Not quite the Easter Bunny

My flesh trembles for fear of you,

and I am afraid of your judgments.

Psalm 119:120

That's sure not the palatable 21st century God we've crafted for ourselves, is it?  No, we'd prefer one who will bring healing when we are sick, comfort when we are sad, provision when we are in need.  We wouldn't mind too much if a wee bit of judgment got spread about upon those hostile to our cause or our way of life.

But that's not the God who is.  That's the god of our mind, the god of our invention.  The preceding verses thunder,

You spurn all who go astray from your statutes...

All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross...

Psalm 119:118a, 119a

The historical resurrection of Jesus Christ, the verifiable event we celebrate this Sunday, gets painted with Hallmark pastels and fuzzy edges.  We morph the risen and still-scarred Messiah into the Easter Bunny, toting chocolates and trinkets to all the good little boys and girls (in which of course we are included).

But the resurrection should make us tremble.  No longer can we say we don't get it.  Our destiny, the destiny of every life ever conceived, now hinges upon that singular event.  He's the fork in the road of eternity.  All who come to him and will not bow will be spurned and discarded.  "The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing" (1 Corinthians 1:18a)  This should make the believer tremble, too, because we all know those who have rejected that word.

No, we don't like to talk about judgment, but it is the message of our humanity.  We have each rebelled against an absolutely righteous God.  All of us. 

Yet here is why the cross should give us great joy and hope.  God himself took the just and fierce punishment for humanity upon himself.  The pure and right wrath of God was poured out upon the willing and pure sacrifice, God the Son, Jesus Christ.  "To those of us who are being saved, it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18b), and "to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become the children of God" (John 1:12).

Easter is a phenomenal season for those who know the punishment for their rebellion has been dealt with, for those who have submitted their lives to the Lord of lords.  At the same time, it's a terrible time because it provides no middle ground, no maybe.

That's why the same psalmist who trembled before a holy God could write a half-dozen verses earlier

You are my hiding place and my shield;

I hope in your word

To some he is the aroma of life.  To others he is the stench of death.  There is no other alternative. 

Consider Jesus. 

It is the Easter season, after all.

Would you like a side of fries with your Jesus?

If you want to dip your toe into the shallow end of American culture, pick up the Parade Magazine found in most Sunday papers.  You won't make it to the base of the nail before you touch bottom. 

This last weekend, Miley Cyrus treated us to her pole-dancing version of Christianity.

Let me make it clear, though—I am a Christian. Jesus is who saved me.

Okay. Sounds good, but 90% of America would consider themselves in that same canoe. Could you give us a little more?

He’s what keeps me full and whole.

Hmmm.  Cheeseburgers keep me full and my skin keeps me whole, but that statement plumbs the same depths as Parade.  Anything else?

But everyone is entitled to what they believe and what keeps them full...it is not my job to tell people what they are doing wrong.*

There it is!  The Burger King Jesus of 2010.  Have it your way!  Aren't your shorts a bit short?  You're too uptight.  But a Christian doing a pole dance?  It was right for the song.  Change the channel.  But aren't you a role model?  Well, Christians don't live in the dark.  I have to participate in life.

Ah, but what does Jesus say, Ms. Cyrus?  (Cricket...cricket...)  Ms. Cyrus?  So, suddenly I'm a slut (her words) because I wear short shorts.  That's so old school.

You could chalk her responses up to adolescent immaturity except that the theology of Miley Cyrus mirrors that of most of America.  We want a palatable Jesus.  We want a modern Jesus.  We want a Jesus whose waistband doesn't bind.  When people start to describe Jesus today, they do not cite the biblical evidence.  They cite what they feel.  That way I can morph him comfortably into my image.

