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God of the Universe

                Scientists thought it would only be just a matter of time before they found life in the Universe. Instead, they keep finding God.

 

About fifty years ago scientists launched the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (“SETI”), thinking that there were vast numbers inhabitable planets in the Universe. But then science itself began to intervene as more was discovered about conditions necessary for life. Instead of only two factors needed for life as they thought 50 years ago, there are over 200. Statistically, that means that life is impossible. Not surprisingly, after 50 years of looking no intelligent life has been found by SETI.

 

In fact scientific discoveries have now proven that the very existence of the Universe is virtually impossible. If just one of the many variables in the Universe was off by 1 part of a number 5000 times the U.S. National Debt there would be no stars. The odds against the Universe just happening by chance are the same as flipping a coin with heads coming up 10 quintillion times in a row. Some scientists have even proposed the ridiculous idea that here must be an almost infinite number of parallel universes to get around the obvious conclusion that life and the Universe did not come to be by chance.

 

No, we do not live on a speck of dust planet circling around an insignificant star. Our planet was made to support our life, and so was the Universe we live in. And more and more scientists are beginning to believe that the Universe was designed by a super intelligent Creator because there is no other rational explanation.

 

God does not need scientists to confirm the Biblical truth that He made the Earth and the Universe. However, it is nice to know that our scientists are beginning to learn enough to begin to understand the awesome God we serve.

 

Perhaps now they can take the next step and come to know the God who so carefully and lovingly made our Universe.

 

Let us pray that they will respond to the God of the Universe.

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The Other Francis

                A lot of attention has been focused on St Francis of Assisi after Cardinal  Bergoglio took the name of Francis upon his election as Pope. As well we should, because St Francis taught his followers to share the Gospel more by what they do than what they say.

But today, on April 8, we mark the life of another Francis who, it is believed, is also a role model for the new Pope. On that date in 1541 Francis Xavier began his extraordinary missionary journey to the East. Over the next ten years he traveled through 50 kingdoms and baptized over 1,000,000 people. He founded churches from India to Japan, earning the title “Apostle to the Indies.”

Francis Xavier lived in an age of upheaval, when Europeans had begun challenging the Pagan kingdoms of the East for commerce and, later, military supremacy.  The European traders were interested in gold, not God, but they undermined the power of the Pagan Kings and the Pagan Gods they claimed to represent. The traders also curtailed the power of the Islamic merchants and stopped the Islamic expansion into the Far East. As a result, societies which had been closed to Christianity became more open, and Christian missionaries were able to present the Gospel. For Francis Xavier, a million baptisms followed.

These European powers eventually spread their empires throughout the world, replacing pagan kingdoms in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. While these nations were seldom, if ever, interested in spreading Christianity, many missionaries followed in the footsteps of Francis Xavier and brought Christianity to the colonized peoples. Today there are thriving Christian communities in the Americas, Africa, and Asia because of these missionary efforts.

Also, today, we find that it is Europe which has abandoned  its Christian roots and fallen into darkness. So it seems somehow to be fitting that the new Pope taking the name Francis would come from a place which was Christianized by missionaries like Francis Xavier, and would now return to Europe to preach a new evangelism to the lost Europeans.
We pray for Pope Francis, a man of the Spirit and a uniter Christians, that he will help lead the whole Church to challenge the European societies and open them to the Gospel like the Europeans did to the Pagan world 500 years ago. We pray also for the unity of the Church and a spiritual awakening of the Church to enable it to be faithful in our generation as Francis Xavier was in his.

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Celebrating Indestructible Life

            This year as we come up to Resurrection Sunday, April 5, we will once again celebrate the power of indestructible life.

Our first parents, Adam and Eve, brought death into the human family by following Satan into rebellion against God. People became slaves to Satan because of their fear of death, and Satan ruled the world by the time Jesus came. But Jesus came to destroy Satan and death, itself, and bring abundant life to His followers. Satan thought he could kill Jesus, but the empty tomb of Easter morning proved the life of Jesus to be indestructible. Jesus is alive!

And not only Jesus. The indestructible life He had, He passed on to His followers. Infused with that life, they turned from quivering cowards into bold evangelists, turning the world upside down. Satan could kill their bodies, but the fear of death was gone, as the indestructible life given by Jesus continues forever. The indestructible life made an indestructible army to advance the Kingdom of God. And, from Roman Emperor Constantine’s surrender to Christ to the survival of the Church in Communist China, the power of indestructible life has prevailed over God’s enemies.

Satan’s only success have come when he lured Christians into forgetting the indestructible life by focusing on the destructible fleshly life and the corresponding fear of death. Such Christians find themselves trapped in a joyless existence. Often they are tempted into joining Satan’s rebellion, believing that the world can bring back the life they have abandoned. History is littered with failed Kings, clerics, nations, and people who have lost their way.

