[Featured Post] Christ Entered Our Death Camp

In light of the Easter season being upon us, this week's featured post is "Christ Entered Our Death Camp" written by Lilianne Lopez, a regular contributor to the blog Sabbath School Net. Also since many of you may be more inclined to view religious movies during this period, be sure to check out the recent post on Christians in relation to Bible-themed movies "Whose Side Are We On".

If it had not happened, could we imagine a world in which God became a Man and lived among us? Although He could have come as a powerful and wealthy King, He chose to come as a newborn powerless and poor Baby. He lived like those around Him. He obeyed His parents and His government. He even allowed them to put Him to death.

Image © Lars Justinen from GoodSalt.com

We don’t know much about Jesus’ growing-up years … probably because it was much like everybody else’s who grew up at the same time. There was nothing that would make His childhood look different from the other children in Nazareth. He was a Jewish boy, from a Jewish family, in a Jewish village.

Then something startling happened. When He was twelve, in Jerusalem for His first Passover, He realized who He was. Think for a minute about how that moment of revelation must felt for Jesus. Can you imagine being twelve and finding out that you were the Creator of the planet that you were standing on and everything on it?

Even more mind-boggling though, is that after coming to that realization, Jesus went home with His earthly parents and continued to live, work beside, and obey them for the next 18 years. Our sinful, earthly minds rebel at the thought of being subject to anyone, especially someone we perceive as being somehow less important than we are. Yet Jesus knew He was God, and still obeyed His parents and lived as their Son.

From the time when Jesus and God the Father made the plan to redeem humanity, Jesus had been obedient to the laws that governed Him. Some people like to paint Jesus as a rebel, but if we look closely at His life, we realize that He never broke a rule He didn’t have to. In every way He lived the life of a devout Jewish baby, child, and man. His parents had Him circumcised just like every other Jewish boy. He didn’t eat any unclean meat. He kept all the Jewish feasts that pointed to Him as the Redeemer. He kept the Sabbath that pointed to Him as the Creator. He kept the Ten Commandments that He had written with His own finger.

In the stories of the mythological gods, all of them tried to “fly under the radar.” Most of them didn’t even attempt to live by the same rules that humans were expected to follow. Most of the mythological gods were immoral, jealous, and unprincipled beings, according to the stories written about them. They used whatever power they had to draw attention to themselves and to get what they wanted, no matter what it cost anyone else.

Jesus was different. He allowed Himself to be beaten and killed to save each one of us, even though He could have destroyed those who were mistreating Him.

Do you think you would be able to do what Jesus did, even on a smaller scale? Here’s the story of someone who did. His name was Witold Pilecki, a captain in the Polish army and a committed Christian. In September 1940, Pilecki did the unthinkable – he sneaked into Auschwitz!
Why would anybody sneak in to a Nazi death camp? Well, Pilecki was sure that very bad things were happening in that place and he wanted to get proof of what was going on. He could only get that information from the inside. So Pilecki came up with the plan. His superiors approved it and made sure he had a false ID card with a Jewish name. Then Pilecki went out and got himself arrested by the Nazis. He was sent to Auschwitz and tattooed as inmate number 4859.

Now, it wasn’t like Pilecki had nothing to lose, he had a wife and two kids. He said, “I bade farewell to everything I had known on this earth.”

Once inside the death camp, he didn’t go around telling people that he wasn’t Jewish and that he should be treated differently.

He “became just like any other prisoner—despised, beaten, and threatened with death. From inside the camp he wrote, ‘The game I was now playing at Auschwitz was dangerous…. In fact, I had gone far beyond what people in the real world would consider dangerous.’

“But beginning in 1941, prisoner number 4859 started working on his dangerous mission. He organized the inmates into resistance units, boosting morale and documenting the war crimes. Pilecki used couriers to smuggle out detailed reports on the atrocities. By 1942, he had also helped organize a secret radio station using scrap parts. The information he supplied from inside the camp provided Western allies with key intelligence information about Auschwitz.

“In the spring of 1943, Pilecki joined the camp bakery where he was able to overpower a guard and escape. Once free, he finished his report, estimating that around 2 million souls had been killed at Auschwitz. When the reports reached London, officials thought he was exaggerating. Of course today we know he was right.

