Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 11-29-15: "A Foreign Hunger"

"...on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." -Matthew 16:18

This may sound melodramatic - and I could always be wrong - but I believe Christianity is slowly entering an age where it is most embraced, most sincerely practiced, in those places in the world we often (sometimes carelessly) call "less fortunate." Countries that don't have a cupful of the luxuries we enjoy in America and most of Europe.
I believe one of the reasons for this is the appearance of evil in America - how we in the States perceive evil, what we label to be harmful. Diligent Christians in America are used to the tactic of evil being disguised as things that are good and beneficial - Black Friday is a great example. The media encourages self-indulgence to sell products and rake in money, and we as Christians have to be very discerning in America to see what is noble and what is not. What is truly good, not selfishness disguised as prosperity, liberty, and health.

But in countries like Somalia, Sudan, Syria, evil is not a wolf in a sheep's disguise, but a wolf in a wolf's combat fatigues.

People in the violent slums of the world are so used to being blatantly oppressed, tortured, used, killed, that they know evil when they see it. Therefore, when they're told about the light of Jesus, there's no mire of luxury and worldliness to obscure it. There's no comfort in the ways of the world to deceive them, at least not as easily as it does in America. There's no "prosperity gospel" nonsense, no schisms of theologies to muddle the message. People who are oppressed know that the world is an ugly place, and the beauty of the Gospel is such a stunning, stark contrast.

I believe the difference between hearers of the Gospel in America and hearers in deprived nations harkens to the words of a man named Agur in the book of Proverbs: "Remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches - feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, 'Who is the LORD?' Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God."
I think so many in America have filled our bellies and forgotten God - or have become so bitter by hardship that we say "to hell with it" and outright curse the name or notion of God. Those in other countries, however, seem to be in some sort of strange middle ground; they're certainly not rich, but even as hungry and deprived as they are, they're even hungrier for truth and light.

They're not more willing to accept Jesus Christ because they're gullible - they're willing to accept Him because they see evil more plainly, more nakedly, because they see the works of the ruler of this world so much clearer than we can in the comfort and haze of so many worldly mirages. Therefore to them, the goodness of Jesus is all the more radiant. Those in the countries where the stars seem to never shine are not more willing to accept Jesus Christ because they're uneducated, because they'll worship anything - they're willing to accept Him because they see so many lies and the destruction they cause that they so much more clearly recognize the truth, and rejoice much more in the light it shines.

OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess

"And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God." -John 3:19-21

"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come." -Matthew 24:14

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 11-22-15: "Bin Laden Blues: Thoughts On Hell"

A few years ago, I wrote (very "green") blogs and online sermons under the guise of the character Strother Lee Fiddlebear, a recovering laudanum addict from Big Spring Station, Nebraska. On April 19, 2011, Strother, filled with thoughts of eternity, posted a plea titled "Bin Laden in the Bouquet." It was a somewhat naive challenge to other Christians to pray for Osama bin Laden, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, that he would come to know Christ, and turn himself in to authorities.

Just a dozen or so days later, Osama bin Laden was killed after almost a decade of being the most wanted murderer in the world.

Across America, celebrations broke out at the news of bin Laden's death. Chants of "USA!" filled the air. The man who had devised the murders of thousands was dead. But in addition to those patriotic chants were the disgusted rebukes of some - I heard others say it was a shameful display that we would celebrate so openly for the death of an enemy. I suppose it was, in a vague way, in the same vein as Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox; when news reached the Union troops, celebratory cannon fire began, but Ulysses Grant, being the class act he was, promptly ordered it to be stopped.
I don't know what Strother Lee Fiddlebear thought of it, but at the time, I was irked by those voices. I thought of them as pseudo-intellectuals, obnoxiously struggling to find something else wrong with America.

But now, I feel those voices were right to object to the cheering and champagne. Their reason might not be mine, but the fact is this: Osama bin Laden has gone to eternal condemnation. Why should I be glad that he, or anyone, denied Christ who saves?

For a moment, let's think about what hell truly is. I'd often heard the phrase "hell was not made for humans," which puzzled me, until I realized it referred to Jesus' words about those who will be turned away from entering heaven. He describes a place "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). It's not necessarily as if God has said, "let there be a place of torment for people who don't believe in Me." But even so, there remains a hideous place of everlasting anguish to which the wicked and unbelieving will go. Those who believe in a doctrine of "universal salvation," or any belief that after death everyone goes to some happy or neutral place, might say God would never allow those He loves to go there. But, again, let's think about what hell is, and who goes to hell - it's a place where God is forever absent, and the place where evil and unbelieving people go. So, if someone lives their life denying Christ and His love, His mercy, His providence, in hell they now find themselves where all those things are true - where this is no God, none of His mercy, none of His love, none of His providence.

Hell, and heaven, are in a way extensions of how one lived their life on Earth. If I deny Christ, I go to a place where He truly is not. If I embrace Him, I continue to live in His presence and love in heaven.

As for the agony of hell, I think pain and torment are the only things that can result from God being absent. If God were to remove His presence from the entire city of Amarillo, Texas, and His Spirit from everyone in it, the city would naturally fall into a place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth."

