On my way home at the end of a three-day road trip for work, I was flipping through the channels on the radio and I landed on a rock n’ roll station. The guitar riff, grabbing my attention, caused me to pause. The thing is I don’t listen to rock n’ roll much anymore, and when I do catch a good classic that takes me back, I usually end up turning it one or two songs later. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sound of the genre, I grew up on it, and for a time, was partially defined by it. However, the spiritual conviction that the majority of secular music creates in me is not the focus of this message. This message is about the song, and the artist that I happened to land on that late autumn day.
It was a song I’ve never heard before, and the singer sounded just like Ozzy Osbourne. I assumed it was a new band with a lead singer that had a similar vocal style, because I haven’t heard anything from Ozzy for years. As I listened to the lyrics it I was rapidly aware that they were dark and sad, even tragic, song. The lyrics told me this was a man who had given his life to the darkness and was admitting he was going to hell. It was hard to tell if he was willing to go or if he felt he had no choice, like it was too late. These lyrics were so dark and tragic that I became more confident this was not Ozzy. I knew his music. I saw him at OzzFest when Black Sabbath reunited with their lead guitar player, Tony Iommi. I had all of their recordings on CD. This wasn’t Ozzy’s song writing style, even though the lyrics could easily be transposed onto his life and potential eternal destiny. However, when the song was over the DJ announced that Ozzy Osbourne had released a new album, and my heart broke for this man.
Ozzy Osbourne, I need to talk to you. When I heard the lyrics of this song, which led me to read others from your new album, I found myself listening to a man who was very much aware of the reality, the activities, and the consequences of the spiritual world. It is clear that you know God exists, and you know it is a choice to either serve Him or not. But it is also clear that you are crying out for a miracle, that you are well aware of what you have dedicated your life too, the darkness, and that eternity for you, and many people that you have known, is hell. When I heard that song, I heard a man who felt trapped in his darkness and in his destiny. A man who feels that no matter what he does or how much he wants it, believes he can not change his fate; and Ozzy, that is a lie.
Ozzy, I need to tell you, man to man, as a man who was once just as lost as you are, that God loves you, and He wants you to be saved, He wants you in heaven with Him. After hearing your lyrics, I need to tell you that the devil can never win, and that you haven’t sold your soul to him, because it was never his to buy. He is only a liar and a deceiver. You can change your destiny, and you can turn to the light. I pray for you Ozzy. I pray for your pain, and that the cries for help that you bravely sing in your songs will be heard. I pray for your salvation, that you will see the light of Jesus Christ. All you have to do, Ozzy, is talk to Him. Admit to Him that you’ve served the darkness, but now you want to know Him, to be changed by Him, to be saved by Him, because He already loves you, Ozzy Osbourne.
I picked lyrics from three of your songs that I want to discuss with you. You wrote “Jesus Christ, I wish you heard me cryin’ out for help,” and I can tell you that Jesus Christ does hear you, Ozzy. He hears your cry for help, the same way I could hear it on the radio. But you need to act on His love, on the salvation that He provided to you through the cross and His resurrection. It is a matter of the heart, never the mind.
You know that hell is not a party. When you sang “my friends are waiting for me, I can hear them crying out for help,” it is clear you know they are suffering in the absence of God. No one serves the devil in hell, they only suffer with him. You know this in your heart, and it doesn’t have to be your fate.
You sing “Pray for me Father, for I know not what I do,” and “I gotta tell a million lies but I’ll be holy tonight.” These words are sung in the context of a song that hints to your approaching death. I can tell you from my own experience, that you are no different than me or any other flesh and blood sinner. We all do what we don’t want to do or what we know we shouldn’t do. This world has played its games on all of us, it has hurt us, and given us false promises. Our hearts, where the word of God is written, tell us this every day. You don’t have to tell lies to become holy in the eyes of God, He already knows all, and there is nothing hidden from Him. The blood of Jesus has already cleansed you, and you can be holy tonight in His sight, by asking His Son into your heart. It is not too late, just know that you have to seek Him, you have to be willing.
What causes me to respond to these songs so passionately is that you have spiritual knowledge, you know what the truth is, but I fear that you don’t believe it is available to you. But I know that it is! Finally, from the song that started all this for me you sang “don’t take care of me, be scared of me, my misery owns me.” Lay it at His feet, Ozzy. He will take the burden from you. It might hurt, no, it will hurt, because love always hurts, but you will come out of it a new man, a man of God, with no shame, only hope, and faith. Let God own you and give your life to Him.
