What Is Different?

This is the second chapter from Gary Miller’s Reaching America: God’s message has not changed but our culture has. The first chapter was titled Awake, Alive, and Multiplying, was the prior post. If you missed the last post, I suggest you read introductory chapter one before this chapter for clarity.

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Those first exciting days of the early church must have been marvelous to behold. The end of the fourth chapter of Acts summarizes those exhilarating days like this:

The whole congregation of believers was united as one— one heart, one mind! They didn’t even claim ownership of their own possessions. No one said, “That’s mine; you can’t have it.” They shared everything. The apostles gave powerful witness to the resurrection of the Master Jesus, and grace was on all of them. And so it turned out that not a person among them was needy. Those who owned fields or houses sold them and brought the price of the sale to the apostles and made an offering of it. The apostles then distributed it according to each person’s need. Acts 4:32-35 The Message Version

So far in Acts, we don’t read of any selfishness or covetousness. Instead, we read of selling, sharing, and serving. What a beautiful sight? We don’t read of problems or disagreements among that first group of believers. No wonder the early church multiplied and grew even in the midst of persecution. This wasn’t just something that happened at a yearly revival – the church increased in numbers daily. This was a movement you would want to join. It was a winning team.

Then, in the very first verse of the fifth chapter, we find these words: ”But a certain man named Ananias,” and from there on we read of believers involved in lying, murmuring against other believers, even disagreeing so sharply they couldn’t travel together. There was conflict over who could be accepted in the group, what was required to be a disciple of Jesus, and whether certain leaders were qualified. In fact, after the book of Acts, the majority of our New Testament is letters to churches dealing with problems and trying to hold things together. Regardless how beautiful its beginning, it seems the Christian church had a very short honeymoon. Looking back from out vantage point today, the history of Christianity is littered with disillusionment and conflict.

So how do we view that initial tantalizing picture we read about in the part of Acts? Was it just a brief experiment that failed? Or something that worked great at firs,t but is not replicable? These are the questions many of us have struggled with. Why doesn’t evangelism work like that where we live? Why don’t our neighbors come knocking on our doors asking what the secret is to our inner joy and happiness? Why are churches closing in America? Why is the fastest growing segment in our Western culture those who don’t profess any religious belief at all?

To answer these questions, it is essential to briefly back away from our American experience. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is intended for the entire world, yet so often we become Western-centric in our thinking and blinded to global reality. God is at work in other countries and cultures as well, and looking over the wall into other settings may help us answer these questions. It may also assist us in reaching out here in America.

My first direct exposure to church life in a restricted country was in 2007. I traveled with another man to encourage underground Chinese church leaders, and the experience was very eye-opening. I had read stories about the spiritual vibrancy of these “house churches.” I had heard of their faithfulness during intense persecution and listened to accounts of strong leaders willing to stand against a godless communist regime. I was prepared to meet spiritual giants. What I found was not what I expected.

Instead of experienced leaders, I found leaders who were overtaxed yet undertaught. Thes men and women were strong on conviction but weak in experience. They were humble people who were well aware of their deficiencies. Tears were always at the surface, and earnest prayer was their constant companion. I remember sitting on my bed early one morning looking over my notes I had prepared on the subject of prayer. I had an outline with bullet points, and thoughts I had gleaned from others in the past. But as I reviewed my note, I kept hearing a group of pastors in the adjoining room. They had been praying for hours, starting before I was awake, and it seemed as if they would never finish. Yet it was not the length of time but their passion that moved me. I couldn’t understand the language, but I could grasp the emotion. These people were praying in a way I never had. Putting my notes back in my briefcase, I realized there was no way I could speak to them about prayer. I was completely unqualified.

Some of them had been believers for only a few years, yet they had been asked to lead churches. One leader was only eighteen years old, yet was the primary overseer of several congregations. The church had grown so fast there simply was no one else in their city with more experience. Over and over, I heard stories of healings, of miracles, of new believers. The expansion was happening faster than their ability to provide Bibles, so some churches had share one Bible among the entire group. What I was seeing in China in 2007 was almost an exact replica of what we read about in the first chapter of Acts. In both scenarios, the church was expanding at an exponential rate, evidenced by miraculous events and purposeful, productive evangelism. How different from my experience in America!

Since that time, I have had the opportunity to see this in other countries as well. I have seen Muslims – even a fervent Imam – come to faith. They had observed the incredible change in new Christians’ lives and had come asking for the power of Jesus for themselves. Some of these were quiet citizens who became a powerful force in sharing the Gospel. Visions and miracles are not uncommon in these restricted countries, and reading their stories is every bit as exciting as the first chapters of Acts. There are so many similarities between the experiences of the early church and what is happening in places like China that there is no question in my mind – the book of Acts is not a record of a one-time event. It is a pattern of what real evangelism looks like. And it is still occurring around the world today. Then I look at America …

Why is our nation so different? Why don’t we commonly see tremendous church growth, dramatic miracles, or radical life transformation stories? It is not for the lack of programs. An incredible amount of money and energy has gone into advertisements, Gospel tracts, and all kinds of media intended to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet many of these efforts seem unfruitful. I know a sincere   man who had a deep burden for the lost in his city. It had a population of over 200,000 people, and he was not sure how he could reach them. After spending time in prayer and talking with a few others, he came up with a plan – they would canvass the whole city.

Enlisting a group of men, they prayerfully went house to house, covering the entire metropolitan area. At the conclusion they shared their results. Some people were friendly but uninterested; others slammed their doors in frustration. Only a few were interested in listening to their message. After all that well-intended effort, not one person committed his life to the Lord.

My goal in sharing this story is not to discourage this type of effort or to insinuate we should not pass out tracts. We should definitely have this kind of burden for the lost. But it does surely illustrate the dilemma we face in reaching out in America. Most of us have found our culture is a difficult place to evangelize. But why? 

Awake, Alive, and Multiplying!

God’s message has not changed – but our culture has.

In the book of Acts we see amazing things happening! The church was vibrant and life changing, with new converts being added daily. It was a force to be reckoned with, and even the local authorities were alarmed.

But that was a long time ago …

And today we see only a few unbelievers coming to faith in Jesus and joining Anabaptist fellowships. What has changed? Do we need more programs? Is it our lack of passion for the lost? Or are we , our neighbors, peers, employees, friends and family, etc., simply distracted by work, family, numerous commitments, hobbies, ease, electronic devices, entertainment? Bottom line — is it their problem, or, is it ours?

In this thought provoking book, Reaching America, Gary Miller takes a closer look at these sobering’ questions. To help us understand the spiritual condition of America and how to respond to people’s questions, he reviews some of the calls received by Christian Aid Ministries’ Billboard Evangelism program from Berlin OH. He also explores ways to reach out to our neighbors, peers, friends and family, emphasizing how we can use our homes to effectively share the love of Jesus in these last days, as witnessed by by Adriel and Orpah in the early days soon after Pentecost. Get a cup of coffee and enjoy your moments of revelation.

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The hot sun had finally penetrated the stone walls of the house, and soon her children would start trickling in for the evening. Leaning against the stone doorway, Orpah brushed a loose strand of hair from her eyes as she watched her children playing in the narrow street outside. Her husband Adriel had been gone from their home in Jerusalem a few days now, and his absence always made time creep by. Adriel’s business frequently took him to cities along the coast. Traveling in a caravan of fellow traders, Adriel took these trips to purchase products for his business.

The children always seemed more disagreeable without the authority of their father, and facing the constant quarrels alone was burdensome by the end of the day. Deciding it was time for a reprieve from housework, Orpah picked up her water jug. Their village well was the source of more than just water. It was where news was obtained and gossip was passed on, a place where their mundane toil could be briefly forgotten. Heading out the door, she almost collided with twelve-year-old Micah.

