THOUGHTS FOR A SNOWY DAY

Nobody loves snow like I do. I pray for snow when everyone else is praying for spring. I guess I was deprived, growing up in South Carolina. Ten years in Latvia should have made up for that, but I just can't get enough of it.

Anyway, today we've got it in spades here in Virginia--plenty of white, blowing, drifting, magical, beautiful snow. It's the kind that sticks to the windward side of the trees, marking each with a long white stripe. There is a big drift on the rooftop landing outside my window that sparkles like diamonds each time the sun peeks through the clouds for a moment. I'm happy to stay inside, but I did go out long enough to take a few photos in the backyard that I hope you'll enjoy.

Maybe one of the reasons I love snow so much (besides that it provides a good excuse to stay indoors with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate) is that, to me, it symbolizes God's grace and blessing. In fact, I was thinking this morning as I looked out at the white world about the parallels between what happens in the life of a snowstorm and what happens in God's plan of redemption.

Maybe I'm reaching here, but this is what I see. Snow falls and covers everything--the good, the bad, and the ugly--with a beautiful blanket of purest white. It reminds me of Isaiah 1:18 which says, "'Come now, let us reason together,' says the LORD. 'Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.'" As glorious as a snow-covered landscape is, a heart and life covered with God's grace through the Blood of Jesus is infinitely more glorious. It blankets our sins, shortcomings, even our best human efforts, with the one thing that can change us from the inside out.

That process of change, however, is where it all gets messy, like melting snow. As the fluffy white stuff turns to a wretched brown slush, so that initial joy of salvation we each feel gives way to wondering what the heck happened as God's hard work of sanctification begins in our lives. He starts out playing nice, sure. But then He starts churning up all the junk in our lives, letting us see ourselves for who we really are. He begins with the blatant, "big" sins like drug addiction, adultery, or cheating on our income taxes, for example. If we make it through that, then He starts the fine tuning with less obvious, heart issues like selfishness, pride, and unforgiveness. Yikes! If you've been there, you know that it's messy, and definitely not pretty sometimes. It's like slogging through the mush after a snow and wondering what possessed to you to get out in all that. But sometimes it's the only way to get from point A to point B.

Thank God(quite literally), that's not the end of the snow story, nor our walk through God's uncomfortable sanctification process. That hazardous, soupy, brown eyesore is finally warmed by the sun and melts into the ground, softening it and bringing forth verdant new life and great beauty from that dead brown stuff that used to be our grass or flowers. God's love and grace, warm as the sun, softens our hearts and by His miracle power brings forth new life and growth in amazing beauty where death and yucky stuff lived before.

And with that, the cycle of sanctification is finished. . .until the next round. Like the seasons, it never ends. You know just what I mean, don't you?

KEEPING SIN, THROWING OUT CONDEMNATION

Greta Van Susteren’s interview last week on FOX News with eighteen-year-old Bristol Palin about her very public pregnancy and unwed motherhood raised some conflicting thoughts in my mind. For example, while I questioned, on several levels, the wisdom of the Palins allowing their young daughter to be interviewed on national television, I also admired Bristol’s and the family’s courage in doing so. While I wish that Bristol had not gotten in this situation (or engaged in the behavior that caused it), I marveled and rejoiced to see such family support and solidarity in tough times. And when grandmother Sarah Palin brought baby Trip to Bristol on camera at the end of the interview, well, how could anyone but rejoice that such a precious new life has come into the world? Bristol is to be commended for taking responsibility and raising her child instead of aborting it.

Still, it was just a little disturbing to see how completely comfortable this Christian family seemed with their plight, one born out of what used to be known as sin. Of course, we cannot see into their hearts and private thoughts, and I’m not suggesting they should be self-flagellating over Bristol’s situation. They are living under God’s grace and moving on. Yet perhaps there might have been some expression of remorse.

Bristol stated that she was going public with her story because she wants to serve as a spokesperson against teenage pregnancy. Not teen sex, but teen pregnancy. She called abstinence “unrealistic.” Never in the interview did she ever suggest that what she did was wrong, only that it would have been easier to have waited until college and establishing a career were behind her.

