Manson

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Charles Manson died the other day.

If we are honest with ourselves, about ourselves, we know we've done wrong with the life God gives us.  We know we've hurt others, even (especially) those who love us: and we fearfully know we've offended the One who gives, and most wishes, all blessing to us.  C.S. Lewis wrote that " [God] is our only possible ally, and we have made ourselves His enemies."

God alone is so intimately knowledgeable of each of us His enemies that He alone knows with certainty when we truly repent our evil...if we truly do  Only God's judgement of any man's life is just.

But even with our moral-squint that sees only "in a glass darkly," we can see what a man is.  We can see what a man does, and know on God's authority that it shows what is in a man's heart (Proverbs 23:7).  And even we can see if his life subsequently shows fruits of repentance (Matthew 3:8).

So it has to look to most of us like Charles Manson was a very evil man.  And without question, we all know there are very evil human beings.

But that's not my question.

The facts are that Charles Manson murdered no one.  That was not the evil he was convicted of by our human legal system, or sentenced to death for.  His guilt was that he inspired others to murder, and sent them to murder.

So what do we say of his followers, who did the evil he devised ?  We can say they were deceived by an evil man, because they were foolish enough to believe him.  We can say that they themselves chose evil, by choosing to do the will of an evil man.  We can say they joined in his evil, and satan's evil, by their willingness to believe that doing evil is a right and good thing.

What then do we say of those who follow and do the will of the deceiver now our president ? Are they guiltless who believe, against God's word, that unrighteousness and the spirit of violence and lies is good, and will "make America great again" ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Humility and Truth

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

People show they operate in reality, show they acknowledge truth, when they admit that human beings are fallible.  That is to admit no human being is God.

But people show they are committed to truth by the humility of admitting they themselves are fallible, and may be wrong.  That is to admit truth is greater than our Self.

Humility has a personal price.  We learn humility by being humiliated.  The greatest humiliation any of us can ever suffer is to admit that we are wrong.

The way of the world's "great ones," more in evidence today than ever before, is to assert that truth proves they are "right."  But truth flatters no man: truth is that all men are fallible.  Those who say truth glorifies themselves are lying, and the truth is not in them. (I John 2:4)


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Screw Your Theology

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Many...perhaps even most...Christians believe we are acceptable to God on the basis of our theology.

There are several problems with that belief: the biggest being that our theologies are a product of a human consciousness...and certified "acceptable" to us, on the rare occasion we're honest enough to subject them to re-examination...by the same human consciousness that crafted them.

Another problem is that however well-informed, profound, and clever our theology is, it's inevitably wrong in some part.  When we're honest with ourselves, we know that.

And however honestly and hard we strive to make our theology valid and complete, it will never in the least begin to encompass God's Being.  Can a thimble hold an ocean ?  How acceptable is any theology that misses Who God IS ?

And however "good" and complete our theology may be, do we really live up to it ?  Isn't the take-away of any theology we make, what it makes of us ?

If we expect to be acceptable to God on the basis of our theology, none of us will ever possibly be acceptable to God.  We're screwed.

God is The Real "I AM."  He desires to be with who we really are,...even when (as right now) we're totally unacceptable.  Even when our theology is mistaken, mis-shapen, and pitifully insufficient (as it always is, and always will be).  Screw your theology.

Is there any true truth we can ever know of God that's learned someplace else than near Him ?  As Brother Lawrence wrote, we must "...establish ourselves in a sense of GOD’s Presence."  Is there any blessing except His Presence ?  Any heaven except His Presence ?

And God makes it easy for us to be near Him, and acceptable to Him:

"He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Praying for Brazil

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Yesterday I suddenly, and very strongly, got the feeling that I should pray for Brazil.

It was completely out-of-the-blue.  It had absolutely nothing to do with anything I'd heard, read, or been at all thinking about.

So it seemed it could be an impulse from God, and I went to pray.

I think I'm pretty knowledgeable on a great many things, and on current events.  But I probably know as little about Brazil as about anything.  I have no idea what is happening nationally in Brazil: its societal stresses, natural disasters, or its spiritual or political character, in any but the most general sense.  And how do you pray for an entire nation anyway ?

It was exactly a situation when I was glad God gave us the opportunity to "pray in the Spirit."  I had absolutely no idea God's concern for Brazil....no idea what prayer for Brazil would be according to His will (I John 5:14-15).

I asked the Spirit to guide my prayer, make my requests accord with God's will, and I let my words flow.  I couldn't understand any of the words the Spirit gave me (though I sensed their intent of blessing), any more than I understood God's concerns for Brazil.

It was all of a piece, complete: what scripture means by "perfect."  That God let me pray His will of blessing Brazil, in words the Spirit gave me...according to His will.  "Perfect" that my ignorance...of His will, and of Brazil...could be made His instrument to bless Brazil, as it increased my faith, and my obedience.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Confederates

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The perennial debate about honoring Confederate heroes is on again.  And again argued primarily on present-day political sensibilities.

Argued by one "side" from our current certainty that slavery (which the Confederacy identified as central to its "cause") is flat-our wrong: and by the other "side," from the "patriotic" Americanist certainty that rebellion against tyrannical government is a sacred "right" (as is every "free" American individuals' "right" to define "tyranny" according to their personal tastes).

Both arguments are based on historically-recent moral standards.  I find the debate wrong-footed, on both sides.

As a Christian, I'm convinced the moral standards for human beings were set by God long ago (basically what Jews called "the law"), and are immutable.  So I believe the actions of people in previous centuries were subject that moral standard, as we are today.  That's why it only makes sense to operate, and judge, by those time-tested ("traditional") standards...and not by our current personal perception of right and wrong. 

