How Does God Feel About Radical Islamists?

Blog »  How Does God Feel About Radical Islamists?

Wednesday, September 11, 2013   Jeff Lampl

www.flickr.com/photos/85772001@N00/75771062

God’s Mercy Makes Jonah Angry  

"(When God saw that the Ninevites repented ). .. . He did not  punish them,   But this made Jonah very unhappy, and he became angry.  . . . . . So now I ask you, LORD, please kill me. It is better for me to die than to live." Jonah 3:10-4:3 (NCV)  

 "Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them."
Romans 12:14 (NLT)  

 "Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good."
Romans 12:21 (NLT)  

 "But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,"
Matthew 5:44 (TEV) 

“shouldn’t I show concern for the great city Nineveh, which has more than one hundred twenty thousand people who do not know right from wrong . . ?“
Jonah 4:11 (NCV)  

Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them; they don't know what they're doing."

 Luke 23:34

 

Ninevah was to Israel what the Taliban or Al Quaida is to us (and to Israel!).    Years ago Jerry Falwell , leader of what was then known as the Christian “Moral Majority” was interviewed on CNN and was asked what we should about radical Islam.   His answer was , “Blow them away in the Name of the Lord”  

What would constitute a godly response from America to the Syrian Government’s (or the Rebels’?) use of chemical weapons on civilians civil war, the growing control of Al Quaida in Iraq, or the Military’s ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt? 

What would Jesus have us do?  Is it possible that in practice our version of “Just War” turns out in the end to be, at least in some ways, not all that different to war waged against us by Muslim nations?    Does returning evil for evil accomplish God’s purposes,  even if we deem military action the “lesser of two evils” option?  Does violent force even work?   Or does simply and always bring about retaliation?   And what is God’s big picture of this anyway?  

God loved the Ninevites.  God loves those who are His enemies.   What if . . . . what if we were to risk American lives by invading Syria and Egypt and Palestine and Afghanistan with food, medicine, shelter, love and compassion thereby seeking  “to conquer evil by doing good” just like the Bible says?    

It was GK Chesterton who wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and therefore left untried.”

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Bonus Read!   Promote Free Speech on Evolution!
http://view.s6.exacttarget.com/?j=fef416737c610c&m=fe8e12717364017b7c&ls=fe2b15747066037d711079&l=
ff61107372&s=fe6410717c6607757514&jb=ffcf14&ju=fec312747062007e&r=0

 

Bonus:  Why Does America Love Duck Dynasty??
http://christianmediamagazine.com/cmm/duck_dynasty_really_selling

God Blessed the Broken Bone. . . And Led Me Straight to Him

Blog »  God Blessed the Broken Bone...And Led Me Straight To Him

September 10, 2013   Marty Sarkissian

 

I like to write.   So much so that originally I had blocked out a few hours to reflect and write this first blog on Richard Stearn's "Unfinished".   Yet after reading and re-reading these sections, I am left with just a few distilled thoughts:

Young OR old...

-  if you ever lay awake at night wondering what you're supposed to be doing with your life,
   OR

- if you find yourself always empty, feeling "there must be something more", OR

- if you wish you could have a greater impact in the world around you,

...THEN you know well the pain of feeling "Unfinished".

The point of this book is simple, yet  its application complex.  As believers in a risen Savior in the person of Jesus Christ, we have the responsibility under the direction of scripture to "preach the gospel in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come" (Matthew 24:14). So as followers of Jesus then,  we are called to the role of telling everyone we can about the good news of the Resurrection. Living life outside of that role takes us "off-script ", and this causes the "pains" of drifting and emptiness.

Our world has much to offer to satisfy the void and to fill that emptiness.  Much of what it offers may in fact be "good" (but not centered on faith in Jesus); yet there is plenty that's not.  In my life, I must admit in different seasons I've employed both - which has always left me searching for deeper purpose. I've had seasons of unbelief, and seasons of belief in my self - my own efforts - which always left me broken. By God's grace alone I've been brought through those seasons.

So now in my forties the matter is settled. I can't say when, but over time Jesus met my messy self centeredness, emptiness, and drifting with a gradual collision of grace, and through many people...fellow Christians...helped me realize that my talents and gifts are there to be used to spread His message instead of my gain in this life. And the funny thing is that rather than being broken from that collision, over time I've been made more whole.

