Meeting Alice Cooper

“Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me (Jeremiah 9:24).”

The very gracious Alice Cooper and a prodigal fan

It was 1976…Las Vegas.  I was a teenager when I saw Alice Cooper for the first time at the Aladdin Casino.  The rock legend thundered on stage and Sin-City went berserk!  

At the edge of the stage a fan snapped pictures as he sang.  Alice leaned over for close ups and she frantically clicked away.  Then he grabbed her camera and started taking close ups of her!  Alice gave the camera back and went on to give a great performance.

Fabulous memories for her and me.  I was not a famous rock star, but Alice and I had one thing in common — we were both prodigal sons from Detroit, stoners running away from our Father in Heaven.  Neither one of us knew or understood God one bit.  We were lost.

That changed for me in 1980, and for Alice a bit later when we surrendered to Jesus Christ.  “I was drinking with Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix, and trying to keep up with Keith Moon and they all died at 27,” Cooper said.  “I was throwing up blood nearly every morning.”  I was partying too, but with my less famous pals…Cooper, Jimmy, and Keith. 

 

Vincent the Prodigal signing autographs

I nearly died too, but the real story is that we both came home to our Father.  Jesus saved us, the famous and the not so famous.  Last Friday, we finally met.  He signed my book–52 THINKS ABOUT GOD–and we chatted for a bit.  I gave him a copy for his teen center in Phoenix (Solid Rock), which helps kids stay off the streets with free lessons to play instruments, sports, etc.  He lit up when I told him the gospel content in my book.

When we finished talking, Alice asked me what I wanted him to sign on the title page of 52 THINKS.  I suggested one of my life verses, “How about Roman 9:16-17?”  

He grinned a big friendly smile and said, “How about Galatians 2:20?”  

Our Life Verse

I winked back.  “Works for me.”  He didn’t know it, but that’s also a life verse for me.  

I shared Galatians 2:20 in 1980 at my baptism in the middle of the Red Cedar River at MSU.  Our mutual life verse sums up how you become a Christian (which baptism symbolizes in the death of your old life…buried in the water and then raised up anew).  

“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me.”  Did you catch that?  Christ…lives…in…me! 

Meeting Alice was a big thrill, but understanding and knowing God is the real boast.  Alice and I have that in common.  Jesus lives in our bodies.  You can meet Alice too, in Heaven.  Just surrender and ask Jesus to come inside…and join us, the former prodigals.

Here’s the 1976 show (B.C.) 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqEVYNTdc3c

A great stocking stuffer for your prodigal

      

An Understandable Misunderstanding

“God makes a home for the lonely; He leads out the prisoners into prosperity, only the rebellious dwell in a parched land (Psalm 68:6).”

John Steinbeck’s title –– inspired by Revelation 14:14-16

John Steinbeck, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his novel about a parched land (The Grapes of Wrath) said, “We are lonesome animals.  We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome.”  

Put another way, we fill up our Saturdays with some “thing” to not be so lonely.  We may not admit it, but we all live for our particular thing…golf, college football, travel, a boat, or a person.  And those 3,600 Saturdays all add up to one thing –– one life spent, on self.

But the Apostle Paul said, “To live is Christ.”  His “thing” was others, to tell everyone that our death riddle was solved in the resurrected Jesus.  “I do all things for the sake of the gospel.”  His life was spent sharing a message to end loneliness and free prisoners.

The 1940 Movie Poster

We think this life is all there is and so we invest in it to stave off our loneliness.  Paul disagreed.  The real life is yet to come, so death is actually a gain.  His full quotation is, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  No one thinks death is a gain.  When we offer our condolences we say, “I’m sorry for your loss.”  But Paul says just the opposite, and more!

“I prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord.”  Death (absent from the body) is preferable when you realize that Jesus Christ is truly alive, and waits for you to come home to the real world (no loneliness), to real “prosperity” (death-row prisoners ransomed and adopted by a cosmic billionaire).  If you let Him, He’ll lead you home too. So why this loneliness?  

We’re lonely because we don’t know our Creator, filling up Saturdays in our prison cell with our “thing.”  We misunderstand.  This life is a “puff of smoke.”  The next eternal life, where the risen Jesus is, is the real deal.  It’s an “understandable misunderstanding” because sin has deadened us, made us spiritually unaware of His love, and condemned us.

