The Three A's and Spiritual Malpractice!

Dear Crosswalkers,

In my first church, well over 30 years ago, I was confronted with a terrible situation. A wife came to me who had been physically abused by her husband. I’ll spare you all the details which led to the particular decision we made. Bottom line – through a friend in the church with a private plane, and in consultation with our local physician, we flew her out of state to the home of a caring relative. The husband threatened to come after me with his gun. A month later we saw each other at a community swimming pool, and there was a confrontation. Thankfully, other men from our church family were able to intervene and prevent an altercation.

Physical violence against women is a growing tragedy in our country, and the churches are not doing a very good job in dealing with it.  

A survey by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that 1 out of every 4 women surveyed say they were physically abused by their husbands or boyfriends. Can you believe that? It is a reprehensible and disgraceful statistic. It is a shame on the blessed relationship of marriage that God ordained for so many. You can read the report in the USA Today by clicking HERE.

How should the church handle this silent atrocity in our communities? Where is the church when it comes to women suffering from physical abuse in their own households?

Sadly, many women feel that they are trapped. There is nowhere to go and no way out. They fear even greater violence if they seek help outside the relationship. Even worse, many women somehow blame themselves. We live in a politically correct world where moral equivalency is used as an excuse for putting up with all kinds of outrageous behavior. Women need to hear that it is NOT THEIR FAULT. There is no excuse for a boyfriend or husband to physically harm a woman. None. Men who do so are cowards.

Worse yet, many in the church believe the Bible would justify this behavior on the basis of passages taken out of context in which God says he hates divorce and our Lord says to turn the other cheek.

Let me say emphatically that there is no biblical justification for staying with an abuser; in fact it is spiritual malpractice to suggest otherwise. Evangelical Bible Teachers are nearly unanimous in their understanding that the Bible allows for marital separation and divorce for three reasons, often called the “Three A’s:” Adultery, Abandonment, and Abuse.

Adultery is a straightforward reason which is explicitly found in Matthew 19:9 and by implication in many other passages. Divorce is not mandated by adultery, but it is allowed. Why? Because the sexual oneness of marriage unites intimacy and trust, which is the very framework of the relationship. If it is broken, the marriage is also broken.

Abandonment is mentioned in 1 Corinthians 7:12-16. Here, physical abandonment is in view, but the application of this principle clearly extends to the third A, which is Abuse.

Most Bible scholars agree that physical abuse is such a despicable dereliction of the marriage vows that it is equal to abandonment. In fact it is worse. In such situations your spouse is forcing you to leave, or to separate. In Evangelical Ethics we read:

“Behavior such as persistent physical abuse is a violation of the marriage covenant and is... a de facto desertion of the marriage covenant.”

Wives who are being physically abused should separate themselves for the purpose of personal safety and the dignity of God’s covenant of marriage. You wives are biblically blessed with the opportunity to exit this marriage. This is especially the case where children are involved, because their safety is of paramount importance to God. The Lord Jesus said, in essence, that those who abuse children should have a millstone tied around their neck and be tossed into the deepest sea.

Women who are being physically abused by their boyfriends should do this: END THE RELATIONSHIP NOW! Abusers are living and acting so far outside the will of God that they do not deserve your affection.

Two last and very practical matters:

First, Crosswalk is a church family that wants to do a better job of handling these very devastating situations. Are you an abused woman who needs help? Counseling? Safety? Email me or any of our church staff and we will be there for you. Mark your connection card in church. Let us know. Or perhaps your heart of compassion leads you to help those who are hurting. Could you temporarily offer space to an abused woman? Let us know.

Secondly, what about the abusers? Are we not called to love our enemies and show the love of Jesus to them? Yes we are. How can we do that? We will answer that question next week. Stay tuned!

Love in Jesus,

Pastor John Christie   

A Revealing New Report!

Dear Crosswalkers, We have a week and half left in our 40 DAYS IN THE WORD spiritual growth campaign, but this Sunday will be the last message in this series where we tie it all together. Even if you have not been in a small group or have not participated in the journey, I strongly encourage you to attend because we will wrap everything up with a message entitled "The Joy of Integrating the Bible into My Life!" With a sense of perfect timing, a 2012 research study on the state of the Bible in American Life was just released. The study was commissioned by the American Bible Society and conducted by the Barna Research Group, and it revealed some good news and bad news about Bible reading and biblical literacy in America. First, here's the encouraging news: 85 percent of households own at least one Bible, with a household average of 4.3 Bibles. 68 percent of Americans believe the Bible provides answers on how to live a meaningful life. 27 percent say their Bible reading has increased in the past year, while only 12 percent say it has decreased (58 percent say it has stayed the same) But here's the bad news: 36 percent of Americans read the Bible less than once a year. 79 percent of those surveyed believe they are knowledgeable about the Bible, but 54 percent were unable to identify the first five books of the Bible. 46 percent believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon are different expressions of the same spiritual truths. In most every category, the "Mosaic Generation" of 18-27 year olds were less committed to the Bible in terms of their beliefs and practices than the rest of the population. This is a group we are trying to reach! You can read the entire report in pdf format for yourself by clicking HERE. Interestingly, survey participants also indicated their biggest frustration about reading the Bible was that they "never had enough time to read it." This is why our 40 DAYS IN THE WORD study has been so important! The truth is we DO make time for what is important in our lives! God wants to speak to us through the Bible, and in these 40 DAYS we are learning to prioritize reading the Bible and also we are learning how to hear God speaking to us. I encourage you to finish well with your 40 DAYS journey, and I pray that the skills you are learning will become a regular habit in your daily life. This Lord's Day is also on the Memorial Day weekend, and as always we will be remembering those who died in service to our country. Love in Jesus, Pastor John Christie

