ingesting the bread

James 1:22 says this:
"Do not merely listen to the world, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."

i find myself thinking of many in the American 'church,' people who go to church every Sunday, but don't think about God during the week. women who wear skimpy outfits (even to church) and men who condone it. people who are smiley in the pews, but who will swear and yell all the way home. people who have their Bible on their lap on Sunday, but live immoral lives at home. people who claim they've been Christians for years, but enjoy raunchy t.v. like South Park or American Dad or Desperate Housewives, or have a live-in boyfriend, or are eating themselves into obesity, or excuse homosexuality, or cheat in their work or on their taxes...
the picture isn't consistent.
it's a huge problem.

James 2:14, 17 continue on:
"What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him? ... faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead."

works do not save you, but they are EVIDENCE of being saved. if someone claims to be something, we look for evidence to back him up. if he says, 'i am the king of England,' we look for evidence of that. if there is none, we dismiss him as a liar.
same with Christianity. 
the world is looking intently at Christians, and when we live in ways that oppose the Bible, they deem us liars and dismiss Christianity. i can't tell you the number of times i have talked about Christianity with someone and they have said they reject Christianity because they knew someone in their past who claimed Christianity but acted like a jerk.
often, that can come from hearing the word, but not doing what it says.
don't deceive yourself. are you a doer, or just a hearer? do you flippantly claim to be a Christian, but don't really know what that means, or don't really care? i've often encountered people who quickly say they're Christians, but are clearly uncomfortable with the subject and don't want to talk further. seems like a red flag. and i have found later that their lifestyle is one that has no regard for Christ.

imagine sitting down for lunch with someone. the food came and you both started eating. what would you think if after chewing every bite, your friend spat it out on the ground? 
i don't know about you, but i would think, incredulously, 'what are you doing?! you're not really eating!' 
in order for food to do any substantial good to our bodies, it must be swallowed. it must be ingested and absorbed into our tissues.
the Bible refers to God's word as bread. Jesus also called Himself the Bread of Life (John 6:35). as Christians, we must absorb what God says and who He is into our lives. it changes us.
if you're no different than the day you claimed Jesus as Lord, then there is something wrong.
have you really INGESTED the bread?

"Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you... Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and He will come near to you." James 1:21, 4:7-8a

the gun conundrum

i think it's time to write a bit of my thought process down about guns. they seem to be a big topic these days, from the government down to everyday people.
(personally, i don't like guns at all. i wish they could all be banned, from the government down to the kids, but i know that's completely unrealistic in this fallen world. worldwide peace is only going to come when Jesus returns.)
now, i don't have any end-all answer to the debate of banning guns, but here's what's been mulling in my mind as i hear more discussion on the topic.

show me the facts

first of all, here are some stats and pieces of info i have run across in recent weeks. links to my references are below.

- dateline said in the US, 36 people are killed with guns every day. that's more people dead than there are hours in the day!

- last year, 9,000 people were killed with guns in the US. 1 this is the highest rate in all 'industrialized nations.' other similar countries have stats in the hundreds, while we are at multiple thousands!!! and a suspiciously correlating fact: the US has the 'highest rate of gun ownership in the world, with 88.8 guns per 100 people' (Serbia is next, with 58.2). 1

so let me get this straight so far, we have the most guns per capita (most people say they have guns to protect themselves), and we are also the most dead nation in the world because of these same 'protective' weapons.... hmmm...

- we're experiencing more and more mass shootings like at the Connecticut elementary school and the Colorado movie theater and the Wisconsin Sikh temple... an excellent overview of mass shootings here in the US can be found at this link: mass shootings map

over 3/4 of these killers had legal weapons!

after the shooting in Connecticut this last December, everyone was talking about weapons and if some should be banned. even a staunch pro-gun-er named Joe Manchin changed his tune and made these comments: "i never thought i'd see the day when i would see children and babies slaughtered in america... i think seeing the massacre of so many innocent children, it's changed america... never before have we seen our babies slaughtered." (i can't help but interject here that he is wrong, because we have been slaughtering our babies for decades through abortion... why only outrage now??!) he thinks even the NRA might lighten up a bit on its argument against banning at least some semi-automatic guns. 2  (a few weeks ago i was in a conversation with someone who has been involved in violence most of his life, as a pimp and drug dealer who used guns, and even he said there's no need for anyone to have an automatic weapon.)

