Rulekeepers and Hot Women

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12:1-2

The Apostle Paul lived at a time in history when physical prowess was exalted, in soldiery, in the original Olympic games, and in idolatry.  Not that much has truly changed if you ask me.  Historians and early Church fathers allude to the fact that Saul of Tarsus, renamed Apostle Paul, wasn't the most physically gifted man in stature or appearance and yet something about the achievement of the sports arena of his day caught his attention, gained his admiration, and fueled his metaphors and analogies.  He routinely encouraged us to beat our bodies into submission, take our thoughts captive to obedience, run the race with discipline, etc.  1Cor9:24-27 comes to mind.  The author of Hebrews likewise gives us this picture in the first verses of chapter 12, reminding us that we run in the public witness of spectators fans and rivals, as well as experienced witnesses listed throughout chapter 11 who have walked the road before us and are standing all around us with eternal patience to see what we do in our time with what we are given.

I was awoke about 90 minutes before my alarm this morning to talk about passing the baton.  To talk about our receipt of the Abrahamic covenant, specifically the summation of Genesis 12:1-3 in the phrase "blessed to be a blessing."  This covenant, perhaps more importantly than any other, weaves it's way through the whole of Scripture from the first book to the last.  I once set out to catalog all the numerous allusions or rewordings of this principle and stopped shortly thereafter, realizing that even when the words aren't explicitly written, the Holy Spirit bears them out through the story line written for our admonition.  These rewordings and allusions to this covenant make it quite clear: "IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT YOU."  Two of my favorite reiterations of the Abrahamic covenant are these:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.
2Corinthians1:3-4

For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from some other place, but you and your father's house will perish.  Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?
Esther 4:14

The book of Esther mentions only the religious practices of prayer and fasting, not even specifically tying them to Judaism except for Mordecai and his cousin Hadassah, whom we know as Esther, being  noted as Jewish captives carried to Babylon.  The book of Esther was a contentious inclusion in the Canon of Scripture because it completely lacks exposition of even one of the names of God.  And yet, His hand is seen throughout.

Mordecai wouldn't have seen the events of being exiled from Jerusalem and carried away captive as a blessing.  Maybe that happened before his birth and he grew up in Shushan.  Maybe he and his relatives were deported later, after all it didn't just happen in one mass captivity exodus, there were several waves.  Mordecai wouldn't have seen the events that took Haddasah/Esther's parents lives away as a blessing.  Esther's father was Mordecai's uncle, do you think he ever missed his uncle?  His aunt?  Would he have considered their deaths a blessing?  Did them passing leave Esther as his only familial tie in this foreign culture?  These are questions and thoughts and considerations that might lend perspective and depth to the "stories" you read in the pages of Scripture.  The Bible does not stand with the primary purpose of relating history, though it is historically accurate.  The Bible is many things actually, but the thing I want to drive home this morning is this: it's the real story of people just like you and me, faced with extraordinary every day life and working out how best to show God to a watching world - to spectators, fans, rivals, haters, and co-laborers who realize that there is a bigger story of which they are a part.

Mordecai was a cultural rule keeper, and his refusal to bow to a king's official precipitated an edict that nearly killed his whole race.  The back story between Mordecai and Haman goes back centuries.  Mordecai's cousin Esther turns out to be the hottest woman in the kingdom, and she almost missed her destiny caught up in the trappings of what her beauty afforded her.  Kind of like Sarah in Abraham's time.

Both Mordecai and Esther were blessed to be a blessing and ended up passing on the batons of faithfulness that they had been handed.  My wife and I were talking on the way home from a Church business meeting the other night.  We don't do well with passing on the baton in today's Church.  I was talking about this just yesterday with a Church planter whom I am supporting and probably going to go with here in the near future.  And the problem isn't always that we don't do well with passing on the baton, Lord knows many of us are running breathlessly in the exchange zone ready to slap it down into the waiting hand of a co-laborer, BUT THAT CO-LABORER ISN'T READY.  They are stunned from their exchange jog to stand there with their mouth gaping when they realize you've been pushing and training them all along to receive the baton and run their leg.  Or they're still looking around at their activities thinking that's good enough not hearing the charged breathing and rapid foot falls approaching behind them with an arm extended to hand off the charge.

Then there's the Church body that doesn't even frame their efforts around building up the priesthood of all believers.  There are some legitimate reasons and concerns intertwined with this one, which I won't delve into here today.  And I won't allow those legitimate concerns to obscure the point I'm making either, that the Church is not the building or the denomination, it is the people who have heard the clarion call of Jesus Christ to repent of their futile broken ways and submit the the loving, gracious, cleansing Spirit of God moving them beyond their brokenness and into the Kingdom which has come among us and is now breaking in and trying to usher in complete newness of life where the enemy of our soul seeks to deal in death and brokenness and defeat.  We must pass the baton.

Our pastor is preaching his way through the Gospel of John to start our year.  Two weeks ago we peeked in on the "Conversation of a Lifetime" between Nicodemus and Jesus in chapter three.  This Sunday we watched the potentially scandalous conversation of Jewish Jesus with a Samaritan woman of checkered past at a well which historically brought them to common ground through Jacob.  The conversation was strange in both chapters.  Jesus was speaking in metaphor more real than the 'reality' that Nicodemus and the woman were living in.  Nicodemus lived in the reality of a knowledge filled religious life not truly centered on the Spiritual aspect of God, while the woman was struggling with making water easier to fetch so she didn't have to suffer the withering heat of the sun or the condemning hostility of other women.  They were both looking for tools to make their day go smoother, while Jesus was offering a cooling breeze to blow through and freshen our stale world and an eternal spring that would well up within them and effortlessly spill out to water a thirsty world struggling to survive.

You have the professional religious leader holding a clandestine night time meeting with the controversial Jesus in chapter 3.  You have the beautiful woman who was always being used and discarded, and had set herself up for failure once again in chapter 4.  You have the clean cut, educated, successful man of respectable stature in Nicodemus; and the racially despised, tawdry woman of bad reputation.  Pastor Steve likened them to a business class traveler who noticed the church bulletin sticking out of your purse on a 4 hour flight and wanted to talk about Jesus, and the inappropriately dressed woman showing too much evidence of all the wrong things plopping down next to you on the public bus and wanting to talk about Jesus because she too noticed the church bulletin sticking out of your purse.  How do you handle those two totally different conversations?  How do you be all things to all people as Paul alluded to in 1Corinthians 9:22?

