Weekly Articles

On September 17, 1787, the Constitutional Congress approved the document which begins:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

This, the Preamble to the United States Constitution, sets forth the reason for establishing our way of life – liberty.  Liberty is the great difference between us and the rest of the world, and it is something that has been eroded away to a pale shimmer of its former glory.

For the past eighty years our nation has been moving inexorably towards tyranny.  This tyranny which looms over us is one of our own making as we have sought to remove Christianity from its exalted and honored place at the center of American culture and have instead sought out more government control over our lives.  Through the granting of special rights to some people, all have seen the destruction of their liberty.  And while President Obama is not the first US President to seek out the subjugation of the American people, he has taken America closer to indenture and serfdom than any other; through this present administration the Federal Government has taken control of the financial and manufacturing sectors, and is poised to take over the energy and healthcare sectors as well.  This is not a political treatise, but is rather a call to all Christians to remember:  we have seen this before.

When the prophet Samuel was getting old, the elders came to him to ask for him to appoint a king to rule over them.  Samuel’s sons were corrupt and the elders feared what would happen; God told Samuel to give this response:

He said, “This is what the king who will reign over you will do:  He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.   Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.   He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.   He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.   He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.  Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use.   He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.   When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day.”  (1 Samuel 8:11-18 NIV)

Notice what God said the king would do to the people if they became subjects of an Earthly king.  He said the king would take their sons and daughters to work for him (such as nationalizing whole economic sectors).  He said the king would take the fruits of their labor and give them to his attendants (such as using the money seized through a confiscatory taxation policy to enrich political supporters).  He said the king would take their wealth and use it for himself (such as using taxpayers to finance government takeovers of private companies). 

Again, this is not an indictment of President Obama alone; this trend has been going on for eighty years.  The President of the United States is very much a reflection of the American People – in terms of their desire to follow God.  See, when the Israelites asked for a king, God told Samuel that they had rejected God as their king.  In so doing they had surrendered their God-given liberty and willingly subjugated themselves and their children to a human being.  This should be a wake-up call to all American Christians!

We have a choice to make:  do we seek out the government to solve our problems for us, or do we look to God and follow his lead?  Are we going to surrender the classroom to atheists and let them indoctrinate our children with their own deluded imaginings?  Are we going to let them strip away America’s Christian identity?  Are we going to quietl subjugate ourselves to a king in the form of a President?  Are we going to reject God as our king?

-Charles Peterson

In a commencement address at Wesleyan University in 2008, then-Senator Obama gave this admonition to the audience:  “our individual salvation depends on collective salvation”.  His remarks were in the context of his belief that the American dream is attained by the individual being subsumed into the collective group.  This quote immediately strikes at my belief in the American Dream and in is direct contradiction to the Founding Documents; but it did make me think, “where do we look for salvation?”

My first thought is that the American ideal is one of personal freedom and accountability – Self-Reliance!  But is that what it should be?  No doubt we should all be responsible for our actions and reap the rewards or losses of what we do.  However, when all seems against us, do we look within ourselves for the answers?  If so, we are missing out on the source of our strength.  Look at David’s conversation with King Saul about whether or not David could go to face Goliath:

Saul replied, “You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth.”  But David said to Saul, “Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.  When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.   Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God.   The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.”  Saul said to David, “Go, and the LORD be with you.”  (1 Samuel 17:33-37 NIV)

Clearly David did not rely on himself, but looked for strength from God.  But there are others who might say that community is who can save our nation from its sinking into moral depravity.  They say that in order to raise children properly, “it takes a village”.  But this is not what Joshua believed:

“Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness.  Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD.   But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”  (Joshua 24:14-15 NIV)

Joshua told the community that they had to make a choice between the World and God.  But he also make it plain that he was going to follow God regardless of what his community chose to do.  He was willing to be ostracized by those around him rather than let the “village” decide what was right and wrong.  But maybe the village is simply too small; there are many who believe that the government will save us.  Our President certainly thinks that government is the answer.  But Daniel and his friends did not think this way, and they chose wisely when they sought God’s salvation over the government’s:

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.   If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king.   But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”  (Daniel 3:16-18 NIV)

Therefore these three examples show the fallacy that was exemplified in Barrack Obama’s statement:  our individual salvation is not linked with some collective salvation, but rather it is linked with our relationship with God!  David chose to trust in God rather than his arm, so God strengthened his arm.  Joshua chose not to trust in the community but rather to take a stand on God’s side, so God preserved him within the community.  Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego chose to reject the King’s evil command and instead hold to God, and so God preserved them in the fire.

