Missouri Mark's Jungle Adventure

The world famous cryptozoologist Missouri Mark Applegate, bearing his trademark machete and with sidekick Spider Monkey Cheeto grasping with little white knuckles to his shoulder, fights meter by meter through the rainforest. Faint sounds of gibbon monkeys seem to laugh in a more and more pronounced way at the struggle of the overmatched scientist. Lemurs jaunt effortlessly throughout the vicinity, mocking Missouri Mark’s miniscule movement. After what seems like months, the hero finally emerges at the end of the forest...uhh...er...the end of his stinking overgrown yard. No monkeys, no lemurs. Displaced animals, a lawnmower preparing to file a protest with his union steward, and what appear to be hay rows ready to be bailed are the true attributes of my yard today. Three weeks between mowing has taken its toll.

There are a multitude of lessons to be learned from letting your yard get overgrown. Thomas Manton, a somewhat Puritan preacher who lived from 1620-1677, inspired C.H. Spurgeon to later edit some interesting thoughts in a discourse called Illustrations and Meditations. On page 21 subtitled “Choking the Weeds”, Manton through Spurgeon’s lens writes “The way to destroy ill weeds is to plant good herbs that are contrary. We have all heard about weeds choking out the wheat; if we were wise we should learn from our enemy, and endeavor to choke the weeds by the wheat. Pre-occupation of mind is a great safeguard from temptation. Fill a bushel with corn, and you will keep out the chaff: have the heart stored with holy things, and the vanities of the world will not so readily obtain a lodging-place.”
Lesson one through the infinitely less astute columnist: Plant good grass and take care of it. After a mere 3 weeks of neglect, my yard had rainforest-like foliage. I had tall, vine looking flowers, what appeared to be cactuses, and a plethora of other flora canvassing my yard. Standing water from last night, shrouded by tall grass, filled my mowing shoes as I trod through its murky reaches. Time turned small green “shoots” into robust green “cannon blasts”, if you will. These must be pulled quickly lest they take over. In a spiritual sense, similar problems arise. The busier your life becomes, the more the weeds crowd out your grass in a spiritual sense. Sin creeps in like a small weed. It grows steadily until it kills all around it. Some busyness can look attractive, with some nice flowers so to speak. However, these tall “flowers” are not grass, and will become overgrown and kill everything around them before you know it. As painful as it is, they must be pulled before they kill around it. We call this repenting in Christianity. Turning from sin, plucking it if you will, and committing to stopping it from coming back is a hallmark of a Christian (see Romans 7 and Psalm 51). As Theologian Barney Fife would say, “You gotta nip it in the bud!”

Lesson number two: In addition to pulling weeds, plant more grass. As our writer states so eloquently, “if we were wise we should learn from our enemy, and endeavor to choke the weeds by the wheat”. The longer you distance yourself from the spiritual “disciplines” of our faith, the more the weeds grow. If you feel as though your spiritual yard is looking rough, examine your walk with Christ. How is your prayer life? How is your Bible reading? Are you meeting with fellow Christians to sharpen your mower blades, so to speak? The problem isn’t with God.

Last lesson among the countless available is a plea: Do you prefer the weeds? Are you indifferent? Possibly the most horrific verse in the Bible is 1 John 3:8a (ESV) says “Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil”. See, everyone has eternal life. Those who repent and trust Jesus Christ alone to save them from the sin debt their life has accrued will spend eternity in Heaven. Those who do not will be granted their desire of eternal separation from God in a real place of punishment called Hell. God is equally a God of Love and a God of Justice. He must punish sin. Look at Exodus 20, the Ten Commandments. Have you lied? Have you stolen? Have you committed adultery (with Jesus clarification including lustful thoughts being counted as adultery included)? Yeah...me too. We need a substitute to take our punishment, and Jesus Christ is just that if we repent and trust Him to save us. I have done that. Have you?

Three hours and four gas tanks later Missouri Mark conquered most of the yard. In the process he (and hopefully you too) has gained a new appreciation for the importance of proper yard maintenance. God Bless!
Bible Verse(s) of the week: The book of 1 John. Short but vital.

Death by Swine OR The Earth is cooling... er... warming

Dear Mark Applegate,

“And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” (Mark 4:41, ESV).

“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-4, NASB).

Today, I would like to continue looking at dead icons of the faith that are sorely missing from much of modern day preaching. I would like to look at another work from J.R. Miller (1840-1912) (gathered from gracegems.com) including excerpts from Miller’s wonderful work entitled “The Best Things in Life”. Miller writes “God's will controls the smallest matters, and takes into account the smallest events in each life. A Spanish proverb says, ‘A leaf does not stir on the tree--without the will of God.’ God's hand is in every event. We talk of the laws of nature--but what is nature? It is not something independent of God. The laws of nature are simply
God's laws. Nothing takes place that is contrary to the divine will. Nothing--no storm, no earthquake, no cyclone, no tidal wave--ever gets out of God's control. This world is not controlled by chance, nor by any blind fate--but by Him who loved us so much, that
He gave His son to die for us.”

Next I would like to make a quick top ten list (in no certain order) of just some of the things that were supposed to destroy America or the world as a whole in my short lifetime.

1. Nuclear winter

2. Acid rain

3. Global cooling (1970’s)

4. Global warming (2000’s)

5. Population overcrowding

6. SARS

7. Bird Flu/ Swine Flu

8. “The slightly expired jar of pickle relish flu” (OK, I am not sure the CNN.com has the facts straight on this one)

9. Mad Cow disease (and its sister illness the dreaded Slightly Cranky Chicken disease)

10. Y2K, Confiker virus, Blaster worm, and a host of computer illnesses...may God have mercy on our souls at Y3K!!!

I am sure there are many, many more. Indeed, nearly everything we eat either cures or causes cancer, depending on which research group or special interest lapdog conducted the research. What is the common thread? Doom. Sure doom!!!

Allow me to relieve your stress. You will die. I will also die. The death rate for people is 100%. How is that factoid stress relieving, you might rightly ask? The answer is a simple theological term called sovereignty...namely God’s sovereignty. As we fear, fuss and fret over every news story and calamity sure to strike during the news each night, we fail to realize that God is in charge (sovereign) over everything that happens to us. The Bible clearly lays out that God is in charge of everything in our lives from beginning to end. As for the beginning of life, Psalm 139:13-6 (ESV) paints this picture beautifully writing “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.” During our life, God holds every atom of the world around us together. Without Him doing so, or if He fell asleep at the wheel, the universe would implode. Our end, as well as the rest is known and orchestrated by a loving and sovereign God.

How does this apply to our lives? Matthew 6 paints a nice picture of the significance of God being in charge. We don’t have to worry about every pandemic wiping us off the map. Worrying will not help anyway. As with the ole cliché, “when it is your time to go, it is your time to go”...and God already knows and is in charge. He is not surprised by swine flues, computer viruses or weather calamities. He is busy using these events in some amazing (and challenging to understand and see) way to bring glory to Himself often through His people. Much of how that works we will not understand this side of Heaven. How can an omnipotent, omniscient and loving God promise in Romans 8:28 (ESV) the beloved promise “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” if He “wings it as He goes”? The answer is simple. He doesn’t...He already knows. Draw comfort in this fact, fellow brothers in Christ. When hard times come (and they will), learn from them and grow in faith. When illness comes, praise God for His goodness to save you. When money problems come, praise Him for what you have. When your clothes washer breaks (like mine just did as I write this column...mere coincidence? I think not.), praise Him anyway. God is truly in control. And, as Miller reminds us, the One who is control LOVES US...amazing!

An important note to my atheist friends: God wants to save you. He sent His Son to die as a replacement punishment for your sins. Repent (turn from your sins) and trust Him and Him alone with your life and eternity. Do it today. None of us are promised tomorrow.

An important note to my Christian friends. I addressed this column to me...hope you join me in learning to trust God more. Our faith is a gift from God...join me in asking for more every day.

It's My Fault!!!

Easter season is upon us again. In a year filled with busyness, bills and battles, it is an ideal time to take a deep breath and reflect on what life is all about anyway. Most instinctively know Easter has a special significance beyond bunnies, spotted eggs and Peeps. There has to be something more. At times it seems like Easter is as hollow as the little chocolate bunny with the cute candy baseball hat on that I just dreamt of chewing the feet off of (sorry, just a post-diet food daydream relapse). Allow me to explain what Easter is about once and for all. Easter is about MY sin. Far from a boastful statement about the importance of Mark Applegate, I say, to repeat, that Easter is all about my sin. Allow me to circle a thought for you and tie it in a nice bow (as best I can with my limited skill).Last week I began sharing with you writings from beyond the grave. The next of my favorites that I must share with you comes from the “Prince of Preachers” Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892). Spurgeon was a reformed Baptist preacher who wrote and preached in a technologically slight culture to literally millions of people. He preached every day, wrote dozens of books, and truly lived an awesome life. He is in many ways an idol to me in the writing world. If I had half the vocabulary of this giant, you would be even more horrified when you read my babble. In this snippet, pulled from a favorite website of mine (gracegems.org), he points to why my sin, regardless of its relative apparent size is such a big deal.“A little thing?”“Beware of light thoughts of sin. It is sadly true, that even a Christian may grow by degrees so callous, that the sin which once startled him--no longer alarms him in the least. We palliate and excuse our sin; we throw a cloak over it; we call it by dainty names. Sin, a little thing? Is it not a poison! Who knows its deadliness! Sin, a little thing? Do not the little foxes--spoil the grapes? Does not the tiny coral insect--build a rock which wrecks a navy? Do not little strokes--fell lofty oaks? Will not continual droppings--wear away stones? Sin, a little thing? It girded your Redeemer's head with thorns--and pierced His heart! It made Him suffer anguish, bitterness, and woe! Could you weigh the least sin in the scales of eternity--you would fly from it as from a serpent, and abhor the least appearance of evil. Look upon all sin as that which crucified your Savior--and you will see it to be "exceeding sinful."Spurgeon rightly evaluated his own sin. At Easter, more than ever, we must look at ours as well. This last line from Spurgeon haunts me. Spurgeon states emphatically and soberly that we should “look upon all sin as that which crucified your Savior--and you will see it to be ‘exceeding sinful’." In this light is where I take the blame for Jesus dying on the cross the Friday before Easter! Romans 3:23 (ESV) says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. Lump me in the “all” category. Take a glance at the Ten Commandments. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever stolen anything in your life? Did you always obey your folks the first time they asked for something? It might make me feel a little better to hear your conscience tell me that you are guilty too, but it really wouldn’t change anything for me. Romans 6:23a (ESV) shows us the consequence for our sins saying “For the wages of sin is death”. My sin deserves death regardless how big or many there are. (Death in a physical sense and in an eternal spiritual sense in a real place called Hell.) God would be righteous and just to fling me to Hell head first (no passing go, no collecting $200 for those readers residing in Monopolyville). Amazingly and with an unfathomable amount of Grace, God made a way for me to be forgiven. On the Cross, Jesus died as a substitute punishment-taker for Mark Applegate. In Matthew 27:46 (ESV) Jesus, agonizing in pain on the Cross, said "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" God was emptying His righteous cup of wrath on His Only Son in my place. When He shortly after said “It is finished”, he was acknowledging that an amazing transaction had just taken place. 2000 years later, once He led me to repenting (turning from sins) and placing my complete faith in Jesus Christ to save my soul, an amazing thing happened. Jesus applied His Righteousness to my account in exchange for my sinful, self-serving, Hell-deserving account balance. I get to go to Heaven not because I am worthy, but in spite of the fact that I am not. My sins caused Jesus to die on the Cross as part of God’s prearranged plan to show the world how truly amazing a God He is. My sins were such a big deal, they cost Jesus His life...and so are yours.This brings us to Easter Sunday. You may be in the same boat I was before God miraculously saved you. Don’t trust on your goodness to save you. Don’t trust in a religious ritual or an extra special prayer to save you. Put yourself in my place, and then look to the Cross! Realize that you too put Jesus on the Cross. Call out to Him and He will save you too. Turn from the old you and trust Him to save you. Then, and only then, will Jesus arising from the grave on Easter Sunday conquering death make sense to you. He saved me years ago, He can you too! May you have a truly special Easter this year above all others!

Economic Stimulus Explained

Welcome to Mr. Applegate’s Economics 101 class. Please make your way to your seats, power down your Blackberries, and focus your attention on me for the next few minutes. The objective of this mini-class is to explain the Economic Stimulus plan to you in simple, layman’s terms and give you something to bring home from today’s class to think about. At the risk of being accused of hyperbole, the rest of your life and beyond depends on your understanding of this concept. Allow me to begin.

We are in debt up to our chins. Debt, interest on the debt, and new debt arrives daily. Every man, woman, and child contributes, in a real and personal way, to this debt. We, as individuals, have no real possibility of being able to pay off even the interest of this debt. Foreclosure or default has tremendous, long-term consequences. Everything we do, whether good or bad in intention, fails to do anything to solve the problem of this economic albatross wrapped around our neck. Attempting to repay our broken economic system with these minimal efforts is like trying to dig in the couch for college tuition funds. Yum...I found a pretzel, but no $50,000! What is the answer to this dilemma? Work harder? Maybe if we worked as hard as we could and applied all of our resources to the problem. Two problems...the debt is growing faster than we earn our payoff and all we pull from the couch is snack foods. Wait...wait I found a gummy snake! Delicious. If only we had someone with the ability to cancel our debt or pay it off. It’s obvious my gummy snake and pretzel, while quite yummy, have no hope of achieving the desired goal. What on Earth can we do?
Before I answer the economic woes of our country, allow me to transition this scenario into your living room. Romans 2:5 (ESV) says “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.” Romans 3:23(KJV) says “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” And Romans 6:23a (NASB) states clearly “For the wages of sin is death”. We have an economic crisis of the heart. We owe God more than we could ever dream of paying off, and He is not happy about it. “But God is a God of Love. He could never be mad!” you might say. Alas, He is a God of Love and a God of Justice. For God to love, he must be just. He must punish the wrong doing and collect the debt the wages of sin have earned. If a judge let go murderers and thieves, he would certainly not be called loving or just, except possibly by the lucky crooks that he let go.
I have much more than gummy snakes in my couch, you might proclaim. I have much of value to offer. I am a good person who gives to the United Way and volunteers at the library.

Isaiah valuates our individual good works saying in Isaiah 64:6 (KJV) “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (FYI... “filthy rags” in this context references an ancient feminine hygiene product, for lack of a better term.). Not only do these not pay off our debt, they offend the creditor. But if someone paid our debt the problem would be solved.
Enter Jesus Christ. Jesus lived a sinless life and died on a Roman cross as a substitute for the sin debt we have racked up and rose again on Easter Sunday. We are given His righteousness (right standing/ free and clear account) in exchange for the financial mess we made of our life. What an amazing God. All that is required to acquire this debt forgiveness is to turn from sin (repent) and trust Jesus Christ, not our own goodness or works, as our debt payer. What an amazing offer. What an amazing God!
How do I fix the economy you ask? Here’s the deal. I have a little confession to make. I am not an economics professor. I just play one in the column. I, frankly, have no clue how to fix the economy. That being said, I must believe the same God that created the world, forgave my sins, and sustains every atom of the universe, can handle the economy. I am likely at least as broke as you and only have fuzzy couch pretzels too. However, I fully trust that God will grow my character through this economic morass we live in today. His promise in Romans 8:28 (ESV) saying “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” applies to my family. Pray for our individual and collective financial well-being, and trust the only one that can really help anyway. Class adjourned.

Loathing Las Vegas

While I know it is far from the norm for me to stray from a standard column outline made up of one organized thought structured with three points and an odd joke, I will now give a potpourri of Mark Applegate Bizarro-world insight into the Christian experience from my recent trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Structured in a bird-shot shotgun pattern, I pray that God (very) supernaturally helps you find something useful in the process of reading my thoughts, and that somehow He might get infinitely deserved praise from my ramblings. Off we go...
Random thoughts from electronics paradise in Sin’s playground.
1. About Las Vegas itself: If you have never been to Las Vegas, let me summarize the experience with a word...indulgence. There is opportunity for indulgence, or overindulgence, of everything, legal or otherwise, in America today located in one sprawling city. In the process of my diet last year in which I lost weight in 49 out of 52 weeks, my biggest failure came at the hands of the Vegas Buffet monster. Indulgence in food, of course, is not the only option. During the same weekend every year of the CES is the largest pornography convention in the world. In a lovely twist of fate, I was saddled with this convention sharing a convention complex with half of the CES. “CEScool” sharing a place with a “cesspool”, if you will. I wish I had time in this column to share my opinion of pornography, but, suffice it to say, I consider it the biggest problem in the American church today. I work on computers often from Christian brothers and sisters with this garbage on them, and I get both sad and angry. We should know better! It is an incompatible situation to be Christian and view pornography (Please read 1 John 3). I am not one to somehow legalistically attempt to restrict Salvation by adding some sort of works requirement. That being said, being “of the Devil” in this passage leaves one wanting to test himself ala 2 Corinthians 13:5+. As an overview, however, one can certainly tell the difference between the attendees of the CES and the porn convention (insert your own joke here!).
2. As you fly into town from the east, you spend seemingly endless minutes chewing on outrageously expensive airplane peanuts (yeah, they charge for the snacks on the plane...just waiting for the pay-toilet to really get me steamed!) flying over desolate desert terrain. Sure you are blessed with a glimpse of the amazing Rocky Mountains, but they give way to brown, dead soil leading up to Vegas. Within a half hour of town, you fly over the Grand Canyon and Lake Mead, both stunning sites from the sky, as I am sure they are more so from ground. The town of Las Vegas is surrounded by beautiful Mountains and nature that screams “God” like enormous and beautiful natural Evangelists of the highest order. To look around the area from land or sky makes me quake at God’s supernatural Creation. The God that can create a mountain or carve a canyon numbers the hairs on my head (Matthew 10:30). While the job of counting the hairs on my head is becoming easier with each passing day of the financial crisis, it is still amazing that such a HUGE God care for me (read all of Matthew 10). In addition, to quote Todd Friel, how one can believe “that the Earth began with from nothing, became something, exploded, then became an organized everything” requires far too much faith for me. Evolution (and, similarly, global warming...brrrr, have you been outside last week?) one day will be laughed at and mocked in the same way we laugh at those who postulated that the world was flat and you can’t sail too far or you will fall off it. The same One who made the planet will see to it that it doesn’t get snuffed out indiscriminately.
3. While certainly not the reason to become a Christian in any fashion, one of the cool things about being “Born Again” is God’s Plan for Fellowship. I was really down in Las Vegas. My wife called and said the pilot light was broken in the furnace and they were cold, the van was beginning to assume rigor mortis, and my personal finances are a wreck. Being on a business trip “shopping” for the coolest technology on Earth and being broke is a challenging combo in itself. I missed my family and I had just walked a 1.7 million square feet building and looked at approximately 1800 booths, leaving me sore and tired. I had had hundreds of shallow sales pitch presentations, but no real conversation for two days. Waiting in line for a free opportunity to be in the audience of Jeopardy’s Tournament of Champion taping, I was feeling rock bottom and bummed out. We had been waiting for an hour to be seated so I struck up a conversation with a man in line that turned out to be a Christian couple formerly from Hollister, Missouri on one side of me and a Christian man who lived blocks from the “Applegate Trail” in Oregon (settled by my Great, Great, Great Grandpa). God knew exactly what I needed, and I was thankful! By the way, Alex Trebek is both delightful and real. I asked him of his opinion of the parodies of his show on Saturday Night Live (a show I should repent of), and he said he loved the show and was sad that the star that depicted him took the $22 Million and left the show to make movies. Watch for me on March 18th...I am the cheesy guy waving like a goober from Missouri that hadn’t ever been on TV before.
4. Upon reflection, I find myself not unlike Jonah angrily waiting for God to smite Las Vegas. Sin is flaunted there. Prostitutes and pimps surround the CES show. Porn magazine racks litter the town. Rampant gambling makes financial ruin of many who visit there. What goes on in Vegas may stay in Vegas, but it makes God angry in the process. So I sat (sit) on the edge of the Great City like Jonah (read the whole book of Jonah again...it is short and has one of the greatest miracles in the Bible located in it...the salvation of everyone in the biggest town in the world...in addition to a story about a big fish) hoping God will avenge His honor with fire from Heaven! Then it hits me. God should smite us too. Sin is sin. The sin I have committed in this piece alone in failing to revere God’s Name in the way I should, puts me in a state no better than Vegas or Nineveh from Jonah’s time (Read James 2:10). Stockton, Missouri is as deserving of a Holy God’s wrath as anywhere else. But He tarries instead...amazing grace! What’s more amazing, He died for us as a substitute penalty for the sins we committed. What an exchange! We get His Righteousness imputed to our account and He takes our sin debt and pays for it in His Blood. How can any of us not bow our knee to someone who loves us that much, and repent of our sins and trust Him for our eternal destiny? Email if you have questions about this process to markapplegate@alltel.net.

