Second Chances or Fatalism ...

There are those who believe that their fate is entirely in their own hands every choice their own; others who think that everything in life has been predestined or preordained by powers greater than their own every choice guided; and still others who think that nothing matters and everything will turn out as it has been foretold regardless of their decisions, every choice dictated or irrelevant completely.  When contemplating an all knowing God, it is easy to slip into any one of these philosophies.  So where do you draw the line between knowing the future and influencing it?

The Biblical story of Jonah can be read to fit almost any of these preconceived notions about our choices.  Jonah was to be sent to Nineveh to preach an upcoming disaster that would destroy the city for its sins.  He was to call for repentance.  But Jonah first thinking his choices were his own, boarded a ship heading as far away from Nineveh as he could get.  He did this because he believed his preaching would be a useless gesture that might actually get him killed in the process.  So from his point of view running seemed right.  But as soon as the storm started he knew what was wrong, and he knew he was at fault.

I am not certain if Jonah elected to have himself thrown into the sea for altruistic purposes of saving the otherwise innocent sailors from God’s wrath.  They had to have been relatively good guys in general, as they were quite reluctant to do this act.  Or perhaps Jonah figured better to die at sea than as a result of useless preaching.  No matter, into the sea he went (the storm immediately ceased – imagine the amazement of the sailors).  But God was not done with Jonah yet.  God sent him a “great fish” who swallowed Jonah whole.  This represented a second chance.  Jonah had blown his first opportunity but it was not over for him right then.  You see, more important than Jonah, were the lives of all those citizens of Nineveh who desperately needed to hear the word of God.

After 3 days, Jonah gets spit up on dry land, and decides it is time to head to Nineveh.  He preaches the commensurate 30 days.  He calls for repentance to the evil heathen citizens who live in the city.  But must have taken little note of their responses.  He sits himself up on a mountain overlooking the city on day 31 waiting for the fire to rain down on it like Sodom and Gomorrah of old, but nothing happens.  And Jonah gets mad at God.  Why aren’t You burning this city?  You are making me look bad, or crazy, or worse.  What Jonah fails to realize is that this is God giving Nineveh a second chance, as they did repent.  Souls were saved by the word of God through Jonah.  And Jonah missed it completely.

So did Jonah’s choices influence the future, or was the future preordained?  Incidentally some time later Nineveh went back to its old practices of evil and was destroyed for it as Jonah had warned.  Since this happened eventually anyway, did anything Jonah did make a difference?  Did it matter at all?  What if you were a resident of Nineveh, going about your daily routine unaware it was so awfully evil.  Then out of nowhere a prophet shows up and reveals truth to your soul regarding your lifestyle.  You decide to change.  What’s more you move out of Nineveh in search of the truth of this God who sent you His word.  Who knows how many people may have fit this category.  For them, Jonah made a world of difference.  For them salvation was begun.

The Lord promised blessings to Israel for their faithfulness and He warned of curses that would follow the acts of the false religions that surrounded them.  Israel saw both promises fulfilled in vivid detail.  At times when following the word of the Lord, they were the wealthiest and most blessed nation on the earth.  At other times when straying into foreign worship, and sacrificing their own children to idols on altars of blood, they experienced catastrophe on a national scale.  Did their actions matter?  Did their choices matter?  Did they not reasonable assure the outcomes they were foretold about based on who they as a nation served?

Those that believe that nothing matters and no decision has meaning subscribe to a philosophy designed by evil.  Evil knows the truth.  Evil knows it is destined for ultimate destruction followed by eternal sleep or nonexistence.  And evil works harder and harder every day as it draws nearer the time of its own doom.  Why?  It cannot change its fate.  But it can influence others to join in it.  It can deceive and draw away from God the children He would otherwise save.  It can cause them to believe that they are free to sin however they like, as God must understand, or even be responsible since He gave them the choice to make on their own.  Evil works hard to increase the pain that will accompany its own demise.  That is all it has left.  But each action matters desperately to the father of lies.  He knows his time will someday come to an end, and he really wants you there with him when it does.

God could have abandoned mankind to our choice in the garden to leave Him.  He could have justifiably left us to our fate.  We earned our destruction as when He warned our parents … “do not touch it, lest you die.”  They did die.  And death has entered the Universe from that point forward.  Technically, legally, we deserve this fate; but strangely God did not let us go that easily.  Love is greater than justice.  And Love gave us all a second chance for reunion with Him.  Love did all the work required for it.  Love made every sacrifice that would be needed.  All Love needs is our free-will acceptance.  And as we submit to the idea that we cannot earn our redemption, we are made clean, we are renewed, recreated, and born again of a wholly different Spirit.

