Haiti Needs Help and Prayer

January 15, 2010

The earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, caused me to think of Jesus’ words recorded in Matthew 24:3-7:

“And as he (Jesus) sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, ‘Tell us…what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?’ And Jesus…said unto them, ‘…nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers (various) places.’”

“The New York Times” printed this about the recent Haiti earthquake: “Survivors strained desperately on Wednesday against the chunks of concrete that buried this city along with thousands of its residents, rich and poor…And the poor who define this nation squatted in the streets, some hurt and bloody, many more without food and water, close to piles of covered corpses and rubble.”

Was the earthquake – Haiti’s worst in more than 200 years – one of those Jesus predicted, or was it a direct judgment on Haiti?

According to “Wikipedia,” Roman Catholicism is the official religion of Haiti, but voodoo may be considered the country's national religion. Most voodooists believe that their religion can coexist with Catholicism…The belief system of voodoo revolves around family spirits (often called “loua” or “mistè”) which are believed to be inherited through maternal and paternal lines.

Russell Goldman, reporting for ABC News, wrote, “Some 80 percent of Haitians are practicing Roman Catholics. But despite their Christian faith, half the country’s population practices voodoo, an Afro-Caribbean faith in which practitioners cast spells, conduct sacrifices, worship spirits and believe in zombies, according to statistics compiled by the CIA World Factbook. Increasingly, evangelical Protestant faiths, like Pentecostalism, which stress a locally popular belief in an ‘unseen spirit world,’ have taken hold.”

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, writes in his January 14 blog: “Haiti is well known for its history of religious syncretism – mixing elements of various faiths, including occult practices…Haiti's history is a catalog of political disasters…In one account of the nation's fight for independence from the French in the late 18th century, representatives of the nation are said to have made a pact with the Devil to throw off the French (in 1791). According to this account, the Haitians considered the French as Catholics and wanted to side with whomever would oppose the French. Thus, some would use that tradition to explain all that has marked the tragedy of Haitian history – including now the earthquake of January 12, 2010.”

Mohler says many point to the Haiti earthquake as a sign of God's direct judgment.

“God does judge the nations – all of them – and God will judge the nations,” Mohler says. “He rules over all the nations and his sovereign will is demonstrated in the rising and falling of nations and empires and peoples…

“God's rule over creation involves both direct and indirect acts, but his rule is constant. The universe, even after the consequences of the Fall, still demonstrates the character of God in all its dimensions, objects, and occurrences. And yet, we have no right to claim that we know why a disaster like the earthquake in Haiti happened at just that place and at just that moment.

“The arrogance of human presumption is a real and present danger. We can trace the effects of a drunk driver to a car accident, but we cannot trace the effects of voodoo to an earthquake – at least not so directly. Will God judge Haiti for its spiritual darkness? Of course. Is the judgment of God something we can claim to understand in this sense – in the present? No, we are not given that knowledge. Jesus himself warned his disciples against this kind of presumption.

“The earthquake in Haiti, like every other earthly disaster, reminds us that creation groans under the weight of sin and the judgment of God…The cross of Christ declares that Jesus loves Haiti…Christ would have us rush to aid the suffering people of Haiti, and rush to tell the Haitian people of his love, his cross, and salvation in his name alone.”

A Prayer: Father, many Haitians are “dirt poor.” The recent earthquake added misery to their lives. Help us respond to the Haitian people in the manner of prayerful Good Samaritans. Help us avoid judging them in their time of need. In Jesus’ name, amen.

When Hard Times Come

When things don’t go well for me, I sometimes recall words from “Hard Times Come Again No More.”

Stephen C. Foster wrote that folksong in 1854, and it was popular in its day in the U.S. and Europe.

Here is that song’s first verse:

“Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears / While we all sup sorrow with the poor / There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears / Oh, Hard Times, come again no more.”

Chorus: “Tis the song, the sigh of the weary / Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more / Many days you have lingered around my cabin door / Oh, Hard Times, come again no more.”

The “Collins English Dictionary” defines “hardship” as “conditions of life difficult to endure” and as “something that causes suffering or privation.” “Privation” is defined as “lack of basic necessities or comforts of life.”