God bless you, Ozzy Osbourne. May His face shine upon you. If you need to talk, I’m available. 618 534 2958
I hope we can all agree on one thing when it comes to abortion, that it is not a positive thing. One side of the issue says it is “wrong,” while the other side doesn’t say it is “right,” rather they say, “it is our right.” It is an unwinnable argument that we’ve been having for decades. Let’s face it, a girl who finds herself with child, one who is emotionally, physically, spiritually, and financially not prepared for undoubtedly the most significant upheaval to a person’s life, is going to find it very easy to justify, seek, and receive an abortion. So many of us have been there, so many of us can relate, regardless of what side of the issue we stand on. Sex is a powerful draw. I can relate, I was 15 years old when I became responsible for the taking of an innocent child’s life. Yes, you can add murder to my list of sins.
While I don’t agree with the legalization of abortion, it’s just not right, I am able to realize that it is likely not going anywhere. For while we can’t outlaw sin, abortion is not your every day, temptation; it is premeditated, done in desperation and fear, involving the most innocent life. It is child sacrifice on the altar of self.
We need to look at the issue of abortion and the unborn from a different angle, from the angle of the heart. Let me tell you what I see when I watch a movie or a series online, what I see when I watch a person stumble out of a bar, another cussing out a spouse, another pulled over by the police and getting searched on the sidewalk; I see only one thing, the absence of Jesus Christ and His love in their hearts. I see nothing else, and it breaks my heart, not for the pain that is being experienced in the present, but for the absence of the only thing that can provide fulfillment on this side of heaven.
Let me give you a challenge and then an example. The challenge is to stop watching videos, movies, your favorite series to stream, YouTube, or prime time TV, for two weeks (that’s a guess, I don’t know how long it takes). After those 2 weeks turn it back on. If you are sensitive to violence, sex, or vulgar language in any way, you will be shocked at what you see, the things you notice and those you did not notice before. Here is the example. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but I do watch some. One night I was at a relative’s house and they turned the TV on, we watched four episodes of “The Big Bang Theory.” Although the title rejects God, I remember this show from long ago, I remember it was funny, so I was looking forward to watching it again. Immediately it was clear to me that either the show had changed, or I had changed. While I watched I did my best to throw out a laugh at the funnier jokes, but at the same time I was observing and analyzing, and I was fascinated, and horrified, by what I was seeing. Episode after episode ONLY ONE theme persisted, the promotion of casual and promiscuous sex. Masturbation, online sex, drunk/blackout sex, sex with a parent, and sex with multiple partners, all surfaced or were the main topic in four consecutive episodes. The characters in the “Big Bang Theory” did not have to deal with an unwanted pregnancy though, but if they did, I’m sure it would have been hilarious. Certainly, the girl would have been rescued by the abortionist, so she could continue her schooling, and with the weight of the pregnancy now in the past, was able to pass her finals. And the boy who was responsible, he was able to continue the internship without embarrassment and potential firing, opening the door to a great career when he graduated. I’m certain in the next episode they would have learned to be more careful when having casual and promiscuous sex. You can see who benefits in this scenario, SELF, definitely not the baby, who would have either been sucked from his sacred place of protection and peace by a vacuum, or ripped apart, one limb at a time, by a pair of oversized tweezers. If your kids are watching family friendly, prime time TV, they are being desensitized to the risks of sex and the holiness and beauty of it.
I want to make one thing clear now. I want to tell you what has, without doubt, caused me the most PAIN in my life. It was pre-marital sex. Nothing else comes close. Not drinking, which I started as a pre-teen and allowed to define me as a teenager and into my thirties, not drug use, not bad friends, not bad parenting, but pre-marital sex, hands down.
I once talked to a pastor who told me he wasn’t necessarily against abortion, he was unsure when life began in the womb. I was shocked. This man should not be a pastor and I am in great fear for the spiritual well being of the members of his church. He said he would not talk about abortion from the pulpit, in fear he would ostracize the 16-year-old girl in the pew who had an abortion, saying she might not come to him for help or guidance. According to this pastor’s beliefs however, the girl hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary, she had done nothing wrong that she needed his help or guidance for. According to this pastor, who doesn’t believe in following the teachings of Jesus and the Word of God, pre-marital sex is perfectly fine as it fits with today’s culture, but not in the culture of Jesus’ day. According to this pastor, who pastors for the PC USA, the Bible is only relevant in ancient, middle eastern culture.
