Ripples Across the Pond

QotD: Happy Birthday, Francis!

2012-01-23T09:11:00.014-06:00

January 30th marks Francis Schaeffer's 100th birthday. He'd celebrate were he still alive. Instead, he's glorying before the throne of his King.

If you have never heard of Francis Schaeffer, let me recommend three books, The God Who is There, Escape From Reason, and He is There and He is Not Silent. You can actually buy it as a trilogy on Amazon (here). He was one of the foremost philosophical minds of our era. You likely have not heard of him because he was an unabashed, unashamed Christian whose conviction about God and the Bible informed every thought he had and every topic he discussed.

In honor of his birthday, a quote from his book, Death in the City, seems apt in our post-postmodern America. The italics are his, the boldface is mine.

Do you really believe He is there? Why is there so much unreality among evangelicals, young and old? What is the final reality? The final reality is that God is really there. The Bible is what it is because the God who exists has spoken it in propositional, verbalized form. But does your Christianity end with something less than God who is there? In the teaching of your courses in Christian schools, do you believe He is there? In your learning, do you believe He is there? Do you really believe He is there, or are you only living in some sort of sociological belief? Are you only making the right theological statements, or do you believe God is there and you live before Him?

If He is really there and if He is a holy God, do you seriously think that God does not care that a country like our own has turned from Him? There is only one kind of preaching that will do in a generation like ours---preaching which includes the preaching of the judgment of God.

Facing reality

2012-01-16T09:11:00.024-06:00

The other day I was chatting with my daughters about a friend of ours who has cancer and who has been told by the doctors that her time remaining is short. She is dying. I looked at my seven-year old who heard that information with as much interest as if I had just described a political debate, and asked her, "Do you know that you're dying?" Her eyes focused and she screwed up her face with that "Dad, don't be such a dork" look that your kids sometimes get. You'd have thought I told her we were flying to Neptune tomorrow. I explained to her the certainty of death leaving taxes for another time.

Some might consider me cruel or at best macabre for telling my seven-year old little girl such a thing. "Why, she'll have nightmares!" I don't think so. You see, my little girl has the same confidence that my dying friend, Nancy Anderson, has. Read what Nancy posted on her CaringBridge Journal recently:

I am confident that I will go to heaven. This has nothing to do with me being a good person. Lately a lot of people have given me an abundance of love and affirmation about the value of my life and the positive impact I have had. This is important to me, and it encourages me. God created us to live significant, impactful lives. But when it comes to goodness, there is no meaningful scale. Basically there is God and there is us. He is good. We are made in his image, but we are marred by the brokenness of sin. He is in a completely different dimension when it comes to goodness. I love the verse in 2 Corinthians 5:21 which says, “God made him [Jesus] who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

I love the analogy that trying to reach God through my own goodness is like trying to swim from here to Hawaii. Some really great swimmers might make it several miles, while others would have to bail much earlier, but no one is going to make it to Hawaii. In the same way, my only hope of heaven is that I have a Savior who will take me there.

Some folks rail upon Christians for being exclusive. We are not. We simply declare what God has declared to us in his word. Jesus said with crystal clarity

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
~ John 14:6

An audacious claim. It is either absolutely true or it is absolutely false. Shortly after John documented his account of Christ's life in what we have come to know as John's Gospel, he wrote a letter. Therein he makes more audacious claims:

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life--and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us--what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.
~ 1 John 1:1-3

Those words jump out. John is testifying as though he were in a courtroom as a witness. He is speaking of what he had seen and declaring what was manifested (made known) to him. Again, either his testimony is true, or he is daft.

I can hear you say, "There have been a lot of folks that have said they are speaking for God." That's true. But John was with Christ. He heard, saw, and touched him, and John states that Jesus is the payment for our sins, our rebellion against and hostility toward God (2:2). But John goes even further. He makes plain that if you don't believe him, it's not him you disbelieve but God.

The one who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that that God has given concerning His Son. And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.

~ 1 John 5:10-11

The audacity continues in the next verse. "Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life."

How serious is this? Nancy is dying, but so are you. She just happens to know that her death is close at hand. For her, death is not something to fear because she knows with certainty that she will live forever in the glorious presence of God, not because of what she has done but because she believes that what happened to Jesus Christ on a cross 2000 years ago credits to her. It's that same confidence my daughter has.

It's the same confidence you can have, too. Consider it.

Church: It's not an amusement park

2012-01-07T09:11:00.003-06:00

A few months ago, I came across this blog by a local pastor. As he stood at the pulpit (or in his case, sat on a stool) and preached the word of God, he looked out over the congregation with which God had blessed him, and he noted some things that troubled his soul, things that made him wonder if those who called upon the name of Christ understood the gravity of joining with the body to worship Almighty God.

I appreciate his courage in writing these things to his church. I include some of them below with a few comments in blue as a challenge to you and a challenge to me that, as you enter into worship in 2012, we might take a few of these to heart:

1. Put your clock and calendar on hold on Sunday.

Don't hold God to the clock. Unless there's an emergency, you should never leave a service early. We rush around all week long, let's rest in the Lord on Sunday. (Might I add, go to Sunday school, too? The church is for the strengthening and building up of the body. Set your alarm and take advantage. As a Christian, don't use Sunday as your sleep-in day.)

2. GIve yourself time. Before you go to bed on Saturday night, plan to leave on time on Sunday morning. Don't start a day meant to be focused on Him, by a mad rush of berating your children and breaking the speed limit.

(Yep. What he said.)

3. Unless you're a doctor or pilot, leave your cell phone in the car. Nobody is that stinking important. Take a break and bring in a paper Bible; actually turn the pages. (We are going more and more to Nooks, Kindles, and iPhones, so the paper Bible is a preference. The cell phone, though--turn it off, or at least to silent. Can you think of a text you must get during the service that trumps the word of God?)

4. Be on time. Being punctual is just being considerate of someone else's schedule. At Colonial, we start on time and when people drag in for the next 10 minutes, it creates a distraction. Worship involves learning but it also involves all of the life of the body of Christ. The emotional experience of singing and worship is as vital to us as the intellectual experience of learning and the volitional experience of obeying. Be in your seat when the service begins.

(The time thing again. Is time important? You bet. Does your boss expect you to be on time? If you have an appointment with a doctor or plumber, do you expect them to be on time? Does it frustrate you when they're not? Time is a valuable commodity and how you use it shows what you believe is important. That's just the way it is.)

5. Be respectful of others if you have a crying child. A continual whining child becomes a constant distraction for others and frustration for the teacher who is grasping to keep everyone's attention. We have tons of dedicated spaces with TV's and live feed of the service.

(Not all churches do, but most do have nurseries. Just a question of courtesy. Very thankful for the moms in our church who care for their kids and for the body in this manner.)

-----

10. Don't, don't, don't CLIP YOUR FINGERNAILS. (Wow. Really? People do this during worship?)

11. If you insist in bringing a child to the adult service, they must behave. The purpose of bringing children into an adult environment, is to train them in adult ways. Playing a computer game defeats the purpose as well as being disrespectful. It also teaches a child to be irreverent. Our children's environments are the greatest in the city if not the entire region.Use them.

(It's all part of training up your child (Proverbs 22:6), something fewer and fewer parents do in our country. In an MTV generation, rare is the child who is taught to sit and pay attention for longer than three minutes at a pop. Train your child to be such a person.)

12. Respect the building. Would you spit your partially chewed mints on the carpets of the White House? If you see a piece of trash, pick it up. When you use the restrooms, wipe down the counters and mirrors. Habits build character. (The church facilities are your facilities. It breaks my heart when we find graffiti in bathrooms or worse. Church is not the building, but the building has been given us by God for the ministry of the church. The church is the people. How we steward that which God has given us (the building) says a lot about us and what we think of God's provision for us).

(Taken from "Church Etiquette," by Terry Chapman)

Would you endure a few of my own?

13. Hold it. No doubt a few folks have bladder problems and require trips to the commode at thirty minute intervals. That's not most of us. That's not most kids either. How do I know this? Because they can sit through a movie and they can sit through a couple of hours of school and they can play outside for a couple of hours and never think of it. Try this: go before the service and endure the hour or hour and a half. Your getting up and going out is a distraction to others. Most kids don't need to go. They just want to get up and move. That's normal. Discipline them to sit for a few more minutes. Please.

14. Nursery ≠ Infirmary. If your child has the sniffles or a cough, one parent should stay home with that child rather than starting a round of Flu Tag among the entire church. Really, that goes for sick parents and teens, too. It's not an excuse to ditch church but a loving act to not subject others to the misery you are enduring.

Some may think those cold and unfeeling. I would argue the opposite. They might be cold and unfeeling to you because you feel your toes being crunched, but they really exhibit a love and concern for your brothers and sisters in Christ. It's not about us. It's not about me. It's about preparing our hearts to gather together and worship the living God.

See you Sunday!

Merry Christmas!!

2011-12-24T09:11:00.050-06:00

A very Merry Christmas from me and my family to you and yours.

On this amazing day, have you considered why we celebrate it? Do you believe it?

The prophets of the Old Testament foresaw that a virgin would be with child (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:22-23). The Matthew verse is important because the Hebrew word in Isaiah could be translated young girl or virgin. The Jews at the time of Christ understood the passage to be about a virgin. While an impossibility in the physical realm, would such a thing be too hard for the God of the universe?

But why? Why did God the Son need to take on flesh? Consider John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whosever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life."

Some things to key on here:

1. Salvation for man would not have happened apart from God's intervention. The verse indicates that apart from this even, man would perish. We, left to ourselves, have hell awaiting us on the other side. Why? Because our sin (rebellion) separates us from a holy and righteous God (Romans 3:10-18, 6:23a).

2. God loves us despite our sin! That does not mean he condones our sin. Rather, for man to come to God, man's sin had to be justly dealt with. Because man's sin left him in a position separated from God, only God could fix the problem. Consider these verses: Romans 5:6-8, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

3. Jesus: The Fix. God the Father gave God the Son. Jesus always knew that he would have the sin of all mankind heaped on him at the cross . That's why he agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane, not that he would be physically killed but that he would be bearing the wrath, the pure, white-hot and just wrath of God the Father. There had been perfect fellowship within the Trinity through eternity past. Now, for the first time, One Member of the Trinity would turn his back on Another. Why? So God would be just in dealing with sin, but the only way he could do so was to become man himself and bear the punishment of our sin for us. He became just and justifier (Romans 3:26).

So what's left for us on Christmas day? To believe. Not to a Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus belief as some atheists assert. No, we believe in the historical birth of God the Son, we believe in the historical death and crucifixion of Jesus (God the Son) for the sin of all mankind, and we believe in the resurrection of God the Son as the guarantee of the eternal life that he procured for us on the cross (1 Corinthians 15:1-28).

As you gather with your family and open gifts, I pray that you will consider the greatest gift, the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23b). Understand, though, the gift is not yours unless you take it. How do you do that?

1. Recognize it. Recognize that your sin has separated you from God.

2. Confess it. Admit that you are a sinner to God. In other words, apologize for rebelling against him. Think about David's words in Psalm 51:4 after he'd committed adultery and murder.

3. Accept it. Accept what Jesus did on your behalf. Note what Romans 8:1 says about those who have accepted that free gift.

4. Believe it. Trust what God says about the doneness of the deal. Romans 10:9-10

5. Live it. With that done, live a life of gratitude for what God has done for you. Consider Galatians 2:20.

Have yourself a Merry little Christmas!

~ keith

Thought for the day: Social Security

2011-12-13T09:11:00.001-06:00

What are you going to do when you demand your money from the one who stands as judge and jailor, and he just shrugs his shoulders and pulls out his empty pocket linings?

There will be no integrity laden George Bailey to make things right.

Politically incorrect: Motherhood & living together

2011-09-02T13:19:00.000-05:00

Among my daily reads, I came across two articles, both from National Review, that fly in the face of post-modernism, an ethic that says, "Anyway is a good way as long as it's your way."

The first deals with working moms. It's sure to ignite a firestorm. You'll find it here.

The second peaks beneath the covers of cohabitation (sorry), and the damage unmarried parents inflicts upon the children. More fuel for the flames. Read it here.

Bottom line to both: Doing it 'my way' ends in misery.

I'll never forget the great advice my friend Brian Rath once gave me. I was stewing in the misery of a job failure when he told me, "If we could orchestrate our lives exactly as we wanted them to be, we would be the most miserable people." The heart of the matter? God knows what's best. He has a plan. We must trust and obey.

Will we ever get it?

Complaint v. Petition

2011-09-01T09:11:00.005-05:00

I had a normal dream the other night.

I don't suspect that normal should be an adjective used when chatting about dreams, but having shared with my bride the surreality that unleashes itself when I dip into REM sleep, I'd have to say that that night's forray into the peculiar and inexplicable land of Morpheus comes as close to normal life as anything I've experienced in many a day.

In the darkness of my early morning, I thanked God for my normal dream, but the moment the words passed my lips, it dawned on me that I'd never asked him for a normal dream. I'd groused about the weirdness of my dreams--no, I'd complained about them--but I never once asked him for something less bizarre.

And then I thought of Israel.

Israel endured 400 years of slavery at the hand of Egypt. God worked in miraculous ways to free the 2 million-plus folks he had chosen as his special people. Hot on the heels of one of the most amazing military victories ever and a handful of days after their release, the Hebrews got hungry and thirsty. Rather than ask the One who delivered them from their servitude for some food and water, they griped. Oh, how they griped.

"Would that we had died by the hand of the LORD in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger." (Exodus 16:3)

"Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?" (Exodus 17:3)

"Oh that we had meat to eat! We remember the fish we ate in Egypt that cost nothing, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic. But now our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all but this manna to look at." (Numbers 11:4-6)

As the One who gives and the One who witholds, God understood with absolute clarity Israel's need (Matthew 6:8). He also understood the heart of their gripe; it was against Him. Thus kindled God's righteous displeasure with his people.

What would have changed the deal? How about, "God, we are parched and we are starved. As you miraculously made the way for our escape from Egypt, we trust you completely to take care of us and to provide for our needs. We look forward to how you will do that because we can't figure it out in this dry and barren place." Just a little trust toward the One who had proven himself so very trustworthy.

I hope in the future if I'm troubled in the least by the utter weirdness of my dreams that I will simply trust God to do his good work. If I'd like them stopped, I'll make that request (with thanksgiving, Philippians 4:6), and continue to trust him for the next emersion into REM sleep. I'd hate to endure the outcome of Israel's grousing (Numbers 11:19-20).

Quote of the Day: Anti-theism

2011-08-26T09:11:00.002-05:00

Antitheism provides every reason to be immoral and is bereft of any objective point of reference with which to condemn any choice.

Any antitheist who lives a moral life merely lives better than his or her philosophy warrants.

All denunciation implies a moral doctrine of some kind, and the antitheist is forever engaged in undermining his own mines.

Ravi Zacharias

"Can Man Live Without God?"

(italics in the original

QotD: Thom. Sowell

2011-08-09T09:11:00.001-05:00

"It doesn't seem very scientific to have a good-looking nurse taking a man's blood pressure."

~ Economist Thomas Sowell

"Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene"

Other beauts from the same column:

The difference between mob rule and democracy was never more sharply demonstrated than by labor unions' attempts to prevent the Wisconsin voters' elected representatives from carrying out their official duties at the state Capitol. What would it matter what the voters want if any mob can stop it from happening?

Learned scholars still debate the reasons for the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. Learned scholars of the future, looking back on our decline and fall, may simply be baffled as to how we could have been so stupid.

QotD: Pascal's Wager, the atheist, and the agnostic

2011-08-03T09:11:00.002-05:00

I have heard Pascal's Wager in the past, but it struck me afresh last night as Dinesh D'Souza unpacked it in his book, What's so great about Christianity?

Pascal's Wager considers the existence of God philosophically (really, Pascal directed it toward the atheist, the apatheist, and the agnostic). He looks to death and considers, what's the risk? Dinesh D'Souza takes it from here (italics mine):

If we have faith in God and it turns out that God does not exist, we have a downside risk: metaphysical error. But if we reject God during our lives, and it turns out God does exist, there is much more serious risk: eternal separation from God. Based on these two possible outcomes, Pascal declares that it is much less risky to have faith in God. In the face of an uncertain outcome, no rational person would refuse to give up something that is finite if there is the possibility of gaining an infinite prize. In fact, under these conditions it is unreasonable not to believe. Pascal writes, "let us weigh up the gain and loss involved in calling heads that God exists. If you win, you win everything. If you lose, you lose nothing. Do not hesitate, then: wager that He does exist."

The ingenuity of Pascal's argument is that it emphasizes the practical necessity of making a choice. This necessity is imposed by death. There comes a day when there are no tomorrows, and then we all have to cast our votes for or against the proposition on the ballot. The unavoidability of the decision exposes the sheer stupidity of "apatheism," the pretense that something doesn't matter when it is quite literally a matter of life and death. The apatheist and the agnostic refuse to choose when there is no option to abstain. So the refusal to choose becomes a choice--a choice against God.

Pascal also exposes the pose of the atheist who fancies himself as a brave and lonely man facing the abyss. We admire a man who is steadfast in the face of unavoidable adversity. If we knew we were alone in the universe and that death was the end, then there is no alternative but to stand tough in our mortal skins and curse the darkness. But what would we think of a man who stands ready to face a horrible fate that he has a chance to avert? If you are trapped in the den with a hungry lion, and there is a door that may offer a way out, what sane person would refuse to jump through the door? Viewed this way, the atheist position becomes a kind of intransigence, a reckless man's decision to play Russian roulette with his soul.

Atheists sometimes express their bafflement over why God would not make his presence more obvious. Carl Sagan helpfully suggests that in order to dispel all doubts about his existence, "God could have engraved the Ten Commandments on the moon." Pascal supplies a plausible reason for what he calls the hiddenness of God. Perhaps, he writes, God wants to hide himself from those who have no desire to encounter him while revealing himself to those whose hearts are open to him. If God were to declare himself beyond our ability to reject him, then he would be forcing himself on us. Pascal remarks that perhaps God wants to be known not by everyone but only by the creatures who seek him.

