This is a problem.

But the real problem, you see, is not the answer, but rather the question. By asking, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” you are making two very big assumptions. The first, is the classification of “bad.”

How do you decide, what is or is not bad? Such a term is entirely relative. Of course, there are some circumstance which most would agree are unquestionably bad, such as the aforementioned rape and child abuse. But what about other situations? Is losing ones job bad? Sometimes, perhaps. But always? Is sickness or injury or being cheated or lied to always a bad thing? What I mean by this, is that there are obstacles put in our lives that are there for the sole purpose of building us up and making us stronger. Someone once said “God gives us mountains, so we can learn how to climb.” Indeed, without challenges and chances to grow, we would all be as fundamentally weak, naive, and innocent as children with a very small sense of what makes us who we are.

So yes, not everything that seems to us as being “bad” truly is. It is not until all is said and done, and you can see the bigger picture, that you would truly know for sure. That was the first assumption, but the second is just as important and has even bigger holes, and that is, the assumption that there exists such a thing as, “good people.”

Are there such things as “good people?” Somehow, I doubt it. Is it not Romans 3:23 that starts by saying “For all have sinned…”

Every one of us is made of sin, fleshed in sin, birthed in sin. We can not go a day without it. It is fundamentally a part of who and what we are. We are sinners. We can try to fool ourselves. We can say that we are a good person. But as 1 John 1:8 clearly reads, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” So it’s time you cast aside your foolish notions of goodness. It does not exist in our mortal realm. No matter how much good you do in life, it will never cover up or outweigh the bad. Isaiah 64:6a states, “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.” You are not good. I am not good. And no one you will ever see or meet, will ever fit that description.

And so the question is fundamentally erred. The question should not be, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” but rather “Why do good things happen to bad people?” And this one can only be answered by the grace of God. As sinners, none of us deserve any sort of protection from God, and yet, every so often, he gives it to us, with countless other blessings that we could never hope to repay.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. ” Romans 6:23

As sinners, the only thing that we truly deserve is death itself, but instead the Lord grants us the option of eternal life, with other blessings to boot. Why he does this, is a question that I do not know the answer to and never will.

Born the illegitimate son of Gilead, he was despised by his brothers. The King James Bible refers to him as the son of a harlot, but the Hebrew literally translates as “fornicating woman.” This could mean a prostitute or an adulteress. We don’t know exactly. All we know is that Gilead was a married man and Jephthah was the only one of his sons not born of his wife. In verses two and three, we read how Gilead’s sons kick Jephthah out of the family, but how even on his own, Jephthah quickly becomes a sort of leader.

Jdg 11:3 “Then Jephthah fled from his brethren, and dwelt in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain men to Jephthah, and went out with him.”

Note that here the word “vain” does not refer to appearance. The Hebrew word is “reyq” which means, “empty, idle, worthless.” In essence, what this verse is saying is that when Jephthah arrived in Tob, the men there were pretty much good for nothings and found themselves naturally drawn to Jephthah as a sort of leader.

So, some time goes by and the nation of Ammon decides to wage war on Israel and more specifically Gilead. So, to make a long story short, Gilead finds itself in dire need of a military leader, so the men of Gilead, Jephthah’s brothers, come to him and beg him to lead them into victory against Ammon, promising him the position of leader of Gilead.

Oh, how the tables have turned for Jephthah. The one time exile gets to return to his home as a hero. But this is where the story gets most interesting. Before he fights Ammon, he does something…something that he will later regret…something that Isreal would never forget. He makes a vow.

“If thou shalt without fail deliver the children of Ammon into mine hands, Then it shall be, that whatsoever cometh forth of the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, shall surely be the LORD’S, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering.” (verses 30-31)

This is the perfect example in scripture of why you need to be so careful about you say and what you promise before God. The Lord did use Jephthah to defeat the Ammonites and it was an incredible victory. But for Jephthah, the joy of victory would not last long, for when he returned home, what should emerge from his home? It was not a goat…It was not a sheep…nor any pet or livestock… What should emerge, but his own daughter.

“And Jephthah came to Mizpeh unto his house, and, behold, his daughter came out to meet him with timbrels and with dances: and she [was his] only child; beside her he had neither son nor daughter. And it came to pass, when he saw her, that he rent his clothes, and said, Alas, my daughter! thou hast brought me very low, and thou art one of them that trouble me: for I have opened my mouth unto the LORD, and I cannot go back.” (verses 34-35)

The last thing that Jephthah wanted to do was to sacrifice his own daughter, but he realized that he had no choice, because he could not turn his back on a promise that he made to God.

