Giving Jesus a ride to town

[VRSpock]

Ok, I had to post this one on these forums as well, because...man last night was a real trip.

Yesterday was a really funny day for me. I love G-d's sense of irony and He seems to know it! First, I was at church working on some network cabling and our Senior Pastor asked me if I would "Pick up Jesus" for him. You see, he had a plaster statue of Jesus with two children at His feet in his office. Pastor laughed when he heard himself say "pick up Jesus". As I was going down the hallway, someone looked from one of the other offices and I told them that I was "carrying Jesus". We made it out to Pastor's truck and he made another joke about "giving Jesus a ride" and then told me a joke about a Doberman Pincher named Jesus and an unwitting burglar who ignored the warnings of a talking Parrot that "Jesus was going to get him".

Late that evening, I was at home and decided to make a quick trip to the convenience store for some soda and chocolate for my wife and I. I was driving down one of the roads that leads to our house and passed by a guy in the darkness who was holding his thumb out, which was kind of strange in itself that someone would be hitchhiking in such a remote area.

I pulled over and rolled down my passenger window and he came up and asked me if I knew where the "Bread of Life" was and I told him I knew exactly where it was. The Bread of Life is a mission ministry in Crossville that helps those who have no place to stay. This guy seemed like he hadn't bathed in quite awhile. We stopped by the convenience store that I was originally heading to for snacks and soda so that I could get gas. We didn't really say much to each other until we left the gas station. It was then that he asked me my name and I suddenly realized that I never asked him his name.

He stuck his hand out for me to shake, so I told him my name and began shaking his hand as I asked him what his name was. His reply "Jesus". I didn't do a double take or pause or anything, but instantly responded "Well bless you!", to which he immediately responded "Bless my Father."

Needless to say, at this point, my mind is really going as I am wondering if this guy's dad actually named him Jesus or if this guy was a couple 6-packs short of a can. We both remained silent for a few minutes and then he asked me "What kind of car is this?" I immediately responded "It's a Saturn." He then asked me, "Does he own the universe?" My eyes immediately went down to the Saturn emblem on my steering wheel as I suddenly realized that my car was named after a false pagan god. I immediately and firmly replied "No, he does not."

You see, I've been coming to the realization over the past year or so that we are sitting in a stinky sess pool of idolatry and just in the past month or so I've been helping a colleague at church with a class on the study of the book of Daniel, in which he reveals a lot of pagan gods names who we wear on our everyday clothing and even have as national symbols. His response to all of this "G-d is not amused." Many will say "it's just a name" but the devil said once that "it's just a piece of fruit" G-d is still not amused.

I dropped the guy off at the Bread of Life ministry, still wondering if this guy was off his rocker or not, but regardless of whether he was or not, the Lord had used him to awaken my mind to something that absolutely amazed me. You see, I've always known that "Saturn" was a pagan god. I was somewhat familiar with the mythology behind this idol, but that knowledge laid passively dormant in my mind as I drove a car daily that beared the name "Saturn".

After doing research on who exactly Saturn is, I am now wanting to part with this car as soon as the opportunity arises to get a different car, because in my heart I know that G-d is not amused.

What does this mean for others who have Saturn cars? Well, that's not for me to say....that's between you and the Lord on what you do or don't do. I used to swear by Saturn cars as being the best vehicles on the road...mainly because I've put well over 300,000 miles on two of them since 1993. Now the Lord has activated something in my mind that was sitting their dormant with regards to this so-called ruler of the universe who's name now resides on the Holy Sabbath day. Again, G-d is not amused.

Tenessee seems to have a love affair for Roman and Greek gods for some strange reason. Just go to Nashville (home of the Titans) where you can visit the Parthenon and gaze upon the 60-foot gold statue of Athena that resides there. G-d is not amused.

[Vickilynn]

Shalom,

WOW.

What an awesome post. Thank you brother for sharing.

[Aleksander]

Interesting read, thank you.

[nebula]

First, I would like to say well spoken!

But next I have to ask about a dilemma. How do we eliminate the names of these false gods from our lips?

