Karate for Christ of Michigan
Reaching youth and their families thru martial artsArchive for February, 2012
Mitt Romney sol…
Mitt Romney solidified his frontrunner status last night with a narrow victory in his home state of Michigan and a strong win in Arizona. However, Rick Santorum will still win nearly half of Michigan’s delegates, while Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich are preparing for Super Tuesday on March 6.
As they seek an edge in the presidential race, it’s a shame none of the candidates was born today. (I checked–none was even born on a leap year.) He would be one of only 200,000 leap year babies in the United States and 5 million worldwide. However, the odds of being born on February 29 are about 1 in 1,461. It’s no surprise that no president has ever been born on this day. (Our first president came closest. George Washington missed it by a week–he was born on February 22, 1732, a leap year.)
The good news is that you don’t have to be born on Leap Day to be special. As we continue our Lenten series on the “fear nots” of Scripture, we come today to a promise which applies that fact to each of us. Moses has led the children of Israel to the edge of the Promised Land. Now he addresses the nation: “See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged” (Deuteronomy 1:21).
Tragically, the people did not heed his call. They pressed Moses to send 12 spies into the land, and you know the rest of the story. Why is this text in God’s word? How is it relevant to our lives and fears today?
Let’s answer that question with this one: Why did Moses want the people to enter Canaan without first exploring the land? Could it be that God’s best tomorrow is one we could never understand today? Warren Buffett noted that in business, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield. It is the same with the life of faith–if you look back at all the ways God has provided for you, and you believe that his character does not change, you’ll be encouraged to trust him for all you need today.
Samuel Rutherford was a 17th century Scottish minister. This week a friend gave me a compendium of Rutherford’s most remarkable insights. Here’s first on the list: “The great Master Gardener, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in a wonderful providence, with his own hand, planted me here, where by his grace, in this part of his vineyard, I grow; and here I will abide till the great Master of the vineyard think it fit to transplant me.”
Your vineyard is his Promised Land for today. So “do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” Lent leads to the cross and the resurrection, proof that your Creator loves you. Your birthday, whenever it occurs, shows that the King of the universe thought eternity would not be complete without you.
Dr. Denison’s cultural commentary originally appeared at www.denisonforum.org. It has been reposted here with permission of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.
Tragedy has str…
Tragedy has struck an American high school again. A teenager described as an outcast at a suburban Cleveland campus shot one student dead and wounded four others yesterday. Two are in critical condition this morning. T. J. Lane apparently targeted a group of students sitting at a cafeteria table. After the shooting he was arrested near his car a half-mile away, according to the FBI. Authorities have closed Chardon High School today and plan a news conference later this morning.
Why did this happen? We will learn Lane’s motives, but we already know the ultimate cause: Satan. Jesus warned us that “he was a murderer from the beginning” (John 8:44), an enemy who “comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10). If he could attack a righteous man like Job (Job 1:11, 2:7) and the sinless Son of God (Matthew 4:1), none of us are immune from his hatred.
What do we do when he assaults us, physically or spiritually?
During this Lenten season, we’re focusing each day on a different “fear not” in Scripture. Today’s assurance comes from the time of Hezekiah, one of the greatest kings in Jewish history (2 Chronicles 31:21). Despite his godly leadership, “after all that Hezekiah had so faithfully done, Sennacherib king of Assyria came and invaded Judah” (2 Chronicles 32:1) Assyria was the global superpower of the day, while Judah was a tiny nation with no way to defeat this enemy, something like Poland before the Nazi/Soviet invasion of 1939. Would the king flee or surrender?
Not at all. He told his military officers, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of the king of Assyria and the vast army with him, for there is a greater power with us than with him” (v. 7). What was the result of Hezekiah’s faith? “The Lord sent an angel, who annihilated all the fighting men and the leaders and officers in the camp of the Assyrian king.” After he withdrew, he was killed by his own sons (v. 21).
You and I are besieged this morning by an enemy so powerful that we have no strength to defeat him. Satan “prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Yesterday he found five students in Ohio. Today he may find us.
But our enemy is a defeated foe. If we turn to our Lord as soon as we are tempted, the Holy Spirit will give us strength to defeat him (1 Corinthians 10:13). If we give our physical challenges to the Great Physician, he will redeem them for his glory and our good (Romans 8:28). And one day our mortal enemy will be “thrown into the lake of burning sulfur” where he will be “tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). Pastor Greg Laurie was right: The next time Satan reminds you of your past, remind him of his future.
Dr. Denison’s cultural commentary originally appeared at www.denisonforum.org. It has been reposted here with permission of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.
“The Artist” …
“The Artist” won five Academy Awards last night, including best picture. I agree–it is a creative and powerful movie. The first silent film to receive such an award since 1929, the movie portrays an actor who cannot transition to the era of “talkies.” While it’s set in the past, it’s all about the future. Or more specifically, our fear of it.
Today’s “fear not” speaks to this issue. Moses has sent 12 spies into the Promised Land. They return with glowing reports about Canaan, but 10 are terrified of the inhabitants’ size and strength. The assembly, upon hearing their report, revolts against Moses and decides to return to Egyptian slavery.
