Most people do not know when they are going to die. There are times, though, when people do know. Maybe an illness that cannot be cured is tearing away at life. The sick person does not know the exact day, but there is a time frame and they know their time is running out. There are executions, and those are usually pretty much scheduled, so a person would know the exact time. However, right now at the time you are reading this, you do not know when you will die.

         But what if you did know? You knew when and where and how. What would you do? How would you react? Would you try to change the course of events? Would you try to mend fences or would you try to get even for past mistreatment? What would you do?

         Jesus knew. He knew when, He knew where, He knew who would do the killing. It was part of His mission. He also knew He would suffer terribly and He knew there would be those who acted as followers but who were just in it for whatever gain they could achieve. He knew Judas, one of the disciples, would betray Him. Jesus knew all of it. And Jesus had the power to change everything. He didn’t have to suffer. He didn’t have to die. With a word He could be back in heaven. With a mere thought He could have taken out His enemies. With a glance he could have destroyed the Romans and He could have become the greatest of all the kings ever.

         Starting in John 7 we enter into the last six months of the life of Jesus. We know this because we have the ability to look back. It is all recorded in Scripture and also much of it is recorded in Roman history. Jesus, on the other hand, was looking forward through time and was seeing how it would play out. Instead of fear, instead of anger, instead of sadness, Jesus stepped up His ministry. It was in those last six months we see some of the most memorable times. The woman taken in adultery, the blind man healed with the mud on his eyes, Lazarus raised from the dead. It was during this time that Jesus told the people that He was the light, that He and the Father were one, that He was the resurrection. As He got closer to His death, His life became more intense. He was not going to slow down. The Pharisees and the Sadducees became more and more angry with Him. They tried harder and harder to discredit Him. They attempted to turn the people away from Him. But Jesus kept at His ministry.

         Here we are, a mere six weeks from remembering His execution, recalling His burial and celebrating His Resurrection. Where are our minds as we near this all important time? Basketball, baseball, auctions, planting. Buying new equipment, planning vacations. Do we ever stop to think that as the time drew close, He was praying for us? He was seeing us and our struggles. He knew what was going on with us because He had a plan for us. Time as we know it has never had the same meaning for Jesus.

Think about it. The fifty odd years leading up to the completed union of the Yoke…..His plan. The Lord laid something on my heart a week ago about someone bringing a special message.….His plan. Our church helping out a mother and a father and their eight children this week…..His plan. As He went through His final days, HE KNEW!

 As He walked those dusty streets and felt the sun on His back, we were on His mind. As people failed to understand, He took comfort in knowing that His death would save millions. As the leaders of the Jews sought to take Him and kill Him, He knew that it would always be like this. That He and His followers would be hated and reviled. And still, He carried out His ministry to the end.

 If you knew you had six weeks to live, and you could prevent it and turn it all around, what would you do? Right around six weeks left in the life of Jesus, He saw a man who had been blind from birth. He knelt and spat on the dusty ground and made a mud paste from the spit and the dirt and rubbed it into the eyes of the blind man and then told him to wash it out. When he did so, he was able to see. If you had six weeks, would you be reaching out? Would you be lifting people up?

 “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong.” A child’s song. A simple little tune. Six weeks before the death, burial and Resurrection. Can we sing that little tune and really feel it? Jesus loves me!

         The Impossible Whopper. Burger King’s new meatless burger. As advertised, the ingredients are plant based and it tastes just like a regular Whopper. Have you had one yet? Before you do, read what is in the thing.

