The Taboo Word

There is a particular word in the Bible that is seldom heard in church although it is widely used in private and public conversations.  We hear it almost every day.  Some use it for emphasis or exclamation such as “What the h---?” or “h--- no!” or “h--- yes!” Sometimes it appears to be a measurement, such as a “h--- of a lot.”  In sports it is used as a compliment: “He is a h--- of a player.”  The word has become so common that we all recognize it, and so taboo that we don’t talk about it.

 When we come to church, the word is missing.  We rarely, if ever, refer to it.  We avoid it in our pulpits and Bible studies. But, when we read the New Testament, there it is.  Jesus used it and warned about it. The Apostles Paul and Peter spoke of it and John described it in Revelation.

Jesus said, “"But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.” (Matthew 5:21-22).

In another passage, Jesus described a rich man who lived his life in luxury ignoring the plight of a poor beggar at his door named Lazarus.  Jesus said, “The rich man died and was buried.  In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire,'” (Luke 16:19-31).

In another place Jesus said, “I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that have no more that they can do. But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him! “ (Luke 12:4-6).

Like most people, I would like to think that everyone goes to heaven, except when I hear stories about atrocities, like the accounts of innocent children who are brutalized, raped and murdered.  Then, hell seems to make sense.  I remember watching the movie, “Ghost” when the murderer was dragged off by the demons into hell.  It was chilling.

 According to what Jesus said, we all have reason to pause.  Perhaps what we believe and how we behave has eternal implications that we have not fully considered.

 If the afterlife consists not only of heaven, but also hell, the sacrifice Jesus made on the Cross becomes even more meaningful.  We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s requirements. We all need the Savior who paid the penalty for our sins and was raised from the dead to give us a new life. (Romans 3:23; 5:8; 10:9-10; 6:4-5).

Download Bill's devotional book on Mark free as an eBook on Amazon October 25-29. Click the image to the right or visit www.tinsleycenter.com. 

God Has No Grandchildren

 According to a recent Pew Research Center report, the religious landscape in America has experienced a sizeable shift in recent decades.  As recently as 1990, 90% of Americans identified themselves as Christian. The United States, as a whole, viewed itself as a “Christian nation.”  Today, only about two thirds of Americans identify themselves as Christian.  The shift has not been between religions, or even denominations. The huge shift reflects a rapidly growing number of Americans who see themselves as “unaffiliated.”  They may not consider themselves atheists, but they do not identify themselves with any particular religion. Since 1990, an entire generation has grown up. Those born in 1990 are now in their 30s and many of those are giving birth to the next generation.

 How should we view this startling, and apparently continuing shift in American faith?  We should be reminded that the Christian faith is always only one generation away from extinction.  As someone once said, “God has no grandchildren.”  We do not inherit faith like we inherit eye color or ethnicity.  Faith comes through a personal decision, one-person-at-a time. 

 This is abundantly clear in the Bible, especially the Old Testament.  For hundreds of years the Jewish people vacillated between obedient faith in God and disobedient rejection.  We are no different.  Every generation, and every person, must decide for themselves whether they will place their trust in God.

 To Moses’ generation God said, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days,” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20).

 When crowds of Jews sought out John the baptizer, he said to them, “Do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father,’ for I say to you from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. Indeed the axe is already laid to the root of the trees, so every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:8-9). We cannot depend upon the faith of our fathers.  We must choose for ourselves. 

 Years ago I went to the Metrodome in Minneapolis to hear Billy Graham preach.  Few, if any, of the younger generation would know or remember Dr. Graham. In the last half of the twentieth century, he preached to packed stadiums around the world with crowds often exceeding 100,000.  That night, the Metrodome was packed.  At the end of his message, he said to the crowd, “Many of you were baptized as infants by your mothers and fathers.  They did that for you because they loved you.  But you must come to faith in Jesus Christ yourself.” Hundreds of people filled the aisles and made their way to the stadium floor to make a faith commitment to Christ.   The faith of our mothers and fathers will not save us.  Each one of us must find our own faith in God through Jesus Christ.

