They Covered Their Father's Nakedness (Morning Prayer 1/22/20)

Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated. Noah, as a man of the soil, began by planting a vineyard. He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backward, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked. When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, he said:

Canaan is cursed. He will be the lowest of slaves to his brothers. 

He also said:

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem;

Let Canaan be Shem’s slave.

Let God extend Japheth; 

let Japheth dwell in the tents of Shem;

let Canaan be Shem’s slave.

Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. So Noah’s life lasted 950 years; then he died. 

-- Genesis 9:18-29 (CSB)

Nobody is perfect, ya know? Noah is often lifted up as a hero of Scripture and as an example of how to live a life following the Lord, and rightfully so. Noah was the only one following God when the time of the flood came, and is a great example in many ways of the Christian life. However, Noah was also a human with a sin nature, and in this tale, he sinned. He got hammered and stripped naked in view of everybody.

Now, in this moment of shame and embarrassing behavior, anyone could have two real options: help Noah or hurt Noah. Ham chose to laugh at Noah's embarrassing situation, highlighting his father's sin with a sin of his own. Shem and Japheth, however, chose to help their father, which was the correct choice. 

We, too, are faced with a similar opportunity each day. We can either help or hurt anytime another is in a bad situation--by their own doing or by no fault of their own. When we choose to help them get out of that situation, we are making the same choice that Shem and Japheth made: the choice to love. To help others is to love others, and that is what the Christian life is to look like. It's, frankly, what Christ did when He came, lived, died, and rose again--all on our behalf. He chose to love us, to help us, rather than to hurt or ignore us. Our plight was and is a direct result of our sinfulness, and yet Christ still loved us enough to come to our aid. 

Will we chose to follow the example of Shem, Japheth, and Jesus today? Will we choose love by choosing to help, or will we choose to hurt?

Father God, help us choose to help today. Help us choose to love. We know that is the way that you would do, because it is the way you have done. Aid us in becoming more like you today. In Christ's name, amen.

Why is Good Friday Good?

"It is finished!" -John 19:30, HCSB

It is finished. Que se termine. 它完成. она будет закончена. Il est fini. Consummatum est. それが完了しました. يتم الانتهاء من ذلك. 그것은 완료. Está consumado.

One could say that these may be the most important words in the entire Bible. Out of everything that Jesus said in His ministry, these three words may just be the most impactful, the most loaded, the most beautiful words that came out of His mouth. This is the climax, the highest point, in the entire plot and story of the Bible.

As He hung on the cross, He was not only experiencing the physical side of the crucifixion. Yes, He was in physical pain, but the spiritual pain was much worse. As hung on the cross, He took the burden of the wrath of God on Himself.

I once heard Jesus' taking God's wrath like this explained like this: imagine that we are in a canyon. A small river is trickling through, the product of a dam upstream. That dam is holding back a massive river that would flood the canyon if the dam broke. Needless to say, we don't want to be here when it breaks. Regardless, we throw rocks at it. I mean, it's a huge dam. How could it break?

One rock we threw hit another rock in the wall of the canyon, which in turn caused a group of larger rocks to become unlodged and fall into the dam.

 A crack runs up the middle, splintering across the facade of the dam. Time has worn the dam thin, and it is breaking. Suddenly, the river behind blasts through the cracked dam. The pressure was too much, and the river busts through.

We have since walked a little way downstream from the dam. We hear a loud noise, and turn to see a wall of water headed toward us. This deadly, overwhelming flood will destroy us, and it is our fault that the flood is headed for us.

We start to run, but there really is only time to turn away from the water when we hear a massive roar. Afraid to turn, we run a bit, but then realize that we are not dead yet. We turn around and see that there is no more wall of water.

Instead, a massive hole has opened up in the ground, creating a waterfall. The ground took the death from us and absorbed it all.

