Incomplete Loves

By James Robison

Beth Moore, a wonderful friend and teacher on our television program, LIFE Today, has a Border collie named Star. She describes the cherished pet as her “best buddy” and relates a story to illustrate an insightful biblical truth.
Since Beth’s ministry has its own office building, Beth frequently takes Star to work with her. This breed is prone to substantial obsessive-compulsive issues, so they tend to fixate on their owner. In a very real way, Beth “completes” Star. The collie stares at her all the time. She sleeps where she sees Beth as soon as she opens her eyes. She puts her head down and tries to herd Beth so that she will go where Star desires. When she accompanies her owner to work, Star stares at Beth all day while she’s working.
Beth’s coworkers love Star and consider her the staff mascot. But once, when Beth had to leave the office for a few hours, her staff had some difficulty in babysitting the dog. After Beth left, they brought Star to the floor where the whole administrative team works. Star went from office to office, greeting everyone (or perhaps looking for Beth), then began to whine. Nobody could calm or quiet the dog. As Star became more distraught, they became more desperate. Finally, they tried playing a DVD of Beth teaching. It worked! When Beth returned, Star was still fixated on the television screen, watching her master’s every move.
That humorous illustration provides insight into human relationships. One of our biggest frustrations in life comes from the incomplete love we experience when we pin our hopes for fulfillment on people, experiences, or things. An incomplete love almost fulfills us, but still leaves us yearning for more. These incomplete loves are wonderful gifts from God, but nothing on this planet can truly complete us.
Receiving support from others during difficult times is very healthy. We need it for comfort, affirmation and, occasionally, healing. This “fellowship of suffering” is a beautiful thing because it connects us with others who have experienced the same sort of pain. You get to know someone well enough that you feel like you can honestly say, “Yes, I totally get that because I’ve been through every single bit of it!”
However, if you stay close enough to that person, sooner or later you will come to a place of disappointment and departure. You may feel alone at this point because you thought you had found someone who completely understood you. Then you begin to realize that he or she can’t go there with you 100% because you’re processing everything through your own personal history. Only you grew up in your family and felt what you felt and experienced what you experienced.
The Bible says, “Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.... But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence" (Jeremiah 17:5, 7).
Many animals are herd animals. Gazelles on the African plain stick together. Canadian Geese migrate back and forth together from season to season. Sheep, cattle, and horses find a level of safety, direction, and comfort by sticking together. Yet all of them are still susceptible to predators. If we, as humans, stick together and rely solely on one another, we will eventually fall prey to our enemy, Satan, who always lurks nearby “as a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8, KJV). A time will ultimately come when we have to get to the place where it’s only you and I and Jesus.
Proverbs 14:10 tells us, “Each heart knows its own bitterness, and no one else can fully share its joy.” Nobody else can enter into the intimacy of everything the way Jesus can. A huge part of our emotional well-being comes from reaching this place. We can let a lot of people off the hook for not being Jesus to us--for not being able to read our minds or emotions. God is the only one who truly completely “gets us” because He knows the intimate ways of our minds and hearts; He knows and has seen things that we don’t even remember. “For the Lord will go ahead of you; yes, the God of Israel will protect you from behind” (Isaiah 52:12b).
This is not to say that we detach from others. God puts people in our life so that we can journey together, shoulder to shoulder and elbow to elbow, and share experiences. Koinonia is a Greek word in the Bible that means “fellowship, sharing in common, communion.” Christian fellowship is an important and necessary part of the Christian life, but it’s not simply the casual gathering of people in a church building. True fellowship is predicated upon a common belief in Jesus Christ, then enacted in an active pursuit of a common spiritual goal and bond. It is the shared experience of life as a true follower of Jesus Christ. Philippians 2:1-2 says;

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.

Koinonia unites believers under the lordship of Jesus Christ and provides the environment to grow spiritually and fulfill God’s purpose in our life. Fellowship is a gift from God, but it is not a substitute for a one-on-one relationship with Him.
Any love outside of God is an incomplete love. Beth’s collie may find purpose through her owner, but such fulfillment is not sufficient for humans. Only God can truly satisfy.

The Decline of a Great Nation

By James Robison

 

 

President Obama or Gov. Romney, Democrats or Republicans, have never been and never will be our hope. The Lord is our hope and will offer help if we will turn to Him in humility and brokenness allowing Him to heal first our hearts and then our land. God’s own family – the church – needs to set the example in unity and wise reasoning, while visibly demonstrating how to work together so the world groping in darkness can see the power of love and truth in action. As my friend Rev. Samuel Rodriguez said, “Unless the agenda of the Lamb replaces the agenda of the donkey or the elephant, there will be no correction of our dangerous course.”
As I have repeatedly said for years now, the issue is not so much an election as it is a direction. Necessary correction for the United States of America continues and would regardless of who won Tuesday’s election. We must learn important lessons. The ever increasing pressure on a nation that has forsaken God in too many ways will intensify until in humility we fall on our knees before God or in humiliation are brought to our knees through crushing consequences, the result of forsaking God and sound biblical principles.
When expressing appreciation for the outcome of the election, President Obama rightly said that we must pull together as a family, caring for one another, and make necessary course corrections such as bringing excessive spending and debt under control. He emphasized the importance of learning how to effectively deal with our challenges and work across party lines. (This would in itself be a supernatural work.) Without a miracle of transformed thinking – the result of minds renewed by God’s love and truth – our direction will not change in a meaningful way. It requires changed people to change nations and rewrite history as only God can, through yielded believers and determined citizens.
President Obama also referenced the importance of reforming our tax code. In order to do this, people must experience renewed thinking because most Americans must be taught about the necessity and meaning of the fair tax. The President is right, however, concerning this need for reform. The economy will never be stabilized until we correct it and release the private sector to provide jobs and opportunity. Successful people must also begin expressing compassionate interest in the well-being of those who struggle, while everyone is taught the importance of assuming personal responsibility. Fatherlessness has led this present generation to erroneously seek to find a father in the federal government. There is only one Father who can give us the wisdom, guidance, and will to accomplish what is required.
I am still wondering if only a severe shaking and ultimate humiliation will be necessary before both the church and nation turn to God in genuine repentance. With God’s help and His grace, we must all be faithful witnesses and as ministers proclaim His word fearlessly and faithfully. We must continually offer hope and help to the downtrodden, overlooked, and often forgotten people here and around the world. We are commissioned by Christ to be salt and light, Spirit-filled witnesses, and makers of disciples among the nations.
Too many Americans have been trained to want someone other than God to care for them and consistently fail to truly love their neighbors as themselves. People are on the brink of trusting what the Old Testament prophets referred to as “the shadow of Egypt” (the ways of the world) and in another type of Pharaoh rather than in the shelter of the Almighty and as a result we are headed for bondage from which only God can deliver us. The Lord remains our hope.
What do we do now? We must continue to hold up the light of Christ, pray fervently, witness continually, and keep standing for the kingdom of God right here, right now.
Permit me to share a letter written with concern from Christian friends in Germany. Please consider it, pray earnestly, and perhaps pass my comments and the content of the following to others who care.

Our Dear America:

Today, Obama has been re‐elected; all the efforts of many Christian leaders, prayer movements, “prophets” and “concerned Americans” who have lobbied, written appeals, articles, books, letters ‐ some have even done films ‐ to warn not to vote for him have come to nothing. Many of them have behaved as if the future of the Kingdom of God is at stake. Well, it is not.

