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Genuine Motivation: Young Christian Man Dec/Jan 2013

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The Christian Alternative to the Men's Magazine. In this issue: Three Things on Which Every Christian Can Agree; Did Isaiah Predict 9/11? Desperately Seeking Donations: Charities at Christmas; Angst Birthed Hope; Christmas: What's the Point?
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Page 1: Genuine Motivation: Young Christian Man Dec/Jan 2013

JAN 2013

Three Things Every

Christian Should Agree On

Did Isaiah Predict 9/1 1 ?Recap on The Harbinger

Angst Births

Hope, Again

RE-EVALUATING THE BUCKET LIST

A publication of On My Own Now Ministries, Inc.

Page 2: Genuine Motivation: Young Christian Man Dec/Jan 2013

GENUINE MOTIVATIONYoung Christian ManDec/Jan 2013, Vol. 3

On My Own Now Ministries, Inc.,Publisher

Rob Beames, Editor

Chandler Hunterwith Donna Lee Schillinger,Page Design

Kimberly M. SchlutermanEditorial Support

ContributorsJimmy Larkin, Will Dole,Thom Mollohan,Donna Lee Schillinger,Julie Ann, Rob Beames

Except where noted, content iscopyright 2012 On My Own NowMinistries. Articles may be reprintedwith credit to author, GenuineMotivation andwww.OnMyOwnNow.com.

On My Own Now Ministries, Inc. is anonprofit organization with a 501 (c)(3) determination. Your donationsaid in our mission to encourage faith,wise life choices and Christ-likenessin young adults during theirtransition to living on their own.

We welcome submissions of originalor repurposed articles that arecontributed without expectation ofcompensation. May God repay you.

Visit us at www.OnMyOwnNow.com.

in this issue. . .FOREMOSTThree Things on WhichEvery Christian Can AgreeBY JIMMY LARKIN

PRESS ONAngst Birthed HopeBY WILL DOLE

CAN YOU RELATEAnd Topping My BucketList Is…BY THOM MOLLOHAN

THE RECAPDid Isaiah PredictAmerica’s Future?BY DONNA LEE SCHILLINGER

FAITH AND FINANCECharities at Christmas:Desperately Seeking DonationsBY JULIE ANN

CORNERED BY GRACEChristmas: What’s the Point?BY ROB BEAMES .16

.14

.4

.12

.10

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Three Things Every

Christian Should Agree On

Did Isaiah Predict 9/1 1 ?Recap on The Harbinger

Angst Births

Hope, Again

Comedian Emo Philips used to tell this story*:In conversation with a person I hadrecently met, I asked, "Are youProtestant or Catholic?"My new acquaintance replied,"Protestant."I said, "Me too! What franchise?"He answered, "Baptist.""Me too!" I said. "Northern Baptistor Southern Baptist?""Northern Baptist," he replied.

"Me too!" I shouted.We continued to go back and forth.Finally I asked, "Northernconservative fundamentalistBaptist, Great Lakes Region,Council of 1879 or Northernconservative fundamentalistBaptist, Great Lakes Region,Council of 1912?"He replied, "Northern conservativefundamentalist Baptist, GreatLakes Region, Council of 1912."I said, "Die, heretic!"

*New Republic. Fresh Illustrations for Preaching & Teaching(Baker), from the editors of Leadership

THREE THINGSON WHICH

EVERY

CHRISTIANCAN AGREE

FEATURE ARTICLE

By Jimmy Larkin

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FOREMOSTEverybody likes to be around people we agree

with. And in 1 Cor. 1:10­18 the Apostle Paulurges, exhorts, or makes an appeal, to theCorinthians to agree with one another.

10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in thename of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of youagree with one another in what you say and thatthere be no divisions among you, but that you beperfectly united in mind and thought. 11 Mybrothers and sisters, some from Chloe’shousehold have informed me that there arequarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: Oneof you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I followApollos”; another, “I followCephas”; still another, “I followChrist.”

13 Is Christ divided? Was Paulcrucified for you? Were youbaptized in the name of Paul? 14 Ithank God that I did not baptizeany of you except Crispus andGaius, 15 so no one can say thatyou were baptized in my name. 16(Yes, I also baptized the householdof Stephanas; beyond that, I don’tremember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 ForChrist did not send me to baptize, but to preachthe gospel—not with wisdom and eloquence, lestthe cross of Christ be emptied of its power.

18 For the message of the cross is foolishness tothose who are perishing, but to us who are beingsaved it is the power of God.

