JESUS

Please tell me why God allowed over 6000 innocent people to be murdered on September 11, 2001?

Answer?

I don’t know.

Where was God?

I don’t know.

When Leslie Weatherhead, a minister in London during the Second World War, was asked by a member in his congregation where God was when his son was killed in a bombing raid, Weatherhead replied, »I guess he was where he was when his son was killed.«

And where was that?

I don’t know.

Isn’t »I don’t know« too ambiguous? Isn’t »I don’t know« an unconvincing way to convince young people Christianity is true?

Actually, »I don’t know« confirms one critical truth about Christianity…it’s a mystery!

Jesus loves us, right?

Of course.

So if he loves us, he protects us, right?

If he loves us…he is with us.

Jesus can heal, can’t he? And perform miracles?

Of course. Just not very often.

Why?

I don’t know.

What about God’s will?

My youth director says we’re supposed to seek God’s will. There are lots of verses in the Bible that tell us to do God’s will, aren’t there? God does have a will, right?

Absolutely.

Trouble is God’s will is not like a to-do list. It’s more like an undecipherable code. The Bible definitely gives us some clues about the code of God’s will, which means we can figure out part of it; but, because it’s God, we will never crack the code.

Clues?

Yeah, like, follow me, serve me, love me, live by my commandments, point people to me.

That’s it? Just follow me, serve me, love me and trust me?

That’s about it.

What do you mean »that’s about it?«

You don’t want to know.

Yes I do.

We get a cross.

Cross????? What does that mean?

I don’t know.

But God does heal people, doesn’t he?

Certainly.

And miracles do happen, don’t they.

Right.

So we can count on God helping us, can’t we?

We can count on God being God.

Which means…??

I don’t know.

And what does that mean?

It means we can trust God if we lost someone in the WTC or if they survived.

It means we can trust God when we have cancer and when we’re healed.

We can trust God if we survive a natural disaster or if we don’t.

We can trust God when we get a glimpse of Divine will and when we don’t.

We can trust God in the answers and the questions, in the good and the bad, in the light and the dark, when we’re winning and when we’re losing.

We can trust God even when the Truth doesn’t answer all our questions or leaves us with even more questions.

And, most importantly, just beyond our »I don’t know’s,« Jesus is waiting with open arms to snuggle us in the mystery of his love.

What characterizes Christianity in the modern world is its odd-ness. Christianity is home for people who are out of step, unfashionable, unconventional and counter-cultural. As Peter says, »strangers and aliens.«

I pastor the slowest growing church in America. We started twelve years ago with 90 members and have un-grown to 30. We’re about as far as you can get from a »user friendly« church—not because our congregation is unfriendly, but because our services are unpredictable, unpolished and inconsistent.

We’re an »odd-friendly« church, attracting unique and different followers of Christ who make every service a surprise. We refuse to edit oddness and incompetence from our services. We believe our oddness matters. We want our service filled with mistakes and surprises, because life is full of mistakes and surprises.

One Sunday morning, during the time for prayer requests, a member began describing the critical illness of her father. Because she was close to her father, her request for prayer was frequently interrupted by tears. Those around her reached out a hand or nodded with sadness. Some found their eyes filling with tears as well. The woman finished her request as best as she could.

Seated in the front row was Sadie—a young woman with Down’s syndrome. Sadie stood and walked up the aisle until she saw the woman in the middle of her row. Stepping over the feet of other people in the aisle, Sadie reached the woman, bent down on her knees, laid her head on the woman’s lap, and cried with her.

Sadie »inconvenienced« an entire row of people, stepped on their shoes, and forced them to make room for her … but none of us will ever forget that moment. Sadie is still teaching the rest of us what the odd compassion of Christ’s church looks like.

Someone said »you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you odd.« Whoever made that statement understood what it means to be a follower of Christ. Followers of Christ are odd. Oddness is important because it’s the quality that adds color, texture, variety, and beauty to the human condition. Christ doesn’t make us the same. What He does is affirm our differentness.

Oddness is important because the most dangerous word in Western culture is »sameness.« Sameness is a virus that infects members of industrialized nations and causes an allergic reaction to anyone who’s different. This virus affects the decision-making part of our brain, resulting in an obsession with making the identical choices that everyone else is making.

Sameness is a disease with disastrous consequences—differences are ignored, uniqueness is not listened to, our gifts are cancelled out, and the place where life, passion, and joy reside are snuffed out.

Sameness is the result of sin. Sin does much more than infect us with lust and greed; it flattens the human race, franchises us, attempts to make us all homogenous. Sameness is the cemetery where our distinctiveness dies. In a sea of sameness, no one has an identity.

But Christians do have an identity. Aliens! We’re the odd ones, the strange ones, the misfits, the outsiders, the incompatibles. Oddness is a gift of God that sits dormant until God’s spirit gives it life and shape. Oddness is the consequence of following the One who made us unique, different … and in His image!

Please tell me why God allowed over 6000 innocent people to be murdered on September 11, 2001?

Answer?

I don’t know.

Where was God?

I don’t know.

