Success

People often wonder how I've become so successful thus far in my life — how I achieve every ambition I strive towards.  It's not just a strong sense of self-determination coupled with self-discipline.  Those play a role as part of my temperament, but it's not by my work alone.  I'll explain briefly what it is.  Philippians 1:6, the Apostle Paul writing to the church of Philippi, I am sure of this, that He who started a good work in you will carry it on to the completion until the day of Christ Jesus.  That is the Christian life.  We are the people in whom God began a good work; God has entered inside us and is working in us and He will continue to complete the work that He began until the day Christ comes again.  We are not just people who have taken up a certain theory and are trying to practise it; it is God doing something real in us and through us.  Philippians 2:12-13, ...Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.  For it is God who is working in you, enabling you both to will and to act for His good purpose.  It is of God's own good pleasure that He is working in us both to will and to act — our highest thoughts, our purest aspirations, and our very righteous inclinations are from and of God, and they are brought into being in us by God Himself.  God has given me each of my aspirations that I possess — past, present, and future — and by obeying Him and loving Him and fearing Him reverently, He has established me, and He is cognisant of my gratefulness.  Again, it is not merely by my power alone, for I have had to come to Him in prayer multiple times to find strength that I could only find in Him.  The glory and the credit all go to God.

Defeat Your Misery

When we're miserable, we choose to remain in that condition.  We have all the reason in the world not to be miserable, but we choose to remain that way and not do anything about it and just complain, living in the lie (although incognisant of it) that others feeding into our self-pity may resolve the issue.  Not everybody continually whines and complains, but there is a certain amount of negativity on their minds that necessitates its elimination.  Eliminate the negative and accentuate the positive.  What helps me when I'm miserable is worship.  I turn on some Christian music and play it loud and sing loudly (which I would never do in public, by the way) — I praise God's name, and there are several psalms that speak to that.  Or I'll read the Bible or a book I have on Christian doctrine.  Or I'll pray and talk with God for 20 minutes or so, sometimes less.  No matter which spiritual approach I take, I am no longer miserable.  I'm not saying these are the only approaches one should take, but just some things everyone should ruminate upon.  A "secular" approach I take, for example, is writing poetry — writing my thoughts and feelings down.  You just have to learn how to displace your negativity healthfully.  There is always a way, and whichever way, God always delivers it to you.

Do Not Be Discouraged

Unbelievers say that to believe in God you must be narrow minded and weak minded — that rationality is stronger than faith.  But I ask:  How?  What makes the Christian mind who believe in our invisible, powerful God weaker than the "rational" mind who chooses to believe only in things you can perceive and are capable of fathoming — materials directly in front of you?  Contrary to popular belief, the Christian mind believes in both perception and faith; the "rational" mind does not accept the latter.  So, who's more narrow minded?  It takes a mental and spiritual strength to believe in and have faith in our powerful God, not the antithesis.  Anyone who believes that the human spirit does not exist is in an foolish denial — our spirit is what distinguishes us from animals.  The "soul" is synonymous to spirit, and being spiritual beings we have spiritual assets required to glorify God.  Set your mind on merely perceptible things, and you will find that your faith set on those attributes are very limited.  God is limitless — He is infinite and exists outside of time.  Completely fathoming His Being is an impossible feat, but because of His amazing grace we can still know Him because as our Father, He desires to know us and He makes that possible.  Our calling is not to understand God; our calling is to love Him, know Him, serve others through Him, and throughout our entire lives give Him glory.  The purpose of my writing all this is to encourage all fellow Christians not to be discouraged by unbelievers.  As I explain in my blog entry, The Armour of God, our enemy is Satan, not unbelievers.  Satan works through their discouragements and deceits as a means to an end; they're simply puppets to him.  But the individual person is not our ultimate enemy; the enemy is Satan.  Rational arguments with the person will bring no resolution to them — no liberating realisation to bring them to Christ, which I also explain in the aforementioned blog entry.  It's a battle of the heart and spirit, not of the mind.  To battle against the wiles Satan uses through unbelievers, practise utilising the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23).  Dissension is not the answer.

Pick Up Your Cross Daily

I sometimes have an overwhelming desire to remain motionless — sequester myself from society and the busyness of people as they carry out their seemingly frivolous lives.  I just want to seal myself inside a cocoon and hibernate until the stresses that life creates subside.  But I am wholly cognisant of this asinine thought pattern because in order for stress to be eliminated you have to deal with it, not hide away like a coward and just wish for them to magically dissipate.  So as I sequester myself inside my time frozen cocoon I forcefully catapult myself outside and just live life.  As a prospecting pastor I realise that this is a foolish thinking pattern, but I'm still human.  I still have faults; I am nowhere near to being flawless and I never will be, so neither should people expect me to be so flawless or even strive towards it.  It is a futile attempt.  The attempt of its futility alone would bring with it more unnecessary stress and strife.

