February 22, 2023
In February of 2011, I was on my way to Pennsylvania via commercial airlines to visit my mother. My mother, who carried me full term, brought me into this world, nursed me, changed my diapers, (and no, I don’t remember!) and otherwise cared for me, was soon to complete her journey here in this life. My brother Leroy had called. I was scheduled to fly out for Africa this same week. Leroy didn’t want to tell me what to do. After all, none of us know for sure when ... I struggled to know what to do ... no one could tell me ... so I canceled. And rescheduled. Now I was traveling to Pennsylvania instead of to Africa. Two weeks later, my mother passed on ... had I gone, I would have been in Africa ... I was, and am, thankful ...
Seated next to me was a young lady who informed me she was an exchange student attending college here in America. From India. “Oh, India, isn’t that where the Hindu religion is the religion most believe in and live by?” Yes, she informed me, she herself was raised Hindu, she was on her way back home to visit her family, all of them still Hindu as far as she knows. She had my attention. I had heard and read bits and pieces about Hinduism and had a cobbled-together knowledge about it, but had never spoken to a Hindu or anyone from that background. So I asked some questions, and she talked. The myriad gods of Hinduism has puzzled me. How can there be so many? But as she talked, I got the picture. Everyone wants a god to support their lifestyle, their occupation. So Hinduism supplies that desire. With a god for every lifestyle, for every occupation. There are, of course, some confining laws, but for the most part, there is a god to fit every circumstance, every job, gods to fit into people’s desires. She assured me that I was getting the right picture.
She had learned about Christianity, but seemed somewhat confused. So I asked her if I may tell her about my religion and my God? She agreed. So as we traveled the skies I talked of our Father God, about His sending His Son Jesus, who is the express image of God. How God shows us our sin. How Jesus is our salvation. How He is the Way. How He is the Truth. How He is the Life. As I talked I was aware that I spoke of our God the Father and of Jesus Christ Whom He has sent as recorded in The Holy Bible, The Word of God. She was obviously interested and impressed by this Jesus of Holy Scripture. I was also painfully aware, even as I spoke, that Jesus, perhaps especially so in America, is often misrepresented. Sometimes by those of us who fail, sometimes by those who claim His name but openly and defiantly disobey His Word and sometimes ... by those who are deceived by other gods. So I spoke again. This time to encourage her to listen to, and go by, our Jesus of the Bible. To keep her attention there because people, through failure, through defiance, or through deception may be a misrepresentation of the real Jesus. In America, as well as in India, she may very well encounter many gods. The difference is that in America, these many gods may be called “jesus.” Make sure the Jesus you listen to is the same Spirit as our Jesus of the Bible, the Word of God.
We parted ways then, and I was left with my thoughts, thoughts about Jesus, about God, and His Word. And thoughts about other gods. Since then these “other gods” have taken on forms of their own in the concerned part of my brain and I wish to expose them in the coming weeks. Not because none of you out there are “in the know” but only because I wish to bring Truth to bear upon the deception of these “other gods” and because of the devastating influence of these gods of the mind in the learning institutions, the culture, the social life, and the governing of this great country we have been, and are still, pleased to dwell in. This country whose founding principles were majorly influenced by God’s Word.
Life Matters!