Reminds me of something Jesus said.
Enjoying those eternal pleasures!!!
Now that’s a delightful thought.
Always! Continually! In all circumstances!
No Problem – Right?
Have a great day enjoying family, food, friends and most of all, GOD.
I went to a prison Thursday that had no prisoners. Its the third time that I have visited a
New large men’s prison next to smaller women’s prison
prison with no prisoners. The first two times I went to Alcatraz in San Francisco. An old prison closed for many decades. The one that I went to on Thursday is brand new. I have been watching its construction for the last three years from where I live, across the highway, at a home for needy children, in Oaxaca, México, where I serve. I went there with 11 others, also from the mission.
There is a women’s prison next to the new prison. It has been in operation for about 15 years. I have been teaching an English class there for over 7 years. Others involved in prison ministry from the children’s home were in the group. Enrique, who is in charge of the prison ministry was there, as well as his wife and Mundo and Linda, who assist him. Elaine, who teaches art and sewing in prisons was also there with her husband. Niche, the mission administrator was there with Laura, her assistant. Two house parents were also there.
This new prison was an impressive structure, expected to house over a thousand prisoners
New cell block which includes a dining room.
who will come from seven different prisons in the state of Oaxaca. We all went through two security checkpoints before meeting with the prison administration officials. Then we had the grand tour which included a cell block, one of eight on the property. The kitchen, which has a bakery and a large place to make lots of tortillas. The medical clinic, which is basically a mini hospital, with 20 beds. The last room we saw was a morgue, with two beds. You eventually get out of prison, one way or another. The tour lasted about three and a half hours.
So why did 11 of us go? We all had a lot of work to do at the children’s home. It was supposed to be a day off for one of the house parents. What was so important about going to a prison that has not even opened yet? It was important because we don’t see it as simply a prison. We see it as an opportunity to make disciples of Christ. The mission statement of Foundation for His Ministry, is that we exist to glorify God by making disciples of Christ. We not only want the children at the home to be disciples, but also our neighbors, which will soon include over a thousand incarcerated men.
After the tour, I asked Ceferino , a house father, why he went,especially since it was his day off. He told me that we will probably have children at the home whose fathers are in prison, and he will need to talk to them. An opportunity to make disciples. I went because I plan to teach an English class using Christian curriculum. Another disciple making opportunity. Naturally, Enrique, Mundo, and Linda went because they will be preaching and teaching the Gospel, and counseling hurting men, pointing them to the healing power of the Savior. More disciples.
So, while many see a new prison in their backyard as a problem or a nuisance, we see it as an opportunity to follow our Lords example, and set the captives free. Not free from the bars, razor wire and thick concrete walls, but free from lives of desperation, darkness and depression, to disciples of Christ.
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I read something disturbing the other day in 1 Thessalonians 2. Paul wanted to go to 
Thessalonica to encourage the believers there. He loved and missed the small band of brothers and sisters there. He had to flee the city just months before for fear of his life. He said he tried again and again to return, but he couldn’t go. Why? Because Satan hindered him. What’s up with that? How could Satan hinder the great Apostle Paul? At first I didn’t get it. Could not understand. I thought of an ant trying to hinder an elephant on his journey. Paul was going to do the Lord’s work, but Satan kept him from it. It made no sense to me.
Then I began to study the issue. I dug deeper into God’s Word. I pondered the situation and began to chew on the problem. Many times that is what we have to do to find the truth behind the truth in the Holy Scripture.
I read a commentary that mentioned how Satan can hinder the will of man, but can never hinder the Will of God. It was Paul’s will to go to Thessalonica, but it was not God’s will. Sometimes God closes one good door of ministry, or allows Satan to close it, because God is opening another door to a better ministry opportunity. Such was the case with Paul. Paul wrote those words from the city of Corinth, which, it seems, he didn’t like so much. He was getting frustrated and fed up with the people there. He wanted to get out of Dodge and head back to Thessalonica. But God, but God, had different plans. In order to grow the Kingdom God’s way, Paul needed to stay put in Corinth. God revealed this to Paul, and he not only learned to be content in Corinth, but he prospered.
The second thing I learned about this initially disturbing passage, was the Greek meaning of the Word “hinder”. It means to build a trench to to slow down or stop an enemy. It is what armies do when they are retreating and want to slow down or stop an enemy from advancing and inflicting damages. I thought of the Civil War. General Grant is attacking General Lee’s army. It’s 1864. Grant has an overwhelming force compared to Lee. Several times Grant would attack, and Lee would fall back and dig trenches in order to stop Grant. Usually Grant would attack and be held off, suffering thousands of casualties in the process. Then Grant would try and go around Lee. Lee would pull back again and dig more trenches, and hold Grant back yet again. It took awhile, but Grant, with superior strength and numbers, eventually caused the surrender of Lee at Appomattox in 1865.