My view is theistic; but those who don't believe in any kind of God-given "law" can also acknowledge a "traditional" moral-standard for human beings.  They are welcomed to believe that mankind worked out a trustworthy standard of values for human behavior, by a few millennia of real-life experience.

(If God deems some actions and mindsets "right" and beneficial, and others harmful, and "bad;" I'm satisfied He built them into operative reality just that way.  And I'm certain He gave human beings the ability to discern what real-life actions "work" to our good, and which don't: whether or not we credit Him for reality's operating as it does...or our ability to perceive it.)

But under neither "traditional" standard should any honest person honor or idolize Confederate individuals, or their "cause."

Some argue that Confederate leaders should be honored because they were honorable men.  That in their personal morality, they were upright and honest..."good" men.  And that even if the argument is about slavery, many Confederate leaders hated slavery.

All of that is true, for some or many Confederate leaders.  But their personal morality is not the basis on which they've been honored these many years.  They've been honored for their actions as public figures, as national civic "heroes" and models.  And those are the exact reasons they should never be honored.

Virtually all high-level Confederate officials and generals took an oath,  as Congressmen or U.S. military officers, to defend the United States, and uphold its Constitution.  The definitive fact of their public careers was that they broke that oath, and waged war on their own nation and people.  And it is specifically on that fact...on their "Confederate" identity and deeds...that they are idolized.

Honoring oath-breakers and traitors is a perversion of any traditional moral code.  Those of our day who do so for self-serving political ends unmistakably show what they most deeply value...and who they most deeply are. 

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Cooking Lobsters

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Scientists say it's actually a myth that cooking a lobster by placing them in cold water, then very s-l-o-w-l-y increasing the temperature to boiling, kills them without them becoming aware of what is happening to them.

But it works very well for human beings, as to moral temperature.

There was another mass-shooting yesterday.  In our recent history, America has a mass-shooting every few weeks.  So far most Americans still perceive mass-shootings as wrong...though a great many Americans have adapted the political belief that it's a constitutional "right" that virtually everyone can have almost any kind of military firearm they want.

The N.R.A. and its followers go so far as to say everyone should...to protect themselves from mass-shooters.  "The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," you know.  Never mind that "good guys" with a gun...and grudges (personal or political), mental problems, anger-issues, or personal problems...are most often the ones who become mass-shooters.

But my point isn't the gun-debate.  The point is that Americans are increasingly coming to accept that a mass-shooting every few weeks is normative.

When Charles Whitman went on a killing-rampage in 1966 (including some military-grade weapons in his arsenal), everyone in America was horrified at the outrage of his murders.   Even when children and teachers at Sandy Hook were massacred (again with military-grade firearms), not quite 5 years ago, most of us could still feel outrage at the evil of their murder.  Today, not really so much: every successive mass-shooting is lamentable...but isn't our attitude that that's just the way it is in our present-day society ?

Nothing better illustrates that political heat increases moral insensibility than the fact that Texas legislators put in place a law making it legal for almost everyone in Texas to own military-assault weapons on August 1st, 2016: the 50th anniversary of Charles Whitman's murderous rampage.  "Conservative" legislators wanted to "strengthen" Texans' "Second Amendment rights."

Under that strong "Second-Amendment rights" law, the most-recent Texas shooter seems to have legally possessed his murder-weapons.

Will the next mass-shooting (and I'm certain there will be one again, soon) shock us as much as the one yesterday ?  Will it be the one after that, or the next, or the one after the next, before it all comes to seem rather boring...or only notable as proof that our constitutional "rights" are secure and strong  ?


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Finger-pointing

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The Trump faction's knee-jerk response when they are caught doing wrong is to point their finger at someone else: usually Hilary, Obama, or Democrats.  They seem to miss a couple important things about using that childish tactic:

that "defending" yourself by claiming someone else did just as bad, or worse, makes a tacit admission you did wrong;

and moral law does NOT absolve us of our wrong-doing because other people did it too.


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

New Prayer

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Father, you know everyone I want to bring before you in prayer.  You know their names, and my concern for them.  You know better than I do their needs.

Thank you for perfectly remembering each one, even when I momentarily forget a name or need.  Thank you for Your concern for them, Your desire even greater than mine that they be safe, whole, and in peace.  Thank you for your Presence with each of them, blessing.

Thank you for Your limitless power poured out for the abundant life and joy You unceasingly desire for them.

Father, Your will be done.

In Jesus' name.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Centenary of the Balfour Declaration

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

On November 2nd, 1917, the Foreign Secretary of the British Empire, Arthur Balfour, addressed a letter to Lord Lionel Rothschild, a leader of the Jewish community in Great Britain.

"Dear Lord Rothschild:

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:

'His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.'

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Association."

The Balfour Declaration later formed a basis for British policy in the Palestine Mandate, eventuating in British withdrawal from Palestine the day after the proclamation of the state of Israel on May 14th, 1948.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Terrorists

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The greatest danger to America today isn't enemy armies in foreign countries.  Our greatest danger is “self-radicalized” enemies in America: those among us who believe to the lies of online propagandists, and act on them to do us harm.

The greatest danger to our country is people who WANT to believe llies that harm America.

Some want to believe the lie that God is pleased when they kill people. Many more want to believe the lie that God (haven't their "faith-leaders" assured them it's so ?) is pleased when a nation embraces lawlessness and pride; that following unrighteousness and lies will “Make America Great Again.”

Some enemies openly hate America.  The greater danger is the many more who pretend they destroy America from "patriotism."