Apparently there were some quarrels andfighting taking place among the Corinthians. Ifwe examine why they didn’t agree with oneanother, we see it’s the same reason whysometimes we don’t agree with one another. Weneed to overcome these reasons and to beobedient to Paul’s exhortation to agree with oneanother. Simply put, the reason we don’t agreewith one another is that we’ve lost sight of themain thing. What is that main thing? It’s Jesus!

Jesus and the Cross, the message of theresurrection!

Beyond that, I would like to examine threereasons why the Corinthians and, so often, welose sight of the main thing.

First, we lose sight of the plan. This is evidentfrom the very fact that Paul urges us to agreewith one another. What is the plan? In Matthew16 Jesus asked His disciples a question, “Who domen say that I am?” They gave Him a number ofanswers, from John the Baptist to Elijah to aprophet. Then He asked, “But who do you saythat I am?” And Peter answered, “You are the

Christ or the Messiah, the Son of theLiving God.” Jesus tells Peter he isblessed because God, not man, hadrevealed that to him. Jesus goes onto say, “You are Peter and on thisrock I will build my church and thegates of Hell will not prevail againstit.” And that is where the planbegins. You see, Jesus’ plan is tobuild His church. He’s building achurch right now, is He not?

In John 17:11, 20­23, Jesuselaborated on the plan in a prayer shortly beforeHis arrest. He prayed that those who wouldbelieve the message of His disciples would bebrought to complete unity so that the worldwould know that God sent Jesus and know aboutGod’s love for them.

Later, when the disciples were replacing Judas(Acts 1:21­22), they said, “Therefore it isnecessary to choose one of the men who havebeen with us the whole time the Lord Jesus wentin and out among us, beginning from John’sbaptism to the time when Jesus was taken upfrom us. For one of these must become a witnesswith us of his resurrection.” Jesus, the cross andthe resurrection is the message of the disciples,and it is the only message that builds Jesus’church. No other message can bring people into

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FEATURE ARTICLEthe church. That’s why you’ll find throughout thebook of Acts (2:32, 36; 3:15; 4:10, 20, 33; 5:30­32, 42; 8:35; 9:20; 10:36­43) the disciplesdeclaring this message, thereby building Christ’schurch. That was the plan, and it’s still the plantoday. It’s what Paul says in v. 17: “Christ did notsend me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…”But the Corinthians had lost sight of the plan,and too often, I believe, so do we.

The word “agree” in 1 Cor. 1:10 means “to sayor speak the same thing.” Paul is literally sayingto them, “I want you all in the church to speak orsay the same thing.” Now, what do you think this“same thing” is that he wants them to say?Would it not be the message of the apostles? It’sthe message of the gospel…Jesus, the Cross, HisResurrection! Yet somehow the Corinthianbelievers were dividing themselves behinddifferent preachers. Some liked Paul, others likedApollos, others liked Peter, and the most piousclaimed Christ himself.

Don’t we do the same today to a certain extent?Some say, “I’m a fan of John MacArthur. He’sdeep and I can really learn from him. When hepreaches, I learn new insights that I don’t learnanywhere else.” Others will say, “I like RickWarren. He’s America’s pastor, you know. ThatPurpose Driven Life book really changed mylife.” Still others will say, “I prefer Billy Graham.His evangelistic messages are so plain andpowerful. That man has done more for thekingdom than anyone else.” And each of thesefollowings will try to convince the rest why weshould like one over the other. Before long thosewho like MacArthur will say that they don’t likeRick Warren because he’s all about world peaceand is seemingly propagating a social gospel.And the people that like Rick Warren won’t likeBilly Graham because all he did was theevangelistic crusades and he didn’t do much tomake a difference for the physical needs in thisworld. And the people that like Graham andWarren both won’t like MacArthur because he’s

too deep and hard to understand, and he alwaysmakes them feel bad when they listen to him.

And what we fail to see is that the message thateach of those preaches is the same message. It’sJesus, the Cross, the Resurrection. But we getbogged down on those other things. That’s whatthe Corinthians were doing.

They lost sight of the plan. But they also lostsight of the purpose. If we read the precedingverses 1­9 in I Corinthians, we would noticesomething repetitive in those first 10 verses, andit’s the purpose behind Paul’s exhortations toagree and be unified. The purpose is the person;Paul mentions the name of Jesus Christ 10 times!Do you think he wanted to get a message acrossto these Corinthians?

The Corinthians were dividing up into groupsbehind human preachers, Paul, Peter andApollos.

So, Paul turns their attention to the purposethat is the person, Jesus Christ! In v. 13 Paul asksthree rhetorical questions that would surely gettheir attention. “Is Christ divided? Was Paulcrucified for you? Were you baptized into thename of Paul?” When you think about thosequestions it kind of becomes ridiculous whatthey were doing, doesn’t it? It makes no sense.But he is saying to them in essence, “Don’t forgetabout the purpose behind which you gathertogether in the first place. Don’t lose sight of thereason why you are there. Jesus is that reason.Why are you talking about following thesehuman preachers? They are in the place ofpreaching and authority simply because ofChrist.”