So why, as human beings, do we strive towards perfection?  To me, a perfect life would be boring.  Neither is there such a thing as a "normal life"; there's just life.  Life is not some invisible construct that drives unknown forces such as "luck" and "bad luck."  Luck is the most quintessential human delusion.  Life is simply a gift given by God.  How you decide to live your life is just life — not a normal life, or a rich life, or a poor life.  The poor can be richer than the rich just as the rich can be poorer than the poor.  But that depends on how one chooses to perceive things.  For me, as a Christian, the poor man who has Jesus Christ in his heart is far richer than the rich man who does not have Jesus Christ.  In the same way, an atheist can view that as completely insignificant, for they refuse to believe in something greater than their own logic — human logic, overall, which is in itself of fleeting value, ergo ultimately undependable and unreliable.  Furthermore, as a Christian and therefore God's authority being the ultimate authority and the wisdom He has decided to bless me with in which I now write, I believe myself to be correct in all that I speak in matters of God because I speak on God's authority.  Do not become presumptuous and choose to believe that I am saying I'm never wrong; I'm wrong plenty of times.  When it comes to matters of God, however, I only speak them when I know they are indubitably true, for it is the Holy Spirit speaking through me on God's authority.  Ergo, the poor man in Jesus Christ is far richer than the rich man without Jesus Christ, and no matter the opposition I may face, that fact, as it appears to me, will always remain true.  Yet to the atheist mind, it is false, simply due to their limited logic.  However, in spite of their belief in its professed falsity, they are always erroneous because of the authority of God, who has authority over all things and all beings.  Belief in God does not bring Him into existence; He does not need us to believe in order for Him to exist.  He just simply is.  A large number of people who do not believe in His existence and authority does not make either of those things false.  Because this is infallibly true, their minds grow frustrated and therefore come into a state of contention.

It is often because of this atheistic contention that I often wish to sequester myself inside my cocoon of complete isolation.  Not forever, though.  Only for a time to get a break, but because this is life I will never get a break, and so I continually seek the comfort of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit may decide to divinely administer Himself unto me as guided by Jesus Christ, or He may choose to act through another human being — a fellow brother or sister of Christ.  However He decides to administer Himself always comes as a surprise, and comfortingly so, and always at the perfect time.  However, it is fair to say that not all atheists are contentious, of course.  As the majority stands out, that's where the focus often relies.  If it's not the majority, statistically, then it carries with it an overabundance of animosity and negativity that makes it stand out more than it should.  A Christian example is the Westboro Baptist Church, whose members preach extreme hatred and condemnation towards homosexuals.

I have spouted enough exposition, so now to this blog entry's topic:  It is indubitably true that the Bible (and therefore God's Word) condemns homosexuality as an abominable sin, among other sins, but the Bible also teaches love and mercy, especially towards our enemies.  (Homosexuals are not our enemy, but they feel that they are.)  It is also indubitably true that not all Christians (most, actually) are like WBC, but because they are indwelled with such a spirit of animosity, negativity, hatred, and even iniquity, they stick out the most and people start to believe that all Christians are like WBC church members and share their beliefs (or dare I say, cult members).  That belief is a lie.  Why it has become such a prevailing dilemma in modern times, I do not know.  It's on the Devil's agenda for whatever reason, and I cannot say what that reason is other than to bring more and more persecution against innocent Christians who live to exemplify and teach the love and grace of Jesus Christ.  (Christians who spread such animosity and hatred towards homosexuals and other people are incognisant of their support of Satan's agenda.)  Instead of focusing on grace, people now prefer to focus on the Law.  The Law is only applicable now in which it points out your sin in order for you to recognise it, and because you recognise it you can then repent of the sin immediately because of the grace of Jesus Christ.  We no longer have to offer various kinds of sacrifices that was required under the Law in the Old Testament because Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice — the ultimate peace offering. We are no longer under Law, but under grace, no longer under the dominion of sin (Romans 6:14).  People have forgotten this.

People justify that because homosexuals "love" each other and because God is love, homosexuality must therefore be legitimate.  The hilarity of this fallacy amuses me.  Following this line of logic, we all love animals and because we love them and God is love that would legitimise bestiality as well, but we don't utilise this line of logic here because of how repulsive the act is; and homosexuality is equally repulsive.  They are equally repulsive because God says that they're both an abomination and both must not be practised in the same sentence (Leviticus 18:23).  Yes, God is love, but He is not only love.  He is also righteous, and holy, and just, and merciful, and when necessary He is wrathful, and many other characteristics.  All of His characteristics work together as one; He does not just utilise one feature one at a time.  That is how our characters function as finite beings within time.  But God is infinite, who exists outside of time, ergo all of His holy characteristics function as one.  Yet in spite of His manifold characteristics, they all act according to His love.  Just as a parent's tough love and discipline are driven by their unconditional love for their child, which is pure, so it is the exact same thing with God, our Father.