“Here’s how a contemporary Jewish journal summarized Pilecki’s life: ‘Once he set his mind to the good, he never wavered, never stopped. He crossed the great human divide that separates knowing the right thing from doing the right thing.’ In his report Pilecki said, ‘There is always a difference between saying you will do something and actually doing it. A long time before, many years before, I had worked on myself in order to be able to fuse the two.’ The current Polish Ambassador to the U.S. described Pilecki as a ‘diamond among Poland’s heroes.’”¹

Mr. Pilecki was not Jewish and didn’t need to worry about what was going on in those camps. As far as he and his colleagues knew they were work camps. But Pilecki wasn’t satisfied to stand by and watch. He had spent his life working for freedom and eventually gave his life because he refused to give up the names of the people with whom he worked.

Jesus was not human and He didn’t need to worry about anything here on earth. We blew it – he could have just created another world and forgotten about us. But Jesus couldn’t stand by and watch, either. He and His Father made a plan and snuck Him into our sinful existence. And just like Pilecki, Jesus risked all. He risked failure and eternal loss.

“In stooping to take upon Himself humanity, Christ revealed a character the opposite of the character of Satan. But He stepped still lower in the path of humiliation. ‘Being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’ Philippians 2:8. As the high priest laid aside his gorgeous pontifical robes, and officiated in the white linen dress of the common priest, so Christ took the form of a servant, and offered sacrifice, Himself the priest, Himself the victim. ‘He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him.’ Isaiah 53:5.

“Christ was treated as we deserve, that we might be treated as He deserves. He was condemned for our sins, in which He had no share, that we might be justified by His righteousness, in which we had no share. He suffered the death which was ours, that we might receive the life which was His. ‘With His stripes we are healed.’”(E.G. White, Desire of Ages, p. 25)

1. Matt Woodley, managing editor, PreachingToday.com;  Rob Eshman, “The man who snuck into Auschwitz,” JewishJournal.com (12-5-12); Captain Witold Pileck, The Auschwitz Volunteer (Aquila Polonica, 2012) ↩

[Book Review] Watching the War

Sometimes the importance of a situation prevents us from taking a big picture look at it.  In his book Watching the War, David B. Smith takes a big picture look the most important situation in the universe.

David B. Smith follows in the footsteps of  C.S. Lewis in this unorthodox view of what many call "the great controversy" or "the story of redemption", which begins with the origin of sin, and ends with its ultimate destruction.  Watching the War portrays this saga primarily from the perspective of Malachon and Pershia, rulers of the fictional planet Senteria.  Aside from giving the author a base from which to tell a story, what purpose does this change in view serve?

Perspective Increases Awareness

While Smith reveals that his personal intention for this perspective is an attempt to get answers for his many questions, another benefit comes as the result of this change; awareness.  Changing our perspective often makes us aware of aspects that we had previously overlooked.  An example from the book comes from the story the fall of Adam and Eve.  In this book Malachon and Pershia travel with God to talk with Adam and Eve, and Pershia gives an impassioned plea that whatever they do, they should not eat the fruit.

More Than Simply a Story

In addition to creative storytelling, Smith takes frequent breaks from the narrative to further unpack some of the concepts that occur in the story.  He draws from a variety of sources (including C.S. Lewis)  to help the reader understand these complex concepts, but he readily admits that he doesn't have all the answers.  At one point, in an attempt to explain how one Man's death on a cross can save an entire planet, Smith states that one doesn't have to know how it works, one simply has to know that it does work.

Conclusion

Many Christians may not learn anything new from this book, but you will be reminded of many important concepts including the most important concept of all, that God loves you.  This book can be purchased for a very reasonable price, and along with the limited amounts of paper copies available (see link above), you can also purchase a Kindle edition.  So what are you waiting for?  Pick your copy today.

What to do you think about this approach to explaining complex subjects?  Tell us your view in the comment section.

Spiritual Hotspotting

Can an innovative approach to dealing with people's physical health translate into the spiritual realm?

