Think what you're saying.

Watching a T.V. comedy the other night, I heard one of the characters say, "It's just sex!" I'm thinking, did you know what you just said? How about saying "It's just a tsunami!"
They don't seem to get it. Sex is how new people get brought into the world. People forget that and treat it like recreation, of no big consequence at all. But that is what cause new life and every time a new baby is born, history changes. They might never be famous, or recorded in history,or have a wide impact on others, but the human race has changed, because one more being created in the image of God has come into it; and sometimes things will be shaken up in a big way.
That could be good or bad. Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Jack the Ripper, whoever he was, each made a big impact - not a good one. Mother Theresa, Florence Nightingale, Abraham Lincoln and WIlliam Wilberforce each made a big impact - a very good one. And it started when two humans engaged in intimate contact and a new life was conceived. Hardly a small thing.
Jesus once said that you don't take the childrens' bread and throw it to the dogs. There is a certain respect due to certain things. The importance of them needs to be properly remembered and appreciated. You are changing history when you cause the birth of a child, whether the fact is widely remembered or not. The momentous life ever lived on Earth, interestingly, is an exception: Jesus Christ was born of a virgin woman and no human sexual contact was involved. People try and call that an unimportant detail, but it's actually a very important one. It shows the unique and miraculous nature of Jesus. Any other human being was born because of that contact between a a man and a woman, and we'd do well to think what we're doing.
Of course some people find ways of separating sex from birth. A married loving relationship may well involve physical intimacy without wanting to have a child every year, too, but who dares stop a life once started from running its intended course?
Think what you're saying, characters and scriptwriters. "Just sex" is like saying "Just an earthquake". Sex causes birth, and once a person is born the world has changed. It may be a huge blessing, too. That depends on whether or not it is given to God properly. Some people just don't know what they're messing with! We all need to think what we're saying.

Some deeds I admire.

This could quite a list, but I'll stick to two particular ones. We all have our heroes, although we have to keep hero-worship under control, because it can be a misleading distraction.
Did you ever hear of Captain Oates? He was a member of Robert Falcon Scott's Antarctic expedition in 1911. They set out to reach the South Pole, hoping to be the first people to do so. When they reached the Pole they found that another group, led by Roald Amundsen, had beaten them to it. So, disappointed, they set off back to their base, and ran into trouble with fatigue and failing health. Captain Oates realized that his friends were being slowed down by him, because he was the worst affected, and that the others might lose their lives trying to save him.
So he walked out into the freezing cold, knowing he would die, to give the others a better chance. Apparently his last words were, (paraphrased) "I'm going for a walk, gentlemen. I may be a little time."
When I read that I couldn't think of anything else for nearly an hour. That took guts - and it took care for others to put them first, giving up his own life.
Another example was a soldier, Colonel O.C. Hannay. He was a Scotsman, and an officer in the British Army.During the South African War (1899-1902) he was given an order that he knew would cost the lives of too many of his men. The order was to make a mounted charge against a strong postition, which Hannay knew would have just got his men slaughtered. But he had his orders. His orders were "You are to charge the enemy position." Hannay took the view that, right, HIS orders were to charge this strong enemy position, even if it was suicidal.
So he obeyed his orders. He charged - on his own. He gave NO order to his men to follow him, and charged the enemy alone. He was shot down from his horse and killed, but he had saved his men from pointless slaughter.
That action was noble and brave. He gave up his own life to spare others.
Those two men could only save the bodies of others. They could not save souls. They must have cared enough about others to do what they could, whatever it amounted to.
The human race must look quite contemptible to God, with all the cruel and stupid things we do. You could wonder how much suffering we are worth going through for.
Crucifiction has been described by doctors as the most agonizing way to die. But Jesus Christ undertook to suffer it, for the sake of others. Not only that, but according to the Scriptures, when His body died His soul descended tnto Hell. He literally has been to Hell and back. But Hell couldn't hold Him. It had no claim because he was guilty of no wrongdoin.
Men like Oates and Hannay, and women too, have gone to death to save the bodies of others. I hope they were saved. Jesus Christ went through death to Hell itself,to save our souls.
Self-sacrificing heroes and heroines reflect the awesome example of Jesus Christ, because Humankind is made in the image of God and we can sometimes reflect His glory when we do what is right and good. But they can only save bodies. One only can save our souls, and He suffered hideously to do so. God be thanked. Come again, Lord Jesus.