A few weeks back I wrote a post about the unconstitutional mess that is the pending health care law (here).  On Facebook, an individual avered that Jesus would certainly support the legislation.  I countered that the government was stealing by taking money from one people group and giving it to another people.  They do it under the auspices of legislation, but it was nonetheless stealing (Fredric Bastiat termed it "legal plunder").  Since Christ could not act contrary to his nature, he being the source of "Thou shalt not steal," he could in no way support the legislation.  The individual attempted to return volley with "Well, oh yeah!"  She suggested that a) we already redistribute wealth, so what's a little more gonna hurt, and b) "I think Jesus would agree with me."  No support.  No chapter.  Not a verse.  Not even, "I think it says somewhere..."

The Jesus of the Bible is not the soft, fuzzy image held by so many.  No, he was quite prickly.  And quite real.  And quite intolerant.

I had the honor these past months of listening to one who knows articulate the clarity of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount.**  Here are a couple of uncomfortable statements from said discourse:

• "Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few."

By Jesus' own words, many are on the highway to destruction but few on the way that leads to life.  The former is easy.  The latter, not so much.  Many on that easy way.  How many in America think we are in like Flint?  Many. 

Number two:

• "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves."

They look good.  They don't disturb the water.  They blend in nicely.  They intend destruction and Jesus suggests that their end is "the fire."  Oh, how their words salve our delicate ears. 

Last and perhaps most sobering:

• "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'

Ouch.  How many today will say they believe in Jesus?  James, Jesus' brother, went so far as to say the demons believe in God, too, and tremble (James 2:19).  It's not just recognizing Jesus for who he is.  The message isn't just positive and encouraging.  Many who believe Jesus to be the Son of God will hear from his lips, "I never knew you; depart from me."  There will be no return for the one who hears those words.  No words can capture the agony of that horrifying moment.

While Jesus walked the earth, he poured his lavish grace upon those who were broken in spirit, upon those convicted by the foulness of their sin before a holy God (John 4:1-42, John 8:2-11, Luke 13:9-14), but to those giddy because they set their own mark and hit it every time, he was most uncompromising (Matthew 19:16-23, Matthew 23).

Jesus knew that many people said many things about him.  What they thought did matter, but it went beyond what they thought.  Jesus confronted his twelve.  "Who do you say that I am?"  They answered, Peter actually, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."  That was the correct answer but one of them, the son of perdition, ended up betraying Jesus. 

What are we to do with Jesus?  Do we live the Miley Cyrus life, partying on the broad highway and pole-dancing our way to our own destruction?  Or do we believe the pages of the Bible, falling broken in repentance upon the Rock rejected by men and thereby entering into the narrow gate?  Will we have it our way or will we have it his way?

It's time to consider.  It is the Easter season after all.
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*The rest of her insight into things of Christ reflects that same equivocating, tepid mumbo-jumbo.  You can read the interview here if you'd like; my sons couldn't stomach it.

**You can access an excellent teaching series on the Sermon on the Mount here and under Sermon Series filter "Sermon on the Mount."  If you'd like to access the messages directly, click on the two paths, the false teachers, or "Lord, Lord."

Patriotic idolatry

With the passage of the health care bill in the House, both sides have rightly declared this a turning point for our nation.  One side sees it as a shiny new dawn for our nation while the other sees it as a cold, gray dusk. 

For those like me who love the nation birthed in the blood of the late 18th century, you find yourself in the latter camp.  The days of personal responsibility have ended.  The sun has set upon the rule of law in our land for law has become a lump of Silly-Putty in the hand of the Chief Executor and his league of Lilliputian legislators.  Mold it as you see fit.

What has been done will not soon be undone.  Take a look at the hideous beast birthed by FDR.  It continues to grow faster than Cosby's Chicken Heart and with more destructive power.  Perhaps this monster can be killed before it sees the light of day.  Considering those who sold their soul to bring about its passage, I doubt that.

If you love the idea of a nation founded upon the rule of law and the God-given rights of the people to self-govern, this season of American history has left you gasping and grieving. It has me.  I am forced to wonder, is God trying to wake me up about an unhealthy love for my homeland?  After all, he is a jealous God, intolerant in his very essence of adulterous love.  Have I given misplaced affection to a nation whose founding ideals were of such breath-taking beauty that I failed to give due affection to the God of nations?  Despite the fact (yes, FACT) that her foundation rests upon biblical principles, do I love the thing so much that it has become an idol to me?

