Interesting Quote ...

"The Glory of God is the human person fully alive"

             - Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century)



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The Bible was Just Kidding About Demons ... Right?

I have just finished a book entitled 'An Exorcist Tells His Story' by father Gabriele Amorth.  Amorth is a Catholic Priest and a sanctioned exorcist.  The first time I heard about this book I must admit that it brought back memories for me, specifically regarding the film adaptation of William Peter Blatty's novel 'The Exorcist.'  The first time I saw the film I must have been around 10 years old.  My parents had left for a night out, and I was with a babysitter.  Somehow I managed to persuade her that it was no problem if she let me stay up and watch this horror movie.  I hid behind the couch the whole time.  I think I may have been psychologically scarred by this.  Why did I insist on watching this film?  Why is our culture so fascinated by supernatural evil?  Blatty's novel spent something like 57 weeks on the New York Time's best seller list back in the early 70's.  Even the title alone of Amorth's book - I admit - drew me in.  The premise was fascinating.  He spends 200 pages detailing the strange things he has seen during his long career as the local parish exorcist in Italy, and doesn't pull any punches when chastising the Church in Rome because they have forgotten the Biblical roots of exorcism.  That horror film I watched when I was 10 was just a movie though, right?  And that was just based on a book, right?  Amorth's book presents the topic in an interesting light.  Basically, that it is all real.  I wondered if I would have to read this book from behind my couch as well.

It is interesting that Amorth reminds us that the Ritual (the Catholic Church's official set of norms and guidelines for priests to exorcise individuals) was written in 1614.  He says it is still as effective today as it was then.  Amorth does not quote the Ritual word for word, probably because (as he warns us later) the average lay person ought not try this at home.  In the Bible, Jesus does grant the power to expel demons to anyone who believes in His name.  Amorth does realize this, but he adds that the average person must be careful - because things like blessing a home are entirely different than practicing the removal of evil spirits from another human being.  But I am getting ahead of myself here.  Aren't demons, ghosts, and spiritual evil the stuff of fiction?  Isn't it safe for me to come out from behind my couch after all?  People today don't need exorcisms because now we have the ability to diagnose schizophrenia and a host of other mental maladies without the need for religion - right?  But 'An Exorcist Tells His Story' was published in 1994!  Not necessarily ancient history.  Often times Amorth describes taking a psychiatrist with him during some of his exorcisms.  Apparently the Church also concedes that it is important to go to the doctor first.  So what, then, are we to do with the things that he is saying in his book?  That people today are attempting to erase supernatural evil from reality?  That many people have a tendency to divorce the Bible's teachings on evil from its teachings on God and Heaven?  It is this strange paradigm that I will discuss in the next paragraph.

It does fascinate me how many of us (including even some people of great faith) can read the Bible and take certain truths seriously, but reject wholesale the other things it mentions.  Speaking for myself, I was always of the camp that it was okay to believe that some guy named Jesus lived a long time ago, and that Moses may have heard from a higher power in the desert outside Egypt.  But as far as demons and the devil were concerned - that was just metaphor and symbols.  Things were easier that way, less embarrassing.  One of the most difficult things in the Bible to defend today may just be the doctrine on Satan and his demons.  You would have better luck selling snake-oil at Sears.  But there is a catch.  Without a literal devil, the story of the Fall of Man in Genesis makes no sense.  Without literal demons, who was Jesus expelling half the time in the Gospels?  If we are made fun of for believing in the Bible, then we might as well go the whole way, and believe ALL of what Jesus said - not just the happy stuff about God and Heaven. 