Foster’s song and the definition of “hardship” seem to mainly describe physical or circumstantial difficulties, but spiritual, mental and emotional hardships are also hard to endure and are not easily separated from circumstances and physical trials.

Someone said, “Your body and soul live so close together that they catch each other’s diseases.”

I have heard people talk about feeling so down-and-out that they “had to reach up to touch bottom.” One person described a season of depression when he “felt lower than a snake’s belly.” “Hard times” come to us in various forms, and they come to us all. Someone said, “Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.”

Hardships are part of life.

“There is no success without hardship,” Sophocles said.

Frank A. Clark said, “If you can find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.”

“Adversity reminds men of religion,” Livy noted.

Evangelist Charles Spurgeon said, “Stars may be seen from the bottom of a deep well, when they cannot be discerned from the top of a mountain. So are many things learned in adversity which the prosperous man dreams not of.”

“It is not until we have passed through the furnace that we are made to know how much dross is in our composition,” said Colton.

What about this verse? “And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction…” (Isaiah 30: 20-21).

Does God “give” adversity?

Sir Francis Bacon commented on his perception of God’s way of dealing with people during Old Testament and New Testament times. Bacon said, “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament; adversity of the New, which carrieth the greater benediction and the clearer revelation of God’s favor. Prosperity is not without many fears and distastes; adversity not without many comforts and hopes.”

Writer Jeanne Guyon said, “Adversity and affliction are not easy for anyone of us; nevertheless, the good thing is that the Lord is with us and directing us not to get anxious, but get effective…If we faint in adversity, our strength will be small. We must abandon every voice in order to listen to His Word...To penetrate deeper in the experience of Jesus Christ, it is required that you begin to abandon your whole existence, giving it up to God.”

The Apostle Paul said, “We glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh (produces) patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Romans 5:3-4).

Joyce Meyer said, “No one enjoys going through difficult times, but when we’re in the middle of a crisis, it’s comforting to encounter someone who has had a similar experience and has survived…Even if no good comes from our crisis other than our ability to help others, we still might one day say going through it was worth it all.”

Here are the words to “Lord, When I Hurt Inside,” a song by my wife, Carol Crain:

“Lord, when I hurt inside, I often question why all this pain had to be part of my days.

“Then you take me by the hand and help me understand, because you love me, and I can trust your higher ways.

“Though I may never know the reasons or the whys, to You, Lord, I can go; on You I can rely.

“My memories You will heal. You have and always will give me strength, peace and joy and victory.”

Trust God during good times; trust God during hard times.

What Christmas Is

By Carol Crain

Christmas is not
A downhill sleigh ride.
For many,
It’s an uphill climb.

Christmas is not a
A sparkling fire in the fireplace.
For many,
It’s a cold, chilling time.

Christmas is not
A gathering of family and friends.
For many, it’s lonely days
That seem without end.

Christmas is not idyllic scenes
In a picture book.
For many, it’s memories
That cause a painful, inward look.

But we must remember all Christmas is…
Not dwell upon what it is not.
It’s a celebration of Jesus’ birth –
God’s gift to all that cannot be bought.

The Wise Men Worshipped Jesus

I’ve always been enchanted with the mysterious “wise men” who journeyed to see Jesus after he was born.

Many of us have probably sung that Christmas carol “We Three Kings.” John H. Hopkins, Jr. reportedly penned its words and melody in 1857. The verses of that song (but not the chorus) are in a minor key and sound “Jewish” or oriental.

That carol’s six-eight timing sort of plods along. When I hear its slow, rhythmic 1-2-3, 1-2-3 beat, I picture turban-wearing men wrapped in robes and sitting astride tired camels making slow progress across a sea of sand at nighttime. (I guess we assume the wise men traveled a lot at night, because Christmas card illustrations usually picture those fellows camel-jockeying under night skies.)

