Is rest merely a state of motionlessness or inactivity?

“Our lives are occupied territory…

Occupied by a cacophony of voices,

And the din undoes us.

In the daytime we have no time to listen,

Beset as we are by anxiety and goals

And assignments and work…”

It is one commodity that everyone wants, but no one knows what to do with it. Rest is that great desire that is ever within the reach of this production-driven society, but it is rarely enjoyed by even the strongest. In a world where production and consumerism are what shape identity, we find ourselves weary from a standard that can never be met. The goal always seems to be on the horizon. There is never an end to the toil and striving. And at the end of the day, there is no rest. We are deficient even of a working understanding of this richly biblical concept. Some common definitions of rest seem helpful, but still lacking:

A bodily state characterized by minimal functional and metabolic activities,

Freedom from activity or labor,

A state of motionlessness or inactivity, or

Peace of mind or spirit.

These modern definitions are helpful, but they fall short of the Old Testament biblical understanding of rest, or shabat. Throughout the Old Testament, the concept of rest is developed as not only an economic cessation from production, but also a theological act of trust in the sovereign Provider. For Israel, there was rich meaning infused in the halt of their production.

Shabat can be defined as “regular, disciplined, visible cessation of production.” This was a day for Israel to stop productive work and what could be considered “normal” activities. This Sabbath came to be for the Jews a visible, regular discipline that distinguished them from the general culture in which they were living their lives. Though there was some sort of shabat practiced in various nations around them, the shabat practiced by the Israelites was both economic – a refusal to define oneself by a sense of productivity – and theological – and active form of renouncing autonomy and self-sufficiency to the all-sufficient Creator, who himself rested as an example for us.

In Exodus 20, Moses delivers the Ten Commandments to the children of Israel. In verses 8-11, God spells out his rationale behind the institution of the Sabbath.

Remember the shabat, to keep it hold. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a shabat of YHWH your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter, your male or your female servant or your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you. For in six days YHWH made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day and made it holy.

Saints gathered to celebrate shabat.

The shabat, here, is authorized by the memory that on the seventh day of creation, God rested from his work.  Cessation and rest are thus grounded in the very structure of creation as ordered and blessed by God. In this statute, rest becomes even more richly theological. Rest is tied to the work and nature of the Creator. A connection is established between shabat and Creation. The meaning of shabat is more than just “rest” or “relaxation,” but that which gives completeness, usually by bringing a series to an end. Therefore, as an end to the exodus, reflection on the shabat suggests building the tabernacle. This was the visible, disciplined expression of enjoying rest in communion with the Creator for the Israelite people.

As the concept of rest was developing throughout the Hebrew canon, the prophets recognized and preached it as an act that was definitive for their faith. Amos noted that shabat carried economic significance, as well.

Hear this, you who trample the needy

and do away with the poor of the land, saying,

“When will the New Moon be over

that we may sell grain,

and the Shabat be ended

that we may market wheat?”—

skimping the measure,

boosting the price

and cheating with dishonest scales,

buying the poor with silver

and the needy for a pair of sandals,

selling even the sweepings with the wheat. (8:4-6)

For the prophets, the practice of a regular, disciplined, visible cessation from production was “an act of resistance against having one’s life defied by one’s productivity” (also cf. Isaiah 56:3-7). Therefore, there was nothing strange or out of place with the conclusion that every seventh day God’s people were to renounce dominion over time, thereby renouncing autonomy, and recognize God’s dominion over time and thus over themselves. Keeping shabat  was an active acceptance of the sovereignty of God.

In the New Testament, the incarnate Maker of the Universe saw shabat as a blessing made for man. It was never meant to be a burden, but a blessing to be experienced He refused to allow his earthy life to be defined by the enormity of his production, but by his relationship with his heavenly Father. He took the blessing of shabat to a whole new level (cf. Matthew 12:1-12; Mark 2:23-27, 3:4, 6:2; Luke 4:16-31, 6:1-9, 13:14-16, 14:1-5; John 5:9-18, 7:22-23, 9:14-16).

Life is a consistent journey
to be lived corum deo.