“Mother,” he gasped wildly, “you can’t guess what happened! That lame man – the one who always sits just outside the temple gate – you know which one. He was healed! He’s walking around out there. Someone even saw him jumping.”

Orpah sat down her water jug. “Now slow down, Micah. You mean the beggar with the crippled foot? Walking? You must be mixed up. He’s been sitting in front of the temple for years.”

“Yes, that’s the one!” Micah continued excitedly.

Slowly Orpah began to fit the pieces of this strange story together. This must be connected to that group of people who claimed the prophet Jesus of Nazareth had risen from the dead. Orpah’s thoughts whirled. Could it be possible that even the resurrection story was true?

Her weariness forgotten, Orpah scurried down the narrow cobblestone street, hoping to learn more. She had heard about this man Jesus and the miracles He had done. But Jesus was now dead – unless you believed the story He arose.

That evening as Orpah’s family had gathered for the evening meal, there was only one topic of conversation. Everyone had heard about the miraculous account, and each child wanted to share the details he or she had gleaned. One thing was certain: the story seemed true. Some had even witnessed the beggar’s exuberant leaping as he praised God!

Orpah listened to the excited prattle of the children. What did all this mean? How could a couple of rough fishermen heal someone? One of the women at the well had said that according to her rabbi this new Jesus sect was attempting to destroy the Jewish religion. Frowning worriedly, Orpah wiped her hands on a towel and wished again that Adriel was home. He was a steady man, good at seeing through controversies and peddlers of erroneous doctrines. She was sure Adriel would be able to explain this latest fraud.

But the next day only bought more confusion. Word on the street was that the great Sanhedrin had gathered to consider the matter, Stepping to the door, Orpah  could see clusters of women chattering excitedly. Obviously the religion leaders saw this movement as a dangerous threat to Judea’s stability. Orpah turned to go back into her house, but not before she caught a glimpse of Deborah hurrying toward her.                               

Living next door, with children about the same ages, the two women saw each other often. Deborah had a reputation in the neighborhood of being cantankerous  and troublesome. She was known as a woman to stay away from. It was common to hear Deborah’s shrill voice echoing down the narrow cobblestone street, and though she was a close neighbor, Orpah didn’t trust her and tried to maintain some distance. Today, however, a very different Deborah knocked on Orpah’s door.

Orpah graciously invited Deborah In, silently bemoaning the mandatory hospitality that made it impossible to do otherwise. But an hour later, Orpah stared at the departing figure of her neighbor, trying to comprehend what had happened. Deborah had come to apologize for her past behavior. She had expressed regret for anger and lying. She had apologized for strife she had caused in the neighborhood. She had even confessed to stealing some flour from Orpah, something Orpah would have never known. And if this wasn’t enough, Deborah had also shared her newfound faith in this Jesus. With a countenance that glowed with peace and joy, she told of coming to believe in the resurrected Jesus and the change this belief had brought to her life.

Orpah sat in silence, trying to wrap her mind around this sudden transformation. Who were these mysterious, Jesus followers anyway?

Adriel returned home that evening, followed by a train of donkeys carrying his recent purchases. Orpah had never before been so glad to see him. Running out with shouts of joy, she and the children told of the tumultuous events that had occurred during his absence. Adriel listened, expressionless, as he and a servant unloaded the donkeys. When the work was finally completed, the family gathered for the evening meal, and the conversation continued to circle around the recent happenings. Two more priests had now joined the Jesus movement, and the whole city was in a stir.

Suddenly Orpah realized that Adriel had not been entering into the conversation. “Adriel, what do you think about all this? Do you think this movement is a threat to our people?”

Adriel paused thoughtfully before responding. “There have been many men who have risen up and created a stir among the people of Israel. But we Jews are a resilient people, and we have survived because our leaders have viewed such new movements with caution. But it’s been a big day; let’s clean things up and go to bed.”

As she prepared for the night, Orpah marveled at Adriel’s noncommittal reply. He was a man of strong convictions. Why this sudden reluctance to enter into the discussion?

After the children were asleep, and they lay in the silent darkness, Adriel suddenly spoke with quiet urgency. “Orpah, there’s something different about this Jesus of Nazareth movement. It’s not just the miracles. Some of these could be rumors and exaggeration, but I heard and saw some incredible things on this trip – things that are even more amazing than a lame beggar walking!”

Orpah waited breathlessly. One of the children stirred and Adriel waited, then continued in a quiet whisper.

“You know the men I travel with. They are good merchants; I have traveled with them for years. Every one of them has consistently pursued wealth and profit with passion. In the evenings we have always sat and discussed two things: How to increase business  profitability and what we plan to do after we have made our fortune. It has always been that way.”

Adriel paused. A donkey brayed in the distance, and Orpah waited.

“But this year something was different. Joses is the wealthiest in our group. He is the one we always have looked to for advice. A couple more trips and Joses won’t have to work another day in his life. Well, at least he wouldn’t have to.

“What do you mean, Adriel?”

“Well, Joses recently became a Jesus follower and last month he gave his land to that group. Imagine that! Year after year he has saved, scrimped, and traded. Now, he suddenly gave it all away.!” Adriel’s voice rose and Orpah hushed him.

“But why? What will the group do with it?”

“That’s what I asked him. And believe me, we had some long talks as we traveled. In the past, wealth was his primary pursuit. Now it’s different. He believes that this Jesus was actually the Messiah who died for us. He said when a man grasps the beauty of Jesus’ kingdom, earthly riches lose their appeal. It’s a little confusing, but he said it’s like a man discovering a pearl of such great value that he’s willing to sell everything he has to buy it.”

A soft breeze fluttered the curtain above them in the profound silence that followed. A dog barked in the distance.

“But that isn’t all, Orpah. There is something else different about Joses. I could see it in the way he dealt with the merchants in Joppa and the concern he showed for each of us. In the past, nothing stood between Joses and potential profit. Now he is more cheerful and helpful. And amazingly, the same wealth he once craved he now views differently. It is almost like he sees wealth as a hindrance!” Again, the silent darkness overtook them as each tried to grasp this mysterious change. Minutes passed. Adriel occasionally shifting, subconsciously hoping a new position would assist his inner wrestling.

“Adriel, you still awake?”

“Yes.”

“Wait ‘til you hear about my conversation today with Deborah!”

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All over Jerusalem, conversations like this were taking place during those first exciting days after Pentecost. People who had always been dogmatic, loyal Jews were suddenly sold-out, baptized followers of Jesus. As men and women believed in the power of the resurrected Christ, they committed their lives to Him and to each other and lived totally different lives. Wealthy men sold their lands and relieved the anxieties of poor widows – and the world looked on in awe! The book of Acts says the church grew … daily! We read of newly baptized converts sharing their resources and eating together with “gladness and singleness of heart.” No wonder those first few chapters of Acts inspire us. The church was alive, awake, and growing rapidly!

This was not just an occasional convert, a misfit struggling to fit into the surrounding culture. This was transformation across social and economic lines. It included both men and women, both rich and poor, and was a beautiful picture of God’s intent for the world. Person to person, house to house, the change was spectacular! In some ways, it was like a highly contagious virus. One person was infected and his life was changed. He then came in contact with another person, and Christianity spread. It was evangelism the way we wished it were today. Even the religious and secular rulers sat up in alarm. Christianity was a powerful and conquering force to be reckoned with – and it was on the move!

