Joyce and I spent eleven days in Egypt at the end of January. It was a great trip with many adventures. We learned much, thoroughly enjoyed the group we traveled with, and feel really blessed to have had the experience that we did.

    During our time in Egypt we, of course, saw and toured many temples. I must admit that while I found these temples amazing, I became "templed out." Egyptians are very proud of these temples. They are imposing structures, thousands of years old, and in remarkable condition. The size of them is simply staggering. They were built by various pharaohs to honor their god and goddesses (and often themselves).
The temples are adorned with huge statues and detailed carvings. We heard more stories than I can remember about the gods and goddesses so honored. Ancient Egyptians obviously loved to tell these stories and record them in great detail in hieroglyphics all over the walls of these temples. Historical accounts of the pharaohs are also so recorded.

    As I wandered through these temples, however, I felt an oppressive spirit. Was it my imagination? Or was there still a remnant of the evil represented by these false gods? Often evil spirits used these gods to show their own powers and dominance. Yahweh defeated these gods and evil spirits in freeing the Hebrew slaves. But Israel had to constantly battle the urge to desire and worship all that the impressive civilization of Egypt had and represented.
 

    Toward the end of our trip we visited Saint Catherine's monastery at the foot of the traditional Mount Sinai. (We don't believe that this is the correct site.) This monastery is also ancient and impressive. It is owned and operated by the Greek Orthodox Church. It is the primary witness of Christianity in this (85%) Muslim country. How sad. This monastery is full of icons and statues. It even has a skull room full of the skulls of all the priests who served here over the years. It seemed to me that this structure was only one step removed from the Egyptian temples.
 

    In the New Testament we are told that we are now the temple of God. (1 Corinthians 3:16) We are told that our very bodies are now the dwelling place of God's own spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19) The lives we lead are often the only witness of Christianity that others will ever see or remember.
How many steps removed are we from the Egyptian temples or Saint Catherine's monastery? What gods do others see us worship in our temple? Have we (even unwittingly) accepted worship of what our society deems most important? Do we give first place in our lives and primary importance to the making of money, to our jobs, to prestige, to the things we own, to sports and entertainment, to education, to our families? Jesus made it clear that He and
 

    He alone must come first. What kind of stories written on the walls of our hearts and lives are we leaving for others to read?
 

    May you and I keep a kingdom perspective in our daily living. May we be ever conscious of the witness we are. May others see Christ only in and through us. May the use of our time and energies truly reflect that we worship the only true God, Yahweh, and accept His son, Jesus Christ, as our Lord and Master.
 

Groping my way through the dark, I found the bed, re-adjusted the pillows, and collapsed into a heap, exhausted from a very tiring day. As I lay there during the many minutes before sleep enveloped me, I prayed about several of the situations that had come my way that day.

Shortly after my prayer's, "Amen!" a sudden flurry of thoughts about an article for the Berean News popped into my head. Rolling the ideas around in my mind, I was suddenly excited about these inspirational insights and the good article they could inspire. I tried to place a few memory cues to help me retrieve the ideas in the morning, then finally fell fast asleep.

Now looking back, I'm sure that those thoughts could have produced some pretty good ideas, but for the life of me, I couldn't tell you what they were. Despite trying the memory cues, going over what I had been doing as I got into bed, reviewing the things that I had done that day, and even repeating the prayer I prayed that night, I was not able to grab hold of those thoughts again. I simply forgot them. I could not remember what they were.

I forget things much more frequently now. This is not a new problem, but one that has grown as I grow older. I've learned all sorts of tricks to set aside memory clues and to use memory trigger points to help me recall things. They work most of the time. Sometimes, however, what I wanted to remember is gone ... forgotten ... never to return to me again. Having talked with other people over the years, I've learned that I have a lot of company with this memory problem.

Knowing that we are forgetful people, God built into our lives, faith events that stir our memory and re-awaken us to His ongoing presence and work. During the Old Testament times, He gave his people the yearly pilgrimage feasts. Many of the people would journey to Jerusalem and take part in rituals, celebrations, and activities where they would re-live the great acts of God's deliverance. Today, God has given us the Lord's Supper, Baptism, Christmas and Easter as regular reminders and opportunities to re-live the center of His saving work -- Jesus' life, death, burial, and resurrection and to remind us that He will return in glory.

