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Quit worrying!

4/28/2016

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If the statistics can be believed, they’re pretty shocking: 18% of U.S. adults reportedly suffer from anxiety disorders – including “general anxiety disorder,” characterized by persistent, excessive, and unrealistic worry about everyday things.
 
I suppose that’s understandable for secularists of all stripes, given the sad state of today’s world. But it really shouldn’t be an issue for those who profess to be followers of Jesus Christ. After all, He has commanded us not to fret 365 times in the pages of the Bible; shouldn’t we obey Him?
 
It's true that, now and then, I find myself back on my pre-salvation worry treadmill. But the Holy Spirit has given me a new line of thinking to pursue – one that almost invariably sends my fears packing.  Perhaps you’ll find it helpful.
 
Whenever I find myself worrying about a particular trial, I talk to God about the situation, casting my care upon Him because He cares for me (1 Peter 5:7). I then meditate on a few simple truths:  

  1. God is sovereign over His entire creation – including every last cell in my body and every circumstance I face. He understands my situation perfectly. And He has everything under complete control, ready to serve His good and perfect purposes.
  2. He has promised to make all things work together for good to all who love Him and are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28) – and that would include me. I have seen this happen time and time again in my own life, and in the lives of Christian friends. It helps to review some of these remarkable events from His point of view, and to remember how disastrous they seemed initially from our limited human perspective.
  3. I can’t know what blessing He has in store for me through this trial; I can be sure He does, however. So I ask Him not to remove the trial but for His will to be accomplished through it. And I try very hard to mean it every time.
  4. He has already told me how to handle such fears, and I need only recall His instructions. Philippians 4:6-7 is often a great place to start: “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
  5. He has also shown me the big picture of His lifelong care for me, especially via Psalm 23. I love to think through every word and phrase of this beloved little chapter, drawing on the insights provided by the late Phillip Keller in his precious book, A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm.  
 
I have yet to emerge from this meditation without feeling great spiritual refreshment – and welcome freedom from whatever was worrying me in the first place.

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A word game of eternal significance

4/26/2016

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If you were paying attention in the late ‘90s, you heard a Very Important Person say, over and over again, “It depends on what the meaning of the word ‘is’ is.” 

This assertion was a cause for ridicule back then, but today it actually sounds like a profound insight. In 21st century America, we can no longer count on the conventional meaning of even the most basic words. 

For instance, these days ”affordable” apparently means “unaffordable," if “the Affordable Care Act” is any indication. “Freedom of choice” has become “freedom to murder.” "Awful” no longer means “inspiring reverential wonder,” but something more along the lines of “hideously unpleasant.” “Egregious” once meant good; now it means bad. Coming from the Latin for “ignorant,” “nice” now means “pleasant” or “agreeable.” And “till death do us part” now means “till something better comes along.”

Funny how that happens, isn’t it?

These days, we often see this phenomenon playing out in the realm of theology (which still means “the study of the nature of God,” thank goodness). Sometimes it’s simply a matter of twisting the contextual meaning of a single word. For example: 

  • The common Hebrew word for a 24-hour day, “yom,” now means “vast ages.” For far too many people, this little alteration transforms the Bible from the inspired and inerrant word of God into a book of myths. 
  • “Hope” means, to the world, something along the lines of “wishful thinking.” But biblically speaking, it means “trust” or “confident expectation.” So what does it mean when I say that I am looking for our “blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13)? That I sure do wish He would come back but I'm not holding my breath?
  • “Fear” used to mean “revere.” Now it means “to be afraid of something unpleasant or dangerous.” So much for the “fear of the Lord” being “the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 111:10).
  • “Jealous” used to mean “fiercely protective.” Today it means envying, coveting, harboring suspicions about someone else. How does that make you feel about a “jealous God” (Exodus 20:5)? It was enough to make that great Bible scholar Oprah Winfrey turn her back on Him in favor of New Age thought; how many others have joined her because of this single slice of ignorance?
  • “Love,” in its highest form (Greek “agape”), once meant self-sacrificing, unconditional, unceasing and profound affection.  Today it is mostly reduced to what the Greeks call “eros,” meaning “a deep romantic or sexual attachment to (someone),” or what the Bible calls “lust” – not a good thing. Or it’s used to describe our most superficial feelings for something that gives us pleasure – we “love” ice cream or dogs or a good game of Scrabble. These definitions could certainly impact one’s understanding of “God is love” (1 John 4), couldn't they?
  • “All” used to mean “the whole quantity or extent of a particular group or thing.” Now, to growing numbers of professing Christians, it means “some of each.” Consider how that changes the meaning of a pronouncement like Jesus’ “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me” (John 12:32).  