The next four posts are all questions we Christ Followers need to grapple with now titled “What’s Different Now?” “Does Anyone Really Care?” “Do They Really Want We Have?” and “Do We Really Want Them?” …. which makes me wonder if we don’t need to add the fifth, “Do We Really Have a Clue What We Got?” These four questions are the titles for chapters 2, 3, 4, & 5 in Gary’s book Reaching America: God’s message has not changed — but our culture has.

No Joke! “This Little Light of Mine!” Given you Coming In, Can Accompany You Going Out. Your Only Eternal Investment. No Bank Runs. No Crashed Currency!

No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it away in a cellar, nor under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, in order that those who enter may see the light. Luke 11:33

In a certain mountain village in Europe several centuries ago, so the story goes, a nobleman wondered what legacy to leave his townspeople. After much soul-searching, he decided to build them a church. Nobody saw the complete plans until the church was finished. When the people gathered, they marveled at its beauty. But one noticed an incompleteness.

Where are the lamps?” he asked. “How will the church be lighted?”

The nobleman smiled. Then he gave each family a lamp. “Each time you are here, the area in which you sit will be lighted. But when you are not here, some part of God’s house will be dark.”

Today we live in a world of rampant darkness, dim paths on which even our secular problem-solvers are visibly stumbling. In spite of AI (artificial intelligence) and its colossal accumulation of our advances in areas of academic, economic, medical, social, psychological, and even in spiritual enlightenment, all around us is evidence of our increasing ignorance, illiteracy, and wicked imaginings. Romans 2:19 tells us that we, as Christ Followers, are “a light to those who are in darkness.”

And humanly speaking, we tend to think the world is so big and our lamps are so small. Yes – bur we can light some small part of each day. Just look to the star struck heavens. How small each star looks in the distance. Yet, put together, those tiny jewels can light the darkest night. Each of us is a star (or a lamp, if you will). We can make this world a brighter place. It all begins with the desired expressed in Michelangelo’s prayer: “God, grant me the desire always to desire to be more than I can ever accomplish.”

Prayer:          Father God, You are my lamp and may I always reflect Your love to the dark world as I journey through. I trust my life will be a radiant light guiding other people to You. I want to keep my lamp full of oil (empowered by Holy Spirit) so my path will be lit by Your glow. Amen

Action:            Light your lamp. Allow God to send you in a new direction today. Meet someone at the crossroads of his or her life and share your light and oil.

Inspired by and adapted from Emilie Barnes Minute Meditations 1999

Really Now? Another Test of Time?

Read Exodus 16:1-36

As always, even in Dalton and NE Ohio, time passes. We presume the electric will come back on again. A blackout from Saturday 12:40 PM until an estimated Wednesday 4 pm is not 40 years! Notice Ex. 15: 22-27 reveals it only took three days to find water that they now enjoyed. But now it’s been more than 40 days! I call that a serious test of time. There they were in the midst of the wilderness with their unrealistic expectations, much like we too often. “We thought we were through those parched days in the wilderness. We were already there three days. Why do we have to go back?“ Many in Wayne Holmes county are saying “Come on, we were just without power nearly a week last summer! Surely not again!”

And guess what? Out rushed the complaints from the freed slaves now in their liberation transition. “The whole congregation of the sons of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron. (Ex 16:2) Why were they (or are we) grumbling? Again, is it because they (we) were looking back? Listen to their words in verse 4: “Would that we had died by the Lord’s hands in Egypt, when we sat by pots of meat, when we ate bread to the full, for you brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger” (v.3).

Sounds like our response? Perhaps, but we in Dalton are only momentarily inconvenienced. Perhaps it’s time for us all to learn a timeless lesson. If we focus on our past, the good old days, before this global reset, it won’t be long before complaints will start oozing from our lips, “for out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:35) ESV

You will remember a long-ago time (perhaps a decade, not a century) when we bathed in the hazy rosy glow of memories, when living was simpler, easier, and more comfortable than it is today. For example, gas was only 29.9 cents for decades! As you with memory of such times compare life then to now, I guarantee you will grumble. If your age is under 50, not so much; and if you’re under 30, you may be clueless; unless you’ve been well parented, or grand-parented!

It hurts to endure life’s trials, and it hurts worse to repeat such episodes. Yet, without these deep hurts, we may have very little capacity to receive godly counsel or make progress forward to maturity. The test of time is perhaps our most rugged test of all.

Seriously now folks, over the perspective of what we need to prepare for this global reset and the imminent next lock-down, I believe God is honoring us through such trivial tests as no electric to awaken us out of our complacency. Stretching us. Breaking us. Crushing us. Reducing us to an absolute, open-armed trust, where we say in essence, “Lord, I have come to an end of my own flesh.  If you wish me to die in this wilderness, here is my life. Take it. I refuse to look back and complain about where I am at this moment.” And then trust Him! How? For starters, Accept His Love. Share His Love. Live His Joy. Grow Your Fruit. Embrace His Peace. Share His Hope. Refute Satan’s Evil.

Moses had learned to wait for 40 years. Now his congregation needed to learn as well. How about us? I strongly urge each of you to search out and read your favorite Scriptural passages, especially I & II Peter, Martyr’s Mirror, Pilgrims Progress, and Letter to the American Church by Eric Metaxas. ASAP. Praise God for His divine continuing ed program! Learning from the past may be hard, but continuing in ignorance is expensive, time consuming and may jeopardize your eternal life assurance. Better to learn these priceless lessons today than to search for pennies in the scorching wilderness tomorrow.   

Swindol’s devotional this morning really got me thinking. I well remember listening to him on the car radio in early ’81 while waiting for an appointment in Charlottesville. God was pointedly calling me thru Chuck’s words and I merely turned the radio off to avoid the confrontation. Similar event happened earlier with David Jeremiah in summer of ’73 while traveling thru Ft Wayne. Only two of the bigger mistakes of my life. I recall Bill Detweiler too. merlin

Does God Ask Us to See the Future?

Letter to the American Church Eric Metaxas

Here is a 139 page book; perhaps too little, too late, for mere man to enact the change necessary to revert the already sprung “tipping point” for the possible unwinding of western civilization we may be about to witness, but certainly not for God to exert His influence, perhaps even, just in time.

Strangely reminiscent of yesterday’s blog of our situational predicaments, such as Moses at the Red Sea that required 450 years to climax. The Egyptian media hawkers then reported their journey was merely days – being concluded with such a spectacular feat – and such that certainly nobody predicted their 40 year stint in a wilderness! Similarly, the American Church, as was Moses, is in similar straits as was the German Church, 90 years ago. And, again, some in the fray today understand events for centuries, or even BC, created this showdown between evil and righteousness, whereas the media hawkers are clueless that the third and final act of their play written merely decades ago, is nearly concluded. And if we’re lucky, we can all go out to celebrate our amazing accomplishments after the final curtain drops, before every man goes HOME, to his own tent. (Note: Moses led the original tent city assembly)

May I quote the last paragraph from my March 23 blog, “Does False Evidence Appearing Real (FEAR) Cause Our Predicaments?” So, God provides us painful predicaments to arouse us from spiritual lethargy. Our predicaments are not punishment, as much as they are wake-up calls from a loving God. Envision pain as God’s fuel to restore His passion in our relationships ( includes the Church) because pain energizes us with an intensity to change that we normally just don’t possess. Lookup CS Lewis pain quote! These are serious times as you are about to learn below. Quoted verbatim.

Chapter Two: Does God Ask Us To See the Future?

As I have said, to understand where we are today in the American Church, we are obliged to see what happened to the Church in Germany in the 1930’s. Because I became closely familiar with that subject in writing my biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, I have been troubled and astonished by the growing parallels for some time.