For good reason, efforts are being made in the modern world to regain this sense of shabat. “In a consumer economy that is committed to endless growth and reducing everything to commodity, the competent can easily imagine that they are self-made, self-sufficient, and self-actualized, with no reference point beyond themselves.” Thus an effort that might be made to cease work for one day a week, must also be accompanied by an effort to curb consumption, the acknowledgement that life has not been handed over to us for our devouring. Just as rest is a gift, so God’s blessings are gifts. Like rest, they are meant to inspire us to worship, not idolatry. The mindset that feeds on society’s production and consumption says, “Without God, everything is possible.” But the intentional follower of the incarnate Maker, will rebel against the craze to get more and produce more. Life is not an endless pursuit of goods and accomplishments. It is a consistent journey to be lived corum deo – in the presence of God. Shabat provides a visible testimony that God is at the center of life. The one who consumes the most is not the most successful. He is just the fattest. The one who practices shabat in its fullest sense is the most successful. He is the one who communes with God and his people, and will experience great grace and provision.

   On Sunday, November 25th, the Grandmother Hall of Fame saw the passing of one of its foremost members. Louise Cole entered the unhindered presence of the Lord, and left us all missing her terribly.





   When I think of my grandma, many things come to mind. When she would wrap Christmas gifts, she would always hide the names of the recipients somewhere in the designs of the wrapping paper. My brother and I were the designated ones to find the names and distribute the gifts. Also on Christmas, she would always get me a new nutcracker (to add to my enromous collection). On New Year's day, we would always go to her house to watch college football and eat chili that she had prepared. It was at grandma's house that my brother and watched our first Saturday morning cartoons. It was at grandma's house that we first watched The Prestige and Miracle while eating a huge bowl of popcorn and drinking Diet Coke (a favorite of hers). I remember the time when she was about to tear off the head of the umpire who botched a call and made us lose our Little League District Final game. It took everything in my mom's persuasive power to calm her down. She was always our biggest fan. As my brother notes, there were only ever two people he could hear as he was playing, my dad and my gandma. I remember all the times she would take my brother and I to horse pulls in Northern Michigan. It was her goofy way of celebrating the fact that she could see us again after her winter in Florida.



   It was not subtle to anyone that she loved my brother an I, her only two grandchildren. As my grandpa told me today, "You and Benjamin are really the only reasons that grandma wanted to go on living at all. Otherwise, she was anxious to leave this world. She wanted to be with her precious Savior. She wanted to go 'home.'" That was another thing that was not subtle in her life; she was always anxious to meet Jesus face to face. In the songs she played, in the hymns she sung, in the words she spoke, in the letters she wrote us, she displayed an eagerness to be in perfect fellowship with the Lord. That legacy was passed on to us. When I think of her death, I am not overcome with grief. Yes, I do miss her a lot. But I am eternally happy for her. She is better off than all of us. She is experiencing the culmination of her salvation: glorification. It was an eternal joy when she was justified. There was rejoicing in the heavenly court. It was evident to the world to see her her sanctification unfold. But now, as I write, she can finally rest in the fulfillment and culmination of her salvation, the fact that she is completely freed from the presence of sin. Not only that, because her sin has been removed, and Christ's righteous record applies to her, she is granted complete and perfect access to the presence of God with out fear or shame. And in this, I am very happy for her.

   In the wake of her death, I am not angry at God for taking her from me. And I am not overwhelmed with my own finity, though it does come closer to home now. Instead, however, I yearn to leave a legacy of love and faithfulness only half as well as she did. I want to make every moment count. I want to live my purpose all the way to the end. And when I finish this race, I desire with everything in me to hear the Savior say, "Well done."

   P.S. Give Jesus a hug from me, Weezie.



A sermon I preached at First Baptist Church on 11-18-12

“Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry, and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2).

~ You never know the richness of love until you see it in the depths. ~

This was a woman who had been deeply affected by the moral laxity of her society, and God intended to use the prophet’s personal relationship with her as a penetrating object lesson of His own relationship with His unfaithful people, Israel. Whatever her past, there may have been some evidence of genuine repentance and faith in Jehovah. Maybe she had responded to the Spirit-filled ministry of Hosea himself, and he found his heart drawn to her in deep and unselfish love. God directed him to take her as his wife, and so it was that Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, became the unlikely wife of the budding young preacher.

