The Word and the Cross/ the Blog

Christmas: Any tree-worshipers out there?

It was no less a luminary than the great prophet Jeremiah who described to God's people Israel over 2500 years ago a scene that is portrayed in millions of living rooms across the country:

"Do not learn the way of the Gentiles... the customs of the peoples are futile; for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple... they must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves... do not be afraid of them [the trees], for they cannot do evil, nor can they do good." (Jeremiah 10:1-5)

Fact: Modern Christmas trees have nothing to do with the birth of Jesus Christ.

Fact: Modern Christmas trees have everything to do with the ways of the heathen.

Fact: The ancient pagans set these trees up for purposes of worship.

But also a Fact: Modern Christmas trees are not set up for worship.

So where does that lead us? To the same place the apostle Paul led the early Christians. It's a matter for individual believers to decide, based on the principles of knowledge and of love.

Paul had to deal with the first century practice of eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols (I Corinthians 8). The facts of the case are similar. Something originally intended for pagan worship now being used for personal benefit. Are we not free? There is no such thing as another god. Yes, demons are behind these false gods, but I personally have no connection to demons, and that meat simply is added to my body, not my soul. I know that!

But not everyone in Paul's day knew that. Some truly believed they were eating at the table of demons. And to see other believers boldly stuffing their faces would cause them to backslide. Paul says, love demands you not offend such a brother by your boldness.

Today it's the tree. The tree to which pagans once offered worship. Some want nothing to do with it! No problem. But you say, I know better. I'm not worshiping that tree. I like the smell of pine and the beauty of the ornaments and the coziness of the lights.

Fine. I can relate to that. But I've got this friend. For him, seeing a tree in my house might be a scandal beyond measure. For his sake, I may have to leave the tree alone. Don't really need it. My brother's more important.

Something to think about next time around...

Thanks for your visit! Go to https://www.icommittopray.com/ for regular updates on the persecuted church. Check out my books at Amazon.com. Send me a message at bobdiakonos7@gmail.com

Daily Podcast: wordandcross.com

Family: When Strong Hands Prevail

Much to my shame, my 12-year-old self began to assert itself in some sad ways. For one thing, I wanted to be like the guys around me at school. And it was the "in" thing even way back then to have a go at smoking.

I had no real desire to smoke. It seemed nasty enough filling your lungs with gaseous poisons just for the fun of blowing them out into the atmosphere. But the other guys were doing it. Bobby had to try.

My step-dad smoked. A lot. But both he and my mom, though neither of them were active believers, made it clear to me that I was not to be a part of what the crowd was doing, even if that crowd included my step-father. They went to some extremes with this protectionism, mainly out of fear, but I can still be grateful for the things they spared me.

I had heard the conventional wisdom and humor about smoking. "Fire on one end, fool on the other." "You don't smoke, it's the cigarette that smokes, you're just the sucker." "A guy starts smoking to prove he's a man, and 20 years later he tries to quit to prove the same thing."

All nice sound bytes, but I wanted to keep up with the "Jones's" at my school. So one day I brought some "smokes" into my bathroom with me. I can't remember now how I got them, probably a friend trying to convert me. I sat on the chair provided in such rooms, and proceeded to light up. I was just sucking in the gross air when I heard the front door open, and my step-dad's voice.

What was he doing home? I had calculated this thing all wrong. I quickly, and with relief, dropped the cigarette in the toilet and gave it a flush.

Two things I hadn't counted on in my young life of crime. Smoke odor doesn't leave a small enclosed room too quickly. And water pressure in a toilet is not always strong enough to push an item like a cigarette to its intended destiny.

My step-father used the bathroom next. And my readers will just have to imagine from here exactly what happened. There was no unnecessary violence. Let's just say a firm hand prevailed. I have not so much as looked at a cigarette longingly from that day until the present.

How I thank God for it. How I wish there were more strong hands in the home.

Visit wordandcross.com my daily podcast

Persecution: "I Am No Longer a Christian!"

"I am no longer a Christian!"

My favorite summers were 1985 and 1987, my first two trips to (then Communist) Romania. I want to share with you, paraphrased, a story of that land out of Extreme Devotion , published by Voice of the Martyrs. It is one of many such true tales of that heroic land.

It happened when Ceaucescu was dictator there. A little girl was in prison with her mother, both because of faith in Jesus. The prisoners were upset to see a child in this horrible setting. Even the prison director encouraged Mom to have pity on her child, renounce her faith, and go back to living a normal life.
The pressure was too much. The mother agreed to deny her faith to keep her daughter from suffering. The officials of the prison decided to test the parent's "conversion" by arranging an assembly of 10,000 prisoners, before which she must simply say, "I am no longer a Christian."

After she had done this, she and her little child were released.