Here’s the thing. There’s only one way to heaven, and that's through the payment Jesus rendered on the cross for our sin. To avail ourselves of that payment, we need simply to repent of what He calls sin and trust in Hispayment. That has all kinds of implications for our lives and how we will think, speak, behave and live, of course; but the point here is that we cannot even “repent and trust” if we harbor such grave misunderstandings of language.

In fact, how can we possibly trust a transcendent being whose very words are not trustworthy?  

Yes indeedy, these days it really does depend on what the meaning of the word “is” is. And anyone who wants to spend eternity in heaven with the Lord had best spend some time determining what His word actually says.

Originally posted 5/15/14 
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The death of absolute truth

4/19/2016

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Silly me. Since my conversion to Christ in 2000, I’ve been obsessed with the modern world’s refusal to even acknowledge God – let alone to repent and trust in Him for eternal life. I’ve thought of it as a special kind of stubbornness reserved exclusively for Him, a Satan-driven love of sin that blinds the majority of people to the truth about where we came from, what we’re doing here and where we’re going.
 
“If we can only get these people to consider Christ,” I’ve thought time and time again, “then the Holy Spirit can point them once and for all to God and His word. Absolute truth will win!”
 
Now I’m wondering how I could have been so blind to the flaw in this strategy: Because in today’s world, absolute truth no longer exists.  
 
What woke me up was seeing a new Family Policy Institute of Washington video in which a short white guy interviewed students on the campus of the University of Washington.
 
To set the stage, he asked them about the current debate over the accessing bathrooms and locker rooms based on “gender identity” and “gender expression.”

Their comments were eye-opening. “Bathrooms should be gender neutral,” said one, and the others agreed, using frighteningly similar language.
 
The interviewer then turned it up a notch.

“What would you say,” he asked each student, “if I told you I was Chinese?”
 
The consensus? “Good for you.”
 
And so on.
 
“How about if I told you I was seven years old?” the interviewer said.
 
“If you feel seven at heart,” replied an oh-so-tolerant co-ed, “so be it.”
 
The interviewer was clearly looking for something that would cause someone to say “No, that’s not true!” He tried this, noting elsewhere that he is actually 5’9”: “If I said I was 6’5”, what would you say?”
 
“If you truly believe it,” replied one student, “that’s fine.”
 
“It’s not my place to say someone is wrong,” said another.
 
And there you have it. Faced with an obvious lie, these college students are unwilling -- perhaps unable -- to expose it. Whatever you say, buddy; who am I to tell you you’re wrong? It doesn’t hurt me if you want to think that.
 
It’s true that there are other contemporary influences shaping people’s thinking these days – most notably, the suppression of competing ideas in the public square and, increasingly, even in private conversation. Perhaps that’s why the world has been so quick to embrace false narratives on everything from Marxism to climate change to gender liberation – all while celebrating tolerance as the ultimate good.
 
But at the heart of such Orwellian “goodthink” is the persistent rejection of absolute truth.
 
And if you reject absolute truth, you are by definition rejecting the One who is “the way, the truth, and the life.”
 
I guess our only hope, if the Lord tarries, is that something will cause a future generation to cry out to Him in repentance and faith. After all, it happened repeatedly with the children of Israel in the days of the judges, when everyone “did what was right in his own eyes.”  And the Lord was faithful to forgive them, and deliver them from whatever evil threatened to destroy them.
 
Maybe it’s not too late for us.
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Absolute opinion vs. absolute truth

4/13/2016

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"He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts ..." (Ecclesiastes 3:11a)  

I've long thought that this is one of the most beautiful verses that wise King Solomon ever wrote. Pondering it tonight, I wondered if the world would at least grant us that it's a natural instinct -- that belief in an afterlife seems to be something that most people, in most cultures, have embraced over history. 

So I did a little searching. No surprise, I came across a lot of atheist bilge about weak-minded people inventing God to soothe their fears about death.

But then I stumbled across a CNN report from 2011 -- a report entitled "Religious belief is human nature, huge new study claims." 