Can we, as foreigners who dearly love you as a people, say a few words into this situation? Because it is evident to us that God has a clear plan with your nation. But many don´t seem to see it, and therefore run the danger of fighting the wrong fight, wasting precious time and resources, and even endlessly call upon God to do what He just will not do.

The German weekly Der Spiegel, kind of a German Time Magazine, has a cover picture of Uncle Sam in bed, titled, “The American Patient: The Decline of a Great Nation.” We think this is a prophetic picture. As your friends, we know, acknowledge and admire that America has had a great past. But how will your future look like?

God chastises whom he loves because he knows: pride will come before the fall, and humbleness and brokenness is the only condition he responds to. We personally sense we need to tell you: the destiny of your nation is in God’s hands, not yours. It is not at all about Obama or Romney, it is about God using all the nations in the world according to his global and unchanging plans. Did you ever allow the thought that God in his sovereignty is using Obama like a pawn on his chessboard to humble the U.S. as a nation because he wants to show his grace to a nation gone completely self-sufficient?

A nation that is so full of independence, individualism, nationalism and trusting a greed and fear‐based economy that there may be only one way open to heal it from its idolatry and re‐align itself with the Kingdom of God: a crisis beyond anything that America has ever seen?

In 2008, God has been challenged by a man standing up in public, preaching to the cheers of a huge crowd: “Yes we can!” We watched it; we saw the tears of excitement in the eyes of the people; the statements were received as if coming from the Messiah himself, and the electoral rallies had all the flavor of a religious revival. "Yes, we can" is the exact opposite of the King of kings saying: "Without me, you can do nothing!"

If God is the one who "deposes kings and raises up others" (Dan 2:21), does it really matter what are the names of the current puppets set in place by God that advance both the New World Order and the Kingdom of God? Neither Herod, Pilate, nor Caesar were truly important for the development of the Kingdom. That is exactly why Kingdom people do not play in the Second League, but the First, the one that matters. The one that puts the Kingdom first, and everything else – including their own nation – second.

The problem of the current commotion and insecurities arises when even the people that call themselves after God keep confusing the Kingdom of God with the United States of America. And when that happens, especially through Christians with a public voice, then we have truly lost all perspective of the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the predictions he has made that will precede his coming.

America is being publicly humbled by God; and he is going to use Obama – and those after him ‐ to further advance his agenda that will lead all nations to kneel before that one true King Jesus very soon. If any nation wants to become a tower that reaches up to high heaven, it will be humbled by a God who will not share his glory with people relying on their own strength.

America, where do you go from here? What does this mean for you? The future is going to be very, very rough. Your securities will vanish, the economy will go down, the education system will become even worse, the streets more dangerous, the churches even more divided, the youth even more disillusioned – unless there is a true movement that abandons all those idols mentioned above, and radically repents, makes a radical alignment with the King of the Kingdom of God and his constitution, live the Law of Christ in all areas of life, first and foremost in the areas of sex, money, power and how we “do church”. This is a defining moment for you as a nation. You could go down, as the German journalist of Der Spiegel predicted. Or, America could be literally re‐invented by Kingdom people who are ready to implode the prevailing myths about America’s greatness, and replace it by God’s greatness. The King has even greater things purposed and would fulfill those purpose if those who call themselves after Jesus the King, would turn away from their self‐made religion, self‐made churches and religious factions, self‐made visions of success, and their self‐made, harmless God.

Can we lovingly but urgently call you back at this hour to begin and initiate a movement to reposition and repatriate yourselves into the eternal Kingdom, by submitting yourself not only in theory but also in practical deeds to Jesus the King, starting to obey the King and his liberating decrees in all the areas that count? You might even want to write a declaration of dependence on God and each other, because by idolizing anything else before and over God, you will become illegal aliens in the country that counts, where we all are called to have our home: the Kingdom, the one place where our true citizenship, nationality and allegiance lies (Phil 3:20). This is the only one country that will not be shaken, as it has an unchanging King.

If there is any way that we can help you in this great challenge and task – we want you to know we will.

Wolfgang and Mercy Simson

homeless

Philadelphia

This is a cumulation of the past few trips to Philadelphia as God's hands and feet.  We give God all the glory and are grateful to serve Him.
If your church or group is interested in starting a Survivor Bag Ministry in your town, go to
Love In A Bag for more information.  God bless you.

The Whipped Puppy
(excerpt from The God of All Creation by James Robison)

A friend of mine had a dog that had been beaten and abused as a puppy. Years later, as an adult dog, he still cowered in the corner when strangers walked in the room. If he did approach, it was always with his head down and tail between his legs.

“Is that dog ever going to get over it?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” his owner replied. “I’ve done nothing but take care of him and treat him well, but he still acts like he’s being whipped.”

A lot of people are like that. They suffer through some painful situation and spend the rest of their lives unhappy and afraid. Many of them have legitimate reasons: abuse, tragedy, loss or other horrible situations. Like the tempest that rocked the boat carrying Jesus’ disciples across the Sea of Galilee, they are understandably shaken by the terrible storm. But even when the rain and waves subside, they never reach the other side.

Paul told the church in Thessalonica that his friend and co-minister Timothy was sent “to strengthen you, to encourage you in your faith, and to keep you from being shaken by the troubles you were going through. But you know that we are destined for such troubles.” (1 Thessalonians 3:2-3)

Jesus warned us that trials and tribulation will come our way. “Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows,” he told his disciples. We will experience heartache, grief and perhaps great tragedy or abuse. But Jesus follows this warning with the powerful statement, “But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

James, the brother of Jesus, took our difficulties one step further. “When troubles come your way,” he wrote, “consider it an opportunity for great joy." (James 1:2)

Why would a good and loving God allow us to experience pain? And why would He expect us to have joy in the midst of suffering? I see three primary reasons:

First, we live in a fallen world and, therefore, suffer the consequences. Because sin is a part of our earthly existence, we feel the pain of mankind’s wrong attitudes and actions. We experience the valley of the shadow of death. Every day, we witness the results of sin around the world. People suffer, lives are destroyed and innocents die. Evil not only exists, but it does exactly what the Bible tells us the enemy came to do: kill, steal and destroy. The need for Jesus Christ should be obvious to us all. The “trials and sorrows” are clear, which magnifies our need for the One who has “overcome the world.” When our pets get sick, we understand the need for a doctor or veterinarian. When we see the suffering of this sinful world, we should likewise understand the need for a Savior, the Great Physician.

Second, the suffering can glorify God. Oftentimes, pain can help purify our hearts of the sin in our own lives. Ask anyone who has faced a terrible illness if their priorities in life have changed. Most will tell you that many of the things they once considered important fell by the wayside as the things that God considers important took on new significance. The specter of death can force even the most self-centered men to look heavenward. The suffering of a loved one can bring families closer. Unfortunately, it often takes a tragic or frightening situation to compel us to love, forgive or connect with others.
This is not to say that suffering is always the result of someone’s sin. When Jesus and His disciples came upon a blind man, one of them asked, “Why was this man born blind? Was it because of his own sins or his parents’ sins?” Jesus answered, “It was not because of his sins or his parents’ sins. This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” (John 9:1-3)

Jesus then healed the blind man and many lives were touched by the power of God. Certainly, the blind man had faced a lifetime of difficulties. But in the end, Jesus was glorified through that man’s suffering. Whether pain eradicates sin in our lives or simply allows God’s power to be shown, trials and tribulations can serve to bring glory to God. And that, in the end, is a good thing.

Finally, suffering can build Godly character. Acts 14:22 says that “we must suffer many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.” If God is a good God – and He is – then how can this be?