These examples should remain on our minds and within our hearts constantly.  It is only God who is our refuge, and it is only God who is our defender!  Reject the collective mindset and embrace instead the Christian one!

-Charles Peterson

I was watching an episode of the History Channel program Life Without People in which was discussed the durability of various works of man such as the Statue of Liberty, the Houston Astrodome, and Boston’s John Hancock building.  The program assumed that all living people suddenly disappear and then looks at what happens afterwards to the “world we leave behind.”  In this particular episode, the Statue of Liberty was said to exist for up to an additional three hundred years before succumbing to decay and deterioration due to the lack of human maintenance.  It was thought possible that the force of a piece falling (the example given was the torch) might be enough to make an impression mold in the sea floor, which over the years could produce fossilized remains.  This then led to the statement at the end of the show that the most persistent human remains would in fact be our bones (such as with the dinosaurs).  The ending comment was “this is the final fate of human bodies.”

There are many who believe this statement, that our final fate is to decay and become bones.  And they do have the full facts supporting them, don’t they?  After all, we have the bones of many dead people available for us to examine.  And if this is true, then what is the point of life but to leave the world a better place than when we were here?

But this is not true.  Our final fate is not as bones interred in fossilized remains, but instead to be raised up, reinvigorated and made alive.  This is an important point, for there are many who claim to believe in God who do not accept the bodily resurrection.  They believe that we become ethereal spirits on a higher plane of existence.  But that is as false as those who believe in no spirit at all.

But someone may ask, “How are the dead raised?  With what kind of body will they come?”  How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies.  When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else.  But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body.  All flesh is not the same:  Men have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another.  There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another.  The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.  So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.  (1 Corinthians 15:35-43 NIV)

There is a time appointed when all men, from all times, will be raised and judged.  And the judgment will not be “did you make the world a better place?”  It will be “how well did you follow God’s laws?”  It is not a graduated scale, but rather a “pass/fail” sort of test.  And make no mistake, we will all fail that test.  Do not delude yourself by thinking that you can live your life as you please, “making the world a better place,” and can therefore rest easy apart from God’s law.  But do not despair, either!  Although none of us can pass that test, Jesus Christ did!  And in doing so, he opened the way for those who put their trust in him to live.  Our proof of that will come on the day of the resurrection.

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.  He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry.  He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”  I said, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.”  Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!  This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life.  I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.  Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ “  (Ezekiel 37:1-6 NIV)

God is faithful, and so we can be assured of the fact that the resurrection will happen.  Our final fate is not the grave, but rather being raised to stand before God.  So with this in mind, do you want to stand there alone?  Or would you rather stand with Jesus?  That is a choice that must be made now.  Your final fate depends on that choice.

-Charles Peterson

This last week the world was shocked by the death of fifty-year old music icon Michael Jackson.  Jackson was a mainstay of my generation, having risen to prominence in the late 1970’s, and was credited with having been a fundamental influence on the MTV culture.  He was raised in a music-entertainment oriented family, lived a bizarrely scandal-clad life, and died under suspiciously controversial circumstances.  In the wake of the reporting on his death, many disturbing comments are being made:

“This is the day the music died”

“I have lost meaning in my life”

“The King is dead”

This hero worship is nothing new; Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and Kurt Cobain all had large followings.  And I am sure that similar rhetoric was used to describe these icons as well.  But with Michael Jackson, this worship seems even more perverse in light of how much his shocking behavior was displayed for all of us to see.  It seems to be a sign of our times to ignore all of the glaring problems in a person’s character, simply to pay homage to that person’s popularity. 

How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn!  You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations!  You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.  I will ascend above the tops of the clouds I will make myself like the Most High.”  But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.  (Isaiah 14:12-15 NIV)

This was God’s response to the hubris of the King of Babylon.  It is not the only verse dealing with the subject of man’s pride!  In fact, one of the principle themes of the Bible is the predisposition of man to worship anything and everything except the Creator.  Our society is just as susceptible to this form of idolatry as past generations.  We seem to want to place our trust in man, rather than in God.

