GRACE BLOGS COLLECTION
I awoke one morning this week with a heavy burden to pray for our country. It was a day after another of the tweet-wars that captures the media's attention. It was as if I could hear God saying, "I'm serious about Christian responses to accusations."
Of course, I agreed that we have sunk to a low level of social interaction, and immediately prayed again that President Trump would stop the vitriolic tweeting. But there was more. There was a warning that hit me in the face.
Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them; pray that God will bless them ... And don't think You know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone ... never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God, for the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back." Says the Lord ... Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good. (Romans 12:14-21 NLT)
That is not just for the President. That is the authoritative word of our Lord to all who have been blessed. (That's us.) That is how Christians demonstrate the difference Christ makes in one's life.
Anyone can be vindictive. Anyone can return insult for insult. People who have been delivered from the curse of disobedience and blessed with the grace of resurrection-life can do better. We are not receiving curses, so we don't pass them on. We are recipients of blessings, so that is what we give away.
There is massive power released when we bless rather than react naturally. It is the secret weapon of the Christian. It cannot be defended. It is empowered by the authority of heaven. It takes the teeth out of the crouching tiger of evil. It overcomes evil with good.
The warning: If we don't bless instead of curse, evil will conquer. God is very serious about our presumption. We are not in charge of revenge. We are too limited in our knowledge and too underdeveloped in our character. God alone can mete out true justice. We get to patiently wait for him to set everything right -- and he will. He has paid a high price to do so.
The objection that some use is that the current trend toward accusation and slander is working. They see the enemies of their ideology being confronted with the same vitriol as they give. It is easy to reason that the only way to fight fire is with fire. We could console ourselves by remembering how long their opposition has been ruthless. "Finally, we have stood up to the vile attacks of the enemy," we sigh. We must remember that God is not mocked. Whatever we sow will come up. (Galatians 6:7)
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God's mercy is longsuffering, but his justice is sure. For instance, God did not judge his people Israel for their idolatry on the first day of disobedience. They had years of believing that their rebellion was working, before their land was taken and their temple was destroyed. We must not erroneously conclude that we can ignore God's order still avoid chaos.
Why not start a movement of blessing? I am not suggesting some religious drivel, but down in the dirt, real, praying for God to bless those who slander and accuse us. We don't have to act like some school yard kid kicking back at bullies. We are sons and daughters of light. We know who we are and we know a power stronger than curses. Let's use it.
The second Psalm is often quoted by the writers of the New Testament. It contains, in a very short form, the best advice ever given to the nations of the world. It captures the turmoil of the nations trying to find a way to make life work. There is hostility, tyranny, scheming, and endless debate. It sure sounds a lot like our times. Take time to read it:
Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain?
and the kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,
"Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." -Psalms 2:1-3
The lie of secularism is that to ensure personal freedom of choice, God and all standards of order that have been recognized by religion must be eliminated. The truth is that order has been evident well before religion recognized it. It is not necessary for everyone to personally ascribe to religious doctrines for social structures to operate by the laws of order. It has been plain since the beginning:
For what can be know about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. -Romans 1:19-20
The idea that everything contained in religion must be jettisoned for there to be objectivity, is silly. It makes God laugh.
He who sits in the heavens laughs;
The Lord holds them in derision. -Psalms 2:4
All sane people recognize that there is some problem with humanity. Different religions have different diagnoses, but all agree that there needs to be a solution for whatever ails mankind. The God of the Bible, the Lord of Israel, the Father of Jesus, the Judge of the whole earth, says that humans are fallen.
Given the choice to trust God explicitly or lean in to the serpent's lie, the first pair fell from their exalted state and became alienated from God. Filled with fear and shame, they hid from God, and the race has been trying to find a way back to the peace and prosperity of Eden ever since.
In the unredeemed state, humans are self-obsessed and often illogical. Having rejected the "logos" (word) of God, which enables us to think logically, they constantly contradict themselves and think illogically to false conclusions. They propose that we can free ourselves by casting off the boundaries of divine design, blind to the fact that it is slavery to sin's deception which drives such thinking. The freedom they fantasize about is nothing short of anarchy and chaos.
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With no restraints, human depravity destroys the dreams of everyone. Ideologues plot ways to categorize people to control them. Identity politics is just the latest iteration of that failed scheme. When the various categories are vying for first place in the victimization race, hostility produces a revolutionary temper.
When all transcendent restraints are mocked, chaos is the only possible result. Historically, the solution has been tyranny. Some would-be savior steps in to bring order, and subjugates people to his or her whims.
At first there is relief, but it soon turns to disillusionment. Remember that many thought the communism first proposed by Russia would be the way of the future. Then we saw its deception bring death to millions. It is a terrible judgment when the Lord of creation gives fallen man what he demands.