It was an amazing trip, as it is every year, but I am glad to be home. We have it good in Cedar County! Join me in being more thankful for Grace this year! God Bless and happy Inauguration week!

We NEED a Bailout!!!!!

We NEED a bailout!
Dateline Wednesday, November 26, 2008. The Federal Government announced today a massive bailout of the banking giant First Applegate Savings Trust (FAST). Pending regulator and lobbyist approval, the Federal Reserve Bank will pump approximately $25 Billion Dollars into the struggling financial entity in hopes of averting a disastrous failure.
Flashback to Monday, November 24th… FAST CEO Mark Applegate, in an attempt to cinch up Federal funds for his institution, arranges to fly the entire Congress with families and staff to the Swiss Alps for a skiing and shopping junket. No expense is spared in this trip. While the $10 Billion price tag may seem steep, it seemed a necessary expense to secure funding to insure liquidity for the next month.
Flashback to the First Century…the Apostle Paul states in Colossians 2:13-5 (ESV) “And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made a live together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.”
America, and indeed the world as a whole, is in a tremendously perilous debt situation. We are powerless to rectify the damage done by the recklessness of generations of unconcerned debtors. Amazingly, we flaunt our debt, pretending that it is not a big deal and that it will be paid at some distant period of time. We assume that as long as our laboring is sufficient to fulfill the minimum obligation of the debt, the big picture really doesn’t matter. On a personal level, we assume that as long as we can pay our minimum payment on time, we are fine.
The answer? More government cash? Barack Obama to the rescue?? Not for this problem. See, this ominous problem is much bigger than money. The problem is our sin debt. Romans 6:23 (ESV) says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Who sins? Romans 1-2 spend paragraph after paragraph thoroughly explaining that we are all hopeless debtors concluding with Romans 3:23 (ESV) saying “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are drowning in debt, and there will be a day that it will all come due.
Don’t believe me? Read Exodus 20. God lays out the Ten Commandments, the summary of God’s Moral Law, in clear detail. I have spent the last half a year writing about these Commandments and stating the obvious that I, like you, have broken them all in word or deed. Just like CEOs who don’t seem to take debt seriously, we don’t weep over sin if we acknowledge it at all. Take blasphemy for example (the breaking of the Third Commandment). As chronicled on previous columns, how many times a day do we hear blatant blasphemy? Oh My Gxx is as common as any other phrase these days. Even when we change the words to make them less egregious, we replace them often with an attribute of God. (Oh my goodness, good gracious, and the like. The amazing part of this is that we replace God’s Holy Name with a dirty word. The offense is directly to him. He is the intended target. Even if we don’t want to offend, we do. We are hopeless to pay the debt for the bill we have racked up.
The solution is to find someone to pay our debt. Indeed, we desperately need a bailout, and the government is part of the problem, not the solution, in this realm. The good things we do as a response to God’s Goodness can’t save us. God, Himself, is the only one that can save us. The Good News of the Bible is that 2000 years ago Jesus Christ took the punishment on the cross for our sins when we repent and trust Him. He had the debt record nailed to the cross with Him of all who turn from their sin and let Him be Lord. What an amazing and loving act done by one that we have done little more than blaspheme in our society.
Thanksgiving is upon us again. Spend the holiday with me thanking Jesus for dying for our sins. Does it seem clichéd? At times, even as a Christian, it seems that I don’t “esteem the sacrifice” He made on my behalf. I, like you, need to spend more time praising Him this season than racking up debt then trying to repay Him (as if that is possible anyway). Doing good things for others in His name are the logical response to such an amazing God. It should be done as an act of worship, not as an attempt to bribe Him for forgiveness. Ephesians 2:8-9 (ESV) says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” What an amazing substitute debt payer we serve!

Verses for the week: James 1:26-7; 2:14-26 Ephesians 2:8-9. Does your Faith produce works? If it isn’t the type that does, it isn’t the type that saves either. These aren’t conflicting verses, they are clarifying verses. How does your faith reveal itself through your life? If there is no difference, or if you do what you do for the wrong reason, you are likely as well off flying God to the Alps He created at judgment. He will not be bribed!

First Commandment

“And God spoke all these words, saying, ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me’”. (Exodus 20:1-3)

It has been months since our trip through the Ten Commandments began. I have been sidetracked with two jobs and going to school full-time, along with raising three great kids, serving several roles in my church, and a fount of other busy body activities. I would like to formally apologize to my three regular readers who undoubtedly have been waiting on the edge of their chairs for the final chapter in this discourse on God’s Moral Law. That being said, in all sincerity, we begin.
First, what does “You shall have no other gods before me” mean to you? I have given this a lot of thought the last six months working with you through the Decalogue. We have been blasted by a barrage of laws that we, at surface level, think we have pretty much obeyed. Then as we have dug a little deeper into each, we both realize that we have actually broken all nine of the previously mentioned Commandments. Recall Jesus’ clarification of God’s Moral Law in Matthew 5. Looking with lust is equal to adultery and anger is equal to murder are two nice examples. We both established that we are actually zero for nine in our ability to obey God’s Law. Surely we can find one of the ten we can obey. (Read my blog www.uturnrequired.blogspot.com or call the paper for back issues for a recap.) Maybe the First Commandment has some promise for us.
“You shall have no other gods before me.” Well, I don’t believe in Buddha, Zeus, or the flying spaghetti monster, the current false god of choice to militant God haters. Therefore I pass, right? Hardly. At the risk of blaspheming God’s holy name, I would like to rephrase this Commandment for clarification, in modern vernacular. Is God precious to you? Is God your main thing? If someone was to summarize your life in a single phrase, would it be “God was his/her life”? Do you wake thinking of Christ’s sacrifice as a punishment for your sins? Do you thank God for every breath of air we are allowed to borrow from Him? Luke 14:25-7 (ESV) explains the extent, in hyperbole, to which we should love God saying “Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’” I have been so lazy the last few months, I have put my before mentioned laundry list of activities ahead of finishing this series of columns. Does this expose yet another Commandment I have broken? Clearly and sadly yes. Even my diet has been a competition for God’s primary affection in my life.
Can you relate? Perfectly good things in your life, by themselves are not the least bit sinful, become your “big deal”. Have you missed worship to golf? Do you stay up so late working to support your family that you are too tired to take them to church? Is church activity so important to you that you fail to worship when you do devoutly attend? OR...do you even give God a thought during the week? Have you ever stolen, coveted, lied, committed adultery, blasphemed, committed idolatry, failed to honor your parents, or other sins? If so, they bear witness to the fact that, like your formerly morbidly obese writer, you really haven’t made God number one in your life.
This point relates perfectly with my diet. As a matter of update, I celebrated my one year anniversary on the diet. I have lost 138 pounds, 14 inches off my waist, and even lost 2 inches on the lengths of my sleeves...figure out that one?!?! I have had people speak of the “transformation” of my life because of this diet. What they are not aware of is that it has, at times, competed for first place in my life, and has been a source of breaking the First Commandment. While I do look dramatically different, minus the sacrificial death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the sins I have committed, I am nothing more than a “whitewashed tomb” as Jesus called the Pharisees in Matthew 23. I look clean and skinnier on the outside, but perish the thought of what’s inside! God did a much bigger work on my heart than any diet has done for the outside! See, God didn’t give us these Commandments thinking we could follow them and earn our way to Heaven. He gave us these laws to show us that we can’t. In the end, Jesus Christ gets all the Glory for the Cross for saving us not because of what WE did, but IN SPITE OF IT. What a wonderful, merciful, and Holy God we serve!
I am so thankful for the opportunity to write this column. I am also thankful for all of you that read it. Promise me you will consider yourself in light of the Ten Commandments written in Exodus 20. I badly want to see Stockton, Missouri populating heaven when I get there. Thanks for your prayers for my diet. They made a substantial difference and they mean more to me than you know! As we finish off 2008, let us hold each other accountable if we see each other letting God slip below His rightful place...number one.
Final weight update: 200lbs...and holding since October. God is Good, all the time!
Verse of the week: Galatians 2:17-21. Memorize this one...it is worth your time!

American Idol? or Aliens examine our passions!

“You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6 NASB)

On board Starship Kollobbtsktsk:

Brig. General Yunge: “Status First Lieutenant Will-E”

Lieutenant Will-E: “We will arrive at the third planet from the sun in about 3 Kollobonian minutintsk. It is fortunate that the only beings on this planet who know of us are widely held as what they refer to as “whack-jobs and loons.”

Brig. General Yunge: “Precisely... Chief Religion Officer Joewerkinferit...what’s the status on the understanding of God on this planet?”

Officer Joewerkinferit: “We have discovered a copy of their primary Moral Law. It is called by modern theologians The Ten Commandments.”

Brig. General Yunge: “Summarize in layman’s terms.”

Officer Joewerkinferit: “It seems that the first four Commandments relate in general to the people’s relationship with God. The rest seem to deal more with their relationship with each other.”

Brig. General Yunge: “How are they doing following these Commandments?”

Officer Joewerkinferit: “They seem to break them all. Take the 2nd one for instance. It says not to create an idol for themselves. It says God is a jealous God and extends His punishment to those who do this for generations. Even with this very specific instruction, idols are everywhere. This is especially so in America, that powerful nation that houses Mark Applegate, the most brilliant, attractive and modest writer on the planet.”

Brig. General Yunge: “The houses have little shrines?”

Officer Joewerkinferit: “Not really shrines. It’s something much more sinister yet subtle. In fact, they often don’t realize they have them. Take Sunday, the day they worship God. Instead of being in their house of worship, many of them do peculiar things. Some walk around a neatly groomed field and whack a ball with a metal rod until it lands in one of 18 mini-shrines. Others offer sacrifices by casting them into a lake or river on the end of a string. Still others watch their metallic house shrine as it entertains them with sport. They have a place to worship God, yet they follow idols. Worst of all, I don’t think God likes it at all. In their sacred text it says in Revelation 21:8 ‘But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.’ Idolaters aren’t just those who worship other recognized deities...they are those who make one up for themselves! It can be as subtle as saying about God “My god would never send someone to Hell...or...My god takes into account the good I have done with the bad, puts it on a scale and if I do more good than bad I go to heaven...or...My god adds new stuff to the Bible all the time as dictated by our current religious leaders.” These people might as well rename their god Yoda!

Brig. General Yunge: “Why doesn’t God come to Earth and show Himself as He is?”

Officer Joewerkinferit: “That’s just it...He did!”

Brig. General Yunge: “What did the people do when their Creator came?”

Officer Joewerkinferit “They killed Him!”

Brig. General Yunge: “Interesting! No wonder they have little shrines everywhere. They don’t fear their God.”

Officer Joewerkinferit: “I have read their book. They will fear Him later...when He comes back.”

Meanwhile...on Earth... writing genius Mark Applegate offers this commentary:

Ok...there is no such thing as aliens. I know... most of us have seen the poll that says more modern college students believe in the existence of extraterrestrial life than believe they will get Social Security benefits when they turn 65. Bad news...neither is true! Either way, it is a sobering reality to know that God is mad about the fact that we are idolaters. I have often failed on this one as well. I don’t have a Buddha on my mantle or a sacred cow on my fridge. I do, however, justify my personal sin by rationalizing it in my mind, making the God of my mind different than the one in the Bible. When we do that, we might as well be worshipping some dude name Frank. Don’t write this Commandment off as one that heathens do in other countries. Instead add it to the list of Commandments that both of us break. Look at the Commandments, and think of how frequently we break them. Then think of God coming to the Earth as a perfect, sinless man, dying on the cross as a substitute punishment-taker for the many sins (including this one) we have committed against Him, and rising again to defeat death. We should remind ourselves that He did this knowing what kind of folks we really are. What a great and merciful God we serve!
By the way...If you don’t know this God about which I speak, in a personal way, or if you have made for yourself one that is comfortable to you instead of one strictly expressed in the Bible, humbly call out to Him. Say to Him something like “God, I know I have blown it. I have broken every Commandment in the Book. You should throw me in Hell, and be perfectly justified in doing so. I ask you, instead, to forgive my sins. I know Jesus died as a substitute for the punishment my sins have deserved. I want to turn from my old life with me in charge and let you be my boss in every way. While I can never earn your forgiveness, I want to live for you forever. Amen.” There is no magic prayer or posture necessary, just a humble heart who wants to know God. Email me any time if you have questions. God Bless!

Weight updates: 214.8 down 2 lbs from last week. Total lost: 121. Goal: 24.8 lbs away. Ancient Chinese Secret to huge weight loss...The man who lose lot of weight must first be of really fat! No charge for the advice!

Bible verse: Colossians 1:21-2

3rd Commandment

"You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.” (Exodus 20:7 NASB)

I am finally starting to realize that I must be getting old. I have said and thought a few times recently something I believed reserved only for the elderly. I thought (and quietly verbalized) the infamous phrase “I wonder if that punk can hear that stinkin’ music” as his car thumped by. Irritating music, albeit disruptive to my fragile and tenuous thought process at times, doesn’t irritate me nearly as much as blasphemy...the violation of the Third Commandment. As we continue my perusal through the Commandments of Exodus 20, I would like to look this one over closely. If I sound a smidge on the Pharisaical side, pray about it...you’ll come around. In an understatement tantamount to calling my public speaking skill only slightly less intelligible than Ronald Reagan’s, I think God hates sin. This sin of Blasphemy may be the most popular one of our time. More than irritating God like a thumping subwoofer, I believe God becomes righteously furious at blasphemy. Briefly, I would like to point out a few ways we commit this sin, and then discuss its remedy with you today.
We all know examples of using the Lord’s name in vain. “Oh My Gxx” or “Gxx Dxxx!” are only scratching the surface. O.M.G., Holy Cow, Heck, Gosh, Golly, Dang, Jeez, Jeezo-Pete, Criminy, Lord, and Gahhh are some substitutes for Jesus, God, or religious themes we commonly sub for the real thing. I could go on all the way to the sports section of the paper with a complete list. These words are a natural part of our vocabulary. We piously use them as Christians, thinking that the action is what counts, not our intention. Luke 16:15 (NASB) states this clearly saying “You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts; for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God.” Ray Comfort, in his television show “Way of the Master”, explains it this way. “Blasphemy is substituting a four letter filth word of disgust with the Holy name of God.” Rather than spouting out an angry synonym of excrement, we insert the Holy name of God. Have you also noticed that no one screams “Buddha!” or “Mohammad!” when they hit their thumb with a hammer?
Another manifestation of this sin in our culture is our willingness to watch blasphemous movies and television shows. Visit www.pluggedinonline.com for movie summaries including a count of times God’s name was used in vain. Examples... Evan Almighty used blasphemy 9 times (in a “family friendly” movie), and “Momma Mia!” does it 18 times. Rated R movies are infinitely higher. Would you pay $25 to watch a movie that called your Mom crude swear words? Why then would we pay to watch as people slander the Savior and Creator of the world? Interestingly enough, censors on television shows will often leave the God part and bleep the Dxxx part out. This example is amazing yet insightful commentary on the misunderstanding of blasphemy. The website www.hollywoodandgod.com is another excellent, and quite persuasive, website relating to this subject.
So...why on Earth do we do this? I believe it is clear to me the more I look at it. You can boil it down to two possibilities. Either we don’t fear God or we don’t believe in Him. I challenge you to find me a different spin. The early Jewish scribes of the Bible were so concerned with not spelling Yahweh’s name right that they spelled it YHWH, hoping that by abbreviating it with reverence, perhaps God would not hold it against them. Incidentally, these same scribes would destroy copies of the Law that were less than 100% perfectly written without “typos”, stray marks, or anything that would bring shame to God. Today we only care enough to slightly veil the word with a similar sounding word, and then pat ourselves on the back for our devotion to God. My... have we come a long way?? We show the extent of our true devotion to God in the little stuff like this. As for me...guilty again! I am zero for eight on the Commandments we have looked at thus far. I don’t use the really bad versions of the words, but the substitutes fly off my tongue with ease. I watch movies that freely blaspheme as well. Amazingly, Jesus Christ died for me anyway! What a Savior! I am thankful for the Ten Commandments as a gazing pool to see and dispose of self-righteousness. I need all the help I can get!
It is time for all believers to revere the name of the Lord. Join me in correcting this inadequacy in ourselves. God is Holy and deserves better. Be intentional this week in what you say. Take inventory and make corrections, for His name’s sake! Email comments or suggestions to markapplegate@alltel.net.