This is our story. God's wrath was bearing down on us, punishment due us because of our provocation and rebellion toward Him. Yet, instead of the death we deserved, Jesus took the punishment. He took the full wrath of God: not just my punishment, but also the punishment for you, our families, our friends, the guy across the table from me at the library...everyone. He took it all. Sin and death were defeated forever, all because Christ took the punishment for them away from His people.

If you have believed in Christ and confessed in Him as Lord and Savior, it is finished. There is no more punishment due to you, and there is no more power that sin can hold over you. Jesus took care of that. It's over, it's through, it is finished.

If you have never put your faith in Him, do so today. Feel free to trust in Him as Savior. None of us deserved for Him to die, but out of grace, mercy and love, He did it anyways. He took the punishment. Now it is up to you to accept Him as Lord and Savior and follow Him.

They call today Good Friday, the day that Christ died. But why is today good? Because it is finished.

The Gospel

[This is the script from my October 8, 2012 speech in Communications 287-003 at the University of Kentucky. The assignment was to give a 4-5 minute informational speech with no persuasive element.]

Do you fear death? How do you cope with that fear?

That's a loaded question, isn't it? According to Hanson's 2005 article entitled "Fear of death and muddled thinking- it is so much worse than you think," the average American spends 15% of their total life wealth on medicines to make them live longer. That's an awful lot of money, all in order to push the limits of one's life span.

Fear of death, at least to some degree, is fairly common. It is also common to find ways to cope with fears, including this one. Many people trust in different things to deal with the impending end of life.

Today, I want to describe how Christians deal with their future death. I do not aim to convince you or persuade you; I want a good grade, and this is an informative project. Honestly, I'll probably still get some bad peer reviews for this.

Regardless, I'm here today to inform you on what Christians call "the gospel," which is their belief on how to deal with death. Specifically, we will look at why people are going to die, and what God does about that.

I will stating the rest as if it were fact, simply to save time from having to say "Christians believe" before every sentence. You can be the judge of the view; I'm just telling you what Christians believe.

In the beginning of time, humans were in a good relationship with God. All was good. God was running everything, and people were OK with that. Then, these people felt the need to go against what God had said. This feeling that people know better than God is called sin. More specifically, Wayne Grudem, in his 1994 book Systematic Theology calls sin "any failure to conform to the law of God in act, attitude, or nature."

Christians believe that God is the great King of the universe, ruling over literally everything. Trip Lee, in his 2012 book The Good Life, states that "there is no small sin against a great God." You see, Christians believe that not only is God the King and Ruler of all, but to go against His rule is to directly rebel against Him, which is sin. Just like an earthly government has punishment for rebellion and law-breaking, the eternal God has eternal punishment for people's sin and rebellion.

That punishment is called Hell, and every person that has ever done anything wrong in their life, no matter how big or small we may think it is, is headed directly for an eternal punishment. We are all, thanks to our rebellion, destined to die and go to a literal Hell. Fortunately, God wasn't cool with that.

Jesus came to earth, as Trip Lee says, "on a death mission." The entire point of Jesus, God's Son, coming to earth was, as 1 Timothy 1:15 says, "to save sinners." The entire point of His 30 years of sinless, rebellion-lacking life on this planet was so that He would qualify before God as a substitute for sinners. He died and took the punishment that sinners deserve before the Judge of the universe.

If the Son of God stayed dead, though, this ain't good news, is it? Instead, 3 days later, Jesus overcame the clutches of death and rose to life. Not like a zombie; I'm talking full. Normal. Life. And with that defeat of death, Jesus gives the same defeat to everyone who trusts and believes in Him.

I personally am convinced that I was a hopelessly doomed rebel, hurtling toward Hell. Then Jesus, my Savior, gave me a new life in Him, and I no longer fear death. Instead, I look death in the face and rejoice in my God that saved me.

So, to close, I ask again: do you fear death?

