Thanks-giving 2020

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Each year at this time we all sing a Dutch hymn the Pilgrims knew, and may have sung at America’s first thanksgiving.  Its opening verse is especially applicable for us this year:

 

"We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;

He chastens and hastens His will to make known;

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;

Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own."

This year, all Americans who have taken refuge in Him fervently praise Him for deliverance from the oppression of the wicked.

The last verse of the hymn also strongly resonates with me this year:

"We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,

 

And pray that Thou still our Defender will be;
 

Let Thy congregation escape tribulation; 

 

Thy Name be ever praised !  O Lord, make us free !"

 

Jesus said "If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).

We who know and believe Jesus' words, know it is His unshakeable will that we continue in His word.  So we know that this song of petition is Jesus' Own desire for us...and that we will be free indeed.

Amen, Lord !  Thy will be done.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Good

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” 

                                                                                            --  Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19

“…it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ “              --  I Peter 1:16

 

Human beings are only ever “good” in comparison to other people.  It’s the wrong standard.  Jesus, during His days in human flesh, rejected that standard.

Americans have to thank God we will soon have a President with a moral compass, and a heart for other people.  That’s better for America than what our nation has experienced under the current president: but it can only be relatively better.

Our human system of government hinders even that relative “good.”  The incoming President’s political enemies control other levers of government power, and have promised they will do everything possible to stymie his governance: including whatever limited, relative, “good”  he might attempt to do.

Our system of government also makes certain that when a majority of “the people” again WANT to believe lies and follow liars, America will again have evil rulers after their own heart …and come under God’s judgement again.  Poor America !!

May America REPENT, and every heart desire the Kingdom of God and its righteousness !  Amen !!

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Abortion and Honesty

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

 

Another election, and again many Christian friends have voted for Republicans

because "Republicans are pro-life."

 

The question I would ask those friends is, "And you believe them !?!?"

Most people are wise enough to be skeptical of the words of politicians, any 

politicians.  Even more are wise people today distrustful of the words we hear

from Republicans, who have shown themselves to be the foremost party of liars

and hypocrites, and devotees of the great liar.

 

So I would call out scripture's words to all Christians, to those who before God

should be the most honest of all people, "Test yourself to see if you are in the faith !"

(II Corinthians 13:5).

Honest people can certainly be wrong: that's why God commands self-examination.

But only the honest are capable of fruitful self-examination: able to hear God when He says

anything contrary to their own "thoughts and ways," able to admit to themselves they've gone

astray from God's ways, and capable of turning back from their wrong ideas and wrong ways.

Even though he's a politician, I consequently have hopes that Joe Biden (for example) may

be able to look at abortion as the moral issue it is in God's word, rather than the political

"right" his party has made it.  Joe Biden is a man who could possibly repent his political

support of "abortion rights."

 

I consequently have virtually no hope that the liars and hypocrites will repent...

especially when lies and hypocrisy are the foundation of their political "success."

Except for Almighty God's sovereign work-of-power in his heart, can anyone

imagine the Republicans' demigod admitting...to himself, first of all...that he

was ever wrong...and repenting ?  And obviously none of his worshippers would

dare his wrath by questioning his ineffable wisdom (i.e., lies) ?

So we hear many Christians say they vote for the liar, and his false prophets,

because "Republicans are pro-life."  So we see that many Christians believe

and follow liars because they are led astray by their "politics," and pay no heed

to the Spirit of Truth.  An honest Christian is a rare thing, in this time, in our nation.

May God yet send a spirit of repentance on all Christians (if they are) who love

neither righteousness nor Truth !  May God yet call back to Himself any, if there are

any, honest hearts among the deceived now following the father of lies.  Amen !

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

War Is Hell

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

We all know, and agree with, General Sherman's (slightly-misquoted) dictum that "War is hell."

Well and good that we do: it's true, and has always been true.  We all know so.

Well and good that we can all objectively judge the moral quality of war.

How is it then that we invariably regard warriors as "heroes"...and not logically, as devils ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Bull in a China-shop

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

My folks regularly used the expression "...like a bull in a china-shop," so I was familiar with what it meant: someone so mindlessly inattentive that they were dangerous, and destructive.  My folks often used that expression about me.

It wasn't 'til I was in my 20s, working on a survey-crew, that I learned the fuller, coarse, version of that familiar saying from my profane old crew-chief.  It was both harsher and funnier than the version I knew.  (Come to think of it, my crew-chief  too may have said it about me.)

Coarse and profane is seldom my style.  And to tell the truth, I don't think I've known anyone in the intervening 50 years who really deserved the old crew-chief's harsh description.

But now we have Donald Trump.

He's like a bull in a china-shop: what he doesn't break, he shits on.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Seizing the Kingdom

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

One of Jesus' sayings it's hard to understand is Matthew 11:12: " From the days of John the Baptist
until now the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force."  (NASB)

I'm still not understanding that saying, which came to mind as I was pondering what Jesus taught
about the Kingdom of God.  But there are some things about it I'm storing for future meditation.