I was discussing this with a friend who many years ago found herself in Bristol’s shoes. She told me that she never referred to her pregnancy as sin outside of her family, because she felt that somehow it made her child. . .less. Understandable. I had just seen Oliver Twist on television and was reminded, with a shudder, that we really aren’t that far away from the irrational and deplorable stigmatization and mistreatment of children who simply had the misfortune to be orphaned, much less born out of wedlock, that has marked society throughout all but fairly recent history.

The social statement made by the Palins, however, could not be starker in contrast to the old way. They are symbolic of a society that has moved beyond that, and thank God for it. I wonder, though, if in leaving behind the rejection and stigmatization of unwed mothers and their children, it was also necessary to leave behind the concept of sin.

Atheists and some liberals would say yes, and that secularization’s doing away with absolute standards of right and wrong is a sign of society’s great enlightenment. They would insist that designation of any act as sin or suggestion that one should feel a moment’s shame over any personal action is intolerant, judgmental, and hateful.

Perhaps we Christians are to blame for this. We know that God’s standards of sin as given to us in Scripture are good, not only because they are from God, but because they promote healthy families and lifestyles which in turn promote healthy and prosperous societies. We know that admitting when we have sinned and taking responsibility for our actions is good for both our souls and our communities. But maybe for too long we have divorced grace from sin and invested more energy in condemning the sinner along with the sin than we have in showing why God’s ways are good for us. We have unwittingly given fodder to the secularists and caused them to throw out the baby with the proverbial bathwater.

Some of the church is still stuck in the habit of condemning people, rather than challenging their actions. Other parts of the church have joined the secularists in throwing out any notion of sin. The former leaves the church dead in legalism and irrelevance, offering no hope to a lost world. The latter leaves us no clear alternative to the world’s system, adds to the disintegration of society, and dishonors God. It’s time for all of us find the balance in the example of Jesus, who never left sin unchallenged and called it by it’s true name, but always showed a better way, offering grace for healing and deliverance from sin to all who would receive it.

Whether or not the message has been a bit muddled, I choose to believe that this desire to show a better way is exactly what motivates the Palins to handle their daughter’s situation as they are. More power to them.

What do you think?

Renewing Gratitude, Renewing Hope

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. –Colossians 3:15

My friend Amy Azar, a missionary in South Africa, sent me this photo of people’s “homes” in Khaylitsha Township there. Take a long look at it. I’m sure your first thoughts will match mine: “Oh my God—I can’t believe people really live in those things. How awful!” No doubt this exclamation was accompanied by compassion and a desire, yet with some sense of powerlessness, to do something about it. That, however, is a subject for another post.

Today, I wonder if you see the thing that immediately arrested my attention in this photo, that is, that big, healthy-looking mass of green plants with bright yellow flowers beside the shack on the left. I marveled that in this scene of total desolation there is still a symbol of beauty and hope. I wondered if the flowers grew wild, a gift from God, or if some impoverished resident of indomitable spirit planted them there. Either way, they are a cause for hope.

As I pondered these things, I heard that still, small voice of God say to my heart, “There is always something to be thankful for.” These words pricked my heart, because I knew He was talking about me, not about poor South Africans.

I’ve had some struggles lately, and sometimes (OK, frequently) have given in to self-pity and internal grumbling. I say “internal” grumbling because, as a “mature Christian”, I know better than to complain loudly to people. But God sees—and hears—what goes on in the heart, and there’s no hiding it from Him. I knew I might as well ‘fess up and repent of an ungrateful heart.

Such a heart is an insidious enemy, because nothing freezes out intimacy with God faster than ingratitude. I know, because I speak from experience. It can make your most intimate Friend seem like a distant cousin in no time, and grieves His heart. It makes you painfully aware of what you lack and forget all the rich blessings you possess, skewing your view of reality. It cuts off fellowship with God, joy, life, and eventually makes you mean, cold and hard.

Conversely, nothing opens up the wellspring of God’s love, blessing, and companionship like a thankful heart. Gratitude in everything is like a sweet fragrance to the Lord that warms His heart and brings Him joy and glory. (It makes you smell better to everyone else, too.) It makes you soft, warm, joyful and compassionate. And gratitude begets more gratitude, first to God and then to others. It allows praise to rise in our hearts and gives us eyes to see the hand of God and his miracles, big and small, in all our circumstances, renewing hope for the future.

Yes, it’s better to be thankful than to be a whiner. So I have determined to make a habit of thanking God for specific things every day, and ending each day with thanks. Today, for example, I am thankful that my fourteen-year-old Sable is running well and that I get to prepare and serve dinner at a homeless shelter tonight.

