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Tears of Grace

I heard something the other day that I hadn’t considered before concerning our tears before the Lord. King David wrote in (Psalm 56:8) that the Lord collects our collective tears in a bottle; that is, that every tear of every child of God who has ever or will ever live, every one shed in grief, sorrow, loneliness and despair is being collected for the day when He makes (Isaiah 61:3) “beauty for ashes” and “joy for mourning” and causes the days of “our light affliction” (2 Corinthians 4:17) to be over shadowed by an “exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

But the same Bible which declares that also depicts the Lord Jesus as weeping.

Was He in despair? Yes and no. Was He grieved ? Again, yes and no. Was He afraid? Once more, yes and no, and to that last one some might be tempted to defend the Lord’s mightiness and say that our God is NEVER afraid. I say to you that in the garden, it was the human side of Jesus (the Son of Man) which cried out to His Father in (Luke 22:42), “If it is Your will, take this cup from Me; nevertheless not My will but Your’s, be done.” It was as the Son of God (the divine side) that Jesus earlier had said, ““Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour.” (John 12:27)

So often, when we see the Lord crying, whether at the grave site of Lazarus or upon His humbly grand entrance into Jerusalem a week before His crucifixion, it is not for Himself. His are tears of empathy, compassion and yes despair – despair because those He came for were missing the point. He said then in (Luke 19:41-44):

“If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side, and level you, and your children within you, to the ground; and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not know the time of your visitation.“

God’s grace was costing Jesus everything and the ones He came for were missing it – are you?

I have a terrible tendency to hurt my wife, not directly, not with hands or even words but by my actions I sometimes wound her deeply. A week ago as the message on grace was concluding and a time of reflection was called for in advance of the Lord’s supper I saw her – she was wiping away tears as once again she both reflected on the costly grace of God towards her and His call for us to be gracious to one another. One more time she was being obedient to the Lord in showing grace to me.

We’ve all sung about grace – most of us are familiar with the hymn Amazing Grace and some of us have sung songs about grace like the one we sang today with lyrics like “grace – comes – like – a – wave – crash – ing – o – ver – me.” We sing as recipients of grace with joy and exuberant gratitude but what does the song of the giver sound like? How do you know when grace has gone out of you? How do you know when you have shown grace? If I may, you know when grace has gone out because often time grace hurts the giver.

We are all called to be reconcilers (see 2 Corinthians 5:18) in a general and evangelistic sense and also in our most personal relationships (see Ephesians 4:26, Malachi 2:14-15). Ask the man (like Hosea) or the woman who has ever been betrayed in a relationship and then reconciled and forgiven his or her mate if the grace of that forgiveness hurt them and you will understand that often grace hurts the giver.

In order to reconcile the world to Himself, Almighty God dispatched His only begotten Son on a mission of reconciliation which would cost both Father and Son everything. Without question, the humiliation, suffering and torture of the Lord Jesus hurt Him but it also hurt the Father deeply nevertheless, without that costly grace we would all still be doomed to eternal suffering in hell; without that costly grace, relationships would fail and families would fall apart – nothing good results when grace is absent.

On our behalf, Almighty God weighed the cost of His grace and sent His Son anyways.

I wonder, can we sing of the Lord’s amazing grace as genuinely having only received it or does the song become more meaningful when being gracious has cost us too?

I think grace means more when its recipients give it away…

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Being Christ to the Least of These

“For the poor will never cease from the land; therefore I command you, saying, ‘You shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and your needy, in your land.’” Deuteronomy 15:11 (NKJV)

You see them standing on crowded street corners holding signs upon which are statements like, “Will work for food,” “Anything helps,” and a final “thank you” and “God bless you;” people who for various reasons find themselves homeless.

When you see them. What do you do? Do you turn away and ignore them? Do you rolldown your window and shout at them? Do you pray for them? Do you share the love of Jesus with them? Do you serve them?

You might call them the “least of these” (Matt. 25:40,45) but the reality is that while so many people treat them as if they were nobodies and nothing – the Lord God made them and the Lord Jesus Christ died for them. They are just like you and me and frankly, you and I are at best, one calamity away from being right where they are now.

In His word, the Lord said that they’d always be among us (Matt. 26:10) and in a round-about way He implied that when we served them – we were serving Him (see Matt.25:32-40).