God knows the outcome of our choices.  But he does not leave us to make the wrong ones without opportunity after opportunity to be redeemed.  It takes work to join the evil one.  Not because Satan would have you earn your way into his kingdom, he would gladly welcome you free of any labor.  No, the work comes from having to steadily reject the love of God, again and again and again.  You have to be consistent in rejecting His offer.  You have to steadfastly hold on to serving yourself and making yourself number one.  You must reinforce your pride, reject humility, and serve only yourself.  You must embrace an empty existence devoid of any meaning or consequence.  It is a hard path to avoid love, reject love, and finally die in the effort.  God will make you work for it.

But while God fights to redeem you with His entire arsenal of Love.  Satan works almost as hard at deceiving you, keeping you too busy to pay attention.  He preoccupies your mind with guilt over your deeds and hunger for what you do not have.  Satan works to nullify God’s efforts until you don’t see love anymore.  Satan fights to make it easy to join his ranks, while telling you all the time that you serve only yourself, not him.  Satan wants you to believe that You control your own destiny by every choice you make.  You need not serve any supernatural being.  You control it all.  You run your own life with no outside influences.  He knows the truth of this.  He knows that when you believe you need nothing, you ignore God, and default yourself to the prince of lies and the darkness he wishes to surround you with.  When serving self, you are serving evil, it is just this simple.

But as Love was greater than justice, Love is also greater than evil.  Love will make your pathetic vision clear enough, for long enough to make a free-will choice to embrace it or not.  And Love rejects no-one who would embrace it.  It does not matter who you are, or what you have done, or what you are doing – Love wants to make it all better.  Love will change you from the inside out.  Love can change what it is you want, what it is you think you need.  Love can make the pain go away.  Love can heal.  Love can renew.  All you need do is accept, and submit your will to the source of all Love.  Let go of “control” and embrace the “gift” of Salvation.

Those who allow their choices to be guided by Christ, who is the source of all Love, do not just idly occupy space on this planet.  Their decisions and their actions have greater meaning than they realize.  They touch people they do not see.  As Jonah was blind to the success he had in Nineveh, sometimes we fail to see the longer range consequences of serving our Lord.  You have no idea what your words may mean to someone in need long after you have departed company with them.  You have no idea the impact the Spirit can make on the willing mind and tongue until you allow Him to do so.  Decisions submitted to Christ, are decisions made to fight evil every step of the way.  It is not half as much about changing ultimate outcomes as it is about, saving people along the way.  May all our choices be made in submission to the greater will of Christ our Savior is my prayer ...

Predestination; Does Knowing the Future Change It ...

Our Creator God is all powerful and all knowing.  This fact causes some to believe that their destiny is somehow already been decided.  These folks feel powerless as a result, or meaningless in that whatever they choose.  God already knew they would choose that way – so there is no point in anything.  This philosophy is sometimes complimented by Christians who take a once-saved, always-saved method for salvation.  We will address both of these concerns in this discussion.

First, does knowing the outcome make the journey irrelevant?  Let’s examine this idea a bit closer.  God does know what we will choose for our lives, but because He does know this, He is able to prepare a pathway for us to live our way through that requires us to constantly choose (either for Him or against Him).  With His knowledge He can craft a journey through life capable of leading you to Him at any point you find yourself in.  For you to wind up without God is going to take steady determination on your part.  It is scary to think you would choose to turn away from God, but you could do it.  That freedom to choose death and separation from God is yours to make.  God will not remove it from you as He really cannot, and still be the author of free choice.  Your freedom indeed depends on your ability to freely choose whether or not to follow and serve God.  The reason why God places all these decision points in your path is to give you EVERY opportunity to serve Him.  You may choose not to, but it will not be for lack of effort on God’s part to give you a real chance to choose otherwise.

As to whether or not what you decide to do is ‘meaningless’ given that God knows the ultimate outcome, consider this; God knows, you do not.  Your choices are in your hands, meaning every one you make is of the utmost importance.  We talked in an earlier discussion about our nature of building actions into habits, and habits into part of our character.  Making even the smallest ‘good’ choices can grow into bigger and bigger ones.  So can bad choices.  Bad choices tend to be far more addictive, and entrapping, and will try to tie you to them.  Making small bad choices can lead to making bigger ones, and before you know it, you find yourself miles from anything good in your life.  Do not ever lose hope, as God can save you still.  But letting God save you, involves realizing your condition, and working to let God choose for you, what He would have you do, say, or think.  The worst decision you can make is to knowingly reject God.  This one is the scariest, and can have eternal consequences.  No matter what you find yourself doing ‘wrong’ in your life, try not to ever let go of the source of hope, of forgiveness, of love, and of Salvation.  No matter how often, or how low you have sunk, your Salvation can still be found in God, so hang on to Him as close as you can.

