film stars, musicians, athletes and anyone wanting to get famous and make money while at it are all jumping on the bandwagon. The funny thing is that even those who claim that they are doing it for a “good cause” like PETA all get paid. Jesus said that anyone who looks at a woman with lust in his heart has already committed adultery. Therefore he didn't need to actually need to sleep with the object of his lust to commit adultery. If I were to extrapolate that, I would say that you don’t have to stand on the side of the road to be considered a woman (or man) who has sex or sleeps around for monetary gain.

Agnieszka Radwanska, a polish tennis player who says she’s a devout Catholic couldn't understand the outrage that greeted the nude photo shoot she did for ESPN magazine. She had been named a patron of a youth group in the Catholic Church in her native but was subsequently dropped after the pictures came out. According to her, there was nothing wrong with the picture as she wasn't really showing anything that should make her feel ashamed. The question I asked myself was, what if that happened in America or some other Western country? What if someone who professed faith in Jesus as an evangelical Christian decided to pose nude? Would there be some form of outrage on the part of Christians? Would she (or he) defend it as an expression of his or her faith in Jesus? Would liberal people take his or side and say it’s freedom of expression? Would they say it was just another way in which Christianity seeks to oppress women and keep them down? Would other Christians come out and tell those outraged that it was the poser’s body and that he or she could do whatever they liked? They might even argue that the naked picture glorified Christ. After all was said and done, would those who were initially outraged, feel cowed and back down? In today’s 21^st century Christianity, anything is possible.    


JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a political thriller about the persecution of Christians. DECEPTIO is published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. DECEPTIO is available here http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-194087/deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story about rejection, love and redemption. The book is available here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/

The Gospel of Jesus Christ or the Gospel of The Kingdom?

The other day I was reading Exodus Chapter 20 and I was going through the twelve commandments and something occurred to me. It struck me that each law was not so much in respect of the whole nation but in respect of each individual in the nation. Going through the verses in the chapter, it occurred to me that the “Thou” that began each verse at the beginning of each commandment was in really in respect of the whole nation but in respect of each person reading or hearing the words. God gave Moses the law in the Old Testament but he promised in the book of Jeremiah that the days would come when the laws would no longer be written on tablets of stone but on the tablets of our hearts. He also promised that God would give us hearts of flesh instead of hearts of stone.

That was Jesus agenda when he came. Jesus did not come to give us a religion but he came to offer each and every one of us a personal relationship with God. Jesus spoke out against religion. According to him, people set up religion to stop people from getting to know God and they didn’t get to know God themselves. However when Jesus talked about that new personal relationship with God, nowhere in the Scriptures did he refer to the new relationship as the “Gospel of Salvation”, “Gospel of Jesus Christ” or Christianity. When Peter or Paul referred to the new relationship, they also never referred to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They all talked about the Kingdom of God or the Kingdom of Heaven which as Christ had taught was in our hearts.

We seem to have a fixation with getting people saved and getting them to on the road to Heaven. But Paul taught that as a result of us getting saved, our spirits are seated with Christ in heavenly places. If God wanted all just be in Heaven, then he would have translated all of us like Enoch. The fact is that as Christ said, we are in this world but not of this world. The question then is, if we are not of this world, then of which world are we? We are definitely not of Heaven because only spirits live in Heaven. The fact is that we are citizens of the place which Jesus talked about which starts in our hearts the moment we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Saviour. The Kingdom of Heaven is not a geographical place so to speak like Heaven or Earth but a place in our hearts where God dwells. We carry God in our hearts from the moment we were born of the spirit. While the liberals in America argue for the separation of Church and State, God doesn’t want us to do so. Peter says we are a royal priesthood. God wants us to carry the Kingdom of Heaven wherever we go and to establish outposts of Heaven as ambassadors.

