"Three R’s:” God’s Rx for Heart Health

The recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton deeply saddened me and stirred my sympathy for all who were affected.  Admittedly, this news also made me angry at the shooters.  Then, I began to reflect on the depravity that exists in my own heart.  Times of tragedy serve to remind us all of our need for repentance and forgiveness.  But sadly, our necessary reflection on universal human depravity is quickly interrupted by personal distractions and the noisy clamor and rancor of our culture in response to yet another tragedy.

On a social and political level, some argue that hate speech and racism incite mass shooters to act.  Others point to guns as the responsible tools that should be banned.  Still others point out that guns only fire when angry persons pull the trigger.  And anger arises from personal turmoil from within the hearts of shooters, often promoted by mental illness and/or drug addiction.  Violent tendencies are particularly common among young men who grow up without fathers and without supportive networks provided by good schools, churches, and community organizations.

Reasons for horrific tragedies are complex and multifaceted, so I don’t mean to oversimplify.  However, it should be obvious that finger-pointing and hateful rhetoric will not solve the deeper problems.  Nor will it be easy to “Red Flag” potential threats without an understanding of the origin and growth of anger, hate, and murder.  Therefore, I must begin by addressing the potential for hate and hateful responses within my own heart. 

From God’s Word, I am learning that the only difference between horrific atrocities and the “hidden sins” of hate and pride in my heart is a matter of scale.  Jesus alludes to this in His teaching as recorded in Matthew 5: 22 (emphasis mine):  But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.  Notice that Jesus takes the sixth commandment, “Thou shall not murder,” and goes to the source within the human heart where the underlying sins of pride, hate, and envy are rooted.  Sin within the heart triggers the sins of the tongue such as hateful name-calling.  And one who speaks hatefully is capable of murder.  Christ takes very seriously this outward progression from the sinful heart to hateful words to murder.  So seriously that He considers sins of the heart as equivalent to murder.

Thankfully, when our souls become frustrated and fearful, God stands ready with a three-part prescription from His Word.   I am now considering them as my basic “three R’s”—not “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and ‘Rithmetic;” but instead, REPENT, REJOICE, and RECONCILE.

REPENT
When I am becoming frustrated, fearful or angry toward others or in response to the daily news, I must look within my own heart, the seat of my personality.  There, I will find the cause of my unkind words and actions.  And there I should stop and repent. 

According to Charles Spurgeon,
“Repentance is a discovery of the evil of sin,
a mourning that we have committed it,
and a resolution to forsake it.
It is, in fact, a change of mind of a very deep and practical character, which makes the man love what once he hated, and hate what once he loved.”

Notice the emphasis on permanence in Spurgeon’s definition:  “resolution to forsake...change of mind…very deep and practical….”  Along the same lines, my former pastor, Dan Wingate calls us to adopt a “lifestyle of repentance.”  Such a humble, daily disposition helps us to recognize our own depravity and our tendency to wander like sheep away from God our Shepherd (Isaiah 53: 6).  Until we as individuals and as a society realize that sin is ultimately a rebellion against God who created us and therefore, owns us, we will not realize the seriousness of sin as the primary cause of our problems—individually and institutionally.  We will go on hating others instead of hating our own sin.

Don’t Substitute “Religion” for Repentance
Instead of recognizing that we are prideful rebels, we tend to focus on external problems that are not the primary cause of our broken world.  For example, the religious leaders of Jesus’s day criticized Jesus an

d His followers for not ceremonially washing their hands before they ate.  But Jesus said the primary problem is not what we do with our hands or even our tongues—but out of our heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.  But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone (Matthew 15: 18-20).

Emphasis on the externals leads to a religion of ceremony and legalism.  Rather than cultivating a love relationship with God, we rely on check-lists of our good deeds.  Both Christian and non-Christian alike can fall into this error.  Going to church, tithing, and abstaining from alcohol or meat, or rejecting plastic straws and gas-guzzling cars—none of these can make one person any more righteous in God’s eyes than another. The Apostle Paul condemned external comparisons as selfish and prideful when he wrote: When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise (2 Corinthians 10: 12). 