Some Christians take the opposite point of view with respect to finding God, they treat it as if it were a singular experience with eternal results.  Stay with me here folks cause this one gets tricky (i.e. truth and error are very close together on this one).  The truth is you are saved by Christ, not because of what good or bad you do.  You are saved by your choice to accept His gift of Salvation.  So perhaps you find yourself right this minute embracing this gift; it is not impossible for you to change your mind, and walk away from what God has given you.  You are ALWAYS free to choose your own death.  Keep in mind this is not God abandoning you; this is you abandoning Him of your own free will.  Sound inconceivable? 

Let me give you a few scary examples to examine starting with Judas.  Judas came to Christ and was one of the original 12 apostles.  He cast out demons, witnessed and worked miracles, and preached the gospel as he was instructed to do by Jesus with the others.  But at some point, he felt he knew better how to initiate God’s kingdom here on earth, and betrayed Christ to His death (never believing Christ would allow Himself to die).  Judas did a horrific thing, lost his faith in his savior, and committed suicide before getting the chance to witness the resurrection and perhaps forgiveness.  Simon Peter, another of the 12, who also walked on water, and worked miracles, and preached the gospel with the others, denied even knowing Christ 3 separate times on the night of his agony.  Peter feared for his own safety more than he loved his master, and he did a horrific thing.  Peter was broken by his sin. 

The difference between Peter and Judas was not in how much they ‘knew’ Christ, or how much they were loved by Christ.  They even shared the mistaken doctrine that Jesus had come to setup His earthly kingdom right then.  The difference between them was Peter’s choice to seek forgiveness and hope in spite of his despair, and in spite of the plain facts as they knew them.  Peter held on to his faith.  Judas let his go.  They both chose how to handle the despair of their actions, and one chose very poorly.  I do not judge Judas, I hope to see him in heaven, but his response to his own sin is a cutting illustration for us to learn from.  Do we allow the weight of our own guilt to separate us from Christ, or like Peter, do we fall at His feet anyway, recognizing our own unworthiness?

My faith rests in God to save me to the uttermost.  God is both the author and the finisher of my faith, and my salvation.  In this sense I trust in God to save me, and believe with assurance I am saved.  But I also know that I do NOT trust myself at all.  If God does not save me from me, I am to be lost.  I am my own worst enemy.  I do not trust my own judgment as too often I have chosen poorly.  So I learn to yield my judgment over to God, and take faith in whatever He decides.  My prayers center on the idea of God completely running my life, and keeping me out of His way.  For I fear, I am too often an impediment to what God wants for me and for others, rather than being a tool in His service.  I aspire to be a useful tool for His service.  But I realize I am not ready yet.

Choices therefore define the nature of our journey with God.  Getting to know our God better leads us to truth.  Truth confronts us with choices.  Choices bring change.  And the gospel becomes a living thing; it takes on relevance in my every day interactions with others.  God transitions from some remote entity who listens and acts very seldom, to a real and present savior friend who gets right up in my face, and in my heart, and in my hands – and offers me something better.  This is where the power of the gospel is found.  In coming close to God, and focusing on Him and what He is like, we are changed from what we were.  Notice we are not changed because of anything ‘we’ did; we are changed because of placing our focus on Him.  The closer you get to God, the more this phenomenon happens in your life.  Until one day, you wake up, and find yourself like Enoch, ready to go home with your God.  This is our goal and the nature of our Salvation, to be saved from evil continually …

The Ultimate Party ...

A common misconception whose origin is suspect portrays Heaven as a bunch of disembodied souls, hanging around on puffy clouds, playing harps, with naked winged babies flying around them.  Whereas Hell is portrayed as this incredibly wild party with all the ‘cool’ people attending.  Again, the results of a fairly successful marketing campaign by evil to completely distort our picture of what is good and what is not.  We have already talked about the truth regarding Hell so in this discussion we will talk more about the reality of Heaven.