I’d like to say that in the process of serving the homeless or anyone else you are also worshipping Jesus. Listen to ALL of what He said to Judas in (Matthew 26:10):

“You have the poor with you always…but Me you do not have always.”

I think that Jesus was calling Judas out for his hypocrisy among a few other things when He made the statement we find in (Matt 26:10) referring to the poor. It was after Judas had griped about the waste of costly fragrant oil which a certain woman used in her worship of the Lord Jesus, implying that her sacrifice could have been put to better use that Jesus said those words to Judas,

At that time, people could literally worship Jesus to His face; they could thank Him, praise Him and sacrificially honor Him like the woman did in (Matt. 26:6-7) but most of them did not. In His statement, Jesus was pointing to the fact that He was returning to His Father (see John 13:3, John 16:28, John 20:17) but He was also pointing to times like those in which we live, where our worship of Him is most often carried out in sacrificial service towards others who are often less fortunate than ourselves.

Once upon a time I was like many people in my community, largely because I did not understand or really care to understand the plight of the homeless. I saw them as panhandlers and manipulators, as people who weren’t trying hard enough. In those days, even as a Christian I avoided them.

Now, my primary area of service IS to that same community. My heart hurts for them and I long to see them recieve Jesus as Lord and Savior and then to be transformed by the renewing of their minds through His Holy Scriptures.

Would you be Christ to the least of these? Dont sweep them under the rug, so to speak; don’t treat them as a nuisance to be rid of – treat them as people for whom Christ died; do for them what you’d have done for yourself if the shoe was on the other foot.

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The Valley of the Shadow

The 23rd Psalm is often read during the most trying times that we as humans experience – the grief of loss. But it expresses a reality which can only be known by someone who has learned to condition his or her life to trust in God at ALL times.

King David, the writer of this psalm began by acknowledging the Lord as his trusted and faithful shepherd; as the One who provides comfort, rest and refreshment while leading him on “paths of righteousness.” This was David’s lifelong confidence: the Lord would provide what he needed in every circumstance.

King David was a worshipper of God and while (as one pastor friend of mine reminded me recently) our worship is neither to pay God back or gain some benefit from Him; it is rather, indicative of our relationship with the Lord. I mention this because I’ve had fairweather friends (hopefully I’ve never been one) who only interacted with me when it was convenient or advantageous to them (I’m sure you had friends like that too), King David was not such a person.

So when David writes, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me” he was not treating the Lord like we do our insurance agents, but was expressing his confidence that no matter how bad it got the Lord would be with him.

As I said, most often the reference to the “shadow of death” is mentioned to console us in our deepest moments of grief over the loss of a loved one in death but the grief common to us all is much broader in scope. Maybe today your marriage or family is under the shadow, causing you great grief and concern over what might become of your life together. You may have just received an unfavorable and even terrifying medical diagnosis. Whatever your “hopeless” moment might be I declare to you that there is hope in that dark valley.

We must be careful here though. We are not promised that an exit from the valley of the shadow won’t still result in loss of a life, the death of a relationship, an on-going illness or some other grieving circumstance BUT be assured, we will exit with Him who led us through that valley and because we understand that the Lord IS with us we, like David will not fear.

The goodness and mercy of the Lord WILL follow us all the days of our lives and because of Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection we WILL dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Is the Lord YOUR Shepherd? Are you passing through the middle of the valley of the shadow of death? Sometimes, it is only in that valley that you are able to see that your greatest need in any moment is a deep and abiding relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Keeping it Christlike

We live in a world of mixed messages.

Consider the farmer for example who drove his tractor around his field to make a huge love heart for his wife – the heart, it turns out, was made entirely out of manure! What was he actually saying to his wife? His words said one thing but the medium which he used to express it said something very different.

No word on how the marriage fared as a result…

Here’s a good one:

Moving on, I find that some Christ followers seem to be as spiritually schizophrenic as the secular world around them.

What do I mean?

On Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other more “hip” social media platforms some guys identifying themselves as Christians, post images of both Jesus and pinup girls on their pages and girls likewise – the male equivalent; some believers post quotes too lewd to actually be publicly stated in many circles even today and then their next post is an invitation to a church service or a quote from the Bible or some Christian author; believer and unbeliever alike call each other out and say all manner of evil about each other from behind keyboards and then pretend to love and get along with one another in public – that is spiritual schizophrenia.

What does the Bible say of this?

