My wife and I are old. We are the people most at risk of death from the Corona virus. To top it off, two of my three sons died as young men. My father died when I was a teen. My wife’s father died when she was a teen.

Most people go through life with the mistaken belief that the really horrible things in life always happen to other people. My wife and I don’t have that luxury. So, as we watch the Corona virus spread, we are looking death in the eye. It is not my intention to go for sympathy here. It is not my intention to get morose. Because, the simple fact is that ALL of us are facing death. For my wife and me………it is just much more immediate…….more tangible.

If you are young, you still hold on to the myth of your immortality, your invulnerability. The world is your oyster. The pandemic is an invitation for you to explore these assumptions……….because you are just as mortal as I am.

So the question for today……..the question for you specifically…… is this:

“When you look at death…….your own death……..what do you see?”

Skip over the technical details. Will it be fast or slow? Will I see it coming? Will I suffer? These things are transient. Ultimately, these details are unimportant.

The real question is ………..”When I die…….what next?”

If you are a secular humanist or an atheist, then the honest answer is nothing. When you die, the complex biochemistry that runs your brain will stop. The lights will go out. Then nothing…… Black nothing.

If you practice one of the many forms of “designer religion”……..that is, a belief system that you have figured out on your own: “the goddess within”, “nature is my God”, “I’m going someplace beautiful!”, “I’m a good person”…….. then either you alone have figured out the greatest secret of the cosmos, or you are wrong. Realistically……you are wrong.

If you accept one of the 3 dominant faiths on the planet……. Judaism, Islam, or Christianity. Then you look forward to paradise…….provided that you meet some conditions.

I believe that there is enough solid eyewitness testimony of the resurrection of Jesus to prove that he is supernatural.

So when I die, what comes next for me is eternity…………spent with a guy who taught two fundamental rules: love God and love your neighbor.

In a word……when I die, things get better……..a whole lot better.

Does your belief system give you that hope?

“You believe in God believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

Jesus, NIV

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Jesus, NIV

This post is intended for adults and is not suitable for children.

We were created as sexual beings. Sex is a critical feature of who and what we are. Physically, it is determined at conception and it influences us every day, possibly every minute of our lives. We can try to ignore or deny it. We can try to manipulate it. We can enjoy it………or we can go to war over it. We can use it as it was intended……..or we can abuse it.

The division of humankind into men and women happened very early. It was clearly a key part of God’s plan. The sexes are physically distinct……they are functionally distinct……..but they are also emotionally and psychologically distinct. “Men are from Mars….. Women are from Venus”. We compliment each other. Each sex fills a giant void in the other. In a word, we strengthen each other. A well matched man and woman are stronger than 2 well matched men or 2 well matched women. It is not my intention to dive into the entire LGBT argument today……..it is far too big of a conversation and I will come back to it someday……maybe when I’m a little stronger and smarter.

Today, I want to address sex globally. The Bible spends a great deal of ink on the subject of sex. Sex and money are arguably the most commonly discussed topics in the Bible. Sex is clearly very important to God. He could very easily have created us as asexual beings. When we needed or wanted a child, we could just “bud” one off of our back, like a Hydra. Simple, effective, no social complications, no STDs to worry about. There would be no sexual harassment, no gender wage gap, no glass ceiling. So……why sex? You could say that it’s important to keep the gene pool stirred up. But, I believe that God made sex, the mandatory blending of two unlike people, because he knew it would strengthen us and because he knew that we would be happier that way.

Sex is designed to grow our society, but also to improve the quality of our individual lives. Sex is a tool……..an extremely powerful tool.

I’m a woodworker, I have a shop full of tools, just ask my wife. Some are simple and limited……..like my screwdriver. Others are extremely powerful…….like my tablesaw. As a general rule, the more powerful the tool is, the more dangerous it is. I will never cut off a hand with my screwdriver; but, I could do it in a heartbeat with my tablesaw. So…….there are rules. The rules are there to make my work more effective, to make it more enjoyable, but, primarily, to protect me from my tools. The more powerful the tool, the more numerous the rules. The more powerful the tool, the more restrictive the rules. The more powerful the tool the more horrific the consequences of breaking the rules. The rules are not arbitrary. The rules arise from the nature of the tool. I cannot negotiate with them. I cannot redefine my way around them. If I ignore a rule, because I don’t like it, that changes nothing. The consequences don’t go away.

There are rules in the Bible that cover the use of the tool that is sex. There are actually quite a few. The key one, however, can be summed up in one line:

Sex rule #1: Sex is for husbands and wives.

Anything outside of this is recreational sex…….and recreational sex…….while it is great fun……… is dangerous. Sex rule #1 is there to protect you from the dangers of recreational sex. It is not there to ruin your fun. It is a loving father trying to save you from pain.

So………if you:

Run a board into the table saw from the wrong side> kickback> your hand getting pulled into the blade> amputation> trying to get by with a stump instead of a hand for the rest of your life.

Engage in recreational sex> unwanted pregnancy> abortion> killing your daughter…….. possibly the only child you will ever have.

Sex rule #1: Sex is for husbands and wives.

An annoying rule……..it will keep you from having some fun……it will also keep you from getting herpes or aids……..it will also keep you from having to decide someday whether or not to kill your child.

