The importance of apologetics

Not too long ago, I was able to go to an event with former Denver Broncos placekicker Jason Elam as the guest of honor.  This was such a great event!  One thing that struck me was the large amount of Christian apologetics that Elam presented.

You say, "wait a minute!  What is apologetics?"  Contrary to what some of you might think, it means more than being sorry for something you have done.  I love the article on this topic posted by got questions.org.  By the way, got questions.org is such a valuable resource.  If you are ever bored, go and browse some of their articles; they have great information!  Here's their link on apologetics:

http://www.gotquestions.org/Christian-apologetics.html?sms_ss=email&at_xt=4db4d6daa4c5c929,0

As you see, they explain Christian apologetics is giving a defense of the Christian faith.  They go on to quote 1 Peter 3:15, "always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have (NIV). 

I'm reminded of what I wrote about Rob Bell's book "Love Wins."  I'm convinced that the negative critique I gave Bell's book cost me what could have been faithful readers to this blog.  I don't for a moment regret what I wrote, I am simply citing this an example (albeit a very minor one) of how presenting a defense of the Christian faith will cost us.  But that said, it is still something that we are commanded to do in the Word of God.  Jason Elam practices apologetics, let's follow his example!

Kevin Bauer

(Jude 1:3)

Music recommendation revisited

It started out as a simple music recommendation for Rebecca St. James new CD "I Will Praise You."  You, the readers, have made what I wrote that day become #3 all time in most viewed blogs that I've written!

That response has inspired me to revisit Rebecca's CD again today.  I've been listening to the CD a lot for the past few weeks, and I must reiterate again how good it is.  I love the songs such as "You Still Amaze Me" and "Almighty God."  In that original blog, I highlighted how much I love the title track "I Will Praise You."  In fact, I made the somewhat bold prediction that this new song would become a part of her legacy.  Today I thought I would elaborate on why I feel this way.
 
When I listen to "I Will Praise You" my mind goes the Old Testament character of Job.  He suffered like most of us never will, yet his response sounds remarkably like Rebecca's song.  After losing absolutely everything, he says in Job 1, "the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord" (verse 21; NKJV). 

That's why I love Rebecca's song so much.  It encourages us to not wallow in pity, anger, and depression when trials come upon us, instead we are being challenged to fix our eyes on God and say to Him, "I don't understand why this is happening, but I'm going to praise and worship You anyway."  May all of us get to such a place in our lives!

Kevin Bauer

(Job 13:15)

Update

I wanted to share this news with everyone...

http://rsjames.com/updates/2011/4/26/news-rebecca-st-james-marries-this-past-weekend.html

Look at how blissfully happy they are.  Congratulations you two!

Kevin Bauer

Math in the Bible

Last week in my math class we had an assignment where we were asked to present an example of math in the Bible.  This was an interesting idea because I had never really considered how many mathematical ideas are presented in God’s Word.

The answer that I wrote is the account in Matthew 18.  Peter comes up to Jesus and asks, “How many times should I forgive my brother?  Up to seven?”  Jesus answered him with a mathematical equation; He says, “Not seven, but seventy times seven” (verse 22).  I once heard a preacher talking about this verse (unfortunately I can’t recall his name).  He said that 70 X 7 = 490, but this is not some magical number.  You don’t say to yourself, “OK, I’m going to keep forgiving this person, but once I get to 490 I’ll stop.” 

Someone hurts you, and you are tempted to hold a grudge, but instead you choose to forgive.  So you think, “OK, that’s one.”  It happens again (“OK, that’s two”)…“OK, that’s twenty…OK, that’s twenty-one.”  And so on.  This preacher concluded by saying that eventually you come to a point where you lose count.

In my own life, I have found that when someone hurts me and I choose to forgive them something wonderful happens: I am liberated and freed.  No longer do I have to be mentally chained to the offender hoping that some horrible calamity befalls them.  I think that’s Jesus’ point here.  He’s saying, “Don’t hold a grudge; keep forgiving even if someone hurts you over and over again.  You’ll see how wonderful forgiveness is.”  I can vouch for how wise God is to tell us to choose forgiveness rather than retaliation.

