The serpent's head

Psalm 110:1-3 (NKJV)

1 The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.” 2 The Lord shall send the rod of Your strength out of Zion. Rule in the midst of Your enemies! 3 Your people shall be volunteers In the day of Your power; In the beauties of holiness, from the womb of the morning, You have the dew of Your youth.

This psalm proclaims the coming of The Messiah, and these verses assert His kingly office. Matthew Henry said of this psalm, “In singing this psalm we must act faith upon Christ, submit ourselves entirely to him, to his grace and government, and triumph in him as our prophet, priest, and king, by whom we hope to be ruled, and taught, and saved, forever, and as the prophet, priest, and king, of the whole church, who shall reign till he has put down all opposing rule, principality, and power, and delivered up the kingdom to God the Father.”

Carolyn Arends, wrote "Satan's a Goner: A lesson from a Headless Snake," in Christianity Today dated (February, 2011):  [As a kid, I loved Mission Sundays, when missionaries on furlough brought special reports in place of a sermon …. There is one visit I've never forgotten. The missionaries were a married couple stationed in what appeared to be a particularly steamy jungle. I'm sure they gave a full report on churches planted or commitments made or translations begun. I don't remember much of that. What has always stayed with me is the story they shared about a snake.

One day, they told us, an enormous snake—much longer than a man—slithered its way right through their front door and into the kitchen of their simple home. Terrified, they ran outside and searched frantically for a local who might know what to do. A machete-wielding neighbor came to the rescue, calmly marching into their house and decapitating the snake with one clean chop.

The neighbor reemerged triumphant and assured the missionaries that the reptile had been defeated. But there was a catch, he warned: It was going to take a while for the snake to realize it was dead.

A snake's neurology and blood flow are such that it can take considerable time for it to stop moving even after decapitation. For the next several hours, the missionaries were forced to wait outside while the snake thrashed about, smashing furniture and flailing against walls and windows, wreaking havoc until its body finally understood that it no longer had a head.

Sweating in the heat, they had felt frustrated and a little sickened but also grateful that the snake's rampage wouldn't last forever. And at some point in their waiting, they told us, they had a mutual epiphany.

I leaned in with the rest of the congregation, queasy and fascinated. "Do you see it?" asked the husband. "Satan is a lot like that big old snake. He's already been defeated. He just doesn't know it yet. In the meantime, he's going to do some damage. But never forget that he's a goner."

The story [still] haunts me because I have come to believe it is an accurate picture of the universe. We are in the thrashing time, a season characterized by our pervasive capacity to do violence to each other and ourselves. The temptation is to despair. We have to remember, though, that it won't last forever. Jesus has already crushed the serpent's head.]

Reconciled to God

Romans 5:10 (NKJV)

10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

The apostle points out that the sin within us has made us enemies of God. It seems a mystery that as we an enemy to God that God would allow His son to die on our behalf, but that is what God did. God offered His Son as a sacrifice for our sin to reconcile us to Him. Then Christ rose to eternal life, how much more so if we were reconciled by His death shall we be made to live through His life.

[Noble Doss dropped the ball. One ball. One pass. One mistake. In 1941, he let one fall. And it's haunted him ever since. "I cost us a national championship," he says.

The University of Texas football team was ranked number one in the nation. Hoping for an undefeated season and a berth in the Rose Bowl, they played conference rival Baylor University. With a 7-0 lead in the third quarter, the Longhorn quarterback launched a deep pass to a wide-open Doss.

"The only thing I had between me and the goal," he recalls, "was twenty yards of grass."

The throw was on target. Longhorn fans rose to their feet. The sure-handed Doss spotted the ball and reached out, but it slipped through.

Baylor rallied and tied the score with seconds to play. Texas lost their top ranking and, consequently, their chance at the Rose Bowl.

"I think about that play every day," Doss admits.

Not that he lacks other memories. Happily married for more than six decades. A father. Grandfather. He served in the navy during World War II. He appeared on the cover of Life magazine with his Texas teammates. He intercepted seventeen passes during his collegiate career, a university record. He won two NFL titles with the Philadelphia Eagles. The Texas High School Hall of Fame and the Longhorn Hall of Honor include his name.

Most fans remember the plays Doss made and the passes he caught. Doss remembers the one he missed. Once, upon meeting a new Longhorn head coach, Doss told him about the bobbled ball. It had been fifty years since the game, but he wept as he spoke. [Max Lucado, Fearless (Thomas Nelson, 2009), pp. 31-32]]

God gave us a way to reconcile our sin by believing in His Son Jesus Christ. For the person that turns down Christ it might be a the one mistake remembered for a long time.

