Hey, did you catch what made the nightly news a few days ago on NBC, CBS and / or ABC?  Apparently there was a massive pro-gun control protest in Washington, D.C.  Massive anti-gun forces rolled out for it and these three big news networks made sure their camera's were rolling.

MASSIVE?  Not quite.  It was estimated by the big three networks that around 1,000 people attended the rally.  That's one thousand in a nation of over 300 million.  Yet, camera's were rolling.  This was big news!

Meanwhile, on the very same day, somewhere close to 1,000,000 (that's one million) people rallied in the March for Life.  Same city - Washington, D.C.  Same day.  Two rallies.  One rolled out a meager 1,000 people.  The other rolled out one million.  So, how much coverage do you think the March for Life received from the Big Three Networks?

One minute?  Two minutes?  Thirty seconds?  A sound byte?

Wrong!

The BIG THREE NETWORKS SAID NOTHING, NADA, NIL about the massive pro-life rally held this year.

Dear friends, Christians and others who hold views contrary to the "tolerant" left are being silenced and ostracized and snuffed out in our society.  Teachers and students are being silenced in public schools.  Employees are being silenced in workplaces.  Preachers in Canada are being silenced and even jailed, and the USA is next, no doubt.

Are we prepared for this, Church?  Are you preparing your children to live in a world where even holding, much less expressing a Christian or biblical viewpoint will be grounds for abuse?  What will our answer be?  Will we be silenced or shamed?

Or, will we stand in the long line of born again believers in the Risen Christ and answer, "We ought to obey God rather than men?"

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us (Heb 12:1).

One of my greatest excuses for not praying more for my husband, for my kids, my church, my pastor is time.  I don't have the time.  I am doing all I can in a day.  I am covered up already.  Really!  Really?  I challenge you to challenge that thinking.  Keep a journal of a couple of different things for the next two weeks.  Journal your Facebook time, phone time talking and texting, and TV time.  It may shock you to realize how much time we waste in a day.  Spend just one fourth of that time praying. Pray about the things you are facebooking and texting.  Pray about the news you see on the TV.  Pray and talk to God about your husband instead of that person on the other end of the phone.  Pray pray pray...it is so life changing.  How do I know?

I attended two funerals recently.  Though the occasion was the same, what I heard at these two services was world's apart.

At one funeral, the minister (I am very hesitant to use the word "pastor" here) did read some Scripture, and he did talk of Jesus, even faith in Jesus.  So far, so good.  But at some point in his funeral message, he felt the need to strip God of His sovereignty.  This minister wanted everyone to know he did not believe God had anything to do with sicknesses, diseases, hard times, pain, suffering, or anything that does not make us smile and ask for more.  God does not send pain or hard times into people's lives, he quipped, in order to grow them or teach them or correct them.  Rather, this minister said all these things are "just the world we live in."  That's just how things are.  People die.  People get sick.  People suffer.  People win some and lose some, but God is not to be located within any of it.

I wondered how many listeners recognized that this so-called preacher was presenting the god of Deism to them, and not the God of the Bible.  Deism claims God made the world then just left it to its own devices, to run on its own, if you will.  So, do not look for God in the dark valleys of life - He's not there!  He's just sitting back watching the train wreck and hoping for our best.  Hope?  Guess not. 

Saddest of all, this "man of the cloth" used Jesus as his "reason" for believing what he proclaimed!  He said Jesus never gave anybody a disease, so that must mean God has nothing to do with anything hard or calamitous in our lives.

Well, a few days later I sat at another funeral.  This time the Preacher told listeners that people die because they are sinners, and that God Himself decreed death as the "wages of sin."  He said death reminds us all that we are under God's wrath.  This Preacher proclaimed that insteads of sitting back and watching the human train wreck, God actually sent His Son Jesus into the world to live a perfect life (satisfy God) and then God punished Jesus on the cross for the sins of all who would ever believe in Him.  This Pastor then claimed the only way to escape the everlasting wrath of God in hell was to turn from sin and trust everything to the finished work of Christ on the bloody cross.  Here's hope!  Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures, was buried and was raised from the grave three days later!  Look to Him in faith and live forever in His presence.  Reject Him and your sure destiny is to be cut off from God in the fire of hell.  There was no "being good enough" to get to heaven.  No working for it.  No checklists.  Only Jesus saves!  That's what I heard at the second funeral.

