Stuck In the Middle

          On October 1^st a law went into effect in Massachusetts that specifically cites churches as falling under the public accommodation restrictions in regards to its anti-discrimination laws which is, of course, code for pro-LGBT legislation. It is essentially the reinforcement of the usual gender flexibility gobbly gook, placing claims of sincerity above biological reality. Any place that “accepts the patronage of the general public” would be required to abide by the commissions directive,” which states,

“Even a church could be seen as a place of public accommodation if it holds a secular event, such as a spaghetti supper, that is open to the general public.”

As far as my understanding goes, churches are always open to the general public. I have yet to be turned away at the doors of any church anywhere as being ineligible for admittance due to my “general public” status.

To anyone whose been paying attention, this really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The tides have been trending this way for a while now. It is troubling for sure. But surprising? Certainly not. Before long, churches, Christian schools and organizations will be forced to choose between compliance with what has been traditionally held as immoral and a-scriptural or loss of their tax-exempt status and any kind of federal or state aid. This is no longer an issue of mere tolerance or acceptance. Anything less than exuberate and open celebration will be viewed with disdain, disapproval and swift ramifications.

The middle ground is quickly disappearing. In truth, I suppose the middle ground never really existed. It was as fictitious as Don Quixote’s ferocious windmill giants. Really, what we had imagined as being issues that we could take a neutral or unobtrusive stance on are bulldozing us all to the middle line that runs between the two sides. It turns out, No-Man’s Land has an owner. There is no fence for us to walk on. It’s one side or the other, and by side I don’t mean one being the traditional or biblical view of sexuality and the other the frantically bizarre view advocated by politicians and radical fringe groups; I’m talking about the line between a biblical worldview and all other worldviews.

By the end of the book of Joshua, the children of Israel had been led into the promised land. They had overthrown the cities of the nations hostile to Jehovah and the land had been divided amongst the tribes. Joshua was old. He had brought the people into the land that God had promised to them. In a place called Shechem, Joshua reviews all that the God had done for them, from the covenant with Abraham to the occupation of the territory of Canaan. Then he says to them,

“Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The Israelites had a choice. God wasn’t going to force them to follow Him. He hadn’t done so in the wilderness, nor would He do it here. The choice was theirs. Of course, they said that they would follow the Lord, far be it from us to forsake the God who delivered us from the hand of Pharaoh and all that but that was followed by about 400 years of apostasy. Joshua has seen the flakiness of the people in the wilderness, how they had complained against the Lord, doubted Him, disobeyed Him and rebelled against Him. He warned them, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God. . .” If the people were going to pledge to serve the living God, they would have to be of an undivided heart, both personally and as a nation.

I find myself in a similar place. With a history of faithfulness, God is offering me all of His promises, His presence, His power and His perfect will. My heart would cry out, Yes! As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord! But so often my flesh comes in and prattles on some religious platitudes and 2 pages later I begin to struggle with the concept of being wholly devoted to Christ, and maybe this isn’t really compromise, and surely this small thing doesn’t hurt anyone, and so on and so forth. Maybe the reason that Joshua was able to follow the Lord whole heartedly was because Joshua’s commitment was based on who God was, while the Israelites only made mention of what God had done for them. One worshiped God for the very person that He is, the other for how He benefitted them.

But back to the middle ground issue, I think that we as the body of Christ are going to see more and more the truth of the what Jesus said in Matthew 12:30, about us not being for Him is being against Him and that those who do not gather with Him scatter. It is all or nothing. For anyone who knows me, this election cycle has really moved me to a different place in regards to how I am going to handle the candidates put before me. To accept this as being a binary choice and voting for the “lesser of the two evils” is, for me, a violation of my conscience, an attempt to stay on the middle ground. While my political views are unpopular and misunderstood by many of my fellow conservatives, I am grateful that at least in that arena, I am pretty grounded in as much as making the right choice according to what my principles dictate. But what about other areas, areas that perhaps I don’t feel so inclined to have to explain, things that maybe are more private, issues that don’t seem to be as big of a deal so I don’t think about them or pray about them as much as I probably should.

How about my relationships with my family, friends and even strangers? Do I find my patience wearing thin with those closest to me because they just don’t seem to be changing or even willing to change? Bear in mind that it is quite possible that they need to change. But when prayers seem to go unanswered and words seem to fall on deaf ears, do I give up and write them off? Do I treat others to a cameo of the old self, the one who cared only about self and what they could get out of a relationship with little or no thought to the other person’s needs and desires? Do I spend my time flirting with superfluous accessories instead of committing my time to Jesus and letting Him lead me to do what He wants me to do with it?

