Meltdown News, Depression and Songs That Heal

The news keeps coming...Home Depot lays off 5,000 Caterpillar and GM lays-off thousands more...Microsoft lays-off 5,000 (Home Depot? Microsoft for Pete's sake?!) What's the best way to deal with the news of the new depression- oops, recession? How do you feel when you read economic meltdown related headlines like this?....AXED DAD SLAUGHTERS FAMILY?

I didn't make that last one up by the way. A Medical worker beyond desperate after he and his wife lost their jobs at an LA hospital, fatally shot her and their five young children this week before killing himself, horrified cops said. "In these tough economic times, there are other options," implored LA Deputy Police Chief Kenneth Garner. "In my 32 years, I've never seen anything like this. Today, our worst fear was realized. It's just not a solution. There's just so many ways to find alternatives to doing something so horrific and drastic as this." The shooter, an X-ray technician, faxed a chilling letter to a local television station shortly before shooting himself Tuesday morning in the family's home. "Why leave the children to a stranger?" he wrote. "Oh lord, my God, is there no hope for a widow's son?"

What hope is there for anyone today suffering in the wake of these trying times? Is there an antidote for meltdown news-related depression? Yes, as for me and my house, we're doing two things I heartily recommend: first, turn off the TV! Fox News, CNN, the local news and the morning paper love headlines like the above and live to titilate with tales of woe and disaster- regardless of context and perspective. If you're going to read something - read (eat) more Bible and second, sing songs that heal. What kind of songs? Psalms of course. David and prophets like Isaiah, often cried to the Lord for peace, relief from anxiety and fear and for direction as to how to proceed in trecherous ways...

Psa. 34:4, 10, 18 I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. 10 The young lions suffer want and hunger;but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.

Psa. 37:3-5 3 Trust in the Lord, and do good;dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.4 Delight yourself in the Lord,and he will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord;trust in him, and he will act.

Isa. 41:10 fear not, for I am with you;be not dismayed, for I am your God;I will strengthen you, I will help you,I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Let these words of the living God provide you with spirtual medicine in the form of hope and rest, from the clamor and clanging symbols of meltdowns and depression(s).

God's Extreme Makeover - our home edition

Newsweek's religion columnist raises the issue this week that Americans are torn (as the Thessalonian church was in the first century AD) about their eternal future. Lisa Miller (Beliefwatch; http://www.newsweek.com/id/181287) reports that while 80% of Americans believe they're going to heaven when they die, "only half of Americans think of resurrection as a physical event, a revivification of flesh after death. More than a third think of it as something spiritual, an ascension of the soul that leaves the corpse behind."

Now we biblicists who love to eat the Word, should not be surprised by such apparent contradictions in or out of the church, when we know that the typical churchgoer attempts to live by blind faith or sight, as opposed to by truth. As we discussed last Saturday, the apostle Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians set out to answer and clarify the great question of destiny and to purposely comfort that suffering and troubled congregation with awesome news of Jesus rapturing his children in preparation for His second coming (1 Thess. 4:13-18). It is an event he wrapped in the promise and anticipation of the glorious resurrection that awaits believers then and now, who are confronted with the fact that if Jesus did not rise and gain victory over death and sin, our faith is "in vain" (empty or worthless; 1 Cor. 15:12-14).

Folks, consider as Paul and the early church did that as to the resurrection, there is and can be no middle ground or compromise . Either it did or did not happen, making it the seminal event in world history, the event and truth on which the Christian faith hangs or falls. If there's no resurrection, the Bible's a farce and Christ is not who He said He was and is and we are all condemned to a lake of fire. Keep this in mind as you share gospel truth. As for me and my house, we choose Christ - the Word that became flesh. How about you? Never bend or break on the promise of God's extreme makeover for us. Paul gives us the future and the resurrection in it, and that hope holds us in times like these.

"13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words (1 Thess. 4:13, 16-18)."

A Sign that the Apocalypse is Near?

Episcopal Priest Claims 'Being Homosexual is Gift from God'

The Rev. Canon J. Edwin Bacon Jr. from Southern California has made it no secret that he supports same-sex marriage. But his recent pro-homosexual comments on the Oprah Winfrey show have stunned even the popular talk show host herself. According to a Christian Post report, 'Being homosexual is a gift from God,' Bacon declared in an Oprah episode that aired Jan. 7. Appearing shocked, Winfrey responded, 'Well, you are the first minister I’ve ever heard say, 'Being homosexual is a gift from God,' I can tell you that."

