A number of years ago I was in California and had a chance to visit the venerable Crystal Cathedral.  It really is a remarkable piece of architecture.  Completed in 1980 at the cost of $18 million, it has over 10,000 individual panes that are glued in place.  The entire building sits on underground rollers that will absorb tremors to the point that it is supposed to withstand an 8.0 earthquake.  There is a restaurant, a gift shop, a visitors center, etc.  It is a very impressive campus. 

But what is really paradoxical is that right in the middle of the grounds is a statue of a twisted, tormented Job.  As I stood looking at it I said to the visitor guide (yes, they have guided tours), “A statue of Job?  Don’t you think Solomon in all of his glory would be more appropriate for this place?”  She looked me in the eye and said, “You’re a real smart Alec aren’t you?”

But what about Job?  It has been a story of continual debate.  Why did God allow Job to suffer to the extent that he did?  Was it God’s fault, Satan’s fault or Job’s fault?  Last Sunday I preached on the subject and was not really surprised that I hit such a cord with the congregation.  We have all had our Job moment and we all struggle with why.

The Book of Job begins with perplexing wager between God and Satan where God allows Satan to trash Job’s life being convinced that Job will stand no matter what Satan throws at him.  In one day he loses all his considerable herds of animals, all his servants and all 10 of his children.  How would you handle such a day?  Most would throw themselves off the nearest tall building.  Job shaves his head, rips his robe, bows down and worships God.  Then he coins the oft-quoted famous line, “The Lord gives, the Lord takes away.”  Although it is true, that that is what Job said, that does not mean it is actually true.  Huh?  All one has to do is read the story and you can clearly see that the Lord gave… and Satan took away. Job did not know that.  He had no access to scripture as Job is actually the first book of the bible that was written.  The statement may be gross over simplification of course, because God did allow Satan to do it, so therefore God may have some culpability.  But it actually is not really the point of the story.  The message you don’t want to miss is Job’s amazing response in the midst of tragedy.  The very next thing the bible says is, “In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”  This answers two more questions.  One, that it was not Job’s fault and two, it was not God’s fault.  Job clearly recognised it would be wrong to blame God for what had happened.  The bottom line is;  bad things happen to good people.  The scripture says, Job was blameless, upright, feared God and shunned evil.  There was no one on earth that was as good a person as Job and yet he still suffered.

Round two was still to follow and for the next nine months Satan smote Job with painful boils from his head to toes.  Still Job refused to curse God and the scripture says, “Job did not sin with his lips.”  By the end of the book we are expecting some resolution, which we get, but what we don’t get is answers.  Job is basically asking God what is going on with his life.  Instead of answering his question, in Job 38 God responds with a few questions of His own.  “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said: Who is this who darkens counsel By words without knowledge. Now prepare yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer Me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?  Tell Me,if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements?   Surely you know!   Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened?   Or who laid its cornerstone… and on and on He goes with the most incredible description of God’s omnipotentence anywhere in scripture. 

It sends shivers up my spine every time I read it.  Have a read for yourself.  The conclusion of the matter is that we scarcely have a clue when it comes to understanding God’s ways.  And rather than crying, “Why Lord, Why me?”  We, like Job, are to accept that we will never fully understand God’s ways this side of heaven.  Because of Job’s incredible attitude and response to his trial, God restored two fold everything that the Devil stole from him.

This is not an easy message.  How do you deal with bankruptcy or divorce or worse yet the death of a spouse or child?  These are real life struggles that are painful to the core when they come.  Job’s faith in God sustained him, all the while believing that God was actually responsible.  Oh, that we would have such faith considering our advanced New Testement knowledge, that it is not God’s fault at all!  He’s on our side! …the bigger question then remains; are we on His?

In 1934 a movie was made called Death Takes a Holiday.  It is a story of how ‘Death’ wanted to find out why everybody feared him, so he took on human form to mingle with the race.  He ends up falling in love with a woman and having to decide whether to seek his own happiness or return to his duties of killing people.  It was remade in 1971 and again in 1998 with Brad Pitt under the title Meet Joe Black.  The thought of cheating death has always been a perennial human fantasy.

