Weekly Articles

This last week I was taken aback by some old photographs my wife had unpacked while moving old boxes around.  One in particular cut right to my heart; it was a picture of my oldest daughter at around eighteen months old.  The expression of the child in the photo brought back a flood of memories, from her quick thievery of the toppings her mother and I would prepare for homemade pizza (green pepper slices were her favorites) to the mundane errands she and I would run together.  The discussion of the photos grew in scope as we reminisced about our other daughters and joyfully compared the three distinct personalities.  We talked about the changes that have taken place over the last nine and a half years of our marriage, and about how many more were ahead of us.  The conversation ended with our wish that those moments had not passed; but of course they had to, or we would never have had the next moments.  We are limited, because time does not heed our call.

Time flows in one direction.  Yes, I know what some scientists say, about time going in both directions (forwards and backwards), and possibly even other directions.  But really, in flows in only one direction for us:  forwards.  None of us experience time in any way other than looking backward in our past but moving inexorably forward into our future.  This is by design, not by accident, just as our awareness of this fact is by that same design.

I have seen the burden God has laid on men.  He has made everything beautiful in its time.  He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live.  That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God.  I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.  (Ecclesiastes 3:10-14 NIV)

God, by design, set eternity in our hearts, and then caused the work of his hands to be permanent and the work of ours to be temporary.  Why?  So that we would revere him!

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  (Genesis 1:1 NIV)

God’s word starts with the phrase, “In the beginning,” implying that there was nothing before this point other than God; there was no space and no time.  Time is often referred to as a river, flowing on in one direction and sweeping past events.  But it could also be viewed as a building, with each floor being built on top of all those that came before.  If we view time in this way, then the “In the beginning” phrase is the ground floor upon which all of the time since has been built.

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city.  On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month.  And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.  No longer will there be any curse.  The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.  They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.  There will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign for ever and ever.  (Revelation 22:1-5 NIV)

Looking at the end of the Bible, we see the preview that God gives us of what our life will be like after time.  Currently, we struggle against the forces of darkness and we struggle against our own dark hearts; but there we will walk fully and completely in the light!  And tied to this is the reality of eternity that is expressed as “for ever and ever.”  You see, for all of those moments of joy with my daughter that I can re-live only in memory, my existence there will be complete and not a series of events being swept away by time.  Eternity has been set in our hearts not to frustrate us, but to liberate us from fear:  God is planning greatness for you and I!

-Charles Peterson

I saw a television show last night which made me think about my relationship with God.  In this episode, two characters had managed to sneak into a very exclusive party attended by the super-rich and the super-beautiful.  When they first entered the enormous main room, one character remarked to the other, “this is where God would party,” to which the other character replied “if he could get in.”  This statement was meant as a cute way to indicate the exclusivity of the situation in which the two characters found themselves, but it did something else as well (at least it did for me).  It raised the question:  do we desire to go places and do things where there is no room for God?

I had to think about what God has done for me:  creating, nurturing, protecting, guiding, and blessing my life in many ways.  As said in the Psalms:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb.  (Psalm 139:13 NIV)

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul.  He guides me in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.  You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.  Surely goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.  (Psalm 23 NIV)

No matter where I have gone, God has always stood by me – not always pleased, but always protecting.  In fact, God has even conquered death for me!  So, to my shame, what have I done for God?  Nothing!  There is no claim I can make for glory about my deeds; there is no profit for God in my life.  I am a beggar, coming to the Master asking for the barest of sustenance and I am instead received as a long-lost son, picked up and dressed in the finest of clothes with a ring on my finger and a celebration planned in honor of my return to the family!

So, in view of this situation, where am I going to take God?  I have these new clothes – where should I go?  I have been welcomed back into the family of God – with whom should I “hang out”?  A recovering alcoholic should stay away from bars and a recovering gambling-addict should stay away from casinos.  Recovering sinners should avoid sinning!  If God is not welcome in places to which I am going, I need to question why I am going there.  That doesn’t mean I cannot go (for instance, if the place I have to work at is hostile to God), it just means I have to make sure that I keep God close in my heart and constantly in my mind when I am there.  But if I am going to a place for my own entertainment, I should not be ashamed in front of God to be there.  If I am, then that is a place (or activity) to which I should not go.

We can forsake God, after we have known him.  But it is never a good thing (and sometimes it is eternally fatal)!  Look at three examples:  Peter, Paul, and Judas.  Peter knew Jesus more intimately that any other disciple except possibly John.  But in the confusion of the revelations at the Last Supper, the arrest in the Garden, and the trials of that night, Peter forsook God because of fear and exhaustion.  Saul (Paul) was a devout Jew, raised with the best education in the Law, Prophets, and traditions.  But in his zeal to stamp out a heretical sect, he forsook God because of inability to accept that he and his teachers were wrong.  Judas saw the miracles of Jesus and witnessed God bringing the messiah out into the public view.  But he forsook God because of his desire for money and the trappings of this world; he rejected the living god for thirty cold pieces of silver and received a lonely death.

