Pirates of the Caribbean 4: Stranger Tides is All Washed Up

If you’re reading this, the Rapture didn’t end up happening on May 21st.  Bummer that we’re not seeing Jesus face to face, but at least you can go check out the latest swashbucklin’ high seas adventure with Captain Sparrow and his band of ruthless raiders.

Which reminds me…what does a pirate think happens at the end of time? Arrrrrrmageddon!

Yep, Jack is back and he’s in a mad race to find the fabled fountain of youth.  And if I looked like the majority of the characters in this film, I’d be searchin fer it too, matey!  You have to give props to the director though, because he finally found in Penelope Cruz someone who shares the same passion for mascara as Johnny Depp.

And does anyone find it strange that Geoffrey Rush is working for King George II, when just a few months ago he was teaching King George VI how to speak without stuttering?  Maybe Barbossa’s great-great-grandson gave up pirating to become a speech therarrrrrapist?

But with a title like Stranger Tides, one would expect a treasure full of fun and excitement. Unfortunately the average moviegoer is going to be man overbored after sailing with this one for over 136 minutes.  Don’t get me wrong – there’s definitely swords-a-clashing and guns-a-blazing action and killer special effects, but the film just doesn’t have enough wind in its sails to stay afloat.  Captain Sparrow was funny back in 2003, but I kinda doubt they even bothered to wake him up for Pirates 4.

And as cool as Ariel the mermaid gone bad and ships with afterburners sound, it still doesn’t compare with a pirate ship throw down in the middle of a vortex.  Just sayin.

One thing they did get right, though, is our world’s fascination with The Fountain of Youth.  For thousands of years the human race has been enamored with the idea of a source of water that would heal and preserve you so that you could live forever.

Which tells me that there are many, many “thirsty” people drudging through this life and dreading what happens in the next. They know something is missing, but like a tickle in your throat that refuses to go away, they just can’t figure out what to “drink”’ to bring relief and peace of mind.  Some guzzle booze, some sex, some success, and some entertainment, but in the end the spiritual dehydration lingers.

This is exactly what Jesus noticed one day when He risked His life to attend a festival in Jerusalem.  He knew that there were religious leaders there who plotted to end His life, but He showed up anyway.  Why?  Because He knew that in the middle of the partying, there was an overflow of emptiness that saturated the crowds.  So in a hugely dramatic moment, He leapt to a high point and shouted at the top of His lungs-

“Anyone who is thirsty may come to me!  Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.’” (When he said “living water,” he was speaking of the Spirit, who would be given to everyone believing in him) (John 7:37-38).

The Fountain of Youth is NOT in Florida, folks, nor is it in some secret location that requires a map and a pirate ship to locate.  Jesus Christ is the ultimate fountain, and He offers infinitely more than something as fleeting as youth…He offers life that is more fulfilling and flooding over with joy than you could possibly imagine!

Are you thirsty?  Then take Jesus up on His offer to quench your parched soul.  When you trust in Him as your only hope of salvation, the Holy Spirit enters your life and replaces that thirst with a fountain that never runs dry.

And remember that your friends are thirsty too.  They are chasing happiness and contentment like groups of grumpy pirates, but they will never find their true destination until they throw away the world’s map and follow the plan of salvation God reveals through the gospel message.

Life may seem like a journey through stranger tides, but you have the choice to take the wheel and chart your course through THE Cause Jesus gave us.  It may not always be smooth sailing, but it will be a greater adventure than you ever imagined!

Is It All Going Down on May 21?

“And now, we have no option. We can’t say ‘maybe’ ‘it’s possible’ ‘it looks very probable…’ No way! We have to say this is what the Bible teaches! This is fact! May 21, 2011 is the day of the Rapture, it is the day that Judgment Day begins…” —Harold Camping

It would be nice if Harold Camping was written off as yet another Bible math junkie with way too much time on his hands, but unfortunately the May 21, 2011 Rapture Day billboards and pamphlets have way too many people camping out on Harold’s prediction.