When we become so wrapped up in living a double life, compromising between spiritual things and temporal things, we end up not living life at all. Pastor Gregg Laurie once said that a compromising Christian is the most miserable of people. They have too much of the world to be happy in Jesus but too much of Jesus to be happy in the world. We want to hold on to other things instead of simply clinging to Jesus, but with all that stuff in our hands, it becomes impossible to hold on to anything. In an attempt to not lose it, everything falls apart.

“Now it happened as they journeyed on the road, that someone said to Him, ‘Lord, I will follow You wherever You go.’ And Jesus said to him,

Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.

Then He said to another, Follow Me. But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him,

Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God.

And another also said, ‘Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house.’ But Jesus said to him,

No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

(Luke 9:57-62)

Believers have a high calling. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that living a life of devotion to Christ will be a charmed life, void of offenses and untouched by conflict. Following Jesus will cost us our lives. Bringing about redemption cost Jesus His. I have a choice to make, to live a life committed to being a disciple of Jesus, or to live for myself. I can live where it’s comfortable and deal with the consequences later or I can live where it’s uncomfortable and reap the rewards later. But I feel inclined to believe that the time is coming swiftly when the choices will not be so benign as we would have made them out to be. They will be made for us. The only relevant answers will be, “Yes I follow Jesus,” or “No I do not know Him.” Just know this: no coward wakes up in the morning and suddenly decides that today is the day he will do something courageous. The makings of a hero have been brewing inside of him, shaping his character, molding his fortitude and driving his passions. There will come a day when God will require an answer from us on who we decide to serve. I pray that in that day, I will be found ready and able to answer, Yes Lord, I will follow You.

Salt of the Earth

I remember being back in college and learning about salt. You learn about such things when you chose to major in health and nutrition. Valuable information, no doubt; probably not the best use of a college education though. But that’s another story for another time. As with so many things, I veered off the course my studies wanted me to go and did my own independent research. In the case of salt, though sorely demonized by diet dictocrats everywhere and downplayed among mainstream nutritionists, the history of salt is rather fascinating.

          Believe it or not, salt is actually essential to life. It is one of the basic taste buds with which we are equipped and for good reason. Salt is necessary for the digestion of protein and carbohydrates, for adrenal function, brain development and cellular metabolism. Without it, we die. Kind of makes all those low-sodium diets sound sort of grim, don’t it? Aside from the physiological role that it plays in the human body, the story of salt in the history of civilization reveals that long before mankind could explore salt scientifically, we were aware of the value of this substance. In 2200 BC, the Chinese emperor Hsia Yu levied one of the first known taxes on what? You guessed it. Salt. Marco Polo noted that the people of Tibet used tiny cakes of salt impressed with images of the Grand Khan as currency. Frances of Anjou, in 1259, financed his conquest of the kingdom of Naples with the salt tax. And in 1785, the Earl of Dondonald claimed that 10,000 people a year were arrested for salt smuggling in England.

          Granted, I know that ancient medicine is, well, ancient, and while I certainly wouldn’t encourage the practice of bloodletting to treat a fever, experience (and experiment) often leads to interesting finds along the way. Just because it’s old doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s wrong. That said, salt has been used in medicine since the time of the ancient Egyptians. They used it primarily to treat infected chest wounds. It worked by drying out the wound and acting as a disinfectant. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used salt-based remedies topically for skin legions, internally for digestive problems and steam inhalations for respiratory congestion. A Roman military doctor by the name of Dioskurides, author of Materia Medica, which has been and continues to be used by botanists and herbalists as one of our most valued resource materials, recommended salt for the treatment of skin disease, dropsy, infections, earaches, mycosis, digestive upset and sciatica. It wasn’t really until spa therapy became popular in the last century that scientists began to investigate salt, and it wasn’t until the 1950s that it was studied in any kind of detail. It continues to be used for treatment of disease in clinics around the world.  

          Many religious practices incorporate salt into their traditions and rites. A Buddhist will throw salt over their shoulder before entering a house after a funeral in an effort to repel any evil spirits that may be clinging to him. Certain American Indian tribes worshipped the Salt Mother and had restrictions on who could eat salt, reserving it only for priests and others in higher casts. In 1933, the Dalai Lama was buried sitting up in a bed of salt. In India salt is considered a symbol of good luck and a reference to Gandhi’s liberation of India from British rule, when he led a 200 mile walk to the sea to gather tax-free salt. Judaism recognizes salt as a symbol of the covenant between God and Israel, and Christianity as a symbol of purification.

