Herald of Truth, the mass media ministry I’m associated with, has worked in those areas for almost a decade, but this was my first trip to the African continent. It was last July, summer in Texas, winter in Africa, but it was warm in both locales.

During my nine day visit I experienced a number of things: policemen in Malawi toting weapons asking for a ride to their headquarters about five miles away, bicycles as transports for almost everything, friendliness of the people, security for an African president with military vehicles and mounted machine guns on all sides of the presidential entourage, Tanzanian traffic police pulling us over and asking for money because they were thirsty, Americans especially are seen as the super rich, and a Africans hunger to fill both bodies and souls.

Thus I would like to offer some BO, Brant’s Observations, derived from my visit to the African continent.

In General:

1. We Americans whine too much! We gripe about everything that’s not convenient for us, while the rest of the world waits and endures long lines, basic food staples being in short supply, and houses which lack electricity and plumbing.
2. Related to one. While the American government system and culture may be messed up by the politicians and bureaucrats it’s still the best on earth and it’s time those of us who live here thank God and those who came before us for paving the way for us.
3. Compared to those I saw, spoke with, worked with… we are rich!!! And almost arrogantly we consume more than our share of the world’s resources.
4. We assume everyone lives just like we do. We may recognize the fallacy of that thought but we act like it is true. This thought was described in the 1958 political novel The Ugly American by Burdick and Lederer. We think everyone has our advantages, thinks like we do and should act like we do. But it is we who are most privileged of the world’s population.
5. Sandals and flip-flops are fashion statements in America but in Africa they are a much sought after necessity.

In Religious Aspects

1. While most of the world moves to a “post Christian” model, in Africa there is a hunger to know about God and Jesus.
2. American churches are more concerned with taking care of their own than being witnesses to nonbelievers and others. 80-90% of the average church budget is related to internal things: minister salaries, building payments, utilities, lawn care. Outreach to non-believers is 10-20% of that same budget.
3. American churches have moved away from evangelistic campaigns or evangelistic mission trips, replacing them with service projects like building homes or hosting medical clinics. While these activities provide good things—if we don’t tell them in whose name we come, what makes us different from other organizations? We should all do things in the name of Jesus, not “the _____ _______ church.” In Africa, probably because they have very little in material resources, the churches there talk a lot about Jesus.

My trip was not that unusual from what others experience when they too go to Africa, but for me the perspective was eye opening and priceless.

Which of my BOs to you agree with? Which do you disagree with? Most importantly tell us Why.

He sat across from me, tears on his cheeks and desperately asking the question. His choices had messed up his life, the lives of his family, the lives of other families and his friends. Now a year after everything hit the reality fan, after seeking forgiveness, trying to put the broken pieces back together, coping with the consequences of the sin, he was hanging on, but barely. Still adrift in anger, doubt and pain he looked me in the eye and begged me to tell him, “What do I do now?”

I wanted as desperately as he to have THE magical answer, offer the concise cliché that implies wisdom, thought and experience.

But all I could offer was “I don’t know, but survive one day at a time and it will get easier.” Pretty weak words to a guy whose fingernails on the tight rope of life are slowly being pried loose.

David, the King of Israel, is the example of adultery, murder, lies, and poor parenting, yet whom God thought enough of to claim that he was a man after God’s own heart. (ISam 13:13-14 and Acts 13:22)

And while David says, “My sin is always before me,” (Psalm 51:2) he is also attributed as saying “Your word I have hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you.” (Psalm 119:11) If you know the story of David, his choices had consequences to the end of his life. I assume there were days when he asked “what do I do now?” Yet, in spite of his actions he was still a man after God’s own heart as he struggled each day.

I know that my friend has God’s word in his heart. I know he will grasp, crawl and struggle. I know I will continue to walk with him, inadequate though my answers to his desperate questions may be. I know he and I, as frail human beings, will always desire to be men after God’s own heart.

So how would you have answered by friend?

To what source of inspiration would you have suggested he go?

