Pandora’s Box

Long ago, the Greek god Zeus sent his daughter, Pandora, to earth.  Zeus gave Pandora a little box with a heavy lock on it. He gave the key to Pandora’s husband and told them to never open the box. 

Pandora was very curious and wanted to see what was inside it, but her husband said no.  She became convinced it must contain something very important and desirable, and she didn’t want to be denied.  So one day, when he was sleeping, Pandora stole the key from her husband, and opened the box.

Out flew every kind of disease and sickness, hate, envy, poverty, death and everything bad that people had never experienced. Pandora slammed the lid closed, but it was too late. All the bad things were already out of the box and in the world.

Most of us have heard this myth before and are aware of it’s moral: “All that glitters is not gold.”  Have you ever pursued something only tofind it didn’t give you the satisfaction you thought it would?  It might have provided brief pleasure, but then you were left feeling empty and longing again.

Sex outside its intended purpose is a huge Pandora’s Box.  It promises so much pleasure and self-fulfillment, but its rewards do not last.  In fact, over time they become less satisfying and more and more brief.

I remember staring at the moon one night and feeling total emptiness inside.  I was 17 and lived for sex, drugs and rock n roll.  In fact, I had just finished having sex with a girl I desired who now lay sleeping there.  I knew she thought she was in love with me, but as I stared at her, I felt nothing.  The sex was pleasurable, but already gone.  I could only think, “There must be more than this.”

At that time, the idea of abstinence and sexual purity seemed absurd to me.  Why deny myself something enjoyable?  Yet if I was really honest with myself, I had opened the Pandora’s Box of sex, indulged in it, and it wasn’t really delivering what I thought it would.

God created sex and it’s one of His biggest gifts to us.  In its intended use, inside a committed covenant of marriage between a man and woman, it provides the deepest form of intimacy and ecstasy imaginable.  He designed sex to give us the utmost pleasure and fulfillment.  But when we pursue sex outside its created purpose, we open up a Pandora’s Box that leads to disappointment, and a host of unwanted consequences like emotional pain, regret and shame, STDs, unwanted pregnancy, HIV etc.

Unfortunately, most of us fall for this “false gold” while we are still very young.  Two-thirds of US teens report having engaged in sexual intercourse by age 17.  God knows the gift of sex is very powerful and that many of us will give away our sexual purity by opening the box.  

In John 8:1-11 there is a story about a woman caught in the act of adultery and brought to Jesus for judgment.  He does not condemn her, and reminds her self-righteous accusers that they are no better.  He tells them, “Let those of you who are sinless cast the first stone at her.”  He offers her a clean slate and tells her, “Go and sin no more.”

God does not condemn us when we repent and come to Him.  Instead, He forgives us and restores our sexual purity.  He promises to “make all things new.” (Revelation 21:5)

Join us this Sunday at 9:00AM or 11:00 AM as we look at the subject of sexual purity.  My son, Gabriel, will talk about “The 30 Year Old Virgin,” part 4 in our series on “Sex in the City.”

The Road to Nowhere

We were late, and I was determined to make up for lost time.  Our best friends had bought a home with a spectacular view, and tonight was their housewarming. The directions sounded simple: “Take Red Fern to Northwest Fern and go 2.5 miles.  It’s a gray stone and glass house on the left.”

We easily found Red Fern, but were unprepared when the road forked in two directions without any signs.  Sue, my wife, felt we should go left because it was west, but that road plunged down into a valley area.  I chose the road to the right with a steep ascent.

We wound along a canyon rim and my confidence steadily grew, but we hit the 2.5 mile marker with no house fitting the description.  “It’s probably up here just a little further,” I assured myself.  We passed 3, then 4 miles, and I became more determined that this had to be the right way, even though Sue began to protest that we had taken the wrong turn.

The road suddenly made a sharp left switchback toward a high vista.  “Aha, this is it!”  I just knew it!  Immediately there was a dirt turnaround and our headlights hit the reflectors of a sign that read “Dead End.”  Frustrated I turned around.  Despite all my confident feelings, we had been on the road to nowhere after all.

Do you ever feel like you are pursuing something that seems to be just beyond your grasp, and keeps evading you, no matter how often you repeat your attempts to obtain it?  If so, you may be trapped in some form of addiction.

We equate addiction with substance abuse, but we can develop a persistent, compulsive physical or psychological dependence on any object or behavior.  Gambling, shopping, texting, sex, pornography, eating, work, TV, video games (etc.) can all become addictions.  In fact, many social researchers state that we are a nation of addicts.

Addiction is an emotional relationship we create with an object or behavior.  Through the compulsive use of the object or behavior, we try to relieve stress, find comfort, and meet our needs for intimacy, while avoiding the reality and responsibility of everyday life.  In the short term it works and we find temporary satisfaction, which strengthens our attraction. 

