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How do you deal with darkness? That’s a silly question – turn on the light! When it comes to dealing with the evil around us, some Christians waste time studying the darkness. I regularly receive questions about Satan, exorcism, the spiritual forces of darkness, and the schemes of the devil. I think, rather than spending hours analyzing Satan and spiritual warfare; the simple solution is to turn on the light! Focus on Jesus, and the darkness will flee.

Still, the Apostle Paul told the Corinthians, “we are not unaware of [Satan’s] schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). I wonder if we can say the same thing? What are some of the tricks of the devil?

First, Satan is a liar. Jesus said, “When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies,” (John 8:44). We can partially gauge Satan’s success by the way truth has degenerated from absolute truth into shades of truth. Have you heard someone say, “Well, that may be true for you…”? Black and white have become shades of grey.

Second, Satan plants doubts. Do you remember his conversation with Eve in the garden? “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” (Genesis 3:1). Two of his favorite phrases begin with “If only” and “What if.” Guard against doubt!

Third, Satan provides excuses. “It’s not my fault.” Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. When we fail to take responsibility for our actions, Satan is lurking in the shadows!

The list can go on and on and on. C.S. Lewis wrote a wonderful book on this topic called, The Screwtape Letters, that I highly recommend, but the best way to overcome the Prince of Darkness is to focus on the Prince of Light. Shine the light Christian! 

News & Notes

New Bible Study Begins This Morning

Troy Hollingsworth’s popular study of Philippians continues today in the Fellowship Hall and John McKeel will begin a new adult class in the library on the Prophets.

Wednesday Nights

Don’t forget: dinner is served every Wednesday night at 6:15 followed by song, prayer and Bible study at 7:00. 

Church Potluck Next Sunday

Our monthly potluck and fellowship will follow worship next Sunday, March 24th.

WJThis past week I found myself on the side of Mt. Kinabalu, Borneo looking for the largest flower in the world. It only grows in the jungle, and the Rafflesia arnoldii can reach over a yard across! It is easily the largest flower in the world. We found three, and each one was larger than my hat.

Rafflesia has no leaves or roots. It is a parasitic plant that invades the jungle vines of Tetrastigma in which it hides until it is ready to bloom. Then Rafflesia forms a bud on the outside of its host and grows to the size of a large cabbage. (The largest one weighed over 24 pounds!) 

Next, it unfolds into a gigantic, reddish-brown flower, that smells like rotting flesh. Thus its common name, the Corpse Flower. Rather than bees, Rafflesia relies on flies for pollination. 

The Apostle Paul told the -Corinthians:

But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him. For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life (2 Corinthians 2:14–16).

To those outside of Christ, we may smell like death because before the Gospel is good news, it is bad news. The old, sinful, selfish person must die before he can truly live, but to those who are in Christ, no smell on earth is sweeter than Jesus Christ. The new person truly has the fragrance of life!

JThe mob was out of control. It flooded the hillside theater and spilled over onto the center stage. Gaius and Aristarchus were the focus of their wrath. Their clothes were torn. They were bruised and bleeding from having been dragged through the streets of Ephesus. Even if they had been great orators, it would have been futile to try and address the rioters.

Helpless, the Apostle Paul was nearby. He feared for the lives of his friends who had been captured by the mob as they searched for him. He felt responsible, but he was powerless. One part of him desired to enter the theater and face down the crowd, but his disciples and even the “Asiarchs” (the leading citizens of Ephesus) begged him not to go. There was nothing he could do but pray. 

Meanwhile, the pair endured the angry chants of the crowd. “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians! Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” they taunted. Gaius and Aristarchus recognized the irony as well as the futility of the mob’s refrain. Artemis was anything but great. She was simply a grotesque, multi-breasted idol carved from a single meteorite. Only the Ephesians’ credulous superstition had made her “great.” If the truth was known, the only greatness was the profit the city merchants were making from the sale of religious souvenirs. They were the ones who had started this riot as a desperate measure to stem the tide of Christian converts.

Two hours passed. For two hours the crowd shouted in unison. For two hours the disciples watched. For two hours they listened to 20,000 people chant. For two hours the Christians prayed. Finally, the mob had grown hoarse enough that the voice of reason prevailed. The city clerk dismissed the crowd and order was restored. Gaius and Aristarchus were freed.

Many years later, Aristarchus smiled as he recounted the most chilling episode of his life. That event had instilled quiet confidence in the young Macedonian. Never again would he know fear in the same way as he had on that day. Even during the two weeks of storm at sea or the shipwreck that followed, he did not fear. He simply trusted in the God who had rescued him. Aristarchus had learned that God stands by people that stand by him.

