April 22, 2019 – Click here to listen
I love the morning. Today was an exceptional one, crisp and cool and not a cloud in the sky. It was dark when I walked outside and then I noticed that the moon was about three quarters and it was still out as the sun began to appear in the east. I’m at Honey Lake Plantation and the sun’s rays are still streaming through the majestic pines and live oak trees as this is written. I heard some turkeys gobbling in the distance and saw a big jet-black fox squirrel dancing up my driveway.
What a contrast to the death and destruction in Sri Lanka where 290 Christians were killed and 500 were wounded by, you guessed it, Muslim suicide bomber terrorists who targeted seven churches. This on the holiest day of the year for Christians, the day Christ arose from the grave. My heart goes out to my Christian brothers and sisters who were targeted and martyred for no reason other than their faith in Jesus Christ. What kind of God do they worship that ordains such atrocities in their holiest book the Quran? I almost feel guilty for living in this isolated paradise far from the mayhem and evil being rained down upon those who just wish to simply worship in peace.
I’m reading More Than a Carpenter by Josh McDowell and he makes the point that some folks often point to the mistreatment of others by Christians with avowed atheist Sam Harris calling Christianity “the most potent source of human conflict, past and present.” They point to Galileo, the atrocities of the Crusades, the Inquisition, and the Salem witch trials of our past. McDowell states: “But why should Christianity take the blame when these people who are doing the opposite of what Jesus taught? Did Jesus favor burning witches? Did Jesus encourage His followers to torture heretics? Of course not! In fact, Jesus taught the exact opposite. He said to love your enemies, to reach out to those whom society considers untouchable, and to lay down your life for others. If people really did live like Jesus, violence would be a thing of the past.”
People have undoubtedly done things in the name of Christ that were dreadfully wrong, but if you look at the number of people slaughtered by atheist regimes, such as communist China, communist Russia, and Nazi Germany its more than 100 million people.
Yes, there is a God and there is evil.
Psalm 19:1 – The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make Him known. We’ve been given minds enabled by the Holy Spirit to know God, as well as hearts to love Him, and wills to choose Him. It seems an easy choice, but so many reject Him. Looking outside at this particular moment I will never understand why so many choose evil instead of good. We should pray for them.
Psalm 1:41
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the LORD, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted
by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither — whatever they do prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.