Relics And The Past

In Rome, in the Vatican Museum, are 28 marble stairs. Once a year the Vatican opens up this exhibit to the general public and removes the wooden covering protecting the marble stairs underneath. These stairs are called the “Holy Stairs” and they were brought here from the palace of Pontus Pilate located in Jerusalem. Tradition says that Jesus Christ ascended these chairs after being convicted by Pilate and beaten by his palace guards. There are three crosses on the stairs that represent the locations where Jesus collapsed and shed drops of his blood. Pilgrims wait for hours for the privilege of ascending these steps and replicating the climb of their Savior.

It has been over two thousand years since Jesus died and was resurrected and people are still fascinated by the relics of his past. Items such as the Holy Grail, The Shroud of Turin, and many more to numerous to list in this post. (You can click here to view a partial list) This desire to touch something that has been used by the Divine, is not, of course, confined to just Christians. And it's not just confined to religious artifacts.

The Deception We All Face

Some of us might recognize this verse from the Bible, "So now faith, hope and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13) In that verse Paul is summing up his chapter on the importance and virtues of love. We are reminded that God himself is love. (1 John 4:8) In fact, Jesus included the action verb "love" when He was summing up all the components of the law into just two commandments. (Matthew 22:37-40)

I set the table with these verses because I wanted to point out the difference between these verses and their counterparts, the words that drive the sins and bad choices that are most likely to destroy our physical, mental and spiritual lives. God gives us words of life and hope but the enemy goal is to steal, kill and destroy. 

The Bible says that Satan is the great deceiver. We see this from the very beginning in the Garden where Satan twisted the words of God to Adam and Eve in hope that they would choose sin over obedience. This pattern of behavior continued, all the way to the book of The Revelation, where we see that in the future, Satan will try to replicate God's Trinity. Satan's end game has never changed. History records the destruction that evil has brought about in this world. The entire Bible speaks to the deception and lies that Satan uses to deceive the people of earth. So, having been thoroughly warned, why do so many of us fall for his traps?

Putt Putt versus Mini Golf

I've played some pretty cool mini-golf courses in my life, Hillbilly Golf in Gatlinburg for example, where you have to take a tram to the top of the mountain and then play the course to the bottom, and Mulligans in Salt Lake City, which has lots of waterfalls. But my favorite golf experiences are Putt Putt Courses. If you don't know the difference between these two types of golf  then you've come to the right place.

The Importance of Context

When God finally got my attention in my late twenties, one of the first gifts He gave me was an intense hunger for His Word. I remember leaving my Bible at the bottom of my stairs each morning so that when I returned home that evening it would be the first thing I would see. Day after day, I couldn't wait to dive into God's Word and be refreshed by His presence. The healing power of His Word started working on the deepest parts of my heart. Then I started writing down and applying the promises of His Word to me.

After months of immersing myself in the Bible, one day I heard a sermon about the importance of claiming your very own life verse. That sounded logical to me so I started searching through all of my favorite scripture verses in the quest to discover my "life verse". (Now let me explain that I'm not against the concept of having a life verse but at the time it seemed like a box I needed to check on my way to becoming a mature follower of Christ.) After not a lot of searching (sic) I landed on Jeremiah 29:11. Because let's face it, what Christian doesn't long for the comfort and promise of this verse? "For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" (Did you know that Jeremiah 29:11 is the second most searched Bible verse on the Internet?). And let me save you the trouble, John 3:16 is the most searched Bible verse on the web.