Loving the Word with the MudPreacher

If Sarah Palin and John McCain do not win the Presidential race, I think Sarah Palin could make an excellent living doing commercials. Remember the “Where’s the Beef” commercial for Wendy’s? Clara Peller made a great living with her “Where’s the Beef?” I love Sarah Palin’s “Say it ain’t so Joe!”

In fact I want to start using that expression against anyone who makes an outrageous or stupid assertion (like Joe Biden did many times).

Today I am saying “Say it ain’t so Joe” to Be-Asia McKerracher.

Be-Asia is a contributor to the Kansas City Star Faith Walk column. She had a little piece in the 10/3/2008 FYI section of the Star titled: “Righteousness lines my path to athiesm”. Here is an excerpt that raised a “SHOUTOUT” from my mudpreacher heart:

“So how did I become an atheist? I remember sitting in class one morning when a thought popped into my head: I had never read the Bible. How could that be? How could I — born and raised a Christian — never have read the Bible? Sure, I’d heard bits and pieces of it in church all the time, but, like most Americans, that’s where my knowledge ended.

And so the Good Book and I spent some much needed time together. What a shock! The Bible I had heard as a little girl was so different from the Bible I read as a young woman. The Scriptures that once sounded so beautiful, kind and perfect to my ears now seemed mean and sad and — to me, a young woman of 23 — deeply unfair.”

What is “UNFAIR”

Webster defines unfair as “marked by injustice, partiality, or deception. In a related definition it says “not equitable in business dealings”. I went for a 25 mile bike ride this morning, thinking about why she would find the Bible unfair. I wanted to know what God thought about that and he just pointed me to His Son. I got this overwhelming sense that if anyone should cry out “UNFAIR” it should be God and not Be-Asia.

Then I read these verses in Hebrews 2:6-9 (Phillips NT)

But someone has said: ‘What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you take care of him? You made him a little lower than the angels; you crowned him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet’. Notice that the writer puts “all things” under the sovereignty of man: he left nothing outside his control. But we do not yet see “all things” under his control. What we actually see is Jesus, after being made temporarily inferior to the angels (and so subject to pain and death), in order that he should, in God’s grace, taste death for every man, now crowned with glory and honour. It was right and proper that in bringing many sons to glory, God (from whom and by whom everything exists) should make the leader of their salvation a perfect leader through the fact that he suffered. For the one who makes men holy and the men who are made holy share a common humanity. So that he is not ashamed to call them his brothers, for he says: ‘I will declare your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation I will sing praise to you’.

We were Crowned with Glory & Honor

God gave man (including Be-Asia) everything. We were crowned with glory and honor, stewards of His creation. Yet, as the Bible reveals elsewhere, man rebelled and followed Satan and sin. In order to restore this glory and honor to mankind, Jesus, God’s only Son, tasted death for every man. Through His victory on the cross, Jesus is now crowned with Glory and Honor, and enables mankind to share in His glory and honor as the Captain of our Salvation. Jesus is not ashamed to call us His brothers.

Now to me this does not seem to be “marked by injustice, partiality, or deception”. God wants all of mankind to enjoy that which He created us for-His presence and glory. God established His boundaries for mankind and was open and honest about the consequences of crossing those boundaries. He did not deceive us, nor was He partial or unjust. Jesus Christ tasted death for ALL of mankind, even those who deny God’s existence.

Is it Fair?

Is it fair for Be-Asia to take the gift that God has offered her, the precious gift of God’s own Son, and shake her fist at Him, spit in His face, and deny He ever existed as the Son of God? Is it fair to God, who endured the agony of seeing His Son take on the sins of the world, the sins of Be-Asia, only to hear her and others curse at Him and ignore and even resent His intrusion into their lives? Such a response by Be-Asia and others who deny God’s love and sacrifice smacks of great injustice. They are the ones who are unfair.

Be-Asia concludes her remarks with this proud statement:

These were my accomplishments, my good choices, and I’d made them on my own. After years of struggle, I had decided that being a righteous person did not require a belief in God.

Now comes the response that Be-Asia would probably call unfair. In Romans 2:5-11 (NLT) God is very clear about ‘righteousness’:

But because you are stubborn and refuse to turn from your sin, you are storing up terrible punishment for yourself. For a day of anger is coming, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. He will judge everyone according to what they have done. He will give eternal life to those who keep on doing good, seeking after the glory and honor and immortality that God offers. But he will pour out his anger and wrath on those who live for themselves, who refuse to obey the truth and instead live lives of wickedness. There will be trouble and calamity for everyone who keeps on doing what is evil—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. But there will be glory and honor and peace from God for all who do good—for the Jew first and also for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

Many believe they can live a righteous life apart from God. However, God will reveal His Righteous Judgment someday, and that judgment will be based upon whether we have sought and found the “Glory and Honor and Immortality” that is found only in His Son, Jesus Christ. There is no true righteousness apart from Jesus Christ. Be-Asia and countless others are simply living for themselves. They are living lives of wickedness. They are storing up God’s judgment and wrath for the injustice they have committed against God and His Gift to them-the life of His only Son.

Being fair also involves being equitable in business transactions. God is very “fair” when it comes o business. He simply states that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus His Son. If you continue to live in your sins you will receive an equitable wage-death and eternal separation from a Holy Righteous God. However, if you receive the Gift of Forgiveness through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, you will receive the Gift of Salvation and Eternal Life. That is a very fair and equitable business transaction. Where is the unfairness in that?