Apostles, in and out of church

January 27, 2011 — Church — 5 min read

I’m reading an ebook called Houses That Change the World, by Wolfgang Simson. It’s available as a free download from www.openheaven.com. It’s about the house church movement and its potential to change the face of Christianity, with an emphasis on the example of the burgeoning church in China.

The translation grammar is a bit fractured, but there’s a lot of thoughtful stuff in the book, and hopefully I’ll review it more thoroughly later. But for now I wanted to get out this powerful excerpt on the role of the Apostle, especially with reference to the broken state of the church. I can assure you, the implications of this excerpt are all too real.

If we ever do get our act together, we are going to see a move of God that will be unprecedented in scope and power. The world is ripe for harvest, but it is looking for something real and permanent. I believe it is going to happen, because it has to happen.

Be blessed,
p.

The predominant role of apostles and prophets for church planting

As important a role spiritual hospitals have to play, they cannot replace what apostles and prophets are uniquely gifted for: to build a supernatural base and foundation for a multiplying church movement, to accept nothing as impossible, to respond strategically to visions and supernatural revelations, to be prophetic talent-spotters.

They are not so human-centered and felt-need-oriented ”tenders” like good Pastors, Teachers and Evangelists, but God-centered: they have the God-given ability to see beyond things, beyond human needs and problems, and take hold of the tasks and visions of God. They do not want to just build ”a church”, they want the whole city or nation! They live very much in the future, for the future, from the future, going constantly pregnant with future developments, and can therefore pull and lead the church into the future, and prevent it from becoming a traditional institution only celebrating the past, or a fossilized monument of history long gone. The church is ”built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone” (Eph.2:20), writes Paul. Jesus writes to the church in Smyrna ”that you have tried those who call themselves apostles” (Rev. 2:1-7) after almost all of ”The Twelve” had died. This suggest simply the continuation of apostles even after the ”age of apostles”, says Watchman Nee in his book ”The Orthodoxy of the Church”. Like with a foundation for a house, much of the work of apostles and prophets is not always seen but felt. That is why they are called ”first of all” (1 Cor. 12:28), because they are also ”called in” first of all to do the foundational work for ”founding churches”, the site spotting, earth moving, excavating, foundation laying, so that others like carpenter and plumbers and electricians can build on that foundation. Would you like to live in a house where the foundations are laid by a carpenter? I admire carpenters, but I would not like to live in a house where the carpenter has laid the foundation. That is simply out of his brief.

Instead of pastoral, evangelistic and teaching-models of church, apostles and prophets build prophetic and apostolic churches. The apostle, mentioned first in all the biblical lists of ministries, is one ”sent to attempt to solve the unsolvable for the purpose of facilitating the increase of the Church of Jesus Christ in quality as well as quantity”, says Barney Coombs in his excellent book ”Apostles Today”….

How God works

“God’s method is a man. Are you that man?”…

Healing the church trauma

Many apostles and prophets today are not in church at all, because they have not much room in traditional churches. They have been pushed to the side, they are often feared because they seem so strong, radical and different, and many have not only been marginalized, but truly rejected, and as a result have given up on church almost completely, maybe with a last flicker and a spark of hope still burning in them. Many of them are in business today, or have become medical doctors. More and more of them know deep down that they are made for more than just earning 10.000 dollars a month or operating ulcers, avoiding the church that hurt them, spiritually surviving by TV and Radio, and attending an occasional conference or a Christian businessmen’ ”Chapter”.

Those rejected, undiscovered or underemployed apostles and prophets suffer from what I call the ”church trauma”, a very deep and tricky wound inflicted to them by the very institution of healing, the church, which did not live up to it’s own calling and, an almost devilish scheme, has badly hurt those whose ministries it needed most. Many of those Christian businessmen therefore heavily support anything but the church, invest into parachurch ministries and missions, as long as they can stay clear of the church which have hurt them so much. The tragic of this is, that the church is God’s mission. Someone needs to find them, go to them, apologize to them profoundly, heal the ”church trauma”, speak to that glowing spark and fan it into a flame, and then recruit them, helping them to see how God sees them, and release them into their apostolic and prophetic potential for the building up of the church.

The church and today’s youth

January 26, 2011 — Church, Culture and Society — 5 min read

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

I’m going to tie together a few recent headlines here, to try to get a sense of where we are headed as a church and as a nation. On the bad side, our culture and society continue apace on their mad rush to perdition. MTV (Viacom) put out a new series, Skins, which depicts such things as molestation and sex at fifteen as unremarkable, typical behavior. I wish I could say it was the almighty dollar alone that was driving this self-fulfilling filth, but the problem is more deeper than that. Humanist forces have consciously been at work for the better part of a century now to move the line on all manner of sexual behavior, from age of consent, to homosexuality, to bestiality and on.

And they have been very effective. Another report last week said that one third of women in the US will have an abortion. Another said that 41% of NYC women have had one. And just before that, a couple of reports came back saying that today’s youth are to an unprecedented degree uninterested in religion.

Things would appear to be dire, no? But then how do we explain the record turnout, in bitter cold, of youth at the annual March for Life in Washington, DC, commemorating the vile Roe v Wade decision? For the first time in thirty eight years, a second facility had to be opened to handle overflow from the main Mass. Squads of priests heard confessions beforehand in an auditorium.

