Same Difference

“Now therefore make confession unto the LORD God of your fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from strange wives.” Ezra 10: 11

Sometime ago, I read an article by Kay Warren where she was talking about her new book, “Choose Joy”. The article was in the form of an interview and she told the interviewer how she had suffered from depression and how she was different from her husband, Rick Warren in their outlook to life. She talked about how she hoped the book would help those that suffered from depression. The article was lovely and enlightening. However what disturbed me were the people commenting. One and all, they were all complaining about “the church”. Their grouse was with how the church did not understand what it was to suffer from depression and how the church looked down on those that suffered from depression. Their complaints were enough to make anyone feel depressed since I assumed they were Christians themselves to be reading an article from a Christian magazine. I might have been wrong. One of my thoughts was that if Christians were complaining about the church so much, why then would anyone want to become a Christian? Another thought was that the people who were complaining about the church so much had forgotten that they were part of the church.

I recently read another article via a link on Michael Hyatt’s Twitter feed that got me disturbed. The link was to an article by Joel Miller (I think). Mr. Miller was flabbergasted at the comments by Christians who saw nothing wrong with the pornographic content of the book, 50 Shades of Grey because according to some of them, “they got married in the end”. There were other comments by "Christians" along the lines of how the book could help married couples with their sexual lives.

These two things got me thinking about how there seems to be no difference between those who say they believe in Christ and those who don’t believe in anything. Christians now swear and use the F word because we think it cool, drink alcohol, dress provocatively in the name of fashion and looking good, we think the Bible is a story book filled with recommendations at best and totally old fashioned. We have as much divorce and extra marital affairs in the church as out of it. In fact, there is practically no difference now between those that say believe in God and those who curse God.

I believe the problem is that instead of letting the Word shine through us, we have allowed the world into our hearts. Because we do not know what the Words says and we are not living it, we have allowed the world to tell us how to live. Instead of being like Jesus and reflecting him, we have become like the world. Because we reflect the world and are like the world, the world sees no reason to change. Like the verse of scripture above and several other verses of Scripture in the Bible, God has always called us to be separate and not to be unequally yoked. We have not done this and therefore we are not expect from the upheaval that is in the world.

Over the next few weeks and months, I hope to share the ways in which the church has refused to give the world an alternative and had refused to reflect Jesus and has become like the world around it.

In your opinion, in what ways has the church become like the world around it?     

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and left untried.”
― G.K. Chesterton

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, a novel published by WestBowPress, a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers:

http://bookstore.westbowpress.com/Products/SKU000194087/Deceptio.aspx

He is also the author of LOST, BUT FOUND, a story of love and redemption:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00DPLLEUQ/

Let Christ Be Preached!

The Apostle Paul said that there were those that preach Christ out of strife while he did it out of love. But he said that either way, whether Christ is preached out of love or out of strife, the important thing to him was that Christ was being preached.

Thanks to people like Tim Tebow and Jeremy Lin who have not been shy about their faith, a lot of commentators have said a lot of things about God and Jesus and Christianity, most of it bad. There have been rude and downright insulting things said about them and Christ. However if we are to apply Paul’s statement here, then the important thing is not what they are saying about Jesus, but the fact that they are even speaking about Jesus. These are people who on a normal day would not even deign to talk about faith or Christianity but because people like Tim Tebow are not afraid to speak about Jesus, they also talk about Jesus. These are people who a lot of people listen to and even though they speak about God and Jesus derisively, in the end some of the people listening will take the step of wanting to know more about Jesus. I pray they find out the truth.

Paul prayed that God would help him not do anything that would bring shame on the name of Christ. We will all have an opportunity either today or sometime in the future, to speak about Jesus either verbally or by our actions. I think that should be the foremost thing on our minds. Not to do or say anything to bring shame to the name of Christ or to misrepresent him. This is because in the end, people will look at us and what we say or do and want to “preach” Christ. The least we can do is to put forward the truth so that people can make up their minds.  

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press (www.westbowpress.com), a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

The Big Picture

I remember buying the MercyMe album, Almost There with a sense of excitement. I had just discovered a love for Christian rock thanks to "Worlds Apart" by Jars of Clay. I loved the album (I still do) but I think the thing that touched me the most were the testimonies of people who were blessed by the songs on the album, especially by the song "I Can Only Imagine". Personally, I think that is one of the greatest songs ever written. I remember the story sent in by someone who said that her grandmother who was dying of cancer had the CD playing in her room with that particular song playing repeatedly. And she had a smile on her face. This was a 70-something year old woman who was supposed to be feeling sorry for herself because of what she was going through. Instead she was dying with a smile on her face. I will always remember that story. If only we could all face life the same way she faced death. With a smile.