Now, I sat there wondering how a non-Christian, or a person who thinks he or she is saved but is trusting in someone or something other than Christ, would possibly make sense of things if he had sat in both funerals as I did.  I mean, which preacher should I believe?  It made me sad, but also glad that the Holy Spirit can and does do His work of changing hearts and creating faith in Christ regardless of bogus preachers.  But friends, let's not kids ourselves.  It is the true gospel, God's gospel that "is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes" (Rom 1:16).  God hates false gospels (Gal 1:6-7).  The minister of the first funeral, according to God's own word, is called "accursed."  That's serious.  And sad.

If we are to take the first minister's message seriously - that God is simply not involved in bringing suffering or hardship to people - then we should shred the story of Joseph in Genesis 37-49.  We'll need to expunge the Book of Judges from the Bible, because that's where God actually punishes His own disobedient people by sending enemy armies to plunder them.  We definitely need to rip out and burn the Books of Job and Jonah.  All that stuff about God making Ezekiel lay on his side for a year and eat food cooked over cow dung, yea, ignore it too.  The Babylonian Exile?  Must be a joke.  And what in the world is the Prophet Habakkuk so upset about?

Oh, and then there's the New Testament.  Throw out the man born blind (John 9), which Jesus said was a specific act of God done to bring Himself glory as Jesus gave that man both physical and spiritual sight.  And please do not read the account of Paul's conversion, where Jesus (meek and mild as He was) blinds Paul then tells him he is going to have to suffer much for the cause of Christ.  Stephen's stoning?  A cosmic accident and I guess King Jesus stood idly by helpless to stop it.  All those martyrs in Revelation?  The tribulation of the saints?  Nah, surely God is in no way involved in all these things, right?!

Do you see how a preacher, or any believer, getting sloppy with the Gospel is a really, really big deal?  The preacher of the first funeral made a mockery of the Cross of the Lord Christ.  For my Bible tells me that God planned to crush His Son on that cross before the world was ever made (Acts 2-4).  And that meek and mild Jesus proclaimed by that so-called minister, He is coming again in a fury that shall consume all His enemies (2 Thess 1; Rev 6:15-16; 19).  And those who are saved were "chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world" (Eph 1:4).  And God sends suffering to His people to bring Himself glory and enable them to serve others who are suffering (2 Cor 1).  God is sovereign.  Period.  Try as he may, that weasly minister simply cannot make God anyone other than Who He is.  He is I AM.

Oh, and by the way, the Preacher of the second funeral was my fellow Elder at Corydon Baptist Church.  What an honor to serve King Jesus with him.  God help us keep cutting it straight, for the glory of the Sovereign, Risen and Reigning Savior and Judge.  Amen.                              

Yesterday at church ( I love my church), i found myself wishing to be anywhere but there. I felt like I needed to find a corner that was dark and get in until all those precious people who I love so much were gone. I have found myself feeling that way at home..at church..pretty much everywhere. I need to hide. So I asked myself yesterday..Lori what are you hiding from and the sad sickening answer was sin...my sin. I have felt such conviction in the last few weeks over several areas of my life and I have refused to bend my knee to Jesus and repent. His has caused me to need to be in quiet safe places that lack accountability...that is not my home or my church. Thank God he has hemmed me in on all sides and will not let me go. I am so grateful for his mad love for me and his refusal to let me stay in sin. But this does not keep me from being afraid of being found out or afraid of not being loved once people really know me. The weight of my sin is huge but the weight of fear of being revealed is just as huge. When my sin becomes heavier than my fear....I can either give in and give up or plead GOD forgive me. I am pleading forgiveness and freedom. I repent of manipulating truth so that Cliff would look guiltier than he is and of not responsibly spending our money. I repent of being short and angry with my family because things are not the way I want them. I am thankful for grace that has forgiven me and set me free. You may think less of me but my weight cannot be lifted by you so my only concern is my King who died for me. I pray that you find the same freedom to cry out to Jesus when everything in you wants to run and hide...wants you to go for cover...wants to drop out of sight until things settle down....praying you stay true to the Savior who has already set you free from the weight of your sin. I am thankful to him for his unconditional love...to my family for their grace with me and to me...and to my God family who I pray continues to love and pray for me. In Christ...your weightless sister

This week a couple of things have reminded me that waiting is truly against our sinful nature, but absolutely necessary in the big plan of salvation and sanctification. The Bible refers to waiting in several different places.