Clearly, a large and growing number of our teens are rejecting the unhealthy mores of the dominant culture, even if on the same day our president chose to personally champion those twisted values.

I’m not sure what’s going on here, and I would welcome input, but I think there is a rebirth of idealism in today’s youth – an idealism that wants to reach outside of itself and find solutions to the problems of society . Young people are not impressed by religious structures or tradition, so much as by truth and integrity and following God in a way that’s real.

If I am correct then this year’s March for Life is a brilliant witness that the church will be in good hands in the challenging years to come. Even while commercial and humanist interests, institutions such as the schools and government, and even the president himself, promote moral doubletalk, compromise and mediocrity, a significant number of the coming generation refuse to buy into the lie.

We ought to help them. One way is not to fear the changing shape of the church. We are shedding the dead skin of past presuppositions and we will emerge in a highly flexible mode that will enable us to adapt to the changing needs of the culture. Though there are growing pains, this is a good thing indeed. Recall that the Lord had to allow a persecution to arise in Jerusalem in order to get the first disciples to carry the Message abroad as they had been commissioned, particularly for the benefit of the Gentiles.

When the church enters its adaptive mode, adressing the real needs of people while still being true to Christ, as it did in those early centuries and as is happening today in places such as China, it sheds the formalism and excessive focus on hierarchy and doctrinal purity that have dogged much of its history, and it embraces the basics – incarnation, relationship and mission (MRI). It is then that supernatural things begin to happen. Lives are changed, cultures are impacted, and the Kingdom grows.

Another thing we can do is advocate against the lies of this culture. Work to get cable TV packages broken up, and then get the filthy channels out of your house. From its constant assault on morality, to its ungodly highly partisan advocacy, I can’t think of one good thing to say about MTV. And it’s not the only channel that needs to be either vanquished or transformed.

Rep. Michelle Bachmann gave a brilliant speech at the March for Life Dinner, in which she cited the Mary who broke open an expensive alabaster box of perfume in order to anoint Jesus’ feet. Mary was chided for “waste”, but Jesus commended her for what she had done. Bachmann went on to say that nothing we do for the Lord is wasted. God sees things differently than does man, and it is only His accounting that matters. There’s a synopsis of her speech here.

There is no shortage of evidence that our culture and our nation is under intense attack and has been seriously degraded. But godly resistance is rising up as well, as we saw in the November elections and now see in the turnout at the March for Life. We need to encourage ourselves in the Lord and redouble our efforts. We are going to win this thing. We are more than conquerors: not only do we defeat our foes, we win them over.

When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will indeed raise a standard against him. Hold your ground. The battle is the Lord’s, and it is already won.

Finally, take a moment and consider the vast numbers of people who have been harmed by abortion, and keep them in prayer. Know that if you have had an abortion or been a party to one, the Lord loves you and wants to forgive you. Just come to Him. Whatever our sin, He is the one who was sinned against, therefore He has the power to forgive that sin. And on the Cross, Jesus purchased the legal right for our forgiveness. Because Jesus paid the price, God can forgive us now without violating His righteous nature. Come to Him now, and do not carry an impossible burden by yourself any longer. God forgives, heals and make new. Let Him.

Can man be good without God?

January 24, 2011 — Culture and Society — 4 min read

I don’t really follow these things, but I was reading about how a comedian, Ricky Gervais, mocked God during the Golden Globes awards. Gervais was subsequently interviewed by Piers Morgan, and this is what he said in part:

[Christians] don’t have a monopoly on good is my point, I’m not a Christian but I live my life in a good way.

Some people say “who says what good is?” But you know what I say? ‘I do’. I’m good to people because it’s the way I want to be treated. And I don’t believe I’ll be rewarded in heaven, I will be rewarded now.

The subject Morgan was trying to get to was Gervais offending Christians, so let me say at the outset that I’m not offended by Gervais. A bit saddened and amused, yes, but no real offense taken. God is big enough to handle this without too much of a problem.

The ironic thing here is that, up to a certain point, Gervais’ “theology”, if you will, is pretty darn good. If you examine what he says, he is expressing a concrete faith that certain spiritual dynamics rule Creation. He believes that good exists. He believes that he has an inner witness as to what that good is, and what it isn’t. He believes that if he does good he will be rewarded. That’s all very solid indeed.

What Gervais fails to consider, however, is that an orderly universe – and never mind the mere physical order that’s readily apparent, as awesome as that is, we are taking here about the moral order that Gervais referred to – points to a moral Creator. Does he really think that all these principles that he acknowledges happened by accident, or that they somehow developed through some insufferably long evolutionary process? The plain fact is that it takes more faith to believe either of those possibilities than to give credit to a God with moral character.

Gervais is correct in believing that if he does good he will tend to be rewarded in kind. But then, evil is in the world, and if all we consider is payback in the here and now, our reward can be overridden by evil at any given time. It comes with the fallen territory. What does Gervais do then? The plain fact is that most lives are going to encounter evil.