Dinesh D'Souza, What's so great about Christianity, pp. 202-203

Movie villains 2

2011-07-14T09:11:00.049-05:00

As I lamented Hollywood's oil hatred, exemplified in Cars 2, in my last post, I cited other villains cliched by movie makers over the past thirty years, notably OUR government, OUR military, and the church. Regarding the latter, I should have been more specific. It's not the church per se. Hollywood hates those who take Christianity seriously and live it out at home, at work, at play, and yes, in the church. That hatred burbles to the surface in villains that look nothing like Christ.

You might think I'm just being thin-skinned, knowing full well that I am a Christian of the born-again variety, a man who tries to love his wife, train his children, labor at work, and cast his vote in accord with the word of God. I understand that there are Christians who do evil and that there are those who profess to be Christians who do evil in the name of God.

But.

Is this the exception or is this the rule? Dinesh D'Souza in his sterling work, "What's So Great About Christianity," details the rise of western civilization (is there really any other?) upon the foundation of Christianity, a history rapidly being amputated from our schools.

How, too, does such Hollywood's Christian villainy jive with the cover-to-cover word of God? The Bible reveals that those who are Christ-followers will be known by their love (John 13:34-35), that they are to love their neighbor as their very self (Matthew 22:39, Romans 13:9), and that their character will reveal love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, and more (Galatians 5:22-23). The Son of God declared that you will know a tree by it's fruit, therefore if these things are obvious by their absence in someone's life, their relationship with Jesus Christ is questionable at best (1 John 3:6-10).

Will a Christian be perfect and without sin? That is without a doubt the standard because God himself is the standard (Matthew 5:48, 1 Peter1:15-16), but at the same time, as we struggle in our skin (Romans 7:13-24), we will still sin (1 John 1:8).

If that is what we would expect to see of Joe "The Average" Christian, why do we not find such characters in television or in film? Ever. If you find a practicing Christian in film, it's a C-grade "religious" movie with a production quality of a junior high school play (yes, there are exceptions), and therefore, few see it. The entertainment's vision of a practicing Christian falls into one of these categories:

Ignorant. The person has no education and, in the Hollywood mind, believes the Bible literally. That said, I believe the Bible literally where a plain reading demands a literal reading. But Hollywood has no understanding of context or of the different types of literature in Scripture. To their mind, anyone who believes it is an eyes-aflame ignoramous.
Evil. Hollywood believes the Bible to be a dangerous book unless you cut parts out of it. Any who choose to live by it are therefore by default evil.
Intolerant. Because a Christian has the audacity to declare something sin, they get portrayed as out-of-touch isolationists.
Hypocritical. To the movie-making mind, not one Christian practices what he preaches. All decry the perversity of the culture only to return home and bed the baby sitter.

Yes, many Christ-followers do not know their Scripture and many are not on top of current events, but many more are.

Yes, many Christ-followers misapply the very word of God they profess to follow, but many more honor the name of Christ with their lives. The lives of many who profess to be Christ-followers and carry out evil in the name of Christ look nothing like God's word says a Christ-follower will look.

Yes, many Christians exhibit little tolerance, but many more live great care and compassion for their fellow man without condoning their sin.

Yes, many fall short of the holiness of God's character, but that is why Christ shed his blood in the first place. Man cannot attain to the holiness demanded by a holy God.

Here's my beef. In the past thirty years, how many noble Christian characters have made it into film or television, not pseudo-religion like "Touched by an Angel" but those who hold to and live out a vibrant faith in Jesus Christ? The idea of the Christian villain would not even be an issue if any semblance of balance was shown by those who produce our entertainment.

Despite the success of films like The Blind Side, Soul Surfer and the works of Sherwood Pictures, an arm of Sherwood Baptist Church (Fireproof, Facing the Giants, Courageous), we get fed film after film like the upcoming film, "The Ledge."

"Those quiet religious types are always hiding a bit of crazy, aren’t they? Anyway, at least in “The Ledge” they are, as it centers (on) a Bible thumper who gets off-the-crucifix crazy when he finds out his wife is taking advantage of the pleasures of the secular flesh."

That crazy Bible thumper takes Leviticus into his own hands and demands that the adulterous atheist commit suicide before he murders his adulterous wife. Charming.

Not to be outdone in bashing believers, "Salvation Boulevard" will also pitch in to tar and feather the pious.

"Set in the world of mega-churches in which a former Deadhead-turned-born again-Christian finds himself on the run from fundamentalist members of his mega-church who will do anything to protect their larger-than-life pastor."

Yeah, it breaks my heart, but yet again, it does not surprise me. A few millenia back, as the incarnate God walked the earth, he said, "You will be hated by all for my name's sake" (Mark 13:13). And It gets better. On the night before he would be nearly beaten to death and then hung upon a Roman cross to die, he told his disciples,

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name,because they do not know him who sent me...But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled:'They hated me without a cause.' (John 15:18-21, 25)

So Christian villains will continue to fill the cineplex. Perhaps our conduct as Bible-believing Christ-followers will help others to see that such films are truly works of fiction.

To welcome the worm

2011-07-12T09:11:00.006-05:00

Over the last couple of months, I have posted photos of the Wichita Falls, Texas ten-day forecast on Facebook that looked a lot like today's forecast:

Why would I share such? Perhaps it is my Minnesota roots longing for a 75-degree day to go bike down around the lakes on the southwest side of Minneapolis. North Texas has no such place where lake dumps into lake ringed by bike paths and naturally growing elms, oaks, maples and pines. Nor does it see 75-degrees between the months of April and October except between 1 and 2 a.m. I remember my undergrad philosophy instructor, Patrick Tower, telling me that "misery loved miserable company." Maybe I just wanted everyone to take pity.

Quite frankly, the area around where I live is facing a dire situation. The heat, yes, has been unrelenting. Couple that with wind that never dies and a ground-quenching rain that last visited some time late last summer and you have a) a tinder box, b) a crop-destroying drought, and c) conditions that crack a house's foundation. If you could think to pray for this neck of the woods--that God would send rain--when you happen to think of me, that would be most appreciated.

As I rode my motorcycle home this afternoon, a decent-sized cloud mass shielded the sun, and praises to God spilled from my lips. When it's 105-degrees, a modicum of shade makes all the difference. But that cloud got me to thinking of Jonah.

I'll not go into the entire big-fish story (yes, it was a fish and not a whale). Let's skip to the end. Jonah was in the middle of a mood. In fact he was hating life much like I have been hating 10-day forecasts. As he moped on a sun-scorched hillside, God in his goodness sprouted a Miracle-Gro laced plant to grow up and cool the perturbed prophet's brow (Jonah 4:6).

That very same God, to teach Jonah his sovereignty in all things, sent a root-chomping worm that withered the shade-producing plant. Jonah's response? He posted a picture on Facebook of the withered plant and considered death to be favorable to enduring the inferno atop the hill for another day.

God's response: "Son, I bring the shade and I bring the worm. I have my purposes in both, purposes that you do not see. How about coughing up a little praise for the shade AND for the worm?" (a very loose paraphrase of Jonah 4:9-11).

As I type this, my thermostat's on an endurable 77-degrees. I have a kiddie-pool in the back yard to dip into if I need to cool off not to mention the four gallons of ice cream in the freezer and lemonade in the fridge. My God is so very good to me in ways seen and unseen. His word makes clear that he controls the weather (Matthew 5:45). So when we see no rain, when the wind never ceases, and when the temps make the world feel like an Easy-Bake Oven, God's not surprised; he has brought it to pass for his GOOD purposes.

By the time I pulled my bike in the garage, he had given me a repentant heart as well as a cloud-covered ride home. I will continue to pray that he will send the rain and the cooler temps, but I will do so with thanksgiving for his good and for his provision and for his purposes unseen. Though I do not understand all of his ways, I do know that God is always good.

Movie villains and 'Cars 2'

2011-07-05T09:11:00.035-05:00

No pitcher can go an entire season without a loss. In fact, some of the best pitchers during their best seasons will find themselves on the receiving end of an old-fashioned whoopin'.

It comes as no surprise that Pixar would finally have a weak outing. "Cars 2" has great visuals, all the usual suspects in the realm of vocal talents, and, as usual, none of the double entendres or innuendos that fill most "family-friendly" movies. As a story, I felt it fell far short of the compelling storylines that have been Pixar hallmarks. Easily the weakest film of the lot.

What really made the movie fizzle was Pixar's choice of villain, a corrupt oil company. As crushed as I was to see the finest movie company to rise in my lifetime genuflect to political correctness, I saw the handwriting when Woody of "Toy Story" fame appeared in a gay-pride commercial sponsored by Google Chrome. So, now, Pixar becomes yet another shill for the Hollywood machine churning out propaganda for leftist thought.

Think back across the movies you've seen in the last twenty years. Who are Hollywood's TOP 5 villains?

5 - The church

4 - Our military

3 - Our government

2 - The rich

1 - Companies and corporations

Joe Stalin must be laughing himself silly as he burns in hell thinking that Americans are coughing up $8 a pop at the Cineplex to have their noses rubbed in their very way of life.

Now, folks, there is not a pristine organization on the planet because every organization is made up of flawed and fallen people, but look at those five groups. Villains? Really?

I just saw a video posted by a friend's daughter on Facebook of her week ministering to the folks of Joplin, Missouri. They went in association with Samaritan's Purse, a Christian relief organization begun by a fellow named Franklin Graham. You might recognize the name. Billy's son. How many atheist organizations are pouring manpower and money into Joplin? For all that the church has done in the name of Christ for good over the centuries, she's known for Crusades, Inquisitions, Witch Trials, and pedophilia. Charming.

On this July 4th do I really need to defend our military? Do we believe that it's made up of fascist zealots who delight in atrocity and rape? Really?

Same goes for our elected officials. WE VOTED THEM IN, PEOPLE!! If they are villainesque, they merely reflect their constituents.

The rich as a villain. Why? Because they've gots and we han't gots. Honestly, that's it. Most of us don't see the philanthropy carried out by those with wealth because they don't want it trumpeted. Yes, there are miserly cads and those who give for tax-break only, but oh so many more give because they have been richly blessed. They understand their God-given responsibility to give back. Most of us knuckleheads don't understand that without the wealthy, most of us don't have a job. We're just dumb.

And that takes us to companies and corporations. Pixar picked "Big Oil" as its must-have villain for "Cars 2" (here). Would someone tell me the evil that oil companies have wrought upon the world? I say, "Thank you very much for the gasoline. Could you please pump some more?" Regarding an oil spill or a tanker run aground, it is great media. Lots of pictures. Considering the bajillion oil platforms and oil tankers that lap the globe, I remember two hiccups in my lifetime, the Exxon Valdez and the Gulf last year. Surgeons don't fare that well. Movie studios certainly don't. So oil is the villain? Really?

Here are a couple of villains for you:

1. Hugo Chavez

2. Mahmoud Ahmadinejahd

3. Vladamir Putin

4. Abortion doctors and those who fund this national sin

5. Islam - that brand where folks live out the Koran like Mohammed did

6. China

We could toss "atheism" into that pot considering the worldwide brutality that has been birthed from the philosophies of Nietzsche and those who hold to no higher authority to which man is accountable, but Hollywood prefers the atheistic hero and fundamentalist (Christian, of course) villain as seen in their upcoming release, "The Ledge." Considering I already had Hugo, Mahmoud, Vlad and China, I figured adding "atheism" would be redundant.

Despite spending forty years and billions of dollars to stem the military and geopolitical tide of godless socialism and communism, such diseased ideologies have infected our country through the university and through television and film with the drumbeat, "America and it's way of life is evil." Occasionally you find an individual to stand up and say, "No, foundational and fundamental America is VERY good." Until very recently, I thought Pixar was that go-to guy, but as with most major league aces, some weakness has been exposed.

Will there be any pleasant surprises at the box office this year? Movie-junkie that I am, I hope so.

NBC

2011-06-23T09:11:00.025-05:00

In case you missed it, NBC successfully neutered the words "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance during their opening segment to the U.S. Open golf tournament this past Sunday (here). The bit had children reciting the pledge and cut-aways to patriotic images around the D.C. area where the tourney took place this year. When they cut away after "...one nation..." they returned to "...with liberty and justice for all."

When the phone calls began to swamp their switchboard, they fumbled their on-air apology by referencing an omission that may have caused some offense, but the offense was not intended. Ah. Okay.

NBC has done this with intent before (here). Really, this should surprise no one. We are a post-modern and certainly a post-Christian nation. Francis Schaeffer noted that art accurately reflected the heart of a culture or where that culture would go. Find a family on TV whose relationship to the Creator is treated with respect (maybe CBS' Bluebloods where they actually pray before they eat). It's not just our entertainment. We allowed our government to drive prayer from the public schools. What politician will be elected or professor be hired if it comes to light that Christ informs their life in all matters? God has been driven from the American public square.

Call it spiritual entropy. The beautiful package deposited on our doorstep in the late 1700's has been mashed to pieces, not by some hooligan or vagrant, but by us. Jesus Christ is not merely unwelcome, he is not tolerated.

Here's the deal. Whether NBC recognizes it or not, we are a nation under God. In fact, whether or not any nation recognizes it doesn't change the reality that every nation is under God. That is reality. I can deny it until my face turns red, white, and blue, but the God who created the universe and created my DNA created government to be his implementer of justice in the world (Romans 13). I can bow my knee today and submit to him acknowledging him as Lord of all or I will bow my knee one day future when it will be too late (Philippians 2:9-11, Matthew 25:46).

Am I surprised by what NBC did? Not really. Saddened, mostly. It breaks my heart to see my country turn its back on the God who has secured for us such freedoms and such opportunities.

It's time to take up the prayer of Daniel (Daniel 9:1-19).

The National Anthem

2011-06-12T09:11:00.004-05:00

Here are a few rules in no particular order from someone who can't sing himself out of a wet paper bag on what to do if you get tapped to sing the National Anthem in some public forum. I don't mean as one in the crowd (though I might jot ten rules for that at another time) but as the one standing there with the microphone.

1. It's not about you. Consider it a corporate prayer. You just happen to be the mouthpiece of 40 or 40,000 other folks in taking a moment to honor our country. Offend a Brit or a Canuck by singing it like your leading a crowd that's proud of its country.

2. Just sing the melody. Few songs rank as difficult to sing as our Star Spangled Banner. For those with vocal talent, it's not a big deal. That said, it's not the time to wow me with the prowess of your vocal talents. Please, just sing the song. No crazy tempo. No wacky pitch changes. If you can't figure out why, go back to number one. Anyway, if you start singing like a woman in labor, you're going to screw up the timing of the fly-by, too.

3. Be respectful - face the flag. I don't care who you are or how many platinum albums you have, it's an honor to be selected to represent those present. Look at it while you sing and not at your mug in the jumbo-tron. Remember the thousands of coffins that have been draped with that majestic piece of cloth so that you can do whatever it is that you do.

4. Be respectful - dress nicely. That might strike you as quaint or "Beaver Cleaver," but you convey a lot by how you dress. Imagine you are going to meet someone important. That's a start.

5. Be respectful - be still. Walk straight to the microphone, and sing the song. No wild hand gestures are required. PLEASE, do not grab yourself! If you want something to do with your hand, try putting it over your heart. You ought not want folks looking at you anyway (see #1); you want them facing the flag and singing, too. When your done, please leave the stage, field, etc. Folks didn't come to see you anyway.

6. Practice. If you can't hit the notes, maybe you should bow out--no harm, no foul--but there is NO excuse for not knowing the words. If you have struggled with them in the past, you might even tote the lyrics on a 3 x 5 card.

7. Believe it. Did you know that there are four verses to the Star Spangled Banner? Yep. Let me encourage you, before you sing it in public, read all four verses. Understand the history behind the Anthem. If you can't support it or our nation, then please don't sing our nation's anthem just to steal a little face time or because you have an album coming out or because you were nominated for a Grammy. Or if you're Sean Penn.

Yes, it is perhaps one of the most difficult national songs that has ever been, but what an awesome song it is. I long for the day when Americans will belt it out like the Canadians do during the Stanley Cup. We are, after all, Americans. Let's sing it with pride.

THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER by Francis Scott Key

Oh, say can you see by the dawn's early light
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars thru the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there.
Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
'Tis the star-spangled banner! Oh long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more!
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: "In God is our trust."
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

NOTE ADDED: Just learned of a fifth verse penned by Oliver Wendell Holmes over his disgust with the start of the Civil War in 1861. Don't believe it worthy of the original but I share it here as a footnote to history and since we are in the War's sesquicentennial.

When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.

QotD: The Race Card

2011-06-07T09:11:00.001-05:00

"The modern definition of 'racist' is someone who is winning an argument with a liberal."

~ Peter Brimelow

The atheist's brother

2011-06-06T09:11:00.015-05:00

I find it interesting when two brothers growing up in the same house end up on different forks in the road. When did that happen? What brought it to pass?

My brother and I find ourselves on different roads politically. On the one hand, when it comes to employment, he believes "The Man" (business leadership) is out to get you, but when it comes to politics, he is absolutely convinced "The Man" (government leadership this time) will save us.

Me? If you've read a few posts, you know that I'm big on personal responsibility in the workplace and in government. You also know that I come to those positions not from my own thinking but from what I read in the Bible. If God went to the effort to reveal himself to us through the written word, wouldn't we do well to live our lives in a manner pleasing to our Creator?

My brother and I are not the only two on opposite paths. Take the Hitchens brothers. Christopher is an unashamed, unabashed atheist and thinks you should be, too. Really, that latter position is a great position. If you know your way to jive with reality, why don't you try and convince others of that position? Hitchens has tried to convince the masses by penning "god is not Great" (the actual title capitalization) and "The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Non-believer."

Did you know Hitchens has a brother named Peter? Do you know that Peter is a Christian? Did you know that he, like his brother, grew up in a religious home but rejected the Bible in favor of rabid atheism? For Peter, the very thing he embraced turned bitter in his stomach and led him to assert, "That in the end, what I rejected (the God of the Bible) was right." In the following 8-minute video, Peter describes his upbringing, his God rejecting and his God embracing.

About half way through the video, he describes realizing that he would face judgment and that the floor upon which he stood, a floor which was no floor at all in reality, had begun to collapse.

Why does Peter see with such crystal clarity but his brother Christopher, a man whose death is fast approaching due to cancer, has his eyes shut tight? I cannot answer that question, but this I do know, if Peter could do anything to open Christopher's eyes to the truth of man's standing before God and God's provision for man, he would. He understands the implications as illustrated by his own horror at seeing the painting "The Last Judgment" by Rogier van der Weyden, man will die and face the judgment (Hebrews 9:27).