Let’s get to the point. The problem of abortion can only be solved before the pregnancy happens, and to do that our culture must do a 180-degree turn. STOP teaching our children how to have sex, stop teaching them to pursue sex at a young age, stop showing them pornography, stop sexualizing EVERYTHING!, stop putting our kids in front of the TV, stop telling them they need to “test drive the car before they drive it.” START teaching them the Word of God, teach them that sex is beautiful and safe in marriage, teach them that pain and terrible consequences are the results of pre-marital sex, teach them that it is God’s plan to wait until marriage, teach them to stand on the Rock of Jesus. And when you have taught them this, and when they fail, when they are overcome by temptation and eat the fruit of the tree and are faced with an unwanted pregnancy, they will have the love of Jesus Christ in their hearts, telling them that He is with them, that if they trust Him He will guide them, that He will make this into a good thing, a good thing for His glory and His kingdom, and that if they have faith in Him they will be able to make the right decision in a very difficult time.
Abortion is not about a law. Abortion is about the condition of the heart. We all make mistakes and tough decisions, and I know when I am in a tough situation, I stop and listen to the Word of God to guide me. He has never failed me. His Word is Truth, it is Relevant, Never-Changing, Never-Ageing, Never-Fading, and Never-Out-of-Style.
Proverbs 31:8
8 Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die.
Psalm 119:92-94
92 Unless Your law had been my delight, I would then have perished in my affliction.
93 I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life.
94 I am Yours, save me; For I have sought Your precepts.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take
My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will
find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Jeremiah 1:5
5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
“Destruction of the embryo in the mother’s womb is a violation of the right to live which God has bestowed upon this nascent life. To raise the question whether we are here concerned already with a human being or not is merely to confuse the issue. The simple fact is that God certainly intended to create a human being and that this nascent human being has been deliberately deprived of his life. And this is nothing but murder.”
Sometimes, as believers who boldly stand for their faith, we can come to see ourselves as John the Baptist, stuck in the movie Groundhog Day, where life seems to be a constant circle of feeling the same defeat and asking the same questions. John the Baptist emerged from the wilderness and became the most successful evangelist than anyone had seen for centuries. His role, to prepare the Jewish people for, and to introduce them to, the Messiah. Thousands came to hear him speak and accepted his words. He was on top of his game, at the peak of his career, and I’m certain he felt really good about it. That is reflective of me when I tell someone about Jesus and teach His gospel. When another believer, or a backslider, or someone on the fence, responds to the message in a positive way, it just feels good.
Then John’s time of preaching the Good News was over and he obediently passed the torch to Jesus Christ. At this point he was led to preach the darkness of the sin in our hearts; because eventually everyone who comes to Jesus is going to have to consider the condition of their heart, and allow the Holy Spirit to change that heart, or not. This is where things get bad, for John, and for me. Teaching about sin is hard, because most of us just don’t want to hear it.
John told Herod, the ruler of the day, that his relationship with his sister-in-law was not right in the eyes of God. Now his audience was no longer supportive, nobody was happy with his message, and he was thrown into a prison cell. A cell where he was alone with his thoughts and his doubts, wondering if what he did was the right thing to do, if it made any difference at all. I can tell you what he was thinking because I’m thinking it now. I happen to have returned to that cell today. He’s thinking, “Lord, did I do the right thing? Did I speak too boldly in Your name, for Your truth? Should I have done it differently, with a more cautious approach? Did I act out of love? I’m sorry, Lord, if I made a mistake.” This is what doubt looks like, and the questions I often ask myself when I step out and speak Biblical truth.
Believers and non-believers alike are hurt by my words, and in doubt I wonder, “Did I just embolden the darkness in our world, drive people farther from the light, with what I said? Did the light I wanted to shine make any difference? Am I doing the will of God?” It is hard to say, isn’t it? Often all we have is faith, whatever faith we have left in us during these dark times, to tell us that we have obediently served our Lord.
Ultimately, John the Baptist ended up in glory, at the throne of God, even though he would never leave that prison with breath in his lungs. As for me, I will get out of this cell by talking to God in prayer, by leaning on the Holy Spirit for renewal, and by searching His words that will guide me in the Bible. Then, unlike John, I will see the sunshine on my face again and I’ll serve God with a happy heart, until sin prompts me to action again. Then I will return to this cell for another stay, and the door will be slammed shut, where I will survive yet another death of John the Baptist.
Matthew 11:4-6
4 Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: 5 The blind see and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them. 6 And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
Jesus washed His disciples’ feet in an act of humility, servitude, and love.
