A Modern Day Christmas Story
John R. Petrilli
[While the ancient well-loved story of a Savior born in Bethlehem is always refreshing to re-tell and re-hear, perhaps we can more readily enter into its reality by putting it in more modern terms. Here’s what a modern-day Christmas story might very well look, sound, and feel like.]
An urgent message played back on her voicemail telling her to contact her Ob-Gyn immediately. Susie gasped as she hit the dial button on her caller-ID cell-phone. “Dr. Joy’s office”, the secretary cheerily greeted. Once connected to her doctor’s head nurse, Susie was informed that she was pregnant. “This can’t be”, she whispered to herself, “How can I be pregnant when I’m a virgin?”
That night while praying she saw something really strange appear in her bedroom. It was a light that glowed with a soft yet soothing aura. Then she heard a distinguished authoritative voice come from the aura, “Susie, the baby you are carrying has been miraculously put there by God. You’re to name Him ‘Heysoos’. He will become great and will sit upon the throne of David; His kingdom will never end.”
Susie repeatedly pinched herself just to make sure she wasn’t just imagining all this. No matter how hard she squeezed the skin between her fingers, she still felt the pinch. Overwhelming fears starting rolling over her heart and mind. “What will I tell my parents? They’re going to kill me! How will I ever be able to explain this to my fiancé Bill? He won’t want anything to do with me! I have to get away from here right now before anyone has a chance to see the baby showing!”
Without giving it a second thought, Susie packed her carry-on bag and headed for the airport. She was fortunate to land an inexpensive round trip ticket to fly her to her cousin Gracie’s home in a remote suburb. There she could gather herself, recover from the shock of recent developments, and, in virtual anonymity, bring her newborn-to-be to term with a degree of privacy and secrecy.
What Susie didn’t know was that her fiancé Bill had also experienced a visit from another world. He had received information from a heavenly messenger telling him it would be right, good and necessary for him to marry his impregnated fiancé because her conception was a God thing. Bill was to take responsibility for fathering God’s only Son! Although initially terrified by the night visitor, Bill eventually fell off to sleep, resting a lot easier knowing he could follow through on his carefully laid marriage plans.
Nine months later while listening to their i-pods, a graveyard shift crew of street cleaners heard music that sounded like nothing they’d ever heard before. Looking questioningly at each other they tried to figure out which one of them had those really weird-sounding i-tunes playing. Suddenly the entire block of streets they were cleaning burst forth in blazing light! “What’s up?” they stammered. Then the sound grew loud enough for them to realize it wasn’t coming from any of their i-pods; it was coming from above the city streets! They ran to the nearest intersection where they couldn’t believe their eyes. There, hovering above the tallest skyscrapers floated a cluster of heavenly beings numbering in the thousands. The light they emitted was so bright the street cleaners could hardly make out who or what it was they were seeing.
Without any warning whatsoever, a voice broke through the thunderous praise songs of this celestial group, saying, “Hey guys, chill out; don’t get so stressed! Have we got some awesome news for you! Tonight while you were pulling your night shift a Savior was born right here in a nearby neighborhood! His Name is Jesus Christ the Lord. You’ll know you’ve located Him when you find a baby wrapped in tattered clothes lying in a cradle made of styrofoam.”
That was enough to motivate this blue collar crew to make a beeline straight to the neighborhood which the celestial messengers identified as the Savior’s birthplace. Once they got there, they searched among the homeless crowd until they found one young teenaged couple living under a highway bridge in a makeshift cardboard refrigerator box home. They were huddled against each other to ward off the frosty night air and howling winds. There in a makeshift styrofoam cradle lay their newborn, just as the heavenly visitors had told them. Not wanting to take anymore unauthorized break time, they booked it back to their workplace and immediately told their supervisor and all their co-workers the incredible things they’d just witnessed.
About a week later in the homeless neighborhood Bill and Susie covered their baby in the warmest discarded blankets they could find in a dumpster and carted him off to the nearest church rectory. Fortunately for them the pastor was available. He graciously agreed to perform a dedication ceremony for them free of charge. He himself was orphaned and adopted, and found it easy to empathize with their penniless plight. The caring man of God also commended the young couple for the mature way they were handling their new responsibilities as teenaged parents.
But before they could set foot on the parsonage steps, an elderly man with the kindest expression on his face crossed their path. “Hello”, he softly greeted the couple. “My name is Theodore. While I was praying this morning the Lord told me that I’d meet the Messiah today here at the church. Would that baby you’re carrying be Him?” Shell-shocked at the senior saint’s incredible insight, they replied, “Uh … well … uh, yes … it’s Him!” Old Theodore’s face broke out in a smile wide enough to span the Mississippi. “Hallelujah, Praise God!” he shouted at the top of his years-worn voice. What happened next took everyone by surprise. Theodore opened his mouth to utter a Spirit-led prediction of the saving mission this new Babe would carry out that would affect all future generations spanning the entire globe.
No sooner had he finished mouthing these remarkable words but that a very aged, widowed saint by the name of Adrianna appeared. “I’m so sorry to burst in on you like this”, she apologized, “but I couldn’t help but overhear the prophecy brother Theodore just gave about your baby.” With that she audibly lifted her grateful heart to heaven itself, then darted away to spread the good news to all her believing friends at the nearby senior citizens center.
Fast forwarding two years after these events, the story takes a really interesting turn. We find ourselves squeezed into the cramped quarters of an observatory located on a mountaintop somewhere seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Three astrophysicists are busily calculating the trajectory of an object that has suddenly and unexpectedly appeared in plain view without the aid of their electron telescope. “What IS this?” they exclaimed to each other. “We’ve NEVER seen ANYTHING like THIS before!” As they scrambled for the astrophotography equipment they noticed that the celestial anomaly had begun moving in a most untypical direction. Its pathway followed no known route of any pre-existing planet, star, galaxy, nebula or supernova. This thing was totally new and unprecedented in every way, shape and form.
With all the curiosity and zeal of a child these seasoned astronomers carefully tracked every movement of this dancing star. The only problem this presented was that the star’s pathway went well beyond the horizon. So they quickly threw together their mobile telescopic unit with a built-in GPS and jumped onto the highway. After what seemed like weeks of running down this object, it finally came to a stationary position just above a small run-down tenement building in lower Manhattan. Upon ringing the security intercom, they were cheerfully greeted by a lower class couple named Smith. By now Bill Smith had found his way occupationally as a repairman for a local appliance distributor, while his wife Susie elected to be a stay-at-home-mom who’d already begun home schooling her preschool-aged Son.
Once the team of astrophysicists entered the tiny apartment their minds instantly and inexplicably shifted from astronomy to theology. Without giving it a second thought, these sophisticated men of science found themselves squatting down to get a close look at a rambunctious little toddler named Haysoos. Haysoos had a bubbly giggle that brought smiles to everyone within earshot. Then it dawned on them. They hadn’t been searching for a star after all; they’d been searching for THE Star of David, the very One Who had called each and every star into being and given individual names to all the heavenly bodies that filled the universe! Cognizant of the fact that they were standing in the very Presence of Deity, they took off their hats out of respect, then pulled-out their checkbooks and wrote a sum totaling tens of thousands of dollars in belated baby shower gifts to celebrate the birth of this unlikely couple’s very unique Son.
True to Theodore’s prophecy, this same innocent little toddler grew into a boy, then into a young Man, and eventually into an Adult of great power and influence Who performed so many miracles they defy the accountant’s pen. The toddler-become-Savior eventually fell into disfavor with the recently formed Global Council of Churches by claiming He was God. The Council leadership decided to silence Him by condemning Him to a slow and painful death by starvation and dehydration. Thankfully, the story doesn’t end there. This Man among men proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was indeed the Messiah by rising from the dead. Although this event was intentionally hidden from the media, its evidences have long ago been proven incontrovertible. According to His last public statement before returning to His original homeland, this Messiah is planning to re-visit the planet a second time, only the circumstances surrounding the next appearance will be far from ideal. Instead of a helpless baby, this Savior will be returning from Heaven as the Mighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And instead of a few janitors and astronomers paying Him homage, every knee on the planet will irresistibly fall down before Him!
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
Christmas - Oh, HOLY Night!
Christmas … Oh! HOLY Night!
John R. Petrilli
Christmastime often brings to mind childhood memories. For me it recalls the department store window in downtown Syracuse where motorized reindeer mannequins dashed through the winter wonderland scenery, and Santa Claus made a personal appearance at the E.W. Edwards store just to hear me tick off my wish list and make a mental note of my holiday “order”.
The Christmas story itself has a familiarity which, if not careful, can almost lead to a subtle form of apathy or contempt. But this year it’s different for me… really different. I began to see another side of Christmas … the HOLY side. A close examination of the Biblical text surprisingly reveals a Christmas that is holy from start to finish.
Take the night for example. It was holy as the sky was filled with angelic voices singing songs of adoration, praise and proclamation (Luke 2:8-14).
Then there’s the angel sent to relive Joseph’s many and justifiable anxieties. He was undoubtedly holy, as are all the angels sent on God’s errands (Matt. 1:20-23).
And Joseph himself is testified as being a holy young man (Matt. 1:19) who did well to follow the angel’s advice because it was perfectly in line with Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Messiah’s miraculous birth (Matt. 1:22-23), as revealed in the Holy Scriptures (Isaiah 7:14).
Next we have the well-known mother-to-be in beautiful Mary. Her inner beauty and holiness is revealed not only in her ready submission to God’s mysterious and personally embarrassing plan (Luke 1:38), but also in the words that compose her lovely song announcing her child’s impending conception (Luke 1: 46-55). She was a gal who was clearly holy in body and spirit (Luke 1:26-27, 34).
The angel Gabriel who brought the advance notice of Mary’s upcoming supernatural conception was doubtless holy (Luke 1:26).
Mary’s dear friend, cousin and confidant Elizabeth was a Spirit-filled holy woman of God (Luke 1:41), not unlike her Spirit-filled husband Zechariah (Luke 1:67), whose joyful song about his son John’s birth also included direct references to the Messiah and His ministry (Luke 1:68-69 , 76-79).
We all know very well that the shepherds were lowly, but did you ever stop to see that they were also holy? Their open receptivity to an angel’s visit and their quick action in telling others the good news is clear evidence of this fact (Luke 2:15-18).
Holiness continues its theme even after Christ’s birth. Upon completion of her forty days of purification and ceremonial cleansing, Mary carries the baby Jesus into the Temple for dedication to the Lord, and there meets up with a holy senior saint by the name of Simeon (Luke 2:25).
No sooner had he said, “Amen”, but that another holy woman named Anna encounters Jesus and His parents in the Temple (Luke 2:36-38). Her holiness is attested to by her life of dedicated fasting and prayer along with her gratitude for sending the Messiah and her active role in spreading the incredible news to all who were eagerly anticipating their promised Redeemer (Luke 2: 37-39).
And what about those oft-debated Wise Men from the East? Rather than quibbling over their origin, number, or astronomical savvy, we should zero-in on their holy character. Observe the way these men of high degree obediently and carefully followed God’s leading and will as He revealed Himself to them through their familiar language of the stars (Matt. 2:2,9). Upon arrival at the home of the Holy Son of God, these holy men devoutly bowed before Him in reverence and sheer awe (Matt. 2:11).
The story ends on yet another holy note as a holy angel gives an advance directive to Joseph concerning Herod’s plot to destroy Jesus and the necessity of their immediate escape into Egypt under cover of night (Matt. 2:13-15).
From start to finish Christmas is, indeed, wholly holy. It was and still can be , “Oh, Holy Night” as we hear from God’s Word, obey the Spirit’s leadership in our daily lives, and worship the Son Who was born to die so that we could die to ourselves and become reborn.
Are we holy in body and spirit (1 Cor. 7:34b)? Perhaps Christmas is the perfect time for each of us to reassess our personal spiritual status and reconnect with our holy God. A MERRY CHRISTMAS to every one of you, and may this Christmas become for each of you a most “Holy Night!”
John R. Petrilli
Christmastime often brings to mind childhood memories. For me it recalls the department store window in downtown Syracuse where motorized reindeer mannequins dashed through the winter wonderland scenery, and Santa Claus made a personal appearance at the E.W. Edwards store just to hear me tick off my wish list and make a mental note of my holiday “order”.
The Christmas story itself has a familiarity which, if not careful, can almost lead to a subtle form of apathy or contempt. But this year it’s different for me… really different. I began to see another side of Christmas … the HOLY side. A close examination of the Biblical text surprisingly reveals a Christmas that is holy from start to finish.
Take the night for example. It was holy as the sky was filled with angelic voices singing songs of adoration, praise and proclamation (Luke 2:8-14).
Then there’s the angel sent to relive Joseph’s many and justifiable anxieties. He was undoubtedly holy, as are all the angels sent on God’s errands (Matt. 1:20-23).
And Joseph himself is testified as being a holy young man (Matt. 1:19) who did well to follow the angel’s advice because it was perfectly in line with Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Messiah’s miraculous birth (Matt. 1:22-23), as revealed in the Holy Scriptures (Isaiah 7:14).
Next we have the well-known mother-to-be in beautiful Mary. Her inner beauty and holiness is revealed not only in her ready submission to God’s mysterious and personally embarrassing plan (Luke 1:38), but also in the words that compose her lovely song announcing her child’s impending conception (Luke 1: 46-55). She was a gal who was clearly holy in body and spirit (Luke 1:26-27, 34).
The angel Gabriel who brought the advance notice of Mary’s upcoming supernatural conception was doubtless holy (Luke 1:26).
Mary’s dear friend, cousin and confidant Elizabeth was a Spirit-filled holy woman of God (Luke 1:41), not unlike her Spirit-filled husband Zechariah (Luke 1:67), whose joyful song about his son John’s birth also included direct references to the Messiah and His ministry (Luke 1:68-69 , 76-79).
We all know very well that the shepherds were lowly, but did you ever stop to see that they were also holy? Their open receptivity to an angel’s visit and their quick action in telling others the good news is clear evidence of this fact (Luke 2:15-18).
Holiness continues its theme even after Christ’s birth. Upon completion of her forty days of purification and ceremonial cleansing, Mary carries the baby Jesus into the Temple for dedication to the Lord, and there meets up with a holy senior saint by the name of Simeon (Luke 2:25).
No sooner had he said, “Amen”, but that another holy woman named Anna encounters Jesus and His parents in the Temple (Luke 2:36-38). Her holiness is attested to by her life of dedicated fasting and prayer along with her gratitude for sending the Messiah and her active role in spreading the incredible news to all who were eagerly anticipating their promised Redeemer (Luke 2: 37-39).
And what about those oft-debated Wise Men from the East? Rather than quibbling over their origin, number, or astronomical savvy, we should zero-in on their holy character. Observe the way these men of high degree obediently and carefully followed God’s leading and will as He revealed Himself to them through their familiar language of the stars (Matt. 2:2,9). Upon arrival at the home of the Holy Son of God, these holy men devoutly bowed before Him in reverence and sheer awe (Matt. 2:11).
The story ends on yet another holy note as a holy angel gives an advance directive to Joseph concerning Herod’s plot to destroy Jesus and the necessity of their immediate escape into Egypt under cover of night (Matt. 2:13-15).
From start to finish Christmas is, indeed, wholly holy. It was and still can be , “Oh, Holy Night” as we hear from God’s Word, obey the Spirit’s leadership in our daily lives, and worship the Son Who was born to die so that we could die to ourselves and become reborn.
Are we holy in body and spirit (1 Cor. 7:34b)? Perhaps Christmas is the perfect time for each of us to reassess our personal spiritual status and reconnect with our holy God. A MERRY CHRISTMAS to every one of you, and may this Christmas become for each of you a most “Holy Night!”
Thursday, November 13, 2008
So What's It To Ya?
What’s It To Ya?
John R. Petrilli
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” Lamentations 1:12
A friend of mine joins me once a week to peacefully pray and hand out prolife literature in front of a local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. While recently engaged in this, I couldn’t help but think about all the cars passing by us on the street. They must know that babies are routinely murdered at the clinic. The name Planned Parenthood itself is synonymous with abortion. Yet there they went on their merry way, presumably with near full knowledge of the atrocities transpiring only 50 feet from the curb.
The prophet Jeremiah found himself in a state of shock and disbelief. His beloved city of Jerusalem was sacked, burned to the ground, desolate, just as God warned it would be. The nation of Judah failed to heed God’s warning to stop worshipping idols and sacrificing their children to pagan gods. But they blew God off, and were now dispersed across the globe. Jeremiah laments the total destruction of his home city, and cries out in pure anguish, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?”
This is the question that begged for an answer as I watched car after car drive by this abortion center. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” Well, is it? If it IS something to you, why haven’t you pulled over your car, entered the clinic, and protested this atrocity? If it WAS something to you, why haven’t you consistently voted for prolife candidates? If it IS something to you, why aren’t you doing anything about it?
The people of Judah had their chance to change their ways (repent), and return to the worship of the true and living God. But they made a tragic and conscious choice to bow down to the idols of those who practiced infanticide. But they passed on that golden opportunity, only to experience 2,000 years of dislocation, social rejection, economic hardship, mindless persecution, and a lifestyle of wandering from one country to another with no place to call “home”.
So what’s it to ya? As an American citizen, does it really matter to you that the blood of over 49 million babies now covers our hands? Does it matter to you that our government has miserably failed over a 35 year span to abolish the infamous Roe v. Wade debacle? So what’s it to ya?
For most, their actions clearly indicate that it means NOTHING to them. They’ve never shed one tear, written one letter to their Congressmen, attended a single prolife rally, or given their time at a crisis pregnancy center. Their actions betray a nation that’s stunningly silent as its progeny is systematically snuffed out under the lying excuse of “choice”. The real choice isn’t whether to HAVE a baby, for a pregnant woman already HAS the baby in her womb. The real question is, will she decide to let the baby live, or will she decide to kill that little one. This is the question, everything else is pure chicanery.
But the prophet Jeremiah wasn’t of this stripe. No, he warned the people long before these judgments from God fell upon them. He had faithfully told them that their sins would eventually fill up, and divine wrath would be their sad portion. But they hardened their hearts and actually rejected and persecuted this wonderful and humble man of God!
So what are ya gonna do about it?
God’s waiting your response!
John R. Petrilli
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” Lamentations 1:12
A friend of mine joins me once a week to peacefully pray and hand out prolife literature in front of a local Planned Parenthood abortion clinic. While recently engaged in this, I couldn’t help but think about all the cars passing by us on the street. They must know that babies are routinely murdered at the clinic. The name Planned Parenthood itself is synonymous with abortion. Yet there they went on their merry way, presumably with near full knowledge of the atrocities transpiring only 50 feet from the curb.
The prophet Jeremiah found himself in a state of shock and disbelief. His beloved city of Jerusalem was sacked, burned to the ground, desolate, just as God warned it would be. The nation of Judah failed to heed God’s warning to stop worshipping idols and sacrificing their children to pagan gods. But they blew God off, and were now dispersed across the globe. Jeremiah laments the total destruction of his home city, and cries out in pure anguish, “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?”
This is the question that begged for an answer as I watched car after car drive by this abortion center. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” Well, is it? If it IS something to you, why haven’t you pulled over your car, entered the clinic, and protested this atrocity? If it WAS something to you, why haven’t you consistently voted for prolife candidates? If it IS something to you, why aren’t you doing anything about it?