But if our culture doesn't believe in the literality of demons, they sure do seem eager to watch movies about them (The Rite, The Exorcist and its sequels, Paranormal Activity, etc).  Not to mention the onslaught of books and T.V. shows about them.  We may not believe in the devil, but we are still worshipping him a good portion of the time.  But none of this matters of course, if demons are merely symbolic.  I won't spend too much time mentioning the popularity of psychics, mediums, astrologers, and the like.  I think they are all part of this cult fascination as well.  Amorth warns against visiting these people, and so does the Bible.  We are to trust God only.  There are no shortcuts to spiritual fulfillment.  So if spiritual evil is real, then why don't more of us witness things like demons on a semi-regular basis?  Why is it necessary to get our "scare fix" by going to a movie theatre or visiting the public library?  Well I believe many of us have witnessed these things, and probably more of us than we would like to admit.  I can't blame people for wanting to relegate this area to the realm of fiction.  It's more comfortable that way.  Less embarrassing. 

I will recount a story for you now.  I am mentioning this from personal experience.  Feel free to read it and either ignore it or accept it - the choice is always yours.  When I attended a small church a few years ago, I had a good friend who I was very interested in inviting to service.  After some discussion, he agreed to meet my family and I one Sunday.  My wife and I were very excited - he was a good friend and a good man.  The Saturday night before the church service, my wife and I put the kids to sleep and got ready for bed like normal.  About 2:00 in the morning I woke up to feel my dog squeezing up against my neck; whining incessantly in fear.  I looked over and saw my wife wide awake as well.  We both sat up in bed and came to the conclusion that we were not alone in the house.  I got up and grabbed an old police baton that I keep under my bed (I don't do guns) and began checking the doors and windows to make sure there wasn't any forced entry.  The entire time I was doing this, both my wife and I felt a palpable presence of evil in our home.  It's interesting to describe, but we both felt it from the moment we woke up.  The air felt very still and heavy, and it was as if "something" hated us vehemently.  It was to say the very least, frightening.  After finding that the house was closed up safe and sound, I returned to bed. 

The next morning it was gone.  My wife looked at me plainly and said, "we were not alone last night."  I nodded in agreement.  Whatever visited us that night did not want us to meet my friend for church the next day.  It wasn't pleased that another soul was being set in motion to encounter God.  Things went well at church on Sunday morning.  I think we may have even taken my friend out to lunch afterward.  I know for certain that I am not the only one this type of thing has happened to (and this is not my only story either).  I have spoken with pastors, Christian friends, and a few others who have had similar or even more graphic stories.  My point is this: the Christian walk is worth fighting for.  By choosing not to believe in accounts by people like father Amorth, I think we do a dis-service to the Bible.  If Jesus warned us to be mindful of demons and to stay away from modern-day psychics and astrologers, we probably should.  We don't need them.  God is our best resource and greatest protector.  It's fun to talk about Heaven and happy things, but in doing so we cannot erase the darker spiritual component.  All the more reason to stay in line with Christ, and to invite Him into our lives at all costs.  

Amorth concludes his book by upholding Jesus as the centerpiece of our salvation.  I will echo that sentiment here.  The last sentence in his book is a paraphrased quote by a writer named Manzoni.  He says that writing "one book at a time is sufficient, and at times, is one too many."  And so it can be with blog posts as well I'm sure, so I will stop here.  But at least I have come out from behind the couch.  I hope the same for you.



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The Homeless Equation

Last Sunday I teamed up with a local ministry here called Joppa (named after the city in the Bible) and went out with 2 car-loads of people to distribute meals to homeless people in our city.  I'm not sure what prompted me to do this.  I simply saw it in our church bulletin, and decided to sign up for a session.  We met at 1:00 pm at the Joppa warehouse and split up into four different groups that were responsible for four unique routes around the city.  Since I was the "new guy" I remained silent, but I noticed immediately who the old veterans were.  There were two people in particular who help organize these distributions almost every weekend.  Personally, I was grateful to have a guide, and I even hitched a ride in someone else's vehicle for the day.  We finished around 5:00 pm.  What I experienced is not easy to summarize.  In fact I'm not so sure this blog post will be a very focused piece of writing, but I feel the need to write about it nonetheless.  It was easier to feel my way through this experience than it was to quantify it.  I have listed the things I noticed during this outting below. 