          Even our language is peppered with salt references (no pun intended). A good worker is “worth their salt.” The word “salary” is derived from the Latin salarium, referencing the salt that the Roman legionnaires received as payment for their service. Even those oh-so-healthy greens we love so much have an association with this mineral. Salad literally means salted vegetables. Raw vegetables served with a dressing of oil, vinegar and salt, otherwise known as brine, was considered peasant’s food.  

          Once considered worth its weight in gold, salt has been an integral part of our history. So when I read this quote, it struck me as poignant:

“Salt is so common, so easy to obtain, and so inexpensive that we have forgotten that from the beginning of civilization until about 100 years ago, salt was one of the most sought-after commodities in human history.”

Mark Kurlansky, Salt: A World History

This really is a striking concept when you consider what Jesus refers to believers as:

“You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor how shall it then be seasoned? It is good for nothing except to thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

Matthew 5:13

          Just as humans have a biological need for salt, so do we have a spiritual need for Christ. The God-shaped hole is real, but more than empty, we are broken. Broken by our own bent towards destruction, selfishness, pride, and false, albeit convenient, affirmation. It tears us from God. It isolates us from each other. It even rends us from ourselves. The gospel makes us whole again. It causes a beautiful masterpiece to emerge out of a James Pollock mess. This good news has been singularly the most earth shattering and history altering gospel ever to be preached and lived. Nowhere on planet earth in any era has anything effected the history of mankind as much as Jesus Christ. If the proof is in the pudding, then the reality of our saltiness should be the way our faith affects our lives and the lives of those around us.

For a real scholarly read on the subject of Christianity’s influence in western thought and culture, check out Francis Schaeffer’s book, How Should We Then Live? In it he outlines the radical kind of impact biblical Christianity has had on pretty much every area of life. Here are just a few examples of that influence:

-      It was the gospel that brought an end to the practice of infanticide in the Roman empire

-      While the religions and societies of ancient Rome and its surroundings considered women to be merely property, the gospel stated that all are created equal and that God shows no partiality. Not only are woman equal in value but they are to be loved and respected.

-      2/3 of the abolitionist movement in the 1830s were followers of Christ

-      Education for the masses has its roots in the Protestant Reformation for the purpose of teaching people to read the Bible so that they could know God for themselves.

-      Rational truth, whose only foundation is in Scripture, is the only means by which we can study the world around us. Just ask Boyle, Pascal, Pasteur and Newton.

-      Even a form of government that is democratic in nature is founded in the Bible as it is the only system that allows for freedom without chaos. America is not the only nation that has tried freedom; we are simply the only ones that made it work because we recognized that freedom is based in a knowledge of God and His Word.

These are just some of the repercussions on society of believers living what they profess. The power of the gospel takes selfish people and causes them to lay down their lives for others. It is what drove Mother Teresa to devote her life to ministering in the colony of the lepers in Calcutta. It is what caused David Wilkerson to start Teen Challenge, a ministry that reaches out to young people with drug and alcohol abuse problems. William and Catherine Booth founded the Salvation Army. Amy Carmichael left her home in Ireland and went to India, rescuing girls from temple prostitution. Nate Saint and Jim Elliot made their home in the jungles of Ecuador. Rachel Saint and Elizabeth Elliot returned to live among the very people who had murdered their husbands. 

But natural unprocessed sea salt is way different from the white granulated stuff you will find on most dining room tables. And not all Christianity is the same. Just because you slap a ichthus on it and tune the radio to the K-Love doesn’t mean that it is the same faith that turned the world upside down. The truth is that truly admirable people, the kind that inspire us, are the incredible people we know them to be because they were willing to walk through fire with the knowledge that even if God didn’t bring them out the other side unscathed, they wouldn’t compromise or cower at the inflated threats of a self-deceived world. They stood their ground. They put their trust where it was due: in Christ.

