Angela Lu writes for World magazine:

The ad starts with a soft choral singing of “California Dreaming,” and small white balls falling out of the sky like snowflakes onto sequoia forests, the Golden Gate bridge, downtown Los Angeles, the beach. Regular folks look up in wonder, enjoying the “snowfall” until one man joyously finds a red ball in his hand. The screen cuts away to the pseudo-religious phrase “Believe in something bigger,” and the purpose of the ad: California Lottery Powerball with jackpots starting at $40 million.

The TV spot, along with billboards that include moving images of the woman’s suffrage movement, the moon landing, and the fall of the Berlin wall with just the word “Believe” in the corner, has been criticized by commentators as tricking citizens—especially the poor—into believing a lie. The odds of hitting the Powerball’s 6-number jackpot are more than 175 million to one.

Ad agency David&Goliath expands on its campaign saying the phrase “isn’t just a tagline, it’s a mindset—one that inspires people to think beyond what’s possible. To be part of a movement of optimism and larger-than-life dreams, and to serve as a filter for the Lottery and the people who play.”

And often those who fall for this optimism are those who need the money the most. A PBS report last year found that households that earn less than $13,000 a year spend 9 percent of their income on lottery tickets. Those who feel poor buy twice as many lottery tickets.

Read the rest of this excellent article by clicking here.

It says a lot about a society — none of it good — when it is willing to raise revenue by selling false hope to the desperate poor, and the middle class shrugs off the exploitation by saying, “Hey, it’s only a game, and I enjoy playing.” How selfish is a society in which “believe in something bigger” means realizing the ultimate narcissistic fantasy of sudden “something for nothing” wealth? Who can show them what a life of faith in something bigger actually looks like?

The author’s conclusion is spot-on: God redeems the poor, and that includes “the poor, ordinary things in our lives, including ourselves” that are of greater value than all the world’s wealth. Let us walk in his paths — and teach others his ways as well.

Watch the California Lottery ad by clicking here.
Learn more about a Christian response to gambling by clicking here.

Only God can give you the comfort you need in your sorrow and pain. Don’t blame him. Allow him to wrap his arms around you. Open your heart to the warmth of his comforting love. Trust him to bring good out of evil.

The Bible says God is able to make all things work together for good in the lives of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28) When life knocks you down, turn to God in tears. Love God and let him love you back, then knuckle down and push through. Don’t give up, no matter how hard it gets. His comfort and strength will carry you.

And most importantly, look for God’s purpose in the suffering. It won’t be obvious at first, but God is up to something in this awful mess. If you trust him and let Jesus show you the way through the dark night, the light of dawn, when it comes, will bring great joy.

Sow seeds of injustice, reap a harvest of decay and death

One of the devil’s most clever schemes laid against the Church is obscuring the actual message of Scripture and tricking preachers / teachers into declaring only part of the truth — and to the wrong audience on top of that.

The enemy has a lot to celebrate when he can deceive us into using a prophetic passage, meant for believers, to preach an evangelistic message for the lost.

For example, consider Galatians 6: 7-8, in the KJV’s masterfully poetic rendering:

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

No one but the Lord could count the times we have used this passage to warn the lost that their sins will take them to eternity in hell.

The problem is, the author isn’t speaking to the lost.

Let’s add another translation to the mix to aid our understanding:

Don’t be misled — you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. (NLT)

While it’s true that God-less people will, after death, be cast into the second death, verse 1 of this passage makes it clear the apostle Paul is not talking about lost souls but rather is speaking to believers about situations in which another believer is overcome by sin. And while the overcome believer does face the prospect of harvesting decay and death, Paul’s “reap what you sow” warning actually is directed to Christians who think they are too important to come to the aid of another believer who is in danger (v.3).

So what is Paul saying to us “dear brothers and sisters”? How are we mocking God and his justice?

Imagine, if you will, a trip to the beach. You are happily building sandcastles with the kids when a woman wading in the surf is grabbed by a riptide and pulled out into deep water. She’s flailing about and calling for help, fearfully at first, then angrily when you delay responding. But you don’t run into the water to help — and she drowns.

That would be bad enough, but add to the story that the drowning person was your sister.

Would you expect to receive a reward from the Lord if you allowed your sister to drown?

Going back to verse 1, Paul is talking about how godly Christians should respond when other believers are being overcome by sin — helping them get back on the right path. The “God is not mocked; you will reap what you sow” message of verses 7-8 is directed at the not-godly Christians who can’t be bothered to help people drowning in sin.

Multitudes — inside the church and out — are being overcome. Some are drowning in sin of their own choosing; others are being drowned by the sin of others. Children are abused and neglected. Broken souls try to ease the pain with alcohol or other drugs. They try to fill the void with sexual escapades and deviance. They pursue wealth — working themselves to death or wasting what little they have on gambling. Vast numbers are stuck in crushing poverty because no one has ever taught them how to provide for themselves. The weak and vulnerable fall into the hands of traffickers and slavers.

And Christians by the millions are not helping.

Paul wants to know if we think we are too important to turn aside and help. Is what we are busy with so urgent that we can’t interrupt it to rescue someone about to be overcome and die? He warns that the death and decay we are about to inherit is the result of our own decision to indulge ourselves when we know someone else is being overcome by evil.

One application of this truth has been unfolding in the United States for a century and finally has begun accelerating at a rate that previously distracted Christians have noticed. The foundation of civilized society has been badly eroded, and the whole structure is about to come crashing down.

What did we think would happen in a nation when God’s people didn’t gently restore neighbors who were being overcome by poverty and its thugs? Instead, we chose to “look out for No. 1″ and leave the poor soul to the government.

