A Monster Mess In The Middle-East

The current and ever-growing Islamic uprisings are in some ways very complicated to grasp and explain. But on the other hand they are quite simple at their core.

The serious Middle-East protests are not just about a rogue film that disgraced a world religion's primary prophet. That is only a symptom. For those working behind the scenes, that is little more than a very convenient excuse in order to stir up trouble and further their own twisted agenda.

 Iranian officials said they would hunt down those responsible for making the video that was seen widely on Youtube. The low-budget film entitled 'The Innocence of Muslims' depicts the Prophet Muhammad as a fraud, a womanizer and a child molester, among other insulting claims. The man allegedly behind the obscure film has now been questioned by U.S. authorities in California.

At the same time, Christianity's primary figure, Jesus Christ, is maligned and disgraced everywhere, every day and in every way. And yet His most loyal followers don’t typically take to the streets to insight violence, destruction and even death.

The head of Christianity and Savior of mankind taught against senseless violence in no uncertain terms and for any cause. That is seen nowhere more clearly than through His own pointed words in Matthew 5:44. He stated, "But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." The terms He uttered there are certainly a far cry from what is being pushed and proclaimed through those fueling the dangerous terrorism and deceit that now circulates the globe.

But with that all being fairly obvious, there is something of absolute importance that may not be. The solution to this most difficult issue is not military force, verbal threats or diplomacy. The solution or this long-standing problem requires the internal changing of human hearts one by one. Simply stated, the ‘cure’ for the problem, at the ‘core’ of the problem, is opening the only ‘door’ that can solve the problem. That door is Jesus Christ. He alone can unlock and open up the spiritual blinders of any and every man and woman regardless of their current religious convictions or where they reside on planet earth.

The Apostle Paul related of this greatest of all potential truths in 2 Corinthians chapter five. In verse 17 he penned, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." A new internal heart can fully transform all inner ideas and ideals along with impacting all external actions – forever. A heat totally redesigned by the very One who made it, Jesus Christ, can alone deal with the cause and consequences of human sin. That includes all sin, whether it be as major as intentional violence, destruction and murder - or as seemingly minor as cheating on one's tax return.

It is through Christ that the real and lasting solution to the centuries-old problem in the middle-east, and anywhere else for that matter, is found. The Bible also instructs exactly how this spiritual and eternal fix can be applied and specifically by whom. Verses 18-20 continue on and declare, "Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ."

While the world watches and wonders where the Middle-East chaos will take the inhabitants of earth, Christians have a distinct edge. For they alone have both the “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16) and the word of God. (Psalm 119:105) Not only are they forgiven of sin, they and comforted even in times of trouble, and also possess the one all-encompassing solution to the ills of an entire lost race in need of their Lord and Savior! The apostle described it well in 1 John 2:2. “And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.” 

Bill Breckenridge

Convention Highlights and Lowlights

Over the last few weeks the nation's Presidential candidates were offered up and scrutinized by the American voters at two party's national conventions. The first gathering occurred in the middle of hurricane Isaac which amazingly struck on the 7th anniversary of infamous Katrina. But Mitt Romney is now the official Republican candidate and will no doubt continue to run on his record as a super successful businessman at a time when the sagging economy could well make him very appealing

The convention proceeded as expected, with the possible exception of a brief and somewhat bizarre appearance of actor Clint Eastwood who spoke to an imaginary President Obama using an empty chair. The bit was quite clever and effective, however the famous actor used some rather crude and inappropriate comments during his few minutes on the GOP stage. Romney's closing speech again keyed on his plans to motivate and rescue the economy and assured voters of his conservative stance on the current hot moral issues.

Following the Republican gathering, it was the turn of the DNC. Mr. Obama, along with others in his party, tried to convince the nation that he is still the best alternative, despite a very difficult economy that shows no major signs of turning the corner. This may well be his biggest hurdle as revealed in the now famous and somewhat accurate statement, "It's the economy, stupid."

But there was something that occurred of rather large significance although perhaps still unknown to many who even watched one or both conventions. Apparently there was a prior decision by some of the DNC brass to do something that may not have been really well thought out. Or maybe it was? The party decided to remove any references to God in their official 2012 platform. When brought to the attention of the delegates a firestorm soon soon erupted. In stark contrast, the 2012 GOP platform mentions God 12 times.