The perennial root question at play here is whether man can be good without God. The answer is no, but we will never really see proof of that in this life. Here’s why. The Bible is clear that God has left a witness to Himself both in the order and grandeur of nature and in the inner nature of man’s soul. Whether he acknowledges it or not, the sense of right and wrong, love and hate that Gervais feels inside is part of that witness. For that reason, Christians shouldn’t argue against what people like Gervais say. They instead should affirm the truth of what has been said and then question where they think their inner witness came from. They should argue that they haven’t taken their logical thinking far enough.

If I’ve got my eschatology right, some day the Holy Spirit will be pulled completely from those who refused God’s offer of forgiveness and reconciliation. Then we will see, all too terribly, the answer to the question of whether man can be good without God. But for now, whether it’s an atheist or a believer that does good, it is God who is the author of all the good that is in the world. And it is very shortsighted, and quite wrong, for man to take final credit for it.

God’s faithfulness in the midst of genocide

January 23, 2011 — Persecution — 6 min read

Left to Tell, by Immaculee’ Ilibagiza

A few weeks ago a sister sent me an email forward about a survivor of the Rwandan genocide, Immaculee’ Ilibagiza, and how God had preserved her through the horrors there. I did a little research and knew there was something in this story for me.

I dreaded reading this book for several reasons. I feared the exposure to evil; I have enough of that on my plate already. I feared seeing that evil in myself. I feared seeing how weak my own faith was, and how poorly I would fare in similar circumstances. And I feared recognizing the downhill societal spiral gripping our own nation in Rwanda’s story.

But my fears were misplaced. The book is clearly and effectively written, and it is very sensitive about the atrocities. It speaks of the horrors of the genocide, but it never broaches sensationalism. Very precisely, this is not a book about the genocide, per se. It is a book about God’s faithfulness in it.

Immaculee’ initially saw her country as a paradise, but as she grew up she increasingly became aware of the deep-seated racial animosity between the two main tribes of Rwanda, the Tutsis and the Hutus. There had been violent outbreaks in decades past, and as she entered college tensions again were increasing. Radio stations began openly calling for the slaughter of the Tutsi minority, and when the president of the nation was assassinated, the powder keg exploded.

What ensued was a case study in how evil can break out and overrun a land. The rubric was racism, but that was only an excuse for lust and bloodlust. Among the first victims were moderate Hutus who spoke against the genocide, including the acting Prime Minister. Radicalism was ascendant, and the center could not hold.

Neighbors, lifelong friends, and fellow church members suddenly became killers and rapists, as all civil order vanished. The nation actually came to a commercial halt, as Hutus embraced the wholesale killing of Tutsis as their full-time job.

Over that backdrop of horror, Immaculee’ tells her tale. For three months she survives by being hidden in a small bathroom with seven other women. Initially she was overcome with a paralyzing and torturous spirit of fear. She was always a believer, but now her faith came down to desperate spiritual warfare. The battle was intense. The instant she left off praying and believing, the spirit of fear and death would overwhelm her again, as the machetes of her pursuers sometimes brushed against the other side of the bathroom walls, only inches away.

Immaculee’ focused on Bible verses of faith, such as found in Mark 11. She would silently meditate for hours on the meaning of one word at a time. Literally in the valley of the shadow of death, she began to envision God’s protective hand over her. Eventually she began to have the victory of faith over fear, and she saw repeated tangible evidence that her faith was supernaturally efficacious in the real world.

“I realized that my battle to survive this war would have to be fought inside of me. everything strong and good in me – my faith, hope and courage – was vulnerable to the dark energy. If I lost my faith, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to survive. I could only rely on God to help me fight.” -Immaculee’ Ilibagiza

Eventually a new challenge presented itself, as a different darkness strove to grip her heart. This time it wasn’t fear that sought Immaculee’, it was hatred. She realized that her family most probably had been slaughtered, and she began to desire vengeance. With that dark spirit enveloping her, she soon realized that if she was going to continue with the Lord she had to let go of unforgiveness. After a struggle, light crept in and she began to see the perpetrators as the worst victims of their acts. The were misled children who indeed would be punished for their choices, unless they repented. She again reached a plateau of peace and communion with the Lord, and her faith once again became a tangible and effective force.

Even in Mark 11, where Jesus speaks of the unlimited power of faith, forgiveness is given as a requirement. We simply cannot draw down on God’s power unless we are in right relationship with Him. And that means forgiving others.

Eventually the seven women left the bathroom and found shelter in a French compound. And finally, invading Tutsi forces retook the nation and restored order.

The story doesn’t end there, though. Immaculee’, with no family and in a devastated country, has huge hurdles to overcome in order to restart her life. The story of how she believes God for miracle after miracle and makes a rich life for herself is amazing. She is Catholic, but the way she takes verses on faith and visualizes her success makes a Pentecostal feel right at home. I found the way she co-labors with God in bold, practical ways to make her visions become reality refreshing to the utmost. I learned much from her, and watched closely as she had the spiritual insight to turn down a very appealing marriage prospect because it didn’t feel spiritually right. This is a woman who has spent a lot of time in the deep presence of the Lord.

I highly recommend this book, for the way it shows God’s ability to preserve and provide in the midst of dark circumstances, and for its very clear depiction of our role in the equation. We may ask why Immaculee’ lived while so many died. We cannot know the answer, which surely involves the mysteries of God’s will, but we can know that within the context of that will God is always faithful to those who look to Him. Sometimes it takes dire circumstances indeed for that truth to be revealed to us in a meaningful personal way. Immaculee’ has written her story of how God has been faithful to her even amid great trial and loss, and that story is edifying indeed.

