Keith’s Blog

Well, in an ironic twist I am laid up for a couple of weeks with my foot propped up. Is this from God or the devil? The answer is from both. If you don’t understand see the first few chapters of the Book of Job.

Here I sit on the couch with my Bible, my phone, my laptop, the TV remote and a few movies. After watching a couple of action movies I picked up my computer and started you tubing Christian songs. After all it is Wednesday and I should be at church. Since I am a multi tasker I usually watch 2-4 movies at the same time to avoid commercials, or is it because I am a man?. I decided to mute the sound on Rambo, First Blood II and listen to Christian songs on my laptop. Of course I took the mute off for the classic scenes to hear the full affect of Rambo’s mission.

Ironically I was listening to the song “It is finished” at the end of the movie. This is the scene where Rambo lands the broken helicopter, full of the POW’s that he had found, at the American base, grabbed a machine gun and headed in the building after the politician, Murdoch. Had I not already seen the movie what seems like twenty times, I would have thought his intent was to kill Murdoch for leaving him stranded. After shooting up all the computers Rambo slammed Murdoch on the table, pulled out his knife and drove it into the table next to Murdoch’s head, then whispered the words, “Mission accomplished.” If you have had any exposure to the Koine Greek language of the New Testament you will know where my mind went.  

I had just been listening to the Christian group sing “It is Finished,” which is about Jesus beating Satan and reconciling mankind back to God on the cross. I muted the laptop playing “It is Finished” and un- muted the TV to hear an action hero say the same thing, “mission accomplished.” I love how God speaks through anything if you are listening. On the cross, Jesus’ mission was accomplished. The price was paid in full, and this was not some fictiona,l made up story. This is the supreme objective from my Commander in Chief, my King of Kings, my Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ.

Because He finished, I continue. Because He started, I can’t stop.  This is real. This is done. Our mission is to tell the world that we may be in a battle, but the victory was won a couple of millenniums ago. Scratch that, the victory was won before the world began. Revelation 13:8

I was awake for a while in the middle of the night last night and a line from a song kept running through my head. “Blessed be your name, when the world’s all as it should be, when there’s pain in the offering, blessed be your name.” Yesterday I had a lithotripsy procedure at Ft Sanders Hospital to speed up the process of passing a kidney stone. Needless to say there was pain both before and after the procedure that I am sure will continue for a few days. I don’t want to go into the gory details, but I now feel like I am mining for gold. If you have ever had this procedure, you know what I am talking about. While I was awake I spent a lot of time praying for our church and thought about how many people have influenced my life through the years and how many I have had an influence on.

I have witnessed a lot of pain through the years at the bedside of many saints. Many of them have already gone home to heaven. Many of them had to endure the horrific pain of cancer and other diseases. The ones who were Christians had an unspeakable joy even in the midst of their pain. This is a promise that Jesus made His followers. “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” John 15:11. Real Christian joy cannot be taken away, even by excruciating pain.

All of these thoughts ultimately took me to the cross of Christ. Jesus not only took our sin upon Himself on the cross (Isaiah 53), He became our sin on the cross. “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Usually when I think of the cross, I only think of the pain that was inflicted on my Savior by the beating, the crown of thorns, the gangrene, the nails, and the asphyxiation of the weight of the sin that was laid on His shoulders.  But last night I could not help but think that all sickness came after the fall of man. Before the fall, there was no sickness or disease in the garden. After the fall came death and disease. Although it is not a sin to be sick, sickness came about by sin. Therefore sickness is sin. Not sin that we commit, even though the Bible teaches that some sickness is the result of sin. “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy mannereats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’sbody.  For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep” 1 Corinthians 11:29-30. But too many times good people become sick, even deathly sick simply because we live in a fallen, corrupt world. I am not going to get into why bad things happen to good people or vice versa. Many other people have already explained that. I do want us to understand the immense pain that Jesus was going through when He was on the cross.

The conditions of the cross were bad enough, but can you  imagine the pain of every migraine, broken bone, cancer, kidney stone, stomach ache and every other deathly pain added to what was already unbearable? Jesus took all of this on because He loved you. If that is not love, love does not exist. But it is love and He does exist. Hallelujah, what a SAVIOR!

I can’t bear the thought of putting the Lamb of God, the baby of the manger, the man of peace through this amount of pain, but I am so grateful that He did this for me without even telling me He was going to, or asking my permission. Tears well up when I think of what Jesus endured for me and you. “Blessed be your name, when there’s pain in the offering…blessed be your name, Jesus.