Puzzlement for their Plight
I found myself at the beginning of the experience wondering if anyone was doing more than just delivering food and clothing to these unfortunate people.  After all, shouldn't we also be helping them get on their feet?  Soon I found out that Joppa does indeed help many of them clean up and get into housing.  Often times finding them a job as well.  One gentlemen named Al told me that after he had been placed into a job and an apartment, he was back on the street within months.  He told me he could not beat the "demon of alcoholism." 

I was told that some of the people we delivered to actually preferred to live by themselves without the responsibility of a full-time job or a mortgage.  Others asked us to pray for them, so that they could bet back on their feet.  I found myself feeling sad, and at the same time puzzled: they needed help, but only so much help was appropriate.  Some of them (I think) have chosen this as their life.  And whether by way of addiction or personal choice, are destined to end up back on the street at some point.  I'm not sure how to feel about this yet, at this point I'm just recounting what I saw.

God is Still Good
I wondered if these people were being helped spiritually also, in addition to just physically.  That question was answered as soon as I met a man named Dwight.  He lives in a small tent community in the woods behind a bank (insert your own metaphor here).  Dwight told me that he and some others in the tents attend a large church on the West side each Sunday.  He was happy to tell me that they were all Christians in that camp.  He also told me that with God's help, he was able to repair some damage to his tent in only half a day.  Every other sentence out of his mouth was "God is good."  I shook his hand twice and spoke with him maybe a total of 10 minutes.  I will most likely remember him the rest of my life.  No home, no heat, little food ... but God is still good.  I cannot add anything else to this.  His attitude was nothing less than amazing.

Stray Cats and D-Batteries
On one of our last stops we drove over a bridge and into an abandoned parking lot.  Just over the bank in the woods stood two or three tents.  There were only two people living there, they appeared to be a couple.  It had snowed earlier in the week and the man began telling us that the snow was so heavy it weighed down the trees to the point where one of them tore a hole through his canvas.  He was able to repair it quickly, but he wondered if we had any D-batteries so they could keep some electricity going after it got dark.  How I truly wished I had stopped at the store on my way to the Joppa warehouse and picked up some D- batteries.  We had none to offer them. 

A stray cat passing over the embankment caught my eye.  "That is our pet cat," he said.  "The campers who were here before us left him behind, so we took him in."  This struck me for a moment.  There was compassion in the way he said it.  What is it about animals that unites us?  My wife and I took in a stray cat about 5 years ago.  One of the best pets we have ever had.  This man was no different than me.  I live in a house, he doesn't - that was about it.  How many paychecks could I stand to miss before ending up in the same situation?

I hope this article strikes a chord with some of you.  It doesn't have much to do with a logical faith, or how we can know that God exists through reason or philosophy.  We are not discussing atheism or agnosticism today.  No, last Sunday was about meeting people and helping them.  No arguing about religion or denominations - just delivering food.  Jesus says we will always have the poor with us, and surely this is true.  But I don't like it.  I didn't like that this experience produced feelings in me that I couldn't articulate.  The homeless people we met that day don't need our pity, they just need some help.  I am grateful for what Joppa and similar ministries do.  I heard that Joppa was started by only two people.  Now it has its own warehouse downtown.  I asked myself questions like "what did these homeless people do prior to Joppa in this city?"  ... or "why did no one else form such a ministry sooner?"  But then why did it take me until I was 38 years old to volunteer?  Bad enough to admit that I didn't spend much time thinking about this problem until now.  Worse to admit that over time, a certain degree of apathy may sneak back into my attitude.  But only if I let it.  It is a problem that has no simple equation or solution.  It just exists, and we must help when we can.

For more information on Joppa and the things they do in the Des Moines area, click this link: http://www.joppaoutreach.org/


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"I just want to lobby for God ..."

                                     - Billy Graham




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The Grand Design: Something out of Nothing?