While Jesus came to bring us the message of the Kingdom of Heaven, he himself said he wasn’t the be all and end all of the message. Jesus described himself as the door, the way into the Kingdom. We need to press past the “Gospel of Jesus” and walk into the kingdom. Jesus is our perfect example. He reached out to the all those who needed him and brought the kingdom to them in the form of healing, joy, peace, salvation, food. He exerted the power of Heaven on the Earth and created heaven on earth. He brought about the Kingdom of Heaven. He fed thousands, calmed the seas, walked on water, raised the dead. He was able to that because he had a deep and personal relationship with the Father. That’s what we have been called to do. To have a deep and personal relationship with the Father and by that relationship cause Heaven to exert on Earth and to bring others into the Kingdom. That is our mission. Not to have religion.       


JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a thriller about persecution of Christians. DECEPTIO is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. The book is available here
http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU-194087/Deceptio.aspx. He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND available here http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ      

Clash of Cultures

I Kings 18:27 "And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till blood gushed out upon them." KJV

I have always been wary of any type of culture projected by the world and its systems. What surprises me is the fact that most Christians are not. In fact, Christians are the most enthusiastic adopters of new things the world brings in, forgetting that they are not of this world. The Bible says we are not to love the world or the things in the world but a lot of Christians don't seem to understand that.

I have always wondered what people see in tattoos. Before people think that I'm an elderly person who doesn't understand young people's fads, let me say that I am an adult male in my thirties. My wariness and lack of understanding has to with the fact that in the process of obtaining a tattoo, blood is spilt. The Bible says that the life of a person is in the blood. Hence any procedure that means my blood is going to be spilt or dealt with any way is something I don't want to go through. Especially when the procedure is not one that is necessary or life saving. A point I have made before which I will continue to make is that I have looked at my Bible and I see nothing about conservative or liberal there. The only definition I see from the Bible is that of Christian. And that is what I am. A Christian who believes wholly in the Bible as the infallible word of God.

The story is told in I Kings 18 about the prophet Elijah's contest with the prophets of the Canaanite god of fertility, rain and harvest, Baal. Elijah had previously prayed to God and no rain had fallen for the past three and a half years. He had disappeared out of sight and God has used raven and a widow to feed him while the whole land was experiencing a famine. At the three and a half years, Elijah showed up in Israel and challenged the prophets of Baal to contest to see whose god would answer the cries of his prophet. When the prophets of Baal prayed and he did not answer, Elijah taunted them by asking them to pray harder as perhaps Baal was sleeping or had gone on a journey. Now agitated, the Bible says "And they cried aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till blood gushed out upon them."

For me, the whole tattoo thing looks too much like what the prophets of Baal did, cutting themselves deliberately. It even seems worse to me when I think of what it’s supposed to be all about. A tattoo is supposed to be cool, hip and all about aesthetics. In short, it’s all about vanity. Which makes it even worse. People are cutting themselves to a new god, the god of cool. The god of vanity.

The Bible says we should test all spirits whether they are of God. Spirits not only exist in people, they exist as the force behind movements and waves and cultural phenomenon. Most of what is taken as culturally normal today does not align with the Bible. Yet we adopt them unthinkingly. As a result, Christian culture is being subsumed in secular culture and its getting hard to know who is a Christian and who is not because we are all so alike. And that is sad.


JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press (www.westbowpress.com), a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Only Jesus Saves (Really, It's True You Know)

The elections in America have come and gone and we have a winner. President Barack Obama has been elected for another four years. However, even though the elections are over, we understand that the nation itself is more divided than ever. The campaign in the run-up to the elections was said to be extremely divisive and negative and now that a winner has been announced, both of sides of the ideological divide are experiencing differing emotions. While the liberals on the left are basking in the euphoria of victory, the conservatives on the right are licking their wounds and smarting as they wallow in what is described as "the agony of defeat". From the differing emotions experienced by both sides and the violence of those emotions, one would think that the people thought the candidates they supported were some kind of saviour. It would seem that the people had invested their candidates with some kind of supernatural power to solve all their problems. You would be forgiven for thinking that the two candidates were some kind of supernatural human beings with the cure for all of the worlds problems, instead of human beings like you and I with their own problems, insecurities and the inherent ability to make mistakes. (Yes, you read that right. They make mistakes). And the fact that they think that their ideological leanings and their particular "vision" is the solution to all the problems in the world is the first mistake.