John Ford, Jane Darwell, and Henry Fonda on GOW set

This sin-coma imprisons us in its death sentence.  “The wages of sin is death,” both now, making us spiritually dead and separated from God; and also in our physical death, forever separated.  But if we give up, ask Him to take away our sin-tattoo, and trust His cross-payment for our sin…then we’re released from prison (John 5:24).  It’s simple faith…a complete, genuine surrender that says, “I was wrong, I’m sorry, take me back.”  

Sadly, Steinbeck rejected Jesus’ offer.  “I am not religious so I have no apprehension of the hereafter, either in hope of reward or a fear of punishment.”  In 1968, Steinbeck died in New York City, on the Friday before Christmas…hours before his very last Saturday.

Now you know the truth.  There’s no misunderstanding.  You can end your aloneness, come home, and be freed from the sin prison of selfishness.  Or stay a rebel like Steinbeck in a parched land, condemned in your cell, waiting for your last Saturday. You only need to be willing (John 5:40).

 

That Bloody Vending Machine

“Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth…(John 5:28-29).”

A Classic!

Since 1978, there have been almost 40 deaths from vending machines.  Death is complicated enough, but to die by tilting a vending machine on top of you really takes the Tasty-kake.  We are told death is natural, right?  Wrong.  Death is not natural.  Death is the most un-natural thing I can think of –– we stupidly pulled it down on top of ourselves.  

The Bible says death is the result of sin, our rebellion against God.  “The wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).”  We earned death by our rejection of God’s best for us.  Even today we mostly ignore God as irrelevant.  “The soul who sins will die (Ezekiel 18:4, 20).”  Sin changed the natural course of His loving will for us and death was conceived.

James Dean…the ultimate rebel

But death also focuses us.  Our life can seem busy or dull, but seeing death up close changes us.  We think deeper and wonder, “Where is that soul I knew so well?”  We see their body, but we know it’s only a clay shell.  King Solomon said, “It is better to go to funerals than parties because death is the end of every man and the living take it to heart.”    

Death silences us too.  No one has an answer for this bizarre event.  When we stare at a loved one in a coffin, and smell decay…no one can comfort our blurry grief.  No one, that is, except Jesus, the Son of David.  “I am the resurrection and the life.  He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies (John 11:25).”  Easter defanged death’s bite.  

James Dean’s fatal car wreck

So His death saves us.  That’s why His words are a marvel to those in the tombs.  All the dead will hear Him…and come forth to give an account for their life.  The resurrection of the dead is as sure as death stalking you today, and so is His voice to call you to judgment.  Jesus earned the right when He rose again and killed death (Revelation 1:18). 

Bob Dylan wrote, “Do you ever wonder just what God requires?  You think He’s just an errand boy to satisfy your wandering desires.”  We treat God like a vending machine.  We think if we pull a cosmic lever then He’ll do our bidding. But what does God want?  “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies,” declares the Lord God.  “Therefore, repent and live (Ezekiel 18:32).”  He wants to restore us, but our sin remains. 

B.C. Bob

Sin made a chasm between God and us (Isaiah 59:2).  We need to repent, put our sin on Jesus, and take His blood sacrifice to bridge this gap (2 Corinthians 5:21).  But how?  Vending means “to transfer to another person the equivalent.”  We must make a transfer, and receive Him by faith (Colossians 1:13-14).  You can look at a Tasty-kake all day, but it’s not yours until you pull the lever…His blood for your sin.  Then His voice will be a joyous thrill to hear on that last day, if today is your salvation day (2 Corinthians 6:2).

Do Jeff and Rod have a transfer ticket?
https://youtu.be/yC_j_dzkaVE

Want more Jesus? Read John chapter 5

   

The Sick Sense

“…but the things which are not seen are eternal (2 Corinthians 4:18).”

“I see dead people.”

I love surprise endings, like The Sixth Sense film –– Dr Crowe tries to cure young Cole’s neurosis (he sees the unseen world, ghosts), but the trick isn’t revealed until the very end, when Crowe realizes his gunshot wound in the opening scene was fatal; that’s why Cole, “I see dead people,” can see him.  Dr Crowe has been dead…the whole movie!  Tricked!    

Like Dr Crowe, we’re unaware that we are dead too, spiritually speaking, and the unseen world is the actual reality.  The Bible reveals the trick in Ephesians 2:1, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins.”  But the Sin-trick is still in play and Sin needs removal before our physical demise seals our fate (John 8:24).  Like thick scales on the eyes of our heart, we’ve all been duped.  “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick (Jeremiah 17:9).”  We think this is really living, but actually we’re dead. 

