We Must Cross Over the Jordan, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Joshua 3:7-17

3:7   The Lord said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses.
3:8   You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'"
3:9   Joshua then said to the Israelites, "Draw near and hear the words of the Lord your God."
3:10   Joshua said, "By this you shall know that among you is the living God who without fail will drive out from before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites:
3:11   the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is going to pass before you into the Jordan.
3:12   So now select twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe.
3:13   When the soles of the feet of the priests who bear the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan flowing from above shall be cut off; they shall stand in a single heap."
3:14   When the people set out from their tents to cross over the Jordan, the priests bearing the ark of the covenant were in front of the people.
3:15   Now the Jordan overflows all its banks throughout the time of harvest. So when those who bore the ark had come to the Jordan, and the feet of the priests bearing the ark were dipped in the edge of the water,
3:16   the waters flowing from above stood still, rising up in a single heap far off at Adam, the city that is beside Zarethan, while those flowing toward the sea of the Arabah, the Dead Sea, were wholly cut off. Then the people crossed over opposite Jericho.
3:17   While all Israel were crossing over on dry ground, the priests who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, until the entire nation finished crossing over the Jordan.

          There is a miracle in these verses of scripture, a miracle that has parallels with where we stand today, as if on the banks of the flooding Jordan River.  Some think the time of miracles is over, but we are still on God's time, and He is a God of miracles.

          But first let's take a look at this man Joshua.  Born a slave, Joshua was a close aide to Moses, became Moses military commander, and is seen as one of the greatest military leaders in all of Israel.  He had been permitted to accompany Moses partway up Mt. Sinai when God gave Moses the Ten Commandments, and Joshua was one of the 12 whom Moses trusted to explore the Promised Land.   And it was only Joshua and Caleb who brought back an encouraging report.

          His given name was Hoshea, meaning salvation, but Moses renamed him Joshua, "the Lord is salvation."  He managed to get the people of Israel safely into the Promised Land, and lived to be 110 year old.  But first he had to get them across the Jordan during the harvest flood.  At first glance that appeared to be impossible, because at harvest the Jordan flooded out of its banks.

          The people were used to the authority of God residing with Moses, but how could they trust this man Joshua?  And for Joshua, himself, how could he trust that he would have the same confidence that God shared with Moses?

          But God had a plan, as He always does, and the same answer to the problem of the flooding Jordan was to be the answer to whether or not the people would see God's confidence in Joshua.  It wasn't as if Joshua didn't know what God was up to, because we see in verses 7 and 8 that God told him straight out.  "The Lord said to Joshua, 'This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel, so that they may know that I will be with you as I was with Moses.  You are the one who shall command the priests who bear the ark of the covenant, 'When you come to the edge of the waters of the Jordan, you shall stand still in the Jordan.'"

          And here we approach the parallel with the world we live in today.  The Israelites were moving from slavery to a better life, a land of their own, the Promised Land.  We in America are beginning to see how our focus on attaining the "bigger, better, newest" has led us into an economic slavery and, as we see the possibility of economic collapse we finally begin to do that which we should have done long ago, pull in our belts, stop spending, save more, do without when we can't afford it.  Our personal hungers and desires have led us into canyons of frustration and swamps of disbelief. 

          We have come to an economic, ethical and moral floodpoint that may take a miracle to get this nation out of, and Godly leadership seems to be lacking.  We have political candidates who would be President for the sake of being President.  But do we have candidates who would be President for the sake of solving America's problems?  That's where the Israelites found themselves, up against a dangerous flood, and unsure of their new leadership.

          When Joshua had gone with Moses up Mt. Sinai, the weak leadership of Aaron had allowed the debacle of the golden calf and worship of it as an idol.  It pleased the people, but it didn't please God.

          In this nation we have a segment that has worked hard and become wealthy, but we also have more than 600,000 homeless in America.  Forty percent of those are families, and every one in four of those homeless is a child.  That cannot please God.

          In 2008, the latest data available for abortions in the United States, 1.2 million babies lost their God-given lives.  That cannot please God.

          The U.S. Customs Service estimates there are more than 100,000 websites offering child pornography that is illegal worldwide.  Hollywood currently releases 11,000 adult movies per year.  That's more than 20 times the mainstream movie production.  And 55% of all movies rented in hotel rooms are pornographic.  That cannot please God.

          America claims to be a nation of laws, and yet the prisons are full and the numbers of rapes, robberies and murders continue to rise.  That cannot please God.

          It is of no comfort, but we do know this lawlessness is not new.  In 1st Timothy 1, verses 8-11, we read, "We know that the law is good if one uses it properly.  We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which He entrusted to me." -- 1st Tim. 1:8-11

          Such people make their own choices, and while their choices cannot please God, He has given us free will.  We who follow Christ are charged with sharing the gospel, but getting them to repent and follow Christ is the work of the Holy Spirit, so long as we do our part.  And it is "our part" that God can use to get this nation across the "Jordan" flooded with out-of-control selfish desires, lying, theft, sexual perversion and Godless behavior that threatens to take this nation down into the depths of sin.

