The True Meaning of Tolerance

Tolerance.  We hear this word used a lot today.  Mostly, it's touted by special interest groups trying to push their own agendas, and clearly these groups have no idea what the word really means.

Tolerance doesn't mean I have to agree with someone's opinion, belief, practice, lifestyle, etc.  But, the special interest groups act like this is a requirement or you're intolerant.

Tolerance as defined by the online dictionary is "a fair, objective and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc. differ from one's own."  To practice tolerance means to "agree to allow the right of something that one does not approve."

Did you catch that last part?  To be tolerant doesn't mean I have to approve of the special interest's agenda. Tolerance doesn't mean I must condone, accept as right, agree to embrace something I believe is wrong.  Tolerance means I can agree to let someone else believe differently than I do and agree they have the right to do so.

Somewhere along the way, the special interest groups have redefined tolerance.  Tolerance to them means I have no right to not approve of their agendas, lifestyles, beliefs, and practices.  To them, if I don't agree with them then I'm intolerant.  Nevermind that I would never discriminate against a person based on their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc.  Nevermind that I think it's wrong to mistreat any human being based upon their race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc.  That's not good enough.  I must embrace things I don't approve of or else I'm a hate monger, narrow-minded, an imbecile, a weak-minded Christian, and of course intolerant.

I believe the Bible is the Word of God and it clearly explains what is right and wrong.   But, according to those who so strongly believe in tolerance, I have no right to believe as I do, and; therefore, I'm intolerant.  In other words, all of these people and groups really only believe in tolerance when it promotes their agendas, opinions, ideas, practices, and beliefs.

Jesus says Christians will be hated and persecuted because we believe in Him and the Father who sent Him.  And, I need only to look at comments that some of my friends on Facebook make to realize how true this is for Christians today.  The amazing thing to me is these people never think they may be hurting one of their friends by the ugly intolerant comments they make.  Or maybe, they don't care since I'm a Christian and they're not.  They're practicing the very thing they espouse to hate so much - intolerance.

What I do know is I'm not as tolerant as I once was.  Not because my belief about treating people as I would want to be treated has changed.  It hasn't.  I'm less tolerant because I have been insulted, demeaned, and shown intolerance because I believe in Jesus, God, and the Bible.  And, I suspect many other Christians feel the same way.  Our comfort though comes from Jesus himself:  "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.  Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."  (Matthew 5:11-12). 

The Impossibility of Living a Holy Life Without Christ

I've made my way to the book of Numbers in my daily Bible reading.  I finished Leviticus last week and will finish Numbers early next week.  What has really jumped out at me as I've re-read these books is the impossibility of me, all by myself, living a life holy before God.

Read Leviticus 17 - 20 and see if you could keep all the laws, rules, and commandments in order to be holy before a Holy God.  It's just not possible.  It's evident no person could.  Compared to God, we are absolutely unholy.  Now, this conclusion; however, doesn't mean I shouldn't strive to be holy.  I most definitely should.  It just is so clear I can't do it myself.

I've never fully appreciated until now how absolutely helpless I am without the saving grace of Jesus.  We're unholy to God because we sin and don't even know we've sinned.  God can't look upon us because we're committing sins we don't even know are sins. 

The enormity of measuring up would be more than we could bear if it were not for Jesus.  Our hope lies in the fact that He took all our sins, known and unknown, and carried them to Calvary.  He is now our intermediary, who pleads our case before the Father.  Without Him there is no hope.  I'm so glad, I can call Him my Savior because He is. 

One Solitary Life

My intention was to post this on Monday to finish out the Easter season; however, the roaring tornadoes kept me offline.

I first read the poem One Solitary Life when I was a kid, and used it to begin and end my 12th grade English Thesis.  It was such a beautiful tribute to my Savior.  I wonder how many public schools would let you write about Jesus now?

The poem honors the most influential life ever.  I hope you'll enjoy the short video.

One Solitary Life Movie

The Third Day

"On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.  They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.  While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.  In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them.  'Why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; He has risen!  Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galiee: The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified, and on the third day be raised again.'  Then they remembered His words." (Luke 24:1-8)

The dawn of the most glorious Sunday in the history of mankind has arrived.  The darkness is over.  Jesus, the Messiah, has risen from the grave, and He holds the keys to eternity.  The power of death has been shattered.  Satan has lost and is doomed to the very pit of Hell.

And for all who believe in Jesus, the Christ, the living God, the Son, the Saviour, our Redeemer, for all who believe in Him, eternal life awaits.  Oh death where is your victory?  Oh death where is your sting?

The very hope of mankind rests on the events that took place on this third day for without the resurrection, we are all doomed.  Praise be to God, Jesus lives.  Hallelujah He is risen!!!

(The video link below is not the greatest YouTube movie ever, but the song by Jeremy Riddle is glorious.)

He Is Risen

It Is Finished!

"The clouds had not yet lifted, the tomb was sealed and dark.  The cruel cross had crucified the hope of every heart.  The Son of God, the Lord of Life by death had been destroyed."

It's Saturday and the Light of the World is extinguished.  Darkness has fallen and fills the hearts of the disciples.  Their hope has been crucified on a wooden cross.

Peter wrestles with shame and guilt as he remembers how he has denied Jesus.  John still sees the horrific images of Jesus suffering on the cross, crying out to the Father, and dying.  The other disciples are hiding afraid they might be executed too.  And, Judas, the betrayer is dead.

This is a dark time indeed for the followers of Christ.  Jesus had told them this would happen.  Jesus had told them what was about to happen.  But, they hadn't understood.  For them all hope was gone.

Their reality on Saturday: The Romans still rule.  The people still suffer.  And, Jesus, the one they believed was the Messiah, is dead.  Evil has prevailed.  Satan has won.  Their hope is buried in a cold, borrowed tomb.