The people of Judah had their chance to change their ways (repent), and return to the worship of the true and living God. But they made a tragic and conscious choice to bow down to the idols of those who practiced infanticide. But they passed on that golden opportunity, only to experience 2,000 years of dislocation, social rejection, economic hardship, mindless persecution, and a lifestyle of wandering from one country to another with no place to call “home”.
So what’s it to ya? As an American citizen, does it really matter to you that the blood of over 49 million babies now covers our hands? Does it matter to you that our government has miserably failed over a 35 year span to abolish the infamous Roe v. Wade debacle? So what’s it to ya?
For most, their actions clearly indicate that it means NOTHING to them. They’ve never shed one tear, written one letter to their Congressmen, attended a single prolife rally, or given their time at a crisis pregnancy center. Their actions betray a nation that’s stunningly silent as its progeny is systematically snuffed out under the lying excuse of “choice”. The real choice isn’t whether to HAVE a baby, for a pregnant woman already HAS the baby in her womb. The real question is, will she decide to let the baby live, or will she decide to kill that little one. This is the question, everything else is pure chicanery.
But the prophet Jeremiah wasn’t of this stripe. No, he warned the people long before these judgments from God fell upon them. He had faithfully told them that their sins would eventually fill up, and divine wrath would be their sad portion. But they hardened their hearts and actually rejected and persecuted this wonderful and humble man of God!
So what are ya gonna do about it?
God’s waiting your response!
Others May Celebrate, I Deeply Mourn!
Others May Celebrate, I Deeply Mourn!
John R. Petrilli
The elections are over. America has placed the first African-American into the highest office in the land. I have no problem with that. What I most definitely have a problem with is the anti-life, pro-death voting record of this man named Obama. He was the only U.S. Senator to publicly voice his opposition to the Born Alive Act, a piece of legislation that would protect the life of a baby who survived a botched abortion. By voting against this legislation Obama was in favor of withholding food, water, or any other means by which to support the baby’s life, thus letting it die a slow and cruel death.
I’m in shock that the majority of American people have voted such a man into the presidency. The media and just about everyone around is celebrating this appointment. As an American first and a pro-lifer second, I deeply mourn this development. I care not if a president is black, blue, or green. I do care about where they stand on the sanctity of Life. This incoming president has zero respect for the lives of the unborn. President-elect Obama has also publicly declared (Planned Parenthood Action Fund gathering, July 17, 2007) the first thing he will do is sign an executive order making abortion a legally protected right in all 50 states. With one fell swoop of his pen he will undo 30 years of legal gains including parental notification and many other restrictions on this atrocious thing called abortion.
What shocks me even more is the way that the American populace has turned a deaf ear and blind eye to this man’s checkered history that includes working for an anti-American bomber activist by the name of Bill Ayers. Ayers actively participated in the group known as the “Weathermen”, people who blew up federal buildings and openly confessed he wished he’d blown up even more such buildings.
This is the kind of man who will shortly seat himself in the Oval Office. The National Journal, a non-partisan group recently rated the Senators of the U.S. on how liberal they were, based on their voting record. Obama was ranked first, as THE MOST LIBERAL, Joe Biden was third, while Hillary Clinton looked conservative by comparison with a rating of 24. Is this who we really wanted to lead us?
Thanks to an incredibly blatant and obvious media slant, Obama’s glaring flaws were systematically and repeated glossed over, leaving him to become a media darling, while all the time lying in debate after debate with his Republican opponent about such issues as the his opposition to the Born Alive Act, his association with Bill Ayers, and many, many more contradictory statements too numerous to list here.
This election is historic for sure, but the media is not telling the whole story. It’s historic when one considers how much a radical leftist Obama is, and how he, with the help of a cheerleading media, has won the presidency is spite of his radically leftist, anti-American personal history. For these reasons and scores more, I personally consider his election, not cause for celebration, but rather, cause for the deepest mourning.
John R. Petrilli
The elections are over. America has placed the first African-American into the highest office in the land. I have no problem with that. What I most definitely have a problem with is the anti-life, pro-death voting record of this man named Obama. He was the only U.S. Senator to publicly voice his opposition to the Born Alive Act, a piece of legislation that would protect the life of a baby who survived a botched abortion. By voting against this legislation Obama was in favor of withholding food, water, or any other means by which to support the baby’s life, thus letting it die a slow and cruel death.
I’m in shock that the majority of American people have voted such a man into the presidency. The media and just about everyone around is celebrating this appointment. As an American first and a pro-lifer second, I deeply mourn this development. I care not if a president is black, blue, or green. I do care about where they stand on the sanctity of Life. This incoming president has zero respect for the lives of the unborn. President-elect Obama has also publicly declared (Planned Parenthood Action Fund gathering, July 17, 2007) the first thing he will do is sign an executive order making abortion a legally protected right in all 50 states. With one fell swoop of his pen he will undo 30 years of legal gains including parental notification and many other restrictions on this atrocious thing called abortion.
What shocks me even more is the way that the American populace has turned a deaf ear and blind eye to this man’s checkered history that includes working for an anti-American bomber activist by the name of Bill Ayers. Ayers actively participated in the group known as the “Weathermen”, people who blew up federal buildings and openly confessed he wished he’d blown up even more such buildings.
This is the kind of man who will shortly seat himself in the Oval Office. The National Journal, a non-partisan group recently rated the Senators of the U.S. on how liberal they were, based on their voting record. Obama was ranked first, as THE MOST LIBERAL, Joe Biden was third, while Hillary Clinton looked conservative by comparison with a rating of 24. Is this who we really wanted to lead us?
Thanks to an incredibly blatant and obvious media slant, Obama’s glaring flaws were systematically and repeated glossed over, leaving him to become a media darling, while all the time lying in debate after debate with his Republican opponent about such issues as the his opposition to the Born Alive Act, his association with Bill Ayers, and many, many more contradictory statements too numerous to list here.
This election is historic for sure, but the media is not telling the whole story. It’s historic when one considers how much a radical leftist Obama is, and how he, with the help of a cheerleading media, has won the presidency is spite of his radically leftist, anti-American personal history. For these reasons and scores more, I personally consider his election, not cause for celebration, but rather, cause for the deepest mourning.
THE CHURCH IN THESE LAST DAYS
The Church In These Last Days
John R. Petrilli
Are we in the last days? Some scholars say that we are in the sense that we’re living in closer proximity to the Lord’s return than ever before. Others believe the last days are a period that began at Pentecost and extend down through the centuries of church history, per Peter’s Pentecostal sermon reference to Joel’s prophecy in Acts 2:16-21. Still others truly believe we are actually in the last years leading up to the second coming of Christ, citing the concurrent world events and conditions outlined by Jesus Himself in his sermon on last things found in Matthew 24:1-34.
Whatever position one takes on the proximity of our times to the visible, personal return of the Lord Jesus, one thing is sure, He’s coming, and He’s coming soon (Rev. 22:12). With this background in mind, let’s take a fresh look at what the church will look like at the time f Jesus return.
Most major Bible expositors and interpreters are in agreement that the seven churches found in Revelation 2 and 3 were not only local churches of John’s day, but also serve to represent the overall condition of the church at large at various stages of church history. For instance, we see the Church at Ephesus as being all caught up in works to the exclusion of a dynamic vital relationship with her Lord. Church history attests to the fact that the body of Christ in the second century following its phenomenal growth went through a subsequent period of spiritual decline. Again, we know for a fact that the period from A.D. 150- 300 was a time of fierce official persecution at the hands of Roman Imperialism under the reign of multiple Caesar’s. These rulers possessed intense anti-Christian sentiment and practiced blatant wholesale, wide-scale harassment and decimation of the body of Christ, which matches up quite well with the early period church at Smyrna and Pergamum (2:7-18).
Next came a long period of multiplied decades of doctrinal and moral apostasy from A.D. 400- 1600. This agrees with the next period illustrated by the churches at Thyatira and Sardis, congregations where the teaching was erroneous and the lifestyles were decidedly immoral. Included in this era would be the infamous departure from purity on the part of one denomination’s clergy, along with the infamous selling of indulgences by John Tetzel. Also this time period saw the infiltration of numerous heresies that challenged the very Person and work of Jesus Christ. The dark ages were so named because the light of God’s truth had been so badly compromise and forsaken that the cultures of Europe and the rest of Christian civilization became seriously darkened due to the lack of Biblical teaching which lightens the mind, heart, and culture of a people. Finally we enter into the period of A.D. 1500-1800, a time of spiritual awakening and renewal when the doctrines of salvation by grace through faith plus nothing as well as the modern missionary movement swept the church transforming it into a living vital force that changed the world instead of allowing the world to change it.
But that stage of renewal and phenomenal growth and worldwide expansion is to be temporary, with the church of the final days seen as Christ-less, gutless, powerless, and self-deceived. That would parallel the church at Laodicea. It’s this church’s characteristics that provide us with insight into the makeup and needs of the church that will be on earth in the last days coming up to the Lord’s return.
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE GENERALLY CHARACTERIZED BY SPIRITUAL COMPROMISE AND SMUG COMPLACENCY. (Rev. 3:14-16)
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot … you are lukewarm!”
John’s vision of the Risen and Glorified Christ leaves him nothing short of face-down and overpowered by the blazing glory and unblemished purity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He now sees the Lord Jesus, the Chief Shepherd of the Church performing an on the spot inspection of each of seven local churches. Being a prophetic book, I believe it’s safe to say that these churches do, indeed, represent the state of the church at large over the centuries of church history. Following this paradigm, the last final stage of church history is represented by the Church at Laodicea.
We understand from archeology that Laodicea had a six-mile long aqueduct that passed through the city. The water passing through this aqueduct was known for its tepid condition. Because it was neither hot nor cold, its usefulness was non-existent, it was good for nothing, and possessing no practical usefulness whatsoever.
This analogy Christ uses informs us that the church there was steeped in a spirit of compromise. It didn’t take a tsand for righteousness, nor did it take a stand against sin. It was neutral, a position Jesus said was impossible to maintain for those who would follow Him (see Luke 11:23).
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE CHARACTERIZED BY MISPLACED CONFIDENCE IN MATERIAL WEALTH. Rev. 3:17a
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ ”
There’s not much anyone can do for an individual who thinks they have everything they need and don’t want or need the help of others. Note that their self-assessment focuses on the external assets they had, rather than their internal spiritual health. They made the fatal mistake of evaluating themselves on the basis of the external condition alone. They were rich, oh so rich! God MUST have been pleased with them, otherwise why in the world would He be blessing them out of their socks at the material level? But such appraisals are usually errant. Man appraises his state of affairs based on the image he projects, the outward appearance of things. But God always sees past the external façade and peers deep into the inner life of an individual or a church (Hebrews 4:13).
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE CHARACTERIZED BY TOTAL SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY. Rev. 3:17b
“You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
There’s few things more embarrassing than going through the checkout counter only to discover that you’ve already maxed-out your debit card or credit card, and have no money to pay for the times you’ve placed in the shopping cart. Here we find the church in Laodicea in just such a frozen state. They weren’t moving forward or backward, but literally frozen in spiritual time. This church period will see a rise in churches that boast vast material resources, but woefully lack the vision, zeal and Great Commission aggression that makes losing churches into winning ones. They needed the revival fires that would bring them out of their spiritual doldrums and awakened to their spiritual senses.
God’s appraisal is that they are spiritually bankrupt, not rich in the things of the Spirit. They are “blind” unable to see life from a spiritual perspective. The Laodiceans are wretched, not finding true joy in spite of their material prosperity. Their “nakedness” is perhaps a reference to their having the righteousness of Christ in their spiritual wardrobe, yet never wearing it in public.
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE IN NEED OF AN EXTREME MAKEOVER. Rev. 3:18
“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so
you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
The program “Extreme Makeover” has a following that’s been sustained and growing with each new season. People love to see the old and decrepit revamped into a thing of beauty and usefulness. Here the church saw themselves as A-OK and just fine, but God says that they were in a state of spiritual oblivion and total denial as to their true spiritual condition. They desperately needed a total makeover to bring them back to a place where they could once again see themselves and the world around them in a clear light. As they followed Christ’s prescription for escaping their dangerously precarious position of spiritual blindness and self-deception.
One commentator observes that the city of Laodicea was known for its beautiful black cloth, thus God advises a wardrobe change, replacing their black cloth with the white robes of Christ’s righteousness. The city also produced and exported “Phrygian powder”, an eye medicine, as well as an ointment that healed various ear ailments. Jesus counsels them to trade these commodities in for His eyesalve that will restore their lost spiritual vision. What wonderful things could God do in the church of our generation if we listened to His Spirit’s evaluation of our condition, then acted on the remedial directives He would have for us? Imagine what the “new” church would look like after the Son of God performed a complete spiritual makeover on it?
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE CALLED ON TO RENOUNCE HER ATTITUDE OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND RENEW HER FELLOWSHIP WITH HER LORD. Rev. 3:19
“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”
The Laodiceans thought they had it all together spiritually, but God laments their state of spiritual disconnection and spiritual non-productivity. They believed they had it all together, but God’s Son takes them to task for their horrible state of indifference and preoccupation with things material, at times to the exclusion of things spiritual. This is what was taking place at the Laodicean church, and I felt a burden to lift the curtain over this little church and see what God can do even in the midst of public failure and far-reaching loss of credibility.
They were on the verge of implosion and needed emergency surgery in the form of Spirit-born revival.
Many churches have virtually jettisoned the practice of church discipline for doctrinal and moral failure. But the Church’s Head, Jesus Christ, is still in the business of exercising loving and firm discipline. Christ tells this assembly (and all churches of every age) to repent of their sins, and return to Him with all their heart and soul. Such action would win them back to a place of full fellowship with Him as He renters the church He Himself founded. What would happen to our churches of our day if we had the same kind of spiritual revolution?
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL TRAGICALLY LEAVE JESUS CHRIST OUT OF ITS LIFE. Rev. 3:20a
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.”
Out in the cold; that’s where most of us have found ourselves oat one time or another. Freezing on a doorstep is not a happy place to be at all. But worse yet is to be left outside of the heart and life of a family you are the head of. This is the moving image that the Risen Lord gives of the last days' church. With a focus on programs and carefully laid plans for expansion and growth, the leaders of this assembly completely lost touch with their Head. So much so that He’s no longer a part of their deliberations or celebrations. He’s, once again, left outside the camp of God’s people … what a tragic picture of a bridal church that’s forgotten who she is and she belongs to! Christ counsels this assembly to listen long enough to hear His knuckles pounding upon the door of their holy huddle. Imagine that! The Church so preoccupied with their well laud plans that they are oblivious to the very One Who bought them with is own pr3cious blood and wants so badly to fellowship with them… how amazingly pathetic! The honeymoon is long over, and this bride’s on her way down.
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE UNIQUELY POSITIONED FOR HEAVEN-SENT REVIVAL. Rev. 3:20b
“If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he
with Me.”
In spite of the Church’s state of spiritual poverty and inertness, the living Lord still loves her and wants her back in His loving embrace. He counsels with her, strongly advising that she take immediate steps to repent, do a spiritual about face, and return to the One Who alone can make her into everything she was meant to be. His love drives Him to discipline Her in hopes that She will return to the Lord Who wants only to enjoy her fellowship and exclusive love. As they do so, they will experience the joy of renewed and intimate fellowship with Christ Who has responded to her humble invitation for Him to return home and enter back into their heart and life as a church … what a beautiful picture!
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS CAN BE RESTORED TO A PLACE OF VICTORY AND GREAT BLESSING. Rev. 3:21
“To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father
on His throne.”
Jesus doesn’t seek out the church for His own benefit, but for her best good and richest blessing. Jesus is seen here pleading like an estranged husband who wants nothing more and nothing less than to be reunited to his beloved wife and children. He’s missed the company of His Bride, and is driven to do everything in is power to regain that relationship. If they take Him up on His gracious offer, they will experience newfound spiritual victories and a share in a future inheritance that He has reserved in Heaven for them. Following in His train of victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, Christ now invites them to take a seat on His Throne. Best of all, obedience to His call to restoration will be equivalent to responding to the quiet yet unmistakable leading of the Spirit of God Himself.
So is it safe to say that we’re the Church of the last days? Perhaps yes, and perhaps no. Only time will tell. But in the meantime, regardless of our place on the divine clock, we are called to the role of simple, unassuming servanthood to a world captivated and enslaved by individual professional advancement and endless personal acquisition of material wealth. Compromise is an almost endemic problem in many churches and denominations, with frequent struggles over the fundamentals of the faith coming under attack and often being tossed aside.
Our generation of Christianity also presents evidence of that self-sufficient attitude, and that’s abundantly clear by the dismal turnouts at any services beyond the Sunday morning worship time. The wholesale departure from corporate prayer is crystal clear evidence of an attitude of self-sufficiency and smug complacency. Let us not mistake material prosperity for spiritual integrity and overall spiritual health. Some of the most vibrant and productive churches in history were poor in this world’s goods but rich in faith and serious about the Great Commission. The living church has Christ inside its walls, directing its leaders and membership in a relationship that is characterized by maximum intimacy and cooperative effort. Such a church will enjoy victorious service in time and rich rewards in eternity.
John R. Petrilli
Are we in the last days? Some scholars say that we are in the sense that we’re living in closer proximity to the Lord’s return than ever before. Others believe the last days are a period that began at Pentecost and extend down through the centuries of church history, per Peter’s Pentecostal sermon reference to Joel’s prophecy in Acts 2:16-21. Still others truly believe we are actually in the last years leading up to the second coming of Christ, citing the concurrent world events and conditions outlined by Jesus Himself in his sermon on last things found in Matthew 24:1-34.
Whatever position one takes on the proximity of our times to the visible, personal return of the Lord Jesus, one thing is sure, He’s coming, and He’s coming soon (Rev. 22:12). With this background in mind, let’s take a fresh look at what the church will look like at the time f Jesus return.
Most major Bible expositors and interpreters are in agreement that the seven churches found in Revelation 2 and 3 were not only local churches of John’s day, but also serve to represent the overall condition of the church at large at various stages of church history. For instance, we see the Church at Ephesus as being all caught up in works to the exclusion of a dynamic vital relationship with her Lord. Church history attests to the fact that the body of Christ in the second century following its phenomenal growth went through a subsequent period of spiritual decline. Again, we know for a fact that the period from A.D. 150- 300 was a time of fierce official persecution at the hands of Roman Imperialism under the reign of multiple Caesar’s. These rulers possessed intense anti-Christian sentiment and practiced blatant wholesale, wide-scale harassment and decimation of the body of Christ, which matches up quite well with the early period church at Smyrna and Pergamum (2:7-18).
Next came a long period of multiplied decades of doctrinal and moral apostasy from A.D. 400- 1600. This agrees with the next period illustrated by the churches at Thyatira and Sardis, congregations where the teaching was erroneous and the lifestyles were decidedly immoral. Included in this era would be the infamous departure from purity on the part of one denomination’s clergy, along with the infamous selling of indulgences by John Tetzel. Also this time period saw the infiltration of numerous heresies that challenged the very Person and work of Jesus Christ. The dark ages were so named because the light of God’s truth had been so badly compromise and forsaken that the cultures of Europe and the rest of Christian civilization became seriously darkened due to the lack of Biblical teaching which lightens the mind, heart, and culture of a people. Finally we enter into the period of A.D. 1500-1800, a time of spiritual awakening and renewal when the doctrines of salvation by grace through faith plus nothing as well as the modern missionary movement swept the church transforming it into a living vital force that changed the world instead of allowing the world to change it.
