At The Bottom Of The Barrel?

It was a hard thing to endure. I don’t know what was harder, though. Was it the initial shock of suddenly being laid off from my job of almost 11 years, or was it the realization that I had a stay at home wife, three kids, and one on the way to take care of without income? I had never seen it coming. Just two weeks prior I was budgeting the upcoming year and had come to the realization that I was finally making enough to live comfortably. Then the floor fell out from under me. I remember going to the van and calling my wife with the words that I thought that I would never have to utter. And then I cried. I cried hard. All I remember was asking God over and over again to take care of us.

“Therefore, I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:25-30).

After I had collected myself I headed on over to the Unemployment Office and got that ball rollin’. I then went for a long drive. I took the “long way home” and just talked to God. I was still in shock and often wondered if I was dreaming or if I was some part of a sick joke. I expected my phone to ring at some point with my now former bosses saying that I had been “punked” and for me to come back to work. Slowly reality was setting in.

My wife had bumped up her midwife appointment to that morning, and so once I had gotten home and stopped hugging and holding her, the kids and us got in the van and left. By this point our church had been notified through email and, as I was in the van during the appointment, I notified my parents. The appointment was over and we made our way back home. The thought kept repeating itself over and over again- will we be OK?

As we pulled into the carport a most shocking sight welcomed us- groceries. Not just a few either. Someone from church went out to Sam’s Club and went to town. Huge jugs of spaghetti sauce, a huge sack of flour, lots of bananas, dish detergent, toilet paper, paper towels, and then some. It took a while for us to get it all into the house. I knew at that point that we would be alright. In God’s sovereign will He had put me in this place and he would see to it that we would be cared for.

“So, it was that quails came up at evening and covered the camp, and in the morning the dew lay all around the camp. And when the layer of dew lifted, there, on the surface of the wilderness, was a small round substance, as fine as frost on the ground. So, when the children of Israel saw it, they said to one another, ‘What is it?’ For they did not know what it was. And Moses said to them, ‘This is the bread which the Lord has given you to eat.’” (Exodus 16:13-15).

I was unemployed for seven months. I had submitted almost 200 job applications and resumes and got almost the same amount of rejections in return. But during that time of uncertainty and discouragement God was in control. It was only a couple of days after I had lost my job that my Mom had mailed us a very, very generous check to help us out. Because my job was a uniformed job I didn’t have very many clothes to wear during the five-day week so that certainly helped with having to buy clothes. Another family member paid our rent for one month. My father mailed us a good amount of money too. Now these events are what you would expect from family members when one loses their job, but it went even further than that in God’s provision.

With the unemployment benefits we still came up short by several hundred dollars for our needs. Our church provided this short coming, which was applied to our rent. So, our needs were being met per month. However, on my final month of unemployment, we had a mission’s conference. Because of the money that was invested in this, one of our deacons approached me and apologetically informed me that they couldn’t help us with rent. I felt a calming peace come over me and I told him that it was OK, because God would provide it. Sure enough, a few days later, my Mom unexpectedly sent a check for the exact amount that was needed to cover rent for that month. I didn’t tell her of our need, so only God could have laid it on her heart to do so. On another occasion, our van’s catalytic converter had failed and needed to be repaired. Obviously, we didn’t have the money to cover the cost. Then a dear brother from church GAVE me the several hundred dollars needed for the repair. Also, on another occasion, the throttle control on the van was failing and was causing the van to stop accelerating while I was in the middle of driving down the road. I often had to drift over to the side of the road and restart the hooptie jalopy. My Mom cut the check to cover that expense, as well as sending us a little money throughout the months during my endless (and sometimes hopeless) search for employment.

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” (Matthew 6:33).