Both Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman gave their hearts to Jesus.  We don't see the immediate evidence with Nicodemus, not really until he shows up to help Joseph of Arimathea with the body of Jesus after the crucifixion.  He spent some serious time counting the cost - can you truly blame him?  We see the rapid evidence of the Samaritan woman's conversion though.  How ironic is that?  Maybe long term Nicodemus planted solid trees that grew into fruition and brought more than the woman's entire village to faith, maybe.

My wife and I reached a conclusion in our conversation about the comparisons that were drawn: "the professionally minded Church would hire Nicodemus in a heartbeat - but never allow the Samaritan to teach Sunday School even after years of showing a changed, faithful life."  We're full up with Samaritans that have no roots refusing to sit under the leadership of a Pharisee who has given his heart to Jesus, and full up with Pharisees who won't ever bring themselves to trust the Holy Spirit to have changed the Samaritan that's been hanging around for years.  Oy vey.

We won't willingly pass that baton.  We demand it be wrested from us.  We fulfill the prophetic nature of the Kingdom being taken hold of by violence in that sense.

Some of us are jogging along with our hand held out behind us awaiting that exchange, only to find that the one who was meant to run a relay has instead turned their leg into an independent marathon.  You ask Paul to tutor you as Timothy and he doesn't have the time for Samaritans. 

Some of us run breathlessly to the exchange point willing to release it, only to find the person we've mentored to be distracted from what they were being prepared for and confused that you really intended to have them run anywhere with anything.  You ask Timothy to take seriously that the time is short and you as Paul will not be with him forever, and he balks under the chafing constraints of Nicodemus.

Nicodemus needed to repent of his religious ways and realize as Paul did, that he came to the Kingdom at such a time as this in order to dig around the budding trees of faith and nurture them with his deep knowledge and religious experience rightly transformed through the knowledge of Christ.  The Samaritan woman needed to reposition herself to have influence with someone other than men, by repentance and a changed life that showed the fullness of what Jesus did for her that day, realizing how much she truly has to learn from that Jew down the road.

What do you need to do?  How have you been blessed to be a blessing?  What horrible circumstances would God redeem in your life if you would stop your private marathon and pass the baton of brokenness into the waiting hand of Jesus?  What amazing opportunities and experiences could you capitalize on investing in others if you realized they weren't given you simply for your trophy shelf and prideful pleasure, but as batons you must pass on?  If God will use Mordecai and Esther's personal tragedies and professional successes to save the Jews, He'll use yours to rescue those who are perishing.

You aren't alone, that's a lie the enemy of your soul would love for you to believe, but the Truth is otherwise.  You stand surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and many of them have experienced a piece of your story in their own life, and your faith in Jesus, your testimony in how He has redeemed (or is in the process of redeeming) that circumstance might be the very thing that causes them to run down to their village and bring everyone else back.  Do you remember what they said after the hottest woman in the village brought them to hear Jesus?

...Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.
John 4:42

The baton shouldn't have to be jerked from our hand, nor should we think there is just one leg in one relay race.

We need to remember with Paul:

...you are not your own...For you were bought at a price...
1Corinthians6:19-20

We are all, each of us individually and all of us corporately, blessed to be a blessing.  And if you want to have God's promises fulfilled in your life, you're going to have to teach others in the family to do the same thing Jesus said of Abraham:

...I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just.  This is how the LORD will fulfill to Abraham what He has promised him.Genesis 18:19 (HCSB)

He has chosen you.  Will you choose someone to pass that blessing to?

I just passed on to you four and half hours of my life that I will never get back.  Don't let it be in vain.  Jesus hung on the Cross for hours, despising the shame, don't let it be in vain.

In Search of Justice

One of my brothers (in Christ) recently posted on Facebook that he highly recommended reading this book called The Harbinger by Jonathan Cahn.  I felt a nudge in my spirit to take him up on his suggestion.  After all, I need another book to read along with about the other ten or so I'm piece mealing my way through (did you hear the sarcasm there?).  Feel free to insert an A.D.D. joke here if it helps you laugh at the stacks of books you'll find littering horizontal surfaces throughout my home near my roosting spots.  I have a desk, because it has a wide and deep horizontal surface which is perfect for said stacks.  I'm told that if the top surface were cleared of stacks I could sit at that desk and read one or two of those books with a note pad or something.  I'm not sure I believe them when they say things like that.

But that Harbinger book has started something I'm going to have to pursue, and publicly as the case may be, because the answer is important.  What is Justice?  The story line hasn't specifically brought up that question in the first nine chapters, but it's drawing a long series of parallels from the Old Testament Prophets that speak directly to that as one of the key failures for which Israel was judged by God. 

I think the answer is directly related to all the political harangues we've been on so bitterly for the last 4-5 years.  The root issues underlying the bitter exchanges are important mind you, but the problem I have is I find no redemption in them, because the conversations are all surface.  I mean we can't get down to the brass tacks of simple root applications, we keep it heated and we keep it emotional and we try to force our well reasoned approach down our opponents throat BECAUSE WE'RE RIGHT BY GOD AND IF YOU DON'T AGREE YOU'RE LIKELY GOING TO HELL FOR BEING A ...  You get where all this stuff has gone.  We can't truly agree or put words to what we think are the solutions.  I recently blogged about a conversation wherein I just told the other person we can't agree on the foundation of the Constitution as a rule of law so there is no conversation to be had, we're talking at and around each other...

That's pretty common in political conversations.  So, we've stayed surface, or tried to slap band aids on the issue by pressing the latest cause "put prayer back in schools" or "sign this petition to give all female teachers bra holsters and .22 automatics".  First of all my girls already pray in their public school, because they've been taught at home to talk to God about everything.  Second of all... the caption read "this is a properly dressed teacher" and I'm not sure that anything less than a C or D cup would have concealed the outline of the smallest gun hanging between her cups, not with the tight t-shirt she was wearing, let alone whether she'd ever be able to pull a child in for that impromptu hug that seems to be the signature of a child comfortable with their teacher.  But even if we think both of these things should be done (and I'm not saying they should or should not, not here in this forum) the question remains why?  What have we gained, have we restored a foundation?  Does it raise too many implementation questions?  My point is that until we can get the answer simplified and into a practical application I'm not signing anything.  Because methinks the problem is more basic than those things.  I think it's about something brought up first in the history of Abraham recorded in the Bible.