The truth is that most of us have a deep seated fear of death.  And is it any wonder?  It means leaving this world never to return, and for many they have no real sense of where they are going… if anywhere.   Many people deal with death by not actually thinking about it in the first place.  That is not really an option for me.  As a pastor I conduct funerals and come face to face with real death (not the gratuitous movie version) every week.   It is intriguing to see how differently people respond to a death of a loved one.  Some become completely unraveled for months and years, others barely seem to grieve and move on.  We had a friend who lost her 59 year old husband and within 3 months said she was ready to be begin dating.  After I heard that I told Kathy that if I kicked the bucket she wasn’t allowed to date others till I was cold in the grave six months.  She wryly replied, “Wow, a real control freak right to the end, huh?”.  My daughter who was listening in asked, “Why six months?”.   I told her, “Because any sooner and it would look like she already had a boyfriend.” 

Maybe you heard the story of the wife who asked him if  he would remarry if she died.  “Of course!”  He said without hesitation.  Then she wanted to know where they would live.  “Oh, right here in the house”  He casually added.  “Well, would she sleep in our bed”.   The wife anxiously wanted to know.  “I don’t see why not.”  He said.  Finally somewhat frustrated she asked,  “Would you let her use my golf clubs too?”  To which he answered, ”Of course not, don’t be silly, she’s left handed.”

Should we fear death?  It is as much of a right of passage as birth.  There is no way to escape it.  It touches every family and eventually every one of us.  The scripture says,  “But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.”  1 The s 4:13-15 

A few years ago I visited a woman in the hospital that was dying of cancer.  I told her that I was going to pray for her and ask God to heal her.  She said, “That would be good and if he heals me I would be delighted, and if not, I can go be with Jesus and that would be even better, so there is really no downside.”   She had the most incredible sense of peace, and even enthusiasm about death.  I remember how impressed I was with her confidence.  Three days later she was gone and hers was easiest funeral I have ever conducted.  I was able to share about her faith and confidence in the afterlife and the sense of comfort in the room was palpable. 

I can contrast this with other funerals I have done where the ‘mourners’ were inconsolable about the lose of their 95 year old grandfather.  We really should not be caught off guard by the death of a 95 year old.  The loss of a child is another story.  They are the toughest.  We were never meant to outlive our children.  The thought of a young person never having the opportunity to experience all that the fullness of life has to offer does feel like a great  tragedy.

Almost everyone I know has had a brush with death.  I had one last year when in very freakish situation a huge steel pipe got dropped from an overhead crane.  I saw the shadow of it coming and looked up.  In a reflex action which happened in the fraction of a second I stepped out of the way to have it land right where I was standing.  At first it never fazed me but within hours I was replaying the encounter again and again in my head.  I had trouble sleeping for several days.  I finally wrestled through and got peace about it.  I came to the conclusion that it was not my time… that my life was in God’s hands and if my ticket wasn’t up, it wasn’t up.

I have a lot of confidence about where I am going after I die.  Heaven is something I look forward to some day, so I do not have much of a fear of death.  However my brush with death gave me a far greater sense of God’s sovereignty in all this.  Our time is in his hands.  That is something we all need to rest in and come to grips with.  I still think about that moment from time to time but it doesn’t tear me apart.  God is in control and death… took a holiday.

One of the running gags on TV’s the Simpsons is Homer’s weakness for donuts.  Many people fail to see the brilliance in the Simpsons cartoon.  If you just watch them without thinking about it you are really missing something.  I’m constantly surprised at how many Christian people in particular find the cartoon offensive.  Many fail to see the intended social commentary on everything that is wrong with modern North American culture.  The writers have a knack for skewering many of us through the idiosyncrasies of Homer and Bart; classic underachievers.  In a Halloween episode Homer’s head was turned into a giant donut.  This was problematic for Homer because he couldn’t stop eating it. 

Marge:  “Homer, stop eating your head.”

Homer:  “But I’m so yummy…”

In another episode Homer sold his soul to the Devil for a single donut.  The Devil, by the way, appeared to him at Ned Flanders, Homer’s Christian, goody two shoes neighbour.  That alone was an immensely cleaver touch since the temptations of the Devil rarely appear as terrifying and grotesque, but as safe and appealing.  The devil said to Eve, “You shall not die, but God knows that if you eat the fruit you will be like Him knowing both good and evil.”  The temptation seemed like a good thing coming from an appealing character.  “The Serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field.” 

In the late 60’s Stanford University psychology professor Walter Mischel developed what he called the Marshmallow Test.  He claimed he could predict the future success of 4-year olds based on how they handled his marshmallow test.  He would place them alone in a room with a single marshmallow.  He told them if they wanted, they could just ring a little bell and eat the marshmallow at any time.  However, if they waited for him to return from an errand he would bring with him a second marshmallow and then they would have two to eat.  One third of the 4-year olds ate it immediately.  One third ate sometime within the 20 minutes and one third waited the full 20 minutes and received a second marshmallow.  Here is a video of some children being given the test.  It is quite interesting to watch them anguish over a marshmallow.