You usually hear about these blessings from other people’s testimonials and think to yourself “Man, nothing like that ever happens to me”. It’s the kind of stuff that you read about in Guideposts or something of that nature. However, there was one more final blessing that you usually hear about, and that is “paying it forward”. It happened one night when I stopped to pick up a pizza for dinner. Friday nights are our “pizza night” in our home. This was the last Friday before I was to start my new job and I ran into a fellow church member and his son while at the pizza shop. I had to still wait for our pizza whereas he already had his ready. When I went in to get mine I was surprised to find that it had already been paid for.

“And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there. So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and stayed by the Brook Cherith, which flows into the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook.” (1 Kings 17:4-6).

The lesson that I had learned in the seven months that I was unemployed is that God is in control. When He has you where you least expect it, like at what we may think is “the bottom of the barrel”, He never forsakes us. Trials come our way to strengthen us and to draw us closer to Him. My faith in God had certainly become solid during this period of my life where many would be staring hopelessness in the eyes. However, when I was at the bottom of the barrel, I was staring into my Lord’s eyes the whole time.

In Christ Alone.

I would like to thank you, my two or three devoted readers, for following this blog ministry of mine. It has been many years since God has called me to preach and this has been my outlet for doing such. However, I have decided to indefinitely suspend any future blog posts with the possibility of shutting this down completely. I hope and trust that this blog has blessed you in some way and may God bless you in your daily walk with Him.

Decay Pt. 3: The Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste

I don’t recall the TV show or the movie that I had seen, but the scenario went something like this: There was a boy who decided to start smoking and was hiding it from his parents. Eventually they had caught on to what he was doing and decided to punish him. What was the punishment? They made the boy smoke an entire pack of cigarettes at one time. Of course in doing so the boy got extremely sick. This experience was not a favorable one for the boy and he decided that his lesson was learned and he would not smoke another cigarette. I don’t particularly agree with this method, however it had its desired effect. It kind of reminds me of the golden calf incident in Exodus. As Moses descended down the mountain he was appalled as to what Israel had done. They had cried out for an idol to worship, and so Aaron fashioned for them a golden calf. However, “then [Moses] took the calf which they had made, burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder; and he scattered it on the water and made the children of Israel drink it.” (Exodus 32:20). They wanted an idol. They got their idol. They were forced to taste their vile desires, and just like an entire pack of cigarettes in one sitting, I’m sure that the end result was bitter.

            As you may recall from part 2 that I had mentioned that in Romans 1 God had abandoned man because man had abandoned God. “We don’t want God” they say. Fine! May your wish be granted. However, in order to fulfill the inward desire for man to have a god, man has elevated himself to the position of god. Man’s current desires become the idol, no matter how vile. Every man does what is right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6). Every man for himself! This is why there is so much fighting. Because each man, void of the one true God, has become his own god and expects everyone else to bow down to him. Have you noticed why people can no longer have a civil debate over their differences of opinion or politics? It at least seems that way. One god (man) and one way of thinking. This is called “tolerance”?

            I had mentioned that man has become his own god in part 2 from Romans 1:19-23. The problem is that without God’s gracious restraint, man decides what is right and wrong. Left to his own carnal hunger, man spirals into a pit so depraved that right becomes wrong and vice versa. This is why you have men stand one day and say “I feel like a woman”, and then everyone agrees and refers to him as “her” from that point on. If a white woman says “I feel like a black woman”, then everyone says “That you are! Black lives matter” and she is therefore an African American. If someone says that they are a cat, hey, let’s give them some cat food and see if they can purr. Sin is no longer sin in this world and if you say otherwise then you are the evil one. Darkness is embraced and has become the bride of this world.

            The things that are being accepted as normal behavior these days would have gotten you locked up in the looney bin 25 years ago. Yet, the things that were once irrational have become rational. The secularists would call this “progress”, as if mankind’s way of thinking for thousands of years had been wrong this entire time and now we have finally found the “truth”. Mankind has become so confused that one of the big controversies in 2016 was which bathroom men and women should use. But how has man become so confused that his mind has become darkened to logic and truth? “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:28).