The responses from Christians are tame as one watches the electronic media cover the aftermath of the publication of cartoons of Islam’s prophet or the burning of the Koran. I, too, watch in confusion and horror as significant populations of countries protest, riot and even result in violence and death. And yet I can’t help but admire a people who believe that their prophet and their scriptures are sacred, worthy of honor, and should not be defiled. They as a body of believers are willing to go to those extreme actions to demonstrate their devotion to the symbols of their faith.

As Christians we have Scripture that God has given us.

We have a Savior who has made it possible for us to be with God Almighty forever.

Should we not be more than verbally “outraged” when others burn, mock or destroy elements of faith that are precious to us who claim to follow Christ? In our antichristian world aren’t we expected to stand up and stand firm for what we believe it?

I wonder why we don’t and I wonder why we cannot understand when those of other religious beliefs do?

So why do we Christians seem so complacent when our faith and its symbols are defaced? Is that a product of our culture or is it more of a commentary on the strength of our beliefs?

Nehemiah was called a “cup bearer” and he made sure that all drinks, water, wine, the hard stuff, did not contain poison before the Persian King, Artaxerxes would consume it. Nehemiah was a devout Jew living in the royal palace as a slave in the capital city of the Persian empire, Susa. And while he has his memoir written, the book of Nehemiah of the Old Testament, he was still a poison detector. He was not a spiritual leader. His biography is very clear, he just wanted to rebuild the walls of the city he had heard stories about. He was just an ordinary guy, who believed in God and asked God to help him. He had no special religious training, wasn’t a Levite thus a priest, didn’t have a pulpit in which to stand nor had a prophet’s training.

If you think about it, a lot of those Bible times people were just devout individuals seeking to do what God wanted them to do. Abram, Gideon, Zerubbabel, Matthew, Peter, Andrew, Luke, Phillip, Demas, Tychicus to name just a few.

Today we tend to think that only “Spiritual leaders” can talk or tell us about Jesus. That the “professional staff” are the only ones with training and insight to convey the important passages to others. Our religious environment tends to focus on the manuscripts, blogs, and opinions of those leaders without conferring with the sources: God, Jesus, Holy Spirit and the Bible.

Yet the history of Judeo Christian faith demonstrates that it was the Nehemiahs of the times that most effectively and most often carried the message.

In our 21st century world, we are overlooking the Nehemiah within us.

Who have been the Nehemiahs in your life? Why were they important to you? Then the bigger question is, are you a Nehemiah to others?

Then one day, they were allowed to go “home.” Just under 50,000 who made the four months’ journey wanted to reclaim what they had left.

The story of the Jews returning from Babylonian captivity is found in the first six chapters of Ezra. Those chapters talk about how those returning exiles went to great lengths to restore their place of worship, the Temple; to restore their religious practices, festivals and sacrifices, to restore their relationship to Jehovah God. Ezra, the writer, tells about the almost insurmountable obstacles that cluttered their way and how their determination conquered those barriers. They wanted restoration with God. Being separated from Him by distance, by culture, even by kingly command did not quench that need to be once again close to their God.

And God Almighty has always wanted restoration with his creation. From the time man introduced sin into the world and God asked “where are you?” (Genesis3:8-11) to the image of Jesus standing at a door knocking, waiting to be let in (Revelation 3:20), God has made it possible for man and woman to be “pure and Holy” again in His sight.

Like the Israelites of old, we too can find ourselves ripped from our homes, forced to go places we don’t want and become slaves to our emotions and desires. BUT we can go “home” anytime we choose restoration with our Father.

The question then is what keeps people from seeking restoration with God?

And more specifically what keeps you from having restoration with you heavenly Father?

Historically the busiest day for buying Christmas presents is the Saturday before Christmas and the second is Christmas Eve. This year both of those fall on Saturday, December 24.

So my suggestion is that we greet each other with “Survive Christmas Frenzy time”.

It seems easy to lose Jesus amid the hurry and scurry of finding that perfect present and the varied activities of celebrating the season. It’s easy to reduce Him to a catch phrase, “the reason for the season!!”

Yet, He IS the reason for the season. His birth was heralded as welcome to the Savior of the world. And through Him we have the promise of life forever with God Almighty.