          Those who follow the Christ must not lose sight of their discipleship, of the need for continued daily devotionals and prayer.  Again and again we see Christians sharing the Old Testament verse from 1st Chronicles 7:14, "if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."

          While Moses and Joshua were away and the Israelites decided to worship a golden calf, not everyone joined in.  And when Moses returned, many remained with Moses against the fallen away.  When the scouting party came back frightened by what they saw in the Promised Land, not everyone was afraid.  While evil runs rampant in this land and the innocent are endangered, damaged and lost, not everyone wrings their hands and runs about crying "Oh me, oh my!"  Not everyone agrees we must stop believing in God and exalt our human wisdom, satisfying first our human desires. 

          There is a God-fearing remnant in America who will not run from evil, who will not stop praying, who will give the glory to God for every good thing, who will stand on the word of Almighty God, who will say with Psalm 118:24, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it."  It is that which will please God, and it is they -- you who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior -- whom God can use to get us across the flood of evil flowing through this land, across and to the Promised Land He intends America to be; spreading hope to the world, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Just as with Joshua and the Israelites, it will take a miracle.  But our God is still in the miracle business.

          Amen.

The Wisdom of Jesus, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Matthew 22:34-46

22:34  When the Pharisees heard that He had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together,
22:35  and one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question to test Him.
22:36  "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"
22:37  He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'
22:38  This is the greatest and first commandment.
22:39  And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
22:41  Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them this question:
22:42  "What do you think of the Messiah? Whose son is He?" They said to Him, "The son of David."
22:43  He said to them, "How is it then that David by the Spirit calls him Lord, saying,
22:44  'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet"'?
22:45  If David thus calls him Lord, how can He be his son?"
22:46  No one was able to give Him an answer, nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.

          First it was the Sadducees, those who did not believe in the resurrection, who came after Jesus with their pride of wisdom and rules and regulations and laws.  But when He had silenced them, then it was the Pharisees, in fact, it was a lawyer from the Pharisees who was determined to put Jesus in His place.  They would show Him who had the better knowledge of the scriptures and the law.

          But this son of a carpenter, from the small town in the hinterlands known as Nazareth, so befuddled them they couldn't continue.  And it tickles me to read that last verse in today's scripture: "...nor from that day did anyone dare to ask Him any more questions.

          Not having the whole of scripture and the insights we have today, they didn't realize that Jesus, as God's Word and Wisdom, was and is eternally an attribute of God the Father.  When you or I speak, you cannot separate us from our speech.  In the same way, we speak of Christ as "the Word of God," in other words, God's "speech" in living form.

          We see the power of God's spoken word emphasized through the Old Testament in Psalms 33:6, 107:20, Isaiah 55:11, and Jeremiah 23:29.  Richard N. Longenecker, in his book "The Christology of Early Jewish Christianity," shares with us that "Judaism understood God's Word to have almost autonomous powers and substance once spoken; to be, in fact, 'a concrete reality, a veritable cause.'"

          When we were newly come to Christ, accepting His gift of eternal life on the cross for our salvation, we probably read the opening lines to John's gospel, that disciple who loved his Lord so dearly, without understanding the depth of what John was telling us when he wrote, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made."

          The authority with which Jesus Christ spoke was such that it left no room for questioning, no ground for arguing, no doubt about its authenticity.  And when the Sadduccees and Pharisees tried to trip Him up, He answered them with such finality they were afraid to ask Him anything else!

          If then, the Son of God speaks with such authority in response to the questions of those who don't know Him, don't like Him, and wish Him ill, with how much more love and authority does He speak to You and me through the living word of scripture?

          Notice where Jesus goes in answering the Pharisee lawyer -- asking what he thought was the most clever question to tie this upstart man from Nazareth in rhetorical knots -- Jesus goes not only to the very word of God in His answer, but He goes to the law of love.

          The lawyer teases Jesus with the honorary title of "teacher," asking Him, "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?"  For this was a subject argued daily among the most studious, among the best trained of the Jewish rabbi, an old, old bone they gnawed on daily going back and forth.
          And Jesus says to him simply, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the greatest and first commandment.  And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

          Now, wait just a moment.  Any good lawyer will tell you that you should never answer more than the question asks.  There is always the possibility of giving your opponent ground to attack you verbally on another level.  And yet, Jesus, not being at all ignorant of the devices of Jewish debate about the law, answers the question, and then He goes further and talks about the second commandment.  Why did He do that?

          First, it is clear that Jesus could give them all the leeway He wanted to, and they were not coming back at Him with an argument.  He spoke with such a fearful authority, such as they had never heard before, that they were not about to feed that fire again.