Of course someday someone might get lucky enough to make an accurate calculation for Judgment Day, but in my humble opinion, that someone is definitely not Dr. Camping, and here’s why:

You may be wondering among yourselves, “How can we tell the difference, whether it was God who spoke or not?” Here’s how: If what the prophet spoke in God’s name doesn’t happen, then obviously God wasn’t behind it; the prophet made it up. Forget about him (Deuteronomy 18:21-22).

The Bible teaches that any and every prophet from God will predict future events with 100% accuracy.  If there is even a hint of inaccuracy, the dude was discredited as a fraud.

How’s this for a *hint* of inaccuracy?

“When September 6, 1994, arrives, no one else can become saved. The end has come.”

—Harold Camping (1994)

Yep, 1994 rolled around and the main thing I remember from that year was Tag Team’s Whoomp! (There it is)…but definitely no Rapture that year Harold…

Whoomp chak a laka chack a laka chak a laka chak a!!!

So we forgot about him…until I was driving down the street a few weeks back and saw the second coming of Harold’s predictions, which AGAIN directly contradict some clear statements by Jesus:

Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows (Matthew 24:35-37).

So when the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, has the time come for you to free Israel and restore our kingdom?”

He replied, “The Father alone has the authority to set those dates and times, and they are not for you to know. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:6-8).

According to Jesus – (you know, the One who will be commanding the actual Rapture), no human being will know the “day or the hour” of His return. 

Now I’m no prophet, but I think I have it on good authority to encourage you NOT to worry about the end of the world on May 21.

Perhaps even better, I would counsel you not to worry about the end of the world on any day!  The Biblical teachings about the Rapture are designed to cheer you up – not freak you out:

So let’s do it—full of belief, confident that we’re presentable inside and out. Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching (Hebrews 10:22-25).

The “Big Day” of Jesus’ return is a reality to be sure, but instead of frittering away priceless time in an attempt to make money warn people that they best not make dinner reservations on May 21, why don’t we treat every day as the one where Jesus might call us home?  

And why don’t we fulfill our God ordained mission to be Jesus’ witnesses in whatever little corner of the planet He has planted us instead of obsessing about the world looking like one of the “are you kidding me” scenes from the movie 2012?

Here’s my unbiased and totally non-mathematical prediction for you my friends.  If you decide to take your salvation and calling seriously, you will live as though Jesus died yesterday, walked out of His grave today, and is returning tomorrow.

Living like that probably won’t get you interviewed on radio and television, but it will make an eternal difference in the lives of the people you love as you live out THE Cause by sharing the message of the gospel!

Osama, Splakna, and You

“It’s been a Disney kind of week: The Last Song is on cable, a prince got married, and the bad guy died.”  —Nicholas Sparks

It was one of those rare moments, wasn’t it?  An experience that could live on in the forefront of your memory and emotions for many years to come.  The long awaited—and perhaps even unexpected—news that Osama Bin Laden had been killed hit the media and internet like a tidal wave.

Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when you heard about the death of the most notorious terrorist of our modern times?

Or perhaps more importantly…do you remember what you felt when the realization hit you that the man who bore the responsibility for the murder of thousands will no longer have the ability to plot destruction and death?

It was obvious what emotions dominated the majority of our nation—Facebook lit up like a Christmas tree with celebration statuses, Twitter was blasting out Tweets at a machine gun pace, and images of “U.S.A.” chanting crowds filled the airwaves.

And then came the debate.

You know what I’m talking about—right?  The very relevant and important topic of how Christians should react when an evil person dies.  Not an easy answer to be sure, and when I googled “how should a Christian respond to Osama Bin Laden’s death”—it actually returned nearly 100,000 results!

And there just may be 100,000 opinions out there ranging all the way from celebration and elation to mourning and condemnation.