The poor soul looked to God’s people and saw no one cared. Like the drowning sister, fear simmered into anger, which over several generations begins to boil into rage. Multiply that by millions and throw in demagogues who don’t hesitate to manipulate that rage for their own purposes. How many generations must pass before that society explodes and the “important” people find their comfort has been replaced with death and decay? If you are paying any attention at all, the fields in America and all over the world are “white unto harvest” for destruction.

Far too many preachers / teachers have limited the Gospel to a spiritual message about life after death. In doing that, we diminish the Good News of redemption from captivity and freedom to live abundant, as well as eternal, lives. Even worse, we harden our people’s hearts against the Father of Orphans, the Husband of Widows, the Welcomer of Strangers, the Friend of Slaves, Addicts, and Prisoners.

We have closed our ears to the cries of the poor and oppressed. We have focused our proclamation on God’s just punishment of wicked souls who will not worship him — and forgotten the Almighty’s justice also is good news for those who suffer in any kind of slavery and who are oppressed by all kinds of sin.

When we are too self-absorbed, preoccupied, and distracted to be bothered about personally helping people in need — and insist we will nonetheless inherit the riches of God’s kingdom — we mock the one who clearly told us the Kingdom is reserved for those who help “the least of these my brothers and sisters.” When God’s people turn a deaf ear to the cries of souls in need, the Almighty turns a deaf ear to them. When they stubbornly persist in ignoring the poor and oppressed, the Lord sends them into captivity in a far land until they learn their lesson.

God’s own people reap a harvest of decay and death because they sowed seeds of apathy and self-absorption.

How to reap a harvest of blessing instead? Verses 9-10: Don’t get tired of doing what is good and don’t give up. Whenever you have the opportunity, “do good to everyone — especially to those in the family of faith.” In the end, we can’t just give a little money and expect someone else to do the hard work. Verse 5: For we are each responsible for our own conduct.

——
For what it’s worth, this isn’t the only prophetic passage we twist to evangelistic ends.

… and if you have been planting seeds of “Only look out for #1, leave the poor to the government,” what do you think that harvest will be? To borrow a phrase, those fields are “white unto harvest.”

Mission Network News reports: Attacks against Christians in Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egypt are unprecedented. “They’re very brazen. We’re talking women being raped in broad daylight, men being attacked, or the homes of Christians being ransacked. And really, they have no recourse,” says Brittany Tedesco, Africa director for Christian Aid Mission.

Despite that, one ministry leader and his co-workers are determined to not flee the community because many Egyptians are open to the message of Jesus: “The nominal Muslims are even frightened by what they’re seeing from this government because it is so radical. This is not what they were wanting for their nation. To see these events unfold has been frightening for them as well.”

Read the full story by clicking here.
Video: Police watch violent attack on Christian funeral
Make a difference for persecuted Christians through International Christian Concern or Christian Solidarity International.

If your joy, however, wells up from deep gratitude for what God has done for you in Christ, it will endure through even the greatest trial and you will live a life of worship, always glorifying God with word and deed, regardless of — or because of — the trials that come your way.

“Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe.” (Hebrews 12:28 NLT)

I got a Facebook message the other day warning me that another of my Facebook “friends” is “a bully, rude and condescending,” a liar and imposter. Unlike the messager, I won’t divulge names, but the accuser appears to formerly have been connected to the Toronto School of Theology. He does appear to be correct that the accused claims to have a ThM from Princeton Theological Seminary; the PTS website does not list the ThM among its current degree plans.

When I asked the accuser why he would bother others with a personal quarrel, he replied, “You are a judgmental and horrible human being” and told me he had defriended me. It appears the accuser also went on to either delete his Facebook page or block me from finding him.

All I can say to that is, “Thank you.” I get valuable insight into a man’s heart when he responds to a question with a curse.

Friends, if you have a quarrel with someone, a gossip campaign on Facebook is hardly a WWJD strategy.

Then one day, Arce reports, Colon was visiting a friend at the Eastern Correctional Facility in Ulster County, New York. He looked across the room and saw Michael Rowe, one of the men who had murdered his brother. Colon walked straight up to Rowe and said: “Brother, I’ve been praying for you. I forgave you. I’ve been praying I would see you again.”

In prison, Rowe was befriended by Julio Medina of Exodus Transitional Community, which helps inmates prepare to re-enter the free world, Arce reports. Rowe began pursuing an education behind bars, and Colon began visiting him regularly. The day Rowe graduated, Colon came to the ceremony. He also spoke on Rowe’s behalf at his parole hearing. When Rowe was paroled in mid-April after 20 years in prison, he started working side by side with Colon at Exodus.

The CNN Belief Blog article isn’t particularly well written, but the video is a very moving testimony to the power of Christ to lift us above our brokenness and use us to create justice in the most unlikely places.

Learn more about Exodus Transitional Community by clicking here.
Reblogged from Multiply Justice.

What then do we make of religion that doesn’t even attempt behavior modification? Teachers tell the men to “solve” the lust problem by requiring the women to cover themselves from head to toe. Not only does the degenerate man not deal with his sin nature before God, he isn’t even challenged to modify his behavior. Does such religion even rise to the level of hypocrisy? And when those teachers then tell the men that even their best efforts at behavior modification still might be rejected by the Deity, what does that do but fill them with despair … and set some of them on a mission to impress the Deity with an outrageous act of self-sacrifice.

The Almighty is a holy God of love, redemption, forgiveness, and healing. We may pursue religion, but he pursues relationship.

Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? (Galatians 4:8, 9 NLT)

You are in a hard place. You are tempted to give up. But give up following Jesus? What’s the alternative? He has the words of life! Keep pushing. The one who endures to the end will be saved.