Why don’t you join me? What are you thankful for today? Send me your list as a comment.

DAVY CROCKETT VS. BIG GOVERNMENT

My, how times have changed in the U.S. Congress since the days of the inimitable Davy Crockett! Then, federal coffers were flush with cash and members thought twice about how they spent the people’s money. Considering the “stimulus package” passed by the House and now before the Senate, it might do us good to consider the following story from Crockett’s life as a congressman.

When Colonel Davy Crockett was in the U.S. Congress (sometime between 1827 and 1835), a bill came up to appropriate money for support of a widow whose husband had been a decorated naval officer. It seemed the bill, for such a worthy cause, would sail through unopposed. That was until Crockett rose to speak in opposition. He told his House colleagues of how he had once voted for a similar bill and felt very good about himself for doing so, until he later ran into a wise constituent named Horatio Bunce while roaming the hinterlands of his district campaigning for re-election.

Colonel Crockett continued to tell how he ran into Mr. Bunce in a field, introduced himself, and asked him for his vote. Bunce replied that he would never give it, precisely because of Crockett’s “yes” vote on that charity appropriation, a provision of $20,000 in federal aid to victims of a fire in Georgetown (DC). Mr. Bunce, you see, felt that such a vote was an abuse of the Constitution. An incredulous Crockett asked him to explain why his compassionate vote violated the U.S. Constitution. Below is Colonel Crockett’s account of their dialogue:

“My papers say that last winter you voted for a bill to appropriate $20,000 to some sufferers by a fire in Georgetown. Is that true!"

"Certainly it is, and I thought that was the last vote for which anybody in the world would have found fault with."

"Well, Colonel, where do you find in the Constitution any authority to give away the public money in charity!"

"Here was another sockdologer; for, when I began to think about it, I could not remember a thing in the Constitution that authorized it. I found I must take another tack, so I said:

"Well, my friend; I may as well own up. You have got me there. But certainly nobody will complain that a great and rich country like ours should give the insignificant sum of $20,000 to relieve its suffering women and children, particularly with a full and overflowing Treasury, and I am sure, if you had been there, you would have done just as I did."

"It is not the amount, Colonel, that I complain of; it is the principle. In the first place, the Government ought to have in the Treasury no more than enough for its legitimate purposes. But that has nothing to do with the question. The power of collecting and disbursing money at pleasure is the most dangerous power that can be entrusted to man, particularly under our system of collecting revenue by a tariff, which reaches every man in the country, no matter how poor he may be, and the poorer he is the more he pays in proportion to his means. What is worse, it presses upon him without his knowledge where the weight centers, for there is not a man in the United States who can ever guess how much he pays to the Government. So you see, that while you are contributing to relieve one, you are drawing it from thousands who are even worse off than he. If you had the right to give anything, the amount was simply a matter of discretion with you, and you had as much right to give $20,000,000 as $20,000. If you have the right: to give to one, you have the right to give to all; and, as the Constitution neither defines charity nor stipulates the amount, you are at liberty to give to any and everything which you may believe, or profess to believe, is a charity, and to any amount you may think proper. You will very easily perceive, what a wide door this would open for fraud and corruption and favoritism, on the one hand, and for robbing the people on the other. No, Colonel, Congress has no right to give charity. Individual members may give as much of their own money as they please, but they have no right to touch a dollar of the public money for that purpose. If twice as many houses had been burned in this county as in Georgetown, neither you nor any other member of Congress would have thought of appropriating a dollar for our relief. There are about two hundred and forty members of Congress. If they had shown their sympathy for the sufferers by contributing each one week's pay, it would have made over $13,000. There are plenty of wealthy men in and around Washington who could have given $20,000 without depriving themselves of even a luxury of life. The Congressmen chose to keep their own money, which, if reports be true, some of them spend not very creditably; and the people about Washington, no doubt, applauded you for relieving them from the necessity of giving by giving what was not yours to give. The people have delegated to Congress, by the Constitution, the power to do certain things. To do these, it is authorized to collect and pay moneys, and for nothing else. Everything beyond this is usurpation, and a violation of the Constitution."

