Faith On a Street Corner

I've been having trouble the past few weeks coming up with inspiration for this blog. What clever topic can I present that will prove to people that Jesus is God and that the Bible is true. I’ve got to be honest, I don’t have anything clever to write.

Part of the problem is that I cannot prove to you that Jesus is God or that the Bible is true. If I convince you of that by proofs, then you would not need to believe. You have proof, - facts, so no faith is required. I cannot prove God or His Word to you in that way. He won’t allow it, and I don’t think it’s possible. If it was possible, then there would be no need for faith.

Last night several of us gathered on a cold Pennsylvania street corner to give out hot dogs and drinks to people. A crowd of maybe 20 people gathered and we cooked and gave out many hot dogs and drinks. In the midst of it, I said, “Does anyone want prayer? We’re here for that reason, can I pray for anyone?” 

Silence.

Later, another one of our “hotdog team” said to a man, “How about that hit and run case you told me about? Can I pray for you for that?” The man refused prayer. I have to admit, I chuckled at that. A hit and run case?!? And he DOESN’T need prayer for that?  If you’re not praying for that, then forget about the minor things of life.

Then it struck me. There is no faith here. People simply don’t believe that prayer works. They don’t believe it has any value.

They wanted the hotdogs but not the prayer.

Jesus said, “when the Son of man comes, will he find faith on earth?”[1]

Finally one man came forward, holding his bundled up little 6 pound newborn son, Jonathan. “I need prayer,” he said. I prayed for him, his wife, and his son.  I prayed for his son’s future. I prayed for the man’s father, who I also knew. I asked God to bless their lives. The very thing God wants to do. There was a little spark of faith on that street corner.

Early in the 20^th Century, missionary James Frazer wrote to the church in England from his missionary post in China: “What I covet more than anything else is earnest believing prayer, and I write to ask you to continue in prayer for me and the work here.”

To believe that Jesus is God and that the Bible is true, takes faith. To pray to God takes faith. May you exercise that faith in this coming week. You won’t be disappointed.

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[1] Luke 18:8 (Revised Standard Bible)

Who Makes the Rules Around Here?

The Apostle Paul wrote to Christians, “let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”(1)

Paul is talking about a “rule” that Christians are to live by. For Christians, there is a “rule” of life or a standard. Not everyone likes the Christian standard. But we do have a standard. 

Having a standard does some cool things. For one, it judges our behavior. Can you imagine the injuries if there was no pass interference rule in the NFL? Receivers would be helpless. Secondly, a common set of rules brings a kind of general agreement about how we should live. Generally everyone agrees murder is not acceptable. Thirdly, acceptance of a standard means recognition of some kind of authority, such as the NFL or the American judicial system.

Some say Christians can’t even agree as to what their standard is. Probably true, to some extent. But in the wider society of all types of people, the divergence of standard is far greater.

Christians often get accused of trying to force our standard on everyone. Again, true in some cases. This is rooted in a Christian’s belief that our standard is the best one. Remember the hullabaloo over the replacement NFL officials earlier this season? Most everyone agreed the authority of the old, experienced officials was best.

What hurts my claim that our Christian standard is the best is when we Christians talk but don’t live up to it. Sadly, I’ve done that at times. Not good.

As I said, everyone has a standard. The thief has a standard, the Muslim has a standard, Christians have a standard. They differ and this causes friction in society. Since each standard implies recognition of some kind of authority, the issue goes to those authorities or worldviews. We march to different drummers. The gay activist and the evangelical Christian have different standards under different authorities. The issue is who or what is the standard setter? Is it the Bible? The Quran? My self? Popular opinion? Tribal traditions? A supreme court justice?

My point is everyone has a standard. It’s interesting. No one lives without some set of rules or guidelines, determined by some authority.

What we see in real life lines up with the biblical account of origins. The Bible says God made us and established the first standard when He told Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God was the authority. It was up to the first couple as to whose authority they would recognize.

Have you asked yourself, “Who makes the rules around here?”





(1) - Philippians 3:16 (New American Standard Bible)

Billee's Story

One of the greatest evidences of the reality of Christ is in lives he's changed. Take for example my talk with Billee.

 “So you’re going to get married soon?”

Billee laughed, “No, I already did, two months ago.”

“Oh, my bad. Congratulations!”

“It was a beautiful day. But you know, it takes a lot of adjustments,” she said.

“It does,” I said, “You have to be willing to bend for the other one.” (I decided I was going to help Billee.)

I’d seen her many times at this weekly Christian hot dog stand at a coffeehouse. Most of the folks who came were on disability, ex-druggies and drunks, pregnant or troubled teenagers, people with broken families, and deep emotional needs. Billee appeared somewhat different. Though weather beaten, she dressed well and drove a nice car.

Billee talked about her new husband, Joe. “Today was pretty challenging. But he apologized to me for being a little testy.” I could tell they were serious about making this marriage work.

As others waited for hot dogs, she began to tell me her story. 

 “I was raised in a Christian home, but I went away from it.”

