Every Nation Tribe and Tongue

 The Olympics remind us that we are a global community.  The youth from the nations of the earth inspire us as they compete at the highest levels of sportsmanship.

 When I served as pastor of an English-speaking church in Nuremburg, Germany, we were surrounded with history, culture and beauty. The church was composed of people from Germany, Ireland, England, Romania, Ukraine, China, Cameroon, India, Sweden, Austria and others. Most were in their twenties and thirties.

The church reminded me that Jesus Christ was sent for all people of every nation in every age. When God called Abraham, He promised to make him a blessing to all the nations. Isaiah said, “Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will bring justice to the nations.” (Isa. 42:1) And again, “The LORD will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God.” (Isa. 52:10) Those promises are fulfilled in Jesus.

The coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost reflects the fact that Jesus came for everyone. Shortly after His resurrection, many people gathered in Jerusalem from many nations, and they all heard the message of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection in their own language. “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2)

When John saw the vision that he recorded in Revelation, he declared, “After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”

Clearly, God wants people from every nation to experience His salvation in Jesus Christ. To accomplish this purpose, God is moving people all around the world and exposing them to opportunities to hear the gospel. According to a study by Lousanne World Pulse, Christianity as a whole has been growing faster than the global population with the fastest growth in Asia and Eastern Europe. The majority of Christians live in South America, Africa and Asia.  We are living in one of the most exciting eras of human history, when more people are discovering faith in Christ from all over the world than ever before.

Our daughter went on a mission trip to Andhra Pradesh in India. At the same time I visited Lubbock, Texas. When I checked into the hotel, the clerk who greeted me was from Andhra Pradesh.  I gave him one of my books, The Jesus Encounter, and spoke with him about Jesus.

Whether we are in Dallas, Houston, Lubbock or Nuremberg, Germany, every believer needs to reach out to international visitors around them, to welcome them, to love them, and to share with them the life-changing difference Jesus Christ makes in our lives

Paris Olympics 100 Years Ago: The Race That Counts

 The world is focused on Paris.  Celine Dione’s solo from the Eiffel Tower set the bar.  Performing for the first time since 2021 following a neurological disorder, Dione’s voice echoed through the streets of Paris and around the world, inspiring young and old alike.

 Within hours the youth of the world took the field, competing at the limits of human strength, speed, agility and endurance, striving for the gold.  Few things, if any, are as inspirational as the hopes and dreams of every generation’s youth.

 This is not the first Olympics in Paris, nor the first labeled ’24.  One hundred years ago another generation sent their youth to Paris in 1924 to compete for the gold.  Among them a young missionary from Scotland.  Eric Liddle who was believed to be the fastest man in the world in the 100 meter dash.  None had beaten him at that distance.

 A committed Christian, Eric Liddle had given his life to serve as a missionary to China.  His sister, Jenny, tried to persuade him to forego the Olympics and fulfill his calling to China.  He responded, “God made me.  And he made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.”

 At the Olympics in Paris, he had a problem.  His event, the 100-meter dash, had been scheduled for Sunday morning, the Lord’s Day.  His Christian commitment in the 1920s forbade him from competing on Sunday.  He had a crisis of conscience.  He refused to run.  As a compromise, the Olympic Committee allowed him to switch to the 400 meter, a race scheduled during the week.

 No one thought he had a chance in the 400.  It was a different race. His body was not conditioned and he had not trained for the much longer distance.  Critics said, “They’ll have to drag him in with a rope.”  But he ran.  Not just for himself, or for his country, but for God, and set a new Olympic record.  The 1982 Academy Award winning movie, Chariots of Fire, captures the drama.

 There will be many similar dramas playing themselves out these two weeks in Paris a hundred years later.  Young men and women, will run, inspired by their hopes, dreams and their faith.  What matters most is the race they continue to run long after the Olympics are over. Following the Paris Olympics in 1924, Eric Liddle fulfilled his commitment as a missionary to China where he died in a Japanese internment camp in 1945.  His grave was recovered in 1996 in Weifang, China and marked with a simple stone of Scottish granite, a testimony to one who ran his race for the pleasure of God!

The Olympics

 All eyes are focused on Paris for the Opening Ceremonies of the 2024 Summer Games next Friday, July 26.   The best athletes of the world will compete to the limit of their talent and determination.  Simone Biles, the most decorated gymnast in history, will again compete for the gold in women’s gymnastics.  LeBron James, 39, competed in his first Olympics 20 years ago.  He will return to lead the U.S. in its search for another gold.