          But from what we know of the Pharisees, I believe this tells us that Jesus now went beyond mere discussion and was pointing a finger of judgment directly at the Pharisees.  "Love your neighbor as yourself"; a commandment of God, yes, but a foreign concept to these who stopped to pray publicly on street corners in supposed holiness, who judged other men guilty of the smallest infraction of their "laws", who had created a confusing web of God's law and made being holy a fetish that only they, not God, could reward.

          For if they understood Him at all, they realized there is no other law like this one, no other commandment so far reaching, plumbing to the very depths of human experience; nothing on par with it in any moral codes, no ceremonial regulations; nothing else.  It stands by itself in Leviticus 19:18 as all scripture in a nutshell, the supreme law of human duty. 

          In many of the man-made religions of the earth, we find similar ideas to "do unto others as you would have them do to you," but that is not what this is.  For in phrasing it as He did, God both removed all limits and yet imposed a limit.

          See what wisdom there is standing firmly in this commandment, for it is not limited to those who believe in God, or in Christ, it holds us to a human duty toward every living, breathing soul created by God Almighty.  And yet notice there is a limit, for we are not to worship our neighbor as a creation by the Creator, because the law says we are to love them as we love ourselves.  And we already know we are not to put ourselves above God.  He is first.  He keeps His requirement of us in perspective: love them as we love ourselves.

          And adding emphasis then to God's first two commandments, John documents Jesus' words to us in chapter 13, verses 34-35, going a step further:  "A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

          Again, love one another.  But how are we to love one another?  "As I have loved you...."  How much did Jesus love us?  Enough to give up his life for us.  Enough to suffer for us.  Enough to die in our sins, be buried in a grave, and be resurrected for us.  

          That's some love.  That may be more love than some of us feel we can manage.  But remember that Paul reminds us in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

          It is not in our own strength we are to love others, but reaching out with the hand of Christ, to do His will.  Can we do that?  We must.  For it wasn't Paul who said that, it wasn't Peter or even Moses or Isaiah or even King David from the lineage of Jesus.  No, it was Jesus Christ, the Son of God who loved us first, who says to us, today, tomorrow, and into eternity, "A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.”

          Amen.

Do It Anyway, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Matthew 22:15-22

22:15 Then the Pharisees went and plotted to entrap Him in what he said.
22:16 So they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one; for You do not regard people with partiality.
22:17 Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor, or not?"
22:18 But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, "Why are you putting Me to the test, you hypocrites?
22:19 Show me the coin used for the tax." And they brought Him a denarius.
22:20 Then He said to them, "Whose head is this, and whose title?"
22:21 They answered, "The emperor's." Then He said to them, "Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's."
22:22 When they heard this, they were amazed; and they left Him and went away.

          The Jewish hierarchy of that age already had a religious system they liked, where they made the rules and they decided who was "in" and who was "out."  Jesus upset their system, so at every opportunity they tried to attack Him.  Heal a man on the Sabbath?  Wrong, they said.  Jesus did it anyway.

          Discuss who should and who should not pay the Roman Emperor's taxes?  Dangerous.  Jesus did it anyway.

          Release without stoning a woman caught in adultery?  Outrageous, they said.  Jesus did it anyway.

          If you are doing what God wants you to do, believing in Him in faith to lead, you are going to run head-on into people who will challenge you.  Many will be those outside of Christ who know well what they are doing is wrong, but they can't stand to have you say it out loud, to shine the light of truth on them.  So they attack you and if they can't dismiss the truth of what you say, they attempt to impugn you and disparage you so others will not trust you.   

          Sadly, some of these attacks will come from other Christians, as well.  They are usually on a different level of understanding and faith in God than you are.  Follow God, anyway.

          When you are stepping out in faith and others oppose you with worldly reasons why it won't work, why it can't work, why it shouldn't work.  Follow God, anyway.

          When they tell you that God is all love, and that if we really believed in God we would not be criticizing people, would not be creating dissension, would not be claiming God punishes, would not believe that God would hurt people.  Follow God, anyway.

          These are the people who have not seen what God has seen, perhaps not even what you have seen.  They say they love everyone, but their love does not extend as far as the love of Christ, who knows that "the Lord disciplines those He loves, and He punishes everyone He accepts as a son" (Heb. 12:6), and "the Lord disciplines those He loves, as a father the son he delights in" (Prov. 3:12), and He knows Psalm 94:12, "Blessed is the man You discipline, O Lord, the man You teach from Your law..."

          Everything is not always sweet and mild and wonderful.  Jesus Christ was brutally beaten, misused, and nailed to a cross, for you and for me.  The Father allowed that, for His own reasons; the salvation of you and myself.  We could not save ourselves, only the blood of the Son of God could save us, reunite us with the Father who created us.

