Valentine Defenders

"I loved Jesus.  He was my hero...because he was kind to everyone.  He didn't bow to peer pressure or tyranny or cruelty.  He didn't care who you were.  He loved you....I wanted to be just like him.  One day when I was about 8 years old, I was drawing the crucifixion as part of my Bible studies homework...I was a good boy.  I went to church and believed one God - what a relief for a working-class mother.  You see, growing up where I did, mums didn't hope as high as their kids growing up to be doctors; they just hoped their kids didn't go to jail.  So bring them up believing in God and they'll be good and law abiding.....But anyway, there I was happily drawing my hero when my big brother Bob asked, "Why do you believe in God?". Just a simple question.  But my mum panicked.  "Bob," she said in a tone that I knew meant, "shut up".  Why was that a bad thing to ask?  If there was a God and my faith was strong, it didn't matter what people said.  Oh-- hang on.  There is no God.  He knows it and she knows it deep down....I started thinking about it and asking more questions and within an hour, I was an atheist."

This is Ricky Gervais' account of how he became an atheist....at age 8.

Ricky says there's no evidence for the existence of God.  So I teach Andy all about the Earth and probability and the atmosphere and DNA. I give him a big old grenade to launch when the Ricky Gervais in his class comes along.  And then we march around the house chanting, "We're right!  They're wrong!  We're smart!  They're dumb!  We win!  We win!  Hooray!"

Well....no...we don't do that last part.  But honestly, it wouldn't be that weird if we did, because that's the kind of sentiment that typically follows such preparation.

Don't get me wrong...there's definitely a war going on and we must be prepared to fight.  But here's what the Bible has to say about it:

"Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." -Ephesians 6:12

If our struggle is against spiritual forces in the heavenly realms, why in the world am I worried about Ricky Gervais?  While I'm preparing Andy to shoot down atheists, the Enemy wages real war.  And I leave Andy unarmed and caught off guard.

And he misses his calling.....

"All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting peoples sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are, therefore, Christ's ambassadors, as if God were making an appeal through us.  We implore you on Christ's behalf: be reconciled to God."-1 Corinthians 5:18-20

One word in different forms, 5 times in 2 verses....

Reconcile

Has God committed to me the responsibility of neutralizing the "threat "of every person who does not believe in Him?

To shoot them down?

Prove them wrong?

Philosophically destroy them?

Doesn't look that way.  Looks like He has committed to me a message.  Looks like I am to deliver His letter of love that says, 

"Child!  Creator God of the universe is NOT counting your sins against you!  Come back to Me!  I LOVE you....and I've proven it!"

Will Ricky get it...will he hear the Father's appeal...if I spend all my time on DNA?

I don't think so, and I'll tell you why.

I engaged in philosophical and metaphysical warfare with a few atheist kids throughout high school.  I spent quite a bit of time working to mentally conquer one young lady in particular, who was quite intelligent and believed just what Ricky does.  I always patted myself on the back after our exchanges, feeling I'd given her no ground and shut her down pretty well.  

She took her own life our first year of college.

And I'll never know what might have happened if I had viewed her differently....viewed my purpose differently....been courageous enough to engage in a conversation about why she believed what she did.....

Asked her if she knew she needed rescuing....and that the rescuer had come?

It only took one young lady in William Lane Craig's class to exhibit the love of Christ on a daily basis for him to wonder what it meant that God loved him.....

and cause the scales to begin to fall from his eyes.

Now....

Andy and I do need to know about DNA.  After all, God did create it...and the stars...and the eye...and the hummingbird.  It's important to see that there is evidence everywhere that bursts with God's fingerprints.  But as for my job, and the job I equip Andy to do at school, it must be about reconciliation.  About bringing God's lost and wandering and lonely and hopeless children back to Him.

When Ricky shows up in whatever form he takes, be it science teacher, atheist classmate, or PTA mom, Andy and I need to be ready with our backpacks full of valentines from the King.  We need to be willing to view him not as a target to be decimated, but as an expatriate...one who is beloved by the King who pleads with him to come home.  One for whom the King's very own Son gave his life in order to save his forever.

If we are to carry out our charge,  we must pick up the delivery bag with which He has entrusted  us and take His message to the world.  Yes, and we must put on that armor and pick up our sword, because we will be attacked on the way.  We must be ready to "destroy speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God." (2 Corinthians 10:5). We slay the ideas while imploring the person.  We help them to stage an uprising on their thoughts: to take them captive and make them obedient to Christ....instead of being held captive by them as abused slaves.

And we do it with confidence....not in the weapons we may wield in response to resistance....but in WHO we know.

Our confidence in delivering our message comes from having experienced the presence of the great and loving  King who paid the highest price to buy us back from slavery.

Because the thing is....when this message gets out?  The one straight from the King's own heart that says, "Your debt is paid!  Come back, child!  See?  I make all things new...even you!  I love you.  I LOVE you and we are reconciled!"

There's  no stopping it.