 

The Sixth Sense trailer

Deceived means you don’t know you’re deluded.  Even now you question this very point, that you’re Sin-tricked; unconcerned, trusting in your five senses.  I can prove it to you, but I can’t convince you.  Jesus said as much, “If they will not listen to Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead (Luke 16:31).”  If we won’t bother to read God’s remedy, then even a resurrection miracle can’t shake us. 

Oblivious, the proverbial frog in the pot of warming water, we’re content to not consider His Word as our cure, comfortably numb as we slow-boil to death.  I’ve reasoned with a cousin who is not a Christian for two years, answering his questions in great detail, but finally this week he told me he is not persuaded.  Loved my answers, they all made perfect sense, and was impressed by my knowledge of the Scriptures, but he’s decided to take his chances that this world is all there is.  Proved, but not convinced.

The most famous frog

Heartbreaking, but God loves us enough to let us choose –– seek Him or ignore Him (Acts 17:30).  He will not force a robotic love.  We must want His gift of eternal life.  My cousin has chosen to ignore the unseen world, and so now I ask you.  Will you consider the real world or just sit in the boiling water, happy with what you can only see?  In short, do you think Jesus lied to you?  (He discusses Truth in the Gospel of John, chapter 8.)

I left my cousin with two questions:  Is the Bible a supernatural revelation, and is Jesus’ tomb in Jerusalem empty? Disprove those points and then “eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.”  But if you seek Him out, He promises you’ll meet Him (Jeremiah 29:12-13).  Perhaps try reading the Book of Romans in a modern translation (NLT or NIV).  The Apostle Paul lays out the Jesus cure very succinctly to the Roman believers.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%201&version=NLT

The Apostle Paul’s Letter to Rome

Reading Romans will only take an hour.  I bet it will surprise you, and hopefully change your ending.  Remember, deceived means you don’t know you’re deluded.  Surprise endings can be great fun, unless you’re the one tricked…like Dr Crowe.    

POV

“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the… (1 Samuel 16:7).”

Ah, to be 12 again and know everything

We’re all just 12-year-olds in grown-up clothes.  That perspective got me through a recent conference full of very important Hollywood folks.  We’re all just people, right?  

Anyone who knows me knows that I like to talk to strangers.  On a vacation once my family didn’t know where I was. My daughter said, “Just look for a crowd and Dad will be in the middle.”  I’m used to talking to strangers, but when they wield that much media influence, it puts me off my game a bit.  We see the clothes, famous faces, and name tags.

At the City Gates of Hollywood’s influence on your POV

Our human point of view can shift, be influenced, and we all disagree on something, but God is not sidetracked by appearances – He looks inside, at the heart.  And so, His POV is right, and always right.  We form opinions and views, but God has the heart facts.

And what is God’s point of view on us?  God’s POV on “our facts” is clearly revealed in the Bible.  He says we are made in His likeness and each person has great value as His reflection.  “God created Man in His own image, male and female…(Genesis 1:27).”

But He says we’re rebels, lawbreakers, running from Him and His immense love.  “All of us like sheep have gone astray.  Each of us has turned to his own way…(Isaiah 53:6).”  

My POV at 30,000 feet. Can you see it?

That’s because we’re all broken by this rebellious, independent, and selfish attitude, what the Bible calls sin.  “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).”  (Doubt it?  Who do you look for first in your school yearbook or family group photos?)

And yet, He loves us anyway, which is quite astounding.  “But God demonstrates His own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…(Romans 5:8).”

He came to rescue us from spiritual death, caused by sin that makes us unholy.  “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost (Luke 19:10, Romans 6:23).”

Fast forward 16 minutes to hear Woodhouse’s brilliant explanation

He also says that if we don’t return, that one day He’ll punish everyone who defies Him and His Word.  “Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished (Proverbs 11:21).”

Our punishment is just, and loving (because it protects those who love Him from harm).  “Dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.  These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).”

He does not delight in our death or our rebellion.  “I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that the wicked turn from his way and live…(Ezekiel 33:11).”  It’s all very bad news, and thankfully really good news.  I guess it all depends on our point of view on how we see God’s POV.  After all, most 12-year-olds in adult clothes know best.

What in the world do you allow to influence you?

(If you can’t see it, look again at my flight photo above…at the top left/center is…a polar bear! Never saw it until weeks later!)

The Exorcist…Reversed

“Test yourselves to see if you are in… (2 Corinthians 13:5).”