Consider the atheist's passion for the believer. Why does he desire that he not believe? To what end? That he might eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die? Really, Paul said the same thing to the Christian--IF the resurrection had been a farce (1 Corinthians 15:32). But the resurrection is an historical event.

Christopher and Peter

So we face the passion of the believer for the atheist. It's a passion for his very existence, for his life. All mankind will know eternal life for we are not merely corporeal beings. But all of us by our very nature stand in open rebellion against God. Paul makes that eminently plain in Romans 3:10-18 and caps it off with "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" in Romans 3:23. The Christian as exemplified by Peter Hitchens here wants to do everything in his power to illuminate the judgment ahead, call the lost to turn around and ultimately point them to the one who has made the way for restoration and eternal life (John 14:6, 17:3).

It bums me out that my brother and I stand on different political roads, but it bums Peter Hitchens out far worse that he and his brother, Christopher, stand on different roads as they hurtle toward eternity.

Masquerade: The submissive wife

2011-06-01T09:11:00.146-05:00

Like a police officer behind the tape at a crime scene, I'd like to ask that if you don't have a vested interest in this topic to just move along. You will think this foolishness.

Who has a vested interest? Christian women. Particularly Christian wives who have already committed themselves to trusting God at his word when it comes to how he created them and their role in marriage.

Few have it more challenging in the world today than those who seek to love their Lord by serving God in obedience in their marriage. Janie Cheaney wrote on that very topic in a recent issue of World Magazine (here). Paula Kirby of the Washington Post spent her column railing upon the Judeo-Christian role of women, wives, and mothers. It used to be that people would think through such things when they read or hear them, but now, because the voice is loud, few consider. Most absorb. Cheaney challenges us to consider.

More and more, though, I see an infection within the church, one that is ham-stringing marriages causing them to stagnate at or below the level of mediocrity, and this particular problem--not all problems, just this one--rests in the lap of the ladies (and before I get hammered by lasses far and wide, I have begun a blog to help, spur on, and admonish husbands to fulfill their God-given roles as husbands). The infection is this: the wife who professes Christ and believes that they submit to their husbands as unto the Lord (Ephesians 5:22, Colossians 3:18, 1 Peter 3:1, 5-6), but if you were to examine their relationship with their husband or even ask him, that is not what you would find. They submit in word but not in deed.

A wife who does not submit to their husband as to the Lord has a problem that has NOTHING to do with the husband. God's commands to the wife do not depend upon whether or not she has a husband who is loving his wife as Christ loved the church just as his commands to the husband are still in full even if she is a shrew. You are right; I do not know your husband, but that does not matter. So let's get back to business.

How does this play out?

What does it mean to submit? It means to put one's self under the authority of another. By choice. That means there is an equality inherent in the relationship but one party recognizes the leadership role of the other party and willingly and joyfully abides by that. God does not think men are better than women, he does not feel they are more important than women, but in his economy, God ordained that the husband lead the family. Peter describes this even footing before God when he says to the husbands that they are coheirs with their wives. Equal. Paul says that sex does not matter in our standing before Christ for we are all one before Christ (Galatians 3:28). But God in his wisdom and by design created the wife as the helper to the husband (Genesis 2:18). Both created in the image of God (Genesis 1:27) but man with the responsibility to lead and woman with the responsibility to support.

Consider the godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit as the ultimate example of equality and submission. Three persons. Each God. Total unity. How can this be? John 6:38 gives us a picture. Christ, God the Son, does the will of God the Father. Likewise the Spirit brings glory to the Son and only does what he hears (John 16:13-14). Equality in the godhead (Philippians 2:6) but submitted order. One of his own will submits to the other. So, too, in marriage.

Please do not take this opportunity to play lawyer. No "yeah, buts." Many of other places speak of the glory and wonder of submission. That's not my purpose. I am addressing those who know and agree in principle to the previous paragraphs but through hardness of heart are not living it out. Do you know that such a hardness is natural? God said right after the Fall of Man that this very thing would happen.

"Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you." (Genesis 3:16b)

Husbands might get all excited thinking God said that the wife will have sexual desire for her husband. Um, not always the case. In context, the same word "desire" is found one chapter later in Genesis 4:7. There God warns Cain that sin desires him, to have mastery over him, but that Cain must overcome that. So in the Fall, in her broken nature, the wife will now desire to dominate her husband, to have the position of authority, rather than to submit to her role as the helper or assistant in the relationship.

Because of that, you, wife, will not want your husband to lead you. You will want to and might actually fight against his authority and his attempts to lead either passively or actively. Submitting (by definition a choice) is now contrary to your fallen nature. Ask yourself these questions:

Does your mood turn dark (perhaps for weeks on end) when he makes a decision contrary to your desire?
Do you immediately come up with a list of his short-comings as long as Santa's "Naughty" list when he approaches you about a concern he has seen in your life? Do you immediately try to justify your conduct by pulling out the "Naughty" list that you've been keeping against your man since "I do" to show him that he has no justification for getting into your chili?
Do you use sex like a mackerel for Shamu
Do you roll your eyes behind his back (perhaps to his face) when he tries to lead the family in prayer or in reading God's word because you know his sin better than he does?
Do you bristle when he asks you to consult him before making major purchases? When he asks to see the checkbook? When he tries to set a budget? When he...?

Let me encourage you, again: this is natural. It's normal.

Now let me rebuke you: it's sin. It's the dark wife of Proverbs (19:13, 21:9, 19, 25:24).

My heart aches for marriages mired in Midland because the husband has given up trying to lead his wife, thinking that it's better to live with a cease-fire than to go through the pain of trying to break through the polar icecap and bring healing to the marriage. Callouses build and spouses begin to co-exist. The wife has dominated; her desires have won the day. The husband, who perhaps has tried to lead in the past, has given up, choosing the unsettled peace of North and South Korea over the open warfare of the Union North and Confederate South.

This ought not be. The husband must lead (again, that's my other blog), but the wife must choose to submit and support and encourage and respect. It's not North and South Korea. It's not even the Civil War. It's one team but one that's not playing on the same page, God's page. You can't have two quarterbacks on the field at the same time. Only one can ultimately call the play.

So, wife, if you have seen your reflection in these words and do not like what you see, what do you do? If you are already a Christ-follower, you already know, but I'll spell it out anyway.

Ask God. Perhaps you don't know if this is you but you suspect it might be. Ask God to make it plain to you. With a sincere heart, fall before him and tell him that you don't want to be that way. God knows the dark corners of your heart and he will lead those who truly seek his way (Psalm 19:12, 13, 139:23-24).
Repent. If you discern that this has been your way, repent. Your sin is against God (Psalm 51:4). You have rebelled against his plan and purpose for your life. You have kicked against the goads of your design. You have put yourself upon his throne that you might order your life in a way that is most comfortable to you but is absolutely against his command. Let the Holy Spirit break your heart and grieve for what you have done. Then accept the cleansing that comes from true repentance (1 John 1:9).
Apologize. Hardest words to speak in the English language. "I'm sorry." Be specific. Explain to your husband that you recognize what you have done and how you have behaved, and tell him how you have confessed before God and intend to walk in the future.
Live it. Words are cheap. You will validate your words with your deeds (James 2:17-18).
Trust God. The old root of sin will not be done away with until we are glorified, but its power over you was neutered at the cross. Therefore, "consider yourselves dead to sin and...let not sin reign in your mortal bodies" (Romans 6:11-14). The road will be hard at times, but God does not have evil in store for you. All things work together for good (Romans 8:28). Trust him. Let him work in your life as you obey God in your marriage (Galatians 6:9).

My passion for you is that you have a marriage that honors God. It will never be perfect, alas, but if it honors God, you will know a joy in that relationship like nothing you have now. You will know his good pleasure and in so doing, you will know true pleasure. You and your man will be one flesh as much as you can be in a fallen world and that will testify to that world about the God you serve bringing him great glory. And it will bless you to your toes.

That can never happen if you do not submit heart and soul.

So if this does not concern you, move along. Nothing to see here. If it does concern you, step inside the tape and see what you can do to bring about healing.

Remember...

2011-05-29T21:11:00.005-05:00

"No greater love has any man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."

~ Jesus Christ

The American Revolution and the birth of Freedom

Gettysburg as we fought with each other to determine the nation we would be

Omaha Beach as Americans crossed seas to stop the hand of evil before it could reach across and grab us

Vietnam where Americans died and few knew quite why

Praising God that Americans still fight for our freedom, stemming the tide of that brand of Islam that seeks to strangle that freedom from our nation.

IN FLANDERS FIELDS

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row, 

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

 Scarce heard amid the guns below.  

We are the Dead. Short days ago 

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie,

In Flanders fields.  

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

 To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

 We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.

Worse than a lunatic

2011-05-27T09:11:00.020-05:00

Now that 21 May has come and gone, I had hoped that Harold Camping and his ilk would retreat into shamed obscurity. Such is not the case. As with most movie sequels, he doesn't know when to quit. The sequel comes to a theater near you this October. Rather than slither into the shadows in repentant shame, Mr. Camping has kicked the can five months down the road stating in no uncertain terms that the end will come on October 21st.

I could mock him as Rick Reilly did. Or the Huffington Post did. Or Leno. Or Letterman. Or...or...or...Who hasn't mocked Mr. Camping? Who hasn't made him the butt of a joke?

But Mr. Camping is far worse than a cartoon, a buffoon, or a common loon. He's a heretic.

In a day when any knucklehead can start his own blog ("hey?!"), people opine with less forethought than Lady Gaga puts into her wardrobe, and the number of people who are speaking on behalf of God--on what he thinks, what he did, what he does, and what he will do--are legion. It's not just blogs. Every media web-site has their own religious opinionator. Even the Huffington Post added a Religion section. Movies teem with religious themes.

But for all of the talk on behalf of God, how many grasp the gravity of making such serious claims?

If I am going to speak on God's behalf, a) I must know what he's said, b) I must understand it within its given context, and c) I ought to understand how severe a matter it is for me to say, "Thus saith the Lord." Why do I need to be concerned about that? Two very big reasons.

First, God doesn't take too kindly to folks saying he said something when in fact he said no such thing. That's why James warns

"Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness." (James 3:1)

Paul goes so far as to suggest that those who preach a gospel other than that which the apostles have preached are accursed (Galatians 1:8-9), wishing later in his letter that such would castrate themselves (5:12, ouch).

God himself made it plain to Israel as he gave them the law that he would send prophets who were speaking directly for him. They would be correctors and encouragers. They would also tell the nation what would befall them should they continue on their present course. But here's the rub. Anyone can say, "Thus saith the Lord." Are we to believe every yokel that comes through the yeshiva? God thought of that and it's one of the reasons for prophecy.

"If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, 'Let us go after other gods,' which you have not known, 'and let us serve them,' you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams." (Deuteronomy 13:1-3)

Does it jive with what God has said? If so, great. God's word is confirmed as his through the prophet. If not--well, verse 5 goes on to make that one pretty plain.

"But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God...So you shall purge the evil from your midst."

So if someone were to proclaim something other than what God's word said in ancient Israel they were to be executed. Is it a serious thing to say "thus saith the Lord" when in fact God did not saith?

Another aspect of prophecy was in the foretelling of future events. The Lord said

"...when a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the LORD has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him." (Deuteronomy 18:22)

The same bad news awaited that guy.

"And the LORD said to me, '...the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.'" (Deuteronomy 18:17a, 20)

Do I advocate building a gallows for date-setters? Not at all. In context, we are not Israel. I share the Deuteronomy passages to indicate God's mind on this issue. Jesus Christ also spoke on leading others astray and the consequences for those not careful about their teaching.

"Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea." (Mark 9:42)

Teach someone and lead them astray and it would be better for you to be bound to an anchor sans scuba gear and pitched into the deep with no way to hoist the anchor. Serious? Hard to miss that picture especially for those around the Sea of Galilee where Jesus spoke and where many made their way fishing.

The second reason that we should be careful about speaking for Christ is a reason that Mr. Camping and company seem to have ignored or forgotten: you slander the name of Christ. Both Peter and Paul hit on this when they warned

"You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you."" (Romans 2:23-24)

"But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep." (2 Peter 2:1-3)

Isn't that what's happening because of Mr. Camping? Peter goes on to describe the end times which will precede the return of Christ. He says that many will scoff saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation" (3:4). Are the Campings of the world part of the reason for the scoffing?

Here's the deal. Christ is coming back. He said so. His historical resurrection testifies to his claims. Despite what the date-setters set, Jesus said no man would know the date nor the hour (Matthew 24:36), though he did make clear we would know the season (Matthew 24:32-25). When those who speak for God speak amiss, they either do not understand what they are doing or they know that they are out of bounds. Either way, the consequences are dark.

Francis Chan on the "controversy" of Hell

2011-05-23T21:11:00.001-05:00

I just watched this video of Francis Chan discussing hell in response to recent assertions that God will make sure that none go to hell. It's ten minutes and worth your time, assuming you have time to consider our ultimate destiny.

Imagine there's no heaven: Stephen Hawking

2011-05-17T09:11:00.002-05:00

Stephen Hawking, the man with perhaps the most active and analytical brain on the planet, has once again stepped beyond the bounds of his own reason. In an interview with the Guardian newspaper (excerpted on Fox News here and in full here), the renowned physicist declared

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken-down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark."

Now you might consider me well outside of my intellectual bounds in declaring the doctor downright daffy, but wasn't it a child that exposed the emperor as having exposed himself? Consider me an intellectual child for the moment, if you will, for Mr. Hawking refutes his own assertion.

Huh? Consider. If our brain is nothing but a computer, how did it get assembled? If all is merely machinistic, who assembled this extraordinary machine that is the universe, much less the even more mind-boggling sentient machine that is man? In a universe marked by entropy, things do not move to a higher state of order, especially on the magnitude of the human brain.

Those who advocate for a material universe alone cannot explain the immaterial. From whence cometh consciousness? How does life spring from non-life? We can theorize until we are blue in the face and posit parallel quantum mashed potatoes, but when we look about us into tangible reality, does it make any sense whatsoever? How is it I can imagine a purple elephant when in my mind there is neither purple nor elephant? What of good and evil if all that there is merely is? For the pure materialist, there can be no good or evil. We just are.

Jean-Paul Sartre, the preeminent existentialist and atheist, could not come to terms with why there was something rather than nothing. Not only could he not get to first base, he couldn't even get up to the plate for why there was a plate versus no plate at all?

In trying to make a play for some kind of morality, Hawking suggested

"We should seek the greatest value of our action."

One has to ask, why? If I'm just a machine, why should I not seek my maximum pleasure? Why should I not do that which makes my engine run the longest? From whence cometh altruism and philanthropy? What is love? Why should I flop on a grenade to save my chums? That doesn't sound like a very good way to keep my computer running.

In direct rejection of what God has said in his word, Hawking stands upon the mountain and proclaims

"The universe is governed by science."

The choice becomes very stark. Those who try and dance the line between naturalism/materialism and theism find no room to stand. Hawking makes plain the end of naturalism: there is no God, there is no heaven. God has revealed himself in the cosmos; His fingerprints are everywhere.

"The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork" (Psalm 19:1, see also Psalm 148:3-6)

Perhaps the most troubling passage in all of Scripture for those who have stared into the wonder of the heavens or have looked at the miracle of a newborn and spit, indicates that God's wrath awaits those who have seen the wonder of creation and turned their backs.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened (Romans 1:18-21).

So I stand with my hand in my Father's hand, and as the emperor strides by, I cannot help but declare, "Papa, he's naked." I look into my Father's face and see a tear roll down his cheek.

QotD: Vice?

2011-05-13T09:11:00.002-05:00

Burns
Prager
"The late legendary comedian George Burns was a listener to my radio talk show. When he was around 90 years old, he invited me to his Beverly Hills home. In the course of our two hours together, he smoked two cigars and had a couple of martinis. I asked him what his doctor said about those habits. George looked at me and responded, "My doctor died.""

~ Dennis Prager

Helping husbands

2011-05-09T09:11:00.005-05:00

I appreciate you stopping by to read these pond-erances. Your time is limited, and how you invest the 86,400 seconds God gives you every day matters.

I hope and pray this is a place that helps you hone your mind and your spirit by examining and understanding the world around us through the lens of God's word. Without a reference point, my thoughts have no more weight than your thoughts. Without an external standard to which we can appeal, discussions will deteriorate into screaming or swinging.

In an era where the assault against the family grows steadily more furious, families falter more and more because husbands and fathers do not hold the line. They abdicate their God given charge to lead and to love like men. In so doing, the American family continues to crumble.

In the dark days of Paul's last letter to Timothy, he encourages him to keep on keeping on as the young pastor of the Ephesian church. Preach the word. Reprove, rebuke, exhort. He warns,

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths."

In keeping with Paul's exhortation to Timothy to be about his business, I have begun a site to spur on husbands in the enormous responsibility to "love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her." Once a week or so, I will post a prodding from the word of God to encourage us in the rich and wondrous adventure God has given us as husbands.

The site for husbands is called, for lack of originality, "Husbands, Love Your Wives," and can be found at http://www.husbandsloveyourwives.blogspot.com/.

If you find refreshment and challenge there, let me encourage you to pass it on to other men. Challenge other men to love their wives as Christ loved the church, not because you have it completely doped out, but because it is the right thing to do.

"Exhort one another every day, as long as it is called "today," that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(verses cited: 2 Timothy 4:3-4, Ephesians 5:25, Hebrews 4:13)

Conspiracy theory: OBL and Jesus Christ

2011-05-05T09:11:00.011-05:00

I have a friend who does not trust the government. At all. Power corrupts, the adage goes, and absolute power nudges it over the precipice.

So now the government--in fact its chief executive--announces that public enemy #1, Osama bin Laden, is fish food. My friend wants proof.

Why now?

Where's the body?

Where are the pictures?

You get the idea. While not a fan of much that the current administration has done domestically or internationally over the past couple years, I have no reason to doubt the veracity of their comments about this. Two reasons.

First, if he's not dead, all he needs to do is strike the pose to a couple Vogue photographers and the US of A looks like a bunch of dopes. Nothing dispels a rumored death quite so quickly as a pulse.