It seems that we all get through life with an expectation of the worst happening. I remember reading Ted Dekker's The Slumber of Christianity and he was saying that we seem to be living joyless lives here on earth because we have lost sight of the joy that awaits us in Heaven. We seem to be living lives encumbered by the sheer hard work it is going through life here that we seem to have no time for joy. Everyday when we turn on the news, we are bombarded with stories about disasters. Disasters which though happen on a large scale, seem to mirror the chaos in our own lives. If only we could see the bigger picture like Jesus.

The Bible says that for the joy that was set before him, he despised the shame on the cross. I think the major problem we have is that we think that we are human beings with spirits who have a spiritual experience when we go to church or pray. However we need to understand that we are spiritual beings having an earthly experience. Life may be hard but we should rejoice that one day, we will go back home to our Father. The book of Proverbs says that we are pilgrims, travellers in this world and that one day we will all go back home. That is the bigger picture. That is our goal. The Bible says that God sees the end from the beginning. He sees the end and then He starts the process. We are more like him than we really know. We also need to see the bigger picture. Visualise the end from the beginning. And then run towards the end.


JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press (www.westbowpress.com), a division of Thomas Nelson publishers. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

DECEPTIO (Excerpt)

CHAPTER 5

Camilla was tired, her feet ached and she had a headache. She was emotionally and physically drained from the shooting of Senator Partridge and the events that had taken place subsequently as a result of that shooting. All she wanted to do was go home and crawl into bed, pull the covers over her head and not have to wake up for several days.

However, she couldn’t do that. There was an investigation to be conducted. The person or persons responsible for the murder of Senator Robert Partridge had to be caught and brought to justice. Which was the reason why she and Jeremiah had been going round the student hostels on campus, in conjunction with other FBI agents and police officers from the Chicago Police Department, asking questions and hoping that someone had some useful information they could use that would help them catch the killer. So far, they had come up with nothing useful.

She and Jeremiah had been assigned to the C Tower of the James Stukel Towers, the newest hall of residence on the UIC campus. It was a modern building comprising mainly of glass and steel and it had four towers, all of which gave you different, panoramic views of the Chicago skyline. It was capable of housing 740 students in 4, 5 and person suites. Every two floors were connected by a lounge with floor-to-ceiling windows.

Each hall of residence had what it called a Special Interest Community made up students who were studying the same course. This enabled them to form friendships and share ideas with people from their own fields. There was also a member of faculty living on the premises who was there to help them with any problems they were having.

Presently, she and Jeremiah were on the 7^th floor which housed the Arts/Architecture and Graphic Design Community. They had been interviewing the students they could find in their rooms for some hours and by now, they knew the responses to expect. No one had seen anything suspicious while on the field or noticed anything out of place in the days or weeks leading up to the speech. No one that is except Carey Payton.

Carey was in her first year at UIC and she seemed to really want to help. At first, Camilla and Jeremiah had thought that she just might have seen something. Until it occurred to them that Carey saw everything. Even what other people hadn’t seen.

Based on what she had told them, over the past week she had noticed a short guy with a squint and a limp in his right leg who was disguised as an electrician. According to Carey, he had looked like the “special forces guys you see on television, you know; Green Beret and marines’ type”. She’d noticed that he had been dressed in overalls and carried a bag which then she had thought contained his tools. Now that she thought about it, it had probably contained a gun which he used to kill the senator. However, when it came to getting her to describe what he looked like, they had run into a brick wall. She had vacillated between whether the guy had brown or blonde hair and whether he had a scar or not. When she finally decided he had a scar, she couldn’t decide whether it was on the right or left side of his face or the length. It was obvious she had been watching too many movies.

Jeremiah and Camilla had concluded that there was nothing to be gained by prolonging the interview. Over the past few months they had been working together, they had developed a kind of telepathic communication. At times, all that was needed was a look to pass between them for one or both of them to understand what the other was saying. This time, such a look had passed and they had both stood up at the same time, bringing the interview to an end.

“Thank you very much Casey. I must say that you have been very helpful,” Jeremiah said as he closed his notebook and put it into the pocket of his FBI jacket. “With the description that you’ve given us, I wouldn’t be surprised if we caught the guy before the week was up.”

Casey’s green eyes glowed brightly. “Are you serious? If you catch him, will you let people know that I was the one who told you what he looked like?”

