by Doug Couch

About the size of California, Iraq is home to more than 24 million people, 97% Muslim and 3% "Christian," 80% of whom are Arabs and 20% are Kurds. Two great river systems, the Tigris (550 miles long) and Euphrates (800 miles long), join to form the Shatt al Arab River about 100 miles north of the Persian Gulf into which it empties. The ancient Greeks called the land between these two river systems, Mesopotamia, meaning "land between the rivers."

Iraq was once home to the world's greatest civilizations including the Sumerians (2800-2000 BC), the Assyrians (1850-612 BC) and the Babylonians (626-539 BC). The Sumerians invented irrigation technology by using water from the higher Euphrates River that drained across the river valleys into the Tigris River. Through a series of canals, dikes, and reservoirs, ancient Mesopotamia became a "Fertile Crescent" with agricultural yields per acre which exceed anything we can reproduce in the Western world with cultivation, irrigation, and fertilization. This allowed these nations to become wealthy and powerful.

Genesis 11 also records the beginnings of ancient tribes which lived in the Mesopotamian River valleys including Nimrud, Accad, Assur, and Calah (Gen. 11:10-11). The remains of a dozen royal Sumerian and Assyrian palaces exist today up and down the Tigris River including Tiglath-Pilezer's palace (called Pul in 2 Kings 15:19 & 1 Chronicles 5:26) and Sargon's palace near modern Khorsabad.

Nineveh was once the capital of the Assyrian Empire. Located on the Tigris and Khosr rivers, it had broad streets, parks, gardens, and a system of canals and aqueducts that transported clean drinking water 30 miles into the city. The warnings of the prophet Jonah were unheeded, and it fell in 612 B.C. Today, near the remains of Nineveh is a mound that for centuries (according to Jewish, Islamic, and Christian sources) is the tomb of the prophet Jonah. Across the Tigris River from Nineveh's ruins is the modern city of Mosul with 570,000 people.

Babylon was once the capital city of the Babylonian Empire. Located on the Euphrates River about 55 miles SW of Baghdad, the city was geometrically designed with streets at right angles, canals, bridges, an underwater tunnel, and an artificial mountain (the Hanging Gardens of Babylon). An impenetrable wall surrounded the city that was wide enough for chariot races. Navy vessels patrolled the moat that protected the walls. Nebuchadnezzar expanded and beautified the city and had his name inscribed on every brick of every wall and building. Saddam Hussein rebuilt some of the ruins of ancient Babylon and had his name inscribed on the newer bricks.

Today much of what was Babylon lies in marshy land. Erosion from the brick mortar of ancient walls poisons the soil with nitrites. Irrigation through the centuries brought salt into the soil, rendering it sterile. Nomads avoid the city fearing their sheep may be poisoned.

Isaiah’s words have been literally fulfilled:

"And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there" (Isaiah 13:19-20).

by Ron Harper

"This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me" (1 Corinthians 11:24).

This weekend we in the U.S. celebrate Memorial Day. We set aside a day to remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice. It is safe to say that we, as a nation, would not exist without that sacrifice. It is more than fitting to remember such people. To do less would be the ultimate in ingratitude.

We Christians have our own unique and special memorial. Each Sunday we assemble to worship. A part of that worship may seem unusual. We take a small piece of bread and drink from a small cup of grape juice. That bread and grape juice make up the most significant memorial in all the world. They are reminders of Jesus' death.

The Lord's Supper is, for us, a time to remember. We are reminded of the body of Christ. We remember that actual nails pierced his hands and feet. His physical back was bloodied with the scourge. He really did wear a crown of thorns.

We are reminded of his blood. He died in order that we might live. He went into the presence of God with his own blood and offered it for our sins. Without the sacrifice of Jesus we would not have our sins forgiven. We would have no peace. We would have no hope of heaven. Life would be absolutely meaningless. Because of it we enjoy all of those things.