            Most American Christians have some idea of the tragic blindness of the Church in Germany during the rise of Hitler, and likely know it “didn’t do enough” and somehow failed to stand. But exactly what didn’t they do that they might have done? And what did they do that they shouldn’t have done? Of course, our judging the German Church of that implies that we believe we would not have made the mistakes they did – and yet we are making those same mistakes now.

            Perhaps because of the unprecedented size of the tragedies and horrors of that era, it is particularly tempting for us to put them in a separate category from anything that could happen anywhere else. Many of us have unwittingly adopted a tribalist and racist view of the Germans of that era, and attribute to them a unique level of evil, as though it has no bearing on us, nor can it ever have any bearing on us. But if we are Christians who believe in the doctrine of Original Sin, we know that our own intrinsic evil is perfectly equal to whatever we wish to attribute to the souls living in Germany in the 1930s. Therefore, we need to be more honest and ask how it was that they failed so spectacularly, knowing that we too can fail similarly – and are indeed this minute failing precisely as they failed.

            So before we continue, we must dispense with the idea that we are for some reason incapable of allowing things to get to the point that the German Church did. That’s precisely why I am writing this book: Because what I see happening in the American Church today makes me understand that we are are wrong to think we would have acted differently if we were alive then precisely because we are not acting differently now.

As we approach the story of the German Church’s failures, we should do so not only with some humility, but with some humiliation. That’s because they did not have the benefit that we have – of actually seeing what happens when a church fails to stand. They did not have the example of what happened to them because it had not yet happened. But we do have that example and that grimmest of warnings, and so we are without excuse.

So what exactly did the German Church of that time fail to see? In a word: the future.

Christians are expected to see the future, or to listen to those who see it. We know that God is outside time; for Him the past, present, and future are equally easy to see. And we know that He has spoken through prophets who can, and often do, tell us what lies ahead, if we are interested in hearing it. So the real question is never whether we can see the future but whether we heed the warnings of the prophets who do. As we shall see, Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a prophet to the German Church in the 1930s, although he wouldn’t have thought of himself in quite that way. But he spoke boldly and powerfully about where things stood in the German Church and about what must be done, and we know that the German Church did not take his warnings seriously and paid the gravest price imaginable.

But what if Bonhoeffer is a prophet for us today? Will the words that fell on deaf ears in his day fall differently on ours? Will we hear what he has to say, or rather, what God has to say through Him? Since we have the dramatic advantage of knowing what happened in Germany, will we take what he said to them more seriously than they did? Will you?

Part of what the German Church failed to see in 1932 or 1933, for example – when there was still time to act – was that their small actions or inactions were setting the course for their future. When God speaks through prophets like Bonhoeffer, He makes clear what lies ahead and gives us a clear choice. If we do X, Y will result, and if we don’t, then Z. But many German church leaders thought Bonhoeffer a bit of a young hothead – a brilliant intellectual to be sure, but one who was overstating what was at stake. And so, as people always do – and always with good intentions – most of the German Church simply ignored what he said and drifted along as it had always done. They didn’t feel the urgency that Bonhoeffer obviously felt and boldly spoke about. When they might have recognized where their actions were leading and changed course, they did not. It takes courage to stand athwart history and shout, “Stop!” It takes courage to understand that you must not do what everyone else is doing. Most of us rarely rise to such courage. But why and exactly how did the German Church ignore Bonhoeffer’s prophetic warnings?

To tell this story we must begin at the end of 1932, two months before Hitler became chancellor, when Bonhoeffer gave a certain sermon in a certain church in Berlin on November 6, 1932 – Reformation Sunday. To be continued in Chapter Three “Unless You Repent,” text from Revelation 2:4-5 “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first….

Accept His Love.   Share His Love.   Live His Joy.   Grow Your Fruit.         Embrace His Peace.   Share His Hope.   Refute Satan’s Evil. merlin

Does False Evidence Appearing Real (FEAR) Cause Our Predicaments?

Predicaments are precarious time and energy black holes. Do you believe as I, that our predicaments are often of our own doing? Consider our use of the word accident, which though, also can be caused by our carelessness, we are frequently totally an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time. Predicaments, however, add a stress tier beyond devastating accidents, in that they inject a gnawing awareness that you could have prevented this consuming predicament had you done whatever differently; and usually, there is no shortage of those “I wish I would have…!” And when these black holes drag out long enough, you may well question even, the very roots of your faith.

Is it possible fear (resulting from our stressors) arises from our personally concocted manufactured predicaments where we’ve drifted off course and gotten out of alignment both vertically with our Lord, and then, horizontally too, with our brothers in our community?

You ever think when such occurs, that we too tend to look for someone to blame for this flare-up predicament, just as the children of Israel did. And if it’s not readily apparent who to blame, we’ll provide the narrative to blame someone in the leadership hierarchy. Notice the stinging words told Moses in Exodus 14: 11-12: “Were there no graves in Egypt? Had it not been better for us to serve the Egyptians than we should die in this wilderness?”

Note Moses’ responses to their panic. First, “Fear ye not!” Second, “Stand still.” Third, “Watch.” Fourth, “The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.” How about that for a prescription for people caught between swords & spears to the rear and drowning going forward? Don’t be afraid, stand still, watch God come through, quit talking. Perhaps, the fourth is the hardest, because we just have to complain or tell somebody what pain we’ve been dealt. But God doesn’t need to be informed. He already knows our predicament. He is simply waiting for us to calm down and shut up, or at least, keep silent!

Notice God’s counsel is just the opposite. Don’t be afraid. Stand still. Watch Him work. Keep quiet. It’s then He does His best work on our behalf, and likely, quite the opposite way we’d done it.

I associate stress as being much like a mirror? Why? Because stress reveals what actually drives our thinking! The way we handle stressful predicaments defines and reveals who we are. Actually, pain is God’s fuel for re-discovering our “first love,” when we “drift” from our earlier “inspired” love, over to a more perfunctory love; acting out of duty, rather than with His passion.

So, God provides us painful predicaments to arouse us from our spiritual lethargy. Our predicaments are not punishment, as much as they are wake-up calls from a loving God. Envision pain as God’s fuel to restore His passion in our relationships because pain energizes us with an intensity to change that we normally just don’t possess.

Bottom Line Here?  Accept His Love. Share Your Love. Live His Joy. Grow Your Fruit.  Embrace His Peace. Share His Hope.  Refute Satan’s EvilMerlin

Inspired by readings from Moses in Exodus, Chuck Swindoll, David Jeremiah, Rick Warren & orchestrated by me. Whence ever cometh an original thought these days?

Revealing Clips of Einstein’s Life & Times

A few minutes ago, I was sent this blog post about Albert Einstein from my friend Wendell taken from Bill Federer’s AmericanMinute.com that I’d never seen. After submerged in the Metaxas book all day attempting chapter summaries, this Einstein clip came much as a delightful soothing dessert, after a hearty meal of Metaxas with too much to digest and ponder. Relax now, and breathe deeply. Some interesting dynamics here. Know God’s children have nothing to fear.

While a student at physics-mathematics section of the Polytechnic Institute in Zurich, Albert Einstein met Mileva Mariæ, whom he studied together with. She helped him with papers and articles, advancing his career. They eventually married in 1903. Albert and Mileva had a daughter, Lieserl, and two sons, Hans Albert and Eduard. Correspondence indicates she may have contributed materially to his early research, so much so, that after their divorce in 1919, he gave her the money from winning the Nobel Prize.

With a doctorate from the University of Zurich, Einstein wrote papers on electromagnetic energy, relativity, and statistical mechanics. Einstein predicted a ray of light from a distant star would appear to bend as it passed near the Sun. When an eclipse confirmed this, The London Times ran the headline, November 7, 1919, “Revolution in science – – New theory of the Universe — Newtonian ideas overthrown.”

