Oaks of Righteousness

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord has anointed me
To bring good news to the afflicted;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord
And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting.
So they will be called oaks of righteousness,
The planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.

                                                --  Isaiah 61:1-3

The first two verses are very familiar to us.  They are the words of prophecy which Jesus read from the scroll in his home synagogue, saying they were fulfilled that very day, in Himself (Luke 4:18).

I think it was sometime last year when I was praying for my teenagers and those of a beloved sister, that God brought to mind a phrase from scripture.  I had to look it up to see where it was, and make sure I got its words right.  I was very surprised to see it was immediately after the words Jesus said were the prophecy about Himself, words I've often read and meditated on.

Guess I stopped paying attention right after verse 2, all the times I read that passage.  But this time the phrase God brought to mind was in verse 3..."oaks of righteousness."

"That's what I want you to pray for your teenagers and Genelle's boys," God said.  So I have been every since.

Praying it this morning, God got me thinking about the phrase.

What is it He means by that phrase, that I should understand and mean too ?

The first things He brought to mind was that oak is a strong tree...that it is a straight tree, and that its roots go deep to hold it firm.

I trust if I continue to listen, God may say more about this scripture: but for now, that's what He's given me.  That he wants me to pray that my grandkids and Genelle's sons will be strong in righteousness, straight in righteousness, and firmly-rooted in righteousness.

Thank you, Father, for teaching me.  Please never stop teaching me Your ways and Your wisdom.  Amen.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Calvin on Evil Rulers

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I very definitely have no dog in doctrinal disputes about Calvin's teachings.  I'm not even sure what anti-Calvinists are called, beyond "anti-Calvinists."  It's never really seemed a necessary part of my life in Christ to research and decide and declare if I'm a Calvinist or an anti-.

The formal theology associated with Calvin's name is doubtless flawed: that's only what we should expect of anyone's theology, including our own.  Believing any human mind can substantially encompass the reality of God is a first step toward idolatry...taken in pride.  None of us can, and none of us do.  So I'm also pretty sure the theology of Calvinism's opponents is just as flawed.

It seems a mistake to follow either to the extent we identify by one "side's" name, or by the other's.  Taking "sides" in theology is the same as taking "sides" in politics, football, nationalism, or any of the other human constructs to which men give their allegiance: that is to say, idols.

"Taking sides," or "factions," is not a fruit of Christ's Spirit any more than idolatry is.  Galatians 5:20 says "dividings" or "factions" grow from our flesh.  The Greek word there for "dividings" is haireseis, from which we get our English word "heresy."

The rhetorical question in I Corinthians 1:13 affirms that Christ is not divided.  Since Jesus identified Himself as "the Truth" (John 14:6), Christians, above all other people, must believe that "the Truth" is not divided.  There are no "sides" in Truth, no "your Truth" and "my Truth:" and the only "anti-" connected with it is denial of Truth.  The latter is what Jesus said is the distinguishing character of "the father of lies" (john 8:44).

Quoting Calvin here has nothing to do with identifying as a Calvinist or an anti-Calvinist.  I cite Calvin because I consider he speaks scriptural truth.

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"We are not only subject to the authority of princes who perform their office toward us uprightly and faithfully as they ought, but also to the authority of all who, by whatever means, have got control of affairs...that whoever they may be, they have their authority solely from him....they who rule unjustly and incompetently have been raised up by him to punish the wickedness of the people; that all equally have been endowed with that holy majesty with which he has invested lawful power....a wicked king is the Lord’s wrath upon the earth...thus nothing more would be said of a [wicked] king than of a robber who seizes your possessions, of an adulterer who pollutes your marriage bed, or of a murderer who seeks to kill you. For Scripture reckons all such calamities among God’s curses. But...In a very wicked man utterly unworthy of all honor, provided he has the public power in his hands, that noble and divine power resides which the Lord has by his Word given to the ministers of his justice and judgment. Accordingly, he should be held in the same reverence and esteem by his subjects, in so far as public obedience is concerned, in which they would hold the best of kings if he were given to them.”

                                   --  John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, Book 4, Chapter 20, Section 25

 
"He now commends to us obedience to princes...that the Lord has designed in this way to provide for the tranquillity of the good, and to restrain the waywardness of the wicked...for except the fury of the wicked be resisted, and the innocent be protected from their violence, all things would come to an entire confusion...

For since a wicked prince is the Lord’s scourge to punish the sins of the people, let us remember, that it happens through our fault that this excellent blessing of God is turned into a curse.”
 

                                  --  John Calvin, Commentary on Romans  (Chapter 13, vv. 3-4)

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

God Showed Up

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

My pastor Joshua Johnson recently preached a sermon that deeply resonated with me, and still does, proclaiming that "God showed up"-- which scripture records time after time, and which my pastor knew from experience God still does.  (The YouTube of that sermon, which I highly recommend, is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHCUjZurp2I.)