The first myth to debunk regarding Heaven is the internal feeling you would have while experiencing it.  Start with joy, add a huge portion of bliss, throw in some perfect contentment, pour on the excitement and you are only beginning to get the feeling.  Every drug in use in this world is such a POOR counterfeit to the unbridled happy feeling of experiencing Paradise.  Now add to this incredible feeling, a completely clear head.  There is no need to have your judgment and perception impaired in order to feel this good.  There are no problems to escape from, no pain that nags at you in any way to offset.  Better than sex, maybe.  Adrenaline, endorphins, you name the chemical, they can’t begin to touch what is possible here.

Remember too that your new body is aged perfectly (no longer a senior citizen, or a teenager, but somewhere perfect in between).  Your new body will be revised / recreated in perfect health.  Those who suffered through infirmity here on Earth will have this incredible new sensation of perfectly functioning bodies in Heaven.  No moles, freckles, disfigurements of any kind; perfect teeth, perfect hair, perfect nails, you name it.  All mental disability wiped away forever.  And what’s more you will not be neutered; there will still be man and woman as before.  All the sensory organs sharpened 10 times greater than today.  Your strength and size will be increased to the levels before sin decayed us over the years. 

You will not be overweight.  What you eat and drink (and you will eat) will be transformed directly into energy the body needs without any waste by-products (no more need for a bathroom, although I love a large tub).  The food in Heaven will consist of a seemingly endless variety of fruits, grains, nuts, spices, and vegetables.  No flesh foods, as there will be no killing of any living creature throughout the rest of eternity; but these former foods we so crave here on Earth will mean nothing in comparison with tasting the absolute perfection of Heaven grown offerings.  Not too certain about animal by-products such as dairy, eggs, etc. – but I hope to use these ingredients to make the best pizza I have ever eaten J

And what is there to do in this perfect place?  How about imagine, create, or learn.  How about expanding your mind regarding history, mathematics, physics, other world studies, God’s character, etc..  How about sports.  Want to swim, surf, scuba, skate, and ski in settings that would astound both the eyes and the body?  How about music, art, or sculpture?  How about exercise.  Want to run for miles without getting tired, climb incredible mountain peaks, fly through the air without the need of wings (a simple matter of learning to adjust gravity).  And what would all these activities be without good old company.  You could do them all with God Himself.  You could invite generations of family members and friends to join you.  It might be a little weird watching your Great Grandmother, your Mom, and your Daughter all go skiing with you (especially when they all look like they are maybe 30 years old), but this is all real.

Then comes the truly mind expanding ideas about Heaven, like for instance the ability to travel at the speed of thought (perhaps bending time and space).  How about the idea of space exploration without the need of technology, or protection from the elements that exist in space; find out what is at the end of a black hole.  The idea of sitting at the feet of the Creator God of the Universe and just listening to what He says directly to you.  Imagine how good it would feel to be asked by God to do something for Him, which only you could do.  Direct two-way communication with the infinite God of the Universe.  Socialization with people from all walks of life, from all time periods on planet earth, with beings who have never experienced the curse of evil; and this is just the beginning of what Heaven would be like.

So the reality is perfect food, perfect weather, perfect place, perfect people, perfect bodies and senses, and endless activity to do, think, or invent.  That is the Ultimate definition of a party.  And unlike any party you have ever been to here on Earth, this one you don’t get tired of, you don’t need a rest from, and can keep going forever.  So how did we come about having such a lame alternative posited rather than this picture?  It starts with concept of ‘when’ do you get to Heaven.  Heaven is a literal place.  It is also known as the city of God, a place where Christ builds out homes for each of us who have accepted His sacrifice for our penalty.

And when do we arrive at this place?  When He comes to take us home to it, is the simple answer.  He described this future moment in time in His own words saying “as you have seen the Son of Man ascend into the clouds, so it shall be on His return”, “as lightning shines from the east to the west”, and “With a loud voice and a trumpet”.  These words of Christ Himself portray not a secret rapture but a worldwide event, witnessed by everyone.  He goes on “the dead in Christ shall arise first”.  This means everyone who has ever lived will be awakened out of their sleeping state to greet their Lord in the air.  Notice He did NOT say, He was bringing back disembodied souls from their puffy clouds in order to re-inhabit their bodies once again.  The dead “who know not anything” are called to arise first as Christ comes back to this planet to reclaim His own.  The text goes on stating “then we which are alive and remain will be caught up in the air”.  This states there will be living servants of God, who are eagerly awaiting His coming when it occurs, we are the living ones, not those who have died before us.