First, that Jesus speaks of the Kingdom of Heaven as present on earth.  That's where John the Baptist
was. That's where Jesus is as he speaks,  That's where the men who wish to seize the Kingdom are.

Second, that He speaks of a specific period of time regards the Kingdom on earth: " From the days of
John the Baptist until now..."  So I'm not sure how much we can rightly characterize any other time as
being one in which "violent men take  [the Kingdom]  by force."

It's worth noting, and pondering, the parallel saying of Luke 16:16: "The Law and the Prophets were
proclaimed until John; since that time the gospel of the Kingdom of God has been preached, and
everyone is forcing his way into it."

Jesus seems to emphasize in the latter the "dispensational" change from "the Law and the Prophets"
to "the gospel of the Kingdom of God."  But in both verses, the action of men towards the Kingdom is
the same: that men "seize it" or "enter it by force" is the same Greek verb, biazetai.  And maybe that
verb was the most surprising thing about Jesus' teaching.

One lexicon says that the Greek verb is used "both times positively" in these verses.  Strong's agrees
that it means "...the most ardent zeal and the intensest exertion" by those who desire to enter into the
Kingdom: and that any sense of the Kingdom's being forcefully taken by its enemies "...agrees neither
with the time when Christ spoke the words, nor with the context."

(I'm curious now why the Bible's translators found "violent" a suitable English word for Jesus' charac-
terization of those determined to enter the Kingdom ?  They had to have known that, in English, the
primary sense of the word is of a "hostile take-over.")

The word translated in Matthew as "violent men" (biastai) is related to the verb in both verses.  Again,
the lexicon gives this unique occurrence of the word the sense of "forceful," and Strong's glosses it as
one who "...strive[s]...with the utmost eagerness and effort."  And Luke may present an illuminative
difference between the two verses, in putting no emphasis at all on the character of those who lay
hold of the Kingdom: rather, "everyone" is.

But Jesus' other teaching about entering the Kingdom comes to mind, where He says people must enter
"like a child" (Luke 18:17, Mark 10:15, Matthew 18:3).  It's another strike against the "enemy" reading
reading of biazetai.

My 10-year old grandson came to mind.  We've only recently gotten to see him for any length of time, and
at the moment he's all about crawdad-traps.  I'm not quite sure how that became his obsession, or why.
I had to think about catching crawdads to eat when I was a kid, but I think he's wanting to sell them to
local bait-shops.

When we saw him, he showed me online the wire crawdad-traps his stepdad had ordered for him.  I told
him how impressed I was with their simple functionality, and that they were fairly inexpensive.  Told him
too that some people build their own crawdad-traps: and he had to hear what those looked like, and how
they worked.

Immediately he was determined that we build our own crawdad-traps.  I couldn't dissuade him with any
arguments: that his "professional" traps were already on their way and would be here within days, that
it was a waste of money to buy wood and wire to build our own, that the wire "professional" traps were
more durable than any we could make, that I'm the most unskilled carpenter there could be...

When his siter was driving him home, he was able to persuade her to stop in a hardware store and buy
him wood and wire-mesh to build his own traps.

My grandson gives me some insight on desire that's simultaneously "violent" and child-like.  He's com-
pletely, maddeningly, single-minded in what he wants.  He won't be turned from it by any other consid-
erations.  And he wants everyone around him involved with him in it.

"The Kingdom of God belongs to such as these."

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

"Hard to Know Truth" ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

It's not the first time I've heard it.

To something I'd posted on facebook, about some idiocy the current president or his faction had
said or done, a supposed-Christian "friend" of a "friend" opined that it was hard to know for sure
what was true.

I think it was the kind of response that was intended to signal disagreement, when a supporter
of the current president can't really DENY the stupid thing he said or did.  A lame answer, but one
by which a "conservative" can keep his ideological credentials unsullied.  (For "conservatives" well
know that the rest of the pack will eat them alive the minute they deviate from the True Faith.)

I've heard it before . . . but for some reason it particularly enraged me this time.  I'm afraid I let the
gentleman have both barrels.  I responded to his comment,

"Can't agree.  Jesus said "I AM...The Truth..." (john 14:6). Jesus said satan is "...the father of lies..."
(John 8:44). I John 2:21 says "no lie is of the truth," There's NO possibility of confusing lies and Truth:
God is not a God of confusion (I Corinthians 14:33)."

In the past, I'd always thought the "hard-to-know-what's-true" folks were speaking honestly: that they
wanted to know what's true, but weren't sure how to find out.  So some years ago I'd put together a
list of a half-dozen reliable fact-checking websites where people can begin their own research, and
I'd pass it on to anyone who complained it was hard to know what's true, and any friend who'd been
deceived to post or e-mail an untruth.

With the blessed exception of one long-time friend who's a pastor, I don't think anyone I provided with
those fact-checking tools bothered.  From their subsequent and continuing facebook-posts and e-mails,
it was clear they did no fact-checking of the memes and opinions they put forward as true, and wanted
their "friends" to believe were true.  I have to conclude they had no real desire to know what's true.

