The final blog for 2014

As 2014 nears its end, I’m feeling reflective.  I’m contemplating what transpired in 2014, and looking ahead to what God has in store in 2015.  I actually looked back at all the blogs I wrote in 2014.  I hope you enjoyed reading my words half as much as I enjoyed writing them.  This blog is really a labor of love for me.  I have to say, once again, just how humbled and honored I am that you would take the time to read my work.  Thank you!

I noticed that I didn’t write an April 24th blog this year.  So I want to say a few brief words about this event now.  For those of you that don’t know, on April 24th back in 1982, God literally and miraculously saved my life as a baby.  Praise the Lord!  Psalm 139:16 says that God “ordained” (as the NIV puts it) all the days of our lives before even one of them came to be.  It wasn’t my time yet that day.  The truth is, every day is a gift from God.  In Isaiah 42, it says that God gives life and breath to the inhabitants of the Earth (verse 5).

As I look forward, one thing is certain: I will continue to be writing blog installments in 2015 (God willing).  I think I’ve used this Chris Tomlin quote from his excellent book “The Way I Was Made” 100 times in this blog already; here’s number 101: “We were created to shine the spotlight on God.”  That’s what I want to do in 2015 and in the subsequent years.  I want to “shine the spotlight on God.”  Not just in a blog (although that’s certainly an important part of it), but in every facet of my life.  Why?  Because God is worthy of that spotlight; He is the majestic, powerful, awe-inspiring God of the universe.  It’s not about Kevin Bauer.  It never has been, and it never will be.  It’s all about Him!

Happy New Year, everyone!

Kevin

"It is more blessed to give than to receive"

In Acts 20, the Apostle Paul quotes a sentiment from Jesus.  He says, “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work, we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive’” (verse 35).  Jesus is right (obviously!); there is an inherent blessing in taking your eyes off of yourself, putting them on others, and choosing to give. 

Moreover, it’s enjoyable to give.  The department store Dillard’s correctly declared in their recent slogan, “Oh what fun it is to give!”  It really is fun to give.  I can testify to you (and I say this to God’s glory): I have experienced the blessing of giving to others. There is a certain thrill, bliss, delight, and pleasure found in being a generous giver.

 

Let me add one last thing.  Some people give, but it is with the expectation that they will receive as a reward.  They state, “Let me give you this, but you owe me one.”  In my view, this is not selfless giving.  Truett Cathy once said, “I have always found more joy in giving when I did not expect anything in return.”  I can echo that for myself.  Don’t give with ulterior motives or a hidden agenda.  Give for the sheer joy of giving.  If you receive something back one day, so be it, but give selflessly.  I think it’s much more enjoyable that way.

Kevin

Christmas thoughts

I just had the most chilling dream.  It forced me to get up earlier than I would have.  I was sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with someone.  I laid it all out; everyone is a sinner.  We can’t erase or cover our sins with good works.   In fact, in this context, those good works are only dirty rags in God’s sight (Isaiah 64:6).  We continued to talk.  I got to the point of decision and asked, “What are you going to do?”  In short, I was rejected, just for sharing what the Bible says.  And it made my heart ache so much that I woke up.

How could a loving God send someone to Hell?  Have you ever heard that question, or even asked it yourself?  The truth is God doesn’t send anyone to Hell.  It’s directly tied to our choice with what we are going to do with Jesus Christ.  C.S. Lewis once wrote that there are only two kinds of people in the world: those who say to God “Thy will be done”; and those to whom God says in the end, “Thy will be done.”  God gives us the choice.  If a person rejects Him, He respects that choice.  Even if it was in a dream, I just experienced a small sampling of how God must feel regarding this rejection; it hurts Him.  It breaks His heart in a deep way.

Jesus paid the penalty of humanity’s sin on the cross of Calvary over 2000 years ago.  Friendship and fellowship is now available to all of mankind, but He doesn’t force Himself on us.  He simply says, “I have a free gift for you: the free gift of forgiveness and reconciliation with God; are you going to take it?”