Genocide on slow-burn

January 23, 2011 — Christianity, current events, Persecution — 2 min read

I first fell in love with the Karen people of Burma decades ago, when I read Don Richardson’s amazing Eternity in Their Hearts. The Karen are a precious people that had never seen the white man, yet they began having dreams and visions that a white man would bring them news of the true God.

Through a set of miraculous circumstances (reminiscent of the time when Saul found his father’s lost donkeys at the word of the prophet Samuel), that is exactly what happened, as a missionary from the West came and revealed the nature of God’s infinite love to them.

The Karen responded enthusiastically, and they have formed a Christian enclave in the midst of southeast Asia for a century.
So it is sad to learn that, not only are they an oppressed minority, they are the target of a low-level genocide by the government of Myanmar.

This time it is not Islam that is the exterminator of Christian lives, but a totalitarian state. According to this Christian Post article, the Myanmar army is killing, raping, and stealing from the Karen at will, and forcing them to go unfed and plant only cash crops.

There are several factors at work, but one dominant one is that the ruling junta considers Christianity a threat to their control of the Burmese culture. They want to unify the nation under their rule using Buddhism as the spiritual cement. Christianity, and Christians, get in their way.

This nationalistic dynamic is a very common one, even in the Islamic nations. I would say that the use of religion for state purposes is the single most pervasive cause of persecution on the societal level.

I hurt for our brothers and sisters under this level of persecution. The devil has been turned loose, with nowhere left to run and with limited time to expend his wrath. He is targeting the saints viciously around the world.

We need to be in solidarity and intercession for our brothers, and as far as we are able we should be advocating on their behalf.

May the Lord grant them peace and security, and faithfulness in persecution, and may He make their witness effective and work good out of evil.

Obama celebrates abortion

January 23, 2011 — Culture and Society — 2 min read

On the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, president Obama issued an affirmational statement:

Today marks the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision that protects women’s health and reproductive freedom, and affirms a fundamental principle: that government should not intrude on private family matters.

I am committed to protecting this constitutional right. I also remain committed to policies, initiatives, and programs that help prevent unintended pregnancies, support pregnant women and mothers, encourage healthy relationships, and promote adoption.

And on this anniversary, I hope that we will recommit ourselves more broadly to ensuring that our daughters have the same rights, the same freedoms, and the same opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.

Obama’s words may sound reasonable to the humanist. But the dynamic here is just like taking God out of the schools and handing out condoms – it won’t work. You either take a stand for morality or you are swamped by immorality. And our nation is reaping the fruit of being swamped by immorality.

In order to enshrine “reproductive rights” as a Constitutional right, our governmental structure has had to make it a sacred totem that is immune to any degree of normal legal oversight. To wit, see the horrors, recently revealed, of the Philadelphia doctor who apparently routinely stabbed babies to death after their live birth. This was allowed to continue for years, despite complaints, to the tune of possibly hundreds of babies. The Pennsylvania Department of Health, when queried how this could occur, actually answered that it did not know that abortion providers fell under its jurisdiction. The Department of Health!

There are no easy answers for this nation. At this point I’m not certain that it is possible to rebuild its foundations. Humanly, perhaps it is not. But then, all things are possible with God.

But I am certain that each individual must make his own choice on how he is going to live. And I am equally certain that we must use the time we are given as salt and light to a dying culture.

A prayer here for all the babies and lives of women and men, and families destroyed and being destroyed by abortion.

Update: Here’s the unbelievable tale of how the squalid Philly clinic was allowed to continue unscrutinized by the authorities for years. This nation has become morally dysfunctional. Thanks, humanists.

Seeking peace

January 23, 2011 — Culture and Society, Spiritual Growth — 3 min read

The Guardian has an interesting article on the downside to social networking. But it doesn’t focus on the more blatant dangers we hear about, such as stalkers, immorality or the loss of privacy. It’s focus is on the subtle but profound effect of life on the Net to how we think.

Information comes so quick these days that it is possible to become addicted to its flow. We used to use the term news junkie rather lightheartedly, but these days the pace of headlines is so great that I am certain that following it actually can become a physical addiction affecting the levels of neurotransmitters in the brain.

I’ve traditionally been a prolific commenter to news articles, and I had my Facebook/Twitter period. But lately, I find myself being much choosier about when I add my thoughts. I often step back and watch the counterpoint, and I realize that precious few are really communicating with one another.

And why should that surprise, when all one has to do is turn on cable news and find the same dynamic among our politicians and pundits? The whole nation is divided, with both sides talking past each other.

It’s necessary that we speak out, but we have to be careful not to fall into the mire of a fallen and degenerate culture. Nothing good will come from doing the world’s business the world’s way. We have a higher and more effective calling.

James tells us that the seeds of righteousness are sown in peace. And lately, I’ve been craving – I mean, really craving – peace in my heart. I want to have an intimate relationship with the Lord, and that cannot happen if I fill all my time with the mad rush of social networking and current events that is constantly changing its face and yet underlyingly always the unfruitful same.