What I mean is, how can we change the names of the days of the week, the names of the months, the names of the planets? Stuff like that?

[VRSpock]

I'm not sure if we can because idolatry has become so embedded into our culture. We can do whatever we feel the Lord lead us to do as individuals in response to becoming aware of these things, but as a nation all we can do is pray and fast concerning these things.

We are as Israel was and still is in some respects. Below is one of the scriptures that we've brought up in the Daniel class. Many in the class have asked the same question...mainly because one of the pagan gods that the teacher of the class has brought up is Nike, the goddess of Victory. When I see a sports related ad in a magazine now and the Nike swoosh logo is prominently displayed, I can't help but feel conviction for that now and ask the Lord to have mercy on us.

He's also brought up the Titans and the Olympians. You can read more about these pagan gods and demi-gods on wikipedia. The true origin of the Statue of Liberty was a very interesting one too...and it's not France....the statue came from France but the Lady Liberty is much older than France and has become our symbol of what the world defines as liberty and freedom. Liberty is not doing what you want to do, but doing what you ought to do. Man has perversed the concept of liberty and given it a graven image. Even our own image of G-d that we have each individually formed within our own minds can be an idol because it is based upon our understanding and our own pre-conceived ideas of G-d.

It's no wonder that the world is slowly but assuredly crashing into a great, world-wide recession. Just read how G-d deals with idolatry below as He judges a nation. We truly walk in ignorance. We may not be able to change our culture on our own without an act of G-d, but we can most certainly make ourselves aware of these things that have crept their way into our everyday lives and seek G-d's Word on how to deal with them as individuals living in the captivity of a pagan culture.

Ezekial 5:8-13

Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations. 9 Because of all your detestable idols, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again. 10 Therefore in your midst fathers will eat their children, and children will eat their fathers. I will inflict punishment on you and will scatter all your survivors to the winds. 11 Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your vile images and detestable practices, I myself will withdraw my favor; I will not look on you with pity or spare you. 12 A third of your people will die of the plague or perish by famine inside you; a third will fall by the sword outside your walls; and a third I will scatter to the winds and pursue with drawn sword.

13 "Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged. And when I have spent my wrath upon them, they will know that I the LORD have spoken in my zeal.

14 "I will make you a ruin and a reproach among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an object of horror to the nations around you when I inflict punishment on you in anger and in wrath and with stinging rebuke. I the LORD have spoken. 16 When I shoot at you with my deadly and destructive arrows of famine, I will shoot to destroy you. I will bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of food. 17 I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I the LORD have spoken."

[mead]

Nice, I live in TN, just outside of Nashville, there is alot of that here (In reference to your first post).

Edited March 19, 2008 by mead4935

[Matthitjah]

Grace to you,

Mr. Spock,

I'm interested in your statements about the car. I own a Saturn as well, I actually felt led at the time of purchasing it to purchase the Black one I bought. My wife drives it.

Let me explain, I was looking for a good used car after donating my Jeep to the Church. The Jeep had just one more problem after many than I was desiring to dump more money into. I had just put $3,000.00 into it in the last two years. Then it quit again. So here I was praying in Church prior to Easter last year and felt like the Lord would like me to donate it to the Church. Yet we didn't have a donation program. Lo and behold at the start of our second service the Pastor announced that he was starting a New Ministry to rehab cars and give them to folks that couldn't afford one. So that they could then go to work, get grocerys, etc..... I offered my Jeep up the next moment to be the first car donated of many. We have a mechanic who works on them.

After donating it I moved to Consumer Reports and much prayer. I saw that the Saturns were preferable especially for the year I was looking for. They are sturdy vehicels and on the par of small SUV their Vue vehicle is affordable, more so than most, and also very reliable in the V-6 model which also gave me better Mileage on my fuel. Which is needed now more than ever.