Sad to say, but the face of Christianity is not the same today was it was even 20 years ago. The heart of it is: that never changes. But we are the face, and the face has undergone some plastic surgery. My dad used to tell me that God was worth the struggle. Lately I have been convicted in this area. How much do I really struggle for God? It’s not that He is inaccessible, but am I willing to fight through the noise, push through the distractions, quiet the relentless hollering of my own inclinations and desires to know Christ? Am I willing to lay down my life, as He did, for others? Am I concerned with His kingdom or mine? Would I rather have a good day or make today a good day for someone else? Does my complaining outweigh my gratitude? Does entertainment take precedent over spending time with Jesus? Would I be interested in being with the body of Christ if there wasn’t anything in it for me? Is my fishbowl so small that apathy and superciliousness marks my attitude towards anything outside of it? As things get darker and darker around me, and the world seems to be little crazier than it was 10 minutes ago, I find myself forced to ask myself these questions. What kind of Christian am I going to be? The salty kind, or the cheap substitute?

           Being a Christian is hard. But hardship makes heroes. Difficulty makes difference makers. There is a wealth of stories about ordinary people that God used in extraordinary ways, simply because they were willing to let their salt get out of the shaker. Read those stories. Be encouraged and inspired to live a life of faith, fully surrendered to God. We need to be committed to the Lord in such a way that our lives cause others to be thirsty for Christ. Let it not be said of us that our generation was the one in which Jesus was so common, Christianity so easy to obtain and grace so inexpensive that we forgot that from the beginning of time until within the last few decades, Christ was the most sought-after thing in human history.

Whatsoever Things

“Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things. The things that you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the peace of God will be with you.”                                                                                Philippians 4:8-9

These are two of the hardest verses in the Bible as far as I am concerned. They seem so benign and happy, so innocent. Something one might see embroidered on a pillow or wall-hanging. But seriously, the practicality and reality of it is severe. When the darkness is closing in, when the insanity of the world around is escalating at what seems like an unprecedented rate, the fatalist in me throws up her hands and leaves all hope behind. Instinctively, I just want to find a hole and curl up in a ball while I wait for the chaos to resolve itself. Negativity often appears easier than alacrity. They tell me it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. If that’s the case, my face wants a workout because a long face just feels much more natural.

For one thing, I have a nature that naturally gravitates towards that which is melancholy and dark. Although a born again spirit puts a brake on the downward spiral, it is still a conscience decision on my part not to go there. It’s like alcoholism. I believe that some people who are alcoholics are more inclined towards the addictive tendency to drink. Nonetheless, it is still their decision to indulge that tendency. What comes naturally is not always right, and because Jesus not only eradicated the punishment of sin but also broke the power of it, we can be free and changed from those things in our lives that “we just can’t help.” Still, it is our choice.

Secondly, substandard information is copious. Regardless of where I turn, low value entertainment, advertising and news is everywhere. There just doesn’t seem to be a safe place to turn to any more than isn’t full of the nonsense that I shouldn’t want, and honestly really don’t want. But oh man, do they make it look oh-so-good. Society has so perfected the strategy of normalizing sin, that even believers are willing to accept below par value systems. Ungodliness is anything makes righteousness seem strange and wickedness seem normal, someone once told me. And that is precisely what we see today.

“Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20)

Go to your local library, or Redbox, or look at the top picks on Netflix. In my library, a conservative estimation is that 60% of all the movies they have are rated R. Walk through the mall, turn on the TV or flip through a magazine and look at the advertisements. Is it necessary to include the innuendo? That really sells your product? Check out the headlines on the front page of any news source. Rioting, shooting, scandal, economic collapse, terrorism, and the like is all you’re going to find. Bad news sells.

Society has also become a world of incessant noise. Very few people have learned the value of just being quiet. In one of my favorite books, The Screwtape Letters, in which a senior demon advises a junior demon on how to destroy his “patient” Screwtape says, “. . .silence — how I detest [it] … no square inch of infernal space and no moment of infernal time has been surrendered to either of those abominable forces, but all has been occupied by Noise — Noise, the grand dynamism, the audible expression of all that is exultant, ruthless, and virile … We will make the whole universe a noise in the end. We have already made great strides in that direction as regards the Earth. The melodies and silences of Heaven will be shouted down in the end. But I admit we are not yet loud enough. . .” Not loud enough? Gosh, somedays I don’t know how it could get any louder. Not all “noise” is bad, mind you. But it is awfully distracting. The noise of my family, my friends, my job, my finances all have the ability and the tendency to crowd into my mind and steal away the sweet silence, solitude and private that this world is so desperately starved for. Now I have no intention of quitting my job and joining a nunnery so as to focus more on Christ (as least not yet), but it is a battle to remember that those distractions, those noises have a time and place. And when it’s not their time and place, they must be quelled.