Diet update: Currently 216.8 lbs... I have lost a total of 119.2 lbs. God is good, all the time!

Verse of the week: Psalm 86:11.

4th Commandment (0 for 6 and Counting!!!)

I am sorry for leaving you hanging on the edge of your seats waiting for “insight” into the rest of the 10 Commandments. I realize my three avid readers have been left wandering aimlessly for a month waiting for another pearl of wisdom. At last, the time has arrived! For the rest of you...hey...this is better than a filler piece about watering your marigolds too much... be nice!
Commandment number four says “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: But the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.” (Exodus 20:8-11).
There are many ways to look at this one. As is my standard methodology, I will discuss the Commandment in light of my failure to keep it. First things first, however...I must clarify how I understand this Commandment. In my simplistic ability to discern, I believe the Fourth Commandment applies to modern people in many ways like it did the Jews of antiquity. The Sabbath day, like to those of old, is to be set aside for worship and rest. Jesus clarified the meaning of the Sabbath in the same way He redefined many pharisitical definitions. One of the beautiful ways Christ did this was recorded in Luke 6:6-11 saying “And it came to pass also on another Sabbath that He entered into the synagogue and taught: and there was a man whose right hand was withered. And the scribes and Pharisees watched Him, whether He would heal on the Sabbath day; that they might find an accusation against Him. But He knew their thoughts, and said to the man which had the withered hand, ‘Rise up, and stand forth in the midst.’ And he arose and stood forth. Then said Jesus unto them, ‘I will ask you one thing; Is it lawful on the Sabbath days to do good, or to do evil? to save life, or to destroy it?’ And looking round about upon them all, He said unto the man, ‘Stretch forth thy hand.’ And he did so: and his hand was restored whole as the other. And they were filled with madness; and communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.”
I see the Sabbath as a day set aside to celebrate Jesus Christ’s resurrection and the freedom from the penalty of the Law. The Jews of antiquity were burdened by a law they couldn’t possibly keep. Enter Jesus and the New Covenant. Now we can rest in Him. Every week we can celebrate Easter Sunday and retell our soul the Greatest Story Ever Told. In the process of celebrating Christ (performing sacraments, having fellowship, growing in faith with other believers, etc...) we grow closer to Him. Our heart and motives for our actions are, as always, transparent to God’s sight. In short, we need to worship with a body of believers to grow closer to God. Hebrews 10:25 reminds us, as do other passages, to value corporate worship.
How have I done? Early in my pre-Christian days, I was a Christmas and Easter church attendee. I didn’t even consider the one who gave me life worthy of extra thought on Sundays. Football, sleeping in, the thick Springfield newspaper, and food were among my favorite excuses to skip worship. No real worship, no growing in faith, and, when I did go to church, I performed sacraments in an unworthy, flippant manner. In short, I was a typical, worldly church person who was far from Christ.
Fast-forward me twenty plus years since becoming a Christian and the flip side happened. I periodically have turned Pharisee. At times in my Christian walk I have kept the Sabbath in a proud way with poor motives. “Look at those men on the golf course! I’d never miss church for something so worldly!” I might say, with a heart no better than those in the Luke passage who “communed one with another what they might do to Jesus.”. Would I drive by a stranded motorist to get to church on time? “Surely they have called AAA!” my self righteous heart would likely tell me as I rush to church. I, like the rest of folks, often miss Jesus in the details of life. In this way I still fail!
Up to now in the column I am “0 for 6” on following Commandments....as are all of us. Do you see how the Commandments make a nice mirror to show us that we are hopeless without a Savior? We are so unworthy of Heaven based on what we have done. God would be completely just sending us to Hell for eternity despite what “good things” we do. What an awesome God to instead die as a substitute for us. I will forever be grateful! Will I do better on this Commandment in the future? The more I grow closer to Him, the more my impure motives are replaced, the better I will do. I’ll never be perfect this side of eternity, but I want nothing more than to live like Sunday all week long. I hope you will join me. Check your motives, evaluate your heart with Exodus 20, and join me in being thankful for a Savior all week long.

Diet update... 223.4 lbs. I have now lost 112.6 lbs. My goal is just 33.4 lbs away. God is so very good. He is worthy of me taking care of the body He gave me in a way that brings Him honor!
Prayer request...my church does VBS in the park this week and sends 50+ on a mission trip the next week. God is doing great things and we are blessed to get to go along for the ride!!!

10 Commandments Diet Plan

Today I take a brief break from our tiptoe through the Ten Commandments to discuss dieting and how my Savior relates to my diet. In the process, I will be introducing what I have come to know as the Ten Commandments Diet Plan. Before you boil me with oil or scoff at me as a heretic, hear me out.

The story of Mark Applegate’s obesity began in 1982. I had always been a pretty large kid, but really began to grow out during my Junior High years. I struggled with self-confidence issues throughout my childhood. A verbally abusive step-father saying I would never amount to anything combined with an uber-popular, athletic brother the girls swooned over to the point of asking me “why I couldn’t be cute like my brother”, among other issues compounded the weight problem. Looking back, however, excuses abound.
Fast forward ahead to 2004. I was approximately 380 pounds. I am not exactly sure what weight I topped out at, but I remember three moments in my life that really stick out relating to the extent and shame of my obesity. First I remember reading on my doctor’s chart on me that he referred to me as “morbidly obese”. I have come to learn later that this is a medical term, not a value judgment, but at the time seemed like I was being made fun of by my doctor. I had been the target of fat jokes for years, but it was particularly hurtful to see a third party writing to his peers making fun of me.

The second low point of my corpulence was subtle, yet painful. It was when I outgrew the regular scale. When the balance scale, regardless of how far I scoot it to the right, still doesn’t budge, it was a painful event. My spring scale nearly took 2 revolutions. Scales were not my friend.

The third low point was at my first cardio-stress test. As I grew into the enormous person I was, my health declined. My blood pressure was extremely high, compounded by a stressful business life and a busy schedule. Heart palpitations were common and my overall health was terrible. I finally went to the doctor to get my heart checked. I was required to get a stress test. If you haven’t been privileged to have one of these, it is when they shave your chest and tape probes all over it, then run you on a treadmill and watch your heart medically. I am a private man, and having an attractive nurse pushing my obesity from side to side to shave me was a new low point.

Upon reflection it is easy for me to see how I got to nearly (?) 400 pounds. Three reasons jump out to me....pardon their simplicity. The first reason is I love to eat. Food tastes good to me. It still does. Pretty simple... yum...I love it. I could go for an ice cream right now as I type! The second reason I gained weight is similar. I ate a lot of calories and was lazy. Liking food is one thing. Eating by the bucket is another thing altogether. I enjoyed food so much that I ate it a lot. I was so big that I was exhausted at the end of a work day. Exercise was minimal. Simple calories economics 101 says that if you put in more than you burn, you gain weight. I ate a bunch and laid on the couch a lot too. (No charge for today’s complex dietician lessons.) The third reason I gained the weight is that I just didn’t care. The stress of life combined with a low self-confidence led me to not see the value of caring for my health. Ironically I didn’t piece together how my relationship with Jesus Christ related to something as unspiritual as my weight. I was just living life without consideration to my weight. A year ago things began to change.
I want to point out three events that changed my take on my weight. First, as my health rapidly declined, fear of leaving my family behind because of premature death, was a strong motivator. Please note that I am a Christian. I am going to heaven when I die, not because of any merit in my life (actually in spite of the lack of it!), but because of the unmerited favor of an awesome God. I don’t fear dying in the least. Paul, in Philippians 1:21-6 explains the dichotomy of death writing “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live on in the flesh, this will mean fruitful labor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better; yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake. Convinced of this, I know that I will remain and continue with you all for your progress and joy in the faith, so that your proud confidence in me may abound in Christ Jesus through my coming to you again.” Despite being infinitely less spiritually mature than Paul, I can still relate. Death scares me for my family’s sake. I have a beautiful and far more gracious than I deserve wife and three awesome kids. I would hate to think of them mourning over my death caused by my poor decisions.
The second watershed event in my life was crucial as well. It started when my pastor began a study on repentance of sin and personal spiritual cleansing. As you know, I have written about sin often in my column, but at times I am thick-skulled. It was during this study when I gave my life a good spiritual check up. I shaved my flabby chest, if you will, and hopped on the treadmill with the probes on. I am a pretty decent guy, by many standards. I don’t kick the cat, I pay my taxes, and I go to church as often as possible. I am a Christian, and am forgiven for all of my past, present, and future sins. Despite this glowing self-appraisal, I came to realize that there is a lot more to personal “goodness” (Romans 3:10) than repenting of the “big sins”. The more I think of how amazing of a God that I serve is, and how awe-inspiring the love of Jesus Christ dying on the cross as a substitute for the punishment I deserved, the more I want to root all the sin out of my life. My obesity, defined biblically as gluttony, is one of the many sins in my life I have targeted for battle. The thought of sinning and not esteeming the sacrifice of Jesus Christ made me sick the more I thought and prayed about it. In addition, seriously evaluating myself in the light of the 10 Commandments furthered this feeling (hence the name 10 Commandments Diet). Do I still sin? Yes. Am I at war with it on many fronts? Yes. God is wonderfully patient with me.
The last event was a Bible study led by Ken Spurgeon from Proverbs. We spent part of a couple classes discussing being a sloth. I am the poster child of “sloth-kind”. My weight, and the corresponding exhaustion, became an excuse to not serve God with all of my strength (see Luke 10:27). I want to serve Him in the best way possible. Obesity is a hindrance. Excuses abound.
How does my diet plan work? 2 steps.... First examine yourself spiritually. Compare yourself only to Jesus Christ. Hold up the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20) as a mirror. Pray, read the Bible, and root out the sin in your life. Second, eat less and exercise more. Simple economics... eat fewer calories than you burn and you will lose weight. I am using Weight Watchers, and I like it. Most other diets work too. Do the math, count the costs of your sin, and lose the weight...it is that simple. Your doctor can help more with the logistics of what to eat than I can, but you have to ask. At the same time think about Jesus on the cross dying for folks like you and me. Are the “small”(?) sins like gluttony really worth it anyway???
Diet update... 230.6 lbs. Total loss 105.4 lbs since November 13th. 39.6 lbs. to go. My yearly physical this week revealed a clean bill of health with dramatic improvements in every category of health. I am off of all medications and on the road to much better shape. I appreciate your prayers!!!

5th Commandment

“Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be prolonged in the land which the LORD your God gives you.” (Exodus 20:12 NASB)
“3And He answered and said to them, "Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”For God said, 'HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER,' and, 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER IS TO BE PUT TO DEATH.' "But you say, 'Whoever says to his father or mother, "Whatever I have that would help you has been given to God," he is not to honor his father or his mother.' And by this you invalidated the word of God for the sake of your tradition. "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you: 'THIS PEOPLE HONORS ME WITH THEIR LIPS, BUT THEIR HEART IS FAR AWAY FROM ME.’BUT IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN.'" (Matthew 15: 3-9 NASB)
Today I resume our float trip down the Rio de 10 Commandments with a subject I, more so than ever, am hardly qualified to write about...the Fifth Commandment is to honor your Father and your Mother. I also want to springboard onto a rabbit trail that relates to this subject and how it relates to tradition. Join as the blind leads the blind on this one.
I am the baby of my family in more ways than one. The youngest of three kids, I became adept at whining my way into and out of trouble. My older sister, the firstborn of the Applegate brood, was a typical co-parent type growing up. I looked up to (and still do) her maturity and strength. She was the trailblazer of the Applegate kids... first to drive, get a job, and the like. She also moderated trouble among the ranks of the siblings. Next came my brother. He is a genius, yet with the “turtle-running-across-interstate” risk-taking gene. He is extroverted and winsome in personality and, in many ways, my idol. In his teen years, unable to be challenged by teachers and parents intellectually, creatively found himself in trouble often. Then came yours truly... I was the baby. I am the baby. I even married the baby of another family. My sister would usually relent rather than hearing me whine to get my way. My brother would, rightfully, whack me to shut me up, thereby getting himself in trouble. I was in a nice triangular insulation from parenting because of this arrangement. I was successful in the “kid game” if I could get in trouble less than my brother. Piece of cake.
I suspect we drove my parents crazy (and were on the short list of reasons why their marriage failed). When they would try to go on a date, we would terrorize our “babysitter of the week”. I remember vividly (as does she) when we played a game with one of them. Never play the Houdini game with an Applegate kid! A simple game... tie me in a chair and see if I can escape. The first round is easy. The second round we tied her up and left...for the afternoon. Three hours and six bucks worth of Pac Man quarters later, we freed the poor babysitter (Is that a felony Mr. Starbuck? I hope I have passed the statute of limitations!). We had a different babysitter the next week. The Fifth Commandment never entered our mind. God gave us parents, assigned them to raising us, and we would do this kind of stuff to reward them! It was, and is, so easy to sin.
This is the pin point tip of the iceberg of my breaching the 5th Commandment. But enough about me... How about you? Did you always obey the first time asked as a child? Did you bring honor to your family name through your school work, your service to mankind, and your good character...all the time? Have you ever called your parents a name to or behind their back? What was your attitude toward obeying? God’s standard is perfection, not an easy competition of behaving better than yours truly. Obeying externally and rebelling inside is not honoring your parents. I think we are both zero for the first five Commandments! Yet, despite breaking this and the other Commandments a plethora of times, God made a way for us to be forgiven. Stacks of my and your sins forgiven by an amazing God dying on a cross as a substitute penalty for the crimes we committed. All we have to do is repent (turn from them never to return) of the sins in our life, let Him be our absolute boss (Lord), and know that He is the only way to go to heaven. If you need more info about this process, email me. I am happy to help!
As for the before-mentioned rabbit trail, I direct you to the Matthew 15 verse above. There was a tradition in the day of Christ that Pharisees would dedicate things to God so they wouldn’t have to show it as an asset. It was, in a way, like a loophole in the right thing to do scale. Jesus, as he was wont to do, exposed this, and others like it. Their stuff was no more “given to God” than that “business lunch” write-off at Hammons Park was for business purposes. God cares about reality, not perception. Honoring God with our mouth while denying in our heart is as useless a screen door in a submarine (so says the song). I am trying to reign in my motives these days. I put on a decent show on the outside, but have found sin hiding in the motives. Join me in rooting this one out.

Bible verse... Proverbs 10:1. I know a story of a man who became a Christian in jail after a journey that largely began with the reading this verse.
Diet update...I have lost 97.4 pounds now, after another really good month. I weigh 239.6, about 50 pounds from my goal. I appreciate your prayers!

Me, Jeffrey Dahmer, and Family Feud

“You shall not murder.” Exodus 20:13 (NASB)
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment'. But I tell you that anyone who is angry at his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother,'Raca', is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says 'You Fool!' will be in danger of the fire of Hell!” Matthew 5:21-2 (NASB)
“One hundred people surveyed, top four answers on the board...looking for the number one answer. Here's the question... 'What is the first thing you do when someone cuts you off in traffic?'” inquires Richard Karn, host of my favorite game show, Family Feud. Can you guess? What would you say? America gave these answers. Number four answer “Honk”; number three answer “Flip off the driver”; number two answer “Ignore them”; and the number one answer “Scream and Yell at the driver”. I guess all those who said “Lock and Load!” are either too busy watching Dale Jr. turn left or still awaiting parole?! I would likely fall on the number one answer except not so much audibly, but, boy, if they could hear me think!!! The road was paved for Mark Applegate...everyone else is just using my road!
As we continue our hop, skip and jump through God's moral law, the Ten Commandments, we delve into the 6th Commandment...”You shall not murder.” (The number six is shaped kinda like a bomb if you need a memory aid to remember which one it is.) If you do a quick survey of your “good-ness” using the Ten Commandments, the 6th seems like a safe one for most of us. I wouldn't have a clue how to shoot a gun, being the city slicker that I am. I am a wuss when it comes to fighting. I can't cook well enough to hide poison in my food. I can't even beat Bowser in my kid's video game! A murderer I am not...or so I thought until I read the words of Jesus in Matthew 5. Alas, Jesus clarifies the Commandment in the above verse in Matthew to include our thought life. When we hate someone , we commit murder in our heart. When we physically or mentally extend the middle finger of friendship to a driver in traffic, we are in danger of judgment. When the restaurant gives us pickles when we expressly said no pickles, and we fume...we break the commandment! When the chubby writer in the paper says something stupid, and we grumble about him, we kill him in our heart. With this in mind, we are all left like O.J. Simpson, murderers who have, thus far, got away with it. Or have we??? God's judgment is so perfect, it leaves us all in a pickle when we die. Is forgiveness available for physical or mental murderers? Boy do I have good news...read on!
I was reading yet again from one of my favorite books in Christendom, In the Grip of Grace, by Max Lucado, when he dropped this bomb on me. “Do you know what disturbs me most about Jeffrey Dahmer? What disturbs me most are not his acts, though they are disgusting. Dahmer was convicted of seventeen murders. Eleven corpses were found in his apartment. He cut off arms. He ate body parts. My thesaurus has 204 synonyms for vile, but each falls short of describing a man who kept human skulls in his refrigerator and hoarded a human heart. He redefined the boundary for brutality. The Milwaukee monster dangled from the lowest rung of human conduct and then dropped. But that's not what troubled me the most.... Not His trial, disturbing as it was, with all those pictures of him sitting serenely in court, face frozen, motionless. No sign of remorse, no hint of regret....Not his punishment, though life with no parole is hardly an exchange for his actions. How many years would it take to satisfy justice? A lifetime in jail for every life he took? But that's another matter, and that's not what troubles me most about Jeffrey Dahmer. May I tell you what does? His conversion.” (p. 35-6)
By every account I have read, Dahmer became a Christian shortly before he was killed in prison. He was treated, realized what kind of monster he was and threw himself at the feet of Jesus Christ to save him. He is, if all indications were correct, going to be sharing the same heaven as the Apostle Paul. Does that trouble you? Does it anger you? Do you doubt the power of Jesus' sacrifice on the cross? Surely a filthy sinner like Dahmer is on the fast track to Hell, if anyone is?!?! Three verses, among others, speak otherwise!
“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23 NASB)
“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” (Romans 10:9-10 NASB)
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 NASB)
God has a tough standard. We all have broken every commandment, whether in a physical sense or an emotional/internal/thought-realm sense. There is someone that all of us hate. God treats it as murder, yet forgives completely anyone who comes to Him with a humble spirit and asks. Does he grade sin's seriousness on some sort of scale? He may but the absence of conclusive evidence scripturally leaves me to expect that either way God treats all sin extremely seriously. Our only hope is to do what Dahmer did, apparently, and throw ourselves at the feet of Jesus for forgiveness. What an amazing God who forgives wretches like me and Jeffrey!
Weekly Scripture Verse: 2 Timothy 2:15...hold me to that standard too!
Diet update: I am at 253 after gaining very small amounts in each of the last 2 weeks. I am working out 6 days a week now and still doing fine on the diet part...hopefully I am adding muscle weight. I have established a long-range goal of running a marathon within the next couple years. Thanks for your prayers and encouragement!