            Because man had suppressed the truth of God (v.18), and chose instead to worship vain things and idols (v.25), and rejected God (v.28), he was left to himself as God had left him alone. God had given man over to himself. The result was that man was left alone with his debased mind. What does the word “debased” mean you ask? It doesn’t matter which Bible translation you may use for this word, but it basically means “worthless”. Ouch! Can you imagine God testing your mind and then saying that it is of no worth? It can no longer function properly. It is broken. This explains the upside down way of thinking that our modern godless man possesses. Without God, you are nothing.

            Paul goes on to illustrate what this debased mind looks like: For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due (Romans 1:26-27). I am going to stop right here for a moment. As I had mentioned in part 2, people tend to flock to this passage as a justification for homosexuality being a sin. I would like to illustrate that in ancient Jewish culture homosexuality was viewed as the last resort for a depraved person. In other words in regards to depravity it was as low as you could go when you turned what was natural between a man and a woman upside down. Ironically, 2000 years later, if you disagree with homosexuality then you are considered as low as you could go. You may recall in Genesis 19 that the men of Sodom sought to have sexual relations with the angels that had come to Lot. We can assume that like every town and society that homosexuality was not the only sin that the people of Sodom were committing. However the issue of homosexuality was illustrated in order to show just how low and vile that Sodom had become. The men were burning so much for these angels that instead of running like a bunch of wounded dogs once they were struck blind (like normal people would do), they stayed and continued to try to get into Lot’s home. Never mind the blindness, we want those men!

            Paul singled out homosexuality here to not illustrate that it was the greater sin, but that it was the greater evidence of man’s fall into the dark abyss of his own debased mind. He goes on to say “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.” (vv. 28-32). Sound familiar?

            Have we not become a society full of children who dishonor their parents? People who hate God and His people? People who want the newest things and will stop at nothing to acquire them? People who verbally destroy each other? People who gossip and slander? I could go on forever and ever, but I don’t have to because you know that I am right and this secular godless nation, as well as any other nation that has rejected God, is as guilty as the sin that they celebrate. When a person thinks that they can change genders simply by speaking it, demands that boys and girls share the same restroom based on the feelings of one’s gender, has sexual relations in all sorts of unnatural ways as God had not intended, verbally attacks those who think on the other side of the fence, sees no value to human life but their own, says that only one particular race’s life is more important that another’s, believes that unborn babies are not human, sees the value of a wild animal as being greater than the value of a child (Oh, so many people who are pro-choice, but want to save the whales) and, to top it all off, has no problem with murdering unborn children in the womb even at the end of being full term…my friend…THAT IS WHAT A DEBASED AND WORTHLESS MIND LOOKS LIKE. A mind that lacks an understanding of God and does not possess His gracious restraint within their conscience is nothing more but a waste. Such a mind is a dangerous mind and sadly, with the help of our secular government and the media, these dangerous minds have brought this whole nation down into the pit of God’s judgement. The judgement of abandonment.

But, there is hope…

We are past the halfway point of this series. Hang in there! But I will warn you now… part 4 will shock you to your core.

Decay Pt.1: The Beginning of the End

No time in the history of American civilization has the depravity of man been on display as the most recent election year in 2016. When I was growing up I remember men with integrity and character being the nominee of their respective party and I am certain that it had been that way since the beginning. I remember a big tantrum being thrown during the 1992 presidential race because both George Bush and Bill Clinton were accused of having affairs. As a matter of fact, we all know what became of Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. An adulterous affair and the following cover-up were certainly the black cloud that threatened Clinton and his presidency. America wanted honest men. Men who stood for something and were faithful to their country, their families, and their God.

However, 2016 was different. The decay became evident, yet many Christians and conservatives couldn’t see it, and many anti-Christians and liberals failed to believe it. The sphere of decay was evident before the nominees were even named for the Republican and Democratic parties. Marriage had slipped into nothingness as men began marrying men, women began marrying women, pedophiles began to cry out for the same privileges, and men and women continued to treat the sacredness of their marriage as if it was just some passing new flavor at Starbucks. You don’t like it? Throw it out and get something else! The innocence of the children continued to dissolve as they grew up too fast on Twitter. And a million innocent babies never got to see the sunshine, stars, and moon.