Our Strongholds to Resist Repentance

The alternative to a repentant heart is a heart that becomes increasingly calloused with thick walls reinforced by pride and self-righteousness.  Calloused hearts become insensitive, cold, and hateful toward others.  When we watch the news, I see anxious and fearful people and hear angry words.  Unrepentant, prideful people make arrogant and woeful predictions that the sky is falling and despise anyone who disagrees with their philosophy of government, ethnic relations, economics, and energy usage.  Of course, we should exercise morality and good stewardship in all of these areas.  But our pursuit of happiness is a fruitless effort unless we submit to God’s plan and purpose through repentance.  Repentance frees us from the wages of sin and moves our focus from a life of pride, comparison, envy, and fear to a focus on God who alone is perfect and judges rightly.  When the eyes of repentant souls are focused on God, He brings rest to their souls.

Repentance must be my “first stop” before I can experience the other two R’s, rejoicing and reconciliation.  Yet it is hard for me to read the Gospel accounts and imagine the ugly spectacle of the bleeding, sinless Jesus Christ I helped to nail to a Roman cross.  It was my sin that did this to Jesus!   Yet my pride—our pride as humans can cause us to turn away.  We avoid godly counsel, church, and God’s Word when we know they can help us.  The prophet Isaiah, over 500 years before Christ, prophesied how we would “despise and reject” the Suffering Servant whose sacrifice in our place would cast a spotlight on our sin and depravity.

So, I have a choice, and you have as well.  Either we focus on justifying ourselves before God and others by the good works we do, or we focus on what Christ did for us, dying in our place so we can claim His righteousness (right standing before God).  If we individually choose to reject God’s “love gift” of salvation through repentance, then God can offer neither of the other two R’s-- rejoicing and reconciliation.  Jesus warned: Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish (be separated from God for eternity) (Luke 13: 3).  In 2 Corinthians 7: 10, Paul describes repentance that leads to salvation.  The Apostle Peter summarized the Gospel when he wrote, For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…  And, again Paul wrote that he was not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile (Romans 1: 16).  That is “Good News” indeed; enough to bring rejoicing!

REJOICE

To rejoice is to express joy and delight.   True joy comes from within our hearts.  Joy is one facet of the fruit of the Holy Spirit who comes to abide in the repentant sinner.  The Apostle Paul wrote, Now He who prepared us for this very purpose [to live for eternity in resurrection bodies] is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge (2 Corinthians 5: 5).  Salvation from sin (John 3: 16), freedom from the condemnation of sin (Romans 8: 1), and the gift of God’s Spirit to abide within us (Ezekiel 36: 27) is reason for rejoicing.  The psalmist wrote, The LORD has done great things for us; we are filled with joy (Psalm 126: 3).  The Spirit-filled, Christ-follower cannot help but rejoice!  What’s more, according to the prophet Zephaniah, God our Creator and Savior rejoices over us as His redeemed children!  Imagine that!  The LORD your God is among you; He is mighty to save. He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you with His love; He will rejoice over you with singing.

As a sinner saved by God’s grace, I experience joy and consolation when I reflect on God’s presence within me though His Holy Spirit.  The contrast of what I was before I came into a personal relationship with God through repentance and faith in Christ’s substitutionary death and who I am afterwards is described accurately by the Apostle Paul.   In Galatians 5: 16-18, we learn how our sinful nature (“the flesh”) sets itself against the work of the Holy Spirit in us.  After these words, Paul describes our lives “before” (5: 19-21) and “after” we submit to the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives (vv. 22-23).

Repentant Hearts Exude Joy in a Troubled World
Repentance prepares us to humbly invite God’s Holy Spirit to enter our lives.  The Spirit’s presence enables us to bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.   But you may ask, how can I be joyful when so many bad things happen?  Answer— we must remember that Joy and its expression of rejoicing springs from within and is independent of things that happen to us.  Bad happenings in our culture of hate and violence will not overcome the Christ-follower who relies on God’s Spirit and His Word.

After Jesus instructed His disciples about things that would happen in the future, He said, These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world (John 16:33).  Jesus promised not only joy in the midst of a troubled world, but also that He would empower His followers to be ambassadors of reconciliation.

RECONCILE
By now, the importance the sequence of the three R’s, REPENT, REJOICE, RECONCILE, should be evident.  Repentance is the gateway to salvation and Eternal Life.  Where sin had once reigned within our unrepentant hearts, now God’s Spirit enables us to overcome sin and have victory.  Anger, hate, fear, envy, and lust are replaced by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control.

