Category Archives: Christian World View

 

 

James Bain was smiling.

It was a weary but broad smile. It was a smile of relief. He was going home. James Bain was a free man. And the national media was present in Florida to record the event.

In 1974, when he was 19 years old, Bain was convicted for the kidnapping and rape of a nine-year old boy. He was sentenced to life in prison. After serving 35 years behind bars, Bain, now gray-haired and balding, was cleared by DNA evidence. He was 54. Tests showed that he could not possibly have committed the crime.

A judge set him free.

Criminal records revealed that Mr. Bain had served longer in prison than any of the 246 prison inmates previously cleared by DNA evidence. In 1974, DNA testing didn’t exist. Neither did cell phones. So Bain made his first-ever cell phone call upon his release. He called his 77- year old mother to let her know that he was free and that he would see her soon.

One might wonder what went through James Bain’s mind when he first learned that he would go free — or through his heart. Thirty-five years is a long time to sit in prison for a crime you didn’t commit. It’s a big chunk of life. James Bain went to prison as a teenager the year that Richard Nixon resigned as president. Elvis Pressley was still alive. Bain left prison, seven presidents later, as a middle-aged man eligible for membership in the AARP.

James Bain spent three and a half decades of his life in prison as an innocent man.

The American justice system said he had done it. James Bain knew he hadn’t. A court said he was wrong. He knew he was right.

Bain had plenty of time to think –and to feel. He had plenty of time to become bitter and angry and resentful. He had plenty of time to wallow deeply in despair and self-pity. If anyone could claim to be an authentic victim of injustice, it was James Bain. If anyone had the right to be filled with anger it was this man.

As the reporters gathered around him as he walked through the doors of the dark prison into the bright sunshine of freedom, they asked Bain how he felt, what he thought. He smiled and shook his head. “I’m not angry”, he said quietly, “Because I’ve got God.”

Faith makes a difference in every person’s life. For James Bain, faith in God made all the difference.

I don’t know if Bain ever read a Bible during those 35 long years. But if he did, perhaps he came across Psalm 31:7:

“I will be glad in your unfailing love, for you have seen my troubles, and you care about the anguish of my soul.” [NLT, emphasis added].

God knew James Bain was innocent. And God cared.

Maybe Bain read what Peter wrote about Jesus and his suffering:

“He never sinned, nor ever deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly.” [I Peter 2:22-23, NLT].

Jesus, who has been touched fully by the feelings of our own infirmities – who knows our hurts and disappointments; our grief and our sorrows, has left us his example. There is nothing theoretical about anything Our Lord tells us to do.

He has been through it all himself.

When James Bain sat in that prison cell – day after day, week after week and month after month – Jesus was there with him, knowing, understanding and comforting. And when the months turned into long years, Jesus never left James; Jesus never got bored or tired or distracted.

When James cried Jesus wept with him.

One of the most difficult things in the whole world is to suffer injustice quietly. It’s in our nature to lash out, to retaliate, to jump to our own defense and to want to even the score.

We struggle mightily sometimes with our vengeful spirits, fueled by pride and a demand for our own justice.

Jesus would have none of it. The Maker and Ruler of the universe stood in silence before his puny and strutting accusers. The Spirit he displayed is the One he has given us; the Spirit who fills and animates us and wants to control us.

He who had done no wrong “left his case in the hands of God”

That’s where we must leave ours.

It’s likely that no one reading this will ever spend 35 years in prison for something he didn’t do. But perhaps you sometimes feel mistreated, misunderstood or all alone. Maybe you figure there’s no one who sees or appreciates the anguish you’re going through. Maybe you’re living in a private prison that is unknown to anyone but you.

God cares about the anguish of your soul. He knows your heartache and discouragement. He loves you and will go with you through your anguish. He will comfort you. In Jesus, God experienced the suffering of injustice. Leave your case in his hands. God always judges fairly.

He will set you free.

May God bless you and your family.

“We do not want to see more killing and destruction”.

Aya Ridwa is 25 years old and a student. She lives in Gaza.