Yesterday, I heard a DJ from a Christian radio station declare that you will never truly enjoy Christmas if you don’t look to Jesus, and understand that He is God’s greatest gift to you.  I said aloud to myself, “That’s a provocative statement.”  And so it is.  But what are the alternatives?  Christmas would just be a day where you exchange gifts.  Perhaps you would feel sadness at the lack of gifts compared to last year.  This kind of Christmas wouldn’t satisfy, how could it?  I plead with you, my beloved reader, don’t miss the real meaning of Christmas.  Don’t miss Jesus.  Don’t reject Jesus and His offer.

Kevin  

An unsung hero

To begin today, imagine this scene with me.  A man and woman are engaged to be married.  They are planning all the hundreds and hundreds of details of their big day.  One day, the girl says to the guy, “Sit down for a minute, honey, please.  We need to talk.”  “Okay,” he says.  “What’s up?”  “This is very difficult for me,” she begins.  “I’m pregnant.”  The man sits there for several seconds in stunned silence.  He stands up, and paces for a few moments.  Finally, he speaks up.  “But you and I haven’t made love.  We were going to wait until our wedding night.  You cheated on me?”  He asks, angry and wounded.

 

The woman jumps to her feet and quickly replies, “No, it’s nothing like that.”  She sighs, summoning the courage to give her explanation.  “An angel from Heaven came to me,” she remarks.  “I was told that the Holy Spirit is going to “overshadow” me.  God has chosen me for a special privilege: to give birth to the Son of God.”  Now it’s quite clear what couple I’m talking about, isn’t it?  I wanted to try to capture the scene without any context.  Let me jump right back into it.

What was Joseph’s initial reaction to all this?  First of all, the law in that day stated that the consequence for infidelity was death (Deuteronomy 22:20-24).  But Joseph, we are told, didn’t want to bring shame and disgrace to Mary.  Joseph was simply going to, “Divorce her quietly” (Matthew 1:19).  Why does it say “divorce her” here?  Matthew 1 tells us that Mary and Joseph were betrothed but, it also called Joseph Mary’s husband.  The betrothal was actually more binding than being engaged is today; it required much more than to simply call off the wedding.  A divorce was necessary to break the betrothal.

The overarching point here is that Joseph was gracious.  He could have been vindictive, cruel, and unkind toward Mary upon her announcement that she was pregnant by someone (or better stated: ‘Someone’; capital S) other than Joseph.  But he didn’t go that route.  He was sympathetic, kind, and civil with her.  He wasn’t going to marry her anymore, but what a gesture by Joseph here!  He simply was going to “divorce her quietly” and move on with his life.

But that’s when God intervened.  To summarize Matthew 1:20-22, an angel speaks to him in a dream.  He tells Joseph that Mary is speaking the truth, the baby is indeed from the Holy Spirit; he is to go ahead with his original plan and marry her.  One quick note: in that day it was common for God to communicate through dreams, so don’t get confused by that.  Can God communicate through dreams today?  Of course He can.  However, if a dream contradicts the Bible, disregard it.  The final authority is the Word of God, not a random dream.

Notice Joseph’s response in verse 24; it says, “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.”  Joseph obeyed.  Consider what God was asking him here.  To go back to that situation was to endure scorn, ridicule, and condemnation from everyone in town.  Once again, it’s not like our day where a couple might have a baby and then get married.  It was a very different world back then.  But Joseph said, though his actions, “I’m in.  Sign me up.  I’m going with God’s plan.”  Well done, Joseph!  By the way, God communicated with Joseph by dream on three other occasions.  Each time, the text says that Joseph was obedient to what God revealed to him.

Matthew 1:25 highlights something else regarding Joseph’s character; check this out: “But he kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son” (NASB).  Wow!  It’s one thing to practice sexual abstinence before marriage, but it’s an incredible thing for me to contemplate being sexually pure and chaste after marriage.  What restraint and self-control Joseph had to resist his natural, God-given urge to have sex with his new wife until Jesus was born!