Kevin Bauer

(Luke 17:4)

April 24th is a very special day!

First of all, let me wish everyone a happy Easter.  The Apostle Paul talks about how essential the resurrection of Christ is in 1 Corinthians 15.  He writes, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.  Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost.  If only for this life, we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.  But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead” (verses 17-20).  Amen!  As the song puts it, “Christ the Lord is risen today, hallelujah!”

This particular Easter is even more special than usual (and this is one of my favorite holidays to begin with).  So I want to switch gears.  For today, I will give you the short version of how God, back in 1982, literally and miraculously saved my life!

When I was four months old, I developed what was diagnosed as “Infantile Spasms.”  This really just means that, as an infant, I was having multiple seizures.  Of course, the goal is to minimize the amount of seizures.  So I was on a lot of different medicines to try to do just that.  It worked a little, but they never completely went away.

 

This season of life lasted for six months.  It was April 24th, 1982.  I was in the hospital again due to complications.  For some reason, I flat-lined for three full minutes.  But then God breathed life into me (I believe every breath is a gift from Him; see Job 33:4).  What’s more, I haven’t had a seizure of any kind since that brush with death!  Every April the 24th, I stop and thank God for His miraculous touch.  Without Him, I would not be here today.

I want to be sensitive to those of you who may be dealing with a trying physical issue of some kind.  You read my story, and you are thinking, “Well, good for you, but what about me?  Why did God heal you and not me?”  My answer is I don’t have any idea.  I have a friend who deals with Grand Maul seizures, and I confess that I sometimes wonder why God healed me, but not her.

I’m reminded of the account of Jesus healing a blind man in John 9.  Have you ever thought about how there were other blind men that Jesus didn’t heal?  I’m using my imagination here, but perhaps some of this man’s best friends remained blind, while he could now see.  I can picture some of his blind friends coming to him in anger and asking him, “Why did this guy restore your sight and not mine?”  I think the blind man (who did become a believer, see John 9:35-38) would have answered with something like this, “God is the one who decides such matters.  I’m sad that you are still blind, but I can’t let that stop me from sharing with others what God has done for me.”

Kevin Bauer

Follow-up remarks

After writing what I did about the death of Superman yesterday, some of you might be interested in reading this intriguing story in its entirety.  There were actually three comic books needed to tell the full story “The Death of Superman” (the one I described yesterday); “A World Without Superman”; (this is where everyone grieves losing the hero); and “The Return of Superman”.
 
Furthermore, if you are interested in seeing a condensed version of the whole story, I would point you to “Superman/Doomsday.”  This is a movie that stars Adam Baldwin as Superman.  With this version, we get a thumbnail sketch of the original story in movie form.  I should warn you that although this is a cartoon, it has a PG-13 rating.  I can’t resist tipping my hand and quoting Lex Luthor’s monologue at the very beginning of this movie.  Lex is watching news clips of Superman saving the day, and he thinks these words:

“Just look at him.  So sleek, so powerful, so beautiful.  Like some great golden god made flesh.  Of course, any sensible god would demand absolute obedience in return for his favor, but no, our Man of Steel protects us and keeps us, with no strings attached.  And the people, they practically worship him anyway.  Enjoy your reign will you may, Superman.  For as surely as night follows day, there comes a time when even gods must die.”  His description of Superman further backs up the notion that the hero is a type and a picture of Jesus.

It would be negligent of me to not mention one more thing before we move on to a new topic.  As we’ve said, Superman’s death is a reminder of the death that Jesus endured for us on the cross.  Many years ago, I had an interesting conversation with someone about the death of Jesus.  This individual proposed that because of what Jesus did on the cross everyone is now a Christian whether they even desire to be one or not.  This person was sadly mistaken.  Let me explain why.