We Are Reconciled… to Be Reconcilers 
The Apostle Paul wrote (emphasis mine), Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.  Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5: 17-20).

This Scripture makes it clear that reconciliation between the sinner and God through faith in Christ gives birth to a new creation that in turn can become a force for reconciliation among the hurting and rejected of this world.  But you might say, how does the Bible address my friend or family member who is trapped in addiction or mental illness as a result of emotional and physiological problems.  Please realize that there is no human condition that cannot be helped by the care of loving friends and family combined with professional counseling and medical care.  Counseling and medications alone are weak and ineffective.  However, biblical witness and counseling by loving family, friends, and professionals are necessary to give purpose and desire within the hurting person, helping them to want to change. 

In conclusion, if you have chosen the path marked with the signs of REPENT, REJOICE, and RECONCILE, you know from experience how this sequence brings joy and reconciliation with God and other people.  You know from experience what it means to have victory over the sins of anger, hate, fear, and envy that once infected your heart and soul.  You may also be serving as an ambassador of reconciliation to hurting people around you as you humbly remember your struggles without Christ. 

Reconciliation Involves Both Spiritual with Mental Health
On the other hand, if you are hurting and in despair, feeling trapped in addiction and emotional turmoil, you can find help and hope.  For example, you may be familiar with the “Twelve-Step Program” of Alcoholics Anonymous.  This program is consistent with biblical teaching and the “three R’s” beginning with REPENT. 

Please check out the link to the “Twelve-Step Program” and notice how the first seven steps can provide instruction on how to acknowledge God and come to Him in a spirit of repentance.  This program is very effective when used in the presence of loving family and friends.   If you are hurting emotionally or struggling with addiction, I hope you will seek help from trusted individuals or organizations that can point you onto the path to recovery through the “three R.’s.”  If you wish to contact me with questions, I would be glad to assist you:  silviusj@gmail.com

D-Day: Remembering Their Sacrifice

As we pause to remember the sacrifice of so many who stormed the beaches of Normandy 75 years ago, most of us have no direct contact with either a veteran of World War II.  Separated by multiple generations and often hindered by only a limited knowledge of American history, we hear and read accounts of this great struggle and think of it as only useless clamor on some foreign planet. 

I was fortunate to have a good education in American History, and to learn more by direct though very limited conversation my Uncle Glen “Shorty” Silvius who had participated in the D-Day invasion and later, the Battle of the Bulge (December, 1945 to January, 1945.  My uncle seldom spoke of the horrors of war during the 20 some years that I knew him.  But after his death, I had opportunity to read several of the letters which he wrote to his mom and dad, my Grandma and Grandpa Silvius.  Here is an introduction to a letter which he entitled “Something to Forget:”

There are times in the lives of people that incidents occur and one hopes to cherish the happy remembrance of the events.  In times of battle, many of these happy moments are buried or become totally eclipsed by the sight of results from the inhuman work of man.  In any direction you look, the same sights are prevailing, all effort to evade unpleasant scenes are in vain.  In any area where forces have met in organized combat, these scenes are only to be expected.  The strain of nerves anyone must endure is so great that in time even the person who has some chance to use better than average personal protection must return to places where surrounding conditions are more quiet.  It is not always possible to maintain the proper organization and control of units.  The result of such situations only leads to increase the degree of disaster.  No words will explain this except the famed words of the statesman who said, “Together we stand, separated we perish.”

Wars throughout history have generally not started because someone loved war and set out to start a war.  But there have been individuals who became so proud and so convinced that their vision of the world was the right one that they were willing to bring it about at any cost.  Men who come to mind in this context are Adolph Hitler (1889-1945), Joseph Stalin (1878-1953), and Mao Zedong (1893-1976).  These men were directly and indirectly responsible for the deaths of an estimated 17 million, 23 million, and 49-78 million, respectively.

War does not begin when armies amass against one another.  Instead, war begins in the human heart where such vices as anger, hate, pride, and lust for power originate.  James, the half-brother of Jesus writes:  Where do wars and fights come from among you?  Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?  You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war.  Yet you do not have because you do not ask (James 4: 1-2).