Buzz was a good cat, if there really is such a thing.

Those who know me know I am not a "pet" guy.  If I were to choose my own "pet" it would be a dog that would retrieve ducks for me!  But, personal ecomony being what it is, pets in general are not typically doable in our household.  But we made an exception this past fall for a cat that was owned by a fellow member of our local church.  Apparently, "Buzz" as he was named needed a home where no female cats were present!  So, my two girls pouted and begged and twisted my arm until it broke.

Buzz became ours.  He lived, for the most part, in the unfinished part of our basement, and rarely made a nuisance of himself except to meow in the mornings to remind us he was down there and was hungry!  My oldest daughter, Meaghan pampered him and treated him like a kingly cat.  She often did her school work with buzz lying on her feet on her bed.  And my youngest daughter had a love / hate relationship with Buzz, as he would sometimes swat her toes and scratch her up a bit, probably just to remind her who the king was!

Over the weekend, Buzz started acting weird, kinda sickly.  He then began to swell and was just in obvious pain.  So yesterday we took him to the vet only to be told he had such a massive kidney stone / blockage issue that there really was nothing they could do for him (at least not for under a few thousand dollars).  My girls were and are heartsick.  Buzz did not quite make it to his first birthday, a victim apparently of a neutering gone bad, according to the vet.  So, my house has been a tear-filled place lately (none of them mine, but plenty flowing from my wife and two girls).  I have consoled them all the best I can, treating them to Culver's frozen custard last night!  But, I must admit, even I missed the meows coming through our floor vents this morning.  We all miss Buzz even though he was only with us a few months.

But as Christian parents, we must seize upon every life event as a moment to teach God's truth and gospel.  So, the passing of Buzz has been a springboard for us in our home to remind ourselves:

• Though we were attached to Buzz, he was after all just a cat.  Human life has far more value in God's eyes.  Jesus Himself taught so (Matt 6:26; Luke 13:15; 14:5).  We have reminded ourselves that there are parents in Connecticut burying their children today, and people dying of starvation around the world.  We must fight to keep a biblical perspective in this life.  We must never allow animals to rise to the level of people in our hearts and eyes.
• God is in control and He is always teaching His children and doing what is best for us.  So, though some may call me calloused, I gently urged Meaghan last night to seek what lessons God meant for her to learn.  After all, if not even a single sparrow "will fall to the ground apart from your Father" (Matt 10:31), then it is unlikely Buzz's demise was in any sense "accidental."  God's sovereignty is absolute!  And, Meaghan showed tremendous maturity by saying that perhaps she had allowed Buzz to become too important so God removed the cat before it became an idol.  If that sounds hokey to you, then you must not fully understand the depravity of your own hearts.  John Calvin said our hearts are "idol factories."  Thank God He is jealous for us and does not long tolerate any competitors!
• Everything in this world changes, but not God.  This morning I read Psalm 26 with Keileigh, after her eyes filled with tears when she woke and realized Buzz's meows were not greeting her.  There David tells how he is determined to trust and worship God come what may.  Though all things change, our God's love and faithfulness remains.
• Death, even of cats, is a result of mankind's sin.  The Bible is clear on this (Rom 5:12; 1 Cor 15:21).  Prior to the Fall of Adam and Eve, there was no death.  [This is why, by the way, it is just not biblically feasible to believe that millions of years of death and decay preceded the creation of Adam and Eve.]  Sin brought death into this world, and sadly the whole creation groans under its curse (Rom 8:22).  So, in reality, Buzz died because I am a sinner, and so are my daughters.  We did this to ourselves, people!  Consider how shocking it would have been for God Himself to kill an animal to clothe Adam and Eve after they sinned (Gen 3:21).  Death had entered the world, and would soon strike again when their son Cain killed their other son Abel.  Death is a horrible enemy and it is ugly.