Are There Other Worlds?

 Exoplanets are planets that orbit a star other than our sun. As of this month, scientists have identified 5,197 exoplanets in the universe. There are doubtless many, many more. Every star is expected to have at least one planet.  With 200 billion stars in the Milky Way the number is, well, astronomical!  But what scientists are really excited about are earth-like planets, those that orbit in the “habitable” zone of sun-like stars, the so- called “Goldilocks zone.”  There could be 11 billion habitable Earth-like planets in our galaxy alone! 

 Just imagine, there could be other planets filled with beauty: oceans with waves breaking upon the shore, trees and forests, rivers and snow-capped mountains, clouds drifting across the sky, birds and beasts and living things.

 C. S. Lewis posed this possibility in his novel, Out of the Silent Planet.  But Lewis went a step further. He proposed that these “habitable” planets in the universe were different in one respect. They were planets without sin.  Only on Earth, he suggested, did sin exist and, as a result, Earth had become the “silent planet” cut off from all the rest of creation.  It is an interesting proposition.

 Imagine again, a planet like the Earth filled with life, including human life, where sin does not exist.  A planet like our own where there is no corruption, where no one lies, or steals, no deceit, no suspicion, no fear. A place where there is no violence. Everyone looks out for the welfare of others.  Love rules.

 We may never know if there are other planets like our earth. The closest star with a possible habitable planet is about 14 light years away. Most are more than 40 light years.  Even if we could achieve the speed of light, this is not exactly commuting distance.

 But the Bible assures us there is such a place as we have imagined, not in our galaxy or in our sphere of time and space.  It exists in another dimension, eis aionos, or “into the age,” as Jesus said. “I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am, there you may be also.”  (John 14:2-3).

Revelation describes this place “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” ... I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.” (Revelation 21:4-8).

We will likely never be able to visit an exoplanet. But we can go to heaven. The only thing preventing us from entering heaven is our sin. We have all sinned. But “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,” (Romans 5:8). For this reason, God sent his Son, that “whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16). Peter stated, “According to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells,” (2 Peter 3:13).

You Are Known

 Carl Sandburg, in his biography of Abraham Lincoln, described the young Lincoln in 1831. “Abraham Lincoln, 22 years old, floated down the Sangamon River, going to a new home, laughter and youth in his bones, in his heart a few pennies of dreams, in his head a rag bag of thoughts he could never expect to sell.”  Lincoln himself says he arrived in New Salem like a “piece of floating driftwood.” Six years later, he was a licensed lawyer and a member of the state legislature. He packed his bags and moved to Springfield, Illinois.  The rest, as they say, is history.

 When J.R.R. Tolkien started writing The Hobbit in 1930, primarily for his own entertainment.  It wasn’t until his Oxford friend, C. S. Lewis took an interest in it that he finished its first draft and lent it to an Oxford student who forwarded it to a publisher who gave it to his 10 year old son.  The boy liked it so much that the publisher gave Tolkien a contract and a deadline for publishing the book in 1936.   The Hobbit first appeared on September 21, 1937 with 1,500 copies. Again, the rest is history.

 Few of us will ever emerge from obscurity to be noted in history like Abraham Lincoln, or in literature and cinema like J.R.R. Tokien and his Hobbits.   Perhaps this is why we thrive on the fame and fortune of others. Hoping that by following them we too might be known. But, in the end, we are faced with our anonymity. We remain nameless faces in the crowd.

 It might also explain our attraction to social media. Our digital world seems to offer opportunity to be somebody, to be noticed, recognized and known. But we soon find that social media is a vast sea, and all our selfies and posts are but a drop in the endless ocean of information. 

 But each one of us is important. Every person can be known.  Is it not enough that our family and friends will take notice of us and value our existence?  And is it not more than enough that God sees us and knows. To Him fame and fortune mean nothing. He has declared that the “least of these” are of enormous importance to Him, that the hairs of our head are numbered (though these numbers are more for some than for others). He notes our rising up and our lying down. He knows when we sleep and when we wake. (Psalm 139).