I’m 66 years old…….you will have to trust me on this…….if you restrict sex to your husband or your wife………when you are older than dirt and look back, you will have missed out on nothing.

That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.

Moses, NIV

“It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman .” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.

Paul, NIV

Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Paul, NIV

The ten commandments are a good solid moral code. In fact, they are accepted by Jews, Muslims, and Christians. This makes them the most widely accepted moral code on the planet. No other moral code even comes close. Even if you are an atheist, they are the best guide for living that you could choose.

Today, I’m going to focus on one of them:

Do not lie.

Pretty basic. Don’t say something that is not true. Don’t say you paid the rent……..if you didn’t.

The trouble is that there are some gray areas around the edges.

The “little white lie”……… It’s little, not a matter of importance. It’s white, it doesn’t harm anybody. So what’s the big deal?
There was an ad on TV where Abraham Lincoln’s wife asks the ageless question, “does this dress make me look fat?” He tells the truth………and suffers the consequences. The little white lie typically doesn’t harm the other guy. It can, however, harm you. You risk losing the other guy’s trust. You risk easing into bigger, less white, lies. Better to say nothing at all or diplomatically tell the truth. But, the little white lie is not the main thrust of today’s post.

The question of the day is this:

Is it a lie, if I ignore something that is true? …..a truth that is inconvenient because it interferes with me getting what I want…….a truth that could cost me something valuable, if I acknowledge it.

Is it a lie if a Republican ignores the damage that guns do in our society or the trauma of an unwanted pregnancy?

Is it a lie if a Democrat ignores the 3000 children killed every day by abortion or the legitimate right of a law abiding citizen to own a gun?

What is the purpose of the truth and why is it so important that God included it in a fairly short list of rules? Truth operates in two realms. Internally and externally. Internal truth is the set of ideas that guide our every step. If you allow yourself to believe things that are not true, you will make bad decisions and you will do things that are wrong. Ultimately this is self destructive. Internal truth guides us to live a life of integrity. External truth is the things that we say and do in public. It governs how we interact with others. If we are to live among other people, they need to be able to rely on what we say. If we violate the truth often enough, others will lose trust in us. This makes us ineffective……even if we are telling the truth……..this time. Truth is important…….because without it, we cannot make good decisions, we cannot communicate with one another, and we can’t reach a consensus and move forward as a society.

The debates around gun control and abortion rage on. Why?

I believe that ignoring a truth that you don’t like is the same as lying. The debates over gun control and abortion rage on because both sides are lying by ignoring truths that are inconvenient to them and their appetites.

God gives us the ten commandments because he knows that we need them. They are not there to ruin our fun. They are designed to protect us…….. from others……..but more importantly from ourselves.

So we need to have the courage to face all of the truths that are out there………even the ones that restrict us……..even the ones that interfere with our appetites.

“Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Jesus, NIV

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Paul, NIV

We hear a lot of stuff every day. In an election year this is especially true. Much of what we hear appeals to our emotions. Much of what we hear appeals to our desires. Modern marketing has turned this into a science………the science of manipulation.

When we encounter a piece of information, we often ask questions.

What will this cost me?
Can I profit from this?
Does this make me happy, sad, angry?
What will my friends say?
Does this mean I’ve done something bad……..or good?
What are the implications for my future?

In a word…………how will this affect me…….and my family?

These are good questions. But, they are not the first question that we should ask. The first question should be….is this true? Because, if it’s not true…….the other questions are irrelevant. It is shocking how easily those who would manipulate us manage to slip a piece of information past that first essential question.
Just today, I saw a post, that was put up by a friend of mine. The post compared conservatives to Nazis. I am generally conservative. I zoomed straight into angry mode………without ever asking the question, “is it true that I am like a Nazi?” In case you have any doubt…..I am not a Nazi……..and neither are you. The post was manipulative and it was untrue. It required no further analysis.

But that doesn’t seem to matter today.

We live in a world where truth has lost its importance. Our culture places more value on the question, “will this get me what I want?” than on the question “is this true?” Years ago, in college, I had a friend who was studying, of all things, journalism. He wrote an article for the paper…….and the title line was grossly misleading. We called him out on it. He said that the purpose of the title was to get you to read the article. The fact that it was untrue was unimportant, as long as it accomplished his goal. Today we call this “clickbait”…….and you can’t pick up your phone without seeing it.

I see the world from a conservative perspective. But I still try to weigh every thing I hear against the standard of truth. Years ago I asked the question. “Is this whole God, eternity, heaven, hell thing true?” Because, if it’s true, whether I agree or approve is irrelevant.

Here is what I came up with:

The Bible says it is true.
Jesus says that the Bible is true.
If the death and resurrection of Jesus are true…….then Jesus is superhuman.
So, if Jesus is superhuman……that is…..if Jesus is God, then the entire God, eternity, heaven, hell thing is true.

So the critical question……..the most important question of your brief life……..considering the heaven, hell, eternity issue……is this:

Is the resurrection of Jesus true?………because, if it is, then the whole heaven, hell, God, eternity thing is also true.

Dozens of witnesses saw Jesus after the resurrection.
11 apostles died gruesome deaths rather than recant.

And that is good enough for me.

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost. He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds? Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.”

Luke, NIV

“I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Jesus, NIV

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord ,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

Paul, NIV