In 1921, Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics, gaining international recognition. Einstein’s first visit to the United States was to raise funds for Jerusalem’s Hebrew University. On his 3rd visit, 1932, he took a post at Princeton University. When the National Socialist Workers Party (Nazi) took control of Germany, they barred Jews from holding official positions or teaching at universities. Einstein stayed in the United States, becoming a citizen in 1940.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels proclaimed “Jewish intellectualism is dead” and burned books by Jewish authors, including Einstein’s works. Jewish poet Heinrich Heine prophetically penned in 1822: “Where they burn books, they will, in the end, burn human beings too.”

A current instance of this was reported in the Breitbart News article “ISIS Burns Books at Mosul Libraries” (February 5, 2015): “The Islamic State … raided the Central Library of Mosul to destroy all non-Islamic books. These books promote infidelity and call for disobeying Allah,’ announced a militant to the residents. ‘So they will be burned.’ Militants targeted the library at the University of Mosul. They burned science and culture textbooks in front of the students.”

Concern is growing over recent anti-Semitic comments made by politicians and radical campus groups, which forebode a resurgence of Jewish persecution. A FoxNews headline (3/8/19) read: “Failure to condemn anti-Semitic Rep. Omar by House Democrats is a profile in cowardice.”

Commenting on socialist redistribution of wealth, Albert Einstein stated: “I am absolutely convinced that no wealth in the world can help humanity forward, even in the hands of the most devoted worker in this cause. The example of great and pure individuals is the only thing that can lead us to noble thoughts and deeds … Can anyone imagine Moses, Jesus, or Gandhi armed with the moneybags of Carnegie?”

Einstein’s theory of relativity, E=MC2, is “energy equals mass times the speed of light squared.” It is the basis for applying atomic energy. Berkeley Lab published the article (9/23/20) “CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Creates Matter From Light”:

“The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) plays with Albert Einstein’s famous equation, E = mc2, to transform matter into energy and then back into different forms of matter. But on rare occasions, it can skip the first step and collide pure energy – in the form of electromagnetic waves. Last year, the ATLAS experiment at CERN’s LHC observed two photons, particles of light, ricocheting off one another and producing two new photons.

This year, scientists have taken that research a step further and discovered photons merging and transforming into something even more interesting: W bosons, particles that carry the weak force, which governs nuclear decay….

The research doesn’t just illustrate the central concept governing processes inside the LHC: that energy and matter are two sides of the same coin.

It also confirms that at high enough energies, forces that seem separate in our everyday lives – electromagnetism and the weak force – are united.”

Describing the theory of relativity, that the closer one approaches the speed of light time slows down, Albert Einstein said:

“When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute — and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.”

 Albert was married to his cousin, Elsa, from 1921 till her death in 1936. His accountant, Leo Mattersdorf of New York, wrote (TIME Magazine, 1963): “One year while I was at his Princeton home preparing his return, Mrs. Elsa Einstein, who was then still living, asked me to stay for lunch. During the course of the meal, the professor (Einstein) turned to me and with his inimitable chuckle said: ‘The hardest thing in the world to understand is income taxes.'”

Einstein’s warning that Nazis could create the atom bomb led President Franklin D. Roosevelt to set up the Manhattan Project.

In November of 1952, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion asked Einstein to be Israel’s 2nd President, but he declined due to age, dying less than 3 years later. Being “deeply moved” by the offer, Einstein replied:

“My relationship with the Jewish people became my strongest human tie.”

The periodic table’s 99th element, discovered shortly after his death in 1955 was named “einsteinium.”

Albert Einstein was quoted in The New York Times, November 9, 1930, saying:

“I assert that the cosmic religious experience is the strongest and noblest driving force behind scientific research.” Paraphrasing Miguel de Cervantes’ quote “I do not believe that the Good Lord plays dice,” Einstein stated: 

God Almighty does not throw dice.” He added: “Before God we are all equally wise — equally foolish.”

In Einstein and the Poet: In Search of the Cosmic Man (1983), William Hermanns recorded Einstein’s 1943 statement:

“Creation may be spiritual in origin, but that doesn’t mean that everything created is spiritual … Let us accept the world is a mystery. Nature is neither solely material nor entirely spiritual. Man, too, is more than flesh and blood; otherwise, no religions would have been possible. Behind each cause is still another cause … Yet, only one thing must be remembered: there is no effect without a cause, and there is no lawlessness in creation.”

As recorded by Helen Dukas in Albert Einstein, The Human Side (Princeton University Press, 1981, p. 66), Einstein stated:

“My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality.

Morality is of the highest importance — but for us, not for God.”

Einstein stated in an interview published in G.S. Viereck’s book Glimpses of the Great, 1930:

“I’m absolutely not an atheist … The problem involved is too vast for our limited minds. We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn’t know what it is. That, it seems to me, is the attitude of even the most intelligent human being toward God. We see the universe marvelously arranged and obeying certain laws but only dimly understand these laws.”

Walter Isaacson quoted Einstein in the article “Einstein and Faith,” Time 169, April 5, 2007, 47):

“The fanatical atheists … are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle.

They are creatures who — in their grudge against the traditional ‘opium of the people’ — cannot bear the ‘music of the spheres.'”

Einstein’s referenced to the “music of the spheres” is a religious concept used through the Medieval- Renaissance period to describe an orbital resonance of the planets.

Johannes Kepler, who discovered the laws of planetary motion, compared the eight planets in the solar system to the eight notes in music – an octave.

Kepler wrote in The Harmonies of the World, 1619: “Holy Father, keep us safe in the concord of our love for one another, that we may be one just as Thou art with Thy Son, Our Lord, and with the Holy Ghost, just as through the sweetest bonds of harmonies Thou hast made all Thy works one, and that from the bringing of Thy people into concord, the body of Thy Church may be built up in the Earth, as Thou didst erect the heavens themselves out of harmonies.”

Yale professor Benjamin Silliman, who founded the American Journal of Science and Arts in 1818, stated:

“The relation of geology, as well as astronomy, to the Bible, when both are well understood, is that of perfect harmony … The Word and the works of God cannot conflict, and the more they are studied the more perfect will their harmony appear.”

According to Prince Hubertus (Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times, New York: World Publishing Company, 1971, p. 425), Einstein stated:

“In view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what really makes me angry is that they quote me for the support of such views.”

Einstein wrote to M. Berkowitz, 1950, (William Hermanns, Einstein and the Poet. In Search of the Cosmic Man, Brookline Village MA: Branden Books, 1983, p. 60):

“‘God‘ is a mystery. But a comprehensible mystery. I have nothing but awe when I observe the laws of nature. There are not laws without a lawgiver, but how does this lawgiver look? Certainly not like a man magnified.”

 Though not believing in a personal God, The Saturday Evening Post, October 26, 1929, published George Sylvester Viereck’s interview with Albert Einstein.

When asked “To what extent are you influenced by Christianity,” Einstein answered: “As a child I received instruction both in the Bible and in the Talmud. I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene.”

When asked “Have you read Emil Ludwig’s book on Jesus,” Einstein replied:

“Emil Ludwig’s Jesus is shallow. Jesus is too colossal for the pen of phrase mongers, however artful. No man can dispose of Christianity with a bon mot! (witty remark)”

When asked “You accept the historical existence of Jesus,” Einstein answered:

“Unquestionably! No one can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word. No myth is filled with such life.”

In 1931, astronomer Edwin Hubble invited Einstein to the Mount Wilson Observatory in Pasadena, California. After viewing the “red shift” of distant stars revealing an expanding universe, Einstein remarked

“I now see the necessity of a beginning.”

