Taking up our cross

My husband often speaks of how a true Christian takes up his cross to follow Christ. I like to hear him speak of this and often find myself enjoying any conversation that includes references to this verse (Luke 9:23).

Until recently I don't suppose I had ever truly stopped to think about what...exactly...it means to take up our cross and follow Christ. I know the verse well, have heard many people speak of it, often engage in conversations with my husband on it, but I never really stopped to examine that verse before, or the meaning behind it.
How is it that some things we spend hours examining and others we understand...or think we do...on first hearing it and so don't look any deeper than our own understanding.
Christ told us we are to take up our cross...daily...and follow Him. He told us that we must deny ourselves to do this. But what exactly does this mean?
Years ago I had a short acquaintance with someone that was born with birth defects and was blind. I recall a particular conversation with this person in which this person spoke of life with the challenges they were given. This person couldn't drive, couldn't go somewhere with relying on someone else and yet this person lived alone and did many tasks on their own despite the challenges they faced to do so. In that conversation I remember it coming up that those challenges were this persons cross to bear, rather that others believed them to be that, and this person telling me that they had never considered any of these challenges to be their cross to bear. This person told me that the challenges they faced every day, challenges that most people would ask 'why me' over, were just the way it was. This person was not bearing a cross with these challenges. They were simply living their life.
And yet I have heard so many others say that an illness or financial difficulty are their cross to bear. How many times in our lives do we hear people say just such things? Even if they don't refer to them as a cross to bear they moan and complain, they whine and wonder, they bemoan those things they must face in their life. Whether they call them a cross they must bear or not, the implication is there...this is what I must endure.
But that isn't what Christ was speaking of. In that same verse (Luke 9:23) Christ said...if any man will come after me... There is the vital piece of information that is often overlooked or misunderstood when a person claims that something is their cross to bear.
So today I stopped, really stopped, to think about just what that verse means. Yes, I understand the verse. Yes, I have understood the verse for a long time. But no, until today I have never stopped, truly stopped, and pondered just what that verse means.
We, in our modern society, where crucifixions are not a part of our American culture can't truly comprehend what it would mean to take up our cross. But there was great meaning in those words in a time and place where people often died by the cross.
I used to be fascinated with the 19th century. During those days people often lost their lives in public hangings. The law used that method to rid the world of those that had done wrong. Even citizens used it when they caught someone doing something they should not be doing. These were, in many cases, public executions. Crowds of people gathered around to watch the hanging as if it was a spectator sport. It would seem to me that if someone had told anyone in those days to make a noose and follow them that person would have well understood the meaning behind the noose. It's something that they would have very likely seen put to use at some point in their life and if they had never seen one used they would have understood, well, the meaning behind what it stood for. It wasn't an abstract concept.
I recently had a conversation with a family member about prison. It was a brief conversation that I can't even recall the reason for now. But I well remember telling that family member that prison is an abstract concept for most people in America today. Even when we know someone, or know of someone, that has or is in prison, it is an abstract concept unless that person is close enough to us that we feel the effects of prison. We know prison exists but until we are personally touched by it, it is something that is simply out there somewhere.
What is a cross to modern day Americans? It is an abstract concept at best. If we are Christians we understand well that our Savior died on a cross for us. But even in that understanding the cross stays an abstract concept. We may recoil in horror at the thought of being crucified but do we truly understand what taking up a cross would mean? And can we possibly understand what it means to take up our cross?
In Christ's day when a person took up their cross...they were headed to their death. They had been tried and convicted. They had been given the death penalty. They were about to lose their life. They were essentially looking down the barrel of a loaded gun as someone pulled the trigger.
They picked up their cross in order to carry it to their own death. Their earthly days were about to end. They would soon draw their final breath. Life for them was over. At least on this earth.
So when Christ said that to follow Him we must pick up our cross he was using a term that was very meaningful in His day but has lost much of that meaning in our day. He was saying take up the instrument of your death and follow me.
Can you imagine how you would feel if you were looking at the very thing that was about to take your life? Can you imagine the thoughts and emotions that would flood your body? Would your heart race? Would your legs tremble? Would your hands shake? Would you cry? Would you beg? What would you do if you knew you were facing the very thing that would take your earthly life?
That was what a cross was. It represented the very thing that would take their life.
And this is what Christ says we must pick up if we are to follow him.
We must pick up the very thing that will take our life. And Christ does take our life. Our earthly life. I can well attest to the things of this world that Christ takes from us. There are many of those things that I used to take great pleasure in that I no longer find interesting in the least. And now I get joy in things I once paid no attention to. We pick up our cross and follow Christ and in doing so we lose this earthly life.
When a person picked up their cross...they were about to die. And when we pick up that cross, we must die to our selves, die to this earthly world, die to all the sinful pleasures of this life. Galatians 5:24 says...they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.We must die in our flesh in order to live in the Spirit.
There are many people that claim to be 'Christians' that live no differently than someone that is an atheist. They watch the same horrible movies, enjoy the same sin filled hobbies, engage in the same sexual immorality. They live as the world, act as the world, and yet they claim to be 'Christians'. That is not picking up their cross. It is not dying in the flesh. It is not following Christ.
Galatians goes further to give us an understanding of how a Christian should see the world. Verse 6:14 says...God forbid that i should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
In other words the world is dead to a Christian and a Christian is dead to the world.
That is taking up our cross.

The gates of hell shall not prevail

I was recently looking through the Foxe's Book of Martyrs and upon reading the very first sentences I read of Christ speaking to Simon Peter in Matthew 16:18 and it struck me that those verses are so very important to Christianity. Just this morning I read a comment online that summed up a good part of true Christianity verses professing 'Christianity'. Or maybe it went further than that and summed up true Christianity verses everything else. I'm not quite sure. What I do know is that someone posted of how it is said today that the 'church' is in trouble but that the Church...which is referred to as the ekklesia in the original translations of Scripture... is not in any kind of trouble at all. This statement went on to explain how the 'church' that is made up of false Christians being led by false preachers are in trouble not the true Church..ekklesia...of Scripture. Someone commented on that post about how the original poster was more concerned with their 'church' than with victims of a recent event.

Less than an hour after seeing that post online and reading the comment about it, I read those first sentences in Foxe's Book of Martyrs. As I read those sentences I was struck with just how vital that verse in Matthew is. There, in black and white,  Christ tells, what could, I guess, be considered the first of the New Testament Christians that He would build His church on this rock and that not even Hell would prevail against it. Yes, that is my own wording but that is the gist of what Christ is saying. Here, on this rock, His church would be built and nothing, not even Hell itself, would be able to destroy it.

So there, on that day, so many, many years ago, Christ spoke of not only His Church...or the body of Christ...but he spoke of how hell would try, and fail, to destroy it.

Today there is so much animosity toward 'Christians' and Christians because anyone wearing the title of Christian, in any form, is considered to be filled with hate and are bigots because they stand for something. Why is it, exactly, that people can stand for just about anything and be looked up to for standing for their belief unless that belief is labeled as Christianity? And in this case I don't suppose there's any distinction between Arminian and Monergist. They arent Calvinist and Pentecostal, they aren't Morman or Catholic. In this case simply wearing the label of Christian gets a person labeled as being hatefilled.

I guess we could say that the gates of hell are pushing against anyone with the label of Christian. It's not the first time it has happened since Christ made that statement so many years ago and it won't be the last time it happens. We can't even say it's the most vicious way it has happened. The very book where I just read of Christ making that statement is filled with stories of people that suffered and died for their belief in Christ. One could, if they were so inclined, do an online search for countries where Christianity is illegal. A search such as that would come back with all sorts of stories of people that are experiencing much more than being called names for their faith. And yet, the very fact that it is happening, even only if in the form of name calling, is a perfect example of Christ's prediction coming true before our very eyes.

Not all that long ago I saw a poster, of sorts, that showed a picture of a Bible with a statement to the effect of Scripture is being lived out before our eyes and those in the world don't even know it. I must admit that since the Lord saved me and I began understanding more of Scripture I can truly say that I can see Scripture in all of life. It's not a matter of seeing, say a creator in the creation, but in seeing the application of sin in the actions of people. It's in seeing the examples, and the stories, in everyday American life. It's in seeing the all consuming sin that fills people, every person, even the people our human minds would say are good, upstanding citizens. It's in understanding how this is all playing out and in looking for Scripture in life and in the everyday happenings that go on around me.

Am I what I should be as a Christian? NEVER. Am I free from all sin? NEVER. Am I even what I think I should be? NO. But I can still see Scripture in life, see it in others.

