The Serpentine Sandwich

The Terrible Lie.  That is the title of the chapter about the Fall in The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones.  I like that she changed the name from the fall to the terrible lie, not because the fall is a bad name, but because it makes us think of the story anew, maybe it could become a story not just a long time ago in a land that is now lost - but it may be our story.
So I decided to offer another name - The Serpentine Sandwich.
The Serpentine Sandwich describes the serpent's art of deception.  The Serpentine Sandwich has three main layers.  First, the top piece of bread - this is the truth (twisted).  Genesis 3:1  "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?"  God said something about not eating from a tree, so the serpent takes this truth and twists it into all the trees.   The next layer is the meat (serpent meat) - the lie.  Genesis 3:4  "You will not surely die."  Adam and Eve died in many ways, maybe one of the most was when their son killed their other son, let along being expelled from the presence of God, let alone their hearts eventually stopping.  Bold-faced lie.  The next layer is the bottom piece of bread - the truth, spoken in a lying tone of voice.   Genesis 3:5   For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."  Their eyes were opened, but to what?  They knew good.  Genesis 1 was filled with "good."  They knew the extreme goodness of God's creation.  What they did not know was evil.  Having one's eyes opened to evil is spoken of by the serpent as something to be coveted.
There are not only too many examples of Serpentine Sandwiches to add another, but it is a very dangerous thing to spend too much time on the lies of the enemy - they get enough time as it is.
It is better to spend time in what the lies of the enemy are the horrid counterfiet of - the truth of God in the word of God.
God is our DAD.  If you balk at this, ask if it because you are yourself believing a lie of the enemy that there cannot be a good dad.  D.A.D. is our acronym for our battle against the Serpentine Sandwich.
D.  Defense against the Serpentine Sandwich.  This fights the first layer of bread, the truth, twisted.  When the Serpent come to Eve with the truth twisted, she does something most of us wish we did - she quotes the word of God.  But she adds a little part "neither shall you touch it," which is like adding mayo to the serpentine sandwich.  The Serpentine Sandwich cannot stand up against the word of God, but your words it can slither all over.  Eve could also call out, "Dad!"
A.  Antidote for the Serpentine Sandwich.  This exposes the inner layer, the meat, the lie.  Once someone has swallowed the Serpentine Sandwich the antidote is the Word of God coming as questions.  "Where are you?"  "What have you done?"  Adam and Eve are much more heroic than I am - they answer his questions.  Often we just keep hiding or keep running away.  May we also, once we swallow the lie, but quick to answer God's questions.  We could also call out, "Dad!"
D. Destruction of the Serpentine Sandwich.  This deals with the sandwich as a whole - all the layers, including our mayo.  The offspring of the woman will bruise the serpent's head, and the serpent with bruise his heel.  The serpent bruised Jesus Christ's heel by striking him with death and sin.  Christ was wounded by sin and took on the sin of humanity.  How is the serpent's head bruised?  The head is where the serpent speaks.  Christ on the cross is the ultimate display of the love of God - it is impossible for the darkness of the lie that God does not love us to stand up to the light of the love of God on the cross.  Does God love us?  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son. . . Picture Christ calling out to his Father, "Dad!" and let the lie that he does not love you finally die.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.


Watch this video in the light of who our true Dad is - God Almighty.

#blacklivesmatter vs #alllivesmatter

A conservationist in Africa began to be concerned about the Rhinoceros species.  Although there are approximately 20,000 rhinos today, about 20% of them are in captivity (zoos), while over 20% of the overall population is being poached each year due to the value of their horns.  At that rate it appears that the species cannot stand for long except behind the bars of incarceration.  

While this conservationist was starting a movement called the #rhinoslivesmatter movement, one of his friends told him that he was offended that he was saying that rhinos lives matter when in fact all the animals lives matter, including the African buffalo.  The conservationist told his friend, “Yes, the African buffalo is a wonderful animal too, but while there are 900,000 buffalo, the rhinoceros is endangered, and if something is not done it will go extinct.”  

The friend said, “But I always see pictures of rhinos in my flip calendar, and when I take my kids to the zoo the rhinos are always there.  I think I am going to start a movement called the #allungulatesmatter movement, proving that all ungulates, whether buffalo, bison, rhino, zebra, deer, or hippo.  It’s not just the rhinos that matter, but the other ungulates matter too.”