“A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” James 1:8 KJV

“But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.” (James 3:8–12, NKJV)

To be double minded is to be of a different mind at different times such as one who is blown about by every wind of doctrine or new idea. More than a few believers are more than just double minded though; it is not that they have differing thoughts at different times but rather they are in a state of either constant compromise or conflict within themselves. They either believe that to be foul mouthed, vulgar, hateful and lewd are in perfect accord with their profession of faith in Jesus Christ, in which case they are living as carnal Christians or else, they are too spiritually immature to realize that the two mindsets are NOT in accord and cannot be. But before I stay on this soap box too long, let me say this – it isn’t just lewdness, vulgarity, hate and the like which are the only things incongruent with love, joy, peace, etc…the fruit of the Spirit and mind of Christ; many times, our attitudes run counter to our profession of faith as well.

The Bible tells us in (Colossians3:8) for example “put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your heart…” attitudes like pride, anger, hate, bigotry or prejudice all flow from the same heart that drives our fingers to post lewd, provocative and hateful things on social media etc.

The problem is that each of us has a heart condition.

The Lord Jesus Christ said that “out of the (overflow or) abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34) later, speaking to Peter and the other disciples He said “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man… ” (Matthew 15:18–20, NKJV)

What can we do about our heart condition?

James says, “purify your heart!” (James 4:8)

Quickly, for those who have never been “born again” (see John 3:3) your purification begins with Jesus – trusting in Him for the eternal life He made possible by His sacrificial atoning death on the cross: (John 3:7) “you MUST be born again!” But for we who are the followers of Jesus Christ, the process of purification is our daily sanctification and conformation to the mind and the life of the Lord Jesus. In other words, our purification becomes something we are DIRECTLY involved in. By yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to transform our thoughts and through our daily exposure to the Word of God (see Romans 12:2) our hearts will be purged (purified) over time of those things which are contrary to God and replaced by “the wisdom from above:” (James 3:17) new attitudes, new actions and most of all the kind of consistency which declares to anyone observing our life: “I AM a child of God!”

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Mountain Moving Faith

“If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you(!)” (Matthew 17:20 [emphasis mine])

What was Jesus talking about? Is one of the marks of spiritual maturity the ability to move mountains like Kilimanjaro or Everest where ever we wish? In (Matt.21:21) where again we see words to this effect with the added “If you have faith and do not doubt you will say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea,’ it will be done;” both the Mount of Olives and the Temple mount would have been in view, even so mountain moving faith is not concerned merely with geographical formations of rock – He is directing our faith towards the impossible.

Again, we are forced to ask, “Is this graduate level faith?” I would say, yes and no; in one sense, it is faith born out of trust in God. Part of our problem when we pray is that we are focusing on our ability to believe instead of God’s willingness to answer the prayers of His people, His integrity to keep His promises and His power to do the impossible; as we learn to (1 Peter 5:7) “cast our cares upon Him” who cares for us we develop greater confidence in the Lord. But I would also say “no” in the sense that mountain moving faith does not depend on our level of faith. Mountain moving faith is not faith in faith; it is not an amount of faith which produces a desired result – it IS faith in God which produces a result.

Are there any mountains in your life which need moving?

I know some people in my own life that are facing IMPOSSIBLE situations right now. Some of them are in despair not knowing that there is hope in every hopeless situation. But hope is not tied to our ability to figure out the solution to our problems, rather it is tied to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ – it IS tied to prayer and a reliance on the Lord for whatever is best.

Read (Mark 9:14-27) for one account of a man who brought His son to the disciples of Jesus and then finally to the Lord Himself. He had enough faith in the Lord to seek Him for help yet lacked a confidence in Him to do the impossible, saying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief (v.24)!” If you can pray nothing else in your impossible moment – pray like that…

Finally, of the most hopeless and impossible situations which may trouble us none is more hopeless and impossible than our spiritual condition. Every last one of us is a sinner upon whom God’s wrath abides (John 3:36); the wage for our sin is eternal separation from God and condemnation in hell (see Romans 3:23, Romans 6:23, Revelation 20:15). We cannot deliver ourselves from this condition or condemnation but Jesus can and has made eternal life available to all who will call on and trust in Him (Romans 10:12-13, John 3:16). Jesus heals us from the illness which no doctor can (see Isaiah 53:5) and may heal and deliver us from any and all impossible illnesses in this life but He may not heal us now and He may not deliver us now.