"So you see, Colonel, you have violated the Constitution in what I consider a vital point. It is a precedent fraught with danger to the country, for when Congress once begins to stretch its power beyond the limits of the Constitution, there is no limit to it, and no security for the people. I have no doubt you acted honestly, but that does not make it any better, except as far as you are personally concerned, and you see that I cannot vote for you."

For the very interesting details and happy ending to this story, please follow the link at the bottom of this post. Suffice it to say that Crockett declared he would put up a week’s worth of his own salary and challenged every colleague to do the same, and Congress voted down the charity bill before them. Whether they all anted up, I can’t say.

There’s little I can add to Mr. Bunce’s eloquence and logic on this subject. I simply encourage you to carefully consider the principles he presents. How much more loathe should Congress be to spend money not their own on “charity” for corporations and municipalities whose woes are largely self-inflicted, and at a time when we are trillions of dollars in debt. May God grant us not politicians, but statesmen of wisdom and character, like Davy Crockett, who value what is right more than re-election.
_______________________

This story appeared in The Life Of Colonel David Crockett, by Edward S. Ellis, published by Porter & Coates in 1884. Now in the public domain. Quoted from the website of Advocates for Self-Government at http://www.theadvocates.org/library/christian-crockett.html.

THOUGHTS ON THE MORNING AFTER – PART III

Animated discussions are flying around the Christian community about what the election of Barack Obama really means, and there is no shortage of opinions. I have read (although I can’t confirm where) that thirty-two percent of evangelicals voted for Barack Obama. Clearly, they see his election as the dawn of a new day for America. Many others see it as the last nail in the coffin for millions more unborn babies and perhaps for our free nation itself. Some see blessing, others judgment. There are other questions. Was it God’s will, or not? Does God still judge nations today, or did Jesus bear all judgment in this life for us? How much responsibility for what happened rests with an apostate church? What do we, as the church, need to learn from this? Is God done with America, or are our best days still ahead?

All this will be discussed for a long time to come, and I don’t pretend to know the answers. I simply want to look further at the good that could result from the election of America’s first African-American president. While it is surely possible to overstate the potential in this historic event, it’s not possible to overstate its effect on the African-American spirit. It’s worth looking at the possibilities of that boon.

Obama’s election has African-Americans from coast to coast feeling like full citizens of the United States at last, with an unprecedented sense of hope and opportunity. Some will argue that their hope is misplaced in a false messiah. While that is no doubt true for many, my prayer is that their newfound hope will breed a sense of the possible that will cause them to dig deep within the untapped wealth of their own souls for the stuff to participate and succeed in the American Dream. As Don Imus said, now little black children as well as little white children can puff out their chests and say, and believe, “I could be president of the United States someday.” While legal barriers to black advancement have long been removed, now psychological barriers have been removed, as have all excuses. It is time for African-Americans to dream and move forward toward those dreams in the land of opportunity.

Most important, the remaining barriers to full healing of centuries-old wounds and reconciliation between black and white in this country have been torn down. It won’t happen overnight, but we can make great strides toward that end. This should be a high-priority goal for all of us.

Now imagine what strength and power would come into the American economy and the American soul if these things came to pass. Picture an America where citizens of all races believed in, and actively took part in, the goodness and opportunity of this nation. See a country where soul-rending mistrust and hatred between races gave way to trust and a sense of shared destiny. Savor the vision of a nation where old stereotypes melted away and each of us judged a person, as Dr. King envisioned, by his character and not the color of his skin, whether white or black. Such an America would truly fulfill her destiny to be a shining city upon a hill, “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

You may say, “You think all that can come out of the election of one African-American president?” Well, it’s a good first step. These are things for which we should diligently pray and work. I guess I’m just idealistic enough to believe it could happen.

Thoughts on the Morning After - Part Deux

I happen to believe that the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States represents the beginning of God’s judgment on America, and the American church in particular (I Peter 4:17). However, in his incredible mercy, God’s judgment is redemptive, and there are some good things that will come out of this.

Let’s start with what this election means for African-Americans. Their elated faces and euphoric comments on the news after the election made me realize that for black Americans, Barack Obama’s election means that their emancipation is finally complete. They finally feel like full, equal citizens of the United States. Whoopi Goldberg expressed it well when she blogged on www.wowowow.com:

I realized that for probably the first time in my life, in thinking about myself as an American, it occurred to me that this is really our arrival in the country that said everything was possible. We have finally become part of the fabric of the United States of America.