Could it be that out of deep affection for his people God is weaning us from an unhealthy and improper love for a land bent upon self-destruction?

I don't know.

I do know that my country continues to move in directions contrary to God's word.  I do know that because of that, I must continue to speak out.  I do know innocent life must continue to be defended.  I know, too, that my first affection and first allegiance are due to the God who gives me life and breath and only his hand will bring those to an end. 

So what will become of America?  Again, I don't know, but I do know the One who knows.  Him I will continue to serve by being the best husband, father, friend and neighbor I can be.  Him I will continue to serve as I strive to be the best citizen I can be. 

The day that will dawn after this chilled dusk I leave to his sovereign care.

The one thing government does well...because it was intended to do so

I always found it funny when Hollywood fascists would say they supported our troops but hated what George Bush, their Commander in Chief (CinC) was doing with them.  You can't divorce the two anymore than you could the German troops from the funny-mustached freak ordering the gassing of six-million Jews.  Were there any consistency in Hollywood, they would have condemned the whole thing from the top down.

But Hollywood has a disconnect.  If they can fatten their wallets, they'll check their ideology and entertain at Ann Coulter's birthday soiree.  Since 90% of movie-going, song-downloading, and novel-reading America supported the wars against Koran-adhering Muslims, entertainers from every cloth found they could express their loathing for the war by hating its CinC and yet still making a buck by expressing their love for the ones pulling the triggers, dropping the bombs, and interrogating the head-chopping demons.

Well, ladies and gents, I hate the cliff over which our President has just shoved us.  Yes, yes, yes, the momentum went unchecked and increased under conservative presidents.  It did nearly slow to a halt under Reagan, but GBI and GBII both continued the vector and speed, if not hastening it along, that began nearly four-score and seven ago under the great socialist, FDR.

While I can't logically separate the order-giver (now Obama) from the order-executors (the troops), I can logically separate his policies economic from his policies foreign and military.  While our national fabric unravels faster than lawmakers sell their souls, our military continues to execute honorable orders with exceptional honor.  For your edification, here's a peek at what's going on in Afghanistan from one who is there (boldface, mine.  All parentheticals, etc., are his).

This global war on terror (I don't work at the White House, so I can still use that term) is truly a war against evil. It is difficult to compare levels of evil, so I cannot make a direct correlation between the forces our country faced in WWII with the current insurgency in Afghanistan. But I do know that our coalition forces now face a challenge that our troops rarely faced in WWII - the enemy does not wear a uniform. It is often incredibly difficult to determine who is a civilian and who is an insurgent, and they usually have only seconds to make a decision where their lives literally depend on what action they take against possible threats.

The insurgents proclaim they are waging holy and honorable jihad against the West and call for the assassination of a cartoonist because he mocked their prophet; yet they think it is perfectly appropriate and honorable to use the following tactics:

• using an vehicle disguised as an ambulance to blow up checkpoints.
• male insurgents dressing up in female burkas (using our sensitivity to not offend their cultural and religious traditions) to infiltrate and commit homicide bombings.
• placing IEDs in schools and playgrounds to kill children in their own country in an attempt to show the people that the government cannot protect them.
• bombing girls' schools to show their disapproval of females receiving an education.
• using women and children to shield themselves while firing on our troops because they know we will not risk civilian casualties to take them out.

These tactics can all be found in public sources.


I highlight the evil we are waging war against because I want people at home to understand that we are conducting an honorable campaign over here. I am not naive enough to believe that we never have folks who act dishonorably over here in the heat of battle; but I do believe they are an aberration, not the rule. I believe that if we do not win this war here, then rest assured, these radical forces WILL stretch across the oceans and WILL attack our country. They will only rest after our destruction. And lest you think we are selfish or imperialistic in this battle, there are twice as many Islamic Afghans fighting against the insurgency in their homeland. They desire to be free from terrorism and are willing to die for freedom (and they are dying as much as our NATO forces).