Trusting in the Son of God

Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

20 My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Here the apostle describes his own mysterious life of being a believer in Christ. The old self of sin was crucified with Christ. But he lives and is comforted with the grace that came from Christ. While living in the earthly body still subject to sin he does so trusting Christ for guidance for he knows Christ loves him and gave His live for him. This is the Christian life we can all live.

[Theologian Alister McGrath outlines the following three stages of receiving what Christ did for us on the cross:

[First], I may believe that God is promising me forgiveness of sins; [second], I may trust that promise; but [third] unless I respond to that promise, I shall not obtain forgiveness. The first two stages of faith prepare the way for the third, without it they are incomplete.

Then he illustrates these three stages with the following true story:

Consider a bottle of penicillin, the famous antibiotic identified by Alexander Fleming, and first produced for clinical use in [Great Britain]. The drug was responsible for saving the lives of countless individuals who would otherwise have died from various forms of blood poisoning. Think of the three stages of faith like this. I may accept that the bottle exists. I may trust in its ability to cure blood poisoning. But nothing will change unless I receive the drug which it contains. I must allow it to destroy the bacteria which are slowly killing me. Otherwise, I have not benefited from my faith in it.

It is the third element of faith which is of vital importance in making sense of the cross. Just as faith links a bottle of penicillin to the cure of blood poisoning, so faith forges a link between the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ and ourselves. Faith unites us with the risen Christ, and makes available to us everything he gained through his obedience and resurrection. [Alister E. McGrath, What Was God Doing on the Cross (Zondervan, 1992), pp. 99-100]]

The story above tells us that we can believe, but until we surrender to our own beliefs we have not followed through in faith. It is one thing to know a plane flies, but it another thing to trust sitting on the plane and hand control over to someone else to fly you up into the sky.

Normal?

1 Kings 15:11-12 (NKJV)

11 Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David. 12 And he banished the perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

Asa’s father was Abijam and The Bible says of him, “And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; his heart was not loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David.” Asa did not follow his father, but instead followed The Father and did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

Normal is something that can be hard to define. Our view of normal is affected by what we see around us, what we know to be facts, and even the way we live.  In the United States it is normal to eat from a plate with forks, spoons and knives. However in some countries it is normal to eat with the hand and in other countries it is normal to eat with other utensils, such as chopsticks. So what is normal varies widely.

Some of those who lived under Abijam’s rule obviously found it normal to be perverted in their ways and to worship hand formed idols. They may have thought nothing about their actions, for it was the way they were raised and taught.

Yet we find Asa departed from his father’s ways to do what the Lord considered to be right. Asa had obviously studied the words of the Lord and learned what normal was according to the Lord. Asa made changes to agree with God’s ways and not those of his father. Asa developed a new view of normality and improved the lives of the people.

Just because something seems normal does not make it right. I remember hearing a psychologist talking once about a patient who had been abused. As this patient described things to the psychologist they would talk as if the abuse was something normal and expected. The question came for the patient, “Do you think this is normal in every household?” The patient responded, “I guess so, isn’t it?” You see the patient had a different view of normal because of their life experiences.

When you look at the things in the world, take time to ask God, “Is this normal?” Look for God’s response and choose those things that are right and are to the benefit of others. Seek God’s wisdom and learn what should be normal as opposed to what we think is normal.

Enduring the race

Hebrews 12:1-2 (NLT)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

The apostle tells us to prepare for a Christian life by stripping away the things that weight down, namely sin. Sin has consequences and out of those consequences burdens are formed.  We are to work on the perfection of our Christian life by learning to endure what we face in life. Our source of endurance is Jesus. It is Him we need to keep our eyes on for He is the champion of life and it is He who initiates and perfects our faith.

[Charlie Engle, Ray Zahab, and Kevin Lin know endurance better than most. For 111 days, they ran the equivalent of two marathons a day in order to cross the entire Sahara Desert on foot. They touched the waters at Senegal and then made their way through Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya, and Egypt to touch the waters of the Red Sea. Along the way, the trio faced blazing afternoons of over 100 degrees, jarring, freezing nights, sandstorms, tendonitis, violent sickness, and the usual aches, pains, and blisters. But the biggest challenge they faced can be summed up in one word: water. Finding it in its purest, cleanest form gets to be a bit of a chore while in the middle of nowhere!

Crossing the Saharan Desert on foot is an amazing accomplishment. But just as commendable are these marathon finishers:

• Christians who finish their lives still growing, still serving.