The idea of a disembodied soul can be traced all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when the snake told Eve she would NOT die.  If Eve’s soul lived past her body’s death, if she was capable of intelligent thought, interacting with others, enjoying Heaven or being punished in Hell (another myth we debunked earlier), then the Devil was telling the truth.  Eve did not really experience death.  She was in fact immortal.  She simply transitioned from one form of intelligent life to another using death as the portal.  This simply was NOT true.  When Eve died, she decayed and “returned to the dust from whence she came”.  She had no more a part in the living world.  The breath of life God had breathed into her which then made her a living soul, returned to God.  She was dead.  No ability to communicate with others, no enjoyment or punishment, much more like dreamless sleep.  She still sleeps and awaits the trumpet sound that will call her forth out of her grave, away from the bondage of this world of evil, to a world of perfection and association with God Himself.  At that time, she will eat, she will drink, she will make-love with Adam once again.  She will talk to God, and to us, just like every other person who accepts God’s gift of salvation.  I would love to meet Eve, along with a long list of folks I have read about who lived before me.  It’s another one of the perks of Heaven.

Some Christians have a hard time accepting the idea that going to Heaven may not be an immediate result of a loved one dying.  They are looking at it all wrong.  For the sleeping lost loved one, time is passing by in the blink of an eye.  Almost as soon as that person takes their last breath, their next one will be to a visibly returning Lord.  For them, the time seemed like an instant.  It is for us, who live on, that time drags its feet.  Eve has no idea that more than 5000+ years have passed since she died.  For her it was just a second ago. 

Another group who has a hard time living without the soul somehow transcending our bodies in a next stage of existence are atheists, pure scientists, and agnostics.  The concept of complete and utter non-existence is too hard to swallow for these folks as it leaves them NO hope at all past their meager years on earth.  So the idea that while science can explain none of it, an intrinsic ability to preserve what makes us us, becomes the only acceptable rational for those who deny the existence of a loving God.

Yet the truth offers so much more hope to all of us.  The idea that there is hope past a grave, there is a heaven that exists and offers us more than we can even imagine while confined to this mortal existence.  We will experience it together with our loved ones for the first time.  This is the very essence of hope itself.  And the absolute ease of attaining this goal, we do not need to work for it, it is a gift to us.  We were given this gift by a God who loves us this much.  Eternity will be anything but boring.  It will be the ultimate party.  It will surpass anyone’s wildest ideas about happiness.  And best of all, it will never end.  That reality is what God has in store for each of us.

The End of Fear ...

There is a war on terror in this country.  But its tactics, strategy, and battle results are far from what is needed to really beat terror.  We may, or perhaps we should, succeed against our enemies who mean to do us harm – but putting an end to terror itself is quite another matter.  Ironically, the Colin Powell doctrine of using an overwhelming force is just what is needed, but not being utilized.

Ever know a small child who was afraid of the dark?  Ever been somewhere that just did not feel right, it felt unsettling, haunting, dangerous in some way, but you could not explain why?  We sometimes forget that we have an enemy who specializes in the tactics of terror and fear.  This enemy invented both the concepts and therefore really knows how to use them.  Our evil enemy is not of human origin, but of something beyond human, more than human, superior to humans by design.  They sit in darkness, dwell in shadows, and are fully consumed 24x7 with the destruction of mankind as a species.  They do not eat, sleep or rest.  They have only one purpose.  No this is not the plot to a new horror film, it is the plot to an age old war we sometimes forget we are the casualties of.

Evil itself, is a menace that can and does inspire fear.  Those without a defense for it, should rightfully be terrified of it.  Those who believe they can defeat it, are like the arrogant or ignorant victims you so often see in horror movies that find themselves quickly dismembered in the first few scenes.  The terrified run from evil, but seldom escape it.  And Hollywood’s portrayal of evil is that it is very hard to kill and keep dead (witness the number of sequel movies in the horror genre).  But real evil is what surrounds us in the real world.  Even the worst/best of Hollywood imagery does not come close to measuring up to how horrible real unseen evil truly is.  And our entire world is inundated with it.

So how do we end the terror?  Colin Powell’s doctrine applied to the unseen forces that do battle around us.  Our creator God, is the anti-evil.  Evil cannot stand in His presence; in fact, evil is destroyed immediately in His presence.  When examining the conversations between Christ and those whom He encountered that were demon possessed during His ministry here, a common theme emerges.  The demons always seem most interested in knowing, “are You here to torture us before the appointed time?”  The question does not imply any sort of contest between Christ the embodiment of good, and the demons embodiment of evil.  The question admits defeat and merely questions the timeframe for punishment.  And not one demon ever stood his ground against the Savior of all mankind.

