Katy and Molech

IMAGE: KEVORK DJANSEZIAN/GETTY IMAGES

I did not watch the Grammys sunday night for a few very good reasons. Chiefly, I was preaching at a youth service in my childhood church. I would not have traded that for anything in the world. Now of course in this modern world I could have recorded the Grammys but I didn't because the desire wasn't there. Although I love music, my love for most things pop culture has waned as I have grown closer to the Lord and less interested in the detestable practices I see on display at shows such as this.

On Monday, the front page story was the "wedding ceremony" performed on the show for 30-something couples, many of whom were same-sex couples. The heartbreaking aspect of this comes not only from the fact that I was hearing that what God calls an abomination was being sanctioned on prime-time television (of course, I would also consider the vulgar, near pornographic song and dance Beyonce presented an abomination as well, but that's another story entirely), what was more upsetting was the faux-church service that accompanied the vows. With the choir backing madonna's song, it was a clear mockery of the church. What is more upsetting to me than anything, is that an overtly Satanic performance was buried beneath the gay marriage lead. Katy Perry performed an occultic ritual on stage and I didn't see it reported on until Tuesday, and that was only to mock bloggers and Christian writers who reported on it. I have pleaded with people for months to understand that gay marriage will be used to usher in more sinister workings of satan and this is the best example yet. A young woman brings the occult into millions of American living rooms and instead of calling it what it is, the nation is preoccupied with how "beautiful it was to see same sex love celebrated." Give me a break and open your eyes.

Generally when I discuss current topics like this I add a link and encourage you to view it. I can't do that this time. I can't because this was so authentic, I don't want to be responsible for introducing it to the home of my readers not knowing if they can handle it. Here is a short recap for you: Katy Perry (a former Christian singer who grew up as a pastor's kid) began her song dressed as witch inside a bubble (fyi, circles are common to occult rituals) as beasts with horns levitated behind her. The song moves on as a dancer begins to twist his body into crazy positions as Katy moves her hands as if she is the one directing the movements. She dances to a stage adorned with witch's brooms and begins to use one as a stripper pole, blatantly painting occult workings as "sexy". All of this is set to her song "Dark Horse" in which she references "magic" and "levitating" in relation to love and her co-performer calls her a "beast". The performance ends in flames, simulating her being burned as a witch.

Cute, huh?

I am of the opinion that the entire night was orchestrated by demonic forces. In these last days displays like this will become more and more prevalent and it is time for Christians to plead the blood of Jesus over our nation and our children. We have become a nation of idolaters. Singers like Perry have been put up on a pedestal and our children treat her like a golden calf. It seems crazy and strange, but it is truth. In fact, the horns worn by dancers in the performance are referred to as "Molech Horns" because they are intended to represent the god of the same name whom people sacrificed their children to. So perhaps Katy was just showing us what we are already doing, sacrificing our children to the gods we have created. Too many parents have allowed their children to be turned over to the influences of this world. We labeled our idols as "role models of strong women" and in the process, handed our children over to the devil himself.

What happened Sunday is just the beginning. Be on guard. Teach your kids what is right. Teach them that if God is real, then so is the devil and he is seeking whom he may destroy. Anchor your kids in the word, not the world.

Are You a Steve Jobs?

There is a sticker on the back of my car. I'm sure I'm supposed to tell you it's a fish or it's about Jesus or Sunday School or my church, but it's not. (There's a pretty good reason for that. I used to have horrendous road rage and felt guilty about my witness. Not proud of it, but it's the truth.) The sticker is a little white apple. It's been there for years. At one point I was what you call a "mac-addict". If apple computer made it, I had it. My computers, tablets, and phone have all been apple for as long as I remember. I was brand loyal. And I'll admit I was pretty upset when Mr. Jobs died.

How many other brands can you think of that are so intertwined with their creator? I mean, we all associate Bill Gates with Microsoft, but do you look at your xbox and say "wow, the great pleasure I get from killing people in a video game is all do to the genius of Bill Gates? The majority of us shop at Wal-Mart, but could you pick Sam Walton out of a line-up? Jobs was the face and the genius of the company. When he died, a huge piece of apple died with him. After a series of confusing moves by apple's new leaders and an inferiority of mac products we hadn't seen before, many appleites such as myself jumped ship. In fact, I thought of this blog while I sat staring at my iPhone confused as to why it has to die everyday and then struggle to recharge. I caught myself saying "apple was awesome before Steve died and now look what happened."

Everything I've read about Jobs paints him as an egotistical genius who was brilliant at making himself indispensable. As far as I can tell, he was more concerned with making himself a legend than with leaving a true legacy. What if he had stepped away from the stage and mentored someone else to spread the message? What if he had prepared another to take his place?

You may say, "well there are lots of reasons they have struggled". That's true, but it's also true that Jobs's association with the product eventually made him bigger than what he was presenting.

So I see 2 lessons we in ministry can learn from Steve Jobs:

1. Always care more about the legacy than becoming a legend. I've watched amazing ministries continue for decades because the leaders were focused on preparing the next generation to take over. Likewise, I've seen great ideas fumble because leaders refused to give up control when it was time to go. Even worse, I've seen leadership intentionally throw out their replacement without the first day of mentoring so they will inevitably fail. In ministry, I've heard it said "we should always be working our selves out of a job." We should be setting up our replacements to do even more than we did! We should help them in whatever way possible. Even Jesus followed this premise. In John 14:12 He said that those who believed in Him would do even greater works than He. He was more concerned with the legacy of His message than anything else. His time with the disciples was a time of mentoring and preparing for the time when He would leave. If Jesus could train those He left behind, then so can we.