And that’s just what they are…opinions…which is nothing more than—

“A view or judgment formed about something, not necessarily based on fact or knowledge” (www.dictionary.com)

We don’t need opinions to answer our question of what is the godly response is to Bin Laden’s death.  We need the truth with a capital “T”—the Truth of God’s Word:

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live? (Ezekiel 18:23)

If any Being in the universe has a right to take pleasure when evil men die, it would be God.  But clearly His heart does not rejoice or find enjoyment in the passing of anyone made in His image…which is everyone.

Do we celebrate justice being served and the fact that our world has one less mass murderer to deal with?  Of course!  But this isn’t a football game where we whoop it up because our “team” was victorious.

And herein lays the complexity of our emotions when we process a milestone event such as this one.  It is not only possible—but normal—to experience a wide range of multiple emotions simultaneously. The key is to discern which ones are from God and which stem from our sinful nature.

But I’m concerned that all this twitter tweeter tiffs may be distracting us from the most vital emotion all Christians should have running in the background of their souls.  It’s the same one Jesus felt when He gazed at humanity.

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.  Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few (Matthew 9:36-37).

The word in the original language for compassion here is splakna—which was used in Greek language to describe your inward parts.  So when Jesus looks at people, He literally feels as though He is “spilling His guts” because He sees how broken and lost they are without Him.

How about us?  Here we are debating how we should respond to the news about Bin Laden, when God is begging us to stop arguing and start spilling our guts over the heartbreaking reality that billions of human beings that are headed for an eternity separated from God.

Do we rejoice that evil has been defeated and therefore many lives will be saved?  Guess what?  Jesus Christ’s death on the Cross was the ultimate defeat of all evil, and therefore billions of lives could be saved if…

If we have compassion.

If we focus on what’s truly important.

If we stop squabbling and start splakna-ing!

My friends, we have an amazing opportunity to use the news of Bin Laden’s death to open up conversations for THE Cause of Christ.  The ultimate enemy of our souls was defeated when Jesus walked out of His own grave…and that changes everything.  The military can save lives from terrorists with weapons, but we can be a part of saving eternal souls with the explosive and life-giving message of the gospel!

Dealing With Disaster

Raise your hand if you’re aware of the terrible and heart-wrenching natural disasters that are plaguing our nation.

Yep, as I expected, nearly all of you have heard about or watched footage of the fearsome tornadoes that have ravaged through the southeast corner of America killing hundreds in their wake.  And then there are the deadly fires that consumed millions of acres and destroyed lives in Texas.

Now, raise your hand again if the awareness of all these disasters leaves you with the questions that most Christians wonder about, but are sometimes afraid to ask:

God…where are you in all these catastrophes? Couldn’t you have simply spoken a word to still the tornadoes and quench the fires?

And then there is THE question behind all others:

If God is all-powerful and loving, then why didn’t He stop the tragedies from happening? So He must either not be all-powerful, or not loving…end of story.

Or is it?  When people experience calamity and heartbreak, is that the end of their story?

That’s certainly what a man named Job thought when he endured an onslaught of disasters that would have driven most people to inconsolable despair. Try to put yourself into his world as you read about the tornado of adversity that stormed through every area of his life-

Sometime later, while Job’s children were having one of their parties at the home of the oldest son, a messenger came to Job and said, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys grazing in the field next to us when Sabeans attacked. They stole the animals and killed the field hands. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”

While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Bolts of lightning struck the sheep and the shepherds and fried them-burned them to a crisp. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”

While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Chaldeans coming from three directions raided the camels and massacred the camel drivers. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened.”

While he was still talking, another messenger arrived and said, “Your children were having a party at the home of the oldest brother when a tornado swept in off the desert and struck the house. It collapsed on the young people and they died. I’m the only one to get out alive and tell you what happened” (Job 1:13-19).