When Leslie Weatherhead, a minister in London during the Second World War, was asked by a member in his congregation where God was when his son was killed in a bombing raid, Weatherhead replied, »I guess he was where he was when his son was killed.«

And where was that?

I don’t know.

Isn’t »I don’t know« too ambiguous? Isn’t »I don’t know« an unconvincing way to convince young people Christianity is true?

Actually, »I don’t know« confirms one critical truth about Christianity…it’s a mystery!

Jesus loves us, right?

Of course.

So if he loves us, he protects us, right?

If he loves us…he is with us.

Jesus can heal, can’t he? And perform miracles?

Of course. Just not very often.

Why?

I don’t know.

What about God’s will?

My youth director says we’re supposed to seek God’s will. There are lots of verses in the Bible that tell us to do God’s will, aren’t there? God does have a will, right?

Absolutely.

Trouble is God’s will is not like a to-do list. It’s more like an undecipherable code. The Bible definitely gives us some clues about the code of God’s will, which means we can figure out part of it; but, because it’s God, we will never crack the code.

Clues?

Yeah, like, follow me, serve me, love me, live by my commandments, point people to me.

That’s it? Just follow me, serve me, love me and trust me?

That’s about it.

What do you mean »that’s about it?«

You don’t want to know.

Yes I do.

We get a cross.

Cross????? What does that mean?

I don’t know.

But God does heal people, doesn’t he?

Certainly.

And miracles do happen, don’t they.

Right.

So we can count on God helping us, can’t we?

We can count on God being God.

Which means…??

I don’t know.

And what does that mean?

It means we can trust God if we lost someone in the WTC or if they survived.

It means we can trust God when we have cancer and when we’re healed.

We can trust God if we survive a natural disaster or if we don’t.

We can trust God when we get a glimpse of Divine will and when we don’t.

We can trust God in the answers and the questions, in the good and the bad, in the light and the dark, when we’re winning and when we’re losing.

We can trust God even when the Truth doesn’t answer all our questions or leaves us with even more questions.

And, most importantly, just beyond our »I don’t know’s,« Jesus is waiting with open arms to snuggle us in the mystery of his love.

My Testimony For Jesus~»Sue«

I was Raised Catholic. One day a Baptist preacher knocked on my door. He had a black Bible under his arm. That was the first thing that caught my eye. I didn't want to hear it. I was Catholic! My husband let him in,(they had pre-planned this) and asked him to have a seat. The Baptist preacher actually reached over & turned off my t.v. program. I looked at him like he was crazy. He just smiled at me in a sweet understanding way, which for some reason, upset me all the more! He was the pastor of the Landmark Baptist Church in town. They were having a Revival starting the Next Sunday. (I had no idea what a Revival was.) He said, he came by to ask me a question? (I figured it must be a good one since he turned off my t.v. program.) »If Something happened to you tonight, and you died, where would you go?« he asked. I didn't even hesitate. »To Heaven, of Course;« I replied. »Why do you say you'll go to Heaven?« he asked. »Because I am a Catholic;« I answered with assurance. I got to give that little Baptist Preacher Credit. He didn't Laugh! »Do you believe the Bible is God's Holy Word?« he asked me. I told him I did. He asked, if he could show me what Jesus said, about how to get to heaven. That puzzled me, because we were not encouraged to read the Bible. The priest told us everything we needed to know. I figured he wasn't going to leave unless I let him show me whatever it was he wanted me to see, so I said, All right. He turned to the book of Roman's, and took me down what's Called, »The Roman Road to Salvation.« He started out with Romans 3:23~ & All have sinned & come short of the Glory of God. When he was finished, I realized I understood the word's he showed me, and I knew I had been lied to. I went thru a week of Misery, confusion, and guilt as the fleshly nature Battled with the Spirit over being Born Again. My husband dragged me to the first night of the Revival. I didn't want to go~it was a sin~I was going to split Hell wide open for going in another Church that wasn't Catholic~What would the priest say? I was a Mess~I Was Confused! The first night, I couldn't get my feet to move. The second night, a lady next to me said; »If You take One step, God Will Take Two.« I took a step toward the Isle to go down front, and she was right. I went forward when the invitation call was given on the Second Night. I knelt down, and the pastor knelt beside me, and guided me through, asking Jesus into my Soul. I felt the Spirit~I Felt so Clean~There was No Doubt about what had just Happened. »I Was Born Again!« It was a Rocky Road I traveled with that little preacher, as I took him thru all kind's of changes regarding the lies I had been taught for 22 years of my life. He hung in there for Jesus, and I promised Jesus~I would do All I Could, to Make Sure those who had been lied to like I was, learned the Truth. That's My Testimony for Jesus~He set my Feet on a New Path & Put a Song of Praise in my Heart~He filled My Heart with Love for all people & gave me a Desire to Reach as many as Possible with The Truth of His Word. He is My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.~»Sue«

Coming Home
by Barbara Davidson
Born in post-World War II Germany of Polish holocaust survivors, my longing to find an earthly place I could call home began early in life. My parents, victims of Hitler's atrocities, had been thrust from their homes and forced to find new ones. Germany was for us a place we were but temporarily transplanted. From there we would eventually sail to the United States to establish more permanent roots. And so the Bronx, New York, became our new home. But we soon learned that anti-Semitism hadn't ended and, of course, never could end merely with the collapse of Hitler's regime. The Nazis had ceased abusing my father, but the same satanic spirit resided in my pseudo-Christian Gentile neighbors, who on several occasions beat me up simply because I was Jewish.