For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice, so that the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. 
Genesis 18:19 (ESV)

The way of the LORD can be kept by DOING righteousness and justice.  Got it.

Well sort of... on second thought... part of it but not really the other.

If we accept that a good working definition of righteousness is "right relatedness to God and others", you know love your neighbor, do unto others... speak the truth, IN LOVE as we're told in Ephesians 4:15 (rather than WITH A CLUB - as it so often turns out).  I get that part mostly.  I can work it out.

But justice?  doing?  What... I mean how... I don't get it really.  And I hear that prophet guy saying:

He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Micah 6:8 (ESV)

Do justice?

And I hear time and again these other prophets saying that Israel and other nations are under the wrath of God for failure to be just and righteous and defend the defenseless, and live righteously with one another.  Don't change the rules, don't move the boundary markers, don't have double standards.  Do have love for God and one another.  Do have faith in God to reward your right behavior.

So if Abraham can be chosen to teach his family how to DO justice and righteousness, that must mean it's doable - right?  This isn't a situation of 'with God all things are possible.'  Or 'Is anything to hard for God?'  This is a situation of Abraham knows how to get this done, he's fully capable of doing it.  Therefore we can all DO justice.

How?

Well, I suspect like I heard somewhere a few hundred times or so "let it begin with me" is most definitely where the prescription starts.  But the how is still important, I can work out righteousness - I get it mostly.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Don't make condemning judgments that bludgeon the other person with condemnation and allow no room for redemption.  Instead make right judgments that incorporate understanding where the situation unraveled, what God intended the situation to be, and work with each other to get there by His grace.  Or simply accept the fact the other person doesn't want to get there and you aren't going to take them there kicking and screaming and force them to repent.  You might drag them to the altar and get a confession, but not repentance.  So I can accept my friend as they are, love them where they are, while I pray for them to get more in line with what God reveals to be His best intentions for our best life now and throughout eternity.  I can even wrap my brain around the fact that the best righteousness I can do will still fall short of God's truest glory and that ultimately I have to rely on this $50 theological term 'imputed' righteousness, the righteousness of God revealed in Jesus Christ and 'imputed' to me by faith in Him. 

But how do I work out justice?  I mean are we talking laws, rules at least?  Or is it something else, something more than rules, or less than rules as the case may be? 

Abraham was before the Law, the Ten Commandments and the bazillion others... so it can't be as complicated as we want to make it.  Yet God says we're supposed to DO this justice thing.  What's worse is we've got all these references to Him being mad when this justice thing doesn't get done.  He rolls up nations like we fold up game boards, He smooshes together all the Risk armies into one little geographic territory and starts rolling the dice to conquer the un-Just(ice) opponents that he warned beforehand.  I mean there's these little Roman numerals and horses and cannons all piled up and spilling in like some crazy plastic barbarian horde changing the whole color scheme of the map and collecting cards every round... so I'm guessing He takes it pretty freakin' serious.  I should probably get this one right...

And yet I can't specifically tell you what it would mean to DO justice.  Seriously.  I wish this tired soldier were joking.  I can't specifically tell you.

Can you tell me what it would mean?  Have you ever thought about it?  Do you think we ought to know what gets God so fired up? 

Not "Truth, Justice, and The American way."  I mean surely you understand we here in the United States of America have mostly forsaken Truth and exchanged The American Way for something our founders routinely warned against.  Justice surely didn't survive loosing the book ends of that patriotic phrase.  Truth in this country fell by the wayside at the last just before the turn of the 20th century with the systematic change of American and world history to reflect the motivational pattern of "follow the money."  We redefined what motivated people.  Once we were successful in stripping our motivation for historical actions from Moral law that conformed to, or diverged from,  the revealed nature of God - we were able to slowly and systematically begin redefining everything to suit our needs and whims.  And then shortly thereafter we abdicated our personal moral and financial responsibilities to this nebulous entity "The Federal Reserve" - an entity neither Federal nor having actual gold and precious metals in Reserve.  And though no one reading this today was alive in 1913 and actually made that choice personally, we have inherited the futile thinking of our forefathers who revealed by their actions that the true God we worship is money, or success defined in dollar signs...  history records that several protests were lodged and yet they had that 'injustice' foisted upon them, and we inherited it, and the consequences.  Which brings up a converse approach to finding 'justice.' 

We can probably rattle off several examples of what 'injustice' looks like, so can we work backwards and put our finger on 'justice'?  Or do we have to start from a known point and move forward?

Do you think it's important?  I do.  And I'll tell you why.  It's captured in the last phrase of the verse from Genesis 18:19:

...This is how the LORD will fulfill to Abraham what He promised him. (HCSB)

If doing what is right and just is the litmus test for whether I'm the new creation Scripture claims I'm supposed to be in Christ, and whether or not I'm truly a child of Abraham by faith, then I need to know how to DO JUSTICE.  I'm not talking works salvation here.  I'm not talking legalism or a return to Judaism.  Abraham as I pointed out was before The Law.  And justice was still doable.  So we're going to find a different marker post here.  Or at least I'm going to tell you what I find Scripture to reveal, whether you agree or not will be your choice.

See you next time, with something more than questions.

Gravity Is Not Suspended

"Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it." 

Proverbs 22:6

This is true whether you come from a good background with a Christian family or a bad background with a pagan family.  Give some grace and learn someone's story before you write them off.  Christianity isn't a behavior modification program wherein we all the sudden just unlearn decades of abusive, pagan behavior immediately after saying a "sinner's prayer."  Scripture shows that we experience the inherent consequences of sin whether we're saved or not.  Repentance and Salvation spare us the eternal condemnation we justly deserve, but the temporal effects must often be endured for some period commensurate with their details.  Read the story of King David, the 'man after God's own heart', who fell to the temptation of lust, committed adultery, murdered her husband, married her publicly because she was pregnant with his child, and basically lost the moral foundation under everything he had spent decades building.  My pastor once preached a sermon entitled "The Look That Took." and listed at least ten specific things that indulging his lust took from David after an exemplary life up to that point.