But again, upon revealing what amounted to a god-less DNC document, there was a significant protest by some of their own - even in the party that has been far more liberal concerning the major moral and biblical issues in recent times. The objection to removing God resulted in multiple verbal votes in attempts by pro-God democrats to return the Creator - at least on some level. At first, a clear-cut decision could not be reached. Then eventually, after additional efforts, God was allowed back into party print. When the decision was announced it was literally booed on the floor by those who were still adamant about of wanting to leave God as a mere political memory. Either way, He was forced back into the platform after being invited to leave the nation's affairs alone.

Regardless of what any politician or party enacts, God is very outspoken about His mandatory involvement in this sphere. There is no question about His desire and ability to influence the lives and fate of any people. There are three verses in particular that reveal just how crucial He really is to the success of a nation and also his ability to rescue any people even after they have rejected Him and fallen on hard times.

Proverbs 14 clearly reveals what leads to true and lasting national prosperity. Verse 34 states, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people." And as just mentioned, even when that biblical admonition has been bypassed, Scripture still offers hope when God is again given His rightful place of prominence. 2 Chronicles 7:13-14 declares the primary condition for this aspect of healing, "If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." Finally, when any nation invites God back into their personal lives and national leadership, then the promise found in Psalm 144:15 becomes the inevitable result. "Happy are the people whose God is the LORD."

If the leadership in America excludes God, either in print or in practice, then no real healing or former greatness will likely be in her future. But if the nation's leaders, and those who pull the levers in November, can somehow see that all lasting solutions begin with a serious spiritual revival, then true hope and healing will remain. Only when that ensues will this "nation under God" again become a beacon of hope, prosper as before, and shine as a light for the spread of the good news of Jesus Christ.

God still can again bless America, but not until American begins to again bless God!

Pray "fervently" (James 5:16) for America and for her potential leadership. And pray "without ceasing" (I Thessalonians 5:17) for the electorate to fully recognize that it is, first and foremost, godliness and biblical righteousness exalts a nation!

Bill Breckenridge

What You Don't Know About the Man Who Shot John Lennon

Mark David Chapman has been denied parole yet again. Most only know Mark Chapman as the man who shot John Lennon. But his life has changed dramatically during his years in prison, and his story is one that shows the transforming power of Christ. 

Some years ago, we received a letter from Mark Chapman in response to our broadcast, “The Word And The World”, which aired at the time over WWOG in Rochester, NY. We answered Chapman’s letter, and a correspondence friendship developed that resulted in several visits to Attica by Dave and Bill Breckenridge, who is our ministry’s Media Manager and who also contributes to this blog.

Three years ago, Dave Virkler visited Mark Chapman at Attica Correctional Facility. Following is a portion of a blog entry Dave wrote about his last visit with Mark: 

Entrance was a little easier this time than other visits. I had only one form to fill out because I was already on Chapman’s visitation list. After a lengthy security process, I was locked into a small oblong room that had a black floor-to-ceiling cage about 4’ x 4’ at the far end. A long table just wide enough to reach across and join hands went from the doorway to the wall in front of the cage.
Looking around, I noticed a camera near the ceiling and also a note on the wall about a microphone, so I assumed everything was being carefully monitored. I wasn’t allowed to bring a Bible or anything else except for a plastic pen and some paper, and I scribbled some questions while I waited for Mark.

Few people come to see Mark, and he is not giving interviews to any media people as this is his current leading from the Lord. He can have a radio but no Internet access. At length, Mark came through the rear door, and we warmly greeted each other. He is doing well and rejoicing in the Lord. Our conversation ranged far and wide.

We talked about many things that Mark requested I not share on our radio broadcast or here. When I asked him what I should tell my audiences from him, he simply said, “Know Jesus.”

Additionally, he would like people to know that he and his wife Gloria, who resides in Hawaii, are hoping for funding to get his printed testimony, “The Man Who Shot John Lennon,” shipped to many prison ministries for distribution around the world.

Mark is deeply spiritual, deeply repentant for his actions, concerned about evangelism, willing to stay in prison for the rest of his life and willing to be whatever God wants him to be. He and I prayed together several times, joining hands across the table. He prayed for me, my family and ministry. I prayed for him, his spiritual life, his wife and his literature outreach.