That’s all Satan can do against Christians and the power of the Kingdom of God. Retreat. Give up ground. Dig trenches. Retreat again. Dig more trenches. And the Kingdom of God keeps advancing against a significantly weaker foe.
So what is Satan hindering the Apostle Paul all about? It’s about God will being done, not ours. It’s about God having a better plan than we do. It’s about Satan and his beastly hordes always on the defensive, always beating a quick retreat and digging futile trenches to try and slow the advance of almighty God and His Christian Soldiers. All this because God loves us, and although we might lose the occasional battle, we can be sure of eventually winning the war. How do I know? I’ve read the end of the Book, and we win! What a happy note to end with.
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I’ve read the back of the book and we win,
no more livin’ in darkness we’ll be living at home with HIM.
You see there’s no need to worry about it if you’re born again.
I’ve read the back of the book and we win.
Every Saturday morning I walk across Mexico Highway 190 from the home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico, where I volunteer, to Centro De Intenamiento Feminil De Tanivet, otherwise know as the women’s prison. Usually I look forward to this time where I teach English class and share the Gospel with incarcerated women. Sometimes, I admit, I think of other things that I would rather be doing. On those occasions, Jesus words from Matthew 25 comes to mind, “I was in prison, and you visited me.” They become a mantra for me which I repeat over and over. I see Jesus’ face in the faces of my students, and thinking about each one of them, I repeat the phrase over and over, “I was in prison and you visited me.”
I was in prison and you visited me.
I was in prison and you visited me.
I was in prison and you visited me.
This last Saturday was one of those days when I thought about all the things I needed to do at the home for needy children, and my mind changed gears from what I wanted to do, to what God wanted me to do for the “least of these” behind bars. Once again those old, familiar words of Jesus came to mind, “I was in prison and you visited me.” But that time I thought of those words differently. Instead of Jesus saying those words to me, I began to say those words to Jesus. “I was in prison and you visited ME!
I realized that long before I began to “visit Jesus in prison” he had visited me in prison. I was in a spiritual prison of sin, pride and selfishness. I was held captive by the world, the flesh and the Devil. I was a slave to evil desires and the lusts of the flesh. And then one day, Jesus came to visit. He not only visited me, but thanks be to God, He set me free! I was like Peter, bound by chains in the gloomy depths of the jail, and then the chains were broken and an angel guided him to freedom. I was like the Hebrews in Egypt, tormented by cruel taskmasters, and then they walked to freedom, delivered by a gracious and compassionate God.
The next time I read Matthew 25, I will think differently about Jesus words. He talked about being hungry and thirsty; being naked and a stranger. Being sick and in prison. Before I think about those I help who experience these conditions, I will remember that I too, spiritually speaking, was hungry and thirsty and naked and sick. I was a stranger to God’s holiness and righteousness. I was bound by sin and chained to a seemingly hopeless situation. And then Jesus visited me, and set me free! Glory hallelujah, Jesus set me free!
What jail cell are you in? Maybe you are captive to an addiction, depression, anxiety or anger. Jesus stands outside your cell door knocking. He wants to come into your hopeless situation and not only visit you, but set you free. Think about it. He loves you and wants you to be happy.
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I just read this book for the second time called Ready Player One. It’s about an eighteen year old boy who lives in the future. The future is ugly and all messed up. Nobody likes the real world, so those who have a computer and internet access, live in a computer simulated world where everything is beautiful. The billionaire who created this computer universe has died. Before he dies he created an elaborate game where the object is to find an egg that he has hid in his universe. Whoever finds the egg gains control of the universe and all of the creators wealth.
After reading this novel, I have begun to think of the Christian life as a huge computer game. I know that the Christian life is much more than a computer game, but I see similarities to following Christ and playing a computer game.
When I was in my early twenties, computers and programming and software were relatively new and I was fascinated by it all. I had played many computer and video games and I loved them, although I wasn’t very good at them. Except Pong. This was one one of the first video games to go on sale to the general public. I begged my parents for it incessantly at Christmas one year, and I got it. I played it every free moment I had and nobody could beat me.
In my senior year of high school I took a basic computer programming class in the basic language in the very first class that was offered at my school. I enjoyed it a lot, and later went on to take programming classes at a Jr. College. I started a little software business called Onward Christian Software and began to make my own Christian Bible adventure games.
I said all of that to say this: I have played a bunch of computer games and I have made some computer games and I see a lot of parallels between computer games and the Christian life.
One is that people who program computer games make them for the players to have fun. Naturally they want to make money, but they won’t make money if people don’t have fun. God created the incredible universe that we live in because he loves us and wants us to be happy.