Here's that link if you're interested:  http://sermons.faclex.com/2012/05/06/the-look-that-took/

My point today is less about sin after an otherwise good example, and more about new believers who stumble because they don't know how to walk in the newness of life they've entered into.

What I'm reacting to is the tendency we have to question someone's conversion or commitment to Christ because they get caught in stupid stuff after they get saved.  We expect them to act just slightly less spiritually mature and serious than the pastor who is tenth generation Christian from a solid background of patron saints who were all seminary trained theologians who yearly made their pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  Hogwash and fudderbuddle!  Entirely unrealistic.  That thug you're running down and casting dispersions on was forged in an oven of culture and sin that you may barely be able to understand.  That thug was once a child trained to walk in the futile and dark ways of his fathers.  Walking in newness of life will not come automatically nor easily.  Many of them may actually end up dying like the repentant thief on the cross next to Jesus, without ever getting the chance to show any actions that would resemble fruit. 

Sin has inherent consequences not only in the eternal spiritual realm, but also in the temporal - the here and now of every day life.  If you sin without repentance and salvation by faith in the only begotten son of God, Jesus Christ, you will be eternally separated from the presence of God in conscious torment with the devil and his angels cast into the lake of fire - ugly but there it is plainly written for all to read as Scripture records it.  If you sin, acknowledge that you understand what you've done and repent by faith in Jesus, you have changed your eternal destiny to be with Him in paradise for eternity.  That being said, what happens here in everyday life?  Well the simple answer is:  Gravity is not suspended because you get saved.  If you robbed a bank yesterday, got saved today, and show fruits of your repentance tomorrow by taking your cut of the money back to the authorities you will still most likely serve jail time.  Worse, if you confess the identity of your partners and they get jailed with you, you could end up dead in some prison because they shanked you in retaliation.  Inherent consequences brought about by your sin.  Jesus absorbed the cost of your consequences in the spiritual realm and by His blood you will be cleansed from all unrighteousness to stand in the presence of God - but that doesn't mean there isn't hell to pay in the here and now.  God often reduces those blows, unravels the damages and brings others to redemption through the pain that you caused in your relationships with them - but you still have to face up to what has been done, and walk through it until God removes it from you in the here and now of everyday life.  You are no longer your own, you were bought with a price, your new Master guides that process as He sees fit and as you submit.

In sharing my personal testimony over the years I have often likened this process to the analogy of spending X number of years walking down the road to hell.  Just because I got saved I didn't turn around and find myself standing right at the gates of Heaven ready to walk through as a model citizen possessed of all Spiritual knowledge and righteous behavior.  Now Christ's imputed righteousness does just that in the spiritual realm, but we're talking about what happens here in the temporal realm.  I have to walk back through all the same devastation I wreaked by my sinful walk on the way down the road, I may have entered the narrow gate and be walking that path, but it's cluttered and surrounded by my own sinful wreckage.  If others wreaked devastation in your life outside your control, that walk back can be even more convoluted and may take longer than the walk in.  It's different for everyone.  God uses it to prune you into the fruitful vine He alone can see you being.  Our impatience with others is what causes the lack of disciples we are supposed to be making, we want them fixed now with no personal investment or cost to ourselves.  Whatever.  Loving grace isn't cheap, it cost Jesus His life, and if we're going to be authentic it will cost us something as well.

The Apostle Paul is more along the lines of what I'm thinking today.  Paul is an example not everyone truly understands.  They remember the dramatic story of his conversion on the Damascus Road, most remember he was formally named Saul and ruthlessly persecuted the young Church of Christ, some realize that this is the same man who held the robes of those who stoned the first Christian martyr to death.  But many never realize that after his conversion he basically withdrew for almost 3 years to get his head screwed on straight.  Acts 9:26 says the disciples were afraid of him, after hearing his testimony accepted him, but then sent him on his way when he was threatened by a plot to kill him.  Then, in what is surely one of the greatest chuckles recorded in the Bible, Acts 9:31 says after they sent him away "then the churches...had peace..."  Kind of like when your rambunctious child goes to bed after being a terror all day... mom and dad get to enjoy some peace.  Saul, renamed Paul, had to take some time to walk back through what he had formerly done - where his blind, sinful, misconceptions had come from - and what actions his blindness led him to commit - and what deep grace had been given to him to be considered righteous before God.  Paul had to sort back through his extremely blessed studies under the most revered Rabbi of his day, Gamaliel, to put those teachings into proper perspective realizing Jesus was the promised Messiah most of the spiritual celebrities of his day had not recognized.  Paul's salvation and his subsequent 3 years getting his head screwed on straight didn't bring Stephen back to life; or free the prisoners Saul had imprisoned; or keep people from fearing him at first meeting.though.  These were inherent consequences, gravity if you will.  And it was this same Paul who later wrote that the unrighteous would not inherit the Kingdom of God and concluded that list of unrighteous behaviors with:

"And such were some of you.  But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the fruit of the Spirit of God."  1Cor6:11

So the next time you are tempted to discount the story of some thug who claims to be a sinner now saved by Grace - remind yourself "...such was I..." or "...there but for the Grace of God go I."

Churches are not clubs for the perfect. They are clinics for the sick, the wounded and the maimed, where those a bit stronger help those who are still weak. The forgiven forgive. The healed heal. The comforted comfort others. Our role is not to kick people when they are down. They are the devil’s victims and, rather than scorn we should pour on them the oil of understanding and bring recovery and joy.    