Suppose that you decide to get your best friend a gift.  When the time is right, you present the beautifully wrapped package, but your friend doesn’t take it.  Can you picture the scene; you keep saying, “I got you a gift” and your friend continually ignores it?  That’s a ludicrous scene, isn’t it?  You know that the only way a gift can be of any value is by accepting it and unwrapping it.  In the same way, Jesus offers you the gift of salvation, the gift of reconciliation, the gift of forgiveness, but you have to take the gift for yourself for it to do any good.  So the obvious question is this: have you taken the gift of salvation?  If you haven’t, do it today!

Kevin Bauer

(John 1:12)

"Greater love has no one than this..."

It was back in 1993 when a comic book storyline was introduced where Superman had to fight a formidable opponent by the name of Doomsday.  Everywhere Doomsday went, chaos and destruction followed him.  He attacked anyone and everyone in his path.  As the saying goes, "This looks like a job for Superman!"  But the most unbelievable thing happened as Superman's fight with this creature unfolded: Doomsday actually appeared to be winning.  Sure, Superman got in some good shots, but Doomsday was relentless in his attacks, Superman was essentially being beaten to a pulp. 

The fight was long and hard (most of the comic book was devoted to it).  In the end, the unthinkable happened: even though Superman thankfully delivered a decisive blow to end Doomsday's reign of terror, the hero collapsed and moments later, in the arms of his beloved Lois, he died!  To hold you in suspense, I purposely withheld the title of the comic book until now, it was called "The Death of Superman."

H. Michael Brewer in his book "Who Needs a Superhero? Finding Virtue, Vice, and What's Holy in the Comics" writes, "Behind the slumped figure of the dead Superman, an upright piece of broken lumber juts from the wreckage.  The tattered cape of the Man of Steel hangs on the board and flutters in the wind.  In my eyes, that heaven-reaching timber casts the shadow of the cross over the scene.  [To see Superman] dying to rescue Metropolis points our hearts toward the true Savior who died for the world."

I've confused some of you.  You are thinking, "wait, we were talking about Superman.  Why are we talking about Jesus now?"  Fair question.  There's actually a notion that Superman is a type and a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Personally, I agree with this concept; I think it's a good comparison.  For those of you interested in learning more about this idea, I would recommend "The Gospel According to the World's Greatest Superhero" by Stephen Skelton.  The whole book is devoted to explaining the various ways Superman is like Christ.

By the way, if you are unfamiliar with this Doomsday saga, here's what happened: Superman did literally die, but he doesn't stay dead; he is resurrected!  But a part of me didn't want to reveal that information, because I didn't want to move so quickly from a scene of vicarious death to resurrection.  Or to put it another way, I didn't want to move from Good Friday to Easter.  Yes, the resurrection is vitally important, but it's not Easter yet.  So for now, let's all try to remain focused on the death of Superman.  As Brewer puts it, contemplating Superman's death reminds us of how Jesus Christ gave His life for us on the cross.

Kevin Bauer

(John 15:13)

The choice we all must make

I recently read something by writer Bill Crowder.  He talks about how he saw members of a football team wearing a T-shirt with this slogan: “Every day you must choose: the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.”  Think about that statement.  The latter part of it is fairly easy to grasp; we all know at one time or another “the pain of regret.”  Proverbs 22:8 says, “He who sows iniquity will reap sorrow” (NKJV).

But what does “the pain of discipline” mean?  The way I took it is this: the accompanying pain that sometimes comes with doing the right thing.  I’m not sure how many of you have given this any thought, but there is a certain pain in choosing to say no to sin, because it looks fun and exciting.  Rick Ferguson, in his fantastic book “The Servant Principle” writes,

“The Bible does not deny that sin is fun and pleasurable for a season [he’s referring to Hebrews 11:24-26].  However, the ultimate results of sin are deadly.  If you are sinning, you are not looking to the future.  You are not seeing the long-term consequences.  Don’t sell out your long-term future for a short-term pleasure.  Take the long look.”