The early days of their marriage were beautiful as their love began to blossom. And God blessed their union with a son. How Hosea’s heart must have swelled with joy! He was convinced that his marriage would be better than ever with this little one to brighten their home. God named the baby, for his name was to have prophetic significance to the nation. He called him Jezreel, because it was at Jezreel that King Jeroboam’s great grandfather Jehu had first come to the throne by ambitious crimes of bloodshed and violence. While his dynasty was prospering at the moment, its destruction was on the horizon and it would happen in the valley of Jezreel (Hos. 1:4, 5).

It was after the birth of Jezreel that Hosea seems to have noticed a change in Gomer. She became restless and unhappy, like a bird trapped in a cage. He went on preaching, encouraging the wayward nation to turn from its sin and trust God for deliverance from the threat of surrounding nations. “Return unto the Lord!” was the theme of his message, and he preached it repeatedly with power (Hos. 6:1; 14:1). But Gomer seemed less and less interested in his ministry. In fact, she may have grown to resent it. She probably even accused Hosea of thinking more about his preaching than he did of her. She began to find other interests to occupy herself, and spent more and more time away from home.

Scripture does not give us the details of what happened, but what it does say would permit us some speculation concerning the progressive trend that led to the tragic situation we eventually discover. Gomer’s absences from home probably grew more frequent and prolonged and soon Hosea was feeling pangs of suspicion about her faithfulness to him. He lay awake at night and wrestled with his fears. He preached with a heavy heart during the day. And his suspicions were confirmed when Gomer got pregnant again. It was a girl this time, and Hosea was convinced that the child was not his. At God’s direction, he called her Loruhamah, which means “unpitied” or “unloved,” implying that she would not enjoy her true father’s love. Again the name was symbolic of Israel’s wandering from God’s love and the discipline she would soon experience. But even that spiritual message could not soothe the prophet’s troubled soul.

No sooner had little Loruhamah been weaned than Gomer conceived again. It was another boy. God told Hosea to call him Lo-ammi, which meant “not my people,” or “no kin of mine.” It symbolized Israel’s alienation from Jehovah, but it also exposed Gomer’s sinful escapades. That child born in Hosea’s house was not his.

These are issues that the young preacher Hosea had to wrestle with when God placed the command on his life to marry a known prostitute as an example of his relationship with Israel. Just imagine the heart break he went through as he realized that he no longer would be able to marry a virgin. He would not give her her first kiss. He would not be able to have a pure marriage. Others to whom he had ministered would lose all respect for him. His preaching ministry would no longer be taken seriously. It was the death of a dream – devastating for any young preacher.

How do you respond to the death of a dream?

What is the right response when you realize that life as you know it will only get more difficult?

I do not want to share with you from Hosea’s perspective. And I do not want to necessarily approach it from Gomer’s either, but from my own as I reflected on the story. See, as I read the intriguing story of Hosea and Gomer, I am struck, not with an indignation for Gomer, but with an extremely uncomfortable connection with her. I see me in her. This story is spelled out as a true story that resembles God's relationship with his people. So I easily find myself understanding Gomer more than I would care to admit. When I am honest with myself, I must admit that my heart is exactly like hers. I commit spiritual adultery with the idols of my heart incessantly - like Gomer with her lovers.

YET...God loves me passionately. This is the crazy thing that gets me about this story. He knows me completely. And as J.I. Packer said in Knowing God,

What matters supremely is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it — the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is not a moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort — the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates — in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.

His love for me is "utterly realistic." This is crazy!!! As we see in the book of Hosea, his love is never half-hearted.

I challenge you to let yourself grasp this today. God knows you completely and realistically. But he loves you passionately. His love for you is never half-hearted. If you are finding yourself to be more like Gomer than you would care to admit, turn back to God and let his love fill you again.



My heart often wanders from
the One I love





Wanderer...

 I am a wanderer.


As I was praying this morning, I began to get frustrated with how quickly my heart wanders from a desire for my God. I am in his presence, but my mind and heart are elsewhere. And then I realize it, and regain my focus. And then, before I know it, I am a-wandering again. And I wonder why this is the case, that my heart is so prone to wander and desire other things. But I think it only points to a deeper issue. Often I find my heart flirting with and longing for other things. My desires are not too strong. They are too weak. As C.S. Lewis aptly quipped,

It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

This is the state I find my heart in.