And today I saw it in the words of one person's post online and in the comments of another person, a person whose opinion was not asked for, was not solicited, and most likely wasn't wanted. I don't know that I would have ever thought anything of that comment if I hadn't almost immediatly afterward read of Christ's words.

But I didn't take the book's words to heart so much as the words in that book spurred me toward Scripture, where I looked up the exact verse where Christ said those words. And in His own words is the foretelling of just what will try to destroy the body of Christ throughout all of time. He does not give us a list of what will come against us but He does give us an example of exactly what will not win. If even hell cannot prevail against the body of Christ then, from the words of Scripture, we can know that hell will try to prevail against the body of Christ.

As a general rule I try to avoid controversial subjects that rear up in our country or world. There are just too many people willing, and, it would seem, waiting to jump in and start fighting through words on their computer (or smart phone), as if everyone around is just waiting anxiously to hear their opinion, or as if by voicing their opinion they are going to affect, impact, or change anyone's thoughts. Yes, I know that I do voice my opinions on this blog but that's different. It's more like me voicing my opinions in my home. If someone doesn't like what I have to say they can simply choose not to come to my house. Likewise, if someone doesn't like what I have to say on my blog they can simply choose not to visit my blog. I have actually had both friends and family that avoid my blog for that very reason. They don't share my beliefs and so they don't read what I write. But the point is that in light of the topic of this post and recent events in America, I simply can't avoid all mention of those events in this post.

I have a family member that puts no importance on Scripture whatsoever. To this person Scripture is a mix of  history and made up stories. But this person, when handed a Bible and asked to give their thoughts on what it says in a particular verse, will read what is written there and say that it says...this...whatever this happens to be. This person is not threatened by Scripture because they put no importance on it. This person does not feel as if they must do anything with their life in regard to what is written in Scripture and therefore feels no pressure on themselves because of what they may be reading in Scripture.

If I were to hand a Bible to this person and ask them to read a set of verses that speaks on any particular subject regarding what is right or wrong, this person would read those verses and tell me exactly what Scripture says is right and wrong. Say this person read the ten commandments, they would then tell me that adultery and murder (among other things) is wrong. What I'm getting at is that this person can see a set of rules written out in Scripture. They may not apply those rules to their life, they may not even feel that those rules apply to them, but they can SEE what is written there.

If this person, who does not believe in or put importance on Scripture can see those rules in Scripture and say them back to me, why is it that there is such dispute, even among those wearing the label of 'christian' about just what those rules say?

As pretty much everyone in America knows there was recently a shooting in Florida in a homosexual bar. I have seen 'Christians' online fighting what could almost be considered a virtual civil war over how other 'Christians' should feel and respond to that shooting. This group of 'Christians' feels this way and believes that all 'Christians' should feel and respond the same way they do, that group of 'Christians' feels that way and believes that all 'christians' should feel and respond the same way that they do. And on and on it goes.

If a non-christian can read a set of rules, a do and don't sort of list, in the Bible and read it back, than shouldn't anyone wearing the label of 'christian' be able to do the same? But I know that's the million dollar question that will only ever get an answer of no. Not because that isn't how all 'Christians' should respond but because they aren't really Christians, in fact most of them are no more a Christian than the athiest down the street, and they all interpret the bits of Scripture that they know, even in the rare case when they know the entire Scriptures, in their own way.

It's funny though, because even as I write this I think of how my husband and I, who have the same kind of belief, reacted very differently to that shooting. And because this is a controversial subject I'm not going into how either of us reacted or what we think or believe. I'm only pointing out that we did react differently. Because in the end we are still two different people that may see things in a similar way but we also see things in our own ways.

But, horrific as any public massacre is, that isn't really what I want to write on. I only brought it up because it isn't the shooting that I feel the need to cover but the aftermath of name slinging and blaming that has ensued. I have seen the same thing, but in a different way, over the also very recent death of a toddler at a popular resort. Oh, how the parents have been blamed for what they did or didn't do. Did they do something they shouldn't have? Maybe. Possibly. Probably even. What parent hasn't done or allowed our child to do something we probably shouldn't have? And if we were to examine our most recent encounter with our children we would probably find that we did something that maybe we shouldn't have, or at the very least we would find that there was something we could have done better. But rarely do we examine our experiences as parents with such close scrutiney, and even more rarely do others examine what we do with our children so closely. The difference is when something happens to the child. I remember a few months back when another toddler went missing and made headline news for several days. That child, from what I understand, simply wondered off. There were online comments about how the parents should be investigated but it quickly died down. The ferver of blame toward the parents had no basis and so fizzled out not long after the uproar started. This latest toddler, who shared the same tragic fate as the first one, although through different means, has not been a one minute wonder though. Why? Because blame can be slung. It's like an animal that flings excretement at any hapless passerby. These online people, who are real people in the real world, hiding behind a computer or phone screen, are more than happy to sling the blame if there is even a miniscule amount of blame to fling. And it really doesn't seem to matter if there is a basis for the blame or not.

The shooting that has 'Christians' so up in arms is the same way. Blame can be flung from one 'Christian' to another. Blame can be...somehow...laid on the 'Christians'/Christians so the world, or American's anyway, blame anyone with a label of Christian even though Christians, no matter how they wear the label, are in no way responsible for the shooting. It's as if unseen people reach out from nowhere to battle against the body of Christ when the body of Christ was doing nothing wrong.

But that's not the only thing, so many times when 'Christians' turn up in news articles, online stories, blog posts, or comments on social media, most of those 'Christians' can be traced directly to a denominational building wearing the label of 'church'. That is not the ekklesia spoken of in Scripture. It is not the body of Christ...or church if you want to use the word taken from most modern English translations of the Bible...that Christ used as He talked to Simon Peter. These 'Christians' that fling blame and feed the furor of anger and hate aimed at Christians are not the body of Christ. Few times when 'Christians' are a part of a very seen situation are the 'Christians' involved the body of Christ spoken of as the ekklesia in Scripture. The majority of the time those 'Christians' are a part of a very visible dispute, if looked at closely one can trace said 'Christians' directly back to a denominational building called a 'church'. And if looked at closely it's probably unlikely that these visible, fit throwing, 'Christians' are going to stand up to an honest evaluation for what a Christian is based off Scripture.

After the shooting in Florida there were 'Christians' claiming that the deaths of the victims were tragic and should be deeply mourned and there were 'Christians' applauding the deaths. I'm going to ask how anyone that knows anything about Scripture can look at those two groups, or the many that fell somewhere in the middle, and not see a very strange situation. And the problem there isn't in the shooting but in the reaction, and blame flinging, of those claiming to be 'Christians'. How can you have two groups of people, that by the very nature of the label they wear, should react to something in a similar way? If they base their beliefs on Scripture than they should have a basic understanding of life in general based off Scripture and they should respond to any given situation based off that understanding and belief. Scripture does not change from group to group, it does not become something different for one person than it does for another. Scripture simply is Scripture. And anyone that claims to hold a belief in Scripture should react to all of life based out of their understanding of, and their belief in, Scripture, or rather their understanding of Scripture and their belief in the Lord. Sure, they can have different reactions but those reactions should all be based off the standards set by Scripture. Which means they may have a slightly different reaction but those reactions should be within the bounds of what Scripture says is right or wrong.

And where in all of that do the true Christians stand? I'm not even going to hazard a guess beyond to say that I have seen and heard a few of them use Scripture to react to the shooting. Which is the appropriate way for anyone that claims to be a Christian to react. Scripture should be any Christian's defining line for anything. Ever notice that Old Testament Scripture required children that did not respect their parents to be stoned? We no longer live under Old Testament laws but...how hard would it have been for those parents to turn their own children in and watch them die? Yet, if they wanted to follow Scripture they  must do just that. Sometimes following Scripture means doing what is hard, not taking the easy path. Truth be told following Scripture will always be the hard path by the world's standards. And so, in the wake of any situation, good or bad, Scripture should be the standard any Christian uses.

But in using that standard the Christian may find themselves in a situation where the gates of hell seem to rage against them. How confusing it must be for the 'christian' that bases their faith off...whatever denomination they hold...to be told that they are not responding as a 'Christian' should. How hard it must be for the 'Christian' that believes they are a Christian according to Scripture to be told that Christians do not act the way they are and that...this...is proper behavior for a 'Christian'. It almost appears to be a spinning wheel with no way off. A true Christian can go back to Scripture to back everything they believe, or they should be able to. Not so the 'christian'.