While Rome is burning and Nero's fiddling away, the troops remain in a valaint fight at the Rubicon.  Will there be anything left of their beloved Italia when the victory abroad is won?

The failure of "Christianity"

Once again the Roman Catholic church finds itself up to its clerical collar amidst a flood of institutional sexual abuse.  As a victim of this torrent, I'll not use silly terms like "alleged" or "allegations."  It is very real.  Because of the moral failings of many within clerical Catholicism, many who have never looked into Christianity have ample reason to never do so.

Please, no spears.  My language in the preceding paragraph makes plain that not all Catholic priests are pedophiles.  It also does not absolve Protestant pastors of similar abuses.  Do you remember Ted Haggard?  All such failures within that which calls itself "the Church" or a "church" becomes another check against Christianity for those who have never tried it.

The repugnance that many show toward all things Christian stems not only from its failures.  This past summer, my eldest son had the opportunity to witness in the front row the heresy that is Benny Hinn.  My son attended because he was doing mission work in Kenya and with the talons of the "Prosperity Gospel" embedded within impoverished Africa, he wanted to see it first hand.  What did he find? 
You can read more about Hinn and his ilk through my son's posts here, here, here, here, here and here.  My son is not the only one from within the church railing againt the peddlers of prosperity.  John MacArthur, one of our nation's finest expositors of the Bible, speaks with great passion against that which masquerades as part of the church in a lengthy article here.

"To go to Uganda and see Benny Hinn and Company steal roughly $800,000 from the poorest people in the world made me furious, and still does. Even more heartbreaking was how ready these people were to give their money under the lie that God would return to them a hundred times what they had given."

Who's going to want to become part of a community where the successes pillage impoverished peoples and where the failures take horrifying liberties with those entrusted to their care?  Were I atheist or agnostic today, I don't know that Christianity would be where I would turn if all I knew of it consisted of pedophiles and used-car salesmen, not that strapping C4 to one's chest seems a much better worldview.

Here's where getting back to basics comes in.

When assessing what Christianity has brought to the world in terms of charity, hospitals, education, civilization, stability and rule of law, it has much to commend it.  Even those things are superficial.  From what do these things come?  Now we're getting somewhere.  What do the founding documents say?  How does the Bible compare to those who so grotesquely misrepresent it?

Biblically, sexual immorality has no place among those who call themselves Christians (Matthew 5:27-30, Ephesians 5:3, 1 Corinthians 6:18-20).  How does the Bible speak of those who falsely teach what God has said?  Paul suggests that such folks are accursed.  So riled did this get the preacher that he spit it out twice (Galatians 1:6-10).  Jesus referred to them as false prophets and likened them to wolves in sheep's clothing (Matt. 7:15, 20), suggesting that many will believe themselves to be part of the church ("Lord, Lord") but will find that on the Day of Judgment, Jesus did not know them (vv. 21-23).

So why the disparity between the pure teaching of the Bible and what has become of the Church today?  Two key issues.  One would be entropy.  Whoa, hey, don't go physics on me!  Sorry.  We live in a fallen world.  Sin holds sway.  That natural state of man is to move further and further away from God's designs and to kick all the harder against God's rules.  The Bible makes plain that becoming a Christian does not suddenly make one pure in heart never to sin again.  It does give the believer the power NOW to overcome sin in their lives.  That's why Paul kicks the church at Rome with such passion to live their lives as slaves to righteousness vice slaves to sin (Romans 6).  Whereas before Christ, a person cannot be expected to live in a godly fashion (Romans 3:10-18), one whose life has been bought from the pit by the blood of Jesus Christ ought to live their lives in devoted obedience to the One who saved them (Romans 12:1-2).