The conservationist replied to his friend, “I am in no way against other ungulates, but this is a critical point in history for this species of ungulate.  Rhinos are being murdered and incarcerated at rates beyond other ungulates so that very soon the only way to see a rhino will be behind the walls of a zoo or it horn that was cut off.  African buffalos are also a beautiful animal, but they are not being poached or taken captive at near the same rate.  The poachers have a great monetary incentive to kill the rhino, while no such incentive exists with the buffalo.  The reason I am saying #rhinoslivesmatter is because it seems that I am a lone voice in a world bent on the extermination of the rhino, and rhinos need someone to advocate for them before it is too late.  For you to say #allungulatesmatter misses the whole point that it is rhinos lives that are being poached in such numbers that threaten speciesicide.  Friend, would you understand that I need your help.  Are you listening?  Do you hear my heart?”

#blacklivesmatter in a Christian context is like one body part hurting and needing the body to respond to the hurt.  “If one member suffers, all suffer together” (1 Corinthians 12:26).

I, as a white male, cannot understand what it is like for a black man in today’s culture.  So I pray that I will listen more to my black brothers than talk about them or to them.  I pray this as someone who loves to talk and is bad at listening.  “Lord, give me a listening spirit.  Amen.”

Christian idea: listen to my brother

A great book to provide information on the topic of the mass incarceration of black males is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.  

Stay Away from Hydrocodone!

Ever since Carl Mannich and Helene Lowenheim mixed it in Germany in 1920, Hydrocodone (or its various names) has been taking away the pain for people all over the world.  Most people who take Hydrocodone, though, are in the US of A.  Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK have all banned its medical use.  Why would that be?

Hydrocodone is a narcotic pain killer.

Do you have pain?'

Think twice or thrice before filling the script so easily given by the doctor for hydrocodone.

This post may get many hits and comments and people may say bad things about this post and blog because hydrocodone is one of many drugs (by no means the only drug - oxycodone, methadone, suboxone, tramadol, and even benadryl) that are abused.

I am not a doctor.

I am not a pharmacutical representative.

I am not a drug dealer.

I try to help people with addictions.

Many people with drug addictions started by using a prescription that their doctor gave them called hydrocodone.

I am the watchman of Ezekiel.  You may think that I am crazy, but I do not want your blood to be on my head.  Hydrocodone is a tool of Satan to take everything away from you.

If you are getting defensive as you read this, let me ask this question, "What did people do for pain before pain killers?"  What good had hydrocodone really brought to this world?  What heartache and suffering has hydrocodone brought to this world.

This blog post was written for one single person.

You who are wondering if you should take it for the pain.

No!!!!!   Don't take it!!!!!!!

Please please please please please don't.

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Jesus wants to be with you in your pain.

Top Ten Snakes of the Bible

When we lived in Kenya our two year old son would always play near a large rock and dig with his shovel.  Little did we know that underneath that large rock was a pit viper, a snake that can sense body heat.  Our friend Rioba killed that pit viper and we learned that snakes are smart, deadly, and best dead.

The Bible is full of snakes, similar to Kenya, many of them poisonous as well.  I compiled a top ten list of snakes in the Bible.  If you disagree that is fine, because I may disagree with myself as well.

10.  Nahash the Ammonite.  (1 Samuel 11)  Nahash mean snake and wow was he a snake.
9.  The Disciple of Jesus.      (Matthew 10)  They were to be wise as serpents.
8.  The Pharisees                   (Matthew 23)  "You brood of vipers" said Jesus.
7.  The Lying Tongue           (Psalm 58)        We all are liars, with a snake in our mouth
6.  Paul's Viper                      (Acts 28)           Paul gets bit and lives.
5.  The wilderness snakes      (Numbers 21)   The poisonous snakes sent by God to kill His people
4.  Moses' snake                    (Exodus 4 and 7)  Moses rod turns to snake then back to rod.
3.  The Leviathan                  (Isaiah 27)     The serpentine sea monster God defeated.
2.  THE Snake                       (Genesis 3 and Revelation 12 and 20)   Our enemy who decieves us, lies to us, but who is finally defeated by Jesus Christ.

