Nine Eleven

When looking back on the anniversary of September 11, we could look over some grand themes. We could talk about and criticize Islam in broad strokes. We could make judgments about our government response, about our current and our past presidents’ actions. We could talk about pride and security. We could talk about patriotic topics, but we may lose some simple spiritual applications in the midst of these broad strokes.

Our Focus
Are we focused on God or on self? It certainly seemed that people came together after September 11, and many people showed tendencies to turn back to God and Christ in the wake of those events. It’s really no different than the cycle we see in the children of Israel as recorded in the Old Testament, and we have to ask ourselves, “Where am I?” Am I closer to God now, or have I drifted again? Do I have the same fire for the Lord now as I did ten years ago?

Hebrews 10:19-25 talks about the type of stuff we’ll do if we are dedicated on God rather than self. Self denial is a key theme in Jesus’ teachings, and we will be holding to that confession, stirring each other up, meeting with each other, and encouraging each other if we can set aside self and focus on God and one another.

Placing the Blame
Do we blame God for September 11? Do we think such an event is God’s will, that it was a warning shot for the United States? We have to be cautious about molding events to fit in with our particular views. We have a tendency to credit God when it lines up with our own values and dismiss such events as chance at other times. Quite simply, we know that bad things happen to good people because of sin, and we should be blaming Satan for such tragedies rather than assigning God motives and actions left unrevealed to us.

Loving Terrorists
Do we really have to love a terrorist? Matthew 5:43 says:

“You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Intellectually, we understand we should love our enemies, but we falter on application. Yes, we should love those who plot to hurt and kill us. We’ve all heard stories of people who’ve forgiven criminals who have wronged them or their family in some horrible way, and that is the mindset we should have. It is the attitude we see when Jesus cries for his murderers’ forgiveness while on the cross.

Conclusion
We may believe that those terrorists deserve death and eternal punishment for their actions, but the tough part is that they deserve such a fate no more than you or I in the face of our sins. We may want to satisfy our own need for vengeance, focusing on self rather than God. Romans 5:12-17 contrasts Adam and Jesus – the one who brought sin into the world and the one who removed all sin by His great sacrifice. The problem of sin is an enormous one, and only an enormous sacrifice could remove it. We have all sinned; we have all put Jesus on the cross.

Where are you with your relationship with and commitment to God? Have you grown stronger? Are you willing to love in the face of personal pain and animosity? We have a great example of commitment, love, and self sacrifice in Christ; and we know that is the example we should be following in our own lives. We don’t have to allow great events of the world to drag us away from who we should be as Christians, so let’s commit ourselves daily to be living sacrifices, to be forgiving and loving individuals, to keep everything in the perspective of God’s word, and to keep God our focus and the center of our lives.

lesson by Ben Lanius

Keeping It Real: Scientific Truth

Science is a great topic – studying our world, our universe, the animals and environment around us, the things that make up our world and keep it a habitable place. It is nothing new, though, that science is sometimes used and manipulated to lead people to specific conclusions that may not always be true. Regardless of your ideological leanings, we can see evidence of people using science and misrepresenting science to push a political cause or agenda, so how should we view this fascinating field as believers in Christ?

The Bible and Science

The Bible and science are not incompatible, but we should never try to make our Bibles into scientific textbooks. Some aspects of it are, in fact, scientifically improbable and impossible to prove. We take these things on faith. Take the age of Earth, for example. The Bible merely says God did it; the Word doesn’t go out of its way to conclusively state exactly how long ago it happened, so is it the best use our our time and efforts to debate such things?

In Job 38:11, God asks Job what he knows of the process of Creation. God points out that Job doesn’t understand, but He doesn’t go out of His way to explain every one of these details about which He questions Job. The Bible is not concerned with being a scientific proof text. Instead, it is concerned with the spiritual truths by which we should live.

John 17:17 records Jesus praying that His followers be sanctified in truth, and He qualifies this, saying, “Thy word is truth.” II Peter 1:3 goes on to say that God’s word gives all we need for godly living in the truth of His word. The specifics of the Bible may not satiate our curiosity regarding this physical world – that is the scope of science. Instead, our Bibles tell us the details of how we must live to be like Him. That is the truth in which we are sanctified.

The Role of Faith

Hebrews 11 begins with a passage we see as a definition of faith – we believe things the Bible says despite the intangible nature of those things. This is not blind adherence, but I Thessalonians 5:19-22 tells us to test our faith and to hold fast to what is good.