These things shouldn’t have surprised anyone because we knew that eventually we would get there. The most baffling, however, is that the police became the enemy. Black lives were the only ones that mattered as officer after officer took a bullet and left behind children and wives. As a matter of fact, if you even said that “all lives mattered”, you ran the risk of being assaulted because to state such obvious truth was “racist”.

If you disagreed with the left, you were a foolish bigot (especially if you were a Christian who disagreed with homosexuality). If you disagreed with the right, you were called a “libtard”, among other things. Hate became redefined as simply disagreeing with or questioning someone else. More and more mankind split itself right down the middle in America. We became a nation divided with wounds split wide open for the whole world to see and the blood flows like the Nile.

Then came the election. There were many to be chosen. Men of honesty, integrity, character, and faith. However, on one side, we chose an angry, foul-mouthed narcissist with multiple marriages who, despite his “Christian faith”, has nothing to repent of. On the other side we chose a woman who has a track record of dishonesty and lying and had ample evidence stacked against her before she even became the nominee. And she won!?! Even though socialism has failed every nation that has tried it, there were a lot of people who really wanted the socialist to take her place as the nominee. This is what we wanted as leaders. Despite our choices this is what we chose to lead us. This has become the American people’s idea of good leadership.

During the debates both candidates fought and spewed insults that were even below that of two fifth graders fighting by the monkey bars during recess. And their supporters followed suit against the other side. It became a contest as to see who could insult the other the worst. But the worst of the worst came after the election. Trump supporters were beaten in the streets by Clinton supporters. The insults increased and people were smeared just as much as the blood that was in the streets. Rioters looted and destroyed property because the election didn’t turn out the way that they wanted. Hatred reigned supreme. Over two months later, the day after Trump’s inauguration, the fires still burned as many women marched in the streets, dressed as their own perverted genitalia, holding signs spewing hate, rioting still, and cursing those who they had seen as a threat to their cause. But how can we call the mass murdering of unborn children a “cause”?

I was once a “metal head” and one of my favorite bands then was Tool. On one album they have a song called “Right in Two” and there is a lyric that has returned to my mind in these recent days:

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey.
Over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs.
They make a club.
And beat their brother, down.
How they survive so misguided is a mystery.

            How did we get here? Men exchanging sexual relations and vows with the like, women as well? Brother killing brother over political differences? Christians being persecuted over their beliefs that have been intact since the beginning of creation? Bullies bullying bullies over their differences of opinion? Crimson rivers flooding their banks? Eyes fixated upon darkness in lust? God in the grave and mankind upon the pedestal?

And society calls it good!

How did we, as the evolutionists would like to say, become like the Neanderthals?

Black vs. white vs. citizen vs. non-citizen vs. gay vs. straight vs. woman vs. man vs. family vs. urban vs. rural vs. upper class vs. middle class vs. lower class vs. veteran vs. pacifist vs. well off vs. welfare vs. you vs. me vs. America vs. everyone else vs. thugs vs. police vs. media vs. truth vs. common man vs. Hollywood vs. Christian vs. atheist vs. my rights vs. your rights….

Republican vs. Democrat…

Conservative vs. Liberal…

Trump vs. Clinton…

But…

THIS ISN’T ABOUT POLITICS.

Legion And The Woman

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!" And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?" He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many." And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them." So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid (Mark 5:1-15).

And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him. And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. For she said, "If I touch even his garments, I will be made well." And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, "Who touched my garments?" And his disciples said to him, "You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, 'Who touched me?'" And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease." (Mark 5:24-34).