But note something about those verses up there. Go ahead, read them again. Yeah, there is no indication that it is negotiable. It’s not a suggestion. It’s a command. When Paul wrote those words, he was in jail! Not the easiest of places to have a positive outlook. In 2 Corinthians he details the trials that he had been through, beatings, prison, shipwreck, stoning, robbers, and so on and so forth. Yet he tells the church to do the things that they had observed him doing, rejoicing in the Lord, being content with what he had wherever he was and placing his focus on wholesome things. That doesn’t mean that Paul pretended those things never happened to him. It’s not a denial of darkness around us but it is refusing to make our home in it. If you have believed and trusted in Christ, you have been transferred from the power of darkness into the kingdom of Light. Why try to go back and settle down in the old town? Is that really where you want to live?

Again, it is a choice we each make, where we put our focus. Throughout history, heroes have existed only in the darkest of times. They had every opportunity to despair. But had they given in to that they would have accomplished nothing for the kingdom. Doesn’t mean they didn’t struggle. Doesn’t mean they didn’t feel like giving up. They simply pressed on, lifting their eyes to one who could see the whole landscape, rather than just the valley they were in. There is a war that goes on in each of us. I heard it described this way. We all have two dogs inside of us. One of the dogs is evil and mean and the other one is good. The mean one always wants to fight with the good dog. Which dog wins the fight, we ask. The one you feed the most. Put garbage in, you’ll get garbage out. But put in the Word of God and have a thankful heart and it’s a whole different ball game. We are surely living in dark times, maybe to get even darker. But it is not for us to give up. God never gave up on us. And He is what we should be clinging to.

“It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn't. They kept going because they were holding on to something.”

“What are we holding onto, Sam?”

“That there's some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it's worth fighting for.”

More Than Just #NeverTrump

Conservatives find themselves in a very awkward position this election year. We have been presented with two overly unqualified candidates (and yes, I did say overly unqualified) and bullied into believing that it is either or. Those that stand on the pro-Trump side claim that a vote against Trump is a vote for Clinton. Those who favor Clinton accuse us of wanting to start World War 3. I was astounded by the outcry against people like Ted Cruz who encouraged voters to vote for the candidate that they trusted to uphold the Constitution. Don’t worry about party affiliation (a sentiment echoed by the founders), don’t worry about the probability of them being elected. Just vote your conscience. Selfish, political, and petty is only the beginning of the accusations. Is that really such a terrible message? Vote your principles, vote your values, vote your Bibles. That a refusal to endorse someone that we feel in unfit to be the Commander-in-Chief of this nation would invoke so much vitriol is shocking, especially because so much of it is coming from the Christians.

Conscience is defined as the that which distinguishes between what is morally good and what is morally bad and prompts us to do the former and shun the latter. It is our Jiminy Cricket if you will, that gut instinct when we know that something is right or wrong. Our conscience is the still small voice inside us that tells us what is good. It is unconcerned with popularity and convenience. The relationship between the conscience and the vote is one that the founders of this United States of America took very seriously. They recognized that this system of elected officials, checks and balances, term limits, etc., was new to the world. We had a unique form of government, one in which the citizens had more of a say than ever before in history. Matthias Burnett, a pastor said,

“Consider well the important trust . . . which God . . . [has] put into your hands . . . To God and posterity you are accountable for your rights and your rulers. . .. Let not your children have reason to curse you for giving up those rights and prostrating those institutions which your fathers delivered to you. . .  Look well to the characters and qualifications of those you elect and raise to office and places of trust. . .. Think not that your interests will be safe in the hands of the weak and ignorant; or faithfully managed by the impious, the dissolute and the immoral. Think not that men who acknowledge not the providence of God nor regard His laws will be uncorrupt in office, firm in defense of the righteous cause against the oppressor, or resolutely oppose the torrent of iniquity. . .. Watch over your liberties and privileges - civil and religious - with a careful eye.”

That, my friends, is voting your conscience.

Why Clinton is out of the question is pretty obvious. Forget her horrible history as Secretary of State and in the NY Senate, the woman was under FBI investigation while she was running for office. The FBI conceded that she is indeed guilty of crimes and jeopardizing the safety of our nation, yet she remains un-indicted. As for Trump. . . I don’t know that there could be a less appealing candidate for conservatives to vote for. As a Christian and a conservative, there are issues that act as a litmus test for me and Mr. Trump just doesn’t pass.