General Robert E. Lee is quotes as saying, “It is well that war is so terrible, or we should grow too fond of it.”  Yet Lee’s own personal experience teaches us that once the sins of human hearts lead to conflict, it is difficult for anyone to stop it from becoming all-out war.  But thankfully, each of us has access to the One who is called the Prince of Peace—Jesus Christ who came to bring peace to replace the war and turmoil of our hearts.  He said, In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer.  I have overcome the world.   Thankfully, one day, Jesus Christ will come to rule upon Earth for 1,000 years to demonstrate what truly godly rule by one man really looks like.  Then, he will defeat the Devil and sin, and the “last enemy,” death itself (1 Corinthians 15: 26).

My uncle was beset by at least a mild case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but seemed to have found peace with God during his post-war years.  I was privileged to discuss God’s Word with him and to share the truth of the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ.  Although my uncle is now deceased, occasions like the D-Day remembrance serves to remind us not only of the great sacrifice of so many but also of our responsibility to thank veterans and those in uniform today, and to encourage those who carry the emotional wounds of war.  

Extremist Protests: A Monumental Opportunity

Most people who have been following national news for the past two decades agree that America has become deeply divided morally and politically.  Last week’s violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia sparked yet another angry reaction, this time between white nationalists and those who oppose the notion of white supremacy.  This disturbing series of events poses both a challenge and an opportunity for Christians.

Making history, yet ignorant of its lessons.

The challenge of the Church is to respond in truth and in love because true Christ-followers live in daily awareness of the grace and forgiveness of God.  If the Church is to be “salt and light” (Matthew 5: 13) in this troubled world, Christ-followers must remember both human history and His-story (God’s inspired account of creation, human corruption, and redemption recorded in inspired Scripture).

Ignorance of Human History

Both far-right white supremacists and the far-left opposition (the “Antifa” or “anti-fascists”) are acting as if they are ignorant of the history of America and of Christianity.  Racial discrimination and slavery have been a blot on American history and have involved not only Black Americans but Native Americans, Orientals, Hispanics, et cetera.  American history is stained with blood spilled over enslavement, particularly of African people and their descendants, culminating in the Civil War.  The war opened the way to emancipation followed by another century of slow progress toward federal legislation of civil rights for ethnic minorities in America.

Abraham Lincoln, 186

But street protesters on the extreme right and left seem to recognize neither the costly loss of human life in the Civil War nor the role of Christianity in the healing of America that began under the leadership of men and women on both sides at the end of the conflict.  All Americans ought to re-read Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address including the following excerpt (emphasis mine), 

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

Memorials are intended to remind us of our history so we can learn from both our triumphs and mistakes. Destruction of memorials to men like Abraham Lincoln and Robert E. Lee ignores how much both men contributed to the unifying of the United States of America?  Although General Lee led the military campaign of the confederate Army of Northern Virginia, he was a devout Christian and was instrumental in agreeing to a rightful surrender at Appomattox, Virginia.  R. David Cox, in The Religious Life of Robert E. Lee (Eerdmans, 2017) writes, according to Marvin Olasky in WORLD, that Lee’s “strong belief in God’s sovereignty… influenced his strong opposition to confederate Gen. Edward Alexander when this subordinate suggested the army “’scatter like rabbits & partridges in the woods’ and begin guerilla warfare.”  Lee challenged Alexander with these words

Robert E. Lee

God has given the victory to the Yankees…As Christian men, Gen. Alexander, you & I have no right to think for one moment of our personal feelings or affairs.  We must consider only the effect which our actions will have upon the country at large...

The extremists of the Antifa who have destroyed monuments to General Lee seemingly wish to erase the memory this man of great integrity.  Lee wrote that slavery is “a moral and political evil” and said he would gladly give up his slaves to avoid civil war. 

Protesting extremists may also be ignorant of 20^th century history.  Prior to the middle of that century, many allied nations fought in World War II to deliver the world from Nazism and Fascism.  They may also be unaware that racism and the philosophy of white supremacy are rooted in a false belief in naturalistic evolution which suggests that humans, particularly whites, occupy the top rung of an “evolutionary ladder” as a result of random changes through mutations and natural selection.  For more discussion of the connection between Darwinian evolution and Nazi Germany’s eugenics experiments aimed at exterminating Jews in favor the Aryan race, please consult a previous article, “World History Without HIS Story.” 