The really fascinating part of the experiment was that Mischel continued to track his test subjects into adulthood.  He discovered that those who waited to eat the marshmallow became far more successful as adults.  They did better in school, were more likely to go to college, had better relationships and careers, and scored a remarkable 210 points higher on their SAT’s.  The most impulsive of the group, who ate immediately, were most likely to be bullies or have behavioral problems in school.  They were also more prone to get involved with drugs, less likely to go to college, and struggled in their careers and relationships.  The results were so consistent that Mischel became confident he could predict any child’s future level of success with a single marshmallow.  It’s a bit startling to think that our fate can be determined by a marshmallow.  On the other hand, it makes perfect sense.  Impulsive children grow up to be impulsive adults.  They are always looking for instant gratification.

When I watch people who cannot control their impulses, whether it is drinking, smoking, gambling, pornography, eating, gossip or shopping, I can’t help but think of the marshmallow test.  Billions fail the test everyday and then can’t figure out why life isn’t more satisfying.  They buy the new shoes, car, Ipod, computer or whatever and the next day they feel as empty as they did the day before.  How about you?  Can you pass the marshmallow test?

I seem to be continuing on with my ‘Summer Scary Blog Series’.  Hopefully I got you ’chewing on’ the dangers about GMO foods, and ’checking’ your wallet for the ‘Mark of the Beast’.  Now onto another creepy conspiracy theory type tale.  In 1949 George Orwell wrote the novel 1984.  In it he envisioned a world controlled by some despotic entity named Big Brother that could watch every citizen, every minute of the day through closed circuit TVs.  I remember when 1984 finally came and we laughed off the Orwellian prediction this way; “Big Brother isn’t watching us, we’re watching him.  Ha ha”.  A reference to the amount of TV we watched.  Of course we still watch our fair share of TV but we have dumbed it right down to watching hours of completely and utterly mindless reality TV.  Instead of going outside and actually ‘doing something’, we sit at home and watch someone else ‘do something.’

I have always found this trend incredibly perverse and have the personal distinction of having never watched even a single episode of Survivor.  I have no idea who Richard is… and I don’t care.   Wouldn’t you have liked the badge of honor of being able to say you never watched an episode of The Brady Bunch?  But you can’t do it can you?  And I bet you can still name who played Marcia Brady?  Yup, you got it, it was Maureen McCormick.  Can you name the rest of the gang?  Lord help us if you can!

Big Brother is out there, but HE has more to do with the Internet and the telephone than TV.  We even know where he is.  He’s in room 641A…  of the AT&T building located at 611 Folsom, San Francisco, CA.  In 2003 NSA (The National Security Agency of the US) put a machine in this room called the Narus STA 6400.  Sounds benign enough.  I have a cell phone that has almost the same model number.  But what the Narus does is frightening.  The NAS ran a series of fiber optic cables from the AT&T Internet hub in this building, which serves millions of AT&T customers, to this machine.  This information splitter essentially syphons off all email and phone messages that normally run through the hub, which of course is millions per day.  The NAS then has a duplicated record of every one of those messages, to do whatever they like with.  They claim they are merely monitoring them for possible terrorist threats against the United States and not really ‘listening in’, but does it really matter?  It is a huge breach of privacy. 

Frontline did a fantastic piece on the story in 2007.  Here is the link.  Episode 3 deals specifically with room 641A.  

You can watch the rest of the series by visiting here.     http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/homefront/ 

Maybe there actually is some good stuff on TV…  Oh Yeah, I’m on TV.   The story was brought out by AT&T technician Mark Klein.  He worked in the building and saw what was being done and felt the public had a right to know.  He claims there are sights like this all over North America.  Even under the sweeping powers of the Patriot Act, what the NAS is doing is illegal.  I have noticed that when I tell people about this most of them don’t believe me.  “Right Mark, and I bet you also believe their are little green men in flying saucers from outer space spying on us as well?”   Of course not!  They’re not really green, that’s just ridiculous. 

This is some disturbing stuff to say the least.  I’ve barely scratched the surface here concerning the electronic surveillance that is going on out there.  Everyday our personal freedoms are being stripped from us and most people either don’t know or don’t care to know.  I won’t even get into the amount of information people willingly volunteer on Facebook.  And who knows what Google knows?  They are gradually gobbling up the internet.  They own Youtube, Feedburner (A RSS feed sevice) and 71 other related internet companies.  You have no idea how much access they have to you and your internet activities. Ever wonder how the Google ads seem to target your area of interests?  What else could they be doing with it?  Has the NSA taped into it too?  I know you don’t care, that’s the problem.