Then he will speak to them in is wrath and terrify them in his fury, saying, "As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill." -Psalms 2:5-6
The human problem was solved by God becoming a human and doing whatever was necessary to reconcile humans to himself. His Son is established as king over all. He paid the price to restore humanity to its original intent. He, the Son of man, is now ruling from the right hand of the Father.
Those who "kiss the Son" are bowing in reverence to him, submitting to his order and finding the liberty the human heart has desired since that fatal fall in Eden. It is foolish to neglect or reject the king whom God set in place to rule the nations. It is freeing to know that we can again be partners with him in ruling the earth.
Now therefore, O kings, be wise;
Be warned, O rulers of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him. -Psalms 2:10-12
Good advice!
The latest embarrassing eruption of incivility in the public eye has been reported recently including several people in President Trump's administration being harassed by those holding different political views. But it has been escalating for some time with multiple universities shutting down divergent political voices that might question the prevailing sexual revolution's agenda.
Late night TV is rife with vitriol, and public dialogue is becoming more difficult each day. Many are uncomfortable with what is going on, but mostly we shrug it off as a sign of the times. Bad mistake! What we are seeing is more dangerous than just a disturbing trend.
Like children caught by their parents in a disruptive shoving match, both sides are saying, "He started it." Democrats blame President Trump for making the election campaign about personalities and referring to other candidates by negative monikers. His personal tweets have undoubtedly added to the furor.
Republicans tend to blame the Obama administration and the biased Media. They still smart from the Saturday Night Live episode mocking Governor Sarah Palin and other personal attacks by the Hollywood elite who leverage their stage for their often ill-informed agendas.
But, it goes back farther than either. It was the problem of the first family, but not the one in the White House. It was Adam and Eve's boys: Cain and Abel.
Both had brought an offering to the Lord. Abel was into livestock, while Cain was a farmer. Their offerings reflected their vocations, but God accepted Abel's offering while rejecting Cain's.
There has been much discussion of why God accepted one and not the other, but the point is that Abel's offering reflected a good heart, and Cain's did not. Being rebuked by the Lord, his countenance fell. The Lord confronted the disappointed, distressed, downcast Cain with a choice that would either bring life or destruction.
The Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it."
Genesis 4:7
The rest of the story is a tragedy. Cain chose to be the victim. He listened to the lies about being treated unfairly; that a conspiratorial oppressor was making his life harder than others. In refusing to confront the crouching sin, he gave in.
Under the impression that he was fighting for his own justice, he was oppressed by the Liar whose purpose is to destroy. Obsessed by his cause, his anger boiled into hatred for his brother. He felt no responsibility for him and effectively shut him down. It was murder.
It is the story of the inevitable fruit of victimization. Those who are convinced that they are oppressed, when fueled by irresponsible anger, will become the oppressor.
There can be no meaningful dialogue with someone we have dehumanized.
It was the story of Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, and many other dictators who killed millions of people to justify their theory of social justice. It could happen again.
Our society is being divided into competing oppressed minorities. Those perceived as oppressors are enemies and must be shut down, or eliminated. There can be no meaningful dialogue with someone we have dehumanized. They have nothing to add to our conversation. They are only obstacles to our ideology and must be removed.
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This can only end badly unless someone makes the choice Cain could have made but didn't. The lies that promote victimization must be actively confronted with the truth. Things won't get better without such a choice. It is a false hope that we will eventually grow tired of the vitriol and return to civility. Anger fueled by victimization is not rational and will not subside on its own.
The Lord reminded Cain that he knew the right thing to do and that by choosing to do it, the crouching evil would be thwarted. We too have choices. We can make an acceptable offering to God. We do that by trusting the offering that our representative, Jesus made in our stead. He alone qualifies with a pure heart and an adequate sacrifice to truly honor God.
When we are "in Christ" we will never hear God rejecting us. Then, we can accept responsibility for where we are. We didn't have a choice in so many factors that led to where we are, but we do have a choice now in how we respond.
Without doubt, some of our angst is the results of injustice. Some are the results of our own decisions. But, regardless of how we got here, our choices must start now from where we are to move forward.
Next, we can accept the revelation of who we are. Our identity is not derived from our membership in an oppressed group. We are humans, created in God's image with the privilege of making decisions that matter.
We are not the creator, but his creatures. That is, we were not designed to know everything, and possess ultimate power. We are limited and therefore need each other. We can't afford to demonize those who are different. We need them to provide perspective and motivation. Just like Adam needed Eve, we need those who aren't just like us but have a common mission.
We know what to do. It is time to do it. The destroyer is crouching at the door of our decision. We can reject the lie that what we do doesn't matter. It does.
We are God's agents in his creation, and every decision we make affects the whole. We can make sure that each decision we make today will help make the world better rather than worse.
We can decide that each word we say today will build and bless rather than demean and destroy.
We can, as light-reflectors, push back the darkness one decision at a time. We are not on the defensive.