God has clearly stated multiple times in the Scriptures that homosexuality is a sin, as well as many other sins.  There is absolutely no scriptural evidence to believe the contrary.  Only through foolish deniability and the rejection of God's Word can the contrary be believed.  It's acceptable to love somebody of the same sex, but just because you love them does not mean it has to be sexual.  Love does not need to be sexual in order for it to be love.  Homosexuality is simply a product of our sinful condition.  If it were completely and utterly natural, and some people seem to believe, then God would have created Adam and Joe along with Eve and Mary, not just plainly Adam and Eve.  It is truly that simple, and because it is that simple, for some dastardly strange reason people choose not to accept its simplicity and instead attempt to formulate something more complex to justify a worldly belief of theirs that God's authoritative Word contradicts, forcing the dilemma to drag on and on when it shouldn't even be a debate at all.  When God created Adam and Eve, they complemented each other perfectly, and I mean perfection in its full essence.  The relationship between man and woman was utterly perfect, and so their love was pure — completely undefiled.  And it was also man and woman so that they could birth more of God's children onto the earth; we cannot fulfil that God-given purpose through homosexuality.  As a result of Eve's deception to her husband and Adam choosing to obey his wife over God, their relationship went from being perfectly complementary to being defiled, creating an almost eternal trouble in all future marriages between husband and wife (as well as other man to female interrelationships).  This is what God means when He says to Eve, " 'Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you' " (Genesis 3:16).  I say "almost eternal" because when we are with our Lord Jesus Christ, this will not longer matter, for there will be no marriage in Heaven (Mark 12:25).

However, do not fret, and do not fear.  Many Christians choose to condemn homosexuality and those suffering under its dominion, and they refuse to preach grace, love, mercy, and forgiveness.  They point out the problem but don't offer a solution.  Many will quote I Corinthians 6:9-10 that lists homosexuals (and many other types of sinners!) who will not inherit the kingdom of God.  However, they always foolishly leave out verse 11, which Paul subsequently writes:  Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.  Paul is talking about baptism.  Some people of the Corinthian church at this time were guilty of the sins listed in verses 9 & 10, but Paul points out that all of those sins are unnatural because of the condition of their faith, including homosexuality!  But Paul also mentions that some of them were like this because they were washed, sanctified, and justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit of our God.  That is exactly what baptism does.  Through baptism your past, present, and future sins are all justified, for you are sanctified through the receiving of the Holy Spirit through baptism, ergo the sins they were guilty of were (and still are) unnatural.  However, after confession, forsaking the sin is the last and most vital step.  If you repent of a sin yet still commit the sin, you are still guilty of it.  Proverbs 28:13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.  It is not just confessing the sin, but no longer practising the sin that enables the mercy of God upon you.  A criminal who serves his or her sentence and yet still commits the same crime after being exonerated at the completion of their sentence is still guilty of the crime.  Or say you're a reformed drug addict.  If you start indulging the drug again, are you still purified from it?  Of course not!  It is the same exact thing with sin — repent of the sin, resulting in God's immediate forgiveness, yet continue to commit the sin and you are still guilty of that sin.  Forgiveness, even with the effects of baptism, does not grant you permission to freely commit sin and/or dwell in a particular sin; forgiveness is the recognition of the poison of your sin as God willingly cleanses you from its poison.  However, for forgiveness to do its complete work, you have to put in a disciplined effort by forsaking the sin, otherwise you will never be free from its bondage.  I am not saying that it's your work that saves you; God's forgiveness through Christ saves you, but you still have to put in some actual effort to fully conquer the sin.  Another thing that Christian condemners leave out is I John 1:9:  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  I cannot stress that verse and the aforementioned proverb enough in my life.  Those two verses are key.

With all of that I now say:  It is very possible and permissible for a Christian to love a homosexual.  Because we love all people, including homosexuals, we wish to point out the sin in order for them to recognise it so that they may repent of it and no longer live under its dominion, and it is our responsibility as Christians to do so.  The solution to not live in homosexuality is simple:  practising celibacy.  Many people think of our free will as a curse or God's weakness or mistake.  But they are terribly mistaken.  A God who forces us to love Him or instills fear for our life into us in order to revere Him is not a loving God at all.  When love is forced, it is not genuine and true, and that's what God wants from us — to genuinely and truly love Him with all our heart.  Our parents do not force us to love them or respect them; we love them simply because we choose to and we choose to respect them as we mature into adults.  And so it is with our Heavenly Father.  Sure, our parents give us reasons to love them (or hate them, for such unfortunate souls of abuse or neglect).  God has given us a multitude of reasons to love Him, the largest being the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, dying for our sins when we don't deserve that in any way.  Any person who has a reason to hate God desperately searches for those reasons and misunderstands His nature.  Because God wants our love for Him to be genuine and true, He has blessed us with the free will to love or hate Him, which the latter has eternal consequences, whether one chooses to believe that or not; and the remarkable and unfathomable thing with the latter is that if you choose to hate God, He still loves you!  For if you change your mind at a later time, He'll still embrace you with open arms.  And we become spiritually mature in revering God and His ultimate authority as a response to our growing faith and trust in Him.  We can either choose to defeat our sin or to submit to it, and in order to defeat whatever sin may enslave us, it may require some necessary and arduous sacrifices.  The sacrifice for homosexuality is celibacy for one's entire earthly life — in this way, one can see how free will is a gift as one chooses to conquer sin and its dominion over him or her.  But consider how infinitesimal that sacrifice is to make for Jesus Christ when He gave His life for every single one of us.  No sacrifice is greater than that.  In order to live for Christ, we have to make many sacrifices — we have Jesus Christ to enable us to pick up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23).

