Bumper Sticker Aptitude

#1378

Bumper Sticker Aptitude

We live in a world of "self-help" books. Those who write the books, if they sell enough, get the most help. There is no self-help psychological kit. Although in this nation of bumper sticker aptitudes and attitudes, one would think that everyone is anxious to help one another.

On a Sunday afternoon, many years ago, one of my friends drove me in my car to a county prison. As is the case with most Southern county prison systems, the prison was located in a mosquito and snake infested swamp, a wire fence surrounding it. I was there to deliver Christian books and material which I had purchased for the prisoners. I don't know if they read anything or not, even if they had the mental ability to read. One black woman preacher, delivering material to me for a local jail said that when she entered the enclosure, the woman were all playing cards but they put their cards away and were very attentive to her and her message. One day she left something and went back for it. They had already disposed of the Christian material and were back playing cards again in just the few minutes it took for her to go back. WE DO OUR BEST, IT IS UP TO GOD TO DO THE REST. On this Sunday visitation day, parents, and mother's with small children, standing outside the fence talking with the inmates inside the fence. The psychotic and neurotic Hell existing here is beyond our thought processes...what it must do to parents, children, with a loved one on the other side of the fence, a prisoner. I said to my driver, "Only the unreachable can not be reached at a time like this." Yet, as was the case with one thief on the cross beside our blessed Lord, we never know who God has chosen. Christ chose this thief, his grace sufficient, to enter paradise with Him.

In this world of the bumper sticker mentality, "big I, little you" we never know, often entertain "angels, unaware" (Hebrews 13:2). Even the chosen/elect are sinners. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). If God wants you, even in the "bush" of Africa, He will make arrangements to get you...a missionary, short wave radio program, a redemption message falling out of the air and, if God does not want you, walking every isle, joining every church, baptized in every pond, will not make a difference. Herod worshiped at the temple. It seems to this writer that most 21st century churches have forgotten the power of the cross. Most would not reach out to a thief being crucified on the cross. Sad to say, many who know about the cross would still free Barabbas. (Out again, robbing on the street, as our blessed Lord, in his place, hung on the cross intended for Him.) When we think of the "playing church" mentality of today's "Country Clubs with steeples," remember Legion and the Gadarenes, crazy man in the graveyard, brought to sanity and healed by Jesus. The people in the city asked our blessed Lord to leave. "And they began to pray him to depart out of their coasts" (Mark 5:17). The psychological, neurological cure of Legion did not impress them. Most good smelling, sophisticated, educated, preferred to keep the crazy people in the crazy places, prisoners in the swamp, informed via bumper stickers, never realizing that God in his omnipotence expected the informed to show some empathy or love for others. Four billion years from now, in eternity, I hope I will have heard from at least 20 million that someone cared for their soul.

Jesus' youngest disciple, John, age 17 when called, at age 90, wrote his epistles. The second epistle has 13 verses. So intent was he that believers understand the truth. "Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son" (2 john 1:9).

I often ask young people why they are so unconcerned about their soul salvation. Invariably they retort, "I believe in God. Is not that sufficient?" They do not understand that Satan believes in God and trembles (James 2:19). In every false religion of the world, we find people attempting to do something themselves. The righteousness of Christ is a gift, born again, new creation, transformed (Romans 12:2).

Dr. Victor Frankl holocaust survivor, said that those determined to survive the Nazi death chambers had a different mental attitude, preparing to survive, even hoarding cigarettes. Faced with eternity, American prisoners of war (Korea and Vietnam) became better or bitter, often more saintly. We do not want to create God in our image. The American media is anti-Christian, anxious to show the flaws of a church. If you can find a perfect Church with perfect people, join it. Then, it will not be perfect anymore.