Adultery...the 7th Commandment

"Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery." Exodus 20:14
"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery: But I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her committed adultery with her already in his heart." Matthew 5:27-8 (KJV)
"I have looked on many women with lust. I have committed adultery in my heart many times. God knows I will do this and forgives me." Former President Jimmy Carter (Playboy Magazine November 1976 as quoted on www.notable-quotes.com...I don't read the articles or look at the pictures.)
As we continue out tiptoe through the "I am a Good Person!!"-minefield that is the Ten Commandments, I point us to the Seventh Commandment which forbids Adultery. I could start with some shocking statistics about STD's, huge numbers of sexual partners of typical Americans, or statistical similarities of those who go to church with those who don't (a topic for another day). I could beat you with a Golden Club for your past indiscretions, while hiding mine. I could just pull a Nancy Reagan and say "just say no!" All would be good ice breakers. All would in a way expose the subject. Ever the one to think outside the box, I will spin in another direction. I will aim my plea at two groups...just try to hide!
To the married members of the vast audience...can we talk for a minute? How much do you love your spouse? Remember the days when things were fresh, exciting, and new? Remember fighting over who would be forced to say Goodbye first on the phone during your calls. (Maybe I am the only one that started dating their spouse when I was 16?!?!) Remember (currently, too, I would hope) when the thought of someone hurting the one you love would make you shake with anger to protect them? Remember learning what she liked, what "Hair Band" he dreams of looking like with his mullet spruced up for you, or where she liked to eat ice cream? Remember the fear of losing the one you love after the first big fight? The same God who gave your spouse to you is using them to grow you today. Stop using any character trait of theirs as an excuse to commit adultery. Men especially, you don't have to physically cheat on her to commit adultery. Pornography rates are astronomical. Love your wife. Simple. Ladies...no more romance novels. We don't look like Fabio. (I look closer to Chris Farley.) We seldom sweep you off to the sunset. Love your husband anyway. God has linked you together for His glory as a picture of what your relationship with Him looks like. Live like it.
To singles... I can imagine that it is hard. Thank God that you have more time to devote to His service. You have a special gift...undivided love and attention for God, that many married people, regrettably, don't have. Stay pure. Stay accountable to others when things are easy and when they are difficult! You will grow from the position God has put you in and God will get a tremendous amount of Glory from your life!
Lastly, to everyone who carries the banner of Christianity...prepare to be annoyed with the slightly less fat writer. Stop dancing with the Devil. Pornography is not OK. Gawking at the other sex, or the same for that matter, is not ok! Other things in our life are a slap at God as well. Think of Christ like the Bible lists as our Bridegroom. We are, presumably, growing toward Christlikeness in a way to show ourselves a Bride to Christ when He returns someday. (I know, for macho men this concept can be a challenge. ) We, as one wanting to be spotless for our wedding day, have preparation to do. Given this, why would we do things that are effectively committing adultery on our Bridegroom? Why would we do Yoga? Yoga is a highly spiritual ritual to bring about a sense of closeness with a specific Hindu Goddess. Would you make eyes at the groom's brother on your wedding day? How about Horoscopes? I can find 21 instances of how angry God is at divination. Is Jesus Christ, your Bridegroom, not trustworthy enough to trust with the future? "Oh, chunky scribe, it is just for fun!" you might say. I say you are cheating on your first love. How about that cute, chubby Buddha statue? It's not a decoration, it is competition for your affection. Might as well be a Brad Pitt nude sculpture!
A special note to Jimmy Carter... Mr. President, we all struggle with sin. Many of us, including myself at times, struggle with lust. However, it is just that... a struggle. Your sad attempt at explanation in your infamous quote not only exposes your heretical, Universalist thinking (that everyone gets to go to heaven regardless of all factors), it exposes something much more sad. It shows that you are not sorry for your sin, a sin against primarily God (Psalm 51), and that you plan to do it again. I wish you were even as good with religious doctrine as you were with the economy (said in the spirit of kindness and generosity). Repenting of sexual sin means much more than sorrow for being caught or sorrow to look like a spiritual man. It means disgust at the old self. We may fall, but it will be against our will.
God is so kind to forgive us in this area. I see this as a huge area of hidden concern to most people. God can and will forgive from past sin and grant you His Holy Spirit to help along the way, if you are willing to repent (Turn away from) adultery, in all its forms. Questions, concerns, or accountability, email me. God Bless!
Weight update... 249.4! Through God's Mercy, I have lost 15+ pounds since last we talked two weeks ago. I have lost a total of 86.6 pounds. My goal is 177, so I have 72.4 to go. Moving right along!!!

Strawberry Swipecake

Isn't it kind of funny that we hit the Eighth Commandment this week, being so close to the National Day of Mourning, also known as Tax Day. The Eight Commandment forbids stealing. Whom is stealing from whom is a matter of opinion during this fun tax season. Regardless, I would like to examine this Commandment briefly so as not to steal too much of your time.
Have you ever stole anything, regardless of value? I have never shoplifted or committed grand theft auto. Does that make me exempt from thievery? Hardly. Allow me to count the ways...and see if you relate to any of these for yourself.
I ate nearly one thousand times the body weight of a pregnant yak of ripe strawberries from the commercial strawberry field across the street from my house in the early teen years of my life. Proverbs 9:17 (Revised Mark's Childhood Version) says “Stolen strawberries (NASB says “water is”)are sweet; shortcake (NASB says “food”) eaten in secret is delicious.” We, with the owner's knowledge, swiped enough berries to feed an African nation. Guilty!
I have goofed off for countless hours at jobs I have had over the years...all of which are stealing payroll from my employer. Colossians 3:23a says “Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men...”. Guilty!
I, with a partner in crime, stole the goldfish out of the 10th hole water hazard at Putt Putt golf on Prom Night 1989.

I have stolen from God by not tithing for a large part of the early days of my Christian walk. Read Acts 5 for the story of a married couple's experience with stealing from God. Seriously guilty!!
We take approximately 24000 breaths of air each day, each comprising approximately 3000 gallons of air. In a 78 year life I will have swiped 85,410,000 gallons of air. Deut. 10:14 among other places, states that everything, including my stolen air, belongs to God... I haven't even said thanks for it! Exponentially guilty!
These are a few examples, some serious, some not so much, of my lifelong relationship to the sin of stealing. I strongly believe that nearly everyone, if honest, would recognize that they have stolen something in their life. Add this one to the previous two Commandments I am guilty of breaking from the last two weeks' column, and I am typical. Does God care? Yes. Does He forgive? Depends...have you repented of lifelong patterns? Are you sorry? Have you asked for forgiveness? If these are answered correctly, I believe God not only can but will forgive this and every other sin in our lives.
I would like to also address one other aspect of stealing this week. This is sure to make some grab stones to throw at me. Nearly every mainstream world religion, and some branches of Christianity as well as many a cult, requires some “work” of ours to go to Heaven when we die. Many well-meaning people believe we must clean up our lives and do more good than bad to go to heaven. We are weighed on a cosmic “good verses bad” scale and which ever side the arrow points is where we go. Like on the classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the geese that lay the golden eggs put their egg on a egg checker which determines whether they are good or bad, we are weighed as good or bad . Good eggs go to heaven, bad ones hell. This, my friends, is stealing glory from Jesus Christ. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NASB) says “For it is by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” If you did anything to supplement the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, dying as a substitute punishment for the sins you have committed, you steal the credit from Christ. What kind of monster of a God would send His Son to die for you as one possible means of your salvation, to go with other potential ways? No, it took a perfect sacrifice, and He gave it. How dare we try to steal the Glory from the only one deserving! Pray honestly today... “What is my part of my salvation?”. If you answer anything more than “I submitted myself to a Holy God as an unworthy sinner”, examine yourself. Was Jesus' painful death on the cross enough? Did He need my help?
The reason I love to look at the Commandments, and will be working through them for the next month and a half, is that they make for a beautiful list of self-reflecting thoughts to consider. We aren't saved because of our skill in keeping them, that's for sure. Call out to God today, and ask for forgiveness and let Him be Boss. If you have questions, email me. I will be praying for you as always! I don't want your money, I just want to see you in heaven someday!
Weight Update...262. I lost 3.4 this week for a total loss of 74 lbs. Only 76 to go. Thanks for your prayers! God is so patient and good!
Memory Verse: 1 Peter 1:14-6.

Cookie...Me Want Cookie!!!!

“One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song?”
I love Cookie Monster! I can relate to the furry blue, snack food inhaling resident of Sesame Street. Growing up I can remember vividly holding the thermometer to the light bulb on my lamp in my living room so as to appear to have a fever so I could watch Sesame Street, Electric Company, and Villa Allegre. Looking back, I wonder if my parents were concerned with my 150 degree fevers I would get at times...but boy did I outsmart them! Regardless, I sat watching PBS like most pre-cable, faking sickness-type school kids daydreaming as I learned with the colorful creatures on the show. Funny how we learn to lie at a young age. White lies are so natural, most of us don't even think twice. Starts young and gets easier as we get better at it.
Shifting gears clumsily, a relevant verse comes to mind. Revelation 21:8 (NASB) says “But the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” 1 Timothy 1:9-10 has a similar list with liars grouped in with a list of “worse sins”.
“One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which sin is not like the others, by the time I finish my...uh, newspaper column?”
Today, with much clanging on cymbals, we delve into the Ninth Commandment from Exodus 20: Thou shalt not bear false witness. You ain't supposta lie, for those in bordering counties. A recent highly scientific study in Great Britain by the Daily Mail in conjunction with the WKD brand name alcoholic drink company (obviously a trusted name) asserted that the average person lies 4 times a day. 116880 times including leap days for an 80 year old lying at that rate. Please don't patronize me with your “There are some GOOD LIES” logic...we all know the difference...they are not all good and we all know it! Or consider your “Babies don't lie” rants...anyone who says that needs to put new batteries in their Wanda Wetsy doll, because their kid isn't real! They figure it out quickly! The numbers of lies start early and build quickly!
So, let's break the list from Revelation down and give a quick thumbs up/down as co-judge of the universe.
Cowardly...this is the same word as Jesus used to describe His “followers” when He calmed the storm in Matthew 8:26. Yes...they were too worried for their own well being to be a Christian.
Unbelieving...see cowardly.
Abominable...not a commonly used word beyond snowmen lexicon, but it means really bad!
Murderers...boo hiss.
Immoral persons...those sinners deserve what comes to them!
Sorcerers... take one cat whisker, one horny toad leg, and one tablespoon of Sweet and Low then throw them into the fiery pit!
Idolaters...chuck them with their little false altar to the hot place!
And ALL Liars. Wait...I lie sometimes. Hey, wait...one of these things is NOT like the others....or is it? If you are a regular of this column, like I know you four are, you know from my previous columns that King David sorrowfully announced in Psalm 51 that he had sinned primarily against God with his lulu affair with Bathsheba. The event resulted in murder, illegitimate and angry kids, and a host of other problems. David recognized that every single sin against God is a direct slap at our Creator. Multiply that 116880 times in our life. Yikes. Why God doesn't whack us after the first ten thousand or so is testimony to His patience and desire to have us in heaven with Him someday. Lying once is enough. James 2:10 (NIV) says “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” Jesus died for us knowing full well we would probably hit six figures in this sin category. Consistency says “Grab a stone...let's whack the sinner!” Christ's grace says “I'll take the stoning for you!” Sure God's system will punish those bad sinners...you know, murderers and rapists. It also makes it clear liars get lumped with this group along with the rest of us. Jesus' taking the punishment we deserved is the most amazing offer of our life. Consider it wisely, then give the rest of your life saying thanks for His amazing patience and kindness! Email me questions or concerns.
Weight loss update...current weight is 265.4. Lost 1.4 pounds this week. (Is it lying to try to stand skinny on a scale at your weigh-in?) Total weight loss... 70.6 pounds. God is patient and good!
Memory verse: Galatians 5:22.

Tsunami Warning!

This week represents a shift in focus in our little column from Psalm 51, the beautiful song of repentance of King David, to a look at Exodus 20's Ten Commandments. I think it a natural, if backward, progression, as, unless we see where we stand before a Holy God, it is foolishness to repent of (turn away from) what we are unaware that we are doing wrong. In simpler terms, if you were splashing on a sandy beach and I swam out, grabbed you by the armpits, and dragged you to drier/higher ground, you would likely use a taser on me. Add one piece of information-that a Tsunami warning was just issued and soon one hundred foot waves would usher you to your Maker if you didn't find higher ground immediately-and instead of zapping me with your self-defense device you would love and thank me. Here's your Tsunami warning...Hebrews 9:27a says “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this comes judgment...” . We die once then are judged by God according to a standard of absolute perfection. If we are seen by a Holy God as perfect, we go to Heaven. If not, we go to a place as real as the IRS office called Hell. Big problem! The wave is tall, our chances are that of a sand castle without someone to take our punishment. As a reminder, we are not saved by keeping the Ten Commandments as we would all perish if it were to be so. If we have broke one law, we have broke them all (read James 2:10)! They (The Ten Commandments) do, however, make a beautiful reflecting pool into which to gaze at our futile attempts at self-righteousness and realize our desperate need for a Savior....someone to somehow pay for our sins and save us from drowning in our sin debt (Romans 6:23).
This week I want to briefly hit on the Tenth Commandment...Thou shalt not covet. (We, for the next two months, will do a countdown on Exodus 20.) Coveting is wanting (badly) someone else's stuff. In my life, this one is a sort of a toughie. It manifests itself in the usual ways... “Boy would I love that Plasma TV for baseball season”, or “I sure wish I had Ken Spurgeon's stylish hairstyle!”. A new way I fail on this one recently surfaced in my prayer time in addition to these normal coveting ideas. I am not a vain person, but I would like to be in great physical shape some day. At times subconsciously, I covet the slenderness of others. (Desiring a healthy body is different than over evaluating your appearance.) In fact, I have recently came under conviction on this one as I evaluate my diet in general. As a point of review for the one or two new readers of my column who will join the three or four regulars (Hi Mom...send money!), I have been on Weight Watchers since November 13th. I have lost exactly 69.2 pounds in this time. I came to see my need to repent on this sin (strongly desiring a cosmetically ultra fit body) recently after having prayed about how my diet relates to God. I prayerfully pondered “Is God involved in my weight loss?” . “Is He causing the success, or is my diet the reason I have lost so much?” The logical extension led me to ask myself “Can I say to someone interested in Christianity 'Become a Christian to lose weight', and keep a clean conscience?” Though His Word and with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, God revealed to me that the answer is “yes”, but not how you might think if you watch televangelists on TV. Becoming a Christian to lose weight better is, bluntly, stupid. God is not a diet plan, He is a righteousness plan. (There is a one hundred foot wave coming, who cares about your weight anyway!) God showed me that my obesity is sinful. I won't trouble you with the plethora of verses speaking against gluttony, but trust me, they are there (Proverbs is full of them). Becoming a Christian helps you lose weight specifically because, like King David from our previous study, real Christians desperately don't want to sin. I hate my sin. I wish for all I am worth, I could eliminate it from my life! It is against the God who died to save me! Me wanting to look like a movie star is one of many violations of the Tenth Commandment. See how the mirror of the Commandments made me realize my need for Jesus? How do you look in this mirror? Have you broken this Commandment too? Remember what the James 2:10 passage said... If you broke one, you broke them all. You, like me, need Jesus. If we repent (turn from our sins and let Him be Boss) and trust Jesus alone for our Salvation, we are made to appear perfect to God when the wave of Judgment hits, not because of how great we were in our time alive on Earth, but because of how great Jesus is to take our punishment! He pays our fine, and gives us the keys to the Kingdom...what an amazing offer! Fellow Christians...Join me in repenting of this sin! Seekers...examine yourself in the mirror of God's moral standard found in a convenient way in Exodus 20. If you have questions, email me any time!
Weight Loss update I weigh 266.8. I lost a nifty 3.2 lbs this week. I passed losing 20% of my starting weight this week. God has been kind and gracious to me during this diet!
Memory verse: James 2:10.

Psalm 51: 16-7 What can wash away my sins?