Princeton University’s Fine Hall has inscribed Albert Einstein’s words above the fireplace:

“Raffiniert ist der Herr Gott, aber Boshaft ist er nicht.” (God is clever, but not dishonest.)

​Download as PDF … Albert Einstein “I observe the Laws of Nature … There are not Laws without a Lawgiver”

Read as American Minute blog post.

Accept His Love. Share His Love. Live His Joy. Grow His Fruit. Embrace His Peace. Share His Hope. Refute Satan’s Evil. merlin

SERIOUSLY NOW: Silence in the face of evil is evil itself!

Letter to the American Church

Not to speak is to speak.

Not to act is to act.

God will not hold us guiltless.

Can it really be God’s will that His children be silent at a time like this? Decrying the cowardice that masquerades as godly meekness, Eric Metaxas summons the Church to battle.

The author of a bestselling biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Metaxas reveals the haunting similarities between today’s American Church and the German Church of the 1930s. Echoing the German martyrs’ prophetic call, he exhorts his fellow Christians to repent of their silence in the face of evil.

An attenuated and unbiblical “faith” based on what Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” has sapped the spiritual vitality of millions of Americans. Paying lip service to an insipid “evangelism,” they shrink from combating the evils of our time. Metaxas refutes the pernicious lie that fighting evil politicizes Christianity. As Bonhoeffer and other heroes of the faith insisted, the Church has irreplaceable role in the culture of a nation. It is our duty to fight the powers of darkness, especially on behalf of the weak and vulnerable, well beyond the widow, orphan

            Silence is not an option. God calls us to defend the unborn, to confront the lies of cultural Marxism, and to battle the globalist tyranny that crushes human freedom. Confident that this is His fight, the Church must overcome fear and enter the fray, armed with the spiritual weapons of prayer, self-sacrifice, love, and focused on being the obedient, forgiven, transformed, empowered discipling Bond Servants of Jesus Christ until death permits retirement.

Eric Metaxas, author of fourteen books, including Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy; Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery; and If You Can Keep It: The Forgotten Promise of American Liberty.

Introduction

I have written this book because I am convinced the American Church is at an impossibly – and almost unbearably – important inflection point. The parallels to where the German Church was in the 1930s are unavoidable and grim. So the only question – and what concerns us in this slim volume – is whether we might understand those parallels, and thereby avoid the fatal mistakes the German Church made during that time, and their superlatively catastrophic results. If we do not, I am convinced we will reap a whirlwind greater than the one they did.

            The German Church of the 1930s was silent in the face of evil; but can there be any question whether the American Church of our own time is guilty of the same silence? Because of this, I am compelled to speak out, and say what – only by God’s grace – I might say to make plain where we find ourselves at this moment, at our unavoidably crucial crossroads in history.

            It is for good or for ill that America plays an inescapably central role in the world. If you have not read Alexis de Tocqueville on this subject, you likely nonetheless understand that the extent to which that central role has been used for the good and God’s purposes has had everything to do with our churches, or with the American Church, as we may call her. So if America is in any way exceptional, it has nothing to do with the blood that runs through American veins and everything to do with the blood shed for us on Calvary, and the extent to which we have acknowledged this. America has led the world in making religious liberty paramount, knowing that this is only with a deep regard for it that we may speak of liberty at all. It was this that made Tocqueville marvel most: that while in other nations – and especially in his own nation of France – the Church was adamantly opposed to the idea of political liberty, in America it was the churches that helped, encourage, create, and sustain a culture of liberty.

            Because of the outsized role America plays in the world today, the importance of whether we learn the lesson of what happened to the German Church ninety years ago cannot be overstated. Though it may be a gruesome thing to consider, the monstrous evil that befell the civilized world precisely because of the German Church’s failure is likely a mere foretaste of what will befall the world if the American Church fails in a similar way at this hour.

            And at present we are failing.

            We should underscore the idea that the centrality of our nation in the world does not mean that we are intrinsically exceptional, but rather that God has sovereignly chosen us to hold the torch of liberty for all the world, and that the Church is central to our doing this. So the idea that He has charged us with this most solemn duty should make us tremble. Nonetheless, we must carry out that duty in a way that is the opposite of prideful and that is meant to be an invitation to all beyond our shores. If we should aspire – in the words of Jesus, as quoted by John Winthrop – to be a  ”shining city on a hill,” the idea is that we should exist and shine for the sake of others and not for ourselves alone.

President Abraham Lincoln said that we in America were God’s “almost chosen people,” and acknowledged this placed upon us an almost unbearable burden. It is certainty from the Scriptures and from our experience over the centuries that apart from God we can do nothing. So if God has chosen us for some task, we must do all we can to shoulder that task, and must know more than anything that unless we lean on Him and acknowledge Him in all our ways, we are guaranteed to fail.

            We must also remind ourselves that when God chooses anyone – whether the nation of Israel or a single person – to perform any role or any task, it is never to be celebrated, as though the one chosen has won a contest. So if the Lord Almighty has chosen America and the American Church to stand against the evils and deceptions of this present darkness, we had better be sure we understand what is required of us, and had better make sure we do all that is possible to fulfill our charge.

            Throughout this book I will touch on some issues we are facing, but let us say here that it is something almost unprecedented: the emergence of ideas and forces that ultimately are at war with God Himself. It’s easy to see this with regard to Germany in the 1930s, when we think of death camps and the murder of so many millions, but we need to understand that in the beginning they had no idea where it was leading, and had no idea they were facing nothing less than the forces of the anti-Christ. We are now facing those same forces in different guises. But the extent of it is even worse than it was ninety years ago, because these forces today do not have an agenda that is hyper-nationalistic, as in Germany, but that is actually anti-nationalistic – which is to say that is the globalist agenda.

            These ideas seemed to have emerged lately, but they have been growing quietly in our midst and we have not taken them seriously enough. Many have been fooled into thinking them essentially harmless. We are today like the proverbial frog in the saucepan, simmering along and never realizing that unless we see our situation and leap out now, we are very soon to be cooked and beyond all leaping. The ideas and forces we face have an atheistic Marxist ideology in common, although it never declares itself as such. It knows that doing this would wake up many people who are still asleep, and that would ruin everything.

            But what we must dare to see is that these many ideas share a bitter taproot that leads all the way to Hell. Critical Race Theory – which is atheistic and Marxist – and radical transgender and pro-abortion ideologies are all inescapably anti-God and anti-human. So they are dedicatedly at war with the ideas of family and marriage, and with the idea of America as a force for good – as a force for spreading the Gospel and Gospel values throughout the world. These atheistic  ideas have over many decades infiltrated our own culture in such a way that they touch everything, and part of what makes them so wicked is that they smilingly pretend to share the biblical values that champion the underdog against the oppressor. As Stalin and Hitler and Mao would butcher millions in the name of fighting for “the people,” so these forces do the same and are angling to do much, much more of the same – if we will allow them the time to strengthen themselves, if we do not fight with all our might against them right now.

            One of the principal ways in which they have gained strength is in persuading so many in the American Church that to fight them is to abandon the “Gospel” for pure culture warring or for politics. This is not just nonsense, but it is a supremely deceptive and satanic lie, designed only to silence those who would genuinely speak for truth. So those who behave as though there is nothing to worry about, who seem to think – as such prominent pastors as Andy Stanley and others do – that we ought to assiduously avoid fighting these threats and be “apolitical” are tragically mistaken, are burying their heads in the sand and exhorting others to do the same. Or to put it another way, they are in their churches singing more and more loudly to drown out the cries of those in the boxcars heading to their gruesome deaths. Sing with us, they say, and don’t worry about all of those other issues out there. They don’t concern us. Our job is to focus on God, and to pretend that we can do so without fighting for those He loves, whose lives and futures are being destroyed.