As a young girl her parents split up and she was raised by her Uncle and Aunt. From age 8, her uncle began molesting her. This continued for eight years. “We would go to church. He would ask forgiveness, and then he would molest me again.”

She ended up getting married for the first time at age 16. On the night before her marriage, at 2 a.m., - her uncle molested her. Twelve hours later Billee was walking down the aisle.

The marriage failed. So did number two. “Number one and two should not have happened. I was too young.” She descended into drugs, drinking, addictions, and finally got married for the third time. Number 3 eventually became a Christian. He tried to convince Billee it was the way to go. She would have none of it.

No wonder.

Number 3 got cancer, fought it for five years, and then died. Then Billee got cancer. She’s been in and out of treatment four times. “I’ve been cancer free for a year,” the 48 year old told me.

Before number 3 died, a couple visited the apartments that he and Billee managed. Tim and Sarah were looking for a woman who had visited their church. They met Billee. They befriended her. Slowly they built a relationship.

“I resisted them and bad-mouthed them at first.” she said. 

Through the death of her husband, cancer, and revelation of her painful past, they stuck with Billee.  She came to faith. “No one ever helped me like Tim and Sarah did. They pointed me to Jesus. He loves me. He saved me.”

Still wanting to help her, I asked, “Why don’t you go to a church closer to where you and Joe live?”

“This is my church. I could never leave this church.”

I walked away from Billee realizing she had helped me. She has been changed.

The Ultimate Proof

I lay back looking up at the brilliant stars. No clouds obscured the view. There was Orion, 'the Hunter’, and to the left, the brightest star in the night sky, Sirius, in the Canis Major constellation. Sirius is twice as massive as the sun and 25 times more luminous. I thought, “Ever since man has been on this planet, he has looked up at this same view. It has not changed.”

I often think about how God has made Himself known in nature. It’s there for all to see. General revelation. His Being, stamped on all that He made. It is so subtle, and yet it shouts at us. So easily ignored, yet so obvious. “… The skies display His craftsmanship… night after night they make him known… their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth…” 1

But the modern message, especially in academia, is that the skies don’t have a message. They just happened. There is no evidence of design or intelligent causation. This has been endlessly debated and will continue to be.

But one fact of God’s revelation stands above every silent signpost. It is His specific revelation. “But when the right time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman…”2 This was not inferring a Creator, as we might from the intelligent content in a strand of DNA. This was not merely the moon’s orbit insuring our climate stability. This was an exact representation of God in a human being. The One who made it all entered as one of us. Many years after the fact, John wrote excitedly, “We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands.” 3

Jesus Christ was a historical figure. It is beyond question that He lived in Palestine about 4 B.C. to 30 A.D. In addition to the four Gospel accounts of His life and activities He was mentioned by secular historians such as Josephus. That the movement He founded, and the people that believed Him to be God made a lasting impact on the Roman Empire is historical fact.

The accounts of His life written by contemporaries of Jesus and eyewitnesses cannot be discredited. From the 19th century onward painstaking efforts to do this were undertaken. The Bible has been maligned, criticized, and attacked more than any other book in history. Apologist Ravi Zacharias notes, “If a spiritual idea is eastern, it is granted critical immunity; if western, it is thoroughly criticized.”4 In spite of this our modern Bible versions are accurate to the best and oldest existing manuscripts. They have been meticulously translated. The Bible is not “full of mistakes” as so many erroneously say.

You may tell me that this planet, that appears to be custom-made by Someone for human beings, was not made for human beings. You may tell me that man’s appreciation of beauty in art is simply the result of billions of years of natural selection, and not a God-given capacity. But you cannot tell me that Jesus did not exist and did not do remarkable things, including claiming to be God and rising from the dead.

When I look at the night sky, it’s a general, unfocused revelation. But when I look at the Jesus of Scripture… the focus becomes sharp and clear.

1 - Psalms 19:1-4 (New Living Translation or NLT)
2 - Galatians 4:4 (NLT)
3 - 1 John 1:1 (NLT)
4 - Ravi Zacharias, Jesus Among Other Gods (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers,2000) vii

A Tree is a Tree is a Tree

“The trees of the Lord drink their fill, The cedars of Lebanon which He planted, Where the birds build their nests…” Psalm 104:16-17a

In this Psalm we read about trees. They are the Lord’s trees. He “planted” them. In a devotion I heard by David Hamilton of the University of the Nations, he said the Hebrew verb used for the creation of the trees in Genesis implies that they grew. Could it have been a “natural” process of growing as opposed to the trees suddenly appearing fully grown? We don’t know, except that they are the “trees of the Lord.”

It is inspiring to consider what He planted them for.

On a hot days in India there is nothing like getting into the shade of a tree. This shade not only cools us, but also the ground under the tree. The cooler ground retains the water better. This affects the climate, as a group of Christians in Tanzania have discovered. They have planted many, many trees and this has begun to change a portion of Tanzania’s climate. It’s a cycle of life.

Trees provide an aesthetic effect. Do you enjoy birds singing? That is a pleasant sound for us. We have read that trees make a wonderful habitat for birds. Trees are pleasant to the eye as well. Whether covered by snow, or with leaves turning orange and red, or standing purple in the distance, tree covered landscapes are among our favorite simply by reason of their beauty. And what about the smell of trees? Isn’t pine a favorite scent of many? Or sandlewood? What could be the purely evolutionary purpose of having that odor?