1.  The Bronze Serpent      (Numbers 21, 2 Kings 18, John 3)  When the #5 Snakes were killing God's people He also rejected their prayer to take them away.  Instead he instructed Moses to lift a bronze snake, symbol of their enemy and destruction, on a pole and whoever looked upon it will live.  Later it had to be smashed because people worshiped it.  But then much later Jesus spoke of that snake, and used the picture of the snake on a pole as a picture of Himself on a cross.  The symbol of death (capital punishment through crucifixion) being the way to life.  Jesus taking on the evil and wickedness of the world in order to heal all who look to Him.  That is why the number one snake in the Bible is not Satan, the Devil, but is Christ, the one who became the snake on a pole so that we would be healed from the poisonous bite of every other snake, even THE Snake.

The faith of Judas

At the end of John 6 many disciples walk away from Jesus because of his hard teaching that they could not accept.  Jesus knew the ones who did not believe.
The twelve did not turn away but stayed and believed that Jesus was the Holy One of God.
One group did not believe and walked away.
One group believed and did not walk away.
One group had unbelief.
One group had belief.
Their belief shaped their behavior.
What about Judas?  What kind of belief did he have?
Judas was known to Jesus as the one who would betray him, as also Jesus knew those who did not believe.  So it seems that Judas is in the lot with those who did not believe.
On the other hand, Judas was one of the Twelve, who did not walk away, so it would appear that Judas was with those who believe.  What group was Judas in?  I believe that Jesus hints at this when he calls Judas a devil.
The devil is a liar, and the father of lies.
Judas had devilish belief.
Judas was a liar.
Judas pretended to go on with belief in Jesus, even though instead of following Jesus he intended to lead Jesus into a trap.
How am I like the many who walked away?
How am I like the twelve who believed and stayed with Jesus, having no plan B?
How am I like Judas, clinging to my own agenda, and pretending like it is following Christ, when I am only using Christ for my own purposes?

Lord, search my heart, and if there is any devilish belief, strip it out of me at whatever cost.
Please, Lord search our hearts, and help us to have true belief.

for white men: a white man's ideas on four dead black men

If you are already angry at the title, please know that this is intended for a specific audience:  white men.  Also know that although Tamir Rice was a boy, the man who would be also died.  This post is for my fellow white Christian men.  I am a white man.  I grew up in a small town which was almost exclusively white.  Almost no one in my town had any black friends.  I grew up not knowing who black people were.  There have been and there will continue to be many comments regarding the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and now Rumain Brisbon.  I understand that some of you are police officers yourselves or are family of police officers.  This post in no way is intended to demonize police officers.  In fact, the more police officers you get to know and be in relationship with, the more you come to love and respect police officers.  On the other side of the coin, the more I have begun to know and develop friendships with black men, the more I have come to love and respect black men.  This post is not intended to debate who is right and who is wrong.  The facts remain:  four black men are dead, one was just a boy.  How do we view these mourning families?  Do we view them as getting what they deserved?  Do we view these families as the problem of American society?  I believe that the less we know black people, the more we make assumptions like this, when really, we do not even know who black people are.  But in our internet posts we seem to know everything:  we could be the judge and jury in every case from Abel and Cain to Rumain Brisbon and the white officer who shot him.

If my wife is mad at me for something and I just keep telling her how wrong she is, our relationship is in a bad place.  If I say gruffly, which I have, “okay, I’m ready to listen. . . go ahead, tell me,” she is likely to stay silent.  My wife is quite intelligent and knows if I really want to listen or not.

Similar is the story of the white man and the black man in America.  Do I really want to listen?
Do I want white and black to be divided?  Do I want white and black to be reconciled?  Is my answer to that question the same as Jesus Christ’s answer?  This issue of reconciliation is not a political issue, but THE Christian issue:  God reconciling people to Himself and people to each other. 

I write this post for my fellow white men, men who are mostly in relationship to other white people.  I am suggesting, as a white male who still knows almost nothing at all about what it is like to be a black male in our society, the way towards racial reconciliation.