A SPECIAL PLEA FROM YOUR PASTOR (And it has NOTHING to do with MONEY!) Here's something I've noticed and I wonder if you can help with a very practical matter that would make Crosswalk a more caring and worshiping community of faith. At both services, the people who get there early or on time often seat in the back of our Worship Center. I know for a very few of you there are good reasons for this, but for the majority I wonder why this is so. Studies have shown conclusively that the best students always sit in the front of the class! The word disciple means student! It communicates a greater love for your church and an enthusiasm for worship when you sit closer to the front. Also, for a very practical reason, when latecomers enter they have to walk past everyone in the back and make more of a disturbance. If you are presently sitting in the back 1/3 of the building, can I please encourage you to SHOCK THE WORLD by getting out of your regular place and moving to the front 2/3s of the worship center?   Also, while we are at it, this is a special problem in the 10:35 a.m. service because so many of you are in the habit of showing up very late for worship! Can I tell you something? Guests come on time! It would be very nice if you were here on time to meet and greet them!!! By the way, in our second service as a follow up from the Tru Conference, we will be giving a blessing to the children before they are dismissed for their classes. So please sit with your children up front!   This is my special plea - PLEASE make every effort to be on time, and please move toward the front so our guests see that our worship is something we want to do and we want to do it well!! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP IN MAKING CROSSWALK A BETTER PLACE FOR WORSHIP!!!

A SHOCKING CONVERSION? Hugo Chavez, the normally brash, out-spoken, anti-USA, Marxist President of Venezuela, has surprised the religious and political world by apparently giving his life to Christ during his long battle with cancer.Prior to his last round of cancer treatments he said,"Christ my Lord … will lay on a hand on this treatment." In fact, according to an article in theHuffington Post, now he practically always mentions God or Jesus whenever he makes a statement. It's difficult to determine the depth of his faith in Christ, but at the very least this story illustrates for us human vulnerability and our need for God's help. You can read the remarkable story HERE. Let us hope and pray that the Lord has indeed drawn President Chavez into a saving relationship with himself!

Atheists Ad Campaign!

Dear Crosswalkers, This Sunday we will begin Week 5 of our 40 DAYS IN THE WORD sermon series. Last week we began to look at the important subject of interpreting the Bible.  At that time we saw that the key to Bible Study is asking the right questions. Here are some of the important questions to ask about any passage:   WHAT DOES THE PASSAGE SAY? (OBSERVATION) WHAT DOES IT MEAN? (INTERPRETATION) WHAT ELSE IN THE BIBLE HELPS ME UNDERSTAND THIS PASSAGE? (CORRELATION)       WHAT DOES GOD WANT ME TO DO ABOUT IT? (APPLICATION) We will take the next step in Bible interpretation this Sunday by looking at some other crucial considerations that help us understand what the Bible is really teaching us! Why is this so important? Many reasons, but one is that recently the content of the Bible has come under attack by a number of Atheist organizations. These attacks can plant seeds of doubt in uniformed followers of Jesus. One of the new tactics is the use of billboards. Here is one example: Really? Just living, just breathing, is enough to find meaning and purpose and a life of peace and hope? What happens when your living becomes compromised by disease or tragedy? There are millions of people whose life experience says that merely breathing does not give life meaning and purpose. Besides, living naturally leads to dying. Then your meaning dies with you. God made us for more than that! The Bible says that God has put eternity into the human heart, and so we yearn for much more than this life has to offer!  Here's another: At least this one deals honestly with the following truth: Everyone worships something. The question is this - "Which God will we worship?" The Bible says that when people reject God, the result will be the worship of the things God made - like chemistry and physics - rather than the God who made them! The Scriptures put it like this:   They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen.        - Romans 1:25 Unfortunately, these billboard ads have taken a darker turn. Now they are using the Bible to target African-Americans, among others, to turn away from their faith, and misinterpreting the Bible in the process. This Sunday we'll look at some of these billboards, and at how the Bible is being misused. We will also become equipped to answer those who"distort (the Bible), as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16). As always, we will have some wonderful life lessons that will bring us encouragement and joy as we live out our faith! Please invite a friend to come to church with you, and Lord willing, I will see you Sunday!   Faithfully yours, Pastor John Christie

Mother's and Miracles!