“For you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
Psalm 51:16-7 NASB
“You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the Court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says 'You fool' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell.”
Matthew 5:21-2 NASB
Holy Week 2008 is upon us. Never have I written a more important piece for your attention than this one. I sense that if I can successfully bury the Mark Applegate part from this piece and shine the light on the One deserving of praise, it will fulfill its purpose. Like a cross between the one who long ago screamed from down by the river Jordan “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! (Matthew 3:2 NASB)” and a slightly more sane version of the homeless man on the streets of New York with a “The End is Near” sandwich board duct taped to his beat up Yankees sweatshirt, I come to you with an urgent request. Use this Easter as an opportunity to “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!” (2 Corinthians 13:5a NASB).
As we near the completion of David's humble psalm expressing sadness, embarrassment, and fear to the Lord, we come to a critical theological point. David was guilty of breaking every Commandment (see Exodus 20) in the events surrounding his affair with Bathsheba. Some would say the biggest violation was the fact that he sent Bathsheba's husband into a position of sure death in battle with the intent of covering up his own scandal. That theological red herring aside (what sins are the most sinful?!), David knows his predicament. Murder is horrendous. There were specific sacrifices available for most sins. Some were fairly basic dove-type offerings for minor offenses. Others were “an-eye-for-an-eye” type. Many laws, many payments/offerings available to have your sin covered. Alas, scour Leviticus or any Book of Moses for anything to cover Murder and Adultery and you will quickly be redirected to stoning techniques. David knew his only hope was to throw himself on the mercy of the court and hope the Judge would pardon him. He was a perfect storm of feelings between fearful of punishment and sad that he offended God. (The terms broken and contrite fit him well.)
Exit David's courtroom scene. Enter your own. “Hey! I have never killed a fly! Take your Bible-thumping to the real sinners!” you might say. I would have too, before I realized the reality of God's standard...absolute perfection even in our “hidden life”. Jesus, in Matthew 5, rocked the entire Jewish world. Not the least of which, Jesus “tightened”, if you will, the Sixth (Murder) and the Seventh (Adultery) Commandments. Have you ever externally or internally “flipped off” a driver who beat you to the good parking at the movie or cut you off in traffic? Have you ever screamed at the telemarketer working to support his/her family for calling during supper? Have you ever wailed at a referee for blowing a call? Join me in murderer's row. By the way, reread the adultery clarification as well. How do you really feel about Internet pornography? Read Matthew 5 again. If you need a modern example for these, I recently heard a good one on wayofthemasterradio.com. Have you seen Dateline NBC's special they do about once a sweeps week called “To Catch a Predator”? It is a special where police pretend to be teen girls on the Internet. Once the guy shows up for the expected illegal sex, the police jump him. The man hadn't committed the main crime yet, but already had in his heart. Throw the book at him! No one would say “Hey, he wouldn't have done anything, except possibly trying to lie his way out of his situation.” Same with us on Commandments Six, Seven, and the rest. Great shape externally, but filthy rags on the inside!
So, why do I bring this stuff up? There is nothing in your world more important than being sure you are a Christian. I am not after your money or your anything. I just care for you. Now... I want you to temporarily delete all you ever have known about church. Find a quiet place to think for a little bit, if it helps. Why did you become a Christian? Were you always one? What was your mindset like? What were you saved from? Were you happy before, during, and after? What is your part in the process? What was the sacrifice you made, that King David (you know, the guy people call the man after God's own heart) struggled to figure out, to gain pardon for your crimes against God? Have you been Born Again (See John 3)?
As you make your semi-yearly trip into church (I am not judging you...I skipped church for nearly five years when I first got married!), think about your sin. What have you done in public and secret? What have you thought of doing? Then think of Jesus Christ. He died as your Sacrifice. He paid for our sin on the cross. With a broken spirit and a broken/contrite heart, call on Him to be your Savior and let Him be Lord (Absolute Boss) going forward. If you pridefully say you are good enough to get to Heaven, you are not contrite. Dictionary.com defines contrite “Caused by or showing sincere remorse”. Are you sorry for your sins? Do they make you sick, not for fear of getting caught, but because they are directly against such a good God? Examine yourselves this week. See Jesus on the Cross and know it was for you and me that He died.
Verse for the week: 1 John 1:9 again.
Diet update: I now weigh 268.6 after a temporary? 10+ pound flu-induced weight loss this week. I have lost 67.4 pounds which surpasses 20% of my entire original body weight. I have 83.6 pounds to go. Almost half way there! I'll change my picture when I hit 100 pounds lost. FYI, at my biggest I was an unknown weight. I had to be weighed on the “special scale” because the doctor's 350 pound scale was not sufficient. I started this diet at 336 pounds.

Thank your lucky stars

As I sit this morning eating my lucky charms cereal, I noticed that St. Patrick's Day is nearly here! Young minds wander to thoughts of leprechauns, 4 leafed clovers, and wearing green to avoid pinch-hungry friends. The holiday itself traces roots back to the Patron Saint of Ireland who lived in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. I find it particularly interesting that over the centuries the holiday has been reduced to a sort of “luck worship”. If I can just find a genetically morphed piece of yard weed (clover) or a two foot tall man in green clothes (Ross Perot?), I will have “good luck”. This “good luck” will bring me the only thing that can possibly make me happy...a pile of gold. Given this chain of reasoning, wealth/happiness equals luck

Where does bad luck come from then? Is it strictly people who find the wrong number of leaves on their clover or, by default, must have mugged the little green guy? My conclusion is that the concept of luck as a whole presupposes the lack of a bigger plan that we are all a part of. If there is a reason why we all live and why things happen as they do, it is easy to see that this plan could be bigger than individual people's luck. Some think you “make your luck” by working hard. Others think God must not like them because of a propensity toward bad luck.

I have come to believe that we live in a world that has been corrupted by disobeying God and His Word. Working hard no more guarantees good fortune than not working hard guarantees bad fortune. We all know people who are undeservedly rich or inexplicably poor. Hard work is to be appreciated, valued, and honored, but not in expectation of a guaranteed success. Not working hard is non-biblical stealing from your employer, but it also does not guarantee failure in life.

The good news is there is more to life than luck. We live in a world with a purpose. Our purpose is not to amass riches, to be able to bench press twice our body weight, or to free every animal from the dog catcher's evil grasp. Our purpose in life is to glorify the Creator of the sun, moon, and lucky stars. He deserves to be given credit for all good things and to be sought for help when times are hard. We are so very blessed to not get what we deserve (To be ground up like the powder in the bottom of a box of Lucky Charms) and get what we don't deserve (The keys to the Kingdom)! Sometimes it is not easy to see that luck is irrelevant, but the promise of God remains “that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28b KJV).
The end of the rainbow does not take you to a pot of gold, it takes you to the cross.

Bloodguiltiness---not just a good Scrabble word any more!!!

Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. (Psalm 51:14-5 NASB)

As we continue our excursion through Psalm 51, we come to another amazing set of verses in 14 and 15. There is an amazing amount of theology to pull from these verses but in the interest of space I would like to focus on two pieces... “bloodguiltiness” and “open my lips”.

I just arrived in town from my denomination's (SBC) associational mission trip to a suburb of New Orleans, Louisiana. I will take a brief break from Psalm 51 next week to discuss what I learned about Christianity from this event. Nevertheless, I must make a brief but vital point about bloodguiltiness from what I learned. First of all, according to the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, bloodguiltiness “does not necessarily signify bloodshed, but any grievous sin which, if it remains, will block God's favor to His land and people”. David was scared, rightfully, that his bloodguiltiness would cause the Holy Spirit to withdraw from him as the Spirit did to King Saul. As you may remember, King Saul went crazy after the Spirit left him unprotected, and he ended up throwing himself on his sword. Can any modern truths be positively extracted from this Old Testament story? I would suggest yes! I would like to add a very interesting set of verses from Luke 13:1-5 to the mix and relate them to my mission trip to Hurricane Katrina-ravaged New Orleans. The verse reads (NASB): “Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And Jesus said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans because they suffered this fate? "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. "Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish."

Hurricane Katrina killed hundreds upon hundreds of people. The exact number is difficult due to many being washed away and the number of homeless, uncounted people who perished. Why did it happen? Was the bloodguiltiness so severe that God had had enough and thrashed the whole southern seaboard? Was the bloodguilt in Stockton, Missouri so heinous that God whacked us in May of 2003? I suggest to you that Jesus answers the question in our verse when He added “Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish”. The temptation is to say “They reaped what they sowed and God got'em for it!” Jesus redirects the conversation to who really deserves to be whacked...all of us. Sure God punishes sin. Sure God destroyed whole towns in the Old Testament for their sin. Sure there is buckets of sin in New Orleans. But, you know what? Las Vegas, arguably more sinful than any city on earth has had one less lethal tornado in the last five years than Stockton. God hates sin everywhere. While I say comfortably and confidently that God either caused or let happen both of these tragic events, I will not point a finger at New Orleans and state that they deserved it any more than I did. A helpful analogy is in order. If you kill a dog tick, what is the punishment? Nothing but a yucky hand. If you shoot the neighbor's cat, what is the penalty? A fine with community service likely will suffice. If you shoot a homeless man what do you get? Twenty five years with opportunity for early release due to overcrowding. If you shoot President Bush what is the punishment? Gas chamber or electric chair...lethal injection even if F. Lee Bailey represents you. All involve the same offense...killing. What is the difference in them? The object against whom you committed the act. God is our Creator. He owns everything including the air we breath. He gave us all we have and sent Jesus to die for our sins as a substitute penalty-taker. All sins are a direct slap at God. Who cares how often others sin? How many times have you lied? Lusted? Stolen? Used His Holy name in vain? Wanted someone else's stuff? We all deserve to be whacked. God is so patient with me alone, needless to say others, in not giving us all what we deserve! We should not point fingers, we should introspectively say “Thank You Lord that it wasn't me!” each day we have. What a Good God who instead of whacking the majority of us instead gives us the keys to the kingdom when we die! Amazing!!!

“Open my lips” is my second point of interest. Why, fellow Christian, don't we tell others about Salvation? I can boil it down to one of three options in my life. I don't believe enough. I love me too much. I don't love others enough. The second option is my stumbling block. What is yours? Sharing the Gospel is commanded and requested in the Great Commission (Matthew 28) as well as other places in the Bible. People are walking blindly into traffic...are we going to stop them? If a child was playing with a copperhead in the back yard, would we fear hurting their feelings by telling them of the danger? No way! Why the fear of witnessing then? (I am talking to both of us!) I pray that God would open my lips to stop being such a chicken. Join me! There are people playing with snakes everywhere, not just those sinful areas like New Orleans (and Stockton). Stop pointing fingers and start repenting soon!

Memory verse John 1:1

Weight Update...I lost another 5 in New Orleans. Total weight loss is 55...God is Good! See next weeks paper for a detailed story about Katrina and our trip.

God Bless!

Mission Trip Update

I will be posting all my pictures on mypicturealbum.com, as well as other comments by Tuesday. Thanks for visiting and praying faithfully! God Bless!
-Mark

Psalm 51:13 Quid pro quo or no...

“Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will be converted to you.” (Psalm 51:13 NASB)
Short and sweet this week, unlike the usually verbose and tart prose you come to expect from your corpulent scribe. Onward we plow through Psalm 51, one of the finest in the Bible.
“Then.” Simple first word, but loaded for bear! Was David trying to bribe God? Would a quid pro quo (“this for that” arrangement) work with a God that needs nothing from us? No, he had a different thought. The past 12 verses have amounted to David begging for a restoration for failing and sinning against God by having an affair with Bathsheba, then having her husband killed to try to cover it up. David starts with “then” because he is exemplifying the right response to grace (unmerited favor). Luke 7:41+ has the Savior discussing debt to your neighbor and how being forgiven of debt in varying amounts relates to love by debtor to the one owed to. This, to me, matches David perfectly. David knows his offense was grave and that he deserves the fate of his predecessor Saul, and knows acutely that he has a hope of forgiveness with God. He also understands the importance of humility before a high and Holy God (See Psalms 18:27; 25:9; 35:13; 147:6; 149:4 among others). He is so anxious to do good things, not to earn forgiveness, but to express thanks for it. He desperately wants back his standing before God so that he can honor his Redeemer.
So...are you really saved? Do you do good things to earn forgiveness or because you are so grateful to an awesome God for saving you? Count up your sins. (Read Exodus 20 for starters.) Every lie, every lustful moment, every time you have stolen, etc.. Now add up the times you have just thought bad things. Then think of Jesus Christ dying on the cross as a punishment for your and my sins. Now ask yourself, why would Jesus die on a cross in a way that made people all around sick if He needed your help to save you? Would your helping an old lady across the street or being carbon neutral pay for the multitude of sins you have committed in your life? “Then” means “You saved a wretch like me, I will forever do all I can to bring you honor to your Awesome and Holy name, not to pay you back (impossible) or exalt myself (Isaiah 64:6).” Yikes, the first word took half a page, maybe this will be as long as the rest?!? Sorry!
“I will teach transgressors your ways...”. David knows his “testimony” has been changed by his stupidity. I believe he knows he can use his story, in a humbled way, to show others what not to do. Throughout I & II Chronicles, Judges, and I & II Kings, among others, are kings and rulers who don't learn from their mistakes. Downward spirals abound. I believe David is different. He plans on humbly exalting the Savior like he did as a boy when he whacked the Giant.
“And sinners will be converted to you.” If there was a quid pro quo to be found, it may very well have been here. “I will teach transgressors your way, and sinners will be converted to you.” When God, through a humble servant/pastor/accountability partner/ friend teaches “His ways”, sinners like us (Romans 3:23) will be “born again” (John 3). When I first grasped my own sin in a way that made sense, I ran to the One who could save me. We have dragged the term “born again” through the mud in my generation, yet Jesus clearly says in John 3 and other places that unless you are born again, you will face an eternity in a place as real as Greenfield called Hell. Don't say a prescribed prayer someone feeds you if you don't understand sin and its effects and realities. Don't walk an aisle in a church to get a better life or for fulfillment or for cash from God. Don't sign a pledge card to buy God's forgiveness. See your sins like David, REPENT from them (turn from them and forsake them...agree never to do them again and HATE them going forward), and TRUST alone in Jesus Christ to pay your sin debt on the cross to save you , and you will be born again. Trust in your good works to save you at your own peril. George Whitefield said it best saying “Works? Works? A man get to heaven by works? I would as soon think of climbing to the moon on a rope of sand!”. My works are like my column's name... Filthy Rags (Isaiah 64:6). Would God save me because of something (my good works) He compared to a used maxi-pad? I think not. I am the reason He sent Jesus to die, and you can get in on His forgiveness too! And for those already born again, read closely. We should give Him everything we have the rest of our lives for His goodness for saving us. David felt the same way. We owe God everything! Reread the Luke verse above, think about your sin and His forgiveness and get to work! The fields are white.
Verse for the week 1 John 1:9...read it closely!
Diet update: 285...lost 2.6 more, only 100 to go! God is Good, all the time!
Pray for our mission trip this week. I appreciate you!

Psalm 51:11-12 Verbs Say It All

“Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And sustain me with a willing spirit.”
(Psalms 51:11-12 NASB)

When we left off we were going line by line through King David’s 51st Psalm. King David, as you recall, was confronted by the Prophet Nathan about his blatant sin against a Holy God with Bathsheba. This Psalm rightly expresses how he felt having no excuses or attempted cop-outs. As we arrive at verses 11-12, verbs capture this couplet to me.

Cast. I looked for a nice version of the Hebrew word we translate as “cast”. I checked 10 translations and paraphrases for something to grasp about the word. I say, hesitantly and with fear and trembling that Peterson’s THE MESSAGE (gasp) gives my favorite rendering of this verse and how it relates to the word “cast”. It says “Don't throw me out with the trash.” One of the most wealthy and powerful men in Earth’s history was afraid of getting cast out by God like you might a flattened and crusty toothpaste tube. “The man after God’s own heart” was deathly concerned he was about to become “the man God used to use, that is now in the burn pile outside of town where the fire never stops”. David clearly remembered running from King Saul before Saul turned sharply from anointed, successful King to raging, paranoid madman who committed suicide to avoid capture by the Philistines. Fallers from grace are often not gently placed into a pit. Often it’s more like getting cast into the pit by your hair. David was both scared of being out of God’s presence and scared to be in His presence. He clearly understood His sin and who it was against primarily…God Himself.

Side note/evangelism tip…please change the phrase “separated from God for eternity” to “go to Hell for eternity.” Why in the world would a person who hates God and are enemies of God (see Col. 1:21, James 4:4) care if they are forced to live forever without being in His presence. Duhh! (This is a highly theological yet relevant term for “He who has ears let him listen up!”) It sounds like a great thing to be separate from God until you get there and realize you don’t just party with your friends there! (For more info, search Bible for such phrases as “worm that doesn’t turn”, fire, brimstone, damnation, etc…)

Take. Take is our second verb. While I firmly believe you, once firmly and soundly saved, can not lose your salvation, nor can someone take it from you, I must acknowledge that there are a couple verses in the New Testament that make me say hmmm?!?, but this clearly isn’t one of them. David wasn’t in the same Covenant as we are. The Holy Spirit had a different role to an Old Testament King than an indwelt Holy Spirit does to a present day believer. Today the Holy Spirit, upon repenting and trusting Jesus Christ as both Lord and Savior, indwells you as a down payment of God’s presence in Heaven. He acts as a kind of teleprompter, a sin sniffer-outer (another highly theologically strong term), and many, many other things for a believer. To David, the Holy Spirit was an anointer, a wisdom-giver, and a protector for a King, and, therefore, not operationally the same as for us. He was afraid of falling out of God’s favor, not afraid of having God remove Himself, for a lack of a better/more sophisticated term, from David’s self. David knew first hand that one of the worst things that can happen is for God to give in and say “OK, have it your way...and take what happens as your lesson!” The thought of having God say this to me sends chills up my spine, as it would have David as well. Terrifying!

Restore. Have you ever done something really stupid to your best friend or your spouse? Finally an area I am an expert in! David desperately wants to be restored to God’s favor. Much like when I do something to make my way-better-than-I-deserve wife furious in my every day life, I yearn to make up with her so she isn’t upset with me, David, in an exponentially more profound amount wants to restore the fellowship he had with God. Nehemiah 8:10b says “for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” David wanted the joy back! Just reconciling with an angry wife or a sinned-against God isn’t enough. David desperately wants restored fellowship to as good then better than it was before, yet fears the worst.

Sustain. David wants to never do it again. He had sinned against God in a profound way and wants to stop. He needs sustaining power. Other translations call it upholding, but all point to desired holiness and help retreating from sin. Scottish preacher and evangelist Robert Murray McCheyne, as quoted in C.H. Spurgeon’s Expositions of the Psalms, writes brilliantly “I am tempted to think that I am now an established Christian, that I have overcome this or that lust so long that I have got into the habit of the opposite grace, so that there is no fear; I may venture very near the temptation, nearer than other men. This is a lie of Satan. I might as well speak of gunpowder getting by habit a power of resisting fire, so as not to catch the spark. As long as the powder is wet it resists the spark, but when it is dry it is ready to explode at the first touch. As long as the Spirit dwells in my heart, He deadens me to sin, so that if lawfully called through temptation I may recon upon God carrying me through. But when the Spirit leaves me, I am like dry gunpowder. Oh for a sense of this!” (FYI : The Spirit of God always technically dwells in a believer’s heart, but our sin breaks fellowship with Him and builds up calluses that make resisting temptation harder and harder, leaving the impression, like McCheyne says, that the Spirit has left.) McCheyne knew the Holy Spirit of God is our sustainer in resisting temptation. David wanted, and needs this help badly!
As a matter of application, where are you with God? Are you a believer who has become calloused to your sin? Do you believe at all? Do you think sin is a big deal? Look at Exodus 20 and read the Ten Commandments as a tool to check to see if you are “good enough” to go to heaven. Have you ever told a lie? Have you really wanted something someone else has? Have you ever committed adultery, or even lusted in your heart? Now reread Psalm 51 and know who your sin is against. Think of it like murder. Murder a dog, get a fine. Murder a homeless man, get 15 years. Murder the president, get the chair. Who the offense is against makes all the difference in the penalty. God is Holy. God is perfectly just. Sin against Him at your own risk. David understood the ramifications…do you?

Weight update: 287.6…lost 4 pounds for a total of 49…little over half an Olson twin. God has been merciful and so very good to me!
Memory Verse: Romans 3:10.
Prayer request: I leave on a Mission trip to New Orleans Saturday morning. We are helping rebuild a church destroyed by Katrina.