Second, if there's been a cover-up or some deception, time will erode the camouflage. As Chuck Colson and the rest of the rabble involved in Watergate learned, keeping a lie secret for very long proves next to impossible. Someone's going to blow the whistle; there's just too much money and too much temptation floating about the stratosphere.

Me? I think Herr bin Laden has joined company with Herrs Hitler, Stalin, tse-Tung (yeah, I'm old school), Amin, and Pot just to name a few.

As this whole "where's-the-body?" thing played out Monday morning, I couldn't help but think of Jesus' resurrection because the same two reasons to believe the Obama Administration work equally well for the first century witnesses who said Jesus rose from the dead. Either he did or he didn't. Pretty hard to fathom an in-between.

So, what happened to Jesus' body? Despite the dizzying array of conspiracy theorists, no evidence has come to bear against the resurrection as reported in the earliest manuscripts from that era (1 Corinthians 15:3-4). Paul, the author of the Corinthian letter, has the boldness to tell them that there are many eyewitnesses to the resurrected Christ still alive at that time. You want to squash a resurrection story faster than a bullet through a Muslim terrorist's brain, all you need to do is show the body. Not something anyone ever did.

If the resurrection was a lie, a fabrication, someone would have talked. Judas couldn't hack the pressure while Jesus was still alive, imagine any of the yellow-spined disciples when their amigos started losing their heads. Someone's gonna turn states evidence.

"Well, the disciples stole the body." Come now. What power would there be behind a made-up story about a dude we saw brutally butchered if he were nothing but a cold, grotesque corpse? You want a religion based upon that? You want to suffer a life of persecution and being ostracized from family and friends for that? You want to be martyred for that? Of all the silly theories, the disciples stealing the body is perhaps the silliest.

Paul goes on to argue how absolutely absurd Christianity would be if in fact Christ did not rise from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). Paul had a dizzying intellect and was a brilliant man. He understood quite well that if Jesus did not rise from the dead, he was a fool at best and a liar from the pit of hell at worst. "But," he declares, "in fact Christ has been raised from the dead" (15:20).

Conspiracy? What did Paul have to gain? He was executed for this conviction. He died penniless and alone. What did Peter have to gain? He suffered the same fate as did all of his apostolic compatriots save John. No conspiracy. They all saw the risen Christ and upon that fact and in that joy they lived the rest of their lives understanding that any pain in this life would pale in comparison to life with Christ here and in the next.

"For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us."

~ Romans 8:18

Bin Laden is dead. If our government has falsified that in any way, either someone will show a body, living or dead, or time will erode away any veneer and bring the truth to light. The conspiracy theories will be manifest as true or fade away for lack of evidence. In time.

Neither time nor twenty-first century hubris has dented the evidence for the resurrected Messiah. It is because of the fact that God the Son has been raised to eternal life confirming his sacrifice on the cross as payment for my (our) sin that we can be restored in his relationship to God.

OBL. A dead zealot. Many will hail him as a martyr for their cause and do horrifying things in his name, just as he did in life. Many will be enlisted to follow his path to destruction.

Jesus Christ. A living King. Many have laid down their life for him that others might have life through him. Today, many can come to know Him and follow him to eternal life.

That's a big difference.

Bashing the hornet's nest: the death of a madman

2011-05-02T09:11:00.010-05:00

"Good news for America," says General Barry McCaffery.

Color me skeptical.

Don't get me wrong. I'm tickled that one with such a vehement hatred of human life and freedom has met justice in this life even as he now in death meets with justice in the next (Hebrews 9:27), but I do not believe that his death will stem the tide of Islamic terrorism against the Christian, Jewish, and secular world.

We hit a hornet's nest with a baseball bat and killed the queen. Think the hornets will be happy?

Another talking head just suggested that U.S. military action in the Middle East has revolved around getting this man. That, boys and girls, is the problem. Kill the queen and the hornets will make another queen. And what about the hundred and fifty other hornet's nests that surround the house and even infest the house?

Until America and especially American Muslims begin to take a stand against that breed of Islam that wants to annihilate anything outside of Islam, we'll continue focusing on a single hornet's nest and then get stung very badly from places we least expect it (U.S. Army majors, Afghani "allies", etc.).

Consider the man who pushed whatever button required pushing to remove breath from this man's lungs. He could have a gajillion dollar book deal and movie deal. He would get ticker tape parades. He'd be on every talk show and news show in America and Europe. Problem is that if that man's name ever gets out, he'll have a price on his head and will have to live a life incognito. Why? Because bin Laden is not the problem.

During WWII, folks understood that if you took out Hitler, you killed Nazi Germany. Militant, Koran-reading, Koran-believing, Koran-living Islam has no such figure. It continues to spread in Europe and the United States, in prisons and in Dearborn. These folks will not delight in their queen being squashed.

I hope I'm wrong.

3 PM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T15:00:00.002-05:00

⁴⁶And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?" that is, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" ⁴⁷And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, "This man is calling Elijah." ⁴⁸And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.

~Matthew 27:46-48

³⁰When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, "It is finished..."

~ John 19:30a

⁴⁶...Then Jesus, calling out with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last.

~ Luke 23:46

Noon

2011-04-22T12:01:00.001-05:00

⁴⁴ It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, ⁴⁵while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.

~ Luke 23:44-45

Midmorning - Good Friday

2011-04-22T10:30:00.002-05:00

³⁹ One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" ⁴⁰But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? ⁴¹And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." ⁴²And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." ⁴³And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

~ Luke 23:39-43

9:00 AM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T09:00:00.002-05:00

²¹ And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. ²² And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). ²³And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. ²⁴And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. ²⁵And it was the third hour when they crucified him.

~ Mark 15:21-25

8:00 AM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T08:00:00.000-05:00

²⁷ Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. ²⁸And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, ²⁹and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" ³⁰And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. ³¹And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.

~ Matthew 27:27-31

7:00 AM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T07:00:00.000-05:00

³³ So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"

³⁴Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?"

³⁵Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?"

³⁶Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world."

³⁷Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?"

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world— to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice."

³⁸Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

~ John 18:33-38a

¹⁵ Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. ¹⁶And they had then a notorious prisoner called Barabbas. ¹⁷So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, "Whom do you want me to release for you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" ¹⁸For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up. ¹⁹Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, "Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered much because of him today in a dream."

²⁰Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and destroy Jesus. ²¹The governor again said to them, "Which of the two do you want me to release for you?" And they said, "Barabbas." ²²Pilate said to them, "Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?" They all said, "Let him be crucified!" ²³And he said, "Why, what evil has he done?" But they shouted all the more, "Let him be crucified!"

²⁴So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing, but rather that a riot was beginning, he took water and washed his hands before the crowd, saying, "I am innocent of this man’s blood; see to it yourselves." ²⁵And all the people answered, "His blood be on us and on our children!" ²⁶Then he released for them Barabbas, and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified.

~Matthew 27:15-25

6:30 AM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T06:30:00.000-05:00

⁶When Pilate heard this, he asked whether the man was a Galilean. ⁷And when he learned that he belonged to Herod’s jurisdiction, he sent him over to Herod, who was himself in Jerusalem at that time.

⁸When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him. ⁹So he questioned him at some length, but he made no answer. ¹⁰The chief priests and the scribes stood by, vehemently accusing him. ¹¹And Herod with his soldiers treated him with contempt and mocked him. Then, arraying him in splendid clothing, he sent him back to Pilate. ¹²And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.

~ Luke 23:6-12

6:00 AM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T06:00:00.002-05:00

²⁸ Then they led Jesus from the house of Caiaphas to the governor’s headquarters. It was early morning. They themselves did not enter the governor’s headquarters, so that they would not be defiled, but could eat the Passover. ²⁹ So Pilate went outside to them and said, "What accusation do you bring against this man?" ³⁰They answered him, "If this man were not doing evil, we would not have delivered him over to you." ³¹Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves and judge him by your own law." The Jews said to him, "It is not lawful for us to put anyone to death." ³² This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.

~ John 18:21-32

5:00 AM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T05:00:00.001-05:00

⁶⁹ Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. And a servant girl came up to him and said, "You also were with Jesus the Galilean." ⁷⁰But he denied it before them all, saying, "I do not know what you mean." ⁷¹And when he went out to the entrance, another servant girl saw him, and she said to the bystanders, "This man was with Jesus of Nazareth." ⁷²And again he denied it with an oath: "I do not know the man." ⁷³After a little while the bystanders came up and said to Peter, "Certainly you too are one of them, for your accent betrays you." ⁷⁴Then he began to invoke a curse on himself and to swear, "I do not know the man." And immediately the rooster crowed.

~ Matthew 26:69-74

⁶¹And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times." ⁶²And he went out and wept bitterly.

~ Luke 22:61-62

1:00 AM - Good Friday

2011-04-22T01:00:00.002-05:00

⁵⁷ Then those who had seized Jesus led him to Caiaphas the high priest, where the scribes and the elders had gathered. ⁵⁸And Peter was following him at a distance, as far as the courtyard of the high priest, and going inside he sat with the guards to see the end.

⁵⁹Now the chief priests and the whole Council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death, ⁶⁰but they found none, though many false witnesses came forward. At last two came forward ⁶¹and said, "This man said, 'I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days.'" ⁶²And the high priest stood up and said, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" ⁶³ But Jesus remained silent.

And the high priest said to him, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God."

⁶⁴Jesus said to him, "You have said so. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven."

⁶⁵Then the high priest tore his robes and said, "He has uttered blasphemy. What further witnesses do we need? You have now heard his blasphemy. ⁶⁶What is your judgment?"

They answered, "He deserves death." ⁶⁷Then they spit in his face and struck him. And some slapped him, ⁶⁸saying, "Prophesy to us, you Christ! Who is it that struck you?"

~ Matthew 26:57-68

Unraveling

2011-04-20T09:11:00.027-05:00

The National Review is neither inspired of God nor is it inerrant. Only one place you can go to find such a writing (no, not ESPN). NR does, however, provide some great fodder for cranial cud-chewing.

In a recent article, Rich Lowry, NR's editor, reviewed a speech* given by Charles Murray on the disintegration of two distinct classes in our nation, and to prevent it from becoming an issue of ethnicity, Murray sticks to "white America" thereby preventing any from shrugging these issues off as merely a problem for American blacks, hispanics, Portuguese, Puerto Ricans, Port-au-Princians, etc.

Two troubling highlights. Number one, marriage.

In 1960, everyone was married — 88 percent of the upper middle class and 83 percent of the working class. In 2010, 83 percent of the upper middle class is married and only 48 percent of the working class.

And quite naturally, fewer marriages equates directly to more out of wedlock births.

In 1960, births to single mothers in the working class were just 6 percent; now they are close to 50 percent.

While conservatives fight to keep the American understanding of marriage as being between a man (one) and a woman (one), most of America doesn't seem terribly concerned about marriage of any aberration. Considering God created marriage before any other institution, such wholesale rejection of marriage should at least get our attention. The fundamental fabric of a civilized people depends upon strong and stable families. Mighty hard to build community apart from them.

The second troubling highlight from Murray's speech is the working class' rejection of God, too.

Although secularization has long been on the rise, it’s more pronounced in the working class. Among the upper middle class, 42 percent say they either don’t believe in God or don’t go to church. In the working class, it’s 61 percent. In other words, a majority of the upper middle class still has some religious commitment, while a majority of the working class does not.

Rather than leave us to grope about trying to determine the "So what?" of the statistic, Murray fills in the blank with a 19th century observation:

“The American Constitution is remarkable for its simplicity; but it can only suffice a people habitually correct in their actions, and would be utterly inadequate to the wants of a different nation. Change the domestic habits of the Americans, their religious devotion, and their high respect for morality, and it will not be necessary to change a single letter of the Constitution in order to vary the whole form of their government.”

Such statistics obliterate the myth that Christ is merely an opiate for the uneducated masses. No, the cross of Jesus Christ remains the only sanctuary for those who have come to recognize the festering foulness of their sin before a holy God, and the blood of Jesus Christ as the only cleanser to remove such rank stains.

There was a time when the upper class refused to accept the foolishness of God because they felt it interfered with their revelings, their decadence. The Reformation brought God back to man by allowing the common man access to the Bible, God's message to man. It infected all aspects of culture and Western Civilization spread like wildfire. When America struggled to her feet in the 18th century, the upper middle and lower classes all stood firmly on the word of God. That continued through most of the twentieth century with only halls of academia and the culturati turning back to secular paganism.

Today, with the demise of the American family and parental unwillingness to weave their values into their children and with school and culture holding sway over our children until their mid-twenties, is it any surprise that the preponderance of society has bought into the god of self?

Murray and Lowry are right. Balancing the national budget is not the greatest crisis our nation faces. It is a doozy (and I believe it, too, finds its troubled roots in the dissolution of the family and the distrust of God), but it pales in comparison to what's unraveling below the surface.

Time to look into the mirror and start bolstering those things each of us can bolster. Start with God. Move on to your family. Perhaps we can stem the tide before our nation's nothing more than a tangled heap of knots.

-------------------
*The speech is forty-eight minutes long with forty minutes of question-and-answer to follow.

Faith: The shallow water of America's belief in God

2011-04-15T09:11:00.002-05:00

I remember the first Bible study I led at sixteen years of age. The livingroom held late teens and early-twenty-somethings and I expounded upon the faith of a mustard seed. Hot on the heels of reading Richard Bach's, "Illusions," I'd concocted a god in my own image, a god where if I thought hard enough and believed enough, I could manufacture what I wanted. I truly believed I could get Mount McKinley into the sea if only I exerted enough mental force.

It's a wonder God didn't crush me right there. Grace.

Perhaps no part of the Bible gets more bad press than faith. On the threshold of Resurrection Sunday, Time, Newsweek, et. al. are sure to splash theological articles all over the newsstands, and as they examine events of the Bible, they do so with tongue in cheek and eyes set to perma-roll. To them, the objects of belief are not objective at all; they are no more objective reality than Clash of the Titans.

Unfortunately, Christians have done "faith" no favors. Ask most believers why they believe what they believe and they will wither to "You've just got to have faith," as though what they believed was really silly but they were going to believe in it as hard as they can, a la Richard Bach. When you wish upon a star, your dreams come true.

I stumbled upon an article yesterday that notched my blood toward 212-degrees. It started like this:

"I am a person of faith. But sometimes I like to step outside of faith and just think about things rationally."

While the rest of the article proved interesting, the intro highlights the prevailing belief about faith. It is utterly irrational and devoid of reason. It's as hollow as Mortimer Snerd's head and as unsubstantial as a Twinkie. Worst of all, it's contrary to what the Bible says.

Some passages on faith:

Ernest Borgnine's centurion from "Jesus of Nazareth"

MATTHEW 8:5-13 - THE FAITH OF THE CENTURION: Jesus lauds the faith of the Gentile soldier. Greater is it, says the Son of God, than the faith of any in Israel, the people of God. What is that Roman Centurion's faith? As a commander, he knew that when he gave a command it would be carried out. Based upon what he'd seen and heard of Jesus, he understood that Jesus had the ability to command healing (Matthew 4:23-25). His belief that Jesus could do this thing was quite substantial, hence the request.

MATTHEW 8:23-27 - THE DISCIPLES LACK OF FAITH: Jesus asnooze amidst a storm on the sea. The boatsmen disciples feared for their life, and so they woke Jesus. "Save us, Lord; we are perishing." (Why the ESV doesn't put an exclamation point there I don't know.) You would think that rousting the Christ to save them would be an act of faith. They'd seen what Jesus had done (ref. the previously cited passages and Matthew 8:14-17), and so they turned to him in their time of need. It is precisely that they had seen what he had done that it is considered a lack of faith. He had given the orders to cross the sea at that time (8:18). Would he not see them safely to the other side? Why would you consider yourself to be perishing based upon all you have seen? Faith exhibited would have been to trust the One who put them on this mission to see them through to their destination.

MATTHEW 16:5-12 - NO BREAD: The disciples forgot to pack a lunch as once again they traversed the Sea of Galilee. Jesus takes that moment to warn them of the false teachings prevelant in that day by referencing bread since food was the topic of discussion. When the disciples didn't track with Jesus' object lesson, he thumped them for worrying about food by reminding them that he had fed 4000 and 5000. Essentially, "If I fed all these folks, will I not take care of you also? Believe in what I have done. Trust me." Substance. Jesus had proven himself before.

MATTHEW 6:25-34 - EXAMPLE FROM NATURE: During the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tackles the stresses and strains of life, the worry that creeps in over providing for one's family and one's self. He calls their attention to God the Creator. Check out the birds. Do they have enough food? Check out the flowers. How are they adorned? "Are you not of more value than they?...Will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Jesus hammers them for not trusting in the One who has proven himself faithful even within the small details of nature's provision.

Some will retort, "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). I agree, but the verse does not imply a lack of substance or evidence. To have an assurance and a conviction is to know. How can I know? The entirety of Hebrews points to the evidential excellence of Christ. God who has worked in all of history will fulfill what he has promised to the very end even down to each of us individually (Philippians 1:6).

"By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible" (Hebrews 11:3). What a great example of faith! Nobody was there. If all we have are observations, then we can look at the evidence until we are blue in the face, and all we will ever have regarding the beginning of things is a best guess. BUT if God Almighty who has proven himself to his creatures again and again throughout history tells us that "In the beginning he created the heaven and the earth," why would I disbelieve him. I trust him who has proven himself trustworthy.

"Without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him" (Hebrews 11:6). Faith is not, as Francis Schaeffer calls it, an upper-story leap of unreason. God has spoken plainly in history. His hand is manifest in the creation. He has revealed himself to us in Word, the Bible. And he has entered visibly into our realm in the man, Jesus Christ (John 14:9).

A faith without a foundation has no assurance. You might as well follow Richard Bach and fashion a palatable messiah for yourself. No, the God of the Bible, the God of Creation, calls his creation to trust the One who has shown himself plainly to them.

To trust him or not to trust him? That is the question.

Yo, Adrian!

2011-03-16T09:11:00.033-05:00

Indentured servant?

Adrian Peterson is one of the shiniest pennies to plop into the Minnesota Vikings' lap in a long time. He seemed immaculately untarnished. He had never been pulled from circulation, reinstalled, pulled, reinstalled--you get the idea.