How often do we lose sight of our purpose? It’seasy to do, isn’t it? We just get comfortable inour little church, in our little gatherings, in thegroup of people that we’ve put around us thatagrees with us about the same things. And beforelong we’re focused on ourselves and those thingsand we forget the whole reason why we’re here in

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FOREMOSTthe first place. It happens in churches all thetime all around the world.

One of my favorite hymns is Turn Your EyesUpon Jesus. The words of the chorus say it all.“Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in Hiswonderful face. And the things of earth will growstrangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.”Our purpose comes from Jesus and our eyesmust always be on Him if we are to accomplishHis plan.

Finally, the Corinthians had lost sight of theirpower. “For Christ did not send me to baptize,but to preach the gospel—not with wisdom andeloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied ofits power. For the message of the cross isfoolishness to those who are perishing, but to uswho are being saved it is the power of God” (ICor. 1:17­18). The only message we have thatcontains any power is the message of the cross.

Christ has a plan, a plan to build His church.That plan involves a message. And there is greatpower in that message. And it’s only in thatmessage that a person can have true hope. It’s amessage so powerful—have you thought aboutthis—a message so powerful that it can changesomeone’s eternal destiny.

Author Greg Asimakoupoulos wrote,Visitors to the Smithsonian Museum of

American History can see the flag that flew overFort McHenry when Francis Scott Key wrote"The Star Spangled Banner" in 1814. The originalflag measured 42 by 30 feet. It was the immensesize of the flag that allowed Key to see it from hisposition 10 miles out to sea, following a night ofgunfire.

The means by which a flag that large could flyon a pole 189 feet in the air is on display at FortMcHenry on Baltimore's inner harbor. There, inone of the barracks, are two oak timbers, 8 footby 8 foot, joined as a cross. National Park Servicepersonnel discovered this cross­shaped supportnear the entrance to Fort McHenry in 1958,buried nine feet below ground. Not only did the

cross help rangers locate the original site fromwhich the star spangled banner flew, but itanswered the mystery of how such a large flagcould fly in stormy weather without snapping thepole. This unseen wooden device provided a firmfoundation for the symbol of our nationalfreedom.

Similarly, the cross of Christ provides thefoundation by which our faith is rooted andsupported. It is the message of the Cross thatsupports and sustains and grows the church. Themessage that Jesus Christ came to this earth;God became man, born of a virgin; lived a sinlesslife; arrested, tortured and crucified. He died onthat cross. His blood was shed willingly becauseit was shed for a purpose. He was the sacrifice formy sin and your sin and the sin of the world.After he died he didn’t stay that way. No, threedays later he rose from the dead and conqueredsin and death. And when a person is willing tobelieve all of that about Jesus and they arewilling to accept His sacrifice on the cross ontheir behalf and they repent and turn from theirsin and to Christ they can be assured that theywill spend eternity in heaven with God. And thatis a powerful message!

But what have we done in the church? Insteadof being completely unified behind Christ’s plan,His purpose and His power, we create divisionsin the church by focusing on our own messages,things that are seemingly important to us.

There is a whole movement that was built onthe doctrine of baptism of the Holy Spirit, orspeaking in tongues. This is in no way to putdown the charismatic movement, but I spokewith a gentleman who was a part of a charismaticchurch for years, during which he sincerelyprayed that God would give him the gift oftongues in order to manifest the baptism of theSpirit; he longed for it, but it never happened.And he was looked down upon because he neverdisplayed the gift even though he truly believedin Jesus.

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FEATURE ARTICLEA particular Church of Christ in Wyoming

taught that they are the only true church and ifthe sign doesn’t say “Church of Christ,” you’renot part of the true church. A man came into myoffice and told me he was ready to give up onGod and religion because of things his pastor wassaying from the pulpit, such as Charles Spurgeonwas in hell because he wasn’t Church of Christ.

Different denominations have differentemphases. Now, I ask you, are any of those themessage that the apostles preached? Are any ofthose messages that the apostles wouldemphasize today? No! The sad thing is that eachof the churches I have mentioned teach themessage of the cross, they have just chosen toplace emphasis on lesser things. And we do ittoo, don’t we, but just a little differently? We mayargue Calvinism versus Arminianism. Or worseyet, four­point Calvanists versus five­pointCalvinists versus Hyper­Calvinists! Or we’lldivide over Dispensational Pre­millennialismversus Covenant Theology. Or we’ll divide overthe timing of the rapture. Or we’re dividing overpre, post, or amillennialism… election andpredestination… lordship salvation… and on andon.