I have been reading through the book of Hosea. I am struck, not with an indignation for Gomer, but with an extremely uncomfortable connection with her. I see me in her. This story is spelled out as a true story that resembles God's relationship with his people. So I easily find myself understanding Gomer more than I would care to admit. When I am honest with myself, I must admit that my heart is exactly like hers. It is an idol factory. As John Calvin is known for saying,

The human heart is a factory of idols…Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.

My heart is an idol factory, and I commit spiritual adultery with my idols incessantly - like Gomer with her lovers. YET...God loves me passionately. He knows me completely (cf. Psalm 139:1-4). And as J.I. Packer said in Knowing God,

What matters supremely is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it — the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All my knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me, and continues to know me. He knows me as a friend, one who loves me; and there is not a moment when his eye is off me, or his attention distracted from me, and no moment, therefore, when his care falters. This is momentous knowledge. There is unspeakable comfort — the sort of comfort that energizes, be it said, not enervates — in knowing that God is constantly taking knowledge of me in love and watching over me for my good. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.

His love for me is "utterly realistic." This is amazingly crazy!!! As as we see in the book of Hosea, his love is never half-hearted.

I challenge you to let yourself grasp this today. God knows you completely and realistically. But he loves you passionately. His love for you is never half-hearted.

Exhibit: A - ME hidden behind the suffocating curtain of a never ending to-do list. MYSELF amidst so many faces who expect my all and every last ounce of my attention. I longing for relax, for peaceful, for a lighter load, for stronger, for not so many good things bombarding me.

Exhibit: B - YOU searching for my attention, searching in all of my hiding spots, searching throughout my to-do list, searching through my subconscious and mindless motivations to self-indulge,

and waiting... waiting in the secret place, waiting in the quiet place, waiting in the still place, waiting at the top of my to-do list, waiting for me - simply me.

Exhibit: We - WE dancing amidst a list of expectations, we dancing through the stillness, we painting a relationship among our relationships, we whispering in the busy places with little grins, we alive, we forgiving and giving each other second chances, we on dates, we waiting for each other to answer, we telling each other deep and dark secrets, we enjoying your sense of humor, we inspired by the Divine Smile, we in relationship.

I embrace Exhibit: We.

Most my days

I feel the same -

Laughter, joy,

Fear and shame.

While other days,

I break through;

I handle and

Experience You.

Though it's hard

To often see

Exhibit A,

Exhibit B,

I prefer,

I search out,

I embrace

Exhibit: We.

We call out your name in as many ways as we can.
We fix your role toward us in the ways we need.
We approach you from the particular angle of our life.
     We do all that, not because you need to be identified,
     but because of our deep need,
                            our deep wound,
                            our deep hope.
And then, we are astonished that while our names for you
     serve for a moment,
     you break beyond them in your freedom,
     you show yourself yet fresh beyond our utterance,
     you retreat into your splendor beyond our grasp.
We are - by your freedom and your hiddenness - 
     made sure yet again that you are God...
            beyond us, for us, but beyond us,
            not at our beck and call,
            but always in your own way.
We stammer at your identity,
            only to learn that it is our own unsettling
            before you that wants naming.
Beyond all our explaining and capturing and fixing you...
            we give you praise,
            we thank you for your fleshed presence in suffering love,
            and for our names that you give us. Amen.

----------

Brueggemann, Walter. Awed to Heaven, Rooted in Earth. Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2003. Pg. 14.

   I have been reading in 1 Corinthians recently, and a few days ago, I read chapter 8. While I usually do not stop reading after three verses, I did this day. The first three verses of the chapter hit me really hard. I could not go on. I just had to sit there and meditate on it. It turned into a meditation I kept coming back to throughout the day. 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 says this:

Now concerning things sacrificed to idols, we know that we have all knowledge. Knowledge makes arrogant but love edifies. If anyone supposes that he knows anything, he has not yet known as he ought to know; but if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.

   This hit me hard because I am in a full-time pursuit of knowledge. I am studying at one of the elite ministry training schools in the world. I am on track to get a master's degree in two or three years from now. I am in a fast and furious frenzy to get lots of knowledge in a short amount of time. But this kind of knowledge could be dangerous if given the wrong place in my heart.

"I am smart. I know more than you.
Therefore, I have more power than you.
As a result, I am more important.