Judas, a disciple of Jesus, departed from them to set up his betrayal of Jesus.
Some of Jesus’s most beautiful prayers were recorded when He prayed to His Father, God, for His disciples, and for you.
Jesus took 3 of His disciples to be with Him as he prayed to God, his Father, over the anguish He felt regarding His coming crucifixion.
Those 3 disciples repeatedly fell asleep while Jesus cried out to God in prayer.
Peter violently and foolishly attacked Jesus’ captures to prevent His arrest.
His disciples scattered, abandoning Jesus.
Peter denied knowing Jesus 3 times.
Jesus spent the night in trial in front of Jewish leaders, who insulted Him, slapped Him, spit on Him, and denied Him.
Jesus was then turned over to the Roman courts early in the morning. He would be tortured almost to death, then nailed to a cross.
Jesus Christ was fully human, just like you and me. He enjoyed the fellowship of friends, He felt pain and sadness, and had expectations of others (Mt 16:8, Mt 26:40). But His expectations didn’t get the best of Him, because His faith and His focus were on the Father and the Father’s plan for Him, not in the abilities or the willingness of any human heart.
How would you react after your closest friends repeatedly let you down in your greatest time of need? Or if an institution let you down, your government, or your boss? Would you reach for the bottle, commit intellectual suicide in front of the TV, or maybe act out in anger towards a loved one?
Jesus reacted in love. He says in John 15:13, at the Last Supper, “Greater love has no one than this, than to lay downs one’s life for his friends.” This is the example every person needs to follow, and this is one reason why Jesus came to us fully human, to set that example.
Can we attain this standard of love?
Most of the world feels that this standard is impossible to attain, that it is out of their reach. But Jesus was human, and it was in His reach. How is that? It is because He focused, without ceasing, on His relationship with God. He immersed Himself in God’s word, which drew Him closer to His Father and gave Him revelation concerning His life on earth. Everything He did, either at work or play, in joy and sorrow, He kept His focus on God. This is how believers attain joy and freedom in a hurtful and enslaved world.
The root definition of sin is our separation from God, which started in the garden with Adam, opening the door for the evil that is in our hearts. That divide, our separation from the holiness of God, was bridged when Jesus died on the cross and overcame death, rising from the grave, making it possible for us to reunite with God in a very personal relationship, through the Son. That is what it means when they say that He took our sin upon Himself. Jesus bridged that gap and made atonement for the original sin of Adam.
What you can do on this Holy Weekend
Good Friday is a very significant and emotional day, the most significant along with Resurrection Sunday. Search your heart this weekend, talk to God in private (alone, by yourself, and in secret), and meditate on what happened this weekend. Consider for yourself that Jesus lived and what the Bible says about Him is true, then consider what that might mean to you. Lift up the sacrifice of Jesus Christ in your family, proclaim it as truth, and read the Bible daily. Don’t promote the Easter Bunny, it blurs our vision as a society. Often the “small and innocent” distractions are what separates us from Jesus the most effectively.
May God bless us, our nation, our families, and our international brothers and sisters.
Don’t talk to strangers is one of the most popular, and believed to be, one of the best pieces of advice this world can give to you. Whether you are 30 years old and walking the streets of Brooklyn, or 5 years old and hanging out at the neighborhood monkey bars, it is common knowledge that talking to strangers can only lead to bad things. Why is that? On the surface it is to protect us from people who might do us harm, as if knowing a person’s name and what they do for a living makes them exempt from hurting you. As a result, we have it habitually imbedded into our minds that people we don’t know are risky, and we come into adulthood with a fear that we do not realize is there. People who do not look like us become especially dangerous. We avoid having to interact with them and even go so far as to exclude them from the public places we enjoy. Fear of our fellow man creates an “us vs. them” mentality, and, before social media, in our quest for physical friendship we naturally gravitated towards those that look like us, calling them “safe” strangers due to our common attributes.
If the world’s view of strangers is fixed firmly on the foundation of fear, then what does the word of God have to say about it?