In 2004, the N.C. carpet manufacturing company I work for sent me to a carpet printing plant in Egypt. During my 11-day stay, our small group took a day off and visited pyramids near Cairo. Nearby vendors offered camel rides. My friends rode, but I’m a big guy, and when I saw the poor old beast picked to carry me, I declined. He was resting and chewing some green forage when his owner made him rise. As he got up, he stretched his bony and, what appeared to be, arthritic legs and let out a groan-bray that sounded like an agonizing cry for mercy. I didn’t have the heart to get on his humpback. (I didn’t want to be the big old “straw that broke the camel’s back.”) Getting up close to that camel made me sympathize with the wise men who followed the “star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright.”

We read about those wise men in Matthew 2:1-2:

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, ‘Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.’

“When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.”

“Christiananswers.net” provides the following information:

The term “wise men” is translated from the Latin word “magus” and the Greek word “magoi.” “Magi” is the plural of “magus.” The only mention of magi in the New Testament is in the story of Jesus Christ’s young life. The magi who searched for Jesus were a priestly caste of scholars. The only known Magian priests east of Palestine (at the time of Christ’s birth), were in ancient Media, Persia, Assyria, and Babylonia. There is no proof of what country these men came from.

The word “magic” is derived from the same root as “magi,” and magi are generally associated with occult studies. These magi seem different. There is no indication that they practiced sorcery or claimed magical powers. Their recorded conduct is sincere and worshipful. They appear to have researched the Old Testament and believed its prophecies about the Messiah. They apparently gained nothing material from their long journey.

The record does not say there were three wise men or that they were kings (and there’s no mention of camels, either); some assume they were three kings because of the number and types of gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh – brought to Jesus. The gifts reflected aspects of Christ's nature: gold to a king; myrrh to one who will die; and incense, as homage to God.

Some scholars say the magi found Jesus just after his birth or within 40 days of it. Others say the wise men found Jesus two or three years after his birth. Experts say Jesus was living in a house in Bethlehem, as a young child, when the magi brought gifts to him. (By the way, many believe Jesus was born in the autumn, during the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.)

Though we may not know all we would like to know about the wise men, the Bible clearly records this fact: they found Jesus.

King Herod sent the magi to Bethlehem, and “When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was.

“When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.

“And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him…” (Matthew 2:7-11).

A Christmas Letter to Martha Stewart

(Written by the author in 2002)

Dear Martha Stewart:

My wife recently received the December 2002 issue of your magazine, "Martha Stewart Living," and after leafing through its 324 pages of ads, cookie recipes and pictures of how-our-house-could-never-look, I want to express my concern.

The other day, my wife received a letter from a lady who wrote, "I am contemplating how to get through the Christmas holidays without a migraine like I had last year. I think I’ll have a personal Christmas early and pretend it’s not Christmas when it really comes."

Perhaps, Martha, in your well-meaning way, you are contributing to the kind of stress that lady feels. Most folk have enough to do during the Christmas season without wanting to be reminded that they could be busy making soap, creating pomegranate punch or stenciling holly leaf images on linen.

By the way, my wife has too many doodads sitting around already, and with my taste for minimalism, we have a recipe for domestic in-tranquility. (Here’s the recipe: Keep adding doodads to a small living room until someone is stirred to the boiling point.)

The singer Madonna has been labeled "the material girl," but I’m afraid, dear Martha, that she can’t hold a candle—and that would be a handmade candle, of course—to you, when it comes to materialism. And that’s not a good thing.

In your magazine, you included an article entitled "A Letter from Martha."

"Well," I thought, "maybe the handmaiden of handicrafts has written a little story, telling of some happy childhood Christmas experience."

But no.

You wrote: "This year we are launching our beloved, gigantic collection of holiday decorations from Martha Stewart Everyday…Now everyone can have ‘vintage’ ornaments, unusual tree lights, color-coordinated trees, fantastic wreaths and candles, and much more. I urge you to take a peek."

Sorry, Martha, I won’t be peeking. We have plenty of "vintage" Christmas stuff cluttering our closets already.

I suggest that you throw a bit of Thoreau in amongst whatever, besides cookbooks, that you read. Henry David Thoreau once said, "A man is rich in proportion to the things he can do without."

Think on that, Martha, while you are basting a turkey, rooting around for rutabagas or creating collectibles.

Actually, I believe that you have many fine qualities, but you remind me of another Martha.

