A child begins life in the womb of his mother and about one hundred years or less later is dead. In that time, there is the self-awareness of existence, the choices that set direction, the formation of relationships, the accumulation of possessions, the recognition of mortality, and the final preparations to die. The Book of Ecclesiastes says it well: “Absolute futility. Everything is futile.” Everything is meaningless.

If death is indeed the end of all that a person is, then truly, everything is meaningless.

What provides meaning to life? Is it only to reproduce to perpetuate the species and then die?  Perhaps the author of Ecclesiastes was onto to something when he said that God has set eternity in the human heart.

Young adults often feel that they have a long life ahead of them and they are impatient to enjoy all the good things life has to offer. Thoughts of preparing for retirement in 30 or 40 years are pushed out of the way by the desire to live life now, with little thought of preparing for later years.

The mid-life crisis hits when there is the awareness that time is starting to run out and that there are things to do before it’s no longer possible. As health and abilities decline, it becomes obvious that our bodies are not going to live forever.

The Psalmist said, “As for man, his days are like grass— he blooms like a flower of the field; when the wind passes over it, it vanishes, and its place is no longer known.”

Consider that your life on this planet is an audition. People who try out for a place in a drama or movie attend an audition. It’s a time to see if the individual has the qualities required to get the part. If life is an audition, then this life is not the main event! There is something much bigger to come.

This life, no matter how long, is a test. Those who recognize their sinful nature and seek God’s forgiveness through Christ alone are given righteousness that qualifies them to be one of God’s chosen people. Those who reject God, who worship other gods, who choose to live life by their own rules, who reinterpret the Bible to fit their ungodly life choices will be rejected by God. He makes the rules, and His Word is final.

While you are alive, you are in the audition. It’s how you finish the audition that counts. You can make all kinds of mistakes but as long as you make the right choice before your life ends, you will receive eternal life. Failure to submit to God and to be reconciled to Him will mean eternal separation and death.

Following the audition is the main event. For the child of God, the main event is eternal life with God in new immortal bodies on a new earth. Christ who rose from the grave demonstrated a glimpse of what the new body is like. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away.

But as it is written,

Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Creator of heaven and earth and all that exists. He placed the sun, moon, and stars in their place. He created life on earth. We were created to enjoy Him and to live with Him forever.

Who is Satan? He is the deceiver who rebelled against God and in arrogance tried to replace the worship of God with worship for himself. There can be no salvation for him – his destiny is hell. He has been thrown out of heaven and he seeks to take as many people with him as possible.

What is salvation? God desires to redeem mankind from the curse brought on them by Satan. Jesus became a man that He might redeem mankind by the shedding of His blood at His death. His resurrection proves the power of God to defeat the curse.

Why repent? We have a choice: remain in rebellion against God and follow Satan to eternal suffering in hell, or repent of our sin, accept salvation from God and live according to His direction, enjoying fellowship with God forever.

What is judgment? Everyone must stand before God, the Judge, at the end of life on earth. Those who have remained in rebellion to God and have refused the salvation that was offered to them will stand at the Great White Throne judgment and will be judged according to their deeds. Since all have sinned, their sentence is to be cast into hell. Those who have accepted salvation by Jesus Christ and have made Him Lord of their lives will appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ. They will be given the righteousness of God and will join Him to rule forever.

What does salvation require? When we receive God’s salvation, He gives us a changed heart to worship and obey Him. Throughout the Scriptures, God tells us to seek justice, to care for the widows and fatherless, and to obey Him that we might experience abundant life. Our life should bear the fruit of God’s Spirit as demonstrated by love, kindness, and service.

Are we free to do whatever we want? Jesus made it clear: if you love Him, you will obey Him. Those who choose to live by their own rules will discover the iron rod with which Jesus will rule over the nations. His rule will have consequences for those who choose to disobey Him.

Why should we submit to God? When you recognize that you can’t save yourself, that Jesus died to save you, that there is no other way to be saved, you give all that you have to Him in worship.

Can God save me? Yes, no matter what you’ve done, God is willing to save you. It’s not your own goodness that saves you – it’s the goodness of God that forgives ALL your sin and accepts you into His Kingdom forever. But you must choose to receive it and believe that He is faithful and just to forgive all your sin.

How do we live in the kingdom of God? By the reading of God’s Word, by prayer, and by action as we live according to God’s leading by His Holy Spirit. As beggars who just discovered a vast storehouse full of wealth, we are to share the goodness with others rather than try to hoard it for ourselves. The last command Jesus gave his disciples before He rose out of sight was to preach the Good News to everyone.

