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My heart has no desire to stay, where doubts arise, and fears dismay…

How efficacious is God’s Word for today? Have the times changed so much over the centuries that we cannot still receive direction, and comfort from God’s Word?

Matthew 22:15-21, {Moffatt} Then the Pharisees went and plotted to trap him in talk. They sent him their disciples with the Herodians, who said, “Teacher, we know you are sincere and that you teach the Way of God honestly and fearlessly; you do not court human favour. Tell us then, what you think about this: is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” But Jesus detected their malice. He said, “Why do you tempt me, you hypocrites? Show me the coin for the taxes.” So they brought him a shilling. Then Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness, whose inscription is this?” “Caesar’s,” they said. Then he told them, “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, give God what belongs to God.”

The current talk around town has to do with not only the health care bill, it also has to do with taxation. The current administration is hell bent to take away wealth from people and give it to illegal aliens and people who refuse to work. I just heard about a law being worked on that would allow gummint to have access to our bank accounts…I assume that includes safe deposit boxes.

Yesterday, I spoke with a person who informed me they have money in a safe deposit box, and a small safe in their home. And my military mind went back to stories I recall about life in communist Russia. Not only was the gummint able to look into your bank accounts; they would periodically change the monetary medium, leaving people with money stashed away, without anything. Once the dollar bill you hold is no longer acceptable, you are out of luck. Yeah, the gummint would allow people to bring in their old money and trade it in for the new…Yes, another way of keeping track of how much money you have.

When the people allow the gummint to rule over them, they have to accept that whatever the gummint can control, they will.

And God’s Word reminds us, “Give to Caeser what is Caeser’s, and give to God what is God’s”.

This should give us cause to stop and cogitate on where our priorities are. As a Christian, my first priority is supposed to be God. The Psalmist said it succinctly, “The LORD is my Shepherd, I shall not want…” The argument appears to be that Christians don’t want a democracy, they want a theocracy; and I have to look back at the people who laid down their lives, livelihood, and wealth to establish this country as a God-centered land. And as I look around, I see “Christians” who are more concerned about their money than what God wants them to do.

As a Marine, my loyalty, my priority is, God, country, and Corps. See???, that assumes me is at least fourth in line for priorities. And yet, we can get so caught up in making sure that I am taken care of first. Oh, right! “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” See, that moves me down the priority line also. What I am trying to say, is gummint can take everything away, but they cannot take away my belief in, my trust in, my hope in God Almighty.

We elected a person who ran on the platform of “hope and change”. Bottom line, and I think we Christians have misplaced this idea, is that only God can give hope. Only God can make the change in a life, that will bring hope. Only God is to be worshipped and depended upon.

Random thinking when I don't get paid for it

This morning’s devotional readings got me to thinking about a couple of things, that relate to what is going on in our world, or more to the point, in our country.

First, “Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right. For such is the will of God that by doing right you may silence the ignorance of foolish men.” “Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.” (1 Pet 2: 13-15, 17, NASB).

Submission is a difficult concept for us to consider. In this postmodern world, we have been conditioned to reject any semblance of being subjected to another person. We are so full of ourselves, and we preach constantly that “self-esteem” is the number one priority for each of us. What is “self-esteem”? Is it not, realizing that you are just as good as the next person; and just as worthy of love and appreciation as is the next person.

We have been taught that submission is being a doormat, that people can walk on and clean their feet with. Now that I think about it, perhaps this explains why the divorce rate, and inability of employees to get along with bosses, and employers is so high. I sense, also, there is a modicum of lack of trust in others, that exacerbates our prejudice against submission, or submitting. It probably doesn’t help any, that the term “submission” conjures up images of people being tied up, whipped, humiliated, and treated as scum of the earth. Yeah, what healthy ideas we have pertaining to submitting.

Should we ever go back to the basics, we would find listed in the book of Psalms, this passage: “But God is the Judge; He puts down one and exalts another” (75:7, NASB). How unfair! It is God who chooses who is to be leader over another? Doesn’t He understand how devastating that can be to our psyche, and our self-esteem? Ah, perhaps now we have gotten to the heart of our rejection of submission…we don’t trust God! We just cannot believe He has our best interests in mind, when He places someone over us.

Secondly, we are called to “honor all people…honor the king”. Actually, this goes hand-in-hand with submitting. When I refuse to submit to another, to accept my place in the scheme of things, I cannot in all true honesty give honor to another; especially because I feel I deserve the honor more. You see, it can become a tiring, endless circle of trying to be better, and more deserving than others. Yet, God calls us to accept our position, realizing that He has placed us just where He wants us. Jesus is the Great Emancipator, He is the ultimate Savior; yet, he got to His position by submitting to the will of God.

The Apostle Paul adjures us to “Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look our for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of me. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights inb the world“ (Phil 2:3-8, 13-15, NASB).

Ah, so that’s it…we are in training mode here on earth for a life that is far more better than we could ever imagine; but are we interested in making the grade, or is self-esteem more exciting?