Principles for Living in Harmony, Part II: Rejoice & Sympathise

"Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep" (Romans 12:15).  The next principle we'll be exploring is to rejoice and sympathise with others.  It's much easier to celebrate and have a good time with someone who's already having a good time than it is to sympathise with someone and have a heartfelt moment with them, especially to the point of tears.

Proverbs 24:17, Don't gloat when your enemy falls, and don't let your heart rejoice when he stumbles.  The first thing I did when I first learnt of Osama bin Laden's death on May 2, 2011 was rejoice.  I remember that day very vividly — where I was and what I was doing.  I was stationed at the 2nd Infantry Division Band at Camp Red Cloud in South Korea, and I was eating lunch in the food court on camp; I was eating Popeye's chicken and I just happened to hear it on the news.  I experienced an immense feeling of joy and relief with a huge smile on my face, and I made it known to the world.  In spite of what he has done, rejoicing is the wrong reaction.  I regretted my response to his death a little later on when I became wiser.  The proverb continues in the following verse, "or the LORD will see, be displeased, and turn His wrath away from him."  We definitely do not want the iniquity of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to continue, but when they're killed it's wrong to rejoice in their deaths.  Psalm 33:1, Rejoice in the LORD, you righteous ones; praise from the upright is beautiful.  The only thing we're supposed to rejoice in and praise is the living God, not death, and this psalm goes on to say that we are RIGHTEOUS ONES.  As righteous ones, does it make sense to rejoice in the deaths of our enemies?  As Christians and therefore followers of Christ, do you think this is how Christ would want us to react?  Absolutely not!  Righteousness is not rejoicing in the death of our enemies.  God intended each person to be children of God, and the death of the lost is not to be celebrated, but rather mourned since they never had a chance to know Jesus Christ.  That, to me, is the saddest thing I can think of:  never knowing Christ.  For those of you who do know Christ, could you imagine yourself dying before you ever knew Him?  It's sad, isn't it?  I think it's quite depressing.  We are to rejoice in Christ at all times (Philippians 4:4 and I Thessalonians 5:16).

Let's quickly examine David.  We all know this event pretty well.  After David slew Goliath in I Samuel 17 and rose in military authority at the hand of King Saul, Saul began to grow paranoid that David would try to usurp the throne (starting with his jealousy of David when the people began saying, "Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands" [I Samuel 18:7]).  As Saul's paranoia increased exponentially, he eventually drove David to flee (and men who knew David to be the next anointed king remained faithful to him and came with him).  Since David had fled, Saul began to search for him with a portion of his army.  However, a time came when the Philistines became a threat again and Saul had to repel their attack, but he died in battle along with his son, Jonathan.  When the news reached David, instead of rejoicing he wept, mourned, and fasted (II Samuel 1:12) because the Lord's anointed had died.  An enemy of David who had sworn to kill David was wept and mourned over when he was justly killed.  The natural inclination is to rejoice and celebrate, but David saw the sorrow of it and wept and mourned.  That is true compassion.

Another form of wrongful rejoicing is to rejoice in yourself.  James 4:16-17, But as it is, you boast in your arrogance.  All such boasting is evil.  So, for the person who knows to do good and doesn't do it, it is a sin.  When we are blessed with successes in our lives we often grow prideful and boast about ourselves in our conceit and our own actions rather than giving the glory to God.  Through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, James says that this is evil, and that it's a sin.  Ecclesiastes 11:9, Rejoice, young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth.  And walk in the ways of your heart and in the sights of your eyes; but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgement.  It is very important to start rejoicing in God in our youth and for our hearts to be glad in His name.  It's very easy to notice that those who do not start rejoicing in Him at an early age usually end up not rejoicing in Him in a later age, and those who do rejoice in Him in their youth typically continue to rejoice in Him throughout their adulthood.  That's not always the case, but it is the average.  The author of Ecclesiastes advises the youth to walk in the way of his or her heart but to be aware that for all the things they do in their life, they will be judged and held accountable for them.  In other words, you have the choice to do whatever you want, but be conscious of the fact that when the proper time comes, God will judge you according to your actions.  It is because of this that most of us are responsible enough to keep God's commands as opposed to doing whatever we want.  This is exactly why it's important to start rejoicing in God in our youth so that His love and good will be in our hearts at an early age so we can continue to walk in His ways into adulthood.

Psalm 2:11, Serve the LORD with reverential awe, and rejoice with trembling.  This is exactly how we are to serve and praise God.  To serve Him with reverential awe is to revere Him, which is to fear Him out of respect, not fear and anxiety.  In the same way we are to rejoice and worship Him in reverence.  Ecclesiastes 3:12, I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and enjoy the good life.  There is nothing better for us than to rejoice in our God in this reverential way and live the good, blessed life He gives us in return.

Jesus advises in Luke 10:20, "However, don't rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."  This is a perfect reason to rejoice in God — because our names are written in the Book of Life if you have His Son and Holy Spirit.  We are not to rejoice because the Holy Spirit can submit to us, but that because of the Holy Spirit we are promised the eternal life in Heaven, for our names are inscribed therein.  We will see Jesus once again, and for all eternity, which is another reason to rejoice together:  "So you also have sorrow now.  But I will see you again.  Your hearts will rejoice, and no one will rob you of your joy" (John 16:22).  Jesus promises us that we will see Him again, and our hearts will be filled with utter joy and we will rejoice as we sing a new song:  You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals; because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9).  NO ONE can take this joy away from us.