Through His prophet Isaiah, God told His chosen people, "I have refined you, but not as silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering. I will rescue you for my sake—yes, for my own sake!" (Isaiah 48:10-11a)

Refinement is a process that brings out the value in a precious metal by burning off the impurities. God’s promise to carry us through the fire is not a guarantee that we will be rescued from the fire, but rather the assurance that we will prevail in Him in the midst of the fire. We will overcome, but our clothes may smell like smoke! Remember, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were delivered in the fire, not from the fire. Perseverance, patience, grace, strength, faith and other Godly qualities can all come out of the most difficult trials of life, if we submit to His leadership and allow Him to refine our hearts and renew our minds.

Once we understand the potential positive role of suffering in our lives, as long as we are living and abiding in Jesus, the words of James “consider it an opportunity for great joy” begin to make sense. We experience the joy of trusting God and discover the peace that passes understanding. This knowledge allows us to move beyond the permanent status of “victim” and accept the role of “over comer.” We no longer have to cower in the corner or walk with our heads down. We can live as children of the Most High God, free to be who He created us to be and empowered to complete His mission here on earth.

God and America

Video Of Rev. Rodriquez delivering following message here.



The Lamb’s Agenda

By Rev. Samuel Rodriguez

There’s a fine line between the prophetic and the pathetic and in the midst of a pathetic reality we find a prophetic declaration uttered by the Apostle John pointing to the answer for a hopeless world. John 1:29, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, ‘Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!’” Later on that same John much older in age saw the revelation on the island of Patmos and declared Revelation 5:13, “And every creature in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea, and all that is in them, saying: ‘To Him who sits on the throne, And to the Lamb, be praise and honor and glory and power forever and ever!’”
Friends, we live in difficult times. These are times of great uncertainty, unrest, great consternation and flux. The obituary of American Christianity in the 21^st century already permeates both the church and society. Scholars and leaders from within and outside the church have arrived to the inevitable conclusion that Christianity will not survive the 21^st century in any viable or sustainable manner. I beg to differ. For even though housing markets may crumble, the stock market may plummet, banks are failing and institutions that serve chicken are being protested and boycotted, there is one institution that is still alive: THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS STILL ALIVE AND WELL!
For that matter, I believe the 21^st century stands poised to experience the greatest Christian transformative movement in our history. This movement will affirm biblical orthodoxy. It will reform the culture. It will transform our political discourse and usher in a new awakening. I am convinced that God is not done with America and America is not done with God! For at the end of the day this will not be a political movement driven by expediency and agendas of man, but a prophetic movement driven by the impetus of the cross. What is the agenda of this new movement? It is not the agenda of the donkey or the elephant. This nation will be saved exclusively via the agenda of the Lamb. BEHOLD THE LAMB!
The agenda of the Lamb is Spirit-driven. Forget Harry Potter and Hogwarts. There are very, very real spirits in the world today. Via biblical illusions and biblical metaphorical applications the spirit of Pharaoh is still alive holding people in the Egypt of bondage and fear. The spirit of Goliath still lives mocking and intimidating the children of God. The spirit of Jezebel still makes men and women hide in caves with sexual perversion and manipulation. The spirit of Absalom is dividing homes, churches, relationships, while the spirit of Herod is killing the young through abortion, poverty, sex trafficking, and murder. Through dreams and visions, I have news for you today and for this nation: there is still a Spirit more powerful than all of these spirits combined. As a matter of fact, we are here today to declare not only to Dallas, Texas but to all of America that the most powerful Spirit today in our nation is not the spirit of Pharaoh, the spirit of Saul, Absalom, Goliath, Jezebel or Herod. The most powerful Spirit still is the Holy Spirit of Almighty God. He is still moving in this nation! He is still moving on this land! He’s still moving across the land from California to New York. The Spirit of God is still moving across the land. “It is not by might, nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord!”
So to every narrative and spirit that facilitates the platform of moral relativism, of spiritual apathy, of cultural decadence and ecclesiastical lukewarmness, we say the following: For every Pharaoh there must be a Moses. For every Goliath there must be a David. For every Nebuchadnezzar there must be a Daniel. For every Jezebel there must be an Elijah. For every Herod there must be a Jesus. And for every devil that rises up against us there is a mightier God who will rise up for us.
BEHOLD THE LAMB!
The Lamb’s agenda activates a Kingdom culture firewall of righteousness and justice. In other words, to order to defend life and protect liberty and facilitate the platform by which all Americans can pursue happiness, we must apply biblical optics and apply corrective lenses to spiritual and cultural myopia. In other words, when I wake up in the morning, I don’t see a Hispanic, black, white, or Asian, charismatic or automatic. I am first and foremost a child of the living God! I am a born again Christian! I am a Child of God! I am a follower of Jesus. I am a Christian – first and foremost! I am a believer and my vertical identity empowers my horizontal reality. And when we vote we must vote our vertical reality. We can’t be pro-life on Sunday and vote for abortion on Tuesday.
Revelation 12:11 says, “And they overcame and they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and their testimony, and they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die.” There were some “propheliars” who once declared we wouldn’t even be here right now. Vladimir Lenin in 1917 in St. Petersburg Square declared that by the 21^st century the whole world would be communist and there wouldn’t be a Christian alive. In 1939 in Nuremberg, Germany Adolf Hitler declared that the Third Reich would outlast the church of Jesus Christ. In the 1960’s the Beatles said that by the 21^st century they would receive more adoration than the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost combined. Well, guess what? We’re in 2012. Lenin is dead. Hitler is gone, the Beatles are gone, but the church of Jesus is still alive and well!

This message was delivered at the “Under God, Indivisible” conference on July 27, 2012.

---

This Sunday, October 7, is Pulpit Freedom Sunday. It is a time for pastors and priests to stand up and boldly proclaim the absolute importance of timeless, unshakable, biblical principles. Political discussions must never negate our responsibility to proclaim the undeniable truth and relevance of God’s Holy Word. Your entire congregation would be mightily blessed if there is a way you could play on a large screen the two messages delivered back to back by Dr. Tony Evans, Pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship, followed by the message you just read by Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. You will hear from truly anointed African-American and Hispanic leaders. All of America needs to hear the messages delivered by these men of God.
-James

The Dance

Just finished The Reason for God by Timothy Keller and I must say, it's an outstanding read!  So much useful information that I ended up hi-lighting most of the book.  While there were a lot of facts and information to use when witnessing to nonbelievers, I think the chapter that I loved the most was the one called The Dance of God.  It described the Trinity and their relationship in such a beautiful way it brought tears to my eyes.  And while I would love to include the entire chapter here, time does not permit, so I will give you some excerpts and hope it pulls at your heart the way it did mine.

The doctrine of the Trinity is that God is one being who exists eternally in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  The Trinity means that God is, in essence, relational.


The life of the Trinity is characterized not by self-centeredness but by mutually self-giving love.


Each of the divine persons centers upon the others.  None demands that the others revolve around him.  Each voluntarily circles the other two, pouring love, delight, and adoration into them.  Each person of the Trinity loves, adores, defers to, and rejoices in the others.  That creates a dynamic, pulsating dance of joy and love.  The early leaders of the Greek church had a word for this - perichoresis.  Notice our word "choreography" within it.  It means literally to "dance or flow around." 