God wants us to work at remembering ... remembering His grace, His love, His great acts of redemption, His promises, and His ultimate salvation offered to all of us. So many other thoughts crowd into our minds that we often can't remember what is most important. Before long, we end up living based upon the most urgent or most flashy immediate thoughts that catch our attention. We forget the crucial, life-giving, and eternal truths necessary for our Christian faith to truly shape our lives.

So the next time you forget something, please remember how easy it is to forget what should be most important to you. Make a conscious effort to go back and rehearse, remember, and re-live the great acts of God in your life. Don't lose your spiritual passion in the sea of forgetfulness.

Watch out! Be very careful never to forget what you have seen the Lord do for you. Do not let these things escape from your mind as long as you live! And be sure to pass them on to your children and grandchildren. (Deuteronomy 4:9 NLT)

Viewpoints
by Andy Weeks

The Subtlety of Sin

I’ve been amazed at how the Lord speaks to many of us at once in our church. Last month Joe Funari gave a sermon, perhaps one of his best, on “Our Moral Compass.” In it he describes some of the failing we encounter when we drift off course into the straits of this world. I have watched many a Christian stray off the course of holiness and slowly accept the values of this world and its god. I had been contemplating a sermon on the “deceitfulness of sin” when Joe and I talked about his sermon a week before he gave it. Then we had our flip a study and Steve Knapp and Steve Teunis both hit on the importance of not fulfilling our earthly desires. I can’t help but wonder if God is trying to tell us to watch carefully right now. I know as I started to meditate and think about this topic that He put His finger on more than a few areas in my life where I have been off course. That was a bitter pill to swallow and I’ve got some work to do in personal worship and avoiding certain types of media.

I know that compared to most of the people I know I’m considered a bit prudish. That term used to bother me because of its condescending tone. But I recently realized that there is a wonderful word that comes from it: Prudent. According to Webster’s dictionary, prudent means:

Wise in handling practical matters; exercising good judgment or common sense.

I know that the Apostle Paul would have us live a very prudent life where we constantly would make small course corrections to keep on the narrow way of life. In every letter that he wrote he warned us to avoid that ‘old man.’ Consider Ephesians 4:22:

“Throw off your old evil nature and your former way of life, which is rotten through and through, full of lust and deception.”

There are so many courses in our life that we can take that lead us away from a fulfilling life. We were designed to be spiritual creatures, yet we always go back to the easy road of self fulfillment. We have everything at our disposal now to draw us away from a spirit-filled life. Pornography can be had in 15 seconds. Sporting events can take us down the road to despising the players on the teams that play against our favorites. TV gives us every opportunity to laugh off moral shortcomings that God so adamantly condemns. Sin slowly becomes an indiscretion; indiscretion becomes ‘it’s OK between two mutually consenting adults.’

Satan knows he can’t beat the church of the living Christ with a frontal attack. But he can slowly wear us down over time to the point where our morals are better than the world’s - but completely out of sync with God. Jesus loved God and hated iniquity. I know we all love God at our church. The question is; how much do you and I hate iniquity?

Don’t let the tides of this world take you adrift. Constant little corrections are needed to stay the course that Jesus would have us walk.

Ebenezers

Revelation 3:14-22

    Growing up on the south side of Chicago in the early 60's, on the subject of school districts, I became very acquainted with the terms defacto and dejure. As I understood it, defacto meant that's just the way it is and nobody is trying to alter anything. Dejure meant that there was an effort being made to alter things for a desired outcome.

    During those years, I heard and read those terms quite often, but now, I've got to say, it must be more than 30 years since I've seen of heard those terms. Why? Well, it seems to me somebody dug up those fancy-pants words to obscure their dejure behavior by calling it defacto. It only worked for a little while.

    Be that as it may, I still find these terms intriguing. Let's think of defacto as cold hard facts and dejure as hot zealous passion. Now, consider what the angel says to the church at Laodicea, "Beacuse you're neither cold nor hot I'll spit you out of my mouth."

    These words were written to a church that thought they had fancy pants, when in fact their pants were tattered and torn. They thought they were rich, when in fact they were poor. They thought they were happy, when in fact they were miserable, They thought they had fine clothes, when in fact they were naked. They thought their vision was 20/20, when in fact they were blind. They thought they were hot, when in fact they were lukewarm.

    Under our definitions, they were neither defacto or dejure. The reality was they were indifferent, which is the second dictionary definition of lukewarm. The angel's analysis of the church at Laodicea was that they were neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm.