Even in all that confusion, in all the name calling, and even the unwarranted blaming, the true Christian can turn to Scripture and see Scripture being lived out before them. They can see that in the midst of the very visible 'Christians', that are fussing and fighting like children or battling like opposing soldiers in a war, there is a method to the madness. The Christian may not understand the reasons why but if they know Scripture they can see that there is a reason for it all. And at the very base of it all is the body of Christ that Christ Himself said He would build, a...church...that even hell itself will not win against.

About a year ago I found myself in the midst of an ongoing conversation with a friend that caused me to basically need to defend not only my faith but just about every part of my life and basically every major decision I had ever made as an adult. Oddly enough I did actually enjoy the ongoing conversation. There were many a time that I said I wished the topic would drop and there were many a time that I was ready to drop the conversation but somehow it kept going. And in that seemingly endless conversation I learned much about myself. Time and time again I looked to Scripture, testing my own beliefs against Scripture, before responding to this friend. And time and time again I had my faith and my beliefs affirmed.

That is the sort of situation that the true Christian finds themself in, even if only in their own hearts and minds, when a situation comes up when 'Christians' are blaming and non-Christians are not only name calling but casting blame. In the midst of all of that the true Christian pulls from their faith, from their beliefs, and from Scripture to at least make a frame for their own reactions. Sure, they have thoughts and feelings on the situation. Their own experiences in life will play a role in how they respond to certain things. But when it comes right down to it, Scripture is the defining line for how they view the situation.

And that defining line is that Christ is building His body...His church...and He will not allow hell to prevail against it. There, in the time of Christ, the battle was laid out and won right before Simon Peter's eyes and it was recorded in the Scriptures for everyone throughout the rest of time. The reality is that on that day, Christ spoke of a plan that had been in motion since before the foundation of the world. And if one understands Scripture and looks closely at life in our modern world, or views history through the lense of Scripture, than one can see that though the battle may rage, even among those that claim to be 'Christians', there is no winning for anyone but Christ.

Even the true Christians are not winning. We are caught up in the midst of an ongoing battle, one that has raged since Adam ate the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, one that will continue to rage until the return of Christ. True Christians live in the middle of a world that is as foreign to them as another planet would be, they live in the midst of a battle ground that is raging a war that is invisible to most people, they feel the flames from the gates of hell as those gates press ever closer but are held at bay by an invisible hand because Christ said those gates would never prevail against His church.

It was not rain...

After writing a post I titled 'In America...that's Christianity' I came across something I had saved in my files because it had struck me as so profound when I came across it. I guess I wanted to save it to reread at a later date or maybe I intended to write about it, I don't know. But there in my files was a story that I wrote about in my post, In America...that's Christianity. It was the story of the handwritten Bible smudged, possibly damaged, by tears of the woman that painstakingly wrote out every word. It was only a snippet, a snippet that I couldn't remember where I found it until I came across it again, saved in my files. I still know almost nothing about this bit of a story, and it is only a small bit of what must be a much larger story, but I do now know where the story came from. At least I know the name of the book it came from and the name of the author. I can't say that I know anything else about either the book or the author but I very much enjoyed reading this little bit. When I first read it, I was reminded of the post I wrote titled Persecution. Here, is yet another reason, why persecution doesn't come because of a loss of financial status. Here is proof of what true persecution can lead to. I truly don't know if the reason behind what I'm sharing here is persecution or not, but I know that persecution can look like this, and persecution is what I thought of as I read this.
This was taken from the book Safely Home by Randy Alcorn.


Ben spent Friday evening at a dinner meeting with a Pushan business executive. He pulled into Quan’s place much later than usual and put his hand on the doorknob. It was locked.
“Who is there?” came the voice from the inside.
“Ben.”
“Alone?”
“No— I’m with the Chinese joint chiefs of staff.”
Quan opened the door.
“What’s going on?” Ben asked.
“We have visitors.”
Ben walked in and saw what looked like two families of three. A man, woman, and teenage boy were on Quan’s bed. Another man, woman, and teenage girl were on Ben’s bed. Ming sat at the desk and Shen on the floor at her feet. All had two open books in front of them, and ballpoint pens in their hands.
“What are you doing?”
“Making copies of Shengjing. Those printed Bibles will soon be picked up by the donkey and passed on to others. But while they are here we can use them, can’t we? Shen and I are copying from my mother’s Bible.”
With a proud smile Shen held up his grandmother’s Bible to Ben. Then he picked up his own handwritten copy, handing it to Ben for inspection.
“Shen is a good scribe,” Ben said.
“Father checks my work,” he said, beaming.
“As we copy,” Quan said, “the words of Yesu are written on our hearts.”
Is this legal? Ben wondered. He remembered all the reassurances of religious freedom he’d been given over the years. But seeing these people huddled like this, it was obvious they were convinced it was illegal. But he didn’t want to hear the words. If something hit the fan, he wanted to maintain deniability with Martin and the Getz board.
Ben was about to go for a walk, anything to get him away from this, when he looked closely at Quan’s mother’s Bible. “It’s beautiful. The characters are so small but clear.”
“Mother copied it carefully. She would borrow a Bible whenever she could. She’d work for hours by candlelight, praying the words aloud as she copied. I wish I would have listened more closely. Often she would rest her head on Shengjing. Sometimes she would giggle with delight. It was a labor of love. Months, even a year, went by when she had no Bible to copy. It took her eight years to finish her whole Bible. Six months before she died, Mother finished copying Shengjing’s final book. A leather worker in church bound it for her.”
“And you kept it all these years?”
“No. She had loaned it to another woman who was copying it at the time. After I returned from Harvard, they heard I had become a Chris¬tian. The church gave it to me.”
Ben flipped through the pages. “It’s been out in the rain.”
“No. Always it was carefully covered. Mother bundled it up before going outside. We do the same.”
“But the words are smeared in many places,” Ben said.
“It was not rain that smeared the words.”

Dancing with my Savior

Wind flows through my hair and cools the air around me. Lights and all that surround me swirl in a blur of color. Clouds streak the sky above me in a kaleidoscope of blue and white as the sky swirls above me. Round and round I spin, my arms stretched wide, my head thrown back.

The dance has begun.

I know not where I’m going or where I’ve been. There is nothing but this swirl of color and the wind in my hair. The joy of twirling through life fills me as the world disappears around me. There is nothing but this moment in time, only the feel of the wind in my hair and the breeze against my outstretched arms. The sound of the world becomes a melody that mingles with the wind and whispers into my ear.

The dance is all there is.

I take a step back, my feet guided by unseen hands. I take a step forward, this step, too, is guided by hands I cannot see. I don’t feel their fingers against my skin but I know that they are there.

I never learned the steps to the dance. There were no lessons given for this dance, no classes to take. There were none needed. I don’t need to know the steps because my feet go through the steps as if they know what to do, not because they know, but because they are guided by unseen hands.

As I dance, I twirl, round and round, with those same unseen hands holding up my arms, holding up my very body. My bones serve no purpose in this dance. They need do nothing because my very body is guided through a dance I do not know by the hands that hold me up.

My feet hit a rough patch of ground but I don’t feel it, I stumble but I barely notice it. Because those unseen hands hold me up, they support me, they lift me until I dance on air, my feet barely brushing the ground.

I don’t worry about the rocks in the path or the dips in the road. I don’t need to worry because the one I dance with has the path well marked and He knows my way. And He keeps me safe as I dance the path of life.

Oh, the indescribable joy of dancing within my Saviors arms.

He supports me as I twirl through this world He has placed me in. He guides me over the rocky patches in the dance floor as I spin through the turbulent areas. He is the Pillar upon which I rest and give all my cares to. I need never worry about the dance because my Savior leads the way.

In perfect harmony we spin and dance our way through this earthly life that He has put me in. I know not the steps of the dance, nor do I know the direction of the path, but the dance floor is here, and I do not worry about the boundary of the floor because my Savior supports me and holds me up as I spin and twirl my way through the dance.

The joy bubbles up from the very depths of my soul as I spin and twirl my way…

Dancing with my Savior.

 

In America...that's Chrisianity

Several months back I found myself researching handwritten Bibles. There were a number of things that brought me to the point of looking deeper into handwritten Bibles, or at least trying to  look deeper into them, there really isn’t all that much information to be found on the subject. Odd, considering there was a time when all Bibles had to be handwritten and there are still people in some places where Bibles are illegal, not to mention the fact that in our modern world just about everything has been turned into a hobby...why not handwriting the Bible?

