Safe Haven

Wow. Is it really true that the guy playing Jesus and the assistant director in Mel Gibson's The Passion got hit by lightning? I'd likely caution myself against interpreting that as a sign, but that's pretty weird. Let me say again if the movie is faithful to the Gospel accounts, there's no way it could be anti-Semitic. Even the one who died is Jewish. It matters not one whit the ethnicity of all the parties involved. In the beginning of the Christian church, everyone was Jewish ethnically. I seriously doubt that all those believers had a curious case of self-hatred. Does that make any sense?

I heard someone tell me once that I "wore my religion on my sleeve." Now, I have a great admiration for all those folks who can show the love of Christ without ever saying a word. But that's not me. Sorry if that bothers anyone. The gospel is foremost on my mind, and burned in my heart; thus, it is often the first thing out of my mouth. I don't pester people about it, but if I have someone's ear, (and trust) I'm going to talk about the most important events ever in the history of the cosmos. Jesus Christ is the God-man, who came to save sinners. And He showed us what "human" really means--what we will become.

Today, I inadvertently insulted my Religious Studies instructor, by stating that his post regarding a different number of commandments in Exodus 20 (Jews and some Christians say 9; the rest say 10) on our message board was "old news." I issue then a very public apology to him. My post may have reflected a disdain for his transmission of these facts, which I did not intend.

Imagine what King Herod must have thought when he heard of the child to be born in Bethlehem, the one some said would be King of the Jews: "How dare a child challenge my rule as King!" Remember that the Scripture says he killed all the male children in the town two years and younger in an attempt to kill Jesus. Matthew 2:18 speaks of Rachel weeping for her children, because they are no more. Today at Mizzou, I saw a huge wall with information about alternatives to abortion, as well as graphic pictures of dead children. As you might imagine, it's very provocative. I could only look once. The baby I saw reminded me of Herod's genocide. "A child just like this one, Herod killed that day," I thought. Today is no different. Thousands of people say in their hearts, "How dare a child be born to ruin my plans! I rule my own life!" Take one look at a picture of this death; there's no way the argument that a fetus is a mass of cells (and not a person) w...