Peace is stressed repeatedly in the Bible. Jesus gave His disciples a peace that, because it was not dependent on circumstances, could not be taken away. The great theologian, Paul, shows how we have peace with God through Christ, and then exhorts us to let that peace reign in our hearts. When he says we should “seek peace and pursue it”, that’s not mere parallelism. Paul is saying to first look for the ways of peace, and then upon finding them, to follow after them with everything we’ve got.

The repetitive emphasis on finding and pursuing peace screams to us one essential implication: though the peace of Christ cannot be taken from us by the world, we ourselves can yield it up if we do not attend to it. It is our responsibility to place God first and to guard what He has given.

In fact, James tells us that there is only one thing more important than peace – truth. We should never do violence to truth in order to win peace. That would make us appeasers, fearing man and looking out for ourselves. There is a world of difference between peacekeepers and peacemakers.

If you find yourself caught up in anything that is not bringing you peace, it may be time to evaluate and inquire whether the Lord is in it with you.

Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last. And when I am dying, how happy I’ll be, if the lamp of my life has been burned out for Thee.

Facebook Apps Allowing Access to Numbers, Addresses

January 18, 2011 — Culture and Society, tweet — 4 min read

Today comes news (see excerpt and link below) of yet another depredation of privacy, again from the leader in that field, Facebook. Facebook will now open personal information, such as addresses and even mobile phone numbers, to its apps.

Previous to this it was almost impossible for commercial interests to find your mobile number. I got a couple of text spams a few weeks ago, but they were from companies that merely broadcast out over a block of regional numbers, not knowing who they were reaching.

Many readers will say that the opt-in screen will prevent unwanted leakage of personal information. That is true for people who are internet- and privacy-savvy, but there are two things wrong with thinking that way.

First, there are an awful lot – the great preponderance – of people who are not privacy-aware, who dive into social networking head first without checking out the depth of the water. And generationally, the ones most likely to do just that are the ones who are most vulnerable – our kids.

Second, we need to view all of Facebook’s privacy changes in context. Facebook has done nothing but engage in an incremental policy of wiping away all semblance of privacy and protection. The only counterpoint to the trend comes when public outcry reaches a crescendo, and it is fleeting. IOW, what’s allowable today becomes mandatory tomorrow, unless a greater opposing forces arises.

I’m not here to bash Facebook. It happens to be a very convenient way to follow thought leaders and interact with like-minded people. I am trying, though, to warn people – and especially parents and young people – about the dangers of indiscriminate social networking. Not only are there headline-steeling wackos out there, there are commercial lizards who work sublimely to exploit you as much as possible. Each is dangerous in his own way.

Quite a few years ago the Internet was a fascinating and also safe place. It still is fascinating, but it is no longer safe. I’ve watched as one theater after another has gone to seed. First was Usenet, then the IRC chatrooms. Both started out as totally free open forums, and both degenerated into profane anarchy and spam.

The difference with Facebook is that it is a closed system controlled by private commercial interests. Everything that happens there happens by design, for a purpose.

We still have the power to say no. We can deny those applications access to our data. We can use a false name to sign onto Facebook. But beware – the power to say no decreases from disuse. It’s the old frog in the pot analogy. If you agree to small incremental changes, pretty soon you find yourself in hot water, and you may be too weak to get out.

Facebook Apps Allowing Access to Numbers, Addresses
ARTICLE DATE: 01.17.11
By Chloe Albanesius

Facebook recently announced that it is making user phone numbers and addresses available to developers, a move that a security expert said “could herald a new level of danger” for Facebook members.

Facebook isn’t just releasing this information into the wild; it’s adding it to the company’s “User Graph object,” or the permissions required to install an app.

“Because this is sensitive information, we have created the new user_address and user_mobile_phone permissions,” Facebook wrote in a blog post. “These permissions must be explicitly granted to your application by the user via our standard permissions dialogs.”

Facebook said the permissions only provide access to a user’s address and mobile phone number, not their friend’s addresses or mobile phone numbers.

Before installation, Facebook apps currently display a permissions-based menu that informs users what type of information the app is accessing. Going forward, users will be informed when the app accesses their phone numbers or addresses.

“Parent One”, “Parent Two”

January 8, 2011 — Culture and Society — 2 min read

There is plenty to be disturbed about in our nation, even on a daily basis, but this latest story struck me as a milestone to be noted. Yesterday, the State Department announced that it was “improving” passport applications to ask for information about “Parent One” and “Parent Two” rather than the traditional “Father” and “Mother”.

The gays rights people in particular, and the politically correct “progressive” crowd in general, applauded the change, while conservative Christian groups predictably denounced it.

I’m not going to belabor the issue; others are going to do that better than I can, and in far more detail than I care to. I will only make one basic point.

Those are children we are raising in this environment. There is no societal unit that can care for the well-being of the child like the family. And by family I mean traditional family. The love and commitment that the husband and wife have for each other forms the basis for the security that a child needs to mature correctly. There is no other basis that is adequate.

True enough, that traditional family has been doing a lousy job in protecting its children of late. But it is the same dominant culture that has been assaulting the family, and that is inflicting this latest degradation upon us, that is the prime source of the problem.

This does not work out well. No nation can toy with the structure of the family to this extent and get away unscathed. We are watching the demise of our society, and as our moral backbone disintegrates, we can expect two things to happen.