Somewhere in all that research, research that was more for my own curiosity than anything, I came across a small story. I’m not even certain it was a story so much as a small section of a story. I don’t remember where I saw it, who wrote it, or anything else about it, but I do remember well this small part of it. A man was in a country where Bibles were, if i remember correctly,  illegal. This man was staying with a family there and came home one night to find visitors in the house. The visitors, along with the family he was staying with, were sitting around the room, all writing carefully. It turned out they were all writing out the Scriptures. I believe they were doing this because Bibles could not be attained. Whatever their reason, it was the next part of that story that has stuck so vividly in my mind and heart. One of the men in the house pulled out a book and showed it to the man that had just arrived, the man that, if I remember correctly, was telling this story. The book, it turned out, was a handwritten copy of the Bible. It was written over many, many years...twenty?...a lifetime?...by one of the men’s grandmother. The man telling the story listened as the other man told of how his grandmother had carefully written every word and how it was after her death, I think, that people that knew her had the individual papers that she had so carefully copied the Scriptures onto preserved into a bound book.

The man telling the story looked through this handwritten Bible and noticed many smudged spots and I presume water damaged pages. He commented to the other man that the Bible must have been in the rain. The grandson told him that it wasn’t the rain that damaged the pages but his grandmother’s tears. She had cried as she wrote the precious Scriptures.

That story has stayed with me for months, making me think of what that woman put into that copy of the Scriptures and making me think of how she most likely risked her life by writing or owning them. And yet she did it anyway.

Quite some time ago I got a book about women that have been persecuted for their faith. I got it because it sounded good and yet I knew, even as I got it, that there was a very good chance I would never read that book. I do that more and more. There was a time that if I got, or was given, a book, more often than not I would read that book. But there seems to be a direct relation between my faith and my ability to read books. Anymore I can’t seem to read a book at all. Even books that are written by reformed preachers….are there any reformed authors out there that aren’t preachers?...don’t seem to hold my attention long enough for me to make it through more than a few pages. And so it was with the knowledge that no matter how good this book sounded it was unlikely that I would get very far into it that I picked this book up this week. I had decided that it was either time to read it or get rid of it. There was no point in it sitting on my bookshelf any longer.

So I picked up this book and began to read the introductions. I will admit that I wasn’t the least bit intrigued by the introductions. Not only that but I very nearly got rid of the book when I read something that spoke of the women holding to different religions. I was under the impression that the women in the book were Christians. And I knew from past experience that the organization behind the book considers anyone with any loose connection to Christianity to be ‘Christian’. But...the book still intrigued me and I thought it might be interesting.

I skipped ahead, past the introductions, to the first story. And was sucked into it almost instantly. What that poor woman experienced and was put through is enough to make anyone think of their own faith and how good they have it. From there I continued to read the book. I’m now more than halfway through it and can say that each of the stories I’ve read have been nothing short of amazing and horrible at the same time. Some of them have been better than others, or worse, depending on how one determines good and bad in a story about persecution. Some of them have left me wondering what made them put that story in there when there are people with  experiences so much more of an example of persecution. I’ve even found myself wondering it a book with a publication date of 2003 couldn’t find a woman that was persecuted for her faith more recently than the 1940’s, although that is the oldest story in the book not the newest. But...there, within the pages of that book, are stories of women that have undergone true persecution to one extent or another. And their stories are enough to make anyone think, really think, of what their faith means to them.

One woman was told she would be killed if she didn’t give up Christianity. Another, just a girl, had her own family determine that she must be put to death because she had become a Christian.

And as I’ve read these stories, as I’ve read such a small portion of these women’s lives, I’ve found myself time and again wondering how many professing ‘Christians’ in America would stick to their faith if put through even a small amount of what these women were.

I’ve also found myself wondering if some of these women have gone through all that they have for nothing. I know the organization behind the book considers anyone with any kind of ‘Christian’ label to be a ‘Christian’. They back anyone that can, in any way, by the world’s standard, be considered ‘Christian’. But that doesn’t come through in these women’s stories. In each story you only hear that the women are Christians and quite honestly that’s enough for me. The very nature of these stories are such that you truly don’t wonder what brand of ‘Christianity’ these women hold to.

And still...I find myself wondering just how they believe. There are some forms of ‘Christianity’ that are about as far from Scripture as they can get and yet those that believe that way would consider themselves ‘Christian’ and would say they will spend eternity in heaven. Some of the women, if not the ones in these stories than others like them, are risking everything for their faith and their faith may be nothing more than an illusion of what will save them.

I’ve heard my husband say often that he can’t understand why people in false ‘Christian’ belief systems don’t just give up the beliefs they hold and simply live out their lives on earth being happy and enjoying the life they have here. His point is that they jump through whatever hoops their denomination requires for their ‘salvation’ and yet they have no salvation. They will not get to heaven by doing whatever it is that they are doing. But they spend their lives trying to live out a system that supposedly will ensure their eternity when the reality is all it is doing is reserving their eternity in hell.

I’m not saying that is the fate of the women in the stories I’m reading. I’m simply wondering if the women that are putting their lives on the line for their faith are holding to the right faith. In America we have building after building led by preacher after preacher and every last one of them will tell you that you will gain eternity in heaven if you do...this. But if you go to the building across the street, another building that claims to be a church just the same as the one you’re standing in, and if you ask them about your salvation they will tell you you’ll gain eternity in heaven if you do...that. And both ‘churches’ claim to follow the Bible. How can they both be right? How can you be ‘saved’ by doing this in this ‘church’ and be ‘saved’ by doing that in that ‘church’?

You can’t.

You’re saved when you repent and believe as the Scriptures say but I honestly have never heard any preacher in a ‘church’ that I’ve been to ever say that repent and believe is the ONLY way to heaven. And because I’ve seen this strange phenomenon of ‘Christians’ claiming that salvation comes through man made ideas, I must wonder if people in persecuted countries are led astray, led into putting their lives on the line, for a religion that is no more real than the one they came out of.

I do believe, though, that in a persecuted country there are no surface level believers. Whatever a person believes they must believe wholeheartedly in it to hold to that belief when they will be imprisoned or killed for that belief.

I recently read a very small section of something written by a puritan writer. What I read asked simply...what can separate us from Christ? The answer to that is nothing and...everything. For a true Christian the answer is that nothing will ever separate us from Christ. There is nothing that can ever separate us from Christ. But for those that are not the elect...everything will separate them from Christ.

My husband and I recently discussed how people today become experts on everything. They are so fascinated with every little thing that interests them that they must learn all that they can on that topic. They research it online, they have books on it, they take classes on it, they go to meetings about it, they meet with others that love it as much as they do. Sometime back I came across an online forum for ink pens. Really? My mind could not comprehend why anyone would need an entire forum for ink pens. But then...there are forums for cloth diapers. Women that use cloth diapers, as a whole, love to discuss their diapers. There’s even a name for their children’s mobile toilets, they call them their ‘fluff’ and refer to their collection of diapers as a stash. There are forums for flashlights, cars, and I’m sure just about everything else. There are even competitions for who can stuff a better dead animal. It’s all out there, anything your heart wants to turn to, you can find an online, and probably in person, group to enjoy it with you.

Even modern American television programming is waiting to feed the obsessed person’s mind with just about any kind of show to support their interest. Generally I try hard to avoid the television. I avoid programming for the television even more so. But...one can’t miss the list of channels if you have any contact with a TV that has any kind of programming on it. There are entire channels devoted to the idolatry of animals, the idolatry of cooking, the idolatry of sports in general or a specific sport. There are even channels devoted to houses. And that’s not to mention channels for movies, cartoons, news, the weather… you name it America seems to have a channel for it.

Well...maybe not. I’ve never heard of an ink pen channel. At least not yet.

But the point is that for someone that doesn’t belong to Christ, everything can separate them from Him. It can be the smallest thing or it can be the biggest thing but whatever it is, it will separate the non-elect from Christ because they do not belong to Him.

Not all that long ago my husband was in the midst of men that had him telling me that he couldn’t understand something. Whatever was going on with these men had my husband taking note of the fact that they seemed able to hang onto their faith only so long as whatever their crutch was was in place, remove the crutch and they lost their faith, or at least they lost the depth of their faith. We have discussed how some people are able to cling to their faith in Christ  only so long as their preacher, or their husband/wife, or their friend, or their...whatever...is there, but take that crutch away and there goes that person’s depth of faith.

I wonder if that is a symptom only of modern American ‘Christians’ or if it is a symptom of all ‘Christians’. Do we all hold onto our faith only so long as we have the comforts that we are accustomed to? I share my faith with my husband. Our faith is so much at the base of who we are as a married couple that our daughter asked me if I married my husband only for his beliefs. When I told her yes she thought that was awful, she asked why I didn’t marry him for who he is instead of what he believed. I then had to explain to her that what he believes is who he is. I’t s very simple. Every last person is what they believe. In the case of a Christian their beliefs are who they are.