      The Father... Son ... and Holy Spirit glorify each other ...
      At the center of the universe, self-giving love is the dynamic currency of the      
      Trinitarian life of God.  The persons within God exalt, commune with, and defer to
      one another...
      When early Greek Christians spoke of perichoresis in God, they meant that each 
      divine person harbors the others at the center of his being.  In constant
      movement of overture and acceptance each person envelops and encircles the
      others.
      Cornelius Plantinga

      In Christianity God is not an impersonal thing nor a static thing - not even just
      one person - but a dynamic pulsating activity, a life, a kind of drama, almost, if
      you will not think me irreverent, a kind of dance ....  The pattern of this three-
      personal life is ...the great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very
      center of reality.
      C.S. Lewis

God does ask us to obey him unconditionally, to glorify, praise, and center our lives around him.  I hope you finally see why he does that.  He wants our joy!  He has infinite happiness not through self-centeredness, but through self-giving, other-centered love.  And the only way we, who have been created in his image, can have this same joy, is if we center our entire lives around him instead of ourselves.


We share his joy first as we give him glory (worshipping and serving him rather than ourselves); second, as we honor and serve the dignity of other human beings made in the image of God's glory; and third, as we cherish his derivative glory in the world of nature, which also reflects it.  We glorify and enjoy him only as we worship him, serve the human community, and care for the created environment.


The story of the gospel makes sense of our indelible religiousness, so Christians do evangelism, pointing the way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God through Jesus.  The gospel makes sense of our profoundly relational character, so Christians work sacrificially to strengthen human communities around them as well as the Christian community, the church.  The gospel story also makes sense of our delight in the presence of beauty, so Christians become stewards of the material world, from those who cultivate the natural creation through science and gardening to those who give themselves to artistic endeavors, all knowing why these things are necessary for human flourishing.

Christians, then are the true "revolutionaries" who work for justice and truth, and we labor in expectation of a perfect world in which:

                He will wipe every tear from their eye.  There will be no more death
              or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things is passed
              away.  Revelation 21:4

And when we get there, we will say, "I've come home at last! This is my real country!  I belong here.  This is the land I've been looking for all my life, though I never knew it!" And it will by no means be the end of our story.  In fact, as C.S. Lewis put it, all the adventures we have ever had will end up being only "the cover and the title page."  Finally we will be begin "Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read; which goes on forever, in which every chapter is better than the one before."



   

Should Christians Boycott Boycotting?

We as Christians are supposed to be different from the rest of the world. How we operate should be a reflection of that. Others should be able to observe us and note there is a difference. Not because we are perfect, holier than everyone else or morally superior. But because we love when it's not normal to love. When the rest of the world hates, we love. When the rest of the world rejects, we accept. When the rest of the world condemns, we embrace.

The following article on boycotting is interesting because it first defines what boycotting really is. Choosing not to spend our money somewhere or on some product is not a boycott. By doing that we are simply making a decision based on our convictions. Joining others to try and coerce an outcome is what constitutes a boycott. Are Christians doing something biblical when we engage in a boycott? Is this what Jesus taught us to do? And what about our faith in God? Are we forgetting He is sovereign?

Should Christians Boycott Boycotting?

by Joe Carter

In 1873, a retired British Army captain became the agent for the 3rd Earl of Erne's estates in County Mayo. It didn't take long for the old soldier to find that he had taken the wrong job at the wrong time. Local tenant farmers, enraged at the high rents being charged by their English landlords, had begun to organize into a group called the Land League, and the movement was spreading across the Emerald Isle.
When the captain refused to reduce rents after a poor harvest season, the Land League began applying an unconventional tactic. Local residents refused to sell him supplies, tend his fields, or even to speak to him in passing. The landlord was reduced to depending on his wife and daughters to pick the crops while being protected by local constables. Eventually, he gave in and fled Ireland altogether.
The tactic was so effective that newspapers in Britain and America were referring to it by the landlord's name: Charles Cunnigham Boycott.
More than 130 years later, boycotts have become a staple of nonviolent resistance and economic suasion. Christian groups, in particular, appear to have an affinity for the measure, often using it to apply pressure to wayward corporations. In recent years, conservative Catholics and Protestants have punished Disney for various sundry offenses. More recently, liberals activists have targeted the Komen foundation for defunding Planned Parenthood, while conservative activists objected to J.C. Penny because the company hired a homosexual woman, Ellen DeGeneres, as its spokeswoman.

Who Would Isaiah Boycott?

When deciding whether to use the tactic of boycotting, we tend to fall back on the pragmatic question, "Will it be effective?" Rarely do we weigh the more pertinent consideration: Should Christians even engage in boycotts? And, if so, when can they be legitimately used?
For many Christians in America, to even ask such questions is absurd. Because of their association with the era of civil rights and other laudable movements of the 1960s, boycotts tend to have an air of romance. But while the causes were just, Christians must always be mindful that nonviolence, like just war, can only be considered a necessary evil. As political philosopher Glenn Tinder has explained, the concept of nonviolent resistance never would have occurred to any of the ancient Hebrew prophets. It is worth remembering that while Martin Luther King Jr. was a Christian, he learned his principle techniques from the Hindu leader Gandhi rather than from the founder of his own religion.
The tactic affirmed by Jesus, as Tinder correctly notes, was nonresistance, a way of refusing all power, and completely different from nonviolent resistance, which is always stained by the moral impurities inherent in the use of power. Nonviolent resistance also rests on the assumption that human evil is not so deeply ingrained that it cannot be overcome by a display of profound moral courage. The way of nonviolence requires only strength, fortitude, and a naive view of humanity. By contrast, the way of Jesus requires a willingness to be weak, reliance on his redeeming power, and a realistic eschatological hope.
Yet in our fallen world, uses of power---both violent and nonviolent---can sometimes be legitimate and necessary. If boycotts have any lawful role, it would be as part of a greater nonviolent resistance against a government or other institution that has a coercive control over a people. The boycott of public busing in Montgomery during the 1960s is a prime example.
Using such a tactic on a corporation trivializes whatever legitimacy the tactic may have. While Disney and J. C. Penny may be in the wrong, they are not committing evils that justify the use of coercion for their correction. Nonviolent resistance should be weighed carefully, especially in situations when violent resistance would be considered an absurd option. Unless we think that Mickey Mouse and Ellen are legitimate combatants, we should carefully consider why we believe it is necessary to use such a drastic coercive measure.

Rebuke, Don't Boycott

The righteousness of a cause cannot be imputed to the tactics. Even when we have legitimate concerns about a corporation's activities, boycotts are almost always an improper abuse of power. Rather than being a loving rebuke, boycotts become a form of moral extortion. By cutting off economic ties with a corporation or business, the boycotters are using coercion to force people to do something they would not willingly do on their own. While Christians may have legitimate reasons for not using a certain product or associating with a particular business, banding together to cut off commerce to an otherwise licit venture has no obvious biblical warrant.
To clarify, the term boycott here refers to the act of refusing to use, buy, or deal with a business as an expression of protest or as a means of economic coercion. The concern, for Christians, should be with the coercion part. Simply refusing to participate in an economic transaction with an individual or company is not a boycott. Our choosing not to spend money on lottery tickets is a values-based economic decision, but it is not a form of coercion. As Alan Noble recently said, "Whether it is through votes or dollars, coercing someone to accept our position is nihilistic: it suggests that real change---change of heart and mind---is impossible, or unlikely, and so the safest bet is to make it profitable to adopt our beliefs."
Forcing someone to adopt our beliefs---whether by violence or economic threat---is a questionable use of our economic power. "Nonviolent resistance," Tinder writes in his book Political Thinking, "is a way of using power and is thoroughly political." Tinder's claim brings to mind the claim of the brilliant Prussian strategist Carl von Clausewitz: "War is nothing but a continuation of politics with the admixture of other means." Nonviolent resistance may sometimes be a legitimate political act. But by mixing in the coercive tactic of boycotts we may be turning away from righteousness toward an unjust form of economic warfare.

Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition and the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator.

Is The Church Headed in the Right Direction?

We can look through history and see times when the Church veered off course, took a wrong turn, lost it's direction.  Obviously there are the biggies - the Crusades, Nazi Germany, the settling of the U.S.  But just as important are the times we often overlook - such as the secularizing of Europe. Given the opportunity to learn and grow from past mistakes, Christianity fails to do so, just as the Jews of the Old Testament repeated their mistakes over and over. 

Our mistakes can often be grouped into two categories:  forcefulness and apathy.  It seems through history we have either committed the crime of trying to force our beliefs on those not interested OR we have become apathetic about those around us, letting society decay.  Of course one can lead to another - our apathy lets society decay and then we turn around and become forceful within that same society.  I believe that is where we are heading today in this country.

Let's consider what Jesus said on this subject:
  "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under peoples feet.
    You are the light of the world.  A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.  Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.  In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."  Matt 5:13-16

We are to be the preservative and the flavoring in our society.  And we are to be the light - the example - to those around us.  Good works are not enough in themselves, but it's the glory we give to God that makes the difference.  Salt and light.  While Christians agree we are to be the salt and the light, it's the implementation we struggle and disagree about.

First, lets note the last part of Jesus' statement - "so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."   That tells us a lot right there.  Being the salt and the light is how WE live OUR lives, not how nonbelievers live theirs.  No where does Jesus suggest we are to force our beliefs on others.  But by living as followers of Jesus, we will be like beacons on a hill - shining the way for others to follow. 

Let's look at another scripture quoting Jesus:
Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again:  Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.  Mark 9:50

Note Jesus is telling us to have salt in ourselves - meaning we are the salt, not the laws we pass or our government.  He was not telling his disciples to make sure Rome was the salt.  We are the preservative and flavoring for the society we live in.  How we conduct ourselves and our relationship with our Savior helps to promote either growth or decay in the Kingdom, depending on the path we choose.  He also tells us to be at peace with one another.  How does it look to the rest of society when Christians are bickering and fighting among themselves?  It certainly doesn't foster the desire to follow in our footsteps.  We should strive to be at peace with ourselves and others..

So, should we, as Christians, participate in boycotts and petitions?  Should we write books and blogs that slam nonbelievers and their lifestyle?  Should we have organizations that single out individuals for ridicule?  And if we do, what will the end result be?  Do we believe we are bringing more people into the Kingdom using this technique?  Holding up signs calling a woman who has aborted her baby a murderer is hardly being at peace or serving her the way Jesus came to serve.  Singling out Ellen DeGeneres as a homosexual who has no business being a spokesperson for JC Penny only fuels the fire of resentment and anger among nonbelievers.  Did Jesus not save the woman from being stoned by the Pharisees and scribes?  (John 8:11)  Have we become more like those Pharisees?

When we try to force society to live under the ways of Christianity, are we, in effect, telling nonbelievers they must "earn" their way to heaven?  That they must live a certain way in order to be worthy of eternity with our God?  And are we not hypocrites when we say this, as we ourselves cannot and do not live this way.  The result ends up being more of a divide between "us and them."  They call us hypocrites - and rightly so -  they are angry because we are so forceful - and ultimately we drive them away from the Kingdom instead of bringing them to it. 

God's grace does not come to people who morally out-perform others, but to those who admit their failure to perform and who acknowledge a need for a Savior.   Timothy Keller, The Reason for God.

For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical.  But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.  His praise is not from man but from God.  Romans 2:25-29

The Holy Spirit changes people's lives. He gives them the power to live in the right manner (according to God's will and purpose for them). The law cannot do this. Yes, we need laws to maintain a civil society, but a society full of Christians should be our goal. Non-believers have been blessed with common grace (Matt 5:45) that includes a consciousness of right and wrong (Rom 2:15) which should promote law and order on its own. However this is not the way to eternal life with the Lord. Saving grace, which comes to us when we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, is the only way to heaven. Should we find ourselves in a monarchy or a dictatorship tomorrow in this country, our goal as Christians will not have changed. We would lose the ability to strive for our goal openly, but I believe we would probably be more earnest in our efforts.

In closing I challenge Christians to be more concerned with the saltiness of their own lives instead of the nonbelievers' or society's.  The loss of saltiness occurs in the failure of the Christian to daily take up the cross and follow Christ wholeheartedly.  By being a light, we help to lead those in the darkness into God's Kingdom.  Only by staying focused on Christ and being obedient to Him can we expect to remain that salt and light in the world.

Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person. 
Col 4:5-6

By Max Lucado

Jesus' Burial

When Pilate learned that Jesus was dead, he asked the soldiers if they were certain. They were. Had they seen the Nazarene twitch, had they heard even one moan, they would have broken his legs to speed his end. But there was no need. The thrust of a spear removed all doubt. The Romans knew their job. And their job was finished. They pried loose the nails, lowered his body, and gave it to Joseph and Nicodemus.

Joseph of Arimathea. Nicodemus the Pharisee. They sat in seats of power and bore positions of influence. Men of means and men of clout. But they would’ve traded it all for one breath out of the body of Jesus. He had answered the prayer of their hearts, the prayer for the Messiah. As much as the soldiers wanted him dead, even more these men wanted him alive.

As they sponged the blood from his beard, don’t you know they listened for his breath? As they wrapped the cloth around his hands, don’t you know they hoped for a pulse? Don’t you know they searched for life?

But they didn’t find it.

So they do with him what they were expected to do with a dead man. They wrap his body in clean linen and place it in a tomb. Joseph’s tomb. Roman guards are stationed to guard the corpse. And a Roman seal is set on the rock of the tomb. For three days, no one gets close to the grave.

But then, Sunday arrives. And with Sunday comes light—a light within the tomb. A bright light? A soft light? Flashing? Hovering? We don’t know. But there was a light. For he is the light. And with the light came life. Just as the darkness was banished, now the decay is reversed. Heaven blows and Jesus breathes. His chest expands. Waxy lips open. Wooden fingers lift. Heart valves swish and hinged joints bend.

And, as we envision the moment, we stand in awe.

We stand in awe not just because of what we see, but because of what we know… We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us” (Rom. 6:5–9 MSG).



From From When Christ Comes: The Beginning of the Very Best
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1999) Max Lucado

Cleansing of the Temple

The following is from an Easter Devotional put together by Covenant Fellowship.............

It often doesn't take long for heartfelt devotion and passion for God, to drift toward simply going through the motions.  Left unchecked, it can lead to hypocrisy - living your life with the appearance of devotion and love toward God that is not really there.  That's what happened to the Jewish people in New Testament times and the fig tree was a perfect illustration of this.  Jesus approached a fig tree with big, shiny leaves but no fruit.  On the outside the tree looked well, but it wasn't doing what it was created to do - produce fruit! So the Lord cursed the fruitless tree.  When Jesus approached the beautiful marble walls and gleaming gold pillar capitals of the temple with throngs of worshippers gathered around, all looked well - on the outside.  But the Jews received his strongest rebuke.  Jesus cursed the blatant hypocrisy and greed by turning over the tables and condemning their selfish practices.  The temple court was meant to be a place of prayer and worship for the Gentiles.  It was a place where men and women outside of Israel could seek God.  But it had become a den of robbers that hindered the Gentiles from praying and seeking God.  The same can be true today.  When we claim to have faith in Christ, but don't live lives transformed by his love and grace, we may hinder men and women from clearly hearing and responding to the gospel.  Unbelievers can see right through an outward "show" of religion.  Jesus wants us to know that how we live matters.  It matters that we pursue purity and obey God's Word.  It matters that we pray and seek God with sincere hearts.  Jesus died to free us from the trap of hypocrisy and to give us His Spirit, who purifies us and empowers us to live lives in line with the truths of the gospel.