But here’s the deal. Paul’s plea to theCorinthians and to us was to agree with oneanother that the message of Christ and the crossought to be the main thing in our churches.That’s the only way the church grows. That’s theplan of Jesus Christ today: that His message willgo out to the nations.

I’ve never heard of anyone getting saved at adebate between Calvinism and Arminianism. I’venever heard of anyone getting saved because ofdivision in a church. I’ve never heard of anyonegetting saved because Christians all ralliedtogether and voted the right politicians intooffice, politicians with Christian values,politicians who would begin a revival withChristian policies. That’s not how Christ’s planworks. He’s building His church and He said it

would be our unity that would testify to theworld that God sent Him and loves them. Hewants us to be unified and I’m here to tell youtoday that the way we do that is by focusing onChrist and His message: Jesus, the Cross, andthe Resurrection.

The Corinthians had lost sight of the plan. Theylost sight of the purpose, the very person, JesusChrist. And they lost sight of their power, themessage of the cross.

I don’t know where you are or where yourchurch is, if there are divisions among you, but ifChristians can agree to say the same thing, tomake Jesus Christ the main purpose, the reasonwhy we gather, His message the very thing thatdrives what we do, then we can have thosedisagreements on all those other issues becauseJesus’ plan is to build His church and He buildsHis church when we focus on Him and when wedeclare Him and His message to people. That’swhy we’re here. As long as we continue to bedivided and to follow behind human preachers,we aren’t going to accomplish Christ’s plan. Weweren’t going to be about His purpose.

So, my challenge to you is this. Don’t lose sightof the plan. Realize that you’re here because youhave a specific purpose in Jesus’ plan to buildHis church. He has saved you and He issanctifying you because He is going to use you tobuild His church. And if you remember that, youwon’t lose sight of the purpose, the very personJesus. And remember the only way you can be apart of executing His plan is if you proclaim Hismessage—the only message in this life that hasreal power to change destiny, to influence peoplefor eternity. If you keep Jesus, the Cross, and theResurrection at the forefront, you can walktogether and disagree on so much else.

Jimmy Larkin is currently a full time seminarystudent residing in Kansas City with his wifeand five children. He enjoys spending his freetime hunting and fishing.

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PRESS ON

As we approach Christmas, most of usanticipate the joy of celebration saying

things with great excitement like, “A baby came,a Savior, Christ the Lord!” This is a good thing.Focusing on such truths as the Incarnation, thebelief that Jesus came down to earth from Hisheavenly throne as Emmanuel, or God with us, isworthy of much celebration. All that Jesus didfor us, everything from living a perfect life todying an atoning death and conquering death byHis resurrection, is possible only because He firstwas born to Mary in a barn in Bethlehem.There’s a reason angels were there to announceit. It was big deal.

Although the birth of Jesus was an amazingexpression of God’s love and favor shown to Hispeople, it came after a long­endured ache of apeople in suppression. The birth of Jesus finallyended the deafening silence where no word fromGod was heard for over 400 years. The absenceof the long expected Savior must have beenunbearable. Many of us are familiar with at leastthe first verse of the old hymn which begsEmmanuel to come and ransom a captive nation,Israel, which mourned in exile waiting for the

Son of God to appear.There’s a sense that we mourn while in

miserable exile here and long for God to appear!Often times we feel angst. Many of us canidentify with the question a leader of KingDavid’s choir once asked, “Will the Lord rejectforever? Will he never show his favor again?”(Psalm 77:7). We sometimes wonder if He willever reveal Himself to us again?

In the midst of these feelings, we need to keepthe history of God’s people in perspective. Israelbegan when God called a man named Abram toleave his dwelling (Genesis 12). Essentially, therest of the Old Testament is about how Godrevealed Himself to and through His chosenpeople, who later took the name Israel afterAbram’s grandson. Despite the fact that Godchose these people as His own and lavishedincredible love and blessings on them in veryvisible ways, even though He gave them greatmilitary success and royal renown, they rebelledagainst Him. They took credit for their successand chased earthly pleasures while worshipingforeign gods. In Ezekiel 16, God compares Hisrebellious people to an adulterous wife, one who

BY WILL DOLE

ANGST

BIRTHED

HOPE

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has less dignity than a prostitute. Butnonetheless, they are His people and in manyplaces throughout the Old Testament we readabout the hope of Savior who is to come. Perhapsthe best known of these passages reads:

