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!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Sunday, December 2, 2007
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!
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!
Thursday, November 29, 2007
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.
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.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
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!
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!
Thursday, November 22, 2007
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!
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.
“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!).
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!
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!
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