And things continued to spiral downward following these events.  Job lost his health, was accused by his ‘friends’ of being the sinner responsible for his losses, and though he valiantly kept his faith through nearly all the ordeal, the haunting questions about God’s goodness and love overtook his thoughts:

How I wish we had an arbitrator
to step in and let me get on with life—
To break God’s death grip on me,
to free me from this terror so I could breathe again.
Then I’d speak up and state my case boldly.
As things stand, there is no way I can do it” (Job 9:33-35).

In effect, Job is saying, “God, I’d like to meet you in court so you can stand trial for not stopping the disasters.  Either you are not all-powerful or not loving…so which is it?”

Much to Job’s surprise, God answers from the eye of a storm with a hurricane force series of questions that all fit under the category of “Are YOU talking to ME, Job???”  It’s not that God was being cruel or evasive, just the opposite actually.  The answer to our question lies in another question, which is—

Is God in control or not?  The answer is a resounding YES…God is in control!  And because I can hold on to this truth like a ship’s mast in a violent tempest, I can be sure that by allowing trials in my life He is acting in the most loving way possible for my ultimate good.  It is not only possible but absolutely true that our all-powerful God allows tribulations because He is knitting us into a grand story of His love for the world and the salvation of humanity.

That’s why He boldly declares this truth:

“My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
“And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so my ways are higher than your ways
and my thoughts higher than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).

When we are walking through the storms of life and feel like innocent victims in this broken, fallen andsometimes evil world, it is easy to only be aware of the pain and loss, but we can trust and be certain that above the dark clouds is a loving Father who will redeem all evil and reshape it into His perfect plan.

Remember also that pain and trial are instruments that God can use to reach people who are far from Him.  As C.S. Lewis brilliantly stated:

God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.

Perhaps you have friends who don’t know Jesus Christ as their Savior who are experiencing difficulty right now.  What a huge opportunity you have to be not only to be the hands and feet of Jesus, but also the voice as well.

God is all-powerful and loving.  Let’s trust in His plan and share the most powerful and loving message ever proclaimed…the Good News about Jesus Christ—the One who will “wipe every tear from our eyes and make all things new!” (Revelation 21).

You Are a Human Target

Have you checked out the Fox show called Human Target?  Alpha-male Christopher Chance (Mark Valley) plays a former assassin turned bodyguard who assumes the identities of the people he protects.  He’s got mad skills (maybe superpowers?), state of the art technology, and he simultaneously delivers witty punch lines and elbows to his enemies faces.

Watching Human Target is basically the TV equivalent of sucking down a Red Bull while riding a roller coaster during a hurricane. So if American Idol has put you to sleep because you simply can’t translate what Stephen Tyler is trying to communicate, be sure and wake up after Idol to see Chance take another chance with his own life to save others.

I can tell you for certain that if I had a chance to jump into my TV screen and be a part of Human Target, I wouldn’t need any time to make my decision.  No, I wouldn’t last two seconds in Mark Valley’s role, but I could be the nameless dude on the bullet train who goes “dude, you rock!” when he ker-plows some eeeeeevil villain.

I’m pretty sure that’s not going to happen anytime soon, but I realized when thinking about this show that I am also a human target.  Not from a shadow agency or foreign super villain, rather this enemy is THE enemy.  He’s described in these no uncertain terms:

Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8).

I don’t know if you’ve ever been around a roaring lion, but it is one of the most terrifying sights known to humanity.  Satan is portrayed as a bloodthirsty killer on the loose, seeking human targets to take down any way he can.  Make a note to yourself that Christians who don’t pay careful attention to what’s going on around them are going to enter into a world of trouble they should have seen coming.  Not that you should look for a demon behind every corner, but don’t fall asleep at the wheel of your life’s journey.

Remember also that it is critically important to protect yourself with the spiritual “equipment” God has promised to every believer in Jesus:

So stand ready, with truth as a belt tight around your waist, with righteousness as your breastplate, and as your shoes the readiness to announce the Good News of peace. At all times carry faith as a shield; for with it you will be able to put out all the burning arrows shot by the Evil One. And accept salvation as a helmet, and the word of God as the sword which the Spirit gives you.