Today, “scientific racism,” the notion that science affirms the existence of racial superiority, is denied by most scientists even though the theory that all of life originated by evolution is still viewed as “settled science.”  Yet, if all humans originated simply by random material processes and not by divinely ordered creation, then our moral standards are baseless and civil law is seen as arbitrary.  The outcome of this logic is evident in the crumbling institutions of marriage and family, the growing disrespect for law and order, and the acceptance of abortion which is partly justified by those who support human eugenics in the tradition of Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood.

Finally, white supremacists seem to be ignorant or have forgotten the great progress of the civil rights movement and the preaching of Martin L. King who said,

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

Ignorance of His-story, “God’s Story”

Those who are ignorant of human history are in even greater danger if they are ignorant of “God’s story” of the creation and redemption of mankind.  According to the Bible, God loves all of His creation.  His love extends especially to humans of all ethnic backgrounds because he made man and woman in His image with unique rational and emotional capacities to share relationships with one another and with Him.

The Bible has been called “God’s love letter” to mankind.  Beginning in Genesis following the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, God promised a Savior Who would one day come and “bruise the head of Satan” the tempter (Genesis 3: 15).  Although the Bible teaches that all have all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3: 23), and that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6: 23a), the good news (“the Gospel”) is that the free gift of God is eternal life (by faith) in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6: 23b).  

Amazingly, God did not simply send His “love gift.”  God came as that gift as prophesied centuries earlier (see Isaiah 9: 1-7) through His own incarnation when a Jewish girl named Mary conceived and gave birth to Jesus Christ.  Christ, the Savior of mankind, had been promised centuries earlier when God spoke to Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, saying (emphasis mine), I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse.  And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Genesis 12: 3).

God had chosen to reveal His salvation through the Jewish nation, Israel.  To avoid their being drawn away by heathen gods, God warned His “chosen people” not to intermarry with “foreigners.” But, it was never God’s intention to limit his forgiveness of sin to the Jews alone.  The Old Testament records many instances in which God’s mercy was extended to “foreigners.”  Indeed, the human lineage of Jesus beginning from Abraham, includes several ethnic groups.  Two examples are Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute (Joshua 6) and mother of Boaz who married Ruth, a Moabite woman, who became the great-grandmother of King David (Ruth 4:13-22). 

How fitting that the blood of Jesus shed from His cross which takes away the sin of the world (John 1: 29; Colossians 1: 20) should have a multi-ethnic lineage.  Yet, as God promised to Abraham, salvation would come through the Jews.  Jesus’ earthly ministry as well as His instructions to His disciples during their training focused on His countrymen and the Samaritans who were half-Jews (John 4: 4).

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, His instruction to His disciples was to wait in Jerusalem for the fulfillment of His promise that the Holy Spirit would come.  He said (emphasis mine), but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (Acts 1: 8).  The Apostle Peter’s Spirit-empowered sermon on the Day of Pentecost was supernaturally translated into the languages of over a dozen different ethnic groups representing Asia, Mesopotamia, and Africa (Acts 2: 9-11).  Within weeks, one of the original deacons, Philip, was commanded to go to the desert where he met an Ethiopian on his way back to Africa.  The Ethiopian’s conversion likely allowed him to be among the first to spread the Gospel of Christ into Africa. 

Within a relatively few years after Christ’s resurrection, the Gospel had spread across much of Asia, northern Africa, and Europe.  The accounts of the New Testament provide clear evidence that Jesus Christ is Savior of the world, and not just whites or other specific ethnic groups.  The closing book of the Bible, the Book of Revelation (5:9), points to a future scene in heaven in which multitudes of the redeemed are worshiping Jesus Christ, singing (emphasis mine),

Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals;
for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood
men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

God’s aim is that members of every tribe and tongue and people and nation be redeemed from sin through faith in Christ.  The redeemed in Christ are united as one into His body, the Church, by faith in His shed blood.  Therefore, the philosophy of human supremacy based on blood lines or ethnicity is in direct opposition to God’s plan to unite people from every tribe into One (atonement) by faith in Christ’s blood.  To claim ethnic superiority in the Name of Christ, is false, idolatrous, and even blasphemous.