    This invariably brings up Philippians 4:5 where Paul states, "Let your moderation be known to all men." Are lukewarm and moderation synonymous? Logically they can not be, otherwise you have Paul advising what the angel condemns, and that can't be right! Paul's moderation refers to being even-tempered and patient. The angel's lukewarmness refers to tepid indifference, which current vernacular renders as "whatever."

    For example, when you make a statement and someone replies, "Whatever," that means, "Don't bother me with cold facts," or "I have no hot zeal on that subject." Yikes! No wonder the angel says, "I'll spit you out of my mouth!"

    Tepid indifference seems to mark the Laodicean church. For example, Colossians 3:16 speaks of an epistle apparently written to the church at Laodicea. The million dollar question is, "Where is it?" It would seem that it was lost because of lukewarm tepid indifference. You'd think there would be zealous passion to preserve an epistle from Paul, but we don't have it today. We wouldn't have any of Paul's epistles if the other churches shared that same lukewarm tepid indifference. Thank God they either had dejure hot zealous passion or had defacto respect for cold, hard truth.

    The angel explains to the Laodiceans his motivation. It's "because I love you that I rebuke and chasten you, therefore be zealous." The angel rebukes and chastens because he has a zealous love for this church, and he passionately wants them to be among the overcomers.

    Elijah is described as a man of passion in James 5:17. The reason James brings up Elijah is to prove his thesis on the value of effectual fervent prayer. Elijah prayed earnestly that it wouldn't rain. For three and a half years it didn't rain, after which he prayed earnestly for rain and then it rained. The key word to prove the thesis is "earnestly." The prayers of Elijah were effectual because they came from hot, fervent, zealous passion.

    Lukewarm, tepid indifference gets you spit out, while hot zeal is advised. Of course, if you can't muster dejure heat, then rest on the cold, hard, defacto truths which the Lord has taught you. The Lord stands at the door and knocks; but who opens the door? It's not the Lord, or anyone else but you. The only one who can open that door is you. The only one who can let the Lord into your heart is you. A major point being made is that lukewarm, tepid indifference will not open the door for the Lord to come in, and if the Lord is not in your heart, you will not be among the ranks of the overcomers.

    The angel makes it clear that those who will sit with the Lord on his throne, in that day, are those who overcome; just as the Lord himself overcame and is set down with the Father on His throne. The disciples watched Jesus intently and in John 2:17, they observe this about our Lord and Savior, "The zeal of your house has eaten me up." It was, without question, a hot meal!

A Daughter's Heart

    Have you ever had a conversation with yourself? Most of us have an inner dialogue where we analyze, wonder, evaluate, and come to conclusions about everything in our lives. This takes place constantly, and is pretty much on a subconscious level. We’re not giving ourselves new information, rather, we’re reminding ourselves of the information we already have, mulling it over, and making judgments based on it.

 

    We have many voices in our minds. First, I think we have the voice of our mothers telling us what we should do, training our consciences. We spend many years hearing that voice guiding us, rewarding us, chiding us, encouraging us, correcting us, and spurring us onward. We have that voice deeply embedded in our minds. I’m sure that’s part of the reason we read in Proverbs 22:6, “Give a lad a training suitable to his character and, even when he is old, he will not go back on it.” (New Jerusalem Bible)
 

    As we get older, we start listening to other voices; our friends, our relatives, our teachers, our school counselors, our church friends, our friends’ parents, and everyone else whose lives touch ours. Each has more or less influence on us and our behavior. As each year passes, our character becomes more sure until we reach a point where the voice we listen to is our own. We reach maturity, our character is set, and when we encounter new situations, we react in certain fairly predictable ways.
 

   When we surrender to Jesus and invite him into our hearts, we change all that. We begin a new way of reacting to our life situations. We hear his voice in our heads; telling us what to do, retraining our consciences, and renewing our minds. His may not be the loudest of all the voices we hear, but it is the most important. We start relying on him and trusting his voice as the one we can believe in more and more. Even in situations where we cannot see how it will turn out, and we don’t understand the logic behind what he tells us to do, he rewards us and things seem to work out. We learn that trusting him is always better than trusting ourselves, and we grow in grace. This is spiritual maturity.
 

    When we have these inner dialogues, let’s listen to the still, small voice of Jesus and follow what he is telling us to do. We’ll be glad we did!