Do all this in prayer, asking for God’s help. Pray on every occasion, as the Spirit leads. For this reason keep alert and never give up; pray always for all God’s people. And pray also for me, that God will give me a message when I am ready to speak, so that I may speak boldly and make known the gospel’s secret. For the sake of this gospel I am an ambassador, though now I am in prison. Pray that I may be bold in speaking about the gospel as I should (Ephesians 6:14-20).

Because you truly are a human target, you must start each day by covering yourself with spiritual defenses that enable you to defeat the enemy and accomplish the great things God has planned for you!  Tell the truth always, and believe the truth that God has saved you from your old self.  Trust that God has everything under control, and memorize Bible verses that keep you from giving into temptation.

And…most importantly…did you notice the last part of the passage?  Paul asks his friends to pray for him to “be bold in speaking the gospel” – in other words, this is one your primary weapons against the devil and his plans!

The gospel message about salvation through trusting in Jesus Christ is an explosive and earth shattering power that is pretty much like a spiritual elbow in the face of Satan.  If you are ready and willing to be a part of THE Cause and look every day for opportunities to share the good news, you can quiet the roaring lion and send him running with his tail tucked between his legs if you have the right equipment in your arsenal.

So, if you’ve been feeling like a human target, it’s because you are.  Be alert and be prepared for each day by donning the armor of God and launching the gospel message as you seek to protect your friends from being casualties in the cosmic battle for souls.

Now that is a chance worth taking!

Don’t Be De-‘F.E.A.T.’-ed This Easter!

“After more than 700 hours of studying this subject, and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I have come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is the most important fact of history.”

This was the statement Josh McDowell, an atheist who set out to disprove this crazy notion that Jesus Christ walked out of His own grave 2000 years ago, expected his research would produce.

But it didn’t.

After intensely studying the evidence and weighing the option to accept the physical resurrection of Jesus as history and reject it as a hoax, he placed his faith in our Lord as his only hope of salvation.

What kind of ridiculously obvious evidence convinced a convinced atheist to drop a bomb on his worldview and give his life to Jesus?  There must be some in your face facts surrounding this fantastic feat!

Yes, there are…and should you choose to continue reading, I will lay out for you the details of the astonishing *f.e.a.t. that changed the world forever.

“F”- F is for “fatal experience.”  Before we start talking about Jesus coming back from the dead, we need to establish the fact that He actually died, right?  Not a lot of options here, because someone is either breathing and their heart is beating, or they are lifeless.  According to eyewitnesses, here is the testimony about Jesus:

Then Jesus uttered another loud cry and breathed his last (Mark 15:37).

Crying out in a loud voice, Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I entrust my life.”After he said this, he breathed for the last time (Luke 23:46).

One of the soldiers, however, pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out (John 19:34).

Trust me, the Roman guards who crucified people on a regular basis knew how to kill their victims.  And just to be sure, they would pierce the heart chamber to see if blood and “water” (plasma) would flow out – because that only happens when you are dead.

And what other option do we have?  Well some have speculated that He merely fainted.  So that means He woke up in the tomb, broke out of a 140 pound body cast, rolled the 4000 pound stone that sealed His grave uphill, overpowered the Roman soldiers guarding the tomb, stumbled in a half dead condition back to the disciples, talked them into the lie that He was resurrected. And then the disciples spent the rest of their days being tortured and eventually killed for preaching the message of Jesus’ resurrection.

Um…no.  If you buy that theory, let me also sell you on Charlie the Unicorn and Teletubby Land.

“E”- E is for “empty tomb.”

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance.2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”  (John 20:1-3).

Again, there is an elite guard of 16 Roman soldiers – the most ruthless and lethal in Rome’s military. Four faced the east, four to the west, four to the south, and four to the north. They are trained from childhood, given a special diet, and tasked with making sure no one even got near the tomb of Jesus.  If they fail in any way, they would be burned alive as punishment.

