RESPECT for the REDEEMER

Riots, looting, stealing, killing, and destruction are happening across much of America. Calls to cancel citizens for simple opinions and to defund the police and civil authority continue. Due process, justice, and the rule of law are being cast aside for mob rule and anarchist activities. Some reports sound like the 1800s in the wild west before many of our territories became states. Bullies from the classrooms to the neighborhood gangs to the highest seats of power in Washington D. C. are pushing their will and way into every aspect of our lives and culture. Reason, the rule of law, civility and simple acts of kindness for our fellow man have, like the baby in the bath water, been thrown out the window by many.

During Jesus’ ministry many of the same things were happening in their culture. In Luke chapter ten, Jesus sends seventy-two disciples out with a message and a mission to spread the word that the kingdom of God has come near. Jesus sent these men two by two in peace and with power from the Lord – including the ability to heal the sick. Jesus told them that those who listened to them and received them were indeed listening to Jesus. In contrast, whoever didn’t listen to the disciple’s message and rejected it were rejecting Jesus.

I remember times as the oldest of four when my parents would send me to give a message to my siblings. Sometimes they listened to me, and sometimes they didn’t. My job was to take them the message. Their job was to receive the message and reply to it with what my parents told them to do. Sometimes I would be in trouble with my parents if my siblings didn’t acknowledge my parent’s message or authority. As a result, I felt like I would be held responsible if they didn’t “mind our parents.” Sometimes I tried to “make them” do my father’s or mother’s will. I cared that my siblings obeyed and didn’t get in trouble, but in actual fact, my siblings decisions to be obedient or not wasn’t my role or responsibility. My job was simply to communicate the message. It was their job to receive and respond or reject it. Sometimes this happens with evangelism. Sometimes we want better for others than they want for themselves. Sometimes we take on jobs and responsibilities that are not and can’t be ours. Can anyone identify with this?

In the story of the seventy-two sent out, Jesus said that if a city received and welcomed them, they were to stay and complete their mission. In contrast, Jesus also said that if a city rejected them or did not welcome them, they were to publicly say, “Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’” Jesus told them to leave those places that rejected his message. Jesus also went on to say that it will be more bearable for Sodom than for that town that rejected the men Jesus sent to them. That has to be terrible. Sodom was destroyed by a fire from heaven so intense that there is not even a trace of it left to this day.

Jesus told those he was sending out before they left that “whoever listens to you, listens to me: whoever rejects you rejects me; but whoever rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10) In my childhood example – when my siblings listened to me, they were listening to my parents. In contrast, when my siblings rejected me as a messenger from our parents and the message I brought, they were in deed rejecting not only my parents but the authority of God. This is a grave thing to reject God.

In the end of the story in Luke, Jesus’ disciples returned with joy at all those who received them and the message they brought from Jesus. They reported that “even the demons submit to us in your name.” That had to be something to see, but at the conclusion of this story, Jesus gives some perspective to the seventy-two. Jesus said, “However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

So what about us today? What relevance can we get out of the story in Luke 10 today? Here are a few thoughts.

1. Like the seventy-two, Jesus sends us on a mission. Matthew 28:18-20 says, “Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

2. As we go on our mission remember what Jesus told his disciples in Luke 10 about their approach to the cities they were sent to visit. In Romans 12:18 the writer commands Christians similarly, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.”

3. Like the seventy-two, we need to know our place and position on this earth. We need to trust in Jesus directions and leadership first and foremost knowing like Paul did in Philippians 4:12-13 “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. In I Timothy 6:6-8 we also see, “But godliness with contentment is great gain.” When we have the right attitude and understand our place and position in this world, I think we can have the same joy the seventy-two described.

4. Keep in the forefront of our minds John 3:16 which says, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” Likewise in I Peter 1:8-9 we read, “Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.” God loves us so much. What a gift He gave and what a reward for faith in Christ!

5. Understand that we are not responsible for the response or lack of response someone makes or doesn’t make to Jesus. It is their responsibility to listen to God. It is also their right to choose to accept or reject Him and His authority. We will see and know what they choose by their actions. In I John 3:9 it says, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.” Those who are rioting, looting, stealing, killing, and causing destruction in our world today are not born of God. We can lead a horse to water, but we can’t make him drink. The same thing is true of the offer of salvation.

6. For all that respond and accept Christ and like the seventy-two in Luke 10, we can be confident in our reward of eternal life with God. The Bible says in I John 5:11-13, “And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.”

7. Don’t worry so much about the little things and the things you can not control. When we work within our spheres of influence and with what we do control, we will often be better received and more effective. Let’s keep our focus on the main and important things. When we do, the little things will fit and fall into place. Have you seen the experiment with the putting rocks, gravel and sand in jars? If we fill our jar with sand, then try to add the gravel and big rocks, they won’t fit. If we put in the big rocks in the jar first, then the smaller gravel and the sand last, we will have our priorities right and be able to fit much more into our (jars) lives and in the right order and proportions. Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” Let’s think about this when life, circumstances, and the evening or all day long ‘news’ stories get us down. Better things are coming for those in Christ.

This is good news. This is important news. This is news worth sharing. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone heard about it?

I hope we can all learn some lessons from Luke 10 and live in the love the Lord provides as we think on these things….

Robin Robbins House ©️
4/21/2021

Bible verses are used with permission from the NIV and ESV.

Censorship and cultural chaos: What’s next?

FB says it is not an editorial group, yet they edit. FB says it is not responsible and has no liability for people’s posts, yet they take responsibility without any liability by deleting, suppressing, banning, censoring, putting up warnings, and limiting the reach/spread and comments of certain posts. FB says certain people, thoughts, ideas, words, and specific phrases are unacceptable and not allowed in our society as determined by their own unknown, unaccountable censors and mathematical algorithms, but other people, thoughts, ideas, words and phrases are acceptable and promoted by these oligarch, tyrannical, tech titans.