          When they begin to assail you for shining the light of truth on sin on behalf of God saying things that create hard feelings, remind them that it was Jesus Himself who said, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword."  (Matt. 10:34)  For Jesus knew the truth of Leviticus 26:25, "And I will bring the sword upon you to avenge the breaking of the covenant. When you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be given into enemy hands."

          Calamities such as these rained down upon Israel and Judah more than once when their fortified towns were besieged, when God had set blessings before them and they were disobedient, going their own way, doing their own thing, mistakenly believing that God is not a God of wrath when His people defy Him.

          Far too many people today are willing to follow a God of laisse faire, who will not interfere, who loves us no matter what we do so we can do anything, who cling to their own ideas of what a god should be and with deadly hubris declare, "Well, I wouldn't believe in a God who does the terrible things the Bible claims."  At the risk of eternal failure, they misunderstand.  God doesn't need their approval.  They need His in order for their names to be written in the Lamb's book of life.  Without that, I submit they have no future, they have no past, they don't exist.

          These are the people we desperately need to get into the Word of God that they might know Him for who He is.  The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not a human being, was never a human being, and His infinite ways are so far above our finite understanding as to be invisible to the human mind.

          God has even foreseen the argument of the worldly wise and in two places He responds.  First in Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind.  Does He speak and then not act?  Does He promise and not fulfill?", and then in 1st Samuel 15:29, "He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind."

          God has said what He has said, and it stands.

          When people apply human reasoning to God, assuming what He would or would not do, would or would not approve, unless God has placed that in the writings of His inspired word of the Bible, they have no idea what they are talking about.  Such claims and expectations that run counter to scripture are inspired, not by God, but by the god of this world, who is at war with God and carries only enmity for mankind.

          The god of this world would have us glorify human thinking, would have us give glory to human beings regardless of what they do.  Oh, we can think what we want about the behavior of others, but we should not criticize them because after all we are all human beings and children of God.  But, no, we're not all children of God the Father.

          Jesus gave us a vivid example of this in John 8, which begins with men bringing a woman to the temple court to be stoned for adultery.  I always wonder, where was the man, her accomplice?  And since Jesus had recommended that he among her accusers who was without sin should throw the first stone, they each drifted away until she was alone with no accusers.

          By the way, while Jesus waited for her first accuser without sin to throw the first stone, He knelt there in the courtyard and wrote in the dirt of the ground.  The Bible doesn't say what He wrote, but as Jesus was present throughout history, I've always wondered if what He wrote might have been any portion of what the disembodied fingers wrote on the castle wall of the disobedient King Belshazzar, "Mene, mene, tekel, Peres."  (Daniel 5:1-30)  Belshazzar was shaken and offered rich gifts to anyone who could interpret.  Daniel, after he had reminded the King that his father, King Belteshazzar, had obeyed God, but this king had not, interpreted the writings as follows:  "Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.  Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.  Peres: Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

          King Belshazzar, king over the mighty Babylonian empire, was murdered that night.  I wonder what Jesus wrote on the ground because their blasphemous opposition to Jesus seems to fit the translation of Tekel, "You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting." 

          Nevertheless, Jesus' answer to the accused woman, who they obviously thought should have been stone, infuriated the other Jews there, and they accused him of being demon-possessed.  After all, they claimed to be the children of God.  But Jesus said to them, "You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:41-44)

          When men weight God's word down with their own web of laws and regulations and requirements, going beyond what He says to us, when they claim those things which cannot be found to agree with the God-inspired scripture of the Bible, when they seek to raise up human thoughts and intentions and desires above those of Him who created us, that is not of God.  That is, as Jesus pointed out, directly from the father of lies and not of God.

          I continue to say, on the basis of God's word to us, that America is under judgment because we not only say what is called by God an abomination and a sin is not a sin, but also because many among us, claiming the mantle of God, require and pressure those holding to the word of God to abandon His word and agree with what is called for by base human desires.  They make their case all the worse before God because when confronted by His word, they question the veracity and inspirational truth of the Bible.

          To such people I must ask, how can you call yourselves Christian and do not the things He says?  Plus, when you deny the truth of the Bible, you call Jesus a liar.  Repeatedly, Jesus Christ refers to the scripture both He and the Jews knew, attesting to its truth and its wisdom, as the very word of God. 

          How can you attest to the living truth of the Islamic Koran, encourage the faith of the Islamic people and the religion of Islam, and still claim to believe in God, ignoring the very first Commandment of God, which Christ came not to destroy, but to fulfill?  The first commandment reads, "You shall have no other gods before Me."

          The entire Word of God must be taken in context; the entire Word for the entire God.  Cherry-picking or twisting or denying the meaning of a text to "prove" a point which the entire scripture denies is to lie before God, all the worse because the Word of God has been used to create the lie.