Before being led back out though all those gates at 2:30 PM, I asked Mark to review an interview he did with Larry King back on Sept. 30, 2000. I asked Mark to share the story with me once more, and he did.

Through King’s friendship with then-NY governor Mario Cuomo, he was able to get a live interview with Chapman and sent his crew into Attica. Mark sat in a darkened room with nothing but the camera lens pointed at his face. King could see Mark, but Mark could not see King.

In the interview, Chapman told Larry King, “I became a Christian when I was 16, Larry, and that lasted about a year of genuine walking with Him. Through my life, off and on, I have struggled with different things, as we all do, and at those times I would turn to the Lord. The night of the death of John Lennon I was far from Him. I wasn’t listening to Him. I wasn’t reading the Bible anymore.

“Today I’m different. I read the Bible. I pray, and I walk with Him. He forgives me. He doesn’t condone what I did—and that’s a very important thing—He didn’t like what I did 12 years ago. He didn’t like all the pain I caused everybody, especially John’s widow. But He forgives me and He hears me and He listens to me, and He is the one, all these years, that has brought me out of the abyss, not medications or counseling. I, basically, had to counsel myself through these years, not that it’s not available here, but I’ve been very private about this. This is not anything that’s easy to live with.”

As I had listened to that interview back in 2000, I was stunned by King’s next question. The instant retort by Chapman surprised me, and I thought it might have been rehearsed. Larry King asked Mark how he knew it wasn’t a crutch, and his response was:

“Well, in a way, it’s got to be a crutch, because we all need a crutch. Life is not easy and life, for me, isn’t easy. And, therefore, I think the Lord has a tender spot in His heart for prisoners. He said so. The rest of the Bible says so in many different places. And I’ve leaned on Him—if it’s a crutch, I've been leaning on a crutch, but it’s a crutch made out of the cross, because without that I probably wouldn’t be alive today because I was very suicidal and I certainly wouldn’t be in a well state of mind, not without Him.”

Mark told me that seconds before Larry King asked that awkward question, his gaze was diverted momentarily. Out of the corner of his eye in the darkness, he saw a fleeting vision of a crippled man walking down a lonely road with a cross under his armpit in the form of a crutch. He looked back into the camera and answered Larry’s question.

Our wonderful crutch of salvation is indeed formed by the cross. “The old rugged cross, so despised by the world has a wondrous attraction for me…” It’s the message I preached last week 14 times in six days in two Bible conferences. “In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time….” “At the cross, at the cross where I first say the light, and the burden of my heart rolled away….”

Driving away from Attica is a sobering experience. When I left, I said to myself, “There, but for the grace of God, go I.” Salvation is just as needed inside the prison or outside the prison, for Mark David Chapman and for David Mark Virkler.

Dave Virkler

If you would like a print copy of Mark’s testimony or information about his ministry, please contact us.

Thrill of Victory & The Agony of Sin

The Penn State fiasco certainly placed a major black mark on the sporting world over the last year or so. But it seems that now that even the most glorious sports event of all, the Olympic games, have witnessed a public scandal as well.

The nbcolympics.com website stated, "Olympic team leader says eight female badminton doubles players have been disqualified from the London Games after trying to lose matches to receive a more favorable place in the field. The Badminton World Federation investigated two teams from South Korea and one each from China and Indonesia. It accused them of 'not using one's best efforts to win a match' and ‘conducting oneself in a manner that is clearly abusive or detrimental to the sport’ in matches on Tuesday night." Of course, and as expected, the Indonesian team will appeal the accusation.

Meanwhile swimmer Michael Phelps made history when he earned his 19th Olympic medal - more than any other single athlete ever in the games and then added a few more for good measure. After struggling initially, many wondered if the great swimmer was about out of gas while in the water. But it seems that his great talent mixed with his exceptional determination to succeed drove him to two additional victories and to a place that no other in the games has ever reached.