There has never been a confrontation between light and darkness when darkness won. We are not victims of anything. We are agents of light and darkness is on the run.
Any sane Christian is both appalled at continual racism in our society and eager to uncover any residue of it in his or her own heart. It continues to be a problem, even in the community of believers, because we do not take seriously the new race into which we have been born.
In the famous text of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus, Jesus says this Jewish leader, "You (plural) must be born again." (See John 3.) In essence, he is saying: "Israel must be born again."
The Israel of the Old Testament was a community created in the wake of the Exodus. God acted in mercy towards these descendants of Abraham and delivered them from bondage to be his people of witness on the earth. Those who identified with that story were members of that community. God gave them his Law as instructions on how to live as that special community of his people.
However, they misunderstood the full purpose of God. They used the Law as a barrier separating themselves (as elites) from other people, rather than seeing the Law as a gracious guide to living in relationship with a merciful God and reflecting him to others.
A new community growing out of a new exodus story was brought about by the Spirit rather than the Law. Jesus came as the substance of all the shadows of Old Testament events and rituals. Jesus is the new Moses. He is the Messiah (Israel's representative). He fulfills the Torah as well as all the promises and prophecies made to old Israel.
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There is a new people on the earth. They are born of the Spirit, and he guides them in daily living. God has accepted them based on Jesus' righteousness in their stead. The same love that caused the Father to send his Son and the Son to sacrifice his life dwells in them. Their ethic is motivated and measured by this kind of love. They have no need of a Law to control them or to identify them.
The evidence of their inclusion in God's new race is their fidelity to Christ alone and their love for others. Conformity to sectarian norms is not the issue. Whatever other race-markers have been used in the past to identify and categorize people are eliminated in this new race.
In reality, there are only two groups of humans on earth. The first is composed of those chosen to be the instruments of blessing to the other group. The second is the group not yet born of the Spirit, but loved. Daily, many from the second group are becoming members of the first. There is no elitism in either.
The elect are aware they were chosen because of God's mercy, not their merit. The others are grateful for mercy shown to them through the vessels of mercy. Neither their color, their culture, nor their geography matters. When one fully identifies with the new exodus story by trusting Jesus alone, he or she is included in the new race. They are more than sons of Adam or sons of Abraham in the flesh. They are sons of God and children of the Resurrection.
We stand in need of renewing our minds to this reality. All around we hear the chatter from those who are still searching for some identity markers that will give them status.
How we feel or what others may say doesn't change reality. We are not just individuals trying to stay right with God so we can obtain his blessings and ultimately make it to his heaven. We are his people on earth now and in heaven. We are his family, community, and nation.
All our decisions should take our new identity into consideration.
When I left my little country church and went off to the university to prepare for my calling as a minister, I felt a little intimidated by those who came from larger churches with more sophisticated ministries. After all, there wasn't much in the way of entertaining church services at my church.
Mr. Jack would lead the congregational singing, but many of the hymns seemed to drag unnecessarily. Mrs. Mildred would play the piano in a kind of staccato style. The same deacons took up the offering every Sunday. The pastor was in training at a Bible school and came to the church field only on weekends. Well, you get the picture. I was tempted to be embarrassed by my church.
But, we must remember that God has not made provision for a plan B. It is his Church, and he is committed to its success.
It seems there are many today who embarrassed by the Church. It takes a beating in the media, which is to be expected, but it also is being dismissed by its own. Some are even demanding it catch up with the culture as if the culture were the norm for truth and morality.
It is easy to find things wrong with churches and even the Church at large. After all, it is made up of humans who have confessed to being sinners and needy of God's grace. The Lord we worship is perfect, but all the rest of us are in-process, discovering more of his love and being transformed at different paces.
But, we must remember that God has not made provision for a plan B. It is his Church, and he is committed to its success. He is building it. When all other social structures have fallen, it will still be standing.
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Here's the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say). It was a Wednesday night prayer meeting at my country church. The usual 15-20 people were there. The same folks were praying similar prayers. A visitor slipped in. Of course, in such a small, tight-knit group, he stood out. You could see whispers during the prayer meeting as members were asking each other who it might be.
Finally, just before the benediction, he stood and asked if he could say something.
You don't know me, but I am a traveling salesman. My route brings me by this church on Wednesdays twice a month, on my way to Atlanta. I have been doing this for most of twenty years. I did not go to church as a boy and have not seen the need for whatever churches do. But, I always noticed that regardless of the weather there was a light on here. I have been by on cold rainy nights when only three cars were parked, but your light was on, and you were here.
I've had some hard times lately, and in the middle of it all, I have come to know Jesus as my Savior and Lord. One of the reasons I could never fully dismiss the reality of God was my memory of this church and the light always being on. Thank you.
Not perfect. Not sophisticated. Not highly trained. Not entertaining. But they kept the light on. So, will the Church of the living God.