          For those who deny the truth of scripture, or those who would twist scripture to say what it was never intended as the God-inspired Word of God to say, I offer the warning of 1st Cor. 6:9-10. "Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

          At this point someone may ask, then where is the love of God?  In response, I offer you these three verses from scripture:

          1.  "If you love me, keep My commandments."  (John 14:15)

          2.  "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another."  (John 13:34, 35).

           3.  In response to a request from Moses, God answered, in part, "I will proclaim My name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion."  (Exodus 33:19)

          Live so as to show that you understand God's love, as well as the meaning of Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."

          For just a few verses later, in verses 21-23 , the Word of God, which is sharper than any two-edged sword (Heb. 4:12), states, "Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.  Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name and in Your name drive out demons and in Your name perform many miracles?’  Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’"

          Amen.

From Mother Teresa, of the Missionaries of Charity

          I add to the end of this sermon, a listing found written on the wall of Mother Teresa's home for abandoned children in Calcutta, India:

          People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered.  Forgive them anyway.

          If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.  Be kind anyway.

           If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.  Succeed anyway.

          If you are honest and sincere people may deceive you.  Be honest and sincere anyway.

           What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.  Create anyway.

           If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.  Be happy anyway.

           The good you do today, will often be forgotten.  Do good anyway.

          Give the best you have, and it will never be enough.  Give your best anyway.

          In the final analysis, it is between you and God.  It was never between you and them anyway.

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Reaching for the Golden Calf, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture:  Exodus 32:1-14

32:1   When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered around Aaron, and said to him, "Come, make gods for us, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
32:2   Aaron said to them, "Take off the gold rings that are on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me."
32:3   So all the people took off the gold rings from their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
32:4   He took the gold from them, formed it in a mold, and cast an image of a calf; and they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"
32:5   When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a festival to the Lord."
32:6   They rose early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought sacrifices of well-being; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to revel.
32:7   The Lord said to Moses, "Go down at once! Your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted perversely;
32:8   they have been quick to turn aside from the way that I commanded them; they have cast for themselves an image of a calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'"
32:9   The Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are.
32:10   Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation."
32:11   But Moses implored the Lord his God, and said, "O Lord, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
32:12   Why should the Egyptians say, 'It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth'? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people.
32:13   Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, 'I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'"
32:14   And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

          This is a fairly well known portion of scripture.  Moses, through the assistance of Almighty God, has broken the Israelites free from bondage to the mighty Egyptian Pharoah.  Through signs and wonders, and finally through the example of death, Pharoah has been convinced to let God's people go.  God has used the Egyptians to punish the 12 tribes of Israel, but the time of punishment is over and God determines His people will return home.  At first, the Egyptian Pharoah doesn't see it that way, but God has ways of changing his mind.

          Even after this great horde of people are released, Pharoah changes his mind and sends his mighty army after them in pursuit.  But the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is not to be trifled with, and Pharoah loses his great army at the bottom of the Red Sea.

          The once enslaved people of Israel, being the object over which Pharoah challenges God, have been witness to all this.  They saw the miracles God put at Moses' hand, they saw the bloody devastation Pharoah caused when he challenged God, they knew the freedom of being on their own in the desert, slave to no man.  And yet, even though they were free, they complained to Moses because they no longer enjoyed the niceties of the Egyptian civilization.  Freedom had its price and they were not happy about doing without.

          Throughout their many years as slaves to the Egyptians they have continued faithfully their worship of God.  They did not abandon Him in the faith that He would not abandon them, even as slaves.  So how, we wonder, do they suddenly stray off into false gods and idols when Moses does not return immediately from the mountain?  And it isn't as though Aaron has led them astray, he merely responds, in the vacuum of Moses' leadership, to the demands of this huge demanding group of people.

          As a parent looking back on the misbehavior of a child, we wonder, did they not adhere close enough to the customs and traditions they knew from childhood?  Was God not strict enough with them?  Did Moses not pay close enough attention to them?  Perhaps Aaron should have had more training before he was left in charge of them? 

          Even knowing Moses was atop the mountain, meeting with the God that freed them, they became impatient.  They demanded of Aaron "a god" to follow, to lead them, something they could see whereupon they might lavish their worship, to which they might make their traditional sacrifices.  No, they were not abandoning the traditions of their religious activity, they just wanted to get on with it.  Their wants and desires were more important than whatever Moses was doing on the mountain.

          They had seen the God of the universe in action.  What happened?

          Consider with me for a moment the similarities between this nation today and the that ancient nation of Israel.

          We have recently been freed from being tied to the industrial revolution.  Like those before it, this trend of human activity and survival had its purpose, in its time in the same way God's punishment of captivity had its purpose for the Israelites, in its time.  But that time passed.