First, those who represent moral sanity will be persecuted. Just our presence, no matter how benign, will be an irritant to those who with increasing irrationality demand a destructive degree of personal freedom. And they will attempt to silence us.

Second, as the society careens toward chaos, with no answers to be found, intrusive government will step in to restore order. Anarchy is the seedbed of totalitarianism.

I have never witnessed such foundational upheaval as I have seen in the past two years, and the rate of change is only increasing. If this nation does not come to its senses, it is in danger of losing everything.

Representative Giffords shot dead -update: she’s alive and expected to pull through, praise God.

January 8, 2011 — Culture and Society — 2 min read

Word just came in that Congresswoman Giffords of Arizona has been shot dead, along with several others. I don’t know if there was political motivation behind this, or just a slightly purer form of mental illness, but this is a terrible event for this nation.

I recall way back when violence was introduced into the anti-abortion movement. Overnight the prolifers became marginalized, as fear gripped the public that the abortion controversy could destabilize the nation. Those fears were understandable and justified.

We gain nothing by our resistance to the corrupt dominant culture unless we hold the high moral ground. If we lose our witness to the character of Christ, we lose everything.

Those tempted to use violence to impose their will on the nation need to study very carefully the principles of Just War that have a long venerable history in Christian thought. They carefully apply Biblical principles and natural law to the difficult questions of human governance. In a nutshell, they endorse armed resistance, but only as a last resort and only when there is a probable means of succeeding.

If the person responsible for this atrocity proves to be of the political right wing, that will be all the excuse the governing elites need to come down hard on the legitimate TEA movement that is struggling to bring this nation back to its roots, where it belongs.

God can work good out of anything, but we shouldn’t be challenging Him with such grievous sin. This is a sad day for America.

My prayers for the families of the deceased, that they might find comfort and peace, and that good will indeed come out of this.

An answer to invasive searches

November 17, 2010 — Culture and Society, tweet — 4 min read

The problem of identifying terrorists has become much more subtle than we once thought it to be, and our methodology of dealing with the problem is pathetically inadequate. There is not a machine or a manual inspection technique possible that will detect the explosive delivery methods that are already extant or that are coming soon. Yet the authorities continue to place all their trust in such inspection mechanisms.

Another chance for America, another chance for the church

November 3, 2010 — Church, Culture and Society, tweet — 8 min read

Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. -Prov 16:18

And so it’s true, pride comes before a fall; I’m telling you, so that you don’t lose all. – John Lennon, “I’m a loser”, 1965

Yesterday, America gave the Democrats an historic drubbing. It’s worth taking a look at why this happened and where were going.

Four years ago, when Barack Obama ran for senator from Illinois, he pledged that he would serve his full term and not merely use it as a springboard to the presidency. He broke that pledge one year later.
Obama then pledged that he would fully support the public campaign finance system, which has long been a Democrat pet issue, but when it was clear he could raise more money by private donations, he broke that pledge as well. He went on to remove even the most basic fraud preventions from his online donation system, opening his coffers wide to foreign and overlimit money. The FEC has yet to investigate this.
During the campaign Mr. Obama promised that he would govern pragmatically, not ideologically. But as soon as he was able to say, “I won”, he began an aggressive ideological agenda that was at odds with the will of the people. Far from seeking consensus, his opponents found themselves shut out of the legislative process, as Democrats threatened use of unheard of obscene parliamentary tactics, such as “deem and pass”, to achieve their goals.
Obama promised to be a uniter and a healer to a nation badly in need of both. But he used the presidency in an unprecedentedly divisive way, such as running a racially biased Justice department, and calling his opponents “enemies” and telling them to get in the “back seat”.
While America was crying out for jobs, Obama increased government regulation, spent a full year pursuing a radical agenda whose preoccupation was health care reform, and planned to raise taxes on “the rich”.
On the congressional side of things, when the Democrats took over the House in 2006, after she had finished her victory dance Speaker Pelosi pledged the most ethical, transparent Congress in history and that the congress would put an end to deficit spending. But this congress has been anything but ethical or transparent, and has far and away been the most fiscally profligate congress in history.

The Democrats have just found out that the tea party movement is not the fake “Astroturf” they insisted it to be. Americans decided that when the alternative is driving over a cliff, it’s better to put the car in a ditch. Sometimes we need to learn the hard way.

The good news here is not just the rebuke the Democrats have suffered, it is that the Republicans are doing no victory dances. Instead, they are repenting – in the case of Minority Leader Boehner, even with public tears – for having betrayed the American trust themselves when they were in power. If there was a victory yesterday, it was the Republican Party’s, it was America’s. A lot of people are getting the message that it is the nation that matters, not any fallen political party.

The challenge before the Republicans is to be faithful to the charge the people have entrusted to them: get government in order and out of our lives, shrink government so the private sector can create jobs and prosperity, rein in deficit spending so our children will not spend their lives in hoc to creditors around the rest of the world, and get our borders under control.

This election was not the final solution, it was only a beginning. We are still alive, and we have been given a chance to continue the reforms. That work will continue. The tea partiers came out of nowhere, seemingly, to become a major force in America. In the movement’s immaturity, some candidates were chosen who were weak. I doubt that a lack of viable candidates will again be a problem. If they are really serious about serving the needs of the nation, this movement will continue to prosper.