Reinhard Bonnke

Healing Still Happens

"...and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them." Luke 4:40

I want to share something with you all today that I wrote and shared as a Facebook post somewhere near the beginning of December 2011.  It's a real moment I experienced while going about my ordinary every day life, and all the sudden God broke in.  In the fullness of that moment He was Immanuel - God with us; He was Jehovah-Rapha - The Lord Our Healer; He was a friend and healer in this moment.  And I share it openly with you because He wants to be those things for you as well, even today, right here in the middle of your ordinary everyday life.  I don't know what those healing moments need to look like for you, probably different than mine, but He does - and as we walk with Him daily, trusting Him to be exactly who He reveals Himself in the Bible to be, He will lay His hands on you and heal you.  Your story could be every bit as dramatic as the beggar healed by the Beautiful Gate of the Temple in Acts 3 where Peter and John told the man "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk."  Or as subtle and private as the woman who had simply determined to touch the hem of Jesus' robe as he was passing by as recorded in Mark 5:25-34.  I'm not saying that every ailment you ever experience will be dramatically removed, I'm simply sharing the experience that many have had in their real, normal, mundane, every day life.  Healing still happens and miracles surround you every day, if you only open your eyes to see...  that's the Jesus I know, walking with me in the everyday ordinary and in the fullness of time bringing out the extraordinary joy filled moments that glorify Him and heal our wounded hearts - and beloved friends we all have wounds that need the Balm of Gilead available from the Great Physician.

I want to share a joyful moment I just experienced with my little family. It's really a moment of healing by the loving hand of Jesus in our life, and I hope it will encourage you as it has me. Before I married Shonda and we were blessed with Ashley and Kira, God promised me that the deepest emotional and spiritual healings in my life would come through my family - which of course takes longer than my original five year plan.

I worked late tonight resolving a service call that started much earlier in the day. My 10yo daughter was still up with mom chattering away on the phone with Grandma when I got home, well after her normal bed time. In the short time it took me to get changed and relax a few minutes before going upstairs mom tucked in Ashley and I figured we'd get a few bedside minutes to talk about her day. I went up to kiss her goodnight and thought she was playing 'possum so I jiggled her loft bed as I clumped up the ladder and didn't get a single giggle out of the child. Not to be thwarted so easily, I grabbed the side rail and rattled it harder - not even a twitchy smile to give away the game - she was truly asleep, with her 'love tank' full as her mommy pointed out when I shared the import of this moment with her. I stood there looking at her and realized how different her life is from mine. She's grown up loved and secure and can sleep peacefully even with daddy jiggling her whole loft bed. Kira too. On my late nights I still faithfully climb up their ladders and kiss them, place my hand on their head or back, pray over them briefly, sometimes not so briefly - but never do they do more than stir a little. Not so with me, even after almost 22 years of living a healthy, Holy Spirit filled life, I still sleep in a state of awareness, not true rest. Full wakefulness for me is rarely further than an out of place noise or a neighbor off their routine. When the girls were newborn I didn't really sleep at even my normal level for 3-6 months (though they both slept through the night around 6-8 weeks) until I became fully immersed in their noises and tendencies. People who know these things call it hyper-vigilance, and mine was learned in an insecure dangerous childhood. I was moved to something approaching awe tonight as I stood there looking at my daughter peacefully sleeping, and heard something like the whisper of God saying "you've done well with this child, and the other as well, they have no need to fear sleeping in your watchful care." What a difference Jesus makes in a parent's life, that He can redeem you and work through you to be more than you ever would be otherwise - and while you think you spend all your time investing in your kids and their needs and wants - they move you to tears just by sleeping peacefully and you feel the healing hand of Jesus touch you yet one more time.

I told you all that to tell you this: since that night I wrote about, my sleep for the first time in decades has become more peaceful, less vigilant.  Something I never thought possible has come to pass.  I shared the word, the testimony of this moment, and He blessed me with healing from the night I made that post.  The centurion in Matthew 8:8 was unwilling to bother Jesus to come beneath his Gentile roof, and he spoke with great faith that Jesus need only speak the word and his servant would be healed.  What words of faith, of healing, do you need to speak today?  Could it be that sharing it would unwrap the gift of healing in your own life?

Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you."  And his servant was healed that same hour.
Matthew 8:13

There Are Thorns

 I have a routine for my mornings, my disciplined approach to keeping myself saturated in Scripture I would say, my wife and some others who know me well would likely joke that my personality is just far enough across the OCD line to demand it.  After serving my wife and myself coffee and allergy/decongestants it goes something like this: I pray asking God to open His word to me and begin reading in Psalms, the day of the month (for example today is the 22nd of December) determines my stepping off point.  I read the first Psalm, then read the chapter in Proverbs for that calendar day, then a chapter from the other Wisdom books (Job, Ecclesiastes, Song), then return to read the 2nd of the days Psalms by adding thirty to the first number (today's second Psalm is 52) - I then have a track that takes me through the Torah/Pentateuch, the History books, the Prophets, the Gospels/Acts, and the Epistles/Revelation alternating through the days five Psalms by adding 30 each time (22, 52, 82, 112, 142 would be today's five Psalms).  That puts me into at least 13 chapters a day if I stay on task.  Some days I do, and some days I begin chasing tie ins OT to NT, following rabbit trails that the Holy Spirit illuminates, some days I'm so overwhelmed by something I read that I begin praying for a situation I have on my heart realizing how that Scripture speaks directly to a life situation someone in my sphere of influence is facing.  I guess that confirms I haven't really crossed the OCD border given numerous alternative outcomes.  Regardless, it provides a much wider perspective on the whole Gospel message as I see it reiterated again and again from beginning to end and am able to clearly see that the mental divide most Christians have of OT/NT doesn't really apply as stringently as they would like to think.

That's the stage setting for this morning's blog.  As I sat down for my morning devotional readings I started in the first of today's five Psalms, 22.  I didn't make it through my regular track afterward though.  Instead I found myself in the Gospels reading Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.  Here's the verses from Psalm 22 that put me there:

1 My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?
6 But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised by the people.
7 All those who see Me ridicule Me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
8 "He trusted in the LORD, let Him rescue Him; let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him!"

16 For dogs have surrounded Me; the congregation of the wicked has enclosed Me.  They pierced my hands and My feet;
17 I can count all My bones.  They look and stare at Me.
18 They divide My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.