In this, we feel we have to get into Christian evidences, again trying to fit science into faith – fitting a field based on skepticism around the trust involved with faith. It doesn’t fit, and we have to live with the fact that there will always be some who will not believe those evidences. Even during His life, Jesus could not convince all who saw and heard Him, even amidst the miracles they saw. Instead, godly living should be where we put our strongest efforts.

John 20:24-29 illustrates faith versus skepticism. Jesus blesses those who believe in Him despite never seeing Him. Likewise, will we believe in the Bible? Will we live by faith? Science is not bad. Through it, we can see God’s love in the world and universe He made, and believing in His role does not necessarily mean you are uneducated or uninformed. The Bible’s truth should guide every aspect of our lives, and we follow that truth in faith – trusting in the unseen hand of a Creator who loves us and wants us to spend eternity with Him.

lesson by Ben Lanius

A Christian Nation

After the kingdom of Israel divides in I Kings 12, Jeroboam wishes to restrict travel between the northern kingdom and Judah. He forbids travel to Jerusalem, hoping to create new holy cities in the north. Some forsake the north to worship in Jerusalem during the times of Asa, but the separation of holy cities remains even to the days of Jesus when the woman at the well asks Jesus where God desires worship. She is concerned that she worship from a location approved of by God, but Jesus redirects her attention from the physical to the spiritual.

Augustine’s City of God
About 300 years after the time of Christ, Constantine professed to convert to Christianity. One year later, the Edict of Milan legalized Christianity in Rome. In 380 CE, the Edict of Thessolonica made Christianity the state religion of Rome. In short, it made Rome into a "Christian nation." This was a drastic departure from polytheism. Rome was sacked in 410 CE, causing many to decry the conversion from polytheism to Christianity.

Around this time, St. Augustine wrote, in The City of God, that official state religions mean nothing to the message of the gospel. He discourages Christians becoming entangled in secular politics, for God’s kingdom, New Jerusalem, is a spiritual entity. It is unsurprising that St. Augustine’s message was unpopular then, and it is unpopular now. He is, however, entirely correct.

God’s City of Jerusalem
In Deuteronomy 12:5, Moses tells the people of the importance of God’s physical city that would become the center of Jehovah worship in the ancient kingdom of Israel. In verse 11, Moses goes on to emphasize that sacrifice should only be made in the place God chooses. Moses is telling the people that there will be a city of God, a place significant and special to worshiping Jehovah. We know that Jerusalem becomes that city.

In II Samuel 6, the Ark of the Covenant comes to the city of Jerusalem, and I Kings 9 records Solomon praying to God to hollow the temple at Jerusalem, God promising to consecrate the place forever. The sons of Korah, in Psalm 46, express confidence of God’s divine protection over the land. Psalm 48:1-3 again expresses the majesty and beauty God’s people see in His city, as do Psalms 122, 46, and 132.

Jerusalem represents a place where God’s name and His Ark resides. It is the place of God’s worship. It is where He dwells. It is a city of rest, of refuge, of holiness, and of peace.

Abandoning the Physical
This changes in the days of Jeremiah, when, in chapter 26 of his book, God promises to destroy the city, that He will curse the city for their sins. Political and religious leaders of Jerusalem threaten death to him for his words, but Jeremiah continues to press them for repentance. Jerusalem’s glory would never be restored, and memories of Zion are recoded in Psalm 137, expressing pain and sorrow at the loss of God’s holy city.

No great city or nation can be saved simply by calling themselves a “Christian” city or nation. To do so is to forget the lessons of Jerusalem and to forget that God does not intend to dwell here with us on Earth. Rather, He wants us to dwell with Him in heaven, leaving this physical world behind for a spiritual inheritance.

In Isaiah 65:17, the prophet proclaims a New Jerusalem, new heavens and a new land. Galatians 4:21-31, Hebrews 12:18-24, II Peter 3:8-12 – these point to something beyond this physical world. This is the city of God on which we need to focus. We get caught up looking upon the nations of man. It does not matter if it is Jerusalem, Rome, Paris, Moscow, or Washington D.C. Cities of man will always fall. Our refuge, rest, and peace should be found only in God’s City. Philippians 3 calls on us to place our citizenship in Heaven. We need to look up from the conflicts of this world and look heavenward.

lesson by Tim Smelser