For to us a child is born, to us a sonis given, and the government willbe on his shoulders. And he will becalled Wonderful Counselor,Mighty God, Everlasting Father,Prince of Peace. Of the greatness ofhis government and peace therewill be no end. He will reign onDavid’s throne and over hiskingdom, establishing andupholding it with justice andrighteousness from that time onand forever. The zeal of the LordAlmighty will accomplish this.(Isaiah 9:6­7)There is this deep expectation that even though

Israel had walked away from God time and timeagain, He would send someone to break the backof their oppressors and to sit on the throne ofDavid forever as promised in 2 Samuel 7. Butwhen Jesus finally did come, Romans ruled theworld and Judea was ruled by Herod, a puppetking and ruthless man. Before the Romans, theGreeks had ruled over the Jews until theMaccabean revolt gained the Jewish peopletemporary autonomy. Even before they wereunwillingly subdued by these powerfulgovernments, they were exiles in Assyria andBabylon. By the time Jesus is actually born,Isaiah’s prophecy is over 700 years old.

If we had gone through all of that, as theIsraelites did, what would we have felt at thetime of the Savior’s advent? After having grownup being taught the accounts of how God savedHis people from slavery in Egypt, brought theminto the promised land and established them as anation, it must have been difficult for anyIsraelite to believe God would do it again as theylooked around at their hopeless oppression,

which had continued for so long. As they criedout for Him to deliver on His promises, Heappeared to be nowhere to be found. For thosewho did believe that the God of their ancestorsexisted, there must have still been someoverwhelming doubt that He would ever showHis face again.

Who knows exactly what we would have felt asfirst century Jews. However, we face a similarcrossroad every year at Christmas time. Do weapproach this season with more sorrow, anger orconfusion than we do joy? Do we wonder if Godis ever going to show? Sometimes it’s difficult,but there is hope.

There is hope because Jesus did come once andHe said He would come again. There is perhaps agreater hope offered to those who doubt than tothose who pretend to have unshakeable faith.The world we live in is extremely broken, and it’snatural to wonder if God still has a plan to saveHis people. It is only from that lowly position ofconfused waiting that we can start to grasp theimmense glory and beauty of God stepping downinto humanity to save His people. God did not sitback from afar and send someone else in to dothe work. He came in the person of Jesus Christ.Jesus left His place at the right hand of God theFather and became one of us. He was born to anunmarried mother in a barn. His birth is firstannounced to shepherds, the lowest people insociety. God’s great King, the hope of humanitycame not to a palace but to a place where hurtand pain was the most real. He came to the mostbroken of the broken.

No, the hope we have at Christmas isn’t told assome squeaky clean story. It is about God, whopromised to save His people, coming into amessed up and wrecked world and personallydoing what He promised. He had to start by firstbecoming one of us.

We can rejoice for our Emmanuel has come tous, the new Israel!

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CAN YOU RELATE

Live for Now!” shouts a roadside billboardwith pictures of a top­contending soda.

Every time I see it I feel a pang of astonishmentand I immediately begin reflecting on the overallspirit of our age. Don’t misunderstand me: I’mnot finding fault with that company in particular.Their marketing people have simply done whatmarketing people get paid to do; namely, findinga slogan that will so resonate with theadvertising’s viewers that moves them to buy. Asmart advertiser will come up with a mottowhich fully captures the deep­seated feelings,ambitions and drives within us.

What saddens me, however, is not the fact thatthis company used this slogan—I wonder whysomeone didn’t use it sooner—but how verysuccessful it is likely to be. It says what we want

to hear. It echoes what our urges compel us to doand it conveniently cloaks responsibility for therepercussions of living for the now. Why is itlikely to be successful? Because, the world saysthere may be no tomorrow.

Ever since the movie, the expression “bucketlist” is in wide use. It is especially interesting thatmost things that end up on a bucket list are self­gratifying endeavors. People want to perform aparticular stunt, try a particular kind of food orvisit a particular place. The general idea seems tobe that we’d better hurry up and do all the thingswe’ve ever thought we wanted to do in this lifebecause the now is all we have. Fill it up with allthe fun, pleasurable and self­centered ambitionswe’ve stored up for ourselves because there isnothing after the now to look forward.

BY THOM MOLLOHAN

And ToppingMy BucketList Is…

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There’s certainly nothing wrong with beingadventurous, doing exciting things and rejoicingin God’s goodness. These things are, after all,what motivated me to explore a jackal den whenvisiting a desert in the Middle East. But howmany of us have things on our bucket lists thatwill make an impact in the hereafter?