I have recently finished reading Stephen Hawking's new book The Grand Design.  With the help of author Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking has crafted an impressive book outlining his theory of everything (called M-Theory).  He claims this theory - once developed - will be the answer to Einstein's search for a unified scientific theory to explain everything.  A theory that will explain how everything is scientifically determined, right down to the last living single-celled organism.  I knew Hawking would have some interesting points, though I have to admit I didn't find the text very compelling.  In chapter one he states that "philosophy is dead."  From there he proceeds to lay out his personal philosophy on how our universe can exist without God.  A fascinating circular reasoning mistake from one of the brightest minds of our time.  But ignore that for now, let's talk about the book's denouement for a minute.  That is where things get interesting.

In the last chapter, Hawking says, "Because gravity shapes space and time, it allows space-time to be locally stable but globally unstable.  On the scale of the entire universe, the positive energy of the matter can be balanced by the creation of whole universes.  Because there is a law like gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing in the manner described in Chapter 6 [Choosing our Universe].  Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.  It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

That laws like gravity exist and might govern something the size of a universe is interesting, but it doesn't answer the question of who or what ordered that law in the first place.  Hawking addresses this earlier in the same chapter by employing one of atheist Richard Dawkins' favorite counter-arguments for God.  In essence, if there is a God, then who created Him?  This counter-argument has always seemed too simple to me.  We know from the Bible that God is described as having always existed, with no end and no beginning.  Since we have things that exist as complicated as entire universes or black holes (where we cannot see an end or beginning), is this concept of eternality really so hard to imagine for people like Dawkins and Hawking? 

At any rate, I cannot mask my disappointment after reading the conclusion of the book.  I believe he is basically telling us that because there are laws that exist which use positive and negative energy as a balance, everything can just "spring up" from nothing - and we are supposed to call it "M-Theory."  Have I oversimplified this concept?  Perhaps.  I am not a scientist or an expert in quantum physics.  This book however WAS written for the common and ordinary person.  The problem is that the reason we are given as to why anything exists is a little too common and ordinary.  Anyone can choose not to believe in God, but it is something entirely different to disprove Him.



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Spiritual Homework: A Return to Joy

"Your testimonies are my heritage forever, for they are the joy of my heart." Psalm 119:111


I remember what it was like to be a new Christian.  Not a new member of a church, not the first time I watched the Passion of the Christ movie ... but what it felt like to trust Jesus.  I was around 30 years old when I knelt on the bottom stair of my split foyer home and admitted to God that I needed Him in my life.  This changed a number of things for me.  I remember doing "crazy" things like withdrawing twenty-dollar bills from the ATM and shoving them in the coat pockets of my unsuspecting co-workers.  When they turned off their computers and put on their jackets to head home for the night, the surprised look on their face and stunned silence was it's own reward.  I would just keep quiet and giggle from my cubicle across the hall.  I was joyful toward God and life, and ready to save the world!
 
Since then a number of years have gone by (without telling you my age!).  Why had I done those types of things?  Because I was happy to be alive.  Happy to be under God's grace.  Happy to be forgiven and free, all at the same time.  I have been thinking about this alot lately.  Why don't I do those things anymore?  After all, God is still faithful - and I am still His, right?  
 
I think many of us forget what it is like to have freedom in Christ.  We get caught up in the throes of raising a family and going to work, paying bills, etc.  Even experienced Christians can lose track of the joy that God provides.  In Revelation 2:17 Jesus tells  the church in Ephesus that they had "forsaken the love they had at first."  I think that many of us (myself included) have done this very same thing.
 
I want to extend an offer to you today.  This is your "spiritual homework" for the week, if you choose to accept it.  Do the following 2 things after reading this post:
 
1.) Pray that God would show you someone that needs your help
2.) When God shows you this person, DO something to help them
 
If it entails watching their child while they run to the grocery store for a gallon of milk, then do it.  If it means sharing the Gospel message, then give it a shot.  I believe that if we pray this prayer sincerely, God will respond.  After all, what would it be like to put on your jacket at the end of the day and find an extra twenty-dollars?
 