Worship is a time to remember. It is a time to remember the greatest sacrifice ever made.

"He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and By His scourging we are healed." Isaiah 53:5

There are some things that we dare not forget.

Ron has worked with churches in Alabama, New Zealand, and Tennessee. He has served at the Minerva Drive church in Murfreesboro for 18 years.

by Russ McCullough

It’s 4:15 a.m. I have been unable to sleep since 2:30 a.m., not an uncommon occurrence, I suspect, among the general population. People fail to sleep for many reasons. My reason happens to be that I woke up worrying about the burdens I carry at my place of employment.

Like many of you, my workplace environment is devoid of Christian principles. My mind raced with thoughts of my burdens and what action, if any, I should take. Soon my thoughts turned to prayer to share my burdens with the Lord.

Comparing Burden to Burden

Then my prayer suddenly ended when I thought that the Lord would find my burdens insignificant compared to the burdens of many of you. How could God care about my burdens at work when ...

... the future of this congregation is so much more important in comparison?

... so many people have no job at all?

... by His grace I remain in good health when so many do not?

... people are starving in the world?

The list is endless.

I soon felt guilty for bringing to the Lord’s attention my burdens, trivial in comparison to the burdens of others. Guilt, wretchedness, and hopelessness threatened to overtake me. Then, when despair over my dilemma was about to shut me down, the thought occurred that God MUST speak to this subject in His Word. He does indeed! What I discovered I feel compelled to share with you.

No Sliding Scale

Some things we understand intellectually and yet do not understand emotionally. For example, we understand intellectually that all sin separates us from God and there is no such thing as a small or large sin in the eyes of the Lord. Emotionally, however, we often wrestle with the guilt of past sins, and their consequences continue to haunt us, even though we know they are forgiven.

God does not grade on a scale of relativity. There is no such thing as being somewhat saved or mostly saved. We are either saved or lost. Period. Jesus said, "You are either for me or against me." We don’t slide in and slide out of salvation several times a day based upon some sliding scale that God uses on us. "If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His son, purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

In like manner, NEITHER does God employ some sliding scale of relativity to determine whether or not our burdens are worthy of His care. After reading what God has to say on the subject, I discovered that He does not look at my burdens in relation to the burdens of others in order to decide if He will care about them. Think about it! If God were to do so, He would ultimately only care about the ONE person on earth that happens to be suffering the MOST at that given point in time! All others, by default, would have to carry their own burdens themselves until they moved up the line.

Have Hurt, God Cares

The conclusion to the matter is this: God does not care WHY we are hurting; the hurt alone --regardless of its cause --is sufficient to warrant His total care and attention. Hear what the Lord has to say based upon a compilation of the following scriptures: Psalms 145:14, 17-20, 1 Peter 5:7 and Matthew 11:28-30.

"The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down. The Lord is righteous in all His ways and loving toward all He has made. The Lord is near to all who call on Him in truth. He fulfills the desires of those who fear Him; He hears their cry and saves them. The Lord watches over all who love Him. ... Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you. ... Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Let us reject, once and for all, the theory of relativity and share our burdens with each other while we collectively give them to the Lord to carry.

Russ is a shepherd at the Archdale congregation in Charlotte, NC, USA.

by Gary Cremeens

[Editor's note: If you do your figures, you'll notice this article was written the end of March. Gary's point is still fresh.]

Two anniversaries ocurred this week that have had a great impact on my life. Unfortunately, they are not the kind of anniversaries you celebrate, but rather observe and reflect upon.

Monday was the fifth anniversary of the Westside shootings, which hit very close to home for my family. Had we not moved in April of 1997, my daughter Carla would have been in the Westside Middle School building on March 24, 1998. Some of her classmates were among the dead and injured.