Maybe the Beast isn’t a ‘who’ but a ‘what’.  Maybe the Internet… that we have become so addicted to… or some aspect of it, will one day rise up and try to ensnare us all.  “Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name.”  Rev 13:11

Maybe George Orwell had it right in 1984 all along… except for maybe the timing.

If you thought last weeks post about GMO’s was scary, this week’s subject should raise the hair on the back of your neck.  Rev. 13:16-18 says,   “He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.  Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.”   For years we have talked and debated about the coming Mark of the Beast.   There has been much speculation as to what the mark would be.  Before the technological age many thought it would be some type tattoo, not unlike what Hitler did to detainees in his Nazi concentration camps.  Those that remain today still bear the tattooed numbers on their arms.  Today, more than in any time in history, the significance of the number 666 should be of keen interest to every thinking person. 

There are aspects of the prophecy that are becoming increasingly clear.  The technology already exists and is in place to restrict buying and selling.  It all began with the innocuous introduction of the retail barcode.  What started as a way to speed up the grocery store checkout process has a far more nefarious possible outcome.  Because the scripture challenges those of “understanding to calculate the number of the beast”, many have tried.  In 2000 years nobody has figured it out, so I am not gong to be so presumptuous to think that I can.   Having said that, I do find it interesting that the typical retail barcode has the number 666 embedded in every single one. 

There are very few occasions where you need to use cash any more to make a purchase.  The debit card has made it easier than ever.  We use them everyday and never think about how we are participating in a cashless society where we give vendors direct electronic access to our bank accounts.  Many people never carry cash at all.  Most retailers already rely on the scanning devices to read the prices on the barcodes.  The same device could be used to scan people instead.  Why go to all the trouble of carrying around a bulky debit card when the same information could easily be implanted under the skin and the transaction is complete with the simple swipe of the hand?  The chip is called a RFID.  Radio-frequency identification.

The tiny chip which is implanted just under the skin can hold 2 megabytes of data and be read from over 6 meters away.  That is an incredible amount of information.  Think about it; all your personal information, health records, financial information and maybe your baby pictures or a video of you singing at last year’s office Christmas party.

The chip is manufactured by a company called Verichip.  They were originally marketed to be implanted in pets so that they could be tracked if they became lost.  Now parents are having them implanted in their children for the same reasons.  The chip can remain in them for the rest of their lives and the data constantly upgraded without removing the chip.  Verichip’s sales pitch has been for the safety and convenience of carrying your health information with you at all times so that medical professionals can act accordingly in a variety of situations.  Watch the advertising video and then continue reading.

It all sounds so comforting, doesn’t it?  Verichip has now purchased a company called Steel Vault, an information security company that can store and track personal and financial records.  The newly branded company is now called Positive ID and is capable of amalgamating all personal, health, and financial records onto one data base and place all the pertinent data on the RFID chip.  If all this seems to you like far fetched sci-fi conspiracy theory stuff, then you are right where they want you to be.  They RFID chip is already in use in several parts of the world and is catching on at an alarming rate.  Warnings that this might be the Mark of the Beast, are being  inexplicably ignored by the masses.  Check out this incredible video of how the chip is being used in Europe.

Oh, by the way, you already have a RFID chip in your wallet.  By now your credit card has been upgraded to a ‘chip’ card.  The chip is a RFID.  You may also have one in your car if you have a toll road ’speed pass’ or any ’swipe and pay’ fob for paying at the gas station.  They are being used at an accelerating rate in all kinds of applications. 

I cannot say for certain that the RFID is the Mark of the Beast, but it is definitely a good possibility.  Maybe the thought of having a foreign object implanted under our skin seems disconcerting to some of us old fashioned folks, but not so to a new generation that has embraced the trend towards tattooing and body piercing at a frightening pace.  I think it is all part of a diabolical plot to desensitize the population to what would have seemed seriously creepy only a few years ago.  At any rate you won’t see me wearing a lip-ring or a RFID any time soon, but I am seriously concerned about a younger demographic who would not think twice about having another needle plunged into their already ‘beautifully adorned’ bodies.   The Mark of the Beast is coming, and may already be here.  Where are you planning on drawing the line?  Or are you just going to be led down the garden path with billions of others?