No white eye rolling out there, please. You and I may believe that African-American equality was secured by the Emancipation Proclamation, the Reconstruction Amendments, or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. On paper, that is true, but experiential reality may be quite different. We know very well the horrific treatment of blacks by some whites throughout our earlier history. Yet it remains hard for us to understand why many African-Americans have never felt secure in their equal rights or became invested in their citizenship. Maybe this is because white people assume everyone experiences full equality because we have never had to defend equality for ourselves. But we need to embrace a broader view.

Perhaps we have underestimated the depth of the generational wounds of slavery and post-slavery injustice and overestimated levels of healing and reconciliation. This leads us to think things like, “Why can’t they quit whining and just get over it? That stuff ended forty years ago.” However, that is like an unfaithful husband whose wife is still learning to trust him again and gets upset if he comes home late one evening. He may grouse to her, “I already said I was sorry and I won’t do it again. Why can’t you just get past this?” We would think him a Neanderthal. Deep wounds take a lot of time to heal, and we need to extend grace and understanding, as well as encouragement to overcome and jump into America with both feet.

Of course, there are many African-American attitudes and ways that fall short, too, but we are not responsible for them. What this election has shown me is that I, and probably almost all white people, have seriously underestimated the enormity and pervasiveness of African-American feelings of disenfranchisement. The euphoria will fade and Obama supporters of all races will learn soon enough that he is not a messiah, but a man, a flawed human being like all others. But for now, whatever we think of the man and his policies, let us rejoice and share the shining moment with our African-American countrymen, and pray that God will use this singular event to bring about major breakthroughs. What those might be are for discussion in Part III. (This could go on a long time!)

Thoughts on the Morning After - Part I

Ironically, as a McCain supporter I was more depressed when I woke up yesterday on Election Day morning than I am on this morning after. Christians prayed fervently for God’s will in this election, and God answered with a win for Barack Obama. We may disagree on whether this represents mercy or judgment on our nation, but regardless, Obama will be our next president. How we Christians deal with this reality may be a test from God to see where our hearts really lie. Will we react like one more angry interest group whose agenda has been thwarted by our political enemy, or will we humble ourselves under God’s sovereign hand, in a spirit of repentance for our own sins and failures, and seek him for more effective and loving ways to be salt and light, in truth and grace, for our nation?

As I wrote earlier in the week, a great place to start would be on our knees on this Wednesday morning. After that, we might try looking for the silver lining in what we may consider the dark cloud of the Obama win. Here are a few thoughts:

1. Let’s start with the obvious: America has just elected her first African-American president. If we can find little else to celebrate in an Obama victory, we can all certainly rejoice in this colossal milestone for our country. I grew up in the segregated South and still vividly remember the “Orangeburg Massacre” in my town, a race riot that ended in the police killing of three black college students, all because a couple of young black men dared to ask for service at the snack bar in the local bowling alley. How far we have come in forty years! And who would have thought then that the state whose borders held the capital of the Confederacy would go blue for Barack Obama in 2008? This is a victory for America and for humanity.

2. Those who use the accusation of racism to excuse every personal or political failure, or to not even try to achieve in life, no longer have that excuse. The perceived barrier has been broken. Don Imus said yesterday that, although he voted for McCain, he would be happy for an Obama win because it would give black children across America the ability to dream, perhaps for the first time, that they really can be anything they want to be, even president of the United States. What people believe about themselves has a far greater impact on their lives than government entitlements ever could.

3. The reality of numbers 1 and 2 above make a far better case for American blacks in this land opportunity than all the liberal carping about the hopeless socio-economic situation of blacks and others. Ironically, Obama’s very success begins to undermine the presuppositions supporting wealth redistribution and entitlement programs. Sometimes unintended consequences are positive.

4. It may be hard to overestimate the hope the historic Obama victory brings to American citizens, even those of us who oppose his policies, in this time of economic doom saying. I’ll wager his election will do more for the markets than that bailout boondoggle.

Some believers will, unfortunately, refuse to see any positive implications of an Obama presidency and bitterly focus on the disasters that could result. Those who do, give in to fear, which never serves us well, and they forget that God is still on his throne.