Even those Democrats that did survive, especially in the Senate, will now be looking over their shoulders. Obama has proven that he cannot protect those who support his unpopular agenda. We are going to be seeing an awful lot more conservative Democrats in the days to come.

Finally, I’d like to relate this to the church. America has been dealt a number of hard blows in the last decade, from the terrorist attacks, to two long, expensive wars whose lasting benefits are hard to distinguish, to one of its greatest financial collapses. We have been suffering from a deconstruction of values and institutions for several decades. Three generations have been indoctrinated into the defacto national religion, secular humanism, and the fruit has been bitter indeed. In short, America has lost its way.

This nation was founded on Judeo-Christian principles. How those principles play out has always been a subject of legitimate contention, but there was a line that at one time we would not cross. We now have crossed that line.

This is where the church comes in, in two ways. First, the church is to model the character and life of Christ to the culture. Ultimately, people always look for the basics in life that satisfy – truth, love and contentment – and this is what the church should be offering hungry souls. Secondly, the church is to speak prophetically into the culture, giving encouragement when it goes the right way and warning of the consequences transgression will bring.

The problem is that the church has been so shot through with humanist values, compromise and corruption that it has lost its witness and cannot speak with any authority. We no longer model Christ personally or corporately, so we no longer can speak to the culture with a clear voice on His behalf.

And if the bugle gives an indistinct sound, who will get ready for battle? -1Cor 14:8

The church needs its own major turnover like what we saw last night. We need a clean sweep of the arrogance and complacency that has kept us from acknowledging our neediness, putting God first and repenting of our sin.

I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent. -Rev 3:15-19

America is hurting and looking for answers, and the church is charged to provide them. If we don’t want to suffer the fate of the Democrats yesterday, we will be ready repenters and we will return to the Lord and His purposes for our lives.

Thankfully, the warning also comes with a promise, which we should take to heart and strive to obtain:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” -Rev 3:20-22

Yesterday, America was given another chance to get itself right, to come back to the ancient paths, to return to the Lord, that Rock from which we were hewn. The church too, including each one of us that awoke this morning and drew a breath, has been given another chance to get ourselves lined up with the Lord and His purposes for our lives. May each of us carefully heed what the Spirit is saying to the church.

Prayer:

Lord, you are our strength and our glory. Help us to surrender fully to the kind intentions of your will, and to serve you wholeheartedly, with gladness. Amen.

Taking back America

October 30, 2010 — Culture and Society, tweet — 3 min read

This has already gone viral, and for good reason. Christie has done an amazing job facing down deeply entrenched special interests that are destroying our nation from within.

I am glad that some people have the specific calling to the governmental realm, and are faithful to it. We with just the general call to citizenship need to get behind and support such people as they do the courageous thing. If we do not get this nation back on its foundations soon, it will be too late.

Economics are important, and indeed are essentially a moral issue, but the battle is not just economic. The root problem is spiritual. If we begin to separate the precious from the vile – and there is no shortage of “vile” floating around our culture – then we will have the Lord’s blessing on our economics, our war efforts, and everything else that we do (Matthew 6.33).

The church is central to this. The church speaks the prophetic word of God to the conscience of the culture. That is by no means the only way we bear witness to Christ, but it is an important way and should not be neglected. We have some work to do in fulfilling this role. We need to once again learn to speak the truth in love.

I’ve heard it said that we should not involve ourselves in “secular” matters. The nations are going to burn anyway, so let them burn, the argument goes.

It is true that the specific calling of the Lord must come before anything else. But one way the Lord works in us is by conscience, and conscience demands that we do what we can to protect what is honorable, and the innocent. We are called to occupy until the Master comes. We are called to be faithful stewards even regarding unrighteous riches, and that would include our fallen culture. And so very much is on the line in this coming election.

Each of us has a role to play. For Governor Christie, that role is to bring fiscal discipline to a government steeped in corruption and political correctness. He is doing a superb job supplying his piece of the puzzle.

Here’s the video, and the link for the full speech is underneath. Christie has a great speaking style. He simply narrates ad-lib, with an air of comedic audacity. But his underlying thesis rests on solid rock.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVriIcnVqUo

HERE’S the link for the full speech. Very much worth watching.

Out of the comfort zone, and on to victory

October 28, 2010 — Bible, exhortation, Faith, Spiritual Growth, tweet — 8 min read

Out of weakness were made strong – Heb 11.34

Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle –Ps144.1

The story of Gideon gives us a vivid biblical illustration of how the Lord can raise up a fearful, powerless person to be an overcomer. Gideon, you may know, was treading his wheat secretly in a secluded winepress when God spoke to him. The Israelites were outnumbered and out-armed by the Midianites, and had been “brought low” and were being badly abused. (Judges 6)

Gideon was hiding away, quite understandably full of fear, yet God chose him to defeat the Midianites, a task far bigger than he alone was capable of. The story of how God raised up Gideon to complete this task tells us a lot about how God works in His chosen vessels even today.

God’s first message to Gideon was that He was with him. And note that God addressed this fearful person as a “mighty man of valor”. In the midst of repression and reproach, God was speaking his affirming vision over Gideon. And Gideon’s first response was the classic, “if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?” Isn’t that always our biggest hurdle? To believe the good promises of God in the face of the daunting circumstances life can throw at us?

