We Can Afford It, by Pastor Ed Evans

Scripture: Psalm 16

16:1 Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
16:2 I say to the Lord, "You are my Lord; I have no good apart from You."
16:3 As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble, in whom is all my delight.
16:4 Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names upon my lips.
16:5 The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup; You hold my lot.
16:6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; I have a goodly heritage.
16:7 I bless the Lord who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.
16:8 I keep the Lord always before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices; my body also rests secure.
16:10 For You do not give me up to Sheol, or let Your faithful one see the Pit.
16:11 You show me the path of life. In Your presence there is fullness of joy; in Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Perhaps some of you remember an old hymn that says, "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up, away beyond the blue."

That's us. That's you and I; all of those whose name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life. We have placed ourselves in the hands of Almighty God, and our future is assured. In troubles we take refuge in Him, we have nothing of value outside of Him. Today's scripture reminds us that it is God who gives us counsel, a good heritage, and as long as we keep Him always before us, we shall not be moved, our heart is glad, and our soul rejoices.

With such a future assured, what have those who love Him have to worry about, to be concerned about, to be angry or upset about? In fact, the Son of God instructs us to approach everything with love, even those who would be our enemies.

Right now, all across our nation, believers and non-believers alike are being divided into opposing groups as anger, betrayal, suspicion and a raft of other emotions sweep aside good sense, all unity, all common demand for ethics, morals and character in the conduct of our societal relationships and our governing bodies. The dividing is being done by those with something to gain from turning Americans against one another, turning Christian believer against Christian believer.

Some people become self-righteously angry when the nation of Americans is spoken of as one of exceptional ability and blessing. But history has shown the United States of America to be populated by individuals of, indeed, exceptional ability, creativity, foresight and leadership. Originally created upon the belief that all men are created equal before God, and endowed with certainly inalienable rights, America has been a Godsend to downtrodden peoples around the world, as this nation has shared its wealth, it natural desire for freedom, its food with the hungry, its healing with the sick, its riches and resources with those in need.

America has also seen the seamier side of life take root on its shores, as well, as the greedy, the criminal, the lascivious, and those who would gorge themselves on the misery of others, have wormed their way into positions of power and influence and obligation. For believers, the written word of God has warned us to avoid even the appearance of evil, in order to keep clear of exactly what has fallen upon us. In James 4:7, we read, "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

But we've not resisted. We've been drawn into the muck and mire of evil by our desires for more and better and sweeter, turning our back on the needs of others, and compromising what we knew to be just and right in order to satisfy our desires. And in doing so we have poisoned the well of future generations, we have set aside the promised joys and protections of Almighty God, we have cut our own Achilles heel, we have stabbed ourselves in the back.

America is awash in misery and debt even now, entire families out of work and losing their homes, going hungry, creating the long lines at church food pantries and employment agencies, and outlets for the public dole, and the missions for the homeless.

Satan has not done this to us. Evil has not set a snare and trapped us. With our unbridled desires for self-satisfaction, for pornography, for the agreeable killing of infants still in the womb, for the abuse and misuse of innocent children, for the mindlessness of illicit drugs and the relief from our sense of responsibility through legal potions that numb the mind for a time, and kill us before our time.

In a war that began in heaven, a conflict spoken of in Ephesians between monumental good and evil, like the cowardly soldier we have shot ourselves in the foot to get out of the battle before us. But we cannot get out of the battle. We are the battle. Ephesians 6:12 tells us, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms."

This is a battle every living human being is in. No one is immune, no one opts out, no one gets away.

So I put to you, if we are all in this war between good and evil, and we cannot get out of it, if in not choosing sides we are actually choosing a side, then why would we not choose God's side? Why would we not put ourselves in His all-powerful hands, and follow His leadership? If we are of a sane, logical mind, it simply makes good sense to accept the gift God has given us in Jesus Christ, and follow God's instructions to us, to guide us through this war against evil.

The next step is to find out what those instructions are, and to follow them.

However, while I absolutely encourage you to give yourself over to God, and accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, I will not embark upon a full lesson here regarding what His instructions to us are. What I will address here are those instructions relevant to the times which are upon us, the disaster about us and before us.

For I am of the considerable opinion that so very much of what Jesus taught and said and stood for is wrapped up in the words we read in John's gospel, chapter 13, verses 34-35: "“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.”

Who is it that we must love? One another. Jesus said this at a feast of love, while He still walked this earth as a human being. And so we are to love one another with a human love, but not "just" with human love. For Jesus went on to say, "as I have loved you." Later on in John 17:21-23a, Jesus prayed, " that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one as we are one — I in them and You in Me — so that they may be brought to complete unity."