I then went to prayer and had gone to the local City. I was driving around and saw the Saturn Dealer was having a Tent Sale. I went in and talked to the Dealer. He was favorable and amenable towards me. I left because he had two Vues, one red and one black. I prayed and felt like I was to get the black one. Alas as we all do I ignored this and went to look for a better deal somewhere else. After about two weeks I went to many different dealers in many different locals around the area. I was borrowing a truck from my Father at the time and wanted to get this taken care of but get a good deal too and a good vehicle after dealing with the Jeep for some time.

I couldn't find any favor or a truck worth buying. I went back to the Saturn Dealer and the Black truck was gone. I went home and prayed some more and felt again that I was to get the Black one. What black one Lord? I waited until the weekend and saw that the dealer was going to have another Tent Sale. I took my wife and kids to see what they had. Hokey Smokes, they had a black one the lot although it was about 2,000.00 more than I wanted to pay. It had all the options and was a V-6. I looked at it and then test drove the white one he had just gotten in. Then after finding it was a dog of a 4 cylinder I drove the black one for the rest of the afternoon. The guy let us keep it to go shopping and take home for the evening. We drove it for about 3 hours and my wife loved it and it was Black.

I said to my wife that if this was the car that the Lord wanted us to have that we would get it because the deal would be made. We prayed and then I said that I would offer the Dealer 2,000.00 less than he wanted and that because we already had the financing for it that he would be willing to make a deal because it was like a cash offer. So we went back and they were getting ready to close. The guy looked a little tired and he was the manager, by the way. He asked what it was he could do to get us to buy his car because he wanted to move some inventory. I said knock 2,000.00 off the price. He had no reason to do so and the car was worth exactly what he was asking retail. I had the N.A.D.A retail values BlueBook in my back pocket. He looked at me and said do you have financing? I said , of course. He was like, "Deal." We will clean it up for you tomorrow and you can come in Monday to finish the deal and pick up the car.

It was the Black Saturn.

I agree that God is Ironic.

I haven't thought one day about the implication of the name because honestly it is the car we were supposed to get and we don't spend time thinking about it as the chariots of the gods but just good basic transportation that gets good gas mileage and today that's a good thing.

Peace,

Dave

[~pearl]

Awesome story vrspock, and what a conviction! I have been doing research and I have found that there are pagan symbols and meanings in a vast majority of products. If you feel convicted get rid of it, if not don't worry. My husband found out what his Sirius satelite radio meant and he got rid of it so fast it would make your head spin. But he still wears Nikes

[Guest man]

The true origin of the Statue of Liberty was a very interesting one too...and it's not France....the statue came from France but the Lady Liberty is much older than France and has become our symbol of what the world defines as liberty and freedom. Liberty is not doing what you want to do, but doing what you ought to do. Man has perversed the concept of liberty and given it a graven image. Even our own image of G-d that we have each individually formed within our own minds can be an idol because it is based upon our understanding and our own pre-conceived ideas of G-d.

The Egyptians had an idol they used in their worship of their sun god Ra. It's called an Obelisk. We have an obelisk that sits in Washington....it's called The Washington Monument.

There's also one at Bunker Hill and another one that sits in Central Park. I'm sure there are others, but these 3 come to mind.

he had a plaster statue of Jesus

Did you know this is also an odol?

[VRSpock]

Like I said earlier in this thread concerning Saturn cars, anyone reading my post should consult the Lord on the things they have that have the names of known pagan gods and not allow my experience to persuade them one way or another.

I have a friend who will never go to a movie theater...period. It's what the Lord commanded her to do and I know beyond any shadow of any doubt that this lady definetly hears from the Lord on things. She herself stated that it doesn't mean that its wrong for other people to go to the movie theaters....just that for some reason, the Lord wants her to avoid doing so.

The Levites couldn't cut their hair among many other things, but other Isralites didn't have the same restrictions placed on them. G-d has a reason for everything He tells us to do and so we should just obey Him, not try to reason things out in our own limited understanding and not be looking at what others are or are not doing when it comes to little things like hair, the name of your car, etc. Just keep your focus on Him and stay in His written word and verbally ask Him about the things in your life and He will answer you.

Now when it comes to the evidence of our spiritual fruit and moral laws, we are commanded to look at one another and hold each other accountable.