         Burger King gets these burgers from a company called Impossible Foods. It used to be Impossible Burger, but now they have added an Impossible Pork line, as well. Imagine, an Impossible Breaded Pork Tenderloin. Quite the fund raiser food! But, yes, the ingredients in the Impossible Whopper;

         The main ingredient is something called heme. This is a molecule found in every living thing on the planet, whether it is meat or plant. It is needed for life and every human or animal craves it. It is found in greatest abundance in meat. But, the folks at Impossible have found a way to extract this molecule from plants. This is taken from the roots of soy plants and then injected into genetically engineered yeast. The yeast then goes through the fermentation process which creates more of the heme. This creates a reddish substance which, when mixed with the other ingredients and then fried or broiled on grilled, will ooze out looking just like bleeding meat! The potato juices in the concoction add the sizzling sound that is all part of the cooking experience. Other ingredients include water, textured wheat protein, coconut oil, potato protein, natural flavors, 2 percent or less of: leghemoglobin (soy), yeast extract, salt, konjac gum, xanthan gum, soy protein isolate, vitamin E, vitamin C, thiamin (vitamin B1), zinc, niacin, vitamin B6, riboflavin (vitamin B2), and vitamin B12. The Impossible Foods’ website points out that none of these ingredients are meat based, so green house emissions (this is flatulent emissions from cows and pigs) will be reduced when we get away from needing to eat flatulent animals. Folks, I am not making this up.

         So, being a thoughtful and caring pastor type, I bought an Impossible Whopper from Burger King. The first time was from a Burger King on the way to a city hospital. I have stopped there a few times before on my way to a hospital. On the road, need to eat, how bad can a hamburger be? From this particular Burger King, a hamburger can be pretty nasty. As advertised, the Impossible Whopper tasted just like the real thing there. Nasty. But as I thought about this the other day, I decided to go to the local Burger King and try their version. On Wednesday I went to Burger King and bought the Impossible Whopper. As far as the bun and cheese and pickle and lettuce and tomato and the mystery condiments, it did taste like a regular Whopper. But the patty itself…..no, it did not taste like the real thing. Close, but not there. Probably needed more heme. You can see for yourself, but remember the ingredients you are eating. I took the bullet so you don’t have too.

         I buy groceries for myself and I have seen the veggie meats in the frozen foods, but I have never had the urge to purchase them. However, last week, as I went through the Healthy Choice and other ‘healthy’ foods, I came across something that said it was Korean inspired beef. My mind doesn’t quite function like the minds of normal people. My first thought was that at that particular stockyard where that cow spent its last days, there were Koreans going from pen to pen speaking to the cattle in an attempt to inspire them to produce better meat. What else could Korean inspired beef mean? I bought a box. When I got home, I looked it up online. Apparently, Korean inspired beef is an American concoction that was inspired by a Korean dish. All kinds of veggies were in it (which I love), although it was a little heavy on the kale, and some very small pieces of beef (which could have been Impossible Beef, for all I know) and some kind of sauce. Not bad, really. I might get another box someday, like the day after I eat my next Impossible Whopper.

         I am still alive, so these sneaky foods (one type of food masquerading as another type of food) don’t kill you. At least not right away. If you are opposed to eating meat, knock yourself out. If you were to check out my food stocks, you would find more vegetable foods and meat foods. Just a preference. But I really don’t want fake meat or even inspired meat. I want my hamburgers to be meat and my veggies to look and taste like veggies. It is entirely possible that I am stupid. According to presidential candidate Bloomberg, since I grew up on a farm, I probably am stupid. But still, I like my food to be real food.

         Most people are like that, I believe. But we are certainly willing to dress up our religion to make something that is not Christianity feel like Christianity. We check our horoscopes, we refrain from reading Scripture we don’t like, we forget our prayer time, we accept non-Biblical teachings in our denominations and our traditions. We do not want to offend the world but we accept their offensive behavior toward us. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 says this;

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

         The appearance of godliness. Is that what we want? Is that what the world needs? What are we accomplishing when we go along to get along?

         An Impossible Whopper will never be a real Whopper. But it might get accepted by some. Please, do not accept a watered down version of Christianity. It isn’t real. And when you live your life as a watered down Christian, you are not real, either.