Russell Moore, president of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention has written an article published in the Washington Post entitled, “White supremacy angers Jesus, but does it anger his church?”  He writes,

White supremacy does not merely attack our society (though it does) and the ideals of our nation (though it does); white supremacy attacks the image of Jesus Christ himself. White supremacy exalts the creature over the Creator, and the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against it. Later Moore concludes,

The church should call white supremacy what it is: terrorism, but more than terrorism. White supremacy is Satanism. Even worse, white supremacy is a devil-worship that often pretends that it is speaking for God.  White supremacy angers Jesus of Nazareth. The question is: Does it anger his church?

How Will Christians Respond?

Although I agree with the case Moore makes for “the wrath of God” against acts of hate, evil, and lawlessness, I question his notion of an “angry Jesus.” I disagree that God’s redeemed people should beangry at white supremacists and the Antifa, or angry at any sinner for that matter.  Granted, the white supremacists and their opponents have seemingly forgotten their history and His-story (God’s story) of man’s creation, corruption, and regeneration.  But, while Christ-followers ought to be deeply concerned, the deep divisions in America and the destructions of institutions and monuments should be no surprise.  For decades, we witnessed efforts to remove spiritual monuments like The Ten Commandments and Christian crosses from public display. Regardless of whether the freedom to display these monuments continues, Christ-followers have no reason to be overcome with evil, but rather, to overcome evil with good (Romans 12: 21).   Yes, Truth and Good will triumph over Error and Evil.

Here we should pause--you and I.  Chew it over and over—“meditate” on what I have just written.  If you are a Christ-follower, meditate on the amazing Truth that you and I are God’s children by faith (John 1: 12).  And, even our faith to believe is a gift of God (Ephesians 2: 8).  By faith, I look through my “mind’s eye” upon the Cross, that monument to the utter depravity of humankind of every tribe and nation.   The Cross of Christ is a monument to the horror of what humans did to the perfect Lamb of God.  Centuries before Christ was slain on that Roman cross, the Prophet Isaiah described sinful mankind (me included) and how “God’s Lamb” would respond to the weight of all human sin (mine included) heaped upon Him on that dark day outside Jerusalem (Isaiah 53: 6-7):

All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him. 

He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep
that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.

I will admit to responding at times with resentment and anger.  But, when I remember the Cross and the Empty Tomb as two much greater monuments of God’s love, forgiveness, and hope, I can begin to view the hate-filled mob in a different light. 

Granted, some rioters overcome with hate and evil.  But I see others who have joined in the mob with well meaning intentions.  Some of the protesters have the false hope of producing atonement, a “perfect oneness and unity,” that only God can provide.  Perhaps they believe that if they can only get all human pride, hate, and bigotry out on the public square, including all names, symbols, and monuments they associate with them, they can somehow make atonement.  Yet even well meaning efforts to rectify a history of human sin and depravity are an affront to a Holy God.  When people refuse to repent and bow before the Cross of Christ, everything else in human history becomes an unbearable weight.  What can wash away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

In the light of the Cross and Empty Tomb, this dark hour can be a time of great opportunity for the Body of Christ.  As the Apostle Peter teaches, repentance and obedience must begin with the household of God (1 Peter 4: 17).  Christians must heed the challenge of Christ’s half-brother, James, who challenges lukewarm and carnal Christians to humbly pursue heavenly wisdom, not earthly, demonic wisdom (James 3: 14-16; 4: 6-10):

But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.  For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing…

But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

How will we respond as God’s blood-bought children, to the divisions in America, most recently evident in Charlottesville and elsewhere?  When I remember how Christians around the world are courageously responding to hatred and evil, I am ashamed of how I sometimes tend to react.  Then, I remember the verse from 2 Chronicles 7:14 that Christ-followers have been increasingly turning to in recent years.   May these words of be our unfailing guide:

and My people who are called by My name humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Life as It Ought to Be - Part 2: Set Free…to Renew Our Minds

Tomorrow is Inauguration Day and many Americans will be watching as Donald John Trump is sworn in as the 45^th President of the United States.  But indications are that America has never been more divided at any time since the inauguration of Abraham Lincoln, in 1861, near the beginning of the Civil War.  Voices of opposition and distain for Trump are heard from people representing the sciences, politics, human rights groups, and the entertainment industry.  Here is a sampling:

America was also divided in 1861 at Lincoln's first inauguration.