All prophetic words written hundreds of years before their literal fulfillment in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah who would save His people, not just Israel, but the nations of humanity who would come to knowledge of Him and call on the one true God to save them, for faith in that God is accounted to us as righteousness and we are taught that there is no other name on earth, given among men whereby we must be saved.  So we find that not only our calendar, but all history truly revolves around the name of Jesus, born to a virgin, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and laid in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

But beyond those words so literally fulfilled as you read the four Gospel accounts of the crucifixion, are the words of comfort and encouragement recorded in Psalm 22, also quite literally fulfilled for some forty days after the painful verses above.  These verses make my walk worth walking (emphases mine):

21b ...You have answered Me.
22 I will declare Your name to My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
23 You who fear the LORD, praise Him!  All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him, and fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
24 For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; nor has He hidden His face from Him; but when He cried to Him, He heard.

You see, it wasn't a cake walk for which Jesus was born.  It was the Via Dolorosa (Latin for "the way of grief") for which the baby whose birth we celebrate in just a few short days came.  And yet for the pain set before Him, He endured the Cross, despising its shame, so that He could make a way out of no way, so that you and I could be restored to right relationship, indeed fellowship with God.  The King of the universe set aside His celestial coronet to have a cruel crown of mocking thorns crested painfully on his brow.  So that those words could be fulfilled:  YOU HAVE ANSWERED ME... HE HAS NOT DESPISED THE AFFLICTION OF THE AFFLICTED... WHEN HE CRIED TO HIM, HE HEARD. 

And yet to those looking on and even for Jesus (who knew the full plan) in the midst of the actual pain of the event, it seemed as if God had forsaken Him...

Beloved friends, just as it didn't look like what everyone thought it ought to look like the day Jesus was crucified, so there will be thorns and trials and pains and catastrophes in your life brought about many times by the thoughtless cruelties dealt like so many cards from the hands of our fellow sinful humanity.  I write this after the tragedy of Newtown Connecticut, Sandy Hook Elementary knowing that dozens of lives will find little to celebrate not only this Christmas, but from here on out as the overwhelming senselessness and void left in their life wells up with irrepressible grief beyond what most of us can imagine -- and yet we have this promise made sure that when we cry, He hears.  He redeems the most horrible things dealt out by the hands of sinful humanity, rarely though is it the way we think it ought to look - and therefore many have had their love grow cold and they willfully look away from the One they blame.  They miss the Sunday resurrection and all that it means because for them the event was laid to rest on Friday and they think they have moved on bearing one more disappointment in a string of disappointments that has come to reflect their dreary trudge through life.  It's just not right they scream, and then resign their hearts to the continued weariness of disappointment.

So about two thousand years ago, with all the attendant joy that accompanies such events - God in the flesh cried out after cresting the birth canal of a simple girl who had surrendered her heart and her life to a God whom she had not yet seen.  For about 33 confusing, hard, joyful, rewarding years afterward she saw Him most every day.  She remembered and pondered those first confusing days and angelic messengers; and the subsequent birth pain and joy combined; and early childhood events and anticipated a joyous resolution to her nation's struggles -- only to have it seemingly end in infinite shame and confusion.  And just when resignation had cleared a comfortable seat in the hearts of His closest followers and the disappointed heart of His confused mother she once again witnessed His rebirth as He burst forth from the grave clothes and walked again among them showing them the fulfillment of numerous promises recorded in places like Psalm 22.  Perhaps in the end Mary finally understood that God does indeed hear us when we cry because nothing is working out the way we planned, things are just not right, and yet with Him things are more than right.

He hears us when we cry, and as He redeemed Christ from the grave, He will redeem you - IF you will hear Him cry, from the manger, from the hills overlooking your broken circumstances, from the bedside of your broken moments.  He is Immanuel, God with us, and we celebrate His living to face the thorns alongside us.

8:11

I go through periods on my Facebook stream where I don't make many personal inspirational posts, I may repost a thing or two in scrolling through my news feed, but it seems some days I just am not on.  The truth of the matter is I get into sometimes private message conversations, or spend significant amounts of my limited time in entering conversations on other posts, so if I'm not posting personally, I'm probably working something elsewhere so to speak.  I've actually received private messages asking if everything is all right when I haven't posted for a few days, which is encouraging on several levels.

I'm going to do something today I haven't done before, because I think there is great value in both showing an example of where I disappear to and for those of you who care, how I think and where I've arrived in my years walking after Jesus.  I'm going to cut and paste the substance of a conversation I entered into over Facebook.  I will withhold the names of both the hostess and the single commentator I was responding to as their identities aren't the subject, nor am I attempting to cast dispersion on the individual with which I disagree.  The subject through the whole winding thread is Truth.  And I ask as Andy Andrews asked in his book "How Do You Kill 11 Million People":

If it is correct that "you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free," then is it possible that if you don't know the truth, its absence can place you in bondage?

Let me set the stage by saying the original post was an anti-Obama post with a captioned picture challenging the tactic of those who say anyone who doesn't support Obama or his appointments to key positions within his administration is racist.  I will present the comment that sparked my initial involvement and proceed from there without editing or elaborating.  I need to explain one final thing before we begin, why I was enticed to enter the conversation.

Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil
Ecclesiastes 8:11

Opponent:  No matter what you say or how much you beat that dead horse, he is our President and deserves respect !!!!

Me:  respectable people deserve respect, lawless people deserve punishment for the good of society as a whole.

Opponent:  Really, exactly what crime did he commit ?