On the way home, the girl chided her mother: "Mommy, today Jesus is not satisfied with you." The mother tried to explain that she had only done this thing out of love, but the girl, very grown-up for her years, vowed to her mother that if they would go back to prison, she would not cry.

The woman was at once stunned, ashamed of her weakness, and filled with pride for her lovely daughter. After praying, she did indeed go back to the prison keepers and told them, "You convinced me to deny my faith for my daughter, but she has more courage than I do. I wish to go back to prison."

She went. And so did daughter. And as she promised, she did not cry...

Pray for the suffering church today, will you?

For more information about your hurting brothers and sisters, go to
Voice of the Martyrs (persecution.com)

Also:

Go to https://www.icommittopray.com/ for regular updates on the persecuted church. Check out my books at Amazon.com. Send me a message at bobdiakonos7@gmail.com

Daily podcast: wordandcross.com

Prophecy: Jesus Is Coming Soon?

JESUS IS COMING SOON?

You hear it in a lot of churches. And not to say "amen" is akin to blasphemy in some minds. Jesus is coming soon! I've said it a lot through the years, and although I believe He may be coming for me pretty soon, I feel it's important to be a part of correcting "pop" theology, so here goes.

In the English Bibles with which I am familiar, Jesus is never quoted as saying, "I am coming soon." Instead, it is usually, "I am coming quickly."

That's a different idea. In the Greek original, the word is tachu. And yes, both ideas can be conveyed by the word. One can be talking about "when" or "in what manner" with that same word. We're left with a need to interpret. Here is how I interpret all this.

First, Jesus cannot lie. He is the Truth. "Soon" to us means within the next few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, or to stretch it to its max, a few years. 2000 years could not be considered "soon" by any mortal. And it was to mortals He said these words. Believers in the "soon" doctrine will be ridiculed for no reason. In fact that very thing has happened and was prophesied by Peter (I Peter 3). We have been saying in every generation, "Jesus is coming SOON." And He didn't come. Now they mock the whole idea of His coming, just as Peter said.

Second, these individual statements about "coming quickly" are not the only way Jesus expressed the thought. He said in Matthew 24 that He will come as the lightning. Suddenly. Quickly. Tachu. The sun sets gradually. That is not tachu. A man returns from a trip gradually. You see his plane, then him as a dot, then a man, then face to face. That is not tachu.

And Jesus is not coming that way, as many even in our generation have speculated (I heard this in a "church" setting.) namely that one day we will realize that Jesus is "here", that he slowly has made His Presence felt. No, that is not tachu. Jesus says, "When I do come, I will come without annnouncement, without delay, as the lightning, as the vultures on a piece of dead meat." That's tachu.

Jesus is near. He is at hand. That's why when He appears, it is suddenly.

Jesus did not tell His disciples, I'm coming back in a few days or months. Instead He gave them clear-cut signs (Matthew 24) to identify the world scene at the time of His coming. Then He told them He had no clue when He would return. That is, the Father had not revealed to Him the time of Earth's history when the signs would all be fulfilled. But the generation that lives at that time will know...

Both Paul and Jesus (II Thessalonians 2 and Matthew 24) are clear: Don't let anyone deceive you. I'm not coming back until certain signs are accomplished. But when He does come, it will be quickly. And remember that Jesus told them about signs when they asked when He would be returning.

Why such a teaching? Why tell us several times He is coming quickly? So that believers through the years will not be led astray into following false Messiahs who will appear here and there, take out ads in newspapers, start communities, all the while trying to convince people they are God's promised One. No, when Jesus comes, it is tachu. There'll be no questions asked or answers needed.

Daily Podcast: wordandcross.com

Christmas: Trampled in the Christmas Rush!

This story :I tell you up front that its truth is profound but not literal.

"Last night, John Elzy, watchman at the Grand Eagle Department Store, while making his rounds of the bargain center, found the body of a man lying under the counter. He was thin to the point of emaciation, apparently in his middle thirties, and was shabbily dressed. His pockets were empty and there were no marks of identification on his person. Store officials believe that he was trampled in the Christmas rush and crawled under the counter for shelter. But they were unable to account for what appears to be nail prints in his hands. The police are investigating..."

It's all too easy to forget Jesus at Christmas time , more than most other seasons, ironically. Now He is the cute baby in the manger scene under our tree. Churches major on carols and 2-3 chapters of the Gospels for about a month. The world goes on a buying frenzy unequaled anywhere in the world or in history. Unfortunately the Church tries to conform. And Christmas "greed"ings are exchanged by businesses who depend on the birth of Christ to make a fast buck.

On the other hand, Jesus did come to earth. And at no time in the year is it more politically acceptable to talk about at least a few Biblical truths. I was amazed at the song "Emanuel" coming over the Walmart airwaves the other day. A pure description of the Person of Jesus for all who wanted to listen. Christ is on many lips as they send out the common Christmas greeting.