You Could Be a Crater

I was reading Genesis 18 this morning. Oh, and by the way, I finished reading the Psalms a few days ago, all 150 of them. Many great lessons and praises, but I have been absent on this blog for the entire month of February (almost, as I posted last on the first...). The reason: I have been in a bit of a slump with my faith. I suppose we all have these times; after all, we are human, and cannot be perfect. The cold weather of winter gets me down every year, and it finally got to me when we turned our calenders to February. This seasonal depression has had me down most of the month thus far, and has affected not just my spiritual life, but my entire life. I've been disengaged at school and work, and quiet in temperament (which is not normal).

Fortunately, our great Father had just the cure for me: weather here in Kentucky has been nice for the past week (up until today, actually), and I feel that a week of warmth may have been a gift from above for myself and others battling a bit of the "winter blues." I feel re-energized and more focused on everything, and thus am returning today with some thoughts. Not much, but a bit to think on.

In Genesis 18, we see a conversation between God and Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish nation and God's people of the Old Testament. The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are not far from the place when Abe has his tents set up, and his nephew, Lot, is actually living in Sodom. Yet, these twin cities were completely evil. We see in chapter 19 that the two angels that had been visiting Abraham in chap. 18 visit Lot, the men of Sodom all gathered outside Lot's house, screaming at Lot to give the two men over to the crowd so the crowd could, ehem, have sex with them. Yes, that's how whacked-out Sodom was.

Back in 18, God tells Abraham that He plans to wipe Sodom and Gomorrah off the face of the Earth. Yet, Abraham pleads for God to spare the cities, asking that if 50 righteous people are in Sodom, God would be willing to spare them. God agrees. As the conversation goes, Abraham talks God down from 50 to 10 righteous people to spare Sodom. Of course, Abe didn't change God's mind; God merely allowed Abraham to ask these questions in order to show a side of God that many do not see in this story: a merciful God.

Often, we view God, with respect to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, as the Destroyer of Evil, Justice of the World, etc. After all, the moral of the story is "do bad things, and eventually God will judge you and punish you." Yet, observe something with me. God gave Sodom a chance.

The angels went to Sodom to find the ten people that Abraham had offered. Immediately, as they arrived at Lot's house, they found three: Lot and his two daughters. We could count four, including Lot's wife, but she would eventually disobey the angel when Lot's family was leaving Sodom, and be destroyed. Regardless, it appears obvious by the sex-craved crowd that appeared at Lot's house that there was not another righteous family (it states that the whole population came to Lot's house) in Sodom. Lot tries to reason with them and talk them out of their actions, but the crowd would not listen. Thus, Lot and his family bailed, and God destroyed the people.

But God was willing to give them a shot. Of course, He knew there were only three people of righteousness in Sodom, but He still gave the people a shot to straighten up. Lot asked them to behave, but they refused. At their refusal, they were punished.

This relates directly to our lives. You see, we have all rebelled against God. Just like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, we have sinned against God. At some point, we all lied, stole or had some thought even that was against God's decrees. Just like any lawbreaker, we are guilty; just like any judge, God can punish us as He sees fit. Yet, God doesn't smite us immediately (at least usually, and I don't know of anyone that was taken out by God via column of fire); He gives us a chance to escape our fate.

Just as Lot tried to talk to the crowd, God gave us His Word. The way to avoid punishment is clear: believe in Christ as the Savior of the world and Son of God, and BOOM! You're spared. Isn't that amazing? I mean, when someone wrongs me, I just naturally want them punished. God has any form of punishment imaginable at His fingertips, and yet gives us an opportunity to escape it. Wow! What great mercy and love! God could stop any of our breaths, at any given time, and doesn't. We have the chance to accept that Christ has already taken our punishment, and escape the wrath of God.

Have you taken advantage of this chance? If so, when was the last time you directly thanked God for your second chance? If not, accept the saving power of Christ. Don't waste your one shot; this life is the only one you get to take advantage of God's mercy.

Feel free to leave any questions/statements in the comment slot below, or email me at thefreedbug@aol.com.