by Mike Benson

My fellow students and I learned the multiplication tables back in the fourth grade. When different answers arose as we studied the same math problem, the teacher did not say, "You all understand -- you just understand in different ways." Why not? Because some of the children obviously did not comprehend the truth -- they misunderstood. Our answers were not unified. Four times four (4 x 4) could not equal 16 AND 18. Any answer other than 16 was not acceptable because it was not correct.

Likewise, when we encounter differences in religious teaching today, it is not that we all understand God's Word, only in different ways. Rather, people have either chosen to disregard what the Bible says, or they have misunderstood what it teaches. When one person says a verse means one thing, and another says it means something else entirely, both cannot be right.

In Ephesians 5:17 the Bible says, "Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is." Can four times four equal 16 and 18? Think about it.

by Stan Mitchell

Father: "Son, when Abraham Lincoln was your age, he walked seven miles to school."

Son: "Dad, when Abraham Lincoln was your age, he was president!"

We are usually pretty quick to see how others should behave; we have high expectations ... for them! We instinctively know what someone else should do to handle their problems, and have a blind spot for our own failures. We have cliches for their solutions, but feel that our own problems are "more complicated," and therefore require our bending the rules a little.

"Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them...When Peter saw him, he asked, 'Lord, what about him?' Jesus answered, 'If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me" (John 21:20,22, NIV).

Jesus' sharp reply to Peter's query about John is almost shocking, until you think of his final exhortation:

"You must follow me."

Following Jesus is a full-time job, engaging enormous resources of will and concentration. Those who are engulfed in this consuming task will have little time for setting standards for others, or trying to control their lives.

What was Jesus when he was your age?

by Barbara Oliver

One of my favorite movie lines is from the movie Starman. Sitting in a coffee shop, the alien looks across the table at the human and says, "Do you know what we find the most beautiful about you? You are at your best when things are at their worst."

We have only to look at the lives of the early Christians to find examples of being at our best during difficult situations. Peter and John, after spending the night in jail, were being threatened by the Jewish priests and elders. But they proclaimed, "we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). Stephen who lay dying, cried to the Lord "do not charge them with this sin" (Acts 7:60). Paul and Silas faced their "worst" by praying and singing hymns to God (Acts 16:25) and gave up their chance of escape to save a Philippian jailer and his family.

What causes a man or woman to stand calmly in the face of death? How many ordinary people have you seen become extraordinary dealing with disease or disaster? How many otherwise weak people have stood up to face unspeakable horrors for the sake of family, or friends, or God?

How much of our character have we inherited from our Creator, who when His moment of truth came, bowed to the will of the Father? The God-man hanging on a cross, pushed upwards against the nails driven into his feet for enough air to cry, "Father, forgive them" (Luke 23:34).

We live in a troubled world. Who knows what the future holds for the Christian. Let us pray that when the trouble comes, we also will be at our best.

by Richard Mansel

In a movie years ago, the heroine had spells where she was unable to be seen or heard by the public. During these moments she would be chased by murderers able to see her. Being invisible to those who could offer assistance, she was unable to plead for help.

If we are not a Christian, we find ourselves in a similarly frightening position. Isaiah 59:1,2 says, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear" (NKJV). God will not hear our pleas and Satan "walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Peter 5:8).

Isaiah paints a portrait of hopelessness, "We grope for the wall like the blind, And we grope as if we had no eyes; We stumble at noonday as at twilight; we are as dead men in desolate places" (59:10). Moses writes, "you have sinned against the LORD, and be sure your sin will find you out" (Numbers 32:23). Isaiah closes the section by saying, "Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off" (59:14).

We find ourselves in a desperate situation. Yet, God is still there if we will look for him, and Christians are accessible if we wish to be taught. Yet, in our present lost condition, we are defenseless against Satan and hopeless before God.

Adam and Eve were placed in the Garden of Eden and told to avoid eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16,17). Satan soon baited them to partake of the fruit of the tree. When they accepted his invitation, they were expelled by God from the Garden (Genesis 3:23).

Sin had come into the world. No one is immune because "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Ezekiel 18:4 says, "the soul who sins shall die." When we sin we become "enemies" of God (Colossians 1:21). God hates sin because it is completely opposite of His nature (1 John 1:6) and was the cause of his son's death.

God "will not" hear our pleas. He has chosen not to hear us because of our unrighteousness. When we sin we are separated from God and have no more access to him. God looked at the lost condition of men and was "displeased" that there was no man to take away the sins of the world (Isaiah 59:15,16). There was no answer found on earth. The wisdom of men had withered before God. Paul expressed perfectly our despair, "O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?" (Romans 7:24).

We needed an answer. We needed someone to build a bridge of redemption back to God. Who would take up that mantle? Who would be our redeemer?

by J. Randal Matheny

Invisible molecules move the Internet. Robot crawlers burrow from website to website registering content for the search engines. In the header section of a webpage, a webmaster can list unseen key words to identify a site and provide a description for people who use services like Google to find what they want. Those key words become an important tool in the growing jungle we know as the Internet.

Christians also use a wide group of key words to mark their faith. Unlike the Internet, these words appear often on their lips and mark their lives as different from the world in general. These words are more than mere tags, but denote a profound reality in which they live and move and have their being.

I have listed below a few of those key Christian words that came immediately to my mind.

• GOD. All begins and ends with the creative power, benevolent order, and purposeful action of the almighty God. True religion concerns itself with actions performed "in the sight of our God and Father" (James 1:27, NASB). Man bears his image, and by his blessing male and female become Man (Genesis 6:1,2). Even in flight or rebellion, man is defined in relation to God, for whose fellowship he was made.

• JESUS CHRIST. Of several New Testament summaries of the gospel, perhaps the shortest boils it down to a single phrase: "For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified" (1 Corinthians 2:2). In an otherwise excellent book, one writer criticized the concept that everything about Christianity must revolve around Jesus. Men abuse that concept to exclude great doctrines, but we can only rejoice in the truth that every act, thought, motive, and word of the Christian faith centers in Jesus. (See Ephesians 1:3, 19-23.)

• HOLY SPIRIT. Always pointing to Christ, the Spirit of God empowers the word to do its work of conversion and transformation. Christians are marked people, having been given the seal of the promised Holy Spirit. His presence with us today is the guarantee of the eternal inheritance we will shortly receive (Ephesians 1:13,14). He creates and sustains our fellowship with God and one another (2 Corinthians 13:14; Ephesians 4:3).

• LOVE. God is love (1 John 3:16). We should never assume that people understand the nature and character of God. The long history of the Old Testament testifies to his faithful mercy in fulfilling the eternal plan. Its culmination leads us to point to that one place where love made its ultimate sacrifice.

• CROSS. Satan made Golgotha ground zero for his major attack. God made it the beachhead for the final victory. So the Cross is our only boast (Galatians 6:14) and the only hoop through which one must jump to get to God (Galatians 5:11; 1 Corinthians 1:23). For if Jesus was crucified, his followers face the same fate (Luke 9:23).

• OBEDIENCE. We preach the Cross that all "may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with his blood" (1 Peter 1:2). Some depend upon works to prove their goodness; others spout an empty, demonic faith void of action. To obey means to surrender one's own efforts (or lack of them) in order to follow Jesus and do the will of God.

This highly selective list doesn't do justice to the rich vocabulary of faith, nor to the fullness of God's grace at work in his people. It brushes the hem of the garment to remind us of the blessing we carry to enjoy and share.