For us, may Jesus be Lord of the believer's life on Christmas Day. And every day thereafter! I wish you not a Merry Christ-mass, because of the obvious origin of that word, but I certainly do rejoice with you in the coming of our Lord to this planet as a man to save us men for all eternity. Whether you "keep the feast" or not, a humongous celebration of all things Jesus, is in our future.

Lies: There's no end to it.

(From 2006)

You will not surely die!

Bold, blatant, and in complete opposition to the truth. When you see a lie like this, there is no question from whence it comes. And you say, Only a demented person could tell such a lie, and only a similarly demented individual could believe it. But taking a look at Eve, the mother of us all in the flesh, one would not have thought her to be what we call in 2006 a "whack job." Probably beautiful, sensitive, caring.

No, lies have no boundaries. You have believed them and so have I.

Later in Moses' chronicle a king arises who "did not know Joseph." What! How could there be an Egyptian head of state who had never heard of the savior of his own land not that many years earlier? Easy. Liars were employed by former heads of state to revise the history books. We have such persons in important media positions today, revising the nightly news.

The resurrection of Jesus was the most attested major event of ancient history. But revisionists today, some of them posing as believers in Jesus -if you can fathom that! have rewritten the theology books and explained it all away. Their judgment is just.

The Watchtower Society (whose members have misnamed themselves "Witnesses" of the Lord God Jehovah!) found some very troublesome passages in the King James Bible. Truths about the deity of Christ had to be covered up. So they wrote a new Bible. And the deceivers attracted many of the deceived who bought into this lie.

Muslims have an entire set of mistruths by which they comfort themselves that theirs is a true expression of God's will for mankind. They not only deny the resurrection of Jesus, they deny His crucifixion, claiming that someone was substituted for Jesus at the last minute! They too have come up with a "new Bible" though God warned that His revelation is closed.

You say, who can believe such fantasies as the Muslims believe? Over 1/6 of the human race does. Bold, blatant, and in complete opposition to the truth.

So it is no wonder that in Tehran today, a collection of deceivers meets to declare to the world that 6,000,000 Jews did not die in the Holocaust. After all, if that story is true, a great injustice was done by the world to these people. If it is true, the sympathy of the world must be with Israel.

Tehran and company care not one whit whether the Holocaust is a fact. Their intention is the same as Satan's has always been: turn the affection of the world against Israel. Destroy this troublesome bunch who gave the world the Bible, monotheism, the Savior, and the greatest heroes faith has ever produced. Above all, get them out of the land, their own land, the possession of which is promised in prophecies innumerable.

As long as Israel stands, God's truth stands. So look for the lies to remain bold, blatant, and in complete opposition to the Truth.

Daily Podcast:

wordandcross.com

Youth: How I learned respect

My how things have changed.

"When I was a boy" (as all us "mature" folks like to say) a teacher couldn't be sued for walloping a kid where he sits down. Whatever you needed to do, you just did. My teaching career would have been a lot more pleasant had this rule stayed in place. Public school administrators in the "downtown" offices don't want to admit it, but for the most part they've lost control. A whole generation of children sacrificed to pagan ideas about raising children.

So there I was in gym class, circa 1960, Columbus Public Schools. The gym teacher at old Linden McKinley High that year was Mr. Jackson. He doubled as the football coach. Could have been a marine drill sergeant too. Not to be messed with.

But little "Bobby" (that's what they called me in those days, and I was actually in junior high and only acting "little") didn't get it. It was an all male class, for which I am very grateful when this painful memory resurrects itself. Bobby had to keep playing around. Smarting off. Being a wise guy (how did that term ever appear?). Distracting the sarge, I mean the teacher, from his instructing.

Suddenly Jackson had had enough. My stomach sunk as I heard him utter those four fateful words to another student: "Go get my paddle!" It seemed only seconds until my obliging classmate emerged from the locker level, Jackson's weapon in hand, and back into the gym where we were all seated on the bleachers.

I was summoned from my back row seat to the head of the class. Not exactly as an honor student, not like the guy in Jesus' story who is humbly waiting in the lowest place and is then elevated by the master of the feast. There would be no elevation during that event except for my pulse rate and my shame level.

In front of probably 30 or more junior high boys, I was asked to touch my toes. The next thing I knew I was touching the floor. With my face. If I could have gone any lower I would gladly have done so. Such humiliation.

"There's your hero, fellas," the gym teacher calmly announced to my compatriots.

Yep, there he was. But you know what? I never messed around in gym class again. And I didn't die, except on the inside. But that kind of dying is OK. May God speak to believing parents in this undisciplined land of ours to start up the "prohibition" devices again. Paddles, rods, switches, whatever you want to call them: they work. And when they work, kids work. And when kids work, schools will work again.

Visit my podcast: wordandcross.com