It takes as much energy to wish as to plan,” — Eleanor Roosevelt

SA television talk show was hosting a forum to discuss the question, “When does life begin?”  The panel consisted of a Catholic priest, a liberal theologian, and a Jewish Rabbi. The moderator asked the question of each of the guests in turn. The priest thoughtfully replied, “It has been the teaching of the great church since the days of Augustine that life begins at the moment of conception!” The moderator thanked him and asked the same question of the theologian.

“Just as Adam became a living being when he drew that first breath, so I believe life begins at the moment of birth when that little child fills his lungs with air!” Again the moderator thanked him and turned to the old Rabbi.

“Rabbi, when does life begin?”

“Well,” the Rabbi smiled thoughtfully and answered, “I always thought life begins when the dog dies, and the kids leave home.”

I’m not sure about that, but I believe Christians need to learn to live “in the now.” Don’t you remember being a kid and longing to be just a little bit older? “If only I was a teenager!” “I can’t wait until I’m old enough to drive a car!” “Soon I’ll be old enough to be on my own!” And then, as I got older, I looked forward to summer vacation, my wedding, the birth of a child: always looking to the future. Always wishing time would rush by. “When will it be time to go home?” “When will the weekend come?” What is it going to take to slow us down and teach us to live in the moment? 

The other day we were stuck in traffic. People were losing their tempers. Someone raced down the shoulder of the freeway, and soon he was followed by a dozen other cars. Everyone had someplace to be, and they were in a hurry to get there. I was just about to give up and pull onto the shoulder too when Jan burst out excitedly. “Do you see that?” she cried. “Look at that osprey sitting on the lamppost!” It was a huge white and brown sea eagle watching the parade of cars below. We both strained forward to look up through the windshield. This magnificent bird cocked it’s head as raptors do and I would have sworn it winked and smiled at me before traffic picked up and we were on our way again.

I wonder how much of life I have missed in my hurry to be someplace else? Take a deep breath. Now let it out and let your God-given senses come alive and let’s learn to live!

B“Are unicorns mentioned in the Bible?”

Yes. If you read the King James Bible (translated in 1611), you can learn about unicorns and dragons.

The King James Bible was translated over 400 years ago and includes some creatures we don’t recognize today. For example, we can read about dragons (Jeremiah 9:11 and 34 other places), Sirens (Isaiah 13:22), Satyrs (Isaiah 13:21; 34:14) and unicorns (Psalm 92:10 and eleven other places). The Douay-Rheims Bible (1582, 1609, 1610 — the English translation of the Latin translation of the Hebrew Bible used by many Catholics) even includes griffons (legendary creatures with the body, tail and hind legs of a lion with the head and wings of an eagle, Leviticus 11:13) and lamias (a horrible, mythical creature that ate children, Isaiah 34:14).

Though these mythical beasts occur in our old English Bibles, that doesn’t mean they actually appear in the Bible. The Bible was originally written in Hebrew for the Old Testament and Greek for the New Testament. What the presence of mythical beasts in the Bible means is that the Bible translators four hundred years ago didn’t know the meanings of the Hebrew words. When the old English translators of King James’ day encountered Hebrew words they didn’t have meanings for, they guessed! In the days of Shakespeare, people believed in all kinds of mythical creatures from unicorns to dragons so it didn’t seem strange that these creatures should appear in the Bible.

However, 400 years have passed, and we have learned a great deal about the true meanings of these ancient words. As archaeologists and linguists continue to discover ancient manuscripts and inscriptions, previously unknown words are deciphered and defined. 

So, for example, the Hebrew word re’em, often translated in the KJV Bible as “unicorn,” actually refers to the wild ox (Bos promigenius or Aurochs – an extinct predecessor of our modern cattle). Likewise, the KJV translators were fond of the word “dragon” and used it to translate many unknown animals including jackals (than: Job 30:29; Isaiah 34:13; 35:7 and elsewhere), crocodiles (tannim: Psalm 73:13; Isaiah 51:9; Ezekiel 29:3) and hyenas (ciyyim: Psalm 73:14; Jeremiah 1:39).

That’s just another reason why it is essential to choose a modern English Bible like the English Standard Version (ESV) or New International Version (NIV) for your personal Bible study. However, I want to reassure my grandkids, even though unicorns and dragons aren’t real – I still think they are cool.

Our question comes from Acts 8:

Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him, (Acts 8:26 – 31).

Question: “How did Philip know what the -Ethiopian was reading?”

This is a great passage, but if I was ridding in my chariot along a lonely stretch of road, and a man appeared out of nowhere running after me, I’m not sure I would stop and pick him up! Likewise, I wonder how many preachers today could run down a chariot and carry on a conversation, but I’m straying from our question. “How did Philip know the Ethiopian was reading Isaiah?” The Bible says the court official was reading out loud (v. 30).