 • Husbands and wives who stay faithful to each other "until death do us part."

 • Young people who preserve their virginity until marriage, in spite of crushing peer pressure.

 • Pastors who stay passionate about ministry until their last breath.

 • Church members who weather the rougher patches and remain joyful, loving, and faithful.

[Jon R. Mutchler, Ferndale, Washington; source: Anna Johnson, "3 ultra-athletes run across Sahara," USA Today (2-20-07)]]

Let us consider that life is an ultra-marathon that begins the day we are born and continues until the day we die. As we run the race there are many obstacles we face along the way, but we find it much easier to face those obstacles when we know The Lord is right there with us. Christ is the champion who lived and died and then rose back to life for all eternity. His death was a challenge He had to face, but He willingly gave His life though He had done nothing wrong so we too could receive a wonderful everlasting life with Him. Let us give praises to Christ for the salvation He has provided.

HWJL

Matthew 20:17-19 (NLT)

17 As Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside privately and told them what was going to happen to him. 18 “Listen,” he said, “we’re going up to Jerusalem, where the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die. 19 Then they will hand him over to the Romans to be mocked, flogged with a whip, and crucified. But on the third day he will be raised from the dead.”

In these verses Jesus shares privately with His disciples what some would take as bad news, words of His impending death. Yet what sounds like bad news is repeated throughout the New Testament as the Good News of Jesus Christ, since God raised Him to life on the third day. Then God allowed Him to appear, not to the general public, but to those whom God had chosen in advance to be His witnesses. They were those who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead.  And He ordered them to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is The One appointed by God to be the judge of all—the living and the dead. He is The One all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in Him will have their sins forgiven through His name.

Especially during the 90s there was a popular Christian youth bracelet that had the letters WWJD imprinted on them. The letters stood for “What would Jesus do?”  It was a reminder to the youth on how they should act – they should do as Jesus did.

Another important phrase for all of us to remember is “How would Jesus love?” or HWJL. Some men are quick to pick up on The Bible verse, “As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.” But Men often tend to miss the next verse in Ephesians 5:25, “For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her.”  Husbands, are you willing to give your life for your wife out of love? I think a woman who truly knew her husband loved her that much would be willing to listen to what her husband has to say and follow with him. For love does no wrong to others.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.

This is how Jesus would love, how do you love?

Hope In God

Psalm 14:1 (NLT)

1 Only fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, and their actions are evil; not one of them does good!

The contempt it puts upon the honour of God: for there is something of practical atheism at the bottom of all sin. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. We are sometimes tempted to think, "Surely there never was so much atheism and profaneness as there is in our days;' but we see the former days were no better; even in David's time there were those who had arrived at such a height of impiety as to deny the very being of a God and the first and self-evident principles of religion.  ---- Those are the words of Matthew Henry who died in 1714. We see from his words and the words of The Bible that the former days were no better.

[In the summer of 2010 the popular author and atheist Christopher Hitchens was diagnosed with cancer. With his usual candor and clarity, Hitchens movingly described his battle with the illness in an article he wrote for Vanity Fair.

I am badly oppressed by a gnawing sense of waste. I had real plans for my next decade and felt I'd worked hard enough to earn it. Will I really not live to see my children married? To watch the World Trade Center rise again?. … To the dumb question "Why me?" the cosmos barely bothers to return the reply: Why not?

I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient. Allow me to inform you, though, that when you sit in a room with a set of other finalists, and kindly people bring a huge transparent bag of poison to plant into your arm [his chemotherapy treatment] and you either read or don't read a book while the venom sack gradually empties into your system … . You feel swamped with passivity and impotence: dissolving in powerlessness like a sugar lump in water. [Christopher Hitchens, "Topic of Cancer," Vanity Fair (September 2010)]]

Without God there is a sense of hopelessness when faced with a grave situation. There is no one to turn to except self and self already knows what the inevitable truth is. At least they believe they know the truth; yet they have been fooled. They have been outwitted by Satan.

However there is hope in God and the salvation provided through Jesus Christ. When faced with death instead of seeing the end, we can see a new beginning. We have hope of eternal life that is pleasant and joyous. We know because of the hope of salvation in Jesus Christ that believers will one day be reunited with those we have loved. It is that hope in God that keeps us from foolish acts, because we know life continues even after death.

Pray for those who do not know God and Jesus Christ. Pray they will come to know their grace, mercy and love. Pray even for those who may offend you for they know not what they do. Let us love like Jesus to show others the hope in God.