Finally, I consider the thought of love. Where is love in this ole world? God calls us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might (Deut 6:4).” Jesus goes one step further by calling us to: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might, and you shall love you neighbor as yourself“ (Matt 22:37, 39).

Methinks, in the event I cannot trust God, in order to submit myself to authorities, then I cannot love God with all my heart, soul and might. If I cannot love God, then I sure am not going to be able to love myself, and you can forget about any love being there for my neighbor. I am too involved in my own personal life to be aware of God working in and through my life. Sure I love my new car, cuz it inflates my self-esteem; I love my beautiful garden, cuz it inflates my self-esteem; I love my job, cuz it inflates my self-esteem. I can’t love God, myself, and my neighbor, cuz it calls me to forget about myself, my self-esteem, and submit myself to God as the ultimate Authority. And so, I struggle, here in this life, trying to get through as much of it as I can under my own power, while felling good about myself.

May God have mercy on our souls.

God’s Word For Today

Dear children, let us not love in word only and with the lips, but in deed and truth. In this way we shall come to know that we are loyal to the truth, and shall reassure our hearts in His presence in whatever matters our hearts condemn us ~~ because God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. [1 John 3: 18-20, Weymouth]

Unable to agree among themselves, they as last left him, but not before Paul had spoken a parting word to them, saying, “Right well did the Holy Spirit say to your fathers through the Prophet Isaiah: ‘Go to this people and tell them, you will hear and hear, and by no means understand; and will look and look, and by no means see. For this people’s mind has grown callous, their hearing has become dull, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes, or hear with their ears, or understand with their minds, and turn back, that I might cure them’ (Isaiah 6:9, 10). [Acts 28:25-27, Weymouth]

Time out

The tragedy of today is that there is a tacit kind of agreement, conscious or unconscious, that Christianity is impossible. And this agreement is not among non-Christians, but very often among Christians.

It is clear that Christianity is regarded as impossible in the international world.
A world which has agreed that the only way to keep peace is to possess so-called nuclear deterents has clearly come to the conclusion that Christianity can be written off as an impossibility in the relationship between nation and nation.

It is clear that Christianity is regarded as impossible in the industrial sphere.
It seems impossible for the two sides to sit down at any industrial dispute without each of them being firmly convinced that the one thing that matters is self-interest.

It is clear that Christianity is regarded as impossible in the political sphere.
Any politician who announced that he proposed to judge each issue in terms of soul and conscience and so to cast his vote would quite certainly be told in effect that the party whip was very much more important than his conscience, and that the party line was very much more important than the Christian gospel.

It is even clear -- God forgive us -- That Christianity is regarded as impossible in the Church.
Before a man, at least in certain quarters, is allowed to preach the gospel or to come to the communion table, the question that is asked is not, “Is he a Christian?” but, “To what denomination does he belong?”
We have come to a stage today when we are content to shut Christ up within the church, and when we quite bluntly regard it as impossible to bring Christianity into the ordinary concerns and affairs of the world. Christianity has become rather an optional extra on the circumference of life than a complete essential, dominating the whole of life. What happens if we let Christ out? That is not the question, for the question for the Christian ought always to be, not, “Is it safe?” but, “Is it right?”

Daily Celebration, William Barclay, Word Books, Waco, TX, 1972, pg 111

Morning wakeup

"Ironically, Job's only consolation comes from himself. Like many a great preacher, he finds himself in that excruciatingly lonely position in which his own sermons are the only ones that really speak to him.

"Perhaps this is the very school in which great preachers are made. When a sermon has real power, and when it comes with fire and with tears, is it not because the preacher is first of all preaching to his own soul?

"The reason he preaches to his own soul is that he can find no one else who will preach to him the message he himself so desperately needs to hear.

"A story is told of Charles Spurgeon, who was subject to black bouts of depression. One time he felt so crushed in spirit that he simply could not carry on with his commitments in his home church.

"Hurriedly he arranged for another pastor to fill in for him and then left town for the weekend.

"That Sunday he attended a tiny country church, where the sermon that was preached had such a dramatic effect upon him that immediately his depression lifted and he felt totally refreshed and eager to return to his ministry.

"At the door he introduced himself to the young, inknown preacher, thanking and praising him mightily.

"The poor man seemed dreadfully embarrassed, however, and finally he had to confess that the sermon he had just preached was in fact one of Spurgeon's own."

Excerpted from The Gospel According to Job, Mike Mason, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, 1994, pg 229.

Four years of teaching in the Navy, and five years of preaching in a local church have impressed this idea upon my heart and mind.

It is a little advertised fact that the teacher learns more than the student ever will, and this is true for the preacher also.

A twenty minute sermon, will never, ever speak to what a preacher has learned, and discerned, in preparing the message.

I have often wondered how it was that my sermons were not being understood, as I understood them; and it seems the sermons were the Holy Spirit, actually speaking to me the eternal truths, that I needed to hear, and that anyone who followed the Christly admonition, "Those who have ears, let them hear" would have heard, and understood.

A second axiom, that really doesn't necessarily follow is: "Hindsight is generally 20/20".