That was common in those days because writing materials were so expensive. No space was wasted on spaces between words. Books were written that way to save space and money. All the words all ran together! Can you imagine how hard it would be to read if books were written that way today? Here is the passage he was reading written in the ancient style:

Likeasheephewasledtotheslaughterandlikealambbeforeitsshearerissilentsoheopensnothismouth.

Pretty hard to read isn’t it? But if you pronounce each syllable aloud, like a child learning to read, your ear helps you understand what you are reading. Here it is with the spaces restored:

Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter 

and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, 

so he opens not his mouth.

It wasn’t until the 10th century that people commonly read silently.[1] Now don’t you feel blessed that paper is so inexpensive?

[1] In 383 A.D., Ambrose of Milan was became a famous scholar because he could read silently. Augustine records, “”When he read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud.”

TThrough the centuries there have been many powerful symbols used of Christianity. One of the earliest is the fish, and that’s appropriate because there are many references to fish and fishing in the Gospels. -Jesus told his apostles to lay down their nets and follow him, and he would make them “fishers of men,” (Matthew 4:18, 19). But there is another, better, reason. The Greek word for fish, ichthus, (pronounced “ik-thoos”) is an acronym for Christians:

I is the first letter in the name “Jesus” (I in Greek is the same as J in English)

Ch is the Greek letter “Chi,” the first letter in “Christ.”

Th is the Greek letter “Theta,” the first letter in “Theos,” “God.”

U is the first letter in the Greek word for “son.”

S is the first letter in the Greek word for “savior.”

When you put them all together, it spells “Ichthus” (“Fish”) which stands for “Jesus Christ, God’s Son, and Savior.” Some writers have even speculated it was a kind of sign/counter-sign for early Christians as they traveled during times of persecution. When you entered a new city and were trying to find other Christians, you would casually draw the lower half of the fish symbol in the dust. If the other person was a brother, he would draw the upper half completing the symbol. I’m not sure that is true, but it is a beautiful story isn’t it?

Other Christian symbols were the lamb, the Good Shepherd with the lamb on his shoulders (Luke 15), the “Chi-Rho” symbol (It looks like an X with a P – the Greek letter R – superimposed on it. These are the first two Greek letters for “Christ.”), the Alpha and Omega (the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet signifying Jesus is the beginning and the end. See Revelation 1:8; 21:6; 22:13), the anchor (Hebrews 6:18, 19), and even the pelican (legend says when a pelican can’t find food for its young, it wounds itself and feeds them on her blood).

Of course, the most famous symbol of all is the cross, but there are two variations: the cross and the crucifix. The difference is a crucifix portrays Jesus hanging on it. This symbol plays a powerful role in Catholicism, however I believe the cross is the better symbol for all of us because while on a crucifix, Jesus never gets off the cross, we worship a Risen Savior who triumphed over death and that is why we celebrate, and that is why we have hope of eternal life!

I really hate going to the mall. I find them crowded and frantic and full of rude people. On the other hand, I enjoy sitting down with a good cup of coffee and watching the people go by. People watching is great fun, and there is no better place than the mall to observe them.

One person, in particular, intrigues me. You’ve seen him. He walks by the big glass storefronts and stares at his reflection. Perhaps a hair is out of place, or his pants aren’t hanging just right. Narcissus of the Mall quickly makes an adjustment and then grins, self-satisfied. Now comes the fun part. Watch him do exactly the same thing when he walks in front of the next storefront!

In the first century, they didn’t have the fine, silvered glass mirrors that we enjoy today. The best they had were highly polished metal mirrors, and mirrors were prized possessions. While I was in Jerusalem a few years ago, I was fascinated with a display of artifacts archaeologists had discovered in a cave in the desert. There was a goatskin bag, stuffed with straw, wrapped around an ancient mirror. As I stared at the mirror, I tried to imagine the owner. Of all the things she could have taken with her as she fled the Roman soldiers, why did she choose her mirror? 

It’s always wise to be prepared for emergencies and to have a box of essentials packed and ready to go in case you need to evacuate. In that box you might include important papers, perhaps some cash and a few priceless heirlooms but would you include a mirror? I suppose it would depend on how vain you are.

James the brother of Jesus wrote:

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing, (James 1:22 – 25).

The Bible is like a mirror. It is full of stories, and as we read them, we identify with the characters and situations. As we see ourselves in the story, the Bible is like a mirror. The important point is: do we use the mirror as a tool, something that allows us to put things in order, or do we, like Narcissus of the Mall, merely see the Bible as a source of endless entertainment?