On Shirley Phelps Roper and the Westboro Baptist Church - Part 2

So... I still haven't received a response from Westboro Baptist Church, so I'm sending an angry letter demanding that they write back.
... Not really, but I am sending them another letter. So here it is.

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Hello, Mrs. Roper.

It's Michael again. It's been a while since I sent the letter I co-wrote with my cousin Eddie, and I was just wondering if you planned on replying to it, or if you already have and I just missed it. In case you don't know what letter I'm referring to, you can find it here on my blog.

Anyway, that is not the only reason I am writing to you today. I was reading the book of Luke last night when I came across verse 10 of chapter 8: "He said, 'The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand."'"

Here's something to think about: Why did Jesus come into the world as a man? Wasn't it to die on the cross as a Sacrifice for our sins? I'm sure you know that crucifixion was the worst punishment that could be given in the physical world in Jesus' time. And you know it was reserved for the lowest of the low, like the two men who hung beside our Lord. That is why Jesus had to speak to the Pharisees in parables: so that they would not believe that He was (and is) the Messiah and so that they would have Him killed, fulfilling the Messianic prophecies of the Old Testament. That is also why He came as the Son of a virgin and a poor carpenter rather than as the Son of a king.

Jesus hid His true identity from the Pharisees so that He would be killed at the proper time and thus be able to serve as the Ultimate Sacrifice for the sins of the world. He had a purpose for denying the Pharisees access to the Tree of Life. That is why it's written, "The Lord works out everything for His own ends—even the wicked for a day of disaster" (Proverbs 16:4), and, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). If He had revealed to the whole world that He was the Christ, then He would not have been sacrificed and we would not have redemption. The whole reason for the existence of the Pharisees and Sadducees was to have Jesus crucified, proving themselves to be sons of the devil and not of God, separating them from their Creator.

Stick with me here. Up until now, it has sounded like I'm agreeing with your stance in declaring mankind's sins in order to turn them off to the idea of following Christ to eternal life. Sorry to disappoint you, but that is not the case. Ecclesiastes 3, verses 3 and 8 say that there is "a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build" and "a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace." Jesus' time was a time of war. Spiritual war, that is. Being God, it was up to Jesus to harden the hearts of the Pharisees so that His purpose could be fulfilled. He knew the reason and the outcome of His obscure words and actions. But we are only human. Our time is a time of love, of peace, and of building others up. There is no way for us to know for sure if we are interacting with an open-minded individual or with one with a hardened heart. So we should assume that everyone we come in contact with is open-minded, so that, if the assumption is correct, they might turn their lives over to Christ and be saved.

The Bible says that there will be 144,000 sealed Jews in heaven. It only specifies the number of sealed Jews. It does not state the number of Gentiles who will reach heaven. Only God knows that number. There are some things the Father withholds from the Son. Our goal should be to surprise the Son with one more believer than He is expecting. (Not that that is really possible.) Our job is to set the bar high; believe that God has prepared room for such a multitude of believers that the earth could not contain them all, even if they were to stand nose-to-spine, shoulder-to-shoulder, one on top of the other. Imagine that, if the believers stood on each other's shoulders, starting at the earth's core, several layers of them would be suffocating outside of the earth's atmosphere. We exist to add to the current number until we fill heaven to the capacity God has designed it for.

I'd like to know something: If you believe that the only way to redemption is to repent, why do you celebrate when pornography gains support, when states and countries legalize gay marriage, when murder runs rampant all over the world? Shouldn't you be out protesting those things rather than celebrating them and protesting funerals? Speaking of which, if your message is for the living, why do you protest funerals? It's not going to do that dead guy much good. Don't you know the proverbs, "He who mocks the poor shows contempt for their Maker; whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished" (Proverbs 17:5), and, "Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice, for the Lord will see and disapprove and turn His wrath away from him" (Proverbs 24:17-18)? These people need to be reached in a gentle, loving way. I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure protesting the funeral of a loved one would only anger people. It's a very rare case when someone actually turns because of such a bold action.

I beg you to reevaluate your actions and the message of the Gospel. You have such a God-given opportunity to share the Good News with the world. Use your publicity to share God's love with the spiritually needy. Such a radical change could shake the media world-wide. In fact, I believe that such a change would be more effective in expanding the kingdom of heaven than any of us could ever imagine.

I'm sure you've heard about the apostle Paul, but allow me to reacquaint you with his story, because it still amazes me every time I hear it. Saul of Tarsus was a devout Jew, a Pharisee. For a time, his purpose in life was to decimate the cult of the Christ-followers. Then, one day Jesus revealed Himself to Saul from heaven. Saul was blinded until Ananias, a servant of the Lord, healed him. Filled with the Holy Spirit, Saul became Paul and turned his life around. He went from being the fiercest persecutor of Christians to being the strongest advocate of the faith. That is nothing short of a miracle.