Another reason to rejoice with others is when they come to Christ:  Now I am rejoicing, not because you were grieved, but because your grief led to repentance.  For you were grieved as God willed, so that you didn't experience any loss from us (II Corinthians 7:9).  We don't rejoice in the grief of the lost, but we rejoice in that their grief leads them to Christ by their repentance, for God had permitted their necessary grieving so that they wouldn't "experience any loss from us."  I Peter 1:6-7, You rejoice in this, though now for a short time you have had to be distressed by various trials so that the genuineness of your faith — more valuable than gold, which perishes though refined by fire — may result in praise, glory, and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.  We are to rejoice in passing our trials (and being tried in the first place) so that through this faith, we may praise and give honour and glory to Jesus Christ when He returns.  This faith is extremely powerful because:  You love Him, though you have not seen Him.  And though not seeing Him now, you believe in Him and rejoice with inexpressible and glorious joy… (I Peter 1:8).  We love the only, loving Deity whom we have not seen and in spite of that we rejoice in His name with inexplicable joy because of our faith and the salvation we receive for our souls through Him.  And we are also to rejoice because we share the same sufferings of Christ in order to rejoice at His revelation (I Peter 4:13).

Psalm 119:50, This is my comfort in my affliction:  Your promise has given me life.  When we are afflicted, God's Word and the life He has given us should be enough to comfort us in troublesome times.  Scripture was written to encourage and instruct us so that we may endure with the Word:  For whatever was written before was written for our instruction, so that through our endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we may have hope (Romans 15:4).  When I'm stressed out, I often remember certain passages in Scripture and what God has done in my life.  When I recall those passages and moments that God has gotten me through, the Holy Spirit comforts me.  God has given me an enriched life in the Spirit and a comparatively wealthy life — that is, compared to the least fortunate people on certain areas of the globe.  I am materialistically better off than a large number of people in Africa and Guatemala, as an example, and for that I am grateful and comforted when I am afflicted.  Don't get me wrong, the fact that there are people living in terrible conditions and poverty breaks my heart and I want to do so much for them, but I'm grateful that I'm not in their situation because I can use my resources to preach to them and lead them to Christ.  This is why it is my desire to work in missions as often as I can.  If you're having difficulty finding comfort in God's Word, then ask Him for it:  May Your faithful love comfort me, as You promised Your servant (Psalm 119:76).  God made a promise to comfort us whenever needed; all we need to do is ask.  The Holy Spirit isn't readily available to us for no reason; He's there to give us comfort and guidance because God is the God of all comfort (II Corinthians 1:3).

Second Corinthians 1:4, He comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction, through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.  People like to test the believers' faith by asking us why bad things always happen to good people.  They forget that bad things happen to bad people just as often; they just prefer to focus on the anomaly as a poor excuse to justify God's "falsity."  We are tested and afflicted so we can learn of God's comfort and ultimately be comforted by Him, which gives us the willingness and the capacity to sympathise with and comfort others who've experienced the same thing, or lesser or even greater things.  I've had to get out of my comfort zone with this rather recently.  I'm not a very emotional person, and I don't show raw emotions very easily; that's just who I am.  That being the case, I don't cry very easily either and it's not because of the silly pride that men have that they don't cry often and neither is it because I think or thought that crying is a sign of weakness; rather, it is just the opposite.  I just simply don't cry very easily.  However, recently on a men's retreat organisation called Edge Venture, I've sat down with men and cried with them.  In many cases I cried like a baby because I sympathised with them.  Sometimes we just have to sit down with a fellow believer whom we love and just cry with them and let them know we love them and understand their predicament.  In a perfect world, good things will happen to everybody all the time, but this is not a perfect world; everyone will inevitably face bad and terrible tribulations no matter how "good" or "bad" you are.  It doesn't matter what kind of person someone is; it is our duty as Christians to weep and sympathise with every person, even our enemies.  …So now you should forgive and comfort him instead; otherwise, this one may be overwhelmed by excessive grief (II Corinthians 2:7).  Not only are we supposed to forgive our enemies of their trespasses against us (Matthew 6:14-15), but we are also supposed to comfort them through their tribulations so their grief won't consume them.  And this goes with fellow believers as well, and I argue that it should be more so with them.  Being overwhelmed by excessive grief is dangerous, for it can cause a person to stray from Christ.  This is not only grief of, say, losing a loved one.  It can be the grief of sin, and I've experienced such immense grief from sin that I believed I was incapable of being loved by God for a long time.  Knowledgeably, I knew that I was wrong, but I had consistent trouble believing it.  And it wasn't until I experienced the extreme love and comfort from fellow believers that I realised the falsity of this cognitive bias and finally accepted that God loves me for who I am no matter what I've done and no matter what I do (this was actually at an Edge Venture retreat as a participant).

