THE REMOTE

Ah, the good old days.  Our girls were young, but old enough to get up on a Saturday morning on their own and make their way down to the TV to watch cartoons.  As if it were yesterday, I can still hear them, the pitter patter of their feet on the carpeted stairs, the sound of the TV being turned on.  And then it began – the first of the day remote control skirmish!

Amy:  I had it first, I get to pick what I want to see.

Becky:  No, you had it first last time.  It’s my turn.

On and on it went until, our Saturday morning peace broken, one of us had to get up and mediate, or lower the boom, or whatever would restore peace.

Can you relate?  Maybe this happened at your house on a football day when your house was divided on which team was their favorite.  Or when your wife wanted to watch a chick flick and you wanted to watch Rambo. 

These were familiar scenarios in American homes - who controls the remote? 

Here's a question for you: What happens when God controls the remote?  I'll get there, stay with me!

During the Covid 19 pandemic we watched a lot of Amazon Prime and Netflix videos.  I’m guessing you may have as well.  It didn’t take long to get to the place where the pickings were poor.  Recently however, we discovered that both of these video providers have quite the stash of Christian movies, though you have to be prepared to search for them.

We’ve watched a number of really good stories about today’s missionaries, like: Two Hats, and Living Hope.  We’ve watched biographies of William Tyndale, Charles Spurgeon, Billy Graham, Luis Palau and a number of others.

It was the video entitled, Jesus in Athens, that left us in awe of what Jesus is up to in this world when He controls the remote!

Jesus in Athens, tells a refugee story.  In 2016 Athens, Greece was inundated with refugees, most of them Muslims, from all over the world.  Suddenly, the city was overwhelmed with people, many of whom were waiting to move on to somewhere else, but in the meantime, needing shelter, food and clothing.

Jesus in Athens, is also the story of the mobilization of the Christian church to meet those needs. Many church members had to overcome a resistance to reaching out to people with different religious beliefs and customs.  But, when they stepped out in faith to do so, there was an explosion of help – centers where refugees would find food for their families, places where they could go to be safe and relax.  Churches opened their doors and provided places for families to stay.  Watching what they were doing made me want to hop a plane to Athens and get involved!

Then God did the even more miraculous.  He raised up Muslims to faith in Jesus and then sent them out to preach the gospel right there in Athens.  

Back to the question: What happens when Jesus takes control of the remote?  Here's what happens - Lives are forever changed!

One story the video relates is of an ordinary Muslim man who was watching TV at his home in Athens. He got up from the couch to do something and his TV remote fell on the floor.  When he returned, he discovered that Jesus had changed the channel!  His Muslim focused program had been replaced by one on which a Christian was preaching the gospel.  Instead of changing the channel, this Muslim man heard the gospel. Responding in faith, he began preaching the gospel to his fellow Muslims, all refugees right there in Athens. 

Outside of their predominantly Muslim countries, many were open to hearing the gospel message, one they had been warned against, but had never actually heard.  Now they were open to listening – discovering that what they had heard about Christianity was not true, and many came to faith in Jesus as a result, joining the Christian churches that had served them with such mercy and grace.

I was blown away by this man's story, such a picture of the glory of God, who is sovereign even over our TV remote controls!  But it wasn't the only story that blew me away.  The following was a goosebump causing moment.  I hope it is for you as well:

Muslim man to person sharing the gospel:  Why did you not come to Afghanistan to share this message with us?

• My reaction to his comment:  A stab in my heart that we had not gone.

Muslim man to person sharing the gospel:  Oh, I know!  That’s why God brought us here!  So that we could hear the gospel and believe!

• My reaction to his comment:  Does this not give YOU goosebumps as well? God not only controlled the TV remote that brought the gospel to the formerly Muslim man sharing it, He also sovereignly controlled the events that brought otherwise unreachable Muslims to a place where they could freely hear it.

Our sovereign God is at work in the world at large, and in our little world too.  Look around, befriend the stranger, be open to sharing the gospel, share it - and watch what Jesus does to change lives!

THE CURE

2020  The covid 19 virus hit the world with a vengeance that in some places, is still raging. For nearly a year here in the US people couldn’t go anywhere and didn’t see anyone. Holiday gatherings were canceled and important family events were postponed, all travel ceased, many became sick and many died. 

If we had to go out, we sanitized our hands, wore masks and stayed 6 feet apart, in the hope of staying safe and not catching covid from one another.  Some chose even to avoid shopping in a supermarket, preferring to order food online and have it delivered.  It was a year none of us will forget.

The beginning of 2021 began to reveal a possible light at the end of the dark tunnel of 2020.  Vaccines were being developed and were nearly ready for us.  As soon as they were approved, people began trying to make reservations to receive them. Eventually, more and more people were vaccinated in the area where we live, and began to cautiously move outside to do things. Once families began to be vaccinated, plans were made to visit nearby kids and grandkids – and even give and get long awaited hugs!

