Just A Thought

After a storm in late January of this year, a 19th-century schooner washed up on a beach in Wellfeet MA. Being one of the larger wrecks to appear in the past 10 years it serves as a gruesome reminder of the dangerous waters surrounding Cape Cod. According to the several Boston news programs, between 1850 and 1980, there were more than 3,500 shipwrecks in the waters off Cape Cod. In fact, so many ships have piled up on the hidden sand bars off the coast between Chatham and Provincetown that those fifty miles of sea have been called an "ocean graveyard."

A well-proven deterrent to shipwrecks is the simple, but effective, lighthouse. The oldest lighthouse in America is on Brewster Island in Boston Harbor. It has doubtless saved thousands of lives. Since 1716 Boston Light has never moved and has done one very simple thing – declared the shoreline. Still “today, Boston Light's 98 foot tower flashes its 1.75 million candlepower beacon every ten seconds, visible for 27 miles. The lighthouse is the last remaining manned station in the United States.” (www.lighthousegetaway.com/lights/boston.html)

Lighthouses are points of references. They are life savers. Their authority is powerfully validated when they are foolishly ignored. In other words, they are respected because they tell the truth about where the shoreline is. They don’t make the shoreline, they just declare the boundary to the sailor.

One of the cruelest deeds one could perpetrate on a sailor is to move the lighthouse. Worse yet, would be to set the lighthouse afloat, creating a beacon that moved with the tides or relocated at the whim of an ocean current. An un-anchored floating lighthouse would be a weapon of mass destruction.

There are some great, immovable, moral shorelines created by God. These are moral laws that cannot be ignored without serious repercussions. Nobody can change them. Millions have arrogantly ignored God’s moral laws only to crash against the natural consequences of such laws. In His love, God has appointed lighthouses, designed to spare the average sailor such demise. His lighthouses include: the Bible, governments, parents and churches.

One of the cruelest deeds that could be perpetrated upon our culture (especially on our children) would be to move the moral lighthouses; to change our morals and values according to the latest trends or currents. You will notice that the consistent “dumbing down” of American morals has resulted in thousands of tragic and bizarre headlines describing shipwrecks that include mass shootings, baby killings, cannibalism, teacher/student scandals, abuse, and the rampant meltdowns of the rich and the famous.

Where are our lighthouses? Have they been extinguished by the fear of not being politically correct? Do we actually believe that if we say the dangerous rocks are no longer there that they will not cause any more ships to wreck? Does moving the lighthouse move the shoreline? Of course not! Saying something is right does not make it right.

For the record, the shoreline has not moved. Please be advised:

• It has been, and will always be, wrong to murder, to have sex outside of marriage, to lie, to abuse your body and to dishonor your parents.
• True love, faithfulness to your spouse and children, and hard work have always been and will continue to be the real keys to a good family life.
• Selflessness, righteousness and gentleness are still better friends than selfishness, sin and hatred.

Our “enlightened world” thinks it has invented new morals. The problem is they don’t have the authority to do so. “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,” (Romans 1:22) Their “enlightenment” is nothing more than a floating lighthouse. It is worse than no lighthouse at all because their floating light is often trusted - directing more unsuspecting sailors to their inevitable destruction.

Thank God for all you teachers, parents, pastors, bosses, neighbors, and other influencers who have refused to move your lighthouses in response to the intimidation of the politically-correct crowd. You may tire of holding fast in the storm, but that is when you are needed most. Don’t move. Stay bright. The coastline can be brutal, but your consistent moral beacon will make all the difference in the life of some young sailor.

My wife has tastefully displayed numerous photos throughout our home. Some of them are of relatives I never met; I know them only by their picture. Several snapshots are of my mother. Because she died over twenty years ago, just a few months before my one and only son was born, the only way my son can know my mother is by looking at her photo. Without the snapshot he would have no idea what she looked like.
Each spring as believers celebrate Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday (Easter) one might ask the question: “Who was Jesus, and why do so many people around the world hold His life and teachings in such high regard?” The short answer to that question is: Jesus is a snapshot of God.

At first such a statement might strike the reader as being irreverent, but my meaning is quite the opposite. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. (I Timothy 3:16) He was God made understandable to mankind. He was the end result of the brilliant idea of God, Himself. God wanted to introduce Himself to His creation, so he lived in a human body and gave the world a glimpse of how loving, powerful and gentle He really is.

This concept is made clear in the Bible. One scripture says that Jesus “is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature: For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1: 15,16) Did you catch that? He is the image of God – a snapshot. Another scripture describes Jesus as “the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person.” (Hebrews 1:3)

This explains why the Bible sometimes seems to speak of Jesus as separate from the Father and then at other times as one with the father. The Father was in the Son. (John 17) Jesus was God in a human body. When the prophet Isaiah predicted Jesus’ coming, he called Him “the mighty God… the everlasting Father.” (Isaiah 9:6) Jesus was the Creator who robed Himself in flesh so we could get to know Him and so He could reconcile us unto Himself. (Colossians 1:20) What an awesome idea! What a graceful thing to do!

People around the world worship Jesus because they recognize that God lowered himself, became a man and died for sinners. (Philippians 2). As God, His plan was always to be born in a manger as a God-man, demonstrate His character as a teacher and miracle worker, and then lay down His life for His friends. That’s what God looks like.

The Easter season is a celebration of the culmination of Jesus’ life. He laid down His life, and three days later he took it up again. He overcame death and hell. Later he would walk through walls and then defy gravity. All this was a beautiful snapshot of God’s divine love and power. Because we have this snapshot – this historical evidence - we can have confidence that the Bible is accurate when it speaks of a time when Christ will return and take both living and dead Christians out of this world. His resurrection reassures us of ours.

It’s no wonder people gather in churches to celebrate Easter. It’s no wonder they gather every Sunday to celebrate the day Jesus rose from the dead. If you’ve lost sight of God, perhaps this Sunday would be a good day to stop by a church and have a fresh look at Jesus – He was the image of the invisible God.