The second reason the Church today bears little resemblence to its ancestors is because it no longer holds to the Word of Truth that birthed it.  Paul warned against those creeping into the church and distorting its message (2 Timothy 3:1-9, esp. vv. 6-9).  He later prompted Timothy in the same letter to be careful to preach the word properly (4:1-4).  Peter also testified to the importance of the written word of God (2 Peter 1:16-21).  I referenced the infection of the Church that began in Europe under the guise of Higher Criticism in my last post.  Through nothing much more than whim, scholars began to declare the Bible as unreliable with regard to history and unreliable concerning things supernatural.  If the Bible is false and is not authoritative, then Jesus becomes anything we want him to be.  To Benny Hinn, he's a cash cow.  To pedophile priests, he's the condoner of their sin.  After all, God is love, right?

When the Church fails to fight internally against the sin of a fallen world and when it rejects the only standard of truth by which it can right itself, it becomes irrelevant to a world in desperate need of salvation.  The lost reject the Christ, the only avenue for wholeness, because his ambassadors have failed at their task.

To those who have never dipped their big toe into Christianity, please do not think you know the Christ because a few of those who claim to be his followers have corrupted his image and misrepresented him.  Go to the source of Christianity.  Go to the Christ made known to the world today in the pages of the Bible.

It is the Easter season after all.  Taste and see that the Lord is good.  And so is his church...as it honors him.

A spring challenge

This deep into 2010 your New Year's resolutions have either withered into ten more pounds around your mid-section or posterior (depending upon your predispostion) or you've developed the new habit that you'd hoped to develop in the final days of 2009.  Since we're at a time of year when many already have their noses to the grindstone as they focus upon spring cleaning or getting ready for finals, here's another challenge, an easy challenge in terms of initial investment but a most significant challenge in terms of final results.

Consider Jesus.

That's it.  Consider Jesus.  Consider his claims.  Consider what he said.  Consider what he did.

Not Dan Brown.  Not Rudolf Bultmann.  Not Richard Dawkins.  Just Jesus.

It is the Easter season, after all.

Why do I offer this challenge?  From the time of the 1800's, modern scholarship has done everything in its power to deconstruct Jesus Christ.  This eruption grew from the likes of Astruc, Semler, and Eichorn, European theologians, who believed that the Jesus of the Bible could not possibly be the same fellow that actually walked the earth.  What evidence did they have?  None.  No objective evidence on which to anchor this notion.  Just a gut feel.

The movement blew into a wildfire in Europe and spread across the Atlantic to set the American religious scene ablaze.  It has gutted what many believe to be Christianity with the same intensity as a housefire, but a  housefire cannot destroy the building's foundation.  The foundation of Christianity is Jesus Christ, the Jesus Christ of the Bible.

So is he substantial or is he a phantom?  Ah, there's the rub.  The New Testament Gospels, the biographies of Jesus written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, intend to provide its readers with historical evidence about the historical Jesus so that those who were not there when he walked the earth would have evidence by which to determine for themselves what they would do with this Galilean.

Consider how Luke opens up his narrative of Jesus.

Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.

It would sure seem that his intention is to provide evidence. While Luke starts his narrative in that manner, John reveals his intention toward the end of his bio of Jesus.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John raises an interesting point.  He links belief to evidence.  Signs.  Many see faith in Jesus Christ as completely unsubstantial and without foundation.  On the contrary.  Belief in Jesus Christ must be substantial and upon a sure foundation or it is nothing. 

In the verses before John's declaration, Jesus confronts the doubter, Thomas.  Thomas had heard about Jesus' resurrection from the other disciples who had seen him.  Consider that eyewitness testimony.  He had no reason to doubt the testimony of his friends, but skeptic that he was, he wanted further evidence (a sincere skeptic and not a cynical skeptic).  So Christ appears to him eight days later and says, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."  In other words, "Here's a bit more evidence for you.  Touch me."

Now, catch Jesus' response to Thomas after he declared him to be Lord and God.

Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

For those who have not seen Jesus, in what have they believed? Was it mystical, fantastical stories? Or was it coherent, substantive historical narrative?  Was it the signs they had seen during his life coupled with the testimony of these convinced fisherman.  Consider, too, that the Christian movement did not spring up in the Balkans or in Central America.  It grew up in the very town that executed him for being a threat to the religious and political order.  If the claims of Jesus' followers were false, wouldn't those hostile to him have squelched the movement before it began?

God never intended folks to tie themselves to a vapor.  He is willing for people to prove him.  He declared to his creation, "Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!"

It is the Easter season after all.  Take a couple minutes each day and read through one of the Gospels (or all of them) and consider Jesus.
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UPDATE:  The God who calls his creation to consider him is not an after-the-fact God.  Through the Bible, God says something and then God does something.  It's not as though he points back to something that happened and says, "I did that," and we're left to think, "Yeah, sure."  The plagues upon Egypt were Pharaoh's first hand look upon the God who is there.

Many believe that the plagues were just natural events that befell the nation (must have been a bad year) and only later did folks attribute it to the "hand of God."  That might be the case if the Bible were not full to the brim of instances of God saying and then doing. The most stunning aspect of this is prophecy, events that God says will occur in one place and it is fulfilled in vivid detail in another place.  A most striking example would be the execution of Jesus Christ and why it came about.  It's played out in the Gospels but its foretold hundreds of years before in excruciating detail in Isaiah 53 and Psalm 22.

Is it any wonder that in the first thirty-nine chapters of Ezekiel God challenges Israel with "then you will know that I am the LORD."

QotD: Sane jurisprudence

Imagine a school where you can have the lyrics to "Imagine" (i.e. "...there's no heaven") posted on the walls but where you cannot have "In God we trust" posted for fear of giving students too much God. 

Can you guess the state?  If I didn't already know it was California, my guess would have been one of the three west coast states or the morally festering appendix that is the northeastern U.S.  A teacher was ordered to take down the poster with that soul-rotting slogan on it despite the fact that it's emblazoned upon all our money and despite the fact that the rest of the school is plastered with the images and sayings of Ghandi, Malcom X, and Nirvana.  Here are some of the other heinous, child-corrupting posters math teacher Brad Johnson was ordered to remove from his classroom walls:

• "One nation under God"  (BOO!  Hiss!)
• "God bless America!"  (Ewww, separation, separation)
• "God shed his grace on thee"  (That's as bad as saying "Nih!")

Apparently the judge felt it was too God-y.

Needless to say, the case was appealed.  U.S. District Court Judge Robert T. Benitez fielded the case and nearly came unglued.  A blurb from his decision thereby garners the Ripples "Quote of the Day."

"That God places prominently in our Nation's history does not create an Establishment Clause violation requiring curettage and disinfectant for Johnson's public high school classroom walls. It is a matter of historical fact that our institutions and government actors have in past and present times given place to a supreme God."

~ U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez

You can read more on one judge's Nurse-Ratchet-view of life and one judge's deep breath of sanity here.  Thank you Judge Benitez for letting folks in America know that not every sector of our government has lost its ever-lovin' mind.

Pressed hard

An interesting time, wouldn't you say?

Israel and Iran are staring at each other like Rocky Balboa and Ivan Drago.  Who's going to try and throw the first punch?

Jobs once plentiful in our country are evaporating faster than a spilled cup of water on a Phoenix sidewalk.

Taxes on the increase.  More and more promised by the government.  Less and less being received.

Moral fabric tattered all about us.  Wear and tear here.  Full-blown holes there.

Last week, a friend compared our times quite well to a period in Elijah's life.  No, not Mr. Wood of Frodo Baggins fame.  The Tishbite of prophet fame.  You can read about the fellow in the book of 1 Kings in your Bible from the seventeenth chapter to the end of that book and a bit into 2 Kings.  A couple of the lessons my friend shared.

1.  Tough times aren't uncommon.  And often, you might have no control over being in the midst of such a challenging moment.  Do we respond with bitterness?  Or do we trust a sovereign God and dwell in the peace he has promised and appropriated for us?