But that stage of renewal and phenomenal growth and worldwide expansion is to be temporary, with the church of the final days seen as Christ-less, gutless, powerless, and self-deceived. That would parallel the church at Laodicea. It’s this church’s characteristics that provide us with insight into the makeup and needs of the church that will be on earth in the last days coming up to the Lord’s return.
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE GENERALLY CHARACTERIZED BY SPIRITUAL COMPROMISE AND SMUG COMPLACENCY. (Rev. 3:14-16)
“I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot … you are lukewarm!”
John’s vision of the Risen and Glorified Christ leaves him nothing short of face-down and overpowered by the blazing glory and unblemished purity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He now sees the Lord Jesus, the Chief Shepherd of the Church performing an on the spot inspection of each of seven local churches. Being a prophetic book, I believe it’s safe to say that these churches do, indeed, represent the state of the church at large over the centuries of church history. Following this paradigm, the last final stage of church history is represented by the Church at Laodicea.
We understand from archeology that Laodicea had a six-mile long aqueduct that passed through the city. The water passing through this aqueduct was known for its tepid condition. Because it was neither hot nor cold, its usefulness was non-existent, it was good for nothing, and possessing no practical usefulness whatsoever.
This analogy Christ uses informs us that the church there was steeped in a spirit of compromise. It didn’t take a tsand for righteousness, nor did it take a stand against sin. It was neutral, a position Jesus said was impossible to maintain for those who would follow Him (see Luke 11:23).
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE CHARACTERIZED BY MISPLACED CONFIDENCE IN MATERIAL WEALTH. Rev. 3:17a
“You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ ”
There’s not much anyone can do for an individual who thinks they have everything they need and don’t want or need the help of others. Note that their self-assessment focuses on the external assets they had, rather than their internal spiritual health. They made the fatal mistake of evaluating themselves on the basis of the external condition alone. They were rich, oh so rich! God MUST have been pleased with them, otherwise why in the world would He be blessing them out of their socks at the material level? But such appraisals are usually errant. Man appraises his state of affairs based on the image he projects, the outward appearance of things. But God always sees past the external façade and peers deep into the inner life of an individual or a church (Hebrews 4:13).
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE CHARACTERIZED BY TOTAL SPIRITUAL BANKRUPTCY. Rev. 3:17b
“You do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.”
There’s few things more embarrassing than going through the checkout counter only to discover that you’ve already maxed-out your debit card or credit card, and have no money to pay for the times you’ve placed in the shopping cart. Here we find the church in Laodicea in just such a frozen state. They weren’t moving forward or backward, but literally frozen in spiritual time. This church period will see a rise in churches that boast vast material resources, but woefully lack the vision, zeal and Great Commission aggression that makes losing churches into winning ones. They needed the revival fires that would bring them out of their spiritual doldrums and awakened to their spiritual senses.
God’s appraisal is that they are spiritually bankrupt, not rich in the things of the Spirit. They are “blind” unable to see life from a spiritual perspective. The Laodiceans are wretched, not finding true joy in spite of their material prosperity. Their “nakedness” is perhaps a reference to their having the righteousness of Christ in their spiritual wardrobe, yet never wearing it in public.
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE IN NEED OF AN EXTREME MAKEOVER. Rev. 3:18
“I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so
you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.”
The program “Extreme Makeover” has a following that’s been sustained and growing with each new season. People love to see the old and decrepit revamped into a thing of beauty and usefulness. Here the church saw themselves as A-OK and just fine, but God says that they were in a state of spiritual oblivion and total denial as to their true spiritual condition. They desperately needed a total makeover to bring them back to a place where they could once again see themselves and the world around them in a clear light. As they followed Christ’s prescription for escaping their dangerously precarious position of spiritual blindness and self-deception.
One commentator observes that the city of Laodicea was known for its beautiful black cloth, thus God advises a wardrobe change, replacing their black cloth with the white robes of Christ’s righteousness. The city also produced and exported “Phrygian powder”, an eye medicine, as well as an ointment that healed various ear ailments. Jesus counsels them to trade these commodities in for His eyesalve that will restore their lost spiritual vision. What wonderful things could God do in the church of our generation if we listened to His Spirit’s evaluation of our condition, then acted on the remedial directives He would have for us? Imagine what the “new” church would look like after the Son of God performed a complete spiritual makeover on it?
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE CALLED ON TO RENOUNCE HER ATTITUDE OF SELF-SUFFICIENCY AND RENEW HER FELLOWSHIP WITH HER LORD. Rev. 3:19
“Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.”
The Laodiceans thought they had it all together spiritually, but God laments their state of spiritual disconnection and spiritual non-productivity. They believed they had it all together, but God’s Son takes them to task for their horrible state of indifference and preoccupation with things material, at times to the exclusion of things spiritual. This is what was taking place at the Laodicean church, and I felt a burden to lift the curtain over this little church and see what God can do even in the midst of public failure and far-reaching loss of credibility.
They were on the verge of implosion and needed emergency surgery in the form of Spirit-born revival.
Many churches have virtually jettisoned the practice of church discipline for doctrinal and moral failure. But the Church’s Head, Jesus Christ, is still in the business of exercising loving and firm discipline. Christ tells this assembly (and all churches of every age) to repent of their sins, and return to Him with all their heart and soul. Such action would win them back to a place of full fellowship with Him as He renters the church He Himself founded. What would happen to our churches of our day if we had the same kind of spiritual revolution?
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL TRAGICALLY LEAVE JESUS CHRIST OUT OF ITS LIFE. Rev. 3:20a
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock.”
Out in the cold; that’s where most of us have found ourselves oat one time or another. Freezing on a doorstep is not a happy place to be at all. But worse yet is to be left outside of the heart and life of a family you are the head of. This is the moving image that the Risen Lord gives of the last days' church. With a focus on programs and carefully laid plans for expansion and growth, the leaders of this assembly completely lost touch with their Head. So much so that He’s no longer a part of their deliberations or celebrations. He’s, once again, left outside the camp of God’s people … what a tragic picture of a bridal church that’s forgotten who she is and she belongs to! Christ counsels this assembly to listen long enough to hear His knuckles pounding upon the door of their holy huddle. Imagine that! The Church so preoccupied with their well laud plans that they are oblivious to the very One Who bought them with is own pr3cious blood and wants so badly to fellowship with them… how amazingly pathetic! The honeymoon is long over, and this bride’s on her way down.
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS WILL BE UNIQUELY POSITIONED FOR HEAVEN-SENT REVIVAL. Rev. 3:20b
“If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he
with Me.”
In spite of the Church’s state of spiritual poverty and inertness, the living Lord still loves her and wants her back in His loving embrace. He counsels with her, strongly advising that she take immediate steps to repent, do a spiritual about face, and return to the One Who alone can make her into everything she was meant to be. His love drives Him to discipline Her in hopes that She will return to the Lord Who wants only to enjoy her fellowship and exclusive love. As they do so, they will experience the joy of renewed and intimate fellowship with Christ Who has responded to her humble invitation for Him to return home and enter back into their heart and life as a church … what a beautiful picture!
THE CHURCH OF THE LAST DAYS CAN BE RESTORED TO A PLACE OF VICTORY AND GREAT BLESSING. Rev. 3:21
“To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father
on His throne.”
Jesus doesn’t seek out the church for His own benefit, but for her best good and richest blessing. Jesus is seen here pleading like an estranged husband who wants nothing more and nothing less than to be reunited to his beloved wife and children. He’s missed the company of His Bride, and is driven to do everything in is power to regain that relationship. If they take Him up on His gracious offer, they will experience newfound spiritual victories and a share in a future inheritance that He has reserved in Heaven for them. Following in His train of victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil, Christ now invites them to take a seat on His Throne. Best of all, obedience to His call to restoration will be equivalent to responding to the quiet yet unmistakable leading of the Spirit of God Himself.
So is it safe to say that we’re the Church of the last days? Perhaps yes, and perhaps no. Only time will tell. But in the meantime, regardless of our place on the divine clock, we are called to the role of simple, unassuming servanthood to a world captivated and enslaved by individual professional advancement and endless personal acquisition of material wealth. Compromise is an almost endemic problem in many churches and denominations, with frequent struggles over the fundamentals of the faith coming under attack and often being tossed aside.
Our generation of Christianity also presents evidence of that self-sufficient attitude, and that’s abundantly clear by the dismal turnouts at any services beyond the Sunday morning worship time. The wholesale departure from corporate prayer is crystal clear evidence of an attitude of self-sufficiency and smug complacency. Let us not mistake material prosperity for spiritual integrity and overall spiritual health. Some of the most vibrant and productive churches in history were poor in this world’s goods but rich in faith and serious about the Great Commission. The living church has Christ inside its walls, directing its leaders and membership in a relationship that is characterized by maximum intimacy and cooperative effort. Such a church will enjoy victorious service in time and rich rewards in eternity.
Holocaust Deja Vu
Holocaust Déjà Vu
John R. Petrilli
Former New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra is known for his humorous comments. One of my favorites is his quip, “It’s déjà vu all over again!” The humor lies in the fact that the phrase déjà vu (borrowed from psychology) actually means “the illusion that one has previously had a given experience”. So Yogi’s quip actually translates, “It’s all over again, all over again”. This article is about déjà vu, but its not the kind that dwells in the realm of the imagination. No, this déjà vu falls under the category of stark reality. It’s déjà vu of the worst kind, indeed a veritable nightmare version of déjà vu.
After recently viewing a PBS program, I referenced a book in my library titled, “The Abandonment of the Jews”, written by David S. Wyman. There I discovered a running account of how various American agencies and organizations responded to the plight of 1.5 million Jews being gassed to death at Auschwitz. The details provide a glimpse into the covert blocking and nauseating indifference these institutions displayed toward the Jews in their hour of extermination. As I read, I noticed a striking similarity between America’s wartime response to the Jewish holocaust, and America’s current peacetime response to the holocaust of abortion. The haunting parallels should be enough to awaken our land to action to end this wanton execution of life.
THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
On April 10, 1944 two young Slovakian prisoners, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, successfully escaped from Auschwitz. They fled to Slovakia, where they met with the Jewish underground and dictated a 30 page report detailing Auschwitz’ geographical layout, internal conditions, and gassing and cremation techniques. A copy of the Vrba-Wetzler statement was dispatched to Hungarian Jewish leadership in Budapest in May, and made it to Switzerland by mid-June. By late June the truth about Auschwitz was known to the entire outside world. Over a period of two years the executive branch (under Franklin Roosevelt), the War Department, the State Department, and the U. S. War Refugee Board (WRB) each chose to shelve or ignore the pleas of the Jewish Community worldwide to take intervention steps to stop the killing at Auschwitz and elsewhere.
Here we stand a full 36 years beyond the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that made the American holocaust possible. To date, the combined forces of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of our federal government have all miserably failed to put an end to this monstrous practice and moral blot upon America. Our abortion tally approaching 50 million makes Hitler, Himler, and the Gestapo look like innocent choir boys. In hindsight we shake our heads in disgust at the atrocities against the Jews in World War II, yet fail to see a holocaust 8 times more deadly that continues daily across our land. The Nazi’s hid their holocaust from public view, building death camps in remote European country sides, but the American holocaust takes place in plain view right under our noses at the local abortion clinic just around the corner from where we live!
The diabolical experiments of Nazi psychiatrist Joseph Mengela twisted and destroyed the minds of prisoners, but the American abortionist does him one better, sucking the brains right out of the skulls of half-delivered babies. We’re aghast over how Nazi military brass proudly displayed the skulls, hair, and other body parts of murdered prisoners. But American profiteers have one up on them … they sell the body parts of aborted babies for profit to the highest bidder. Our Supreme Court continues to uphold Roe v. Wade, so this merciless, cold-blooded killing goes on. Organizations like Planned Parenthood enjoy raking in billions of our tax dollars to finance their killing machine and spread their lies and pro-death propaganda. Where will this end?
THE AMERICAN CHURCH WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
Wyman reports, “America’s Christian churches were almost inert in the face of the Holocaust and nearly silent too. No major denomination spoke out on the issue”… “Few of the many Christian publications cried out for aid to the Jews. Few even reported the news of extermination, except infrequently and incidentally. The bulk of the Protestant press was silent, or nearly so. And few cries for action arose from the pages of any part of Protestantism’s print media.” “ Two important Catholic periodicals, America and Commonweal, did speak out from time to time on the extermination of the Jews and called for action to help them. But the rest of the Catholic press was almost silent on the issue, as was the American church itself”. “ At the heart of Christianity is the commitment to help the helpless. Yet, for the most part, America’s Christian churches looked away while the European Jews perished.” (1)
How many denominations maintain a sustained public outcry against the murderous acts of abortion that claim thousands of lives per day in our country? How many local churches consistently pray about this holocaust and call for their people to actively take a stand against this evil of all evils? How many individual Christians do more than march once a year or participate in a one-day National Day of Prayer? Are we to honestly believe for one moment that such minimal involvement will even scratch the surface of this heinous industry? Anyone who faces this squarely has to admit that it won’t. Thousands die a horrible death daily here in America. Where is the Church? Why is She so incredibly silent and so apathetically disengaged from one of “civilized” history’s largest wholesale slaughter of innocent life?
THE AMERICAN CULTURE WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
The next step in Wyman’s search takes us into the 1940’s American culture, only to find the same degree of disinterest and inaction. He notes that most American liberals, most American intellectuals, and American Communists were virtually absentee with regard to the holocaust. American filmmakers avoided the subject of the Jewish catastrophe, refusing to produce even a single short film on the mass killing of the Jews.
Consider these incredible cultural statistics gleaned from Carenet, a national prolife organization. “In our American culture, by the age of 45, 43% of all women will have had an abortion. There is one abortion for every three live births. 234,000 evangelical Christian women choose to abort their babies each year. And less than 5% of all abortions are done because of rape, incest, or health.”
The truth is, the average American is far more worried about his or her own pocketbook than the fact that close to 50 million innocent lives have been quietly snuffed out since Roe v. Wade. We carry on with our fun and entertainment while thousands of unborns daily enter eternity screaming in pain, the silent screams falling on our deaf ears, blinded eyes and calloused hearts. Where are the movies documenting this atrocity? Where are the massive social movements protesting this “unjust war” against innocent little babies? Where is the outcry against the greatest “social injustice” ever committed against an entire population and generation of Americans? Where is the media and mass communications coverage of this unbelievable genocide?
THE AMERICAN MEDIA WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
Unresponsiveness to the plight of European Jews on the part of ordinary Americans was due to the fact that the majority weren’t aware of the Third Reich’s extermination programs until mid-1944. Such information was virtually unavailable because the systematic murder of millions of Jews was treated as minor news by the mass media.
According to Wyman’s research, “Most newspapers printed very little about the Holocaust, even though extensive information on it reached their desks from the news services (AP, UP, and others) and from their own correspondents. American mass-circulation magazines all but ignored the Holocaust. Radio coverage of Holocaust news was sparse. There is no clear explanation for the mass media’s failure to publicize the Holocaust.” (2)
It was not until the full Auschwitz report received frontpage coverage across the country that the press finally got on the ball. Shortly thereafter, when the German concentration camps were liberated, the whole world saw firsthand what Eisenhower described as the “almost unbelievable barbarous treatment” of prisoners. Conditions were absolutely abysmal, including massive starvation, unchecked disease, terrible crowding, and thousands of unburies corpses. But, ironically, these camps (Buchenwald, Belsen, Dachau, etc.) weren’t the worst case scenarios. These were not extermination camps like Auschwitz, Majdanek, and four other killing centers where Jewish murders numbered in the millions.
So how many news stories have you heard (ever) on the abortion industry? When did you ever read any article in any major news publication anywhere that exposed in graphic verbal and pictorial fashion the horrors of this holocaust of the unborn? Has the nightly national or local news EVER reported a SINGLE story showing a graphic depiction of just what a victim of a saline or curettage abortion comes out looking like? Name one such instance! Our media is guilty of the most crass bias and cover up of all time.
SOURCES
(1) The Abandonment of the Jews, David S. Wyman, Pantheon Books, New York, New York, pp. pp. 317-320.
(2) Ibid, pp. 321-322.
John R. Petrilli
Former New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra is known for his humorous comments. One of my favorites is his quip, “It’s déjà vu all over again!” The humor lies in the fact that the phrase déjà vu (borrowed from psychology) actually means “the illusion that one has previously had a given experience”. So Yogi’s quip actually translates, “It’s all over again, all over again”. This article is about déjà vu, but its not the kind that dwells in the realm of the imagination. No, this déjà vu falls under the category of stark reality. It’s déjà vu of the worst kind, indeed a veritable nightmare version of déjà vu.
After recently viewing a PBS program, I referenced a book in my library titled, “The Abandonment of the Jews”, written by David S. Wyman. There I discovered a running account of how various American agencies and organizations responded to the plight of 1.5 million Jews being gassed to death at Auschwitz. The details provide a glimpse into the covert blocking and nauseating indifference these institutions displayed toward the Jews in their hour of extermination. As I read, I noticed a striking similarity between America’s wartime response to the Jewish holocaust, and America’s current peacetime response to the holocaust of abortion. The haunting parallels should be enough to awaken our land to action to end this wanton execution of life.
THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
On April 10, 1944 two young Slovakian prisoners, Rudolf Vrba and Alfred Wetzler, successfully escaped from Auschwitz. They fled to Slovakia, where they met with the Jewish underground and dictated a 30 page report detailing Auschwitz’ geographical layout, internal conditions, and gassing and cremation techniques. A copy of the Vrba-Wetzler statement was dispatched to Hungarian Jewish leadership in Budapest in May, and made it to Switzerland by mid-June. By late June the truth about Auschwitz was known to the entire outside world. Over a period of two years the executive branch (under Franklin Roosevelt), the War Department, the State Department, and the U. S. War Refugee Board (WRB) each chose to shelve or ignore the pleas of the Jewish Community worldwide to take intervention steps to stop the killing at Auschwitz and elsewhere.
Here we stand a full 36 years beyond the infamous 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision that made the American holocaust possible. To date, the combined forces of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of our federal government have all miserably failed to put an end to this monstrous practice and moral blot upon America. Our abortion tally approaching 50 million makes Hitler, Himler, and the Gestapo look like innocent choir boys. In hindsight we shake our heads in disgust at the atrocities against the Jews in World War II, yet fail to see a holocaust 8 times more deadly that continues daily across our land. The Nazi’s hid their holocaust from public view, building death camps in remote European country sides, but the American holocaust takes place in plain view right under our noses at the local abortion clinic just around the corner from where we live!
The diabolical experiments of Nazi psychiatrist Joseph Mengela twisted and destroyed the minds of prisoners, but the American abortionist does him one better, sucking the brains right out of the skulls of half-delivered babies. We’re aghast over how Nazi military brass proudly displayed the skulls, hair, and other body parts of murdered prisoners. But American profiteers have one up on them … they sell the body parts of aborted babies for profit to the highest bidder. Our Supreme Court continues to uphold Roe v. Wade, so this merciless, cold-blooded killing goes on. Organizations like Planned Parenthood enjoy raking in billions of our tax dollars to finance their killing machine and spread their lies and pro-death propaganda. Where will this end?