          It has been at least twenty years ago now. I taught the Kitchen Class, a group of about twenty or so young adults who met in the ridiculously large kitchen of our church in Ohio. A good sized restaurant would have done well with that kitchen. Anyway, our class met there. It was handy to the coffee pot and someone could bring doughnuts and no one outside the class would know. Most of the group was already there. Coffee was flowing and doughnuts were being dispersed. Then, a lady who was fairly new to the church and the class came hustling into the kitchen. In her hand was clutched that day’s newspaper. She slapped it down on the table in front of me (nearly hitting my doughnut) and pointed to the story she had circled. It was actually a letter to the editor. The writer was expressing her horror that her nephew’s eighth grade class at a school in Kentucky had gone to a local slaughterhouse and had observed a cow being brought in, killed and slaughtered as part of the school’s field trip. The paper had done due diligence, though. Someone had called the school and asked about it. Only the kids who had signed parental releases had gone. I read the letter and the short article and looked up at her in confusion.

          “OK. Do you want me to take our Youth to a slaughterhouse?”

          She looked at me like I was crazy. “Are you crazy?!!? NO!!! Don’t you think that is terrible??!? Children should not be exposed to that!!!”  

          “Ah, I see. With my father’s help, I gutted and skinned my first rabbit when I was five. You probably don’t want to talk to me about this.”

          She actually took a couple of horrified steps backward.

          “Look,” I said. “That roast you have in the oven at home came from a slaughtered cow. Every hamburger you have ever eaten came from a slaughtered cow. Ever been to a chicken processing plant? I have. It is nasty. It will make you rethink those McNuggets for tomorrow’s lunch. Although that may not be real meat. But this is how it is done.”

          “But the children! Impressionable minds watching such a thing! So wrong.”

          At this point, one of our men, an Elder to boot, spoke up. “I wonder what type of slaughterhouse it was?” We all looked at him, waiting. “Well, some places put a deer slug right between the cow’s eyes and others use a sledgehammer.”

          The offended lady nearly had a stroke. The Elder’s wife punched him in the arm.

          “Look, the school sent registration/permission slips home. Parents could have said no. End of story.”

          “You mean this doesn’t bother you???”

          “No, it doesn’t.” She looked around the room for some backup. Very much a farming community. Almost every kid in the church a 4-H kid. No one was going to help her. She left in a huff.

          This event came to mind as I read yet another article in the news about someone being offended about the actions of another. In this article, from an online news outlet, a high school girl and her mother were offended because the high school made the girl leave the prom because her dress was inappropriate. (It was in Florida, so I guess they can have prom whenever. Here in the north you have to wait until Spring or else get snow boots that match the gown.) They ran a picture of the girl in the dress with the question, “You don’t think this is inappropriate, do you?” They wanted you to respond to their little poll. When I looked at the picture I thought that she needed to make sure that her panties matched her corsage, because the panties were certainly going to be on display. But, the writer, the mother and the daughter were all offended at the school having rules.

          Society is a mess. Back in the late 1950s, church attendance began to fall. This meant God was being removed from the family. Then, God was removed from schools and government. Now, God has less and less of a place in our churches, as large portions of the Bible have fallen by the wayside. Yes, society is a mess.

          And this has happened because politically and theologically liberal thinkers have taken action to remove God and let the world go over to Satan and politically and theologically conservative thinkers have let it happen.

          This has been going around for a couple of years on the internet, but it is very true;

---If a conservative doesn’t like guns, he doesn’t own one. If a liberal doesn’t like guns, he wants all guns banned.

---If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn’t eat meat. If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned.

---If a conservative is down and out, he thinks about what steps to take to improve his own life. If a liberal is down and out, he wonders who is going to take care of him.

---If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he changes channels. If a liberal doesn’t like a talk show host, he wants that host and all hosts who share the same views banned.

---If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church. If a liberal is a non-believer, he wants any mention of God and Jesus silenced. Allah and Mohammad, though, are OK, for some reason.

