I have pushed a little, for the sake of my Lord. Let me push a little more.

"You say that God doesn't send plagues on people," someone wrote me. "What about the plagues God send on Pharaoh and the Egyptians? And didn't God kill the firstborn child in every Egyptian household?"

No -- God doesn't kill children, not even for high-minded purposes. Herod killed children. Hitler killed children. God doesn't kill children.

Moses was a smart man -- and he did have the Lord with him.

Plagues did come -- as plagues do -- and Moses used them to his advantage. And children died then as children die now.

And in the Old Testament, everything that happened was considered to be God's doing.

Thanks to Jesus, we know better.

And with me -- if Jesus says it, I believe it, and that settles it.

I love the Old Testament, but as Christmas we must read it in the light of the New Testament.

Jesus and Jesus alone is our standard -- for he is the only full and perfect revelation of the nature of God.

"When you have seen me," he said, "you have seen the father."

And I ask you -- would Jesus kill children? You know the answer to that.

There are a few images of God in the Old Testament that we cannot reconcile with what Jesus taught us.

The Old Testament is a partial revelation. In Jesus we have the fullness of God.

The Old Testament tell us, "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." (Lev. 24:20) Jesus rejected that idea with "love your enemies." (Matt. 5:43) He told us to love this way -- because God loves this way.

In 2 Kings 1:10 we read that God sent fire to consume the energy. This understanding of God is rejected in Luke 9:51-56. Indeed, it is rejected throughout the New Testament.

Reading the Bible as a Christian means letting Jesus have the final word.

The church is morally weak today because we have too many "Old Testament Christians." They believe in an ambivalent God -- one who loves all children, but is willing to kill off a bunch of them -- for a good cause!

Is it any wonder that so many Christians seem to believe the end justifies the means?

That is not our Lord's way. Morally, Jesus is a rock that will not roll. Evil is evil.

And God does not do evil.

The most important decision we can make as a reader of the Bible is to let Jesus be Lord of the Scriptures.

Meet the Lord in the Gospels -- Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Set Jesus as the standard by which every image of God is judged.

Suddenly, every difficulty in reading the Bible is removed.

Suddenly it becomes clear, as John tells us, that "God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all."

I look forward to proclaiming the Easter miracle again.

I am as certain of the Resurrection as I am of my own life.

Jesus is risen! Jesus is Lord.

So let us begin to listen to him!