It's not just my personal opinion that we must sit down and comfort others no matter who they are; it's a duty that Christ sets upon us.  If then there is any encouragement in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by thinking the same way, having the same love, sharing the same feelings, focusing on one goal (Philippians 2:1-2).  If we have been encouraged by Christ, received His comforting love, participated in fellowship with the Holy Spirit and other believers, then it is our absolute responsibility to think the same exact way as Christ did and feel the same love for people that He has for us towards people, believers and unbelievers alike.  Not only that, but this Scripture also says that we must share those feelings with others, not keep it all to ourselves.  First Thessalonians 5:11, Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.  By this we must "warn those who are lazy, comfort the discouraged, help the weak, [and] be patient with everyone" (I Thessalonians 5:14; brackets added).

Second Corinthians 13:11, Finally, brothers, rejoice.  Be restored, be encouraged, be of the same mind, be at peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.  Through comforting others we will then be able to rejoice with them as well.  It's not one or the other; they both work together.  They will be restored just as we were restored, encouraged through the faith, possess the same righteous mind as we do, and will finally be at peace, for the peace and love of God will finally be with them.

Veggie Tales, "David and the Giant Pickle," DEBUNKED

There were only a few things that were at least historically accurate in the Veggie Tales film, "David and the Giant Pickle."  They were accurate with David being a shepherd.  In the film, it said that David only had three brothers, but the film did not give their names (they were Eliab, Abinadab, and Shammah).  David actually had seven brothers (Jesse had eight sons including David), and the three aforementioned brothers were the oldest (I Samuel 17:12b-14a).  They also remained accurate with David's father's name being Jesse.  Another way in which the film was not accurate was that in it, Jesse had informed his sons that the Philistines were attacking.  However, all we know is that Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul into battle (I Samuel 17:14b), so we are left to assume that they were either already enlisted in Saul's army or that they followed Saul to battle on their own accord.

In the film, while the Israelite and Philistine armies were in their battle formations, a Philistine soldier had proposed the idea that one of Israel's champions should battle their champion, and whoever loses becomes the winner's slaves.  In the text, it was Goliath himself who proposed the idea (I Samuel 17:3-4, 8-9), not a random Philistine soldier.  However, I was surprised that the film was accurate with Goliath doing this routine for 40 days (I Samuel 17:16).  They were also accurate with David arriving just in time of Goliath enacting his usual routine when David arrived to give the field commander and his brothers food, setting him up to hearing Goliath's outbursts (I Samuel 17:17-19, 20b).  In the film David reminds the Israelites that they're children of God, but in the text he simply says, " 'What will be done for the man who kills that Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel?  Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God' " (I Samuel 17:26)?  While it would be nice to read in the text that David reminded the Israelites that they're children of God, it is not scripturally accurate, and we must remain faithful to the text.

Continuing on with the plot of the film, David tells King Saul that he'll fight Goliath.  Although the wording in the film differs widely from the text, the confidence portrayed from David in both sources, I believe, are equal.  King Saul then says that David can't fight Goliath because he's too small.  However, in the text, Saul simply comments on David's youth and that Goliath has been a warrior since he was young (I Samuel 17:33).  So we can conclude from this statement in the text that Saul doubted David simply because of his inexperience as a soldier, not because of his size.  We must also remember that an unnamed individual described David to Saul as "a warrior" (I Samuel 16:18).  David obviously had inner characteristics of a warrior, even though Saul (and everybody else) couldn't see it.  Then again, an evil spirit was sent upon Saul (I Samuel 16:14), so Saul's judgement and spiritual vision was probably extremely minimal at this point.  Next, in the film, Saul had David put his own armour on so that people would think it was King Saul out there and David took the armour off because it was too big, but we don't read that in the text.  In the text we simply read that Saul put his own military clothes on David and that David couldn't walk in them because he wasn't used to them (I Samuel 17:38-39), and the text never says Saul did this so David would be mistaken for him.  We are left to assume from this that David was actually in similar size to King Saul.  However, because of his inexperience as a soldier, he was not used to wearing heavy armour, so he preferred to go out in his shepherds clothing.

A few more things in the film are accurate with the text where David goes down to the ravine and picks five smooth stones, comes against Goliath in the name of the God of Israel, and takes out Goliath with one smooth stone, but the accuracy ends there, and with good reason.  I'll explain:  In the film the rock hits Goliath's head and he gets knocked out.  In the text, the rock sinks into Goliath's forehead; David kills Goliath with his own sword, and then cuts off his head (I Samuel 17:50-51).  This detail of Goliath's death is inaccurate with good reason because Veggie Tales is a children's film; kids don't need to know the gory details of Goliath's death and see the violence on film.  At this point in a child's life, it is simply important for them to know that David defeated Goliath because God was with him.

The film concludes with their message, Matthew 19:26, " '…with God all things are possible.' "  The character, Bob the Tomato, said that this means that anything God wants us to do, we can do it through Him.  This is true to an extent, but that's not the message of David and Goliath.  The message is not, "little people can do big things too" (that was the message the creators of Veggie Tales wanted to portray, verbatim from their synopsis of the film).  I understand how they got that message, but that was not the point of David's existence and it was certainly not the reason why God was with David.  The film is not very faithful to the text, and it is definitely not faithful to the message in any regard.  When you examine the text, you can see a Christology (esp. I Samuel 17:34-37).  This Christology is explained in the prior blog entry, "David Points Toward Christ," but I will conclude by saying that this event of David's life points to Christ and the film never mentioned Christ once, which is odd since they quoted from Jesus in the book of Matthew.  Now that I think about it, I don't think any Veggie Tales film ever mentions Christ.