I have to conclude the complaint that "it's hard to know what's true" is exactly what the facebook "friend"
intended, an excuse...for being too lazy to find out truth, or for not loving truth enough to seek it out, or for
believing a lie instead of truth.

The latter I think is rather frequent.  When Jesis says "I AM The Truth," it means He IS...if I may so put it...
the Reality in which we live (and He also says He IS "The Life.").  It's hard to miss Him.  Believing Reality
is other than He IS...a lie...can only be a deliberate choice-of-will.

God harshly judges those who "suppress the truth in unrighteousness," because "God made it evident to
them" and within them (Romans 1:18,19).  They are consequently "without excuse" (v. 20).  It's not merely
God's righteous judgement on those who worship idols, but on all who self-will to believe what is not true:
the climate-change deniers and  Holocaust-deniers of our time, and those who claim the current president
is a Christian.

Even in the simplest terms of human discourse, why should we believe the much-(self) vaunted "Evangelicals"
who claim to "know Jesus," and from the other side of their mouths excuse their believing lies because "it's
hard to know what's true."  God says they are "without excuse."

God promises His most furious and harsh judgement on those who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
I quite doubt coronavirus is that: at least yet, or completely.  But whatever, and whenever, God determines,
His judgement is always righteous, and entirely right.  And none can argue that he was unable to know what
was Truth.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Christian Culture

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Simple definition: culture is the "customs, arts, and social institutions" of a people.  Much could
be added to that definition, I'm sure.  But in essence, what people do, and the ways they do,
constitute their "culture."

It's common today to hear Christians denigrate our secular "culture," and contrast themselves...
flatteringly, of course...with it.  True, as far as it goes.

Scripture certainly draws an absolute line between walking in God's ways, and "turning to our
own ways."  In Isaiah 53:6's prophecy of Jesus, the latter is the very definition of "sin: "All we
like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all."

But the contrast Christians today draw between themselves and "the world" is often a dishonest
one.  There's a self-conscious (and let's face it, often-combative) "Christian culture" in America
today which defines itself in terms of human culture, especially human politico-social culture.

A friend told me once he considered that "no one can be a Christian unless they're a conservative."
My friend (and still my friend) is not an ignorant nor a stupid man: and he's probably a good deal
more honest about things than most of his faction.  It was nonethesless stunning to hear the core-
doctrine of "Christian conservatism" so blatantly proclaimed.

Which raises the question: if "Christian conservatism" so proudly contrasts itself in human politico-
social terms, against other human politico-social "cultures"...how is it in any way godly ?

The only contrast that truly exists is between God's ways and the "way that seemeth right to a man"
(Proverbs 14:12).  And no greater contrast could exist than that between the Kingdom of God Jesus
proclaimed, and the "people-rule" worldview of today's politico-social "Christian culture."

Indeed, "Christian culture" may the the enemy's most successful lie going.  The deceived "Christians"
ensnared in it believe, and assure themselves, they are doing God's work, God's way.

How then will people, so deceived they believe their own ways are God's ways, ever realize they must
repent of their ways, and be saved ?

As Proverbs 14:12 warns, "the way that seemeth right to a man" is, at its end, the "way of death."


                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Healing: Making Excuses

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

I'm continuing to meditate on our brother Tim's series "To Live Is Christ."  As he writes there,
healing all comes down to "God's word and God's will:" and Tim powerfully affirms that God says
He desires to heal, and will.

Read here.

We probably all have people we're praying healing for: so this is God's good news to us !...if we
will receive it.

What's painfully clear is that we often choose not to receive it.  The first response of those who
hear that good news... including ourselves...is that it's "TOO good to believe."

I find it interesting that we justify our unbelief as "religious:" that if we are not healed it shows
that healing is not "God's will."  The scriptures Tim posted, showing what God says about that,
should emphatically convince us otherwise.

But most interesting is that our "religious" excuse lays claim to the greatest truth of "I AM"...
His absolute sovereignty.  We pride ourselves that our belief in God's sovereignty is so great
we can even forgive Him not doing what He says He wills to, and promises to.  Proud to show
our great love for Him, we want to give God an excuse for not healing.

Does "absolute sovereignty" mean God can choose to not heal ?  Of course.  But He says He
chooses to.

And let's be honest about our excuse.  We don't actually make it to forgive God (could anything
be more perverse than the idea we should, or have standing to, forgive God !?!?); we're actually
trying to excuse ourselves our unbelief.

Will we receive what our sovereign King wills and promises, when we entrench ourselves in a
dishonest (not to say "blasphemous") excuse for our lack of faith in Him ?

A father brought his demon-possessed son to Jesus, and the boy began "terrible convulsions"
in Jesus' Presence.  The father begged Jesus, "...if You can do anything, take pity on us and
help us !"

Jesus said, " 'If you can ?'  All things are possible to him who believes."  Perhaps our first prayer
for healing must be as honest and desperate as the father's plea to Jesus:  "Immediately the boy’s
father cried out and said, 'I do believe; help Thou my unbelief !'..."  (Mark 9:17-27)

That seems the first prayer we should pray for healing.  But we can't pray it until we stop deceiving
ourselves about our own unbelief.