All of this brings us to the Gospel, doesn't it?  While Jesus did not come as an atoning sacrifice for cats, He did come to set all things aright.  For those who have their whole lives changed by Him, who trust Him and turn away from their sin, we are made "new creatures" (2 Cor 5:17).  So, Christians begin to get a glimpse of what one day will become the reality for all the universe - newness of life!  And while animal deaths should not be viewed with the same gravity as human death, all death should stir something deep inside our souls that longs for the day when "the lion will lay down with the lamb, and the child shall play over the adder's den" (Is 11).

And, little girls will no longer have to say goodbye to cats, for "there will no longer be death" (Rev 21:4).

I'll take this ending over Darwin's endless cycle of birth and death any day! 

Our digitally over-stimulated society has led to many benefits, but also many curses.  Among the curses, I believe, is the ability of nearly anyone and everyone to publicly "respond" to newsworthy (or not so newsworthy) matters.  And apparently we all, myself included, simply cannot not respond.  Bad English, but you get the point!  We just cannot help ourselves.  We feel compelled to make sure everyone knows how we feel or what we think when a deranged young adult guns down children, for example.

Well, I have been resisting the urge.  But as a Pastor, I do understand my calling from God to shepherd His flock here in Corydon.  So, I want to take just a few moments to help you wrestle with some of the things circling in all of our guts and minds.  Over and over again, I have heard people, many of them Christians, say "There just are no answers."

If they mean by that phrase that we finite humans have no good or acceptable explanations for how or why such an insane event happens, then I agree.  All answers that derive from human wit, will or wisdom fall woefully short.  The Darwinian evolutionist would perhaps point to the fact that we should have "weeded out" such an obviously mentally disturbed young man.  This is the goal of eugenics.  Make a "better" human via genetic alterations and abortions and sterilizations and such.  "Survival of the fittest.  Kill off the weak!"  And if you think that this line of reasoning is not prominent, you must get your news only from the major networks.  Recently in the Journal of Medical Ethics an Oxford professor named Julian Savulescu argued that parents should be able to screen out personality flaws in their children to ensure they will not harm themselves or others.  The professor wrote, "Indeed, when it comes to screening out personality flaws, such as potential alcoholism, psychopathy and disposition to violence, you could argue that people have a moral obligation to select ethically better children."  (www.telegraph.co.uk dtd 8/16/12).

Did you catch that?  Read it again!  This lab-coat wise guy wants us to abort unborn babies or kill off young children who exhibit whatever he and his lab rat buddies deem "psychopathy and disposition to violence."  Homosexual behavior was once considered psychopathy, but now lab-coat professors say it is not.  Definitions change among the scientific far too often, don't they?  So, we cannot look to our bio-engineers for answers to how and why those children in Newton were massacred.  Apparently, some scientists would have preferred many of those kids were never allowed to be born in the first place!  The Darwinist, if he is willing to stick to a pure evolutionary worldview, simply has no basis whatsoever for ethics.  It's insanity in our institutions of higher learning!  That gunman was just doing what he was "programmed" by his chemicals to do, and those children were no more than just well-organized pond slime.  Ho-hum.  That's how a truly consistent Darwinian sympathizes.  Touching, huh?

The relativist has no good answers, either.  She would have to say that the gunman who entered that school was no doubt just doing what he thought was right.  There really is no objective, absolute right and wrong.  So, it's just too bad those children had to be the victims of one man's notion of "right."  Well, that line of reasoning is sure to do nothing other than inflame and even more deeply hurt those families who are burying their precious dead loved ones.  There will be no convincing them that "right and wrong" is purely subjective.  They have been wronged and they know it!

Why am I going to all this trouble to discuss such matters?  Because I want you to realize that the worldviews of Darwinism and relativism lead us down a path to sheer chaos.  And, 98% of all Americans for the last hundred years or so have been educated in a system that has sold its very soul to those very worldviews!  But, even so, it is not acceptable to try and blame school shootings strictly on the schools themselves (though I do personally oppose the entire public education edifice).