However, addiction is an escape and does nothing to fulfill the real needs we have.  Over time it yields diminishing returns, and we must engage in it more and more to gain the same satisfaction.  Eventually addiction interferes with our daily life activities, our work, interpersonal relationships, even our health.  We become trapped in the vicious cycle of increasing addiction.  We are on the road to nowhere.

God warns us that compulsive overuse of anything will harm us.  In Proverbs 25:28, He states: “A person without self-control is like a city that is invaded by enemies who knock down the walls so it is easy to invade again.”  He describes addictions that can never fulfill us in this way:  “Can a man scoop fire into his lap without being burned?  Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?” (Proverbs 6:27-28)  The very thing we addictively pursue to fulfill us is destroying us!

Get off the road to nowhere!  Accept God’s free gift of love in Christ Jesus that can break the bondage of any addiction.  God promises to supply all our needs according to His riches in heaven through Christ.  (Philippians 4:19)

Come and join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM.  I address one of the most insidious addictions in “The Peril of Pornography,” the third installment in our current “Sex in the City” series.

A Perfect Fit

One of my favorite stories about my wife, Sue, is when she baked a cake when she was 9 years old.  A week earlier she had baked her first cake from scratch under her mother’s watchful supervision.  It was delicious and with all the family compliments ringing in her ears, Sue wanted to repeat her performance, this time making cupcakes.  But she insisted on doing it completely on her own.  (Sue has always been independent!)

Unfortunately, she mixed up the baking soda and baking powder.  Her cupcakes were little round disks, less than an inch high and hard as rocks!  For years afterward, Sue heard her family kid her, “Remember the time you made us hockey pucks for dessert!”  It was such a small deviation from the recipe instructions, but what a difference it made!

To be fair, I have a similar story about myself.  We were expecting our son Gabriel and needed a new crib.  Sue bought one and brought home the box, you know the one that says, “some assembly required.”  Like most men, I tossed the instructions aside and dove into the project. 

A half an hour later, I looked at my construction and realized there was a bracket and 2 bolts left over, and I had installed the sliding panel backwards.  It took me another hour to disassemble my project, and this time following the instructions, to put the crib together correctly.

Before laughing too loud at us, I’m sure most of you can tell a similar story on yourself.  Maybe it was the time you got the colorful, kaleidoscopic laundry after failing to separate the whites from the non-fast colors, or you shrank your favorite T-shirt because you failed to follow the direction which said “line dry.”  Perhaps it was trying to use that standard screwdriver to tighten a philips-head screw, or the time you ignored the break-in directions and took a long hike in your new boots!

Most of us have learned the hard way that ignoring the manufacturer’s instructions, is a recipe for disaster.  We thought we had a better, simpler way, but we found out we were wrong.  The product’s maker had it right all along.

God is our Maker and He designed us for relationships, declaring that it is not good for us to be alone. (Genesis 2:18)  He also designed the perfect types of relationships for us: marriage, family, friendships, in which we could discover our identity and mature in an atmosphere of security, safety and love.

He gives us very specific instructions on how to engage in these relationships so they will best satisfy our desires and needs.  We may think we have an alterative way which will work for us, but God cautions:  “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to complete destruction.”  (Proverbs 16:25)  Ignoring our Maker’s instructions can be disastrous, robbing us of everything we desire.

Maybe you hesitate to accept God’s directions for relating because you think they will deny you fulfillment.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  God assures us: “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)  God loves you and wants to give you a far better life than anything you can imagine.  Discover His instructions for “a perfect fit” in your relationships!

Join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM for our second discussion on relationships in our current “Sex in the City” series.  My topic is “The Gay Myth: Beyond Will and Grace”.

Are You Drinking Living Water?

I will never forget the first time I saw it happen.  I was on a ministry trip to Asia.  She was a young child with scraggly hair and worn, dirty clothes, holding a plastic bottle filled with muddy water.  As I watched in shock, she put the bottle to her lips and took a long drink, feeding the bacteria and intestinal parasites already flourishing in her swollen belly. 

Her village bordered a small lake, its only source of water.  That lake served as their all purpose laundry, bathing and toileting facility, and provided their drinking water as well.  On that trip I learned that contaminated drinking water causes more disease and death in the world each year than even hunger and famine.  That little girl was drinking in death.

We have access to pure drinking water at the turn of a tap, and wouldn’t dream of polluting our body by drinking muddy water, but what about our mind and soul?  How pure and life-giving is the material we are pouring into the rest of ourselves?  We are bombarded daily by constant information and images from the world and technologies around us.  Do we know what we are consuming?

Take television for example.  The average adult views 30+ hours of TV each week.  Two out of 3 shows viewed depict some type of sexual act, with an average of 4 sexual acts per one-hour show.  Only 6% of the sexual acts portrayed are between persons married to each other.  References to the risks and responsibilities inherent in these sexual encounters occur less than 10% of the time.  The dominant message seems to be that these activities are normal, pleasant and harmless.

