A PROPER PERSPECTIVE

April 22, 2015

                I’m a firm believer in the importance of having a proper perspective on life.  Bad things can happen when you lose it.  Consider Elijah as an example.  As recorded in 1 Kings 19 he is  suicidal when he flees to Horeb to escape the wrath of Jezebel.  After laying his life on the line at Mount Carmel, and seeing the power of God demonstrated in an incredible way, he has watched triumph devolve into disaster.  He is once again on the lam.  In the loneliness and desolation of the wilderness, he will moan he is the only one left in Israel who is still faithful to God – and he is dead wrong.  In verse 18 of that chapter God will tell Elijah there are seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.  He is not the only faithful one in Israel.  He’s certainly not the only one afraid and distressed about what is happening.  In the midst of this heartbreaking trial, he has lost perspective. 

            Through over forty years of full time ministry, I’ve wrestled with keeping a proper perspective on life.  It’s easy to allow the critical voices of a few to drown out the loving affirmations of many.  Focusing on those who have quit instead of those who have persevered can bring discouragement leading to depression.  It sometimes seems as if the victories are few and the defeats many.  What has allowed me to persevere through decades of this has been the ability to stop and put things in perspective.

            Jesus repeatedly touched on this in His ministry.  The Parable of the Soils recorded in Matthew 13:1-23 is an important teaching on putting people’s response to the gospel in perspective.  Our Lord is telling us in the clearest way possible that three out of four responses to the gospel message are going to be negative – outright rejection, acceptance followed by a quick falling away, and fruitlessness.  Isn’t Jesus, if we’ll but listen, preparing us for the fact that most responses to the gospel are ultimately going to be a disappointment?  That’s not cynicism, that’s the Lord’s reality.  If I accept His teaching, it places in proper perspective how much sowing is going to have to be done to harvest a crop of fruitful plants.  If I find myself getting discouraged by people’s response to the gospel, maybe the problem is my failure to accept the Lord’s perspective on that response. 

            The same thing holds true with trials in our lives.  James will tell us in James 1:2 to “count it all joy” when trials come our way.  Peter will urge household servants who are being beaten by their masters to view this as being called by God to walk in the steps of Christ in their unjust suffering (1 Peter 2:21).  Paul will call all that he gave up when he chose to follow Christ “rubbish” (Philippians 3:8).  A proper perspective changes everything.

            I really believe this truth is more important today than ever.  It appears as if the United States is heading down the road toward destruction.  The global situation is a chaotic, violence wracked mess.   Churches who claim to be followers of God are blatantly rejecting His word and siding with the moral relativists who blaspheme His name.  Do we throw our hands up and give up in despair?  Are we the only ones left?

            Please keep the following truths in mind as you consider what is happening around us:

            YHWH is in control.  He is King of kings and Lord of lords.  The Creator and Sustainer of this universe is very aware of everything that is going on.  He has neither forgotten what is right nor forgotten His people. Pharaoh, Nebuchadnezzar, and Belshazzar all learned the hard way who truly reigns in this world – just as Qaddafi and Saddam Hussein did.  Israel, Judah, Assyria, Babylonia, and Rome are left as examples, if we’ll only pay attention, of what happens when people turn their backs on the Creator.  Where are the French, British, or Spanish empires now? Remember the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics? God still rules and He still reigns.

            What if the drought in the Southwest and the repeated storms in the Northeast are ongoing judgments from God?  They certainly have a Biblical precedent.  What if the sudden collapse of oil prices is directed by a divine Hand?  It has had a worldwide impact on a host of very bad people. What if we have been given a President we deserve who, unfortunately, reflects the moral values of the majority?  God gave Israel king Saul.  What if God has given this country up to the chicanery of a Congress we freely elected?  Again, I cite the example of Israel and king Saul.  What if ISIL, like ancient Assyria, is the rod of God’s anger (Isaiah 10:5).   What if AIDS and Ebola are but warning shots across the bow from our King?  It wouldn’t be the first time He had used plagues to punish and awaken.  What if His hand is, indeed, mightily stirring in ways we, with our limited vision and understanding, cannot yet fully comprehend or understand?  Are we so egotistical as to really believe that unless we grasp what is going on somehow God’s hand is slipping on the rudder?  Really???    

