Water tight integrity

I was not able to listen to President Obama’s State of the Union address. However, I am reading all of the commentary that it generates. Ever since getting back to the US, I am worried for this nation’s future. It appears that Obama briefly addressed our country’s ever-growing deficit, but he reinforced his stance on how the rich must pay their due. It appears that he is refusing to acknowledge any other solutions for our nation’s debt other than creating class distinctions, something that the Constitutional framers worked hard to eliminate. Reading about his other speeches, the problem of debt crisis is nominal.

I am a navy veteran and the political situation feels as if I am in a sinking ship. Water is pouring from this huge gash in the bottom of the boat. Water pressure is causing the gash to widen; threatening to break the keel in two. Captains in the past have not called for watertight integrity as they poured more power to the ship because they wanted to be popular with the crew. The two crews [Port Water Integrity Crew and Starboard Water Integrity Crew] responsible for getting rid of the water only argue about which side of the boat they should work on first. Each crew is insisting that their side gets fixed first. They insist on using only their very limited material rather than combining material and crews. If they manage to come to an agreement, they only lift a single bucket of water out of the onslaught of liquid and then go right back to arguing. The President and Congress seems incapable of understanding that we have to band together and that everyone has to compromise for this problem to be solved. The President saying that simply making the rich pay 30 percent of their income in taxes isn’t going to be a fix all. Is that disturbing to you? Does that seem short-sighted? But then should I expect better heading into an election year? The priority is not fixing the country but getting votes to stay in office.

Because we as a nation have for the most part abandoned the idea of being ‘one nation under God’ this abandonment has deprived her of leaders that truly care about America and its future. Our nation’s future is becoming nothing more than a foolish fairy tale. That is why I do not pin my hopes on a party or man to bring change. Political parties and men change to suit their agendas but Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever. I am staking my vote on Him.

Living-dead living

Col 3:5  “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you…”

It is difficult to live as a living-dead man. The seat of my desires shows itself in the different parts of my body. I like the old English word “members.” My body is composed of different members. All of the members are subject to earthly desires. The eye is different from the hand. The brain is different from the mouth. Yet the eye, brain, mouth and hand all feed information to the seat of my desires. This is where “sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness” are fed to the seat of my desires. In the Garden, where perfection reigned, the information flow was untainted. But the proverbial “I” rebelled and garnered the wrath of God. “I” was expelled. “I” now became a creature of idolatry. Now I live, as a citizen outside of the Garden, in a body of members who tainted by earthly desires that are hostile to a holy God. And the only remedy is death, but to not the physical members, as that would harm or even kill me. It is the seat of desires that will be dominated and killed. It is a beast; a wild horse that refuses to be broken. As anyone knows who has been horseback riding. The reins are for keeping the horse from running away with the rider. By denying domination to the seat of my desires I keep the control; I keep rein over  influence of my members from running away with me. My experience teaches me that not putting to death this pale horse allows it to gain power and morph into a raging bull elephant. It is warfare. In warfare, you kill the enemy bent on killing you before he succeeds.

Beginnings are not endings

Many people start life in difficult and incredibly ‘unfair’ circumstances. There many around us who begin life rejected by parents. Many grow up in families surrounded by murderers, rapist, treachery, addictions and con-artists. Some grow up in slavery or are sold into slavery, even here in the US. Consider Joseph, who is held up as a hero of the Bible. Jacob his father was a conniving and treacherous. He stole his older brother’s inheritance. Jacob’s sons took after their father. Joseph was the 11^th son, the youngest. Jacob played favorites with his sons and Joseph was his favorite. This created animosity and jealousy among the other 10 older brothers. They made a plan and sold Joseph into slavery to some Egyptians slave traders. Then they created an elaborate lie complete with evidence to convince their father of Joseph’s unfortunate demise by a wild animal attack. Joseph started life as a loved and cherished son and suddenly found himself in a foreign country as a slave among foreign gods. But did he focus on yesterday? No. He remained faithful to his God and “The Lord was with Joseph…” [Genesis 39:2] That changes everything. That changes most of all our attitude. God being with us levels the playing field. He can change tomorrow. Many people go through life looking at the wrongs people do to us in the yesterdays. They fail to see that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” [Hebrews 13:8 ESV] God can help us with the wrongs and heal our hurts. That does not mean that God is necessarily going to ‘fix’ those who have wronged us. We may not escape the circumstance we are in or resolve it to our liking. The good news is that “if God is for us, who can be against us?” [Romans 8:31 NIV]. When everything is all said and done, if God is in us then it does not matter who is against us! Beginnings are not endings!