Very bold, you say, and you are right.  The way out is something that has been around for about two thousand years.  The way out is reconciliation in the church.  If churches continue to be white churches and black churches the racial divide will continue.  If churches become a family of believers united together across racial lines and begin to develop relationships in the Lord, I believe change will come.  I believe the time is ripe for pioneers, like my hero Ruby Bridges did in an elementary school, for people willing to take integration to the next level:  the church.   For such a time as this, we can take down the dividing wall on Sunday morning.  "It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o'clock on Sunday morning…," Martin Luther King Jr. spoke over 50 years ago.  What has changed in 50 years?   Are you willing to be a pioneer?  Am I?

Practically speaking, what can a white man do? 

Idea number one:  Join a black church. 

I believe that if even one person reading this decided to join a black church, not in your comfort zone, not in your denominational preference, something different from what you are used to, for the sake of learning to relate to black people even as I need to learn to relate to my wife, then you will be changed.  Yes, you getting up on Sunday morning and walking through the doors of a black church.  You can’t?  Why not? 

Idea number 2:  Start a multi-racial church.

If you absolutely cannot leave your church for some reason and join a black church, try to make your church into a multi-racial church.  For more information see http://www.christenacleveland.com/2013/10/a-road-map-for-diversity/   If many of us started being part of multi-racial churches, developing relationships across the racial divide, then I believe that change will come.

One last note on Rumain Brisbon:  When my mother died in an automobile accident, she hit another man head on and he died as well.  It was her car that swerved over and hit his.  She was at fault.  Maybe she fell asleep, maybe she reached down.  When the myriad of people came to the funeral to hug me, not one brought up how stupid it was for her to swerve into the other lane.  It was many of you that hugged me and grieved with me.  I ask that we give Rumain Brisbon’s wife and four children the same consolation.  Let us not shoot a dead man again. 

Idea number 3:  Speak no evil of black men on the internet.

Words are very powerful.  I have used words many times to hurt and wound people.  I have also used words to heal people.  The words we put on the internet are very powerful.  Let us not say one bad word on the internet or anywhere for that matter. 
Idea number 4:  Ask God to soften your heart towards black men.
Satan cheers when my heart is hardened to anyone.  God does not cheer at that.  It is black men who are dying in the street and being locked up in jail in staggering disproportion to white men.  Weep with their Heavenly Father.  Weep with their families.  Could we, as the family of God, grieve together over the death of Rumain and the other men?  What if Rumain was Danny Smith instead?  What would you say on the internet if I had been killed?  Those Christians reading this, let’s remember what Jesus said in the parable of the sheep and the goats at the end of Matthew 25.  You can read it for yourself.  Whatever I do for the least of these, the black widows and orphans, the black men who fill the prisons, the black men being shot and killed, I do for Jesus Christ, the King of all Kings.

For those reading this who may be grieving the loss of someone, whether it be one of the four dead black men, or the million black men in prison (see http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet) I take time now as I end this post to weep over your loss and our loss.

Dead Giveaway

Dead Giveaway.  Charles Ramsey has been all over the news and internet for his role in saving the three women who were abducted in Cleveland.  People have various views of Charles Ramsey.  The family of the women see him as a hero.  Songify and talk show hosts see him as a way to make money.  What about how Amanda Berry saw him?  Imagine yourself in Amanda Berry’s position.  You have been imprisoned by an evil man who kidnapped you for ten years, raped you and you bore his child.  You have been bound by ropes and chains, and been living this horror for a decade, and the only people you saw was your tormentor and your fellow prisoners.  The chance comes and you call for help, and for the first time in a decade someone hears your cries.  He helps you escape and what do you do?  You run into his arms.  Why?  Because he is your savior.  Charles Ramsey is viewed in many ways, but to Amanda Berry it is a dead giveaway how she views him, he is her savior.  It is a dead giveaway because she ran into his arms.

Have you ever been in a prison?  Maybe not like Amanda Berry’s prison.  Ropes and chains are not the only things that bind us.  Has your mind been imprisoned?  Has your heart been imprisoned?  Have you been in a prison of alcoholism?  Have you been in a prison of internet pornography?  Have you been in a prison of anger and hate and unforgiveness?  Think about your prison and give it a name.  Are you still in that prison or have you been delivered from it?  Is it a dead giveaway that you have been delivered, that someone, to one whose arms you ran to, has saved you?