Perhaps that's what CS Lewis meant when he said, "The place for which He designs them (what he has created) in his scheme of things is the place they are made for. When they reach it their nature is fulfilled and their happiness attained:  a broken bone in the universe has been set, the anguish over.  When we want to be something other than the thing God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy."
******************************************

A fun side note: For all the country fans who smiled at the pun of the title of this blog,  the Rascal Flatts are mere copycats :) of the original writer Geoff Moore. And -- whether you do or don't know what I'm referencing here, here's a link to the original version by Geoff Moore. Enjoy a beautiful song about our love for others, OR our relationship with The Lord.   

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZzEqywaDW4

 

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Missing the Forest for the Trees

Blog »  Missing the Forest for the Trees

Monday, September 9, 2013   Jeff Lampl

www.flickr.com/photos/miuenski/2530359649

 

“And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come”    Matthew 24:14  

In the introduction to his book, Unfinished, Richard Stearns points out our tendency to become so absorbed in things right in front of us that we lose sight of the bigger picture.  Does this happen to you?  Do you become so absorbed by the “trees” of your everyday life that you have lost sight of the bigger story within which our lives take place?  “We grow up, go to school, begin careers, get married, have kids, and struggle daily with life’s challenges.  These are the “trees of our lives” that occupy most of our waking hours.  Even praying, bible reading, going to church, and attending a small group can just be more trees in a life cluttered with more trees”  

But the Big Story, the one that the Bible tells from the first page to the last,  the Story into which you were born and within which you’ve been given a part to play, is that God is healing a broken and sinful world.   He is ushering in new kind of society, a new kind of kingdom which operates on the basis of love, truth, forgiveness and compassion.  He has launched a revolution which will overthrow the prevailing  world system.  He is making all things new.   This is the Gospel which believers  are to told to bring to the world. And He’s given each of us a script to follow, a role to play and purpose to live.     

But to know your role, you must know the story.   But to embrace and live out your role you must believe the story.

 

Do  you ever have the feeling that there is something missing in your life? Do you ever have a sense that your life should be about something more than it is?    Has God given you a Holy Discontent that cannot be satisfied until the story of your life aligns with God’s Big Story?

           

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Jonah's Job

Blog »  JONAH'S JOB  

Friday, September 6, 2013 ;   LK Jordan

Have you ever wondered how Job felt when Satan got permission to harm his family? (Job 1:12 ) Or found it odd that a man was born blind so Jesus could show the power of God? (Jn 9:1-3) And how could a landowner pay one-hour workers as much as he paid day-long workers? (Matt 20:1-15) Clearly, some of God’s ways are hard to understand and may even cause us, like Jonah, to take flight.  

As Jonah learned, God's intrusion into our lives usually occurs in the face of contrary intentions on our part and often outright resistance. He is not “tame” and certainly Jonah is not the only person who has unhappily said, “I cannot believe a good God who would allow that to happen.”  

God’s will is that we know Him, trust Him, obey Him, that we practice mercy and justice and that we - and the Nineveh enemies in our life– find salvation and become more like His Son. These traits do not come easily and this is why God's ways and thoughts are quite different from, and superior to, ours. (Isaiah 55:9)  Jonah's job was to trust and obey even thought he instead desired death. Our job is the same as Jonah's.

 

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Frenemies

Blog »  FRENEMIES
 Thursday, September 5, 2013 ;   LK Jordan

 

 

Nineveh was the capital of Assyria , a nation infamous for fierceness, a nation Israel dreaded as she had repeatedly harassed, killed and destroyed the Israelites. Unthinkable as it was to Jonah, God called him to preach salvation, not only to a non-Israelite nation, but, worse yet, to Israel ’s destructive enemy!  

“No way! I’ll run away first. I know You are a gracious God and will relent from the disaster planned for Nineveh ! Forgiveness, no . . . vengeance, yes!”  

Jonah tried his best to prevent Nineveh from receiving God’s grace and in the process, he traded places with his enemy. The inability to repent, which Jonah ascribed to Nineveh is now his own; the grace that Jonah begrudged Nineveh is the very grace by which he is sustained.  

We must never think that most infamous are not precious to God, or that God only shows kindness and mercy to the deserving. God’s unfathomable grace goes out to the undeserving, transforming enemies into friends, opponents into partners. That’s His pattern for us to follow too. To turn our enemies into FRENEMIES!