“Certainly,” Jeremiah said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if you didn’t get to appear on television,” he continued, tongue in cheek, watching as her eyes grew wider. Then he seemed to remember something and he frowned. “However, it might not be safe to mention your name or let you appear on television.

“Why?” Casey wailed.

“Well,” Jeremiah said, as he thought about it, “he might not be working alone. In fact, most likely he was sent by some people who had a grouse against the senator. If we mention your name or let you appear on television, they’re going to come after you.”

“Why?” she squealed. “What did I do?”

“Well, they’re going to say that you ratted on their guy and you and I know that these criminal guys don’t like that,” Jeremiah said solemnly.

Camilla didn’t know whether or not to laugh as the joy and triumph on Casey’s face changed to disappointment, then fear.

“I understand. I don’t think I would want to appear on television though,” she said, shrugging. “I’m not a showy person and I’m sure people would have been stopping me on the road and all that I wouldn’t have a life.” Then she seemed to think of something and a worried frown marred her brow. “Are you sure you won’t mention my name?”    

“I promise,” Jeremiah said as he began to walk toward the door.

Outside, Camilla shook her hand. “Thank you very much.”

Casey gave a tremulous smile as she did battle with her fear. “Just doing my duty,” she said. “Well, it was nice talking to you,” she said as she closed the door.

Camilla punched Jeremiah’s arm.

“Ouch,” he said as he rubbed his arm. “What was that for?”

“For lying to the poor girl and then leading her on,” she answered.

“It’s not my fault,” he said, shrugging. “The poor girl wanted to feel useful and needed.”

“But you didn’t have to lie to her about catching anybody. You know the description she gave us was pretty useless. We both know she never saw anyone.”

Jeremiah shrugged again. “It was fun.”

Camilla knocked on the next door. “I would appreciate it if you could curb your comedic instincts until we finish what we came to do,” she said dryly.

“I’ll try,” he said sighing mournfully, “but it won’t be easy.”

Camilla waited a few minutes for someone to answer her knock. When no one came to open the door, she knocked again even as she wondered if there was anyone inside. She had raised her hand to knock a third time when the door suddenly opened.

“Yes? How may I help you?” the girl who stood behind the open door asked.

Camilla smiled even as she and Jeremiah flashed their badges as they had done numerous times that day. “FBI. My name is Camilla Rodriguez and this is my colleague, Jeremiah Walker. We wondered if we could come in and speak with you. We need to ask a few questions about what happened today.”

The girl looked from Camilla to Jeremiah. “You mean the senator’s murder don’t you?” she asked.

Camilla nodded. The girl opened the door wider and stepped back, indicating that Camilla and Jeremiah could come in. Camilla followed Jeremiah into a tastefully furnished living room. There was a television set and two different looking settees’ in the room. There were also different colored throw pillows scattered all over the room. There were also personal pictures of people Camilla guessed were some of the other occupants of the room on every available surface.   

“Are your other roommates around?” Camilla asked as she took in the contents of the room in a glance.

“No. They’ve all gone out,” the girl replied. “Please sit down. My name is Sheldon. Sheldon Gaines. Can I offer both of you anything? Tea or coffee? I’m sorry but I don’t have anything stronger than that.”

“Nothing, thank you very much. Whose room is that?” Camilla asked, pointing to a door that had the poster of the Christian rock band Kutless.

“It’s mine,” Sheldon replied. “Why?” she asked defensively.

Camilla smiled. She could almost feel Sheldon’s animosity and her readiness to defend her faith and what she believed in. “Nothing. I’m a fan too. But I think that I prefer Jars of Clay.”

“You’re a Christian,” Sheldon asked, her eyes growing wider. When Camilla nodded, she smiled. “Cool,” she said enthusiastically.

Camilla didn’t know how long they spent discussing their favorite Christian bands, musicians and songs. They were in the middle of discussing the latest album by one of the bands that they both liked when a voice broke into their conversation. “I really hate to break up this musical love in, but we really do need to get on with why we came here.”

Both Camilla and Sheldon turned to look at Jeremiah. Sheldon took one look at Jeremiah’s bored looking face and turned back to Camilla. “He’s not a Christian is he?” she asked even though she already knew the answer.

Camilla shook her head as she answered, “No, he isn’t.”

Sheldon sighed. “I guessed as much.” She sighed again and asked, “So, what do you want to know?”

“Thank you,” Jeremiah replied, his lips curving in a smile that did not quite reach his eyes. “First of all, were you at the venue of the senator’s speech this morning?”