When his legs pound and he clings to the ball, he makes defenses look silly. Not Barry Sanders, but one of the finest to ever wear purple.

Then he opened his mouth.

As if the NFL strike wasn't already the hands down winner for the Worst-Timed Power Play in the last three hundred years, AP compares working for NFL honors to slavery and thereby wins Most Over-the-Top Hyperbole of All Time.

'Squeeze me? Does that young man not have a processor or some filter to strain what proceeds from his brain to his mouth? Slavery?!

Let's try a little NFL vs. SLAVERY one-on-one:

Salary: Gajillion dollars above the national average vs. zero (just enough food to get you out of bed the next day.
Work hours: Two-a-days during the pre-season (maybe even three-a-days), a couple hours in the weightroom, and the grueling film review and playbook study vs. backbreaking pre-dawn to post-dusk field work so that someone else will be blessed by the fruit of your labor.
Punishments: During practice there might be sprints and for really nasty, mid-season infractions there's a tiny fine fileted off their gajillion dollar salary vs. whippings, rapings, and lynchings.
Dangers inherent in the workplace: Concussions, broken bones, destroyed knees vs. concussions, broken bones, destroyed knees, severed limbs, flayed backs, burned skin, gouged eyes, lost teeth, emasculation, rape.
OVERALL: Playing a child's game for a gajillion dollars because you chose to vs. toiling from the time you could walk until they laid you in the grave for just enough food to subsist upon because other human beings considered you their property.

Perhaps we should set aside the chaos in the Middle East, the fact that our state governments can't pay their debts (much less the country), the inflated gas prices, and that tiny crisis in East Asia and focus our attention on those poor, maligned NFL players and owners. If this keeps up, I will be disappointed if the two sides ever come to terms.

Perspective

2011-03-15T09:11:00.007-05:00

Can you find the rescue workers?

Whining alert!

My back hurts. Not my lower back but the upper, just below my neck. It's nagged me and plagued me for a couple of years now. Do you feel my pain?

I know of folks dealing with vehicle problems. Cars getting old. Water pumps, belts and batteries blowing at the most inopportune times. And a friend today shared that their dishwasher leaked all over their kitchen.

I have friends who have lost or are facing job loss and who have to rattle the bushes once again.

My own troubles seemed pretty big as I fiddled in my little Dilbert cubicle. Then I saw these images and grieved the shallowness of my heart. It doesn't erase the reality of my problems but it certainly puts them in a different light.

WARNING: The first image on the British news site is of an arm protruding from the rubble (arm only). It is the only image of one who has lost their life.

QotD: Ford

2011-03-13T21:11:00.001-05:00

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."
~ Henry Ford

This leads to the most uncomfortable question, how many anymore really want a best friend?

"Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy." ~ Solomon (Proverbs 27:6)

"I have called you friends." ~ Jesus (John 15:15b)

QotD: The Passion & Hollywood

2011-03-02T09:11:00.001-06:00

In looking at past Oscar snubs, Brian Cherry came up with this assessment of filmdom's disdain for "The Passion of the Christ:"

This powerful and moving film depicted what many believe was the most important moment in the history of the world. Had the Roman historian, Tacitus, seen the film, he probably would have said, “Yup, that’s exactly what we did to him.” Seeing as Hollywood rejects Christianity in much the same way that the human body would reject a heart transplant from a water buffalo, the Academy chose to pretend this film, the near billion dollars in revenue it generated, and the millions of people who loved it, simply didn’t exist.

Praying pastors

2011-02-24T09:11:00.004-06:00

This is not a posed picture. It's a shot by a man who stumbled upon his pastor unawares.

"Contending" by Andrew Pond

As with most good pictures, drinking deep the images conveys what words cannot. I'll not describe it for you, but I'd like to share a few things that it drew from my soul.

How richly blessed are the people who have a praying pastor! Many a religious man will say "I'll pray for you." Scanty are the men who will wake when the sun comes level through the window or before it's broken the horizon to fall before the throne of grace and plead for his family, plead for his people, and worship the One who has lavished love upon his life.

On the flip-side, how poor the people whose pastor is not a man of prayer. There is comfort knowing that your pastor cares about you so much to intercede on your behalf. The relationship with your pastor deepens in that knowledge. Who is the charlatan who tries to lead the people God has entrusted to him if he does not spend time, much time, in the tent of his Commander? Such a one moves at his own whim. He leads from the places of his heart. What of God? What care does he have for his people if he will not lead where the King desires him to go?

If you have a praying pastor, give great praise to God.

And now for the hard part. How rich the pastor whose people pray daily and fervently for him! Paul ached to know that his churches prayed for him.

To the church in Rome - I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. (Romans 15:31)
To the church in Corinth - On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us, ¹¹ as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the gracious favor granted us in answer to the prayers of many. (2 Corinthians 1:10b-11)
To the church in Ephesus - Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰ for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. (Ephesians 6:19-20)
To the church in Colosse - And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. ⁴ Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should. (Colossians 4:3-4)

And very simply to the church at Thessalonica:

Brothers and sisters, pray for us.

[Take a moment and search the word "pray" in the letters of God's word (done for you here). Read the passages in context. Truly amazing how fervent Paul was in prayer for his people, and how he pleaded with them to be the same.]

On the flip-side of this coin, how bereft the pastor whose people do not lift his arms in prayer. I doubt that Satan and demons attack the church in any single location with more intensity than at the point of the pastor and his family. Why would we not shore up those defenses? Why would we not amass our forces to stand between our pastor and the darkness? Do we not understand the devastation to the body that ensues when the pastor is corrupted?

Pastor, if you're praying for your people, keep on! The victory is so very near. If not, get into the tent of your commander, please. Now.

People, are you defending the man of God who leads your church? If so, keep on! Enlist more to join you in the fight. Learn about areas where the lines must be reinforced and fire concerted prayer into those areas to the Commander of the hosts. If you are not in prayer, why not? How can a soldier not fight? Pick up your musket and march to the line to defend the man who leads with courage. For the glory of God alone.

A praying pastor. A praying people. In these last days, these are the people that we must be.

Thanks, Drew for such a picture of such a man!

What makes money in Hollywood? Who cares!

2011-02-22T09:11:00.056-06:00

A buried article in The Hollywood Reporter yielded this ruby:

Movies with pro-atheism messages in 2010, for example, earned an average $6.6 million while movies portraying "very strong Biblical morality" earned $78 million. Movies with lots of profanity earned $23 million and movies without profanity earned $50 million. Movies with messages advocating a "Christian" worldview earned $105 million and those advocating "miscellaneous morality" earned $10 million, according to the study.

Imagine if Hollywood were a restaurant. Your menu earned raves in the middle 1900's and folks flocked to feast upon your fare. Your success made you proud. Rather than continue to crank out the food the masses liked and the food that made you famous, you began experimenting. From time to time you crafted a tasty morsel, but most of the trials were terrible. You kept cramming the menu full of your culinary failures because you and a few of your cooks in the back room thought them sophisticated. But the masses ignored them. They smelled putrid, looked worse, and left the diner cramping for days afterward. To pay the bills, you maintained a few old-style specialties on the menu buried in between the fried spiders and sea-horses-on-a-stick.

Still folks came. Call it nostalgia. You kept raising prices to make it look like more folks enjoyed your product but the dwindling numbers coming through and walking past your doors told the true story.

Then you began to award yourself. The Best Plate of the Year goes to "Maggoty Meatloaf in the Shape of a Cross." Even with the award, nobody wanted it. When you put it on the to-go menu, still it languished.

How does such a corporation succeed? Any other business to use so ludicrous a model would have bankrupted itself.

What I wouldn't give for a love story that doesn't start with two individuals sleeping with someone else who ultimately sleep with one another, face a crisis and find "true love" in the end. How about a love story about folks with moral fiber and about the consequences for folks who lack such?

What about a real-life tale of heroism like "Sergeant York." They're out there. A great movie and Gary Cooper doesn't drop a single f-bomb. Would it have been better if he had?

Think of this. Had Ford stuck with the Edsel and continued gagging up modifications of the same unwanted clunker year after year, Henry's company would have faced fiscal finality long before George Bush took office.

Hey, Hollywood! Serve us up a hamburger and fries. From time to time, we'll even order a filet with some unpronounceable vegetable side, but you can take the spiders, sea-horses and "Black Swans" off the menu. Yesterday.

Madison's meltdown revisited

2011-02-21T09:11:00.022-06:00

I posted a lament Saturday over what's happening in Wisconsin's capitol here. Just a few more thoughts if I might.

1. Self-destruction. Perhaps the single saddest part of this whole nightmare is the inability of the selfish to see that they are burning the house down around them. It's from such folks we get the term "cutting off your nose to spite your face." In this case, they seem bent on cutting off their entire head.

2. Friends. An old proverb suggests that you can tell the quality of a man by noting the quality of his friends. If you knew nothing about what's happening in Madison, you could pick your side just by knowing that Jesse Jackson and Nancy Pelosi yoked up on behalf of the strikers. An aside: I'm always amazed and disgusted at the things that bring Jesse Jackson out from under his rock.

3. Cowardice. Nobody likes the boy who takes his ball and goes home because he does not get his way. "Weenie" comes to mind. Back in 2003, Texas' democrats left the state rather than vote on redistricting. "If we cannot get our way, we'll take the vote away. Damn the constitutional process!" Wisconsin democrats borrowed from that same playbook. In hopes to thwart Governor Scott Walker's plan to balance his state's budget, they beat feet. (The Texans had to go to Oklahoma. Let's hope the Cheeseheads had the good sense to go to Minnesota over Illinois.)

Much like the teachers leaving their post, I would consider my congressman AWOL. While I don't advocate their being shot as would happen in the old school military, there must be some recompense for deserting your duty. You might not like the outcome, but that's your job as an elected REPRESENTATIVE! You vote. You work within your constitutional boundaries. You don't like it? Resign!

By the way, if you're giggling about what's happening under Madison's rotunda, you obviously haven't been peeking in on your government lately.

Cheddarheads aflame

2011-02-18T09:11:00.022-06:00

Ah, unions.

I will concede that there was a time when unions did great things for American workers, but from where I sit, I don't recall a good thing that American unions have done during my adult life. I'm willing to have my position corrected if you'd like to share. I'll listen. Really

But you'll then have to explain Madison.

The beautiful facade of Madison, Wisconsin

I've spent a lot of time in Madison, Wisconsin. During my many visits I've read the Capitol Times and Wisconsin State Journal with raised eyebrows wondering how the general populace could stomach newspapers with a bigger slant than an Augusta National green.

I understood the leftist history of the U-Dub--"Berkley Central" if you will. When things get going on State Street, though, Badgerland makes Berkley look down right Limbaughesque.

Two weeks ago they hoisted the Super Bowl trophy. Now Wisconsin looks like Cairo. What's happening up nort' is the same thing that happened to Ford and Chevy, the same thing that's been happening to the airlines, the same thing that's happening to California, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey. The money going out is a whole lot less than the money coming in.

I'm no Alan Greenspan, I'm not anywhere close to Adam Smith or F.A. Hayek, but I do know how to balance a checkbook. One of the most important things I learned in college and during premarriage counseling was that money-out could not exceed money-in. It's true for individuals and couples. It's true for Wal-Mart and Wyoming. It's true for the Mets and it's true for Mozambique. So why should Madison, Chevy, and the United States be exempt from such principles?

Wisconsin's in the hole. Over the next two years, what they are budgeting to spend based upon what they hope to bring in equates to a $3.6 billion with a "B" shortfall. That's a lot to overdraw your account. In small companies, that means belt-tightening. Pay cuts for all my friends. In fact, some of my friends might be on the street. Laid off. Looking for work.

One of the biggest fund-sucks to any government/corporation any more is retirement and medical. Here are the "draconian" measures suggested by Governor Scott Walker:

Government employees would now have to pay half of their pension costs. They currently pay zero.
They are also being asked to pay 12.6% of their health-care costs, up from 6%.
And, oh yes, collective bargaining would be done away with.

While keeping all of those things would be nice, it would also be nice if Muslims and Jews held hands around a Coke bottle swaying back and forth while they harmonized on "I'd Like to Teach the World to Sing." Not gonna happen. When unions lock their feet into their unreasonable demands while their company sinks around them, it would be like the arrogant Titanic passenger demanding a medium-rare filet mignon because the center was just not pink enough while icy water lapped at his ankles. Dude, you are so without a clue.

Unions have driven most American auto manufacturers to the point of collapse. "It's the MAN's fault! He's bringing us down. There's more money. We can get more. We deserve more." And they are always so polite and courteous in their presentations.

The bailouts should never have happened. Let the ship sink into the inky and frigid abyss and take the sick-outs with it, those who would abandon the kids in the schools and torpedo their own boat.

Considering the gajillion dollar debt the nation has racked up, think of Madison as a microcosm of things to come for our nation. The answer is NOT more taxes. We, rich, poor, and middle income alike, cannot afford it. The answer is cutting our spending and paying our debts. Guess what, boys and girls? That might mean that some of us will be looking for work. That might mean me.

That would be a far better place than to be than residing alongside Davy Jones' locker.

Husbands, can I have a minute?

2011-02-15T09:11:00.005-06:00

Gents, we're Valentine's Day plus one. Three hundred sixty-four more until the next flower-chocolate requirement. But I tell you, if we look upon that opportunity to bless our bride as a requirement we are missing out on one of the most remarkable aspects of this life, the joy of relationship that surpasses all others (again, I'll caveat for those who need it, "apart from God").

Here's a great read to chew upon regarding your role as husband (For Husbands Only). What does God call you to be for your woman? Take a moment. Think on it. Let God's word sink deep into your roots, and let it flourish to bear fruit in your relationship with your wife.

Popcorn

2011-02-14T09:11:00.011-06:00

No political critiques today. No venting over the sludge oozing from Hollywood studios. No biblical admonitions. Just a recipe.

My family loves Turner Classic Movies. Last night, my bride, my youngest son, and I enjoyed 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. Not an objectionable scene in the flick. What's a movie without popcorn? So I went and made some.

You want some great tasting, low-cal, good-for-you popcorn? Try this:

Put 1/3 cup of popcorn (unpopped; I know that's obvious, but it's the government worker in me) into a paper lunch bag, the kind you may have used in elementary school when kids still took their own lunches. Leave the bag in it's folded state; don't fluff it out.
After tossing in the 1/3 cup of popcorn, fold the top over twice and put in two staples (they'll spark a bit but don't worry about it).
Toss the bag into the microwave and hit the "Popcorn" setting (or three minutes on high). DON'T LEAVE THE ROOM (that's another prod from the government that thinks you're an idiot)!!
When the pops slow to one or two every five seconds, stop the microwave.
Dole out into bowls and sprinkle liberally with freshly grated parmesan cheese (or the like).
Salt to taste!

Fun. Cheap. Tastes great. Good for you. What's not to like?

And now, back to the movie.

How do I love thee? If you don't think it matters...

2011-02-11T09:11:00.006-06:00

And you shall make two cherubim of gold; of hammered work shall you make them, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Make one cherub on the one end, and one cherub on the other end. Of one piece with the mercy seat shall you make the cherubim on its two ends. The cherubim shall spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces one to another; toward the mercy seat shall the faces of the cherubim be. (Exodus 25:18-20)

That's how God said he wanted to top the Ark of the Covenant. Imagine for a moment if Moses brought this specification to Israel and went to the guy who specialized in the tops to Arks of the Covenant, and the guy retorts, "Well, that's just stupid! I can make one cherub for less than half the cost and if I keep the wings close to the body, it'll be a far cry easier to craft."

A bit later we find this tidbit.

And you shall make a veil of blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen. It shall be made with cherubim skillfully worked into it. (Exodus 26:31)

This time Moses approaches the veil-making section of the Tabernacle artisan's shop. Same response. "What's with the cherubim! We've got some leftover goatskins in the backroom from the Tabernacle's outer curtains (26:7), and not one cherubim would have to be woven. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to weave a single pudgy angel into the cloth?"

No, I don't think Moses received that response. Imagine the honor it would be to ply your craft at God's request. You'd be throwing in extra cherubim. And how about a few pomegranates? What an honor!

Think about it. You may have no idea why God wants a veil of blue and purple yarn instead of the usual red or green or why he wants angelic hosts replicated therein, but it doesn't matter. You do it because you know it pleases him. When you love someone, you are delighted to serve them even when you don't understand why a particular thing makes them so giddy.

Why do we have such a hard time applying that to marriage?

Lorraine likes to have her hands rubbed. Leroy has nothing for it. He can't fathom what she sees in a handrub so he doesn't rub Lorraine's hands. Do you know what it would mean to Lorraine to have her hands rubbed?

Bob loves broccoli. Barb hates it. Nothing more loathesome in the world to her. As such they never have broccoli for dinner. Barb won't make it. Do you know how much it would bless Bob if Barb would learn to cook broccoli how Bob likes it?

If I truly love my wife, I will want to scratch her itch the way she wants it scratched. Applying my itch to my wife and trying to scratch the itch she doesn't even have is stupid!

Valentine's Day is approaching with the speed of a muzzle-velocity .45-caliber bullet. What do I do? If my wife likes flowers, I get her flowers. If she likes daisies but detests daffodils, I don't buy her daffodils. If she likes chocolate, I buy her chocolate. If she likes Hershey Kisses but doesn't dig Ghirardelli, what do I do? Sweat. Anxiety. Is it really that hard? No. I buy her Kisses. By the wheelbarrow.

God crafted you specially to be an artisan. The fancy he wants you to tickle belongs to your spouse. Figure it out. Your spouse has a deep desire. Find it. I don't care how silly you think it is, love her by finding out what that desire is and fulfill it with lavish, slobbering, over-the-top love, all because you really want to even though you don't get it.

And then throw in a few pomegranates.

The undercover marital defense

2011-02-09T09:11:00.002-06:00

Defense is for the doomed. Consider the Confederates. By the time they'd reached Petersburg, their shriveled forces could only muster a defense. They hoped to run the war to a stalemate, by making the North lose heart. They ended up getting themselves crushed just up the river at Appamattox.

The old proverb declares that the best defense is a good offense. Consider the meager Confederate forces when they still had a bit of muscle. Rather than try and hold ground in The Wilderness, the Gray caught the Blue lolling on their confidence. Led by Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, the Confederates routed a Union force twice their size at Chancellorsville by going on the attack.