Civilized Genocide

by Jim Mills

Note to readers: For those of you who don't know Jim Mills, he is a missionary, singer/musician, theologian, historian,culture warrior,and general renaissance man who lives with his wife in Belgium and has ministered throughout Europe for over thirty years. I had the pleasure of meeting them when I lived in Latvia. He had sent this essay to me in response to my last blog post, and I asked him if I could share it here.


In 1945, the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces ordered as many films and photos and testimonies be gathered as remotely possible of the devastation and horror found in the Nazi concentration camps. It wasn’t an infatuation with gruesomeness that prompted American General Dwight D. Eisenhower to give this order. Rather it was so that future generations would never question that the holocaust actually took place. In his own words, “Collect as much proof through films, testimonies, photographs. . .because the day will come when some son of a bitch will say this never happened.”

Six million Jews, 20 million Russians, and ten million Christians and priests were executed in this tragic chapter of history in western civilization. Most of the holocaust took place in three to five years. If the war had not ended when it did, perhaps there would have been multiplied millions more who would have lost their lives.

There is also ample evidence of the horrific genocide that has taken place in Rwanda, the Congo, Sudan, Darfur, and elsewhere. Thanks to the media, we in the West can be made aware of the atrocities and then take some kind of action. The question to ask: Have we taken action?

Though the number of horrors is staggering in the last 20-60 years, there is an even greater horror that has taken place throughout the so-called civilized world. A civilized genocide has taken place in which as many as 150,000,000 around the world have been murdered, butchered, and some simply left to die without any assistance. The holocaust in America alone stands at 50,000,000. The blood of these precious and innocent children cry out. Do we have ears to hear?

In the next eight years new Supreme Court justices will be set in by the newly elected president of the USA. Both candidates have made their position clear.
John McCain will appoint judges that will eradicate the horrible practice known as partial-birth abortion, as well as work to overturn Roe vs. Wade that launched this civilized genocide in the USA 34 years ago.

Barak Obama has also made his position known. He said,

“The first thing I'd do as President is sign the 'Freedom of Choice Act' (known as FOCA). This proposed legislation would create a federally guaranteed 'fundamental right' to abortion through all nine months of pregnancy, including, as Cardinal Justin Rigali of Philadelphia has noted in a statement condemning the proposed Act, 'a right to abort a fully developed child in the final weeks for undefined health reasons.'"

In essence, FOCA would abolish virtually every existing state and federal limitation on abortion, including parental consent and notification laws for minors, state and federal funding restrictions on abortion, and conscience protections for pro-life citizens working in the health-care industry, in other words, protections against being forced to participate in the practice of abortion or else lose their jobs.

The question is, do we have ears to hear the cries of the ca. 50,000,000? Many throw up their hands and say, "What can we do?"

There is something you can do to resist the triumph of evil. Recall to mind the words of Edmund Burke, who famously said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men [and I add "and women"] do nothing.” Do something. Vote for life.

My Reflection on the Election

It’s probably safe to say that more Christians have collectively spent more hours in prayer about this presidential election than just about anything else in our lifetimes. While no one—Christian or otherwise—doubts the gargantuan importance of this election or the magnitude of its consequences, it is mystifying how much disagreement there is in the church about who the right candidate is.

For many reasons beyond the scope of this essay, it is extremely difficult for me to understand how anyone who names the Name of Christ could overlook so much ranging from questionable to disturbing to vote for Barack Obama (and I welcome comments to the contrary). Yet many devoted Christians who love God and pray earnestly favor Obama. I have a dear friend, a true lover of God and a brilliant woman, who enthusiastically supports Obama and believes there is sinister, perhaps even demonic, activity on the Republican side intended to derail her candidate. With the ACORN mess and other suspicious reports, I have felt the same about the Democratic side trying to undermine McCain. We both believe the other’s candidate lies or hides the truth about his record, policies, or associations. We both pray for truth to prevail. We pretend to view that as a point of agreement, yet we have different ideas of what truth probably is in this case. It is very sad that this should be.

One pundit perhaps summed it up well by suggesting that Obama supporters support whom they hope he will be, not who he is. In my humble judgment, that’s a dangerous gamble. Thank God, at least, that we do have the freedom to choose, and make our choice before God.

Two things are certain. First, we are all praying for God’s Perfect Will to be done in the election, while hoping and believing that his Will includes our candidate. Second, because God is sovereign and because the Church has prayed diligently, God will certainly have his way in the selection of our president, regardless of who wins. We will receive the Lord’s mercy or his long-withheld judgment.