          Built into the industrial age heralded by Henry Ford's assembly line was also the end of the industrial age.  Each employee came to work each day and performed specific tasks that meshed with the tasks of other employees to produce a product, which was then marketed, and everyone got paid.  We bought homes, raised families, worshipped in our churches.

          Americans were good at this assembly line business.  In fact, we were so good at it that our excellence in production helped us win the First and the Second World Wars.  We out-produced our enemies, allowing our armies to move and maneuver more effectively, react more quickly, and with deadly impact.  We were blessed of God to be able to protect His precious gift of freedom, and to share it with the world.

          But it was inevitable that we would get so good at it, and with sharing it, that we would move on to more effective and efficient ways of operation.  Technology became the next logical step, and again, we were blessed of God and we were good at it.  However, technology of itself makes unnecessary previous procedures.  And with those lost procedures jobs were lost.  What was once done by 100 people earning salaries could be done by ten, and then by one with the latest technology.

          Commentator and best-selling author Seth Godin has written of this era, "This represents a significant discontinuity, a life-changing disappointment for hard-working people who are hoping for stability but are unlikely to get it. It's a recession, the recession of a hundred years of the growth of the industrial complex.

          "I'm not a pessimist, though, because the new revolution, the revolution of connection, creates all sorts of new productivity and new opportunities. Not for repetitive factory work, though, not for the sort of thing ADP (automated data processing) measures. Most of the wealth created by this revolution doesn't look like a job, not a full time one, anyway.

          "When everyone has a laptop and connection to the world, then everyone owns a factory. Instead of coming together physically, we have the ability to come together virtually, to earn attention, to connect labor and resources, to deliver value."

          We are freed.  But we don't know what to do with our new-found freedom.  We find ourselves in the desert of poor planning, outstripped job futures, resulting in people out of jobs, lost incomes, repossessed homes and cars, missed opportunities for education and family support.

          Gradually, over time, we had begun to believe our own press releases, that man is evolving into a better, more efficient being, and it is man that is important.  It is what man wants and needs that must be given paramount attention.  Oh true, God was a great help in getting us here, and so we still have our familiar touchstones of religious practice.  But when progress and success are too long in coming, too long on the mountain, we feel compelled to take things into our own hands and make for ourselves those compelling decisions for our future -- we reach for the golden calf.

          Which brings us to our uncomfortable situation today, populated with a next generation that believes their god is in the almighty dollar.  The almighty dollar can give mankind what it needs, it can assure daily sustenance, it can provide for a comfortable future.  It has become the golden calf.

          However, it is the golden calf that must have precedence in our lives, not its high priests of CEOs, company and corporate presidents, and other leaders of business.  It stands to logic that if we don't have enough access to that golden calf, it is their fault, and they must be punished.  And so those who neither participate in leadership roles nor yet have a stake in the religion of the golden calf are demanding "their fair share" of what they have not yet earned.  They mass in Wall Street in New York City, and in major cities across the nation, demanding the free market system be trashed, their bills be wiped away, credit cards be paid off for them, and the savings of those who have worked hard and earned their money be distributed among those who have not.

          There is a very telling CBS-TV video of a union demonstrator being interviewed in Sacramento, where the reporter asks why they were there.  The official said they had a committee meeting to come up with talking points.  The reporter asks, in so many words, if then they were there while others were coming up with why they were there.  The response was stony silence.

          In New Orleans protestors chanted, "Kill the cops!"  On Wall Street the female protesters pranced about topless telling the media to stop paying attention to what they were doing and listen to what they were saying, in apparent ignorance of their basic biology classes. As they were yet student age, I had to wonder what their parents, or their pastors, would have thought.

          The free market system of the God-blessed United States of America has long given all comers an equal chance at the level of success for which they are willing to work.

          Presidential candidate Herman Cain has said, " "Don't blame the banks. Don't blame Wall Street. If you don't have a job, if you're not rich, blame yourself."  This comes from a man with several degrees of education, successful careers in three separate fields of endeavor, and a successful lifetime as a business CEO and leader in economic problem solving.  He might well have echoed the guy who said, "Don't abuse the rich, the poor aren't hiring."

          Up on the mountain with Moses, God knew what was happening below.  He knows now, what is happening among the people of the United States of America, where greed is the denomination of choice, not love.  Not worship of the Christ and a commitment to live out His words from the Sermon on the Mount.

          Just as the Israelites had forgotten the miracles, the power, the determination of an Almighty God who freed them, we have forgotten how we got here.  Greed, me-first, and the sins and abominations of a self-centered people are bringing judgment on America when we should be following God's guidance to the next level of human endeavor.  The very foundation of God's love and "do unto others" is in danger of being lost in this nation. Thanks to riots and protesters the light of law and logic are going out all across America.   And this nation's enemies wait with baited breath for that to happen.