Unending book!

“…the word of the Lord stands forever…” 1 Peter 1:25

As a new Christian I some older Christians challenged me to develop the habit of reading my Bible daily. I took up the challenge eagerly. About half way through reading the Bible cover to cover, I suddenly wondered “What am I going to do after I finish … there will be nothing left to read!”  I asked my Christian mentors and they said something like “You could read the Bible for a lifetime and not ‘scratch the surface.” At the time I did not believe them. But over the years I have found that there just is no other book like the Bible. In my 70 years of living I have found no  human being that would have written a philosophy for living to such a high standard. The Bible speaks from outside the human condition. I think that it was Martin Luther who said: “The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.” I have found that the Bible creates a sense of God’s presence that forces a reaction in public places. I can lay a newspaper on my table in a Starbucks and no one gives me a second look. However, when I lay my Bible on the table I get looks. Some see the Bible and then stare as they walk by as if I am going to jump up and preach! So for the last 50 years I have worked on maintaining a daily reading schedule. The Bible is and will be the last word. ‘The Word of God is full of living power. It is sharper than the sharpest knife, cutting deep into our innermost thoughts and desires. It exposes us to what we really are’ (Hebrews 4:12 NLT).

Love via Truth

We live in treacherous times. Truth has become relevant. The principles that we thought to be sacred are being eaten away. Our Constitution is currently being interpreted by events and “modern times.” The things that we held dear 100 years ago out of date by our society. Sticking to the things that the Founding Fathers thought important for freedom are now considered inappropriate and anachronistic. We no longer need to do things by the ‘old code.’ We live and act according to relevant beliefs. Since we have no standard outside of ourselves we behave according to the dictates of the circumstance. How sad. It looks like freedom but it is stressful. We need fences. As we reject the norms set by Judeo-Christian principles, we act more god-like. We seek wisdom and find folly. We talk and sing songs about love. But love without boundaries is chaos. Without a guiding principle love becomes greedy and self-serving. Jer 31:3 “…the LORD appeared to him [me] from far away. I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you.” I as a husband need to reflect and act on this continually.

Change Your Position

When we were living in South Africa it was amazing to us to realize that not more than 20 years ago the level of communications available to us for calling back to the US was the stuff of Dick Tracy comics. Today we live in an age of unparalleled communication. In the “christian” world there is a plethora of information about Jesus. But have you noticed that so many people are still unclear about Jesus and what it means to follow Him? The message sounds garbled. Even the meaning of the word “christian” is garbled. And it is no wonder. We Christians keep providing the media with lots of dirt. Headlines are consistent: Pastoral moral failure, embezzlement, wrong Biblical interpretation on the date for the return of Christ, using number sequences to bring meaning to prophecy, the correct day to have church services, health and wealth doctrines, and the list goes on. We fight among ourselves to keep hold of our fortress of the truth.

Leighton Ford said in his Bible Study on Mark: “Sometimes I think we should stop using the term Christian. It carries a great deal of negative cultural baggage. In some societies everyone assumes they are Christians unless they happen to belong to some other religion. In other cultures “Christians” may be viewed as a political party – or even the ones lobbing the bombs. Perhaps it would be better if we simply talked about being followers of Jesus.”

An old axiom says “It costs nothing to become a Christian but will cost everything to live as a Christian.” Becoming a Christian is a one-time decision. Living out that decision for the rest of our lives is a process involving daily choices. Jesus made that clear when He told the crowd: “If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” [Mark 8:34] He goes on to talk about the profit and loss of those daily choices we will experience.