The subject of this very sketchy article was a three-year Oxford University study which concluded that a belief in purpose and afterlife is pretty much universal. And apparently this wasn't the first time such researchers have come to this conclusion: "Studies around the world came up with similar findings," the article reports, "including widespread belief in some kind of afterlife and an instinctive tendency to suggest that natural phenomena happen for a purpose."
 
This study did not attempt to prove or disprove God's existence, according to one of its co-directors. 

No surprise there, either, but what a pity: A bunch of academics spend three years studying whether a belief in the afterlife is common ... yet apparently spend not a moment trying to determine whether such a belief is true. 

Wouldn't it have been more profitable for everyone concerned if they'd searched for absolute truth rather than wasting their time on what is, at least to an unbeliever, absolute opinion?

I guarantee that any reasonably intelligent researcher -- one who was willing to follow the evidence wherever it led -- would discover the truth in far less than three years. And it would lead him or her directly to that narrow gate, with an eternally important decision to make.

Originally posted 2/10/14
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Demons, drugs and alcohol 

4/12/2016

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"When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.' And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation." (Jesus, quoted in Matthew 12:43-45)

This strikes me as an excellent description of what’s wrong with much of the western world today, as many run pell-mell into various addictions and away from eternal life -- and why even the most determined addicts are so often unable to stay clean for long.

Jesus has, in fact, given us a wonderfully concise explanation for what happens when a man (or woman) tries to free himself of a demon-driven addiction. He starts out by quitting the bad habit and getting his life back in order again. But he doesn’t fill his heart with anything as powerful as the original addiction, or the demon driving it; new hobbies or friends won’t suffice, and he can’t summon up enough will power to make the fix permanent. Sooner or later he's populated by not only his original demon, but by some news ones as well, and he succumbs to temptation again – quite possibly plunging even deeper into his vice of choice and its devastating (sometimes deadly) consequences. 

You’ve probably seen this happen to people you know. Maybe it has even happened to you. 

Drug and alcohol are perhaps the most common snares these days, although of course there are many others, from gambling to pornography. Whatever the specifics, addictions can become such major preoccupations that their victims have no time, energy or motivation left for seeking God and His heavenly kingdom.  

Many will instead run as fast as they can in the other direction. After all, they know in their heart of hearts that what they’re doing is wrong, and that He doesn't approve. They may anticipate that He will demand that they clean up their acts – and tremble at the thought of what He will do to them when they fail, as they surely will.  It’s best, they reason, not even to go there; it’s best to simply reject God and His unreasonable demands and let the addiction reign. Why fight it?

This is why AA so often fails ... but Teen Challenge does not. 

I think Jesus’ description of the unclean spirit explains precisely why some approaches to addiction relief work – and others do not.

Consider, for example, Alcoholics Anonymous vs. Teen Challenge. 

AA does encourage its participants to “have a connection to a higher power.” But that seems to be as far as its adherents will go.

Teen Challenge, on the other hand, is an explicitly Christ-centered program. Jesus comes first, and He then heals those who yield to Him.

AA doesn’t seem to publish any statistics related to long-term success rates; I’ve seen guesstimates ranging from 5% to 15%. Teen Challenge, on the other hand, boasts a five-year success rate of 86%, according to independent studies -- which is to say that, five years after completing the program, 86% of graduates are still clean and addiction-free (including the 71% of graduates who had gone through other treatment programs before coming to Teen Challenge).  

How can this be? Teen Challenge asked its graduates, “What makes the program work?”

The overwhelming response: “Jesus Christ.” 

So it seems clear: Both secular programs like AA and the unabashedly Christ-centered Teen Challenge work to “empty, sweep, and put in order” the hearts of those who come to them seeking relief from addiction. But unlike secular programs, Teen Challenge begins by leading them to the Lord Jesus, so that their hearts can be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. 

As a result, any unclean spirit that tries to return to its former home sees a “No Vacancy” sign.

This is great news for anyone who suffers from an addiction, or has a loved one who’s an addict. And best of all, in most people, healing can be accomplished without the need for any formal program at all; all we have to do is believe the gospel, in the process repenting and trusting in Jesus Christ. 

And there's a bonus that's the most wonderful news of all: anyone who does this can look forward to an eternity of pure joy, to be spent in heaven with the Lord Jesus Himself. It's an offer that one would be an absolute fool to refuse. 

