Poetry and Prayers, Worldview & Truth

The seeds of Auschwitz…

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Almost two weeks down the road I’m still thinking about Auschwitz and what led up to the gas chambers of Birkenau.  Ideas have consequences.  They are the cultural seeds that grow into movements which either build or destroy the civilizations of the world.  The seed-ideas of Democracy, the Reformation and the Enlightenment quite naturally gave us the Modern world just as surely as the seeds of Darwin led to the Holocaust.

The evolutionists have been teaching us for 150 years that human beings have no special value.  Evolved from nothingness into a quivering mass of organs and blood, we’re merely animals of the highest order.  And among the children of primates are some, (in the case of Nazi Germany it was the Aryans), who are more highly evolved that others.  Nazism at its root was a demonic device to speed evolution along by exterminating the inferior races.  What could be more logical or more inevitable?   Hitler was a great fan of Darwin.

The horrifying thing, of course, is that those same ideas are fueling another holocaust of terrifying proportions: to date, over fifty million unborn children, (one third of an entire generation), have been aborted in America alone.

Genesis confers mankind with honor, dignity and purpose while evolution strips away human value until we’re left on equal footing with the animals.  Auschwitz was a wake up call for me: It’s time we in the church learn better to counter the ideologies of death with the simple, articulate Truth that leads to life.

Poetry and Prayers

Words and warfare

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For the past month I’ve been living “up close and personal” with eleven other friends on this outreach through the Balkans.  Typically we’re together every waking moment in cars, hostels, outreach activities, and meals.  For all practical purposes the only time I’m not with the team is when I’m asleep or in the restroom!

The whole experience has been an exercise in sanctification as we’ve worked through the challenges of living together in “cramped community.”   And in these conditions I’ve been noticing how crucial a few words of encouragement can be to another person.  It’s so important, I believe, that it’s actually a form of spiritual warfare.

We humans often drift through our days to the devil’s dirge of accusation and inadequacy: “I’m not good enough.  I’m too fat, too skinny, too plain, too uneducated, too clumsy, too old to have what it takes.” But the voice of Jesus offers a different story: “You can do all things through Christ.”  (Phil 4:13); “You are the light of the world.” (Matt. 5:14)  “You are my beloved” (1 Cor. 15:58);  “You are more than a conqueror…” (Rom. 8:37)   and a thousand other encouraging words to the ones who are joined to Him.

I’ve gotten a bit hooked this trip on watching the faces of my friends light up by a few simple words of encouragement.  And I’ve become convinced that it’s neither a game nor just a good thing to do. Encouragement is a direct strike at the heart of the devil’s kingdom, taking out the lies that drag us down to the the grave.

“So then, encourage one another and build each other up, as you are doing.”
-1 Thess. 5:11

News & Stories

Edo the pen-seller

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Edo is a delightful older man who works the streets of Sarajevo smiling, shaking people’s hands and selling pens.  He greets me like an old friend each time I see him, and invariably I buy one of his inexpensive pens whether I need it or not.  (In my book he gets credit for being an entrapreneur, rather than simply begging).

Last week I bumped into him while I was out walking with Sunam and Rebekka.  He was smiling, but moving a bit slower than normal.   “How are you, Edo?” I asked. “Not good.  I have diabetes” he answered.  So we prayed for him there on the street, the kind of casual prayer where you talk to Abba as if He were standing next to you, and since we were on the street we kept it short: “God… we know you love Edo.  Will you please bless him, strengthen his body, and even heal him?” And then we squeezed his hand and moved on.

A day or so later we met again on the street, grabbing a quick handshake as we passed in opposite directions.  Then he turned and called after me.  The doctor, it seems, gave him a good report on his insulin levels, and he was all smiles and thumbs-up wanting me to know the good news.   I can’t say if whether or not Edo is healed.  Diabetes isn’t the kind of thing you know right away, nor the type of thing you mess with.  But he saw God take notice of him and answer a prayer for his health.  It reminded me that the Kingdom comes with power, and unless we gather our courage and step out in faith we’ll never see His healing hand at work in the crowd.

Uncategorized

Auschwitz

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Today we visited the Auschwitz and Birkenau death camps and saw first hand the final solution of Hitler’s Nazi Experiment.   Well over a million men, women and children were exterminated in the gas chambers of these two camps.   One room contained two tons of human hair that was being processed into fabric for lining winter coats.  Another room contained over 20,000 shoes of all shapes and sizes.  Both were just a tiny fraction of what was collected from the corpses.   We stood in the gas chamber, looked into the furnaces and peered into the ash pits where countless human beings – created in the image of God – were snuffed out and erased from human history.  I have neither the words nor the emotional equipment to categorize my experience here.