I recently watched a relatively short (13 min) video about a doctor named Jeffrey Brenner in New Jersey who has taken upon himself the task of dealing with the sickest people in his city of Camden.  He found these people through analyzing medical billing data and by doing so mapped out "hot spots" where people incurring the highest medical costs lived.  He developed the Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers as a means of helping improve these people's lives.  While innovation is definitely needed in the healthcare system, should we implement such innovation in our dealings with people's spiritual lives?

First off, how would we determine people's level of spirituality?  Dr. Brenner found his high cost patients through analyzing medical billing records.  Similar records showing spirituality simply do not exist.  Sure, we could go such organizations such as The Association of Religion Data Archives and find all sorts of data on religious attendance and adherence, but as we probably all know, a high level of spiritual health and regular church attendance do not always go together.  We could go to the impoverished, high-crime areas in hope of finding those with the greatest spiritual need, but as I mentioned in a previous post, Jesus did not have many positives to say about the spiritual health of rich people.  Simply put, it is virtually impossible to get an accurate picture of someone's spiritual health by focusing on the externals.  Sure, a man who systematically abuses his wife is definitely not one who has a high level of spirituality, but Jesus made it quite clear in His famous Sermon on the Mount that it is what is on the inside that matters most to God.  So, since our lack of the ability to accurately determine spiritual health (even, oftentimes our own) prevents us from spiritual hotspotting, what about the One Who is able to accurately determine spiritual health, does He target only high-need individuals?

No, and Yes.  Jesus was the best representation of how God deals with people, and we read about Him dealing with everyone from the profligate Samaritan woman to the well-behaved Nicodemus.  God does not demonstrate a favoritism in regards to how He deals with people.  So, then where does the "Yes" come from?  The "Yes" comes from the fact that "all have sinned" and therefore all need to be saved.  "All" means "all", from the person who systematically commits open sins, to the person whose sinning resides only between their ears, nobody can save themselves, and therefore everybody need a Savior.

So if the temptation comes to deal with the spiritual needs of only a specific group, remember "hotspotting" may work for the physical life but does not work for the spiritual life.

The Mind-Blowing Love of God

It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but the best ones are those who render you almost speechless.  I rediscovered one of those today.

I am a collector of pictures, most notably pictures of the natural world.  Some are those that I have taken myself, but also many from other sources.  I keep these pictures on my computer and use them as my desktop background.  Since I have quite a few, I change my background on a regular basis.  As I was deciding what my next change was going to be I found a picture of a spiral galaxy tucked away in one of my folders.  This got me thinking along the lines of astronomical pictures.  I did a search for this kind of pictures and came to a rather reliable source for good astronomical pictures, the site for the Hubble Space Telescope aptly named hubblesite.org.  Naturally I found a number of good pictures, but there was one that every time I see it blows my mind.

The title of the photo is rather mundane (it's called "The Hubble Deep Field North"), but what is in the picture is anything but mundane.  The caption states,

About 1,500 galaxies are visible in this deep view of the universe, taken by allowing the Hubble Space Telescope to stare at the same tiny patch of sky for 10 consecutive days in 1995. The image covers an area of sky only about width of a dime viewed from 75 feet away.

Take a look for yourself and keep in mind that practically every speck you see is not merely a star, but rather a galaxy of stars.


Source: Hubblesite.org

Here's a brief video on how the picture was taken.


Here are two points that stood out to me.

• There are galaxies in the picture which are 12 billion light years away (a light year is approx. 6 trillion miles).  A billion times a trillion is a very large number.
• Each of the approx. 1,500 galaxies can consist of 1-100 billion stars.
• Also remember that this is from a piece of the sky smaller than the period at the end of this sentence.

As your mind is already straining to comprehend the size of it all, let me throw this fact at you.  The same God Who created and cares for all of this would have emptied Himself to save you if you were the only one who needed saving.

Behold the mind-blowing love of God.

Written From Rome

We can learn a lot from Paul's prison letters.

This chapter deals with two letters written by Paul during his prison term in Rome. The letter to the Colossians and the letter to the Philippians. E.G. White goes into a fair amount of detail regarding the content of these letters, but I will just touch on certain points so as to not rewrite the chapter.

The Colossian believers had to deal with the entrance of those who were spreading false doctrines. Something that, sadly, is still prevalent in the church today.