His promise, to those who believe in Him in this life assures us however that in the life to come we will be healed, set free and made whole while in this life we will have peace (Isaiah 26:3) whatever the circumstance because we have trusted in Him who moves mountains.

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A Good Way to Die

The subject on my mind today is an uncomfortable subject to discuss, some might even say morbid but death is as important an aspect of life as living is and is a subject most often dealt with at the end of someone else’s life.

I was lying in my bed, tossing and turning, unable to really rest when the thought hit me – is there really a GOOD way to die? All sorts of thoughts then flooded my mind, circumstances – reasons or causes which lead to the end of life.

Some die in noble circumstances. Some die running into burning buildings and towers to rescue the injured; some die upholding justice; some as they strive for the safety and protection of their family during natural disasters like floods and earthquakes or from the invasion of some more sinister force; some die for their love whether it be their girl, wife, husband, man or child and some die for freedom.

Some die in ignoble or dishonorable and shameful circumstances. They die in the commission of or as a consequence of committing a crime like theft or murder or for some other evil against another person or people.

To this, the Bible says in (1 Peter 4:15-16):

“But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.”

Peter’s reference to suffering addresses imprisonment whether for noble or ignoble reasons but the verb used for suffering involves experiencing pain ( I would suggest, even the pain of death) as a consequence for an action, belief or behavior.

Death occurs as a result of many things: ignorance, carelessness, recklessness, hate; from a bullet, bomb or a car driven by a drunk. Death occurs from natural causes like old age, illness, diseases like cancer and worse; and from unnatural causes stemming from the abuse of our own bodies – from too much food, too much booze, too many medications and various other addictions. Some die in their waking hours, fully aware and some die in their sleep.

When thinking of the best way to die, many will respond – in their sleep but I want to tell you that the BEST way to die is in the arms of a loving Savior.

You see, the reality is that death is only a pause in our existence rather than a permanent end. Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God is quoted to have said in (John 5:25-29):

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

My friends, apart from receiving and trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, every human being is dead already in a spiritual sense and because each of us is comprised of a body, soul and spirit – spiritual life and death matters. Life is not limited to this realm of existence only, in fact I would say that this life is only important in so much as in your lifetime you may turn to the living God for eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ and then to follow the Lord and live for Jesus, sharing the good news by word and actions…discipling others as you go. That’s a good way to LIVE!

The BEST way to die is as a good person or while doing good but Jesus said – “No one is good but One, that is, God.” (Luke 18:19) Likewise, Paul in (Romans 3:10) says that “there is none righteous, no not one!” (emphasis added) Only by trusting in Jesus Christ can anyone ever be “good enough” to enter into eternal life (see John 14:6). But when Jesus says some will be resurrected to life and some to the resurrection of condemnation He is saying that all who ever saw life in THIS world will also live in eternity either to experience all the joys of eternal life with Him in Heaven (see Matt. 25:21,23) or to suffer all the agony of eternal condemnation in hell without Him (see Revelation 20:11-15).

Is there a good way to die? Yes, Jesus declared it so in (John 5:24):

““Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.”

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Free Indeed!

One of the great paradoxes of the Christian faith is that the servants of Jesus are also free and not just free a little but free to the uttermost.

In reality we exchanged masters when we came to trust in Jesus Christ. But the “bondage” to sin to which we formerly submitted is not the same as the relationship we have with Jesus.

“And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.” Romans 6:18 (NKJV)

Jesus Christ set us free from our former task-master to live in a new way and for a new reason. As sinners we lived for the gratification of our own flesh but because we received salvation through Jesus Christ our desire turned to a desire to please and glorify Him who saved us (John 15:8, Philippians 1:11, [2 Timothy 2:4], 1Peter 4:11).

Our slavery comes at the cost of a life…as slaves of sin, our own life is required resulting not only in physical but spiritual death which is eternal separation from God but as slaves of God (Roman’s 6:22) the cost is the life and precious blood of Christ (1 Corinthians 7:23, 1 Peter 1:18-19) resulting in eternal life.

“And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life.” 1 John 5:11–12 (NKJV)

Because Jesus set us free in such a way we love Him (1 John 4:19) and our servitude is not seen by us as bondage (1 John 5:3) rather it becomes our greatest joy.

