Amazing Grace, Pt. 1

This past year, we in my church's men's bible study group went through the book of Leviticus, verse by verse, digging into the guts of it all. The intended purpose of it was to show the guidelines and expectations of men today in the home, church and community by looking at the roles of the priests and laws of Mosaic times. It did this, certainly. But just as strongly, I came away with two other important lessons. First was the significance of everything Jesus did for us when being tortured and crucified when looked at from the standpoint of Him being the Ultimate Sacrifice. But even more strongly impressed upon me was a greater appreciation of God's grace, that by which we are saved and forgiven through Jesus' Ultimate Sacrifice and how we should extend that same grace to each other.

My pastor posed a question a short time back when preaching on this subject. If you were arrested for something (DUI, soliciting a prostitute, caught in a drug bust), and your picture was plastered on the front page of the paper because of it, would you show your face in church the next Sunday? To me, the truly sad part is that this question would have to be asked in the first place. It seems like it should be a foregone conclusion that in a time of trouble, in a time when you need forgiveness, when you need grace, when you need to feel the support and love of your community, your congregation should be a place of refuge for you. To have people pray with you and over you. To let you know you are still loved. So why is that not the case?

You may remember Amy Grant, a talented and popular Christian singer from the late 70s and early 80s. I can remember being on youth group outings or at Church Camp and hearing El Shaddai, Sing Your Praise to the Lord, Fat Baby and other songs of hers always playing on someone's boom box. She sold out concerts all over the place. Countless numbers of people were led to Christ through her ministry. Then word came that she was divorcing her husband and collaborator, Gary Chapman. Adultery was thrown about as a posible reason. Instantly, church choirs and soloists stopped singing her songs. Christian radio stations stopped playing her music. You couldn't buy her tapes in Christian book stores any more. All because of what? She was human? She committed a sin?

Is this the way God works? Does he strip you of all His blessings when you stumble? Is this what Jesus taught us to do? Are we to turn the other cheek when an enemy smites us and give a theif our shirt when he takes our coat as well but ostracize our own Christian brothers and sisters for any offense?

Over the next few posts, I'd like to discuss the concepts of grace, forgiveness and how we are to treat those who have stumbled and how we do treat them. I'll be talking about such hot button issues as teen pregnancy, divorce, homosexuality, adultery, and even false accusations. Perhaps we should discuss how we are more willing to extend grace and community forgiveness to those who commit non-sexually based sins than those who do. I really hope those of you who read my blog will feel free to join in and share your viewpoints. I feel strongly on this issue and believe it has been placed on my heart to address it on whatever level I can, locally, nationally or even globally.

The long and short of it is this: The extention of grace from God to us or from us to each other is an expression of love. God grants us grace and forgiveness because He loves us. We should grant it to each other because God loves all of us and we are to love each other through God, even as we love ourselves. What enticement is there for someone who is unsaved to enter the fold of Christianity when they see how we can callously through our sick and wounded to the jackles?

The big boom

In honor of the North Koreans testing of missiles that could, possibly, potentially carry a nuclear war head to somewhere on the western seaboard of the United States or Canada, I have decided to postpone my topic scheduled for today and write this one that has been on my mind quite a bit lately anyway.

First, this whole scenario reminds me of when I was living in Turkey during the first Gulf War. Will the day come when that conflict will be referred to as GWI and the current one as GWII? Anyhow, I was in the Air Force and stationed at Ankara Air Station. During the war, it was determined that if Saddam took the warhead out of his SCUD missiles (nuclear or otherwise) and filled hem from nosecone to tail fin with rocket fuel, placed the launcher on the border of Iran and Turkey and had a decent tail wind, the whole contraption would run out of gas somewhere over our city of 5 million and land on our heads. Rediculous, yes, but we got combat pay for it so no one cared.

Second, for those of you living in Anchorage, Fairbanks or Juneau, Alaska, I would be irate at the media if I were you! You're a lot closer to the Korean peninsula than Seattle or San Fancisco, yet all the media can talk about is how this missle they launched (which immediately blew up, resulting in a failed launch, by the way) could strike one of those or other west coast cities. No one mentions y'all! The missiles actually could strike up there! Not to give you anything to worry about or anything.

But that's kind of my point today. I resolutely believe that none of this will come to pass -- at least not for a while. These billions of dollars being spent world wide on nuclear weapons and how to stop them is just billions of dollars wasted. And believe me, that is a pretty bold statement from the guy who as a kid had reoccuring nightmares about the aftermath of a nuclear war from the time he was in junior high until his early college years.

Measures have been in place for decades concerning how a nuclear war would be carried out. What missiles would be fired first and what would their targets be. What would be the response to someone firing the first missile at us or our allies in another part of the world. In the end, it all comes down to the same thing: The end of the world.

But we know that is not the case. We can read the Bible and get a picture of how the world will end. Almost all Christians, regardless of their Biblical knowledge, has heard something about the Rapture, the Antichrist, the Tribulation... None of these things will be able to come to pass if the world is destroyed by a former Soviet republic, China, North Korea, Pakistan, India, France, England or anyone else firing a nuclear weapon at anyone. That would mean the Bible is wrong and the implications of that...

"But Geek, the US has already dropped two atomic bombs, what about that?" Those bombs were dropped before systems and computers were put in place to gurad against any further mushroom clouds ever appearing over any city of the world.

"But Geek, what about someone like Iran? They don't care about our Bible and would think it a great reflection on them if they fired a nuclear warhead at Israel like they have been threatening to do." Yeah, so? I say we call their bluff. We already know this won't happen for the very reason I stated above. But lets take the Bible out of the picture for a moment. Iran won't fire a nuclear weapon at Israel. Why? because Jerusalem is one of the most important cities in Islam (at least since 1923). The second most important mosque in Islam is there. A nuclear warhead detonating over Jerusalem would destroy all of these important sites. Don't forget, Iran is a theocracy. The danger to religious sites would be taken into consideration first.

A missile fired anywhere else in Irael would risk too many other places and things important to Islam. Not to mention the fact that the West Bank and the Gaza Strip would be destroyed. Millions of Palastinians would die. And what if the missile missed its mark? Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt and Saudi Arabia would not take kindly to Iran nuking them, either. Not to mention the enormous backlash from the entire Muslim world should anything important to them be hit. It's not worth the risk.

God may use nuclear weapons during the Time of Tribulation, but I believe he will not allow them to be used before then. Not from Iran or North Korea or anyone else. That's just my opinion, mind you, but I pray I'm right.

Note: Sorry for the heavy topic today. This whole blog has been percolating in my mind for the fast couple of weeks and I had to get it out.