I’ll be signing copies of my book, “52 Paths To Heaven” 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 22 at Logos Bookstore in Kent.
I’ll also be breaking away to a meeting room to give a brief talk, “How Far Will God Go to Reach You?”
The Record Courier published a feature story about the event.
Please stop by if you’re in the area or let me know if you have friends who might be interested.
It’s probably a good thing that we have such intense debates about capital punishment. Our humanity may be lacking if it were easy to kill someone for killing someone else.
The Bible isn’t clear about when it’s OK to apply capital punishment. In Genesis 9:6, God pretty much sounds like it’s OK to repay blood for blood. And in Romans 13:1-7, we’re pretty much told to honor government and authorities.
Ex-cop Bobby Cutts Jr. made the national press for killing his wife and unborn baby. In the end, the jury decided to spare his life and allow for a lengthy prison sentence. Personally, I think he deserves to die. We’re not talking about a vehicular accident. He took his rage out against her and the child.
When does mercy apply? After all, in John 8:7 Jesus is all for sparing a woman caught in adultry (not sure where her spouse is). The jury had more mercy than I have to offer. I guess I’d have more mercy if Cutts was on the phone admitting his mistake seconds or minutes after his attack. Instead, he allowed days to lapse while pretending he didn’t do it.
Cutts is an enemy of society. Killing him is no worse than killing an opponent on the battle field. His horrific actions have consequences. One day God will deal with Cutts for all of eternity. Maybe I’ll hang out with him in heaven.
Why do people assume God checked out or never existed in the first place just because of a natural disaster or a school campus shooting?
Sure, He made the world and maybe He knew hurricanes would kill people. But who can say the weather patterns weren’t different before sin? And earth is supposed to be temporary anyway. On the crime front, the last time I knew God didn’t pull the trigger.
Despite the ugly aspects of our world, God is very much in charge. And He has a way of comforting us - if we’re willing to let him. Simply asking, “God, I need your help” may not be enough - though He’s known to respond in different ways. We’d be better off saying, “I need you.” It’s not His help we need in the middle of a crisis as much as the relationship He longs for us to embrace.
Have you?
I’m impressed that my son has picked up a concept I touch on in the book. It’s about how we seem to forget that you don’t need to see something to believe it’s real. He’s challenging his teacher and students to realize that’s what faith is - not seeing but knowing something is real.
Scientists amaze me with their knowledge and discoveries. But like some scientists, many people grow frustrated when they can’t prove something exists. Therefore, it must not be real, right? Wrong. We can’t see gravity, but we respect its presence. We can’t see God, but we still have faith in Him. He’s more real to us than He needs to be - in that soft, still voice we hear in our minds and in our hearts, in an embrace of a friend or a stranger, in nature, in circumstances and in His Word.
Can’t see Jesus? Set aside your pride and His presence will be clear enough.