Pray that God would help us to live pure lives that are dedicated to the glory of God, obedient to the Word of God and committed to prayer.

Tozer

  Nothing can take the place of the touch of God in the soul and the sense of Someone there.  Real faith, indeed, brings such realization, for real faith is never the operation of reason upon texts. Where true faith is, the knowledge of God will be given as a fact of consciousness altogether apart from the conclusions of logic.

Prayer from Iran

Max Lucado's

Jesus Washes the Disciples Feet

It has been a long day. Jerusalem is packed with Passover guests, most of whom clamor for a glimpse of the Teacher. The spring sun is warm. The streets are dry. And the disciples are a long way from home. A splash of cool water would be refreshing.

The disciples enter [the room], one by one, and take their places around the table. On the wall hangs a towel, and on the floor sits a pitcher and a basin. Any one of the disciples could volunteer for the job, but not one does.

After a few moments, Jesus stands and removes his outer garment. He wraps a servant’s girdle around his waist, takes up the basin, and kneels before one of the disciples. He unlaces a sandal and gently lifts the foot and places it in the basin, covers it with water, and begins to bathe it. One by one, one grimy foot after another, Jesus works his way down the row.

In Jesus’ day the washing of feet was a task reserved not just for servants but for the lowest of servants…The servant at the bottom of the totem pole was expected to be the one on his knees with the towel and basin.

In this case the one with the towel and basin is the king of the universe. Hands that shaped the stars now wash away filth. Fingers that formed mountains now massage toes. And the one before whom all nations will one day kneel now kneels before his disciples. Hours before his own death, Jesus’ concern is singular. He wants his disciples to know how much he loves them...

You can be sure Jesus knows the future of these feet he is washing. These twenty-four feet will not spend the next day following their master, defending his cause. These feet will dash for cover at the flash of a Roman sword. Only one pair of feet won’t abandon him in the garden. One disciple won’t desert him at Gethsemane—Judas won’t even make it that far! He will abandon Jesus that very night at the table…

What a passionate moment when Jesus silently lifts the feet of his betrayer and washes them in the basin!

Jesus knows what these men are about to do. He knows they are about to perform the vilest act of their lives. By morning they will bury their heads in shame and look down at their feet in disgust. And when they do, he wants them to remember how his knees knelt before them and he washed their feet…

He forgave their sin before they even committed it. He offered mercy before they even sought it.

Ten Signs of a Culture's End

There are ten signs that depict the end of a culture. Great civilizations of the past were destroyed when people saw these signs but failed to act. Each of these indicators is with us today.

The first sign of the end of a culture is that of a society which no longer worships or acknowledges God.
Christianity had played a significant role in the discovery and settlement of America. It had provided a standard in judging education, legislation, and behavior-both public and private. In the 1990s, it has actually become unpopular to advocate traditional Judeo-Christian values, such as the Ten Commandments. Thanks to Political Correctness, the popular culture ridicules those who worship God as the sovereign creator. Instead, it is popular to put our faith and trust in ourselves or in other creations of God.

A second indicator of the end of a culture is the decline of the family.
Just 40 years ago families usually lived close to grandparents. Fathers were responsible for the welfare of the family. Moms generally stayed home. It was safe to walk to school or go to the movies unattended. Today, statistics show divorce is at an all time high in the United States. It is now so common for young people to grow up in divorced households that the term "broken family" is now a forgotten expression in the popular culture. Fathers are living apart from their natural children. Mothers no longer stay at home, but work as a head of the household. As a result, women in our society have lost their feminine identity. As worship has declined, the spiritual values communicated by mothers have all but ended with a generation. The moral authority of fathers is undermined by a society that no longer embraces the structure of the family.

A third important indicator of cultural demise is a society's low view of life.
Today, the popular culture now views abortion as a "right." The failure of our government to outlaw partial birth abortion for such a long time demonstrated how intolerant of life the culture has become. Steadily, society's undermining of life has grown to include calls for legalizing euthanasia, assisted suicide, and scientific experimentation. But history warns no society can last without a high view of life.

Another sign of the end of the civilization is the prevalence of base and immoral entertainment.
In its last days, Rome had become a society with an insatiable appetite for debauchery and immorality. Perverted entertainment translated into perverted speech and behavior. The Roman society began to accept and encourage open homosexuality. The people turned away from God and forgot his commandments and precepts, and Rome crumbled. And today, our culture has begun to embrace the same kind of entertainment. In music, a song eulogizing a murdered rap star has held the top spot on the charts for two months. Many of our movies now feature heroes who triumph by copying the vises of the villains. Television has scuttled its family hour for more dramas and sitcoms that treat perversion as normal behavior. Wholesome entertainment is becoming a forgotten relic.

Still another troublesome indicator of society's demise is the increase of violent crime among young people.
Riddled with gang violence, many of our inner cities have become powder kegs portending future collapse. Today, young people think about death and dying more than any other subject. In fact, surveys indicate they think about death even more than they think about the opposite sex. There's a popular new sport called extreme fighting, in which combatants injure one another like the gladiators of Rome. The demise of the traditional family and absence of religion have combined to create a culture of children who are morally retarded. In the wake of this, our Politically Correct society offers young people no consistent arguments against violence.

Another key cultural indicator is the declining middle class.
Politicians have discovered one of the keys to reelection is to advocate more spending and government programs for the poor. The traditional middle class is now defined as rich. The work of the federal government has become the business of redistributing wealth through taxation and new government programs. After years of bureaucratic growth over the last fifty years, the United States has witnessed shrinking numbers of middle class wage earners, many of whom have become the working poor. The family structure has disintegrated over the last twenty-five years in part because of the economic pressure for women to join the workforce. This has lead to the increased polarization of the working class and the wealthy. Russia witnessed just such a polarization before a revolution ushered in the communist era.

Yet another sign of cultural demise is that of an insolvent Government.
The French Revolution occurred against the backdrop of a bankrupt government. Today, our government has not managed a balanced budget in nearly thirty years. Beneath the annual budget lies a debt of unmanageable proportions. History warns that a government rendered insolvent cannot quell its disenchanted masses.

Related to this, a government that lives off of society's moral decay is another sign of the end of a civilization.
The Roman civilization crumbled under the weight of an immoral and corrupt government. Over the years, our government has devised the creation of whole agencies that exist for no other reason than to manage some of the most immoral aspects of the culture. The National Endowment for the Arts and the Legal Services Corporation are examples of agencies that foster society's decline. Within the judicial branch of government, judges accountable to no one have helped undermine the religious freedoms that were once the centerpiece of our society. Laws once protected children and families. Criminals were punished severely for rape. People were arrested for cohabitation and adultery. Sodomy, outlawed in every state, was listed in the newspaper as a "crime against nature." A couple having a child out of wedlock was ostracized, and homosexuality was as foreign to the world as walking on the moon.

One obvious indicator that a culture is in decline is when the ruling class loses its will.
Our nation's leaders no longer see the world according to right and wrong. Instead, the objective of today's foreign policy Establishment is to maintain the status quo. In like manner, our elected leaders have lost their moral authority. Elected officials no longer seek office for the good of the country but instead seek reelection to further lucrative careers within the Washington Establishment. Also, our nation's defense Establishment has traded military readiness for social experimentation with a feminized military.