I’m sure there are many factors that make ourgenerations so receptive to the “Live for Now”slogan. Many people have bought into the lie that“now” is all there is. Others are still worriedabout the off­the­wall interpretation of theMayan calendar—which would mean the worldshould already be gone by now and you wouldn’tbe reading this. Or perhaps the movie “2012” setoff too many morbid imaginings. Whatever thecase, many people do indeed believe that the onlyworthwhile pursuit in this life is to grab what wecan, while we can, before we lose the chance.

But there is more to this life than the now. Ibelieve the Bible’s claim that God will wrap upthings in His way and in His time—Hespecifically said that no one else knows when thatwould be. I also believe that there is an eternityawaiting us and that this life has been given to usso that we can prepare for that next life. I evenbelieve the Bible when it says that Jesus Christ isthe only way to enter into that life.

For the disciple of Jesus, the motto cannot beto live for now, because doing so, focuses ourwindow of eternal opportunity upon a momentthat vanishes like smoke. For the disciple ofJesus, the only genuine motto is to “live for…ever”. Why? Because while the here and now is afleeting moment, forever is… well, a really, reallylong time. Just ask anybody.

Jesus discussed everlasting life on multipleoccasions. He was an eyewitness to the wondersof heaven because He had originally come fromthere. He said that eternal life is, “that they knowYou the only true God, and Jesus Christ whomYou have sent” (John 17:3 ESV). Eternal life then

is an endless abiding with God who is soincomparably vast and infinitely wonderful thatawaiting us are pleasures and adventures andexperiences so numerous that they cannot becounted and so beyond our imaginations that wecould not possibly begin to describe them.

He also said that God loves those who live inthis world and expressed it perfectly through thegift of His Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice to pay for oursin. By believing in Him we are given eternal life.We believe in Him by staking our hope andconfidence so utterly upon Him that we forsakeall our false hopes or idols as well as our living­for­now habits and selfish pursuits.

“For God so loved the world, that He gave Hisonly Son, that whoever believes in Him shouldnot perish but have eternal life… For the wages ofsin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal lifein Christ Jesus our Lord.” (John 3:16, Romans6:23 ESV)

Hopefully, you also see the short­sightedness of“live for now,” and are willing to settle fornothing less than “living for… ever” with God inChrist Jesus our Lord. Maybe we should make abucket list with “live forever” at the top. Whatelse should we put on that list? Maybe joining afellowship of Christians. Maybe hosting a Biblestudy in your home. Maybe a mission trip or atutoring program. Maybe helping the sickneighbor across the street. Maybe reconcilingwith a loved one. And maybe, just maybe,skydiving… at least once.

Thom Mollohan and his family haveministered in southern Ohio the past 17 yearsand is the author of The Fairy Tale Parables andCrimson Harvest. He is the pastor of PathwayCommunity Church and may be reached forcomments or questions by email [email protected].

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THE RECAP

If the Mayan calendar has piqued your interestas of late, might I recommend a mystery along

those same lines, but a bit meatier? Conspiracytheorists, doomsdayers and prophecyaficionados will be able to sink their teeth intoThe Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery that Holdsthe Secret to America’s Future. Author JonathanCahn is a messianic Jew, which for some hard­to­articulate reason seems to add credibility tohis fictitious expository of the non­fictitiouspremise that an ancient prophecy in the book ofIsaiah is being fulfilled for a second time, this

time in our own United States of America.Written as a soft science­fiction mystery along

the lines of National Treasure (with less action),Cahn’s writing style is so repetitive that Iwondered several times if my cat was playing adirty trick on me and moving my bookmark backa few pages. I concluded that Cahn must live witha senile grandparent for whom he has to repeatthings often. Either that or the publisher gavehim an ultimatum, “Add 50 more pages bytomorrow!” The book could have easily been halfits size with all plot points intact.

BY DONNA LEE SCHILLINGER

DID ISAIAHPREDICTAMERICA'SFUTURE?

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The book is based on a series of concurrencesbetween the prophecy in Isaiah 9:10 and theevents of 9/11 and aftermath. (See one already,9:10, 9/11? Also, Cahn recently confirmed that inthe One­Year Bible, from 1985 through 2001,Isa. 9:10 was in the reading for September 11.)Cahn reveals the concurrences as nineharbingers, each in a symbolic seal, which themain character has to figure out with the help ofan unnamed angel in a trench coat. But getbogged down in plot—Cahn only wrote it thatway because he rightly knew more people wouldread a story than a straight analysis. I readeagerly awaited the tipping point where Cahn’sargument would give me goose bumps. Half­waythrough the book, I was still thinking thissounded more like that time when a familymember tried to convince me we were related toEngland’s Prince John. The acrobatics andcontrivances… just… too… much!