1.   He is unclear on where he stands on abortion. Although very pro-abortion in the past, he claims to have changed his views. It can happen and if it has, praise God! However, he is very reluctant to take federal funding away from Planned Parenthood, which is confusing and leaves me wondering where he really stands. Why should my tax money continue to go towards funding a practice that I feel is immoral and to the for-profit organization that performs it?

2.   His position on Israel is similarly unclear. To be sure, Trump has made pro-Israel noises — and very loud ones. But as with so much else, the only consistency of Trump's remarks is their off-the-cuff and contradictory nature. At his AIPAC speech, Trump announced that he would both dismantle and enforce the Iran Deal. He has announced a policy of neutrality when it comes to aiding our most dependable ally in the region. Trump has also blamed Israel for the Middle Eastern conflict saying, "I don't know that Israel has the commitment" to make peace, and effectively exonerated the Palestinian side when he said that peace depends on "whether or not Israel wants to make the deal ...."

3.   Trump has a terrible record on free market issues. The only bright spot is his criticism of the Federal Reserve’s intervention in the debt market, but this is countered by his repeated support for bailing out Wall Street, the banks, the auto industry, and increased stimulus spending. Of particular concern is Trump’s belief that the government has the right to seize private property in the name of private economic development. This comes as no surprise, given his support for using eminent domain to profit his own company.

4.   Trump’s views of the Second Amendment are in cohesive. Particularly since the Orlando shooting, Donald Trump has staked out two wildly different stances on gun control. On the one hand, he has publicly appeared to back the Democrats' top gun control initiative in Congress while at the same time endorsing the possession of concealed weapons among people drinking alcohol in bars and nightclubs—a position that even the NRA admits is probably not a good idea.

Compound those issues with the fact that he is incredibly egotistic, lacks any kind of tact, and has not shown himself to be a man of character or integrity, I have not found Mr. Trump to be a conservative. I haven’t even found him to be a republican. And “nothing is more essential to the establishment of manners in a State than that all persons employed in places of power and trust be men of unexceptionable characters. The public cannot be too curious concerning the character of public men,” so says my friend Samuel Adams. Of course no candidate is perfect. But should we not hold our public officials to high standards, those who make and enforce the law of the land?

Phew! Well, now that I’ve got that off my chest I can talk about what I really wanted to talk about in the first place. Of course, another Clinton presidency would be a travesty. But here’s a news flash. There are over 6 billion people in this world, many of whom would make a much worse president than Hillary Clinton. But do we sacrifice our conscience to prevent that, if our conscience so dictates? As Christians, we have a greater hope, a greater security, and a greater freedom than the government could ever give or take away. The one who rules the nations, who sets up kingdoms and disposes of them? Yeah, we know Him. He has used righteous and unrighteous men to establish His will. And He is able do more than we could possibly imagine. But it starts with His people getting serious about spiritual things. This election isn’t about politics. No election is. It’s about our character, our faith and our worldview. If we claim to believe that God calls us to live lives of integrity and purity, how can we think that anyone striving for less is qualified to run the country? If we claim that God is involved in the affairs of men, how can we think that He cannot or will not intervene here, if we do the right thing? If we claim to be the salt of the earth, how can we then refuse to preserve it? This is called hypocrisy. Our actions contradict our words and we make a mockery of the gospel. We must make a choice. We either believe that what the Scripture says is true across the board or we don’t. But we don’t get to have our cake and eat it too.

So ask me again why am and always will be #NeverTrump.

Because I believe that my job is to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these earthly things, including the leadership that we really need to carry out the purpose and will of God, will be added. 

Because I believe that it is a mandate, not a suggestion, to be anxious for nothing but in everything by prayer and petition with thanksgiving to let my requests be made known to God, and the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus.

Because I believe that I am held accountable for the people that I endorse through me vote.

Because I believe that evil is evil, even if it is “the lesser of the two.”

Because I believe that God is able to use a teenager and a rock to take down an undefeated giant if only that teenager acknowledges that there is indeed a cause.

Because I believe that He can not only defeat the darkness, but that He gives us the courage to run into it with the light.

Because I believe that even if He doesn’t intervene, it is better to have a clear conscience before Him than man.

Because I believe that my worldview matters.