          Those who follow the Christ in more than name only, now is the time to step into positions of leadership with love-based problem-solving solutions and innovative programs.  This nation's problems are far from unsolvable, although not all will agree with the obvious solutions.  But Almighty God has given His people the gift of logical thought and creative processes, and we should be bringing them to the fore right now, supporting those who are Christians by virtue of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  This is not the time to hate, but the time to plunge ahead in action on behalf of love for our fellow men and women, to support what is right and just, to protect children as the delicate future they are, to institute long-range plans for ensuring that the God-given rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness remain available to all who will become citizens of this great nation.

          In the final analysis, God need not wreak further punishment on America, He need only remove His arm of protection.  We who claim the name of Christ must give Him reason not to do that.  Pray hard.  Time is short.  Amen.

Unseating 'That Kind of Spirit', by Pastor Ed Evans

Unseating 'That Kind of Spirit'

by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Mark 9:21-29

Mark 9:21 "Jesus asked the boy's father, " How long has he been like this?"  "From childhood," he answered.

Mark 9:22  "It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him.  But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.

Mark 9:23  "If you can'?" said Jesus.  "Everything is possible for him who believes."

Mark 9:24  Immediately the boy's father exclaimed, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!"

Mark 9:25  When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene, He rebuked the evil spirit, "You deaf and mute spirit," He said, "I command you, come out of him and never enter him again."

Mark 9:26  The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out.  The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said, "He's dead.

Mark 9:27  But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet, and he stood up.

Mark 9:28  After Jesus had gone indoors, His disciples asked Him privately, "Why couldn't we drive it out?"

Mark 9:29  He replied, "This kind of unclean spirit can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."

          There is an old story about a politician on the stump for a coming election, speaking to a group of farmers out in middle America.  And as the politician is handing them his best lines about why he is their political savior, he has to keep swatting at a huge fly that keeps trying to land on his face.  Exasperated, he pauses, and an old farmer down in front, allows as how that's one of their local horse flies.

          "Horse fly?" exclaims the politician.

          "Yes siree, that's one of those horse flies that you always find around a horse's rear end."

          The politician sticks his finger in the air to begin his next point, and suddenly stops.  He fixes the old farmer with an angry glare and says, "Wait just a minute.  Are you saying I'm a horse's rear end?"

          "No sir," says the farmer, "not on your life.  But you can't fool them flies."

          Jesus' disciples in our scripture today have seen their Master do many miraculous things, and as His followers they know the look to assume, the words to say, but this time it didn't work.  They could not bring this harmful spirit out of the boy.  Was it because they were just faking it?  Had they not enough commitment and prayer?  Were they standing there acting in the form of Jesus, but not through the spirit of Jesus?

          No sir, I wouldn't say that at all.  But you can't fool them spirits.  "This kind of unclean spirit can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting," Jesus said to His disciples in Mark 9:29.  Praying being communication and closeness with the God of all; a continued concentration on Jesus Christ.  Fasting speaking to discipline and sacrifice.

          There was a very similar case in Acts 19:15, where the seven sons of the Chief Priest Sceva attempted to assume the mantle of Jesus Christ, demanding an angry spirit come out of a man "in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches, and they got a very dangerous reaction.  The spirit addressed them directly and replied, "Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" It went very bad for them after that and they left hurt and bleeding.  

          Identity, in this world and the next is a very big thing.  If we are not completely identified with Jesus Christ, Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33 he would disown us before His father in heaven.

          There's a little doggerel from the 1738, from when poet Alexander Pope gifted Frederick, Prince of Wales with a little dog that was kept at one of the four castles at Kew Gardens.  Around the dog's neck Pope placed a collar with this poem: "I am His Majesty's dog at Kew.  Pray tell me sir, whose dog are you?"

          Whose dog, indeed?

          Many of us are working like dogs right now just to get by, much less to have anything extra to spend on amusements, or to lay aside for our children, or for our retirement or even to support the work in this world of Jesus Christ.  Times are tough right now, for everyone.  It used to be  a saying that the business world was dog  eat dog.  It's no longer just an old saying.

          There is a spirit of degradation, a spirit of loss, a spirit of humiliation that lays across this nation of America and beyond.  And it affects everything we do.  For some its merely an excuse to steal from those who have simply because we have not.  It's an excuse for irrational anger to lash out, to hurt, to murder.  An excuse to badly use other people for our own fulfillment, amusement and advancement.

          It's an evil spirit, and it's been growing stronger because we feed it with our ignorance, with our greed, with our feeling that while others have what we don't have, we didn't get ours, and we should.  Yes, that's called greed.  It's not our right, not a denial of our inheritance, not a justified reaction that we've been trodden down.  It's greed.  A spirit of greed.  And it reigns from the highest levels of our government to the lowest panhandler on the street corner, and all of us in between. 

