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!