Who is your “Legion”? Who are your demons and monsters? Do they have names like Sickness, Hopelessness, Despair, Depression, Addiction, etc.? Have you tried everything to kill the beast? Let me tell you about two people in the Bible who were beaten by Sickness to the point that no one could do anything else for them and there was no hope left. Those two people are Legion and the woman who touched Christ’s garment.

How often do we hear of people who are so far lost in the halls of their minds, that they no longer know joy, reality, themselves, etc.? People who rely on medication to escape their torments and/or invest in psychologists to help solve their problems. Maybe a shelf on their bookcase has bowed from the weight of all the self-help books. Some people are so far lost that they physically cut themselves, as Legion did. Some simply have low self- esteem and create storms in their lives, doing things such as fornication, drinking, and abusing drugs. The darkness of their hearts and minds have swallowed them whole, and they have fallen so deep into the pit that it seems that no one can find them, not even themselves.

Let’s look at Legion for just a moment. Here we have a man who is so drenched in darkness, that he lives among the tombs. The air of death does him no discomfort. It matters not that he spies people mourning around the bend from time to time. His heart has no sympathy, just apathy. Even chains cannot bind his tormenting demons. He is so enthralled with demons, that he grabs stones and slices himself open. We hear about this all the time, don’t we? Teens who are so depressed that they inflict wounds on themselves. Maybe its anyone who is lacerating their soul with the stones in life? The emotions are ravaged. The spirit is six feet under. The soul is dead. It seems no one can help them anymore. Enter Jesus.

Before any formal introduction, Christ knew what Legion was all about, and likewise. There they stood toe to toe and eye to eye. I can see the disciples standing behind Christ, shaking in their sandals. Maybe they said to each other “What is He going to do? Doesn’t He know who that man is? No one could ever help him.” And in one simple “Go” from the lips of our Savior, Legion left the man and entered into a herd of pigs, which then became pork chops for the sharks. All that was left was a man who was sitting, not living, among death. Sane, not cutting, screaming, or writhing. It was a done deal.

There is Dependency upon medication, alcohol, fornication, drugs, anything else to cope and escape whatever it is that ails us. Both physically and emotionally. Sounds familiar? When it seems like you are being visited by Hopelessness and Despair and there is no solution, then what? Is Sickness knocking at your door? Is Addiction calling? Did you get that e-mail from Depression? No one could help the woman who spent years with Hemorrhage. She had been to countless doctors. Everything from “Take this”, “Try this”, “Do this”, and “Maybe you should stop doing that” to herbs and old wives tales filled her daily regiment. She had grown exhausted and hopeless. She spent many nights crying herself to sleep, and many more where she did without it. She may have even had frequent visits with Depression. Then Jesus walked by.

All it took was a touch that day from the Physician. And Hemorrhage left her alone, along with Depression and it’s child, Hopelessness.

What was it that she and Legion both had that healed them, other than being with Jesus? They had faith. Legion had it when he knew who Jesus was, and what He could do for him. So he asked Jesus to deliver the demons from him, and it was granted. The woman knew that a simple touch to Christ’s garment would heal her. So she reached out to Him, and was healed. It was their faith in knowing that Christ could do for them what no one else could do when they were at the end of their rope.

Are you at the end of your rope? Do you not know where to turn or what else to do? Have you tried everything to put away your monsters? Have you tried falling on your knees and crying out to Jesus? Come to the throne and ask for deliverance. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened (Matthew 7:8). Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours (Mark 11:24). And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith (Matthew 21:22).

Tell Him what your monster’s name is. Ask Him to rid you of your never ending bleeding and suffering. Ask Him to take away your Legion. Have faith and trust in Him that He can do this for you. Ask Him to restore the joy in your heart and clear the dark clouds. After all…you are at the end of your rope, aren’t you? You have tried all that man can do and nothing seems to work. Right? Lean on the everlasting arms! Pray without ceasing and do not let go of God. As Jacob said: "I will not let you go unless you bless me." (Genesis 32:26).

Love In Christ!