 

In conclusion, Joseph is an unsung hero in the Christmas story.  Mary had an incredible privilege of being the virgin that God chose to give birth to Jesus.  Her faith and trust in God is commendable.  But Mary was not alone; God chose a special man too.  Joseph had an important part to play as well.  He displays several admirable characteristics for us.  Joseph truly was, as it says in Matthew 1, “a righteous man” (verse 19).

Kevin

Reviewing "Exodus: God and Kings"

I recently saw the new movie “Exodus: God and Kings” which stars Christian Bale as Moses.  In short, I don’t recommend it.  Let me begin by giving verbal praise where I can.  Christian Bale is fantastic as Moses.  While it did take a while for me to see his face and not see Bruce Wayne, he finally did dissolve into his role for me.  Second, the film does boast very good special effects.  Further, I’m pleased whenever Hollywood releases a Biblical story.

All that said, once again, I didn’t care for the movie.  I say this because the filmmakers threw in way too many elements that departed from the Biblical account.  This is not to suggest that the film didn’t even try to follow the Bible.  There was the same story that we know.  Moses is called to a mission: set the Hebrew people free from their slavery, and he succeeds.  We do see such things as the crossing of the Red Sea, the plagues, and the Israelites spreading the blood over the doorpost to avoid the death of their firstborn child.  But there were way too many liberties that were thrown in that really didn’t need to be.

For example, the plague of all the rivers turning to blood begins by having God send a huge pack of alligators to attack and kill a group of Egyptians on a boat.  The Egyptians’ shed blood spreads and it is apparently their blood that is multiplied and overtakes all the clean water.  This isn’t the way it happened according to the Bible.

For another example, the filmmakers decided to have God be a boy!  In this movie, when Moses first meets God, he doesn’t meet Him from a burning bush, but in an odd dream-like state.  In the film, Moses gets caught in a mudslide.  His entire body except his face is buried in mud.  He calls for help, and a boy is there.  The boy talks to Moses about how the Hebrew people have been in bondage.  At the end of the scene, Moses asks the boy who he is, and the boy responds, “I am.”  This is an obvious tip-off that this boy is supposedly God.

Ironically, in the next scene, Moses wakes up.  He is wounded from the mudslide, but he is lucid; his wife tells him whatever he thinks he saw wasn’t true because, as she put it, “God is not a boy.”  Amen to that!  Yet we see this same boy all throughout the film and we are supposed to go with the idea that this boy is actually God.  Could God appear as a boy if He wanted to do so?  Of course He could; He’s God and He can do whatever He wants.  That’s not the issue here, the issue is the Bible doesn’t say that God appeared to Moses in the form of a boy, nor does it say that He ever appeared to anyone in the form of boy.  Once again, it was another liberty that was taken.

Thirdly, God as a boy notwithstanding, I wasn’t particularly impressed with the way they presented God in this film.  I got the sense that they wanted to portray God as more evil than the main villain of the film, Pharaoh. This was shown in particular in the death of the firstborn plague.  The death scene of Pharaoh’s firstborn son evoked a massive amount of empathy and sadness for Pharaoh’s loss. In fact, at one point, Pharaoh shows Moses the body of his dead child, and asks him, “How can you worship a god that would do this?”  When the audience feels sympathy toward Pharaoh, and suspicion and mistrust of the God of the Bible, something is very wrong.

In reality, Pharaoh was a brutal, heartless, evil dictator.  Furthermore, God was displaying to the Israelites how He is more powerful than the gods that the Egyptians worshiped.  Got questions.org has a fantastic article on this; the author writes, “The Egyptians, like many pagan cultures, worshiped a wide variety of nature-gods, and attributed to their powers the natural phenomena they saw in the world around them.  There was a god of the sun, of the river, of childbirth, of crops, etc.”  The article goes on to state that every plague God sent confronted and overpowered a specific god they worshiped.  Check it out; I’ve included the link below.  God was saying, “These gods are not worthy of worship; they are weak and impotent.  Worship Me; I am the One true God.”

http://www.gotquestions.org/ten-plagues-Egypt.html     

Kevin

The angel's proclamation

My mind has been riveted on a phrase in Luke 2 of late.  After describing how Mary gave birth to Jesus, the scene shifts in verse 8.  It says, “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.  An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified” (verse 9).  You can understand them being frightened.  They are going about their duties, and all of the sudden, in the darkness of night, an angel appears.  That’s not something that happens on your work shift every day!