We watched the new animated movie Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs last night.   This is actually not a movie review, but I am sure some of the more uber-religious are going to ‘have at me’  for watching worldly films.  Someone called me a “phony not a pastor” a couple of weeks ago because I watch Hollywood movies.  Always keep in mind that those who protest the loudest are often the ones with the most skeletons in the closet.  This is as tame a family film as you will find anywhere.  It is a lot of fun, completely zany and surprisingly original for a change.  It has a great father/son relationship message and although I’m not certain if there is any deliberately intended social commentary, of course… I see one.

The story takes place in a little sardine fishing village called Swallow Falls on an island in the Atlantic. Because their only industry is sardines and nobody really likes sardines, they have to eat them all themselves and life is a very boring culinary existence.   A young nerdy inventor named Flint Lockwood desperately wants to make a name for himself and builds a machine that can turn water into food.  The machine ends up being trapped in the atmosphere over the island and it begins raining food on the delighted townspeople.  Predictably, things start to go horribly wrong as the food begins to mutate and becomes bigger and bigger.  I will stop here and avoid the spoiler alert.

Now I am not sure if the movie is making a statement on genetically modified food (GMO) or not, but I couldn’t help but see one.  Bio-genetic engineering is quietly going on behind the scenes at an astonishing pace.  There are already many foods that you eat everyday that are genetically modified and you don’t even know it.  For example; you cannot buy margarine that is not made out of Canola.  Check the label, even if the lid says olive oil it is probably mostly made from Canola oil .  Canola was originally developed from rapeseed (an industrial oil seed) using traditional plant breeding technology to reduce inedible erucic acid.  Whether we got a healthier oil out of it or not is a matter of debate.  In 1997 however agri-biz giant Monsanto took it a step further.  They trans-genetically modified (cross species breeding) Canola in order to make it resistant to their Round-up herbicide.  To be specific they inserted the gene of the enzyme 5-enolypyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate synthase  from the CP4 strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens as well as the glyphosate oxidase gene.  Say what?  I won’t even get into the fact that Monsanto owns the patent on the GMO Canola variety and will sue farmers for trying to plant their own seed that they have grown from it.  Of bigger concern is the fact that scientists do not know if the forced insertion of one gene from one species into another gene of another destabilizes the organism, encourages mutations or produces abnormalities.  Likewise, no one knows if or how eating mutated food could affect people’s own DNA.  Neither Canada nor the US require labeling of GMO foods.  Virtually all of the Canola that goes into making your table margarine has been genetically modified.  You are eating it every day.   

There are hundreds of different foods that are now genetically modified.  One bio-tech company engineered a soybean with a gene from a Brazil nut, to aid in pest resilience.  Brazil nuts are not prone to bug infestation.  Many people are allergic to Brazil nuts, some to life-threatening levels.  If someone with a severe allergy to Brazil nuts were to eat this specific GMO soy in tofu, they could have an outbreak. Fortunately in this case, a laboratory test picked up on the allergen and the soy never made it to our supermarkets.  The argument justifying all of this is the need to feed an increasing global population.  The concept of giant over-sized fruits and vegetables is not science fiction anymore.  A frost resistant tomato was developed by adding a gene from the fish Flounder.   That’s just kind of creepy.  

Bio-genetic engineering gets even scarier when it comes to humans and animals.  We all marvelled in 1997 when scientists is Scotland cloned the first sheep.  Her name was Dolly.  What many don’t know is that Dolly died of old age at 6 years old, about half of the normal 11 or12.  Australia’s first cloned sheep didn’t make it to 3 years old.  The animals were full of diseases typically found ony in much older sheep.  Human cloning is now entirely possible.  I am quite certain it is not being considered because we don’t have enough poeple on the planet.  The real agenda is therauputic cloning.  In other words, cloning for the purpose of harvesting spare body parts.  One day wealthy movie stars will be able to have spare parts cloned so as they age and become unemployably ugly they can go in for a full upgrade.  I wonder if Donald Trump’s clone will be bred with the same hideous hair?  The ethical considerations in all of this are frightening, but the spiritual ones are even worse.   Man is starting to play God.  We are creating new life forms that God never originally intended. 

The original sin of Adam and Eve is sometimes missed as being about eating fruit.  The temptation was really to become like God.  The serpent said to them,  “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  Gen 3:5.  The disobedience was one thing, but the level of human ambition to be like God was a serious act of high treason.  Cloning and genetic engineering is the latest demonstration of man elevating himself to the level of God.  It may just be the ultimate example of human arrogance.  Maybe we can’t stop it, but one day God will, and I don’t want to be party to it.  He will not share His glory with any man.