The warnings of the word of God regarding the perils surrounding the Christian church belong to us today. As in the days of the apostles men tried by tradition and philosophy to destroy faith in the Scriptures, so today, by the pleasing sentiments of higher criticism, evolution, spiritualism, theosophy, and pantheism, the enemy of righteousness is seeking to lead souls into forbidden paths. To many the Bible is as a lamp without oil, because they have turned their minds into channels of speculative belief that bring misunderstanding and confusion. The work of higher criticism, in dissecting, conjecturing, reconstructing, is destroying faith in the Bible as a divine revelation. It is robbing God's word of power to control, uplift, and inspire human lives. By spiritualism, multitudes are taught to believe that desire is the highest law, that license is liberty, and that man is accountable only to himself. pg. 474

We may not always see blatant examples of such belief systems in or churches, but if we look with open eyes, we can see the fruits of such beliefs. We can see interpretations of the Bible that are based upon tradition and human philosophy that do nothing more than cause confusion. However, what strikes me most about the above statement is the phrase "that man is accountable only to himself". So many people live that way even if they profess an accountability to God. To live a double life is to have no life at all.

The work of gaining salvation is one of copartnership, a joint operation. There is to be co-operation between God and the repentant sinner. This is necessary for the formation of right principles in the character. Man is to make earnest efforts to overcome that which hinders him from attaining to perfection. But he is wholly dependent upon God for success. Human effort of itself is not sufficient. Without the aid of divine power it avails nothing. God works and man works. Resistance of temptation must come from man, who must draw his power from God. On the one side there is infinite wisdom, compassion, and power; on the other, weakness, sinfulness, absolute helplessness. pg. 482

Despite his most unfavorable circumstances, Paul was able to write some masterpieces regarding practical godliness, and we would do well to take the time to read and ponder these prison letters.

Once More

Psalm 116:3-7  ³ The cords of death entangled me, the anguish of the grave came upon me; I was overcome by trouble and sorrow.  ⁴ Then I called on the name of the LORD: "O LORD, save me!"   ⁵ The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion.  ⁶ The LORD protects the simplehearted; when I was in great need, he saved me.  ⁷ Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you.

Once more we find the psalmist crying out for help and once again we find him getting relief.

Psalm 116 is like many other psalms I have read so far. The psalmist is in trouble, the psalmist cries out for help, God helps the psalmist, the psalmist is thankful. I was tempted to say, "Oh, here we go again" but then I got to thinking.

It is actually a good thing that we can find all these similar psalms because it means that the psalmist was in constant need of God's help. That's a good thing because so am I. I can think of multiple times just in the past seven days that I needed His help. I just need to get into the habit of crying out for help more often in these situations. Only then can I "be at rest once more."

Salvation to the Jews

The gospel of Christ is not simply for the Gentiles, but for the Jews as well.

This chapter deals with Paul's letter to the Romans, and more specifically, his burden for the Jewish people.

In this letter Paul gave free expression to his burden in behalf of the Jews. Ever since his conversion, he had longed to help his Jewish brethren to gain a clear understanding of the gospel message. "My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is," he declared, "that they might be saved." pg. 374

 I was taught as I was growing up that the stoning of Stephen in Acts 7:54-60 marked the end of the Jewish nation as God's chosen people, and that this event marked the end of the Jewish era, and the beginning of the Christian era. Later on in life I became uncomfortable with that concept partially because whenever it was explained to me, those explaining it walked a conceptual tightrope saying that God rejected the nation, but didn't reject the people. I wondered how that was possible considering the nation was comprised by the people. Stephen is not mentioned in this chapter, but E.G. White does have this to say.

Through unbelief and the rejection of Heaven's purpose for her, Israel as a nation had lost her connection with God. But the branches that had been separated from the parent stock God was able to reunite with the true stock of Israel --the remnant who had remained true to the God of their fathers. "They also," the apostle declares of these broken branches, "if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again." "If thou," he writes to the Gentiles, "wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. pgs. 378,379

God has always had a remnant, something that is evident in the fact that many of the early Christian believers came from Jewish backgrounds.