Here’s an interesting study: Look up vows in the Bible and see what the scripture says about them and the importance of keeping them. In the story of Jephthah, we find a man who made a vow that didn’t turn out the way he had intended at all. Still, he never thought for a moment about breaking it or ignoring it. And perhaps what makes the story even more incredible is the fact that his daughter did not fight it either. Obviously, she did not want to die, but she offered herself willingly for her father sake. An image of Jesus, don’t you think?

Good Morning! And Happy New Year…although technically, it’s not the new year yet. Which reminds me, if you are like me and made yourself a short list of things to accomplish in 2006…now would be a good time to start working on that list.

So, I’ve been thinking about New Years a lot lately. Here we’ve just finished Christmas, and Thanksgiving shortly before that, and yet somehow we find the need for another holiday. Growing up, my family never really paid much attention to New Years in general. It wasn’t until I was thirteen in Alaska that we stayed up as a family and watched the ball drop for the year 2000. And the only reason we did it then was because with the difference in Time Zones, it happened at eight o’clock at night.

So, I’ve been trying to figure out what it is about New Years that makes it worth celebrating, because somehow I doubt that people really get that excited by the fact that for the next month we’re all going to be writing the wrong year on our checks. So, I started looking into it and here’s what I’ve come up with. For some people, New Years is just an excuse to stay up late and party with their friends. For others, it’s a just a time when you can sleep in and not have to worry about work in the morning. But for some, new years is so much more than that. It is an opportunity, a time to examine the past, study the present, and redirect the future.

In other words, it’s a time to look back over the last year, see where you’ve been, what you’ve accomplished…what you’ve done right…what you’ve done wrong…what you could have done better and what you should have done better. After examining the past, you then look at where you are now and compare it to where you should be, or where you had hoped that you would be at the beginning of the year. Lastly, you plan out the next year. You look ahead and decide where you want to see yourself at the end of the year and then set little goals for yourself…things to achieve throughout the year…things commonly known as, “New Years Resolutions.”

So, how does this relate to the Christian life? Turn with me, if you would please, to Acts chapter 8. Now Stephen, a follower of Christ, had just given a most powerful speech to the Sanhedrin, who were the religious leaders of the time, and because of it, he was stoned to death. This is where we are first introduced to the man called Saul.

Starting with the first verse of Chapter 8 this is immediately after Stephen’s death:

¹ Saul was in hearty agreement with putting him to death. And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. ² Some devout men buried Stephen, and made loud lamentation over him. ³ But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house, and dragging off men and women, he would put them in prison.

So here we have the man named Saul, a religious leader who was so zealous about his Jewish faith that he supported the death and imprisonment of those who threatened it, namely the Christians of the time. Let’s skip ahead now to chapter 9, starting with verse 1:

            ¹ Now Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, ² and asked for letters from him to the synagogues at Damascus, so that if he found any belonging to the Way [The name given to the Christians of that time], both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

So, here Saul had decided that cleansing Jerusalem of these “Christian heretics” was not enough, so what does he do? He gets special written permission to go out to the town of Damascus and bring the Christians from that region back in chains. Let’s continue:

³ As he was traveling, it happened that he was approaching Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; ⁴ and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are You, Lord?” And He said, “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, ⁶ but get up and enter the city, and it will be told you what you must do.” ⁷ The men who traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. ⁸ Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing; and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. ⁹ And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

Can you blame him? Here he was capturing and killing these followers of Christ when all of a sudden, he has a personal encounter with God. For three days, while he was stricken with blindness, Saul neither ate nor drank. So what did he do during this time? Well, we don’t really know for sure. He could have been wallowing in self pity and feeling sorry himself for having to suffer through blindness, but somehow I doubt it. I can’t help but feel that blindness was the least of his worries. He had found out that everything he believed in, everything he lived for, everything he did…was completely and utterly wrong.

You know what I think he was doing during those three days? I believe that he was examining his past (where he came from and all the wrong things that he had done), studying his present situation (the encounter with God and the sins that he now realized that he bared), and redirecting his future (changing the direction of his life and the things that he was most passionate about). No, I am not saying that Saul made a New Years Resolution. He did not make a New Years Resolution. He made a New Life Resolution. He recognized where he was wrong, saw where he was, and decided where he needed to be. Let us skip ahead to verse 17 of the 9^th chapter of Acts. Three days have passed since Saul met God and went blind, and now God sent the man Ananias to come and pray with him:

            ¹⁷ So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ¹⁸ And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; ¹⁹ and he took food and was strengthened. ²⁰ and immediately he began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” ²¹ All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and were saying, “Is this not he who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name, and who had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?”