Dear Crosswalkers,

This Sunday is Mother's Day which is always a GREAT DAY at Crosswalk Church! Of course we will have gifts for all ladies who are present, and we will celebrate some of the values that make moms so dear to our hearts, even as we continue our study of the Bible in 40 DAYS IN THE WORD (See article below).

On Mother's Day we are reminded not only of the moms and grandmothers and other influential women in our lives, but we are also reminded of the amazing gift of life itself.This is exemplified by Alexander Tsiaras, a mathematician and visual artist, who uses special visualization software to explore the unseen human body. In a lecture at TED.com he explained how his technology has enabled him to scan the development of the fetus from conception to birth. Although we hear nothing about his faith, throughout the lecture Tsiaras refers to what he calls the "marvel" and the "miracle" of an unborn baby's development. He even uses the term "divinity." Tsiaras highlights the miracle of life with the following examples:

• At 25-28 days, the baby's heart, which resembles a "magnificent origami," is developing at a rate of one million cells per second.
• At 32 days the arms and hands are developing.
• Within five weeks you can start to see the heart's early atrium and ventricles. A week later the baby's heart is actually becoming mature.
• At 52 days the retina, nose, and fingers are developing.
• By the time the fetus is full-term, it has 60,000 miles of vessels inside its body—although only one mile of vessels are visible. The other 59,999 miles of vessels are quietly working to bring nutrients and dispose of waste.
• Tsiaras calls a pregnant woman's body a "walking immunological cardiovascular system that … can actually nurture and treat this child with the kind of marvel that is beyond our comprehension."

Tsiaras summarizes his talk by saying,

The complexity of these [facts about human development], the mathematic models of how these are indeed done are beyond human comprehension. Even though I am a mathematician, I look at this with marvel: How do these instruction sets not make mistakes as they build what is us? It's a mystery; it's magic; it's divinity… beyond any comprehension of any existing mathematics today.

The video of the reproductive process and development of the unborn child is absolutely stunning. The background music is gorgeous. The marvels a modern visualization technology show God's creation of each person like never before! You can view this 9:37 minute video for yourself by clicking HERE. Two minutes into his lecture the video begins, and it is best to view it "as is" rather than enlarging it to fill your screen. As you watch this video, keep in mind what how the psalmist celebrated the gift of life:

Psalm 139:13-17 (NLT) -  
¹³ You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb.¹⁴ Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.¹⁵ You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.¹⁶ You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.¹⁷ How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered!
 

Happy Mother's Day!

Pastor John Christie

7 Crucial Questions

Dear Crosswalkers,

Many have observed that those of us who follow Jesus in 21st Century America have it easy compared with our spiritual forbears. In fact, we have it quite cushy compared to some other locales on the planet. For example, earlier this year a report was given by Asian Access (or A2), a Christian missions agency in South Asia. In this report, they listed a series of 7 questions that church planters must ask new believers who are considering baptism. (Due to safety concerns, Asian Access does not mention the country's name.) The country is predominantly Hindu, but over the past few decades Christianity has grown in popularity—especially among poor and tribal peoples. These are the seven questions asked to help determine a new convert's readiness to follow Christ:

1. Are you willing to leave home and lose the blessing of your father?
2. Are you willing to lose your job?
3. Are you willing to go to the village of those who persecute you, forgive them, and share the love of Christ with them?
4. Are you willing to give an offering to the Lord?
5. Are you willing to be beaten rather than deny your faith?
6. Are you willing to go to prison?
7. Are you willing to die for Jesus?

If the new convert answers yes to all of these questions, then A2 leaders invite that person to sign on the bottom of the paper that of their own free will they have decided to follow Jesus. But here's the risk: if a new convert signs the paper and is caught by the government, he or she will spend three years behind bars. The one who did the evangelizing faces six years in prison.

How would you do answering those 7 crucial questions? Can you imagine what would happen if everyone who followed the Lord in baptism in America were given these questions? This is a sobering thought that requires some reflection.

My first thought is one of gratitude. Many Christian pioneers suffered greatly for us to enjoy the religious freedoms we now possess. I praise God that we don't face these terrifying prospects now; and it energizes me to do my best to insure that these freedoms remain in place for our children and grandchildren. 

On further reflection I am driven to pray for those who suffer greatly for the privilege of following Jesus. The persecuted church worldwide is following Jesus closer than many of us can ever dream of doing. They deserve our prayers and our deep admiration. They are heroes of our faith.

Lastly, I am forced to reconsider what "suffering for Jesus" really means in the context of the Silicon Valley in 2012. Is it really even suffering to step out of my comfort zone to share my faith with someone else? Is it really such a sacrifice to give 10% of my income to the Lord's work? Does it really constitute sacrificial love to volunteer to serve Jesus through my church? Or are all these things the very least I can do to express my love and gratitude to the Lord who has so richly blessed my life?

Here's a challenge: How would you answer the 7 crucial questions? How will you follow Jesus with more resolve in our time and place?

Love in Jesus,

Pastor John Christie