While giving his testimony to King Agrippa after being arrested yet again, Paul repeats what Jesus Himself said to him on the road to Damascus: "I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me" (Acts 26:17-18). "To open their eyes"—not to blind them. To make them see what we see: God's love and mercy, His grace, and an opportunity to spend eternity with Him. "So that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in Me"—you have to admit that this passage explains itself. If God sent the apostle Paul to open the eyes of the spiritually blind, then that should be our calling as well because we are Christ's ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20), just like Paul.

In the same chapter of 2 Corinthians, Paul writes, "All this is from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And He has committed to us the message of reconciliation." "[He] gave us the ministry of reconciliation"—our message is one of redemption. We are to tell the world that by taking up the cross and following Christ, they can be saved. Of course, we shouldn't forget what we are being saved from, but the focus of the message is salvation, redemption, reconciliation. In marriage, when you have a fight with your spouse, you later go back and apologize and leave the whole thing behind. In a good marriage, you won't constantly remind your spouse why you got in that fight in the first place. You let your spouse remember on his or her own so that he or she will learn from the mistake. God doesn't throw our sins back in our faces after He has forgiven us. He forgives and forgets, never to bring up the sin again unless we do it ourselves. And He gives forgiveness freely to anyone who asks for it. James says that He gives wisdom to those who ask for it (James 1:5), and the same goes for forgiveness.

Thank you again for taking the time to read my rambling. Again, I ask that you show me the same respect that I showed you in my letter. Nothing more, nothing less.

Thanks for reading, and God bless!

Michael

---"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." ~ 2 Corinthians 4:18---

And there was evening, and there was morning—the eighth day.

We all know the story of Creation in Genesis 1. God spoke, and the heavens and the earth were formed, light came into existence, the oceans and the sky were separated, dry land formed in the water, plants and animals appeared on the earth, and God made man in His own image. That was Day One through Day Six. But what about the seventh day?

The Bible says in Genesis 2:1-2, "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so on the seventh day He rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done." "He rested"—GOD took a break. Have you ever wondered why?

Why are there seven days in a week? You could say it's because God rested on the seventh day, and you'd be right, according to the words of Moses, who is believed to have been the author of Genesis. But really: Why are there seven days in a week instead of six? Why did God rest on the seventh day and leave it at that? Why did He bless the seventh day and not any of the others? Why isn't there an eighth day, and a ninth, and a tenth?

The truth is, God only rested from creating matter on the seventh day. Rather than continuing making things, God made time. He made a seventh day. And He made it for a reason.

Psalm 118:24 says, "This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." And Genesis 2:2a says, "And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy." He didn't need a break. After all, He's God, the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the Lord Almighty, Creator of the universe. He could have stopped at Day Six and then rested for the next six days, giving us six-day weeks instead of seven. He didn't have to bless the seventh day. But He did.

See, God knew that Adam and Eve would rebel against Him in the Garden of Eden. He knew the world would turn away from Him. He knew that He would have to make a fresh start by drowning the entire world except for His faithful servant Noah (and his family). He knew He would have to send His Son to die for the sins of mankind. He knew the world would hate Jesus and have Him killed. He knew man would invent religion after religion to turn others away from Him. He knew that one day He would return to bring His people home to Him. He knew that not all of mankind would follow Him and be able to live with Him in heaven for eternity.

And He knew we would need a break. He knew that after five or six straight days of hard work, we would need a day of rest. So He blessed the seventh day. Not for His sake, but for ours. Jesus says in Mark 2:27, "The Sabbath was made for man."

But He doesn't stop there. He goes on to say in verse 28, "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." The seventh day, the day of rest, didn't come into existence on its own just so we could have a break from a long six days of work. God made it for us. We should be thankful. God took us into consideration before we even existed. Before the world even existed. He had a plan for us, and He included our well-being in that plan.

I write all of this because today is Sunday. Today is Sunday, and I was in a bad mood earlier. I started thinking, "I need to cheer up so I don't bring anyone down at band practice tomorrow." Then I realized that today is the Lord's day. If I should be joyful on an ordinary weekday, how much more joyful should I be on the day the Lord blessed for me? Each and every day is a new creation. I should be thankful that God has given me another 24 hours of breath in my lungs, especially if those 24 hours happen to have been blessed for my sake.

So whether you celebrate the Sabbath on Saturday or Sunday, I want to challenge you to do something. And this is a challenge for myself as well: Every Sabbath, put everything aside. Take a break from the hardships of life. Clear your mind of everything. Everything but God. The Sabbath is the Lord's blessed, holy day. Treat it as such. God made the Sabbath for a reason: it's a day of rest and a day for us to worship our Maker. So make it useful.

The Creator of the universe had us in mind in the beginning. Thank God!

Until next time, God bless!

Michael

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"I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing." ~ 1 Timothy 2:8

"I eagerly expect and hope that I will in no way be ashamed, but will have sufficient courage so that now as always Christ will be exalted in my body, whether by life or by death. For to live is Christ and to die is gain." ~ Philippians 1:20-21