The roots of the trees tend to hold the soil together as well. Hills with a forest are much less likely to slough off in a landslide than are treeless hillsides. In many places trees are planted as wind barriers to protect against the elements.

Trees are intensely practical. They can be a place of refuge and survival for an animal or person who is in danger! Trees make great places to tie things too, or to hang things. From trees we have a vantage point to see long distances. Cedar is a wonderful building material. Yet we burn the cedar for heat or cooking on other occasions. Many trees produce the very food we cook.

An even more basic benefit of trees is the process of photosynthesis in which they are an integral part. We survive by the oxygen produced in large part by the leaves and needles of trees. Possibly the one thing we do FOR trees is breath. There is a life nexus between us and trees.

From all this we can surmise that trees have purpose. They generally benefit man, rather than the other way around. We “use” them in many ways depending on our particular need.

It is highly probable then, that trees exist for man as well as for other creatures. This adds weight to the Biblical view that we live in an Anthropocentric Earth. It is a designer Earth made with man in mind. The “trees of the Lord,” then, are a provision for us. So there is a purpose for the Cedar tree. If that is so, don’t you think the one who “planted” them has a purpose for your life too? I do.

Jesus Birthplace Predicted 700 Years In Advance

When our first daughter was born we lived in Kolkata. Within two weeks we had to take her on an airplane to Thailand. She was so small; I remember her sleeping for a few nights in a makeshift bed in the lid of our suitcase. I have a picture of her with my shoe beside her, and they’re about the same size. Why did we travel with her so soon? It was because our visa was expiring. Although it was not an optimum time to travel with a newborn and my wife just getting back on her feet, we had no choice.

Jesus travelled even earlier in life than my daughter did. The emperor Augustus had ordered a worldwide census. Joseph was required to enroll at Bethlehem late in Mary’s pregnancy. It was a risky time to travel and much less comfortable than our jet ride to Bangkok. This “forced” journey provides a subtle yet powerful verification that Jesus is the Son of God.

Old Testament Prophecy and Jesus

Christians say that fulfilled Old Testament prophecy substantiates Jesus’ divinity. The mathematical probability of one person fulfilling multiple old prophecies is very slight. It is remarkable that one person’s life events aligned with so many centuries-old prognostications. Consider just this one regarding Jesus birthplace.

The Gospel writer Matthew states, “And you, Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least among the leaders of Judah; For out of you shall come forth a ruler, who will shepherd My people Israel.” [1] King Herod was hunting for the newborn boy who might one day threaten his reign. Where was the Messiah to be born? The experts in the Jewish law summoned to Herod quoted an Old Testament passage to answer his question. The Jews believed that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem (left) near Jerusalem. It had been spoken by the prophet Micah more than 700 years earlier. The Jews believed that Micah 5:2 was a Messianic reference. It is interesting that Herod didn’t know about Micah’s forecast. It was well-known by those who were informed about the Scriptures. After seven centuries, it is astounding that Micah’s words still bore authority.

Bethlehem was not Jesus’ hometown. We know he grew up in Nazareth to the far north. Many assumed He was a native-born Nazarene, like his disciple Nathanael who said, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?”[2] There is no record of Jesus telling his critics he was born in Bethlehem.

Critics discount Jesus’ fulfilling of prophecies by saying that he maneuvered his life to fulfill the predictions. He and his disciples found Old Testament verses that fit His life and applied them. In other words, the cart came before the horse. Two facts make this theory implausible. First, the Messianic passages were identified long before Jesus lifetime. That is why Herod’s counselors knew Bethlehem was his predicted birthplace. Second Jesus had no control over his birthplace. Mary and Joseph were already engaged when Gabriel, the angel, spoke to her about Jesus so Bethlehem was fixed as Joseph’s ancestral home.

The Providence of God

Barring a human plot, we reflect on God working behind the scenes, many years in advance, to fulfill His word concerning Bethlehem. It was nearly impossible that Jesus would be born there. It took a series of events including the census decree by Augustus (left). Micah had to speak the words regarding Messiah’s birth. Joseph had to be of the lineage of David, for it was linked to Bethlehem. Another clan would have registered at another city. Additionally, the implementation of the census had to be synchronized with Mary’s delivery while they were in the city. What if Jesus had been born en route? All these events of divine/human interaction paint us a picture of God’s providence at work.

Perhaps God providentially guides our lives much more than we give Him credit for?

What are the odds that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem? Miniscule. Of all the places in Israel, His parents went to Bethlehem just before he was born. Later the Jews who believed in the Messiah, such as the Gospel writer Matthew, made the connection. This was not a flashy proof of His identity like raising the dead. Yet it demonstrates the power of a sovereign God working over the centuries.

In the concluding article I’ll look at criticism that has arisen concerning Christ’s birthplace and time.

[1] Matthew 2:6 (New American Standard Bible)
[2] John 1:46 (NASB)