But what happens when someone’s ‘Christianity’ hinges on another person? We all have the ability to have our faith shaken, even the elect. Let life, through the Lord, throw more at you than you feel able to handle and see how long it takes to have your faith shaken. But there’s a difference in having your faith shaken and having no faith without the crutch that sustains your faith.

I own a book, a children’s book, that is the true story of a little girl that worked and saved money for years and years to be able to buy a Bible. When she finally had enough money she walked something like fifty miles barefoot to buy her precious treasure. And treasure it she did, for the rest of her life.

That little girl had faith when she had no crutch to keep her faith going, not even Scripture. In the book I’m reading a teenage girl became what she called a preacher, traveling from village to village, teaching of Christ. She owned no Bible and knew very little from the Bible. But she knew of Christ and Christ is what she taught.

The grandmother in the story about the Bible I wrote of earlier, a Bible that was so smeared with tears that someone thought it  had been damaged by rain, worked for years to get a copy of the Scriptures. I know nothing of these women’s faith and beliefs beyond the very basics but I know that between the little girl that walked barefoot to buy a Bible she had worked and saved up for for years to the grandmother that handwrote a Bible, piece by piece, they had a faith that sustained them through good times and extremely trying times. When they had nothing else...they had Christ.

Again, I have no idea what their faith was, no idea what their theology was, if they even had one. I know only what I saw through stories that gave a very small window into their lives, but my husband was given a small window into the lives of some men and he was able to see that their faith was only as big as the crutch that held it up. I was told by someone once that they wanted to believe in what their grandparent did because of all that their grandparent did for them. I know of others that have adopted a certain set of beliefs because it’s what their preacher believes or it’s what their husband/wife believes. They have a faith that is held up by whatever it is that their faith hinges on.

For years I’ve said that it does no good for ‘Christian’ missionaries to go into third world countries and evangelize the people there. A parent will agree to anything when someone is offering food and medicine to their child that is sick and dying or starving to death. A husband will agree to go to ‘church’ if that ‘church’ is going to save his wife’s life. A wife will agree to ‘give her life to Christ’ if the person offering Christ is the one with the medicine needed to keep her husband alive. You cannot ‘save’ people by ‘bringing them to Christ’ through methods that put much needed food and medical care in front of dying people.

Faith cannot be handed out along with clean water, food, and medication. Nor can faith that is only sustained through a crutch be tested, tried, refined, and found to be genuine if it falls aways as soon as the crutch is removed. Now, maybe the person stumbles, maybe their faith is shaken for a time, but true, genuine faith will stand the test of having the crutch removed. It will come back without the crutch if it’s the real thing. Because nothing can separate a true Christian from Christ.

My husband has spoken of how if you put a person in a single situation and you see their faith only in that situation...how do you know what that faith truly is? People can often seem to be something when they are in a given situation, and if that situation is a trying one that becomes so much more the case...the mother watching her child starve to death will agree to anything to get her child fed...but what happens when you remove that person from that situation?

Will that starving mother still believe in Christ if you move her and her child from that third world country, give her a good job, a nice house, and a kitchen that never runs out of food? Will a prisoner that reaches for Christ in desperation still believe in Christ when he is set free? Will a heartbroken husband that cries out to the Lord as his wife lies on her deathbed still seek Christ once his grief is not so fresh?

In America a ‘Christians’ faith costs them nothing. Yes, they may be branded, they may be labeled, but for the most part the label of ‘Christian’ is more of a status symbol than anything. And it’s more often than not seen as a good thing. American ‘Christians’ don’t risk their lives to own a Bible, they don’t watch their husband/wife tortured because of their faith, they don’t listen to their children’s screams as they are killed for their parents faith.

In America ‘Christians’ lean on the crutch of their preacher, on the crutch of their ‘church’, on the crutch of their friends/family while they laugh and talk and live as the unregenerate do. In America ‘Christians’ go to ‘church’ on Sunday, to the theater to see the latest box office hit on Wednesday, to the bar on Friday and Saturday, and back to ‘church’ on Sunday.

In America...that is ‘Christianity’.

While in other countries people die for their faith. They are put in prison for owning a Bible. They are beat and tortured for saying the name Christ. Children lose their families if they are drawn to Christ. Women are beat and raped while their husband’s watch. Men are tortured and killed. Families are slaughtered.

I don’t need to know the details of what the persecuted women in the book I’m reading believe to know that their faith is not held up by the crutch of easy believism. There is nothing easy in their faith. The very fact that they have any faith in Christ is enough to make their lives extremely difficult at best.

In countries where Christianity is illegal or controlled, Christians must risk it all for their faith. Their faith, whatever it is, is not held up by a crutch, their faith is what holds them up.

In America, many ‘Christians’ ‘lose’ their faith if their crutch is taken away.

In countries where Christianity is illegal or controlled people painstakingly labor to write every word of the Scriptures.

In America where Bibles are legal and easily available, people stuff them in drawers, set them on shelves, and let the gather dust while Christians in other countries risk their lives to simply hold a Bible.

In other countries Christians cry enough tears over their Bibles for someone to think the Bible was damaged by rain.

In America...

The more of Christ they know

I think of the many people that say that the Bible is boring and how to the child of Christ, the Bible is about as far from boring as it can get. Once we are regenerated…given new life in Christ…our souls long for our Lord and we are fed on Scripture in a way that we can never be fed with food.

We long for Him in such a way that there is nothing else that can fulfill what is often a physical ache within us. That ache can only be satisfied with the Lord, with His Word, with the Truths of Him.

Christ takes on a whole new meaning, a whole new dimension to the regenerated soul. He becomes everything and our hearts and souls long for Him in a way that can truly never be put into words.

As our souls cry out for Christ…ever more of Christ…they are filled with joy at the glimpses of him that they are allowed to see through His word and His creation. We ache for Him and so we seek more of Him in His word and in His creation…and the more of Him we know, the more we want to know. The ache that is satisfied with the Word of the Lord, with seeing but miniscule glimpses of Him through His creation…that ache is fed and satisfied but for a moment before it grows stronger within us. The more of Christ we know, the more of Him we want to know.

Christ is beyond wonderful in the sight of the regenerated person. He is the best there is and their souls cry out for more and more of Him. They have a hunger within them that cannot be satisfied no matter how much it is fed.

Because the more they know of Christ…the more they want to know.

This aching, this longing, for Christ is often not seen by those around them. They may see glimpses of this but they cannot see the hunger that burns within the regenerate soul. Not until they are given that hunger too.

That hunger is placed within them through the grace of God that draws them to Christ when they would never have come to Him themselves. It cleanses them. It sanctifies them.

It places light within their darkened spirits. It is a holiness that is begun within them that will be completed upon their deaths.

This cleansing of their hearts is done through the Holy Spirit. It takes them over, fills them, and changes them until they are but a small example of what they were before. And it gives them a love for Christ…a longing for Him…a desire for Him…that they could never have attained in themselves.

This longing for Christ is an ache that lives within their souls. It is a hunger within them that must be fed. It is an ache that must be tended.

But the ache is never tended. The hunger never gone. Because the more of Christ they know…the more they want to know.

And so they feed it. More and more and more. Each feeding creates a desire for another feeding. Christ is what feeds the longing in their souls and Christ is what quenches the near painful ache for Him.

But the need for Christ only grows stronger the closer to Him they get.

Because the more of Christ they know…the more they want to know.

           

 

Remember as if you wear their bodies

There is a thin line between freedom and imprisonment. Some choose, willingly, to cross the line between legal and illegal, and therefore, in a sense, choose to cross the line between freedom and prison. Most people that cross that line, both of those lines, do not cross either of them with the intent of doing so. Many that find themselves on the wrong side of the law find themselves there through circumstance. Usually those circumstances happened, they reacted, and…the line was crossed.

I am related to a famous outlaw of the 1800’s. This man is the stuff legends are made of and stories of him abound. There are those that see him as a hero and those that see him as nothing other than a criminal that deserved the harshest of punishments. This man wasn’t always an outlaw. He didn’t always live on the wrong side of the law. Circumstances in his life took him from one side of the law and placed him squarely on the other side.

I happen to know that even when he was one of the most wanted men in the country…he was welcomed into his family’s home with open arms. He may have lived on one side of the law but…he was a man with another side than just the bad.