Let me add that I am not a skeptic and I believethe entire premise is within the realm ofpossibility. And yet there was only oneconcurrence which, upon reading, caused myeyes to widen, nostrils to flare and eyebrows torise. Turns out that George Washington, afterdelivering the first presidential address toCongress on April 30, 1789, led the legislators ina foot­procession to a little stone church toconsecrate this nation to God. The very spotwhere that little stone church sat is, today,Ground Zero. (Cue theme from Twilight.)

There are others too… many others. (OK,kill the music.)

Could some Biblical prophecy pertain tothe United States? Certainly; but it seemsmore likely that applying Biblical prophecyto our country and our times is just anotherform of rampant nationalism andethnocentrism. The United States has themakings of a great nation, but the jury isstill out on whether we will earn that status

in the annals of history. After all, 230 years isn’tmuch of a track record in the big picture. Look atthe Mayan and Aztec empires, both of whichlasted at least twice as long as we have –nobody’s pegging them for a role in Biblicalprophecy. Too geographically small, you say?What about the Mongol Empire which stretchedfrom present­day Vietnam to Hungary? They hadit going on, but now, with a few hundred years ofperspective, who gives them much thought? Evenif we get “great civilization” status some day, thatdoesn’t mean God has a special role for ourcountry in His plan. We need to take intoaccount the underlying assumptions of self­importance in Cahn’s premise, withoutdiscounting it altogether on that basis.

Sadly, end times prophecy attracts a lot ofkooks, and this book has been touted by them all!But don’t let that dissuade you from giving it acontemplative look.

The Harbinger: The Ancient Mystery thatholds the Secret to America’s Future byJonathan Cahn. ©2011 272pp. $16.99 (but sellsfor less on Amazon.com)

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CORNERED BY GRACE

We often associate Christmas with manycomfortable concepts such as babies in

swaddling clothes, pageants of toddling sheepand little angels, tutus twirling with time withnutcracker soldiers, to name a few. It’s a holidayreadily embraced by all even those who don’tplace their trust in Christ. Who could blamethem? It’s evolved into an enjoyable celebrationwhich gets us through some long and sometimesbrutal winter months.

In contrast, Easter is not so embraced by themasses. Who wants to dwell on the brutal andseemingly senseless killing of an extraordinaryteacher in His prime, especially one as gentle andkind as Jesus was, in the way He healed all Hetouched. It seems that everyone likes Christmas,but only the religiously dedicated are able tostomach Easter. It makes sense. We give

presents, eat cake and laugh when someone isborn. We offer condolences, eat cold casserolesand weep when someone dies. We like Christmasand only seem to tolerate Easter.

Someone once said that there would be noEaster without Christmas. While it’s difficult toargue with that logic, it’s also true that Christmashas absolutely no value without Easter. Theycome as a package deal, so we don’t get to chose,but Christmas undoubtedly reigns as our favoriteof the two holidays. It’s much more anticipatedand far less infringing on our comfort zone – inAmerica anyway.

So what’s the point of Christmas? Looking upat the eye of a storm of wrapping paper andflashing Christmas tree ornaments, it may bedifficult to know. Sometimes, the eggnog cloudsour vision, but the purpose of Christmas calls out

ChristmasWhat's the Point?

BY ROB BEAMES

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each year to remind us. No, Linus Van Pelt didn’tnecessarily get the whole picture, neither didCharlie Brown or Dr. Seuss. One person who didseem to get it was the cousin of Jesus and itdidn’t take him very long.

After Elizabeth and Mary were each told byangels that they would miraculously bear sons,Mary went to see her relative, who was filled withthe Holy Spirit as soon as Mary greeted her.Elizabeth was obviously overwhelmed as shecalled out to Mary, “Blessed are you amongwomen, and blessed is the child you will bear!But why am I so favored, that the mother of myLord should come to me? As soon as the sound ofyour greeting reached my ears, the baby in mywomb leaped for joy” (Luke 1:42­44).

John the Baptist got the point of Christmas,before he was even born. But we don’t want to betoo hard on ourselves. It was the Holy Spirit whotipped off the embryonic prophet and filled himwith joy. We should pray for that kind of joy thisyear, too. It may be the only way we’ll get it.

No doubt, Christmas can get complicated,mostly because we make it that way by trying toplease significant others, but Christmas is reallyquite simple. Christmas happened because weneeded joy and had no way to gain it. We werelooking for it in the wrong place and workingway too hard at trying to achieve it. Yet, true joyeluded us. That’s because it only comes from thepresence of God. Pure, undiluted, no­strings­attached joy only comes when we understandthat God the Almighty wants to be with us. Heonly wants to be and only can be with those Hedeeply loves. That should bring us great joy!