Pharisees of today

Jesus compared the pharisees to tombs, 'whited sepulchres.' They were clean and presentable on the outside but inside they were filled with corruption and decay. The same applies to any pretenders who claim to be better than they are by keeping up appearances, which is not the same as living up to them. And some of the best examples are the political poseurs who claim to show the rest of us the way.
What strikes me in particular is this. Some righteous, politically correct people have the most exhaustive social conscience, and make sure they tell others. They don't drink coffee if the beans were picked by exploited workers. They don't wear clothes made in a sweat shop. They don't buy things exported from a country with a government that breaches human rights. And when it comes to their sexual behaviour they have no scruples at all. Even if they are as good as they say, doing all the fine things to save the planet, their behaviour can be a betrayal of others and do huge hurt to those they claim to care about.
In Australia, a member of parliament from the Greens party, married with three children, has been caught having an affair with a member of the Liberal party. Both are married, and they represent different sides of politics. But they can both go behind their partners' backs and carry on with this thing in secret. Them and hundreds more. They say all the right things, claim to stand for what it good and then just indulge themselves, in a way that hurts those close to them and denies what they claim they stand for.
I have to remember my own sins, and the words "Judge not, that you be not judged." My own record will be no great credit to me on the Day of Judgement. But the longer I live the more believable are the words of the Prophets, and of Jesus Himself, condemning the vast sin of the world. It is a bad mistake to start thinking humans are not really so bad, and that the Christian Gospels are too harsh in what they say; and that a loving God would not condemn, and all that. Because if I look around me or inside myself it is not a pretty picture. God must love me all right, to not have abandoned me long ago. And that goes for us all, the more so the proud ones who think they will prove their worth while denying God. You can see people about to bring fearful wrath down on themselves, and they don't know it or refuse to see it. Like the pharisees, if they keep the outside clean and polished, what do they think the inside matters?
But you can't fool God.

"You've got the wood on us."

I was tumbling helpless, into flames of scorching fire,
Doomed to lasting torment by the devil's vile sword,
But a hand reached out to save me from a fearful fate and dire,
The only hand that could do so. The hand of Christ the Lord

The funeral was held for a young Christian man who'd died in a vehicle accident. It was a shocking sad business, losing him like that at 33 years of age, and his parents had already had some grief and trials to cope with. But the family are Christians, and they have the hope Christians all have: physical death is a departure from this world, not the end of existence. IT's a temporary separation between the person whose body has died and those left behind, who miss them. The minister conducting the service was a vibrant believer, and it showed in what he said. There was grief at that event, but there was hope too. And a large number of people were there, whose aquaintance or friendship with the man came from different times or parts of his life. So not all the attendees were Christians. One was a former school teacher and debating coach who came to pay respects.
That man is a communist. I get on well with him, because after years of arguing our different view points we respect each other. But as a communist, he definitely does not believe Christian teaching. Still, being at that funeral and seeing the people there made a deep impression on him. Near the end of the service, when the hearse had left, he said to me quietly, "I think you've got the wood on us." For those not familiar with that expression, it means having the edge. He could see that Christianity could uplift people in a way that a political ideology could not. The Holy Spirit can do what plain human inspiration cannot. I'm not gloating over him. It is itself a witness. Even an unbeliever could see how much difference it made to people that they believed Jesus, and His words, and held to the hope they gain.
Without that hope there could have been nothing but despair and an increasing weariness with life.
If I didn't have Jesus I would have become too bitter and depressed to go on living. If that family did not have Christ they could end up wishing for death themselves to be out of their misery.
I should have said to my friend, "We've haven't got the edge, Jesus gives it to us." I didn't think quickly enough, but then if I was meant to say that the Holy Spirit would have given me those words. They might have sounded too neat, or something. What I know is, the Holy Spirit showed an unbeliever something that day. I pray he took it to heart.

"CALVARY"

By Andrew Clarke.

A dialogue between God the Father and God the Son.

"Where are you going to, Beloved Son,
With your heart harshly troubled, my noble young one?"
"I must go to the world to bequeath hope and warning,
To tell fractured hearts a new era is dawning,
There's hope, healing and fire, vile sin and great ire,
And a fearful judgement to come!"

"I see you so lowly, Beloved Son,
That place your were born is a cow-shed, Pure One,
"I'll be no haughty prince in a palatial hall!
I'll be master by being the servant of all,
For the world's petty kings greatly prize earthly things.
But for them there's a sentence to come!"

