What Happened Near the Top
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Thursday, November 05, 2015 | |
A 4am wake up alarm is not my idea of a fun time. But some destinations are worth it. Masada is one of them. On the eastern edge of the Judean Wilderness, an isolated mountain dominates the skyline. At the top is a plateau upon which Herod the Great built the fortress known as Masada. Here, 900 Jews once holed up and defied the Roman army until a siege ramp spelled their defeat. Rather than become slaves to Rome, all 900 took their own lives hours before the Romans finally breached the top. The edifice stands defiant against time and weather, as it has for millennia. Two years ago, my friend Dan Anderson, co-producer of Moody Radio's “The Land and the Book” challenged me to join him in a sunrise hike up Masada's “snake path,” which we did with great satisfaction. This year, he invited me (along with a few others) to repeat the feat. Strapping on LED head lights, we worked our way up, awed by the climbers who left before us. They snaked back and forth above, their tiny lights piercing the mountain blackness. A climb up Masada's “Snake Path,” will cost you 700 steps and purchase a view 980 feet above the desert floor. Trip Advisor and Wikipedia suggest the hike should take between 40 minutes and two hours. I clocked in at about 45 minutes—several minutes slower than my time two years ago—and was mildly discouraged. Marathon runner that he is, Dan easily beat me to the top, by at least five minutes. But the thing I will always remember about this climb is what happened near the top. Climbing those stone steps (many of which are not only uneven, but almost cruel in the agony they exact) I began beating myself up over my poor physical conditioning, wondering if I would even finish. That's when I started to hear the sounds. Voices. There was laughter and encouragement and celebration. It grew louder. As I climbed the final step I at last saw the hikers who had gone on before. What a stunning illustration of Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hey don’t give up! The climb may be steep but the destination is worth it! Besides—there’s a celebration coming! |
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The Ultimate Disaster
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Thursday, October 29, 2015 | |
There's the disaster you see—and the disaster you don't see. I'll let you decide which is worse. Walk with me down the cardo (main north-south street) of Beit She‘an, an ancient town at the intersection of the Jordan River and the Jezreel Valley. As the paver blocks are angled (not to mention ancient) do watch your step. Notice the fluted stone columns and cornices. Clearly this place was at one-time a classy neighborhood. Then an earthquake in 679 AD all but leveled the town. Talk about disaster! But this city is also the site of another epic event, one that goes all the way back to the biblical era of King Saul. Saul was a good guy.
Yet time after time, he cut corners, spiritually. He failed to wait for a sacrifice. Failed to execute a king. Took spoils he had been forbidden. He murdered 85 priests! When faced with the ultimate Philistine invasion, rather than consulting God, King Saul consulted a medium—a witch. The very next day, on Mount Gilboa, King Saul lost his life (along with his sons). The Philistines cut off his head and fastened his body to the walls of the city of Beit She'an. What a gruesome ending for someone who seemed to be God's man. Standing at that ancient site, just yards away from where Saul's body would have been spiked gave me pause. You and I attend church Sunday after Sunday with folks who look right, dress right and talk right. They sing all the worship choruses with gusto. Perhaps most of them are as they profess to be—truly born again. But some are not (the Bible tells us so). What a horrible thing to reach the end of this life and the beginning of eternity—only to hear Jesus say, “Depart from me. I never knew you.” That would be the ultimate disaster. |
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Soothing Sounds
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Thursday, October 22, 2015 | |
In the sixties and seventies they called it “white noise”--the background blanket of sound that relaxes some—and makes others more productive. Then, The Sharper Image made it personal with their Sleep Sound Machine. |
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Scofflaws
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Thursday, October 15, 2015 | |
1.5 billion. Dollars. That's how much money is owed to the city of Chicago in unpaid parking and traffic tickets. Imagine one and half BILLION dollars! A recent article in Chicago Magazine spelled out exactly what that kind of cash will buy. A creative number crunch suggests that 1.5 billion dollars is enough to buy 545.5 million Chicago style hotdogs (nearly two for every American). Those unpaid tickets could purchase 5,117 years' worth of school supplies for Chicago's kids. Sick of potholes? That money could also resurface 2,497 miles of Chicago's streets—about two thirds of all its streets! Or if you'd rather, you could reconstruct 3.5 CTA rail lines. But if you prefer to think big—really big—1.5 billion dollars would also buy you the 110 story Willis Tower--plus a 590,000 square-foot addition. All of this because people refuse to pay their tickets. The Pharisee-in-me is inclined to simultaneously label and lambaste these scofflaws. How dare they cheat the government? But in pointing at others, we must beware the proverbial four fingers pointing back at ourselves:
Amazing how comfortable I am pondering the scofflaws “out there” that owe a billion and a half, while overlooking my own moral debts. I wonder if God were to actually show me the ledger how horrified I would be. Romans 14:12, “Each one of us will give account of himself to God.”
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Central Message of Christianity
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Thursday, October 08, 2015 | |
In a recent CNN commentary, Fareed Zakaria (by his own admission not a Christian) made this assessment of Christianity: “its central message is simple and powerful: Be nice to the poor.” Fareed ends with, “if you have a problem with this message…you have a problem with Jesus Christ.” The commentary makes a number of worthwhile observations. Clearly, followers of Christ are called to care for “the least of these.” However, to say that the message of Christ was mostly about loving and caring for the poor is to suggest that a visit to a steakhouse is mostly about the salad. Loving poor people and alleviating suffering of all kinds was certainly on the menu, but this was hardly the main course for Jesus. No question Jesus encouraged loving the poor and advocating their cause. To ignore them or exploit them is sin. But as for the central message of Christianity, that is something much larger. Jesus revealed it in Luke 19:10, “The Son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” In telling the world that He was fully God, fully able to seek and save, Jesus greatly offended the crowds (then and now). Jesus said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me” (John 14:6). He called Himself the exclusive way to heaven! If the central message of Jesus was about being nice to the poor, he would surely not have ended up crucified with spikes driven through his hands and feet, his head bloodied and his body spat upon. Clearly, His contemporaries understood His central message: “I am God. You are all sinners in need of a Savior. I am that Savior. And by the way—there is no other.” They did not crucify him for a central message of being nice to the poor! I agree with Fareed that we have a moral obligation to be kind and generous to the disadvantaged. Being nice to poor people is certainly a reflection of the character of the Christ. But to reduce the central message of Christianity to “being nice to the poor” is not being nice to Jesus. Or the truth. If you have a problem with that, with due respect, you have a problem with Jesus Christ. |
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