My reading the following week included a Canadian pastor's blog, where he talked about the prayer in Isaiah 63:15-64:12.  Isaiah 64:1-2 especially caught my attention, since it too talked about God showing up:

"Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence—
As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence !"

There are many reasons we do NOT want God to show up.  Most importantly, because His Presence is tremendously frightening.  That "rending the heavens" thing would scare most of us out of our boots.  That's undoubtedly why His first words, and the first words of His messengers, are nearly always, "Be not afraid !"

 Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel captured very well the feeling we cannot but experience in God's Presence: "God is not nice.  God is not an uncle.  God is an earthquake.”  A character in C. S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe similarly describes Aslan: "Who said anything about safe?  'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

We have reason to be fearful. This King before us is good.  And in our gut, we all know we are not.  However cleverly we rationalize to ourselves that we are "a good person," we know all the great wrongs and hurts we've done.  We also know in our gut-theology that the Law's sentence for our crimes is death.  So it's a terrifying thing to stand before the Lawmaker, Who is also the only Judge of men's hearts.  We know...and know that He knows better than anyone else could...that we deserve death.

If He lets us live, it's only because His mercy is as perfect as His justice.  But the self-delusion we have always called "my life"...pride in my own way, my own righteousness, my own sufficiency, my own "cleanness"...is left in ashes by the Holiness of His Presence.  We would all say what Isaiah said when God "showed up" while he was quietly worshipping in the Temple:

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”     (Isaiah 6:5)

At the same time, we want more than anything else for God to "show up."  We want blessing; and our gut-knowledge is that there is no blessing...no peace, no joy, no provision, no protection...outside His Presence.  If only He could be persuaded to mail His presents to us, like a kindly uncle...instead of inconveniently bringing them in Person.

But that's the way He does it.  Our terrifying, blessing, King, chooses to come Himself: and no one can second-guess the King's decisions.

This season is, of course, the most appropriate possible time to talk of God "showing up" in Person.  This post bookends yesterday's "Why I Hate Christmas:" it might be subtitled "What's Real About Christmas."

So I say today, with all His saints, with all my heart,

Praise Him, all ye people, forever, and ever: for the King Himself deigns to show up here this day, every day, within His Own creation, in our human experience, in human form...in Person !

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

How to Survive anti-Christ

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

A Christian blogger I've followed for some years frequently has some valuable insights.  His most recent post highlighted some kinds of persecution believers will face in the end-times, and made some good points.

I was disappointed to see the comments on that post were more about survivalist tactics (albeit generally discounting those) than anything else.

My comment was that spiritual discernment seems the most important provision we can make for surviving the end-times.  That seems the take-away from Jesus' warning in Matthew 24:24 that it will almost be possible for “even the elect” to be deceived by anti-Christ's false spirit.

We probably see that deception happening even now.  I John 2:18ff says the spirit of anti-Christ was, and is, already active in the world.

Knowing so, it seems wise to test our spiritual discernment by practicing it.

Scripture’s characterization of anti-Christ is that he will be “attractive” in the highest possible degree, on every human scale. That he will be a man more “likable” and appealing, more intelligent, better educated, more "successful" by the world's measure, and vastly more plausible and subtle in his dissembling malevolence than any human “leader” before him.

Our question must be whether we can discern the anti-Christ spirit already operative in current human leaders.  Although its manifestations...particularly that spirit's most distinguishing characteristics, lies, pride, and rebelliousness...are necessarily more clumsy and shabby in operation today than they will be when anti-Christ himself practices them, that means we should more easily be able to discern them.

We have scripture's word that the spirit of anti-Christ is "out there."  His spirit is much more blatantly obvious today than it will be when that "slick" master-deceiver arrives.  If we cannot even see where and how anti-Christ's spirit it is in operation today, we must quickly and diligently seek God for His gift of discernment.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Why I Hate Christmas

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I've blogged numerous times, in great historical detail, about the hateful falseness of Christmas.

I'm really not all that angry at what secular society does to Christmas.  "Monetizing" everything from which a dollar may be wrung is exactly what we know mercantilism does.  And Christmas offers the opportunity for many dollars: the most dollars, in fact, of the entire business-year.

So of course Christmas is the most commercial event of every year.  I don't think secular business intends any sacrilege by that fact.  Their selling-point is less the "religion" of the holiday, than its sentimentality: sentimentality sells with Muslims, Jews, and unbelievers...sizable, and often wealthy, demographics...as much as with Christians.

Sentimentality was the selling-point of Christmas in Dickens' "A Christmas Carol," arguably the kick-off of what we'd recognize as our modern "Christmas."  No surprise that the year after its publication a clever London stationer began selling the first Christmas cards.  No surprise Americans (whose business, Calvin Coolidge said, is business) pushed the commercial possibilities of the holiday vastly further.  No surprise that even countries of negligible Christianity, such as Japan, took the heavily-monetized American holiday to their business hearts.