            So to restate our situation, this is not a task or duty we in the American Church have asked for. Nonetheless, just as the German Church had a painfully important task and did not rise to that occasion to perform it, so we have a painfully important task, whether we have asked for it or not. God calls us to do something, but the choice whether we do it is entirely ours. Because we are made in God’s image, we are perfectly free, and therefore cannot be compelled to do what is right. It is a chilling prospect, especially in light of the failure of the German Church.

            If anyone would feel that believing God has chosen the American Church for such a vital role somehow smacks of an egotistical nationalism, they have already bought into the Marxist and globalist lie that America is nothing special – or is probably a force for evil at this point. In any case, they miss the point and have only leapt away from one ditch to fall headlong into another. It is a fact that God in His sovereignty chose the German Church to stand against the evils of its day, but it shrank from acknowledging this and from standing. Germany has been living with deep shame over it unto this day. So for the American Church to say that God has not chosen us is as bad as saying He must choose because we deserve to be chosen. Both stances are equally guilty of the sin of pride. It is far easier to ignore God’s call than to acknowledge it and rise to fulfill it, but it is more difficult and painful than anything to live with the results of ignoring God’s call. Let the reader understand.

Table of Contents

Ch. 1  What Is the Church?

Ch. 2  Does God Ask Us to See the Future?

Ch. 3  “Unless You Repent”

Ch. 4  “The Church and the Jewish Question”

Ch. 5  12,000 Pastors

Ch. 6  The Spiral of Silence

Ch. 7  Two Errors of Faith

Ch. 8  The Church Paralyzed

Ch. 9  The Idol of Evangelism

Ch.10 Speaking the Truth in Love

Ch. 11 Be Ye Not Political

Ch. 12 Who Do You Say God Is?

Ch. 13 The Parable of the Talents

Ch. 14 Justifying Ourselves

Ch. 15 “Religionless Christianity”

Ch. 16 The Final Push

Accept His Love.  Live His Joy.  Grow His Fruit.  Embrace His Peace.  Share His Hope.  Refute Satan’s Evil.  merlin

Short Cuts to Futility

Read Exodus 6:2-29

A Word to the Wiser Ones Yet Not Duped…

So often you and I miss the opportunity to watch the Lord work in mighty and miraculous ways. Why? Because instead of “standing still” and watching Him pull off our deliverance, we seek out the carnal alternative. We prefer the backdoor escape, a fleshy shortcut.

Notice how God handled His man, Moses. Without rebuke, the Lord gave Moses two pieces of counsel. One related to his person; the other related to his work. He told Moses who He was, and then He told him what He was going to do. And the order in the Lord’s response is as important as the facts themselves.

Right off the top, He repeated the message from the burning bush, saying, “I am” five different times in Exodus chapter six.

            “I am the Lord…” (v, 2).

            “I am the Lord…” (v. 6).

            “I am the Lord…” (v. 7).

            “I am the Lord…” (v. 8).

            “I am the Lord…” (v. 29).

Time after time, He punctuated His message to Moses by saying, “Look, Moses, your eyes are in the wrong place (again). Get your eyes back on me (again). Remember, who I am (again),” (Perhaps today we should also include our ears! Actually, all of our senses, or, how will we ever even experience His goodness, not to mention, remembering in the future!)

Who is the Lord? Ask the prophet Isaiah. Troubled and sick at heart over the moral condition of his nation, Isaiah glanced toward the sky one day and “saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up” (Isaiah 6:1NKJV). That’s all he needed to see. He fixed his eyes on the Lord, and, suddenly his perspective changed.

If you have been a believer for any length of time, you will have heard these over and over. But that’s all right; here they are again. Think you’ll get it? Until your eyes are fixed on the Lord, you will not be able to endure those days that go from bad to worse. The abovetaken from Chuck Swindoll’s Great Days With the Great Lives pg. 77.

FYI, understandably, I struggle with choosing pertinent worthy material insuring we’re each prepared to transition well spiritually in the coming days, which may well not be pretty or pleasant. I am not nearly as concerned for how we fare physically, financially, emotionally, materially, etc. for I believe if our identity, faith and hope is in Christ, what can we suffer or can really be done to us, to separate us from His love and our eternal inheritance?

Since early ’23, I depend solely on God to nudge me to select what I post from my daily readings of scripture, the dozen or so books I’m processing at any given time, and what is sent me by friends. No nudges, no posts. Recently, God has given me a sense of urgency that sometimes is overwhelming. As you, I too encounter distinct Spirit nudges to move out, and when I obey, what joy, not only for me but also for the recipient, often even greater!

I think frequently back when the Henry Blackaby book “Experiencing God” flowed through the church in the late 80’s admonishing us to find where God was at work and join in that work rather than being lone rangers. Similarly, of late, Jamie Winship’s two questions that encourage we seekers and ambassadors to ask, whenever we are faced with either the mundane, or the overwhelming trials and tribulations of life’s messes, that nearly take our breath away, and they are: 1.) Lord, what do you want me to know about this situation; and 2.)  Lord, what do you want me to do about this situation? And then wait for his wisdom. Of course, as the Good Samaritan, you arise to the occasion and administer first aid, CPR, stop the bleeding, transport to safety, etc., all the while praying for His divine intervention in knowing and doing!

At any rate, Chuck Swindoll was the inspiration yesterday that begat this: “I am the Lord. Your eyes are in the wrong place! Until your eyes are fixed on the Lord, you will not be able to endure those days that will go from bad to worse.”  

Next, I read Day 9 in What On Earth Am I Here For that instilled a new appreciation for Noah, and I don’t think I’m alone among today’s seeker and ambassador crowd. I can think of a few similarities we may share, all except for his timeline of 120 years to endure ridicule is beyond possibility, yet for today’s humanity, but even 120 days seems preposterous. We are told “by faith, Noah built a ship in the middle of dry land. He was warned about something he couldn’t see, and he acted on what he was told…. As a result, Noah became intimate with God.” Hebrews 11:7.  

Noah had three major reasons to think this assignment ridiculous. First, Noah had never seen rain, because prior to the flood, the earth was irrigated from the ground up. Second, since Noah lived hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, did his building permit declare his boat to be a novel home, or did it only appear to be designed for water travel? Perhaps, it was a precursor to an RV for a subconscious retirement desire to travel offering others mission trip experiences? Such excuses we might have concocted for our neighbors. And third, what about the animals; the rounding them up and caring for them? With no sign of rain year after year, he was ruthlessly criticized as a “crazy man who thinks God speaks to him.” Can you just hear the media today?

In what areas of our lives, or for me with this blog, do we need to trust God completely, if we are to see and hear the “I am the Lord today? Is trusting a preliminary to worship? Just as parents are pleased when children trust their love and wisdom, so does our faith make God happy. The Bible says “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Hebrews 11:6. God smiles when we obey Him wholeheartedly. Noah was given very specific instructions as to the size, shape, and materials of the ark as well as the different numbers of animals to be brought on board. The Bible tells us Noah’s response: “So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded Him.” Gen 6:22 NLT, Heb 11:7b NCV. Notice that Noah obeyed completely, no instruction was overlooked; and he obeyed exactly in the way and time God wanted it done. It is no wonder God smiled on Noah. So the question is, am I being faithful to my instructions to declare truth, or, am I hiding out in my fabricated excuses?

Even former President John F Kennedy quoted the heart of the Luke 12:48. Perhaps for the big picture, we should begin in verse 47 “And this servant, which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. (48) But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.”