So if Trump lines up with your principles, if he does it for you, knock yourself out. But please don’t tell me that I am self-serving for standing on my principles or for living like what I claim to believe is actually true. Whatever happens, whatever the culmination in November is, vote your conscience. Vote as if your ballot determines nothing except the shape of your own character.

True Love

There is an epic scene in The Princess Bride (isn’t every scene in that movie epic?) where Inigo and Fezzik take Westley to Miracle Max so that he can be revived, stop Prince Humperdink’s marriage to Buttercup and most importantly, help Inigo avenge his father’s murder at the hands of the six-fingered man. Max, not particularly interested in the venture, attempts to send them away. But really, who can resist Fezzik? He’s a soft but deadly teddy bear. Max lets them in and fills a bellows with air and pumps it into Westley’s lungs. Before he forces the exhale by pressing on Westley chest he asks him what it is that is so important? What does he have worth living for? Westley softly gasps, “True love….”

“Ah ha! Did you hear that? He distinctly said ‘To blave,’” Max quickly says. “And as we all know, ‘to blave’ means ‘to bluff’, heh? So you were probably playing cards, and he cheated-”

At that moment a haggardly woman appears and screams, “Liar! Liar! Lia----r! True Love, he said "True Love", Max.”

True love. #Lovewins. As long as we love each other. This all seems to be the focal point of life. The zenith of our existence, the pinnacle of relationships, the highest of emotions appears to be love. Unfortunately, we often interpret true love as ‘to blave’ and vice a versa. As with so many things, society has really lost touch with what love really means. Parents who “love” their children try to be their friends, indulge them and refuse to enforce any kind of discipline. Is this love? Whether married or not, people will flirt with, sleep with and whatever else with whoever they want to, in the name of love. Is this love? When disagreement with a particular lifestyle is considered hate speech one must ask, is condoning everything that everybody does love?

So what does love mean? And where do we get our definitions of love from.

I would say that most folks probably get their notions about love from the media and Hollywood. Entertainment has become the model after which much of society replicates its life. At its most basic level, the media teaches us two things about love:

-      Love is meant to fulfill us and make us happy.

-      Love and sex are synonymous, and the more uncontrollable desire and passion is, the stronger and purer the love.

Fewer people might get their definition from a dictionary. There we might find it defined as such:

-      Intense feelings of deep affection

-      Deep romantic and sexual attachment

These descriptions are rather similar in that they both are about the lover and the satisfaction of their desires.

But as followers of Christ, we need to get our understanding of love from the Bible. Scripture says that God’s very essence is love and that no one and nothing is equal to Him and His demonstration of it. There are so many Scriptures dealing with love and so many pieces have been written by those wiser and more spiritual than myself. For the sake of simplicity, let’s sum it up like this:

-      Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

-      1 John 4:10 “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”

-      1 John 3:16 “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us.”

A little bit of a difference between this definition and the others, no? According to Scripture love isn’t so much about the lover but about the beloved. Love gives of itself, dies to itself, lays itself down for the sake of the one he loves. The object of real biblical love is not really deserving of it, but rather it is the love that makes them so. C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Four Loves, (worth the read) says,

“For the Church has no beauty but what the Bridegroom gives her; he does not find her, but makes her, lovely.”

Love finds us stubborn, unfaithful, depraved, ungrateful, dirty and undeserving. But it is love that breaks down our pride, crushes the power of sin that holds us in bondage, cleanses us and makes us faithful, thankful and deserving. We are unworthy yet receive the most. Christ is all worthy and receives the least. And it’s important to remember this because we are the object of that Love. God demonstrates His own love towards me in that while I was still a sinner, Christ died for me.”  There is nothing quite like love of God, is there? It touched the untouchable, healed the impossible, comforted the mourners, and preached the good news, never giving a thought to personal space or privacy. It was lied about, mocked, denied, betrayed and beaten. Finally, as Love hung naked on an executioner’s cross, mingled with blood and tears, struggling for breath, it uttered two unthinkable words: Forgive them. And if Christ so loved me isn’t it only right that I love other people the same way?

Aha, and so now we get down to it. It is all about our response to the world we live in. Let’s face it, this world is a weird place. Our government is corrupt. The loud mouths have an agenda that is both anti-God and anti-America. Schools invite Planned Parenthood to speak to children about an ideology that justifies promiscuity and the murder of innocent children. Nobody knows what bathroom to use. There is a push to disarm the populace thus emboldening our enemies. The economy is on the brink of collapse and there is no national pride. The two extremes that I have observed in much of Western Christianity seems to be that either we will tolerate everything and confront nothing or else we confront everything and tolerate nothing. One results in a gross misconstruing of the gospel and the other results in a gross misconstruing of the gospel.