So nope – no one could have stolen the body, the women obviously knew which tomb contained the body of Jesus, and yet three days after He was sealed in that cave, the disciples are boldly proclaiming that He rose from the dead in the same area!  If that message wasn’t true, they would have been laughed at and mocked, but just the opposite took place.  Forty days after Jesus rose,“at least 10,000 Jews were willing to give up their very sociological and theological traditions that had given them their national identity!” (Acts 17:6). Why?  Because they knew the tomb was empty!”²

P.S. – They still have not found the body after 2000 years of searching…

“A”- A is for “appearances.”

“Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by the Twelve.  After that, he was seen by more than 500 of his followers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).

Jesus didn’t ascend into heaven that first Easter morning.  He stayed for 40 days and chatted (even ate with) over 500 people on 12 different occasions.  The message of His resurrection spread like wildfire in the first 30 years after it happened because if you doubted the claim, you could ask the people that saw Him!

“T”- T is for “transformation.”

What began as a tiny movement of 12 Jesus followers 2000 years ago exploded into the transformation of the entire Roman Empire in just 300 years.  And now in 2011, we are still amazed and completely changed by the mind-blowing fact that our God and Savior Jesus Christ walked out of His own grave as proof that we can be forgiven and transformed ourselves into disciples who live for THE Cause.

So if you were thinking that our celebration of Resurrection Sunday is the result of blind faith in a sketchy story, it’s time to doubt your doubts and follow the evidence where it leads.  Don’t be de-f.e.a.t.-ed this Easter, because…

Jesus is Risen!

He is Risen Indeed!

¹www.equip.org

²J.P Moreland: Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence p.251

• Lady Gaga believes in God: “It doesn’t matter if you love him, or capital H-I-M.”
• The Bible believes in God: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1, NLT).
• Lady Gaga believes God is perfect: “’Cause God makes no mistakes.”
• The Bible believes that God is perfect: “But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48, NLT).
• And finally, Lady Gaga believes that loving yourself and others should be a high priority in life: “Don’t hide yourself in regret, just love yourself and you’re set.”
• And so does Jesus: “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31, NLT).

So there you have it…who would have thought God’s Word and Gaga’s words would line up in agreement?

But sadly there is a definite point of disagreement on a very key issue:

Lady Gaga:

No matter gay, straight or bi
Lesbian, transgendered life
I’m on the right track, baby

The Bible:

Don’t fool yourselves! No one who is immoral or worships idols or is unfaithful in marriage or is a pervert or behaves like a homosexual will share in God’s kingdom. Neither will any thief or greedy person or drunkard or anyone who curses and cheats others (1 Corinthians 6:9-10, CEV).

Notice, though, that homosexual behavior and other types of immorality are in the same list as thieves, drunks, and cheaters.  So the Bible isn’t singling out LGBT folks any more than any other types of self-destructive behavior…and neither should we, because we have no room to judge since we all share in humanity’s sinful condition.

And that’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it?  We all are all “born this way”…what way?  This way:

All of us have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory. (Romans 3:23, CEV).

We all fall and fail.  We all do and say things that bring physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual destruction.  Lady Gaga might sing about a sinful lifestyle being the design God had for her, but I promise you He has something infinitely better for her, and you, and me.

How do I know?  Because Jesus had an encounter with the “born this way” guy of His time.  His name is Nick, and he was confident that the state of pride and religious passion that he was born into would get him into heaven.  But Jesus’ response might surprise you:

There was a man named Nicodemus who was a Pharisee and a Jewish leader. One night he went to Jesus and said, “Sir, we know that God has sent you to teach us. You could not work these miracles, unless God were with you.”

Jesus replied, “I tell you for certain that you must be born from above before you can see God’s kingdom!”  (John 3:1-3, CEV).