One big suprise and one non-shocker is evident here. First, the surprise is that Oprah would be "stunned" by such a typical, liberal comment on her own show, where wayward and aberrant, dysfunctional views even from "clergy", are standard fare. Second, why should anyone in 2009 be surprised by such false doctrine and error from an American denomination that theologically lost its way long ago, when it gave up on the Bible as an authoritative, infallible and inerrant source of truth? At this week's Presidential Inauguration ceremonies, the new administration invited Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson, he of the same-sex partnership to deliver an invocation.

Remember the apostle Paul warned Timothy at Ephesus in both of his letters to the young pastor, that such doctrine would be atypical of the beginning of the end, " For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths (2 Tim. 4:3-4, ESV)."

In fact, such doctrine according to Paul would be a sign of the great apostasy to come at the time of the tribulation as Jesus prepares to retrun, "Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared (1 Tim. 4:1-2)..."

Let's face it people, we are in times when 'everyone did what was right in their own eyes' (Ju. 21:25), where left is right, up is down and black is white. Is there much greater blasphemy on earth today than to attribute fornication- gross sin, as a "gift from God"? One is tempted to at this point to pray an imprecatory psalm as David did so often, calling for God to vanquish His enemies such as those that blaspheme and mock the name of God. Rather, we might want to prepare for and be ready to take comfort in, Christ's second coming which we should expectantly pray for more than ever. Speaking of which, this Saturday's night SOS will deal with the topic of the Rapture Revealed, from the current series, 'Comfort For the Second Coming' (see What's Up at SOS? ).

The Inauguration, the Sanctity of Life and the Mind of Terrorists

This week two watershed moments in American history will be observed and acknowledged, one to a much greater extent. The more visible one being this week's inauguration of Barack Obama, as this nation's first African-American President. This man will need much prayer in lieu of his beginning his administration in the midst of the country's worst economic crisis since the great depression of the 30's.

He owes some of his victory to a growing number of young, white, evangelical, liberal and social -gospel oriented voters, who according to articles in Time and Newsweek grew tired of their parent's politics- notably their views on homosexual marriage and abortion. It is alleged that this new breed of Christian is more concerned with being green, AIDS and war in Africa and dollars and cents than for unborn babies, still being killed at a clip of more than 1 million per year here legally. This is precisely why less and less attention is being given to the pro-life cause, as evidenced by the lack of attention paid to Sanctity of Life Day, which passed this last weekend, marking the 36th anniversay of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision from left-field that condemned well over 45 million unborn children to death in this past generation.

While I welcome our first black president to the White House ( a long overdue achievement), I grieve for the future of millions of the unborn and the fate that awaits themm as this president prepares to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which would abolish all restrictions and limitations on women in the United States to have an abortion prior to fetal viability, whether at the state or federal level. Obama has been quoted as saying that this would be one of his first initiatives as president, which would not be surprising since he has also been known for his opposition to the Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Partial Birth Abortion Ban Act.

Obama's election is truly historic and should he come to realize as a professing Christian, the evil of abortion and it's parallels of discrimination and injustice to slavery, he could actually emulate Esther, a historic leader of biblical proportions "for a time such as this," should he be led to actually make abortion more difficult, if not to abolish it, as that other great American evil eventually was. Remember there was a time not too long ago in this country where the highest court in the land, influenced by many, also thought that some people were inferior to others and were not deserving of equal protection. If the pro-choice position is the right one, abortion is a civil right, if the pro-life position is, then abortion is a holocaust, has been, and we lose more casualties every day to it, than all the lives lost here on 9-11. Pray for your President to capture a biblical vision of life and seize the opportunity to be historic in more ways than one.

Terorrists are NOT playing with a full-deck... for those of you who holding on to a misguided notion that the U.S., Israel or any other democratic nation can negotiate with terrorists for peace (as Spain learned the hard way), consider the mind and deathwish of enemies such as Hamas, who after continually firing rockets into Israeli territories, instigating counter attacks from Israel that resulted in the deaths of over 1,300 Palestinians and loss of land to Israel, actually proclaimed with a sign in carefully scripted Hebrew reading, "The resistance will be victorious, Israel has been defeated." That reminds me of the hillarious scene from Monty Python's Holy Grail, where a knight who had lost all his limbs in battle with another said, "allright, we'll call it a draw." Hello? Folks, these people are a few sandwiches shy of a picnic - the lights are on and nobody's home. Pray that our President will realize who he is dealing with and lead accordingly.