When the Bible says that love covers a multitude of sins, it does not mean that love tolerates and accepts a multitude of sins. Jesus never excused people’s sins. He was not afraid to call it what it was. Yet it is the love and the kindness of Jesus that leads us to repentance. Jesus did not accept the sin of the woman caught in adultery but neither did He condemn her. He told her to go and sin no more. He did not leave the man possessed with a legion of demons to remain among the tombs. Even the Pharisees, who Jesus was constantly confronting about their pseudo religiosity and unbelief, brought Him to weeping for the hardness of their hearts. Sin is sin and hypocrisy is hypocrisy and Jesus died for sinners and hypocrites. What drew me to Jesus was not that He was OK with my sin, but rather that He was willing to get into the mud and muck that I had made my home in and pull me out of it!

Real love, true love has the power to change things. It is not an emotion. It is not a hype. It is not a whim. It is a Spirit-led reaction that only comes to those who are led by God. Love says “no” when it has to. Love does not let people walk off a cliff because they might not want to hear the truth that there is a cliff. Love doesn’t shy away from confrontation because it’s unpopular. But love knows when to confront and how.

Abby Johnson was the director of a Planned Parenthood clinic for 8 years. She honestly thought that she was helping women. But after participating in an ultrasound guided abortion she left the industry, resulting in a lawsuit by her former employer which consequentially put her at the forefront of the pro-life/pro-abortion debate. But behind the scenes, there had been a group of people who would stand outside of her clinic. I know what images this conjures in our minds. Angry white men yelling, name calling and holding signs of aborted babies. But these people didn’t do that. Oh, they didn’t hide their stance on abortion. But they showed the love of Christ. They prayed. They prayed that God would bring light and life into the lives of both the patients and the staff. “They were friendly and showed genuine interest in me,” she told me. “They built a relationship, they wanted to know my name and things about my life, not to publish it publicly or make threats but because they really just cared about me and wanted to know who they were praying for and what my deepest needs were. They were confidential as well and never sent out ugly postcards with my name, face or address on them. I think those things made a huge difference in building my trust and giving me the courage to quit.” Since then Abby has been a major voice in the fight for life. She also founded an organization called And Then There Were None, which reaches out to abortion clinic workers, helping them leave the abortion industry and find healing and forgiveness. And Then There Were None has helped 240 clinic workers leave the industry, including 7 doctors! God spoke to her through the love of those faithful people outside the that fence.

Love is a name that means something. And love can do amazing things when God’s people live it in the world around them. “When there is much pain to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all.” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain)

“For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”                                              2 Corinthians 5:14-17

The Beginning

"The bridge of grace will bear your weight, brother. Thousands of big sinners have gone across that bridge, yea, tens of thousands have gone over it. Some have been the chief of sinners and some have come at the very last of their days but the arch has never yielded beneath their weight. I will go with them, trusting to the same support. It will bear me over as it has for them."

Charles Spurgeon

This is the story of the Christian, a sinner who’s trusted the strength of grace to safely get them to the other side of the great chasm that lies between him and a holy God. Nothing more. Nothing less. There are no other aides or supports.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says it this,

“For it is by grace you have been saved through faith and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.”

And it continues on in verse 10:

“For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

I have tried so hard to pin down exactly why I am starting this blog but haven’t really been unable to concisely condense it. I guess the best I can do is the above verse, what with being God’s workmanship and walking in the good works that He has prepared for me. It can be easy to push off what we feel He is calling us to because, really, who wants to read my random thoughts on anything? But if this is where He is leading me right now, I don’t really have the choice of disobedience.

God’s grace has been my relentless pursuer throughout my entire life. I believe that God wants us as believer to extend that grace to the world around us. It is a dark and hostile place, but we have the light and the only peace that can ease its woes. That doesn’t mean that we are always nicey-nice, never step on toes or engage in confrontation. It’s just that we, being led by the Spirit, know when to confront and how to hurt without harming.

I take courage from Paul’s exhortation to “not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.” (Galatians 6:9) Who knows what awesome things God has for us, if only we would have the courage to obey and the strength to press on. I guess we’ll have to try it and see.