I am literally on a remote tropical island and I, even I, don't feel safe. – Hollie Smith (singer-songwriter) 

Having a person in the position of U.S. President who does not acknowledge scientific facts establishing the clear reality of human-caused climate change is a disgrace. -- Dr. Twila Moon, (University of Bristol)

We will fight to make sure that Planned Parenthood health center doors stay open, and that people in this country can get access to basic reproductive health care…   Cecile Richards (president, Planned Parenthood)

The world will never be the same.  – Cher (singer-actress)

Winning the electoral college does not absolve Trump of the grave sins he committed against millions of Americans.  If Trump wants to roll back the tide of hate he unleashed, he has a tremendous amount of work to do and he must begin immediately.  -- Harry Reid (U.S. Senate, (D) Nev.)

We've let a hatemonger lead our great nation.  We've let a bully set our course.  I'm devastated.  -- Chris Evans (actor—“Captain America”)

The battle of angry words and rude behavior between Election 2016 winners and losers has continued right up to Inauguration Day.  Thanks to the internet, these angry expressions are broadcasted far and wide.  Occasionally, President-elect Trump throws fuel into the fire with angry tweets of his own.

What makes us act this way?  The cause is not Donald Trump.  Nor is it the two-party system; or, the internet.  The cause is not even fear of “losing our rights”—e.g. reproductive rights, gender rights, voting rights, health benefits, welfare entitlements, government job security, etc.  The ultimate cause lies deep within the human heart—i.e. the mental frameworks of logic and values each person has constructed with their mind.
 

When we are honest with ourselves, we admit we have personal struggles with pride, lust, and deceit.  These in turn influence our moral beliefs and hence how we think about the social and economic issues listed above.  Regardless of our stand on these issues, many of us experience fear and angst over how the new administration will influence our future.  When we reflect on the violence and destruction throughout human history we realize that humans are not naturally “good-at-heart,” or should I say, “good-at-mind.”  The Bible states, there is none righteous, not even one (Romans 3: 10).  And, the Apostle James asks (James 4: 1), What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you?  Scripture answers immediately-- Because of your lusts that war in your members.
   
All of us have to deal with lust, an intense desire for something that is not rightfully ours to have.  Although many including Google mistakenly limit lust to “sexual desire,” it applies more broadly to any inordinate desire. We may lust for things like food, wealth, fame, intellectual prowess, or power.  The root of the problem is not that sex, food, guns, or fame are bad.  Instead, it is the way we think about these gifts of God.  What’s worse, we can use our minds and thought processes to deceive ourselves into believing that we don’t lust, or at least not very much.  As the prophet Jeremiah explains (Jeremiah 17: 9 NET), the human mind is more deceitful than anything else.  It is incurably bad.  Who can understand it?

Thankfully, God’s moral revelation in Scripture comes to us with the Spirit and power to help us attack the root of the problem within our minds.  In Part 1 of “Life as It Ought to Be,” we emphasized how God has power to “set us free….to serve Him.”  As the Apostle Peter writes (1 Peter 3:18), For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit…  Sin, is rebellion against God as a result of the prideful, lustful, and deceitful ways of thinking in our minds.  But sin does not need to have dominion over us.  Paul writes in Romans 8: 10, If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

In Part 1, we explained how God sets the sinner free from sin’s mastery and gives the person of faith His Holy Spirit to reside within as a “New Master.” The “old master,” representing sin, selfishness, and Satan can now be brought under the righteous authority of God’s Spirit.  But, as a believer, I must submit to God’s Spirit as His Word tells me to …consider yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus…[not allowing] sin [to] reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts...(Romans 6: 11-12).  Specifically, I must recognize that I cannot serve two masters.  My “death to the old master” representing sin, as expressed in pride, lust, and deceit becomes reality as I submit to my New Master, Jesus Christ.  Romans 12: 1-2 describes what God asks me to do daily (emphasis mine):   

…present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.  And do not [let your mind and thinking] be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

Notice that our responsibility is to continually allow God’s Spirit through His Word to renew our minds so that our wills are attuned to God’s will.  Dr. Caroline Leaf, a communication pathologist and audiologist has conducted research for years in the field of cognitive neuroscience.  She believes that God created our minds in His image and has given us the “free will” to choose how we will think and react to our circumstances.  Dr. Leaf writes in her book entitled Switch on Your Brain (Baker Books, 2013):   

Your mind is the most powerful thing in the universe after God, and indeed fashioned after God.  Free will and choice are real, spiritual, and scientific facts. Your mind (soul) has one foot in the door of the spirit and one foot in the door of the body; you can change your brain with your mind and essentially renew your mind.