I don't resent what the secular world has done with Christmas.  There's an almost-innocent frankness in their love love for Christmas because they love money, big money, in their pockets.  I'll take an honest atheist any day over a pious hypocrite.  And the church' Christmas has always been very hypocritical.

First of all that Christmas is "the great Christian celebration:"  The distinctive Christian celebration of Jesus' resurrection is, and always has been, our greatest celebration.  And despite the semi-clever slogan about "putting Christ back in Christmas," the gospel narratives of Jesus' birth are the only Christ-truth in Christmas.  After the 20 minutes it takes to read the gospel stories, everything else that fills our 12, or 30, or 90 days of Christmas is (Biblical term here, Philippians 3:8) dung.

That's everything back to and including the reason Christmas was invented by the Roman church of Constantine's time, and the day they chose for its celebration.  No need to again go into the long history of "religious" sham in Christmas.  And no reason not to say I hate all the pious fraud of the "religious" holiday: God said so first.

“I hate, I reject your festivals,
Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies."  (Amos 5:21; see also Isaiah 1:14).

The history of Christmas shows the holiday has always been "your" (humanly-contrived) "festival" and "solemn assembly"...not God's.

But more and more, the reasons I hate Christmas are less academic, historical, and philosophical.  More about the church' practice of Christmas.

Last year I blogged my bemusement that a local church cancelled their Sunday worship-service on December 25th because it interfered with their Christmas program.  Same way, every "Christmas season" my own believing church always suspends our Sunday School classes and Bible study for a film-series and discussions about Christmas. 

And it's an open secret that the spiritual life of believers...prayer, reading scripture, meditating, whatever...is largely put on hold for participation in their church' special Christmas activities, and non-church Christmas demands on their lives.  (And that for those who don't have much of any other, participation in their church' special Christmas activities is often their major "spiritual life" of the year.)

The reasons I most hate Christmas most are that for many Christians it takes precedence over Christianity, its real worship, and its real-life practice.

That seems to be the reason God hates our "religious" holidays too.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Heart Problem

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I grew up in a neighborhood where there were a lot of Mormon kids.  (In fact, my high school graduation was held in the nearby RLDS temple, where that branch of Mormons supposedly believe Jesus will return to earth).  I was a pretty superficial Baptist Sunday-School believer (and had a string of Baptist Sunday-School attendance pins to prove my superficial faith was of long standing . LOL).

I had as little theological understanding as it took to get by.  Even so, when I learned what Mormons believed about God, I can remember thinking, "HOW CAN THEY BELIEVE THAT CRAP !?!?"

That bothered me a lot.  It's always seemed to me that (in the words of a much-later TV show) "the truth is out there:" manifest, and impossible to miss.  So that incredulous question stayed in mind.

I refined the question a bit during Watergate, when my parents were obdurately convinced that Richard Nixon hadn't done anything wrong, and everything was the result of his enemies' maneuverings to "get" him.  (That mindset has been dusted off and pressed into service by Trump's followers.)  But the question became a bit more focused, and a bit more personally tormenting in those circumstances: "why do my folks believe those lies ?"

Chewing on that question was like chewing on beef-jerky; it got larger.  It wasn't just my folks, and not just Nixon's lies.  There was a distinct period when the one question about life that I couldn't escape, and always seemed to come back to, was "why do people believe lies ?"

I really can't say that finally getting the question right was the reason I finally got an answer: but the two seem roughly contemporaneous in my memory.  "Why do WE believe lies ?" seemed the only honest question.

Taking a philosophical perspective on life and its questions has its value.  It also feeds our tendency toward a flattering self-image ("Look at me, I'm a philosopher").  Worse, it gives us a bit of safe personal detachment from life and its questions.

By the time I got to "the right question," I was, and knew I was, a Christian...not a philosopher.  I'm sure that fact had something to do with getting the question right, since Jesus identifies Himself as "the Truth," and the Spirit of God as "the Spirit of Truth."  Any question about truth, especially about the absence of Truth, is Personal with Jesus.

As a Christian it seemed dishonest to frame questions safely, to not involve me personally; and to look for safe answers.  Jesus didn't.

 The answer I ultimately came to was not at all what I'd call "satisfying:"  But I'm certain it's the hundred-percent true one, and the only one there is : "because we WANT to."

Believing lies isn't really a problem of our cognitive processes, our intelligence and knowledge.  It's a heart problem, that we DESIRE to believe lies.  Jeremiah 17:9 says our heart is desperately wicked: that would explain why we want to believe lies.  It also says our heart is "deceitful above all things:" our heart makes us desire lies...and itself lies to us.