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Running From God

Blog »  Running From God

Wednesday, September 4, 2013   Jeff Lampl

 

“ The LORD gave this message to Jonah son of Amittai:  'Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh. Announce my judgment against it because I have seen how wicked its people are.'  But Jonah got up and went in the opposite direction to get away from the LORD. He went down to the port of Joppa, where he found a ship leaving for Tarshish. He bought a ticket and went on board, hoping to escape from the LORD by sailing to Tarshish”

Jonah 1:1-3 (NLT)

Jonah is one of the great stories in the Bible.  Through this story God cuts right through all of our human pretense and reveals to us who we are over and against who God is.  

The story sucks us in immediately.   Jonah learns that God wants him to do what he decides is simply impossible.  Ninevah is full of evil.  He hates Ninevites.  He values his own skin.  Easy decision!  Ninevah is directly to the east.   Jonah goes directly west.   Not only is Tarshish to the west, it was also located on the west coast of Spain, the outer limits of the known world!    

Jonah is us.    At least he’s me.   There are people I want to avoid going to, things I want to avoid doing.   There are times I’d rather see someone get their “just deserts” than see them saved.  There is this thing in me called sin which God over and over and over again calls me to overcome and through a sheer act of the will do the opposite of what I want to do.     

Jonah headed for Tarshish.   Shipwreck, three days in a whale, repentance and finally obedience lead Jonah to risk following God.   And miracle of miracles, Jonah finds success right in the midst of his obedience.  

We all have this choice perhaps even weekly.   Go my own way and find shipwreck (or sometimes an unfulfilling escape in the comfort of Tarshish) or go God’s way and, although often hard, find success within God’s will. 

 

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How to Read the Bible

Blog »  How to Read the Bible
Tuesday, September 3, 2013   Jeff Lampl

 

 

        “the LORD provided a great fish to swallow Jonah,
        and Jonah was inside the fish three days and three nights”   Jonah 1:17 (NIV)

 

 

“Did this really happen?”  In my experience this is the most frequently asked question when reading Jonah.   “In a fish for three days, praying a beautiful prayer while in there and surviving?”   I have read all kinds of responses to this.   Some say, “never happened, it’s a made up story”.   Others say, “Why not, God can do anything”.  Others point to examples of this having actually happened in modern times (although internet fact checkers say these stories never happened).    Furthermore, the issue takes on greater importance because Jesus referred to this passage as the sign by which people would discover that he is Lord  (Matt 16:4).   The question gets further confused when some people insist that every aspect of the Bible must be accurate as in eyewitness news fact reporting and others insist that there is much in the Bible that must be read metaphorically.   And that’s only the tip of the iceberg!

 

Here’s what I have discovered and concluded.   Some Bible believing scholars believe that the book of Jonah details an event that happened in history.  Period.  Other Bible believing scholars (who also refer to the Bible as inerrant, inspired and  infallible) believe that Jonah is more like one of Jesus’ parables, a story written to show us what God is like over and against what many of us are like.

 

So who’s right?   Both sets of scholars are rigorous, godly, devout scholars.   What I do with this is to open my mind to consider that either side could be correct.   Of course God can do out of the ordinary things.   And of course God can use lots of stories, metaphors, word pictures to get his point across.   Jesus did both and it wouldn’t surprise me at all to think that Jesus was referring to a non historical but full of truth story of Jonah.  

 

Here’s one fundamental rule of how to read the Bible.   Readings from the Bible mean at least what the inspired author of the passage intended it to mean.  If the author of Jonah was Jonah and he intended it recount actual historical events, then that’s exactly how to read Jonah.   If the author was someone who intended the story to be read as something like a parable then that’s exactly how it should be read.   In neither case is one reading more “true” than the other.   Either reading is God’s truth.  

 

To be perfectly honest, I do not feel an allegiance to one position or the other.   I do not find compelling the argument of those who say Jesus would never have used a parable to authenticate his deity via the resurrection, nor do I believe that we have to remove the miracles from the Old Testament.   It all depends on who’s writing what and for what purpose.

 

Therefore it’s always good to read the Bible using a Bible with notes, and to read your Bible with a good commentary to help you understand the context of what you are reading, who the author was, what he’s addressing.

 

Above all, do read your Bible!   Of all practices that a Christian can engage in, studies have shown that Bible reading is the most catalytic.

 

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