The apostle Paul provides married couples one of the best defenses for their marriage by llikewise spurring them to go on the offensive. His advice? Slip between the sheets.

"Whoa! Hey--whoa!" you stammer. "You can't talk abou that!" Why not? God does. Hang with me a bit.

Particle-board furniture lasts longer than most marriages in America. Christian marriages fare little better. I've heard the argument that those aren't "real" Christian marriages. Considering I've seen a half-dozen "real" Christian marriages destroyed in the last year or so, I don't buy that argument.

Consider this. Satan wants to destroy you. If you don't believe it, look up what Jesus and Peter said (John 8:44, 1 Peter 5:8). What better way to destroy you than by destroying your marriage? Paul warns the Corinthian church about not giving themselves over to physical intimacy outside of marriage (1 Corinthians 6:12-20) and warns the married that Satan will use their God-given sexual appetites to drive their marriages over a cliff (7:5b).

To be clear, my sin is my sin. The devil cannot make me do it, but he can sure make the way look mighty interesting. Men finding younger models. Women finding more compassionate models. Men hungry for adventure. Women convinced there has to be more to life than marital monotony. Three ... two ... one ... BOOM!

This shouldn't be so for the Christian marriage. We're supposed to know that husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church, to know that greater love has no man than that he lay down his life for his friends (and his spouse), and to know that God hates divorce. ‘Til death do us part. Richer, poorer, sickness, health, etc, etc. That’s why they used to be called (and still are in fewer and fewer circles) wedding vows.

It shouldn't be so, but it is so. The whys and where-fors are manifold, but Paul highlights one area in his letter to the Corinthians that Christians don't want to talk about but need to talk about. Many marriages fail because of sex.

Go back to 1 Corinthians 7. Paul explains that marriage is good for avoiding sexual sin, it gives us a proper outlet for the ache God has cultivated within us. He explains how that relationship should flesh out (sorry). I am for my wife (7:4b). What's that mean? My responsibility to my woman is to please her and to delight in so doing!. She is for me (7:4a). What's that mean? Her responsibility to her man is to please her man and to delight in so doing!

Marital sexual dysfunction is rampant within the church. Toting pre-marital baggage doesn't help. Improper prudery within marriage doesn't help either. God meant for physical intimacy to be a delight. Frollick through the pages of the Song of Solomon. Consider the imagery and the plain language of Proverbs 5:15-23. Um, is it getting warm in here?

Know your husband. Know your wife. What do they like? (No, I'm not talking about dinner or what color to paint the ceiling.) Don't know? Ask! Talk about it. Become a PhD on the subject of your spouse.

Sadly, many couples forsake coupling because of a difficult day when, really, that may be just the ticket to turn such a day into a sweet blessing.

Paul does give a reason for not enjoying one another: prayer. A time of hardship may face the couple where they agree to channel their intimacy toward petition (1 Corinthians 7:5), but that must be for a brief season. What's brief? That's between you two. After that, find your way into the other's arms.

What if that part of your relationship has begun to wither on the vine? Time to tend the vine! Rekindle the diminished flame. Why? So Satan doesn't tempt your lack of self-control or your spouses. Do you think you're immune to self-control problems? Let me ask you, how many Christian spouses who committed adultery planned on committing adultery six-months earlier? If you think you stand, beware (1 Corinthians 10:12-13).

Who knows? We might actually start talking about this in the church, and we'll see that we're not the only ones struggling with this issue. That might actually lead to frank discussions about what we can do to till up the soil that has grown hard and weed-infested.

Paul wants us to defend our marriages by making our marriages strong. Sometimes he provides us a sound theological foundation (Ephesians 5:21ff), but his letter to the Corinthian church gives us nuts-and-bolts practicality for securing our marriage. Rather than twiddling our thumbs hoping upon hope that our marriages will survive the year, the apostle steers our attention toward the eyes of our spouse, the one God has specially given to us.

Light a candle and enjoy!

150 years of Blue & Gray

2011-02-07T09:11:00.000-06:00

I am a Yankee. No, I am NOT a fan of the boys in pinstripes. I grew up in the north. Though I've not lived in Minnesota far longer than I had lived in it, I still refer to myself as a Minnesotan when asked from whence I came.

Had you asked me ten years ago what I believed the cause of the Civil War to be, I would have answered slavery faster than you could say John Brown. In fact, I would only have known John Brown as an epithet uttered by Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans. Perhaps it had something to do with race.

Yes, I was Civil War ignorant. Many would suggest I still am.

While far from a scholar, the last half-dozen years have opened my eyes to that enormous five-year scar on American history. I can't even say that I'm widely read on the topic. What I have seen and heard has dismantled my stereotypes.

America once again stands divided. Many issues have us tearing at the fabric of our national foundations as we tear at one another. No longer Blue and Gray, we are now Red and Blue (no association intended between the two pairings). While the Blue/Gray ideological line divided us geographically North and South, no such geographical boundary divides Red and Blue (though some may argue that the coasts drift one direction and the heartland (aka "fly-over states") drift another). At such a time as this and on the 150th anniversary, the sesquicentennial, of the Civil War, we would do well to familiarize ourselves with what Southerners refer to as the War of Northern Aggression.

Two good friends helped me to that end. They introduced me to Jeff Shaara and his father Michael. What his dad started with The Killer Angels, Jeff precluded with God's and Generals and concluded with The Last Full Measure. They are historical novels. From Killer Angels came the acclaimed film Gettysburg and from God's and Generals came the eponymous film, also widely acclaimed. While the Shaara's write the stories in a novel format, the events are historically accurate. The immense research for each book has given them insight into the individuals to thereby flesh them out for us in conversation and in action. The books are riveting.

The second thing that has helped me to clear a bit of my ignorance and arrogance was Ken Burns' video documentary titled of all things The Civil War. Burns did masterful work in research and story-telling. The interviews with historians, especially the late Shelby Foote, are gripping. I often wondered as I watched why I had never before seen the multitude of photographs that Burns brought to the screen. Breathtaking.

So during this sesquicentennial, take some time to get to know the Civil War. I recommend the Burns' documentary and the Shaara trilogy (and the Hollywood movies though long are well worth your time, too, whether you are North or South, Red or Blue).

American abortion law

2011-02-04T09:11:00.003-06:00

Steven Brigham

When pro-life and pro-choice forces stood nose to nose, the PL'ers pleaded for the life of the child and the PC'ers called for the autonomy of the mother. The horrifying practices of Kermit Gosnell has forced the grisly reality of abortion into the limelight.

Many want to believe that Gosnell is an aberration. He is not. Back in September, when I first heard of Gosnell, I couldn't believe my ears. Babies in jars?! He wasn't the only one. Steven Chase Brigham had a similar nightmare going on in his clinic. His chastisement? He should not have been transporting patients across state lines. Ah. Shame, shame.

When you and I can simply banter pro-life and pro-choice over coffee, we banter words. The conversation may grow as heated as a Steelers-Packers argument, but when we leave the coffee shop, nothing in our lives has changed. The idea of babies in jars changes the discussion because it is not just an idea. It is a reality. Babies delivered live only to have their spinal cord clipped at the base of the skull. No, it's not just discussion. Men and women are doing this around the country, most quite comfortable under the blanket of the law.

We stand at a crossroads. Matthew J. Franck argues,

Kermit Gosnell
But it is difficult to locate the moral difference between the deaths Gosnell brought about in utero and those he accomplished post-natally. Does an unborn child at 26 weeks of fetal development have less moral standing than a born child at 25 weeks of fetal development? Does the latter’s living and breathing outside the womb for ten minutes, or ten seconds, confer a status that the former lacks? How can that be?

Most of those who are pro-life have never wavered on this point. Life begins at conception and thereby has the same right to life that any have outside the womb.

The evils perpetrated by Gosnell and Brigham put the pro-choice advocates in a difficult corner. Franck continues,

Do (abortion rights advocates) continue to agitate for the regime of abortion on demand that they’ve been defending for 38 years? Do they fold this particular hand, and concede that some abortions occur too late to be permitted at all? There is danger for them in this. If a viable unborn child has a right to life, what about the one just a week or a day shy of viability? And the one just a bit younger than that?

A child is a child, within or without. Perhaps a better argument for the coffee shops would be how can we best care for those who find themselves "unexpectedly pregnant?" Better still, how can we slow the rate of "unexpected pregnancies?" A comical question because any child with a modicum of biological studies under his belt could answer that question.

For us to concede that would be to concede a position long advocated by God in his word. Now we can't be guided by so antiquated a book as that, can we? Pass the cream.

Just another day: Frozen

2011-02-03T09:11:00.002-06:00

I haven't jotted an installment of "Just another day" in quite awhile. History coupled with current events has us hurtling toward some destination. Do we know? Do we care?

Here's some cud to chew:

The muddled Middle East: Lebanon fell. Tunisia turned over. Egypt's in a tizzy. Jordan's next in line. Everything from Iraq east remains a cauldron of chaos. Israel tries to deal with its inflation while trying to keep a Marty Feldman focus on the nations along its borders. What's going down? Here's Jay Nordlinger's take:
"Those who know the most about the Middle East are saying the least, when it comes to the turmoil in Egypt. Or they are speaking most cautiously. They’re quickest to say, “I really don’t know. I don’t know the exact nature of this, or how it will turn out”... Those who know less speak in far more confident tones. They are even cocksure. I’m not sure we should trust anyone who speaks in those tones, just now."
An interesting take, for sure. Jesus Christ himself gave a "no man knows" warning to his followers. At the same time, he told them that they would know the seasons. Day and hour, no. Seasons, yes (Matthew 24:29-39).
The Muslim Brotherhood. Since the MB wants to destroy Israel, shouldn't it be illegal to use such a Kumbaya sentiment in their name? Unless of course it merely means brotherhood amongst Muslims. If that is the case, let us not be deceived.
The King's Speech. I stuck my thou-shalt-not finger into the eye of Hollywood last month (here, if you must). I lamented the use of profanity in movies today. My lament still stands. Far too many movies use far too much profanity and they lose far too much money because far too many people will not take their families to see such. While television and film can't bear all of the blame, the prevalence of profanity in day-to-day life can be attributed to its normalization in our entertainment.

But my earlier diatribe indicted The King's Speech, a film raking awards left and right from those deemed worthy to dispense awards. I began to hear great things about the movie from those whose opinion I held dear, so I took my bride and off we went to the movie-plex. Great movie. Great movie. And the language, in two scenes, was not gratuitous nor unnecessary. While I don't think foul language was common in that milieu, neither do the characters in the film. And it led to one of the many laughs the film had to offer.

A great love story, too. What this has to do with "Just another day," I'm not certain. Had to recant my previous glance down the nose.
Ice. Hurricanes battering Australia. Critters dying in localized, plague-like proportions. And snow. And cold. Over the last few months, the groanings of the earth seem as chronic as the aches in my back. No respite. Here in north Texas, our local Air Force Base has been closed for three consecutive days due to a snow and icing received on Monday night. While the country lamented the fading and quieting of Joe DiMaggio, I don't think too many miss Al Gore. It does seem that the earth is trying to tell us something, but I don't believe that it's that we caused it to toasty up a bit (Matthew 24:7-8)
Persecution. Penn State hates Chick-fil-A. Sweet. Let's see, if the nation's most elite universities roundly loathe a particular institution, then there must be a lot to love about that institution. ROTC. The Church. Chick-fil-A. Really, though, it's a tip of the iceberg thing. Seems more and more that large entities have little tolerance for things of Christ. In the past as Christians faced persecution, they often ended up going to their death for their convictions. In recent days, the Muslim response to persecution has also been to die for their convictions--but in their case it is self-inflicted and designed to take as many infidels with them as possible. A bit of a difference.
"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake." ~ Jesus (Matthew 24:9)

Until next time, it's not just another day.

"They will say, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.""

~ Peter (2 Peter 3:4)

QotD: Bounds & "programs"

2011-01-26T09:11:00.000-06:00

"We are constantly on a stretch, if not on a strain, to devise new methods, new organizations to advance the Church and secure enlargement and efficiency for the gospel. This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God's plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God's method. What the church needs today is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use--men of prayer, men mighty in prayer. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods but through men. He does not come on machinery but on men. He does not anoint plans but men--men of prayer."

~ E. M. Bounds

Three needful (and short) reads

2011-01-25T09:11:00.008-06:00

Some days I feel like Chicken Little. Some would suggest an even stronger resemblance.

The little red light on the dashboard of our country flickers with far greater regularity than it once did. So steady is it now days that most folks ignore it thinking it's merely a problem with the light and not with the nation as a whole.

The God who is there weighs nations in his perfect balance (Jeremiah 18:1-10). Based upon God's word, we have been tipping the scales. The warning light is full on at all times. Here are three prominent issues rattling under America's hood.

Islam: A Christian America is not incompatible with other religions, irreligion, or even atheism. In fact when you look around the world and through history, the nations that have proven themselves most friendly toward the free exercise of one's convictions have been those with a strong biblical foundation. If we take a look at those nations founded upon the Koran, those that hold most fervently to it have proven the most hostile toward other religions within their borders.

So how does a free America deal with a group of people that shows itself increasingly antagonistic to who we are and our way of life? It's a question our government is ignoring. Read Andrew McCarthy's, Islam and the State of the Union.
Christianity. The least tolerated philosophy in the public arena today is anything associated with Judaism or Christianity. Television, film, universities, and courtrooms across the country demean, dissect, insult, and dismiss them as though they birthed all things evil and as though they have manacled American progress. Ironic because it is the source of our freedoms in America. Don't think so? Read Dennis Prager's, God and Congress.
Life. Amidst Sanctity of Human Life Month, Congressman Rick Santorum had the audacity (harumph!) to compare abortion to slavery. Considering we have nobody around who has experienced either, the harumphing should be kept to a minimum. Does the analogy fit? Is he comparing the level and quantity of atrocity or is he comparing how one group of humans can consider another group of humans non-persons? Read his own words in Life is a Civil Right.

Maybe the sky isn't falling, but it sure appears that the curtain is. Stay informed.

The humanity

2011-01-22T09:11:00.002-06:00

There exists in America a segment of society that has no voice in the public arena save those who will speak on their behalf.

Within New York City that same segment runs the risk of being killed at the hands of another (typically referred to as "murder") at a rate of 40%. How would you like to live in a neighborhood where you know that two of the five of you will be dead by next Thanksgiving?

That segment of our society has this death sentence on their head and they don't even know it. They are the children in the womb.

Sunday is Sanctity of Human Life Day. As we approach that day, let me encourage you, if you have never thought about the rights of the child in the womb to read a few articles about what's been happening in America lately.

The story of a former abortion provider: here
Humanity and law: here
A sober look at abortions in America. Only for the life of the mom? Rape and incest? Not so much. Read: here.
Here, too, is my post from yesterday, a pained look at those who come to understand what they've done here.

"The baby in my womb leaped for joy."

~ Elizabeth upon seeing Mary who was pregant with the Christ (Luke 1:44)

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."
~ God to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5)

Death, life, and hope

2011-01-21T09:11:00.065-06:00

Jolene hung up and wept. When her sister announced she was pregnant, all the feelings she thought she'd dealt with crushed her like an ocean wave. It'd been three years since "the decision." Derek bolted as soon as he'd heard. She didn't dare talk it over with her mom. In fact, she'd discussed it with no one save the clinic's counselor who said that it was no different than having a wart removed.

That was a lie. Jolene had begun to feel the baby move before "the procedure." Where once she felt the flutter of tiny feet, a void as dark as night had embedded itself. And now for the next nine months, Jolene would paste on a smile and feign delight over each step of her sister's pregnancy. As the baby grew, so would Jolene's grief.

Carolyn knew that same, debilitating pain. Her despair grew to such a size that it seemed only suicide could slay the beast. Then she heard a friend talking about finding forgiveness from God in Jesus Christ. She shared that what Jesus had done on the cross covered the sin of all mankind and covered her sin, too. Carolyn's heart leapt for a split-second and just as quickly sank back into her solitary abyss. Nothing could atone for what she'd done. Still she lingered on that "gospel" message.

She flipped open an old Bible she kept on the shelf (for good luck) to one of the books (why do they call chapter-sized sections "books?") her friend mentioned. Romans. And she read. "The gospel...the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes." Everyone? Really. We'll see. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." No kidding, Carolyn grunted. Then her eye caught.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. (Romans 5:6-10)

She couldn't undo what she'd done. Could it be she didn't have to? Could it be that despite her sin, God could still love her? Could it be that the love of God in Jesus Christ could heal and restore? "Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord." Oh my. In hope beyond hope, Carolyn cried out to God and trusted that what Christ had done was sufficient for her, too. She trusted his mercy and grace and collapsed into his arms.

From that day, her life had changed. Oh, her grief remained; the past could not be undone. But now she had a hope, a real and living hope. God's word gave her hope for her life even now, and it also gave her hope for the afterlife. As David said, though her child could not be brought back, Carolyn now knew that she would one day see her child whole in the presence of her Savior.

Still a cloud remained. Despite the restoration of her relationship with God, Carolyn could not bring herself to share her history with anyone in church. What would they say? When the pastor would preach on the sanctity of human life, she grieved in silence, mask firmly in place, unaware that within thirty feet of where she sat, three other women wept inside as well.

The abortion coin has two very dark sides. On one side, abortion destroys a life physically. Churches and Christians must not be silent about what abortion is. It is the destruction of a living human being. Not because the Pope says so. Not because my pastor says so. Not because I say so. It is killing innocent life because God in his word says so.

Jolene and Carolyn illustrate the other side of the coin. Millions of women live in torment over what they have done believing they have no hope. Even those who have experienced the true forgiveness, the only true healing, that comes through Jesus Christ often keep their secret hidden within the church fearing the potential condemnation from brothers and sisters in Christ.

Within the emotional trauma of those who have received God's forgiveness in Christ is a promise of grace. Paul recognized himself as the chief of sinners (1 Timothy 1:15), but he was unashamed to speak of what he had done before meeting Christ (Acts 22:4, 26:11) because the vast chasm between his before and after testified to the work of his God and Savior, Jesus Christ, in his life. The very thing that causes you grief, that very area where God has provided you forgiveness and comfort, might be the very thing that will serve to comfort one who has trod that same pathway.

