Man Stealing

 "Man Stealing" is an old term for kidnapping. It's found in the King James Translation of the Bible. For instance Exodus 21:16 and Deuteronomy 24:7. It's a graphic term. I've thought about it a good bit over the last week.

The kidnapping of Nancy Guthrie seems to have captured the attention of America. 

• Police personnel and equipment, local, state, and national, have have been mobilized to a remarkable degree.
• This has dominated the news media.
• Billboards, requesting information have been erected all over the Southwest.
  
• Right now this eighty-four year old woman and her family are among the most famous people in the world.

This dispicable act has brought to light some basic realities that should not be ignorred. In a world where the value of human life is too often discouted, one can see from the near universal reaction to this kidnapping that there remains a resevoir of respect for human life that runs deeper than politics and culture. It is right that heroic effort is being undertaken to rescue Nancy and bring relief to her grieving family. It is what we should do. What if Nancy's daughter were the host of a local news station instead of a national celebrity? What if she did a podcast listened to by one-hundred family-members and friends? What if Nancy had no connection to fame at all, would her life be any less valuable?

I recoil at the questions. "Of course not!" rings in my head.

The evil that is resident in the heart(s) of the person, or persons, who did this, is not isolated to the crimanal(s) who stole this mother, grandmother, and friend. When we, one way or another, sin against one person, it almost always the case that that many are hurt. I pray that the pain does not get worse. The Bible is as honest about the wickedness in humanity as the news media has been about evil of the these, or this, man stealer(s). 
The difference is the Bible speaks of evil that is in all of us. I'm not saying we are all man stealers, or theives, or murders. Thank God we aren't. But the difference between me, in and of myself, the yet unnamed kidnapper of Ms. Guthrie is one of degree, not character. "All have sinned and come short of God's glory." Romans 3:23. “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? (Jeremiah 17:9)

I don't want to leave you with that downer. The Bible also makes known Good News through Jesus Christ. You can read about it here.

The dedicated service of the hundreds of law-enforcement personnel who are working to solve this case and rescue this lady should remind each of us to push back against the evil around us wherever and whenever we can. Be kind. Love others. Tell the truth. Do what good moms tell their children to do. Play nice, share. Those of us who have trusted Jesus as our Lord have a book full of instruction. We are to be salt and light in this decaying and dark world (Matthew 5:13-16). Nancy's friends are examples of this doing of good deeds. Nancy was supposed to meet with friends to listen to God's word preached the morning after this abduction. When her friends didn't see her, they missed her, and took action.

Our world is full of people who have been stolen, some by kidnapping and human-trafficking. Others are trapped in addiction. Children killed in their mother's wombs are robbed of ever seeing the light of day, and others are robbed of the blessing they would bring. Those who believe the lies that dominate our culture are trapped and robbed in multitudes of ways. We can make a difference. Nancy Guthrie and her family, friends, and those who are working long hours to solve this case remind us we should as well.

Lord, be merciful to Nancy and those who love her.

Hauling Water to a Thirsty, Unbelieving, Unconvinced World:

The view through my keyhole is narrow--bound as it is by my perception--but, magnified by the Internet, it is long.
Some friends of mine serve as Christ's witnesses in Phnom Penh. The tragic bridge collapse, of a few days ago, took place in their neighborhood. T. recently wrote:

We're writing with sad hearts. As you've probably seen or heard on the news, the
Water Festival ended with tragedy here in Phnom Penh last night. The latest
reports are claiming about 400 people died and 400 more were hospitalized after
a stampede on a bridge not too far from our apartment.
. . . To be honest, we are feeling sad and frustrated. . . . 400 people almost all of whom did not know Jesus suffocated or were crushed to death, 400 families lost
children, parents, siblings and just as many are in hospitals fighting for their
lives.
Because there was no way to really help besides praying for the families, I spent the day driving my motorbike with as many cases of water as I could carry to deliver to families waiting outside three of the major hospitals which received stampede victims. . . .
At the last hospital, the people in charge directed me to take the water to the place where families came to claim bodies. There were so many exhausted, hopeless faces. I felt incredibly inadequate showing up on a motorbike loaded down with a measly 10 cases of water in the face of such loss; but the workers there were kind and thanked me. . . .

The scripture comes to mind, "And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you, he shall not lose his reward." (Matthew 10:42, NASB95)
My friend sees his act as insignificant, and by the metric of the horrendous scale of the disaster, I have to agree, but apparently there is a Divine measurement that imputes far greater significance to a moped loaded with water delivered by a kind, though foreign face.
A few days after receiving the note above, I happened to see T. online. We chatted for a moment. He observed that most of the people affected by the tragedy believe in reincarnation. They are comforted that because these loved ones died in such a terrible manner while participating in a religious event, they would come back in a better state in the next life. He asked,
"How do we argue with that?"
I don't think my friend's question was primarily intellectual. He is well versed in apologetics, and knows how to share the Gospel. His query came from the gut more than from the head. How can we take away this shred of hope--false, though it may be--when lack of language, trust, and cultural awareness make it nearly impossible for me to share the real hope. Like his meager offering of water in the face of such overwhelming need, T. felt that what he had to offer was inadequate.
My reply to T.'s question, "How do we argue with that?" was brief.
"We don't."
I went on to offer some further explanation about how we trust God to penetrate hearts with the Good News. He and I know, however, that such penetration is usually frustratingly slow and sporadic. I wished for a jet plane, a couple of cups of coffee and time to listen and talk.

I share some further thoughts here not only, not even primarily, for my friends there on the front-line--I figure they already know more than me--but mostly for all of us who constantly struggle with questions related to tragic events.

• First, T., though your offering of water is literally a drop in an ocean, you were precisely and profoundly right to offer it.
  I don't have his book in front of me but Theologian and pastor, Millard Ericson, in his book, Christian Theology, makes the important distinction between a pastoral and a Theological answer to the problem of evil. People who are hurting are much more in need of a drink of water, offered from a kind hand, than they are a tightly reasoned Theodicy offered from a brilliant mind.
• While my answer was brief--partly due to the constraints of i-chatting & slow-typing--I still think it is right. Clearly there is at least (I say "at least knowing that many, to one degree or another, hold to and practice evidential-apologetics.) an element of truth in presuppositionalism. Our task is not so much to prove the validity of the Gospel as to proclaim it. We believe that "Life and reality make sense only on the basis of Christian presuppositions." (http://home.comcast.net/~webpages54/ap/presup.html) As Jesus said, "If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. (John 7:17, ESV) There is always an element of risk in faith, at least on the front end. No apologetic safety line can make the plunge into faith--especially when the starting point is a culture largely devoid of Christian influence--totally free of fear. Examples abound of those who received the Good News when it appeared to many outsiders that it was totally unreasonable for them to do so. Later they found it made perfect sense. Often those Saul/Paul-like conversions lead to significant penetration of the truth of God into a people-group. Keep hauling water, both in plastic bottles and the "Living" kind.
• We cannot get away from the reality that our security in the Lord is not primarily based on our complete understanding of His ways, but in our trust of Him. We need to refer to Deuteronomy 29:29 often.
• We are far better to offer no answer than to traffic in easy, pat, feel-good pseudo-truths. Following another disaster, Al Mohler shared some words worth reading in this regard, "God and the Tsunami."

To my friends in Cambodia, thanks. To the rest of us, Let's haul some water.