It seems that Jesus – the one this Christmas holiday honors – was acquainted with two sisters named Mary and Martha.

Martha invited Jesus and his disciples to dinner at her and her sister’s home, and when the men arrived, Martha rushed into action in the kitchen, preparing and serving. But when she noticed that her sister Mary was sitting and listening to Jesus, she said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me."

No doubt Martha was the worrying type. Perhaps she was the older sister and wanted to whip up a Martha Stewart-type dinner with everything just perfect for the Lord. If they had been blessed with TV back in those days, perhaps Sister Martha would have been glued to the Martha Stewart "From the Kitchen" program every time it aired. Maybe Martha had often told Mary, "Busy hands are happy hands." Perhaps Martha equated busyness with godliness.

Anyway, when she confronted Jesus with Mary’s seeming negligence of duty, Martha may have thought Jesus would put a guilt trip on Mary and get her moving.

But Jesus said, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things…Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her."

So, dear Martha Stewart, though you are creative and industrious, lay aside your spatula and mixing bowl for a little quiet time before you get all whipped into a frenzy during this wondrous time of year.

Remembering Thanksgiving Time

“I was just a little fellow,” my Uncle Fred said, as he recently described Thanksgivings he experienced at the home of his paternal grandparents, Ben and Lola Dill Crain.

Fred E. Crain, who lives in Greer, S.C., and was born in 1925, recalled his father and mother, Carl and Lillian, driving their car a short distance to Grandpa Ben’s white frame house on Thanksgiving Days. Fred and his older brother, Jesse Benjamin (J.B.), sat in the backseat. Ben Crain’s 52-acre farm in Greenville County, S.C., lay between Hwy. 253 and Groce Meadow Road, a few acres south of where those roads converge and the late Ralph Fowler’s store once stood.

“Grandma had cooked pies and stacked them on top of one another,” Fred said.

Ben and Lola had these children (listed in birth order and with spouses): Carl (Lillian Parker), Claude (Gertie Paige), Jay (Nell Willis), Jim (Gertrude Pearson), Theron (Veltra Hightower) and Hazel (Ernest Ramey).

Carl usually took his two beagles to the get-togethers. On Thanksgiving Day around 9:00 a.m. in those days, Ben and his five sons took shotguns and traipsed from the barn, which stood near the house and on the northern end of Ben’s property, across gray fields to hunt rabbits. Fred, J.B. and their cousins played and occasionally heard beagles barking and the sound of a shotgun, as the men crossed fields and walked the woods at the far end of Ben’s farm. The ladies prepared food while the men fellowshipped. The children played under pecan and cottonwood trees or near the barn and pasture or on the porch-with-banisters that wrapped around a large portion of two sides of Grandpa Ben’s house.

“There was a bunch of us boys and girls,” Fred said. “There was no electricity in our area at that time. I was about eight or ten when electricity came to our house.”

Fred’s grandmother prepared food ahead of time, but on Thanksgiving Day, she cooked a chicken pie to go with green beans, mashed potatoes, dressing, bread…cake, and pumpkin and potato pies.

“She’d make a big chicken pie laid out in a dishpan,” Fred said. He explained chicken dumplings and chicken pie: “To make dumplings, you roll up little balls of dough and drop them in boiling water with the chicken. For chicken pie, you roll flat pieces of dough and lay that across the chicken. There’d be some dumplings in the chicken pie, but there’s not as much chicken in dumplings as in chicken pie.”

Around noon, the men returned from hunting (Grandpa Ben often returned earlier, Fred said), and they’d usually have some rabbits, which they saved for later meals.
For the Thanksgiving dinner, the men gathered around a large table. Ben and Lola were Christians and members of Double Springs Baptist. (Ben’s daddy, John, had been a Baptist preacher.) Ben or one of the sons asked a blessing. The men and perhaps a few ladies ate first, but most of the women and children waited for “second shift.”

“Us kids would look through the dining room window,” Fred said. “It seemed like it took them a long time to eat. Children had to wait, back then. You might not get as much chicken pie as you wanted.”

Fred said about his early perception of Thanksgiving: “I knew it was a day of family getting together for a big dinner, a time of giving thanks to the Lord for all he’d done for you and for all the bounty.”