Me:   Here are a few crimes: 1.) Under the UCMJ as CIC he is blatantly guilty of article 92 gross dereliction of duty leading directly to the death of US citizens and soldiers due to foreseeable circumstances under which he failed to provide adequate defense of sovereign US soil in Benghazi, Cairo, and 19 other embassies throughout the Muslim dominated regions where we have missions. 2.) Obstruction of justice in the matter of his instructions to AG Holder to not defend DOMA when it reached the Supreme Court for challenge - this was his first blatant Constitutional violation to my knowledge. 3.) Obstruction of justice and collaboration with intent to defraud with regards to Fast and Furious - again a matter that lead to the foreseeable death of US citizens and caused harm and insurrection within another country. 4.) Recess appointments of Cabinet positions without Congressional approval, WHILE CONGRESS WAS IN SESSION - willful disregard for the system of checks and balances established within the Constitution - and then refused to remove them from their posts when he was called on the matter by Congress who stated they did not approve of the candidate as being qualified in one instance. 5.) there are at least 8 other blatant violations of the Constitution by his direct approval very thoroughly documented by others with more time and space than a post on FB. If you are truly interested they are easy to find, as well as a copy of the Constitution from your local bookstore wherein you could compare the list to the documentation and test their veracity. The problem is our whole electorate has become lawless, pretty much an accurate reflection of their constituencies, most of us want what we want right now and will do whatever we have to to get it - damn the consequences to anyone else. Traditionally we have been a nation founded under a rule of law, with a healthy fear of God as ultimately keeping us accountable to a power greater than ourselves. With every little compromise from rock solid principles however we find ourselves to have usurped God's role and placed ourselves on the throne. So now we live in a nation with 545 small 'g' gods all working against each other to the detriment of all, leading all their citizenry to follow example in their little bailiwicks

Opponent:  Any time that I have bothered to check claims of those opposed to President Obama, I found them to be either distortions or falsehoods. The lies and distortions that Obama-haters keep going is reprehensible. Hey maybe the strategy is, if you tell a big enough lie frequently enough,some people will believe it. Enough already !!

Me:   It's all right miss Terrie, if we can't agree on a foundational rule of law against which to objectively compare his actions, then we can't even have common ground to stand on for this discussion, we're talking at and around each other. You see hate and disrespect toward a man, whereas informed conservative thinkers are calling his score card based on rules by which our president and electorate refuse to abide. I realized as I was working and thinking about this whole thing yesterday that the only way you could possibly not know what the real basis of the charges against the man are is if you don't want to know. And that's really the root of the problem with our country from the top down, we're in love with a dream of how we think things OUGHT to be, rather than objectively evaluating how things actually ARE. Those of us who have a love of the truth keep our feet on the ground and work to see our dreams fulfilled by putting our hard work and time proven disciplined efforts toward building and maintaining the foundation that provides an environment wherein those dreams can come to fruition. I'll share a current real life example with you: I have a neighbor whose 19yo son has openly been dealing drugs for almost two years and was arrested two nights ago, in possession, selling near a school, resulting in a fruitful search and seizure of additional quantities from his house across the street from my home. After the police left, two of us neighbors stood with the father and discussed what had happened - and the man stood there in understandable tears and told us what a good boy he was and how he was raised well and was respectful... so on and so forth, my other neighbor just called him on it and said "...your son and all his friends throw garbage out on all our lawns, even after being confronted, they have abused you as the parent multiple times - THAT'S NOT RESPECTFUL... you all had to know what the boy was doing and the dangers he was putting himself and us in and we've all talked about these issues before..." You see, the father never stepped back and objectively evaluated the actions of his son - he stayed in love with a dream that had no foundational work under it to build his son's future as they pictured it being. And that friends and observers is almost a perfect microcosm example of the biggest problems with our whole country right now, the sheer number of people in denial and refusing to abide by knowable objective truths by which to evaluate good and evil.

Hostess:  encore!!

Me:  Here's my encore. One last piece that comes directly out of this and brings it closer to home for all of us, and I'm going to step off from the real life example I shared to make my point which can be extrapolated back out to cover our governance gripes. This father is an alcoholic, he has made a life choice centered around a legally obtained drug which temporarily allows him to escape his real life worries and stresses and numb whatever real pain he refuses to address in a more constructive manner. The Bible tells us this is a love of pleasure rather than a love of truth. The father drank up the profits from a successful independent business, stopped maintaining his company assets which were the means by which he provided generously for his family, and has successfully perpetrated a claim of disability which allows him to subsist on meager income. Mom is now the primary breadwinner and stressed to the limit with the example of her husband and the actions of her only son. Having spoken with her repeatedly I know she is now working to personally clean up her side of the street and get her head screwed on straight moving forward. We have known this family for over 7 years now, and at least one of the unspoken lessons this boy has learned through his dad's choice is that he doesn't have to face reality either - he can do as he pleases regardless of the consequences to those around him. So why work diligently when you can score big? If he can just distribute enough he'll have the Escalade or Mercedes some of his rich kid friends park around my house all the time. To hell with the vandalism that has occurred to neighbors and parents cars/property, to hell with the tears and pleas of his mom and dad... to hell with the multiple conflicts and hassles the boy has already had with the neighbors and police. In the child's mind he says none of us understand what he's going for... I know because he's told me that to my face... while in most of our minds we don't understand why he can't see he's plunging headlong toward death, institutions, or insanity. And to bring the long example around full circle, the father thinks he raised his son well and taught him to be respectful. How can the father possibly think this? Because he refuses to look in the mirror. He can't see that he laid the foundation for his son to disobey and refuse to abide by proven moral standards and ethics that would ensure a future and a hope of real success that others can admire for something other than "bling". And the way that example extrapolates out is this: everything we do matters, it affects all of us in sometimes unforeseen ways. When our legislators and civic leaders do not make solid choices that are truly good they are choosing the delusion of temporary convenience just like the father chooses the bottle. Let me throw one other example in so we can more easily see the effects of an unspoken message that has wreaked untold havoc on our society: Playboy magazine. Yes there are others, but Playboy started the avalanche in this manner: it taught men and women that people are disposable and they exist solely for our pleasure. When the man gets the magazine in the mailbox, even if Miss June isn't quite to every nuance of his liking it's alright, because Miss July is on the way. So he puts Miss June on the shelf and picks up Miss July or goes back temporarily to Miss May while he waits. The corollary to the woman regarding this is that if her man isn't toeing the line in the manner she sees fit, she'll just take her "goods" elsewhere to someone who will appreciate them/her. So we take our Playboy and Playgirl magazine habits into our relationships with human beings. When we're done with them we throw them away. We can easily see cause and effect of almost any course of action if we will objectively look back at examples that show us clearly what a course of action will result in. It's not just dry history, or complex sociology, or political theory - it's our lives that are being either secured for liberty or shackled to servitude and it starts in my home, and in yours. If I will not lead a self disciplined, self governed life, submitting to knowable, objective, proven truth that leads to a healthy and constructive future then how can I expect my government to do the same. Those of us who are the maddest about what's happening around us have already learned this lesson even if we never put words to it as I have today. We aren't mad because we're racist or we didn't get what we want, we aren't being subjective and egocentric - we're being objective and we're mad because we objectively know that in the end there's nothing in it for any of us other than death, institutions, or insanity shackled to servitude because we had a great party today. Now if my focus is on God and His objectively proven standards of morality, with an expectation of blessing or punishment inherent in my relationship and my submission to a loving liberty providing owner of the universe, everything falls into place as it should. If my focus is anywhere else, or has placed man on a throne reserved only for the Creator, then I'll reap accordingly. So we find great wisdom in making sure we keep the kids or anything else from playing on the throne, and this requires self examination and vigilance on our part. The rewards are worth it. There is always hope and healing available for individuals and nations, but only as we name things rightly and expose them to the light of truth and move on in a different direction. Does that hope remove the scars and inherent consequences of past mistakes - NO, but it does provide a healthier future wherein we can share our experiences and snatch others out of the flames that are eagerly awaiting their destruction. The Truth matters more than we can imagine in every one of these supposedly political arguments, and there is no disrespect to a man to call him into the truth and hold him accountable. I would argue that to refuse to tell people the truth would be the ultimate disrespect.
 