For there’s born to you this day in the city of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign to you: You will find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Luke 2:11-14

So maybe we should say to each other, “Thank God for Jesus.”

So what do you think?

From the smug smile that flashed, “I’ve got this under control”, to the horrible realization that he was an adulterer, murderer, deceiver, liar, and betrayer, his world was reduced to the cesspool of reality that he was drowning in.

At that moment only the answers to two questions mattered. What does God say you should do? Are you going to do it?

What appears to be a script for a movie or TV show is a story from ancient times, sadly acted out over and over in the centuries since.

David, second king of Israel, had it all and lost it when lust controlled him. It is then that he answers those two most fundamental of questions. His answer can be read in the 51st Psalm.

Have mercy upon me, Oh God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

David betrayed God, asked for forgiveness and is granted it, yet David still suffered the consequences of that sin (two of his sons die). In spite of all this both the prophet Samuel and Luke describe David as a man after God’s own heart.

If there was forgiveness for David, then there is nothing you can do that God can’t forgive!

Those two questions remain for you to answer. What does God say you should do? and Are you going to do it?

Which of those two is the hardest to answer?

“We are connected to our iPhones, iPads, iTouch, iTunes, iMac, iChat, but

   have we lost the connection to the I AM?”

God says:

“I am your shield, your exceeding great reward.”

Gen. 15:1

“I am Almighty God, walk before me and be blameless.”

Gen. 17:1

“I am the God of your father Abraham…for I am with you.”

Gen. 26:24

“I am the Lord, that is My name.”

Is. 42:8

“For I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like Me.”

Is. 46:9

“I am who I AM, thus you say to the children of Israel, I AM has sent me to you.”

Ex. 3:14

“I am with you.”

Jer. 1:14

“I am merciful.”

Jer. 3:12

Jesus says:

“I am the living bread which came down from Heaven.”

John 6:51

“I am from Him and He sent me.”

John 7:29

“I am the light of the world.”

John 8:12

“I am the door.”

John 10:9

“I am the good shepherd.”

John 10:11

“I am the resurrection and the life.”

John 11:25

“I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

John 14:6

“I am the vine, you are the branches.”

John 15:5

“I am Jesus….”

Acts 9:5

So the question awaits your answer.  Are you more connected to your idevice or the I AM?

If so what can you and I do about that? Or should we?

We have access to numerous Bibles, different versions, different styles. At times it seems that we more often read books about the Book, consult blogs offering opinions as to what the Bible is implying, listen to people with initials after their names as if only they understand the depth contained within the covers.

The contrast is striking, a young woman who had only heard what scripture says wants to read and understand it for herself. We who have those same words readily available seemingly would rather rely on someone other than God to tell us His thoughts. Do we really want the message of God homogenized and filtered by someone else?

The Apostle Paul reminded Timothy that:

…From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

II Tim. 3:15-17

To know what God says we must, like the young woman in Tanzania, read the Bible. We must become people of the Book, again.

So let me pose the questions and most don’t want to answer:

Do you really believe that the Bible is God’s word and thus the guide for our lives?

What is the basis of your thinking? How do you know?

How do you reconcile how you behave with what you believe?

Then almost rudely she queried, “Why?” As I looked at her face, I realized she didn’t understand the motive and I started to formulate an answer that should have been obvious to her as well as to me, but I had rarely framed a response. “It’s about souls to Heaven. It’s all about heaven. We want people to get to heaven,” I finally affirmed.

“Oh,” she countered and her book came out, signaling that our conversation had ended.

The book of I John talks about: Doing what God wants you to do, believing in Jesus, confessing sins, loving your brothers by actually do things in addition to saying them and then in chapter 5, verse 13, he writes:

These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

In his gospel, John says God loved the world so much that He gave Jesus so we can believe in Him and have everlasting life. John 3:16-17:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

It’s All about Heaven!! Our mission, obligation and responsibility is to tell the remaining 2/3 of the world’s population (4.4 Billion) about Jesus, so that those who do what God commands will go to Heaven.

Sooooo:

For you, is going to Heaven important?

Why?

How do YOU get to Heaven? And what are you going to do about it?