You see, in the end, this tragedy like every other one before it, is really about Christmas.

While we pitiful humans have no answer for raw, untamed violence, God does.  The reason that man killed those people was because he was a sinner.  He had resident evil in his heart.  Sin was his master.  His mind was reprobate and his desires were degrading.  He was a truth suppressor and a self-worshiper (Romans 1:18-32).  He killed for the same reasons Cain killed his brother Abel (1 John 3:11-12).

Lab coat professors may say the Bible's analysis of the situation is overly simplistic.  I mean, we are all sinners, the Bible says, but we do not all open fire on 1st graders.  True enough.  But Jesus said we are all murderers at heart (Matthew 5:21-22).  While we should be thankful that God restrains the resident evil in most people to ensure most do not actually become as corrupt as they could be, the fact remains that "the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick" (Jeremiah 17:9).  The truth is, if left unchecked by God's grace, every one of us is capable of insane amounts of evil.  Paul the Apostle put it this way, "There but for the grace of God go I."  Amen.

The reason for Christmas is the mad gunman whose soul is caged in utter darkness.  The reason for Christmas is the 1st grader who had also shown his sinful depravity and rebellion towards God by repeated disobedience to parents and many other adult authorities even at such a young age (Rom 1:30).  While we like to build categories of those innocent and guilty, worthy and unworthy, God says all humanity is unworthy when compared to His holiness (Romans 3:23).  This does not mean the children "deserved" to become victims of this heinous crime.  But, we do need to remind ourselves that all those living apart from Christ's Lordship are under God's just wrath (John 3:36).

So, what has this tragedy to do with Christmas?  Simple.  "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6).  Jesus came because sinners needed Him!  The ungodly cannot reach God on their own.  So, God reached down to them.  Jesus came to make bad people good (not perfect this side of heaven, but good nonetheless).  Jesus came to give dead people life.  Jesus came to "save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).  No wonder the angels sang, "Glory to God in the highest!"

Jesus does these things by giving sinners who repent and trust in Him alone His goodness, His righteousness, His wisdom, His life, His Spirit, and even His standing before Holy God!  There is no political solution to sin.  No amount of psychosis will eradicate sin.  No genetic "screening" can alter who a person really is in his very core.  Education cannot stop sin.  Our problem is who we are on the inside.  Our natures are held captive by this resident evil passed down to all of us by our very first parents - Adam and Eve.  We are born sinners (Psalm 51:5).  It is who we are that determines what we do (Mark 7:14-23).  And no human solution can ever change us from the inside out.

We need a Savior!  A Rescuer!  A Deliverer!  Someone to stand in our place before God!  Someone to give us a radically new disposition and heart!  The mad gunman needs a Savior.  The children need a Savior too.

The Christ of Christmas is that Savior.  Is He your Savior?  Has He given you "new birth"?  Has He made you new?  Have you trusted your whole life for all eternity into His mighty care?  Jesus is the Only Solution to sin.  Period.

God help Newton, Connecticut and Corydon, Indiana and all the ends of the earth look to Him and live, knowing one day He will come again and "make all things new" (Revelation 21:5).  Then and only then will murders cease!

I have been thinking today about the same thing you all have..this tragedy in Connecticut. It is really an atrocity..a massacre...a crime beyond belief. No matter how you describe it, you will end up at the same emotional place...to horrified for words. I have been thinking about all the people involved in that arena today. The mommas and daddies...the brothers and sisters...the grandmas and grandpas...the teachers and staff left behind....the wives and husbands and children left behind; and the grief counselors attending there onsite. As I began to hear about these grief counselors I found myself thanking God that I don't live there and do not have to attend to those massive, open bleeding hearts. I tried to think of words that I could say that would comfort and speak truth and life into the dead, lifeless hole that so many of the hearts there have become. I could think of none. I certainly cannot say I understand; I feel your pain; I know what you feel like. I do not know any of those things and I pray I never understand that kind of pain. I certainly could not discourse on how tomorrow will be brighter and how time heals all wounds because for them tomorrow will not come for their precious loved ones and time has been stopped in one horrible moment.  I could not offer wisdom because I have none to offer in this particular situation. What in the world could one say? What in the world could one even pray? I found my answer where I always find my answers..in my precious Bible. It is truly sufficient for every pain; it can answer every question; and it can fill every need. I am praying tonight the precious Word of God for Connecticut and its people and for our country in general.