Studies indicate otherwise.  Watching TV definetly affects our attitudes and behavior.  In sponsoring a recent “National TV Turn-Off Week” campaign, the American Psychiatric Association called the impact of TV viewing on behavior “a public health problem.”  It went on to state that at least one third of Americans fit the clinical description of being addicted to watching television.

And television is only the tip of the iceberg of potential contaminants that confront us daily and subtly pollute our minds and hearts with their influence.  How can we reclaim control over our souls and keep ourselves pure?  

God knows that each of us struggles with these influences and has difficulty regaining our own purity.  Jesus met a Samaritan woman who came by herself at noon to draw water at a well where He was sitting.  She picked this time to avoid the ridicule of the other women. You see, she had lost the struggle to maintain her purity and was well known for her immoral behaviors.  She probably felt very alone and rejected.

Jesus offered her “living water.”  This water would cleanse and refresh her soul and fill her with joy and renewed hope for her future.   He told her: "If you only knew the gift God has for you and whom you are speaking to, you would ask Me, and I would give you living water. Everyone who drinks this well water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the living water I give him will never thirst. It will become in him a spring of water welling up to abundant life.” (John 4:10, 13-14)

Are you drinking “living water?”  Let God cleanse and purify you with His life-giving Spirit.  Say “Yes” to Him and experience His joy and renewed hope for your future! 

Please join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM.  We will be discussing “Overcoming the Spirit of Immorality with Purity” the first part of our new “Sex in the City” series.

No News is Good News?

Deadly High Speed Train Crash in China

Stocks Sink on Debt Talks

Earthquake Strikes off Mexican Coast

Congressman to Resign Due to Sex Scandal

These are a few headlines I picked off a major internet news service today.  Notice anything they have in common?  They are all negative.  I’m sure that’s not news to you.  Anyone who follows the “news” for any time at all is well aware that, except for weather and sports which are variable, and an occasional human-interest story, the news is usually bad.  

In fact, studies of newscasts reveal that there are 17 bad news stories broadcast for every good news story.  Ever wonder why you don’t hear more “good news?”  The answer is simple.  “Good news” doesn’t sell.  It doesn’t attract our attention the way bad news does.

Why are we so riveted to the negative?  Researchers tell us that the primary motivator for our preoccupation with bad news is fear.  We have a need to be vigilant for danger to insure our survival.  So we are constantly on the alert for what is wrong, or what might go wrong.  

If we lived in the wild, this type of vigilance might have some survival value, but in modern society it actually causes us harm.  The more we focus on bad news, the more vigilant we become and the more we are convinced that we are in potential danger, even if we are not!  Studies show that nightly news watchers significantly overestimate the rate of crime in their communities.

Feeding on fear elevates our body’s stress hormones and disrupts the balance we need to maintain for our physical and emotional health.  It lowers the functioning of our immune system, increasing our risk for diseases like cancer, and slows our metabolism resulting in increased weight gain.  Fear increases our sense of hopelessness and leads to feelings of depression and despair.

We are not designed to survive best through fear, but to thrive through love.  This is not a warm, fuzzy thought, but a hard scientific fact. When we are involved in warm stable relationships and know we are loved, our bodies respond by coming into a healthy balance.  

Love stimulates the production of killer T-cells that boost our immune system and build our resistance to all types of disease.  It lowers our blood pressure and increases our levels of oxytocin, a “feel good” hormone that elevates our mood, and helps us to relax.

Contrary to the popular saying, no news is not good news.  Love is good news and we need a steady diet of love to be healthy and happy.  God understands this for He designed us to operate on love, not fear.  He tells us not to fear over 300 times in the Bible.  When He sent us His greatest gift of love, He told us, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news that will bring joy to all people.  A Savior has been born to you, who is Christ the Lord.” (Luke 2:10b-11)

To ensure that we will continue to focus on the good news of His love for us, He appoints evangelists in the Church.  They share God’s heart of love with all who will hear, and encourage all of us to accept His free gift of abundant life in Christ Jesus.  So remember, love is the good news, and God loves you!

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM.  One of our Pastors, David Richardson will discuss the office of evangelist and the many ways they share the “good news” (the gospel) today. 

Facts, Perception and the Whole Truth

It is a fact that under his leadership his country was instrumental in taking down one of the world’s most brutal dictators. It is a fact that he transformed his country into the world’s second largest economy. It is a fact that, even before America’s Civil Rights Act of 1964, women in his country enjoyed equal employment rights. It is a fact that diseases dropped to low numbers as a result of his country’s health care initiatives.

Yet, in one online opinion poll he is perceived to be more evil than Adolf Hitler. How can the facts suggest one thing about a person, but the perception of that  person be so totally different?