Strong opinions lead to confrontation. Innocent people are wronged, and hatred grows toward those who force their control over others. Most of us have experienced such conflict.

There was a man who was personally offended by the choices and actions of another. As is often the case, he was proud of what he had accomplished, and now another person was making changes that seemed to undo all that he had achieved. In his anger he declared, “I will never forgive!” His friends counseled him to forgive even though it wouldn’t change the other person’s actions, but he refused. He carried that load of unforgiveness the rest of his days.

We read of another servant who owed the king millions of dollars. When the king came to settle accounts, the servant could not pay. The master of that servant commanded that he, his wife and children should sold into slavery. The servant begged for time to repay. The master, realizing that he could never repay the debt, had compassion and forgave him the loan. The servant went out a free man.

But then the servant found a fellow servant that owed him a hundred dollars and grabbed him and started choking him and said, “Pay what you owe!” This fellow servant begged him, “Please be patient with me and I will pay you back” but he wasn’t willing and threw his fellow servant into prison until the debt was paid.

Word got back to the master and he called the servant who had been forgiven. “I forgave you of a debt that you could never repay, shouldn’t you have had compassion on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you?” The servant was handed over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed.

Followers of Christ have experienced the forgiveness of their debt of sin. Those who have not chosen to follow Christ still carry a debt too large to ever repay. Seek God’s forgiveness while you still can. No amount of good deeds will ever cancel the debt of our sin against God, yet He freely offers us complete forgiveness and He commands that we forgive those around us. The consequences of saying “I will never forgive” are dire. We must extend mercy remembering that we have been forgiven much.

So the best reason to forgive is because we have been forgiven.

Deception is the fruit of a lie. The deceiver presents information that is not true in order to trick the recipient into believing a falsehood. They do not know that they have been deceived. The deception may not be discovered until it is too late.

The first example in history of deception is in the Garden of Eden. The serpent was the deceiver and Eve was deceived. She believed what the serpent said and offered the forbidden fruit to Adam in hopes that they would become like God. Although they had been warned to not eat of the fruit of that tree, they chose to believe the serpent. It was then that they discovered they had been deceived, but it was too late. Their actions could not be undone.

The serpent’s deception was based on a lie and the recipients found the offer desirable. If Adam and Eve had chosen to obey God, they would not have been deceived.

There are other examples where the one being deceived did not have sufficient information. Jacob said to his father, “I am Esau your firstborn; I have done as you told me. Get up, please, sit and eat of my game, that you may bless me.” Jacob lied and did everything possible to deceive his father into giving the blessing that was intended for the firstborn. When Isaac realized the deception, he trembled uncontrollably. The blessing given to Jacob could not be revoked.

Jesus warned that many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. “Watch out that no one deceives you. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will deceive many.” Therefore, it is important to recognize a lie before it is believed. Becoming familiar with God’s Word and voice will prevent us from falling into deception concerning Jesus, salvation, and faith in God.

The apostle Paul warned, “See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.” Many philosophies around us teach that there is no God, that only humanity can save itself, and that the world’s existence is dependent on human action alone. This is nothing more than further deception from the serpent.

Self-deception may be the worst form of lie. In the First book of John we read, “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” A person who believes their own lies cannot recognize their deception without help from someone else. Paul warned Timothy, “But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” In this way, the deception of one is passed on to another.

James offers a means to avoid and recognize deception. “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.” The Bible, the standard of truth, must be believed as absolute truth. Titus wrote, “For we too were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved by various passions and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, detesting one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, He saved us…”

“Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head—Christ.” God desires to rescue us from deception and its bondage.

May you accept rescue from deception before it’s too late.

What kind of world do you want to live in?

Option A: discover what pleases God: Be humble, desire righteousness, be merciful, be pure in thoughts, be a peacemaker and endure persecution. Be generous and give glory to the Father. Teach God’s commands to others very carefully. Be truthful in your answers. Give to those who ask to borrow. Love your enemies and pray for those who hurt you. Pray in secret but don’t use many words just to fill the air – God knows what we need before we ask. Store treasures in heaven, not on earth. Don’t worry about anything but trust God first and seek His righteousness and He will provide everything you need. Don’t judge others like a hypocrite. Recognize truth by the fruit knowing that evil produces bad fruit. Take action to do right because failure to act leads to destruction. God desires faithful love and that people know God.