Then the two faithful spies say to the nation, “Do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them” (Numbers 14:9). The people reject their leadership, so God announces his judgment: the nation will wander in the wilderness until this faithless generation has died. Upon hearing this, the people reverse themselves and charge ahead without Moses’ leadership, but the Canaanites defeat them easily. Forty years later, the two faithful spies finally lead the next generation into their Promised Land.
Oswald Chambers warns us in this morning’s My Utmost For His Highest, “We limit the Holy One of Israel . . . by saying, ‘Of course I cannot expect God to do this thing.’ The thing that taxes almightiness is the very thing which we as disciples of Jesus ought to believe he will do.” He concludes: “The reason some of us are such poor specimens of Christianity is because we have no Almighty Christ.” We must repent of our self-reliance and trust fully in our Lord, for “it can be done if you look to Jesus.”
Who are your Canaanites this morning? What about the future frightens you today? Are you worried about your job or finances or family? Our son begins radiation treatments soon–this morning’s essay calls me to refuse the self-dependence our culture embraces and trust my fears to our Almighty Christ. Because his character never changes (Hebrews 13:8), his faithfulness in the past assures me of his provision for the future. As the song says, “He didn’t bring us this far to leave us. He didn’t teach us to swim to let us drown. He didn’t build his home in us to move away. He didn’t lift us up to let us down.”
Lent prepares us for Good Friday and Easter Sunday, two days that proved the depth of our Lord’s love and the strength of his power. So fear not, for “the Lord is with us.” His word promises us, “Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4, KJV).
Dr. Denison’s cultural commentary originally appeared at www.denisonforum.org. It has been reposted here with permission of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.
Ken’s Marriage…
Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32, NLT).
Dear friends:
After putting his wife on the flight for a visit to her parents, Ken made his way back to their car, remembering her smile. She had lingered for their final embrace.
When he reached the car, he noticed a letter. He opened it and could scarcely believe the words were real. She was leaving him! It was a note of farewell. She said she no longer loved him — or God. Two years of marriage evaporated right before his eyes.
Memories suddenly had a double edge. Bewildered and confused, he drove to an empty home. Ken knew that he needed to forgive, as Christ would. But what did that really mean in the reality of this shocking situation?
Somehow, through the blurry reality of his hurt, God’s Word became clear. “Be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:32, NLT).
“Be kind to each other . . . forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.”
Thankfully, that is exactly what Ken decided to do — to obey God in spite of his terrible hurt.
I wish I could report a positive ending to the story about this marriage. However, tragically, Ken’s offer of forgiveness and reconciliation to his wife was spurned, and a divorce followed. The marriage could not be repaired.
Reconciliation was available to Ken and his wife, but another route was chosen. Such reconciliation always takes two parties, and only one was willing.
Of course, we do not know the whole story. But whatever it was, the choice of forgiveness and reconciliation was available to both parties.
When faced with similar situations, whether in marriage, business or in other relationships, may we always be found ready and willing to forgive and reconcile.
“Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it. But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too” (Mark 11:24-25, NLT).
Yours for helping to fulfill the Great Commission each year until our Lord returns,
Bill Bright
Praising God in…
Joni Eareckson Tada is one of my faith heroes. Paralyzed from the neck down in a diving accident when she was only 17, she has lived 46 years in a wheelchair. Her strength, courage and faith have inspired millions. Yesterday I read an article by her in which she cites 2 Corinthians 4:17, “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” She describes ways God has redeemed her suffering, then quotes a friend who rested his hand on her wheelchair one day and told her, “God permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves.”
What is your wheelchair this morning?
Today’s “fear not” comes from 2 Chronicles 20, where we find the nation of Judah in peril. A vast army had assembled and was on its way to attack them (vs. 1-2). Why has God not defended his people? Making their situation even harder to understand, the Jews were facing enemies the Lord did not allow them to conquer on their way to the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 2:1-19). Surely he knew then that these nations would one day conspire to obliterate his people.
What were they to do? Their wise king Jehoshaphat “resolved to inquire of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 20:3). God’s Spirit then fell on his prophet (v. 14), who announced: “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s'” (v. 15). He assured them, “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you” (v. 17).
How did the king respond? He assembled the army, but put worship leaders at its head to shout, “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever” (v. 21). Imagine sending troops against the Taliban but stationing church choirs to march before them into battle.
What happened? “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. The men of Ammon and Moab rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another” (vs. 22-23). When the army of Judah arrived at the battlefield, “they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped” (v. 24).
Praise is the key to the power of God. When we respond to suffering by trusting and worshiping the One who “permits what he hates to accomplish what he loves,” we gain a front-row seat as his omnipotence acts for his glory and our good.
Lent is a season for reflecting on God’s forgiving grace. If Joni can praise God in a wheelchair, why can’t we worship him this morning?
Dr. Denison’s cultural commentary originally appeared at www.denisonforum.org. It has been reposted here with permission of the Denison Forum on Truth and Culture.