 God could have chosen any time and any place to introduce His Son into the world. He could have been born in a palace, surrounded with royalty, the centerpiece of fame and fortune, destined for greatness in the public eye.  Instead, God chose Nazareth, a rough scrabble town off the beaten path.  I visited Nazareth a few years ago. Even today, it is not impressive.

 He chose an obscure and unknown girl betrothed to an uneducated carpenter. Jesus would spend his childhood as a refugee in Egypt and later grow up in Nazareth, unknown and unnoticed by the world.  Why did God choose this means to introduce His Son into the world?  Perhaps it was to underscore how important each of us is in His sight. No one is obscure to Him.  No one is anonymous.  He sees you and He knows you. 

Heaven

 It is the season for state fairs. Most states have them, drawing hundreds of thousands of people, and, in some cases, more than a million.  More than 2 million attended the Minnesota State Fair in 2018. The first state fair was held in Syracuse, NY in 1841.

 I grew up in Texas and started visiting the State Fair when I was a kid, wandering the sprawling grounds that circle the Cotton Bowl, birthplace of the Cowboys, site of the Texas OU shootout and the Grambling game. There was always something about the State Fair.  Maybe it was Big Tex, standing at the entrance where he has stood for generations, welcoming all comers with his Texas drawl. Maybe it was Fletcher’s corn dogs smothered in mustard and ketchup, or cotton candy, sugar sprinkled waffles, roasted turkey legs and the deep fried “whatever” that reflects the Texas motto, “If you can fry it, you can eat it!”

 Maybe it’s the midway with barkers promising prizes for a ring toss, a plastic duck plucked from the pond, a water balloon filled to bursting with water guns, or the bell rung by a powerful blow with the sledgehammer.  It could be the rides rotating with screaming and squealing kids.  Or maybe it’s the pig races, the animal barns with blue ribbons or the tastiest jams and jellies.  It could be the bird show, hawks launched from the ferris wheel swooping low over our head to the crowd’s applause. It could be the auto show where the Mustang was introduced in 1964, where today’s cars are on display with gleaming chrome and glistening paint.

 Most of all, I think, it is the people, people who come together to laugh and celebrate family, heritage and culture.  I like to see parents pushing babies in strollers, children dancing with excitement, grey haired men and women smiling at private memories, and lovers lounging on the grass beside the reflection pool.

 God loves people, and he must like laughter.   If the laughter of our children thrills us, how much more does our laughter thrill Him.  God likes to see people coming together to enjoy one another. That may be why Jesus performed his first miracle at a wedding feast, providing new wine when the wine ran out.  It may be the reason His teaching is filled with references to banquet feasts and parties, like the fatted calf killed and cooked to celebrate the prodigal’s return.  Heaven is described as a great banquet feast, a mansion with many rooms, a place where all the peoples, cultures and languages of the world gather in celebration and joy.

 The State Fair, of course, isn’t heaven.  It certainly isn’t perfect.  But Heaven is.  Our moments of celebration and enjoyment are dim glimpses of what God has prepared in Heaven.  The Bible says, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.’” (Rev. 21:3-4). This, of course, is why Jesus came, so that we might experience glimpses of heaven here, and eternal life with Him in Heaven when we die.

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The Edge of Eternity

On Monday of this week I preached the funeral for Barbara, my wife’s sister. She was 79.

 They grew up on Slaughter Road, a small blue-collar community on the west side of the Brazos River off Highway 36 at Freeport, TX.  The houses were built by survivors of the Great Depression, with their own hands.  While they were building their houses, they built a church, Calvary Baptist Church, also with their own hands.  It was there that Barbara came to faith in Christ. In that same church, a young man named Vernon Bundick came to faith in Christ along with his brother, Bobby. Barbara and Vernon fell in love in the 3^rd grade when Vernon had his front tooth knocked out and Barbara thought he was irresistible.  They were married in that same little church.