THE AMERICAN CHURCH WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
Wyman reports, “America’s Christian churches were almost inert in the face of the Holocaust and nearly silent too. No major denomination spoke out on the issue”… “Few of the many Christian publications cried out for aid to the Jews. Few even reported the news of extermination, except infrequently and incidentally. The bulk of the Protestant press was silent, or nearly so. And few cries for action arose from the pages of any part of Protestantism’s print media.” “ Two important Catholic periodicals, America and Commonweal, did speak out from time to time on the extermination of the Jews and called for action to help them. But the rest of the Catholic press was almost silent on the issue, as was the American church itself”. “ At the heart of Christianity is the commitment to help the helpless. Yet, for the most part, America’s Christian churches looked away while the European Jews perished.” (1)
How many denominations maintain a sustained public outcry against the murderous acts of abortion that claim thousands of lives per day in our country? How many local churches consistently pray about this holocaust and call for their people to actively take a stand against this evil of all evils? How many individual Christians do more than march once a year or participate in a one-day National Day of Prayer? Are we to honestly believe for one moment that such minimal involvement will even scratch the surface of this heinous industry? Anyone who faces this squarely has to admit that it won’t. Thousands die a horrible death daily here in America. Where is the Church? Why is She so incredibly silent and so apathetically disengaged from one of “civilized” history’s largest wholesale slaughter of innocent life?
THE AMERICAN CULTURE WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
The next step in Wyman’s search takes us into the 1940’s American culture, only to find the same degree of disinterest and inaction. He notes that most American liberals, most American intellectuals, and American Communists were virtually absentee with regard to the holocaust. American filmmakers avoided the subject of the Jewish catastrophe, refusing to produce even a single short film on the mass killing of the Jews.
Consider these incredible cultural statistics gleaned from Carenet, a national prolife organization. “In our American culture, by the age of 45, 43% of all women will have had an abortion. There is one abortion for every three live births. 234,000 evangelical Christian women choose to abort their babies each year. And less than 5% of all abortions are done because of rape, incest, or health.”
The truth is, the average American is far more worried about his or her own pocketbook than the fact that close to 50 million innocent lives have been quietly snuffed out since Roe v. Wade. We carry on with our fun and entertainment while thousands of unborns daily enter eternity screaming in pain, the silent screams falling on our deaf ears, blinded eyes and calloused hearts. Where are the movies documenting this atrocity? Where are the massive social movements protesting this “unjust war” against innocent little babies? Where is the outcry against the greatest “social injustice” ever committed against an entire population and generation of Americans? Where is the media and mass communications coverage of this unbelievable genocide?
THE AMERICAN MEDIA WAS INDIFFERENT TO THE JEWISH HOLOCAUST, AND REMAINS INDIFFERENT TO THE AMERICAN HOLOCAUST.
Unresponsiveness to the plight of European Jews on the part of ordinary Americans was due to the fact that the majority weren’t aware of the Third Reich’s extermination programs until mid-1944. Such information was virtually unavailable because the systematic murder of millions of Jews was treated as minor news by the mass media.
According to Wyman’s research, “Most newspapers printed very little about the Holocaust, even though extensive information on it reached their desks from the news services (AP, UP, and others) and from their own correspondents. American mass-circulation magazines all but ignored the Holocaust. Radio coverage of Holocaust news was sparse. There is no clear explanation for the mass media’s failure to publicize the Holocaust.” (2)
It was not until the full Auschwitz report received frontpage coverage across the country that the press finally got on the ball. Shortly thereafter, when the German concentration camps were liberated, the whole world saw firsthand what Eisenhower described as the “almost unbelievable barbarous treatment” of prisoners. Conditions were absolutely abysmal, including massive starvation, unchecked disease, terrible crowding, and thousands of unburies corpses. But, ironically, these camps (Buchenwald, Belsen, Dachau, etc.) weren’t the worst case scenarios. These were not extermination camps like Auschwitz, Majdanek, and four other killing centers where Jewish murders numbered in the millions.
So how many news stories have you heard (ever) on the abortion industry? When did you ever read any article in any major news publication anywhere that exposed in graphic verbal and pictorial fashion the horrors of this holocaust of the unborn? Has the nightly national or local news EVER reported a SINGLE story showing a graphic depiction of just what a victim of a saline or curettage abortion comes out looking like? Name one such instance! Our media is guilty of the most crass bias and cover up of all time.
SOURCES
(1) The Abandonment of the Jews, David S. Wyman, Pantheon Books, New York, New York, pp. pp. 317-320.
(2) Ibid, pp. 321-322.
Dismantle The Electoral College
Dismantle The Electoral College
John R. Petrilli
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE THE VOTER PLAYING
FIELD HAS CHANGED.
The electoral college was originally set up by Constitutional co-author Thomas Jefferson in the 1800’s to insure that the educated segment of the population had the greatest say in the election of the nation’s leaders. The rural population back then was largely uneducated so Jefferson gave more electoral votes to states that had more institutions of higher learning. Today that equation no longer applies. Most Americans are literate, and a large percentage hold post-high school degrees, no matter what state they happen to live in. Every American has within his or her reach a television, radio, or newspaper, and rural Americans are just as educated and informed as any other group in the country.
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE IT CREATES AN
IMBALANCE IN VOTER INFLUENCE.
For the longest time I sensed something intrinsically unfair about the electoral college. Last night while attending a political party election night rally it suddenly dawned on me what that inequity actually was. It’s really quite simple. A voter in a state with a high number of electoral votes has more influence on deciding an election than does a voter from a state with less electoral votes. For instance, when the winning candidate is elected it’s because he invariably carries states that have large numbers of electoral votes. So a voter in a state with significantly less electoral votes ends up exerting far less influence on the outcome of an election.
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE CANDIDATES WITH
THE MOST MONEY CAN TARGET BATTLEGROUND STATES, GIVING THEM AN
UNFAIR ADVANTAGE OVER LESS-FUNDED OPPONENTS.
Campaign finance reform gets a lot of talk but seemingly very little traction when push comes to shove. Witness Barack Obama’s reneging on his promise to only use government campaign funds. Once he cut loose, he raised a war chest of multiplied millions of dollars that totally dwarfed the McCain campaign in terms of financial capability. This overwhelming empowerment likely made the winning difference in an election where the two candidates ended up being separated by only ten percent of the popular votes. The way that this played out is clear. Obama zeroed-in on the battleground states and flooded them with a vast army of paid staff and paid television commercials to get out the vote for him. That kind of political avalanche tipped the scales completely to his advantage, and, in the end, carried him to victory.
But what if EVERY state’s influence was based purely on its registered voter population? No candidate could effectively blanket the entire nation with billions of dollars, and the playing field would be far more level than it is right now under the electoral college format. THAT is what true democracy would look like, and THAT is the direction the American people need to be moving toward from this point forward.
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE IT CAN AND HAS
AWARDED THE PRESIDENCY TO CANDIDATES WHO DIDN’T WIN THE SUPPORT OF
THE MAJORITY (THE POPULAR VOTE).
When it comes right down to it, the electoral college is actually an extrapolated version of a true democracy. In a true democracy the citizens would and should directly elect their leaders. But the current arrangement with the electoral vote interrupts and often radically alters that straightforward process. In 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote, but George Bush won the electoral vote, so George Bush was awarded the presidency. This just doesn’t wash with me (Republican not withstanding), or with many I’ve spoken to. We have the technology and informed citizenry that allows us to rely solely on the direct vote of the people. We need no other “go-between” type of body to decide who we want to lead us. It’s just that simple. Run the election, count the vote, and the winner takes all. Period.
John R. Petrilli
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE THE VOTER PLAYING
FIELD HAS CHANGED.
The electoral college was originally set up by Constitutional co-author Thomas Jefferson in the 1800’s to insure that the educated segment of the population had the greatest say in the election of the nation’s leaders. The rural population back then was largely uneducated so Jefferson gave more electoral votes to states that had more institutions of higher learning. Today that equation no longer applies. Most Americans are literate, and a large percentage hold post-high school degrees, no matter what state they happen to live in. Every American has within his or her reach a television, radio, or newspaper, and rural Americans are just as educated and informed as any other group in the country.
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE IT CREATES AN
IMBALANCE IN VOTER INFLUENCE.
For the longest time I sensed something intrinsically unfair about the electoral college. Last night while attending a political party election night rally it suddenly dawned on me what that inequity actually was. It’s really quite simple. A voter in a state with a high number of electoral votes has more influence on deciding an election than does a voter from a state with less electoral votes. For instance, when the winning candidate is elected it’s because he invariably carries states that have large numbers of electoral votes. So a voter in a state with significantly less electoral votes ends up exerting far less influence on the outcome of an election.
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE CANDIDATES WITH
THE MOST MONEY CAN TARGET BATTLEGROUND STATES, GIVING THEM AN
UNFAIR ADVANTAGE OVER LESS-FUNDED OPPONENTS.
Campaign finance reform gets a lot of talk but seemingly very little traction when push comes to shove. Witness Barack Obama’s reneging on his promise to only use government campaign funds. Once he cut loose, he raised a war chest of multiplied millions of dollars that totally dwarfed the McCain campaign in terms of financial capability. This overwhelming empowerment likely made the winning difference in an election where the two candidates ended up being separated by only ten percent of the popular votes. The way that this played out is clear. Obama zeroed-in on the battleground states and flooded them with a vast army of paid staff and paid television commercials to get out the vote for him. That kind of political avalanche tipped the scales completely to his advantage, and, in the end, carried him to victory.
But what if EVERY state’s influence was based purely on its registered voter population? No candidate could effectively blanket the entire nation with billions of dollars, and the playing field would be far more level than it is right now under the electoral college format. THAT is what true democracy would look like, and THAT is the direction the American people need to be moving toward from this point forward.
WE SHOULD DISMANTLE THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE BECAUSE IT CAN AND HAS
AWARDED THE PRESIDENCY TO CANDIDATES WHO DIDN’T WIN THE SUPPORT OF
THE MAJORITY (THE POPULAR VOTE).
When it comes right down to it, the electoral college is actually an extrapolated version of a true democracy. In a true democracy the citizens would and should directly elect their leaders. But the current arrangement with the electoral vote interrupts and often radically alters that straightforward process. In 2000 Al Gore won the popular vote, but George Bush won the electoral vote, so George Bush was awarded the presidency. This just doesn’t wash with me (Republican not withstanding), or with many I’ve spoken to. We have the technology and informed citizenry that allows us to rely solely on the direct vote of the people. We need no other “go-between” type of body to decide who we want to lead us. It’s just that simple. Run the election, count the vote, and the winner takes all. Period.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Diversity? God Invented It!
DIVERSITY? GOD INVENTED IT!
John R. Petrilli
These days when the topic of diversity comes up, the church of Jesus Christ is rarely part of the discussion. Christians and Christianity are often unfairly portrayed by the media as narrow, homogenous, and exclusive. Unfortunately, there are instances when Christians themselves have unwittingly earned such a reputation by attitudes and actions that are less than ideal. But, as with every great and lofty ideal, the reality isn’t always consistently lived out by its sincere yet imperfect adherents. The result is a non-believing population being left with the distinct impression that God Himself isn’t the least bit interested in diversity either. The purpose of this article is to correct this misconception, and to provide a clearer, more accurate view of God’s take on diversity.
It seems highly ironic that the subjects of diversity and God end up on such divergent paths, for, according to the Biblical account, God invented diversity! While the universe was sill in a vacuous state, we find God infusing it with myriad-like galactic and stellar diversity (Gen. 1:1-2, 14-18). Paul elaborates on the Genesis account, stating that stars vary widely in magnitude and brilliance (1 Cor. 15:41b). We know from scientific observation that their colors span the spectrum.
Just prior to His display of celestial creativity, God blanketed the infant earth with a whole host of vegetative life, including plants and trees (Gen. 1:11-12). Shortly after, He filled the seas with burgeoning aquatic life, and the skies with all kinds of birds (Gen. 1:20-22). Then God ordained the creation of the animal and insect kingdoms, whose species number in the tens of thousands (Gen. 1:24-25). King Solomon endeavored to catalogue this great diversity of creatures (1 Kings 4:33).
GOD'S CREATION EXHIBITS DIVERSITY AT EVERY LEVEL!
All of earth’s ecosystems function independently and interdependently, yet maintain amazing levels of magnificent coordination and efficiency. Take the plant world for instance. In these pleasant days of summer and fall we take great pleasure in growing and tending our flower and vegetable gardens. One walk through the Rose Garden at Syracuse’s Thornden Park leaves me awestruck at all the varieties of just this one type of flower. According to Genesis 1:11-12, God set in motion the initial creative process of plant life that continues today. And in 1 Corinthians 15:37-38 we learn that each seed of every plant carries the predetermined genetic code necessary to insure the faithful, ongoing reproduction of its own unique characteristics.
Then there’s the vast aquatic world, with its seemingly endless oceans and seas. The creation account reveals a water world that dwarfs the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea story by comparison. Not only did God form this vast aquatic expanse, He promptly filled it with every kind of water animal imaginary (Gen. 1:10,20). God could easily have designed the fish world in a static manner, but a serious dive into the ocean deep uncovers an astounding host of various species. The Psalmist marvels at both the size range as well as the innumerable population of this global community hidden under the cover of the ocean surface (Psa.104:24-25). From the smallest plankton to the titanic blue whale, these creatures of the sea all bear testimony to the creative
and incomprehensible diversity of their Maker.
Enter the Animal world. Having freshly stocked the water bodies of the planet with aquatic life to overflowing, the Lord then turns to the skies. It’s hard for me to imagine an empty skyline, but that’s what existed prior to God’s hand touching it. One command from His mouth was all it took to instantaneously fill the heavens with an aviary population flush with color, motion, and excitement (Gen. 1:20-21). Next came the ground game, where a barren terrain became fully populated in a split second! God spoke, and it was as good as done! Lions, tigers, bears, ants, bumblebees, crickets, and every other creeping, crawling, and lumbering entity suddenly appeared on the planet, literally blanketing it with activity and sound (Gen. 1:24-25). Divinely endowed with such gifts as survival instinct and camouflage, these creatures of the land carry out their God-ordained purpose of pleasing His heart and glorifying His great Name (Rev. 4:11).
Admittedly in somewhat of a reverse order, we come to the installation of the celestial world. One glance up into the starry canopy on a summer night in the countryside baffles the smartest accountant alive. Not only are these heavenly bodies beyond counting, the greater mystery is that every one of them is different. The galaxies, star clusters, and stars all vary in composition, magnitude (perceived brightness) and color (1Cor. 15:40-41). In my teen years I fell in love with the hobby of astronomy. If you’ve never taken a telescopic walk around our solar system, galaxy and universe, you TRULY don’t know what you’re missing! God has set these bodies in their place for the express purpose of pointing us to Him! (Psa. 19:1-4 ; Rom. 1:19-20). DIVERSITY .. Yes! God’s Creation has that!
GOD'S DESIGN OF DIVERSITY IS REFLECTED IN A HUMAN RACE CHARACTERIZED BY REMARKABLE ETHNIC, CULTURAL, RACIAL, AND ECONOMIC DIVERSITY!
Over the past few decades American society has undergone a revival of ethnic awareness. While we’re all Americans, new terminology reflects a heightened awareness of one’s ethnic roots. There are those who now proudly identify themselves as African Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, Native Americans, Polish Americans, Spanish Americans etc., etc. Getting down to the roots of ethnicity, I discovered that the Greek word for ethnicity translates as “national origin”. This same word, “ethnos”, is repeatedly used in the book of Revelation to indicate the all-encompassing diversity and universal representation of the future heavenly population (Rev. 5:9 ; 7:9 ; 10:11 ; 11:9). God has commissioned His people to take His gospel to every “ethnos”, every nation (Matt. 28:19-20). Did you know that God preordained the very boundaries of each nation (see Acts 17: 26)?
Cultural diversity is also one of God’s specialties. Unlike us, who so frequently make subconscious distinctions between people base on color, race, or nationality, God opens His arms to welcome and love people from every kind of cultural background. The initial stages of the church were fraught with controversies and new revelations. The pioneering apostolic missionaries were exclusively Jewish, and the New Testament repeatedly records the great lengths God had to go to convince them that the non-Jewish world was included in His offer of salvation. Two important Greek words come into play when discussing the nature of cultural diversity. The first is “phule”, the word for tribe, which denotes a people united by kinship or place of habitation. The second is “glossa”, the word for language. Language is the vehicle by which a culture is expressed and communicated. When tribe and language are put together, we have that which constitutes culture. It’s the language and traditions of a people that makeup its cultural heritage. It took a visionary miracle coupled with a divine appointment to convince Jewish evangelist Peter that God was extending His love and saving grace across cultural boundary lines (Acts 10:34). Peter’s initial experience sets the table for the church’s ongoing mission of preaching a gospel that incorporates all cultures of the world. And John the revelator uses this same word, “glossa”, to identify those who will be joining the heavenly throng at the dawn of eternal glory (Rev. 5:9 ; 7:9 ; 10:11 ; 11:9).
Racial diversity is also a part of the discussion that addresses God’s love for diversity. When I come to this point, I can’t help but recalling the lyrics of the innocently yet beautifully true song, “Jesus Loves The Little Children, All The Children Of The World, Red and Yellow, Black and White, They Are Precious in His Sight, Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World”. Cute as it sounds, its truth applies, not only to children, but to all people of all ages and all races. The Greek word, “laos”, is used to indicate the racial orientation of a particular people group (Rev. 5:9; 7:9; 10:11; 11:9 ; 13:1-2). In the early church the Holy Spirit is seen composing leadership teams that reflect broad racial diversity. According to the etymology of the names of the leaders at the Antioch church, we can safely conclude that these men came from racial backgrounds including Africans, Caucasians and Asians (see Acts 13:1-2). How well does our current church bodies reflect racial diversity at both the leadership as well as the membership levels? DIVERSITY .. yeah, God’s Humanity has that!
GOD'S PREFERENCE FOR VARIETY IS REFLECTED IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND GIFTING DIVERSITY REPRESENTED IN HIS REDEEMED FAMILY!
Writing originally to believers scattered by persecution, the apostle James addresses the problem of showing favoritism in the church (James 2:1-7). But the Holy Spirit instructs them and us to practice “status blindness” by treating both rich and poor with equivalent respect and in an equitable fashion. God loves and receives people from every level of the economic strata, and wants His children to do the same. In addition, we see God’s great diversity reflected in the distribution and exercise of spiritual gifts within the body. Individual members of the local assembly are endowed with differing abilities and strengths that can and should be employed in a harmonious and constructive manner (1 Cor. 2:12,20,27). DIVERSITY .. Yes! God’s redeemed family has that!
GOD'S PREFERENCE FOR DIVERSITY IS REFLECTED IN THE WAY HE CREATED YOU!