The Oxford Advanced Leaners Dictionary defines the word save as "to keep somebody/something safe from death, harm, loss, etc." In the end, only Jesus can save both spiritually and physically. There must however be a saving spiritually before there can be a saving physically. 3 John 1 v 2 makes us understand that a man's soul must first prosper before his life can prosper. And before a person can prosper spiritually, he must put his trust in God. The Bible makes it clear that putting our trust in man, instead of God is a futile thing. Especially in these times that money has failed, thinking that one man is going to solve all the problems afflicting us or the world is funny.

Now that the elections are over, I believe that the time has come for Americans to refocus. Regardless of whether you think you "won" or "lost", the time has come for everyone to let go of whatever bitterness, dissappointment or anger they feel and for the country to focus on what's important. I believe it is extremely important at this time that everyone comes together to support the man elected to lead the country. And by support, I mean praying for him because the task is enormous and the journey is long. If you not agree with his ideologies or policies then you need to pray for wisdom for him. He needs it. Like I earlier said, men make mistakes. To draw an analogy, America is like a bus and the president is like a driver. If the driver of the bus makes a mistake in his driving, everyone on board is in trouble. It is not in anyone's interest that the bus derails or that America fails.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. (www.westbowpress.com)

Abortion: Murder, the American Way (Part 2)

So, the question then is what is abortion?

I believe that in a society where government distrubutes contraceptives free of charge to girls as young as eleven or twelve and children as young as 15 or less can get abortions,  there is a fundamental problem. One of the fundamental problems with western society is the issue of identity. Thanks to the curriculum being taught in schools, children grow up being taught that they are nothing more than slightly more intelligent chimpanzees. As they grow older, Hollywood then passes across its own message that we are nothing more than dogs with urges. Urges that need to be acted upon. When you couple that with the overriding message of freedom, you have a distressing situation. Government is busy gleefully handing out contraceptives and can't be bothered to tell people that there is another way. Parents on the other hand don't have the moral authority ro tell their children what to do because when they were that age they did the same thing although they are now older and wiser. Which is why more teenage girls are getting pregnant at a younger age because no one tells them there is another way. The only message they are getting is that that they are free to do as they please.

Thanks to the pill, American women seem to no longer think that pregnancies are caused by sex. I really don't know whether they have gone back to the idea that storks bring babies, but thanks to the advance of science, American women now get shocked when nature asserts itself and they get pregant after sleeping with a man. They seem not to realise or want to accept that getting pregnant is a time tested consequence of sleeping with a man.

So back to the question. What then is abortion? If getting pregnant is a consequence of sleeping with someone, then abortion is a reaction to that reality. What liberals say is that abortion is a choice. That is disingenious and quite a blatant lie. When a woman meets a man, she has different choices. She can choose to wait before sleeping with him to find out if they are both ready for commitment so that she is not left holding the baby. Even if a woman were to decide to sleep with a man without knowing if either of them was ready for a commitment, either to themselves or a child, there is still a choice as to what contraceptive to use (of which abortion is not one as explained in my last post). However, from the moment a child is concieved, there can no longer be talk of "choice". Or at least not in the way it is used. The Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionary defines choice "as an act of choosing between two or more possibilities". When a child has been concieved, there can no longer be talk of choice with regard to contraception because life has already been concieved. There is an inevitability about the situation. The choice that arises at that moment is whether to allow the child to live or to kill it. To dispose of the life created like so much unwated baggage. Just because the parents who unthinkingly decided to create life no longer want the life created because it would cramp their style.

In that case, abortion is no longer about choice. Abortion then is a result of the fact that one person or the two people involved in creating life did not think through their choices before hand before creating life and the consequences of such choices. We live in a society where people nowadays are always trying to evade the consequences of their actions. Abortion is one way women have been evading the consequences of the actions they take. However it is quite sad that the millions of unborn children aborted over the years are the ones who have to pay the price of the fact that their parents didn't think.