William Peter Blatty

Deliver the message.  That was my job at Knight-Ridder Newspapers for four years. As the Home Delivery Manager, I made sure you got your newspaper on time and readable (dry), 365 days a year.  Sounds easy, right?  Just trust my six District Managers, to trust 42 drivers and 350 kids to follow directions, in the dark, with 30,000 newspapers.           

Frankly, it was hard, and a lot like life…a daily test, challenges galore, and trusting others to deliver.  If that sounds familiar, and your life’s hard, then consider reading the directions –– the Bible.  I know, it sounds corny, but God’s Instruction Manual has one primary wow-message: Life makes the most sense if the Author is inside of your body.

Me and the CDT, on time and readable

You read that right, God…in…you.  The Apostle Paul said, “Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves!  Or do you not recognize this about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you –– unless indeed you fail the test.”  That’s what it means to be a Christian, Christ in you, literally.  Jesus wants to possess your body with His Spirit.  

I never knew that being a Christian meant Jesus inside of me until I read Ephesians 1:13-14.  Hear His message, believe it, and then be permanently sealed –– God’s Spirit living in my body.  The coolest thing (and there are lots of cool things) is that this Spirit possession makes you immortal!  Sounds crazy, right?  Well, that’s what Jesus said (John 14:16-20). He’s either lying, totally insane, or exactly who He said He was…God-in-the-flesh.

Part One of the Gospel of John

God’s message is simple: “Jesus can be embedded in you.”  You don’t have to be alone in life.  But believing in God (in His existence or facts about Him) doesn’t make you a Christian.  There’s only one question on His test about who goes to Heaven…have you asked Jesus to come inside of you?  “Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27).”  

It has nothing to do with you or your religion.  Nothing.  Being good or bad, an American or going to church, baptized, Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or an atheist.  It’s just this…is the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth inside of your physical body now?  That’s all.  Spirit possession.  His entrance restores your broken relationship with the Father, obliterates your sin, and gives you a fresh start, a new spiritual birth (John 3:1-3). 

That’s amazing!  The Creator in you, helping you with life’s daily challenges, giving you a clear conscience because all of your sins are forgiven, and now your best friend (who has all power, even enough to de-fang death and raise the dead).  It’s a totally free gift for anyone who asks Him to come inside (Romans 6:23).  Just trust Him to deliver you.

The Gospel of John Part Two

And all God wants in return is you.  Change your mind about living alone, give up trying, and come home to Dad (Luke 15:11-32).  Don’t take my word for it.  Go read the New Testament in a modern version (like the New Living Translation).  Well, that’s it.  My job is done.  Message delivered, on time, and readable.  Now it’s up to you…in or out? 

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me (Revelation 3:20).”

12 to 3

“Was it not necessary… (Luke 24:26)?”

My Mom – B.C.

Once a year, at noon, my Mom would make me come inside and sit quietly until 3PM, respectfully, because this was when Jesus was “dying on the cross.”  And not just dying, He was dying for me.  That was Good Friday in our house.  

School was out, so we usually played football in the street, that is, until she called me home.  I could read or watch television, as long as I was reverent.  To my Mother, it was necessary to honor Him.  This made a deep impression; I mattered to God, to an innocent man, as Pontius Pilate said of the Jew who claimed to be God, who was murdered for me.  

Mr “Two-Hand-Touch Football” 1970

My Mother’s parenting seems strange today since most folks ignore Good Friday.  If she were not blind, we’d have driven to church, but this was her best attempt at worship to remember Jesus.  Today is Good Friday, and I always feel weird about it.  Should I be sad, be like everyone else as if nothing has happened, or be happy He died for me?  What’s necessary now?  

Necessary is a funny word (writers are like this, drilling down on words and their meaning).  It means “essential, absolutely required.”  And this is what Jesus said after His death in chapter 24 of Luke’s resurrection account, “Was it not necessary?”

What does God have to do that is “essential” and “absolutely required?”  This is very deep stuff if you think hard about it.  What is demanded of God, by Himself, that is necessary?  Make sure Jupiter spins?  The sun sets on time all over the world?  Judge sin fairly?  What must be done, no matter what, by God’s self-imposition on Himself?

My Mom’s Graduation at 18 (before her blindness)

I submit that Jesus dying a horrible, painful, and bloody, flesh-ripped death was necessary for God because of one inescapable thing…God loved us.  And loved you personally, enough to become sin and be separated from His Father for the first time, take your judgment, one you deserved for your sin, all to get you back home, safe and sound. 