Do I have your attention now? Yes, YOU! According to Psalm 139, there’s nobody quite like you. The Lord quietly superintended every step of your prenatal formation. He cares about you so much that a second doesn’t go by that He isn’t thinking of you! (see Psa. 139:17-18) God’s diversity can be seen in the minute diversity of each detail that makes you uniquely you! Like a weaver making a beautiful tapestry, God has put you together in a way that is totally unique and one of a kind. Like that song of old, “There’ll never be another you!” We each have our own special DNA code, eye retina, fingerprint, and voice! Please don’t ask me how God does this, I can’t tell you! All I can say is, I’m so thankful for all the beauty and diversity our wonderful Lord has poured into this existence we call life. And I am SO thankful for the opportunity to love Him and serve Him, with my very best, every day He allows me to enjoy. If you’ve never met this kind of a God, He’s anxious to introduce Himself to you. He tells us that He’s forever knocking at our heart’s door, bidding us open to His love and fellowship. Whatever may be keeping you from turning that knob and allowing Him entrance, it’s never even close to worth it. Make the move, take the step, and receive Jesus Christ as you Savior and Lord. You’ll never regret it, and I guarantee you, you’ll never be the same again! DIVERSITY .. Yes! Each of us, as God’s handiwork, has that!
John R. Petrilli
These days when the topic of diversity comes up, the church of Jesus Christ is rarely part of the discussion. Christians and Christianity are often unfairly portrayed by the media as narrow, homogenous, and exclusive. Unfortunately, there are instances when Christians themselves have unwittingly earned such a reputation by attitudes and actions that are less than ideal. But, as with every great and lofty ideal, the reality isn’t always consistently lived out by its sincere yet imperfect adherents. The result is a non-believing population being left with the distinct impression that God Himself isn’t the least bit interested in diversity either. The purpose of this article is to correct this misconception, and to provide a clearer, more accurate view of God’s take on diversity.
It seems highly ironic that the subjects of diversity and God end up on such divergent paths, for, according to the Biblical account, God invented diversity! While the universe was sill in a vacuous state, we find God infusing it with myriad-like galactic and stellar diversity (Gen. 1:1-2, 14-18). Paul elaborates on the Genesis account, stating that stars vary widely in magnitude and brilliance (1 Cor. 15:41b). We know from scientific observation that their colors span the spectrum.
Just prior to His display of celestial creativity, God blanketed the infant earth with a whole host of vegetative life, including plants and trees (Gen. 1:11-12). Shortly after, He filled the seas with burgeoning aquatic life, and the skies with all kinds of birds (Gen. 1:20-22). Then God ordained the creation of the animal and insect kingdoms, whose species number in the tens of thousands (Gen. 1:24-25). King Solomon endeavored to catalogue this great diversity of creatures (1 Kings 4:33).
GOD'S CREATION EXHIBITS DIVERSITY AT EVERY LEVEL!
All of earth’s ecosystems function independently and interdependently, yet maintain amazing levels of magnificent coordination and efficiency. Take the plant world for instance. In these pleasant days of summer and fall we take great pleasure in growing and tending our flower and vegetable gardens. One walk through the Rose Garden at Syracuse’s Thornden Park leaves me awestruck at all the varieties of just this one type of flower. According to Genesis 1:11-12, God set in motion the initial creative process of plant life that continues today. And in 1 Corinthians 15:37-38 we learn that each seed of every plant carries the predetermined genetic code necessary to insure the faithful, ongoing reproduction of its own unique characteristics.
Then there’s the vast aquatic world, with its seemingly endless oceans and seas. The creation account reveals a water world that dwarfs the 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea story by comparison. Not only did God form this vast aquatic expanse, He promptly filled it with every kind of water animal imaginary (Gen. 1:10,20). God could easily have designed the fish world in a static manner, but a serious dive into the ocean deep uncovers an astounding host of various species. The Psalmist marvels at both the size range as well as the innumerable population of this global community hidden under the cover of the ocean surface (Psa.104:24-25). From the smallest plankton to the titanic blue whale, these creatures of the sea all bear testimony to the creative
and incomprehensible diversity of their Maker.
Enter the Animal world. Having freshly stocked the water bodies of the planet with aquatic life to overflowing, the Lord then turns to the skies. It’s hard for me to imagine an empty skyline, but that’s what existed prior to God’s hand touching it. One command from His mouth was all it took to instantaneously fill the heavens with an aviary population flush with color, motion, and excitement (Gen. 1:20-21). Next came the ground game, where a barren terrain became fully populated in a split second! God spoke, and it was as good as done! Lions, tigers, bears, ants, bumblebees, crickets, and every other creeping, crawling, and lumbering entity suddenly appeared on the planet, literally blanketing it with activity and sound (Gen. 1:24-25). Divinely endowed with such gifts as survival instinct and camouflage, these creatures of the land carry out their God-ordained purpose of pleasing His heart and glorifying His great Name (Rev. 4:11).
Admittedly in somewhat of a reverse order, we come to the installation of the celestial world. One glance up into the starry canopy on a summer night in the countryside baffles the smartest accountant alive. Not only are these heavenly bodies beyond counting, the greater mystery is that every one of them is different. The galaxies, star clusters, and stars all vary in composition, magnitude (perceived brightness) and color (1Cor. 15:40-41). In my teen years I fell in love with the hobby of astronomy. If you’ve never taken a telescopic walk around our solar system, galaxy and universe, you TRULY don’t know what you’re missing! God has set these bodies in their place for the express purpose of pointing us to Him! (Psa. 19:1-4 ; Rom. 1:19-20). DIVERSITY .. Yes! God’s Creation has that!
GOD'S DESIGN OF DIVERSITY IS REFLECTED IN A HUMAN RACE CHARACTERIZED BY REMARKABLE ETHNIC, CULTURAL, RACIAL, AND ECONOMIC DIVERSITY!
Over the past few decades American society has undergone a revival of ethnic awareness. While we’re all Americans, new terminology reflects a heightened awareness of one’s ethnic roots. There are those who now proudly identify themselves as African Americans, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Jewish Americans, Native Americans, Polish Americans, Spanish Americans etc., etc. Getting down to the roots of ethnicity, I discovered that the Greek word for ethnicity translates as “national origin”. This same word, “ethnos”, is repeatedly used in the book of Revelation to indicate the all-encompassing diversity and universal representation of the future heavenly population (Rev. 5:9 ; 7:9 ; 10:11 ; 11:9). God has commissioned His people to take His gospel to every “ethnos”, every nation (Matt. 28:19-20). Did you know that God preordained the very boundaries of each nation (see Acts 17: 26)?
Cultural diversity is also one of God’s specialties. Unlike us, who so frequently make subconscious distinctions between people base on color, race, or nationality, God opens His arms to welcome and love people from every kind of cultural background. The initial stages of the church were fraught with controversies and new revelations. The pioneering apostolic missionaries were exclusively Jewish, and the New Testament repeatedly records the great lengths God had to go to convince them that the non-Jewish world was included in His offer of salvation. Two important Greek words come into play when discussing the nature of cultural diversity. The first is “phule”, the word for tribe, which denotes a people united by kinship or place of habitation. The second is “glossa”, the word for language. Language is the vehicle by which a culture is expressed and communicated. When tribe and language are put together, we have that which constitutes culture. It’s the language and traditions of a people that makeup its cultural heritage. It took a visionary miracle coupled with a divine appointment to convince Jewish evangelist Peter that God was extending His love and saving grace across cultural boundary lines (Acts 10:34). Peter’s initial experience sets the table for the church’s ongoing mission of preaching a gospel that incorporates all cultures of the world. And John the revelator uses this same word, “glossa”, to identify those who will be joining the heavenly throng at the dawn of eternal glory (Rev. 5:9 ; 7:9 ; 10:11 ; 11:9).
Racial diversity is also a part of the discussion that addresses God’s love for diversity. When I come to this point, I can’t help but recalling the lyrics of the innocently yet beautifully true song, “Jesus Loves The Little Children, All The Children Of The World, Red and Yellow, Black and White, They Are Precious in His Sight, Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World”. Cute as it sounds, its truth applies, not only to children, but to all people of all ages and all races. The Greek word, “laos”, is used to indicate the racial orientation of a particular people group (Rev. 5:9; 7:9; 10:11; 11:9 ; 13:1-2). In the early church the Holy Spirit is seen composing leadership teams that reflect broad racial diversity. According to the etymology of the names of the leaders at the Antioch church, we can safely conclude that these men came from racial backgrounds including Africans, Caucasians and Asians (see Acts 13:1-2). How well does our current church bodies reflect racial diversity at both the leadership as well as the membership levels? DIVERSITY .. yeah, God’s Humanity has that!
GOD'S PREFERENCE FOR VARIETY IS REFLECTED IN THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC AND GIFTING DIVERSITY REPRESENTED IN HIS REDEEMED FAMILY!
Writing originally to believers scattered by persecution, the apostle James addresses the problem of showing favoritism in the church (James 2:1-7). But the Holy Spirit instructs them and us to practice “status blindness” by treating both rich and poor with equivalent respect and in an equitable fashion. God loves and receives people from every level of the economic strata, and wants His children to do the same. In addition, we see God’s great diversity reflected in the distribution and exercise of spiritual gifts within the body. Individual members of the local assembly are endowed with differing abilities and strengths that can and should be employed in a harmonious and constructive manner (1 Cor. 2:12,20,27). DIVERSITY .. Yes! God’s redeemed family has that!
GOD'S PREFERENCE FOR DIVERSITY IS REFLECTED IN THE WAY HE CREATED YOU!
Do I have your attention now? Yes, YOU! According to Psalm 139, there’s nobody quite like you. The Lord quietly superintended every step of your prenatal formation. He cares about you so much that a second doesn’t go by that He isn’t thinking of you! (see Psa. 139:17-18) God’s diversity can be seen in the minute diversity of each detail that makes you uniquely you! Like a weaver making a beautiful tapestry, God has put you together in a way that is totally unique and one of a kind. Like that song of old, “There’ll never be another you!” We each have our own special DNA code, eye retina, fingerprint, and voice! Please don’t ask me how God does this, I can’t tell you! All I can say is, I’m so thankful for all the beauty and diversity our wonderful Lord has poured into this existence we call life. And I am SO thankful for the opportunity to love Him and serve Him, with my very best, every day He allows me to enjoy. If you’ve never met this kind of a God, He’s anxious to introduce Himself to you. He tells us that He’s forever knocking at our heart’s door, bidding us open to His love and fellowship. Whatever may be keeping you from turning that knob and allowing Him entrance, it’s never even close to worth it. Make the move, take the step, and receive Jesus Christ as you Savior and Lord. You’ll never regret it, and I guarantee you, you’ll never be the same again! DIVERSITY .. Yes! Each of us, as God’s handiwork, has that!
Friday, November 7, 2008
Hats Off To Our Body Guards In Blue!
Hats Off To Our ‘Bodyguards in Blue’
John R. Petrilli
In the thrilling and inspirational 1992 flick, ‘The Bodyguard’, Kevin Costner played the part of a bodyguard hired to protect a celebrity played by Whitney Houston. The movie ends on a suspenseful, cliffhanger note when Costner’s character sacrifices his own body to shield Houston’s character from an assassin’s bullet.
While none of us lives in the make-believe world of Hollywood, it occurs to me that we are being “shielded” each and every day by an entire force of dedicated public servants… the officers of our local police departments. I recently struck up a quick interchange with one of our ‘men in blue’ on an elevator. When I thanked him for serving our community, his reply surprised me. With a broad smile of appreciation he stated that he and his fellow officers never hear those words from people.
I got to thinking, “ Isn’t that odd?” Like blue angels, these men and women patrol our neighborhoods night and day keeping watch over our homes, neighborhoods, loved ones, and neighbors. What other profession offers such vital services to us, the general public? They do so at a very high price, never knowing if the kiss they plant on their spouse’s cheek may be their last. I can’t think many occupations carrying such a high-risk element. What other professions other than firefighting and the military require their practitioners to daily and deliberately place themselves into harm’s way to protect people who are perfect strangers to them?
Granted, some of us have had run-in’s that have caught an officer in a less than pleasant mood, but we’re all entitled to a bad day now and then aren’t we? Considering the tense and dangerous situations they routinely encounter, is it any surprise they would occasionally exhibit stress-related behaviors? 0n balance, by far, these civil servants carry out their duties in an admirable and amiable fashion. If you still have difficulty identifying with the sentiments of this piece, consider just for a moment what life would be like without these folks on the ground. Thefts would instantly skyrocket, assaults would be commonplace, and total chaos would soon take over. The ancient Scriptures define their dual role as apprehenders and punishers of criminals and rewarders of law-abiding citizens. We enjoy the daily reward of safe neighborhoods thanks to these brave, selfless, courageous individuals we call police officers. The least we can do is show due respect for them, pray for their safety and success, and by all means, let them know just how much they are appreciated! We salute you, our ‘bodyguards in blue’!
John R. Petrilli
In the thrilling and inspirational 1992 flick, ‘The Bodyguard’, Kevin Costner played the part of a bodyguard hired to protect a celebrity played by Whitney Houston. The movie ends on a suspenseful, cliffhanger note when Costner’s character sacrifices his own body to shield Houston’s character from an assassin’s bullet.
While none of us lives in the make-believe world of Hollywood, it occurs to me that we are being “shielded” each and every day by an entire force of dedicated public servants… the officers of our local police departments. I recently struck up a quick interchange with one of our ‘men in blue’ on an elevator. When I thanked him for serving our community, his reply surprised me. With a broad smile of appreciation he stated that he and his fellow officers never hear those words from people.
I got to thinking, “ Isn’t that odd?” Like blue angels, these men and women patrol our neighborhoods night and day keeping watch over our homes, neighborhoods, loved ones, and neighbors. What other profession offers such vital services to us, the general public? They do so at a very high price, never knowing if the kiss they plant on their spouse’s cheek may be their last. I can’t think many occupations carrying such a high-risk element. What other professions other than firefighting and the military require their practitioners to daily and deliberately place themselves into harm’s way to protect people who are perfect strangers to them?
Granted, some of us have had run-in’s that have caught an officer in a less than pleasant mood, but we’re all entitled to a bad day now and then aren’t we? Considering the tense and dangerous situations they routinely encounter, is it any surprise they would occasionally exhibit stress-related behaviors? 0n balance, by far, these civil servants carry out their duties in an admirable and amiable fashion. If you still have difficulty identifying with the sentiments of this piece, consider just for a moment what life would be like without these folks on the ground. Thefts would instantly skyrocket, assaults would be commonplace, and total chaos would soon take over. The ancient Scriptures define their dual role as apprehenders and punishers of criminals and rewarders of law-abiding citizens. We enjoy the daily reward of safe neighborhoods thanks to these brave, selfless, courageous individuals we call police officers. The least we can do is show due respect for them, pray for their safety and success, and by all means, let them know just how much they are appreciated! We salute you, our ‘bodyguards in blue’!
Thursday, November 6, 2008
When Opportuntiy Knocks!
When Opportunity Knocks!
John R. Petrilli
Doorways. We spend most of our lives passing through them without a second thought. Most doorways have a bi-directional function, allowing us to enter into an area as well as to exit one. Closed doorways provide the privacy necessary for the confidential exchange of information. Doorways also function in a security capacity by keeping people inside an area, or preventing people from gaining accessing to an area. In the summer heat doorways allow a cooling breeze to refresh our homes, while, conversely a closed door locks out the chilling winds of winter. I’ve gained a new appreciation for these things called doorways, they really do have a lot of uses. When you think about it, without them, we go nowhere fast!
Most of the time we putter along, muddling our way through our daily routine until it’s suddenly interrupted by one of those golden moments. Those times when a really big doorway breaks open for us, sending us into galactic orbit. Seemingly out of nowhere, a door of opportunity opens before our surprised eyes. We may have sought it for months, sometimes years, and when it finally presents itself, our adrenaline flies off the charts!
Since these opportunities are rare for most of us, we can get caught off guard and not know just how to respond to what we just experienced. The early church found itself in a very similar position. As they began to fulfill Jesus’ directive to gospelize the entire globe, God started flinging open door after wonderful door to make that happen. Each step of the way God led His followers down a thrilling path that eventually brought the gospel out into the whole known world! As we consider their experience we can glean some really helpful and encouraging insight into how to respond when opportunity knocks.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’A TIME FOR WONDERFUL NEW BEGINNINGS! Acts 2
Thousands of years had passed on God’s calendar when just the right time arrived to unveil His most exciting plan ever. On the day we now refer to as Pentecost, the Church of His Son was birthed. Not many things can compete with the joy and wonderment of welcoming a newborn into the world, and the birth of the Church was no different. The day came, thousands of Jewish folks had made enormous pilgrimages to Jerusalem for a major holiday, and God set off the fireworks to get their attention. After the crowd recovered from the initial surprise of hearing the apostles speak multiple languages simultaneously, Peter explained that they were witnessing Biblical history in the very making! The event ended on an even greater miraculous note as no less than three thousand attendees turned to God in repentance and faith! God had first opened the door of faith in Jesus Christ to His chosen people, the Jews. So what’s this mean for us today? Simply this, that when God opens a door, be prepared for a brand new work in your life as well as your ministry for Him. If life’s getting a bit too “humdrum”, perhaps it’s time to ask God to open a new door of opportunity for you. When He does, you’ll be entering on a whole new adventure for Him!
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO FOLLOW THE SPIRIT’S LEADING! Acts 8
The early church didn’t quite “get it” when Jesus had charted their mission as global in nature, so they settled into the comfortable environs of familiar Jerusalem. Not for long. Can God use the ungodly to get His work done? You bet! He used the intense persecution of the church in Jerusalem to knock His fledgling birdies out of their warm and cozy nest, sending them cascading down headlong into a rough and tumble world. It wasn’t long before they saddled up their gear and went outside the holy city into the surrounding areas. One of their more gifted men, Philip, felt led to preach to the Samaritans. Now that was a spiritual giant leap in itself, as the cold war between them and the Jews was centuries old and still fierce. But to Samaria he, and apparently God went with him as the town exploded in a heaven-sent revival under his preaching. The gospel seeds that had been planted earlier by Jesus Himself (see John 4:39-42), had taken deep root and were bearing luscious fruit. But wait, did Philip hear that right? A voice clearly spoke to him right in the middle of revival fires. It told him to go where? Gaza? The desert? No way, that can’t be God…can it? Before he knew it he was on his way to an unknown location in the middle of a Palestinian desert. Obedient to the questionable direction, Philip crosses paths with an African government official who “just happened” to be reading a passage from the Old Testament. Within minutes the man heard the gospel from Philip and placed his faith in Jesus Christ. Many scholars believe that this was also a critical juncture as God was opening the door of faith to the African continent via this high-ranking employee of Ethiopia’s government.
Lesson? When the Spirit of God tells us to go somewhere or do something, we really need to follow Him even if that leading flies in the face of conventional wisdom. God can’t be boxed, canned, or packaged. He works in sometimes mysterious ways … all we need to do is be sure He’s leading us, everything else will fall into place and make perfectly sense once we see it from hindsight.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO STEP OUT IN FAITH! Acts 10
Change. GRRRRRR ….none of us welcomes it readily. Whether a new cube at the office, a different procedure in our taxes, or a detour on the main highway, change can be a real inconvenience. Picture yourself in Peter’s shoes. Here he is, a lifetime loyal Jew being told by God in a dream to hook up with a group of people that any good Jew would avoid at all costs. But three’s a charm with God as well, and by the third replay of the dream, Peter was beginning to warm up to the idea that perhaps … just perhaps … God loved the non-Jews as much as He did the Jews (10:34-35)! He follows through and steps foot inside the “unclean” home of a Roman military officer named Cornelius. It didn’t take long before Peter realized just what God was up to as he witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the God-fearing Gentile and his entire extended family. The fact that God was indeed opening the door of faith to the vast non-Jewish world was subsequently attested to by both the apostolic leadership in Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-3,15-18) as well as the famed Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:12-21).