The angel says, “Do not be afraid.  I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.  Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.”  Look at that again: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.”  Stop and contemplate the ramifications of these words.  The angel says that the arrival of Jesus is good news for all people.  Whether you are Jew, Gentile, American, Chinese, Portuguese, Australian, British, male or female, rich or poor, the birth of Jesus is good news for you.

Why do I say this?  Look at Luke 2 again; “Today in the city of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord” (verse 11).  You see, mankind has a dark blight on its soul: sin.  Isaiah 53 tells us, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.”  The Bible says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).  Further, God is perfectly holy and righteous; he hates sin with a passion.  He finds it repugnant.

But, because of His love for mankind, even in the midst of our sinful state, God took the initiative to give humanity a salvation plan; a plan of deliverance; a plan of reconciliation.  Romans 5:8 reads, “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners Christ died for us.”  1 John 2:2 tells us that Jesus Christ is “the atoning sacrifice for sins, and not only for ours but also for the whole world.”  The Bible tells us, “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18).  Jesus is the Savior of the whole world because He saves people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Let the words of Luke 2:10 inspire you to give your life to Jesus Christ if you haven’t.  Luke 2:10: “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people.”  The news of Jesus’ birth is for all people because He died for all people.  You can say “yes” to Him today.  Jesus’ offer is available for you.  If you want to place your faith and trust in Jesus for your forgiveness, salvation, and reconciliation, the Bible says you can.  Romans 10:13 says, “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”  Revelation 22:17 tells us, “Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life.”

Kevin

"The virgin shall be with child"

Isaiah 7:14 is quoted every Christmas season.  And with good reason!  This is the verse that reads, “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”  I find it peculiar how some want to make the claim that the word “virgin” in Isaiah 7:14 doesn’t mean a chaste, sexually pure girl, but it simply means a young maiden.  This argument just doesn’t hold water.  It doesn’t make sense in the text from Isaiah 7, or in the New Testament.

You say, “What do you mean what you state that it doesn’t make sense in the text from Isaiah 7?”  Did you notice the very beginning of the verse?  Let me quote it again.  “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (italics mine for emphasis).

Pastor Dave Love, in a sermon I heard not long ago, said that God’s plan was to give an unmistakable sign.  He wanted to make it crystal clear that the coming Messiah had indeed arrived.  How?  By having Him be born from the womb of a virgin.  It makes no logical sense, therefore, to suggest that it was just a young maiden, not a virgin, who gave birth to the promised Messiah.  After all, young maidens gave birth all the time; how could that be considered “a sign from God” to announce the Messiah?

But there’s more.  As I said, this “young maiden” notion also doesn’t make sense in light of the rest of the Bible.  A great example is found in Luke 1.  Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel.  He says, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God.  You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus” (verse 31).

I find Mary’s response fascinating.  First, notice what Mary doesn’t say.  She doesn’t say, “I’m going to give birth to a son?  Okay, cool.  I’m so glad to hear it.  Joseph and I have been trying to get pregnant.  Thanks for the heads-up.”  Mary didn’t say that.  She is actually shocked at this news.  Her exact words were: “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:35).  By her own mouth, Mary debunks this whole “young maiden, but not a literal virgin” theory.

The angel had to explain to her that this baby was going to be unique because the conception actually wasn’t going to involve a man in any way.  Since, as Gabriel went on to explain, “With God, nothing is impossible” (Luke 1:37).  How someone can read Mary’s words and conclude that Mary was simply a “young maiden” and not the chaste, pure, virgin that Isaiah predicted is beyond me.  The truth is God did give us a clear sign: a virgin gave birth to a child: Jesus Christ; He is Immanuel, God with us.

Kevin

“All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” – which means, “God with us” – Matthew 1:22 

My analysis of 2003's "Daredevil"

In “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie” the main villain, Ivan Ooze gives this memorable introduction; he says, “I am the…globally reviled, universally despised…Ivan Ooze.”  If there was ever a superhero movie that is “globally reviled” and “universally despised” it is “Daredevil” starring Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner.