Two. Games have rules. If you follow the rules you advance. If you don’t, you lose points and eventually die. God made a lot of rules for us to live successfully in this world he created. If we follow the rules we live happily ever after. If we don’t, we live miserable lives and die in our sins.
Three. To play computer games, you have to put quarters in a machine, or have to buy some kind of computer device and software to play the games or someone has to buy it for you, as my parents did for me with Pong. To play the ultimate game, or live the Christian life, we have to realize that Christ paid the price on Calvary. Most of the Old arcade computer games began with the words, Ready Player One? Revelation three has the words of Christ, “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears and opens the door, I will come in.” That is the biblical equivalent of “Ready Player One?” We push the red button on the console of our existence, indicating we are ready to commit our lives to Jesus, and the real game of LIFE begins.
Four. Levels. All computer games have levels. Many have more than 100 levels. Naturally the first few levels are relatively easy. As the player progresses they become more challenging, both in strategies and in quickness of the fingers in playing the game. This too is like the Christian life. Many Christians talk about when they first began to follow Christ, and the constant joy they experienced when the Holy Spirit opened the eyes of their hearts and they saw everything with a new perspective. Levels of a new believer often include baptism, joining a church, long periods of Bible reading, and, hopefully, discipleship classes.
Most new computer games kinda hold your hand and give you detailed instructions during the first few levels to acclimate the player to the game’s environment, how to maneuver in that environment and what tools or weapons are necessary and how to use those tools or weapons. A new Christian generally receives much of the same hand holding with the pastor of the church, elders, teachers and new Christian friends. Small groups can be especially encouraging. Most importantly, the presence of the Lord seems tangibly ever near.
As a game player advances in levels, he or she faces grater challenges. Frustrations increase and the game helps disappear. Their are temptations to quit and to move on to an easier game. Many Christians face similar challenges as they progress down the spiritual path of New Life. Sometimes God feels distant. Joy no longer floods their soul as it did before. They see factions in the church and perceive hypocrisy. The Christian life is no longer the utopia they once thought it was. The worst thing is that intimacy they once felt with God seems distant.
In the book Ready Player One, there are instances when all the players in the world are stuck on particular levels for months at a time. Many end up giving up. This is not unlike the Christian game of LIFE, where some people struggle with a particular situation for months at a time. They see no way out. No answer is immediately forthcoming. Some face many dark nights of the soul where God seems absent from them. Many give up. Jesus alluded to different “levels” with his parable of the soils. There is the level of joy and then persecution. There is the level of peace and then worry. Finally there is the level of endurance and then much fruit.
When a player tries and tries and tries again, and then finally masters a difficult level, he is filled with happiness and is excited about the new knowledge and strategies that he has developed that will prove very beneficial to him as he continues the game. The same is true for the Christian who remains faithful to the truth and cause of Christ. When she comes out on the other end victorious, she feels a greater intimacy with her Lord and Savior, a joy and contentment never felt before. She can say with the Apostle Paul, “I have learned in all things to be content.” She knows now, that when there was only one set of footprints on the sand, that Jesus was carrying her.
Five. Game Over. You Win. This is where I think that the parallels of the Christian Life and video games break down. The Christian Life never ends. We never ultimately win because Life goes on forever. When we get to heaven it is not Game Over, but in a sense, just beginning. God calls all Christians to make beauty, do good, and learn and disseminate truth. I think that continues in heaven and in the New Earth. An example. I am the gardener at a home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico. I love designing and planting gardens. I designed the courtyard at the mission with flowers, bushes, a fountain, paths and grassy areas. Recently the administrator at another home for needy children in Baja, California, Mexico, asked me to go there and design and plant another garden area. I was happy to do it because God loves me and wants me to be happy and wants me to make others happy enjoying a beautiful garden. Now, will my happiness in making gardens end when I get to heaven? I don’t think so because it is a desire and gift that God has given me.
I don’t think that when we get to heaven we will be standing around the throne of God worshipping Him for ten thousand years and then God will say, “You may be seated.” We will be worshipping Him for eternity, but worshipping Him and glorifying Him and enjoying Him by using the gifts and desires He gave us while on earth. The Bible talks about being faithful in the small things (on earth?), and being rewarded with greater things (in heaven, or on the New Earth?). Paul said that our eyes have not seen, nor our ears heard, nor can our minds comprehend what God has prepared for us. This verse has application not only for our life on earth but for the afterlife as well. C.S. Lewis writes that our life and service to God in this life is only a preparation for what we will be doing in the Life to come.
Having said all that, I think that when I get to heaven, that God just might give me a thousand square miles of wilderness with rivers, lakes, ponds and mountains, and tell me to get to work turning it into a garden, with unlimited resources at my disposal. Now that would be fun. I won’t be done with gardening, making beauty, in heaven. I will just be beginning. It won’t be game over, but a new level, beyond my imagination, just starting.
