"If Satan troubles us, Jesus Christ
You who are the lion of the grasslands
You whose claws are sharp
Will tear out his entrails
And leave them on the ground
For the flies to eat."

-- Afua Kuma, Christian songwriter and poet from Ghana

There may be some humor in the reading of that song, by Christians more used to a different type of CCM... (and maybe more used to thinking of Jesus as a "tame lion" or a velvet stuffed lion)...  but there is also a lot of truth behind the metaphor...

I came across an interesting article today about Psalm 91.  It asks an important question, which may be obvious to you if you read the Psalm again and think about it (I had not noticed this question in detail myself before tonight):

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust."

Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.

If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the LORD, who is my refuge -- then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.

"Because he loves me," says the LORD, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."

Question...  is this true or not?  Is it really true that "no harm will befall me", that "no disaster will come near my tent"?

Here are some more thoughts beyond what the article mentioned...

Recall what Jesus said on the cross...  he quoted Psalm 22... which starts out with "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"   Does/did Psalm 91 apply to Jesus?

Well, about halfway through Psalm 22, there is a sudden switch in tone.

Is. 53

Rom. 8.28

nothing 'bad' will ever happen to you (?)

ex. child's surgery to remove cancer.. looking back years later, with gratitude toward parents

This post is a combination of two thoughts, both of which are rambling, so if you only have a little time, skip it.

1. Al Mohler clearly delineates in this article the emergence of yet another name for the same old people... the new name being "Middle Church, Middle Synagogue, Middle Mosque", and the same old people being "liberals."

Here's a question that has deeply intrigued me... why are liberals and conservatives so predictable?   Why is it that so many seemingly nonrelated issues/beliefs are so prevalently combined in the same groups of people?  Why is it the case that knowing what a person thinks about the proper interpretation of the book of Genesis or the most appropriate national welfare policies can correlate so highly with that person's beliefs about abortion pills, gun control, the fight against terrorism, or global warming?

I guess these things must be deeply connected somehow...?   Not only that, but in spite of all these "correlations," liberals and conservatives keep insisting "don't put me in a box!"   "I'm not a stereotypical blue democrat / red republican!  I'm purple!  Just like Jesus was!"

The stridency of the world is so immensely wearying sometimes.

2. Closely related, the heartbreak and the grief (for me), of/on-behalf-of so many of my friends (especially my Christian friends) struggling through (for lack of a better term) "reactionary postmodern angst".

It's one thing when you see "the world" yelling against God, striving constantly to contradict and circumvent His truth and His beautiful pattern for us, boiling/teeming/laboring like ants to invent "whatever is contrary to sound doctrine" (1 Tim. 1:10).

But it's another thing when close friends go through these struggles...  when close friends reject God and the teaching of the Bible, not because they've found something better, nor because they have solid reasons for their rejection, but for various paltry motivations (that we flesh-bound humans are so notorious for)...

"... it doesn't satisfy me emotionally ..."

"... I've just been burned too much in the past by hypocrites who taught this doctrine but lived in sin and selfishness..."

Extending C.S.Lewis' famous quote: "...We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us. Like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot understand what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea."

It's as if the ignorant child, when I sit down to explain to him how wonderful the beach really is, replies to me: "Oh yes, I know all about it.  I saw a movie once about the beach.  But the theatre was hot and smelly and the people around me were loud and obnoxious.  Not for me, thanks.  I'll just stick with my mud pies."

I am currently empathizing more than usual with Paul in Romans 9:2...  "great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart..."

Part of it, I am hoping, is the age of my friends - perhaps they are young and inexperienced, and after another decade or two has rolled over them, they will come to their senses and cling wholeheartedly to the truth.  Yet I know that many older people have simply become set in their liberal mindsets, irrevocably.

Even more the problem, most likely, is the "spirit of the age" we live in....  Oh, the pain of seeing my dear friends "infected" by the (postmodern, "spiritual", anti-reason, anti-doctrine, cynical, relativistic, emotion/experience-driven, scoffing, sensual, reactionary, nauseating) spirit of the age.

I can't convince them - they won't listen.  I can't laugh at them - the love of Christ constrains me.  I can't ignore them... splagchnistheis in action.   Prayer, patience, acceptance-with-joy the only options.   1 Corinthians 1-3 an encouraging stay.

Del Gaudio said he made a tough call after a roadside bomb killed four of his men in April. While securing the scene, he was shot at by a machine gun in a follow-up attack. When he aimed his weapon to return fire, he saw that the gunmen had a line of children standing in front of them and two men filming with video cameras. He held fire until the children moved out of the way but was shot in his hand, which was only inches from his face. "Restraint almost cost me my life," he said.

Wow.

