Inner Beast

Every week the news gets more grim. What’s going on in America?

“Sunday School Teacher Abducts, Abuses and Murders Daughter’s Friend.” “Medical Student Robs and Kills Women.” “Murder-Suicide Discovered in Maryland Hotel.”

Troubling headlines like these make us doubt the goodness of humankind. Until these events, the alleged perpetrators seemed normal to many of their friends. What’s wrong with people?

What’s wrong is human nature! If we’re honest with ourselves, we must all admit that we have an “inner beast” whose bent is evil and not good.

“Now hold on for just a minute! Aren’t most people basically good at heart?”

Many people think so, but the evidence is quite to the contrary. And if we ignore the obvious we do ourselves a disservice. As author Joel C. Rosenberg observes, “To misunderstand the nature and threat of evil is to risk being blindsided by it.”

In “The Heavy Bear Who Goes With Me,” poet Delmore Schwartz implies that being human has a beastly side to it. The poem shows us a violent and unflattering picture of humanity.

The “Heavy Bear” represents both our bodies and the uncivilized primitive core of the human personality. It is the “id” of Freud, the “unconscious mind” of psychologists and the hard-to-control brute within each one of us. And it is always with us.

Saints and poets through the ages have chronicled the endless struggle between the flesh and the spirit. And nowhere in modern verse has this struggle been portrayed with greater power than it is in “The Heavy Bear.”

The amazing message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is that God can tame your “inner beast.” But not everyone wants to be tamed. Why? Because there is a frightening, intoxicating exhilaration to venting our rage and indulging our evil side.

Now go back and read the headlines above. Ponder the damage and destruction wrought by human wrath. Think of the lives and property ruined every year.

The inner beast needs taming. But how?

Lasting inner peace is the solution. And that peace has only one source--God.

The Apostle Paul writes in the Bible, “We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And once you have peace WITH God he adds, “The peace OF God…will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Paul knew whereof he spoke. He was a former religious zealot and a murderer of Christians (by his own admission). But then he became a compassionate evangelist following a personal encounter with the risen Christ. And he was not alone.

After warning Christians, “the wicked will not inherit the Kingdom of God,” Paul adds, “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified [made holy], you were justified [made righteous], in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

God alone has an amazing track record of taking angry, violent, evil, hopeless people and turning them into saints. The Bible is full of such success stories. Read it sometime.

While we can’t personally do much about the grim headlines we hear, we can do something about our own “inner beasts.” God offers the only solution that works every time it’s tried.

God says “If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Saved from sin and saved from your “beast.”

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!

Wicked Weather

Well how about this weather!

Someone said that if it weren’t for the weather, most people wouldn’t know how to start a conversation! And they’re probably right.

Until recently, we’ve had a mild winter. Now it’s cold. And Baghdad and Mexico both had snow this year! So are we having global warming or cooling? I’m sure I don’t know.

Weather is so unpredictable and forecasts are often unreliable. Recently I heard a TV weather report say that all the experts and all the forecast models got it wrong.

That’s the problem with weather predicting. You can’t always trust it. Sometimes they’ll tell you to expect a summer storm and you get wicked weather—a tornado. Other times they warn of flooding and you get a few drops of rain. But occasionally they’re right on the mark.

I guess that’s why I like being a pastor. Why? Because you can trust the Bible.

Now I can hear someone say, “Hold it right there for just a minute. How do you know?”

Because the Bible is honest about what man is. Its heroes are not larger-than-life perfect people. It shows their failures and victories side by side. It’s truthful about their struggles.

While psychologists and police departments try to figure out where crime comes from, the Bible gives us the answer: evil. It tells us that evil has a source: Satan, the evil one.

Wickedness and evil seem to fascinate some people. I had a college roommate who decided he wanted to be an expert on demons and the devil. But the Bible warns us to stay away from witchcraft and sorcery. What you think you’re controlling ends up controlling you.

The Bible is unique among the world’s holy books. According to the Internet site gotquestions.org, about 40 authors wrote the Bible. They wrote over a span of 1,500 years and came from very different backgrounds. Yet the Bible doesn’t contradict itself and contained no errors when it was written. The authors have different perspectives but they all speak of the same one true God. They all point to the same one way of salvation—Jesus Christ.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that not everyone agrees with me. And that’s OK. The Bible can stand on its own merits. But most people will agree that Jesus was special.

The truths Jesus taught and the claims he made set him apart as more than just a good teacher. And while he died for what he believed in, he was more than a martyr.

Jesus claimed that through faith in his death and resurrection, sin would be forgiven and believers would become sons of God. He spoke with clarity and left no doubt what he meant.

Some folks have honest doubts—and that’s OK—as long as those doubts push them to search for answers. Don’t forget that Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.”

Let’s also admit that Jesus’ followers don’t always make us proud. But it’s been that way since the beginning (remember Judas?). Followers often make mistakes. What you need to do is look at the leader. Christianity stands or falls with Jesus. Not with anyone else.

Even though others may let us down, Jesus said he is God. He never fails us.

The way to determine if Jesus was who he said he was is to accept his challenge. He said, "My teaching is not my own. It comes from Him who sent me. If anyone chooses to do God’s will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own."

I’m not sure you can do much about wicked weather--but one thing is sure: You can do something about you! Will you take Jesus’ challenge? I did and it changed my life for good.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!