            I love the message of the book of Revelation.  Few would argue that at its core Revelation is all about the fact that God is in control and, ultimately, His faithful will triumph.  That message is as true today as it was in the days when John penned it.  Those were dark days.  It appeared the Dragon and his two beasts were on the verge of victory.   Persecution, apathy, and worldliness threatened to tear the heart out of the church (read Revelation chapters two and three and the letters to the seven churches).  I believe Revelation was written to give Christians a godly perspective on what was happening, to allow them to see that not all was lost.  It wasn’t then, and it’s not now.

            Please don’t lose your perspective on what is happening around us.  Is it distressing and discouraging?  It certainly can be.  But that doesn’t mean God is not working just as mightily and effectively today as He always has.  It doesn’t mean it’s over till it’s over.  If you’ve lived any time at all, you know God delights in surprises. As the old saying goes, we may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future.  Please allow that truth to shape your perspective.  It will let you sleep at night.

Dan Rouse

                    

                  

              

 

WHAT'S THE REAL AGENDA?

March 10, 2015

            In June the Supreme Court will render a critical decision concerning the legality of gay marriage.  I’m convinced that the push for this court decision has implications far greater than merely the legalization of gay marriage.  I believe the real agenda is to begin to legally muzzle the Christian voice in America.

            The LGBTQ crowd has long made clear their hatred of, and disdain for, Christians.  The lawsuits over cakes and wedding photographs are far more attempts to intimidate Christians than they are legitimate concerns over discrimination.  They know if they can quiet the voice of Christians, they will have won the battle over basing law on Biblical morality rather than cultural mores.

            The whole brouhaha over legislation in Indiana and Arkansas concerning the protection of religious freedoms has been distorted beyond belief.  As has been repeatedly stated, and studiously ignored by the MSM, that legislation is not directed at punishing or discriminating against gays or transgenders or any other variety of sexual deviance.  It is far more about seeking to proactively protect Christian people from the inevitable onslaught of attacks that will come if the Supreme Court ruling goes in favor of gay rights.  More than a few are seeing the handwriting on the wall in this regard – and it is frightening.

             Using courts that have been stacked for decades now with liberal judges the LGBTQ bunch have forced gay marriage down the throats of millions of Americans from the bench rather than the ballot box.  Contrary to their claims, Americans are not turning in droves to support gay marriage, which is why they are using the sympathetic courts to further their agenda.  But their goals extend far beyond merely forcing the legalization of gay marriages.  Again, they want the power of the government available to force the normalization and acceptance of their lifestyle.  They can’t coerce with threats of prison and fines.  The government can, and will.

            The whole “hate speech” canard has just begun to be played.  If LGBTQ proclivities are given the same protections against discrimination as race and gender, the PC crowd will undoubtedly redouble the push to characterize Biblical injunctions against sexual immorality as hate speech.  That is already occurring in Canada and Great Britain, among other places, so it is not some theoretical possibility, rather it is an inevitability.  Merely reading the Biblical teaching on sexual morality not only could be, but will be, “hate speech”.   When that occurs, prepare for the jackboots to enter our church buildings.

            There are some who say the goal of the LGBTQ lobby is merely to shut us up inside our buildings, to prevent us from saying what we believe in public. (This, by the way, is how Christians are being treated right now in many Muslim countries.)  I disagree.  I believe their ultimate goal is much more ambitious.  It is to shut us up – period.

Limiting our expressions of religious belief in certain areas to the confines of a house of worship would be, in and of itself, a heinous violation of both our right to free speech and freedom of religion – a direct violation of the first amendment.  However, the Constitution has been so blithely ignored of late by the courts and the present administration that I see little or no protection for Christians appealing on that basis.  Consider this: How will “public” speech begin to be defined?  Is not a group of people gathering for worship at a church building or even in a home also a public gathering?  If that be the case, then am I being overly paranoid to think that shutting us up will involve not only controlling our speech on the streets and in private conversation, but also in our houses of worship? Will my standing before the congregation and merely reading the words of Leviticus 18:22 be deemed publicly “hateful”?  If not, why not?

            I genuinely believe as Christians we have only seen the tip of the iceberg in regards to what is to come.  Secular courts, secular legislators, and a secular majority are going to have little sympathy for speech based in what they view as an ancient, outmoded, narrow-minded, bigoted point of view – the Biblical point of view.  Marginalizing Christians as bigots and systematically criminalizing their views of sexual morality is really what is going on here.  If we don’t pull together and fight this effort tooth and nail, a holocaust rests in our future.  May God help us to have the courage to speak up and fight for what is right while we still have the freedom to do so.  I really don’t know how long it will be before that freedom is but a cherished, but fading, memory.

Dan Rouse