Jesus was telling Nicodemus that nothing short of a complete spiritual rebirth would save him and secure his place in heaven.  Nick thought that being good and following God’s law would earn Him favor with God, which is why Jesus needed to reveal a critical truth that we all need to hear:

We are all born this way…but being born again is the only way to heaven.

What Nick didn’t realize is that the human labels don’t matter.  Straight, gay, lesbian, drunk, thief, boy scout, pastor, priest, or just plain normal person…we all have one thing in common.  We are all sinners separated from God and in need of a rebirth.  And at the moment we are born again through trusting in Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation, God comes in and remakes us into the beautiful and unique people He intended us to be!

But there is so much more than just a place in heaven, because this new birth gives us a brand new perspective on life:

We are careful not to judge people by what they seem to be, though we once judged Christ in that way. Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.

What we mean is that God was in Christ, offering peace and forgiveness to the people of this world. And he has given us the work of sharing his message about peace (2 Corinthians 5:16-19, CEV).

Did you catch that?  We see people in a different way, and our primary goal in this life is to help others find peace in this crazy life through trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation.

On April 15th, you have an amazing opportunity to step up THE Cause by engaging people on The Day of Silence.  When you walk the halls of your school that day, engage in conversations with people about the whole “born this way” idea, and how we are all born with a predisposition towards behavior that breaks God’s perfect design for life.  Pray for an opportunity to share how you’ve been born again and show by how you don’t judge people.

Trust me, God desperately wants the people who are trapped in the “born this way” mindset to find true freedom in being born again as the only way!

And then there are people who go through tribulations that most of us cannot even imagine even in our worst nightmares.  You might expect them to be crushed under the weight of the calamity that has befallen them, but many times they emerge with a victory greater also than we could imagine as well.

One such person that fits in this category is Bethany Hamilton.  By now you’ve probably heard about, read, or are about to see her story in the film Soul Surfer.  At only 13 years old, she was attacked by a shark and sustained the loss of her arm.  And if that weren’t enough, she also lost the love and passion of her life – riding the big waves. A blow like that would be enough to discourage any young teenager from moving forward as she saw her future dreams burn up in the flames of catastrophe.

Or so you might have thought – but Bethany Hamilton gathered up the ashes of her dreams and offered them to the God who  “causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans 8:28).
And if you asked her today about her perspective on what happened, here is her answer:

“I try not to make a big soap opera out of the shark attack. I would rather focus on what God has allowed me to do in picking up the pieces of my old life and adjusting to parts that are new and different for me. Most of all, I want to use my story as a way to tell people about God’s story. It seems like he has given me the attention of the world for a moment, and I had better take advantage of it while I can.” (Soul Surfer, 2004).

I would say it has a lot to do with her earthly father and her heavenly Father.  In the film there is a scene that chronicles a conversation that took place less than two days after the attack. Bethany is still in her hospital room, and her father, Tom, is keeping a quiet and prayerful vigil at her bedside. When Bethany awakens, she looks to her father for assurance that she can overcome her tragic loss and get back to the sport that she passionately loves. Her dad encourages her with a reminder of a promise from her Heavenly Father:

Bethany: “When can I surf?”

Tom: “Soon.”

Bethany: “How do you know?”

Tom: “Because you ‘Can do all things …’”

Bethany: “… through Him who gives me strength.”

Please remember, my friends, that this incredible promise holds true for you and me as well.  Here is the way another translation of the Bible puts it:

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me. I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me (Philippians 4:13).

And when He causes all things to work together for your good, the biggest question is: Are you willing to use your story as a way to tell people about God’s story?

His story is about a God who loves His creation so deeply that He was willing to suffer more than any of us could ever imagine to open the way for heaven.

His story is about a Father who was willing to endure the loss of His Son Jesus so we could spend eternity with Him.

His story is written by the moments of our lives and the conversations we choose to have with our friends who don’t know about the amazing news of the gospel.  They are the people whose souls need to be saved from a pointless and meaningless future.

Are you willing to be a soul saver?