Ready Player One?
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“Remember He is the artist and you are only the picture. You can’t see it. So quietly submit to be painted—i.e., keep fulfilling all the obvious duties of your station (you really know quite well enough what they are!), asking forgiveness for each failure and then leaving it alone. You are in the right way. Walk—don’t keep on looking at it.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis
Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why the Devil is there a Devil? I have. I 
mean, think about it. Before God created anything, he knew that there would be a Devil. In fact it was part of his plan. In his omniscience he knew the Devil would tempt Eve, and that she would sin, and mankind would suffer pain and turmoil for a long, long time.
I have been reading Job for the last month, and page after page, chapter after chapter, I am confronted with his great trials, tribulation, and loss. He wouldn’t have had to endure such great suffering if there was no devil. Even worse, he would not have had to endure what he did if God had not allowed the Devil to do what he did. We would not have to suffer if God had not allowed the Devil to exist.
So one thing we can be sure about, it is God’s fault!
And everyone said, “Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!”
Well, if you didn’t say it, you should have. Why? Because God does love us and does want us to be happy. Our task is to figure out how having the Devil and his minions in the world can possibly be something to cheer about.
I have been thinking more intently about this because in our morning devotions at the home for needy children in Oaxaca, Mexico, a brother was sharing about a mission trip he recently took, and how the Devil was opposing them. He told some stories to indicate how the demonic forces were battling him and his good work.
My first thought was, when it comes to the Devil and his power, and God and his power, it’s like comparing a little kid with a squirt gun and the U S A with a thousand nuclear weapons. So the question arises, why does God allow the puny, weak devil to hinder the work of the Gospel? There are different Bible verses that indicate that God does indeed allow battles and struggles against the Devil, and that even tell us how to do battle against the Evil One. Why?
In thinking about this, I at first chalked it up to one of those great mysteries that we will not be able to understand this side of Gloryland. But then I got an idea of perhaps one reason why. There might be a hundred reasons why, but I am thrilled if I can come up with even one reason that might be at least partially correct.
Here it is. The Bible tells us, and Martin Luther emphasizes this, that we battle not only against the Devil, but also the world and the flesh. In fact our greatest enemy is our flesh, meaning our evil desires. The devil and the world just come along and encourage and direct and entice the flesh, the evil desires, to greater heights until we basically destroy ourselves and often times those around us.
Eve ‘s biggest combatant around the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not Satan in snake clothes. It was her flesh. Why was she even close to the tree? If God prohibited eating the fruit from that tree, then the best thing to do would have been to avoid it altogether. But Eve, like most of us, is tempted with the idea, presented to us by the lust of the flesh, to get as close to sin as we can, without actually sinning. The biggest part of the “flesh”, is pride. We think we are strong enough to get close to sin, without actually sinning.
It all started with her pride. Pride brought her close to the tree. Pride caused her to listen to the serpent. Pride caused her to consider Satan’s words. Pride caused her to pick the fruit and pride caused her to take a bite, thus changing her future, and that of humanity forever, or what seems like forever.
John tells us that sin is caused by the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Paul says sin begins with an evil desire of the flesh, which conceives and gives birth to death. Both of these Apostles didn’t need to look any farther than the example of Eve.
The Devil has been in the business of tempting people to sin for thousands of years and has gotten pretty good at it. It isn’t really all that difficult for him, since the root of sin abides in each one of us. Many Christian scholars say that humanity has a “bent” towards sin. That is our default mode. The Devil just comes along to make the sin more approachable and more destructive, and the world is along for the ride, cheering us on every step of the way.
So back to the question, WHY the devil is there a Devil? I think God allows the Devil, and the flesh for that matter, to exist to show us how weak we are without God in our lives. Paul battled the Devil daily. If that wasn’t enough of a struggle for him, he was also given a “thorn in the flesh” by God, no less. Did he complain about the Devil and the flesh and the thorn? No, he thanked God because those things reminded him of his weakness, and staring his weaknesses in the face, reminded him of his great need and dependence on God. They brought him closer to God. They reminded him that God loved him and wanted him to be happy. Paul knew that when he looked to God for help, that God was right there to strengthen him and help him overcome. Paul concluded that when he was weak, he was strong.
So we thank God and rejoice that there is the Devil, in the sense that we recognize that he is incredibly weak compared to God, and that if we are for God, and God is for us, then who can be successfully against us? Certainly not the Devil. We can sing with Martin Luther the great hymn, A Mighty Fortress is our God.
And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.
That word above all earthly powers, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him Who with us sideth:
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.
To Enjoy God 