   In this passage, Paul contrasts two kinds of knowledge. He says knowledge makes arrogant. Here he is talking about "head knowledge." This is the kind of knowledge you would be talking about if you said, "I know that 2 + 2 = 4." This can be dangerous if allowed to gain the throne of your heart. It says, "I am smart. I know more than you. Therefore, I have more power than you (the old adage 'Knowledge is power,' is quite true). As a result, I am more important." This is when knowledge can get dangerous.

   The second kind of knowledge Paul discusses in this passage is "relational knowledge." It is the knowledge demonstrated in knowing God. This is the kind of knowledge you would be talking about if you said, "I know my dad." This is how we ought to know. When we know really know God, our pride is crushed because of how awesome God is, and love springs forth from our hearts.

   I believe it is totally possible that you can be a Christian, and have knowledge about God, but not really know him. I am not saying that you don't know him vaguely and distantly and don't have at least some diminutive relationship with him. Every Christian at least has that. But just like a friend you knew in first grade that you don't really know anymore and haven't talked to since then, it is possible to not really know God that much after knowing him initially when you were saved. And I think that Paul is trying to warn the Corinthian Christians against falling into the enticing trap of knowing about God but not really knowing God.

   This passage hit me really hard because I have certainly felt that relational distance from God lately because I have not spent much time with him. I overwhelmed my calendar with studying about him so much that I neglected getting to know him better. So this is what I wrote in my journal:

The kind of knowledge that really matters is knowing God. Lord, as I pursue academic excellence today, please let me excel far more in my knowledge of you. If you took school away from me, or worse, if you allowed me to fail at school, and in the process I got to know you much better, I would be supremely satisfied. Would you please draw near to me today? I desire you more than academic prowess, but I seem to still be distant from you, honestly. Please help me to draw near to you, precious Lord, I pray, no, I plead. I need you more than my next breath, more than anything.

   What about you? How well do you know God? Be honest. Are you satisfied with that?You will never get closer to him until you are honest about where you are now. Begin praying for the Lord to change your heart and draw you ever nearer to him. And you find that in his amazing grace, he will give you more than you ever asked for.

Adapted from my journal on September 13, 2012:

   I am thinking about the word Hosanna. So often when we sing it, I think we think it means "Praise God!" But it means the equivalent of "Lord, save me!" And if we knew what it meant, I wonder if we would sing it differently. I have definitely been singing it differently lately.

   I need God to save me. I mean, he already saved me at a justification level. But that's not what I mean. I need God to save me at a daily-save-me-from-myself-and-everything-pressuring-me level. I need him to save me from not being able to pay for school, my car, and food. I need him to save me from my own selfishness. I need him to save me from failure to complete my school work well. I need him to save me from my anger. I need him to save me from the agony of waiting... But most of all, I need him to save me from a failure to seek him, to feel his love, to love him back, to know him, and be close to him. I am in such danger of not being close to God.

I need God to save me.

   I need his salvation.

   Everyday.

   In everything.

   Hosanna!

   Sorry that it has been a while since I have written any post. I know many of you enjoy reading these. There has been a lot of transitions going on in my life that have kept me from being online, let alone blogging. The biggest of these transitions is my family's move to Chicago. Yes, that's right. My dad just recently got a job at the Moody Bible Institute as chief investment officer. So I am really excited for him, but the move down here is really stretching our time budgets. Thus the absence of any recent blog posts. But, I am glad to say that I am back to blogging, and really excited to share once again what is on my heart and what God is doing in me and those around me.

   Just like I have been experiencing recently, life never seems to let up. Whenever you think you have reached the end of your list - or are getting close - you look back at the list only to find a hundred more things life expects from you. It never seems to end. The days seem to blur together. The noise of life never ends. And after a while life looks like a child's painting - lots of things going on, but little of it makes any sense.

When we are distracted everywhere,
it becomes difficult to see God anywhere.

   In the middle of all this, it gets rather difficult to see God or to experience His presence. When our attention is stretched so thin, and when we are distracted everywhere - phones, texting, Facebook, Twitter, anything Google, apps, games, parties, sports, television, music, fashion, and so on - it becomes really difficult to see God anywhere. When we let our minds be intoxicated with so much stuff, our hearts are the part of us that begin the process of spiritual suffocation. It is slowly separated from being set on God because it always distracted. And after a while, our spiritual lives feel like they shrivel up and die.

