O Ark, Where Art Thou?

I remember when Raiders of the Lost Ark hit the theaters in 1981. I loved the movie. I actually met the archeologist on whom the character Indiana Jones was loosely based. The movie encouraged a great deal of interest among Christians. I remember being asked, “What if they did find the Ark?” I remember saying that it really wouldn’t matter if the ark were found. Yes, it would be the archeological find of the millennium, and, yes, it would give additional credence to the Old Testament, but for the believer, it would not change anything. Why? It no longer contains the presence of God, nor His power.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church claims to possess the Ark of the Covenant of the Old Testament in Axum, a town in northern Ethiopia. However, they will not let anyone verify their claim.

Orthodox Jews believe it is buried somewhere underneath the original location of the Holy of Holies in Jerusalem. However, the Muslims control the temple area and will not allow any excavation.

We do know for sure that the Ark will be seen again. After the seventh trumpet is sounded in Revelation 11, the Bible says:

Then, in heaven, the Temple of God was opened and the Ark of his covenant could be seen inside the Temple. (Rev. 11:19)

But is this the original Ark that was in the Holy of Holies? No. The OT Ark was a piece of furniture that symbolized the presence of God. It expressed God’s atonement and covenant. It was only a shadow or picture of the heavenly Ark. When sin was paid once and for all by Jesus on the cross, the earthly Holy of Holies was opened up by God when he ripped the curtain. Now at a future date, the heavenly Holy of Holies will be opened and the heavenly Ark will be revealed.

But in the meantime, let me share where I believe the Ark is currently located.

After Christ’s supreme sacrifice something significant took place. Actually, “significant” cannot begin to capture the magnitude of what took place. Momentous, huge, major… none of these capture the depth. How about “this event changed everything about everything for eternity!”

God’s presence is now in the believer and the church. In a way, we are the Ark.

Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit. (Eph 2:20-22)

Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? (1 Co 3:16)

Nothing in the Bible is insignificant. Everything in the Holy of Holies had a purpose.

1. The Ark was made of wood – that’s you – and covered inside and out with pure Gold – that’s Jesus. Without Jesus, we are just rotten, dead wood.

2. The manna in the gold pot represents the spiritual sustenance given to us daily by the Holy Spirit. He provides us with all that we need to face the day.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, who will never leave you. He is the Holy Spirit, who leads into all truth. The world cannot receive him, because it isn’t looking for him and doesn’t recognize him. But you know him, because he lives with you now and later will be in you. (John 14:16-17)

3. The tablets with the 10 commandments represent God’s Word.

God’s word lives in your hearts, and you have won your battle with the evil one. (1 John 2:14)

4. Aaron’s rod that bloomed represents your resurrection in Christ.

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives. (Rom. 6:4)

If Indiana Jones is still looking for the Ark of the Covenant… he only needs to talk to a believer.

For Men Only

I recently read an article by John Piper entitled Why I Don’t Have a Television and Rarely Go to Movies. After reading the article… well, I think I am going to take a break from television for a period of time. Here is an excerpt of the article:

“I think relevance in preaching hangs very little on watching movies, and I think that much exposure to sensuality, banality, and God-absent entertainment does more to deaden our capacities for joy in Jesus than it does to make us spiritually powerful in the lives of the living dead. Sources of spiritual power—which are what we desperately need—are not in the cinema. You will not want your biographer to write: Prick him and he bleeds movies.

If you want to be relevant, say, for prostitutes, don’t watch a movie with a lot of tumbles in a brothel. Immerse yourself in the gospel, which is tailor-made for prostitutes; then watch Jesus deal with them in the Bible; then go find a prostitute and talk to her. Listen to her, not the movie. Being entertained by sin does not increase compassion for sinners.

There are, perhaps, a few extraordinary men who can watch action-packed, suspenseful, sexually explicit films and come away more godly. But there are not many. And I am certainly not one of them.

I have a high tolerance for violence, high tolerance for bad language, and zero tolerance for nudity... that lady is really naked, and I am really watching. And somewhere she has a brokenhearted father.

I’ll put it bluntly. The only nude female body a guy should ever lay his eyes on is his wife’s. The few exceptions include doctors, morticians, and fathers changing diapers. “I have made a covenant with my eyes; how then could I gaze at a virgin?” (Job 31:1). What the eyes see really matters. “Everyone who looks at a woman to desire her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Better to gouge your eye than go to hell (verse 29).