Hebrews 13:3 tells us…

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (ESV)

There is another version of the Bible, one I’ve never looked at but whose writing of this single verse I came across, that I like for this verse. It is the Aramaic Bible in Plain English. I know nothing of this Bible except that this verse was listed in several different versions and that was one of them. As I read over those verses, this version stood out to me because it seemed to say something that the others didn’t.

No…

That’s not right. They all said the same things, even if it was worded slightly differently. What this version did was call to mind a slightly different thing. It made my human mind think in a slightly different way. You see, as I read over all those other versions they said things like remember…as if you were with them, or as if you were afflicted, or as if you were in the body.

But this Aramaic version said…

Remember those who are imprisoned, as if you are imprisoned with them. Call those to mind who are afflicted, as if you are the people who wear their bodies.

Remember…as if you are the people who wear their bodies.

Now that…makes one stop and think. Remember as if you wear their bodies. What would you want…if you really were the one wearing their body? How would you want someone to treat you if you were in their body? How would you feel if you were there, in there body, in prison?

As I researched prison in America I came across quite a few websites for pen-pals for prisoners. On one of these sights I read how they had sent something like 3000 Christmas cards to prisoners that were waiting for a pen-pal. They sent those waiting a Christmas card because they didn’t want them to feel forgotten at Christmas. They wanted them to know someone cared.

On that same sight I read that most of their prisoners wait two years to be assigned a pen-pal.

I understand well the hesitancy of the American population when it comes to contact with prisoners. Our society has conditioned us to assume that if a person is a prisoner they are the worst of the worst our society has to offer. Not only that but they are those that don’t deserve our consideration or our time. Why should we bother with them? They asked for what they got.

Yes, I understand the American mindset where prisoners are concerned. Bring up the subject of prisoners with just about anyone and see what kind of reaction you get. See how quick those around you excuse themselves from the conversation.

Prisoners are not something the general population wants to think about much less talk about. And if they do want to talk about them it’s in a ‘they got what was coming to them’ or ‘they should have gotten more time’ kind of way.

And the world of professing ‘Christians’ is no exception.

But for anyone that claims any sort of knowledge of Christ…

Remember those who are imprisoned…as if you are the people who wear their bodies.

Roughly 70 percent of the American population claims to be Christian. How many people does that come out to be? I honestly don’t know and I’m not doing the math to figure it out but it’s no small number of people. How many of them are adults? How many of them go to ‘Church’?

Years ago I went to a big ‘Church’ that took up money to give to missions every year. One year they took up something like $25,000.00, except as I write that, it seems to me that it may have been $50,000.00. Either way it was a large amount of money. This was only one of many collections this ‘church’ took up each year. They pushed their members to give and give…and give some more…to the charitable organizations that the ‘church’ supported. It seemed that they were often collecting money for some cause or another.

That’s okay…I suppose. But when I think of all this ‘church’ did to help those ‘in need’, all they pushed their members and visitors to give their money to…I think of what I read on that website that said those signed up with them often wait two years to get a pen-pal.

In a country that seems to have a ‘church’ building on every corner, and yes, that’s an exaggeration but there are a good number of ‘churches’ in every town…why is it that there are men and women, in any situation, waiting in line to get someone to write them a letter?

Do you know what it takes to write a letter?

A piece of paper, a writing utensil, and a few minutes of your time. If you can’t spare that then for less than a dollar you can get a greeting card, from a dollar type store, and jot down a few words, sign your name and you’re through. Another almost fifty cents for a postage stamp and the time it takes to carry it to the mailbox. For pennies of your money and a small bit of your time you can brighten someone else’s day.

That’s it. That’s all the effort that’s required. Now it would be nice if more time were spent. After all, who doesn’t enjoy getting a longer letter? But even with only that small bit of effort…it could mean the world to someone.

Since that website said they sent something like 3000 Christmas cards I’m going to assume they have a waiting list of 3000. I think of the ‘church’ that I occasionally visit and how they have around 1000 people in every service. How hard would it be for them to ‘adopt’ at least a few hundred of those prisoners that are waiting for pen-pals?

When many ‘church’ buildings give to this organization or that, which I’m sure are well researched and possibly great organizations doing wonderful things…how much more impact they could have by giving less money and more time. Instead of reaching into their wallets and tossing money into a box to go…who knows where, what a difference might it be if they ‘adopted’ those that are imprisoned and wrote them letters. They need not even do it in a one on one basis.

I saw a movie years ago where a ‘church’ sent Christmas cards to soldiers. They put collection boxes in the ‘church’ and people wrote out Christmas cards then dropped them in the box. The cards were then sent to soldiers. The same concept could be used to write to prisoners.

I’ve heard many people say that our government often gives help to other countries but it fails to do much for the truly hurting in our own country. The same could be said for a lot of ‘churches’. How many of them send to missions groups that send people into other countries when some of the most lost and hurting people live within the fences of our own countries prisons?

And even as we are told to remember…as if you are the people who wear their bodies…how many people that claim Christ can say they even come close to that?.

 

 

 

What are you looking for in heaven?

Over the last few months I have found myself on the receiving end of a question that I did not know how to answer. The question, coming from a child, has left me wondering, more than once, what the answer is. And how best to give that answer. The question being asked is whether or not there will be animals in heaven. This question wasn’t posed as to whether or not animals go to heaven when they die but whether or not there are, or will be, animals in heaven.

I don’t wish to explore that topic but to look at it from a much different perspective. Anyone that has ever loved an animal has most likely either questioned whether or not animals are in heaven or else simply assured themselves that their beloved pet is in heaven. People do the same thing with their human loved ones. There is much consolation in the assurance that someone, or something, is in heaven and therefore it is much easier to simply console oneself with the belief that what or who they love is in heaven.

I have a family member that lived to a very old age. This family member did not believe in God, their description not mine,  for more than 9 decades, not counting whatever belief, if any, may have been there in childhood. In the final months of this person’s life he ‘became a believer’ and upon his death there was much rejoicing over his ‘salvation’. Family members took comfort in the fact that he had ‘become a believer’ before he died and that he was now spending eternity in heaven.

I do not know what the true condition of this man’s soul was. I loved him dearly and would like nothing more than to take comfort in the fact that he is now in heaven but the reality is that I just don’t know. I did not personally see his supposed salvation and even if I had I wouldn’t know. Does a change of belief on ones deathbed become a true conversion? Is that faith, grasped in the final days or hours, real? Is it a saving faith? I know Christ granted salvation to the man on the cross. I know that was faith attained in the final hours of life and it was a saving faith. So we know salvation can be given in the final hour of life. But I do not know if my loved one had true faith, faith unto salvation, if he was granted salvation in those final days or if the faith he grabbed onto was merely a profession, even a heartfelt one, that there is a God and he will one day be in heaven.

What I do know is that he took comfort in the faith he gained in those final days and that many loved ones are now taking comfort in the fact that he is supposedly in heaven.

But that is the same kind of comfort that many people take when they assure themselves that their pet is in heaven. It is a comfort based off their own emotions and not on Scripture. I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard someone say that a person is ‘in a better place’ or ‘in heaven’ upon death. It is the standard response to someone’s death. The person saying it may not have even known the person they speak of, they may have had no idea of the deceased person’s faith or beliefs and yet they give assurance that that person has ‘gone to glory’ or is ‘resting in the arms of Jesus’. These words are thrown around as if death is the measure that is used to determine whether or not a person is in heaven.

If you die…you go to heaven. If you’re alive on this earth…you’re not in heaven.

How wrong that train of thought is. And yet even those that profess a belief in Christ, claim to follow the Scriptures, often are the very people that are so casually tossing around these assurances.

Just the other day I received a letter from someone that was writing of a situation they are experiencing. This person wrote of how this bad experience is ‘hell’ on earth and ‘woe’ to those that find themselves in eternal hell.

Assuring a grief stricken person of their loved one’s salvation may seem to be the kinder thing to do but most of the time that person is much better acquainted with the beliefs of the deceased person than the comforter is. What if a ‘Christian’ assures someone that their loved one is in heaven while that loved one knows perfectly well that the deceased person had a deep hatred for the Lord? What message does that ‘Christian’ send to those that knew the deceased person? And how easy do they make it sound to gain entrance to heaven?

Today there is a big…trend?...of people treating their dogs as pets. I know an elderly lady that, when her health allowed her to, owned many, many, dogs. She called them her babies and her kids. She talked to them as if they were people and she treated them as if they were. Whenever she was among people that spoke of their children or grandchildren, she would join the conversation, and speak of her ‘babies’. Many times the people she spoke to assumed she was talking about human babies. Family members grew tired of hearing her speak of her ‘babies’ while often ignoring the grandchildren gathered around her.

