The Most Lethal Weapon

“Why do they do what they do?” This question was asked by Vice President Joe Biden this past Wednesday at the public memorial service for MIT Officer, Sean Collier, who was shot and killed by the marathon bombers a week ago. He echoed the major question now being addressed in the ongoing investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings: what was the motive? How did two apparently “normal,” nonviolent young men become radicalized jihadists?

While authorities wait for answers from the hospitalized younger brother, Dzhokar Tsarnev, psychological experts are offering hypotheses. Some suggest that the brothers had not made a good adjustment to life here and had a confused identity, feeling alienated, lonely and helpless. It is not unusual for such persons to identify with groups who feel oppressed and that their frequent visiting of jihadi extremist websites may indicate they were seeking group identification.

This may be accurate, but still does not explain how someone moves from online identification with a hate group to acting out violent terrorism. Especially disturbing is the knowledge that the brothers put together devices deliberately designed to kill and maim as many people as possible, calmly walked into a crowd of innocent bystanders, deposited their bombs, and next day resumed ordinary life activities. People at a loss to understand such malevolent behavior label it “evil.”

I think the label “evil” is more accurate than most people realize. Jesus made it clear that in the unseen spiritual dimension there is warfare. Satan hates the human race and seeks only to steal from us, kill and destroy us (John 10:10a) Whenever he can, Satan enlists the help of human beings in his warfare. He doesn't do it openly, but under the wire of awareness through deceit. From the beginning, Satan has always operated this way.

Jesus called Satan “the father of lies,” and indicated that he always twists the truth to his own advantage. Deception is Satan's most lethal weapon, for under its cover he can so confuse people’s thinking that they actually believe their violence is a good act in combating great societal evil.

Sound impossible? It's not! Satan has been practicing these tactics on the human race for thousands of years, and history demonstrates that he's duped human beings countless times. Hitler and Stalin are two prime examples from the 20th century. Both had a vision of how society could be improved, and neither one regarded themselves as evil men. The holocaust of human death they each left behind could never be described as anything other than pure evil.

But Satan is at warfare with all of us, using the same tactic of deception. He uses negative circumstances we encounter to rob us of our happiness and destroy our feelings of self-worth. He lies to us by encouraging thoughts of inferiority, hopelessness, fear and worry, depression etc. to recycle endlessly through our minds. Under his attack, we lose sleep, develop grudges, become resentful, ruminate on negative events and lash out at others in anger. All the while we think this is only our own thoughts and feelings, never suspecting Satan's outside influence on us.

The Bible describes this deception of Satan as erecting “strongholds” in our minds and warns us to dismantle them. The apostle Peter also warns us “Be alert and of a sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to attack.” (1 Peter 5:8)

You are at war whether you realize it or not. Your enemy is cunning, and you need to be aware of his tactics, for we have been given power over him through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. We are concluding our series on “Spiritual Warfare,” and my topic this week is “Personal Deliverance.”

Pastor Che

Where Was God?

The heart-wrenching parade of names, faces and personal stories is becoming too long. It seems we barely get life to return to semi-normal, when the next tragedy occurs. In too rapid succession, we've seen Aurora, Colorado, Newtown, Connecticut, Boston and now as I write this, West, Texas. And that's not even mentioning hurricane Sandy and the devastation caused by the extreme weather conditions this winter.

Shortly after the explosions at the Boston Marathon, twitter was trending heavily with  “Pray for Boston.” As I scanned down the condolences, I knew there was another trend on people's hearts that would never show up as a twitter hashmark. But it is the question that is always there: “Where was God?”

It's only natural to wonder if God is good, all-powerful and all-knowing, why doesn't He intervene and stop tragedies from occurring? And we've all heard the explanation about our free will. We were created in God's image with the power of  autonomous choice, which means that God sees and respects us as having the same order of being as Himself.

While not a perfect analogy, let me use an example: my relationship with my son Gabriel. One time when he was about 4 years old, I literally had to snatch him up as he darted into the street after a ball. He yelled in angry protest, not noticing the car that was barreling down the street. I intervened then because he was a child and I was an adult. But Gabriel is a man now, and I do not intervene in his life like that. I respect his adult status and allow him the freedom to express his personhood through his own choices.

To those of you who still find yourself angry with God and wondering, “Why doesn't He do something?” Ask yourself the following question: “Would you really want to live in a world where God could usurp your freedom and intervene at any time?” Would you want Him clearing your plate when you're getting ready to overeat, washing your mouth with soap the next time you uttered an expletive deleted, or appearing at the end of your bed every time you decided to have casual sex?

You may still insist that you wouldn't want God to intervene in your personal life, just in major tragedies. How big and devastating does an event need to be before it's a major tragedy and whose opinion should be the determining factor? It's highly unlikely that even a panel of experts could agree on the exact point where God should intervene.

God has given us, all of us the gift of free will and with it, the power to benefit, damage or even destroy the lives of others. It's an incredible gift and God knew we would need some guidance to properly use it, so He warned us to listen to wisdom. But we often insist on doing our own thing and having our own way, not realizing the chaos we are releasing in our own life and the lives of others. Does God stand by just wringing His hands and watching us defeat and destroy ourselves? Not hardly!

God did something. It's described in Romans 5:6–8: “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. Now most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

Christ’s death has the power to radically transform our lives if we choose to accept the gift of God's love. God continues to respect us, so each of us has to make our own choice. But next time you wonder, “Where was God?” Look at the cross!