Tonight we stay in Krakow.  Prior to the final solution Poland had a Jewish population of over three million.  Today there are fewer than a thousand.   May God have mercy on us.

“We know that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day’s work at Auschwitz in the morning.” -George Steiner

Poetry and Prayers, Worldview & Truth

Beauty … and terror

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Yesterday we took a brief excursion to the Terror Museum, a building in downtown Budapest that formerly housed the Secret Police during the occupying Nazis and the Communist years of Hungary’s history.  Story after story of betrayal, persecution, forced labor, deportation and execution led us through the gloomy halls of the edifice.  It is a truly shocking reminder of man’s capacity for cruelty and rebellion towards God.

Exiting the building into the tree-lined avenues of the city felt like a drowning man sucking in air.   Budapest is a city that could have been built around the theme of beauty:  Statues are strewn through parks and facades, trees and flowers are carefully set among the grand architecture of the Austrian-Hungarian empire while the beautiful Danube glides peacefully through the center.   It’s a dream-city of wonder and charm and contradiction.

How the same human race who created such a magical city can turn around and send its neighbors to death camps and torture chambers is a question that only the Biblical account of man can answer: Fashioned in majesty to reflect the glory of His Creator-King, mankind has fallen under a spell of darkness that perverts and corrupts everything he sees.  Man writes symphonies and sonnets.  And he gasses his neighbors in death camps.

The good news for Budapest is that her exiled King has returned.  Having entered our human darkness, He fought his way through the lies and deception and broke the evil spell of sin.   The kingdom He holds before us now would make the Austrian-Hungarian Empire look like a poor starving village.   Pray that the word will spread to the streets.

Poetry and Prayers

Superheroes

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Not long ago I saw the movie Hancock, about a reluctant and ill-mannered superhero played by Will Smith.   It got me to thinking about why we love superheroes.   What’s the deal with the masked crusaders that captures our imagination and fuels a multi-billion dollar business?

I believe it’s the Kingdom DNA that God has programmed into every man, woman, and child created in His image.   Intended from the beginning to be masters of the earth unmatched by only God Himself, we’ve never lost the ancient memory.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth… And God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth. (Gen. 1:26, 28)

Somewhere in our hear-of-hearts is the distant memory that we were intended to be thus, and when we see Superman saving the day our heart whispers “YES!  This is who I was created to be!”

Jesus, the God-man and prototype of all superheroes, after wresting the cosmos from the powers of darkness commissioned his disciples saying, “these signs will follow those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)

That’s who we are.  We are born into the bloodline of those “supermen” who defended the weak, rescued the dying, “conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, and put foreign armies to flight.” (Heb. 11:33-34) It’s our inheritance in the Epic tale God is still writing: the Story of the Kingdom.

With such ancient DNA in our being is it any wonder we thrill at the exploits of the superheroes?

News & Stories

Back in Sarajevo

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Just a short note to let my friends know I’m back in Sarajevo again until May 7th.  I’ve joined our outreach team from the Kona DTS, and am doing my best to balance reunions with old friends while participating in team activities.

This amazing city is always a painful reminder of what bad religion does to us, drawing circles and pitting insiders against outsiders.  And then it bathes itself in rules and rituals that nurture superiority, in the end killing not only the heart, but sometimes even innocent neighbors along the way.

My mission is to point people to the true Jesus who erased the circles and welcomed the masses of sinners, tax collectors, adulterers, prostitutes, drunkards, and Samaritans.   A few are receiving the news with gladness.  Others continue to defend their own particular circle with a pride that says “Thank God I’m not like those people over there.  I fast twice a week, pray every day, and give tithes of all I have.”

Beautiful Sarajevo reminds me of how much I detest the lies and deception that bind us with stocks and chains: lies about God, about others, about ourselves, and even lies to defend lies.   Lies always kill.  That’s just the way it works: they have not within themselves the nourishment to sustain life.

The truth is, I am exactly like the people I passed today on the street, hopelessly confused and living out of a trembling heart of fear – until I embrace the Truth who invaded human darkness and fought His way through to the other side.