We may criticize Peter for his initial resistance, but how many times have we been reluctant to step out and do what God’s telling us to do? If we want to stay in the mainstream of what God’s doing in our world, we need to be willing to step out into the unfamiliar, undesirable, and unknown. Peter did, and the entire Roman world can thank him someday in heaven for taking such a bold step of faith.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME FOR GOD TO BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS. Acts 16
As we advance a few years down the gospel road we are introduced to an unusually gifted and accomplished individual by the name of Paul. Already battle-hardened by repeated rejections and intense persecution during his early ministry efforts, this dauntless apostle complies with the Lord as he sends him on the journey of a lifetime. One leg of that journey landed him in the Grecian city of Philippi, but the real story is what takes place to get him there. It was a nighttime vision wherein he encountered a European man begging him to cross the Mediterranean Sea over to his continent and bring the help and hope of the gospel to his own people. After deliberating on the vision, Paul and his associates clearly sensed God’s leading, and proceeded to center into a brand new horizon for the gospel and the global cause of Christ. Paul had the right idea in wanting to push farther out with the mission, but he was heading north when God was heading west. Paul’s horizons needed to be broadened to go outside of his own Asian continent and into the vast uncharted regions of what would someday become the mighty continent of Europe.
Lesson? When left to ourselves we tend to become provincial in our thinking and vision. We like to stay comfortably inside the little box we’ve made for ourselves, never caring enough or daring enough to go outside that perimeter. But the same Gospel that Paul brought to the entire known world of his day still has to be preached among ALL nations, and that will require us to broaden our vision as well as our plans in such a way as to include everybody, everywhere at all times. Funny thing about horizons … you can never really reach their end point. No matter where you go on earth, the horizon always beckons you to go a little farther, then relocates itself so that there’s a whole new horizon just ahead of us. Earthly horizons never run out, and spiritual horizons are always opening before us as God creates new opportunities for each of us to reach out to neighbors, loved ones and friends with His love and life-saving truth.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO WATCH GOD CLEAR AWAY ALL OBSTACLES. 1 Cor.
16:9
American military intelligence sources recognize and label certain areas of the world as “hot spots”. Hot spots are places that have the political and military potential of exploding at any moment into a global conflict. North Korea, Iran, and other countries are included in the category of hot spots. The first century city of Ephesus was what one might call a spiritual “hot spot”. During an earlier visit there the town erupted into a cauldron of spiritual warfare. In his initial contact with Ephesus Paul encountered religious opposition (Acts 19:8-9b), demonic opposition (19:11-20), fierce opposition driven by commercial self-interest (19:23-27), cultural fanaticism (19:28-29a, 34), irrational behavior (19:29b-31), social disruption (19:32), and outright illegal activity (19:35-41).
While some people may look for any chance they can get to slack off on the job. Paul wasn’t one of them. While on a holdover in the city of Ephesus he seized the opportunity to witness for his Lord there while he was waiting. But as the text reveals, strong opposition was rearing its ugly head once again. This should come as no surprise in light of the wild conflicts he had encountered in that large city earlier in his work. Not to worry. Paul had seen it all before, and wasn’t about to turn tail and run in defeat.
Which brings us to the question, how do we deal with those roadblocks that the world, the flesh, and the devil drop down in our path? If we’re smart, we’ll commit them to the Lord Who has said that HE would go right on building His church no matter what the enemy threw at it (Matthew 16:18). Like the Israelites of old we simply need to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!”
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE ANSWERED PRAYER! Colossians 4:3-4
We all need moral support from time to time to pull us through difficult circumstances. In ministry we need the faithful support of praying friends if we’re to accomplish anything of lasting value for the Kingdom. Paul had such praying friends in each of the cities, towns and villages where he had planted the gospel seed. When push came to shove, Paul knew where to go and who to call on for support. He did so with the church at Colosse, where he specifically requests their prayers for an open door of evangelistic ministry to materialize. Whether in a dark, rat-infested prison or on top of a Grecian mountainside, Paul was always looking for opportunities to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Once this particular request had been answered, I’m confident that both Paul and the Colossians rejoiced together over the door God had opened for further expansion of the gospel.
What kinds of things are we asking our Christian friends to pray for? Physical needs requests are absolutely legitimate, but never enough. We need to get people praying for us to get open doors of opportunity to share our faith with those around us. Anything less is an absolute dereliction of Christian duty! And once those kinds of entrepreneurial prayers are answered, we’ll really have something to celebrate!
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO GET BUSY. Revelation 3:7-8
A life sentence on an isolated island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. That’s the earthly reward John received for preaching Christ to his generation. His new job? Most likely crushing rocks. Then one day God shows up. While doing time as a prisoner on the isle known as Mount Patmos, John receives an incredible glimpse into the future of the church and the world via a Sunday afternoon vision. In his vision John sees the risen and glorified Christ inspecting seven different local churches of his day. One of them was located in the city of Philadelphia. This Philadelphian assembly is the only church of the seven to not receive a rebuke. Instead it’s commended by Jesus for its diligence in spiritual matters as well as its faithfulness in the face of blistering persecution. Possibly shaken by relentless blasts of satanic opposition, the believers there are described as “weak”. So Christ bolsters their faith with a huge incentive-builder. He informs them that he’s going to open up a gigantic door of ministry for them and bless them with great results. Now that’s what I’d call encouragement! An open door means new opportunities which means new work to do.
These faithful Christians would ultimately succeed because their small size would be compensated for by Christ’s power, their spiritually vicarious position in a commercial location would be overcome Christ’s preservation, their official persecution at the hands of Rome would be trumped by Christ’s protection, and their rejection by the religious element of the city would be replaced by Christ’s soon-coming vindication. With this in mind they were to work with a sense of urgency (8a), work in the strength and wisdom of God (8b), work faithfully (8c), work confidently (9a), work tirelessly (10), and work expectantly (11-12).
So it is with us when God opens a great new door of service to us. The door has been opened, not as something to be enamored over, but as a gateway to new and greater ministry accomplishments. When the door opens, it’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work!
John R. Petrilli
Doorways. We spend most of our lives passing through them without a second thought. Most doorways have a bi-directional function, allowing us to enter into an area as well as to exit one. Closed doorways provide the privacy necessary for the confidential exchange of information. Doorways also function in a security capacity by keeping people inside an area, or preventing people from gaining accessing to an area. In the summer heat doorways allow a cooling breeze to refresh our homes, while, conversely a closed door locks out the chilling winds of winter. I’ve gained a new appreciation for these things called doorways, they really do have a lot of uses. When you think about it, without them, we go nowhere fast!
Most of the time we putter along, muddling our way through our daily routine until it’s suddenly interrupted by one of those golden moments. Those times when a really big doorway breaks open for us, sending us into galactic orbit. Seemingly out of nowhere, a door of opportunity opens before our surprised eyes. We may have sought it for months, sometimes years, and when it finally presents itself, our adrenaline flies off the charts!
Since these opportunities are rare for most of us, we can get caught off guard and not know just how to respond to what we just experienced. The early church found itself in a very similar position. As they began to fulfill Jesus’ directive to gospelize the entire globe, God started flinging open door after wonderful door to make that happen. Each step of the way God led His followers down a thrilling path that eventually brought the gospel out into the whole known world! As we consider their experience we can glean some really helpful and encouraging insight into how to respond when opportunity knocks.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’A TIME FOR WONDERFUL NEW BEGINNINGS! Acts 2
Thousands of years had passed on God’s calendar when just the right time arrived to unveil His most exciting plan ever. On the day we now refer to as Pentecost, the Church of His Son was birthed. Not many things can compete with the joy and wonderment of welcoming a newborn into the world, and the birth of the Church was no different. The day came, thousands of Jewish folks had made enormous pilgrimages to Jerusalem for a major holiday, and God set off the fireworks to get their attention. After the crowd recovered from the initial surprise of hearing the apostles speak multiple languages simultaneously, Peter explained that they were witnessing Biblical history in the very making! The event ended on an even greater miraculous note as no less than three thousand attendees turned to God in repentance and faith! God had first opened the door of faith in Jesus Christ to His chosen people, the Jews. So what’s this mean for us today? Simply this, that when God opens a door, be prepared for a brand new work in your life as well as your ministry for Him. If life’s getting a bit too “humdrum”, perhaps it’s time to ask God to open a new door of opportunity for you. When He does, you’ll be entering on a whole new adventure for Him!
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO FOLLOW THE SPIRIT’S LEADING! Acts 8
The early church didn’t quite “get it” when Jesus had charted their mission as global in nature, so they settled into the comfortable environs of familiar Jerusalem. Not for long. Can God use the ungodly to get His work done? You bet! He used the intense persecution of the church in Jerusalem to knock His fledgling birdies out of their warm and cozy nest, sending them cascading down headlong into a rough and tumble world. It wasn’t long before they saddled up their gear and went outside the holy city into the surrounding areas. One of their more gifted men, Philip, felt led to preach to the Samaritans. Now that was a spiritual giant leap in itself, as the cold war between them and the Jews was centuries old and still fierce. But to Samaria he, and apparently God went with him as the town exploded in a heaven-sent revival under his preaching. The gospel seeds that had been planted earlier by Jesus Himself (see John 4:39-42), had taken deep root and were bearing luscious fruit. But wait, did Philip hear that right? A voice clearly spoke to him right in the middle of revival fires. It told him to go where? Gaza? The desert? No way, that can’t be God…can it? Before he knew it he was on his way to an unknown location in the middle of a Palestinian desert. Obedient to the questionable direction, Philip crosses paths with an African government official who “just happened” to be reading a passage from the Old Testament. Within minutes the man heard the gospel from Philip and placed his faith in Jesus Christ. Many scholars believe that this was also a critical juncture as God was opening the door of faith to the African continent via this high-ranking employee of Ethiopia’s government.
Lesson? When the Spirit of God tells us to go somewhere or do something, we really need to follow Him even if that leading flies in the face of conventional wisdom. God can’t be boxed, canned, or packaged. He works in sometimes mysterious ways … all we need to do is be sure He’s leading us, everything else will fall into place and make perfectly sense once we see it from hindsight.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO STEP OUT IN FAITH! Acts 10
Change. GRRRRRR ….none of us welcomes it readily. Whether a new cube at the office, a different procedure in our taxes, or a detour on the main highway, change can be a real inconvenience. Picture yourself in Peter’s shoes. Here he is, a lifetime loyal Jew being told by God in a dream to hook up with a group of people that any good Jew would avoid at all costs. But three’s a charm with God as well, and by the third replay of the dream, Peter was beginning to warm up to the idea that perhaps … just perhaps … God loved the non-Jews as much as He did the Jews (10:34-35)! He follows through and steps foot inside the “unclean” home of a Roman military officer named Cornelius. It didn’t take long before Peter realized just what God was up to as he witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon the God-fearing Gentile and his entire extended family. The fact that God was indeed opening the door of faith to the vast non-Jewish world was subsequently attested to by both the apostolic leadership in Jerusalem (Acts 11:1-3,15-18) as well as the famed Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:12-21).
We may criticize Peter for his initial resistance, but how many times have we been reluctant to step out and do what God’s telling us to do? If we want to stay in the mainstream of what God’s doing in our world, we need to be willing to step out into the unfamiliar, undesirable, and unknown. Peter did, and the entire Roman world can thank him someday in heaven for taking such a bold step of faith.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME FOR GOD TO BROADEN YOUR HORIZONS. Acts 16
As we advance a few years down the gospel road we are introduced to an unusually gifted and accomplished individual by the name of Paul. Already battle-hardened by repeated rejections and intense persecution during his early ministry efforts, this dauntless apostle complies with the Lord as he sends him on the journey of a lifetime. One leg of that journey landed him in the Grecian city of Philippi, but the real story is what takes place to get him there. It was a nighttime vision wherein he encountered a European man begging him to cross the Mediterranean Sea over to his continent and bring the help and hope of the gospel to his own people. After deliberating on the vision, Paul and his associates clearly sensed God’s leading, and proceeded to center into a brand new horizon for the gospel and the global cause of Christ. Paul had the right idea in wanting to push farther out with the mission, but he was heading north when God was heading west. Paul’s horizons needed to be broadened to go outside of his own Asian continent and into the vast uncharted regions of what would someday become the mighty continent of Europe.
Lesson? When left to ourselves we tend to become provincial in our thinking and vision. We like to stay comfortably inside the little box we’ve made for ourselves, never caring enough or daring enough to go outside that perimeter. But the same Gospel that Paul brought to the entire known world of his day still has to be preached among ALL nations, and that will require us to broaden our vision as well as our plans in such a way as to include everybody, everywhere at all times. Funny thing about horizons … you can never really reach their end point. No matter where you go on earth, the horizon always beckons you to go a little farther, then relocates itself so that there’s a whole new horizon just ahead of us. Earthly horizons never run out, and spiritual horizons are always opening before us as God creates new opportunities for each of us to reach out to neighbors, loved ones and friends with His love and life-saving truth.
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO WATCH GOD CLEAR AWAY ALL OBSTACLES. 1 Cor.
16:9
American military intelligence sources recognize and label certain areas of the world as “hot spots”. Hot spots are places that have the political and military potential of exploding at any moment into a global conflict. North Korea, Iran, and other countries are included in the category of hot spots. The first century city of Ephesus was what one might call a spiritual “hot spot”. During an earlier visit there the town erupted into a cauldron of spiritual warfare. In his initial contact with Ephesus Paul encountered religious opposition (Acts 19:8-9b), demonic opposition (19:11-20), fierce opposition driven by commercial self-interest (19:23-27), cultural fanaticism (19:28-29a, 34), irrational behavior (19:29b-31), social disruption (19:32), and outright illegal activity (19:35-41).
While some people may look for any chance they can get to slack off on the job. Paul wasn’t one of them. While on a holdover in the city of Ephesus he seized the opportunity to witness for his Lord there while he was waiting. But as the text reveals, strong opposition was rearing its ugly head once again. This should come as no surprise in light of the wild conflicts he had encountered in that large city earlier in his work. Not to worry. Paul had seen it all before, and wasn’t about to turn tail and run in defeat.
Which brings us to the question, how do we deal with those roadblocks that the world, the flesh, and the devil drop down in our path? If we’re smart, we’ll commit them to the Lord Who has said that HE would go right on building His church no matter what the enemy threw at it (Matthew 16:18). Like the Israelites of old we simply need to “stand still and see the salvation of the Lord!”
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO CELEBRATE ANSWERED PRAYER! Colossians 4:3-4
We all need moral support from time to time to pull us through difficult circumstances. In ministry we need the faithful support of praying friends if we’re to accomplish anything of lasting value for the Kingdom. Paul had such praying friends in each of the cities, towns and villages where he had planted the gospel seed. When push came to shove, Paul knew where to go and who to call on for support. He did so with the church at Colosse, where he specifically requests their prayers for an open door of evangelistic ministry to materialize. Whether in a dark, rat-infested prison or on top of a Grecian mountainside, Paul was always looking for opportunities to tell others the good news of Jesus Christ and the forgiveness of sins. Once this particular request had been answered, I’m confident that both Paul and the Colossians rejoiced together over the door God had opened for further expansion of the gospel.
What kinds of things are we asking our Christian friends to pray for? Physical needs requests are absolutely legitimate, but never enough. We need to get people praying for us to get open doors of opportunity to share our faith with those around us. Anything less is an absolute dereliction of Christian duty! And once those kinds of entrepreneurial prayers are answered, we’ll really have something to celebrate!
WHEN OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS, IT’S TIME TO GET BUSY. Revelation 3:7-8
A life sentence on an isolated island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. That’s the earthly reward John received for preaching Christ to his generation. His new job? Most likely crushing rocks. Then one day God shows up. While doing time as a prisoner on the isle known as Mount Patmos, John receives an incredible glimpse into the future of the church and the world via a Sunday afternoon vision. In his vision John sees the risen and glorified Christ inspecting seven different local churches of his day. One of them was located in the city of Philadelphia. This Philadelphian assembly is the only church of the seven to not receive a rebuke. Instead it’s commended by Jesus for its diligence in spiritual matters as well as its faithfulness in the face of blistering persecution. Possibly shaken by relentless blasts of satanic opposition, the believers there are described as “weak”. So Christ bolsters their faith with a huge incentive-builder. He informs them that he’s going to open up a gigantic door of ministry for them and bless them with great results. Now that’s what I’d call encouragement! An open door means new opportunities which means new work to do.
These faithful Christians would ultimately succeed because their small size would be compensated for by Christ’s power, their spiritually vicarious position in a commercial location would be overcome Christ’s preservation, their official persecution at the hands of Rome would be trumped by Christ’s protection, and their rejection by the religious element of the city would be replaced by Christ’s soon-coming vindication. With this in mind they were to work with a sense of urgency (8a), work in the strength and wisdom of God (8b), work faithfully (8c), work confidently (9a), work tirelessly (10), and work expectantly (11-12).
So it is with us when God opens a great new door of service to us. The door has been opened, not as something to be enamored over, but as a gateway to new and greater ministry accomplishments. When the door opens, it’s time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to work!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Revival In Our Time? ... Yes!
Revival In Our Time? … Yes!!
John R. Petrilli
Imagine your telephone ringing and finding that the person on the other side of the call is the President of the United States! Or how about Billy Graham, or the Pope, or Mother Theresa? What an honor it would be to have a personal audience with any of these distinguished persons! Now take that scenario and notch it up about a million times to find yourself in the court of the King of the Universe… God!
That’s where Isaiah the prophet found himself. And this is where God found Isaiah. And where Isaiah found himself stripped spiritually naked before a thrice-holy God. In the first nine verses of the sixth chapter of the book bearing his name, we watch Isaiah become transformed from impure vessel to pristine preacher. As we unpack this loaded passage we discover four principles of genuine revival.
REVIVAL FIRES ARE KINDLED WHEN WE COME FACE TO FACE WITH THE HOLINESS OF GOD! 1-4
A royal administrator had just passed off the scene in Judah. A king by the name of Uzziah had died. Who would succeed him and lead the nation now? God powerfully reminds His anxious prophet that He, the King of Kings, was still on the Throne. As always, He would preside over Judah’s national affairs as well as the affairs of the international community. But what kind of character did God possess that qualified Him to govern the world? A holy character. In fact, the three-times-over kind of holiness. Holiness through and through. Once the angelic guard surrounding heaven’s throne declared that perfect holiness, the entire temple shook, rattled and rolled. Its very doorposts moved out of their sockets, and the entire scene was inundated with smoke kindled by the burning fire of God’s holiness.