We are to love one another that we all might come to unity in Christ; all in Him. All in one. In Him we have nothing to fear. In Him, even with differing opinions about what to have for breakfast, for what newspaper to read, or even in whom we should place our earthly leadership, through love for one another we are still one, one with Christ, one with the Father. It is all about unity, then. Love places us in unity.

Through love, then, we can afford to be generous with our understanding of those who differ with our opinions, we can afford to love even those who would be our enemies, we can afford to stand alone, with Christ, and still be in the majority. Romans 8:38-39 reminds us, "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Nothing, then, can separate us from His love, so we can afford to be kind, understanding, and accepting of even those who would be our enemies

I pray we may come together, in love if it be at all possible, but certainly in unity in Christ to stand against the enemies of Almighty God, against those who would create mischief and disunity in this nation and this world created by the hand of God, for even in the end of all things, nothing can separate us from the love of God, so that as believers we of all people can afford to be generous with our love, as He loved us. Amen.

God's Love, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid

God's Love, Butch Cassidy, and the Sundance Kid
by Pastor Ed Evans

The other evening I set aside a few moments to relax and watch some television. So much of the same formula trash was on, I started flipping through the channels looking for something different. What I found was “The Making of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.” It’s a classic western, but in case you’ve not seen it, it’s a movie about the adventures of two old west bank robbers, played by Paul Newman and Robert Redford. This was the beginning of a life-long friendship for these two talented actors.
As the film was being made, a couple of other cameras were rolling, capturing all the behind-the-scenes activity, and this is what Producer George Ray Hill and Director William Goldman recalled and discussed, creating another production even before the movie was released in theaters.
Watching and listening to the byplay between Newman and Redford was fascinating. Out of their own acting experiences they often changed scenes and dialogue as they went along. It was with a respect for these two actors that the producer and director often allowed and worked around changes that came out of earnest conversations before each scene was shot.
Looking back at the thoughts and words and creative exchanges between these two actors, changes and suggestions to the shooting script which were sometimes questioned then, now made perfect sense.
It made me think about something I had read about how some people live their lives – backwards. They seem to always be looking back, as if what had been done in the past might guide their words, their actions, their lives in the future to come. But in living in the past, they so often missed the joy of coming attractions.
It’s has been said that, were we timeless like our God, that our lives would make perfect sense in retrospect.
It was very interesting to have producer Hill and director Goldman commenting on scenes, conversations they were not privy to at the time, and everything captured on film from the weather to the raucous but underplayed humor of Newman and Redford. There were decisions about clothing, contracting demolitions men for dynamite scenes, when to use stunt men and when and why Newman did so many of his own scenes.
In telling the history of the movie, the duplicate cameramen had also captured a precious and insightful aspect of both Newman and Redford, how they interacted with one another, and how they responded to the game of “pretend” we call movies.
What exciting lives we might live if we could “game” our lives with God, be privy to His insights for us, look ahead into our lives as an extension of what has already transpired, and consider how we might respond to it.
Exciting, yes! But some things would not change, for God does not change.
As an example, do you know that God loves you as much right now as He will ever love you? If you are trying to be good so you will gain His love, disciplining yourself to keep His commandments so He will love you more, if those are your motivations, you can stop now.
If you would only realize that God loves you more than anyone has ever loved you, or will ever love you, and loves you as much right this moment as He ever will, how might we respond to such love that is more forgiving, more understanding, deeper than anything we have ever known as love? That’s His love for us.
Now, put your mind on “review” and look back over your life. See your Father’s hand at work in the days of your life? Like in the poem, “Footsteps of Jesus,” do you see times where instead of two sets of footprints there are only one? And those would be the times He carried you.
Looking back, our lives have been much more full of life than the one depicted by that classic flick “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” for our lives have been real, full of all the slings and arrows, heartaches and high points of the real world. And He loved us every bit as much at our infantile beginning as He does right now. For He loves completely, fully, without reservation.
How touching and true the words written by Frederick M. Lehman in 1917, within the song “The Love of God.” If they seem to have a timeless aspect to them, perhaps it’s because Lehman based his verses upon the Jewish poem “Haddamut,” first penned in Aramaic in 1050 by Meir Ben Isaac Nehorai. It begins,
“The love of God is greater far
Than tongue or pen can ever tell;
It goes beyond the highest star,
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled,
And pardoned from his sin.
It begins and ends with the unfathomable love of the Creator for His creation. Seen forwards or backwards, in context or standing alone, He accepts no stand-in stunt men, but insists on dealing directly with you and I. Face it, He’s crazy about you.