Dr. Leaf rejects the view that the human brain is hard-wired and unchangeable, a view that gained popularity in the 1980’s.  She has based her research on her insights gained from the Scriptures such as Romans 12: 2 in which God commands us to be transformed by the renewing of your mind and Deuteronomy 30: 19 in which God lovingly invites us to choose life in order that you may live….  Dr. Leaf reasons correctly that God would not ask His image bearers to exercise choice if He had not created us with brains that have the neurological capacity to change, and with the free will to make right choices that in turn help build healthy brains.  

In a future article, we will address more specifically how our mind can affect the status of our brain and in turn how we think when we use our God-given free will to make right decisions through the power of His Spirit and the guidance of His Word.   But for now, notice how James 4: 5-10 reveals the blessed benefit of submitting our minds to God’s will.  When we submit to God, we realize that His Spirit is actually longing for relationship with us.  What’s more God wants us to turn our longings back to Him as our Creator.  Listen to God’s loving mind speaking out to our minds (emphasis mine):

Or do you think the Scripture means nothing when it says, “The spirit that God caused to live within us has an envious yearning”?  But he gives greater grace. Therefore it says, “God opposes the proud, but he gives grace to the humble.”  So submit to God.  But resist the devil and he will flee from you.  Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and make your hearts pure, you double-minded.   Grieve, mourn, and weep.  Turn your laughter into mourning and your joy into despair.  Humble yourselves before the Lord and he will exalt you.

How does a God Who created mankind explain the current division in America, and the divisions and strife around the world?  As we have explained, God’s Word tells us that our minds are naturally prideful, corrupt, and prone to lust or desire that which we do not have.  Therefore, God’s Spirit desires that each person submit to Him and allow their minds to be transformed by the renewing of their minds so that each will know what God’s will is for them.  The above challenge from the Apostle James seems very pertinent to this year’s politics.  It is the prideful, lustful, deceitful mind that causes the outpouring of prideful speech and actions.  Our only remedy is to allow God’s Spirit through His Word to go deep into our system of thought, causing repentance (change of heart/mind), submission to God, and confession of sin.  These actions bring New Life in Christ for the unbeliever, and they bring regular renewal and spiritual growth to the Christ-follower. 

If all goes as planned, tomorrow Donald J. Trump will be our new president.  Life will not immediately be “as it ought to be.”  But, if we take to heart the instructions of the Apostle James to submit to God Who will help us resist the devil, God will enable us to replace our own tendency toward divisiveness, anger, and rudeness with the virtues like patience, kindness, and self-control.   We can then be a much-needed, fresh aroma in our struggling homes, schools, workplaces, and churches.  The inspired Word written in a letter by the Apostle Paul to Titus during harsh times of the Roman Empire ought to encourage us to be thankful for the privilege of watching the inauguration and then praying for the Trump family and his new administration (emphasis mine):

Remind them to be subject to rulers, to authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good deed, to malign no one, to be peaceable, gentle, showing every consideration for all men.  For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another.  But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior so that being justified by His grace we would be mad heirs according to the hope of eternal life. – Titus 3:1-7

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How about You?   If after reading this article, you sense that you need to do some mind and soul searching, here is a suggestion.  Read Part 1 of this series and prayerfully consider and apply the “four disciplines” outlined there to assure our daily submission to the “New Master.”  They were (1) forging ahead for God while confessing and forgetting past failings; and, being disciplined to (2) feed on God’s Word, (3) adopt a lifestyle of prayer and repentance, and (4) seek fellowship regularly with fellow believers.  If you have particular questions or comments, please use the “Comment” box below or e-mail me at silviusj@gmail.com