Option B: the opposite of option A is all around us: proud, ungodly, unmerciful, evil, war mongering, easily offended, misleading, dishonest, worried, and more.

What kind of life do you want?

We begin a new year while the COVID-19 pandemic is taking many lives every day.

Three people were taken by God, whose bodies were not found: Enoch, Moses, and Elijah. Each lived in an era that differed from the next. Enoch walked with God before the flood. Moses spoke with God and led the Israelites up to the promised land. Elijah was a great prophet, taken up in a whirlwind. Moses and Elijah appeared with Christ in the transfiguration.

Hebrews 11:5 says Enoch did not experience death. Jude says that Enoch prophesied “Look! The Lord comes with tens of thousands of his holy ones ¹⁵ to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly concerning all the ungodly acts that they have done in an ungodly way, and concerning all the harsh things ungodly sinners have said against him.”

The warning from God to everyone is that all should repent of their sin because judgment is coming. No amount of denial changes the truth – there is a God and that He will judge those who act and believe contrary to His instruction. The time to turn from sin and receive forgiveness is now. It’s up to you to accept the terms of the pardon. Will you stubbornly refuse to submit to the Creator of all creation? Remember, it is your choice.

The LG&BQ community courts disaster as they utilize one of God’s symbols. The news commentator might well report the shock as people draped in multi-colored flags suddenly realize the tragic error they’ve made. The rainbow was introduced to humanity for the first time as the final step of a judgment process and a warning about future judgement. Now the very people to whom the symbol was given as a warning have subverted it to proclaim their own agenda. God is not mocked, and a day of reckoning is coming, and it is coming quickly. When you take something that is not yours and try to use it to discredit the owner, the outcome won’t be favorable for you.

Denial in the face of warning does not in any way change the reality of the warning. People who deny the existence of a Creator God do not make Him disappear. When God warns of the consequences of certain actions, even though delayed, He will do what He has promised. A wise person will heed the warnings and change course. God promises forgiveness and restoration to those who have repented of their rebellion against Him. This offer is available to everyone as long as they are alive.

Each human is born with a propensity to rebellion. Adam and Eve were tempted and sinned. The generations that followed were confronted with the choice to do right or sin, but many chose wrong.

¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth. (Genesis 6:11-12). Then God said, Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish (v.17).

 Source of the Rainbow

Life on the earth had just been destroyed save for the people and animals on the ark.

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; ¹³ I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. (Genesis 9:1, 12-15).

The reason for the flood was corruption, and the rainbow became a symbol of the judgement that came to mankind because of their sin. Furthermore, the rainbow was a promise that the earth would never again be destroyed by water, however future judgments would be by fire. God brought fire from heaven to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Why? Because of the sin committed in this community. Read Genesis 19 for the details.

The Promise of the Rainbow

The rainbow is a symbol of God’s promise never to judge the earth with water again, but the rainbow is also a warning to those who rebel against God’s right as Creator and Sustainer of the earth. There is coming day in which the earth will be cleansed by fire to remove the rebellious ones who choose to disregard God.

But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men (2 Peter 3:7).

People who wrap themselves with multi-colored flags as a symbol of their freedom to rebel against all of God’s laws should be reminded that the rainbow warns of judgment coming by fire. In that event, … the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; ¹⁶ and they were saying to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; ¹⁷ for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:15-17)

In that day, all the acts of defiance against the God of Creation will be judged. For these people, the rainbow will represent ruin. Every time they told themselves that there was no God, or that He didn’t see what they were doing, or that He blessed their unholy alliances they only deceived themselves.

The rescue line has been extended to you – acknowledge God, trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. If He is your lord, then you are subject to Him and will live life the way He has taught us to live. Repent from your sin, turn from your rebellious deeds and accept the power that God will grant you to live in the Kingdom of Heaven. No one can do this in their own strength, and God knows that. That is why He gives the power to live a different life by the power of God’s Spirit.

No one is too far gone to receive forgiveness. All have sinned and all of us need to be rescued from the clutches of sin. Jesus Christ came to earth to die to rescue us from the sin that became inherent when Adam and Eve sinned, and His resurrection gives us the assurance of eternal life with God, free from the power of sin.

For those who have had their sins forgiven by God, the rainbow is a symbol of God’s power and promise, assuring us of salvation from the coming judgment, just like Noah and his family were saved from death by flooding. Those who heed the warning of the rainbow will be saved from the judgment yet to come.