 

Dirty Words

Profanity, vulgarity, cuss words, filthy language.  We all have our moments when even if the words aren't dirty four to twelve letter epithets, our velvet tone and vocabulary covers the vilest of cruel hatreds.  I have no intention of talking about civility or clean language today.  I do however find myself trapped in a chapter of Jeremiah that speaks directly to our present situation in regards to governance choices for our nation, and it necessitates talking about the third Commandment:

You shall not take the name of the LORD you God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain. (Exodus 20:7 ESV)

Taking the Lord's name in vain.  The truest essence of this violation is captured in Jeremiah 34.  I'm not typing out that whole chapter here, if you've read this far you care enough about the topic to get your own Bible out and read it for yourself.  I'll be brief as possible here and share with you how this chapter captured me and became the object of my meditations for the past 24-48 hours.  It seemed pretty mundane, Jeremiah's been saying all along in a dozen different ways: Israel (Judah in particular) is going to Babylon,  for some core reasons you can read for yourself.  The truth is this 22 verse chapter captured me at the end of verse 21.  I'm working through the ESV translation this time through the Bible, so everything today will be referenced from that translation (all emphases mine).

Here is what captured me, the last phrase of verse 21:

...into the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has withdrawn from you.

WHAT?! - wait a minute here, the word of the LORD came in the front end of the chapter saying the city was getting burned down and the king was going into exile - but now Babylon's forces have withdrawn?  And then more direct words from the LORD in verse 22:

Behold, I will command, declares the LORD, and will bring them back to this city.  And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire.  I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.

So they had a fighting chance, Babylon had withdrawn, might have been on the run with the right military tactics.  How did that change between the front end of the chapter and the last verses?  The answer lies in verses 8 - 10:

...King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to make a proclamation of liberty to them, that everyone should set free his Hebrew slaves, male and female, so that no one should enslave a Jew, his brother.  And they obeyed, all the officials and all the people who had entered into the covenant that everyone would set free his slave, male or female, so that they would not be enslaved again.  They obeyed and set them free.

Just that quick, at least as the reading of the words go, Judah had three fortified cities successfully fighting for their life and putting the Babylonians back on their heels.  Babylon had withdrawn.  All because of that dirty word OBEDIENCE.  So why verse 22?  Well those answers and the tie in to the 3rd Commandment, we read in verses 13-16, God's direct words to them, and I believe inspirationally/applicationally to us today in some key ways:

...I myself made a covenant with your fathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying, at the end of seven years each of you must set free the fellow Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years; you must set him free from your service. [see Leviticus 25:35-46]  But your fathers did not listen to me or incline their ears to me.  You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty, each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves.

They went back on their word when they had a glimpse of relief.  So we find the truest essence of taking the name of the LORD in vain, and Jeremiah records how the  consequence in the second phrase of the 3rd Commandment unfolds starting in verse 17:

Therefore, thus says the LORD:  You have not obeyed me by proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and to his neighbor, behold, I proclaim to you liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine...

The LORD brought Babylon back with a vengeance.  Confirming once again Psalm 24:1 "The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein."

So where is my hair-brained tie in to today's governance situations as applied to the United States of America?  How is it I think as Paul wrote in 1Corinthians10:11 that "these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction..."  It's just this, that even in the midst - or because - of great turmoil, God opens our eyes and ears to see and understand how far we've departed from Right paths.  But we, like Judah in Jeremiah 34, face a dire consequence should we go back on the lessons we've painfully learned these last 6-8 years.

He delivers the afflicted by their affliction and opens their ears by adversity.  He also allured you out of distress into a broad place where there was no cramping and what was set on your table was full of fatness. Job 36:15-16

Many of us have had some "come to Jesus" moments over the last few years through various dire circumstances.  We've individually faced God or turned away, many of us praying earnestly for Truth to shine forth and hearts to be opened and set free to see the reality of the situations.  My fear is that we will get one glimpse of relief from what we've been facing with our lawless president and electorate and fail to persevere in right actions and behaviors and self governance.  We will have repeated Judah's action in profaning the name of the LORD. 

Choose wisely beloved, not just tomorrow, but every day, and stay the course of vigilant obedience to those things you know to be right.  Repent when you know you have done wrong and turn to the LORD for mercy and redemption, we have the promises that the "blood of Jesus cleanses us from all unrighteousness" if we will but call on His name - and to as many as call on His name and receive Him, who believe in His name, He gives the right to become children of God.  We are facing a host of issues today, all of them linked directly to the issues of loving God and loving each other.  Extrapolate them yourself and see if I'm not right... because if I am then the only solution is that dirty word OBEDIENCE.

Led Zeppelin probably didn't mean it this way, but there are two paths you can go by, and for now there's still time to change the road you're on.  In every facet of your life you will find that ultimately all roads lead back to a narrow gate leading to a path of life for those who will enter it and persevere.  Otherwise you are left to the liberty of destruction.

Be blessed my friends.