Sin has consequences…Death

He thought it necessary – essential, absolutely required, no other way to do it, the only way – because He loved you so very much, He’d even die just for you.  That means if you were the only person on the planet, He would have died for your sins.  Necessary?  Wow!  If I were God I’d have found another way, but apparently it was the only way possible.  His love for you made this the only way to save you.  Jesus said, “I am the way (John 14:6).”  Not a way, but the way.  The only way.  The necessary way to pay for sin.

Grateful, as the first one to share the gospel with me

The irony of this demand God put on Himself is what you choose to do with it.  You can ignore Him.  You don’t have to come home (repent) and acknowledge what He did for you with your reverence.  Stay outside and play football, as my friends did when my Mom called.  Necessary doesn’t apply to you.  Necessary only applies to Good Friday, when His love for you was His “necessary” because you mattered enough to die for.

The Necessary Explained

But God

“And without faith it is impossible to please God, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him (Hebrews 11:6).”

Standing on the water

“Men to the left, women to the right.  Men to the left, women to the right.”  

Indifference.  That was the blasé tone of the Nazi commands to the Jews at the Auschwitz train depot.  Hate implies some emotion exists, but indifference has no feeling at all.  

Not indifferent…August Landmesser (1936)

Indifference also typifies our view of God.  If we’re honest, we don’t care if He’s real.  You may contest that, but a true litmus test of what you love is your expenditure of time and money (Matthew 6:21).  If He’s real, the greatest Being ever, and loves you, then it’s stupefying that we ignore Him; but then again, a corpse is pretty hard to impress.  

The Bible says that’s because we’re dead, a spiritual corpse, a dead soul, which explains our lackadaisical God attitude.  Sin killed it and us.  “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1).”  A disinterest in seeking God confirms this truth, “no one seeks God (Romans 3:11).”  Deep down, we don’t trust Him to have our best interests at heart, so we dismiss Him.  But God, thankfully, cared, and loved us anyway. 

 

Man’s sin on full display

God puts a supreme value on trust, what the Bible calls Faith, the “conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).”  He gave us a wake up-nudge when He became a man, and Jesus reaffirmed faith’s importance, asking us to believe that He and the Father were one and the same.  So why does a loving God put a premium on trust and faith?

My earthly Father at war with Germany

Trust is the core of a relationship.  It implies a dependency, and in this case that He knows better than we do, “a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  As a father, I want my child’s trust when I tell them to do something, or to avoid something dangerous, to believe that I instruct them out of love.  To question me is heartbreaking.  To ignore me is even worse, but if I love them then I must let them choose to obey me, and to trust me. 

So it is with our Heavenly Father who says sin separates us from Him (Isaiah 59:2).  Our indifference confirms it; we don’t believe Him.  But God, despite our hurtful attitude, not only said He loves us, He demonstrated it when He died for our sins.  He came after us, even though we didn’t care (Luke 19:10).  Jesus knew that, and He still came.  When God “butted in,” it meant His Son would die, for you, and yet most of us still ignore Him.

The walking dead at Auschwitz

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”  And Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.”  But God – two words to change your life’s direction, if you trust Him, “a rewarder of those who seek Him.”  

Or just stay indifferent, as His love allows you to choose to do.  “Men to the left.  Women to the right.”

A lone man refusing to do the Nazi salute, 1936

31,102

“If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote of Me (John 5:46).”

My favorite movie of all-time, ever!

There’s nothing like writing a perfect movie line.  “ET phone home.” “Shaken, not stirred.”  “Adrian!”  “I’ll be back.”  “Feel lucky, punk?”  “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”  “I’m your huckleberry.”  For a writer, that’s the cherry on top of a good script, especially if it’s the very last line, like in Some Like It Hot:  “Well, nobody’s perfect.”       

I try to come up with one when I’m writing all the time – a great line that will live forever in Hollywood, and the shorter, the better.  Here’s a few favorites, in three words or less: 

The Blind Side:  A very wealthy Sandra Bullock shows their adopted son from the street his new bedroom.  He’s stunned, says he never had one before, so she asks, “What?  A room to yourself?”  Looking down at it, with pitiful puppy eyes, Michael says,  “A bed.”  

“The blind leading….”

Hoosiers:  Basketball coach Gene Hackman tells Buddy to play good defense in the game, and stick with their best player like chewing gum.  When Buddy comes back to the bench after a successful stint, he says to Hackman with a straight face, “It was Dentyne.” 

Casablanca:  A mysterious Rick answers Louis as to why he’s in Casablanca, but Rick doesn’t want to reveal his past, so he says he came for the waters.  Louis corrects him with, “We’re in the desert.”  Without missing a beat, Bogie says, “I was misinformed.”  