What can you call dedication like that, which strives to "do the right thing" while being physically attacked and being villified in one's own country's newspapers?

Heroism, I guess.  True patriotism.

Meanwhile, the endless flow of questions continues in my own mind.  Lately I've been thinking/wondering a lot about heaven and rewards and christian-motivation and prayer, and why God doesn't answer it sometimes.  And fatherhood - why does a father (or a Father) sometimes allow pain into the child's life, 'unwillingly' yet deliberately, in hope/expectation of a far greater end result?  I guess I've answered my own question there.

If you haven't been keeping up with the discussion about history and the resurrection , you may wish to do so!!  It's still smoking, thanks to several enthusiastic visiting participant-commenters.

I was encouraged last night by reading Bruce Ware's book "God's Greater Glory", in two particular ways.

First, in view of the UN, the secular humanitarian organizations, the religious organizations, the imams, the conservative pundits, the popes, the presidents, the prime ministers, the congresses, the 'mighty MSM', the thinktanks, the human rights watch organizations, the environmental organizations, the universities, the liberals, the conservatives, the scientists, and all of the other elite's voices who stand for humanity's collective constant communique - the constant yelling of the world, demanding to be taken seriously at all times...

...in view of these, we read these amazing words in Psalm 2 -

He who sits in the heavens laughs,
The Lord scoffs at them.

It is so incredibly refreshing to see God, our Protector and Father, to whom we nervously look to see "how he's reacting", roaring with laughter in the face of the world's angsty hot air.  The King, the One In The Driver's Seat, is not worried in the slightest, about anything.  The 'immense dignity' and 'weighty maneuverings' and 'subtle schemes' of the nations and political strongmen are, to Him, nothing more than "a drop from a bucket" (Is. 40:15).   He is, certainly, "moved with compassion" (John 11).  But as for His own eventual victory and His opponents' constant threats and sophisms, He just laughs.   That's awesome.

Secondly and in a related vein, it's neat to ponder Acts 17 - "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us..."

Especially this phrase struck me - "...having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation..."

Ware points out the incredibleness of this statement.  Currently we may be anxious about Iran.  A few years ago, it was Iraq.  A few years before that, it was Russia.  Before that, it was Hitler's Germany.  Before that, it was Wilhelm's Germany.  Etc etc.   But the nations each have their "appointed times" and even appointed "boundaries"!   National struggles are not something to worry about, for a Christian - our Father has them all completely in control.  He is working out a masterplan, a great story, which we will someday look back on in awe.

Might as well start enjoying it now...  

a prayer of Rafael Merry del Val (1865-1930)...  very thought provoking in my opinion, and seemingly nicely aligned with Philippians 2:1-11...   this is not salvific at all, contrary to what some Catholics believe... but for those of us who are already saved by Jesus Christ, this seems like an excellent prayer...

O Jesus! meek and humble of heart, hear me!

Deliver me, Jesus,
From the desire of being esteemed...
From the desire of being loved...
From the desire of being extolled...
From the desire of being honored...
From the desire of being praised...
From the desire of being preferred to others...
From the desire of being consulted...
From the desire of being approved...

From the fear of being humiliated...
From the fear of being despised...
From the fear of suffering rebukes...
From the fear of being calumniated...
From the fear of being forgotten...
From the fear of being ridiculed...
From the fear of being wronged...
From the fear of being suspected.

And Jesus, grant me the grace to desire,
That others may be loved more than I...
That others may be esteemed more than I...
That, in the opinion of the world, others may increase and I may decrease...
That others may be chosen and I set aside...
That others may be praised and I unnoticed...
That others may be preferred to me in everything...
That others may become holier than I, provided that I may become as holy as I should.

Will people who never heard about Jesus go to Hell?

This is of course a massive issue, but I think it definitely needs to be thought-through...  At least I've been thinking about it for a while.  Many skeptics raise the question, implying that a God who would send people to Hell (especially if they never heard about Jesus) is unfair and thus not worth believing in, even if He existed.

Even more powerful/galvanizing is the question - are most of my friends currently headed for Hell?  Many of them have heard about Jesus, but they reject the message.  We all tend to breeze through life, getting our daily work or studies done, having fun, enjoying leisure, time with friends, etc.  Ecclesiastes / the "rain that falls upon the just and the unjust."  We tend to assume that life will continue on as it always has.  But it will not...   Once in a while we are rudely reawakened to that fact.  Let us Christians be preoccupied - even, "fixated", "obsessed", with the eternal and with anticipation of Christ's coming - "fixing our hope completely on the grace to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ!"

What are your thoughts about "those who have never heard?"   I posted some initial reactions of mine (in the comments below) about the article linked above.  Are there any other good articles or books you'd recommend, etc?