2.  God provides.  Amidst the famine, food ran scarce.  No, food ran out.  One woman was getting ready to eat her last meal with her son after which time they would starve to death.  God provided.  Elijah fled for his life from a psychopathic queen and her infantile king.  One hundred miles.  In the wilderness.  And God provided food and water through a most peculiar avian method.  It's a theme that runs through God's word.  He cares for his people.

3.  God doesn't always provide on our time schedule.  I'd love a fat bank account.  Right now.  I'd like to know that I'll be able to go to the fridge and grab some OJ every day between now and my home going.  Perhaps I may find myself ready to bake my last loaf of bread with our last cup of flour.  Will I still trust him if he should choose to squeeze me from my comfort zone?

One other point, and it moves us from the individual to the national.

4.  God judges nations.  Israel's famine did not come about because their carbon footprint exceeded that of the Egyptians.  Nor did it occur because of El Nino in the eastern Mediterranean.  I don't think sheep methane had anything to do with it either.  God sent Elijah to Ahab to declare the three year famine.  Why?  Ahab and Jezebel had unleashed a godlessness upon the land that has echoed through the centuries.  It was punitive.

If we continue to reject God as a people, we can anticipate more troubles, trials, and times of testing within our nation.  That goes without saying.  But will we learn from Elijah and trust in the Lord?  Ah, there's the rub.

A mile in their moccasins

I have a dear friend who is serving a four-month tour of duty in Afghanistan.  He wasn't chosen to go.  His number didn't come up.  As a part-time reservist teaching Undergraduate Pilot Training, he never would have been selected to go.  He volunteered.

After serving more than two decades as an F-4 WSO, an F-16 pilot, and a T-37/T6 instructor pilot, Providence had kept him from seeing combat.  When the fires heated up, he was in training or his unit wasn't deploying.  When it came time for his unit to deploy, he had transfered.

He bleeds red, white and blue.  He loves our nation in ways that Hollywood will never understand.  He goes out of his way to introduce his kids to veterans, men and women who have served their nation in the blast furnace of battle.  Seeing men and women deploy and redeploy and redeploy again knowing full well that those same men and women face a multitude of redeployments in their future, he asked if he could take a tour in Afghanistan to perhaps give one soul a respite and to do what he has always ached to do, serve his nation from within the crucible.  His family, his bride and five children, supported him wholly.

I got an e-mail from Jeff this morning detailing life on the other side of the planet.  He then began to reflect on the service of our men and women in uniform that he has witnessed first hand.  Here is what he wrote:

As I ponder our mission here, I have continually been drawn to the sacrifice that is being made by our servicemen and women. I am only here for a mere four months, and though it seems like forever (especially for my family), it is a relatively short time compared to many of our Army soldiers and Marines. Most of them are over here for at least a year in much worse conditions than me, and they are tired and worn out.  

The pace of deployment operations since 9/11 is taking its toll on the lives of our brothers and sisters in arms. A guy I work with is a Marine major who will be going home this month after serving here for six months. He will be back here in September. In fact, when he comes back this Fall, it will be his fourth six-month deployment in three years (2 in Iraq, 2 in Afghanistan). I have also heard several stories of soldiers here that are deployed for a year and their wives have left them. This generation is often focused on obtaining happiness and there are many spouses who are not happy with their spouse being deployed over and over again; as a result, they are leaving them. I am blessed to have a wife and family who supports me wholeheartedly and I cannot imagine the heartache of serving long deployments over here knowing that it may result in the death of your marriage.

I know that most of you are already extremely supportive of our military, so I fully appreciate the fact that I am “preaching to the choir.” But whenever you see a military person in the airport please take the time to shake their hand and thank them for their sacrifice because you may have no idea the incredible gravity of their situation or what this deployment may cost them personally. Our military is stretched to the limit and the long, sustained conflicts in this region are clearly taking their toll on military personnel and their families... This deployment has opened my eyes to the sacrifices made by so many of my comrades far more than ever.

Wow.