Psalm 51:9-10

“Hide Your face from my sinsAnd blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God,And renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
(Psalm 51:9-10)

I am particularly interested in four words of this piece of David’s repentant cry for cleansing: Hide, Blot, Create, Renew. Four loaded verbs. Four humble requests from a humbled King to a Worthy God. Four gems we can together mine from this beautiful psalm. Forgive me in advance for getting in the way of their luster.

Hide. Charles Spurgeon, in his uber-exhaustive work Expositions of the Psalms, explains how serious David seemed to be, saying “Do not look at them (David’s sins); be at pains not to see them. They thrust themselves in the way; but, Lord, refuse to behold them, lest if thou consider them, thine anger burn, and I die.”
If only David’s son Solomon could have given him Proverb (3:7) “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.” before he failed and broke the entirety of the Ten Commandments in his adulterous and murderous affair with Bathsheba. After the fact, his fear was realized. He seemed to be (in vain) begging an omnipresent God to not look at him. It reminds me of when I would catch one of my kids red-handed in some indiscretion at my house…inevitably the same response from the guilty party…”don’t look at me Dad!” More than a caught with the hand in the cookie jar! He was caught spitting in the face of his Creator…and he knew it. Romans 3:23 makes it clear we share this with David. Yet, He died for us anyway! What amazing love, what amazing grace!

Blot. “Blotting” calls to mind a sponge. There was a glaring red blot in David’s recent past. He has absolutely failed and was sick about it. If you recall, the first verse of this psalm said “According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.” I have been told by many a wise Bible teacher that when something is repeated, examine it close…it’s probably very important. David not only requested a blottin’ twice, he added the word “all” to it to be sure none of the spot is left behind. Spurgeon wrote “All repetitions are not ‘vain repetitions.’ Souls in agony have no space to find variety of language: pain has to conceal itself in monotones David’s face was ashamed with looking on his sin, and no diverting thoughts could remove it from his memory; he prays the Lord to do with his sin what he himself cannot. If God hide not His face from our sin, He must hide it forever from us; and if He blot not out our sins, He must blot our names out of His Book of Life”. I think my sin required coarse sandpaper to grind away, but Christ’s paid the penalty for my failures on the cross and still had power to remove yours as well! What amazing love, what amazing grace!

Create. The word create here is the same as the Hebrew in Genesis’ Creation account. “Bara” transliterated means “to create from nothing”. Evolution can’t create something from nothing. Man can’t either. Oprah may seem to create money from nothing, but it actually comes from people, not from thin air. Only God can create something from nothing. J. Vernon McGee’s Thru the Bible Commentary explains eloquently saying “’I need a new heart,’ David said. ‘Create in me a new heart’ and the word create means ‘out of nothing’. In other words, there was nothing in David’s heart He could use. He was not asking for renovation or reformation. He was asking for something new. Sometimes we hear the invitation ‘Give God your heart.’ May I ask you, ‘What do you think God wants with that old, dirty, filthy heart of yours?’ He wants to give you a new one.” Switching languages but with the same idea in mind, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” I am so very thankful God replaced my old heart with a new one! What amazing love, what amazing grace!

Renew. Renew is similar but in a way opposite to Create. It implies a fallen version of the old good one. There is hope for a back slider here. I was saved when I was a pre-teen. I wasn’t discipled and remained a naïve Christian for nearly ten years. During that time I drifted further away from God and deeper into sin. I knew the sin I committed was against God but became calloused, yet self-righteous enough to it and did it anyway. I was spiritually overconfident enough to think God must overlook the sin in my life because I was such a good ole boy! At the same time, I longed for another mountaintop experience, but was in no spiritual condition to deserve one (if that’s possible anyway). Fortunately, at the birth of my first child I realized the depravity of my life and recommitted myself to driving out sin in my life. Have I got it all pushed from my life? Not hardly. Am I growing in holiness? Yes. Do I have a long way to go? Just like David! Join me when I ask God to “renew a steadfast spirit within me”. None of us are what we should be. None are beyond a “Bathsheba on the roof” experience. As sure as you think you are above it, the devil has a foothold on which to work.
To conclude, read through this Psalm and pray it to God. If it comes out insincere, evaluate your heart…are you as good as you think you are? I used to overlook my own sin especially as it compared to my neighbor. Is your and my sin a big deal to a Holy God? The big ones as well as the little ones are what Jesus was put on the tree as a replacement punishment for. Knowing fully that we would deliberately sin against Him with no remorse, He died for us anyway! What amazing love, what amazing grace!


Diet update…I lost 2.6 lbs this week. I have lost a total of 44.8 lbs, almost exactly what my 5 year old boy weighs. God is Good, All the time!

Bible verse of the week… John 3:16.

Won't You Take Me To...Demon Town? by Dan Phillips (Teampyro.blogspot.com)

The scene described in Mark 5 has the makings of a pretty effective little horror story:
They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me." 8 For he was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"9 And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many." 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them."13 So he gave them permission.And the unclean spirits came out, and entered the pigs, and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and were drowned in the sea. 14 The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.15 And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 16 And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.17 And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.18 As he was getting into the boat....It has many of the classic elements. It was apparently nighttime; there had been a terrible storm; graveyards — and demons. Lots and lots of demons.On most occasions Jesus cast the demons out with a word (Matthew 8:16). Here, more of a process is involved. The demon tells Jesus that there is a "legion" of them in the man. We stagger at the thought that there could have actually been six thousand demons in one man. It could have been demonic bravado; boastful, if pointless, exaggeration.Yet they then inhabited and enfrenzied a herd of two thousand pigs. We simply must admit that there is more that we do not know about demons, than there is that we do know.The really important thing to know about demons, though, is that they are utterly subject to Jesus' word. He who had stilled the elemental storm at sea with a word, could do the same to the spiritual storm inside the man. The demons know they have no choice but to go where He sends them. As many as six thousand demons versus one Jesus — and they're hopelessly outmatched. They wait, quavering to see what He will do to them, knowing they are bound to His word.So they implore Him to send them into the herd of pigs. Particularly, the spokesman "begged [Jesus] earnestly not to send them out of the country."Did that ever strike you? "Pigs, fine, whatever. Just please let us hang around these parts." Something about that area, that region, appealed to them, felt like home to them.So here's the great irony, and probably the key to the demons' petition. They are cast out into the pigs, the pigs drown, the demoniac is restored to his right mind, the townspeople come and see this all....And what is their reaction? They all know about this notoriously insane, demonized man. His feats of insane strength were the stuff of local legend. Yet here he sits, calm, sane, sober. And Jesus is responsible.Their response?They ask Jesus to leave.I never get over that, it just so amazes me. "Wow, that's really great, with the, heh-heh, the demons, and the... the... all that — so, could you, like, go? Please? Now?"That's their priorities. A man saved — but that herd of pigs, all gone. All that profit, gone. You did this? Go.So I wonder: was that just a really great place to be a demon? These people, all obsessed with order and propriety, and profit; not so concerned about this wasted wretch of a man... "Mmm-mm, smells like Hell to me!" Was that it?But I haven't even gotten to the scariest part of this little horror yarn yet.The scariest part isn't the storm, or the imagery of graves at night, or the raging, raving demoniac. The scariest part isn't the image of thousands of demons, holding the soul of a helpless man captive.No, this is the scariest part.They ask Jesus to leave —And He does.

Psalm 51:8 from the Broken King

Did you hear about the famous quarterback’s gimpy ankle? Will the Cardinals’ famous pitchers be able to pitch this year with the bum arms and all? Did you see how that famous obese writer is shedding pounds…he must be ill! Throughout our lives we all get blessed with injuries and illnesses. How we learn from these events will determine how much of a blessing they turn out to be. Looking back at my childhood, it is no small miracle I am here to write this piece of journalistic smorgas-bore for your enjoyment today. My childhood was wrought with wounds, gouges, fires and accidents. I was the youngest of three kids and found myself on the short end of a physiological bludgeoning more often than not. Take the following list for example…
Before the age of 16:

I ran through a plate glass door chasing a sibling ala Mr.T. Getting the non-safety glass out of arms can be a tedious chore.
I was hit with a full swing of a nine-iron golf club on the forehead, cracking my skull. (Insert misc. head injury joke of your choice relating to my writing prowess.)
I bashed my face into our porch step cracking teeth and surely not adding to my heinously good looks. (See notes from #2.)
I was shot between the eyes with a bb gun.
I broke a needle off in my foot playing the static electricity game on my brother while he mindlessly talked to his girlfriend on the phone.
I ripped a massive hole in my shin on a tent stake running at the local carnival…not the most interesting thing to happen to me at the carnival mind you…
I cut my Achilles tendon on my foot riding a bicycle barefooted. Being the Mensa candidate I wasn’t, I repeated the event a week after the repair and broke out all the stitches. The doctor butterfly bandaged it and gave me a referral card to his competition…I guess he had seen enough.
I played a game with my brother I’ll call “dead man’s dive”. He blindfolded me and led me throughout the yard and ultimately to the top of a wood pile. He told me to jump!...presumably out over the barb-wire fence next to the wood pile. Instead I landed on the fence and hung by my pectoral muscle (boob for those in Greenfield) until he rescued me from my meat hook agony.
I stubbed my big toe so many times in such a gory way the doctor fitted me with a special metal toe guard to try in vain to let it heal.

So what on earth does this drivel have to do with my faith or the cost of gas at Hot Spot? Psalm 51:8…our next verse from the study that began with me in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago.
Psalm 51:8 says “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.” Context is required especially if you are just joining us in this journey through one of the most meaningful chapters in the Bible. Psalm 51 is a psalm written by King David after sleeping with his general’s wife, getting her pregnant, trying to cover up his sin, and killing the general to avoid being found out. Nathan the prophet then heard from God and confronted King David about the sin. This Psalm is a song of broken remorse and requested healing and forgiveness from a crushed King to his God. David’s bones are being crushed under the weight of God’s wrath over this sin, and David, in a humble and contrite way, says “Uncle!”
Charles Spurgeon, in his wonderful Volume 1 of The Treasury of David explains the key to this verse said in a way that further illustrates my lack of writing skill when he wrote:
“ He groaned under no mere flesh wounds; his firmest and yet tenderest powers were broken in pieces all asunder;…Yet if He who crushed would cure, every wound would become a new mouth for song, every bone quivering before with agony would become equally sensible of intense delight! The figure is bold and so is the supplicant. He is requesting a great thing; he seeks joy for a sinful heart, music for crushed bones. Preposterous prayer anywhere but at the throne of God! Preposterous there most of all but for the cross where Jehovah Jesus bore our sins in His body on the tree.”

Looking back, I was tough as a kid! Sticks and stones and golf clubs may have broken my bones, but words were the first thing to really hurt me. The Bible showed me my sin just like Nathan showed David his. My point is that through all of the major and minor injuries I endured physically (listed above) and emotionally (through a verbally abusive step-father…they’re divorced now…and multiple divorces of my parents and the redicule of being fat), nothing remotely made the impression on me that the brokenness I felt the first time I pieced together the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice. Jesus Christ left Heaven to become a man to live on our fallen planet to save mankind. He healed the lame, raised the dead, and walked on water. What did we do for Him in return? We brutally killed Him! Why? Because of Mark Applegate’s (and your) sin. Someone had to pay the penalty for the sin we all committed against a Holy God. (Romans 6:23). Who cares about the cuts and surgeries of life? Let the wounds of my brokenness because of realizing how Good God is be a mouth for my song! I was guilty just like King David! Jesus paid my penalty on the cross for all my many sins before and after I came to know Him. Add up your sins…how often do you lie? Lust? Steal? Use His name in vain? (Read Exodus 20, then add them up!) Yet He died for you anyway. Simply amazing! David understood. I do too. How about you? If you want to get right with God, first review your sins, turn from them, then call on the One who died for you and let Him be Boss. Until you realize your need for Him, you will never find Him. Be humble (Read Proverbs 3:34) and broken like King David and you will find Him! When you do, trust me…you’ll know exactly what to say in your prayer to Him.

Weight update 293.8…lost 5.8 pounds...still enormous but shrinking fast! Bible verse for the week… Romans 5:8.

What Can I Say?

What Can I Say?
Why do you love me?
Others, with faithfulness worn on their sleeve,
The reason you love them is easy to see.
But why lovest thou thee?
Maybe if I write and talk like a King
Thou wilt have reason to loveth me?
But failst thou daily do thee
Regal artistry fittest not me.

Why Lord do you stay?
Others, like the sunrise, exalt you each day
The reason you don’t leave? They show Your way
But why with me, Lord, do you stay?
Maybe if I give all I have away,
If I rise each morning needing but bread for the day,
I would boast of holiness my self to display
Yet your Word still would I fail to obey.

Why do you forgive me?
Others, in sackcloth repent to thee,
The reason you forgive them is easy to see
But why could you possibly forgive me?
Maybe if I confess for all to see,
If I weep, moan, and wail outwardly,
Ah... but lacking real sincerity
My life shows I’m not too sorry.

What can I possibly say?
You died for me before I even knew your way.
I fail you, yet you love me each day,
I stray from you, but with me you stay.
Your Amazing Grace is on display
You love me like I am, but won’t let me stay that way
How much gratitude, my words fail to say
How I Love You Lord... I love you more every day.

Viva Las Vegas II -or- Viva Las Sin?

Last week we discussed Psalm 51:1-4 and how it related to my return from Las Vegas. I wrote ad nauseam about who our sin is directed at…a Holy God. I have had a decent grasp of this concept for years, but never so acutely as while I was passing out Gospel literature on Las Vegas Blvd. (The Strip). Every sin, big or little, is a direct slap at Jesus Christ, the one who died for us to take the punishment we deserved. We went through the Commandments from Exodus 20 and gave a quick break down of examples of how we all sin. Sunday, I did a cursory estimate of just how many times we sin in our lifetime. I figure we probably average one lie or theft per day. Not big ones mind you, just simple lying or stealing. How can this possibly be? Lying might include exaggeration, double-mindedness, asking for forgiveness lightly, or stretching the truth on taxes. Stealing might be being lazy at work, downloading music or clip art on the computer, or paying your bills late. There are hundreds of ways of sinning in each of these areas and God holds us accountable to the whole Law based on us breaking one of the Laws (James 2:10). Figuring just one sin in this category per day, in a decade we have sinned nearly four thousand times! Tack on a few per week on each of the other Commandments and a whole bunch on the adultery (7th Commandment) and murder (6th Commandment) side due to Jesus clarifying statements explaining lust as adultery and anger as murder, and I estimate your typical person sins tens of thousands of times, conservatively, over the term of their life. Multiply that times billions of people and thousands of years and join me in understanding that this “Love God” idol we have created in the last 75 years to worship because He is more comfortable to be with is actually not God at all. The real God of the Bible loves us but deeply hates sin. He hates it so much He died to defeat its power (in the form of Jesus Christ at Calvary)! The days of making Jesus Christ out to be our snuggle-buddy are over. We need desperately to get a handle on how sin angers God.
That brings me to the next two verses of Psalm 51. Verses five and six say “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.” King David, as you may recall, was just exposed by Nathan the prophet as the phony he was. He had stolen the wife of his best general, then had his general killed after he couldn’t cover up their affair and resulting pregnancy. In verse 5 David is acknowledging that his sin isn’t something new…it was from birth. Anyone reading this article (all three of you including Mom) must recognize that babies have a naughty streak. I’ve heard it said by the late Adrian Rogers (paraphrasing) that if you give a baby the strength of an adult, then take away its bottle, just see if you won’t get your arms ripped from their sockets to retrieve the bottle! Being totally honest, how long does it take a baby to figure out how to get into trouble or break the rules? Anyone who denies this obviously has never worked in the nursery at church! Thanks to the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we are saddled with this predisposition to sin and to the desperate need of a Savior to pay our sin debt (Romans 6:23). If you struggle with the question, when asked, “Would you consider yourself a good person?” you have a false understanding of what good is. You, and I, are not…from birth.
The second verse is a tough one…possibly one of the toughest in all of scripture relating to God’s standard. “Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.” Scratching through the thin veneer of self–righteousness to see the real Mark Applegate is as easy for God as it is hard for you. I am a pretty reclusive person in my private life. I lead a pretty moral life as do many Stocktonians. God sees through the surface to see every secret sin in all of us, and hates it. By man’s standard, I am a pretty good ole boy. By God’s, fortunately, He sees the righteousness of Christ covering the real me. Jesus Christ, once I made Him Savior and Lord of my life and repented of my many sins, credited my bankrupt account with the riches of His Grace. He took the penalty of my sins and in exchange gave me right standing with Him so that He (rightfully) gets the credit for being such an awesome God! What a trade…my garbage for His Grace! It is available to you as well. Take a look at your sins and think about Jesus dying on the cross for you. Clear out the deep sin that keeps you separate from God today. Email me if you have further questions or objections. Today is the day of salvation!

FYI section…Memory verse update… week 1 Romans 3:23, week 2 Romans 6:23 Week three Ephesians 2:8-9. Weight loss update… I lost 7 pounds this week for a total loss of 34.6 pounds. I have lost 10% of my beginning body weight and am only 100 lbs from my target weight! Still an Olson twin worth to lose, but moving along well! Thank you for your prayers! I deeply appreciate your support!

Viva Las Vegas?