All of us want to live life to the full and will spend a lifetime trying to make such abundant living their reality but Jesus made a point to His disciples in (John 8:31-36) that I think those looking for such a life should consider:

He said, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free…Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.”

To what have you presented yourself as a servant to obey? Sex? Money? Fame? All of these seek only to TAKE your life but only Jesus GIVES life “and that more abundantly.” In Him, you will be free indeed….

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In-dependence!

Since the beginning of our nation and of western civilization centuries earlier, freedom has been at the core of it all.

Freedom ~ that idea which is built on the back of both faith and reason; faith because freedom apart from faith lacks morality and is reduced to nothing more than hedonistic pursuits of “whatever I want,” and reason or rational thought because it considers more than one’s own self interests. The kind of freedom that Jesus Christ affirmed in His conversations with those He met which allowed people to choose to follow Him or not, or to act either properly or improperly as they chose.

Mankind however, has always pursued freedom, autonomy or self rule by casting off or ignoring every authority or voice of authority including the authority of God Himself. Humans have a rebellious spirit…in our fallen nature, we have a spirit of anarchy within us – we want freedom and we want it to the full measure. To achieve it, people are willing to throw off both the voice of reason and the voice of faith.

We WANT independence!!!

We WANT autonomy!!!

But we can’t HANDLE it, because apart from faith and reason we will take what we want FROM one another even up to each others very life. In the name of independence and autonomy we will only do what seems “right in our own eyes” and we’ve already seen where that leads (see Judges [21:25]).

The gender dispute of these days seeks to throw off the voice of reason and of faith. The issue of abortion seeks to throw off the voice of reason and of faith. Much of what we hear being argued for by junior leaders in Washington and the sophmorically wise in our universities is an effort to throw off the voice of reason and the voice of faith.

Listen, you can do that. You can ignore God, ignore reason, ignore faith; you can chase after whatever you want but ignoring the voice does not nullify the authority behind it nor the consequences that come for doing life your way (Proverbs 14:12, 2 Corinthians 5:10, Revelation 20:11-15).

It may be a dark saying but I encourage you to think about it…

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Spiritual Endurance Training

“The successful fighter is not the one who can throw the most punches; it is actually the one who can take the most.”

You have to think about that one a little…

What that statement really speaks to is endurance – the disciplined ability to be able to go toe to toe with an adversary for as long as it takes and in the end to still be standing.

Every follower, not every fan (and there are lots of them) but every follower and every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ has such an adversary in the devil of whom the Bible states in (1 Peter 5:8) is like a “roaring lion.” Like a lion, Satan prowls, looking for someone to devour – for someone to overcome.

His tactics are varied, he has watched the “game tapes” of your life before you received and trusted in the Lord and he brings the fight to you based on the weaknesses he finds. He cannot take away your salvation or position in Christ but he will fight you, torment you, tempt you and if possible instigate you to respond to this world in a way totally uncharacteristic of Christ and His people.

Think about the last 24 hours – were any of your emotional triggers pulled or fuses lit? Did someone or something frustrate your patience to the boiling point?

How did you do?

Did you retaliate without a second thought? Did you go off like a roman candle on the fourth of July? Or, were you able to bear up under the temptation to react and endure it? Did you take all that Satan threw at you and walk away in the peace of the Lord?

As one who has lost more than a number of bouts with this adversary of ours, I KNOW that the struggle is real and that our default is always to respond in the flesh – as I/we grow in our faith and learn to put God’s word to work in our lives we will begin to establish a NEW default and over time we will win more bouts than we do now.

Listen, James said the the “trying of our faith produces patience” – literally such trying produces an ability in the Lord to endure. The problem for us is that we do not spar in make believe fights with friendly opponents at a gym – every fight is for real. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t but the goal is to win more and more and more…

Just as the “successful fighter is not the one who throws the most punches but who takes the most” you and I need to be able to roll and anticipate Satan’s punches through training in the Word of God, by prayer and by obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit within us. Our adversary is going to throw everything he has at those who follow Christ – the believer must endure or bear up under it all. When we do, we will grow stronger still in the Lord and we (2 Tim. 2:4) will “please Him who enlisted us as His soldiers.”