To understand how facts and perception can differ so greatly, let’s first identify the leader we’re talking about.   It’s Josef Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union from the 1920’s until his death in 1953. While he did do some good, he is better known as the tyrant responsible for millions of people who died during his rule as the result of mass murders, man-made famines, executions, and imprisonments.

But if all we knew about Stalin were the facts contained in the first paragraph, we would be left with a positive misperception of him. Those “good” facts about Stalin would create a positive perception that is at odds with the whole truth.

Facts are knowledge or information based on real occurrences, while perception is defined as achieving an understanding of what the facts mean or represent. But the truth is “that which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence.”

Rather than the positive misrepresentation given above, the whole truth (aka, the reality) about Stalin is more accurately represented in this quote from a PBS biography:  “The man who turned the Soviet Union from a backward country into a world superpower at unimaginable human cost.”

But the disconnect between facts, perception, and the whole truth also can work the opposite way. Facts about a person can create a negative perception that is at odds with the whole truth. Let’s take Jesus for example.

For many of us, our perception of Jesus is based on a few facts we’ve picked up here and there. Fact: Jesus is perfect. Perception: I have to be perfect in order to please Him. Fact: Jesus sits at the right hand of God. Perception: Jesus exists to judge me. Fact: Jesus hates sin. Perception: I sin, so Jesus must hate me.

But have we taken the time to find out the whole truth about Him? The whole truth about Jesus is that His perfection helps us to see what perfect love looks like in the flesh, which includes being merciful and forgiving. The whole truth about Jesus is that He did not come to judge us. Many of us have heard the verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” But few of us have ever heard the verse right after it: “For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save it.” (John 3:16-17)

The whole truth is that Jesus does not hate us because we miss it every once in a while. We all fall short. He loves us regardless. His death on the cross was His way of walking His love talk. He loved us enough to sacrifice His own life so that, through his resurrection, we would have eternal life.

God desires for us to always know the whole truth about Him, and not get trapped in misperceptions.  Come and join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM, as our guest speaker, Todd Pokrifka discusses the office of the Teacher as the “guardian of truth” in the Church.

Heart of Hope

Are you a hopeful person?  When you think about your future do you see sunshine or gloomy weather?  Is your glass of expectation brimming over or bone dry?  These days with so much discouraging economic news: rising unemployment, skyrocketing national debt and a housing market that keeps searching for its bottom, more of us are finding it difficult to hold on to our hope.

It can be very challenging to find hope in discouraging and negative circumstances, and the more they pile up, the dimmer our hope often becomes.  How hopeful would you be if you were abused and held in captivity for 18 years beginning when you were just a child? 

We can all remember news coverage of the shocking discovery of a young woman, Jaycee Dugard, who was held prisoner in a soundproof building in the backyard of Philip and Nancy Garrido.  Abducted with a stun gun while walking to her school bus stop when she was only 11, Jaycee was subjected to repeated rape, sexual and verbal abuse, and psychological manipulation by her captors for the next 18 years.  During that time she gave birth to two daughters, fathered by her rapist, Philip Garrido.

What allowed her to live through these incredible events and maintain her sanity, especially when she was so young?  In her book “A Stolen Life,” Jaycee states that remembering her mother’s love kept a spark of hope alive in her that allowed her to believe in her future.   She had one object from her mother, a tiny butterfly ring she managed to keep hidden.  It became a concrete link that helped her focus on that maternal love.  And she recorded her dreams of a better future in a secret journal.

She states, “I refused to let any cloud extinguish my heart of hope.”  She repeatedly chose to maintain her hope, and that choice kept her alive.  Hope is not wishing for something.  It is much more substantial than that.  Hope is confident expectation about what is unseen and in the future.  It is happy anticipation that future good awaits us.

    

God knows that life will present us with disappointment and tough times.  He understands that hope cannot be put off continuously.  He says in Proverbs 13:12 that hope deferred makes the heart grow sick, and a sick heart keeps us from enjoying our life.  He knows that we must have something to connect our hope to if it is to survive hard times.  He offers us the promise of abundant life if we will put our trust in Him.  This blessing God promises us becomes an anchor of hope for our soul.  (Hebrews 6:19)

In light of His promised blessing, the apostle Paul wrote: “May God, the source of hope, fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him.  Then you will overflow with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 15:13)

To help us remember His promised blessing, God appoints pastors in the Church who are gifted with true compassion for others.  They listen, encourage, and follow-up with us as we grow in our trust with God.  They help protect and inspire our hope.  I pray you will decide to trust in God, let Him bless you, and find a good church with caring pastors who can help your hope thrive!

Come join us this Sunday at 9:00 AM or 11:00 AM.  Our own Pastor Karl Malouff will explain more about the encouraging role of the office of pastor.