French philosopher Alexander DeToqueville visited America in the 1830’s, and made these keen observations: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits, aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Mark this down as my humble, heartfelt call to pulpits across Central New York pulpits all across America … “Get a hold of the holiness of God and preach it until the pews get it down pat!” We serve a HOLY God, Whose laws are not to be trifled with, Whose grace is never to be received in vain, and Whose love is never to be taken for granted!! “But just as he Who called you is holy”, Peter reminds, “be holy in all you do, for it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ “ (1 Peter 1:15-16).
REVIVAL FIRES BREAK OUT WHEN THE HOLINESS OF GOD EXPOSES THE UNHOLINESS OF HIS PEOPLE! 5
Mirrors are a humble yet helpful commodity. They reveal nothing of themselves but simply, quietly and clearly reflect the exact image of the object facing them. Like a giant cosmic mirror, a single glimpse of God’s absolute holiness showed up the impurities in Isaiah’s life. Indeed, the princely prophet confesses, “I am completely RUINED!” One look at the God of glory sent the heretofore seemingly righteous man to his knees in utter abasement, conviction and contrition. Before his fellow men he felt just fine, but pure holiness instantly revealed his problem with unwholesome speech, and he was down for the count. Isaiah quickly recognized he wasn’t alone either. The entire culture of Judah was guilty of verbal impurity. Whether it was lying, swearing, gossip, profanity, or other, the Holy Spirit of the Holy God pointed out this glaring sin in his life and the life of the nation.
What would be the Holy Spirit’s commentary on our culture’s vocabulary and conversation? Probably the same, perhaps an even worse indictment. Our Television and movie screens, internet, radio waves, music and literature are filled with the unclean, the unholy and the profane. A fresh glimpse of God’s holiness would cause our mouths to stop on the dime in guilty silence. And that’s just what will happen later if not sooner (see Romans 3:19-20). We claim to love God, follow Jesus, and obey the Holy Spirit. But if that were truly so, we’d have a zero rate of divorce, immorality and duplicity in the church. We need to get such a grip on God’s holiness that, like Isaiah, we come to the end of ourselves and our sins, both individual and as a nation.
REVIVAL FIRES BURN HOTLY WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE COME CLEAN! 6-7
Picture a world without washing machines. We’d eventually run through our entire wardrobe and begin wearing dirty, smelly, wrinkled and unwashed clothes. Everything needs a periodic cleaning, and our lives are no different. Having seen face to face the kind of holy God he was serving, and having come to grips with His unclean status, Isaiah was now ready for a spiritual housecleaning. An angel swoops down from God’s altar to the place where Isaiah knelt. The angel applies hot coals taken from God’s altar to the very place of Isaiah’s besetting sin … his big mouth. The coals burned away Isaiah’s oral impurity as well as his internal heart impurity. Once he had been cleansed and made heart-right with God, his words would then reflect that internal renewal (Matthew 6:45).
The believer today has the blood of Christ as the all-purpose cleansing agent. When we allow our hearts to be cleansed by the Word of God and the blood of Christ, we’ll speak a whole new language of love instead of hate, truth instead of misrepresentation, and grace instead of criticism. (1 John 1:9 ; Eph. 4:29-5:4 ; Eph. 5:26).
REVIVAL FIRES SPREAD WILDLY ONCE GOD’S PEOPLE ARE SET FREE TO SERVE! 8-9
What do you do when you finish laundering your garments? If you locked them up and never used them again, you’d not only be unpresentable to civilized society, you’d also be declared legally insane. When God cleanses His people He always does so with a unique mission in mind for them to fulfill. Yours may be teaching, or singing, or serving, or managing a ministry, or giving, or doing cross-cultural evangelism. Whatever the call, we need to first be spiritually prepared for that work, and personally predisposed to the same. It is God Who works in us to change our attitudes and become willing to serve Him in the exact place He wants us in (Phil. 2:13). Imagine the ministry impact and spiritual revolution that would erupt if EVERY Christian got their spiritual house in order, and then locked into God’s special spot for them in their church’s ministry program? Well, that would be REVIVAL! And it would be phenomenal!
If you’re thinking this could never happen, think again. Recall how God’s Spirit spilled over from the pulpit into the pew and out to the people outside the temple in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. 9:1-11)? In great mercy the Lord set apart the godly who had grieved over Judah’s sinful state of affairs, sparing them from His fury that took out everyone guilty of the grossest idolatry. Judgment began at the house of God, and will repeat itself there as the Church responds to Christ’s call to repent of its waywardness and carnality (see 1 Pet. 4:17-18 ; Rev. 2:5 ; 2:16 ; 2:21-22 ; 3:3 ; 3:19).
The first group of Christian believers also experienced the cleansing fire and powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit as they waited on God in prayer in obedience to Jesus’ pre-ascension command. As believers we’re all vessels. The question is, are we clean enough for the Master to use (2 Timothy 2:21-22)? Only we know what besetting sins are short-circuiting the Holy Spirit’s ability to use us to our maximum capacity. And only we can rid ourselves of the spiritual dirt and grime that soils our hearts and lives. And only then will we experience the power of God igniting our life and witness with new found freedom and effectiveness.
So, can God send revival to what some have called “post-Christian America”? There’s no doubt about it. God favored the completely pagan and godless society of ancient Nineveh with a heaven-sent revival that shook the core of that entire culture from top to bottom (see Jonah 3:1-10). God even used a very reluctant Jewish preacher to sound the alarm that warned the Ninevites of impending judgment in no less than forty short days. Jonah’s revival sermon was short and sweet, and that’s all God needed to spark a cataclysmic revival that flowed throughout that ancient and opulent land.
Let’s follow Isaiah’s lead. Let’s come face to face before God’s Throne, allowing Him to expose our spiritual deficits, receive the cleansing that come through real repentance and Christ’s blood, and then enjoy the thrill ride that awaits us when we’re set free to serve the living God with everything we’ve got!
John R. Petrilli
Imagine your telephone ringing and finding that the person on the other side of the call is the President of the United States! Or how about Billy Graham, or the Pope, or Mother Theresa? What an honor it would be to have a personal audience with any of these distinguished persons! Now take that scenario and notch it up about a million times to find yourself in the court of the King of the Universe… God!
That’s where Isaiah the prophet found himself. And this is where God found Isaiah. And where Isaiah found himself stripped spiritually naked before a thrice-holy God. In the first nine verses of the sixth chapter of the book bearing his name, we watch Isaiah become transformed from impure vessel to pristine preacher. As we unpack this loaded passage we discover four principles of genuine revival.
REVIVAL FIRES ARE KINDLED WHEN WE COME FACE TO FACE WITH THE HOLINESS OF GOD! 1-4
A royal administrator had just passed off the scene in Judah. A king by the name of Uzziah had died. Who would succeed him and lead the nation now? God powerfully reminds His anxious prophet that He, the King of Kings, was still on the Throne. As always, He would preside over Judah’s national affairs as well as the affairs of the international community. But what kind of character did God possess that qualified Him to govern the world? A holy character. In fact, the three-times-over kind of holiness. Holiness through and through. Once the angelic guard surrounding heaven’s throne declared that perfect holiness, the entire temple shook, rattled and rolled. Its very doorposts moved out of their sockets, and the entire scene was inundated with smoke kindled by the burning fire of God’s holiness.
French philosopher Alexander DeToqueville visited America in the 1830’s, and made these keen observations: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there. In the fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there. In her rich mines and her vast world commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits, aflame with righteousness, did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”
Mark this down as my humble, heartfelt call to pulpits across Central New York pulpits all across America … “Get a hold of the holiness of God and preach it until the pews get it down pat!” We serve a HOLY God, Whose laws are not to be trifled with, Whose grace is never to be received in vain, and Whose love is never to be taken for granted!! “But just as he Who called you is holy”, Peter reminds, “be holy in all you do, for it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ “ (1 Peter 1:15-16).
REVIVAL FIRES BREAK OUT WHEN THE HOLINESS OF GOD EXPOSES THE UNHOLINESS OF HIS PEOPLE! 5
Mirrors are a humble yet helpful commodity. They reveal nothing of themselves but simply, quietly and clearly reflect the exact image of the object facing them. Like a giant cosmic mirror, a single glimpse of God’s absolute holiness showed up the impurities in Isaiah’s life. Indeed, the princely prophet confesses, “I am completely RUINED!” One look at the God of glory sent the heretofore seemingly righteous man to his knees in utter abasement, conviction and contrition. Before his fellow men he felt just fine, but pure holiness instantly revealed his problem with unwholesome speech, and he was down for the count. Isaiah quickly recognized he wasn’t alone either. The entire culture of Judah was guilty of verbal impurity. Whether it was lying, swearing, gossip, profanity, or other, the Holy Spirit of the Holy God pointed out this glaring sin in his life and the life of the nation.
What would be the Holy Spirit’s commentary on our culture’s vocabulary and conversation? Probably the same, perhaps an even worse indictment. Our Television and movie screens, internet, radio waves, music and literature are filled with the unclean, the unholy and the profane. A fresh glimpse of God’s holiness would cause our mouths to stop on the dime in guilty silence. And that’s just what will happen later if not sooner (see Romans 3:19-20). We claim to love God, follow Jesus, and obey the Holy Spirit. But if that were truly so, we’d have a zero rate of divorce, immorality and duplicity in the church. We need to get such a grip on God’s holiness that, like Isaiah, we come to the end of ourselves and our sins, both individual and as a nation.
REVIVAL FIRES BURN HOTLY WHEN GOD’S PEOPLE COME CLEAN! 6-7
Picture a world without washing machines. We’d eventually run through our entire wardrobe and begin wearing dirty, smelly, wrinkled and unwashed clothes. Everything needs a periodic cleaning, and our lives are no different. Having seen face to face the kind of holy God he was serving, and having come to grips with His unclean status, Isaiah was now ready for a spiritual housecleaning. An angel swoops down from God’s altar to the place where Isaiah knelt. The angel applies hot coals taken from God’s altar to the very place of Isaiah’s besetting sin … his big mouth. The coals burned away Isaiah’s oral impurity as well as his internal heart impurity. Once he had been cleansed and made heart-right with God, his words would then reflect that internal renewal (Matthew 6:45).
The believer today has the blood of Christ as the all-purpose cleansing agent. When we allow our hearts to be cleansed by the Word of God and the blood of Christ, we’ll speak a whole new language of love instead of hate, truth instead of misrepresentation, and grace instead of criticism. (1 John 1:9 ; Eph. 4:29-5:4 ; Eph. 5:26).
REVIVAL FIRES SPREAD WILDLY ONCE GOD’S PEOPLE ARE SET FREE TO SERVE! 8-9
What do you do when you finish laundering your garments? If you locked them up and never used them again, you’d not only be unpresentable to civilized society, you’d also be declared legally insane. When God cleanses His people He always does so with a unique mission in mind for them to fulfill. Yours may be teaching, or singing, or serving, or managing a ministry, or giving, or doing cross-cultural evangelism. Whatever the call, we need to first be spiritually prepared for that work, and personally predisposed to the same. It is God Who works in us to change our attitudes and become willing to serve Him in the exact place He wants us in (Phil. 2:13). Imagine the ministry impact and spiritual revolution that would erupt if EVERY Christian got their spiritual house in order, and then locked into God’s special spot for them in their church’s ministry program? Well, that would be REVIVAL! And it would be phenomenal!
If you’re thinking this could never happen, think again. Recall how God’s Spirit spilled over from the pulpit into the pew and out to the people outside the temple in Ezekiel’s vision (Ezek. 9:1-11)? In great mercy the Lord set apart the godly who had grieved over Judah’s sinful state of affairs, sparing them from His fury that took out everyone guilty of the grossest idolatry. Judgment began at the house of God, and will repeat itself there as the Church responds to Christ’s call to repent of its waywardness and carnality (see 1 Pet. 4:17-18 ; Rev. 2:5 ; 2:16 ; 2:21-22 ; 3:3 ; 3:19).
The first group of Christian believers also experienced the cleansing fire and powerful anointing of the Holy Spirit as they waited on God in prayer in obedience to Jesus’ pre-ascension command. As believers we’re all vessels. The question is, are we clean enough for the Master to use (2 Timothy 2:21-22)? Only we know what besetting sins are short-circuiting the Holy Spirit’s ability to use us to our maximum capacity. And only we can rid ourselves of the spiritual dirt and grime that soils our hearts and lives. And only then will we experience the power of God igniting our life and witness with new found freedom and effectiveness.
So, can God send revival to what some have called “post-Christian America”? There’s no doubt about it. God favored the completely pagan and godless society of ancient Nineveh with a heaven-sent revival that shook the core of that entire culture from top to bottom (see Jonah 3:1-10). God even used a very reluctant Jewish preacher to sound the alarm that warned the Ninevites of impending judgment in no less than forty short days. Jonah’s revival sermon was short and sweet, and that’s all God needed to spark a cataclysmic revival that flowed throughout that ancient and opulent land.
Let’s follow Isaiah’s lead. Let’s come face to face before God’s Throne, allowing Him to expose our spiritual deficits, receive the cleansing that come through real repentance and Christ’s blood, and then enjoy the thrill ride that awaits us when we’re set free to serve the living God with everything we’ve got!
Thursday, October 16, 2008
It's The MORALITY, Stupid!
It’s NOT the “Economy Stupid”, It’s The Morality!
John R. Petrilli
Political party war rooms have historically been the birthplace for some of the most clever, catchy and influential campaign slogans ever to hit the American populace. Some slogans have become so effective that they survive and are revived in subsequent campaigns years down the road. For almost a decade Americans have been barraged with the well-worn Clinton years campaign slogan, “It’s the Economy Stupid”. The mantra worked like magic in ushering the Clintons into two consecutive terms in the White House.
It’s high time we took a critical look at the contents of this slogan. Is it really the economy that we should ultimately be concerned about, or is national failing financial health and America’s rapidly increasing loss of global market influence due to something far deeper, unrecognized and unreported? Is the economy some kind of self-generating entity that has a mind of its own, or could there be dynamics operating on a far different level that are driving conditions that have placed our nation in a dangerous position of teetering on the brink of financial collapse? Oh yes, you can point to deceptive mortgage practices, banking industry collusions, and over the top credit abuse by citizens, but could these merely be symptoms of a far greater underlying problem?
I submit to you, the reader, that there is definitely a far deeper dynamic driving this debacle. And it has absolutely NOTHING to do with economics and everything to do with morality. As a presupposition I would point out that every prosperous nation in both modern and ancient history went through a cycle that began with a strong moral base that eventually eroded into a self-serving, decadent, immoral mentality that invaded then destroyed that civilization. Rome is one case in point as a prime example of how a nation can climb to the very zenith of economic wealth, cultural sophistication and total world power, only to come crashing down from internal moral and social decay. This pattern is readily visible with world power after world power down through the annals of human history.
Consider this for a moment. What is it that causes a nation to prosper? Is it simply raw human business acumen and sheer aggressive willpower, as the American experience has demonstrated? Is it the possession of natural resources, like Japan importing theirs from other countries? Is it the installation of a governmental infrastructure that allows for capitalism to thrive, as in Vietnam or China?
The Bible teaches that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). In other words, when an individual or society gets obsessed with money and the things it can buy, all kinds of moral corruption are set in motion. Ethics fall by the wayside as a nation’s citizens chase after the false god of material wealth and acquisition. Jesus Himself has categorically stated that once you get on the fast track of greed, you can no, longer straddle the fence and stay on the track of moral behavior. It’s a given, gobs of money can corrupt the best of us, and it’s the extremely rare individual who can handle the powers and pleasures that money and the mad dash after it deliver.
This being said, I challenge you, the reader, to hold our economic debacle up against the grid of greed, both corporate and personal. ENRON? Nothing more than corporate greed at the CEO level that covertly, coldly and systematically drained the retirement packages of thousands of its employees. The recent mortgage crisis? Greedy Wall street investors capitalizing on a scheme that they knew perfectly well would devastate millions of American home owners, but they did it anyway. Why? What on earth would drive them to stab their own society in the back like this? Greed, pure and simple! The virus then spread to America’s financial nerve center, our banking industries, which, with accountant-like prophetic foresight, saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall and opted for bankruptcy rather than crash and burn.
When God told the Israelites He would bless their morality and curse their immorality He wasn’t kidding. When they obeyed His moral laws, they enjoyed unparalleled social tranquility (peace) and economic prosperity the likes of which have not since been duplicated. Under King David’s rule, Israel enjoyed a golden era and rose to a place of world power and prominence that remains legendary. But look at what happened to the nation when she got complacent and materialistic. They became socially unjust, insensitive and unresponsive to the poor, morally deviant, politically corrupted, and spiritually incapacitated.
The handwriting’s on the wall for America folks. We’ve lived on borrowed time long enough. We can no longer cite the economy as the outstanding ailment and all powerful ‘god’ that will deliver us. It’s not going to happen. I sincerely believe that we are at a crossroads as a nation. It’s now or never. Either we really get serious with God, or we descend into moral demise and historical oblivion. I believe God is speaking loud and clear to us as a nation, “Time’s up, you haven’t repented of your immorality, your greed, your materialism, your abortive murder, or your idolatry. Repent, or I’ll bring disaster upon you!” God warned the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah that he was “fashioning a disaster against them” if they didn’t respond to His clarion call for national and individual repentance (Jeremiah 18:7-12). Imagine that! Would God destroy His own people for their rank, open and longstanding disobedience? He not only WOULD, He DID! Two thousand years of deportment and global scattering was their punishment. And our generation has lived to see them finally regathered and returned to their original homeland where their crimes against God had taken place!
One way God has judged and continues to judge nations is to remove their economic base. The Lord warned the people of Israel that foreign nations would come in and dispossess them of their land. In ancient times a nation’s land and property was equivalent to our modern-day stock market. Today a nation’s net worth is determined by its global stocks and investments. Just look at where we are as a nation! We owe billions to China, foreign investors are controlling our banking assets, and a number of our stadiums and professional sports teams are owned and operated by non-American interests! We’re rapidly losing our place as the world’s economic leader and our financial health is withering away right before our very eyes! We’re surrendering our financial folders and economic future to foreign powers! In that process we’re rapidly losing our “land”, our possessions, and even our once cherished identity as the most influential nation in the world!
So if it’s really not “the economy stupid” and really is “the morality stupid”, what should we do? We should do what other wise nations facing divine judgment have done in the past. Like the wicked and thoroughly pagan ancient city of Nineveh, who lost all moral sensibility (“they didn’t know their left hand from their right”) we must have national repentance, plain and simple. Stop looking to government or leaders to save us from the God-ordained loss of our economy and national integrity that is His discipline for our moral defection. One big thing we can do is to stop murdering our unborn children. Did you know what the one outstanding reason God judged both pagan as well as godly nations was? Infanticide! If that’s one of our underlying core sins (which it most definitely is), we’re in a heap of trouble! The church and society in general has remained virtually silent and tight-lipped as we’ve systematically exterminated 48 million little ones with governmental approval! If we think for one moment that God hasn’t heard the silent screams of those aborted babies’ blood crying out from the earth, we’re sadly mistaken! He’s heard every one of them! And He has never and will never allow the shedding of innocent blood go unpunished!
I, for one, believe unequivocally that it’s NOT the Economy stupid! It’s, without a shadow of a doubt, the Morality stupid. The sooner we get it, the better off we’ll be. And time is quickly running out!