I think Christian Artist Steve Wiggins provides us with the bottom line.  According to my Internet research, Wiggins was a part of the Contemporary Christian music group “Big Tent Revival” until the group disbanded in 2000.  Wiggins once wrote, “Sometimes doing it God's way means doing it the hard way.  God’s will is sometimes the path of patience and sometimes the path of pain.”

I do believe that the pain of doing the right thing (or “the pain of discipline” as Crowder put it) is far better than enduring the pain of regret.  So I just want to encourage everyone reading - including the man who wrote this - choose to do the right thing, no matter how difficult it may be sometimes.

Kevin Bauer

Music recommendation

Today I simply want to recommend Rebecca St. James new CD entitled "I Will Praise You."

A little while back, I blogged about legacies: what it is that we'll leave after our lives are over.  Eleven years ago, Rebecca wrote a song called "Wait For Me" which was a song that was written to her then unknown future husband (she is getting married to a man named Jacob Fink; see my blog titled "Happy News" that I wrote back in January).  That is probably her most well known song; it will always be a part of her legacy.  In my opinion, the song entitled "I Will Praise You" (the title track) will also be a song that will impact others long after her time on this earth has ended.  Not only does this song have a great melody, but (more importantly) it also has a great message. 
 
My decision to highlight this particular song does not in any way minimize the rest of the tracks on the CD.  As you can imagine, I could go through a detailed analysis of why I like each of the songs for some reason or another, but I will spare you from that.  All I'm saying is this: in my own personal opinion, "I Will Praise You" is the best song on the CD.

Kevin Bauer

Some words from Tony Dungy

Former NFL coach Tony Dungy, in his book “Uncommon: Finding Your Path to Significance” writes, “For some reason, there is a stigma on women who have a lot of sexual partners, but society seems to look at it very differently when it comes to men.”

I must admit that I too have noticed this tendency.  Just consider some of the fictional male characters that are known for their various sexual exploits: James Bond, Sam Malone, Don Juan, Barney Stinson, Charlie Harper, and Joey Tribbiani (and of course there are many historical examples as well).  The culture doesn’t look down on men like this.  To the contrary, they are applauded and praised.

 

Dungy continues, “We’ve allowed ourselves to be fooled into thinking that it’s acceptable because “that's what men do.””  Gentlemen, the truth of the matter is, God doesn’t wink at or condone sexual promiscuity simply because you are a male with sexual urges.  Coach Dungy goes on to say, “But the Bible tells us to “run from sexual sin!  No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does” (by the way, he's quoting from 1 Corinthians 6:18 in the NLT). 

The Word of God presents us with multiple commands to remain sexually pure until married life, whether we are male or female (and then the only sexual contact is to be with your spouse).  In fact, one verse says not to have “even a hint of sexual immorality” (Ephesians 5:3; NIV).  Have you ever seen how little a “hint” is on a cooking show?

I wear a gold abstinence ring on the third finger of my right hand.  Many years ago, after I showed someone my ring, this person candidly replied, “I could never wear such a ring, because I'm not pure.”  Perhaps your life story is like the person I’ve described.  You are not sexually pure anymore.  Furthermore, I’ve heaped loads of guilt on you by presenting God’s stand on sex (let me underscore that: it’s not my stand on sex; it’s God’s).

I love what Romans 5:20 says, “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.”  No matter what you have done, you can be forgiven!  1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”  This doesn’t mean that we can simply go out and sin all we want (see Romans 6:1-2, the verses immediately following Romans 5:20), but it does mean that God is ready, willing, and able to forgive you for what you have done, whether that is sexual sin or some other kind of sin.

Kevin Bauer

An intriguing challenge

Periodically, the radio station K-love plays sound bites of listeners giving testimonials of how K-love has impacted their lives.  Yesterday, I heard a female listener talk about how K-love's "thirty day challenge" changed her life.  Let me explain.  A while back, K-love put out a challenge: listen to Christian music exclusively for the next thirty days.  See what kind of difference it makes in your life.