The first American Thanksgiving was celebrated in 1621, to honor the harvest reaped by the Plymouth Colony after a harsh winter, sources say. Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving, and colonists invited local Wampanoag Indians. All 13 colonies didn’t observe Thanksgiving at the same time until October 1777. President George Washington declared the holiday in 1789. By the mid–1800s, many states observed a Thanksgiving holiday. The poet and editor Sarah J. Hale lobbied for a national Thanksgiving holiday and discussed the subject with President Abraham Lincoln. In 1863, in his Thanksgiving Proclamation, Lincoln declared the last Thursday in November a day of thanksgiving. In 1939, 1940, and 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt, wanting a longer Christmas shopping season, set Thanksgiving as the third Thursday in November. Controversy followed, and Congress passed a resolution in 1941, decreeing that
Thanksgiving fall on the fourth Thursday of November.

I thank God for America’s Thanksgiving Day holiday. May we all remember Psalm 136:1: “O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.”

When the 'Good' Are Not Godly

“‘Good’ people can often be ungodly,” a radio preacher said recently over the airwaves as I prepared to head to work.

I thought about those words as I drove to the carpet manufacturing mill where I earn a living. Psalm 1 describes godly and ungodly people:

“Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

“But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

"And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

“The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

“Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

“For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.”

Some of us may think ungodly folk are only those people who exhibit evident sinful lifestyles. There are, however, plenty of “good” ungodly people. They don’t beat wives, “run around on” husbands, abuse children, steal, lie and curse. Some “good” ungodly people may hold to higher personal standards than many Christians maintain. But “good” people are ungodly if they have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior. Christ makes a person righteous (the righteous have “right standing” with God) when that person believes in Christ as Savior, repents for his sins and commits to follow Christ. One cannot earn his way to heaven by being “good”; therefore, a “good” person is ungodly if he places his faith in his personal goodness rather than in the grace of Christ. “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

“Some people are better by nature than others are by grace,” someone said. A person born with a gentle nature might appear to be a Christian but may not have given his life to Christ. Perhaps such a person learned to “go along to get along.” Maybe he quietly participates in the predominant ethic of the culture he lives in so he can more easily live his own “self life.”

I feel sad to hear someone say about a family, “Well, they’re not Christians, but they are good people.” The person commenting may mean this: “Good people don’t bother anybody. We need to visit jails to convert bad people and go to the streets to find drug addicts. Those people need to be saved. They hurt our society. They break into our houses and steal jewelry, gun collections and TV sets! Good people don’t bother me.” The statement “They’re not Christians, but they are good people” hints that the one making that declaration may be buying into the lie that doing good deeds will earn someone a place in heaven. Christ died for the down-and-out and the up-out-out. We all need a Savior. Who is “good,” anyway? Jesus said, “None is good, save one, that is, God” (Luke 18:19).

I am glad that Christians visit jails and help drug addicts, but good people who don’t know Christ are just as lost as murderers, addicts, pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers who don’t know Christ. Good people who accept Christ may not have to deal with breaking the same kinds of habits that bad people do when they convert, but non-Christian “good” people are often in bondage to self-reliance, self-indulgence and unbelief in the same ways “bad” people are.

Remember the story Jesus told about a rich man? That wealthy man boasted, “And I will say to my soul, ‘Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God” (Luke 12:19-21).

In Jesus’ story, the rich man was probably a “good” but ungodly person. Though he “succeeded” in this world, he neglected to prepare for eternity.

“For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God” (John 3:17-18).
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2009 11 07: a response to the above article by Father Tom Parsons, an Anglican priest in North Carolina:

The trick here is to define "good." Remember, Jesus told the man, who called Jesus good, that only God the Father is good. The Bible, in most cases, is speaking of righteousness when the word "good" is used. Righteousness, according to St. Paul, is an imputed quality based upon faith. "Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness." Faith and righteousness are connected for Christians. "Good" is a worldly concept which should be recognized but not confused with "righteousness" before God. A person may be "good" and his goodness be of value to society and still not be righteous before God. As in most cases, faith is the key.  --Fr. Tom