Like many Christians, I have prayed for mercy to triumph over judgment, even though I know we deserve judgment. I have for years asked God to be as harsh as he needs to be, but as gentle as he can be, to get our attention and deal with the sins of this nation, beginning with the Church. As our parents used to tell us, we can choose to learn our lessons the easy way or the hard way.

No matter what happens, however, our response as believers should be the same, knowing that God’s ways are always redemptive and that judgment is really simply severe mercy. Those who don’t yet know the Lord often think God judges to punish or be mean. We who know his loving nature, though, understand that when he allows judgment, it is always to draw his people back to himself, for their eternal good and his own glory. This we can all agree on.

We still have five days to pray earnestly and honestly for God’s choice for President of the United States. On Wednesday morning some of us will be elated and some grief-stricken. Whatever happens on Tuesday, however, we should each fall on our knees on Wednesday in humility and gratitude, either for his amazing grace and mercy, or because he loves us enough to discipline us. And let’s also respond with renewed commitment to Jesus’ two great commandments, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves, and so be salt and light to our ever-darkening culture. God is in control, regardless of who inhabits the White House. If we’ll do this, the Lord may yet grant us grace to turn this ship of state around.

Who Will Be Our Messiah?

This election has brought into focus two things positively mystifying, and ominous, about Americans’ attitude toward the presidency of the United States. One is how much blame they foist onto the President for things that are, constitutionally, the responsibility of Congress, or, worse, that are beyond the control of any human being, such as bad weather. The other is how much they look to a president to be a savior from every sort of corporate or even personal ill and discomfort, exemplified by Barack Obama’s “messiah” status with many voters. These phenomena are ominous because they indicate an elevation of the presidency that borders on idolatry. They signal a return of the age-old tendency—once anathema in this country—to look not to ourselves under God for our governance and solutions to national problems, but to a single strong leader to save us.

The same thing happened in Israel millennia ago. Since their arrival in the Promised Land, the Jews essentially had a theocracy led by judges and prophets, who administered justice, taught them the law of God, and led them in battle. Under this system, they did just fine without benefit of a king or a huge bureaucracy. That was until they asked their leader, Samuel the prophet, to, “appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.” (I Samuel 8:6) Samuel knew this was a bad plan, but the Lord told him to grant their request, saying, “It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.” (I Samuel 8:7)

In the rest of I Samuel 8, Samuel warns the Israelites about what would happen once they had a king to rule over them. Please read it yourself, but the gist is that he would tax them silly for his own projects and make slaves of them. Samuel warned, “When that day comes, you will cry out to the Lord for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day.” (I Samuel 8:18) But they didn’t heed the warning, and suffered the consequences, as the rest of the Old Testament records.

Of course, America is not a theocracy and there are many other differences between ancient Israel and the United States today. Yet there are parallels, and we would be wise to learn from Israel’s example. What happens in a nation’s spiritual life eventually works itself out in its political life. Israel rejected God. With that rejection, they lost their will and ability for self-government. They demanded an all-powerful king to rule over them and fight their battles for them.

Are we not doing exactly the same thing in America today? We have rejected God in our personal lives and in our public institutions. The resulting moral decline has left us slaves of our lusts, unable to govern ourselves, an ability that is the very foundation of a free society. Since nature abhors a vacuum, to the degree that we will not govern ourselves, we will be governed, by an increasingly stronger and more centralized authority. Another way to say it is that if the Messiah is not King internally, in our hearts, we will need an external king to control us. Like Israel in Samuel’s time, we clamor for such a savior-king to remove the effects of our sin, but not our sin.

We will either worship God or the state. We cannot be a godless nation and a free one. It’s time for us to humble ourselves for some national soul searching to decide whom we will serve, and so determine the future of our nation.

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS FEAR ITSELF

The daily drumbeat of negative economic and geopolitical news over the last few months has taken its toll on the nation’s collective psyche. And now, we are told, our economy teeters on the brink of total collapse. Even the President has unceremoniously exclaimed, “This sucker is going down,” if Congress can’t agree on a federal mortgage bailout by the time markets open on Monday.