2. Never let yourself be more important than the message. Jobs did a great job of promoting his product, but he also made himself bigger than the message. That happens in the church all the time. A charismatic minister comes on the scene and crowds flock to his church. Then something happens, the pastor has to leave the church, and because he never instilled in them the virtues necessary for a change, they scatter. We should always be more concerned with the message than we are in making ourselves famous.

I challenge those in leadership, if you haven't already, begin to pray about who the Lord would have to take your place. Then, prepare what you think they should hear from you. Mentoring your replacement is one of the most important things you will do in ministry. What will your legacy look like?

The Mills of God's Justice

My papaw Weakley used to say "the mills of God's justice grind slow, but they grind sure." This has been a thought shared repeatedly through the ages. It means that while it can sometimes take God longer to handle a situation than we thought it would, once He has placed His final word on the matter, it will be settled to completion. I have never seen a more poignant example of this than in the last month.

The mills in the story took over 50 years to grind.

When my mother was very young, she went to live with her grandparents. While she was there, she was habitually molested by a family member. In spite of the fear her perpetrator heaped upon her, she told someone she trusted about the abuse (which went on for years), but was told to stop talking about it, and she did until she was an adult. Seemingly, the mills would never serve her on this earth.

For years she lived in fear, dread, and resentment. That was until a rainy afternoon at the age of 15 when she and her brothers were in a car wreck. She was ejected from the vehicle and as she tells it she began praying "please God, don't let me die and go to hell" over and over again. Although she couldn't have been airborne for longer than a few seconds, she says it was if time was suspended, giving her the time to repent. She hit the ground with so much impact that a bone in her leg broke and burst through her flesh. She ended up in a body cast for 6 months. As a result of that wreck, her body was quite literally broken, but her soul was restored.

She will tell you that the only way she was able to process and move on from the unbelievable abuse she endured was by the grace of God. He gave her a purpose and a ministry. Suddenly, her life became the embodiment of Genesis 50:20, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people." She began traveling across North America telling her story of how God restored her and how He could do the same for other victims.

If the best revenge is living well, she got her revenge in spades. But still, the mills seemed silent.

Her assailant was still on the street, and it would appear that God's mills were still
in her teen years
in her twenties
in her thirties
in her forties
and in almost all of her fifties, until she received a call this past December.

There had been other victims from decades before she knew of, whom she had reached out to in the past and had always said when they were ready, she would be with them. The time had come. One of them (in a feat of great courage) wanted to pursue legal action. And those mills, seemingly silent for half a century, began to make an audible sound. After news of his arrest was made public, another victim stepped forward, and then another, and then another. As it turned out, his pattern of abuse spanned over 40 years.

Let me point out, my mother did not know of the more recent abuses. Had she known, I do not believe she would have waited on anyone else. She thought all abuses were old, and thus was more concerned about doing things in a manner to help the victims go through the process in a manner most helpful to them than she was in getting revenge.

Last week, I went with my mother to a bond hearing for her molester. If ever there was such a thing as a person being "given over to a reprobate mind", I was staring at it.

I told you all this for a couple of reasons. For one, I am asking that you help lift up my mother and the other victims in prayer over the next few months. There will be several court dates leading up to his trial in may. He has plead "not guilty" so my mother and the others are facing the possibility of having to testify in court and bring up old wounds. This blog is read around the world, and the primary purpose of this entry is to be able to tell the victims that they have support reaching around the world on this matter, that justice would be served and God's will would be done.

Secondly, I share this to let you know that God is still in control. You may think your situation is hopeless. That you'll never see justice served here on earth. I heard one of the victims say that she always figured her revenge would come when he stood before God and was judged. That is true, no judgement on this earth can compare to God's judgment, but I thank God that my mother and the others can see visible proof that those mills still grind sure.

Then

On New Year's Eve I had breakfast with my parents. I had driven to their town hoping for some tech advice, but left with much more. They were on their way to Panera, so I figured I may as well eat with them. My mom left shortly after she finished eating to run some errands, but my dad and I stuck around. We began talking about this blog and other facets of ministry. Considering he's been in ministry for over 3 decades, I figured I'd take any advice he had to offer. We discussed everything from the importance of presenting the bible as infallible to the necessity of making decisions and sticking with them. Then we landed on something very interesting...

He took a napkin and drew the picture you see above. The man at the top represents a life. He drew a line down the center and said, "to the left of the line is the old man before salvation, to the right is the new creature he becomes." Then he drew the dotted lines you see, one to the far left and one to the far right. He said, "When people testify, they usually skew the story." He then pointed to the dotted line on the left. "They tell their story with the line all the way to the left. They don't want to tell who they were before, they only want to say what they became afterwards." Then he pointed to the other line. "Others draw the line to the right. They only want to say who they were before, and tell very little of who they became."

He went on to say that testimonies go like this:

Before I met the Lord
Then Jesus saved me
Afterwards I was different

The problem, he asserted, was that people either focus on the "before" or the "after", when in actuality we should glorify the "then" part of the story. He told me "when we focus on the before, the devil gets the glory. When we focus on the after, we get the glory. When we focus on the "then", God get the glory.

I have been criticized in the past for sharing too many details about my former life. While I feel it has been necessary to lay ground work and has served a purpose, my hope for this year is that I grow into a new season of sharing my "then" moment. I've told you plenty about who I was. I've told you plenty about who I've become. But this year, I want to tell you about who Jesus was to me when all hope was lost and His light shattered the darkness.

This year, let us all strive for balance as we share the good news of what Christ has done.