 The Olympic Games date back to 776 BC and were expanded in the first century by Augustus Caesar, the Emperor of record at Jesus’ birth.  Writing to Greeks in the first century, the Apostle Paul drew on Olympic metaphors to help them understand how to live the Christian life: “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” (1 Corinthians 9:24).

 Christianity is not a spectator religion. We all must run!  Our churches are arranged so that most of us appear to be spectators watching a few performers on the stage. The truth is that we all must compete in the race every day. Sunday services are more like team meetings in the locker room, or a pep rally before the big game, preparing us for the main event that starts on Monday. 

 The Academy Award winning movie “Chariots of Fire” was based on the 1924 Olympic competition between Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams, the two fastest men of their day.  Abrahams had never lost a race until Eric Liddell beat him in the 100-meter dash by a single step.  Mortified by the loss, he later sat in the empty stands with his fiancé.  She kept trying to encourage him, but he finally snapped at her, “You don’t understand.  If I can’t win, I won’t run.”  Stunned, she paused for a moment then responded with typical feminine insight. “If you don’t run,” she said, “you can’t win!” That is the Apostle’s point.  If we don’t run, we can’t win.  We must all live out our faith in Christ in such a way that we “run to win!”

 This requires discipline. Paul continues, “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.(1 Cor. 9:25). The athletes we are watching in Paris must exercise great discipline in diet and training. Only by imposing discipline upon their bodies can they compete for the gold. 

Too many Christians think that once they accept Christ by faith and receive the assurance of heaven that they can live however they wish. They are like someone who has been accepted to the Olympics and prepares for their event by eating Blue Bell ice cream and watching others practice. They might be at the Olympics, but they won’t win. The Apostle concludes, “I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:27).

the Assassination Attempt

 The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has shocked and, hopefully, sobered our nation.  For too long our national politicians have indulged in violent and acerbic rhetoric.  An entire generation has come into their adult years listening to Presidential candidates characterizing one another as dangerous extremists. 

 Fortunately, the would-be-assassin’s bullet missed its mark by a fraction of an inch and Donald Trump was spared.  Tragically the other bullets he fired took a heroic father’s life and left two others seriously wounded.  Hopefully the shock of the scene will cause everyone to rachet down their assumptions and accusations, both in public discourse and in private.

 Some of us, who are a dwindling number, remember the 1960’s: the paralyzing report that President Kennedy had been killed on the streets of Dallas November 22,1963;  Martin Luther King, Jr. shot down by a sniper’s bullet at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, April 4, 1968;  and Presidential candidate Robert Kennedy dying in a pool of blood at the hands of an assassin in  the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, June 5, 1968.  Emotions were high.  Thousands were dying in Vietnam.  Protesting students were gunned down at Kent State.   Those were tragic times we hoped would never be repeated.

 Words matter.  Jesus was clear in His instructions and warnings.  “You have heard it said, you shall not murder, but I say to you 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).

 A 20-year-old young man fired the bullets that killed one and wounded others, including former President Trump, but everyone who has engaged in denigration of opposing candidates in both parties had their finger on the trigger.  We must do better.

 Our politicians and journalists must lead the way, treating one another with courtesy and respect.  Listening with consideration rather than shouting and dismissing.  Again, as Jesus instructed, “There is a saying, ‘Love your friends and hate your enemies.’ But I say: Love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!  … If you love only those who love you, what good is that? Even scoundrels do that much. If you are friendly only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even the heathen do that,” (Matthew 5:43-48 Living Bible.)

Flying Upside Down

 Twenty-five years ago, July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy, Jr. took off on his fateful flight from Essex County Airport, New Jersey.  Heir to the legendary Kennedy good looks, charm and fortune, the young Kennedy possessed unlimited potential for political and commercial fame.  But, in less than two hours, his young life would be cut short along with his wife and sister-in-law who were passengers.

 Flying at night without instrument ratings, the young Kennedy was dependent upon visual contact with the ground in order to land the Piper Saratoga safely at Martha’s Vineyard Airport two hundred miles away. Unknown to Kennedy, he was flying into a night fog.  Choosing to fly over open water, he became disoriented with no visual horizon, and apparently pulled the plane into a deadly spiral. Their bodies were discovered in the wreckage eight miles off the coast of Massachusetts. 

 Kennedy’s tragic death underlines the dangers of spatial disorientation in flight, something commonly referred to as “flying upside down.”  The pilot thinks he is flying right-side up, but is, in fact, “flying upside down,” so that when he thinks he is pulling up, he is instead flying into the ground. Dallas Willard used this metaphor to introduce his book, The Divine Conspiracy drawing the conclusion that Jesus was the only person who ever lived who knew how to fly right-side up. The rest of us, left to our own devices, inevitably fly upside down. 