It sure has been a long week. I was fortunate this week to be able to attend the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. I was treated to sights such as a 150” Plasma TV, brain-numbing audio systems, and many more robots than VCRs and Laserdiscs. I saw homeless beggars with better grammar on their signs than my articles possess unbelievable cross-dressing celebrity impersonators, and general widespread decadence. In the town dubbed rightfully “Sin City” and near the famous Area 51 UFO base, I began to think of writing about a mix of the names of the two places. Today I will begin a multiple week study of Psalm 51. Before reading my piece, PLEASE read Psalm 51 and make it your prayer to God. Never have I written a more important series, and never have I felt more drawn to write about a topic than today.
To begin I find it valuable to list the chapter heading, despite the fact that it isn’t directly inspired, because it is so illustrative. It says in the NASB “A Contrite Sinner's Prayer for Pardon.” David, a man after God’s own heart, after being exposed by the prophet as the murderous adulterer that he was (he had stolen his general’s wife and had him killed, then tried to cover it up), he wrote with a heavy heart “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” (v1-4).
According to thefreedictionary.com the word “contrite” means “feeling regret and sorrow for one's sins or offenses; penitent.” David was sorry, and more. He wasn’t “Mark McGuire I am not here to talk about the past”- sorry or the “I am sorry I got caught”- sorry. He was deeply contrite. He was humbled and small before a Holy God with no excuses. If King David was on Bill O’Reilly’s news program, he would have been pressured to hire an image agent to try to touch him up before God. In antiquity, he provided no spin. We should do no less.
As much as I wish it wasn’t so, for space restraint’s sake, I will focus on one verse. Verse 4 says “Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge.” As I walked down Las Vegas Boulevard in downtown Las Vegas, I saw sin as far as the eye could see. From one vantage point I could see three billboards with 99% naked women in one direction, a row of pimps wearing “Our Girls Have Gone Crazy” rain parkas in another and at least four strip clubs yet another way. I was surrounded by “those sinners!” Then, fighting through a thick layer of my self-righteousness tantamount to an Eskimo cutting through gelatinous whale blubber, God brought to my mind Psalm 51 and related it to my sin. Not nasty sinner’s sin, but my sin. The audacity! I am a deacon in training! I write a column in a prestigious paper! I buy Girl Scout cookies! I read my Bible nearly every day. God, through His amazing and humbling Word, made it painfully clear to me that my sin is equally an affront to a Holy God as the sin of the participants of the Adult Entertainment Expo porn convention in our same building.
Every sin that I have ever committed in public and private are a direct offense directed to Jesus Christ, who died for me painfully on a Roman cross knowing exactly who and what I am. Join me quickly in looking at the commandments. Have I allowed another god before the real God? (Baseball, TV, work ethic, greed, busy-ness?) It is against Him. Have I made an idol to worship? (Or, said “My God would never…” or God is a God of Love, not wrath, therefore making a god for myself that I am comfy with.) Have I taken His name in vain? (Like saying Gxx Dxxx, or just saying I am a Christian yet acting in a way that defames His Holy name.) Have I kept that Sabbath Holy? Have I honored my father and mother? (Answered yes to every request made of me, unless a sin, the first time asked.) Have I committed murder? (See anger in Matthew 5:22.) Have I committed adultery? (See Matthew 5:27-8 just lusting in your head is enough.) Have I stolen things? (Downloading music, stolen an answer, been lazy at work and stole payroll?) Have I lied? (Even white lies?) Have I wanted something of someone else’s? (I was at the largest electronics convention on Earth...duhhh!) Amazingly enough, Jesus died on the cross for me despite the fact that I have broken all these! The comparison isn’t with the homeless guy peeing on the sidewalk. My sin is compared to Christ’s sinlessness. Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” My sin earned a debt I couldn’t pay. I should have been chucked into hell like a watermelon rind to the campfire. Amazingly Jesus died for me as a substitute punishment for my sin. I am saved, not because of how good I am or how I compare to others. I am saved because of how amazingly Good our God is.
Sure the town of Las Vegas is nasty. Lots of sin everywhere! Lots of sin in Stockton too! Lots of sin in my life and every last bit of it is directed at God. Today is the day to repent/turn from our sins by first joining me (and King David) in understanding who they were aimed at. What a wonderful God we serve who would die for us anyway! If you have questions or stumbling blocks about Christianity, please email me right away!
Quick updates…Diet update…308.4 lbs…down from two weeks ago but up 2 pounds last week. Las Vegas has really good buffets!
Memory Verse Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23. Join me in memorizing one a week!

Alien Righteousness

When I am tempted to get self-righteous, God has a great way of keeping me in check. While I tend not to be a proud person with regard to my rugged good looks (gulp) or my stark, raving mad intelligence (double gulp with whipped cream and maraschinos on top), I tend towards pride in my spiritual life. The Bible proclaims throughout Proverbs and sprinkled through Psalms and much of the New Testament just how much God hates/ is opposed to Pride. Today, from a hotel in Branson escaping the ice storm, I explain how He does it in my life. He lets me choose.
Before I get into the bashing of self, I need to explain a concept I learned from one of the most brilliant men of our time...John MacArthur. He, when asked if he thought of himself as a good person, said that he has an “alien righteousness”. Before you have images of ET sitting in a tie died shirt smoking a hash pipe, visualize this truth. Once we are a Christian, we have the Holy Spirit in us. What are the ramifications of this? Huge! Indescribable! God resides with us. What does this mean? There are many ramifications, but I will discuss one of the lesser ones here. In my humbled opinion, it means that every good thought, every good deed with the right motive, and anything else that comes from Mark Applegate is a direct result of God successfully being evident in my life in spite of the real Mark Applegate clouding things up. Don't mistake me for saying that I am God. I am an evil, Mark-worshiper at heart that has been made righteous (in right standing/ eternally justified by God) from the inside out. When I come to God's judgment when I die, all God will see is the alien righteousness of Christ living in me and paying for my sin. I will appear completely Holy, not because of me but in spite of me and because of His Son's goodness. He will not see the fiasco I made of much of my life. When we understand how much Jesus gave up to die for us, despite the fact that we lived in a way that shows our hatred and contempt for Him, how can we keep from worshiping such a great God?
How does this relate to my pride? God lets me make selfish decisions, then makes me aware of it later. When the ice came, I tucked tail and ran. We headed to Branson to swim at an indoor swim park. While this isn't sinful on the surface and is arguably quite smart as my house sits cold and dark, there is more information. Without giving it a second thought, I failed to serve my church family or my community during this hard time. I suppressed the alien righteousness in me and didn't even notice. My pastor is serving the community and his flock while I, a supposed leader in my church, swim. I have a long way to go. I would like to personally apologize to my readers, my church family, and the people of Stockton for being being a hypocrite in the service realm. Please don't hold God accountable for the lack of service, or for anything else people do because of stupid choices.
Another way this experience has made me see myself in a different way is the Bible. Without web access at the hotel and my trusted concordance/study software, I quickly realized how little of the Bible I have memorized. I am going to make it my goal to memorize a verse a week next year. It is so easy to be spiritually undisciplined when you have all your books and programs at your disposal. Take them away and you see really quick how good you are at finding verses in your Bible. I have work to do!
To conclude, as you consider Christianity, please be aware that it is a process. You get “born again” (see John 3), then life is a process of sanctification (big word for showing more of God and less of self). We make good decisions and bad ones but God still loves us. Don't become a Christian to be more like Christians, do it to have Heaven as your eternal destination. The consequences are too big to try to blame hypocrites like me for why you didn't accept Christ when you stand before Him when you die. Thank you, friends, for your patience with me! I, like all Christians,am a work in progress!
Weight accountability update...I am currently at 320.8. I lost 5.4 this week for a total monthly loss of 15.2. Only 144.8 to go! God is good, and patient, all the time!

What I Want for Christmas

Today the column is kind of an all-you-can-eat-buffet of profundity/thoughts about Christmas, Christian life, and my weight loss. I realize it may come to a shock to my three or four regular readers (Hi Mom…send money), but not all from this column is of focused, deep theological significance. Laying this small deficiency aside, I enter this week’s exploration into journalistic excellence with a type of peace normally only found on my cat Silver when the finishes wheezing up his hairball then approaches his Meow Mix.
My first thought…the meatloaf part of the buffet…what I want for Christmas. I have been asked this several times lately. It is such an easy answer. I admit it is a little selfish, but it costs no money. You don’t have to wake up at 4am to buy it next to the flashing blue light. The only difficult issue at all is the number of people involved to fulfill my Christmas wish. All I want for Christmas is… for everyone I know to become a Christian. I don’t want the head knowledge/casual “walk down an aisle and say a fancy prayer you forget a day later”-type of experience for you. I don’t want a “works-based salvation that doesn’t”/ someone other than Jesus Christ gets the glory/ brood of vipers/ hypocrisy-type of salvation for you. I don’t want a man-made false gospel for you. All I want for Christmas is for you to read the book of First John with a reflective, honest mindset. Is Jesus precious to you? Is He more important than work, family, money, your spouse, your favorite team, your kids, your political party, or anything else? Does your sin repulse you (not in comparison to other’s sin but compared to the Sinless One)? Do you love other Christians? Do you love non-believers? Is Heaven real to you? Is Hell? Please read First John and call out to God if you don’t know. Repent (turn from sin) and Believe (that Jesus died as a substitute for the punishment we deserved and couldn’t pay for ourselves). You don’t have to tell me about your decision to be born again, but I am sure when it happens everyone around you will figure it out quickly (see 2 Corinthians 5:17). I know that when I die I am promised eternal life (I am the wretch the song talked about). My only wish is to see you there so I can enjoy it with you. (Note to my First Southern Baptist family… I am first in the buffet line, but you had better all be there too! Don’t let anything hinder you from knowing your eternal destination.) Heaven just won’t be heaven without all of my friends, family, and fellow Stocktonians! Selfish? Maybe so…but with the right motive.
The second thought is the green veggies of the buffet line. This is the stuff that is “good for you”. This area in the Christian walk closely corresponds with God’s correction of His kids. Job had this one down as best he could given the hard times he was going through when he said (in Job 5:17) “Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.” God does or allows the correcting for our good. Sometimes it doesn’t feel at all like it is for our good. My recent heart issues are directly tied to God’s desire for me to live a healthy lifestyle. It was a wakeup call to me. If we miss the correction God has for us, He doesn’t give up. He ramps up the correction. I have had high blood pressure symptoms for some time. He started getting through to me when I had palpitations couple years ago prompting me to need medicine. He really has my attention now after my visit to the E.R. I was told a couple years ago by my doctor that I must reduce my stress in my life for my heart’s sake (just before charging me a hundred bucks for the visit), and my response was saying “I am not stressed…I am a Christian.” I was missing God’s call to grow closer to Him (James 4:8) because of a sinful pride in my life. It took far too long to see what was right under my nose. God loves us so much He wants us to be refined into the image of His Son. He cares much more deeply about this than about the comforts of our life or that we are, to borrow a title of a current best seller, “Living our Best Life Now”. Join me in reflecting on this stuff. Have you found God’s purpose in the challenges in your life?

The final thought on the buffet is the dessert. My weigh-in this week was good. I am down to 326.8. I lost 4.3 lbs this week! Praise God! The sweet as chocolate pie part of this is the novelty/hilarity of seeing the ritual in which I do the weigh-in. I shed as much clothing as is appropriate in my house, shave my face, visit the latrine (sorry Dear), skip the deodorant (it’s so heavy!), tweeze my unibrow, scrub/pluck nostrils, blow nose, cut toenails and fingernails, scrub teeth for weighty gingivitis/plaque, wash face of heavy extra skin, and do anything else than can shave off an ounce. My Biggest Loser brand scale goes down to the ounce, so I wouldn’t want to miss all opportunities, you know. (Email me with your weigh-in ideas.) I am not sure cutting off the lower half of my body would get me to my target weight, but it has crossed my mind.
Such is life. All the good stuff we can do will not help us reach our goal of going to heaven. Sure we can seem closer to our goal to others by shedding a few pounds through giving money to the poor, recycling our cans, knocking on doors, or practicing Oprah’s random acts of kindness. The problem is that our goal is beyond our reach. All the cutting, tweezing, and scrubbing will not get us to our goal. We may make ourselves feel good with self-righteousness, but God isn’t impressed (see Isaiah 64:6). Doing all these things is important. They will make for a better house, neighborhood, and ecosystem. We will feel better, but still fall short (Romans 3:23). Address the sin issue, let God get the glory, and God will grant you heaven. Any other way is pointless, like cutting off our lower half.
I appreciate your visiting my buffet today. I hope the service was excellent and your waiter filled your cup. May God richly bless you until your next visit! I’ve got some dishes to do!

Mr. Applegate's Pop Quiz

School is back and it is time for mean Mr. Applegate’s first pop quiz of the school year. You have had countless Sundays to study so you are without excuse! Put your notes under your desk, shut off your cell phones, and get out a single number two pencil. Here we go.

1. True or False All religions, if the believer is sincere, lead to the same place.

2. True or False Jesus Christ was a great moral teacher, on the level with Gandhi, Siddhartha Gautama (of Buddhist tradition) and Mohammad.

3. True or False While the Bible has good moral teachings, it is full of mistakes.

4. True or False It’s narrow-minded to consider Jesus as the only way to God.

5. Short answer So what that the early followers of Jesus were killed for their faith; isn’t that what Muslims do today?

6. Bonus short answer question. Which religion is right?

So, how’d you do? Let’s find out. Here are the answers...grade yourself on the honor system.

1. True... Hebrews 9:27a (NASB) says “And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,”. All religions lead to exactly the same place...in front of God at judgment. At that point we will be given an opportunity to plea our case of why we should get to enter Heaven. If we had accepted Jesus Christ’s substitution penalty on the cross for the death sentence our sin had led to (see Romans 6:23), and let Him be the boss of our life knowing we were powerless to get forgiven without Him, we enter into Heaven. If not, we don’t. In other words, if we stated in our lives that we wanted to be separate from God by word and deed, God grants us our wish and at our figurative request grants us Hell... an eternal separation from Him. God wants no part of dragging people kicking and screaming into Paradise.

2. False... While Jesus was a great moral teacher, there is a crucial difference that places us in what CS Lewis calls in his incredible book “Mere Christianity” a trilemma (dilemma plus one). Jesus was not only a great moral teacher. He said in John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.” If Jesus claims to be the only way to God he is one of three things. 1. He is a Liar. Can there be someone as evil as someone who claims He is the only way to God if He is not? Satan was not as exclusionary. 2. He was a lunatic. Maybe He was crazy. A delusion of grandeur doesn’t look good on a resume. 3. He was (and is) Lord....exactly what He claimed to be! Drop the milk toast garbage of Jesus being a great moral teacher. That is a big, fat minus five on your test if you picked true.

3. True... The Bible is a great moral teaching and is full of mistakes. Its mistakes, for example, include King David, perhaps the greatest king in the history of Israel, committed adultery with one of his troop’s wives then tried to cover it up repeatedly. Another was Jonah trying to hide from God only later to be found praying for a favorable escape route (other than out its stern side, for you boating enthusiasts) from the belly of a big fish. Lots of people made mistakes, but the Bible expresses them in a mistake-free way. I am available for emailed questions if you find mistakes you can’t reconcile at markapplegate@alltel.net.

4. True... Matthew 7:13-4 says “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Sometimes narrow-minded makes sense if there is only one way to do something.

5. No one would willingly die for a faith they know is wrong. If Jesus’ disciples thought He was dead, they clearly would have dejectedly gone back to work and to the temple to beg for forgiveness. Their hope would have died with their non-savior. They, instead, all were persecuted and killed for their faith with the message of the cross on their tongue to their last day. Sure people die for their faith today, but they die hoping they were right with good intentions (?) and bad results.
6. Bonus. Religion is man’s attempt to reach to God through our efforts. All religions come up short and are equally wrong. Biblical Christianity is a relationship with the Creator of the world who cared enough to reach down from Heaven and enough to die for us before we ever knew Him. Religion is about our work, Christianity is about God’s work for us.
I hope you did well on our little quiz today. If you have questions or things you disagree with me about, email me. You owe it to yourself to investigate the claims made in the Bible. If the Bible’s claims are wrong, you have wasted some time reading an incredible book (we waste time every day). If they are right you’ll be eternally glad you did! Take this quest seriously and contact me with questions! God bless you and your careful studying of the truth.

Food Pharisees

I know it may come to a surprise to my readers that I am just a little bit overweight. My slender looking picture (I have new glasses) doesn’t do my rotundity justice. I have battled obesity for nearly my entire life. Recently I noticed on my doctor’s chart (I was being treated for heart palpitations and high blood pressure) that I was characterized as “morbidly obese”. I was about to “let loose the thunder” (a wrestling term for whack…shamefully, I watched when I was a young kid) on my doctor for making such a cold value judgment on me until I came to the realization that the term was a wooden medical term for people of my size. Regardless, I have had victories several times not the least of which is the fact that I have lost over a hundred pounds twice and smaller but big amounts many more times. I have had losses as well as evident by the fact that I have gained at least a Brittney Spears and a half in the last ten years (not the teen version either!). While I know the sin of gluttony is a reality, I, like many of my readers, have disregarded it as not a big deal to God. In this piece I would like to throw out two random thoughts about dieting and how it relates to my faith. I am also asking for your prayer for my success in making healthy life decisions on my weight.
First thought… I am on the weight watchers diet plan. In this plan you eat what you want until you get to a prescribed number of points in a day (all foods are given a point value). What the diet often fails to address is the loopholes. Yes, sadly, I have become a food Pharisee. (Pharisees were Biblical characters who loved the letter of the Law but had a disregard for the spirit of the Law.) Jesus spent much of His ministry trying to change the hardened hearts of these people who ended up being a big factor in His crucifixion. Mathew 23:13 (actually, the whole chapter) summarizes Jesus opinion of people who write more and more rules to make themselves LOOK righteous (but work the loopholes) when He said “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You shut the kingdom of heaven in men's faces. You yourselves do not enter, nor will you let those enter who are trying to.”
What is a food Pharisee? A good example is Baked Cheetos. My diet says 34 Cheetos equals three points. It doesn’t say which size counts as a whole Cheeto. I carefully lay out my Cheetos on a plate and evaluate each ones’ merit. This little guy is a rebagger. This one is huge…eureka!!! This one is grafted with another one so I can safely call it one! This one spoons another one fitting like peas in a pod…I will call it one too! By carefully working the bag, I can milk out at least two or three ounces of free points.
Welcome to the world of sin. We have so dumbed down sin (breaking God’s Law) that we can justify anything. Take the Eighth Commandment from Exodus 20 at random. Thou shalt not Steal. Have you ever stolen anything in your life regardless of value? Coins from Mom’s purse (also breaks the 5th by dishonoring her)? Songs from the internet? Photocopied a copyrighted document? Goofed off on the job (stealing payroll time). The Pharisee in us says “No way, stealing is only bad if it is something big or important!” The Bible addresses God’s opinion of it when it says in Revelation 21:8 saying “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” One might say “How can “all liars” be lumped in with these bad sinners? My God would never condemn lying.” That same person in reality is breaking the Second Commandment which says “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.” They have created a God they can be comfy with, not unlike a Hindu that carves out an idol and puts it on the mantle. God’s standard is perfect. It means exactly what it says, sans loopholes. No skirting it. No technicalities. Just what it says. Your and my response might be “With these standards of right and wrong and sin, we would all go to Hell!” Exactly! Have you heard of Jesus Christ? He died on a cross to take the punishment we deserved for stealing (and all the other sins). All we must do is repent of (turn from) our sins (the spirit of the law and the letter), and let Jesus Christ be boss (Lord) going forward. We must acknowledge that we are simply not capable of obeying His Law. You think we loophole our cheetos, evaluate your ability to keep the commandments. I would expect most in America could list more of the “Twelve Days of Christmas” than list Commandments, needless to say keep them. I stand guilty with you! Thank you Jesus for saving “a wretch like me”. My righteousness is “as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). Whether it is food or sin, I join you in guilt.
Second thought about dieting/ obesity… While it is hard to keep in shape, it is God’s will for our lives. Our body is called “God’s temple” several times in scripture. I, like many, often fail to pray when things get tense in life, and, instead, resort to comfort food. Not an excuse, mind you, just reality. I have less stress than most! In my life, obesity has led to slothful living mentioned twelve times in Proverbs alone. It isn’t a term of endearment! My heart and blood pressure issues can directly be attributed to obesity. It leads to laziness at work, lazy parenting, being too tired to achieve excellence in most anything in life. I am enlisting your help praying for my ability and desire to fix this issue in my life. I will be posting my weight at the end of each of my columns for your amusement and accountability. (I started at 336 on November 13th and am at 331 today.)
If you don’t like my columns, feel free to send a bag or two of regular Cheetos…I’ll donate them to the Ministerial Alliance. God Bless and happy dieting!