For all can see that wise men die; the foolish and the senseless alike perish and leave their wealth to others.  Their tombs will remain their houses forever, their dwellings for endless generations, though they had named lands after themselves.  But man, despite his riches, does not endure; he is like the beasts that perish.  This is the fate of those who trust in themselves, and of their followers, who approve their sayings.  (Psalm 49:10-13 NIV)

No matter what we do here, we will all die.  Rich or poor, healthy or sick, athletic or obese, we are appointed only a short while.  But in that short time we will either accept Jesus or reject him.  And that decision will affect eternity.

“The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried.  In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side.  So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’  But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony.  And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’ “  (Luke 16:22-26 NIV)

The rich man wasn’t in torment because he had to “make up for having been comfortable,” but rather he was paying the price of not having seen to the needs of Lazarus when he was in need.  So trusting in our wealth or power is foolish; trusting in someone else’s wealth or power is even more foolish.  Yet people are doing just that when they build a cult of personality about a person.

Michael Jackson was a talented, if very troubled, entertainer; but he was only a man.  He lived for himself and he died for himself.  But the real King is not dead; Jesus Christ came to this world for us, he died for us, and he arose to eternal life for us.  The King is alive and is calling all of us into his court; let us not be late in responding!

-Charles Peterson

Last Friday I attended a prayer breakfast centered on efforts in the community to combat childhood hunger.  I took my Bible along and kept it with me during the course of the meal and the presentation.  At the end I left and, stopping by my house to change clothes on my way, proceeded to go to work.  Saturday morning I sat down in my home office to prepare my weekly sermon and bulletin article and could not find my Bible.  I looked about frantically until I realized that the last time I remember holding my Bible was at the prayer breakfast.  I called the fire department (the venue hosting the event) and they confirmed that they had my Bible; I dressed appropriately and drove over to retrieve what I was missing.  I was truly thankful that someone there had taken care of my Bible so that I would be able to get it – I thanked God, as well.

If this seems odd, understand that in addition to the availability of the Bible on the Internet I have no less than five copies of the Bible in my house that I could have used.  But I needed MY Bible!  I am used to it – I know where passages should appear on the page, I like the feel of how the pages turn, and I am comforted by the weight and size.  Do these things matter in terms of my ability to read the Word of God?  No, they have no bearing on that.  And if I had permanently lost my copy I could have replaced it fairly easily.  But it would have been very disruptive to my life.

I know that this sounds like I have severe psychological problems.  I have many books in my house (I am a certified “book lover”), but I do not obsess over them in this way.  But my Bible is different!  I can read God’s word from any of a number of sources, but at any given time I only possess ONE Bible copy that serves as my primary source.  I believe this is because the Bible is not just another book!  It is sacred and holy in a very real way that has little to do with the bindings on a leather and paper apparatus.  I become very attached to a particular copy of the Bible at a time, probably because the content of the Book is my connection to the will of God and my source of Divine comfort and strength.

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.  I have taken an oath and confirmed it, that I will follow your righteous laws.  I have suffered much; preserve my life, O LORD, according to your word.  Accept, O LORD, the willing praise of my mouth, and teach me your laws.  Though I constantly take my life in my hands, I will not forget your law.  The wicked have set a snare for me, but I have not strayed from your precepts.  Your statutes are my heritage forever; they are the joy of my heart.  My heart is set on keeping your decrees to the very end.  (Psalm 119:105-112 NIV)

It is no coincidence that the longest chapter in the Bible (the 119^th Psalm) is devoted to praising God’s word!  This Psalm is divided into twenty-two parts, each one titled after a letter in the Hebrew alphabet with that same letter beginning the passage.  The psalmist had a profound love for God’s word – his commandments, teachings, and ways.  I’ve heard people refer to the Bible as “Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth” and other such whimsical notions.  And while I am not attacking those things, I wonder if we have the sincerely dependent love for the Bible as that psalmist did for the small portion available to him. 

The Bible is God’s revelation to man!  It is through reading the Bible that God can open your heart and mind together to his will.  But the Bible is a horrible reference guide.  It is not meant to be set on a shelf, only to be opened like a dictionary.  Too many people have no use for the Bible until something happens to them and they say, “let me look this situation up.”  It is only through daily reading of the Bible that you can begin to unlock the mystery of God’s love in your life!  As the children sing, “the B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the book for me!”

-Charles Peterson