The Bible sometimes uses athletic terminology to make spiritual applications. One such place is Paul’s words to a young pastor and his own son in the faith. In 2 Timothy 2:3-5 he wrote, “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

Then in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 he again uses phrases associated with sports to speak of the level of commitment often needed to win a highly demanding and elusive reward. Beginning in verse 24 he opens his thoughts in question form, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”

It is likely that the disgraced badminton team members at the 2012 will be removed from the competition. If deemed guilty, they will lose their dream of an Olympic medal and the temporary glory that all brings. But Paul’s concern of being disqualified was not about being removed from competition for material gain. Nor was he worried over being banned from God’s eternal team. His fear was only about the unimaginable potential of losing his opportunity of being fully used to serve His Lord, using each and every remaining breath in this life that he would draw.

As one who considered himself the fully forgiven and justified ‘chief of sinners,' this man possessed but one all-consuming goal. His eyes were firmly fixed on God’s finish line – and never on his own. This was a priority that he would not jeopardize in any way or for any reason. And, unlike so many fragile human role models today, this man was a great sinner who had received a greater salvation – a reality outwardly evidenced in a consistent spiritual focus and drive that we can all learn from and strive to duplicate.

“I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus." (Philippians 3:14)

 Bill Breckenridge

Theatre Thunder Rocks The Nation

The nation was shocked this past week when a lone man walked into a theatre in Aurora, Colorado, during the premiere of the newest Batman movie and proceeded to open fire on an innocent and unsuspecting crowd. Some have suggested that his name does not even deserve mention, but this former neuroscience student is accused of carrying out one of the worst mass murders in recent U.S. history. According to eyewitnesses, he killed 12 and left nearly 60 people injured at a suburban Denver theater.

For whatever reason, the shooter dressed in black, entered the building, set off a few canisters of tear gas, and began killing and wounding the startled viewers. Some there thought it was just a part of the act until the grim and bloody reality of the moment set in.

Few expect or will likely ever find themselves in such a horrific and life-threatening experience like the one in the Colorado theatre. Admittedly, this type of event is somewhat rare in America when compared to brutal and frightening conditions millions live in daily in other parts of the world – places such as the Middle-East. Even so, living a long and safe life from threats of severe physical harm and attack are still not guaranteed even while living in the most secure nation on earth.

This is a reality that is addressed in Scripture in numerous passages. The writer of Hebrews 9:27 records, "And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this comes the judgment".

It has been said, typically in a humorous way, that life has but two certainties - death and taxes. One of these is obviously correct. But the reality of a literal eternal judgement to follow is a fact ignored or flat out rejected by so very many. For these, there seems to be little notice of the words and warning provided by the writer of Psalm 14:1. “The fool has said in his heart, there is no God.”

The Bible is explicit about the reality of sin and its serious short and long-term consequences. No one can ever blame God for inadequate warnings on the subject. A loving creator also made abundantly clear the single cure to remedy the crisis in this most critical area of life and death. Passages like John 3:16 abound and make known the solution to sin - namely a personal saving faith found only in God’s Son.

The Bible contains what is commonly known as wisdom books - one in the Old Testament and one in the New. It is significant that both the books of Proverbs and James both send out a super strong caution about being spiritually prepared for even an event like in Colorado. That is because such things are possible, and can happen without warning, and on any given day.

The super wise writer of Proverbs revealed in chapter twenty-seven and verse one, “Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.” But James goes into more detail while addressing the same basic idea. In chapter four where he writes, "Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit. Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that. But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

Life’s gravest and most costly error is miscalculating concerning God's will and demands. Such a mindset is highly flawed and eternally devastating. The true is that there is a coming judgement and all will someday face their Creator - the fully righteous and fair Judge. This sobering fact can be seen early on in Scripture by the question asked by Abraham as he pleaded for the sake of the few just citizens in the wicked city of Sodom back in Genesis chapter eighteen. In verse 25 he asks a question, knowing full well the affirmative answer. "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

God will someday judge mankind and his standard will be based primarily on each one's personal relationship, or lack thereof, with Christ. The writer John offered proof of this in 1 John 2:1-2. He wrote, “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins.”

There is no guarantee that any of us will have another tomorrow. And there is no excuse for not being ready to enter eternity with Christ if that one-time event should occur. Spiritual preparation through Christ can be gained in an instant with the resulting redemption then lasting forever! As the writer of Acts 16:31 said simply, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.”

Continue to pray fervently for those in Colorado. Pray that those who know the Savior will be His witnesses, and for those who don’t to somehow find comfort and salvation for their souls through this terrible act – including the shooter himself.

 Bill Breckenridge