Updated from a 12/9/13 post
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The Hanging Question trick: another way to trash the Bible 

4/7/2016

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Over the years, our nation’s news reporters have developed a slew of techniques for trashing the Bible, along with anyone who believes it. I just stumbled across a great example from a few years ago, in a front-page story in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel on the Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit. 

The piece was written by a female reporter who had been one of my TAs in college – a very talented writer who chose every word with care. 

For this article, she interviewed Weston Field, the executive director of the Dead Sea Scrolls Foundation. Explaining that the Scrolls were written 1,000 years earlier than the oldest Old Testament manuscript known at the time of their discovery, he said, “Now we had something that … we could use to check what had happened to the text of the Bible for 1,000 years and how much it had changed along the way.” 

Okay, so I’m not a journalist; I sold out when I started selling my Journalism-school skills to corporate America. But I still write a lot of articles based on interviews, and I know how to ask an appropriate follow-up question. 

So given this comment of Mr. Field’s, what do you think this reporter should have asked?

How about this: “Wow, Mr. Field, what did you find out? How much had the Old Testament changed over those 1,000 years?” 

But if this reporter asked the question, the answer never made it into the finished article.

Perhaps that’s because surely his answer would have been something along these lines: “It had hardly changed at all, and not in any way impacting message or doctrine.”

He might have said, “Those charged with copying the manuscripts were so painstaking in their craft that barely any errors crept in.”

He might have added, “The Dead Sea Scrolls prove that the Old Testament we have today is virtually the same as the Old Testament that existed when Jesus Christ walked the earth.” 

Of course, even if Mr. Field had said those things, they never would have been published in the Journal-Sentinel, or any other mainstream newspaper. After all, such comments would have contradicted the idea that reporters like to toss around, that the Bible is just like the telephone game, with the message being hopelessly and hysterically garbled with each successive re-telling. 

How much easier it was, for this reporter or perhaps her editor, to just leave the obvious question unasked and unanswered – to instead leave this comment hanging: “we could … check what had happened to the text of the Bible for 1,000 years and how much it had changed along the way.”

Not another word about it. The implication? That the Old Testament had indeed changed, and had changed quite significantly. 

I have a follow-up question for those responsible for this sort of oh-so-subtle hatchet job: Do you mean to leave such impressions? 

In this case, I asked it, in fact – sent the reporter an email. But I never received a response. Guess she was too busy working on her next story, which turned out to be a piece lauding Darwinian evolution. 

Originally published 3/26/14
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Proof of God? Consider the puffin.

4/2/2016

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Since becoming a Christian at the turn of the millennium, I have been repeatedly overwhelmed at how blind I had been for my entire adult life. How could I have looked at the world around me and missed the hand of the Creator? How in particular could I have failed to see Him, and His supreme sense of beauty, design and humor, in critters such as the puffin -- like the one shown here, with a mouthful of sand eels, from a spectacular portfolio of Farne Island photos published by The Atlantic. 

I have no excuse. I was raised on puffins by a mother who often recited this little poem: 

There Once Was a Puffin
by Florence Page Jaques
 
Oh, there once was a Puffin
Just the shape of a muffin,
And he lived on an island
In the bright blue sea!
 
He ate little fishes,
That were most delicious,
And he had them for supper
And he had  them for tea.

But this poor little Puffin,
He couldn't play nothin',
For he hadn't anybody
To play with at  all.
 
So he sat on his island,
And he cried for awhile, and
He felt very lonely,
And he felt very small.
 
Then along came the  fishes,
And they said, "If you wishes,
You can have us for playmates,
Instead of for tea!"
 
So they now play together,
In all sorts of weather,
And the Puffin eats pancakes,
Like you and like me.

My mother was famous for reciting this little poem, at least in our family. So perhaps it was no surprise when we found that she'd left an audio tape on her bedside table, just before she went Home to the Lord -- and that on it, she had recorded herself reciting this very poem just days earlier. Her goal in doing so, she said, was to always remind us that in death as in life, "your mother was the font of all wisdom."

When He formed her, her Creator had obviously given her more than a smattering of His sense of humor.  How could I have missed that, too?

Updated from a 1/9/14 post
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    Kitty
    Foth-Regner

    I'm a follower of Jesus Christ, a freelance copywriter, a nursing-home volunteer, and the author of books both in-process and published -- including Heaven Without Her. 

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