   There is a band that I really like to listen to. The are called Welcome Wagon, and they have a song titled "Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing." I like the way that song title is phrased because it refers to so much more than sexual purity. Purity simply means nothing is present that would detract from the value of something. A diamond, for example, is pure when there are no defects or inclusions. And a heart is pure when love for God is all that fills it. There is nothing else in the will of the pure heart than to be with God and love him deeply.

   The bottom line is this: A heart that is purely filled with the love of God will do what it takes to remove the distractions.

   What are somethings that are distracting you from a closer relationship with God?

   May I lovingly encourage you to stop making excuses today, and put them away?

   The change starts now. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. Resolve to put away the distractions.

The Source of all comfort
You are becoming to me.
When I am alone and weary
You will be my strength.
I need you in the battle
When I've fought my heart out,
And my spiritual sweat
Makes my armor slip off,
And I can't make it anymore.
You miraculously appear by my side
And pick me out of the mudpit.
You put my helmet back on.
You send me back into the fight.
"Why Lord? I can't do this.
I have nothing left.
In fact, I am going to quit
Right now."
"No. One more battle.
Give me your best. I am with you."
And his tender friendship comforts me,
And his fierce strength empowers me,
And his suffering love lifts me,
And his warm smile encourages me...
For one more fight.

Many grieve after the Aurora shooting
massacre, and wonder "Where was God?"

    About a week and a half ago, CNN posted a question on Twitter. They asked "Where was God in Aurora?"  They were referring to the recent shooting massacre at the showing of Batman: The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, Colorado. Within 24 hours, over 10,000 responses were submitted, and in a wide variety of theological conviction. I am not going to give you a sampling of what was said. If you want to read the whole article, you can find it here. I simply want to give my own evangelical response to this age-old question posed in modern terms.


    The question asked was, "Where was God in the Aurora massacre?" And many good answers were given: 

"He was in the hearts of the men jumping in front of others to take the bullet instead," 

"God was in complete control," 

or a little bit longer, 

"We as a country have been telling God to go away. We told him to get off our currency, get out of our schools, get out of our Pledge of Allegiance, take your Ten Commandments out of our courthouses, get those Bibles out of hotels and no graduation ceremonies in our churches. How can we expect God to give us his blessing and his protection if we demand that he leave us alone?"

    I have a short answer, and and a long answer. My short answer is this: He was in the exact same spot that He was 2000 years ago when He watched His son Jesus get brutally tortured, sentenced, and murdered by irreverent soldiers and religious leaders alike. He was right there sovereignly in charge of all things, and deeply grieving over the evil.

   But my long answer answers the question that I think CNN was really asking. I think they were really asking, "If God is omni-present (i.e. everywhere), good enough to hate evil, and powerful enough to stop it, why did He allow the horrendous evil to ever happen?" And this answer is a bit complicated, so buckle up.

   First, God did not create evil, nor does he approve of evil (Habakkuk 1:13). He is intrinsically opposed to evil. That is simply his nature as a holy God. So where did evil come from? It came from the free choice of man to reject God way back in Genesis. So wait... How could God be sovereign over all, yet give man a free choice? Picture this, you have two daughters. One of them is your direct descendant, and one is a bio-chemically engineered robot who is programmed to do what you want. So you program the robot daughter to say "DADDY!!!" and hug you every hour. But your biological daughter does that every day when you arrive home from work. Which one do you feel loved by? Obviously, you real daughter. Why? Because she freely chose to elevate you in her affections. If God simply made everyone perfect and unable to make mistakes, we would not be able to love Him because real love requires a free will to exist. So God made us with the free choice to love, but with that free choice to love God also comes the free choice to reject Him. And that is what happened on July 20th in Aurora, Colorado. Rejection of God and his standards was made gruesomely evident. So God is not the author of evil.

    Second, God is present in the world restraining evil (2 Thessalonians 2:7). In other words, the evil that is present in this world could be much, much worse were God not alive and active on planet earth. But the question remains, if God hates evil, why does he not stop it with His infinite power? Answer: if he did, man would no longer have the free choice to choose to love God. Therefore, evil remains.

Jesus bore the full, infinite wrath of God
on the cross, so we wouldn't have to!