Surprisingly, to me at least, there are some people who have not registered to get the vaccine.  Their reasons vary – some younger people are afraid of longterm effects that may not show up for years; some feel that to take a vaccine makes them guinea pigs; others claim the whole covid 19 thing is a fraud.  By not getting a vaccine, they leave themselves exposed to getting infected by covid, possibly giving it to others, and the worst case scenario, ending up in the hospital very sick and possibly dying.

There is a “cure” for covid 19 that prevents the worst case scenario, but some aren’t choosing to take it. 

On Facebook recently, I heard a spiritual application of this very thing. 

The man being interviewed said people had often asked him why a good God would send anyone to hell.  His response was short and to the point.

God doesn’t send anyone to hell.

Every one of us is already on our way to hell because we sin against God.  We don’t love Him with our heart, soul, mind and strength as He commands us.  We don’t obey His commands.

God says, in the 10 Commandments (Exodus, chapter 20):

·       Don’t worship idols, worship Me alone. 

a.     Yet we put all kinds of “idols” before God – our jobs, our families, money, our favorite sports teams, a boyfriend or girlfriend.

·       Don’t lie. 

a.     Yet we call in sick when we’re not sick; we pass the blame for something to someone else so we don’t get in trouble; we cheat on our taxes; or our wives or husbands; we aren’t honest about the real cost of that dress.

·       Don’t steal.

a.     Yet we take office supplies home that don’t belong to us; we don’t return the tools we borrowed from a neighbor; or the books to the library. 

·       Don’t covet anything that belongs to a neighbor. 

a.     Yet we look at the wife or husband of a friend and wish she/he was ours; we wish our home, or car, or vacation destination was as nice as our friends.

·       Don’t commit adultery. 

a.     Yet we do.  How many marriages have ended because one or the other partner committed adultery?  How many have engaged in adultery in the heart when viewing magazines or porn on the internet? What is true for a man is also true for a woman.

b.    Referring to this command from the list of 10 Commandments in Exodus, chapter 20, Jesus said this in the Sermon on the Mount 

You have heard it said that you shall not commit adultery, but I say to you that whoever looks at a woman, with lust after her, is to commit adultery with her in his heart.(Matthew’s gospel, chapter 5, verse 27-28)

We are all, every one of us, guilty of sins against God.  And that means that hell is everyone’s destiny.  God doesn’t send us to hell because we’re all already on our way there. 

But the very good news is that God provides a “cure” so that we might avoid hell. 

The cure is not a WHAT, it’s not a vaccine that will kill the sin virus in us.  The cure is a WHO, Jesus Christ, God’s Son.  How has Jesus counteracted the "disease" of sin and made forgiveness possible?

·       Though He was God, He came to earth as a man, and did what Adam failed to do - He obeyed God perfectly.

·       He lived a perfect life, completely keeping ALL of God’s law – which is impossible for us!  Only a perfect person could satisfy God's righteous requirements.

·      Jesus died on a cross for OUR sin.  Taking the penalty for your sin and mine, He died in our place.  His death satisfied God’s wrath against sin.  He rose and sits today on the throne of heaven at the right hand of His Father.

·       I receive by faith the death of Jesus as penalty for my sin, and in place of the guilt and shame I once felt over my sin, Jesus credits His own righteousness to my account.  Forever after, I can stand before a holy God, forgiven and cleansed because Jesus died for me. 

I will still sin as long as I live on this earth, but Jesus promises forgiveness and restoration.  He adopts me as His own beloved child, and one day He will come for me to take me to heaven where He is and we will never be separated. 

The vaccine that can keep us from getting the worst of the covid 19 virus – and maybe even dying from it – is available to us all, though it isn’t effective if we don’t take it.

Likewise, there is a “cure” – that ensures, not our default destination – hell because of sin – but forgiveness, acceptance, peace, in this world and heaven in the next.  That “cure” is Jesus.  Jesus gives us HOPE.

Jesus said:

Let not your heart be troubled: You believe in God, believe also in Me.. . .I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again to receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 

(John’s gospel, chapter 14: verses 1; 3)

I am THE way, THE truth, and THE life.  NO ONE comes to the Father but by Me.

(John’s gospel, chapter 14; verse 6) 

THE WARNING

We were spending a week at a condo in south Florida.  I headed for the pool one warm afternoon and met a neighbor on the way.  When she saw me, she walked over, in her bare feet, to have a chat.  I never felt comfortable walking barefooted in the grass in Florida because of pigmy rattlesnakes, which are very small, but have as dangerously poisonous a bite as the full grown variety. My neighbor either didn’t know this or wasn’t worried about it as she strode across the grass to where I was.

The curious thing was that very near us were two other women having their own conversation.  They didn’t say a word to us, but their body language said volumes.  They looked at my neighbor’s feet, they looked at my neighbor, they looked at the grass, then back at my neighbor, and then at each other, raising their eyes as if to say that they knew something she didn’t.  Their looks made me look in the grass too, expecting to see a snake.  I didn’t see one, they never said a word, and my friend and I had our chat while they walked away.