This is not an unusual occurrence in our world today. So many people think of animals on the same terms that they think of people. We happen to own a few pets. These pets send me to the pet store on a regular basis. When I walk through the door of the pet store I can see the effects of people considering their pets to be their children. Right inside the pet store door, at two different pet stores, there are aisles of clothes designed for dogs. Fancy dresses, suits, even swim suits, are all there for the owner to buy. But it doesn’t stop there. The selection of toys for all manner of animals abounds, right down to holiday themes.

As with everything else, I know the Lord allows this for a reason. There is much idolatry that comes in when animals…or anything…come into things. Animals have a purpose in the lives of people but putting them on pedestals and worshipping them through our treatment of them is not that place.

Except…for many, it is.

And many of these people, people that baby talk animals, dress them in clothes, buy them nice beds, spend hundreds of dollars on treats and toys, are people that pay little attention to the person before them. And even less attention to the Lord. Do they, as they buy yet another dog dress for Foo-foo, think of the homeless man begging for money on the corner beside the pet store, or across town? Do they think, as they dress Foo-foo in that new dress, of the child going hungry next door?

I’m going to face reality and admit that we all spend money on things we don’t need to. Every last one of us. It isn’t the spending of money on the pets that I’m trying to point out but the mentality behind it. There are people that literally shop for their pets as if they are human. And they focus on their pets, often to the exclusion of people, even their own family.

Animals are given into our care and when we find ourselves in possession of them, for whatever reason. We should care for them and provide for their needs. I’m not suggesting otherwise. Animals do have feelings, they hunger, they thirst, they get cold, they feel pain. We should be good stewards of that which is entrusted to us. It isn’t caring for them that I’m disputing but the idea that we should treat them as if they are human, even going to extravagances for them, that I’m disputing.

Scripture tells us that the Lord is concerned with that which is spiritual in nature. Our Lord has an eternal plan that includes an eternity in heaven and hell for every single person that he creates. There is a plan for animals, just as there is for trees and grass and…all of creation…but that plan is not the same as it is for man. Animals are put here for a purpose, they play a part in the plan that the Lord has but they are not of eternal significance. They are not of the spiritual, just as trees, flowers, and the like are not.

When Scripture speaks of our souls, it never speaks of the souls of beasts but of the souls of men. Scripture does not tell us to spread the gospel to animals. It does not tell us that animals, unless given salvation, will spend an eternity in hell. In fact Scripture tells us nothing of the eternity of animals. Because it is not animals that the Lord is concerned about.

About once a month I receive a magazine in the mail from a creation institute. I’ve only received a handful of these magazines and have something of a like, dislike kind of interest in them. I do like what they speak of but often I find them writing articles for the purpose of selling something they have made, in fact, one entire magazine was nothing but ‘teasers’ for products they want you to buy. But in this magazine scientists weigh things of science against Genesis. I think this is wonderful. If only all of science was approached this way, in fact…if only all of life was approached this way, not in light of Genesis but in light of Scripture, all of Scripture.

And in light of all of Scripture we see that it is not the souls of animals but the souls of men that the Lord concerns himself with. And it is the souls of men that we should concern ourselves with. Animals are only a part of the creation that was put here for the use and enjoyment of men. They are a part of the creation.

I grew up in ‘church’ buildings and I grew up being told that, no, animals never go to heaven. I can’t remember anyone ever treating an animal like a child until the last decade or so. Maybe that was just the people I knew or maybe it was the times but this…need…to treat animals as humans seems to be fairly new. Gone are the days when animals were seen as a means of food or service to people. Today we have entire organizations dedicated to saving animals. I get emails from one such organization often. Again, I’m not saying animals don’t need our care. And some of them require the ‘help’ of people to save them from people that would eagerly kill all of their kind. But…there are those that would have us believe that we shouldn’t even eat animals because…of whatever their reasons are.

A relative told me of a conversation they had not all that long ago. In this conversation, this relative found themselves being told by a total stranger that they, my relative, should not eat meat. On and on this person went, getting onto my relative, about why meat should not be eaten. If I remember correctly my relative finally prevailed in the conversation with the simple statement of, ‘it tastes good.’ That was something this person apparently could not refute…I’m sure there are those that could. I’m not a vegetarian but I can think of a few responses to that one if you were arguing for vegetarianism.

But the very fact that someone felt that they had the right to get onto a total stranger about the foods they ate, to try and badger this person into not eating animal products, is but a single example of how far people have gone in putting animals in a place they should never be.

I wonder if the person that got onto my relative puts as much importance on their own soul as they do on why one shouldn’t eat (in their opinion) animals. I wonder if they spend half as much time thinking about where they will spend eternity as they do about who is eating what animal.

By the same token…do those that cater to their animal ‘babies’ worry over their own soul half as much as they worry over their animals? I have an account on a social media site. There’s a long story behind how I came to have that account and it is something of a mixed blessing. It never fails to amaze me and to make me want to shake my head when people post pictures of their lost animals. It isn’t the pictures of the animals, or even them asking people to keep a watch out for that animal that bothers me, it’s the…we’ve lost our baby stories. Some of these give long detailed information about the dogs personality, about their likes and dislikes, their eating habits and who knows what else. It’s just one more example of how far people go over their animals. And still I wonder…do they go that far for the Lord? For their own soul?

Chances are very good that these are the same people that would be talking about how ‘Fido’ is in a better place and how he’s ‘gone to heaven’. But let’s forget about ‘Fido’, do these same people know the Scriptures? Do they have a faith in the Lord that comes close to being a saving faith?

Chances are, unfortunately, no. People that put that much importance on their pets, so much so that they console themselves with the idea that their beloved animal is in heaven, are putting stock in their emotions. Their emotions are ruling their beliefs and not Scripture. It is those same emotions that make a person tell someone that their loved one is in heaven without having any idea if that loved one held any sort of belief in Christ.

Heaven feels good. Heaven is the place that everyone aspires to be when they die. Heaven may or may not be the heaven of Scripture but heaven is the utopia where everyone wants to spend eternity. And emotion says that if a person (or animal) has died than they must be in heaven, whatever their idea of heaven is, because the alternative is…well, there simply isn’t an alternative.

Most ‘church’ buildings no longer teach on hell, most preachers won’t speak the word hell for fear of offending someone. Most ‘Christians’ love their animals and want to believe they attain…salvation…or whatever one would call an animal going to heaven upon death. And most people want to believe that heaven can be reached by anyone, no matter what that person’s beliefs were, no matter how they lived their lives, no matter how they acted, or what kind of television programs or movies they watched. It’s the feel good, emotion based, belief system of our modern day.

I read something not all that long ago that said it is an abomination unto God to base our beliefs on our emotions. And yet that is exactly what the majority of ‘Christians’ today do. I once heard a preacher say that whatever part of the Bible makes you angry, that’s the part that you should spend your time in. And even that…is emotion based. If this part makes you angry…study it, learn from it. Because it makes you angry. Because of your anger you should read this part. Your anger. You. It’s all emotion based, all human based.

I have a relative that upon catching sight of ‘submit to your husband’ in Ephesians 5 shied away from that part quickly. There was an immediate denial in her reaction. Why? If Scripture says it… But that isn’t how this relative reacted. Here before my relative was the word of God. It is His instruction to us sure as if He stood before us and said ‘Thou shalt do this’ and yet my relative immediately shook her head and disregarded Scripture because she didn’t want to submit to her husband. That was her emotions, her reaction, causing her to respond the way she did. She started with self and went from there.

That is pretty much the basis of what is taught and lived by most people that profess a belief in Christ today. Even preachers go with what is human emotion based. They don’t say certain things because it might offend someone, they won’t read certain Scriptures or they change them because it might hurt someone’s feelings. Wives don’t submit to their husbands because…most of them probably don’t even know they’re supposed to but even if they do…they don’t want to. They believe that a simple prayer at most is all it takes to get into heaven because almost anyone has the time, even in their dying moment, to send up a quick prayer, and that caters to their need to believe that heaven is easily attained. And when heaven is easily attained through a quick prayer…why worry about whether or not you’re following Scripture? Why worry about Scripture at all?

I was recently told of someone that has supposedly done something beyond atrocious. And I was told that this person believes that they’re going to heaven when they die…despite the fact that they have no remorse for what they did. And what they did is enough to make anyone think that this person is probably far from any hope of salvation. I’m not implying I know the condition of this persons soul, that’s not for me to determine, what I’m saying is from a human standpoint this person is one of those people that we would tend to say isn’t going to heaven. And yet this person believes they are.