 In 1995 Vernon died from a tragic accident on their property. Their children were grown, and they had purchased undeveloped land for their dream home. In the process of clearing the property, a tree limb split and knocked Vernon from the top of a dozer where he was standing. The fall left him unconscious. He recovered, but a few days later, a blood clot went to his heart. He died in Barbara’s arms in a matter of minutes.

 She found herself alone, shattered and broken. But through sheer determination, courage, and faith, she fought her way back, developed the property, built a beautiful house, and dedicated herself to blessing others.  Over the last 27 years I watched her grow with a deep faith and a big heart, reaching out to family, friends, and strangers.

 My wife and I stayed at my brother’s house in Galveston to be near Barbara in her final weeks. I have had the opportunity each morning to go for sunrise walks on the beach.  It seemed to me that the waves washing on the shore were like the heartbeat of the earth, echoing the heartbeat of the universe.

 On Wednesday last week she was no longer able to leave her bed. She struggled for consciousness, increasingly overcome by the cancer.

 When we arrived at the house, she was awake. She was surrounded by her children and grandchildren. After she smiled and greeted her sister, I spoke with her. Her sparkling blue eyes had grown dull and gray. But her smile was still there. She whispered to me. “I am near the edge.”

 I said, “Yes, you are.”

 I said, “This morning I went for a sunrise walk on the beach. I stood there, on the edge of the eternal sea watching the sun rise in the distance, a great red ball rising among the broken purple clouds.  I thought of you,” I said.  “It is a beautiful place to be, on the edge of eternity.”

 She nodded her head, “Yes, it is.”

 I asked if we could pray. Again, she nodded her head.  ‘I would like that.”

 We held hands, Barbara, me, her sister, her children, and her grandchildren.  We prayed, letting her go, committing her to the Father who first loved her and gave her to us. Her body lingered for two more days. It is difficult for the human body to let go.

 On Friday I believe she heard another voice whispering in her ear, perhaps those tender words He whispered into the ear of a 12-year-old girl, “Talitha, kum, (Little girl, I say to you, arise.)” (Mark 5:41). 

Prayer

 Prayer is often our last resort, the final step in a hopeless situation.  We refer to it with such phrases as “he doesn’t have a prayer,” or “there is nothing left to do but pray.”  But it is perhaps the most important aspect of our human condition.

 We share many attributes with the animal kingdom including instincts for hunger, reproduction and survival. Other animals provide care and nurture for their young. Some construct elaborate shelters whether nests, caves, or tunnels. Many have complex social systems.  But no other creature has the capacity to communicate with the Creator and to pray. Only man is endowed with that gift.

 I have never met anyone who complained that they prayed too much. But I have known many who wish they had prayed more.  In our most desperate circumstances and in our finest moments, we cry out to God in prayer.  The greatest gift we can bestow upon another human being is to pray earnestly for them.

 Some understand prayer as a psychological exercise merely benefiting the one who prays. But Scripture affirms that there is more at work when we pray than we imagine.

 Jesus prayed.  In fact, He rose early in the morning before sunrise and sought solitary places where He could spend time alone in prayer. Occasionally he prayed all night.  He taught us to pray, not as a public display to impress others, but in secret where “your father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” (Matthew 6:6).  He taught us to pray constantly with discipline and determination. His prayer life was so powerful that his disciples asked him to teach them to pray. 

 Prayer is not a matter of reciting particular words or repeating religious rituals. God looks on the heart.  He hears the person who is convicted of guilt and feels unworthy to lift his eyes to heaven. And God hears those who humbly seek to do His will, “The effective prayer of a righteous man,” the Bible says, “can accomplish much.”  (James 5:16)

 The mystery and the miracle of prayer resides not in us, but in the One who created us and founded the vast universe that we have only begun to explore.  We are not cogs in an accidental machine that grinds its way toward extinction. We are created in the image of God and our very nature hungers for His presence.  He has endowed us with personality, intelligence and freedom.  He desires our company. He listens and He invites us to pray.

 “Ask,” Jesus said, “and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you ^[who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”  (Matthew 7:7-11).