    However, all is not lost. There is a solution! There is a cure for the rampant evil in this world. But this only cure comes in individual doses. And it is found in Jesus Christ. As I mentioned earlier, God watched as His son Jesus was crucified by sinfully "religious" men. Why? To save men from the consequence of their evil. Believe it or not, every person on earth is sinful enough to deserve the just and infinite wrath of a holy, offended God. According to Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23, every person to ever lived is infected with a poison called sin, and this poison leads every man right down the path to eternal death, aka hell. But God offers everyone the free gift of salvation. And the basis of that gift is what Jesus did on the cross 2000 years ago, so we wouldn't have to (even though we could never pay the infinite price for our sin). When he died, he bore all of God's wrath against every sin of man for all time. He paid the price! You don't have to. All you have to do is believe in Jesus and repent of your sin. If you do this, your sinful record will be erased, and the spotless, clean record of Jesus will be applied to you. So when God sees you, he no longer sees a sinner deserving hell, but a forgiven child of His who receives His crazy, amazing, undeserved, unhindered, unbound, infinite love.

    God also promises hope for a world-wide cure to evil. This will come when Jesus returns to earth and takes every person who has believed in Him and repented of their sin to sinless paradise with Him. On that day, He will justly and mercilessly crush all evil, and restore creation to sinless harmony. This is why I urge all to repent and believe while there is still time. There isn't much time left. I am excited for Him to come back, and I hope you can join me in saying, "Hallelujah! Lord, Jesus come quickly!" If you don't know whether or not you can say this, I strongly invite you to contact me at brantcole13@gmail.com. I would love to talk to you. Or you can call 1-800-NEED-HIM. This is not a decision you can afford to put off. If you are confident in the hope of eternal life, this, my friend, is a time for much rejoicing!

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Why do we flock to watch senseless evil?

    And just one more thought: if we are so eager to endorse, and buy tickets for, and make posters of, and plaster logos of, and stand in ginormous lines to watch senseless evil for hours in a movie like The Dark Knight Rises, why are we so horrified when it happens in real life for just a few minutes? Interact with me on this one in the comments below!

This is a poem I wrote for my fiance to give to her the day I proposed.

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I imagine myself

In the future afar

In an old wooden office

And my door ajar.

I am typing away

With a bad writer’s block

When out at the door

Comes a soft, saddened knock.

A sad, youthful chap

Mopes in kind of slow.

No spring in his step,

His head hanging low.

When asked, “What’s the matter?”

He let out a sigh,

And said to me slowly,

“I don’t understand why…”

“Trouble with the lady?”

I asked knowingly.

“How do you love mom

So romantically?”

I just sat there

As I thought for a while,

Until finally

I said with a smile,

“Son, there is a lot

That I don’t understand -

Like a flower in bloom;

Or how life began;

Or the way that whenever

I come up with a plan

It fails, and I’m struggling

To do what I can.

You see, there’s a lot

That I don’t understand,

But none quite compares

To this Quest of a man:

Loving a woman -

I’m learning a whole lot -

Not the greatest knight

In all Camelot,

Would be up for a Quest

So brave and so bold.

I’m learning some things

Even though I am old:

To love a woman,

You must let her go.

Love must mean action

Not merely a show.

Leading her is more

Than simply a title.

I must rule myself

Or I’ll make her an idol.

To love her like Jesus

Means giving up myself.

There’s no time for pride -

Feelings go on the shelf -

Like straining myself

To go the extra mile

To inspire some romance

If only for a smile;

Trying to cheer her

Even when I feel gloomy;

Or help with her homework,

Kind of like her roomie;

To make time for her,

Sacrificing my plans;

To love her and earn

The respect of a man.

I don’t understand

How simple this sounds

But for some reason

I’ve only figured out

The way to her heart

No science can tout,

But pure, patient love

Day in and day out.

Son, love is a verb.

It walks and has feet.

It’s not about you.

Your will you must beat.

Around every store,

And with ever fashion,

You’ll hear loud and clear:

“Love’s about passion!”

While it’s partly true,

It misses the point.

Commitment and effort

Give love its joints.

Your love will die

Without dedication.

Love is a lifestyle

Without a vacation.”

And if that weren’t enough,

I added just one

Concluding advice

For my disheartened son.

“I cherish Christine,

As I have all these years,

Because Christ loved me first

And calms all my fears.”

And though it was rather

A hard pill to swallow,

I saw him embrace

A brighter tomorrow.