Grace, The Love of God

Treat him like you would a tax collector

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“If a brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault just between the two of you. If he listens, you have won your brother back.  But if he does not listen, take one or two others with you so that every word may be verified by two or three witnesses.  If he ignores these witnesses, tell it to the church. If he also ignores the church, then treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector.” (Matt 18:15)

The obvious question here – which I never once thought about until recently is, “How did Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors?”  Hmm….

Today I return to Maryland for two days before flying to Hungary on Friday to teach in the School of Worship at YWAM Budapest.

The fellowship of believers here in Florence is becoming more beautiful by the day.  I seriously hate to leave such rich conversations and affectionate friendships.

Poetry and Prayers

Religion and relationship

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Sitting in my basement room at Mom’s house I’m not so inspired to dredge my heart for something “original.”  So I thought I’d pass on a couple of quotes from the book I’m reading, The End of Religion, by Bruxy Cavey.

“The problem with organized religion is not that it’s organized.  The problem with organized religion is that it is religious –  believing that its own set of rules, regulations, routines and rituals are the exclusive way to God.

If I am right , then the antidote to organized religion is not disorganized religion, but organized irreligion – a collective effort to use organization and structure to help encounter and experience the subversive spirituality of Jesus.  Cups can be useful to hold water as long as we remember it is the water that refreshes and not the cup.  Licking the cup leaves us unsatisfied.”

“Religion is the archrival of intimate spirituality… Religion, a tiresome system of manmade dos and don’ts, woulds and shoulds – impotent to change human lives, but tragically capable of devastating them – is what is left after a true love for God is drained away.  Religion is the shell that is left after the real thing has disappeared.”

-Doug Bannister

The Kingdom

The gloom and the glory

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David Wilkerson’s “prophetic word” regarding the coming catastrophe in New York City has been getting some serious attention in the news this week.   People are confused and panicky, wondering how we ought to respond.  Should we stockpile food like David suggests?  Should we withdraw our money from the banks?   How  do kingdom people respond to such a terrifying word?

Dr Wilkerson writes:

“An earth-shattering calamity is about to happen…  It is going to be so frightening, we are all going to tremble – even the godliest among us.”

“For ten years I have been warning about a thousand fires coming to New York City. It will engulf the whole megaplex, including areas of New Jersey and Connecticut. Major cities all across America will experience riots and blazing fires—such as we saw in Watts, Los Angeles, years ago… There will be riots and fires in cities worldwide.  There will be looting…

We are under God’s wrath.  In Psalm 11 it is written,  “If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?” (v. 3)…  God is judging the raging sins of America and the nations. He is destroying the secular foundations.”

First I want to say that I love David Wilkerson and have the highest respect for him.  His life and his fifty-plus years of ministry speaks for itself.  Yet I’m deeply troubled by this message.  Has not God placed the church in the world as a prophetic arrow of hope pointing to the Kingdom?  Jesus said “I did not come to condemn the world, but to save it.” (John 12:47)

We invite panic and despair when we miss the kingdom.   When the church understands the Kingdom to be heaven, (as many do), then it’s easy to embrace a message of judgment:  “The sooner the world burns up, the sooner we can get on with heaven.” But when we see that God’s intention in Christ is to restore all things,  (Col. 1:20), and to bring His kingdom into the earth,  (“…Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,”), we’re reminded that the Gospel message is in fact GOOD news:  “For God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, and not counting their sins against them.” (2 Cor. 5:19)

Today is a golden hour for the church as people all over grope for  answers.  “Is there any hope?” “Can there be any justice?”  “Is it possible to live together in harmony?” “Can we make a dent in poverty?”  “Can the environment be restored?” We’ve been entrusted with the good news of a resounding “YES!”  Ours is the privilege of preaching a kind King and a glorious  kingdom to a world on the brink of collapse.

Whether David Wilkerson’s word will be fulfilled is something only time will tell.  It doesn’t take a prophet to understand that when a nation rejects God it rejects the glue that holds it together.  Chaos and anarchy are inevitable.  Of course we’ll destroy and loot and set fires and turn on each other.   We’ve cursed our own way, and God doesn’t need to send judgment on us any more than he would need to curse the harvest of a farmer who fertilized his crops with salt.

Yet we are to go on preaching the kingdom, seeking the kingdom, living the kingdom, and demonstrating the kingdom in the power of His Spirit and in selfless acts of love.   There is something beautiful and glorious on the heart of God, and He has invited us into it.   Perhaps if we return to preaching the glad news of the kingdom we can yet escape the doom.