          Why shouldn't we have the best, the newest, the most labor saving?  Haven't we worked hard for it all our lives?  Are we less deserving than the man or woman who lives in a mansion and sleeps on a silk pillow at night, drives that sleek red sports car.  Are we not the children of the King of Kings, and have right to all we can accumulate?

          The story is told of the 1920's when a missionary couple were returning home by ship.  They had served all their lives among a heathen people, among poverty and disease and ignorance, bringing them the good news of Jesus Christ.  Now, elderly, crippled and tired, they were returning home by ship.  As the ship docked in New York City, the aviator Charles Lindberg, who had just flown the first solo air trip from New York to France, was returning home to a hero's welcome.  There were huge crowds, balloons, confetti, the news media with popping flashbulbs, all welcoming this lone man home to a parade down Broadway.

          The old missionary watched from the railing, and bemoaned the facts that for one lone event, this man was being honored in such a way, and for their lifetime of sacrifice ... nothing.

          His sweet wife patted his arm and reminded him, "We're not home yet, dear."  Surely they will have a joyful reception in heaven, but until then, the Bible tells us in Job 5:7 that mankind is meant for trouble just as surely as the sparks fly upward.

          Christians are under attack all around the world.  As you read this, families are mourning the loss of beheaded Christian daughters in India, an Iranian Christian pastor sits in prison, awaiting his death sentence for refusing to deny the Christ he knows; in China a pastor is recovering from being a forced organ donor because he leads a Christian "home church".

          The entire world, not just America, is under the spirit of fear, of anger, of a greedy and voracious hunger that sets all else aside in pursuit of self fulfillment.  It has become so bad that even as we listen to wolves in sheep's clothing declaring that if we just support them God will give us all our material desires, even as our ears are tickled by those having a semblance of the Christ, but not the Christ, even as we lust for the latest electronic toy, new car, bigger house, we cannot ignore that the world has become mired in desire, envy, and greed.  The spirit of evil reigns over the entire world today and sets the stage for prophetic events.

          What can we, the people of God, the bride of Christ, what can we do in the face of such enduring evil?  How can we confront such a destructive force?

          I guarantee you it will not be done with force of arms.  It will not respond to new laws.  And this spirit of evil which pervades our lives, our nation, and our world, will pay no attention to attempts at angry reprisal, shallow platitudes, well-meaning sympathy for the victims.  Such misguided attempts will only reinforce our powerlessness.

          Just like Jesus' disciples in our scripture today, we can remain powerless, attempting to do the work of Jesus Christ without concentrating on him, relying on the methods and answers we draw from our own nature.  Oswald Chambers points out in his classic "My Utmost for His Highest," that "We actually slander and dishonor God by our very eagerness to serve Him without knowing Him."

          How can that possibly happen?  Has anything come between you and Jesus Christ?  Have you left your first love, the Christ who loved you first, and replaced it with the admiration of things?  Do you see yourself still in the mountaintop experience with Christ, glorying in what He has done for you, neglecting to go down into the valley so as to avoid the realities of sin, oppression and humiliation that drew Jesus Christ to the cross?  Are you still gazing at that cross and refusing to pick it up and go with Him to Golgotha?

          As followers of the most real person ever to set foot on this earth, we need to face things the way they really are, and not the way we wish they were.

          Many Christians read Paul's writings in Philippians 4:13 -- "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me," and believe Paul was talking only about the power we have to accomplish great things through Christ.  And he was.  But he was also talking as much about getting through the difficulties, the problems, the evils we face, as much as doing anything.  Jesus told His disciples in John 15:18, and Matthew 10:22 that because the world hated Him, the world was going to hate them.  Life is, indeed, full of problems, oppression and humiliations when you stand up for what is right before God, for what is full of unspoiled beauty, for what is just.  For this flies right in the face of that spirit of evil that challenges the people of God.

          But we cannot stay on the mountaintop.  That was an inspirational experience, but we have from Almighty God a precious give of love that finds its greatest fulfillment in sharing, in giving it away.  And the spirit of evil doesn't want that.

          And old favorite song written by J. J. Cale says, "Momma don't allow no guitar playing 'round here, but I don't care what Momma don't allow, going to play my guitar anyhow..."

          We who have a heritage of everlasting life, through the Great I Am, through the God who created us and loves us, we must not give sway to what the spirit of evil don't allow, we are going to fly in the face of all that the spirit of evil lusts after, in the name of God Almighty.  But we are also going to be mindful of Jesus' words, "This kind of unclean spirit can come out by nothing but by prayer and fasting."

          Want to change the world?  Change yourself first, in the name of God.  Then set about unseating that unkind Spirit, in the name of the Living God, under the instructions Jesus gave His disciples, by constant contact with Jesus Christ, living a disciplined and sacrificial life.  Against such the spirits that fear the Christ have no power.

          Amen.