Unfortunately, there are people who claim to be God’s representatives who deny God’s holiness and truth, substituting their own ideas as though they were God’s. Speaking as ministers of the Gospel, they teach error and bring judgment on themselves and those who follow them. Here’s what the apostle Peter had to say:

But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. ² Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; ³ and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.

⁴ For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment; ⁵ and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; ⁶ and if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; ⁷ and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men ⁸ (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), ⁹ then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, ¹⁰ and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. (2 Peter 2:1-10)

Thank God for the rainbow!

Two disastrous aircraft crashes have revealed a problem with artificial intelligence (AI) built into the new Boeing 737 Max 8 planes. The redesign of the 737 with bigger engines created a tendency to raise the nose of the plane. The software designers added undocumented automatic controls to push the nose down under certain circumstances however the system was obviously flawed. The pilots were unaware of the automatic changes that worked against their efforts to control the aircraft and in both cases, it seems they lost the battle with the artificial intelligence.

Confidence in the artificial intelligence must have been so high that it wasn’t even documented properly. There was an assumption that this part of the program would only work to save a plane during an emergency and that it had no effect during normal operations. Clearly, they were wrong.

Boeing has announced that new software will be available next month to deal with the problem. Likely it will be found that the software did not have enough input or that it interpreted the input incorrectly to force the nose of the plane down when it wasn’t already up. How confident will they be of the new software? How will they be sure it works? Testing of the original software apparently did not uncover problems and as a result, many people died.

Do not put your complete trust in any man-made systems! While many systems work well, none of them are perfect. There is only One who is perfect and can be trusted in every situation.

God heard the cries of a nation held in slavery and told Pharaoh to let the people go. Pharaoh did not listen, apparently believing that his gods would protect him and his country. Initially Pharaoh hardened his heart to refuse to let the people he held in slavery go, but eventually God hardened his heart to demonstrate His great power over all gods and creation. It did not end well for the Egyptians.

Every country that denies the truth that God created everything by His divine power and that He will hold people accountable for their denials should understand the lessons applied to the Egyptians. Everyone who practices evil and intentionally disobeys the revealed will of God will be held accountable by the great Judge.

So that everyone will understand that God is LORD of creation, the lessons begin.

Magicians: Pharaoh’s wise men and magicians performed magic tricks with their secret arts. When Aaron threw down his staff, it became a serpent. The magicians also threw down their rods and they became serpents. Amazing! However, then Aaron’s staff swallowed their staffs. The magicians had been beaten at their own game.

Water to blood: Since Pharaoh was not willing to let the people go, Aaron raised his staff over the waters of the Nile and all the waters in Egypt were turned to blood – water in all the rivers, reservoirs, pools, and containers. The fish in the river died and people could not drink the water. The magicians were able to do the same with their magic arts but apparently, they could not reverse the transformation back to water.

Frogs: Having reneged on his promise to let the people go, Aaron stretched out his staff and there were frogs everywhere – in the houses, in the kitchens, and on the people. Frogs were considered like gods of fertility and at about this time, they were in a serious conundrum. Would you dare destroy the frogs if they would bring you fertility? So, Pharaoh called Moses to have the frogs removed. Moses says, sure, when would you like me to ask God to remove the frogs. Pharaoh’s answer? Tomorrow. So as the song goes, One More Night with the Frogs! Then as Moses asked, the frogs died, and they were piled in heaps and stank. But again, Pharaoh hardened his heart.

Insects: The houses of the Egyptians were full of flies, but none were found in the camps of Israel. Even the magicians admitted defeat and understood that this was the work of God. After asking Moses to remove the flies, Pharaoh once again hardened his heart and did not let the people go.

Disease: The Egyptian livestock died but the livestock owned by the children of Israel were unaffected.

Boils: The sores broke out on man and beast throughout Egypt except in the camp of Israel. God did not allow Pharaoh and Egypt to be utterly destroyed but the point of the plagues demonstrated that there is no one like Him in all the earth.

Natural disasters: Hail, lightning and rain destroyed trees and crops throughout Egypt but not in the camp of Israel. Perhaps they might have attributed the storms to global climate change, but it was severe enough that Pharaoh declared that the LORD is righteous, and he and his people were the wicked ones. So, he agreed to let the people go.  Then his heart was hardened, and he did not let them go.