Sheldon grimaced. “Yes, I was. He’s not, I mean he wasn’t exactly my most favorite person in the world; neither did I care much for his politics. But I had an idea that whatever he had to say might probably affect me sooner or later. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to go hear what he had to say. And I was right.”

Jeremiah refrained from asking what she had been right about. “Did you notice anything strange or out of place while you were there?” he asked. “Maybe there was something that happened that you felt was suspicious and made you wonder?”

Sheldon thought about it for a few minutes then shook her head. “To be honest, I didn’t notice anything suspicious. The only thing I really did wonder about was why there was so much security around the senator.”

Jeremiah sighed. “What about in the days leading up to the speech? Or even in the past few weeks? Did you notice anything or anyone that seemed to be out of place, that didn’t fit in? Or was there an event that got you thinking that maybe something was up?”

Again Sheldon seemed to think about it for a few seconds then she shook he head. “No, there’s nothing that I can think of. Everything has been just the same.”

Jeremiah nodded. “What about you? Did you kill the senator?”

Camilla gasped. Sheldon looked at Jeremiah for a few seconds, her face expressionless. Then she laughed softly. “Is it because I’m a Christian? Don’t tell me you’ve been asking everybody the same question?”

Jeremiah rubbed his hand over his face. “I’m sorry. Forget I said that. I must be more tired than I thought. Sorry for taking up your time. I’m grateful for your help.” He stood up.

Camilla and Sheldon both stood up. Sheldon looked at Camilla. “There’s going to be trouble soon, right?”

Camilla looked from Sheldon to Jeremiah to Sheldon confused. “What trouble?” she asked.

Sheldon looked at both agents. “People are going to blame Christians for the senator’s death aren’t they? They’re going to want to kill Christians because they’re going to think Christians killed the senator.”

DECEPTIO is JC Cruz first novel. It's published by WestBow Press (http://www.westbowpress.com/), a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal.

What Does God Call You?

I have been thinking about the name that God calls us. We all have names that we were given by our parents at birth or we have names that we answer to that were given to us by other people. But there is a name that God calls us by because it has to do with our purpose.

God has called each one of us to do exploit for him. When we think of exploits, we think of something big and great. But I would like to think that exploits have to do with making the name of God known and great. If we think of people in the Bible whom God used to do exploits, there is a particular name which we associate with them. I believe that is the name God has called them. If we say Jesus, we think Saviour. If we say Moses, we think Deliverer. If we say Jeremiah, we think Prophet.

I believe that we all have a name that God has called us even before we were born. That is the name that fits us even more than the name we go by or are known by among our family and friends. We all need to find the purpose for which we are created. The purpose will determine the name that God knows us by. It's not enough to glide through life. To live a full life, we need to know why we are here and live the life passionately.

The Help

I just finished watching the film, The Help. What struck me was the different categories of people in the film. There were the truly nasty people like Hilly and the president of the Daughters of America. They were people who had some sort of power or hold over others. They knew they had this power and they used it to full effect to antagonise others, especially the African-Americans. The other category of people were the ones who were used by the people to inflict pain on others like Skeeters mother and Elizebeth. They didn't have the courage of their convictions (Skeeter's mother discovered her own in the end) even when they didn't agree with what was being done or said. At times, they were forced to do something they didn't want to do. They kept quiet because they wanted to belong to a group or clique and they ended up treating others like dirt.

Most Christians are like the latter. It's not as if we don't know the truth. It stares us right in the face everyday and speaks to us loudly at night. But we choose to ignore because we would rather take the path of least resistance. We see the trouble that other get because of standing for the truth and we feel that we cannot take the hassle so we keep quiet.

Regardless of whether or not we keep quiet in the face of truth, the fact remains that truth cannot be killed, thrown away or ignored. It will always be there. It would be a different matter altogether if we didn't know the truth,but we do. Instead of admitting the truth, we try to obfuscate it with our own ideas about what should be. The world has been gripped by the fever of "equality" and so we are afraid of going against the flow, so to speak. The world wants to give us a concept of God that is untrue but we are either ashamed of him or afraid of the backlash to speak our minds.

The world hates the truth. Paul told Timothy that in the last days, people would have itching ears and would only want to hear what they want to hear. That is also the case even about "Christians". We want to be at "peace" with the world even when the world wants nothing to do with us. We just so want to blend in that we are ready to do anything, including not saying anything in the hope that the world will look more kindly at us. We hope that this will make us happy but we end up miserable. In the end we will discover that the only thing that will endure is truth and every lie will fade. So me might as well just get with the program and be happy.

JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO published by WestBow Press (http://www.westbowpress.com/) , a division of Thomas Nelson Publishing. You can follow him on Twitter @Cruz_JCReal

DECEPTIO (EXCERPT)

Calvin had broken into a run with his gun drawn from its holster before the senator’s body had hit the ground. He knelt down beside the body which was lying on the stage face down, where it lay after falling from his wife’s hands. He placed his fingers on the neck to feel for a pulse. There was none. The man was dead, he thought grimly. He looked around the field, trying to see if he could see who had shot his principal. Former principal a voice said. The whole place was in an uproar as everyone was trying to run away from the field or was running toward the body. He was soon joined on the stage by FBI agents and police officers some of whom were trying to keep curious onlookers and their phones, away from the body. One of them began feeling his body for a pulse like Calvin had done earlier.

“There’s no pulse. He’s dead,” he said to the FBI agent, trying to save him the trouble of looking for a pulse and then finding none.

“Who are you?” the agent asked with a frown on his face.

“I’m, well, I was one of the senator’s bodyguards,” he said.

“Can someone tell me what is going on here?” a loud, gruff voice asked.

Calvin looked up at the newcomer who had spoken from where he was beside the senator’s body.

"He’s dead sir,” the agent that had been checking his pulse said.

“I’m sure that if you had half of your head blown away, you’d be dead too,” the man said dryly. His eye fixed on Calvin as he asked, “And you are?”

Calvin stood. “My name is Calvin Cordell, part of the Senator’s security detail,” he answered, stretching his hand out for a handshake. When the other man stared at his hand but refused to shake it, Calvin shrugged, bringing his hand back to his side.

“Are you the one in charge?”

“No,” Calvin answered.

“Then who is?” the other man barked.

“I am.”

The FBI agent turned to look at who had spoken. “And you are?”

“Anthony Greaves,” the head of the senator’s security detail and Calvin’s boss answered. He had walked up to the crime scene to see what was happening.

“Marcus Granville, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago office,” the other man said. The two men shook hands.

Anthony looked down at the senator’s lifeless body. “I take it he’s dead?” he asked.

“You take correctly,” Marcus answered. “I believe you were aware that he was being threatened?”

“Yes,” Anthony answered. “We tried to stop him from coming to give the speech today. There were too many things that could go wrong. And it seems something did go wrong. But he wouldn’t listen.”

Marcus grunted. He turned to Calvin and asked, “Where were you?”

“There,” Calvin said, turning and pointing toward the back of the stage.

“Did you see anything?”

Calvin shook his head. “Nothing.”

Marcus sighed. “It figures.”

Just then, the doctor pushed through the crowd and bent down beside the senator’s lifeless body. A pool of blood had collected under his head.

“I’ll spare you the trouble doc and let you know that the man is dead,” Marcus answered. “I’m sure you’d be more useful attending to the family he left behind,” he said, pointing with his head in the direction of the senator’s widow and children. “And please, can someone take them home?”

The doctor got up and went in Susan Partridge’s direction. Marcus turned to another agent and asked, “Where’s Rutger with the camera and other equipment? We need to process the body and find out all we can before any evidence is trampled upon. And I’d like it to be done while I’m still alive.”

Marcus motioned Calvin and Anthony away from the body. “Have you always been in charge of his security or did he hire you when he got the threats?” he asked.

“Our firm has always provided security for him and his family,” Anthony answered. “We even provided security for his father before him, but the thing is he beefed up his security when he got the threats.”

“And he still got killed,” Marcus said but his tone didn’t indicate he was attaching any blame to anyone. He wiped his face with his hand, a wearied look on his face. “Either they had some help or these religious kooks are very good. I can guess what’s going to happen now. The president is going to hear about this and he’s going to talk with the Director. Then the Director is going to call me and my ulcer is going to start acting up again.” He sighed and looked at Calvin. “Are you quite sure that you didn’t notice anything out of place? Maybe you need to think about it,” he said hopefully.

Calvin thought about it for some time but shook his head. “I’m quite sure I didn’t see anything.”

Marcus sighed again. “I’ll probably need to get a statement or something from you although I don’t see how it’s going to help. Drop your contact details with one of my people. I’m really beginning to wish I didn’t get out of bed this morning.”

Calvin and Anthony watched as he walked back toward the senator’s dead body and started barking orders.

“This is a right mess,” Anthony muttered, running his hand through his hair and looking around. “Something tells me we haven’t heard the last of this whole thing and that it’s going to get worse.”


JC Cruz is the author of DECEPTIO, published by WestBow Press (http://www.westbow.com/) a division of Thomas Nelson Publishers. You can follow him @Cruz_JCReal