Sanctity of Human Life Sunday is this week. Those who know the redemption of God in Christ must continue speaking the truth about the horrors of abortion. At the same time, we must begin to unashamedly offer the hope of redemption in Jesus Christ for those who have walked that midnight of the soul and to unreservedly offer compassion for those redeemed who still grieve the death of their child.

Tucson observation

2011-01-18T10:30:00.000-06:00

Pundits and politicians continue to debate the sanity or insanity of what went down in Arizona, but the one word that none has the courage to utter regarding the nightmare in Tucson is the one word that sums up the true heart of darkness.

The word? Sin.

52 weeks

2011-01-15T09:11:00.001-06:00

In Memory of Terri Anne Otto

52 weeks ago today, Terri died.

Really it will be one year tomorrow, January 16th, but the suddenness and suffering of a sin-stained world reared up and struck down a truly beautiful flower in the predawn darkness of a Saturday morning exactly 52 weeks ago.

This morning I woke up early to head out to a men's function at my church. Gray and misty, God had served up an identical Saturday morning to January 16, 2010. He seemed to dress it in the appropriate cloak of mourning because hearts still ache the loss.

For those who have lost a loved one without notice, you know well the white-hot agony that sears the soul, the feeling that all of the oxygen in the cosmos has vanished leaving you gasping for breath. Only the spouse who has lived as one flesh with his beloved can know the sting of your wife torn from your side. Such wounds do not heal in a week or a month. The raw pain abates into a steady ache.

52 weeks later we give thanks to God for the years he blessed us to know Terri Anne Otto. At the same time sadness still takes hold as to my mind it would seem far better for her to still be here.

With the limited perspective of a toddler, we will trust in the direction of our faithful Father who promises that all will be well. We know that even now Terri is more than well as she walks in the presence of her God and Savior.

Please, God, continue to bless and comfort her man, Dave, and her children, Mattie, Nathan, and Olivia, with the solace only you can provide.

And then, come quickly, Lord.

Going to hell

2011-01-14T09:11:00.029-06:00

How could a loving God consign anyone to hell?

That is just one of the many indictments that God's creatures lay against him. It's an oldie, but the perspective is a bit skewed.

Take me for example. Were I to hurl such an accusation into the cosmos, might not God arch up an "are-you-kidding-me" eyebrow? In the span of eternity, my existence might cover 80 years, and I'm a bit over half way there. Even at the end, my life will take part in only 1% of recorded history.

I have been to all but six of the United States, though some of those were only brief stops to a single city. I've been to eight other countries, nine if you count Canada. Of those nations, I know none of them intimately.

If I thoroughly read ten books each year, that's only 800 in one lifetime. I think there are that many Harold and the Purple Crayon stories.

Does it not seem a bit presumptuous then for the creature to shake his puny fist at the Creator and question who is and who isn't going to hell?

Because the idea of ceaseless torment confounds some of us, we dismiss hell. Often, we dismiss God, too. We either conform him to our image or reject him out of hand.

The heart of darkness

Then along comes Jared Lee Loughner, killing six and wounding nearly two-dozen, and we pull hell out of the junk drawer and dust it off. Okay, maybe it's a good place for some, we muse. Surely Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot and their ilk are there. Of course Tim McVeigh, the high-jacking Muslims of 9/11, and every other Muslim who straps on C4 to self-detonate have joined the eternal damnation club.

Our problem with hell is that we think a lot about it but know very little about it, the magnitude of our own sin, or the wonder of Almighty God.

Some truths for consideration.

God's righteousness demands justice. Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18, and Nahum 1:3 all declare, and the rest of the Bible upholds, that he does not and will not leave the guilty unpunished. It is the very nature of God within us that bristles when we hear of a criminal escaping justice through jurisprudent gymnastics.
God in his mercy aches for his condemned creation. Man rebelled against God. Each one stands guilty before him of high treason (Romans 3:10-18). Most of us just don't look that deeply into our own hearts. Still, hear what God says, "The Lord ... is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Peter 3:9). Paul writes to Timothy and states that God "desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:4).

Here we stand. All mankind rebellious against their Creator. It's our way. It's in our DNA. It's our nature. The image of God in man (good) has been marred, soiled, stained. Seems hopeless. Not quite.

God, in love, intervened on behalf of his creatures. It's the most flashed verse in the Bible. John 3:16.
"For God so loved the world..." Really, that shouldn't surprise us. He made us in the first place, the pinnacle of his creation.
"...that he gave his only Son..." Jesus. God took on flesh to become man. He lived a perfect life. No sin. He took the punishment deserved by us (Isaiah 53:4-6, 10a).
"...that whosoever believes on him..." This is just trusting that his death on the cross took care of every sin you ever committed or will commit.
"...will not perish but have everlasting life!" Bought back from the maw of hell and adopted into God's family to enjoy eternal life and fellowship with him.

There it is. None have to go to hell. None. "Whosoever believes!" God in his righteousness justly condemned man for his sin. God in his mercy took on flesh to provide the sacrifice that would forgive mankind of its debt to open the doorway to heaven and eternal fellowship with him.

So hear's the deal. If we all stand condemned already, but God in his mercy has provided a way of escape, then why should any go to hell? As already stated, they don't have to. But God declares, "I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices" (Isaiah 65:2, see also Romans 10:21).

The only reason that remains for man to go to hell is that he has so chosen. He prefers self and separation from God. He prefers to go his own way rather than admit the putrescence of his sin and accept the gift of eternal life in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:23).

A loving God died on the cross so none would have to go to hell. The real puzzler is why so few would accept God's lavish mercy.

"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." ~ Jesus (Matthew 7:13-14)

"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." ~ Jesus (John 14:6)

QotD: Confrontation

2011-01-10T09:11:00.002-06:00

Here's a quote I saw posted from an old friend. I know I would do well to heed those words both as one who confronts and as one who needs to be confronted.

USAF Academy Chapel

But will I confront a brother in Christ in love with the word of God?

Will I drop my defenses and listen when confronted by a brother in Christ whether he shows any grace or not?

A discipline sorely missing and poorly practiced in the Church today.

Truth demands confrontation; loving confrontation, but confrontation nevertheless. If our reflex action is always accommodation, regardless of the centrality of the truth involved, there is something wrong. Just as what we may call holiness without love is not God's kind of holiness, so also what we may call love without holiness, is not God's kind of love...A false spirit of accommodation is sweeping the world as well as the Church, including those who claim the label of evangelical.
Francis A. Schaeffer

QotD: Old books

2011-01-05T09:11:00.002-06:00

"Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. And I would give him this advice precisely because he is an amateur and therefore much less protected than the expert against the dangers of an exclusive contemporary diet. A new book is still on its trial and the amateur is not in a position to judge it. It has to be tested against the great body of Christian thought down the ages, and all its hidden implications (often unsuspected by the author himself) have to be brought to light...

"...It is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between. If that is too much for you, you should at least read one old one to every three new ones."

C.S. Lewis
In his introduction to "On the Incarnation" by Athanasius

And the winner is...

2011-01-03T09:11:00.014-06:00

According to Wikipedia, the top grossing movies worldwide in 2010 were:

1. Toy Story 3
2. Alice in Wonderland
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 1
4. Inception
5. Shrek Forever After
6. Twilight Saga: Eclipse
7. Ironman 2
8. Despicable Me
9. How to Train Your Dragon
10. Clash of the Titans

Here's the MPAA rating for each of those movies.

1. Toy Story 3 - G
2. Alice in Wonderland - PG-13
3. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Pt 1 - PG-13
4. Inception - PG-13
5. Shrek Forever After - PG
6. Twilight Saga: Eclipse - PG-13
7. Ironman 2 - PG-13
8. Despicable Me - PG
9. How to Train Your Dragon - PG
10. Clash of the Titans - PG-13

First thing to note (and completely off the topic of this post), how did Toy Story 3 escape with a G-rating?! Despite it being my favorite movie of the year, it is perhaps the darkest and scariest of the TS-Trilogy. Perhaps a swap of ratings between TS-3 and Despicable Me. Other than that, I can abide the ratings.

Second thing to note which will flow into the third note: Four animated films. Was a time when the animated fare was mediocre at best, just something to take your kids to to break up a monotonous month. Not any more. I think I enjoyed the three animated movies I saw, TS3, DM, and How to Train Your Dragon, more than my six- and eight-year old daughters, and would highly recommend all three. Mature fair all in the classic sense of the word and not in the MPAA sense of the word (which has zilch to do with maturity).

Now to the meat. Did you notice anything interesting about the Top 10 of 2010? Not an R-rating to be seen. Not an F-bomb dropped in the 24-hours of movies. Not an exposed breast. I've seen six of the top-10, and while I wouldn't recommend some of those for your pre-schoolers, each was a worthy night of movie watching.

Why does explicit sex, mostly of the extra-marital and non-standard variety, make a movie more arty (reference the Oscar contenders again this year)? Why does profanity make a picture more profound? I've watched HBO's outstanding work Band of Brothers three-times now through a TVG filter which removes the profanity. I don't think I missed an iota of what Spielberg and Hanks intended for this saga.

I bring this up because I have heard great things about The King's Speech and 127 Hours. Both have received acclaim in conservative circles, and both are laced with profanity. But why?

Let's take The King's Speech as an example. TKS is a movie about England's stuttering monarch, George VI, played by the superb Colin Firth (the outstanding Mr. Darcy in the BBC's Pride and Prejudice). Why the profanity? Meredith Whitmore on Focus on the Family's outstanding film review web-site, Plugged-In, explains.

This touching, masterfully acted and subtly comedic film could easily have been PG-rated, making its stirring message readily available for teens and families hungry for an inspiring life lesson devoted to clawing one's way past shortcomings and limitations. Instead, director Tom Hooper opted for a profanity-laden R rating. Several times Albert angrily blurts out long streams of curse words during speech therapy, since the only times he doesn't stutter are when he sings and when he swears.

Regarding the foul language and its resulting rating, star Colin Firth told The National Post, "This isn't a non-issue. I get that people don't want their small children hearing these strong words—I don't like them. … I don't want my kids thinking it's a good way to use language—language is more beautiful than that. It should be more thought about than that. It has more power than that. That's lazy and ugly—but that's not the case in this movie. [The foul language usage is] not vicious, it's not sexual, and it's not lazy—it's anything but. These are tools, these forbidden words have become momentary tools to get a guy to break out of extreme repression. Then he immediately gets rather sheepish and apologizes. There couldn't be a more harmless context. It doesn't teach your kids to sprinkle your language with these words or direct them against people. I would hate to deny kids in that age bracket, or discourage them from seeing a film which has so much to say to people that age."

Firth continues, "As far as the rest of public opinion is concerned, certainly in our industry, I'd be kicking in a door. Because everyone seems to be in harmony on the subject."

Were I to see the edited version on a plane or on TV, will the movie lack impact? I doubt it. The King's Speech, because of it's R-rating, will continue to earn lavish critical acclaim. It will earn substantially less because millions of Americans would rather not subject themselves to the profanity-laced barrages that they have to endure in the workplace. Same goes for 127 Hours. Most R-rated films anymore aren't worth the assault on my soul.

So, a tip of the hat to America for a pretty reasonable Top-10 movies based upon overall sales. Movies like those and the amazing films of yesterday that you'll find on Turner Classic Movies will be the ones that capture my imagination.

And my money.

NOTE: A correction from a regular reader. Apparently the f-bomb is detonated early on in Iron Man 2, the token one allowable to maintain PG-13. Plugged-In noted that the f-bomb is "bleeped twice" during the movie in a scene where a television interview is being shown.

QotD: Chesterton

2010-12-29T09:11:00.001-06:00

"The modern revolutionist, being an infinite skeptic, is forever engaged in undermining his own mines, in his book on politics he attacks men for trampling on morality; in his book on ethics he attacks morality for trampling on men. Therefore the modern man in revolt becomes practically useless for all purposes of revolt. By rebelling against everything he has lost his right to rebel against anything."

~Gordon Keith Chesterton, Orthodoxy

State supreme

2010-12-28T09:11:00.011-06:00

I have said this before, and I'll probably say it again. Having freedom means that I am free to fail.

Where this gets dicey in our modern American minds is when it comes to children. If my failure means difficult circumstances for my children, should I still be free to fail. Again, I say yes.

Consider those who founded our nation. They left the civilization of western Europe at great risk to themselves and their children to find a place where they could live in freedom. In most cases, they sought a place where they could worship the God of the Bible as their conscience and understanding of the word dictated. During the voyages across the Atlantic, fathers died. Mothers died. Children died. Should that state have stepped in to prevent this "abuse" from parents?

The real abuse, though, in the mind of the Church of England and the mind of the Vatican, was that the parents would have the arrogance and the audacity to presume to teach their children what the Bible said. Only the "Church" had the authority to do such a thing, so they believed.

We look back on those pages of history and shake our heads that anyone would allow a nation to become like that and worse, that we would let the Church become like that.

Fast forward 500 years.

It's happening again. Consider this from the California Law Review*:

There are legal and constitutional limits on the ability of parents who home school “to teach their children idiosyncratic and illiberal beliefs and values."

Oh, really? As a parent I'm limited as to what I can teach my child?! How 'bout this from a George Washington Law School professor:

"The growing reliance on homeschooling comes into direct conflict with assuring that children are exposed to such constitutional values."

The value she lauds is tolerance. Continuing,

"Indeed, the long-term consequences for the child being home schooled or sent to a private school cannot be overstated. The total absence of regulation over what and how children are taught leaves the child vulnerable to gaining a sub-par or non-existent education from which they may never recover."

What is the solution to this problem of parental autonomy where dad and mom teach their children as they see fit?

"[T]he more appropriate suggestion for our current educational dilemma is that public education should be mandatory and universal."

Ah. No private school. No home school. Just public schools. Shall we use an adjective that adds a bit more clarity? Let's try state schools.

We reel in our minds over what the Catholic Church and the Church of England did during their darkest days. We shake our heads in disbelief that Nazi Germany made little Nazis out of the children by imposing formal training and creating the Hitler Youth. So why do we not shudder when the UN and educators in our own country begin asserting that state education be mandatory and that it be mandatory at a younger and younger age?

Here's the deal. Every education form has some fundamental worldview as its foundation. Whose worldview will undergird the education of my children? At this point, parents have a choice in how their children will be educated. They can opt for the state school. They can opt for a private school with a worldview that has birthed that private school in the first place. Or they can opt to school their children at home.

(By the way, where are all of the atheistic private schools? Is their lack because there is no need?)

So here, again, we speed toward an historic crossroad. Will parents be allowed the freedom to fail by educating their children in the manner that they see fit, or will the state step in to prevent such abuse by insuring our children get a "proper education?"

I can't believe I'm asking that on the threshold of 2011 America.
-------------------------
* All quotes taken from a speech by Michael Farris and transcripted here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-12-24T16:16:00.000-06:00

Nothing sweeter than Linus Van Pelt taking center stage and explaining what Christmas is all about:

Here's the entirety of the Christmas story from Luke 2. Savor the Savior on this most historic of days!

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

"Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:1-20

Moral inconsistencies: homosexuality & pedophilia

2010-12-23T09:11:00.003-06:00

From time to time, I peek in on left-leaning America to see what issues they have been considering, the positions they take, and the support they offer. Sometimes I come away understanding their position, not agreeing with it but following their train of thought. Sometimes I just end up befuddled.

Like the other day.

On the Huffington Post, two articles stood comically side-by-side, one by Billie Jean King, that '70's symbol of I-am-woman feminism, lamenting the fact that so advanced a nation would still have such knuckle-dragging laws on the books like "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" (here) and the other by Sinéad O'Connor, that Irish minstrel who earned fame and fortune by shredding a picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live, continuing her loathing of the papacy for their poor handling of the priestly pedophiles (here).

Why so funny? How is it that the military would be hammered for opposing the homosexual lifestyle but the dramatic leftists should be lauded for opposing a pedophiliac lifestyle? Why is homosexuality acceptable but pedophelia intolerable?

That's what happens when you loose yourself from an objective moral determinant. You can have it your way. Orange is good. Yellow is evil. Why? Um, because. Upon what do you base that. Folks who like orange are just happy people so that's good, but I find yellow morally reprehensible therefore bad on the church for not crucifying all of those in favor of yellow. When you have a moral standard given by the One who embodies those standards, the colors come into clear focus.

Dismiss the standard and you get Billie Jean (homosexual Billie Jean) praising homosexual advocacy for the military while Sinead rails against pedophilia.

I guess HuffPo missed the joke.

The blood-red moon

2010-12-21T09:11:00.005-06:00

My wife and I set an alarm last night. 1:20 a.m. It wasn't as painful as I thought it might be. The minor sleep interruption proved well worth it.

Joel 2:30-31

After throwing on some clothing and stumbling into the front yard, we craned our necks straight up and beheld the moon near full-eclipse. As we watched, the bright white along the right edge faded into dusty red. The heavens spread out with breathtaking clarity, the stars twinkling in wonder at the moon's transformation.

I know that scientists knew this would happen. That's why I didn't sleep through the thing; I believed their calculations. The sun, moon, and stars seem to work with clockwork precision almost as though they were set in place to help us determine times and seasons.

Wait a minute. They were.

And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, for days and for years."
Genesis 1:14

Few would argue with the fact that our years and months have their definition in the cosmos (interesting to note, though, that the seven-day week didn't spring from the heavens but from the pages of Genesis 1). As my neck began to cramp and the moon slipped into a darker shade of red, I reconsidered the second half of verse 14, "...let them be for signs..."

It seems that the universe God wickered runs with amazing precision, so much so that I was able to set my clock to behold the wonder in the heavens. At the same time the One who set the celestial clock a-ticking indicated that happenings on high might portend other events, a warning light on your dashboard, if you will.

No, I'm not going to give you eleven reasons why Jesus will return in 2011, but consider this (full article here):

This (2010) was the year the Earth struck back.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods, volcanoes, super typhoons, blizzards, landslides and droughts killed at least a quarter million people in 2010 — the deadliest year in more than a generation. More people were killed worldwide by natural disasters this year than have been killed in terrorism attacks in the past 40 years combined.

"It just seemed like it was back-to-back and it came in waves," said Craig Fugate, who heads the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency. It handled a record number of disasters in 2010.