Peter, when asked by Jesus who he thought the Son of Man might be answered: “You are the Christ.” This is an amazing statement for a Jewish man to make in that time and place. Does stating that make one a Christian? Some think so. Some would say that saying those words makes one a follower of Jesus. That claim is misleading. It misses an important part for becoming a follower of Jesus. Peter did not make that statement because it suddenly hit him that this was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” standing in front of him. Jesus made it clear to Peter and the other disciples that Peter did not come up with that revelation on his own. “… for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” [Mat 16:16-17] “For by grace have you been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” [Eph 2:8-9]

Immediately after Peter’s proclamation, Jesus goes on and tells the group about what choices He would be making as the Christ. He would be choosing to go to the hotbed of persecution … Jerusalem. He would be making the choice to suffer many things at the hands of the religious leaders. And finally He knew He would choose to place Himself in harm’s way by allowing mortal men to kill Him on a cross but rise on the third day. Peter, immediately upon hearing this news pulls Jesus aside to counsel Him, making a private proclamation. In so many words Peter told Jesus that He was making a critical error in choosing these things to happen. This was not good political strategy!

The rebuke that Peter and the other disciples got from Jesus was a shock to them. They were envisioning their country free from Roman tyranny; the things of men. Jesus wanted them to see a new vision; a land focused on the ways of God. The narrative of the blind man needing a second touch is the illustration that Jesus used to make His point. We all need a second touch to clarify our sight. We need to understand the Jesus’ destiny; the cross that Jesus headed to in order that we might be able to fulfill our destiny. We are image bearers if we have met the living Christ and not just made a verbal assent. Otherwise we are just political pawns in a world of darkness. Ask Jesus for a better understanding of His way; ask Him for a second touch.

Simple Solutions

“…you are my followers if you love each other.” (John 13:35)

When Andrew Jackson was a general in the Tennessee Militia during the War of 1812 his troops were fighting and bickering among themselves so he called them together and said, ‘Gentlemen, let’s remember the enemy is over there!’ We’d all do well to remember just that. It’s easy to love God; it’s harder when it comes to loving those we have to live with.

Someone once said: ‘If there’s anything that would keep me away from Christ if I was lost it would be the attitude of Christians towards one another.

Everything we need to know about living with one another can be found in these two verses, ‘Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important than himself…look out…for the interests of others’ (Philippians 2:3-4 NAS)

Sounds like something a teacher might say to a roomful of nursery children. Adult problems could be solved if that was the driving force in our relationships.

How many couples could reconcile their marital differences if they applied what Jesus said, ‘People will know…you are my followers if you love each other.’ (John 17:21).

If You Love Them, Speak Clearly with Them

“…each part… helps the other parts grow..”. Ephesians 4:16

We have all heard the term “beating around the bush” to describe someone who is not straight forward in what they say. Part of the impetus for change is the wish to clearly help men to become the men that God intended. And that means being honest and transparent with ourselves and others. It is not about confrontation. It is about being honest and direct. I suspect that one of the reasons that Jesus, with little fanfare, was able to recruit four fishermen at the very start of His ministry [two were brothers nicknamed “Sons of Thunder” which today would sound like a motorcycle club] was His clear and unmistakable way of laying it squarely on the line. These were hard living men who worked hard to make a daily living. Words such as tenderness, diplomatic and tactful would not be very accurate in describing their personal communication style. In their world men screamed and chewed each other out; communication was verbally abusive. I have first hand knowledge, I worked in that world as a young man. Look for avenues open that provides us men the unique opportunity to communicate directly and honestly with the One who wants to speak to our hearts with love and transparency. That was one reason that those fishermen over 2,000 years ago dropped everything to follow Jesus. They recognized love and transparency without an attitude of judgmental condemnation. Jesus is committed to having us ‘be all that we can be.’ Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.

Don’t be fooled…

“Don’t be fooled by the cliché’s of protest movements … It’s not about declaring war on some nefarious élite. It’s about changing behavior…” [David Brooks The NY Times] Jesus said succinctly: “I am the way and the truth and the life…” We never seem to learn fundamental truths. History repeats itself because we as humans do not want to hear the truth. It is really simple: We are unable to change ourselves.

The law of transfer…PS 37:1

Envy [v.8] is a strong feeling. It can lead to hatred and murder. Remember Cain? Coming to God to ask about something and then upon hearing the answer, walking away.  Not just walking away but walking away sad. [LUK 18:18 – 30] The emptiness will be greater walking away from the question than walking toward the answer.  Being familiar with God [v.21] is not enough. God does not convince me but does expose me [v.23]. When I lack compassion I show that I am imprisoned in the law. The rich man’s wealth made him poor.