- and just this January, there was another senseless, horrific shooting in New Mexico. a 15-yr-old boy shot his mother, his 3 siblings (ages 9, 5, and 2), and his father. he had also contemplated killing his 12-yr-old girlfriend's family, as well as going to walmart to shoot a bunch of people there. 3 what in the world?! the county sheriff hit the nail on the head when he said this: "there seems to be a devaluation of life in america." 4  he argues, rightly, that schools and faith-based organizations should be doing more in the prevention of this. and i would add that families need to do more groundwork to teach non-violence.

how'd we get here?
what is it about humans that makes us ever want to kill another person? or hurt them.. why does it feel good to get someone back or to be stronger than someone else? here are some ideas:

1. plain ole ego. it's all about me. back to the Garden of Eden when Eve wanted to be like God. she and Adam threw away the words God had said in favor of what tickled their egos and their self-importance. God had been clear: eat from that one tree and you will die. they chose to gamble with death, just like all of us since then. we feel invincible. we think we can take care of ourselves. we think we're number one.

2. fear. despite acting like we're number one and we're invincible, we really are afraid of everything. Americans especially. Americans must be some of the most fearful people in the world. we're afraid of germs, afraid of our neighbors, afraid of the rest of the world, afraid of growing old, afraid of sickness, afraid of death, afraid of ghosts, afraid of confrontations, afraid of the weather... and in the same breath, we constantly test the limits and step to the edges, kind of as a coward's way of proving we're not afraid. we watch scary movies, we ride crazy roller-coasters, we eat ourselves into un-health, we drink alcohol till we puke, we spend the night in graveyards telling 'ghost stories,' we yell obscenities at the t.v. from the safety of our couch, we run around town with guns in our pockets to prove we're tough .......... it all comes back to fear.

3. anger. sometimes fear comes out as anger. sometimes circumstances breed anger, like financial troubles or broken families. sometimes people are angry just because it gives them something to do.

4. video game violence. yep, i said it.
basically, most Americans have too much time on their hands. we watch hours of t.v., our kids play hours of video games. and it's ridiculous to think that we can fill our minds with violence hour after hour and not be affected. like my husband always says, "companies wouldn't spend billions of dollars on advertising if it didn't affect our minds and our actions." the thing about video games now is a) how REAL they look, b) that you play them in FIRST PERSON, running along with a gun in your hands, c) how INVOLVED the storyline is (why do you think people get so mad when they lose?!), and d) how MISLEADING it is to die over and over again or kill others without real consequences.
you think this doesn't affect your kid when they sit absorbed in the game for hours?? then you're not in touch with reality.
if you read the article about the boy who killed his family (3), you'd notice that the sheriff talked about how the boy "gushed to police about his love for violent video games during the interrogation... he told police he loved to play Modern Warfare and Grand Theft Auto." red flag!!!

a Christian response

today as i ran errands, i was listening to the radio station my husband had left on in the car: Christian talk radio. they were talking briefly about the gun issue. granted, i think the issue being discussed in government has been about automatic weapons, but these guys were discussing just any guns at all.
the show host clearly seemed to be pro-gun, against any gun-banning. they were discussing whether or not it's ever ok for a Christian to have a gun in their house 'for safety,' and what happens if a burglar comes into the house at night. they mentioned a Christian leader who said that Christians shouldn't have a gun for 'safety,' because then you run the risk of killing someone who hasn't heard the gospel. the talk show host kind of snorted at that and said this: "when a burglar is in your house, that is not the time to share the gospel." 
that disturbed me.
what if that is EXACTLY the time you are supposed to share the gospel, or even lead that person to Christ, or to be a different kind of example, instead of holding a gun to their face and shooting them dead in the name of 'protecting your family?'
it brings to memory true stories i've heard of Christians from WWII who won over their captors by sharing the gospel - hardened nazi killers who had only evil in their minds... changed by GOD in the presence of someone who cared more for the nazi's soul than for their own safety.
or how about the Chinese girl who was imprisoned just for being a Christian, who, though almost starving herself, spent her days voluntarily washing other prisoners' cells and sharing the gospel with them... her example caused the guards to ask her about her faith.
or i think of the countless stories i've read in the Voice of the Martyrs magazine, about modern day Christians who are killed for believing in Jesus, but whose last words before death caused their killers to later repent and become strong Christians themselves.
what if those Christians had met their attackers at the door with a gun?
what if Ananias in Acts 9, had met Saul, a serious Christian-killer, at his door with a gun? there would have been no Paul, and think of how many people were saved after hearing his words, both in his day and up to ours!

i don't think it is necessarily wrong for a Christian to own a gun, maybe for minor bits of hunting or something (even though i eat some meat, it's hard for me to think of actually shooting an animal...). i don't know the answer to what we should do across the board when it comes to guns.
i DO know we have a violence problem in this country, which i think is a family/morality problem at its core.
and i DO believe that automatic weapons are seriously unnecessary for normal people to have.

when it comes down to it for me, if i picture Jesus living as my neighbor in 2013, i don't picture Him with a gun under His pillow. 