The Message offers 47-48 as “The servant who knows what his master wants and ignores it, or insolently does whatever he pleases, will be thoroughly thrashed. But if he does a poor job through ignorance, he’ll get off with a slap on the hand. Great gifts mean great responsibilities; greater gifts, greater responsibilities!” Consider this: if we’re soon without shoes, and the shoe fits, will we even wear them? More questions than answers today!

Accept His Love.    Live His Joy.   Embrace His Peace.   Share His Hope.   Refute Evil.      merlin

Weekly Dobson Policy Center Update

Gary Bauer, Senior Vice President of Public Policy

This is included today only FYI. To be on the JDFI email list, add enews@drjamesdobson.org to your contacts or Safe Sender List to insure delivery to your inbox.

Another FYI today, since there are a few folks who believe we’re getting too political here. My simple answer is just because we answer to a higher calling, and a higher standard of truth and righteousness, does not mean we’re not to be involved in the life of our nation and our world, for that is where the church is… Yet, So Get Ready!

Is it conceivable that Christians could be banned from teaching in public schools? Some radical secularists have advocated for it. Now, a school board in Arizona has gone a step further. The Washington Elementary School District, serving students in the Phoenix area, just cancelled a contract the district had with Arizona Christian University (ACU). The contract made it possible for ACU’s student teachers to be placed in local schools for “field experience.”

There were no complaints from parents or students about the arrangement, which has been in place for five years. Then some school board members read ACU’s website where they found a mission statement that said the university is “committed to Jesus Christ – accomplishing His will and advancing His kingdom on earth as in heaven.” The university also stated that it believed in “the centrality of family …traditional sexual morality and lifelong marriage between one man and one woman.”
 
That simple statement of biblical belief was too much for the three members of the board who identify as LGBTQ+. The effort to cancel the contract was led by board member Tamillia Valenzuela, who describes herself as “a bilingual, disabled, neurodivergent Queer Black Latina.” She attends board meetings wearing cat ears. Another board member attacked Arizona Christian University for “teaching with a biblical lens.”
 
ACU has now filed a lawsuit represented by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF). The lawsuit asserts: “This civil rights action seeks to protect a Christian university and its students’ fundamental rights to religious exercise and speech, and to be free from unlawful governmental discrimination simply because of their religious status and beliefs … Despite there being zero complaints about an Arizona Christian student teacher or alumnus, the School District decided to terminate its relationship with Arizona Christian and its students solely because of their religious status and beliefs on biblical marriage and sexuality.”
 
If history is any guide, what started in this school district will not stay in that school district. This outrage is a perfect example of what Dr. James Dobson and our team has argued for years. Someone’s values win. America once universally welcomed morally upright men and women to teach in our public schools. Today, there is increasing hostility to Christian teachers and acceptance of radical teachers who are exposing children to inappropriate LGBTQ propaganda. 
 
This is a good time to remember the importance of voting, going to school board meetings and taking every initiative you can to save your children and grandchildren. 
 



Biden Budget Disaster
 
James Dobson Family Institute (JDFI) does not usually weigh in on the, sometimes, arcane budget battles in Washington, D.C. But we cannot ignore the budget proposal just unveiled by the Biden administration. From economic policy to social policy impacting faith, family and freedom, the budget is a disaster. 
 
Biden’s budget includes, what even the pro-Biden Washington Post called, “unprecedented tax hikes” of five trillion dollars. The administration claims taxes have to be increased because our national debt is growing. But the same budget does not decrease the national debt – it increases it another $20 trillion over the next 10 years. That means President Biden is proposing major tax hikes and major new spending. In fact, the budget is 40% bigger than the last budget before COVID! All of this new debt will be left to our children and grandchildren to deal with. That amounts to an immoral generational transfer that will destroy their economic hopes and dreams.
 
Under the budget, big government grows even bigger and more powerful, while everything else, including economic growth, will get smaller. One of JDFI’s priorities is stopping America’s drift away from free enterprise and toward the “dead hand of smothering big government socialism.” This budget takes that disturbing trend and puts it on steroids. The IRS alone will get 86,000 new agents!
 
The priorities in the budget are also distorted. In a computer analysis of its 184 pages, the police are only mentioned four times, during a time when America is experiencing a nation-wide crime wave. Unbelievably, words like “transgender” (8 times), “intersex” (7 times) and the offensive slur “queer” (7 times) are all used more often, reflecting the Biden administration’s commitment to pushing the radical “52 genders” woke agenda. 
 
How about our veterans? The budget includes $137.9 million for the Department of Veteran Affairs, but bizarrely sets part of the money aside for “providing gender-affirming care to the nation’s veterans,” including sex change operations. At a time when homelessness impacts many veterans, are sex change operations really a top priority?
 
Of course, the budget does have its “fans.” One of the most powerful supporters is Planned Parenthood, the nation’s top abortion provider. Biden calls for providing them another $1.2 billion of your hard-earned tax dollars for their “vital” work of abortion on demand. This budget will be and should be “dead on arrival.” America can do a lot better. 
 



Biden HHS Attacks Rights of Conscience – Pro-Life Members of Congress Fight Back
 
Unfortunately, the Biden administration continues to be obsessed with keeping the number of abortions performed in the U.S. as high as possible. Fortunately, 25 pro-life senators and representatives are fighting back. 
 
Biden’s regulators have proposed a new rule that threatens to erase the conscience protections that prevent medical professionals from being forced to participate in abortions. The proposed rule states, “our health care systems must effectively deliver services, including safe, legal abortions, to all who need them in order to protect patients’ health and dignity.” Predictably, the “health and dignity” of the innocent preborn child, who will be dismembered or scalded with powerful chemicals, is not mentioned.
 
The Biden administration’s proposed rule is morally repugnant and also likely violates federal conscience statutes that have been passed by Congress, including the Conscience Protection Act.
 
The pro-life members of Congress, led by Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) and Senator James Lankford (R-OK), along with Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) in the House of Representatives, have filed a public letter with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), demanding they “enforce all conscience protections” Congress has passed. The senators remind Biden’s HHS bureaucrats that those statutes protect all medical professionals from performing or assisting in any health care services, procedures or research to which “they may object for religious, moral, ethical, or other reasons.”
 
JDFI believes this battle over the “conscience rights” of Christians and people of other faiths should be a wake-up call to the Church. This attack on conscience safeguards along with the continued effort to force all taxpayers to subsidize abortions, euthanasia and radical gender surgeries is a direct attack on our basic liberties and freedom of religion.
 
JDFI is working diligently to encourage additional pro-life members of Congress to sign the letter. Those who have currently signed include: Sens. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), John Boozman(R-AR), Mike Braun (R-IN), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Steve Daines (R-MT), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), John Kennedy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Roger Marshall, M.D. (R-KS), Jim Risch(R-ID), Marco Rubio (R-FL), John Thune (R-SD), Thom Tillis (R-NC) and Representatives Robert Aderholt (R-AL), Jim Banks (R-IN), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Andy Harris (R-MD), Diana Harshbarger (R-TN), Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA), Christopher Smith (R-NJ) and Brad Wenstrup (R-OH).


Gary Bauer’s New Podcast, “Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom”

Listen to Gary Bauer’s new podcast, “Defending Faith, Family, and Freedom” on our website or on your favorite platform, including Google, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher. Click the button below to subscribe. Every episode will help you stay informed and engaged on the policy and cultural issues that matter most to you and your family.

This is included today only FYI to add enews@drjamesdobson.org to your contacts or Safe Sender List to insure delivery to your inbox.

Accept His Love. Live His Joy. Embrace His Peace. Share His Hope. Refute Evil…... merlin