It made me think.  Why didn’t they warn her if they had seen something?  Maybe they had seen a snake emerge from the ground at that spot before.  Maybe they had, or heard someone else tell, of an encounter with a snake in the grass.  With or without the actual appearance of a snake, why didn’t they just say, “You know, you might want to put shoes on because snakes can be found in this grass?”

During this time of covid, riots in cities, political tensions, and issues that threaten to divide us as a nation, we’ve certainly had lots of time to think, haven’t we? In addition to thinking about this long ago “snakes in the grass” incident, I know I’ve come to appreciate to a much deeper degree the value of my family.  I’ve always loved them and longed to spend time with them, but this year the desire to see them in person and hug the dickens out of them, ranks so much higher.  I miss them!

With so little else to distract, the importance of cultivating my relationship with Jesus, focusing on His Word, and praying for others, especially those I can no longer regularly see and love on, has taken on new priority.  I’ve thought a lot about Romans 8:28 this past year, the verse we Christians quote so often as our favorite:

All things work together for the good, to them that love God and are called according to His purpose

I’m grateful for covid isolation. It has narrowed my priorities to the truly critical ones.

There is something else all of the tensions of the last year have done for me.  They have filled me with a sense that the coming of Jesus is much nearer than I’d ever thought before.  

Yet, I can act a lot like those women who acted suspicious when my neighbor went outside without her shoes. I see the danger for all of those apart from Christ, but I give no warning. 

I know many people, some our own dearly loved family members, who don’t know Jesus.  Maybe you do too.  Maybe you are one of those who don’t know Jesus.  Maybe you think that you’re basically a good person, or you’re at least not as bad as some people you know.  You might be surprised to read about the way God sees us apart from Jesus. 

You can read about it in the New Testament book of Romans, chapter 3, verses 10-18 (which is a quote from the Psalms in the Old Testament).

There is none righteous, no, not one;

There is none who understands;

There is none who seeks after God.

They have all turned aside;

They have together become unprofitable;

There is none who does good, no, not one.

Their throat is an open tomb,

With their tongues they have practiced deceit.

The poison of asps is under their lips;

Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood;

Destruction and misery are in their ways;

And the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

That’s a pretty scathing condemnation, isn’t it?  But that is the condition of mankind, as God sees us, apart from Jesus.

That is really, really BAD news! 

But there is a good news as well. 

God, knowing the impossibility of our seeking Him on our own, the impossibility of our being good “enough” to satisfy His holiness and righteousness – provided a way for us to be right before Him. 

He sent His perfect Son to live the righteous life that was beyond mankind’s ability to live because of sin.  Jesus then, by the sacrifice of Himself, paid the due penalty for sin – an agonizing death on a cross, the penalty that should have been man’s – to satisfy God’s wrath against sin, enabling all who trust in Him to be forgiven.

Three days later, Jesus rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father.  His righteousness transferred to the account of all those who trust Him, so that when God looks upon those who belong to Jesus, He no longer sees their sin, He sees them clothed in the righteous of His Son Jesus – they have been  made acceptable to God, counted righteous because of Jesus, and welcomed into His presence forever. 

So what does this have to do with potential snakes in the grass? The faces of those women who saw their neighbor walking in the grass without shoes, revealed their concern, but they gave no warning about potential danger from snakes.

Not wanting anyone to face danger without knowledge, I’m giving you this warning!

Jesus is going to return, but not as Savior from sin this time.  When He comes again it will be as Judge of all who rejected Him. Their destiny is not a snake bite they might recover from.  Their destiny will be separation from God and eternal punishment. 

I don’t want that for anyone – and what’s even more important – God doesn’t want that for anyone either.  The New Testament book of 2 Peter, chapter 3, verse 9 says this:

The Lord is not slack concerning His promise (of His return), as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Did you see that?  God is NOT willing that we should perish, die without Jesus and be separated from Him forever!  He wants us to repent of our sin, trust Jesus, and be saved from sin’s death penalty.

We have no idea when Jesus will return except that it will be unexpected and sudden.  Today is still the day to agree with God on His estimation of you – as a sinner in need of repentance and forgiveness.  Tell Jesus that you believe His death paid the penalty for your sin and that you believe it also made possible your complete forgiveness. Rejoice to be clothed in His righteousness, ensuring your acceptance into God’s forever family.  And start reading the New Testament of the Bible so that you might know Jesus better and begin living the new life He’s made possible for you.

Years ago I saw a news story about a man wandering through the woods around a lake.  It was winter.  Someone had posted signs on many of the trees that read:

WARNING: THIN ICE!!

It was daytime, the signs were large and the lettering easy to see.  There was no way anyone could miss them, and yet. . . . the man didn’t heed the warning.  He was well onto the body of the lake when the ice suddenly cracked, and he was plunged into the freezing water.  With no one there to rescue him, he drowned. 

It’s one thing to receive a warning and another to heed it.  What will you do?