1 cnn - US vs the world in gun violence
2 joe manchin
3 family shooting
4 sheriff talks about family shooting

behind the scenes in Nigeria

i've written briefly before about the terrible violence against Christians that's been going on in the place i call home, Nigeria. Jos post
but last night as i read my new Voice of the Martyrs magazine, i was reminded anew of what's going on in the real world between real Muslims and real Christians.
i feel strongly about sharing this story, so after a couple of my own comments, i will quote the magazine story, and all the credits are below, along with a way to receive your own free subscription to the Voice of the Martyrs.
it is important that we, as Christians, stay aware of what is happening to the rest of Jesus' body around the world.
"If one part suffers, every part suffers with it..." 1 Corinthians 12:26
persecution is VERY real today. it is a unique part of the Christian faith, because of its purpose and blessing. when we suffer for Christ, we consider it an honor to be counted worthy of sharing with Jesus. the original apostles were strong examples of this. after they were flogged for teaching about Jesus, they left, "rejoicing because they had been counted worthy of suffering disgrace for the Name." Acts 5:41b
suffering is something we look forward to.
"I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering, becoming like Him in His death..." Philippians 3:10
we do not desire it in our human selves (that would be crazy or masochistic!), but because it produces incredible fruit in us.
"...we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." Romans 5:3
it also allows Jesus' name to be honored and spread to those who are still lost, and it can be endured because we know with certainty that we will spend unimaginably-wonderful eternity with Jesus in the end!
"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us." Romans 8:18
please remember these things and think of your own response as you read this true account of what happened to a Nigerian family,

"... on Wednesday night, Nov. 28, 2012, when they heard men banging on the front door and threatening to force their way in.
"Before they could fully comprehend what was happening, the men entered their living room and ordered them to come out of their bedroom. Adamu dressed quickly and walked into the living room, followed by his wife and young son. They were met by two men, one of whom was holding a rifle.
"The men told Adamu's wife and son to stand aside and ordered Adamu to kneel down. They asked him several questions about his occupation and his religion as he knelt in front of them. After Adamu told them that he was a Christian, the men told his wife to bear witness of his death if he did not cooperate with them. At that point Adamu's wife realized with terror that the men were part of Bodo Haram, the Islamic militant group working to Islamize Nigeria through violence.
"The men told Adamu that they would give him an opportunity to live and to live a better life if only he would become a Muslim and recite the Muslim confession of faith. He replied that he was a Christian and that he would remain a Christian even in death.
"As one man continued the interrogation, the one with the rifle walked through the house with Adamu's wife, taking all the money they had as well as their cellphones. When they came out, the interrogator told the other man that Adamu had refused to yield.
"The armed man then placed the rifle against Adamu's face and said, 'Since you refuse to become a Muslim, here is your reward.' He pulled the trigger and shot him in the face. The bullet passed through Adamu's face and came out the other side. The men threatened to return and kill Adamu's wife and son if she tried to call for help or didn't stay quiet.
"Adamu had fallen to the floor, and blood was pouring from his wounds. The men stepped on his leg to see if he was still alive, and when he didn't move they assumed he was dead. A few minutes after they left the house, Adamu, still alive, told his wife to get help. She hurried out, but the attackers had locked the gate from the outside. She tried repeatedly to go through the fence, but she couldn't fit through it. When she returned to her husband, he insisted the she must find a way out to get help for him. He told her that if no one else would come, he knew that a Christian elder named Baba Jibir... would definitely come and help him get to the hospital. Adamu didn't know that his attackers had already killed Baba Jibir and his son.
"Adamu's wife finally made it through the fence and saw that the men had left the keys of the gate beside it after locking it. She asked their Muslim neighbors for help, but none of them would take Adamu to the hospital that night. One neighbor gave her the phone number of a police officer. She called the number repeatedly before getting an answer, but the police never arrived even after promising to come help them.
"The next morning at about 6 a.m., they took Adamu to the general hospital in Potiskum. Adamu is still healing from his wounds. On Dec. 14, I took him to Kano for further surgery. Pray for all of us in Nigeria."

-"From the Field: NIGERIA." The Voice of the Martyrs March 2013: 10. Print.

please contact Voice of the Martyrs to receive your own FREE magazine, or to donate, if you'd like, at:
The Voice of the Martyrs
P.O. Box 443
Bartlesville, OK 74005
email: thevoice@vom-usa.org
website: www.persecution.com

and PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!!
pray for endurance.
pray for true commitment of Christians, that leads their persecutors to desire Jesus themselves.
pray for new converts to be strong.
pray for Jesus' words and encouragements to flood these situations.
pray for miracles and deliverance.
and pray for yourself, to be ready when persecution comes your way.