John R. Petrilli
Political party war rooms have historically been the birthplace for some of the most clever, catchy and influential campaign slogans ever to hit the American populace. Some slogans have become so effective that they survive and are revived in subsequent campaigns years down the road. For almost a decade Americans have been barraged with the well-worn Clinton years campaign slogan, “It’s the Economy Stupid”. The mantra worked like magic in ushering the Clintons into two consecutive terms in the White House.
It’s high time we took a critical look at the contents of this slogan. Is it really the economy that we should ultimately be concerned about, or is national failing financial health and America’s rapidly increasing loss of global market influence due to something far deeper, unrecognized and unreported? Is the economy some kind of self-generating entity that has a mind of its own, or could there be dynamics operating on a far different level that are driving conditions that have placed our nation in a dangerous position of teetering on the brink of financial collapse? Oh yes, you can point to deceptive mortgage practices, banking industry collusions, and over the top credit abuse by citizens, but could these merely be symptoms of a far greater underlying problem?
I submit to you, the reader, that there is definitely a far deeper dynamic driving this debacle. And it has absolutely NOTHING to do with economics and everything to do with morality. As a presupposition I would point out that every prosperous nation in both modern and ancient history went through a cycle that began with a strong moral base that eventually eroded into a self-serving, decadent, immoral mentality that invaded then destroyed that civilization. Rome is one case in point as a prime example of how a nation can climb to the very zenith of economic wealth, cultural sophistication and total world power, only to come crashing down from internal moral and social decay. This pattern is readily visible with world power after world power down through the annals of human history.
Consider this for a moment. What is it that causes a nation to prosper? Is it simply raw human business acumen and sheer aggressive willpower, as the American experience has demonstrated? Is it the possession of natural resources, like Japan importing theirs from other countries? Is it the installation of a governmental infrastructure that allows for capitalism to thrive, as in Vietnam or China?
The Bible teaches that “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:10). In other words, when an individual or society gets obsessed with money and the things it can buy, all kinds of moral corruption are set in motion. Ethics fall by the wayside as a nation’s citizens chase after the false god of material wealth and acquisition. Jesus Himself has categorically stated that once you get on the fast track of greed, you can no, longer straddle the fence and stay on the track of moral behavior. It’s a given, gobs of money can corrupt the best of us, and it’s the extremely rare individual who can handle the powers and pleasures that money and the mad dash after it deliver.
This being said, I challenge you, the reader, to hold our economic debacle up against the grid of greed, both corporate and personal. ENRON? Nothing more than corporate greed at the CEO level that covertly, coldly and systematically drained the retirement packages of thousands of its employees. The recent mortgage crisis? Greedy Wall street investors capitalizing on a scheme that they knew perfectly well would devastate millions of American home owners, but they did it anyway. Why? What on earth would drive them to stab their own society in the back like this? Greed, pure and simple! The virus then spread to America’s financial nerve center, our banking industries, which, with accountant-like prophetic foresight, saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall and opted for bankruptcy rather than crash and burn.
When God told the Israelites He would bless their morality and curse their immorality He wasn’t kidding. When they obeyed His moral laws, they enjoyed unparalleled social tranquility (peace) and economic prosperity the likes of which have not since been duplicated. Under King David’s rule, Israel enjoyed a golden era and rose to a place of world power and prominence that remains legendary. But look at what happened to the nation when she got complacent and materialistic. They became socially unjust, insensitive and unresponsive to the poor, morally deviant, politically corrupted, and spiritually incapacitated.
The handwriting’s on the wall for America folks. We’ve lived on borrowed time long enough. We can no longer cite the economy as the outstanding ailment and all powerful ‘god’ that will deliver us. It’s not going to happen. I sincerely believe that we are at a crossroads as a nation. It’s now or never. Either we really get serious with God, or we descend into moral demise and historical oblivion. I believe God is speaking loud and clear to us as a nation, “Time’s up, you haven’t repented of your immorality, your greed, your materialism, your abortive murder, or your idolatry. Repent, or I’ll bring disaster upon you!” God warned the southern Jewish kingdom of Judah that he was “fashioning a disaster against them” if they didn’t respond to His clarion call for national and individual repentance (Jeremiah 18:7-12). Imagine that! Would God destroy His own people for their rank, open and longstanding disobedience? He not only WOULD, He DID! Two thousand years of deportment and global scattering was their punishment. And our generation has lived to see them finally regathered and returned to their original homeland where their crimes against God had taken place!
One way God has judged and continues to judge nations is to remove their economic base. The Lord warned the people of Israel that foreign nations would come in and dispossess them of their land. In ancient times a nation’s land and property was equivalent to our modern-day stock market. Today a nation’s net worth is determined by its global stocks and investments. Just look at where we are as a nation! We owe billions to China, foreign investors are controlling our banking assets, and a number of our stadiums and professional sports teams are owned and operated by non-American interests! We’re rapidly losing our place as the world’s economic leader and our financial health is withering away right before our very eyes! We’re surrendering our financial folders and economic future to foreign powers! In that process we’re rapidly losing our “land”, our possessions, and even our once cherished identity as the most influential nation in the world!
So if it’s really not “the economy stupid” and really is “the morality stupid”, what should we do? We should do what other wise nations facing divine judgment have done in the past. Like the wicked and thoroughly pagan ancient city of Nineveh, who lost all moral sensibility (“they didn’t know their left hand from their right”) we must have national repentance, plain and simple. Stop looking to government or leaders to save us from the God-ordained loss of our economy and national integrity that is His discipline for our moral defection. One big thing we can do is to stop murdering our unborn children. Did you know what the one outstanding reason God judged both pagan as well as godly nations was? Infanticide! If that’s one of our underlying core sins (which it most definitely is), we’re in a heap of trouble! The church and society in general has remained virtually silent and tight-lipped as we’ve systematically exterminated 48 million little ones with governmental approval! If we think for one moment that God hasn’t heard the silent screams of those aborted babies’ blood crying out from the earth, we’re sadly mistaken! He’s heard every one of them! And He has never and will never allow the shedding of innocent blood go unpunished!
I, for one, believe unequivocally that it’s NOT the Economy stupid! It’s, without a shadow of a doubt, the Morality stupid. The sooner we get it, the better off we’ll be. And time is quickly running out!
You Can Make An Election Year Difference!
You Can Make An Election Year Difference!
John R. Petrilli
One vote .. that’s all that separated the winner from the loser in many historic elections. What might be the power of just one prayer? How about millions of prayers? Did you know that you have a Biblical basis for influencing the role of government in your life?
The apostle Paul writes to his younger protégé Timothy these words:
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-3)
We derive four principles from this passage that bear directly on our prayers for those who lead us.
FIRST, PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS IS TO BE REGARDED AS A TOP PRIORITY FOR INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS AS WELL LOCAL CHURCHES.
“Paul states, “I urge FIRST OF ALL, that prayers … be made for all men.”
The media keeps chanting the mantra that the economy is the top priority in this year’s election. But God’s Word says that, when it comes to politics, His people are to make prayer their top priority. Why would God say this? Simply because, when a nation is under ethical, good, and godly leadership, it prospers. Make no mistake about it, God’s speaking here through the Spirit-inspired Scriptures, and He’s stressing the absolute necessity and strategic importance of targeting government leaders in our prayers. In spite of all; the special interest groups, lobbyists, and influence peddling that goes on, Christians directly influence public policy by simply praying for their leaders to make good decisions. When principled leaders are in office, public policy will reflect a morality of righteousness that will prosper its constituents and exalt the nation. As we pray ethical men and women into office, we set the table for God to use them to form legislation and policies that will honor Him and bless the land, which translates into economic prosperity, by the way.
Recall the twin sister ancient nations of Israel and Judah. God blessed them incredibly when good kings reigned, but they fell into gross idolatry and bondage under godless rulers. Remember how God jockeyed godly Queen Esther into a position of huge influence that ultimately saved the Jewish people from permanent extinction. She was instrumental in exposing Haman’s anti-Semitic plot to commit genocide by wiping out every Jew in the vast land of ancient Persia. God orchestrated circumstances to place Esther into her royal position for just such a critical as that. It doesn’t take a rocket scientists to figure out that America is at a moral, spiritual, and cultural crossroads. As never before, as the Body of Christ we all need to be on our knees praying for God’s intervention and healing of our country. This is surely no time to take a position of “non-involvement”. Hear the almost prophetic words of what the legendary 19th century evangelist Charles Grandison Finney had to say about Christians and politics:
“The Church must take right ground in regards to politics. The time has come for Christians to vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them. Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to God. God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in politics.”
Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not the “economy stupid”, it’s the “morality stupid”! We need to be honest and ask ourselves, “What priority does praying for our leaders have in my life?” Are we praying specifically for them by name each day? If so, great. If not, it’s high time we immediately started and then never stop this God-ordained Christian duty.
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS SHOULD BE COMPREHENSIVE AND NON-PARTISAN.
“Pray for ALL men … pray for ALL who are in positions of authority”.
Funny, one might expect Paul to request and urge prayer for only the godly leaders, but, no, he says God wants us to pray for every leader, regardless of their track record. Why? Because God holds their hearts and minds in His hand, and He wants to use them to accomplish His will. Also, every leader needs wisdom far beyond what he or she innately possess, God knows their desperate need, and wants us to pray that they are open to His wisdom as they approach and solve the problems of their society. Interesting that Paul wrote this while a very unpleasant Emperor named Nero was in power, busily burning and killing believers left and right for the pure sport of it! Peter explains that we’re to honor those God has placed in authority over us, and one great way to honor them is to regularly support them in prayer (1 Pet.2:13-17).
As we pray for our upcoming election, we need to pray for everyone involved. Who knows that God may want someone other than who we think in order to accomplish His sometimes mysterious plan? We need to vote in a manner commensurate with our Christian consciences, but we need to pray with an openness to God’s plan as well.
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS SHOULD BE BATHED IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF GRATITUDE TO GOD AND IMBUED WITH A GENUINE SENSE OF URGENCY.
Paul spices up the prayer request with two powerful descriptive phrases, “giving of thanks” and “intercessions”. How often do we really thank God for the incredible liberties we already enjoy? Thanksgiving sets the proper tone for the kind of urgent interceding we need to be making as we get down on our knees on behalf of our leaders. If first century Christians could thank God for monsters like Nero, how can we fail to express our appreciation for the long and distinguished train of American leaders who have contributed so much and often at so great a personal cost? And God forbid that we pray tepid, lukewarm, half-hearted prayers. Paul knew of no such intercession, he’s all about storming the gates of heaven with heart-breaking, mind-blowing, soul-shattering requests on behalf of all men who need God’s salvation and wisdom.
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS CAN PROMOTE SOUND PUBLIC POLICY.
“Give the king Your judgments, O God.” (Psa. 72:1)
When asked how one might pray for them, many Presidents have asked prayer that they might have wisdom. The Psalmist prayed, “Give the king Your judgments, O God. (Psa. 72:1)” King Solomon demonstrated unusual wisdom as he adjudicated a seemingly irresolvable case involving a dispute over parental rights between two supposed mothers of the same baby. I have a keen hunch that many leaders face these kinds of seemingly insurmountable issues, and they need real help from above. Lincoln prayed for such divine aid, and it led him through a war that could easily have destroyed our nation in its early years. When we look at the judicial, legislative, and social mess we’re often finding ourselves in, one wonders if the people of God are really on the job with this thing called intercessory prayer for their leaders. A simple pastoral prayer on Sunday morning is appropriate and helpful, but it takes heaven-shaking, hell-quaking prayer to break through on long-standing issues that threaten the very moral fabric of our country. And every believer is responsible to do just that in the quiet of their prayer closets. As we bring our leaders before God’s throne, He promises to help them make decisions that will bless society and can also move His hand to prevent unprincipled individuals from occupying positions of influence and authority that will burden and curse their constituents (Pro. 29:2).
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS CAN CREATE A POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CLIMATE FAVORABLE TO CHRISTIAN CAUSES.
“Pray for those in authority … that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
James tells us that “the gospel of peace is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:18). It’s an established fact that the gospel advances in any and every social climate, but it has done remarkably well when regions of the world are in a state of order as opposed to chaos. As we pray for good government and effective, principled leadership, we’ll help create an environment conducive to the advance of the Christian causes in general and the progress of the Gospel of Christ in particular. Prayer is like a land moving machine, leveling out the surface of the political and social terrain, making spiritual progress not merely a potentiality but a reality!
Can you really make a difference in this year’s electoral process? You BETCHA! Get on your knees, open your eyes to the urgency of the hour, open your heart to God’s Word, and open your mouth to God in prayer for your leaders, both current and potential! Brethren, LET US PRAY!
John R. Petrilli
One vote .. that’s all that separated the winner from the loser in many historic elections. What might be the power of just one prayer? How about millions of prayers? Did you know that you have a Biblical basis for influencing the role of government in your life?
The apostle Paul writes to his younger protégé Timothy these words:
“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:1-3)
We derive four principles from this passage that bear directly on our prayers for those who lead us.
FIRST, PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS IS TO BE REGARDED AS A TOP PRIORITY FOR INDIVIDUAL BELIEVERS AS WELL LOCAL CHURCHES.
“Paul states, “I urge FIRST OF ALL, that prayers … be made for all men.”
The media keeps chanting the mantra that the economy is the top priority in this year’s election. But God’s Word says that, when it comes to politics, His people are to make prayer their top priority. Why would God say this? Simply because, when a nation is under ethical, good, and godly leadership, it prospers. Make no mistake about it, God’s speaking here through the Spirit-inspired Scriptures, and He’s stressing the absolute necessity and strategic importance of targeting government leaders in our prayers. In spite of all; the special interest groups, lobbyists, and influence peddling that goes on, Christians directly influence public policy by simply praying for their leaders to make good decisions. When principled leaders are in office, public policy will reflect a morality of righteousness that will prosper its constituents and exalt the nation. As we pray ethical men and women into office, we set the table for God to use them to form legislation and policies that will honor Him and bless the land, which translates into economic prosperity, by the way.
Recall the twin sister ancient nations of Israel and Judah. God blessed them incredibly when good kings reigned, but they fell into gross idolatry and bondage under godless rulers. Remember how God jockeyed godly Queen Esther into a position of huge influence that ultimately saved the Jewish people from permanent extinction. She was instrumental in exposing Haman’s anti-Semitic plot to commit genocide by wiping out every Jew in the vast land of ancient Persia. God orchestrated circumstances to place Esther into her royal position for just such a critical as that. It doesn’t take a rocket scientists to figure out that America is at a moral, spiritual, and cultural crossroads. As never before, as the Body of Christ we all need to be on our knees praying for God’s intervention and healing of our country. This is surely no time to take a position of “non-involvement”. Hear the almost prophetic words of what the legendary 19th century evangelist Charles Grandison Finney had to say about Christians and politics:
“The Church must take right ground in regards to politics. The time has come for Christians to vote for honest men, and take consistent ground in politics or the Lord will curse them. Politics are a part of a religion in such a country as this, and Christians must do their duty to God. God will bless or curse this nation according to the course Christians take in politics.”
Contrary to popular opinion, it’s not the “economy stupid”, it’s the “morality stupid”! We need to be honest and ask ourselves, “What priority does praying for our leaders have in my life?” Are we praying specifically for them by name each day? If so, great. If not, it’s high time we immediately started and then never stop this God-ordained Christian duty.
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS SHOULD BE COMPREHENSIVE AND NON-PARTISAN.
“Pray for ALL men … pray for ALL who are in positions of authority”.
Funny, one might expect Paul to request and urge prayer for only the godly leaders, but, no, he says God wants us to pray for every leader, regardless of their track record. Why? Because God holds their hearts and minds in His hand, and He wants to use them to accomplish His will. Also, every leader needs wisdom far beyond what he or she innately possess, God knows their desperate need, and wants us to pray that they are open to His wisdom as they approach and solve the problems of their society. Interesting that Paul wrote this while a very unpleasant Emperor named Nero was in power, busily burning and killing believers left and right for the pure sport of it! Peter explains that we’re to honor those God has placed in authority over us, and one great way to honor them is to regularly support them in prayer (1 Pet.2:13-17).
As we pray for our upcoming election, we need to pray for everyone involved. Who knows that God may want someone other than who we think in order to accomplish His sometimes mysterious plan? We need to vote in a manner commensurate with our Christian consciences, but we need to pray with an openness to God’s plan as well.
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS SHOULD BE BATHED IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF GRATITUDE TO GOD AND IMBUED WITH A GENUINE SENSE OF URGENCY.
Paul spices up the prayer request with two powerful descriptive phrases, “giving of thanks” and “intercessions”. How often do we really thank God for the incredible liberties we already enjoy? Thanksgiving sets the proper tone for the kind of urgent interceding we need to be making as we get down on our knees on behalf of our leaders. If first century Christians could thank God for monsters like Nero, how can we fail to express our appreciation for the long and distinguished train of American leaders who have contributed so much and often at so great a personal cost? And God forbid that we pray tepid, lukewarm, half-hearted prayers. Paul knew of no such intercession, he’s all about storming the gates of heaven with heart-breaking, mind-blowing, soul-shattering requests on behalf of all men who need God’s salvation and wisdom.
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS CAN PROMOTE SOUND PUBLIC POLICY.
“Give the king Your judgments, O God.” (Psa. 72:1)
When asked how one might pray for them, many Presidents have asked prayer that they might have wisdom. The Psalmist prayed, “Give the king Your judgments, O God. (Psa. 72:1)” King Solomon demonstrated unusual wisdom as he adjudicated a seemingly irresolvable case involving a dispute over parental rights between two supposed mothers of the same baby. I have a keen hunch that many leaders face these kinds of seemingly insurmountable issues, and they need real help from above. Lincoln prayed for such divine aid, and it led him through a war that could easily have destroyed our nation in its early years. When we look at the judicial, legislative, and social mess we’re often finding ourselves in, one wonders if the people of God are really on the job with this thing called intercessory prayer for their leaders. A simple pastoral prayer on Sunday morning is appropriate and helpful, but it takes heaven-shaking, hell-quaking prayer to break through on long-standing issues that threaten the very moral fabric of our country. And every believer is responsible to do just that in the quiet of their prayer closets. As we bring our leaders before God’s throne, He promises to help them make decisions that will bless society and can also move His hand to prevent unprincipled individuals from occupying positions of influence and authority that will burden and curse their constituents (Pro. 29:2).
PRAYER FOR GOVERNING LEADERS CAN CREATE A POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CLIMATE FAVORABLE TO CHRISTIAN CAUSES.
“Pray for those in authority … that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”
James tells us that “the gospel of peace is sown in peace by those who make peace” (James 3:18). It’s an established fact that the gospel advances in any and every social climate, but it has done remarkably well when regions of the world are in a state of order as opposed to chaos. As we pray for good government and effective, principled leadership, we’ll help create an environment conducive to the advance of the Christian causes in general and the progress of the Gospel of Christ in particular. Prayer is like a land moving machine, leveling out the surface of the political and social terrain, making spiritual progress not merely a potentiality but a reality!
Can you really make a difference in this year’s electoral process? You BETCHA! Get on your knees, open your eyes to the urgency of the hour, open your heart to God’s Word, and open your mouth to God in prayer for your leaders, both current and potential! Brethren, LET US PRAY!
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