Brothers, that is serious. Really serious. Jesus is violent about this. What we do with our eyes can damn us. One reason is that it is virtually impossible to transition from being entertained by nudity to an act of “beholding the glory of the Lord.” But this means the entire Christian life is threatened by the deadening effects of sexual titillation.

All Christ-exalting transformation comes from “beholding the glory of Christ.” “Beholding the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18). Whatever dulls the eyes of our mind from seeing Christ powerfully and purely is destroying us. There is not one man in a thousand whose spiritual eyes are more readily moved by the beauty of Christ because he has just seen a bare breast with his buddies.

But leave sex aside (as if that were possible for fifteen minutes on TV). It’s the unremitting triviality that makes television so deadly. What we desperately need is help to enlarge our capacities to be moved by the immeasurable glories of Christ. Television takes us almost constantly in the opposite direction, lowering, shrinking, and deadening our capacities for worshiping Christ.

One more smaller concern with TV (besides its addictive tendencies, trivialization of life, and deadening effects): It takes time. I have so many things I want to accomplish in this one short life. Don’t waste your life is not a catchphrase for me; it’s a cliff I walk beside every day with trembling.

TV consumes more and more time for those who get used to watching it. You start to feel like it belongs. You wonder how you could get along without it. I am jealous for my evenings. There are so many things in life I want to accomplish. I simply could not do what I do if I watched television. So we have never had a TV in 40 years of marriage (except in Germany, to help learn the language). I don’t regret it. “

--John Piper

Never Forget – Our Freedom Came at a Price

While on vacation last week at Pawley’s Island, Mary and I had some friends in for the week from California, Mary and Harold Hunt. Mary and my Mary traveled all over the USA participating in Aspiring Women conferences. Mary Hunt was one of the main speakers and my Mary was part of the worship team. They connected and became fast friends. Harold and I decided to test out the friendship thing because of our wives. We found that we had a similar interest. We both love history.

So a few years ago, we decided to do some “dry run” vacations. We spent time in their home and they spent time in our home. Since Harold is a big Civil War buff, I took him to Charleston to see the confederate submarine Hunley. Awesome.

Our “dry runs” were a great success. So we decided to try Europe. Harold wanted to see World War II sites. Since I had traveled to many of the sites, I put together a two week trip of France, Germany and Austria. We walked along the beaches at Normandy where the D-Day invasion began. We went through German gun emplacements and stood along the cliffs of Pointe-Du-Hoc. We walked broken-hearted through Dachau, the longest running concentration camp of World War II.

We stood silently among the graves at the Normandy American Cemetery. Over 172 acres, there are 9,387 burials of US service men and women. Of this number, some 307 are unknowns. All the graves face westward towards the United States. There are three Medal of Honor winners. Two sons of President Theodore Roosevelt buried side by side – one from World War I and the other from World War II (he is the only WW I soldier buried at Normandy). In addition, there are 33 pairs of brothers buried side by side, including the Niland brothers. They were the inspiration for the movie “Saving Private Ryan.”

So now that brings us to last week at Pawley’s Island.

One day Harold and I decided to explore Georgetown, SC. I have spent very little time in Georgetown… I think it was probably the odor of the paper mill that did it for me. But we had a great day of exploring.

We checked a map guide and found that there was a church whose cemetery had graves dating back to the Revolutionary War. The Prince George Winyah Episcopal Church was build around 1750 with old brick from British ships' ballasts. Prince George Church is one of the few original church buildings in South Carolina dating to the colonial period that is still in use today.

During our Revolutionary War, the British held Georgetown and used the church as a horse stable. Between Georgetown and Charleston is the area that Francis Marion, the Swamp Fox, harassed the British.

As I was walking through the cemetery, I thought of all the men and women who died for our freedom as a nation. My heart was full of deep appreciation. How is it that I can view my freedom so casually when so many gave their lives for that freedom? I must never forget those brave individuals who gave their lives creating a place called the United States of America.

As my heart turns towards the cross of Jesus, I ask the same question. How can I view my freedom in Christ so casually when Jesus gave his very life for my freedom?

Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

Don’t let anyone take away your freedom in Christ!