And yet, despite the many failures, the Church still stands as a testimony to the indestructible life of Jesus and the indestructible life He gave to His people.

This Easter, let us give thanks for the indestructible life of Jesus who bought indestructible life for us. God knows our genetic code. He knows our thoughts and memories. When this fleshly body ceases to function, He has prepared an indestructible body for us.

Thank you Lord, for our indestructible life

And may we bless others who can find God and join us in our indestructible life.

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Joan of Arc and Her Blood Moon Word

Next week on April 4 we will experience the third “Blood Moon”, or Lunar Eclipse, of the 2014-15 Tetrad as we look back to the third Blood Moon of the 1428-29 Tetrad to see how a teenage girl changed the history of the world and the Church by following a word from God.

 

Joan of Arc lived in troubled times. Her country, France, was being overrun by the English and the last remaining large city, Orleans, was under siege. The English claimed the French throne and the French crown prince, called the Dauphin, was kept from legitimizing his rule through coronation in the city of Reims by the English armies. Joan had a word from God to relieve the siege of Orleans and help the Dauphin be crowned in Reims. She set out to see the Dauphin in February of 1429, just as the third “Blood Moon” was about to occur.

 

The Dauphin believed Joan, and she was given command of an army to relieve Orleans. She defeated the English at Orleans and the Dauphin was crowned in July of 1429 at Reims in accordance with her word from God. Although Joan was martyred by the English in 1431, she had saved the nation. Ultimately the English were driven out of France and the borders of France were made secure.

 

Ironically, the English defeat proved to be a great benefit for them and the Church. Without Continental lands to defend, the English homeland was sheltered from Europe’s constant warfare. The English Channel proved to be an effective barrier against would be invaders such as the Spanish Armada, Napoleon, and Hitler. England was forced to turn outward, ultimately colonizing the Americas while building the largest Empire ever created. Joan of Arc saved the English from themselves.

 

As we have said before, the “Blood Moons” are about God’s grace and revival in the Church (See our Blog of 10/15/14 “Blood Moons During the Church Age”). In this case the Church was a beneficiary of the English Blessing. The English dynasty which lost its French holdings were replaced by the Tudors, who brought the Protestant Reformation to England. If the English had kept lands in France the Tudors could have been forced to renounce their Protestant faith because of French opposition, as the Protestant French King Henry of Navarre did in the Sixteenth Century. In addition, the English carried Christianity and their Anglican Church to the Americas and into the whole world through the British Empire.

 

Today there are 87 million Anglicans, 61 million of them living outside of Britain, and 419 million Protestants, with 289 million living outside of Europe and North America. All owe a debt to Joan of Arc for believing God and saving France from the English and the English from themselves.

 

As it says in Revelation, Chapter 12, Joan of Arc overcame by the Blood of the Lamb are the word of her testimony, the symbolic meaning of the Blood Moon, and did not shrink back through it cost her life.

 

Let us pray that we, like Joan of Arc, will seek God’s word for this 2014-15 Blood Moon Tetrad and be as faithful to follow it as was Joan of Arc.

 

Amen

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Honoring St. Patrick

 

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17, is recognized as an Irish celebration, but in fact the whole Christian world owes a large debt to St Patrick.

Brought to pagan Ireland as a slave, Patrick escaped and returned to his home in Roman Christian Britain. However he was unable to forget the lost souls of Ireland and returned to evangelize the island. The Pagan wizards and priests were no match for the man of God, and the whole island was Christianized as the result of his efforts.  For this he is rightly honored as the evangelist of the Irish.

But his legacy of a Christian Ireland blessed far more people than just the Irish. Even before his death in 461 AD the Roman Christian Britain of his boyhood was being overrun by the Pagan Angles and Saxons. Soon the British and Irish switched roles: The newly Christian Irish sent missionaries to the newly Pagan Britain. And in about a century the Anglo-Saxons were Christianized. So the British saved the Irish so the Irish could save the British.

An even more remarkable turn about occurred as the European continent fell into chaos during the time known as the Dark Ages. The formerly barbarian, unlettered Irish were able to save countless manuscripts from destruction and became the custodians of the civilized Western worlds’ knowledge. They also expanded their evangelistic efforts into Europe, bringing about a revival of Christianity in France and Italy. Thus, Patrick’s Irish followers became a beacon of learning and hope in the Dark Ages, helping preserve the centers of European Christianity as well as its British and Irish outposts.

Alas, the Irish were not immune to the instability of their times, as they were first invaded by the Vikings and then colonized by the ungrateful English. After the Reformation they were persecuted for their Catholic faith and allowed to starve in the horrible famine of the 1840’s. The Island remains divided between the Catholic Republic in the South and the Protestant North.