The final indicator of the demise of a civilization is the failure of its people to see what is happening.
In nearly every case, citizens of past civilizations which ended witnessed all of the signs of demise but failed to act. Today, the popular culture has helped society forget the lessons of history. In school, teachers used to teach the basics; children received report cards that actually reflected what they had achieved. In 1973, the NEA president said, "The day of basic skills is over . . . we will be the conveyor of national values" Today schools teach self-esteem and is a major tool used to indoctrinate our children. It's not uncommon in science class for children to be taught that humans evolved from a lower lifeform and that trees have the same right to life as humans. Children learn that it is okay to have two mommies and no daddy. Kids today are adept at using a calculator, but have no concept of multiplication or division. They cannot make change but score high in self-esteem.

All of the signs of the demise of our culture are with us today: the hostility toward religion, the breakup of the family, the declining view of life, the appetite immorality, the violence and crime, and the declining middle class are coupled with an federal government on the brink of insolvency, whose leaders are living off of society's moral decay leading to the loss of leadership and moral will. The education system has robbed our of a classic education; seduced them through deceit and outright lies; the court system has given us "rights" we never owned; the criminal justice system does not provide justice for those who are mistreated; legislators have legalized immoral behavior; and our national leaders have set an example of immorality.

In the days of Noah, God warned a faithless, immoral and violent civilization of the imminent catastrophe that was about to take place, but few listened. Tonight, our civilization is at the crossroads, but few are noticing the signs that are before us. It is time to take notice, and to pray for spiritual awakening in this country, before the light of our civilization goes out.

Prayer for March 5

O God, Because I acknowledge that I can only live with discipline, you give me that discipline; such knowledge is a great mercy.  Thus I ask you most humbly: Cleanse my heart and make it holy through repentance and faith, through the Holy Spirit and through rebirth.  Strengthen me, so I do not let any impure spirit control or possess me.  Amen.

Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you.  James 4:8

The Center of Your World

Narcissistic Personality Disorder may soon be dropped from the current Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  Why?  Essentially because it's now considered just a manifestation of normal personality.   But here is the problem - dropping it from the manual is essentially throwing in the towel and waving a white flag where self-centeredness exists.  It will basically be telling our culture it's OKAY to be a narcissist, just not an extreme one - well, not for now anyway. 

We have become such a society of me, me, me.  The minute our feet hit the floor in the morning it's  - "how do I feel?"  "I need a cup of coffee."  "What do I feel like doing today?"  "Which outfit should I wear?"  And it only gets worse as the day wears on. "I'm hungry, I'm thirsty, I'm tired, I'm bored, I'm lonely, I'm rich, I'm poor, I'm fat, I'm thin, I'm just right, I'm smart, I'm dumb," etc.  It's not necessarily what we are, it's that we're constantly thinking of ourselves in every thought throughout the day.

Now one would think that a culture filled with people looking for self-gratification would be brimming with lots of self-fulfilled, satisfied people. But they couldn't be more wrong. Our culture is actually brimming with divorce, drug use, spousal abuse, child abuse, alchoholism, crime, suicide, etc.  There is just one problem with the theory that self-gratification leads to self-fulfillment.  Self.  We cannot look to ourselves for any kind of gratification or fulfilment.  It's impossible.  Our fulfillment comes from the One who created us and gave us our purpose to begin with - God.  And He created us to bring Him glory.  So how could we be fulfillers of our own desires?  Wouldn't we then be giving ourselves the glory?   But we weren't created for that purpose.  And when we don't fulfill our purpose we end up with a society full of miserable, misguided people looking for happiness in all the wrong places.

Then there are those who believe that helping others will bring them happiness. After all, they've taken the focus off of themselves and placed it on others.  Or have they?  We look to their motivation and often find they are patting themselves on the back for a job well done - whether publicly or privately. And the happiness is fleeting.

Our goal is not to do good on this Earth. Our goal is to do God's will and then give Him the glory. And by doing that we no longer puff ourselves up thinking we are "good" when in fact, we are fallen.   When we are in the center of God's will, we have a sense of peace and joy.  We can know that we are fulfilling our purpose on this Earth by bringing Him glory. It means we have truly taken the focus off of ourselves and placed it on God, who will then guide us to those He wants us to serve. 

We don't need to "know ourselves" - at least not the way all the self-help books and programs tell us we should.  By listening to them we only continue to put ourselves in the center of our world.  Jesus is the one we truly need to know and place in the center of our lives.  He will then help us to know his Father.  And it is He who knows us better than we could ever know ourselves.  God created us to bring Him glory and with a purpose in mind.  He will guide us to accomplish that purpose if we allow Him.

Prayer for February 20

O Lord, Heavenly Father, from whom all good and perfect gifts come. O Father of light, who causes us both to desire and to do your good pleasure; O Lord Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of faith; O Holy Spirit, who works in all things according to your plan: We ask you to continue the good work that you began in us, until the coming of Jesus Christ.  May we become richer in all kinds of knowledge and experience so we may learn what is best.  May we remain pure and blameless.  May we be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which were produced in us by Jesus Christ, for the glory of God.  Amen.

Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 1:6

Our Constitution

In 1857 the Supreme Court ruled on the case of a Missouri slave named Dred Scott.  Scott's master had taken him into the free state of Illinois.  Because of the Missouri Compromise and a law passed by Congress, residents in free states could demand their freedom.  So Scott sued for his freedom.

Scott's owner, John Sandford, challenged the constitutionality of the Missouri Compromise, arguing that slaves were private property protected by the Constitution against deprivation without due process of law.  Therefore Congress lacked the constitutional authority to ban slaver in Illinois or anywhere else.

The Supreme Court ruled in Sandford's favor.  Scott was sent back into slavery.  And then the Court ruled that Congress lacked authority to forbid or abolish slavery in federal territories.

When Lincoln became president, he was so outraged by this verdict that he ignored and openly defied the ruling.  His administration treated free blacks as citizens, issuing them passports and other legal documents - something that was unheard of.  Then he signed legislation restricting slavery in the western territories.

The point he was making was certainly one about humanity and God given rights, but Lincoln was also demonstrating the beauty of a system put in place by a group of men who knew about the power grabbing nature of mankind.  These men knew the courts were just as susceptible to the corruption of fallen man as the other two branches of government.

Today we seem to have forgotten that the three branches of government are equal in power to each other.  There is no one branch that has more authority.  And yet the courts seem to believe they have the final word on all matters that lie before them.  Not so.  We need to support the brave men and women who are courageous enough to stand up to the courts. We need to elect more politicians who know the Constitution and are willing to defend it.  If we fail to do so, we can expect things like gay marriage and abortion to be forced upon us - and only ourselves to blame.

LOVE

Since we are approaching Valentine's Day, I thought an article on LOVE would be appropriate! 

Loving Our Enemies the Way God Loves His

Scott Armstrong, Issue Number 9, June 2006

The king of cutthroat, Donald Trump, superintends—no, he rules—a TV show called The Apprentice, a reality television program where young professionals vie to be the last one standing, the grand prize a position in Trump’s company. If you’ve seen the program (or any of many reality shows like it—Survivor, The Bachelor, etc.), you know that when faced with elimination, the competitors can be vicious, each one hoping to persuade “The Don” that the others are weaker and undeserving. In turn, their victims wait to mete out revenge. It is a dog-eat-dog, survival-of-the-fittest world.