While we had made a home, we were not home. In time, though my parents remained in the Bronx, I left--first, to the faraway island of Manhattan. Later, as a blossoming flower child of the late '60s, having embraced Yoga and Eastern religions, I responded to the beckoning of India and Ceylon. But my anticipation of spiritual ecstasies was dampened by the pervasiveness of abject poverty. How, I wondered, could such so-called enlightened philosophies engender such darkness? Cutting short my stay at a yoga retreat in Ceylon, I headed for Israel--eager, yet at the same time, very reluctant. I had had my fill of Judaism. Its empty rituals were tiresome, and Jewishness was a source of shame to one as assimilated as I had aspired to become. (I had forbidden my mother to speak Yiddish to me in public. I wanted so much to be a Gentile that the highest compliment anyone could bestow upon me was to tell me that I didn't look Jewish.) Consequently, all that really interested me about Israel was the prospect of experiencing communal farm life on the kibbutz.

But God had other plans. (Was it mere coincidence that the night before leaving mostly Buddhist Ceylon, the only movie in town was »The Ten Commandments?«) Flying into a breathtaking, golden, Jaffa orange Israeli sunrise, I was overcome with emotion. But why was I, who rarely cried, crying? Why did I feel like kissing the ground? This was not my country. I was an American.

My intended brief stay turned into ten months. I loved the kibbutz life, and I thought I might return to live in Israel after completing my college education in the States.

But I felt so uncomfortable among the Orthodox Jews at my college that the very idea of living in an all-Jewish State was abhorrent to me.

Still determined to find a home, I then fancied that the West Coast would provide me with what I was looking for. It wasn't. Meanwhile, a subsequent return trip to Israel in 1977 convinced me that it still was no more than a nice place to visit.

In early 1982, however, everything changed. I received a pamphlet on a street corner in New York. It was put out by Jews for Jesus, and I felt compelled to write a letter to them. I soon received a phone call from a Jewish woman who invited me to attend a service. It was a fascinating experience seeing very Jewish people singing praises to Jesus. I stopped running away from my Jewish roots. That was when I found my Messiah. With his abiding love, he set into motion the process of my discovering my true home.

In August, 1982, I was able to return once again to Israel--this time to help with the Lebanese war effort. As a volunteer with the Israeli Army, I was blessed with the opportunity to spend an entire month with the courageous defenders of that tiny country that is God's earthly promise to the seed of Abraham; to clean tanks and machine guns; to pack duffle bags; to help my people; to learn about the agony and the heartache of continual war; to help protect my country.

How strange, yet how comfortable was this new feeling of love and loyalty which overcame me. God had certainly changed the heart of this would-be Jewish anti-Semite. For the first time in my life, I felt that I was truly home. Indeed, from God's point of view, I was home:

»But you, O mountains of Israel, will produce branches and fruit for my people Israel, for they will soon come home.« (Ezekiel 36:8, NIV)

My return to New York was difficult because I now knew what had motivated my search for an earthly home: I was in the Diaspora, outside of God's promised land, and in exile. At the same time, however, I realized that before coming to know Y'shua, I had also been in a spiritual Diaspora--cast out from God's promises by my unbelief. But God, by His abundant grace, was true to His promise:

»I will put my spirit in you and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land.« (Ezekiel 37:14)

He put His spirit in me, and I came alive, and subsequently settled into my spiritual inheritance through my faith in the Messiah of Israel. Although still living in New York, I pray that one day soon I will also physically settle in the land of my forefathers. But in the meantime, I know for certain that wherever I am on this earth, I am at home in the Lord.

God loved His initial human creation so much that He gave mankind freedom to make choices. [Genesis 2-3] This freedom involved the choice of saying »yes« or »no« to an obedient, yet personal relationship with God. The first two individuals He created both said »no« – a decision that subsequent generations of men and women have confirmed by their own choices.

The Bible teaches that evil originated from outside this world (2 Peter 2:4, Jude 6) and entered the human race through Adam, whose disobedience in turn affected all of creation. (Genesis 3:16-19) Because we are by nature social creatures, an individual’s activities are not limited to himself, but always affect others. Therefore, when we willfully choose to reject God and go our own selfish ways, others will necessarily suffer.

When Adam failed to trust Him, God could have begun all over with a new creation – one which did not have the option to accept or reject God, like robots. But, while He restricts evil, He has allowed evil to run its course so that individuals may voluntarily choose Him. The climax of this great antagonism is that evil shall not rule in the universe forever, but will be decisively and ultimately overcome by God’s power in the future. (1 Corinthians 15:24-28)

However, the key question is, »How will you use your free will?« or, stated another way, »What decision will you make regarding Jesus Christ and His claims towards you?«