Locusts: When the locusts descended on the land as had never been seen before, even Pharaoh’s servants recognized that the country was being destroyed and appealed to Pharaoh to let Israel go. However, Pharaoh was not willing to let his slaves go.

Darkness: Three days of darkness did not change Pharaoh’s mind.

Death: Pharaoh was warned of the death that would come to all the first-born in Egypt, but the LORD hardened Pharaoh’s heart again. As the people of Egypt cared for their dead, they urged Israel to leave.

The people of Israel finally grab their things and head out into the wilderness with Moses leading the way. Pharaoh again changes his mind and calls the army into action to chase the departing slaves. Stubborn and unwilling to face the facts, he again attempts to deny the power of God.

War: It seems that Egypt’s entire army follows Israel into the Red sea. That’s when God causes the chariot wheels to swerve and drive with difficulty. When everyone of the horsemen and army had gone into the sea, God caused the waters to return, drowning everyone.

A leader of a nation who refused to acknowledge and obey God suffered complete defeat.

Think about the world today. Leaders who act as though there is no God, who make decisions that are contrary to good government and peace, can expect their country to experience turmoil and war. Countries that have been ruled by the wisdom of God have known peace.

The legalized murder of innocents and the protection of those who carry out such deeds will bring great judgment the nation. Disease, infestations, natural disasters and war can be anticipated for those who deny the existence and authority of God, the Creator of heaven and earth, the One who lives forever and who will judge each one.

No one should say they weren’t warned.

The Canadian Liberal government led by Justin Trudeau has cut off funding to all employers and charitable organizations who normally hire summer students unless they affirm that they support abortions for anyone who wants one. The result may mean that thousands of young Canadians will not be hired this summer. Many of these students use their summer employment to pay down debts and to save for another school year.

Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party required all candidates running for a seat in parliament as Liberals to declare that they are pro-abortion. Now that the entire liberal caucus is pro-abortion, they have decided to force their beliefs on the nation, claiming the right to an abortion as a charter right even though it is not.

Macleans.ca says the application process requires an attestation that “the job and the organization’s core mandate” respect “reproductive rights,” meaning “the right to access safe and legal abortions.” …they are ready to risk violating Section 2 of the Charter, which guarantees “freedom of conscience and religion” and “freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression.”

CBC.ca says Trudeau is asking religious Canadians to betray their conscience for federal funding. …To give assent to abortion, even via a check mark on a government form, betrays their values and conscience. …Canada is the only Western nation without any law regulating abortion. Successive governments have avoided crafting such legislation for fear of dividing the country, but the Liberals have discovered an easier solution: simply make people believe that a law already exists.

The National Post reports that a church’s ‘core mandate’ must be pro-choice to access summer jobs grant: Patty Hajdu, minister of employment. …Pressed on how her ministry decides what a core mandate of a church is, Hajdu said the government is simply declaring its own values and it’s up to churches to decide if their core mandate allows them to sign the attestation.

Since abortion is the murder of an unborn human, and since Justin Trudeau and the Liberals support abortion, therefore this government supports the murder of innocent humans as a right of a woman to control her own body. Life begins at conception and any intentional termination of that life is murder.

Rex Murphy (http://nationalpost.com/opinion/rex-murphy-no-summer-jobs-for-you-and-other-decrees-from-bishop-trudeau) says it well: Under the latest Trudeau encyclical, the priest, minister, imam, shaman or rabbi would have to publicly repudiate his faith. …What shallow hubris engenders the sense that Mr. Trudeau, as through this both petty and profound intrusion he has, has the authority to undo the balance of citizens’ religious and moral beliefs and the political dispensations of a particular government? The Liberal platform of the day is not, as this government wildly seems to think, a synonym writ large for the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

As for those dissenting, who sense their deepest convictions are being outraged, their consciences mocked, why they are just stirring up a mere “kerfuffle.” We will be long waiting for the day when an equal slur against a non-traditional religion or one on, say, gay rights, is so characterized.

This government is seeking to destroy all Christian values and rights. Any other religion or value, no matter how twisted that value may be, is protected by this government. How should Christians respond?

Speak up – it is important that we do not mistake what it means to live according to the Beatitudes when confronted with injustice. God makes it clear that we are to care for the widows, orphans and the unborn. Anyone who takes a life or supports those who kill will be held accountable by the Creator of all life. Those who turn from their sinful acts, repent and seek forgiveness will be forgiven.

Pray for leaders – First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, 2 for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. 3 This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:1-4).