Don’t forsake God!  It will always lead to pain and heartache, and can even lead to eternal death!  Choose carefully if you are going to be a Christian, or someone who goes to church and lives your real life away from Godly things.  God has chosen you; make sure that you choose him too!

-Charles Peterson

In 2008 over 614,000 people under age eighteen were reported missing to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC).  This total includes runaway, abducted, and abandoned children.  Many agencies and organizations exist to try to remedy this situation and rescue these children including the FBI and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which has been successful in recovering over 138,000 children since 1984 according to their website (www.missingkids.com).

This is a situation that tears at our hearts.  Our popular culture is filled with references to this subject in movies, television episodes, songs, and books.  We establish special law enforcement and judicial procedures such as “Amber Alerts” and “Megan’s Law”.  Pictures are posted on milk containers and sent in the mail on postcards advertisements.  The loss of a child causes disruption throughout a community not due to a loss of production or the value of that child’s labor; it causes disruption because normal people cannot abide the thought of a child being lost or abducted.  We are made to place the well-being of children ahead of our own.

I cannot imagine the despair and hopelessness that is a daily reality for many runaways, abductees, and other missing children.  I can only imagine in my nightmares what the parents of many of those children are going through.  But there is one who knows exactly what they are living through, and it is he who took action.

Jesus continued:  “There was a man who had two sons.  The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’  So he divided his property between them.  Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living … When he came to his senses … he got up and went to his father.  But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.  The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’  But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick!  Bring the best robe and put it on him.  Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.  Bring the fattened calf and kill it.  Let’s have a feast and celebrate.  For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’  So they began to celebrate.  Meanwhile, the older son was in the field.  When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing …  The older brother became angry and refused to go in.  So his father went out and pleaded with him.  But he answered his father, ‘Look!  All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders.  Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’  ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ “  (Luke 15:11-32 NIV, excerpted)

Each one of us was a missing child of God, exploited by Satan and the world.  Apart from God we led lives of desperation, fear, and hopelessness.  We were helpless to change the situation, but God was not!  He sent his son Jesus to suffer and die in our place so that we could be rescued and brought back to the family of God.

Pray for those children who are missing.  Pray that God will deliver them back to loving families.  Realize as well that those who live apart from God are in that same state.  Pray that God will bring them back into the family of God.  This world is a world of despair and exploitation.  But God is the God of the lost and found.

-Charles Peterson

Over the past couple weeks I was driving a little further during morning rush hour, which left me time for the morning “news and views” as they are described on a local D.C. radio show.  The show featured a variety of topics, and thus a variety of viewpoints from the callers.  In addition to either agreeing with the caller or thinking they were a few sandwiches shy of a picnic, I was stunned at the perspective of many of the callers.

For example, former NFL star Michael Vick was released from prison, having been sentenced to twenty-three months for his dog-fighting operation.  The vehemence with which callers expressed outrage that he was even out of prison, but also that he could potentially go back to playing professional football.  When hearing these calls, I was reminded of when the story about what he was doing to the dogs first broke; there were many who were calling for him to be locked up for decades to life.

Now, it was quite disturbing to me to read the accounts of what went on with the dogs; normal people do not do such things.  But it caused me to wonder why so much outrage was shown towards someone who abused dogs in horrific manners, and yet many of these same people turn a blind eye to the millions of babies butchered in America (and yes, butchery is an apt depiction – read the accounts of how “abortions” are performed).  No, this is seen as a political or social argument between two “sides” that many cannot be bothered to decide between.  But don’t hurt the dogs.

There are many examples of this:  the people who burned Ken Lay (of Enron) in effigy for his theft and fraud, yet cannot seem to be concerned about the greed and corruption of their elected officials; the people who become quite active for causes centered on the environment, yet are blasé about the atheistic indoctrination of our school children.  It seems that I often find myself wondering what it takes to get people mad about certain things!

I then started to wonder:  is God frustrated with me in this same way?  Do I get mad about the things that he does?  Sure.  Of course.  After all, what is it that makes God mad?

“You shall have no other gods before me.  “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below … You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.  Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy … Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.  You shall not murder.  You shall not commit adultery.  You shall not steal.  You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.  You shall not covet your neighbor’s house … or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”  (Exodus 20:3-17 NIV)

There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him:  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.  (Proverbs 6:16-19 NIV)

For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you.  They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord. / These men are grumblers and faultfinders; they follow their own evil desires; they boast about themselves and flatter others for their own advantage.  (Jude 4,16 NIV)

We do not think like God.  We have no basis upon which to make a judgment about God, except to accept that he is absolutely right (which means that we are wrong).  These are just a few of the many passages that reveal to us God’s character.  Man seeks to justify sin so that he can keep on sinning.  God sought to justify the sinner by condemning the sin and nailing it to the cross.

But just because God seeks to be reconciled with us does not mean that he is okay with our sin!  He is appalled at it!  He detests the corruption and filth of our lives here.  But he loves us enough that he sent Jesus to bleed for our cleansing.  So with all that he has gone through for our sakes, maybe we ought to get more in line with his character and get mad at sin.  Get mad at the evil that goes on in the world.  Get mad at the sin in your own life.  Mad enough that you get sick of it and rid your life of it!

-Charles Peterson