---If a conservative wants health care, he goes shopping for it. If a liberal wants health care, he demands the rest of us pay for it.

          I hesitate to even write about these things. Not because I am afraid of the reaction it might create. Rather, I would rather write about the great things of our Lord. But I was told, not so long ago, that I hated homosexuals, that I didn’t care if a woman was impregnated by rape and I only cared for people who went to church. None of these things are true, but because I am a politically and theologically conservative thinker, I must be a hater. I am tired of being told that I, and others like me, are the haters and the liberal thinkers are the tolerant ones.

          I suppose I am unbending. If I see a man follow a little girl into the restroom at Wal-Mart, I am not going to wonder if he identifies as a girl that day or if he is transgender or whatever is going through his miniscule brain, I am going to grab him by the collar and yank him out. Yes, I am an old guy. He would likely beat me to the floor. But at least the pervert would be stopped.

          However, more to the point, there is something we can do about society. It isn’t marching on Washington nor walking around done up like an arsenal. We can turn our country over to the Lord. To really be able to do that we need to turn ourselves over to the Lord completely. Society is a mess, but Christians make a mistake when they get off their knees. Changing our own lives and then committing to prayer is what changes things. Nothing else comes close.  

         The division between people.

         Think about it. What is it that divides people? Over the last few years we have had a front row seat to the great political divide in this country, culminating with the Speaker of the House shamelessly tearing up her copy of the President’s State of the Union address on national television. What brings us to this national division?

         We are the most divided people ever, yet we live in the United States. There are those who are opposed to the Constitution of the United States, there are those who want nothing more than to protect the Constitution of the United States. There are those who are opposed to the Bible, there are those who want nothing more than to protect the Bible. There are those who are opposed to abortion, there are those who want nothing more than to expand abortion. We are at odds with ourselves.

         What is it that divides people?

         Simply put, ignorance.

         Those who oppose the Constitution have not read it. Those who want to protect it mostly have not read it. When I enlisted in the military I took an oath. I, Larry Wade, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. I took the oath, but I had never read the Constitution. I promised to abide by the regulations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, but that was probably the first time I had ever heard that phrase. No one had ever made me read the Constitution and no one had ever informed me, really, what the world was all about. And there I was, completely ignorant to what I was saying, giving my oath to defend and obey. And then, swearing that oath on God!

         We have this vast population that seems to be wandering through life with no clear purpose except to tear down. People talk of a new revolution and a new civil war without any clear concept of what those things are. When Donald Trump was elected a wild eyed young person said to me, “There is going to be a revolution, dude! What do you think of that?” I just smiled and said, “Well, we will win. We know how to shoot real guns while you and your friends only know how to shoot cyber guns.” He had no idea what to say. Ideas have to have action behind them to work. But, again, people just wander. Lost.

         Some years ago, while still in Ohio, I met with a family I did not know that was going to bury a loved one. They had no church affiliation at all. I asked them if there was anything they wanted read. Some Scripture or a poem or whatever. “Yeah, isn’t there something in the Bible about a shepherd or something? Yeah, some kind of shepherd.” To which his sister said, “Yeah, and there’s something in there about love or something. I heard it at a wedding. Yeah throw some of those verses in. Just don’t make it to preachy.” Imagine that; something about shepherds and love in the Bible. People just wander. Lost.

         Ignorance divides people. Whatever reality show is popular, that holds their attention. Whatever movie is hot, that holds their attention. Whatever video game is all the rage, that holds their attention. But the message of the Bible or the foundation and function of the country; it is boring and needs to be torn down.

         The greater the ignorance, the more the arrogance.

         However, Philippians 3:18-21 reads as such; For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him even to subject all things to Himself.

         I stand with Christ. We are joined. Whatever happens here on this earth has no bearing with the bond I have with Jesus. My citizenship is in heaven.

         Boy, that is a relief.