All of this is exceedingly troubling, but what is more troubling is our collective panic response. We have, I’m afraid, become a people who value security more than independence and who fear discomfort more than evil. At this moment in our history we would be wise to heed the words of FDR as he embarked upon his first presidency in the darkest hours of the Great Depression:

I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

We may disagree from the distance of some seventy-five years on whether the policies set forth later in his address were right or wrong. However, we must all agree that FDR was correct that our only real enemy is fear, because it is profoundly true that fear paralyzes and converts advance into retreat. Fear causes difficulties to loom larger than they are and make us feel small and impotent when we are not. It causes us to make short-sighted and wrong decisions. Fear is the enemy, and opposite, of faith, in God and in our own ability to find solutions and prevail when we humbly call on him and trust him to help us. Fear causes us to shrink back when we should run to the battle lines.

If the signers of the Declaration of Independence had yielded to fear, we would not have our republic today. It sounds cliché, but it is important to remember at times like these. In the face of almost certain defeat, they traded fear for courage, knowing they were risking, as we’ve heard from childhood, “their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.” Perhaps we’ve heard this so often that we need to recapture just what that means. They understood that life—not just the money and material comfort that lay at risk for us today—was too small a price to pay for a free nation founded on the principles of self-government under God that they envisioned would become a beacon to lead the world from despotism to liberty.

This is our heritage of courage and their legacy to us. We have squandered that heritage. We have become fat and soft in the pursuit of comfort, materialism, and moral relativism and have forgotten what stern stock we spring from. But this would be a perfect time to remember who we are as Americans and set our hearts to reclaim the guts of our Forefathers, as FDR called Americans in his time to do.

Should our economy in fact collapse, it would be no more devastating than what the colonists and their leaders faced in 1776. We may well face this, and other hard times the likes of which have not been seen in our times. But if we will conquer fear and be calm and resolute in the face of each challenge, as FDR said, we will endure, revive, and prosper. Perhaps we need these trials to shake us out of our complacency and pettiness and remind us of what really matters in our personal and national life. May God help each of us and our leaders, and may God bless America.

TAKING LIGHT FROM THE DARKNESS

My house is under contract and I am moving out one week from today. Some said it couldn’t be done, what with the down market and everything. It sold in just less than eight weeks, when there were 17 other comparable properties for sale on the two streets of my little subdivision. Some of those had been on the market for six months or more, and many had more features to offer than my place. After receiving no offers the entire time, I received two in one day. My realtor, a wise and mature Christian, said that was God’s way of saying, “It’s time for you to go now.” I give Him full credit, and much praise, for the sale.

Thus ends the Atlanta and post-mission field phase of my life and thus begins the move to Nashville and a new season of life. The last four years have probably been the most difficult of my life. Why that was true is the subject for another post. Today, however, is for thanking God and marveling over the light I am taking away with me from this dark time.

I have several friends who are also emerging from tough times, and we decided to do a mental and spiritual exercise while picking blueberries this past weekend. That was to review the life season now ending and list the eternal things God within us did during the dark time that are now indelibly stamped on our hearts, changing us forever. These will become the foundation for all we will be and accomplish in the next season.

Here are just a few of the items from my list:

1. I know now that God will never coddle my self-pity or unbelief, but as I rise above those temptations, he will always come through for me, in His way, in His timing.
2. I know now that I am strong. I may have wept and gotten depressed many times, but by God’s grace, I have walked an uncertain path that few would voluntarily walk and I am still standing. I am strong because God is faithful.
3. I know now that sometimes depending on God means depending on people. He has created us, not for dependence, but for interdependence, for give and take.
a. I’ve been humbled in that I feel I’ve been more on the taking end than the giving, but humility is a good thing. And the time will come when I’ll be the giver.
b. In people’s eagerness to provide for a myriad of my needs, I have seen the unstinting, giving heart of God.
c. My upbringing said, “Never trouble anyone for anything.” But this is only thinly disguised pride. I have learned to receive from others, and formed strong bonds of friendship in the process.
d. I have gained a greater compassion for the needs of others and better understand the value of timely and heartfelt encouragement.
4. I know that I could never doubt the existence of God. I suppose I could become self-deceived and somehow be convinced that God was mean or didn’t like us or some other untruth, but I could never be convinced that He is not there, because I have seen His presence and His acts so tangibly in my own life.

No matter what season of life you are in, I encourage you to try a similar exercise. You’ll be amazed at how far you have come and how great your God is.