We live in a kingdom of this world that, at its core, trades on retribution and revenge. Like the Middle East past, present (and undoubtedly future), the “eye for an eye” culture is full of enemies to be pilloried and hated. And though many people want peace, the cost of giving up the right to exact judgment or collect on debts is too great. Proud and wounded hearts simply do not understand how great their own debts of darkness are. Loving an enemy makes no sense in a non-Christian worldview. Enemies are enemies and they deserve judgment for their sins against us, and since there is no implicit trust in a God who will carry out justice, it is up to us to impose it, and to keep the score even.

The Extent of Radical Love

So it is no wonder that Jesus’ audience was incredulous about His teachings on relations with the enemy. In Matthew 5:43-48, as part of His Sermon on the Mount discourse, Jesus says that, contrary to the popular belief of the time—hate your enemies—they should love them instead. In verse 44, he describes one way that we can do that: Pray for them. Luke 6:27-36, a parallel passage, goes further: Don’t just pray; bless them. Give them things they don’t deserve, and generally do good to them. Loving an enemy is not simply a thought in the mind, but an action of the heart that involves godly movement toward an enemy. Jesus is no-holds-barred here, and doesn’t hold back the radical extent of love. No wonder he made so many enemies.

 

Why does Jesus say such radical and unpopular things? “Because, as Bono and B.B. King have both said, “Love came to town.” And it was coming to all sorts of people, including the traditional enemies of the Jews. In the Matthew passage, Jesus tells them to consider the love of the Father, who has mercy on the unrighteous by sending them the life-giving rays of the sun and water for their basic needs. He wants them to see His love for the enemy.

He then challenges His own people. He reminds them that the hated tax collectors are capable of basic love toward those they worked with, and that run-of-the-mill sinners were capable of simple love for fellow sinners. Are they then not much more responsible to love others radically? God’s people, after all, know His abundant and lavish mercy (Luke 6:36).

And what, according to Scripture, might happen if our enemies are loved radically and unexpectedly? They will either have their evil intent and shame exposed (Proverbs 25:22) or they will be become friends (Romans 5:10). When evil encounters love, it must either flee or be transformed.

In the Presence of Our Enemies

New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg says, “The true test of Christianity is how believers treat those whom they are naturally inclined to hate or who mistreat or persecute them.” In other words, loving our enemies is at the core of our faith and our witness.

So do we love our enemies well? If your first thought was, “What enemies?” you may be limiting your definition of an enemy.

Webster says it is “one who feels hatred toward, intends injury to, or opposes the interests of another; a foe.” That may include Osama Bin Laden or a criminal who victimizes you, but from time to time it will be your spouse, child, parent, friend, or co-worker. Where there’s fear, hatred, contempt, unrighteous anger, or a similar feeling, there’s an enemy.

This explains why, when we get cut off on the highway, we angrily call the offending driver a “jerk” or something much worse. When a friend hurts us with words, we relish a good comeback (even if only in our mind). We want to punish people for their sins, to become God’s vigilantes. Giving mercy instead of revenge feels weak to us and doesn’t bring a satisfaction to our bloodthirst. Jesus tells us that our hearts are full of a raging darkness that has nothing in common with following Him.

Why is this so hard? It is because we forget who we are and what we’ve been given. This is Jesus’ point in both the Matthew 5 and Luke 6 passages. When we can no longer see the mercy that’s been given to us, we don’t give mercy to others. (See the parable of the unmerciful servant, in Matthew 18: 21-35.)

This should sober our hearts. We were once the enemies of God, won to Him by His unexpected and radical love toward those pitched in battle against Him! The bottom line is this: When God’s mercy grips our hearts and we are able to see the true depth of our sin, then extending mercy to others—especially those who do us evil—becomes just possible, but desirable. We begin to want for them what was given to us.

Love Must Be Sincere ...

But hold on a second. How do I love an enemy who keeps abusing me? Does turning the other cheek mean I lie down and let myself be stepped on repeatedly?

Indeed. It is one thing to be caught off guard by an enemy’s attacks, but quite another to be in regular relationship with someone who seeks your harm.

Author Dan Allender defines a true offer of love to enemies: “Love can be defined as the free gift that voluntarily cancels the debt in order to free the debtor to become what he might be if he experiences the joy of restoration.” It is a gift, but a gift can be refused. And if it is refused, there can be no restoration.

The love Jesus refers to must be genuine and bold. Romans 12:9 states, “Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what it good.”

Love is Not Indifference

“Turn the other cheek” does not mean that Christians should simply allow enemies to routinely abuse them. We teach fellow Christians to “forgive and forget,” telling them that when they are sinned against, it is their responsibility to offer forgiveness and move on, even when the abuser (enemy) remains unrepentant.

But Scripture clearly teaches that forgiveness and restoration only come to those who desire it. Not confronting an enemy who is full of unrighteousness is not love—it is indifference. Jesus’ command to love our enemies meant caring for them, and that requires us to move in close enough to invite a relationship that is built on mercy and care. In all situations, we should offer an enemy mercy which, Allender points out, necessarily means that we must “revoke revenge.” The goal is always to bring about healthy shame that causes repentance (Proverbs 25:22).

Allender states that, “Bold love is a commitment to do whatever it takes (apart from sin) to bring health (salvation) to the abuser.” There cannot be true love without a hunger for justice, and doing good for the enemy may not always feel good to the enemy.

This can mean setting up appropriate boundaries that protect a person from future abuse; it may mean asking God to bring the enemy a “severe mercy” that would cause them enough pain and grief to bring them to spiritual surrender; or possibly even cutting off a relationship that is destructive as a way of saying, “I will stop pretending we have a relationship until you repent of your wickedness.” The difference between revenge and love, then, is not the absence of pain or conflict, it is one of motivation and desire—the former desires to get even and leave a person in destruction, the latter revokes revenge in favor of bringing about restoration.

No two situations are the same. Some require more passive confrontation (not responding to an attack other than to offer forgiveness), while others will require a bolder form of love (perhaps cutting off a relationship to expose an enemy for the purpose of repentance). In each case, though, our response must be predicated by a desire to love rather than to seek retribution or revenge, which belong to God only—this is the whole of His teachings.

The World’s Experience of Our Love

“That is all fine and such,” a skeptic says, “but talk is cheap—Christians don’t really practice this.”

As my wife, daughter, and I plant a church in an urban area, we encounter neighbors who wish they were in a “blue state,” are highly interested in spirituality, and some of whom are homosexuals and have adopted children. Others display tattoos and piercings, and quite a few of them have a strong and distinct opinion about “born-again” Christians: we are bigoted, narrow-minded, hate-filled, war-mongering hypocrites with a poor track record for love of the “other,” especially those opposed to our faith.

Is this caricature of believers correct? Sometimes, absolutely. And so the Church of Jesus occasionally makes unnecessary enemies and responds poorly to true enemies of the faith.

And yet, more often than not, I know that love of an “enemy” is often either ignored or overlooked by a world wanting to avoid the lordship of Christ. I have seen an international church community persecuted to the point of death in places like China, the Sudan, Indonesia, and India, respond with mercy and forgiveness toward their tormentors. It seems that we are to come with open hands to our enemies and ask for forgiveness for the times we have failed to love them.

And then, even our failure affirms the grace and mercy of a God who continues to love us.

Scott Armstrong is a pastor currently planting a church in the historic city neighborhood of Candler Park in Atlanta, Ga. He lives there with his wife, Kerstin, and daughter, Karis.