It is ironic that these two peoples, still divided over religion, owe their Christian faith to the other: The Irish to the British Patrick, and the British to the Irish missionaries. Yet, there is progress being made to reconcile these peoples. Several years back we at Corporate Prayer Resources made a Prayer Journey to Ireland and saw our and many other prayers answered as a peace process began in Northern Ireland. There are also continuing reconciliation efforts underway between the Catholics and the Protestants to heal this terrible division.

As we look forward to this St Patrick’s day, the best way to honor St. Patrick would be to pray that there would be reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace between his British homeland and his beloved Ireland, and between Catholic and Protestant.

And may it be so.

 

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Martin Luther’s Bad Idea

            On March 10, 1528 Martin Luther published a book which changed the course of history. And not for the better.

 

His book, “The Book of Vagabonds and Beggars,” proposed that the State should establish a social welfare system to replace the Church in caring for the poor. Up until that time the Church had made care of the poor a centerpiece of its ministry. Giving to the poor was seen as a sign of Christian virtue and a sign of spiritual vitality in the Church.

Luther’s proposal was based on the idea of the State Religion, which had been a fixture of Christian life since the days of the Roman Empire (see our Blog of 2/25/15 “The Sword and the Spirit”) . In his view the Religious State should meet personal needs while the State-Sponsored Church should restrict itself to spiritual activities. This idea took hold throughout Protestant Northern Europe as the State began taxing citizens to pay for relief for the poor. It was the beginning of the modern Welfare state.

 

Luther failed to take into account the possibility that the Religious State would quit being religious, pushing the Church out of community life. Beginning with the French Revolution, the State began to see itself as the source of Welfare not just for the poor, but for the whole society. With Godliness marginalized in secular States, the State itself became a substitute for God in the socialist, national socialist, and communist philosophies. Leaders like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini, and Mao gained power by promising to use the godlike power of the State to bring prosperity to the masses. What came instead was poverty and death.

 

The ghost of Luther’s bad idea still haunts the world today. The Welfare States of Greece, Italy, and Spain are facing financial collapse, and their European neighbors are not far behind. In countries like Venezuela ruthless leaders destroy their national economies to buy power from the masses. Even the rich United States is marching toward a crisis as its Welfare State become unsustainable. No one knows what will happen with these nations become unable to keep their Welfare promises.

 

What Luther and the modern Welfare States have forgotten is that God will not share His Glory with usurpers. Like the a gods of Egypt humbled in the Exodus, God has shown that the socialist, communist, and Welfare states are not the gods of provision they claim to be. It is not a question of if, but when, failure will occur. The real question remaining is what the Church will do about it.

 

We must pray that the Church will rise up to the crisis and the opportunity coming from the collapse of the Welfare State. The crisis will come as people’s needs are no longer met by Government, and social order breaks down. The opportunity comes if the Church follows God’s admonition to care for the poor, revitalizes Church institutions for the poor, and creates a Godly order in the midst of chaos.

 

Let us pray that the people will once again look to God as their source as they one did before Luther’s bad idea led us astray.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Purim Past and Present

                Today marks the Hebrew Feast of Purim, celebrating the deliverance of the Jews from a death decree in the ancient Persian Empire.

We all know the story. A beautiful Jewish girl, Esther, becomes Queen of Persia. The evil Haman convinces the King to order the death of the Jews. Esther risks her life to plead for her people. The King allows the Jews to defend themselves and it is the enemies of the Jews who are destroyed. And Haman is hanged on the gallows he built.

Today we are living through a modern day version of Purim. The rulers of Persia, playing the part of Haman, have made it clear that they intend to destroy the Jews. They are building nuclear bomb capability and rocket delivery systems to do just that.

Benjamin Netanyahu, playing the role of Esther, has come to the United States to plead for the life of his people. Here we break from the story line because the United States is also in the Iranian cross hairs. After Obama’s cowardly retreat from Iraq the Iranians have expanded their terrorist empire to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen. It is true that the Iranians are leading the fight against the beastial Islamic state, but only because they want unchallenged power in the region. Soon enough they will turn on Israel.

Who will save Israel from this coming attack? Perhaps the modern answer is the same as the solution chosen by the ancient Persian King. He simply declared that the Jews could defend themselves. By defending themselves, the Jews showed that God was with them and gained peace for themselves.

We know that God watches over Israel (See our Blog 10/1/14”God Watches Over Israel”) and He has blessed the United States for our support. Let us pray that our national leaders will continue their support of Israel and help turn back the Iranian threat.

And, if Israel should decide to defend itself, let us pray that Israel’s leaders will hear from the Lord and that He will continue His divine protection.

And, as always, let us pray for the peace of Jerusalem.