Let’s play devil’s advocate for a moment and attempt to justify this belief with God’s word. In the book of Joshua, God commands the Hebrew nation to cross the Jordan and completely destroy Jericho, man, woman, and child. Ouch, this doesn’t put talking to strangers in a positive light. We can’t get into this in depth, but I will say you cannot compare God’s relationship with the Hebrew people in the Old Testament and transpose it over our lives after Jesus Christ. God has chosen the seed of Abraham, who would become the Hebrews, to be His people, and that meant they would not have a normal existence. They would be held accountable for their actions and inactions, and they would be required to put God’s plan to save all people through the Messiah into motion. Securing the promise land, keeping the Hebrews safe from idolatry and demonic worship, and establishing a blood line to the Messiah all come into play here. We must also consider verse like Deuteronomy 10:19, when God tells this same group of people to “…love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” Fast forward to Acts 10 and we watch as the household of Cornelius, a Roman, is saved, and furthermore, receives the Holy Spirit without the laying of hands by the apostles or water baptism. It concludes in Acts 11:18 with “…even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.” I point this out to stress that God is not a nationalist. He is love and His love goes out to all people who will accept it and the truth that comes with it.
What about when Jesus says in Mark 10:18 that “No one is good but One, that is, God.” Maybe this is where the world gets their sound advice of not talking to strangers. On the other hand, I doubt the world takes any advice from this book, at least when taken in context and understood through the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. What this verse refers to is the undeniable fact that all men, and all women, have sin in their heart, meaning we all fall short of standing up to God’s perfect standards, the 10 commandments. All of us have lied, probably stolen something (don’t forget digital stuff), have cursed and used God’s name in vain, and have looked upon another person with lustful desire. Saved or not, this applies to everyone, it is universal. We all struggle with the temptation to satisfy self at the cost of others. Not one of us is “good” when compared to God’s standards. Not one of us is worthy to stand before Him apart from the work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
What About the Strangers?
Let’s get to it then, what does the Bible say about talking to strangers? Well, it says to talk to them, of course. It tells us to love them in Deuteronomy 10:19 and in Leviticus 19:34, to stand up for them in Job 29:16, that they have favor with God in Psalm 146:9, that we find favor with God when we love the stranger as in Matthew 25:35, to treat them with respect in Romans 12:13, to provide for them in Hebrews 13:3, and finally to treat them as your friend as found in 3 John 1:5.
God is not teaching us to live separated from this world, but it does tell us over and over again to “stand separate” from this world. Standing separate means standing for God in a world that is hostile to Him. This means we can go to the birthday party of a co-worker who is a non-believer, we can partake in a trivia night that is sponsored by a secular firm and is benefiting a secular not-for-profit, and yes, we can talk to people, make friends with people, and reach out to people who are not like us and who are outside of our faith. To drive this point home, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians that we should associate with people living in sin outside the faith, because if we did not, we’d have to leave this world in order to avoid it. In the next sentence he clarifies that it is our fellow believer living in open sin that we should not associate with. Did you catch that? The former is likely the stranger, the latter a friend.
The World’s Teachings vs. Biblical Teaching
How do we apply this for the benefit of the Kingdom? “Don’t talk to strangers” is usually targeted towards our children, then it is carried into adulthood, so let’s focus on our kids.
This is what we teach our kids
Say hello to people, especially to people that don’t look like you or dress like you, it is important.
Treat everyone with respect, especially people that don’t look like you or dress like you, it is important.
Don’t be afraid of people, especially people that don’t look like you or dress like you, it is important. Safety and common sense is also important, so we back these words up with biblical truth. We tell them that people, all people, have the potential for evil, and that all people want to serve their self-interests, needs, or desires, above another person’s loss or hurt, including their own parents. We tell them that technically they can’t trust anybody, and that they must think when they are around people, not to avoid them, but to love them while keeping themselves safe. If your children understand selfish desire and sin, and if they know Jesus Christ and why they need Him for salvation, then they can understand the human heart, use common sense, and keep themselves safe while not living in fear.
The world wants us to fear each other, and it wants us to live in fear. Have you watched the news lately? If we live in fear our distrust can in turn serve the darkness mightily. But if we live in love, grounded in the word of God, our distrust will turn into common sense and allow us to reject fear and stand firmly, with confidence, on the rock of God.
When they heard these things they became silent; and they glorified God, saying, “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life.”
Mark 10:18
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.
Deuteronomy 10:19
You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Leviticus 19:34
The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Job 29:15-17
I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy, and I championed the cause of the stranger. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made them drop their prey from their teeth.
Psalm146:9
The Lord watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.
Matthew 25:35
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
Romans 12:13
Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.
Hebrews 13:1-3
Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.
3 John 1:5
Beloved, you do faithfully whatever you do for the friends, even though they are strangers to you; they have testified to your love before the church. You do well to send them on in a manner worthy of God; for they began their journey for the sake of Christ, accepting no support from non-believers. Therefore, we ought to support such people, so that they may become co-workers with the truth.