That was the reason Jesus was born among us.That is the point of Christmas. God brought joyto miserable sinners and that is what we are. Yet,He completes His joy by perfecting us throughthe faultless performance of Jesus, “To him whois able to keep you from stumbling and to

present you before his glorious presence withoutfault and with great joy—to the only God ourSavior be glory, majesty, power and authority,through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages,now and forevermore! Amen” (Jude 1:24, 25).We will leap for joy if we believe what God hasplanned for us through Jesus. First, Jesus had tocome into our midst to make our joy possible. ByHis Spirit, God makes what is possible actuallyhappen. We can rejoice now in the presence ofGod. We don’t even have to wait for Christmas.

We may not feel like rejoicing because we knowhow far from perfection we are, but when theSpirit of the Lord moves, we can dance becausethe gift of Christmas was intended to bring usjoy. Yes, it is a gift which is so undeserved butbeating ourselves up doesn’t bring Him joy. Itwas His good pleasure to give to us the onlyavenue to joy. It was what He desired. No oneknows why. Our actions in the past, present orfuture fail to explain it. Our performance on anygiven day doesn’t make any sense of it. We don’tdeserve Christmas. No one ever can, but Goddecided to bring joy to many throughChristmas—through the baby, not the hoopla. Hedecided to give joy to those He loves.

So, before we rip off all that pretty paper,maybe we should ask ourselves why joy is soimportant that it’s printed all over our packagesat Christmas. Materialism won’t conjure up thejoy we crave. Determination will not bring ithome. Only our faith in the sacrifices made byJesus, both to come as a helpless human, thenlater to die on our behalf, can bring us suchunrestrained joy. That only happens when webelieve what He has in store for us in the end.His loving presence is with us now because ofChristmas, and it will never go away. Now, that’sa cause for joy!

(I believe He wanted me to remind you of this.)

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FAITH AND FINANCE

Tis the season for giving! Oh and not just thosepretty shiny presents under your twinkling tree.

It’s a key time of the year for charitable giving as well.With the holiday­giving spirit in people’s hearts andyear­end tax deductions on their minds, charities andnon­profits know it’s the best time to seek donations.

But how do you know what charity to support? Howdo you know that the money you are giving actuallygoes to where you think it is going? How muchshould you give? What about those tax deductions?

Did you know that there are about 1.4 millioncharities in the United States that you could support?With that many options, how do you know whichone(s) you should support? Is your passion makingsure kids have school supplies, helping no­kill animalshelters, feeding the homeless in your community orsupporting cancer research? Do you want to supportyour local community, the nation, or the world? Doyou want to support a smaller organization with alimited focus or a massive well­known organization?Before giving any support, take some time to reflectand pray. If you are having trouble making a decision,a good place to start is by reading the charity’smission statement.

Once you have decided which charity to support,you should do a little supplemental research toensure your donation is being used prudently. A goodcharity should clearly have statements and reports onits Web site showing you how much money theyraise, how that money is distributed, and evidence ofhow their money is bringing results. If you aresupporting a local charity, arrange a visit to its facilityor office for a first­hand look at what you will besupporting. You can also use Web sites such aswww.charitynavigator.org or run a search for reviewsfor an outside perspective on the charity.

The next big question you should ask yourself ishow much should I give? On the practical side, manyorganizations will provide the amount needed (i.e.$30 per month to feed a child in Africa or $250 to

send an inner­citykid to summer campin the mountains),and if this fits intoyour budget, thenit’s an easy way tomake the decision.On the spiritual side,there’s the questionof whether yourcharitable givinggoes above andbeyond your tithe or is a part of it. There arearguments for both perspectives, so inform yourself,seek advice from your mentors and prayerfullyconsider this issue before building into your budgetthe amount you will give. In addition to regularcharitable giving, consider a “rainy day” amount forunexpected donations such as natural disaster reliefor to support a cancer walk for a friend’s suddenillness.

While many charitable organizations can certainlyuse your money, many can also use the gift of yourtime. Whether it’s serving meals to the homeless ordoing basic office paperwork, volunteering can bepriceless. Getting involved will help you truly see theresults of your giving. Everyone has time to give evenif they don’t always have the cash to give.

Finally, besides the warm­fuzzy feeling of knowingyou are helping a cause, Uncle Sam will also rewardyou with a tax deduction (if you itemize yourdeductions), provided the charity has beendetermined to be exempt under IRS code 501(c)(3).Be sure to keep paperwork (request receipts) to backup your giving report in case of an IRS audit. Also, ifyou donate clothes or household goods to a charity,you can claim that as giving, so be sure to getpaperwork verifying this.

As you give this holiday season, may God bless youabundantly and may you feel the joy of giving in yourheart all year long.

BY JULIE ANN

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