David Points Toward Christ

As we all know, the famous event of David vs. Goliath starts off with the Philistines preparing for war at Socoh in Judah and Saul preparing to retaliate, setting camp in the Valley of Elah.  Both armies were standing on opposite hills with a ravine in between them when the famous giant standing at 9'9", Goliath from Gath, offers the proposal that if one of Saul's men wins a fight against him, the Philistines will be their slaves, and vice versa should the opposing Israelite lose.  As Saul had his trust and reliance in military strength rather than God, he and all Israel "lost their courage and were terrified" (I Samuel 17:11).

Subsequently, the famous shepherd David is introduced, the son of Jesse from Bethlehem.  Jesse's three oldest sons were already at war with Saul's army in the Valley of Elah, but David, as the youngest, was carrying out the responsibility of tending to his father's flock in Bethlehem.  Goliath continued his boisterous routine every morning and evening for forty days.  During one of those days Jesse orders David to take a half-bushel of roasted grain and 10 loaves of bread to his brothers and 10 portions of cheese to the field commander, and to also check on the welfare of his brothers.  Being obedient to his father, David gets up the next morning and sets out to the Valley of Elah where Saul's army was camped.

Next in the text we read that David arrived at the perimeter of the camp just as the army was marching out to its battle formation, Israel and the Philistines both lined up in their battle formation facing each other.  So David arrived just in time during one of Goliath's standoffs.  Instead of taking the supplies to the field commander and to his brothers, he leaves them with the quartermaster, who is in charge of supplies and their distribution.  David then rushed to his brothers to check on their welfare, as Jesse had required, and while he was speaking with them Goliath came out of the Philistine battle formation and shouted his usual threats, and the text makes it clear that David heard them.  As was the usual routine, the Israelite men retreated, for they were terrified.  The text says that before this, an Israelite man declared that this Philistine has come to defy Israel, and that "the king will make the man who kills him very rich and will give him his daughter" and that "the king will also make the household of that man's father exempt from paying taxes in Israel" (I Samuel 17:25).  David had not heard this announcement, so he asks what will be done for the man who kills Goliath and also asks, "Just who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God" (I Samuel 17:26)?  It is then told to him what will be done for the man who slays Goliath.  David's older brother, Eliab, grows angry with David and accuses him of having an arrogant and evil heart — that David only wanted to see the battle.  David, as he was innocent of this accusation, asks, "What have I done now?  It was just a question."  And right he was; it was only a question.

What David was saying eventually reached the ears of Saul and he ordered David to be brought to him, where David famously and non-hesitantly offers to go and fight the Philistine.  Of course, Saul rejects the offer saying that David is just a boy and Goliath has been a warrior since his youth.  David makes it clear to Saul that as a shepherd, whenever a lion or bear carried a lamb off from the flock David would run after it, kill the predator, and rescue the lamb; and David then compares Goliath, the uncircumcised Philistine predator, to this lion or bear.  In verse 37 we see David's complete trust in the Lord to rescue him form the Philistine.  At this, Saul then grants David permission to fight Goliath, and by invoking the blessing "may the LORD be with you" upon David, Saul may have found some courage through David's own courage and his unwavering trust in the Lord.

Saul gave orders for David to be fitted with his own military clothes, but they were too heavy so David wasn't used to them, and so he took them off.  Thus, David instead took his staff, five smooth stones from the ravine, and put them in his pouch in his shepherd's bag, and with his sling in hand approached the giant Philistine, Goliath.  When Goliath saw how youthful and small David was compared to him, he naturally threw curses and insults at him.  Again displaying his trust in the Lord, David replies to Goliath that he comes "against [Goliath] in the name of Yahweh of Hosts, the God of Israel's armies…" (I Samuel 17:45).  David also displays his confidence towards Goliath that God will hand the Philistine over to him, strike him down, cut off his head, and "give the corpses of the Philistine camp to the birds of the sky and creatures of the earth" (I Samuel 17:46), turning Goliath's insults against David back against him.  David says this will be done so "the world will know that Israel has a God, and this whole assembly will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves, for the battle is the LORD'S" (I Samuel 17:46-47).

Next, while the Philistines started to attack him, David quickly ran to the battle line to meet the Philistines, took out a stone, slung it, and hit Goliath on the forehead.  The stone sank into his forehead and Goliath immediately fell to his face on the ground.  As David had promised, he kills Goliath with his own sword and cuts off his head.  At the sight of this, the Philistine army retreats, the men of Israel chasing after the Philistines all the way to the gates of Ekron and succeeding in defeating the Philistines.

