Category Archives: Red Letter Christians

“O Lord, why me? Why not call Bill instead of me? He has his act together, while mine is a rotten mess,” I said to the Lord one year after my salvation (1986).

The reasoning behind the prayer was simple: my life looked like Dresden after its fire-bombing in WWII. My marriage. My family. My career. My friends. My plans. Boom! Bang! Crack! Smash! All shredded to pieces.

I was the imperfect testimony of a man who loved Jesus. Whatever I tried to do failed to help at all. I was a mess!

The only positive asset on my side of the ledger was the Lord. His presence descended upon me every morning during prayer for forty-five minutes or so. It was so awesome that I wanted to live with Him there.

But sadly, His presence always lifted. Then, I had to get off my knees and walk through my problems which were unavoidable and seemingly insurmountable.

And yet, through it all, I hungered for the next time His presence would envelope me. I wanted to be with Him, my best Friend and Lover.

Maybe I was a mess. Maybe my family was ashamed of me. Maybe all my friends had left me. Maybe I was the biggest failure in the history of the world. Maybe all this was true and more.

But still, Jesus liked to spend time with me.

The Lord eventually answered my “Why me?” prayer. He said in so many words, “I called you, not him. Get over it.”

If I had to walk on every bad road, and through every pig sty and dung hill of my life again, I would do it without hesitation if I knew His presence awaited me somewhere ahead. He’s worth it.

Who when he found found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew 13:46)

Swimming Upstream appears at this blog site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s  a little of this and a little of that, all written  to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian journeys.

What if Hate Crimes’ legislation were enacted which removed all pastors from their positions of church authority? Maybe, even imprisoned them in some remote spots of Canada. Then what?

Would Christianity float belly up and die? What would Christians do? Just sit and stare at empty pulpits Sunday after Sunday,  hoping things would somehow revert back to earlier times.

History has given us a clear example of what could happen if such a calamity occurred.

In 1949, when Mao Zedong and his communist thugs took over China, they sent every missionary home, especially American ones. They executed a large percentage of the native-born pastors and church leaders, and sent the others to be reeducated at reform camps (fancy term for prisons).

So, in effect there were no pastors. Christianity as we Westerners know it did not exist in China at all. It was wiped out.

What happened?

The Lord raised up new leaders. Ones who had not been seminary trained. Ones who had few (if any) Bibles, but who knew and  depended on Him. These leaders reshaped Christianity into the house church format which is now so vibrant and alive in China today.

How effective were the new leaders?

It is estimated there were 500,000 Christians in China at the time Mao took over the nation. Today’s estimates range up to 130 million believers, with more being added everyday.

We Western Christians need to remember who builds the Church and who leads it.

And Jesus is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have preeminence. (Colossians 1:18)

Swimming Upstream appears at this blog site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s  a little of this and a little of that, all written  to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian journeys.

This story was told by Kenneth Hagin in one of his books. It still makes me tear up when I think about it:

In the 1850’s, a slave woman watched in agony as her husband was led to the auction block. She knew her husband would be sold to another plantation and they would never see each other again. Life without him would be horrible, she thought.

As she stood there, she prayed, “Lord, if I could help You right now as easily as You can help me, I would.”

As the slave husband slowly trudged up to the auctioneer, a young boy in the audience turned to his father. “Dad, could I have ten dollars to buy a slave?” he asked.

“Sure, son,” said his father,  knowing that each slave would sell for hundreds of dollars. He handed his son the money.

“Let’s begin the bidding on this young, strong slave,” said the auctioneer. “Who’ll start it off?”

The young boy raised his hand. “I’ll bid ten dollars,” he said in a loud voice.

The crowd turned to look at the young boy and laughed in unison at the ridiculousness of the boy’s bid. Each shook his head.

And yet, there were no other bids. The boy’s bid bought the slave husband.

The young boy walked to the cashier, paid his money, signed the papers and took possession of his slave.

Then, he took the slave husband over to the wife and said, “Here, you can have him. He’s yours.”

So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God.” (Mark 11:22)

My head hurts from the biblical logic displayed at various Christian anti-war sites.

Invariably, this mantra is repeated over and over: “Love your enemies. Just love-em.”

Sounds great, right? But what about this very possible scenario?

Let’s say, you have just bought a new rifle and some ammunition at a sporting goods store for a planned hunting trip to Alaska. As you walk through the mall toward your auto, you hear AK-47 shots being fired. You sneak behind a pillar, and peak around at the mall lobby.

There you see a terrorist shooting innocent shoppers. Bodies are lying on the floor. People are pleading for their lives. What do you do?

Do you unwrap your rifle, load some shells in it and then, shoot the sucker? Or do you just stand there oozing love-waves all over the terrorist?

Jesus did say, “Love  your enemies (Matt. 5:44)”, but He also said, “Love your neighbors as yourself (Mark 12:31).”

And in this case, your neighbors are being killed by your enemy. So, which verse, will you obey?

A possible spiritual dilemma?

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was any place found for them in heaven any longer. (Revelation 12: 7-8)

Notice how the Lord handled His enemy, the one He called a murderer and a destroyer. There was no peace conference to air Satan’s complaints. There was no compromise or excuses accepted. Instead, there was an all-out war.

Now, to be honest, each believer has to decide on his own what he will do if this type of situation ever arises, but I know what I”ll do.

I’ll load the rifle’s chamber with shells, look down the sights and squeeze the trigger.

Swimming Upstream appears at this blog site on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. It’s  a little of this and a little of that, all written  to encourage and exhort believers in their Christian journeys.