Yes, he was the same man, but at the same time, he wasn’t. He was a New man, with a new way of looking at life, new motivation, and a new direction. Saul, destroyer of the Christians, became Paul, apostle of Christ and author of a large portion of the New Testament. This is what I mean by a New Life Resolution. It’s a decision, not about how you spend the next year, but rather about how you will live out the rest of your life. The bible is full of people like Saul who underwent one of these life-changing moments. Zacchaeus, the tax collector and thief, gave half of his possessions to the poor after he met Jesus. Jacob, the liar and deciever, became Israel, the father of Jewish race, after an encounter with God in a dream. Moses, the murderer and fugitive, became the rescuer of the Jews and the writer of the law after talking with God in a fiery bush. Gideon, the cautious and peaceful man, became Gideon mighty warrior of the Lord after an encounter with an angel. And the list goes on.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 it states: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

Every Christian makes a New Life Resolution, whether you call it that or not, and they do so, I believe, in three steps. First, there’s an encounter with God. Now, this doesn’t always involve a bright lights and blindness. It could be something as simple as a little tug in your heart that says it’s time to pray. Second, there’s a decision. It is the decision to allow Jesus Christ into your heart, and to become an active participant in your life. Third is the follow through. This last step is probably the hardest and it is the one we seem the most reluctant to do. We had an encounter with God. We gave him our hearts and souls. Now, we must follow through and live our lives for him according to his good and perfect will. And trust me, it isn’t easy. But the least we can do is try. So, how good do we have to be? How good is good enough? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spelled it out quite clearly. In verse 48 of the 5^th chapter of the book of Matthew he says:

            ⁴⁸ “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

Well, at least he’s not asking for much. J I know what you’re thinking, “I can’t be perfect. Nobody’s perfect.” And to that I would have to agree with you, but that doesn’t give you an excuse not to try.  I remember when I was twelve years old and I came upon this verse; I asked my mother that night, “If Jesus tells us to be perfect, why do people in churches always say that you can’t be perfect?” “Because you can’t,” she replied. “Well how can we know if no one ever tries?” And so I set out that very night to do everything in my power to be perfect. And you know what? I lasted about 8 hours. Seriously! I did! …of course, I was asleep the whole time. But my point remains. Jesus Christ told us to be perfect and yet most of us don’t make the slightest effort to do so. That’s just wrong.

When I think of all that Jesus Christ went through for the sake of sinners like me and you…He became a man…walked among us…lived among us…taught among us…He was ridiculed…He was mocked…He was tortured…He was nailed to a cross. And for what?! So that you and I, pathetic in comparison, might have eternal life. He took our punishment, so that we don’t have to! The least we can do is try to obey him. Sure, we don’t have to, for we know that it is by grace we have been saved; it’s not by our actions. All I’m saying is that we should want to. We owe him that much, don’t you think?

{SKIP AHEAD IF YOU ARE RUNNING OUT OF TIME}

Now, before I close, I just wanted to tell you one last story that is a good deal more recent than the one of Saul, though just as true. It involves a boy named Ben. From the outside, Ben seemed like a very good kid, with good parents, but from the inside, it was a whole other story. Ben’s father had made the decision to accept Christ as a young adult, but he didn’t go to church or read his bible, and so didn’t grow much in his faith. Ben’s mother grew up in a household that proclaimed Christianity, but due to some bad experiences, she rejected the Lord and became very independent, accepting only the things she could do for herself. Growing up in this environment, Ben somehow managed to became one of the most wicked and mischievous boys imaginable. He would lie. He would cheat. He would steal. He would swindle. He would manipulate. He was even abusive, both physically and verbally. And yet somehow he would get away with it all. Imagine a classroom where the worst bully is also the teacher’s pet, and you have an image of what Ben was like. He never got caught doing anything wrong, except for some minor lies. His own parents had no idea what he was capable of. It was almost as if, in every sinful, wicked, and heartless act…he had a natural talent. And he was just getting worse and worse. It got to the point where Ben would sin for the sake of sinning. He would lie, even when he had nothing to cover up. He would cheat on a test, though he already knew the answers. He would steal things he didn’t want, just because they made someone else happy, he got pleasure through witnessing their pain. Remember, we are not talking about a rebellious teenager who was going through a “phase,” for you see Ben, by this time, was only 8 years old. This was no phase. This was his life. That is the monster that Ben had become…and no one suspected a thing.

            So what happened to Ben? Well, his mother had an encounter with God, through a terrible illness that nearly took her life. She got saved, recovered, and started to take the family to church. His father started growing in his faith and Ben started learning about God in Sunday School. One day, on the way home from church, Ben felt the tug at his heart and he made the decision to accept the Lord. A couple years later, he started to get serious about his faith and follow through. Within just a couple of years, he was a completely different person. Hardly even recognizable…especially to himself. He was…in every sense…a new person.