To overcome Gideon’s lack of faith, God began to give Gideon encouraging signs. First He miraculously consumed a sacrifice with fire. This terrifying event made fearful Gideon even more afraid – but it served to focus the fear where it belonged – on God. When we fear God we no longer have to fear man. Sometimes God needs to give us a jolt in order to awaken us to a new work.

Gideon now was encouraged enough to face the first challenge Lord asked of him. He was to pull down the town’s idols and replace them with an altar to the Lord. Gideon needed every bit of his newfound courage to do this (and indeed he did it under cover of darkness), because pulling down the town’s idols of choice was not a terribly effective way to make friends and increase one’s life expectancy. Predictably, the neighbors were up in arms afterward and aiming to kill him for offending their religious sentiments (remember, this was Israel, so you can see how far the people had fallen spiritually). It was only Gideon’s father’s intervention that saved him. His father essentially told the townspeople that they would have to go through him to get to Gideon, and then he had the wisdom to challenge them to let their gods punish Gideon if those gods really were so powerful (v. 31).

Gideon’s father’s courage and wisdom saved the day, at a point when Gideon was just starting out in his walk of faith and he was very vulnerable. If we see our brothers striking out against the idols of today and in a vulnerable position, we ought to do the same for them.

Gideon was strengthened by his success, and now the Lord was ready to call him to fight the Midianites. For this new task Gideon would need an extra dose of encouragement. He prayerfully put out a fleece one night, and the next day it was drenched with dew while everything else was dry. But to be absolutely sure that he wasn’t imagining the whole God thing, he repeated the experiment. This time the fleece was dry but everything else was wet. At the mouth of two or three witnesses every thing shall be established.

The Lord was raising Gideon up, and He was doing it by mixing affirmations with challenges. First He would show Gideon His mighty power, and then He would challenge Gideon to do some risky faith-stretching exploit. If God had given Gideon support with no challenges, Gideon would have grown complacent and would never would have grown up spiritually. And if He had given challenges with no support, Gideon would have been spiritually paralyzed and also would not have grown up spiritually.

Father knows how to balance our spiritual “nutrition and exercise” in just the right way in order to work what is best for us. While we are going through the discipline, at times it doesn’t seem balanced to us at all. It seems hard. But that’s inherent in the definition of testing faith. By nature we crave the familiar status quo, and God sometimes has to make us uncomfortable in order to get us to move forward.

It behooves us to get into agreement with God early. The more in harmony with God we are, the less disruptive and painful our spiritual growth will be.

Now the battle with the Midianites loomed. This was big. Gideon must have felt relieved when some thirty-two thousand men showed up, forming a significant army. But God had a problem with that – the job had to be done with fewer men, so that the glory clearly would be His. So He had Gideon thin the ranks. Those who were afraid were allowed to leave, and twenty-two thousand did so.

That left an army of ten thousand brave men, but that was still too many. At the Lord’s direction, Gideon separated out three hundred more men. That wasn’t such a lot of soldiers to lose, Gideon may have thought. But if he was thinking that way, he was much mistaken – it wasn’t the three hundred that were to be sent home, it was the 9700! God was going to send Gideon into battle with a mere 300 men! Clearly, God was VERY intent on receiving the glory Himself!

This was a challenge, indeed. Do you see the dynamic here? When God chooses one to be a vessel of His glory, He begins a process of stripping him of his natural strength. This forces him to rely on God alone – not man, not his own abilities, but God alone.

At this point, Gideon understandably began to question and fear again. And so the Lord shifted back to Affirmation Mode. He sent Gideon sneaking into the enemy camp, where he “just happened“ to overhear two soldiers discussing an unlikely dream whose interpretation confirmed that an impending victory awaited Gideon.

This would be the last bit of encouragement that Gideon would need. His assurance was complete, and he went on to execute his bold battle plan magnificently. The fearful man initially alone and hiding from his enemies had been transformed into a military leader whose breathtaking boldness shocked, confused and terrified the enemy into self-destruction.

Very often when God raises up a person out of strongholds such as fear, depression and despair, He will use a process similar to the one He used with Gideon. He will demonstrate His protection and power, but at the same time He will lead His wavering warrior into challenges previously undreamed of, where new levels of overcoming faith are required.

To walk with God requires courage, but to seed that courage He goes out of His way to reassure us of His faithful providence. As with Gideon, often our fear is not completely taken away initially. There may be a period in which both fear and courage are present together, working against each other, and godly character develops as courage dynamically overcomes the fear.

It’s a growing process, and as our faith grows our heart becomes more healthy. God knows exactly what we need. If we give Him our willingness, He will work in us to bring about godly change, even dramatic change. And it’s a win-win all the way around. God builds His character into us and sets us free from our strongholds, and at the same time we become useful to Him in setting others free and in building up His Kingdom.

The story of Gideon is a fascinating, vivid study in how God can work in even the most fearful person to overcome extremely daunting odds. The good news is that the story is not about Gideon alone, because what is written of him was written for our instruction, as an example to us. Whatever obstacles you face, what God did for Gideon he will do for you, if you will believe the promises and rise to the challenges He allows in your life.