The Humbly Thankful Cure

There is a sickness of sin and selfishness that kills. It destroys. It does its murderous work in so many ways. It vanquishes personal inner peace and joy. It wipes out hope in God. It tortures marriages and families. It constructs an evil wall between people and the very source of life, God in Christ. 

On the other hand, when anyone comes to a place where they find themselves in awe of God, and thankful to Him, all the above and every other horrific spiritual illness is cured. Giving thanks to God is "the will God in Christ Jesus for you."

My heart is breaking for the one who has never had the healing experience of genuine thanksgiving. They are hurting so much, and are blind as to why. "Understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God."(2 Timothy 3:1–4 ESV)

This is a description of our day. Such misery. This morning, I heard the news of how a man murderously drove his car into a Christmas parade that included a group of grandmothers and children. Forty were wounded. Five were killed. This was someone who was "heartless." On some scale, this happens daily in towns and homes all over the place. At the heart of this self-loving abusive sickness is the heart that is "ungrateful." 

The cure? 

1. Recognize God. We are not an accident. We were created. Life is not meaningless. God has a purpose for our lives. "Know that the LORD, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his...Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!" (Psalm 100:3–4 ESV)

2. Realize that every good thing that can be known and experienced is a gift from the Lord. "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." (James 1:16–17 ESV)

3. Accept by faith, and always remember, all that Christ has done for you in His death and resurrection. There is so much of the New Testament that could be shared here. Jesus in the past, "slain from the foundation of the world." The cross, and the resurrection. "The promise of our awesome future because of Christ and with Christ! Read the Bible and thank the Lord for all He has given you out of sheer love and grace. "It (made right with God) will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:24–25 ESV) "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God." (Colossians 3:16 ESV)

4. Have a forceful talk with yourself. David told himself to bless the Lord. He told himself to not forget any of the Lord's blessings. How we talk to ourselves has a hugh impact on our thankfulness. We must not tell ourselves lies, "Nobody expects me to be totally consumed with God, to love God more than anything. God understands my competing passions." We must instead demand of ourselves to be completely thankful. No hypocrisy. The Lord deserves "all that is within me" to bless his holy name. "Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits." (Psalm 103:1-2 ESV)

5. Depend on Jesus to give you the ability to be thankful. It's impossible for us to give  the kind of thanksgiving the Lord desires, with all humility, all the time, life-changingly. So we need to look to Jesus to cause us be thankful. "Whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (Colossians 3:17 ESV) Yes, and only, "through him." This isn't something we can do through our own abilities. Only through Jesus and therefore, for His glory. 

"Father, you deserve all my praise and thanksgiving. The next breath I'm about to take is a gift from you. Every good and perfect thing in life is because of you. And giving thanks to you cures every spiritual battle I fight. You resist the proud. You give grace and power to the humble. Cause me to humble myself and cause me to to trust you to empower me to be thankful. Through the power of Jesus. For His glory." 

Richie Rhea

LIFE

LIFE in all caps! 

Life has been in the news lately. It should be. I'm glad. Because life matters. You matter!

We are tremendously interested in Mars. We have spent several billion dollars to take a look. Some say that we need Mars as a place to escape earth. (Because an average temp of minus 81 degrees along with 96% carbon dioxide with only about 0.1% oxygen sounds so inviting. I guess.)

One huge interest in Mars has to do with the question of life. Is there life on Mars? NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover has taken dozens of core samples from what is believed to be the bottom of an ancient Martian lakebed. 

There is great hope that ancient fossilized life might be discovered. Several tubes of samples from Mars will be returned to Earth to be examined. Perhaps evidence of ancient life will be found. 

What exactly will be found? I don't know. But I know this. The surface of Mars is not teaming with life. Not one plant. Not one animal. The surface appears to be completely barren, even sterile. I think it's hard for us to imagine almost 56 million square miles of a landmass that is exceedingly more sterile than the most sterile surgical suite on earth. On our earth home, life is everywhere. I recently read an article about sea life that was discovered on a boulder beneath an Antarctic ice shelf! 

(Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2267737-life-found-beneath-antarctic-ice-sheet-shouldnt-be-there/#ixzz6nQL0hQBo)

The NASA scientists and engineers are so excited. You can hear in their voices. The big question will finally be answered in 10 years with future missions returning the samples to earth to be studied in laboratories around the Earth. "Are we alone?" "Has there ever been any kind of life on Mars?"

Let me say what we all know, life is miraculous. How does life happen? Is it possible for something that is not alive to spontaneously become alive? And then begin to reproduce? It is a huge question. 

It is clear to me that LIFE doesn't just happen. Lifeless elements don't transform into life. If there is evidence for the existence of even a single cell of life that may have existed in the distant past on Mars I will be equally amazed.

Life has also been in the news because of the pandemic. In the past twelve months, over 500,000 Americans have died. Human beings. I could write for a very long time about those two words. But let me just say that over half a million people were alive and now they are dead. I am not talking about single-cell life. I'm talking about an estimated 30 trillion cells of amazingly wonderful complexity in each.

I hope that we value human life more than possible ancient astrobiological life. It is exceedingly important that we must value life, especially, persons if we want to thrive. 

Every once in a while someone will say of those who have died as a result of Covid 19, "well, most already had some kind of health issue already." I guess they are saying, if someone would most likely die in the next few years then it's really not as big a deal if they died a little sooner of Covid. 

With one day to live or one decade, or more, human life is precious, infinitely more valuable than possible biosignatures from a distant barren planet. To discount human life is dangerous. Horribly and fatally dangerous. 

I was watching a NASA report about the Perseverance mission and someone wrote, "people... imagine the impact on society and religions, philosophies after ancient traces of life is discovered... Interesting times." 

I hope I'm wrong, but I can't help but wonder if this comment, along with many others that have been made, suggests a hope that for once and for all, if biosignatures are discovered on Mars, we can conclude that life happens easily. It not only just happened on Earth, it happens anywhere where elements and environments that support life are found. And. If life just happens spontaneously, then God is not needed. God doesn't exist. We are all just a result of natural biological processes that are common throughout the universe. 

Even though, all the right elements for life are present on Mars doesn't mean there has ever been life on Mars. I don't know what will eventually be concluded, but I know that life does not spontaneously arise. Not anywhere. Life is miraculous. The last thing anyone needs to hear these days is that life is no big deal. 

Devaluing life is suicidal. As the Psalmist wisely concluded, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made." That kind of life value is needed for life on Earth to survive. 

Many of our children are getting the opposite message. And it's deadly. It is no wonder that such heinous and previously unthinkable murderous crimes have taken place over the past years. It is no wonder that suicide continues to be a huge problem. 

Listen to the person kindly serving at a suicide hotline as they share with the distressed individual who is considering ending their own life, "you matter! You are important. Your life is valuable."

That is an awesome massage! But it needs to be believed and shared and celebrated not just at the end, on a suicide hotline. It needs to be shared with every single human being throughout their lifetime. 

In speaking about how we use the words that roll off our tongues the half-brother of Jesus wrote, "With it, we bless our Lord and Father, and with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so." (James 3:9–10 ESV)

After a generation full of abortions at a rate the same or greater than this present pandemic, many have come to the wrong conclusion. The truth we need to return to, which can save our culture from self-destruction, is that people are made in the likeness of God. Our value comes from our creator. All people are created equal.  

Don't get me wrong. I would love to be one of the ones chosen to be on the next Space X, or NASA trip to Mars, or the moon for that matter. But, as exciting as such a journey would be, along with all kinds of awesome discoveries, I honestly would rather spend the evening with Rhonda. She is wonderful, "fearfully and wonderfully made." After 42 years she is more wonderful to me than ever. 

Truly valuing one another is what makes life possible. Loving one another is what makes life a joy.