At the time of the Saviour's advent there were faithful men and women who had received with gladness the message of John the Baptist, and had thus been led to study anew the prophecies concerning the Messiah. When the early Christian church was founded, it was composed of these faithful Jews who recognized Jesus of Nazareth as the one for whose advent they had been longing. It is to this remnant that Paul refers when he writes, "If the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches." pg. 377

There is more to the chapter, but the point I want to make is similar to the one she made. We are to work for the Jewish people just as much as for Gentiles.

Among the Jews are some who, like Saul of Tarsus, are mighty in the Scriptures, and these will proclaim with wonderful power the immutability of the law of God. The God of Israel will bring this to pass in our day. His arm is not shortened that it cannot save. As His servants labor in faith for those who have long been neglected and despised, His salvation will be revealed. pg. 381

Hearing the Groans

Psalm 102:18-20 ¹⁸ Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the LORD: ¹⁹ "The LORD looked down from his sanctuary on high, from heaven he viewed the earth, ²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners and release those condemned to death."

Even though God is in heaven, He is not immune our suffering down here on earth.

Psalm 102 is and interesting psalm. The subtitle is "A prayer of an afflicted man. When he is faint and pours out his lament before the LORD." It is a mixture of suffering and salvation. I'm focusing on my chosen passage mainly because the author of the psalm wanted people to remember the statement recorded there. It is much like a person today giving a speech and saying, "If you remember one thing, remember this." We are a people prone to forget, so I hope that by focusing on this text, we may remember it a little more easily.

The thought put forth is an important one, and one that is often forgotten when we are suffering. It is that the God in heaven is affected by our suffering here on earth. Not only does He hear the groans of those who are literally prisoners and condemned to die, but He also hears the groans of those who are prisoners of sin and condemned as a result. He has compassion upon us and will release us from our bondage.

God is not, as some people have said, a sort of heavenly watchmaker who wound up this world and left it to its own devices. He personally cares for each and everyone one of us down here. That fact alone should give us hope. That fact alone should give us peace. That fact alone should give us a reason to praise the Lord. We are not alone.

Restore Us

Psalm 80:19  Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

God doesn't merely save us. He restores us.

The verse I am focusing on today is repeated two other times in this psalm in verse three and in verse seven. Although the wording is basically the same, there is some progression in the way Asaph addresses God. The progression goes "Restore us, O God", "Restore us, O God Almighty", and "Restore us, O LORD God Almighty". A possible explanation for this progression is a growing sense of desperation.

This psalm, like others, is a historical psalm which tells the story of his people. What is different this time around is that Asaph uses the metaphor of a vine to describe his people. The vine was a metaphor that many of its original hearers (this psalm was meant to be sung) could identify with. Asaph recounts how God brought this vine out of Egypt, and took care of it so that it "sent out its boughs to the Sea, its shoots as far as the River." (vs. 11) However, the vine was, at the time of the writing of this psalm, "cut down" and "burned with fire" (vs. 16). Asaph was desperate to have the vine restored to its original glory, not merely saved from destruction.

In the same manner, all of us are in need of both restoration and salvation. Humanity has gone down a long way from its original glory in Eden. The good news is that much of that original glory can be restored. Sure, we will not be restored so that we will be the same physically as our original parents, but we can be restored in a spiritual sense. 

Thank you, God that You don't merely save us from the flames, but You work within us so that, through Your power, we can be the best people that we can be.

Save Me

Psalm 54:1,7  Save me, O God, by your name; vindicate me by your might. . . . For he has delivered me from all my troubles, and my eyes have looked in triumph on my foes.

I need to remember that help is there the moment I ask for it.

I find it interesting that at the beginning of this Psalm, David is crying out for help, and at the end he is speaking in the past tense that he has been delivered.  The heading of the psalm gives some background.  I read the story of what happened, and I don't see any immediate deliverance of David from his troubles. This leads me to think in different terms.  David was accepting the fact that God will deliver him, maybe not immediately, but ultimately.  I need to remember that fact when I am in trouble, and in whatever form that trouble may come.

Sure, I may sometimes be in trouble like David was, where my physical life is in danger, but I most of the time I am in spiritual danger.  My biggest enemy in this case is the person I see in the mirror, and I need to not only ask for deliverance, but believe that I will ultimately be delivered.

Thank you Lord for saving me from myself.