Thanksgiving

I, like many of you, am in the end-of-the-year, pre-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas, pre-Kwanzaa, pre-Hanukkah, pre-Pearl Harbor Day, pre-shopping abyss- time of the year… a time of reflection. Before I install my Christmas…er…Holiday…er.. Family tree to honor the “reason for the season”, whose name is more controversial to invoke than any other, I must tell my friends in town what I am thankful for. As a bonus, I will give you a reason to be thankful this season…a few fewer words to chew/choke on. I am thankful for two main things this year…that God doesn’t give me what I deserve and that He gives me what I don’t deserve. Allow me to explain.
What do I deserve? I just want to pick out one of the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20. How ‘bout the Third Commandment for an example. Exodus 20 says “"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.” I haven’t used God’s name as a cuss word in many, many years (i.e. saying “G.D”.) In an amazing article on www.apuritansmind.com, Dr. C. Matthew McMahon wrote a revealing piece called Taking the Name of God in Vain. He lists many ways we, in every day life, break this commandment. A few include the obvious blasphemy in direct words such as “Oh my GXX”, and the before mentioned G.D., but not to exclude the zillions of knock-offs we use daily such as Geez, Gosh, Dang, and the like. ( I have heard it said that “If you don’t believe in gosh, you go to heck….two in one sentence…quite creative!) McMahon also rightly lays out that “when we worship with our lips and not our hearts we take His name in vain.” Ouch. God is not interested in external religion. He has a clear view of every motive and intention we have. McMahon also says “when we pray to Him but do not believe Him we use His name in vain.” Who hasn’t occasionally prayed a prayer you were sure was not going to be answered in your perceived favor? Yet another way he mentions is “when we, in any way, profane or abuse His Word, we are using God's name in vain. Every theological error, misquoted Scripture, every jot and tittle not remembered in the right way is using God's name in vain.” Yikes! Weekly with all the effort I can muster I still fall short on this part too. Yet another one he lists is “when we swear by God's name falsely, we use it in vain. Whenever we make a promise and do not keep it, we are lying as a Christian and making a mockery of God's name.” Got me again! The last I will beat us up with he say is “when we falsify a promise as if we were to do a thing if God does something for us, then we use His name in vain. When we barter with God to get something we act irreverently before Him and use His name in a way that does not glorify him.” In other words, when we say “God, make this Lotto ticket be a winner and I will serve you with the cash!” Who hasn’t done a version of that one? We would never use the name of Hitler, Saddam, Mohammad, or any one else we have distaste for as a swear word. Why our loving Creator? Given all the examples listed, I have treated God’s name in a way deserving of the death penalty according to the Jewish law of the time… many times over. This is just one of the Commandments. I am thankful this season that I don’t get what I deserve… to be ground up like a cinnamon stick and sprinkled on the buttered toast of an angel. What awesome mercy and grace (unmerited favor) our loving God extends to this obese writer (and to you as well for the asking)!
This brings me to the second thing I am thankful for… That God gives me what I don’t deserve. All blessings fall here. I have a wonderful family! My ever patient wife is slow to whack and quick to forgive and far more beautiful than I deserve (see above picture). My three beautiful kids are growing in Christ and are cooler than the other side of the pillow. My church, First Southern Baptist (shameless plug), makes up some of the finest people I know. They are family in the truest sense and deeply care about our town and the world in general! My Pastor is a man of integrity who loves his flock (and those who don’t know about Jesus too). He is also a dear personal friend who has taught me all the good stuff from my columns…the not so good comes from Oprah?! My Sunday school teacher has the same characteristics as my Pastor but with fuller hair. My town of Stockton has great people of character who care about each other (for more info Google May 4, 2003). We have several Bible-believing churches who share about Jesus. The Cedar County Republican lets me share my love for Christ with you, partially fulfilling my desire to walk house to house with a bullhorn and plead you to “taste and see” (Psalm 34:8) what I am so excited to share. I have a great job as a partner in an electronics store in Branson. It gives me freedom to write to you and others in on-line sharing and still pay the bills. Lastly, as awesome as this list is, absolutely nothing remotely compares to God sending Jesus Christ to this Earth to painfully die on a cross as a substitute penalty for the sins (not the least of which were listed above) I have committed. Romans 6:23 sums it up saying “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. I deserve death and instead get eternal life by letting the one who created us be my boss (Lord) and turning from my failed way of doing things. What a gift…without the best deal ever offered!
May God richly bless you this season! Don’t let it pass without reflecting on it! If you have questions about becoming a Christian, please email me at markapplegate@alltel.net. I am always available for you…the least I can do for such an awesome God!

Halloween

Sometimes I write this column in a slightly irreverent manner and others for sheer love of God. Today I write to you with urgency not the norm for this column. My subject: Halloween. I am not going to batter you with a diatribe about how satanic the holiday tends to be or rant about the impropriety of the season. In the spirit of love for you and my heartfelt desire for you to know my Savior, I humbly ask you to consider your spirituality this October 31st. I begin with a letter, called “The Seeker’s Prayer”, I found from a Puritan writer named John Gerstner. It aptly shows what the mindset of a non-believer is as we count the cost of committing our lives to following Jesus Christ. Evaluate your search through these glasses.
“Dear God, whom I hate with all my being precisely because you hate and threaten me with hell, I hate this punishment perhaps even more than I hate you. Or, maybe I should say that I love my comfort even more than I hate you. For that reason I am asking a favor of you. I want you to make me love you, whom I hate even when I ask this and even more because I have to ask this. I am being frank with you because I know it is no use to be otherwise. You know even better than I how much I hate you and that I love only myself. It is no use for me to pretend to be sincere. I most certainly do not love you and do not want to love you. I hate the thought of loving you but that is what I'm asking because I love myself. If you can answer this 'prayer' I guess the gift of gratitude will come with it and then I will be able to do what I would not think of doing now—thank you for making me love you whom I hate. Amen.”
Is this shocking? Look deep. Think of God’s view from inside of your heart. As I look back at from whence I have come, my pre-Christian life had several times when I felt like praying this prayer. While I would never say this out loud my actions screamed it with a bullhorn. When we sit on a fence and evaluate Christianity as one of a number of life options like shopping for a place for a pedicure, it’s an offense to God. John 3:36 says "He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." You see, God gave His Son Jesus Christ to die in our place for the punishment we deserve for our sin. When we kick tires of commitment, He is sickened. Revelation 3:16 states “So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit (literally “vomit”) you out of my mouth.” James 4:4 furthers this thought declaring “You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” See also Matthew 6:24/ Luke 16:13.
Halloween is a time of spirituality and darkness (rightly defined as the absence of light). If you are a Christian, please evaluate your heart this season. Do my or my kids’ costumes show contempt for our Creator? Does my witness for Jesus Christ get drug through the mud when I allow Halloween to compromise my integrity? Is it really just wholesome fun to dress like the devil that Jesus Christ painfully died on a cross in our place to defeat? Join me in taking these questions to God in our quiet times with Him this week.
Toe-dipper, be aware. If you are not God’s friend, you are His enemy and His wrath abides on you like a noose around your neck. Maybe you’re a pretty good person? PLEASE scan Exodus 20 (10 Commandments) as a mirror for your ability to do good. Note the “biggies”, murder and adultery, are addressed by Jesus in Matthew 5:21-2 and 5:27-8 as equally committed when angry at someone (murder) and lusting after someone (adultery of the heart). If this concept is hard to get, think of NBC Dateline’s “To Catch a Predator”. Police in a sting arrest/convict those who intend to have sex with a minor before the act happens. God, with infinitely higher standards, knows/convicts based on our intent. If you flirt with Buddhism, New Ageism, pseudo-Christian cults, Kansas City Chiefs-ism, or any other ism, take God seriously today. God cares about toe-dipping and He takes it seriously.
A brief note on good works making peace with God: Isaiah 64:6 says “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” I title my column as filthy rags to remind both of us that neither of us are good. Nothing good has ever come from me apart from what is done by Him living in me. What we do before we come to faith in Christ to better our case is as worthless as these rags.
I humbly ask you to consider these claims. Trust the scripture over the chubby writer! In case this piece is short of joy, note that God is clearly a God of love. Romans 5:8 says “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He loves us just like we are but wants to change us into the image of His Son. The time is now to get off the fence and tell God where we stand with our voices/actions. Halloween 2007 is our wakeup call. Friend or foe… you make the call. May God Bless you and your earnest search and final decision.

Pac Mania

I am sure by now, after reading my column on a regular basis like you do, you realize my head is positively enormous. Even a cursory glance of the picture accompanying my article makes clear my head is both melonesque and becoming round. After years of soul searching contemplation, I have discovered why! Much like Violet Beaureguard of Willy Wonka fame that turned into a blueberry as a symbolic punishment for her gum chewing uber-habit, I began to turn into Pac Man as a child. Alas, I played the game for hours after breaking the eighth commandment by stealing money from my sleeping dad’s wallet. Indeed my rotund torso is approaching a spherical shape. Leading the charge is my Pac Man shaped mug. As Pac Man has made a profound difference to my physique, it also has made its way into my head as being profoundly spiritual. With this in mind, this excursion into literary greatness will delve into a hopefully fruitful two week examination of how Pac Man relates to a relationship with Christ.
First I need to get you up to speed if you aren’t familiar with the game. The hero, Pac Man, is a yellow, pie-missing-a-slice-shaped chap who weaves his way through a maze eating small dots. There are 4 strategically located bigger dots called “power pellets” that render him invincible for a selected amount of time with certain limitations. The bad guys in the game are four ghosts named Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde. They mortally wound our hero when they touch him, unless he has recently eaten a power pellet. When he eats one of these jewels, the normally colorful ghosts all turn a midnight blue color and run for their lives to avoid being eaten by Pac Man. Upon “chomping” them, they turn into a pair of eyes and float back to the center of the screen where they rematerialize as the bad guy again, after a short period of time. To finish a screen in the game our hero must eat all the dots before getting eaten. The screens get faster and faster until you finally bite the dust. Once a screen a bonus fruit item appears for bonus points but disappears if not eaten promptly. Certain point levels render the player bonus lives. You play until you have exhausted all your lives or completed all 256 levels including a glitched level in which there is part of the screen messed up by bad game coding. Such a game is ripe (in my mind) with shadows of the reality of Christian living.
First the enemy. Our enemy is obviously the devil. The four ghosts in the game represent the devil’s methods of trying to defeat us. Blinky symbolizes taking our eyes off Jesus. The devil likes nothing more than to create doubt to someone seeking Christ. Much like in Matthew 14 when Peter walked on water to meet Jesus (who was already waltzing across the lake), when we keep our eyes on Him, our faith is strengthened, when we take our eyes off Him we sink. The devil twists the message of the cross into us becoming a Christian to “have a great life” or to “fill a God shaped hole” and away from the fact that the reason He died on the cross was to save us from the sin penalty we deserved (Romans 6:23). We tell others to become a Christian so they can have this great life, then something bad happens and they lose faith and fall away. Tough times are a reality in this fallen world we live in. A health and wealth “gospel” saying Jesus will fix all our problems is no gospel at all. He will be there with us through all things and give us the necessary grace to make it through, but He has no interest in making heaven on Earth for us. We grow in faith by keeping our eyes on Him through rough seas. Through this refining, we are made more like Him.
The second ghost is Pinky. The human pinky is the thinnest and weakest finger on the hand. The devil, similarly, often tells us that we are too thin and weak to serve God. Think of all the bible characters who seemed too weak to do anything, yet, with God’s mighty power, became superheroes of faith. Several come to mind. Moses in the first four chapters of Exodus makes it clear he is too weak. 20 pages later in my bible he leads thousands of his closest friends on an escape trip away from an evil ruler, and God gets the praise. Gideon in Judges 6 goes from scaredy cat to warrior and God gets the praise. There are others!
The third ghost is Inky. Inky is the other extreme. The Pharisees “inked” law after law to exhibit their righteousness. They followed their written law to the letter, but also maximized every loophole when convenient. Jesus spent more of His time on earth fighting the devil-given self-righteousness of these men than He did addressing the “real sinners”. The devil loves the law when we use it to glorify our self-righteousness. He trembles in fear when we use God’s perfect law as a mirror to expose the sin in our life. Take a quick glance through the ten commandments in Exodus 20? I don’t know about you, but I don’t measure up.
The last ghost is Clyde. Clyde symbolizes the good ole boy in us. Good ole Clyde seems like a fine man. He saves the whales, pays his taxes, and feeds his kids. Everyone likes him and trusts him. He has no obvious glaring sin in his life and does lots of nice things. He seems heaven bound if anyone does (so the devil tells us). The problem the devil wants to hide from us is that good ole boys need Jesus like the rest of us sinners. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”. Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” All of us need the same amount of help. Some seem good, some seem bad, but all need to fix the sin issue to avoid its wages.
Next week we will look at the rest of the symbolism of Pac Man and summarize. If you have questions about Christianity, email me at markapplegate@alltel.net. It is my goal to be there for you as you consider Christ’s claims. God Bless fellow Pac Men (and Women!).

Tell Tale Heart Christian Remix

“The Tell-Tale Heart” was a titillating and painstakingly dark short story written by Edgar Allen Poe in 1843. It is one that haunted me like none other when I was a teen. I encourage you to read it again as a guide to this column. To summarize, it is the story of a man who kills an old man specifically because he had a creepy eye that looks at him too much. After killing the man, he cuts off all his limbs and head and buries him under the planks in his own house. It is the perfect crime with no evidence of struggle, no witnesses, and a perfect disposal area for the carcass. The problem…the killer’s ears. Let me explain. Shortly after the gruesome event, he begins to hear heartbeats. He becomes more and more acutely aware of the sound (and less and less sane in the process) until he finally freaks out and confesses his perfect crime to the authorities who had paid him a visit. Good grief, what is the corpulent writer placing this bunk in the church section this week, you might rightfully ask? You probably already know. I want to talk to you about my Savior.
I want to address this piece to two groups of people with slightly different spins for each. The first group of people I want to address is my Atheist friends. (Yes, I do read emails.) There are a couple lessons to learn from the Tell-Tale Heart Christian Edition. I believe firmly that most of my atheist (no God whatsoever) friends are truly agnostic (believe in possibility of God in some impersonal form). What I want to address with you today is the reality of what’s at stake if you are wrong. When you walk outside and see the complexity of nature, the ripples on the Stockton Lake when the wind spikes, and the fall leaves changing into crimson red, do you hear it? Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump. Thump thump. When you consider the human eye and the hundreds of millions of cells required to see a mountain, needless to say see a corn flake. Do you hear it again? Thump Thump. Thump Thump. It appears to be louder. When you see the lack of transitional forms in nature and in the fossil record clearly necessary to prove evolution as an alternative to God and, with the same complex mind, try to explain where the material came from that composed “the Big Bang”, you can really hear the pulse now. The thumping is deafening now. The bottom line is apparent. You desperately want to believe in anything but God because you have something in your life you think is hidden from God that you don’t want to give up. I suspect it is for you what it was for me… a glaring sin or variety of sins that are too good (for a season) to give up (Hebrews 11:25). Maybe you think you are too far gone to ever be forgiven? Regardless, you seek to end the thumping sound. Two options. One…Investigate where the sound is coming from (i.e. your conscience). Two… redo the floors with hyper shag carpet to drown out what you hear. Option one folks… Hebrews 9:27-28a says “Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people;”. We will all individually stand before God as our Judge some day. Our right response to Jesus Christ alone (John 14:6) will determine our fate. Email me when you are ready to talk. If that doesn’t sound good, read the Gospel of John with an open mind and email me with questions. Option two folks…I would call Lakeside Interiors to see what sound-insolating flooring is offered. They have it all at a great price, but I doubt it will drown out the thumping of your conscience.
The second group I want to deal with is Christians. The thumping sound we hear is a slightly different tone, yet sobering all the same. The sound we hear beneath the floor of our house is that of God knocking at our calloused hearts. God sees our secrets. Nothing is hidden from Him. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says with unrivalled thumping “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.” We have become a stumbling block to many and an excuse to others. Join me and my church in taking a realistic and humble look at our heart. Evaluate your message. Do you teach that God will give you a new car if you become a Christian? Plant a seed, reap a reward? Paul got plenty of rewards for his years of missionary service. He was beaten, shipwrecked, beaten some more, imprisoned in stocks (while singing all the way), and beaten a few more times. Did he die rich? Define rich! Eye of a needle rich? Rich young ruler rich?
Do you teach that what you do will get you to Heaven? Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” God clearly saves us despite what we do, not because of what we do. Jesus Christ died as a sub for our sin debt…can we possibly add to that without rendering His death in vain?
Do you teach that the Bible is flawed? 2 Timothy3:16-7 says the Bible’s opinion of itself saying “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” Is a God big enough to create the world and its complexities able to keep His central message of Salvation (that He sent His only Son to die for) to His people? Did the One who created the duckbill platypus get stumped on how to communicate with us through His Word? Pray and Fast before you rewrite God’s message…the consequences are harsh. (See Rev 22:18 for a smidget).
We desperately need to humble ourselves before God and ask for forgiveness for our many failings. We must pray for our church and our neighboring Bible-believing churches. We must turn from our sin. We are far too often no better than before we were “saved”. (FYI This, for someone “born again” is not possible…see 2 Corinthians 5:17). We must value our Salvation again. Our time is almost up. Thump Thump, Thump Thump. Be much more afraid when the thumping stops.
Please consider what I have said today. I love each and every one who reads this column. Lest you not fully realize the obvious, I am far from perfect as well. I am not judging you. Hey, I hear the thumping sound too. The time to respond is today, before it is too late. God Bless!