The nation of Israel has been bombing Gaza for over a week. Nearly two hundred Palestinians have died in these Israeli airstrikes. Israel has repeatedly warned civilians in the region to evacuate. Unlike the army in Iraq, Israel has no doubt about what it is doing or why. Nor is there any question in anyone’s mind about Israel’s superb military capability or the country’s willingness to use it to defend itself.

This has always been true of the brave little nation that sits in the crosshairs of the Middle East surrounded by its enemies.

One critic described Israel’s assault upon the militant group Hamas as “shooting fish in a barrel”.

But Hamas, which governs Gaza, has been bombing Israel, hiding its weapons among civilian populations, even in mosques, and has rejected an Egyptian-sponsored cease-fire that Israel accepted. If the kid on the playground who is pummeling you bloody offers to stop, why in the world would you say no? And if you picked the fight in the first place, what in the world would you expect?

Israel has never lost a war since it became a state in 1948.

It is a peace-loving nation but it is no pacifist. It has no hair trigger but it does have a steady aim. Israel has always understood its constant danger, living as a sheep among ravenous wolves. It’s been well-armed and ready throughout its history – a history that teaches that religious-based differences among nations are the most threatening.

Nowhere on earth has this been truer for thousands of years than in the Mideast. Once again the region is boiling. And with each conflict – whether in Syria, Libya, Iraq or Israel – the world edges closer to Armageddon.

The Middle East is the geopolitical storm center of the twenty-first century. Israel is its eye. That’s because Israel remains in someone else’s eye.

“For the people of Israel belong to the Lord,” Moses sang.“Jacob is his special possession” (Deuteronomy 32: 9, New Living Translation).

God found the Jewish people “in a desert land, in an empty, howling wasteland. He surrounded them and watched over them; he guarded them …” (vs. 10, NLT).

God “surrounded” Israel. He still does.

God “watched over” Israel. He still does.

God “guarded” Israel. Today he still does.

God keeps Israel – even now – “as the apple of his eye” (vs. 10, King James Version, emphasis added).

There are those, including many evangelical theologians and leaders, who argue otherwise. They subscribe to what is called Replacement Theology (or Supersessionism) – the belief that since Christ came to inaugurate a New Covenant, Israel has ceased to be God’s chosen people, replaced – and superseded – instead by the Church. Christian believers are indeed the beneficiaries of God’s promises to Abraham, “blessed with faithful Abraham” through faith in Jesus Christ (Galatians 3:9, KJV). Abraham, because of his faith in God, “is the father of us all” (Romans 4:16, KJV).

As followers of Jesus, you and I are “heirs according to the promise” made to the patriarch (Galatians 3:29, KJV). We too are God’s children and his chosen people. We too enter into covenant relationship with him by faith. Nothing that God has done through Christ in his church has changed God’s special relationship with the people he chose for his very own so long ago.

God still has a plan for Israel. God still loves Israel. God still protects Israel. This is as crystal clear and as relevant as tomorrow’s headlines. Watch and see if it is not so. While we must pray for peace and love all people everywhere, including those in Arab lands, God’s prophetic purpose continues to unfold. God will never abandon Israel and woe to those who would assail her, for “he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye” (Zechariah 2:8, KJV, emphasis added).

Why?

What made Israel so special as to be chosen by the almighty Creator of the universe to enter into particular covenant relationship with him? Moses explained it to the people:

“The Lord did not set his heart upon you and choose you because you were more numerous than other nations, for you were the smallest of all nations! Rather, it was simply that the Lord loves you …” (Deuteronomy 7:7-8, NLT).

This is God’s sovereign and gracious choice.

“For you are a holy people, who belong to the Lord your God. Of all the people on earth, the Lord your God has chosen you to be his special treasure” (vs. 6, NLT, emphasis added).

What was – and continues to be – true of Israel is also true of you and of me and of all those who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ. We are, writes Peter, “a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people …” (I Peter 2:9, KJV).

You too are the apple of his eye.

Why? It’s “simply that the Lord loves you”.