I have to tell you, ever since I heard that clip, I have not been able to think about much of anything else other than making the same challenge to you, dear readers.  I think K-love came up with a great idea.  Let's go from now to May 12th and listen to nothing but Christian music.

You may be asking why I'm advancing this challenge.  Christian Artist Rebecca St. James once said, "Music is so powerful.  I think a lot of the time we underestimate how powerful it really is.  We say, 'well, I'm not really listening to the words; I'm just listening to the music.'  But it sinks in.  So I don't really listen to much secular music at all.  I'm really careful about what I absorb." Rebecca's words would be my answer as to why I think this is such an important exercise.

Some of you are resisting this idea.  You don't want to commit to doing this.  If you choose not to do this, that's perfectly fine (it's not like I can check up on you anyway).  But I would really encourage you to participate with me in doing this - yes, you read that right, I'm going to do this exercise with you.  I really believe that a lot of good will come from this.

Are you in?

Kevin Bauer

Remembering Leslie Nielsen

It was back in November of 2010 when actor Leslie Nielsen died.  I didn’t have a blog back then, but if I did, I would have discussed him.  I was reminded of him again the other day when I saw a trailer for the disaster comedy “Airplane” on a DVD.  The fact is, Nielsen left us a legacy: the glorious gift of laughter. 

Laughter is a gift from God.  I love to laugh, and I would suspect that most of us do not take advantage of this gift as much as we should.  Leslie Nielsen had an amazing talent for making people laugh.  One reason for this is because he had the skill of saying a ridiculously humorous statement with a completely straight face.  For example, in “Airplane” his character is having a conversation with the pilot.  The pilot says, “Surely you can't be serious.”  “I am serious,” Nielsen’s character replies.  “And don't call me Shirley!”  Once again, he said this with such a serious face that one couldn’t help but laugh.

Who could forget a vintage Nielsen moment in one of the “Naked Gun” movies?  I think it was in the original film where Nielsen’s character not only completely butchered the lyrics to the “Star Spangled Banner” but also sang it completely off-key.  I should have uploaded a clip of it from you tube or something, but I didn’t.  Check it out, it's hilarious! 
 
As I contemplated Nielsen’s legacy, I began to ask myself this question: what kind of legacy do I want to leave?  My answer is best summed up by an excerpt from Chris Tomlin's book “The Way I Was Made.”  In chapter 1, he writes this: “you were made for more than this world sells...because we were made for something greater.  We were created to shine the spotlight on God - to spread the fame of God everywhere we go.”  I want my legacy to be a life that “shined the spotlight on God.”  Not just in words, but also in deeds.

Some of you might be wondering why I would want this to be my legacy.  You may be saying, “You just want to divert all the attention away from you and onto God?  Why?  You only live once, right?”  The reason is because if one were to shine the spotlight on Kevin Bauer closely enough, they would find someone who is flawed, sinful, and unworthy.  But if God were to use me simply as a conduit to direct all the attention to Him, they would see Someone who is loving, trustworthy, and kind (to name just a few of God’s traits).

Let me close with a question: what kind of legacy do you want to leave?  Leslie Nielsen left one.  I’m going to leave one.  What about you?  What kind of legacy do you want to leave?

Kevin Bauer

(John 3:30)

Lessons learned from Karone (part 2)

Before I dive in, let me rehash what we have learned so far from Karone:

#1: We can’t let our past determine what we do with our future.  I don’t want to write everything that I wrote yesterday again, but in Karone’s case, she was once an evil villain named Astronema.  But largely because of her brother’s love, she returned to the side of good and eventually became the pink Power Ranger.

#2: God wants us to fight on the side of good.  In the animated movie “Superman/Shazam: The Return of Black Adam” Superman counsels Captain Marvel to be good, even though it's not always the easy thing to do.  Let’s move on to some new material now.