Complete the following sentence:

It's OK to lie to your children when _____________________.

Seems every Christmas I find myself involved in discussions about whether or not Christian parents should perpetuate the "traditional" myths of Santa, reindeer and magical sleighs.  This Christmas has been no different, as some parents have just informed me that they do tell their children that Santa is real, drops down the chimney with gifts, and so on.  Others have come asking whether they should do this or not, and some have merely wanted my thoughts as a pastor.

Well, let me just say I do not think it matters much what you and I think on the subject.  God has spoken.

"You shall not bear a false report" (Exodus 23:1).

"You shall not . . . deal falsely, nor lie to one another" (Leviticus 19:11).

"Six things the Lord hates . . . a lying tongue" (Proverbs 6:16-17).

"Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices" (Colossians 3:9).

Clear enough?

Friends, it is not my intent to inflame parents at this time of year, but the truth is the truth.  My own Dad set an amazing example for me in this regard.  He never told me or my siblings anything other than the truth about things like Santa (we knew the presents came from real people), Easter bunnies, mythical fairies, etc.  His logic was impeccable.  He told us that he wanted us to know he was a man of truth and that we could trust him.  If he lied to us for years about Santa, then what reason would we have to believe him when he told of Jesus?  After all, we could "see" Santa in the shopping malls, but we could never "see" Jesus.  A child will be inclined to think of the one "not seen" as mythical.  I am afraid these issues are far more weighty than we like to let on.

So, is it ever OK to lie to our children, or anyone else for that matter?  God's answer is an emphatic "no."  There are no "little white lies."  There are no lies that are OK because they make for fun childhood fantasies.  It's one thing to teach these things to our children as myths.  It's another thing altogether to make them believe these myths are actually real or true.  That, plain and simple, is bearing "false witness."  It is lying.  It is sin.

So, what is the way out for Christian parents still foisting these myths on their children?  I offer these simple observations and recommendations:

1. Confess and Repent before God for lying.
2. If you have no conviction whatsoever about telling these lies to your children, closely examine what you are calling salvation (Revelation 21:8).
3. Confess and repent before your children.  Come clean with them and show them what it means to truly have a heart that desires to please God in all things.  Tell them you want to be a person of truth and that going forward, you will seek grace to speak truth to them.
4. If they cannot learn to trust your word, Dad and Mom, then it will prove difficult for them to learn to trust anyone, including God.  "Be imitators of God" (Ephesians 5:1).  Again, express how God has changed your heart and convinced you not to ever lie to your children again.  Begin to rebuild their trust.
5. Use the moment to teach them about truth and trustworthiness.  Teach them there are no "innocent" lies.  Teach them the source of lying (Satan, per John 8:44).  Teach them that their sinful hearts are inclined to lie, and that their only hope is to beg Jesus to give them new hearts that delight in obeying God.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I think the true meaning of Christmas is enough for our children, yes, more than enough!  Why do we feel the need to prop up Christmas with mythical fantasies and lies?  Why not urge your children this year to make sure they give away more than they receive?  Why not have them sell some old stuff or new stuff and give the money to a missionary or missions offering?  Why not have them clean out their closets and give the clothes to a needy family?  Why not take them caroling to neighbors who need to hear the good news of Jesus?  Our children are already inclined towards selfishness, so we should be extra careful not to feed that beast at Christmastime!  

Oh, to see a child's Christmas "wish list" filled with desires to see others blessed.  Oh, to have Christ truly become the center of Christmas again, and I mean in Christian homes!  Oh God help us turn our children upward to behold the majesty of the crucified and risen Jesus.  Oh God help us turn our children outward to a world that is so blinded by sin that they do not yet even know they desperately need this Jesus.  Oh God help us.