And consider this:

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there willl be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.

Jesus Christ said that to his disciples as to the sign of the end of the age (Matthew 24:7-8).

Am I hiding 'neath my desk? Nope. Am I putting all my money in a mattress and heading for the hills? Nope. I have IRA's and 401k's I hope to see mature one day. I will say that we are one day nearer to Christ's return than we were yesterday, and the pages of Scripture paint a horrifying picture of what the days will be like before his return to set all things right.

When I see the moon turn into a deep red warning sign right over my head, it gives me pause. God is calling all of humanity back to himself having provided them forgiveness for their rebellion and sin through his Son, Jesus Christ, the One who will set all things right. The time is short. Will it be today? Dunno. Tomorrow? Dunno? I plan my future on earth like I will be here for another forty years. I try to live my days on earth like he'll return in fifteen minutes. I can only do that because my eternity is secure, taken care of by Christ himself. On that alone, I rest.

Don't ignore the light on the dashboard.

I will show wonders in the heavens

and on the earth,

blood and fire and billows of smoke.

The sun will be turned to darkness

and the moon to blood

before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

Joel 2:30-31

Who's your Eve?

2010-12-16T09:11:00.023-06:00

In Genesis chapter 2, God allows Adam to discover that he’d been created alone. Despite perfect fellowship with Almighty God and despite an earth teeming with enough flora and fauna to flabbergast the mind, Adam was alone.

When the light bulb went on over Adam’s head, God turned it out, put him to sleep, and crafted that which would complete Adam.

God didn’t make another animal.

God didn’t make another tree.

God didn’t make another man.

God made Eve.

Take special note; God did not create five lassies from which Adam could pick his favorite. He didn’t create a few lassies and a few lads for Adam to try and determine his gender.

God.

Created.

One.

Woman.

For one man.

For Adam.

“But what if they hadn’t clicked?” you might ask. Or how about sexual incompatibility? What if he snored? What if she was a winter and he liked summers? What if he liked ski vacations and she liked Broadway?

Acck –ptooey!! Hairball.

For Adam, God made Eve and presented her to him. She entered the world created from and as the unique and special gift for one man, the only man. She for him.

Adam had NO choice. Eve had NO choice. In breathtaking understatement, Adam exalts, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh.” If I may loosely paraphrase, “WOW! Are you kidding?? That’s for ME??” You can use your imagination with the rest. Some would argue that they could have rejected each other, but that would be as likely as Sarah Palin opting for Dillards over Denali National Park. Or me aching for Jerry Jones to become owner of the Vikings and the Twins. Not gonna happen. Ever.

God himself indicated a few thousand years later that his intention had always been that what he had joined together man had no business tearing apart (Matthew 19:6). In other words, God joined Adam and Eve together. Adam for Eve. Eve for Adam. Christ equated that union with the union of every man and woman of his day, and because it transcended those four preceding millennia, it reaches forward two more and applies to us today.

*Revelation warning*-- God’s not surprised that you’re married to the one you married. Jesus exposed that he joined you two together.

How’s that flesh out (so to speak)? One woman for him. One man for her. No other. God ordained. God designed.

Really, I could and should be able to end right there, but we in our sinful nature immediately vomit out, “Yeah, but…” In all honesty, a lot has happened since Genesis 3. There’s a lot of filthy water that’s passed under that bridge. Why do we not sit at work and think about what awaits us at home with an “ooh, boy! She’s for me” kind of Adamic excitement. Why does our woman not have excitement and anticipatory butterflies hammering her stomach while she waits for her man’s eyes to fall upon her face and form after being apart for the day?

Two things thwart our hunger for one another. The first and biggest problem is you (and "I" as I write this, that pronoun sticks an enormous finger out of my monitor and into my chest). We carry so many scorecards around in our pockets regarding snubs and neglect from the past that we cannot love our spouse. Love keeps no record of wrongs. That hurts. Yep, it might. God's command to love my wife and lay my life down for her and his command to her to respect and submit to me do not come with an “If only they love me to my satisfaction” clause.

Face it. We are selfish, but Christ calls us to servanthood. My life is not my own. It’s Christ’s. He purchased me. As such, I lay myself down for him in submission by laying myself down for my wife. The wife does so in respect and honor to the husband. Until we get rid of all of our scorecards, our marriages will only be mediocre…at best.

The second roadblock to a Genesis 2 thrill about our spouse is trust. In a jaded, post-modern, post-Christian 21st century America, we don't trust God. God made us. In marriage, he made the other for us. He knows how best that marriage thing should work. He went so far as to write some of those things down for us. Problem is, we don't trust him. Don't believe me? Chomp on 1 Corinthians 13 for a few days and see how you measure up. Gnaw on your part of Ephesians 5 and let God have his way with you (5:25-33 for the men and 5:22-24 for the women).

If I really trust the God who made me, I will live out his guidance for me and my marriage in loving trust that he knows what's best. I will keep no scorecard. I will lay down my life for my wife to the glory of God...and trust him for the rest.

If the passages in 1 Corinthians 13 and Ephesians 5 do not exemplify my marriage and I call myself a Christian, I am the hypocritical Christian the world so loves to hate, that James speaks out against in James 2:14-26, and that Jesus himself indicts in Revelation 3:1-3.

Trust God. Love your wife. Honor your man.

Dawn Treader lite

2010-12-13T21:11:00.005-06:00

When the Lord of the Rings films buzzed the country, I remember hearing Christopher Lee, Peter Jackson's "Saruman," say that he read the entire trilogy every year. Thus, if Mr. Lee said something about Tolkien's classics, you would do well to hear him.

Liam Neeson? Not so much.

Mr. Neeson has had the honor of voicing Aslan, the central figure in C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia, in the saga's first three films (due to a weak opening weekend, there will likely be no others). In the weeks before the opening of the newest film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Mr. Neeson opined to salivating reporters that,

"Yes, Aslan symbolizes a Christ-like figure, but he also symbolizes for me Mohammed, Buddha and all the great spiritual leaders and prophets over the centuries."

Now, Mr. Neeson claims to have read these books and others by Lewis, but how does he get around the substitutionary death and resurrection of Aslan in The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe? What about the constant and consistent representations of Aslan's deity? Mohammed? He's dead. Buddha? Dead. Aslan in the stories, like Christ, is very much alive.

You don't see Aslan taking a harem of lionesses. He doesn't lop off anyone's head or self-detonate. He doesn't sit in the lotus and try to cleanse himself of the impurities of the physical world. Seeing Mohammed or Buddha in Aslan is like seeing Mao or Lenin in Captain America. You've completely missed the point.

But it's not just Mr. Neeson. Georgia Henley, the young lady who plays Queen Lucy, comes to Mr. Neeson's defense.

"I can see where he is coming from...Aslan represents more than Jesus or God for a wide range of people...He can be the epitome of wisdom or the epitome of courage, for instance, and it is very important that people can have their own interpretation of what he represents rather than have something forced upon them."

I'll chalk that up to youth, but I can't get around producer Mark Johnson's ignorance.

"...resurrection exists in so many different religions in one form or another, so it’s hardly exclusively Christian."

Wow. I must have missed all those others where God condescended to become man, suffer the penalty for his creature's sin, and then be raised to life to guarantee their future hope.

**Spoiler Warning: VDT's ending discussed below**

It is no wonder, then, that Hollywood has seen fit to neuter the most vivid depiction of Aslan as Christ in the book. At the end, Edmond, Eustace, and Lucy come across a lamb, and the lamb is cooking fish upon a fire. Hmmm. I guess there must be lamb-figures in many different religions, too. Lambs that cook up fish for their followers. Oh, yes, and this lamb transforms in their presence into the great golden lion, Aslan. Lion-lamb? Lion-lamb? Where have I heard that before? Thus, when Aslan utters, "But in your world I am known by another name" in the book, the reader knows full well whom Lewis intends his lion to represent.

When Neeson voices that line in the movie, apart from the appearance of any lamb, one is free to insert the name of your choice. Perhaps he represents Vishnu for you, and for you over there, he represents Imhotep. That rube in the corner thinks he represents Jesus, but those enlightened folks over there think that he represents Oprah.

The story is that it is Christian allegory. That's what makes Narnia so powerful on all levels. When you snip out those uncomfortable scenes, you neuter the story.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader does a reasonable job of tying all the scenes together in a semi-coherent movie. The characters are nicely developed while the acting remains as obvious as the first two films. The true message of the film, penned in Lewis' final two pages of the book, was left on the cutting room floor leaving the door open for you to decide who Aslan is for you.

Alas.

Polishing marriage

2010-12-09T09:11:00.063-06:00

Sometimes you need an outside look to sober up your perspective.

American marriage has hit the rocks. Disillusionment and infidelity have left many to wonder, “Why bother? Three things help me focus on the wonder and beauty that marriage can and should be.

First, take stock in a good marriage. Do you know someone with a great marriage? Talk to them. Find out what makes them tick. Translate that into your relationship. If you want to get better at golf, talk to Tiger Woods. If you want to get better at marriage, talk to someone else.

Second, understand that there are weeds on the other side of the fence, too. Take note of the amazing surprises in your own yard. In Sunday’s paper, columnist Betsy Hart responded to Time Magazine’s article which wondered “Who needs marriage?” with brevity. “I do,” she declared.

Married for seventeen years, Ms. Hart has been divorced for the last four. I don’t know the cause of the divorce, but she was very transparent about some of the things she misses. Like a husband who disciplines the children in support of his bride. Or someone to simply come along side and help with the highs and lows of life, from “putting up Christmas lights” to “killing spiders.” Then there’s this crystalline insight.

"But marriage is certainly not, ultimately, about sharing parenting -- which has a limited shelf life. At least, it shouldn't be. It's about sharing a life. As a woman, I want to feel protected and cared for by a husband. I believe I'm -- gasp! -- built to want that. But it's also about what I'm built to uniquely give to one man committed to me: my support, respect, admiration and encouragement, and all without ever trying to make him my best girlfriend! Without a spouse, right now I'm not able to give full expression to those things."

But what about the tough times when his/her jerk-meter is pegged? She wisely noted,

"I even need the conflict of marriage. Really. Bearing with a man, with someone so different from me, giving him the freedom to fail and still loving him, would again stretch me as a human being. A lot. Humbly receiving that same forbearance from him? Well, that's part of what I need, too."

Wow. She recognizes something, though, that most people and most married people miss about marriage today. It’s not 50/50. It’s a 100% investment, and that’s the third thing to help understand the wonder and beauty of marriage. Get God’s perspective on the deal.

You see, marriage is of God. If not, then we might as well go the way of the critters where each gent corrals as many fillies as he can handle. But God designed one Eve for Adam.* The word of God is chock full of great passages on marriage and the roles of the husband and wife. If you’ve never taken the time to ponder these passages, grab a Bible or go online, and meditate upon what God has to say about YOUR role in marriage (let your spouse worry about their role).

Genesis 1:26-31
Genesis 2:18-25
Proverbs 5:15-23
Proverbs 18:22, 19:14
Proverbs 31 (a great passage on how a husband should praise his woman)
The Song of Solomon (all--oh yes, all!)
Matthew 19:3-9
1 Corinthians 6:12-7:5 (you can go all the way through ch. 7)
(You knew this one was coming) Ephesians 5:21-33
Colossians 3:18-19
1 Peter 3:1-7

Some things do get better with age. Marriage is one of those things. When one or both partners is willing to give the 100% sacrificial love called for by Almighty God, it can be a truly great thing.

Make contact with those in great marriages. Keep your eyes on your side of the fence and appreciate the wonder and beauty in your marriage. And seek out God’s counsel on what it takes to make a marriage and what it takes to make it work.

Then, enjoy the fruit!

*The polygamy within the Bible ALWAYS birthed chaos and was not God’s design.

No, he's not

2010-12-06T21:11:00.019-06:00

Ladies, you just might want to skip this post. I know that merely saying that will pique your curiosity. Trust me. This ones for guys who've played football or hockey or baseball.

If you've worn a cup, this one's for you.

When my family and I traveled to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving, my brother and I commiserated over the darkness of the Minnesota Vikings' season. Brad Childress had yet to be canned. We got to talking about when we played football as kids when I mentioned to him that I was amazed that so many of the pros no longer wore knee pads or thigh pads.

"No way!" he countered.

"Oh, yes," I maintained. "And it gets worse. A lot of them have stopped wearing cups."

He looked at me like I had just declared the earth to be flat, like I'd just revealed that I'd lived an alternate life in an alternate universe with Rosie O'Donnell, or like I believed Bud Grant to be a closet Packer fan.

Oomph....ommm...breath...

A brief trip to the internet and a peek at the pics from the previous weeks' games, and my brother shook his head in utter dismay.

Do knee pads and thigh pads restrict speed and agility so much as to aschew them altogether? We could see cornerbacks getting away without them. Maybe the safeties. But most linemen and running backs still wear them.

But--take a deep breath and think on this--most do not protect their ability to procreate.

I remember hitting an opposing player during a hockey game, and as he flew off his feet, his knee came straight north into Mason and Dixon. I dropped like a sack of potatoes and that while wearing a cup! I horror to think on what might have been.

In trying to prove my story to my brother, I came across this gem on ESPN (btw, the ESPN blog is titled "Page 2." The article starts right there). David Fleming tries to come to terms with the collective insanity that has overcome NFL players. He summed it up nicely. "If you ask me, they're all nuts."

We were gay soldiers

2010-12-03T09:11:00.021-06:00

"For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you shall perish."

Isaiah 60:12

Admiral Mullen

Admiral Mike Mullen and Senator John McCain went nose-to-nose in the Senate Armed Services Committee meeting on Thursday over whether homosexuals should be able to serve openly in the military.

A post-modern Chief of Staff and a former POW turned career senator. The one welcomes, "Swing open the door!" while the other cautions, "Not so fast with Pandora's box."

On Friday, the Commandant of the Marine Corps and the Chief of Staff of the Army sided with the Senator. "Not so fast, please."

Here's the sober truth. Apart from a people who strive to live their lives in honor of the God who created them and thereby in accordance with his word, homosexuality and every imaginable sexual knotting will become accepted. Without an objective source of truth to which we can appeal, all bets are off. If homosexuality is now okey-dokey, why is polygamy frowned upon? Why do the NAMBLA folks get such a bad rap? Who's to say when the age of consent should be? Try running openly homosexuals by Curtis LeMay or George Patton. But Mike Mullen's just ducky with it.

Senator McCain

Who's to say, apart from an objective determinant for right and wrong?

Well, Christian, get over it. In case you've been napping the past thirty years, America civically, culturally, academically, and spiritually has dismissed the God of the Bible (who happens to be the God of our heritage). I challenge you to find a commandment (of the Big Ten) that most Americans still accept as valid.

American Christians have never known persecution, but the lions are roaring. Consider what's happening in the military:

A military friend noted today that he can't talk too openly about his relationship with Jesus Christ and what that means, but he could chat openly about his homosexual relationship (if he had one).
Chaplains will either stop preaching the Bible or they will be speaking openly against a policy endorsed by the Department of Defense and their Commander in Chief. Most chaplains don't preach the Bible anymore anyway, but those that do will now face military discipline for disobeying a superior's directives.

So what's a Bible-believing Christian to do? Some thoughts.

First, we are sojourners. While I passionately love the United States of America, her vistas, her cities, and her heritage, this is not my home. Should she decide to turn her back on the living God, I will weep and grieve for the death of such an ideal and for her people, but I will not follow. That said, I will continue to be the very best citizen that I can be until that conflicts with the word of God.

Consider Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael (aka, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego). Those gents lived in about as pagan a land as you could hope to live. We refer to moral trash heaps as Babylon for a very good reason, and that was the land where they were dragged and made to serve within the government. They did very well, thank you, and did not compromise despite high-temperature quarters and gruff and growly roommates. They served and served with distinction in a land hostile to their convictions.

I alluded to it above, but the second point is the most important; a Christian cannot compromise when the world (or his country or his commander) demands him to do so. Daniel, when told not to pray, continued his habit of thrice-daily prayer with windows wide opened. The three amigos, when told to bow, stood tall in a sea of genuflecting moral mice. How's that for standing out in a crowd. Both instances would have brought certain death but for the amazing intervention of God.

But as the three declared, it didn't matter whether God delivered them from the furnace or not. They knew he would deliver them--ultimately. Peter and John faced the same issue. Either buckle under the Sanhedrin's threats and omit the politically incorrect name of Jesus Christ in their preaching or face cultural alienation and disciplinary beatings. Their response? "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, you must judge for we cannot but speak of what we have seen and heard...We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 4:19-20, 5:29). Jesus' disciples took a beating for that, happy that they were "counted worthy to suffer dishonor for the name" (5:41).

Cutting to the chase, the Christian soldier, like Daniel and his three friends, should still be able to serve and honor God. Crossroads may loom. Chaplains, too, can still serve, but they know that they will be required to stand before the military Sanhedrin and declare their higher allegiance to God. The only way the military will be able to handle that pile of goo is by either dissolving the chaplaincy in its entirety (for the first time in our nation's history) or only enlist a chaplain corps that holds to a neutered version of the Bible.

Consider it pure joy, brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials...

Purple agony

2010-11-27T09:11:00.003-06:00

On this, the threshold of another gloomy Sunday, I can't help but share these Q&A's I got from my brother, another long let down Viking fan...

Brett and the grass: Old friends

Q. What do you call 47 millionaires around a TV watching the Super Bowl?

A. The Minnesota Vikings

Q. What do the Vikings and Billy Graham have in common?
A. They both can make 70,000 people stand up and yell "Jesus Christ".

Q. How do you keep a Minnesota Viking out of your yard?
A. Put up a goal post.

Q. What do you call a Minnesota Viking with a Super Bowl ring?
A. An Imposter.

Q. What's the difference between the Minnesota Viking and a dollar bill?
A. You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill.

Q. How many Minnesota Vikings does it take to win a Super Bowl?
A. Nobody Knows

Q. What do the Vikings and possums have in common?
A. Both play dead at home and get killed on the road!

And in case you're thinking of heading to Minneapolis to attend a game, The Minnesota Highway Patrol is cracking down on speeders heading into the downtown area. For the first offense, they give you 2 Vikings tickets. If you get stopped a second time, they make you use them.