Prior to this event, we read of the prophet Samuel anointing David as king of Israel.  Israel was in need of a new king because Saul had fallen away from the Lord, so God sent Samuel to Jesse of Bethlehem to anoint the new king of Israel, for God had selected the new king.  In obedience to the Lord, Samuel sets out to Jesse's household and asks him to bring out all of his sons.  Seeing the oldest Eliab who was tall, handsome, and a mighty warrior just like Saul, Samuel at first believed him to be the new anointed king.  But we read what God famously said to Samuel, " 'Do not look at his appearance or his stature, because I have rejected him.  Man does not see what the LORD sees, for man sees what is visible, but the LORD sees the heart' " (I Samuel 16:7).  Samuel goes through the rest of Jesse's oldest sons and concludes that God has selected none of them.  When Samuel asks Jesse if these are all of his sons, Jesse says that there is still David, the youngest, who is tending the sheep.  Samuel tells Jesse to send for him.  David is described as having "beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance" (I Samuel 16:12).  God then tells Samuel that this is the one whom He has selected.  Thus, Samuel anoints David as the next king of Israel and shall become king when the current king, Saul, dies.  Since the Spirit of God left Saul and an evil spirit had come upon him, Saul became very ill.  Saul learns of David's gifted musicianship and David is also described here as "a valiant man, a warrior, eloquent, handsome, and the LORD is with him" (I Samuel 16:18).  As we know from the text, David's musicianship would temporarily heal Saul whenever he played for him.

In chapter 17 we see how these characteristics of David from chapter 16 are portrayed in his actions.  David's youth may not have been the only reason why Saul and Goliath doubted his ability, but also because he had "beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance" (I Samuel 16:12).  So not only was he young, but David was a very attractive man, arguably more attractive than Saul the king of Israel, so he certainly could not have any characteristics of a warrior.  However, as we read in verse eighteen of chapter sixteen, David was valiant and eloquent, meaning that he had great courage and determination and that he was persuasive in speech.  We see his valiance when he offers to Saul that he will take the giant down, and we see his eloquence when he succeeds in persuading the king that he will fight the giant Philistine and succeed in doing so.  David's valiance and eloquence were so great that he even transferred his courage to Saul, causing Saul to invoke a blessing upon him (I Samuel 17:37).  This isn't the only correlation we see, however.  In 16:18 David is also described as a warrior, and that the Lord is with him.  Although David was indeed beautiful and handsome in appearance, somebody saw warrior qualities in David, and we definitely see this as he ruthlessly defeats Goliath by sinking a stone into his forehead and killing him with Goliath's own sword and cutting off his head!  The last correlation we see is that the Lord is indeed with David.  We see it when David admits it by mouth (I Samuel 17:37, 46-47) and even more so when David succeeds in killing Goliath (I Samuel 17:48-52).  The Lord was indeed with David.

This episode of David points toward Christ in many ways.  First of all, I want to briefly mention that Goliath enacting his boisterous routine for 40 days and 40 nights (I Samuel 17:16) may be significant for the pattern of 40 throughout the Old Testament all the way to Jesus wandering in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights.  Noah endured rain for 40 days and nights (Genesis 7:4), Moses' spies were spying out the land of Canaan for 40 days and nights (Numbers 13:25) and Israel wandered a year for each of those days (Numbers 14:33-34), David reigned for 40 years (II Samuel 5:4; I Kings 2:11), and eventually Jesus wandering in the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights while being tempted by the Devil (Matthew 4).  There are many other examples, but these are just some significant ones.

I see a great Christology in I Samuel 17:34-37.  As David delineates his activities as a shepherd, it made me think of the parable of the lost sheep.  As a shepherd, David is responsible for every single sheep in the flock.  When a lion or bear takes one sheep, David doesn't just say "oh well" and gives up; he fights for the sheep and slaughters the predator that took it.  In Luke 15:4-7 we read of the parable of the lost sheep.  As Jesus spoke to the tax collectors and sinners, He asked which one among them who has 100 sheep and loses one of them would not leave the 99 in the open field and go after the one that is lost.  He describes that " 'when he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders' " and that when he returns home they all rejoice because he had found his lost sheep.  Jesus concludes in verse 7, ' "I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous people who don't need repentance.' "  I absolutely love the beauty of this parable.  It might be considered reckless to leave a flock of 99 sheep to just search for one lost sheep in the world's eyes, but Jesus emphasises how much God cares for and loves every lost sinner and how joyfully He and all of Heaven, our future home, responds with joy when each one is found — when each one goes astray in the jaws of the evil one.  Just as David sent out and slaughtered the lion or bear, God sent His Son and sacrificed Him as a fragrant offering (Ephesians 5:2) for all of us lost sheep, therefore slaughtering (defeating) the predator Satan (I John 3:8), the lion/bear (or snake/dragon, as he is often portrayed; drakon in Greek [δράκων] is translated as snake or huge serpent in English).  Furthermore, when we stray from God we are able to recognise this through the Law, and because of the Gospel we can repent and be welcomed back into God's holy family, which can only be fulfilled through Jesus Christ the Messiah.  Lastly, when David strikes the head of Goliath, it points toward the prophecy given in Genesis 3:15 that one of Eve's descendants (Jesus) would bruise Satan's head, and Satan bruising His heel.  (You can find this genealogy in Matthew 1:1-17.)  We see this fulfilled in Jesus' crucifixion when Satan orchestrated Jesus' crucifixion, but unbeknownst to him he was dealing his own deathblow, the crucifixion bruising Jesus' heel but Jesus Christ crushing his head and therefore destroying him, freeing us from sin (Hebrews 2:14).