The Darling of Heaven Crucified

"His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness."  (Isaiah 52:14)

Isaiah's prophesy concerning Jesus is chilling.  I cannot imagine anyone being beaten so badly that he wouldn't even look human, but that's what happened to Jesus. 

Jesus suffered many indignaties from the time of His arrest until He drew His last breath on the cross.  After His trials, He was spit upon by the Roman guards.  To be spit upon is degrading.  A person feels violated and dirty.  I know because I had a street person spit on me a few years ago while I was walking back to my office.  I felt demeaned by this stranger who singled me out as the victim of a disgusting and hurtful act. 

Jesus was mocked and taunted about His diety.  He knew who He was, but He also knew He couldn't persuade those who tormented Him that He was the Messiah, the very Son of God.

Jesus was scourged by the Romans, who had perfected this torturous act.  They carried out the punishment using a whip with leather strips, which had bones and other sharp objects sewn to it with one purpose - to rip flesh and muscle from the victim's body.  As the barbs and hooks pounded the body, they dug deep within the flesh and when the lictor drew the whip back, the flesh was ripped in chunks from the victim's back.  There was massive blood loss during a scourging.  Bare, torn muscles would quiver uncontrollably from the trauma.  The Roman lictor stopped just before death, and many people went into shock from the trauma and blood loss.

After being scourged, Jesus was beaten about the head with a wooden stick until He was unrecognizable.  Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ probably comes the closest to depicting the scourging, but even it could not capture what Jesus endured.  We could still recognize the Christ in his movie as human.  Jesus, we would not have known.

After all this, Jesus was made to carry His own cross.  Most scholars will say He carried only a portion of the cross, but the portion He carried probably weighed 75 pounds.  And because He was strapped to it, the weight and the roughness would most certainly have further damaged His already hideous back.  He would have bled the entire route, growing weaker and weaker with each step.  "Oh to see the dawn of the darkest day, Christ on the road to Calvary."

At Golgotha, the Roman guards would have thrown Him to the ground.  Dirt and small stones would have been embedded in His back causing even more pain.  Next, He would endure the excruciating pain of having His hands and feet nailed to the cross.  The nails through His hands would have damaged nerves, which would have sent unbearable, fiery waves of pain searing up His arms. 

Finally, Jesus would have been raised up, suspended by His hands and feet.  If He moved to try to breathe, He would have aggravated the damaged nerves in His hands causing more horrific pain.  In crucifixion the body is in a position so the person cannot exhale.  And the very act of trying to breathe would be exhausting for a person who had just been nailed to the cross.  Imagine the agony if you had been scourged and beaten before the cross.  "Oh to see the pain written on Your face bearing the awesome weight of sin."

But, Jesus didn't just suffer physically.  He suffered mentally and spiritually, which for Him was more terrible than the physical suffering.  In His final moments on this earth as mortal man, Jesus had to endure the loss of His Father's presence.  In His final moments, God had left Him, and He faced death alone and condemned.  "Shameful sin, placed on Him.  The Hope of every man."

In the end, unable to exhale and too tired to inhale Jesus asphyxiated.  "Savior, Son, Holy One, slain so I can live.  See the Lamb, the Great I Am, who takes away my sin." 

Jesus, the darling of heaven, crucified. 

The Garden of Sorrow

"Tis midnight and on Olive's brow, the star is dimmed that lately shone.  Tis midnight in the garden now, the suffering Saviour prays alone."

"Tis midnight and from all removed, Emmanual wrestles lone with fears. E'en the disciple that he loved, heeds not his master's grief and tears."

Last night, our pastor preached on Gethsemane.  I had written this piece before church, and was glad to have someone who knew so much more than me confirm what I had written.   If you go to Central and you read this, it will sound much like last night, but I know a few of my non-Central friends read my blog, so it's new for them. 

Oh how deeply my heart hurts when I think of the anguish Jesus felt in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night He would be betrayed and handed over to the Romans. 

Even though He knew the outcome, His pleadings show how much He dreaded the pain, humiliation, separation from God, and finally death He'd face in just a few short hours.  He knew it was His mission, and He was resolved, as our pastor said last night, to accomplish His mission.  Still, He anguished because He was human too and as a human torture and death were unappealing.

"Tis midnight and for others' guilt, the Man of Sorrows weeps in blood. Yet, He that hath in anguish knelt is not forsaken by His God."  He was distraught to the point of death.  "And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground." (Luke 22:44)  The clinical term describing what was happening to Jesus is hematohidrosis.  When a person is greatly stressed, the blood vessels around the sweat glands constrict and then they dilate until they rupture, and the blood mixes with the sweat.

On the website, Christian Answers, an article points out it wasn't the physical suffering He would endure that caused Him the most anguish, but it was knowing His Father, God, would forsake Him as He took on the sins of you and me.  Barbara Lardinais on her website, Hannah's Cupboard, said taking on the sins of the whole world wasn't a done deal until Jesus said, "Yet not My will, but Thine be done." (Luke 22:42).  Jesus could have said, "Father, these people aren't worth it."  And God would have said.  "You're right, Son."  But, Jesus didn't say it.  He would endure in the last moments of His life, a life without God.  How horrible it must have been for the One who knew no sin, who had been in constant communion with the Father, to know He would die alone and forsaken to save someone so unworthy as me.

I feel certain God was there with Jesus comforting Him as his soul cried out in the place of sorrow.  And when He arose to meet His captors, He never faltered.  He knew He had to do it or you and I would be forever condemned.  "Tis midnight from the heavenly plains is borne the song that angels know. Unheard by mortals are the strains that sweetly soothe the Saviour's woe."

(Tis Midnight and On Olive's Brow by  William B. Bradbury)