Perhaps these Goliaths are pure as the driven snow in their motives and actions – or maybe they are not. Why did T (twit) leave up a post calling for the VP to be hurt? Why are illegal activities including the sale and harming of precious children tolerated on these platforms while Bible verses, godly ideas, ethics, morality, and political opinions that do not call for harm to anyone at anytime or anywhere banned? Why can leaders of other countries call for the elimination of Israel and the death of all her people on their platforms without constraint? These are critical questions that demand an answer. Who decides what is allowed or not, what is right or wrong, and what is truth or a lie? Who is the true arbiter? Who today thinks and acts as if they are the arbiter for our society?

How can liberty, free speech, independence, and peace be preserved, protected and safeguarded in our nation? It will not be on or through these Goliath sites. Shut downs of certain people as well as billion dollar corporations and multiple mom and pop small businesses on A, G, T, and F show clearly that the ‘thought police’ are serious about suppression of truth, prevention of equal and fair trade, and the limiting and elimination of the exchange of ideas. They seem to want to “adjust” what is ‘right’ in their minds and ours including reality.

The removal and revision of actual historical facts, documentation, and evidences has been clearly seen over the past year in the anarchist movements to destroy monuments, buildings, cities, people, and ideas. George Santayana is quoted to have said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” When we do not learn from our past including the mistakes, we will be destined to revisit the same issues and problems again and again. Why is it that some leaders are speaking of and promising a “dark” winter and “dark” times ahead? Must we leave the enlightenment of truth and knowledge including learning the lessons of our past to go back into the dark ages of the past? Why, when there is so much knowledge and information available, do we see a limitation of information and repetitive articles of only one viewpoint? Why are current events on the news not current?

There is a serious movement in our nation by some to “deprogram” and “reprogram” those who do not think like “they” think some should. This is serious. Communist China has almost complete censorship of its society including the ability to cut off one’s ability to buy food and travel. They send citizens to thought reprograming camps. There is censorship of and the elimination of churches throughout the country as Christians are terrorized and tortured by the powers that be. There is even evidence that China is harvesting organs from live political dissidents and prisoners. Is that where we are going?

Reports on the news this day are calling some U S Senators terrorists for their opposing political opinions. Businesses are being called upon by Forbes to never hire anyone with certain ideas or thoughts. Media companies are cancelling people and businesses in political vendettas. The blame game continues. When party “a” in power says we need to get back to work in our economy, it is atrocious, but once party “b” comes to power, it is suddenly a great idea to get the economy back to work. Really?

What is happening in our United States? Over a million Americans have given so much for our freedoms up to and including their last drops of blood. Have we taken these freedoms for granted too long? Perhaps we haven’t held it dear enough and that is why it is almost extinguished and extinct. Abraham Lincoln said, “America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.” Are we destroying ourselves from within today? If freedom in America is not defended and protected, it will be lost.

I know many that read this post will be just like a child warned by a parent or authority figure in a crystal store to only “look and not touch.” Many who read my words will not touch this post with a ten foot pole much less a comment, ‘like’ or any other such expression of feeling for fear of retaliation or being singled out and cancelled out. That’s sad. So many are living in fear today and have no faith. They have believed the rampant fomenting of fear through the media reports from the pandemic to the political and cultural unrest.

I’d like to encourage you to look to the Lord for answers. Read the Word of God. Learn His will for your life. He wrote the book on us. His Word is of peace, reconciliation, love, freedom, and a bright and wonderful eternal future. Cast all your anxieties upon God. Seek your rest in the salvation freely offered through Jesus Christ. Give yourself fully and completely into his service and care. God loves and cares for you and is the only true and real and complete answer to all the ills in our lives and in this world. Don’t live in fear. Live in faith.

Put on the full armor of the Lord like it says in Ephesians 6:10-18. “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 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. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

For those that want in this earthly life and in this country freedom, peace, and a real “united” states in America again, I have this to offer. Spread the “gospel of peace.” Stand up for truth. Speak clearly what is right. Do right and be ethical in your businesses and personal dealings. Conduct yourself as the Lord would want. Be honest. Be faithful. Be better not bitter. Be holy as the Lord is holy. Love your family. Raise your children to know and love the Lord. If we don’t raise our children to be godly, then they will be ungodly. That’s just how it is. We will be either a godly or an ungodly people. We cannot be both. Love your neighbors as yourself. Pray for your enemies. Show kindness and courtesy to all. I don’t like to say it, but be patient. I know it is hard to be patient. I want things fixed now and before now would have been better in my mind. In fact, why did America have to go down this road? I think it is because we, as a nation, have rejected the Redeemer to make our own rules and self-righteousness. This is idolatry, and God won’t stand for it.

To those who are Christians, remember that Christians will be hated and persecuted. No surprise here. Jesus, the holy, sinless Son of God, was hated, reviled, rejected, and relegated to death on a cross. All Christ’s followers should not be surprised that they may be persecuted. Don’t fear. Don’t give up. God was willing to save even Sodom and Gomorrah if only 10 righteous were found in its midst. Don’t back down. Be peaceful not pugnacious. Never run away, for your Father in Heaven is Sovereign and we are in His army. Walk in the Light. Live confidently in your faith. Supplant every fear with faith. Have joy in the Lord. Pray without ceasing. Let the Spirit work in you and through you for His will and way. Always move forward in the power of His might and not your own.

Remember that the ‘world’ will not understand or ‘get’ you. God still uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. (I Cor. 1:27) Do what you are called by God to do, and then — be still and KNOW that GOD is GOD. God’s got all this. May God bless our nation and you in His will. RRH 1/12/2021