The Israelites were in prisons.  People during the period of the judges and into Saul’s life were oppressed by other people.  From the Egyptian slavery to being oppressed by the Ammonites, Amalekites, and the Philistines, they knew what it meant to be in a prison.  God gave them King Saul, his anointed king, to save them.  He was sent to be their savior.  At the end of Saul’s life he does not look like a savior.  As we read about his death will will see how five people or groups of people view him.  Do they see him as their savior?  Some do, some don’t, but with one it is a dead giveaway.  As we read, look for how these five people or groups of people see Saul.  His armor bearer, the Philistines, the people of Jabesh Gilead, an Amalekite, and David.  (Read 1 Samuel 31 and 2 Samuel 1).

1.       His armor bearer.  His armor bearer saw him as someone not to kill, because he was afraid, of killing Yahweh’s anointed, and yet his fear leads to him killing himself.

2.       The Philistines.  They see Saul and Yahweh’s anointed against them, and so they celebrate his death and mock him.

3.       The people of Jabesh Gilead.  They run a marathon in which the middle they steal 4 dead bodies from an enemy city and run the second half uphill while carrying four dead bodies in order to give honor to Saul.

4.       An Amalekite.  He brings David the crown and armlet,  seeing Saul as disposable, not as one to fear.  Saul may bring him profit.

5.       David.  Though Saul was trying to kill him, he wept for Saul, whom he loved and saw as Yahweh’s anointed.

Which one of those five is it a dead giveaway that they saw Saul as their savior? 

From the Jabesh Gilead point of view:  Read 1 Samuel 11.    Imagine yourselves in the position of the people of Jabesh Gilead.  Your city is surrounded by Nahash (the Snake in Hebrew) and the Ammonites.  It has come to the point where you are willing to make a treaty with Nahash and serve him.  He says, only if you all gouge out your right eyes, and bring disgrace on Israel.  The enemy wants to keep us in bondage, and so the treaties that Satan, the snake offers us, are treaties of bondage, the freedoms he offers us are anti-freedoms.

The people of Jabesh Gilead did not like this treaty so they called for help.  People heard them, yes, and cried, yes, but were not prepared to help save them. 

Then Saul heard it, and the Spirit of God came on him, and he delivered them from Nahash.

Did Saul save the people of Jabesh Gilead?  It is a dead giveaway, for they risked their lives for his corpse that the Philistines hung up for all to see in mockery.

Has Jesus Christ saved you from anything?  Is it a dead giveaway?  How?  Are you running into the arms of Jesus Christ?  How can I run into his arms, they are not real. . . “not real”. . .

Jesus arms were really hung on the cross, hung up to be mocked like Saul.  Jesus did not stay dead, but his body, including his arms, were raised really from the dead. 

If Saul’s death did not stop the people of Jabesh Gilead from running to his arms, even though his head was decapitated and he was a half marathon away in an enemy city, does the fact that Jesus arms are not within sight stop us from running into his arms.  His arms are real.  Are we running into them?

How do we run into the arms of Jesus Christ?

Intimate prayer.  We spend time talking and listening.

Ask Jesus to tell you what he has delievered you from.  If you can’t think of anything, here is a partial list of things he delivers us from: Jesus saves us from. . .

Our sins (Matt. 1:21).

The Evil One (Matt. 6:13).

This crooked generation (Acts 2:40).

The wrath of God (Rom. 5:9).

This body of death (Rom. 7:24).

The Law of Sin and Death (Rom. 8:2).

The present evil age (Gal. 1:4).

The domain of darkness (Col. 1:13).

The wrath to come (1 Thess. 1:10).

Every evil deed (2 Tim. 4:18).

Ask Jesus to tell us what you need to be delivered from.  Confess that to Jesus.  Ask him for deliverance and run away from it into his arms.

His arms are the body of Christ.  As we meet together in worship of Jesus together we make it a dead giveaway that Jesus Christ is our Savior.

IDEA:  Run into the arms of Jesus by thanking him for what he has delivered you from and confessing what you need delivered from, and by running into the arms of the Church and worshipping him together.  That makes it a dead giveaway to the world that He truly is our Savior.