Recently, however, I watched this film again, and I find myself completely speechless in an attempt to explain why so many hate this movie with a passion.  I found “Daredevil” to be entertaining, riveting, and fun.  It has everything that you could ever ask for in a superhero movie.  The action is excellent; the story is good; and the cast is brilliant.  I do think that this film has a few flaws here and there, but it is nowhere near as bad as so many people have claimed that it is.

Speaking of the cast let me bring up Ben Affleck, the man who portrayed Matt Murdock otherwise known as Daredevil.  Many have criticized Ben’s performance in this role.  I personally don’t understand how anyone can say that Affleck was bad in “Daredevil”.  You can dislike the plot of the Daredevil movie, or the supporting characters, or whatever else, but Affleck himself portrayed the title character quite admirably.  His performance is vastly underrated.

Some of you are saying, “Kevin, if Daredevil was so good, why wasn’t there a sequel?  After all, it seems every superhero movie has a sequel.  Daredevil was so bad the filmmakers didn’t even think about making a sequel.”  My answer is while there may not have been a sequel, there was a spin-off film.  It was the movie “Elektra” starring Jennifer Garner.  If you've been reading this blog for a while, you know that I previously wrote that “Elektra” is, at least in my opinion, the worst superhero movie ever made.  That’s saying something because there have been a lot of bad superhero movies!  I submit that “Daredevil” didn’t murder the franchise, “Elektra” did.

In conclusion, I feel like I’m swimming against the tide of popular opinion by suggesting that “Daredevil” is a much better film than its undervalued reputation would lead you to believe.  At the very least, I’m hoping that I’m able to persuade some of you to re-evaluate this film and give it another chance.  Maybe it’s not as bad as its numerous detractors would suggest.  I certainly found that to be the case for myself anyway.

Kevin

Isaiah's vision

There’s an incredible scene pictured in Isaiah chapter 6.  Isaiah has a vision of God, in all His glory.  “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple” (Isaiah 6:1).  Verse 2 speaks of what I interpret to be angels, then in verse 3 we read, “And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”  At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke” (verse 4).

In the next verse, the scene shifts to Isaiah’s reaction to all this.  He sees the amazing, powerful, resplendent, glorious, brilliant, magnificent (and whatever other synonyms you can come up with) God of the whole universe in His glory.  What is his response going to be?  “Woe to me!” I cried.  “I am ruined!  For I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).  I looked this up in other translations instead of just the NIV that I’ve been quoting from.  The NCV reads, “I said, “Oh, no!  I will be destroyed.  I am not pure.”  The NLT renders it, “Then I said, “It’s all over!  I am doomed, for I am a sinful man.”

 

I can relate to Isaiah’s reaction!  Let me tell you: Kevin Bauer is a sinful man.  I am not worthy; I am flawed, impure, and blemished.  I’m amazed at how I can still easily make the sinful choice, even after being a Christian for decades.  Too many today think that if they see a vision of God’s majesty and holiness, they will simply nod their head approvingly at how impressive God is, but this is an inaccurate picture.  Like Isaiah, God’s incredible glory will result in us falling to our knees, low and prostrate before him, painfully aware of just how depraved, corrupt, and unworthy we are.

Let me return to the text.  Isaiah sees God’s brilliant holiness and glory, and he fears that God is actually going to destroy him because he sees his sinfulness in contrast to God’s perfection.  What does God do in response to Isaiah?  It says that a seraph (once again, I believe this is an angel), with coal in his hand, touches Isaiah’s mouth.  “See,” the angel states, “this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (verse 7).

The bottom line is this: God didn’t chastise, shun, or altogether dismiss Isaiah from His presence.  He says, “Your sin has been atoned for.”  For Christians today, this is true because Jesus Christ took the entirety of humanity’s sin on the cross of Calvary.  Even though I’m a sinner, I can still have a close communion with the Lord, because of Jesus’ atoning sacrifice for me. Praise the Lord!

Kevin