The universalist might also argue that God's wrath fell on Jesus as He died on the cross, that He has taken the punishment for our sins, in our place. Indeed He has. This is absolutely true. But, again, a gift that is made possible must also be accepted - if a child rejects a birthday gift, it doesn't mean the gift doesn't exist. It means the child has rejected the gift and is without it and its benefits. And hell is a place where the blessings of the gift they denied are indeed not there.

Those I found to be obnoxious dilettantes in May 2011 were right. It's no laughing matter or occasion for delight that Osama bin Laden, or anyone, is in hell - if we delight in the thought of anyone in hell, we delight that they've rejected the one and only Savior. Hell is a place that, if we truly believe in God's love and the splendor of eternity with Him, we should never desire for anyone to go. And if we believe in Him and the salvation He offers, we must let His light shine through us; we must sacrifice, we must love, we must risk the breaking of our hearts to point just one more person to the bliss of His everlasting arms.

OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess

"And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt." -Daniel 12:2

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 11-15-15: "I Saw It On TV"

If asked to give a reason as to why I believe the entirety of God's word, this book we came to call the Bible, to be the absolute truth, I suppose one of my answers would be that I've seen it all unfold before me on television.
The Bible is the polar opposite of a fairy tale, and it peddles no easy answers. It promises persecution and hardship for those who zealously believe and proclaim it, and assures us that evil lies in the hearts of humanity, as our race chooses every day to disavow and disobey the loving and merciful Christ through whom we were formed. I've seen people do hideous things even in His name, blaspheming their Creator who despises such violence and corruption.

On TV, I've seen President Kennedy shot down in Dallas by a confused, aspiring revolutionary. I've seen men fight in Vietnam and be spat upon by their countrymen upon returning home, called "babykillers" by those who claimed to love peace. I've seen masked men kill hostages in Munich during the Olympics. I've seen politicians and trusted public servants lie under deposition when accused of wrongdoing. I've seen a twisted man bent on revenge for what went down at the compound in Waco blow up a building and kill children in Oklahoma City. I've seen planes flown into the World Trade Center towers by suicidal maniacs. I've seen a deranged twenty-year-old man enter a school in Connecticut and slaughter teachers and children; I then saw other mad men deny the first mad man ever existed. I saw one hundred twenty people robbed of their lives in Paris by men who gave themselves the right with bullets and hatred.

And, on TV, I've seen a child called Genie raised in isolation for thirteen years, a child developmentally disabled by abuse, who could not speak, delight in laughter and joy at the sight of helium balloons; I saw her use her hands to communicate, sign language that opened her heart to those around her.
On TV, I saw men and women in New York City risk their lives and abandon their own safety to rescue others in the midst of raining rubble as towers collapsed behind them. I saw a Holocaust victim named Eva Kor forgive and embrace a former SS bookkeeper, Oskar Gröning, at his trial, encouraging him to continue to tell the truth about an atrocity that many deny ever took place. I saw Amish men and women extend forgiveness to a deviant who entered their schoolhouse and executed their daughters; I saw one Amish man embrace the gunman's father. I saw men, victims of prejudice, released from prison for murders they did not commit, freed by DNA, by truth, and by faith, against all odds, against all hope.

On TV, I've seen human beings do the evil that only comes from hating and rejecting the love of God, the love He instills even in those who don't believe He could do so. And I've seen the good that can only come from Him, in the midst of the ugliness in this world, good and mercy so alien to us fleshly, greedy, angry, creatures who desperately need our Savior. You don't have to take my word for it, but I tell you, I've seen it in person, right before my very eyes. And what I wasn't there to see, I saw it on TV.

OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." -John 1:1-5

"The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked;
Who can know it?
I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
even to give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his doings."
-Jeremiah 17:9-10

Cpt. Bud's Devotionals, 11-8-15: "The Holy Spirit"

"Come Holy Spirit" by Lance Brown
courtesy paintedchrist.com

We often say to others when we can't be there for them in physical presence, "I'll be there in spirit." But, of course, we're not. Our spirit remains with us. The Holy Spirit, however, unlike when we tell a friend we'll be there for him in spirit during his appearance on Divorce Court, is Jesus Christ – God from the beginning, God in the flesh, the eternal High Priest and Mediator between the unapproachable holiness of God and the sinfulness of man – literally here with us in Spirit!
While we long for our own spirit to comfort our friend while he is berated on national TV for sleeping with his soon-to-be ex-wife's sister, the Holy Spirit actually does this, if the adulterer has allowed Jesus into his heart, and therefore allowed His Spirit to be with him, and in him. The Holy Spirit can wrap His arms around the man whose head hangs in shame, and tell him with or without audible words that it's going to be alright, that he can press on, and that He will fill him with the bread of life to help him overcome his unfaithfulness – the presence of a God so holy and glorious that seeing Him would render one dead, now present in Spirit (a word meaning "breath") because He was once also present in flesh, and will someday return.
OHMS,
Cpt. Bud Sturguess
"Come near to Me, hear this:
I have not spoken in secret from the beginning;
from the time that it was, I was there.
And now the Lord GOD and His Spirit
have sent Me."
-Isaiah 48:16