Why?

I don’t know the answer to that question. I do not know this person and in fact know only the very little I’ve been told of this person but I can make a guess as to why this person believes that they’re going to heaven when Scripture clearly says they aren’t. And yes, I can say that much. Whether this person will be given salvation or not, I do not know. But I do know that right now this person shows no remorse for what they’ve done and without remorse there is no repentance and Scripture says we are to repent and believe. That is the very gospel that Christ himself taught. Repent and believe.

Without those two things…can there be salvation?

And so here is a person that shows no signs of repentance and yet believes they are going to heaven. Why? Here is an example of what our emotion based religion has brought about. A false sense of…I hesitate to say salvation because a belief that one will go to heaven upon death does not mean they believe they have salvation, or even that they hold any belief in Christ. But this person despite a lack of repentance believes that they are going to heaven upon death. Because our society today pushes the belief that heaven is easily attained. At most we must say a prayer and…boom…our place in heaven is secure. It is a heaven where death is the only key needed to get through the door. Death of an animal. Death of a person. It matters not who, or what, dies, only that there is a death and then the ‘life’ is moved into heaven. Because the alternative is…well, there is no alternative. Hell almost does not exist even in ‘Christian’ circles.

I have even heard people say that if there aren’t animals in heaven they don’t want to go there. That might be a good thing because if they put that kind of stock in animals I have to wonder if they put enough stock in the Lord to get to heaven.

Who are they serving, if they can say they don’t want to go to heaven if there are no animals there, the Lord…or animals?

Years ago I babysat for a woman whose grandsons went to a Roman Catholic preschool. She invited us to go to a ‘blessing of the animals.’ I had never heard of such but soon learned that the priest was going to put a blessing on animals. I think many people consider animals a blessing, and they are, a blessing from the Lord. Where would we be without the animals he so graciously gave us? What would we eat without them? How would jobs that animals do get done? Even the companionship of an animal is a blessing but I hesitate to say that because so many take that companionship to extremes, putting animals on a level with people.

But people that look at animals with such high esteem are people that are approaching the Lord not as His creation themselves but they look to the God they believe will do what they want. And what do they want with a God that does not let their beloved pet into heaven? I heard someone say that they would do all they could to keep from running over an animal while they were driving, even at the expense of their own life. Now, this someone was a child and their thoughts on that may change by the time they can drive, but that very mentality is alive and well among many, many people. And it’s that mentality that lets them judge the Lord for how He treats His creation when it comes to the death and eternity…or not…of animals.

It’s about their feelings, their wants, their ideas. They start with them and look outward to the Lord. They say that the electric company smart meters send out signals in a fan shape from the meter. These meters start at the house, or pole, or whatever they’re connected to, and fan out from there, eventually getting a signal to the main electric grid…or whatever you call that…where the electric company can monitor your usage. That is much the way people look at ‘God’ today. They start with them and life, and their faith fans out from there. Here is me, what I want is how my faith goes from here, and somewhere in that fan shaped area is my ‘God’. But I’m going to heaven because I believe in God.

A professing ‘Christian’ spoke to me, not all that long ago, about the ‘me’ mentality of most ‘Christians’. This person spoke of how ‘Christians’ today want what they want and everything is about them. That is the same mentality that has overtaken America. Everything is always about self and what self wants, even to the point that there is no right or wrong unless self thinks it’s right or wrong.

There is a man that has a program, mostly online, where he goes out and speaks to people about what they believe and then refutes them with Scripture. I saw one of his shows where he questioned some men in their twenty’s. I don’t remember the majority of that show but I do remember him questioning them on right and wrong. One of the men wound up essentially telling him that there was no right or wrong, that something was only right, or wrong, if each individual believed that thing to be right or wrong and it may be exactly the opposite for someone else. That was a very scary concept. When there is no definition of right and wrong…what makes anything wrong? If it’s up to each individual person to decide if something is right or wrong…then everything is right and everything is wrong. There is no line in the sand that says this is wrong, do not do this.

But that very belief of what is and isn’t right and wrong is based in the ‘me’ mentality of today. It is because no one wants to offend anyone. It is because everything is based on self…and that basis is carried over into things of the Lord. Self chooses to believe. Self chooses which parts of Scripture to follow. Self chooses…whether or not they are going to heaven.

And when someone dies self can say they went to heaven because it’s what makes self feel better. And what self wants, self gets. Or so they think.

It is the belief that all of life, and how self relates to it, even in regards to eternity, is about how self feels or what self wants. This life is only about self and therefore eternity must be about self too.

Either life starts with the flesh…with self…and fans out from there. Or life starts with the Lord and fans out from there. The difference is in who or rather, Who, the focus is on. Is life about self and what self wants? Or is life about the Lord and self only fits into it. Who is at the head of the fan? Does each person stand at the head of the fan and look down on the Lord, and how He fits into their life? Or does the Lord sit at the head of the fan and look down on us and how we fit into His plan?

A perfect example of this is a discussion on marriage I recently had with my husband. We were talking of how there is no marriage in heaven. I plainly understand what the Scriptures say on this topic. I know that Scripture says that there is no marrying or giving in marriage in heaven (Luke 20:34-35). I know that. I understand that. But I wanted to take the thoughts a bit further. I wanted to push the limits, so to speak. Not because I was pushing Scripture but because I was pushing the conversation. I wanted to take it to the furthest point. And…admittedly…deep in my human heart I don’t like that my husband and I won’t be married in heaven. I want him for always. In eternity too.

And so I pushed that conversation further. Well…there is no marrying in heaven, so…what if we’re already married when we get to heaven? I know what Scripture says, I understand, but I wanted to take this as far as it would go, and my human heart did not want to admit that I can’t have my husband in eternity.

The answer to that question…the same thing Scripture says…there will be no marriage in heaven. We will not marry in heaven and we will not be married in heaven. I know that. I understand that.

Sometimes I ask my husband questions about Scripture and he thinks…you know this. Yes, some of it I do know, but sometimes I just need to hear him tell me the answer. And sometimes I just need to talk about something that my flesh is struggling with even if I understand what Scripture says.

But in the end…I turned loose of my thoughts about wanting my husband in eternity and just let it go at Scripture says we will not marry in heaven.

But my flesh wanted to…and did…say, but what if we arrive in heaven already married? And as my husband and I discussed that I let it go at ‘there is no marrying in heaven’ because that is what Scripture says, but my flesh wanted to ask, ‘so what happens if we both die at the same time, like in a car accident, and we arrive in heaven at the same moment’…will we still be married then? But I knew the answer and that was, Scripture tells us what will be and what won’t be and no matter what my flesh wants…I must accept what Scripture says.

But so many today don’t do that. So many would have gone with what they want to believe and would say that because they want to keep their husband for eternity then…they will be reunited in heaven. Because that is what they want to happen and so they make that reality for them.

I once knew someone that used to say, ‘in your reality’. That was a favorite statement of this person. It was often heard when you were around this person. Anytime someone said something that, I guess, went against what this person thought, they would say, ‘in your reality.’

But ‘your reality’ has become the standard for belief in the Lord today. It is all based on what each person wants. If this person wants animals in heaven…then there are animals in heaven. If this person wants wings when they get to heaven…then they will have wings in heaven. If this person wants… Well, it doesn’t matter what a person wants in heaven because whatever they want in heaven is what will be in heaven, including them, simply because they want it to be there.

Welcome to the reality of heaven according to the ‘me’ ‘Christianity.’

This reality is based not on Scripture but on human emotions. Many years ago someone told me to imagine the greatest life I could imagine, put everything in it that would make life perfect. Then they told me that heaven would be a million times better than that.

I guess, in some ways, that person was right, heaven will be better than anything we imagine. But it won’t be because we chose the greatest things in this earth and imagined them as heaven…we don’t get to pick and choose what we believe to be great in this temporal life and transfer it into our eternity so that heaven will be the wonderful thing we imagine it to be.

And we can’t place our loved ones…or our pets…in heaven just because we want them to be there.

Scripture does not tell us that animals go to heaven when they die, and it does not tell us that a person goes to heaven simply because their loved ones want them to be there.

And truly, how important are animals when compared with an eternity with Christ? When you stand before Christ will you care that the dog you owned when you were ten is in heaven? When you stand in heaven will you be searching for your cat or will you be looking for Christ?

And if it’s a long lost pet you think you’ll be looking for…you may want to do a bit of looking within your soul now, before you stand on the other side of death, because if it’s a pet you will be seeking in heaven…are you going to make it into heaven?