Click the link https://www.thetextmessages.org/sermons/spiritual-endurance-training/ to listen on and learn more about the vital topic of spiritual endurance…

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Ancient Myth or Mysterious Truth

I have often thought that the Wizard of Oz was another effort on the part of those who did not fear and on the contrary had a more than skeptical view of God and His church to illustrate their skepticism. In the end, the participants in the story discovered that “The Wizard” was merely a man controlling the narrative through various mechanics and that there actually was no real wizard; the thought behind that illustration as it pertains to Christianity seems to be no different today.

As we continue into the “post Christian” dispensation of time we hear men refer to Christianity as “another ancient mythology” passing into the annals of time and ceasing to be a controlling influence on our world, to say nothing of the central figure of it, Jesus Christ, the son of the actual and living God. But unlike Aesop’s Fables, the Iliad or the Odyssey of Homer or other classical Greek and Roman mythology which tell fantastic stories of mythological heroes, the Bible is a testimony of eyewitnesses who either heard and/or saw Almighty God or His Son Jesus Christ.

In Daniel chapter 2 verses 31-45, the prophet Daniel interprets an upsetting dream from God (see Dan. 2:29) for King Nebuchadnezzar of a great statue made of Gold, silver bronze, iron and clay which was subsequently destroyed by a stone which was “cut out without hands.” In his interpretation, Daniel revealed from the Lord that each of the various material components of the statue were representative of several kingdoms, each of which would be weaker than the first and yet fall to the one to come after it.  The “head of fine gold” represented Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom – the Babylonian empire, the “chest and arms of silver” represented the Medo-Persian empire, the “belly and thighs of bronze” represented the Grecian empire, the “legs of iron” represented the Roman Empire and the “feet of iron and toes of clay” (vv.33, 42) represented the progressive weakening of the more or less divided Roman empire.

Daniel, writing well before the advent of the Medo-Persian, Greek or Roman empires saw their consummation and obliteration by a rock which became a mountain (Daniel 2:35) or, since the Biblical record often refers to Jesus Christ as the rock; each of these empires gives way to Almighty God and ultimately to His Kingdom.

I bring the narrative of the falling empires into play because of the “mythology” of especially the Greeks and Romans. Their mythology drove their religion, their world view and their general perceptions of nature – but Zeus never walked among men nor did Jupiter or Hercules or Dionysus or Diana and Artemis or Mars and Ares nor Hades nor any of the rest of the gods of their mythologies. In reality, the Romans adopted many Greek customs including their myths, modifying them slightly to suit their own purposes. But over and against all of this is Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God, born into flesh by way of a virgin (Matthew 1:23) and yet having neither beginning or end (Rev.1:8). This Jesus walked among people, did miracles among people, spoke to and taught people, suffered and died for the sins of people and rose again bringing forgiveness to people from God and restoring every believer’s relationship with Him.

He was seen. People bear witness to Him (John 1:14, 2 Peter 1:16-21, 1 John 1:1-3). People died because of their unstoppable testimony of that which they had both seen and heard and they still die to this day because of faith in His name. No other religion on earth at any time can say that their God came down to men. No other religion on earth is MORE persecuted than Christianity is because of the name of Jesus and no religion sees more of its adherents killed than those of the Christian faith. To this day, all other religions are tolerated in our nation but Christianity – if it were merely a myth why do so many willingly die and why are so many people and governments intimidated by the name of Jesus?

Myth or true fact – you decide; but consider these words of Paul in Romans in your process (Romans 1:18-25):

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. Therefore, God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

Next time you consider the complex biology and function of every living thing or of even a single living cell or atom and the next time you consider life in general or the vast universe above just ask yourself, “Did all of this really happen by accident; a big bang led to all that I see above, beneath and within me?” Which is harder to believe – that an all-knowing creator God, from nothing, made the heavens and the earth, the stars and then set them in motion, and that He made every living creature with unique qualities, traits and characteristics and then gave them life; or that it all began in a primordial stew of muck on a planet uttered forth from some cosmic explosion of materials that must also have either formed from the blast or preexisted it? In which case you would also have to ask, “where did the canvas – that blank expanse of nothingness come from?” Time just started on its own with no outside, intelligent impetus…I doubt that.

In fact, that’s a myth I cannot accept.

“The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.” (Psalm 14:1–3, NKJV)

No mockery intended, but as foolish as it would be to base one’s life on a fable or myth it would be more so to fail to receive and believe in the true and living God, Jesus Christ, who as one man put it long ago, was “a sure enough somebody” who came into the world to save sinners…

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