#3: We must learn to forgive ourselves.  In an episode from “Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy”, we learn that when Karone was Astronema, she turned a powerful warrior into stone with her magical staff.  In an attempt to make things right (and to help the Power Rangers out of a jam) she tracks the person down.  He is still a stone figure.  In a poignant scene, she says to him, “I don't know if you can hear me, but I did a lot of bad things in my past.  Angry at the whole universe, I suppose.  But you, you were fighting for justice.  I am so sorry I did this to you.  If I could, I would gladly take your place.”  Then as Karone begins to cry on his stone hand, the man returns to normal, presumably because of her tears of remorse.  The now restored man says to Karone, “I forgive you.  Now it's time for you to forgive yourself!”

These words were particularly impacting to me as I watched all this unfold.  I’m far from perfect; I make mistakes like anyone else.  To be candid with you, I’m tempted at times to withhold forgiveness from myself.  But God says to every Christian, “I forgive you.  Now it's time for you to forgive yourself!”  Later on in the episode, Karone says, “For the first time in my life, I feel like the past is behind me.  My future is a clean slate.”  As Christians, we can say the same thing.  God has given us a clean slate as well!

#4: Change is possible.  This one is really exciting!  We are not bound to what we are today.  If there is something in our lives that shouldn't be there, we can change.  I love the TV show called “Monk.”  Tony Shalhoub portrays a brilliant detective named Adrian Monk who has to overcome his extreme case of OCD to solve crimes.  In one episode, Monk’s father returns to his life.  In an interesting exchange, his dad says to Monk, “Nobody ever really changes; you’ve never changed!”  What a sad outlook on life!  If Karone’s story teaches us anything, it teaches us that if there is something in our lives that we don’t like, we can change.

Kevin Bauer

Lessons learned from Karone

One of the things that I’ve been doing when I haven’t been racking my brain trying to comprehend the mathematical notions in a difficult college math class is unwind and de-stress by watching old episodes of the show Power Rangers.  I used to watch the show regularly when I was a boy, and I have enjoyed getting reacquainted with it again.

One of my favorite seasons that I have watched so far is called "Power Rangers in Space."  This actually was a season that I didn’t see when I was a child.  There are a lot of fun aspects involved in this particular season; high on my list is watching the main villain of that season by the name of Astronema (portrayed masterfully by Melody Perkins).  Like any effective villain, Astronema is ruthless, diabolical, and conniving.  It takes a while, but eventually a revelation is discovered: Astronema is the long lost sister of the red Power Ranger named Andros.  Her name is actually Karone.

When Andros and Karone were children, they were playing ball on their home planet of KO-35.  The ball got away from Andros, and so he went to get it.  As he did, someone came and grabbed poor Karone and kidnapped her.  Karone was subsequently deceived by her captors.  She was repeatedly told that her brother and parents were murdered when she was young and that it was the Power Rangers who had murdered them.  Karone believed the lies and soon began to answer to the name Astronema.

To give you the very short version, Karone was convinced of the truth and ultimately she was brought back to the good side.  In the next season, the season known as "Power Rangers: Lost Galaxy" Karone reappears (once again portrayed by Melody Perkins).  Karone’s behavior is a complete turnaround from her past days of evil.  This is evidenced in many ways.  One way is when she volunteers to sacrifice her life in the place of one of the Power Rangers.  She didn’t have to go through with it, as this was just a test to ascertain her character and motives, but her intention to give her own life was crystal clear.  Soon, she actually becomes the pink Power Ranger.  What a remarkable change; from Astronema self-proclaimed “princess of evil” to Karone the Power Ranger fighting on the side of good!

The Apostle Paul knew something about having a regrettable past (see 1 Timothy 1:13-17). But the Lord transformed him, and he was used mightily by God.  Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul wrote, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away…all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17; NKJV).  While Karone never claimed to become a Christian, watching such a stark contrast unfold reminded me that every Christian had a life before Christ.  Every Christian had a life of being Astronema, if you will. But God changed us and transformed us, and now (like Karone) He wants us to fight on the side of good.

Kevin Bauer