            That story I just told you was entirely true, 100%. Well, except for one minor detail. No one ever referred to him as Ben. For you see, Ben, or Bennett rather, was his middle name: Matthew…Bennett…Wisner. That boy was me. I stand before you today scared. Frightened of what I might have become had I continued down that downward spiral and not had my encounter with God when I did…in the back seat of a Toyota. I’ve heard it said that people don’t change. That’s a lie. People can change, but only with God’s help. Because, “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”

{CONCLUSION}

So now, I ask you. Which step are you on? Have you examined your past, and seen where you’ve failed? Have you studied your present and observed that you need help? Are you ready to redirect your future? …You know what the biggest problem with New Years Resolutions is? They can be extremely difficult to stick with. Even more so with a New Life Resolution. You can not just change who you are on your own. Such an action is impossible, but with God all things are possible. So, have you had your encounter with God? If not, then I should hope and pray that you feel his tug at your heart right now. Have you made the decision to accept him into your life and into your heart? If not, than there is no better opportunity than now…There is no greater time than the present. And if you have already done all of these things, then I ask you, have you been following through? Have you been living your life for him, not because you need to, but because you want to? This final step you will spend the rest of you life on, but it is through this obedience to Christ that you are able to turn your life around, because he helps you every step of the way.

Now, here is what I find interesting. In the first chapter of this book, our maiden referred to herself as black and talked about how others treated her poorly for it, but here we find that her lover is endlessly praising her beauty. What does this mean to us? Could it be that everyone else somehow did not notice how beautiful she was? Could it be that he is mistaken and that she is not nearly as attractive as he thinks? Or is it possible that his love for her is so powerful that he cannot see her flawls and only sees the perfections in her. This would indeed explain verse 7:

“Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.”

True love looks past imperfections and sees only perfect beauty. This is the same way with Christ. Even though we were covered in our filthy sins, it is because of his perfect love that we are now spotless and blameless in his eyes.

1 Corinthians 12:31 “But [zēloō] (covet earnestly) the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.”

1 Corinthians 14:1 “Follow after charity, and [zēloō] (desire) spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.”

1 Corinthians 14:31 “Wherefore, brethren, [zēloō] (covet) to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues.”

These verses encourage the very thing that chapter 13 says not to do. This seems odd at first until you realize that the only time this word is ever used positively is when it is referring to spiritual gifts or the work of God.

So, it is my belief that this scripture is not saying that we are to never passionately desire something. Obviously, we are all to crave the things of the Lord. Perhaps the thing that we are to take from this passage is the understanding that God has given us everything that have; therefore, to obsess about the things that we don’t have is to not appreciate the things that God has given us.

⁸ The voice of my beloved! behold, he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. ⁹ My beloved is like a roe or a young hart: behold, he standeth behind our wall, he looketh forth at the windows, shewing himself through the lattice. ¹⁰ My beloved spake, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. ¹¹ For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; ¹² The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land; ¹³ The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

All I can I really say about this is that is seems to parallel Christs return. Notice how he comes down with a cry of love, not to join her, but to call her to himself. The graphic representation of the start of spring follows a similar line of thought as it could represent a type of changing of the seasons, just are we are supposed to be able to tell the changing of the seasons to be aware of when Christ is about to return.

“To show one’s self mild”

In Proverbs 15:1 it states, “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.” I believe that this is the type of kindness that we are to adopt. As Christians, we are to be meek, mild, and humble when it comes to the way we treat others. Have you ever known someone who would purposefully say or do things with the intention to rile you up? When you react poorly, they are pleased because they know that, as Christians, we are suppose to be better than that. If they know this, why don’t we?

So, the next time you feel like acting up when someone offends you or the cashier forgets to discount your item, stop to think about what you are doing. Remember that love is kind, God is kind, and therefore we ought to be as well.

“To show one’s self mild” – It’s the 1 Corinthians 13 way.

The blood of Christ unites us all. Don’t let your mind seperate us.

It is this same word for patience that is used in Matthew 18 where the servant begs his master to be patient with him and his debt. The servant then goes and shows no patience or mercy to the man who owes him money.

We are called to have the same patience that God has. This means that we give people second…third…and more chances. Notice that in the parable mentioned above, Jesus told it right after Peter asked him how many times he was supposed to forgive his brother. That is what this form of patience is all about. It’s about constant forgiveness and not seeking revenge or justice when someone sins against you.

Think about the ways that God has been patient with you. Think about the sins that he has forgiven over and over again. Now think about the “difficult” people in your life. Have you been showing them the same kind of patience that God has shown you?

Think about what all I have just told you and reread Matthew 18:21-35.