Another event in the more distant past saw its 20th anniversary on Tuesday. On March 25, 1983, a bus from the Jonesboro VoTech school was on its way to Conway for state competitions, when it failed to stop at an intersection and ran headlong into the embankment on the other side. The force of the impact flipped the bus over lengthwise --the rear of the bus went over the front, rather than a sideways flip. Nine people were killed, including my wife Karen's favorite teacher from the VoTech. Karen and I had seen and spoken with Lloyd Meharg exactly one week before his death.

Along with that came another startling reality: Had it been two years previous, Karen would have been on that bus, going to that same competition.

I look back on some decisions made following that event, and I am not sure that my being in ministry today was not partly a result of God's getting my attention and showing me, by the death of Karen's friend, that life is uncertain.

In James 4:13-15, we find the following words, "Now listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there carry on business and make money.' Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that.'"

We need to be reminded that the future is not in our control. We make plans for what we feel our life will be, and in an instant everything is changed -- a tragic accident, a bad diagnosis, a pink slip, a lengthy illness. Since many things are out of our control, we must be mindful that God is still in control, and he can help us with and through whatever happens.

If the Lord wills, we may live a long, healthy life. However, we may not. Regardless of how many years we are blessed with, we are here for a short time, and then our life is over.

What are you doing with your life? What plans are you making? Do the plans center on God? If not, why not?

Gary works with the Center Hill congregation in Paragould, Ark., USA.

by Warren Baldwin

When I was a kid my family lived in a large house out in the country. The house was over 100 years old when I lived in it, and it had some of the features of an old house: creaking floors, rooms with squeaky doors. It was a neat old house, the kind that has character. Memories. Memories from families that lived there before us and memories that we created. Lots of them.

I love the memories, and I loved the house. That house was especially neat when our cousins from the city came to visit. With all the rooms and the dim lighting upstairs, my brothers and I came up with some pretty ingenious methods of entertaining our cousins. Well, entertaining ourselves, anyway, at our cousins' expense.

For example, all we had to tell the younger cousins was, "There are lions and bears up there, so you better stay away." That worked when we wanted to keep them out of our room for a while. It also made it funny when their parents told them to go to bed, but they were afraid to go up into the black expanse of the "upstairs."

"Good night, Brian. Watch out for the bears. Don't know how you can sleep with those things lurking around waiting to eat you."

One time, we made a ghost out of a sheet. We strung a line from upstairs down the staircase and attached the ghost. When a couple of the cousins, girls this time, were getting ready to go upstairs, one of my brothers let fly with the ghost. Down the stairs it came, with us boys howling and the girls screaming.

I miss that house. And the cousins.

I think by now they have gotten over the fear that Jim, Bob, and I stirred within them. In that context, fear was a pretty harmless thing. Cousins teasing cousins about bears, lions, ghosts. Of course, there were parents there to assure the younger ones that there were no such creatures on the premises. "Look, I'll turn a light on. Do you see any mean creatures? You'll be fine." And they were.

But fear never completely leaves us, does it? When we are children, it was fear of lions and bears. And ghosts. But when we get older, many of the fears are of a more serious nature, aren't they? Making enough money to pay the bills. Keeping a job in an age of cut-backs, lay-offs, and transferring of jobs to markets overseas. Crime. War. Health. Retirement. Our children's well-being. Then, later, there are grandkids to worry about.

Do you ever long for the day when the only fears you have will be of imaginary lions, bears and ghosts that live upstairs at your cousins' house?

I don't want to minimize anybody's fear about anything. I certainly don't want anybody doing that to me with the fears I try to manage! But one thing I try to do is keep fear in perspective. And to keep the objects of my fear in perspective.

I know things don't always turn out well. But I know they usually do. And I know that, for one who trusts in a power greater than anything that threatens us, the things that cause us fear diminish in size and power.

We can hold to the greatest words of hope and comfort ever uttered: "My peace I leave with you; my peace I give you ... Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid." (John 14:27).

Jesus spoke those words. And they are more powerful than any bear, lion or ghost lurking in the shadows of my old house.