"Now you hunger and thirst in the desert, My Son,
And the evil one brandished his riches, True One."
"He offered the things of the world, Holy Sire,
Such pelf as will pass and be flakes in the fire!
But the truth should turn all to treasures eternal,
And away from the judgement to come."

"You have told people truths that amazed them, My Son,
And been balm to the crying and hurting, True One!"
"I have healed the blind and twisted and lame;
But their masters on Earth have reviled My Name!
Those that seek to be lords are as brazen as bawds,
And for them retribution will come!'

"You stagger,in pain, You are bleeding, My Son!
Your back scourged, you head torn, your face battered, True One!"
Each limb is impaled on a bleak iron spike!
Your side cruelly gored by the point of a pike!
And "Forive them!" you cried, as You hung there and died!
You would spare them the fury to come!"

The sky has grown dark as a Heavenly Sign;
The body is broken, the Bread and the Wine.
By this mission of mine death itself is thrown down.
The blessed shall rise from the dust and the brine,
They shall rise from their graves, My blood sacrifice saves,
Caught up from the anguish to come.

"Where is that foul place You've descended, My Son?
full of fury and shrieking and hating, True One?"
"I've descended to Hell, to the grim Lake of Fire,
To the cavern of anguish and terrible ire,
It's deep and its dark, there's putrescence and death,
But I've beaten the judgement to come!"

"You pry open Death's talons, Immortalized Son,
And your tomb now lies open, My Chosen True One!"
"Since Hell could not hold me I fly to my throne,
To that realm of rejoicing I'll carry My own,
From all times, young and old, I shall bring them, My gold,
Through the awesome vengeance to come."

By Andrew Clarke. 1985.

Cries for help

Reading some peoples' blogs has done wonders for my prayer life, and done a bit for my bible study, too. For obvious reasons I don't name names, but sometimes when I read the posts from people who are suffering hurt and going through trials, I just have to stop and pray for them. And there are times when I have to find a message from the Word to pass on. That's one of the things the Bible is there for, and I've found myself leafing through it finding a passage to type into someone's blog to try and help them when they're suffering. Sometimes I even wonder if I'm intruding on their privacy, until I recall that the blog is accessible unless they take steps to prevent it being so. It makes you think! Troubles shared are sometimes troubles halved; or perhaps when you share your troubles God will send someone to aid and comfort you. Certainly, when you hear what some people are suffering, it reminds you that you are well off.
Apart from that, the radiant witness that some people make of their blog posts leaves me feeling quite humble. I will learn by their example: let anyone who wants to know, see what you believe and where you are coming from. It is an incredible experience contacting some of the people that you do, reading their posts and hearing what they have to say. But of course any blogger knows that.

Good Friday: an infinite understatement.

The English are considered the world's masters of understatement. Here's one: calling the day of Jesus' crucifiction "Good" is rather like calling the end of the wordl "a problem". To those of us who believe, who accept and are convinced of Biblical teaching, it is the critical moment when the process of our salvation was put into effect. Jesus became THE ULTIMATE Sacrificial Lamb, to take away all our sins and culpability. People sometimes try to put the Christian Gospel into modern language. Perhaps this is one way: we get to swap rap sheets with Jesus. To get into the Kingdom of Heaven, to avoid permanent banishment to Hell,we have to be perfect in our record of conduct. No human being is -except the human identity that was Jesus when He was on Earth. So to get us into the Kingdom, He allows each of us who believes in Him as our Saviour to present a copy of His record, which is without wrong-doing, and to be admitted to God's Kingdom. He takes ours, and takes the penalty for them. He suffered the utter horrors of physical crucifiction. Medical opinion has it that no form of death could be more agonizing. And then He went down to Hell. Satan must have been all over the place with glee. Then a problem arose. Because Jesus was without crime or wrong doing, Hell could not keep Him in. He broke out of it and rose to His rightful place in the Kingdom. Utter defeat for the Devil and serves it right. Utter triumph for the Lord God and well deserved. And we the believers get to go along with Him to Heaven. Praise the Lord. I do not really fully get the impact of that or I would be too speechless to write this blog.
It is interesting to read some of the other things recorded as happening. One of the Gospels, Matthew, recounts this, when Jesus died gave up His spirit and died:
"At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke opne and the boides of many holy people were raised to life. They come out of the tombs, and after Jesus' resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people." (NIV)
It must have been awesome and terrifying. And it is rarely covered by any of the film dramatizations made about Jesus' life. If any one had some doubt about what was going on, they must have known nothing at all.