CAN YOU HANDLE A FLOOD?

Nashville is flooded! [Video Link]


“Nearly 14 inches over 2 days! 
The severity of the storms caught everyone off guard. More than 13.5 inches of rainfall were recorded Saturday and Sunday, according to the National Weather Service, making for a new two-day record that doubled the previous mark.” -msnbc
[flood story]

This flood is horrible. I know first hand how devastating flood waters can be, I lived in St. Louis during the great flood of 93’. Lives are literally changed forever. I can’t help but think of how families will have to clean up and rebuild or deal with the reality of loosing a loved one. The torrential rains in Tennessee, and two neighboring states have caused at least 29 deaths. This is a tragedy, and it reminds me of how relevant my faith in God is. This might be a statement that seems trite but I assure you it is far from common. When we are faced with tragedy we need something to give us real hope and strength to carry on; faith in God is just that. I pray that through tangible aid and sharing truth will have a dramatic affect and result in people making it through some difficult times. To join cleanup efforts in the Nashville area please visit www.hon.org or www.longhollow.com/flood.

Tragedies can destroy peoples lives but they don’t have to. Experiencing great tragedy does not mean life is over, it may mean life is changed forever but it doesn’t have to mean life is over. What I notice is that two people can experience the exact same tragedy and yet one is destroyed and the other is not. I ask the question why? Why is one person reduced to utter depression and the other filled with hope? Why is one family split apart and the other drawn close together? The difference is our “inner man”. Concentration camps, floods and other horrific disasters do not destroy a persons inner man but once the inner man is destroyed the whole man follows quickly after. The Bible teaches that only the truth of God can build and protect that inner part of a man and provide hope that is real in the face of tragedy.
“Faith in God and obedience to the Bible gives us the only strong foundation for our lives that is ultimately unchanged by any tragedy or opposition.”


Luke 6:47 “Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: 48 he is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when a flood occurred, the torrent burst against that house and could not shake it, because it had been well built. 49 “But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly, is like a man who built a house on the ground without any foundation; and the torrent burst against it and immediately it collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”

What if you don’t believe the Bible?
“I believe God and the Bible are simply an illusion that appeals to the poor and desperate people.” This was the attitude of Karl Marx concerning all religion. He said, “Religion is the opiate of the people.” And Marx believed that God is the projection of human imagination; not real! But as Nietzsche noted, “When God dies all absolute value dies with him”. So, the only thing left to build a life on is a relativistic ethic. Marx and all who deny God take away any reality of right and wrong. This is why Marx professed that truth is Relative, Utilitarian, and Collective. These beliefs are false! His views about reality did not correspond with the way things really are, which begs me to talk about the nature of truth. The reality of Marxist philosophy in countries like, Russia, China, Mongolia and the Balkans has succeeded in bringing millions closer to hell instead of paradise. Karl Marx’s goal of a perfect community is desirable, but the revolutionary means of achieving it have resulted in mass destruction unparalleled in human history. The core reason for such devastation is that all those lives were built on something false instead of the truth.

Truth is Correspondence with Reality. Truth is “telling it like it is.” This correspondence applies to abstract realities as well as actual ones. There are mathematical truths. There are also truths about ideas. In each case there is a reality, and truth accurately expresses it.
Falsehood, then, is what does not correspond. It tells it like it is not, misrepresenting the way things are. The Bible states that truth is absolute, meaning that what is true, is true for everyone everywhere and at all times. Try This link to “The Evidence Bible”.

Here is what truth is not…

1. Truth is not, “What Works.”

• What gets results is not necessarily true, statements must match facts and reality.

2. Truth is not, “What is sincere.”

• If something is true because someone sincerely wants it to be true, then all sincere statements ever uttered are true – even the absurd.

3. Truth is not, “What feels Good.”

• This popular notion states that truth gives a satisfying feeling and error feels bad. Truth then is found in our subjective feelings not in fact and reality. What feels good to one person may not feel good to another truth is not relative.

You can know the truth. A popular idea that floats around is represented in this question, “How can I know what is true?” This attitude is seen in people who have no tolerance for people who believe there are clear distinctions between right and wrong. They will state, “How can any one tell another what is right or wrong?” or “How can you know what is right and wrong?”. This is an agnostic perspective. Which believes, I can’t know if there is a God so I won’t believe in one. This is nice, because it erases any sense of responsibility to a higher authority. But Just because it feels good, or I am sincere, or it works doesn’t make it true. The reality is that there is a God as evidenced by the world we live in and by the Bible.
Each of us can know the truth and the truth can set us free!

"The Problem of Pain"

So I was watching along with the nation the horrible story of Pheobe Prince, the fifteen year old who took her life after being harassed by classmates. It is not surprising in any way that the families of this community are pointing fingers and trying to assign blame. I believe most people wonder why such horrible things happen. Why did a nine year old hang himself in his Texas elementary school bathroom? (this boy's story) How could adult security officers watch one teen girl beat another unmercifully and do nothing? (more on this story) The answer is a simple one but it is still far from being simplistic. The simplistic answer is the blame-game the excusing-game and the ignoring-it-game. None of these methods for explaining the reason these horrible things happening are complete and satisfying. The only grand synthesis is one that comes from the God of the Bible.

Why the God of the Bible? Because all other notions fall hopelessly apart when held up to reality. The God of the Bible states that He is supreme over all and has the only right to judge all. This God has defined what is evil and what is good. The result is that only through the God of the Bible will we find meaning and hope in spite of the horrific pains experienced in this life.

Here are some popular theologies applied to the pain of Pheobe Princes situation and many of our own pain.

· The Buddhist philosophy states that all is God. This means that ultimately good and bad are just “Illusions”. The problems is, if good and bad are illusions then why are people so made that a few teens teased and harassed another 15 yr old and that she committed suicide?

· The Agnostic believes in one way or another that you just can’t know for sure there is a God. This means that there are no explanations or basis for morality at all. How could we know what is right or wrong if we can’t even know if there is a God. Another issue would be, with no God who decides what is right or wrong? The problem here is that people have a conscience that informs them on some level that what happened to Pheobe Prince was wrong. If we can’t know right and wrong then we shouldn’t feel bad at all for Pheobe or the others involved in this situation. This philosophy is similar to Atheism but from a passive perspective.

· The Atheist denies for various reason the existence of God. This belief essentially makes man God. If there is no God then where does our knowledge of right and wrong come from? Who decides what is right and what is wrong? Who then has the right to tell another person what is right and wrong? The problem with Atheism is that people become the final arbiter of right and wrong and the result is that right and wrong will always be relative to the person. So Hitler believed He was right; who could say other wise. The obvious self-contradictory statement is; There is no God! In order to make this absolute statement you would have to have absolute knowledge…Atheists must know everything. It is obvious that Atheism is a way to bring freedom from other peoples versions of right and wrong and so allowing me to do as I please. If I want to kill I can, If I want to do anything I want to do, NO ONE CAN SAY ANYTHING ABOUT IT.

There are many more philosophies and teachings. Like Humanism, Scientology, T.M., and the various theistic beliefs like Islam, Judaism, Mormonism and Biblical Christianity. But the only grand synthesis is found in Biblical Christianity. The reason is because it is only the God of the Bible that gives a true definition of what Sin and pain are and how to deal with it. The message of Biblical Christianity is the only message that gives hope to us all in the face of horrific tragedies and pain that we will experience in life.