Just the mention of Christ’s name is enough to drive fear into the demons of this world.  Think of it this way, imagine the worst monster or group of monsters that Hollywood movies have given us, as the enemy, out to get you.  You are standing alone in a field, and suddenly all these monsters appear around you, surrounding you.  No human engineered weapon will defeat this group.  You are doomed.  You cannot escape.  You are only waiting for them to decide when to end your existence.  This is the state of those who have no defense against real evil.  However, instead, you utter a simple prayer – “Lord Jesus, save me”.

With this request, atomic bomb explosions start going off all around you but you remain unhurt and untouched. An army of Angels of light surround you immediately with swords of light that would rival any Jedi lightsaber, and whose physical presence carries brightness like that of the noon-day sun.  They now fully surround you, and every evil monster, every evil entity that was once bent on your destruction is now consumed by the power of this light, by the magnitude of the explosions, but mostly by the simple request for the presence of God.  This is what happens in the unseen world, when a child of God, utters a simple prayer for protection against unseen evil.  It is faultless, and happens every time.  Evil cannot stand against it, and is immediately vanquished at the call on the name of Christ.

This is the spiritual equivalent of the Colin Powell military doctrine.  It can make a small child fearless against the dark, or bad dreams, or an unsettling feeling.  It is a flawless defense against evil that otherwise cannot be defeated.  And it is fairly specific as to why it works.  You see only Christ came to this world and lived a perfect life.  Only He defeated evil on evil’s home turf.  Only He was holy throughout, and in defeating evil, He forever turned the balance of power to good on behalf of man.  Our hope and our rock, and our protection then come alone from Christ.  Buddha did not do this, Mohammed did not accomplish this feat, Moses was not perfect, nor are any of the Greek, Roman, Norse, or Hindu legends that tell of supernatural beings.  Only love beats evil, only mercy is greater than justice, only grace is sufficient for our need.  Only Christ is the God who died to save His creations from evil.

This same simple prayer for protection has sometimes had its impacts against evil that can be seen, in the faces of men.  When Elisha was surrounded by men sent to arrest him, he had no human armies to defend him, no human weapons, no way of escape.  His servant looked over the surrounding enemy troops and was very afraid.  Elisha was not.  He prayed to open the eyes of his servant, and his servant saw thousands of chariots of fire and soldier angels from God who stood all around them up into the surrounding mountains on all sides.  This massive unseen army merely needed a command and it would have slaughtered the enemy.  Instead Elisha merely asked the enemy be made blind.  They were immediately.  He then led them back home to their homeland, and restored their site, leaving them unharmed.  After this they chose to invade Israel no more.

Note that Elisha being a true servant of God did not ask for his human enemy’s destruction even though his enemy would have surely killed him.  Justice would have been to kill them all.  But mercy is greater than justice, as faith was greater than fear.  After a small demonstration of the power and mercy of our God, the men were returned home safely, and chose to invade Israel no more.  Elisha had no fear.  He knew the power of his God, and he knew that power was founded on love.

So what happens when you pray that prayer and still lose out to human evil?  Sometimes the choices men make are of evil design, and they carry out the most heinous crimes against their fellow man.  While God’s protection is sure against the supernatural, it is not always certain against the evil done at the hands of man.  For a deeper discussion of why bad things happen and why evil exists see our earlier blogs entitled “Why Me (part 2)”.  But suffice it to say that sometimes the choices of man bring evil to our lives and God does not always interfere with supernatural means. 

Regardless, even if death comes to one praying for protection, it is but a brief sting – as for that praying person it seems like only a second passes by and the next thing they know, is the eternal life promised to them by the same loving God who was with them even through the darkest of moments.  The surety of our salvation combined with the absolute power of our God should give us what we need to truly put an end to terror.

No more do we need to fear the unknown, or the unseen in our lives.  No more should we fear or doubt our future.  We are free to live without fear to constrain us, as not even death is the end of our existence.  Because of the gift of Christ, we are able to walk upright in this world of evil through the valley of the shadow of death and FEAR NO EVIL - for Thou art with me.  The presence of our God pushes all evil away from us at an instant.  The simple prayer of protection strikes fear in the very souls of demons.  Nothing can truly do us harm while we reach out for the hand of Christ.  In this way, our nation, our church, our families, and each of us could defeat terror in our lifetimes.  If it begins in you, it changes the world.  It is time for the end of terror in us …