This is the reason Jesus’ instructions sound so counter intuitive.  “Give and it shall be given to you, good measure, pressed down and running over.”  “Whoever would save his shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”  “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. … If you love those who love you what reward do you have?” “If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.  Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.” “Do not resist an evil person; but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also”

Jesus’ instructions sound incredulous in a world that operates on systems of revenge and retaliation, of greed and self-interest.  Perhaps that is the reason our world seems to be out of control, gripped in a death spiral destined for destruction. Only when we learn to trust the One who alone can see the horizon are we able to “right our plane” and fly right-side up.

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You Are Better Than You Think

 This last weekend was one of those weekends we live for.  At 77 I taught my 7-year-old grandson to ride a bike.  He has been unwilling to try, convinced it was something he could not do, paralyzed with self-doubt.  But the time had come.  He needed to learn. We used his sister’s hand-me-down bike, pink with pink pedals. 

 I told him to stand on one foot, while I did the same.  His balance was much better than mine.  I explained that no-one can balance on a bike standing still.  We started at the top of a moderate hill so he could learn to balance without pedaling.  The pedals got in the way, so, I removed them.  I lowered the seat so he could place his feet on the ground while seated to steady himself and to stop. At first it was only a few feet, then a few more, by the end of the day he was able to balance the bike all the way to the bottom of the hill.  That was enough.

 The following day, I added the pedals.  I told him how my dad taught me to ride a bike when I was his age.  I loved it then and still do, even at 77.  We went to a school parking lot.  He learned to position the pedal at the top of a downward stroke to launch himself into motion.  He wobbled.  He didn’t go far.  I took his face in my hands, looked into his eyes and said, “You are better than you think you are.”   By the end of the day he was riding wherever he wanted to ride.  When he demonstrated his newfound skill to his parents they were thrilled.  He said, “Tomorrow, you can buy me my own bike!”  They did.

 That experience reminded me of a lesson we all must continually learn.  We all have moments when we struggle with self-doubt.  We feel like Charlie Brown in Peanuts, “One step on the stage of life and we feel that we are not right for the part.”  It is as if God is constantly whispering into our ear the words I said to my grandson, “You are better than you think you are.”

 Read God’s conversation with Moses on the back side of the desert in Exodus 3.  Moses continually argues that he is unable to do what God is asking him to do.  He is not articulate.  No one will believe him. The people will not follow. 

 Listen to Isaiah in the temple, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips,” (Isaiah 6).  Or Peter when He met Jesus, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.”  Jesus responded, “I will make you fishers of men.”

 Whatever your weakness, whatever your failing, whatever your fear.  You are better than you think you are.  God sees it in you!  He will forgive you, cleanse you and make you better than you believed you could be. (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Faith and Freedom

 Next week we will celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence with its famous words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” The Civil War with Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was inspired by these words.

 In his book, Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind, (one of Bill Gates’ favorite books) Yuval Noah Harari argues that the Declaration of Independence would look starkly different if it were re-written to reflect secular science. According to Harari, if we stripped the foundations of the Christian faith from its wording, and replaced them with evolutionary science, it would read like this: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among them are life and the pursuit of pleasure.”

 Without God, we cannot be “created.”  Neither can we be “endowed by our Creator,” since there is no Creator to endow us with self-worth. We are left with an accidental existence unrelated to value.  Human beings could have no more inherent worth than the spider or the ape.

 And regarding liberty, “There is no such thing in biology,” Herari contends, “liberty is something that people invented and exists only in their imagination. From a biological viewpoint, it is meaningless to say that humans in democratic societies are free.”  Since science has not been able to define happiness, we will have to settle with the “pursuit of pleasure.” 

 Unless we recapture the “faith of our fathers,” our future may look like the forbidding landscape of science fiction movies with human beings consigned to violence and anarchy.  Without faith, we could return to a “survival of the strongest.”  

 Where would we be without the statements of Jesus? “The very hairs of your head are numbered. Love one another as I have loved you.  In that you have done it to the least of these my brothers, you have done it to me.”

 Hitler followed secular science to its logical conclusion and implemented a policy of eugenics that eliminated the weak and infirm as “life unworthy of life.” Over 400,000 were sterilized against their will. Millions were exterminated.  Marriage was strictly controlled to foster eugenic purity.

 Others, like Mother Theresa, Corrie Ten Boom, William Wilberforce and Abraham Lincoln followed a faith that compelled them to care for the poorest of the poor, to set the captive free, to bind up the nation’s wounds.

 Jesus identified  Himself as the Messiah saying, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor,” (Luke 4:18-19).

 Only faith can give us the framework for human dignity and worth. Only faith can safeguard our freedoms.