The real Milan “Hoosiers” Champions

The Undefeated:  John Wayne exposes two shady Federal horse agents as thieves, and when the big one goes for his gun, Wayne slugs him.  The smaller crook pleads, “I didn’t do anything.”  The Duke says, “You should have.”  Then punches him in the face. 

Jesus has a memorable line too.  Well, He had a lot of them, since He wrote the Bible, but there’s one three-word line in the 31,102 verses in the Bible that really nails His life’s mission.  Any guesses what it is?  There’s a hint in the Book of Hebrews, chapter 10.  

The Undefeated

Israel tried to keep the Law of Moses, to be made right with God, to deal with their sin by blood (Leviticus 17:11), but it was never intended as a permanent solution (that’s why they did it every year).  The Temple, the sacrifices, and their Feasts were reminders that they needed forgiveness, “Well, nobody’s perfect,” all symbols pointing to the Messiah.

These temporary sacrifices were finished, “once for all time,” when the Passover Lamb was not an animal, but a perfect God-man.  As John the Baptizer said when he saw Jesus, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the World.”  That’s His mission. 

Jerusalem’s Temple after Titus

All Jewish blood sacrifices for sin ended when Rome destroyed the Temple in 70 A.D.  According to the Law of Moses without shedding blood all sin remains, but the good news is that it’s not needed if you take Jesus’ sacrifice as your own.  Now, can you guess His famous three-word line?  Just give up and it’ll all make perfect sense (John 19:30).

http://www.land-of-the-bible.com/The_Temple_Mount

One of my articles on the IMOT site (above) and Hebrews explained (below)

52 THINKS

“Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him (Isaiah 52:15).”

My new book, 52 Thinks!

Can you remember something significant from 2016?  After the last two years, normal memories seem to be buried pretty deep, let alone six years ago, but for me it’s easy…that was the year I got paid to go to Israel to write 104 articles for the Israel Ministry of Tourism, and stood in Jerusalem (I’d have done it for free)!  

The remains of the Temple in Jerusalem

They say that’s a memory that you never forget, the first time you see Jerusalem.  It was in January, like today, cold, windy, and snowing.  That’s also how long I’ve been writing my newspaper column, six years, and last month I combined some articles into a published book, a weekly devotional for the year for those still seeking Him called “52 Thinks About God.”

And so, it seemed appropriate to find a passage with “52” in it for today.  Yesterday I read Isaiah chapter 52, which was divinely appropriate for mentioning a book about seeking God–who promises us He can be easily found (Jeremiah 29:12-13).  This chapter in Isaiah is remarkable.  It’s a prophecy written around 700 B.C. about the future Messiah.  It describes Him as a King, who will be badly beaten up (verses 13-15):

“Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up, and greatly exalted.  Just as many were astonished at you, My people (Israel), so His appearance was marred more than the sons of men.  Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand.”

The back cover of 52 Thinks

This is not news to us Gentiles.  The Christ will be a Jewish King who is rejected and killed, and “sprinkle many nations” with His blood.  We know that story well, even if most don’t believe it.  Jesus of Nazareth was that King who died for our sins, and rose again from the dead, but to the Jews to whom Isaiah was writing, it was just plain crazy!

The retaining wall to the Temple

This Jewish King of all Kings will be beaten to a bloody pulp, sprinkle other nations, and leave the rulers of the world dumbfounded?  Sprinkling blood for sin was an easy concept to grasp from their sacrificial animal system in Jerusalem’s Temple, but sprinkled with God’s blood, from being beat up, from their promised Messiah-King?  So wait, Isaiah, are you saying this God-King would have human blood?  Be fully human?  This boggled Jewish minds, and still does today!  

How can the God of Abraham be human, King, and die a bloody death, for all nations, even the Gentiles?  Isn’t He all-powerful?  Who could sucker punch God-in-the-flesh?  Isaiah explains it all in his next chapter, Isaiah 53, but first he says in 52:7, “How lovely are the feet of those who bring good news.”  That is the good news of “52 Thinks.”  

Part 2 of Isaiah explained (chapters 52-53)

Our suffering King came to save us all, to sprinkle our sins with His precious blood, and He will come again as the King of Kings.  That’s very good news, worthy of 52 Thanks!

Two of the 104 IMOT articles:

http://www.land-of-the-bible.com/The_Western_Wall

http://www.land-of-the-bible.com/The_Temple_Mount