Please come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM as we continue our current series on Spiritual Warfare. I will be speaking on "Spiritual Boot Camp"

Pastor Che

The Real World War

During the last few weeks, North Korea has dominated international news. I've been watching with interest because I was born in South Korea and came to United States when I was 4 years old. I still have relatives living in South Korea.

Daily, North Korea continues to ratchet up its rhetoric, declaring a state of war on South Korea, plans to restart its plutonium production reactor and threats to deliver a nuclear Armageddon to the United States. While most analysts agree that the threats from Pyongyang are more bluster than reality, they can't be lightly dismissed. In fact, a recent CNN poll indicates that the majority of US citizens take North Korea's threats very seriously. Despite the fact that we are separated by over half a century from the most recent world war, the situation in North Korea reminds us that our world still contains the possibility of an all-out nuclear holocaust.

Probably none of us will lose sleep tonight over the possibility of a nuclear world war being imminent, but most of us do not realize that every day we are involved in a real world war that is aimed at our personal destruction. It is a war being conducted in stealth under the radar of our awareness, and it is highly successful in accomplishing its objectives.

Father God warns us in John 10:10 that “The thief comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy.” He was referring to Satan and all the powers of evil in their vendetta against the human race. Now you may think, “Well nobody is trying to kill or destroy me and I haven't been robbed of anything.” Are you sure? Ask yourself the following questions:

• Do you have difficulty sleeping at night because you are worrying about finances, a relationship, or your work situation?
• Are you or someone you love battling a serious health condition?
• Are you unemployed and having difficulty finding new employment?
• Do you struggle with habits like compulsive eating or shopping, smoking, alcohol or drug abuse, gambling, or online pornography?
• Do you often feel down and have difficulty shaking “the blues?”

These life situations are so common that we tend to accept them without questioning their origins. We attribute them to lack of self-control, self-defeating habits or bad luck. We seldom consider that there may be an opposition force that is also affecting our lives, attempting to destroy our peace of mind, steal our happiness and kill our hopes for the future.

Ephesians 6:12 tells us: “We are not fighting with flesh and blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

In His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ obtained victory over these powers, and has given us the authority and dominion to disarm them and render them helpless. (Luke 10:19; Ephesians 1:20–23) in order to do this, we must become aware of our enemy and how he wages his warfare against us. We must learn how to use the weapons of spiritual warfare that Father God has provided to us, and understand the commission He has given to us to usher in His kingdom on this Earth.

I invite you to join us on Sunday mornings at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM during the month of April as we start a new series on Spiritual Warfare. Our topic this Sunday is “God at War.”

Pastor Che

How's Your Vision?

His cheek was bright red, his lips trembling, and I could see him fighting back tears as he ran to me on the sidelines looking for fatherly comfort. I kissed his forehead and tousled his hair. Gently I said, “You have to remember son, always keep your eye on the ball.” It was years ago when my son Gabriel was very young and had just started playing soccer. He'd been hit hard by a soccer ball that caught him unaware.

Actually, “Keep your eye on the ball!” was one of the most frequently yelled directives to those tiny soccer players. As we parents proudly looked on, our miniature athletes often appeared confused, running pell-mell about the field, their activity looking more like a Three Stooges video clip than a soccer game. They were eager and enthusiastic, but it was obvious to any observer, many of them still lacked a real vision about the purpose of the game. Of course, that came with time and practice.

Anyone who has ever excelled at a sport knows how important it is to maintain focus and have vision. Vision involves not only understanding the purpose of the activity, but possessing the ability to visualize successfully completing the play. The skilled athlete can see themself executing the perfect golf swing, sinking the rebound shot, or performing the faultless gymnastic floor exercise.

The vision capacity of the inexperienced athlete is limited, for they are not sure what a successful skill looks like or feels like. It is the responsibility of the coach to implant a clear vision within them by providing, modeling, and pointing out relevant cues, critiquing their efforts to improve skills, and providing them with multiple ways to practice skill acquisition. Over time this vision becomes incorporated in the athlete’s unconscious and becomes second nature in their performance. An athlete who doesn't develop this type of vision will never go very far.

This same principle applies to the game of life. People with a clear vision about their purpose and destiny are confident, hopeful, persistent, decisive, and willing to take risks. They are the movers and shakers who make things happen, who achieve their goals. By contrast, people without such vision frequently waste a lot of their time, ability and energy pursuing dead ends. They have difficulty making decisions and setting priorities and often feel frustrated with the lack of purpose they experience. Visionless people also frequently become slaves to the mundane because they are too cautious to take risks.

How's your vision? Father God warns us in Proverbs 29:18, that we must have a vision for our life or we will stumble in confusion and fail to accomplish anything significant. He also makes it clear in Ephesians 2:10 that He has a vision for our life, one that will use our abilities to their best advantage and provide a full, satisfying life for us.

Father God promises us that His life coach, the Holy Spirit, will guide us with this vision and instruct us in how to accomplish it (Galatians 5:25). He desires that each one of us will have a life of meaning and purpose, and a destiny that will fulfill us beyond anything we can imagine.

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM. This is the weekend of our annual Revival Alliance Conference, and also our Vision Sunday as we celebrate the 19th anniversary of HRock Church.

Pastor Che