PS: If you have accepted this assignment and want to share with me (and the readers of this blog) how God allowed you to help someone, please email me your story at sjklaus@msn.com.  I look forward to seeing what can happen when we ask God for someone to bless.
 
 

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Interesting Quote

“We thought that we had the answers, it was the questions we had wrong.”


- Bono





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How Are We Using Our Time Here on Earth?

Pastor and best-selling author Francis Chan summarizes his thoughts in the video below.  I am currently reading his book Crazy Love, about what it means to love God in the 21st century.  I found the link below both humorous and compelling.  Enjoy!

Interesting Quote

"It surprises me how disinterested we are today about things like physics, space, the universe and philosophy of our existence, our purpose, our final destination. Its a crazy world out there. Be curious."

- Stephen Hawking

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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Heaven is for Real: Colton Burpo's Story

I recently finished the book Heaven is for Real by Todd Burpo.  This book is only about 150 pages, so it is a relatively quick read.  But I have to be honest - it was quite engaging.  In the pages of this book Todd lays out the true story of his son Colton's trip to Heaven.  When Colton was close to 4 years old, he suffered from a mis-diagnosed appendicitis.  5 days later, by the time the Burpos took Colton to a hospital to find out that his appendix had ruptured, it was almost too late.  In fact at one point the author relates that the nurses in the hospital were instructed not to give the Burpo family any encouragement, because Colton would most likely be dead from organ poisoning in a matter of days. 

Can you imagine this?  One day your 4-year-old is healthy and active.  The next day he is on death's doorstep.  Unfortunately many people can imagine this and have experienced something similar.  In this case, however, things took a turn for the better.  After the Burpos invited around 80 people to gather and pray for recovery, Colton rebounded quickly.  Todd writes that those same nurses would stream constantly after he had recovered just to witness what they knew was a miracle. 

Then things get interesting.  Throughout the course of the next year, Colton begins relating details to his parents about what he had witnessed when he was close to death.  He talked about sitting in Jesus' lap.  He discussed seeing people in white robes with red and blue sashes across their chest.  Colton met Todd's father "Pop", who had died before Colton was even born.  Apparently in Heaven everyone is young and beautiful.  There are fantastic color palettes there, thousands more colors than exist on earth.  And then there was what would become Colton's catch-phrase during those post-hospital months: "Jesus loves the children."  Todd even writes of one instance where they were attending a funeral for an acquaintance, and Colton happened to see the casket.  He exclaimed, "Daddy, did that man have Jesus in his heart?  You can't get into Heaven if you don't have Jesus in your heart!"  Not your typical topics of conversation for a 4-year-old.

The Burpos have been a beacon of hope to many people, and also subject to criticism by others.  This is normal of course.  You cannot write a book about Jesus and please everyone.  But the strange thing is that some of the criticism is from other Christian groups.  One group argues that you ought not mistake the truth of Scripture for a supernatural "experience."  Now this is a strange argument really.  After all, if the Bible is true - shouldn't we see some experiential evidence?   At any rate, I applaud the Burpos' courage.  If your 4-year-old started talking about meeting Jesus, would you tell anyone?  As Todd wrote several times in the book: it was a gift from God.  The more time that passed, the more wrapping paper would come off. 

Nothing in Heaven is for Real appeared to contradict anything Biblical, at least in my eyes.  The author was careful to research everything his son was telling him, and he provides chapter and verse for Biblical verification throughout the book.  I am recommending this book.  I think it will enhance what we already think we know about Heaven.  It also makes me wonder how many of us are holding on to incredible stories about God that we may choose not to talk about in mixed company.  Do you and I have "gifts from God that need to be unwrapped?"  I have included a link below to a video detailing the Burpos' experience.  Take a look and see for yourself!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhT36Dizo2s


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"God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering."



            - St. Augustine (354 - 430)
 
 
 
 
 
 
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