A spiritual plague ...

Our nation, like other nations, is experiencing a spiritual plague. We collectively and individually have doubted the authority of God and in many cases the existence of God. This often is true of Christians as well as others.

We Christians sometimes believe in a watered down Christ, or a Christ whom we embellish with our own will instead of diligently seeking His. In safe and prosperous times this attitude seems alright. In unruly hard times (like the present) the error should be obvious, but it often becomes obvious only after it has caused a lot of damage.

What Christians believe and do has a great influence - good or bad - on the community around us. The prophet Jeremiah identified the response God wanted from His people in a time when Israel was subdued and exiled in Babylon, having been defeated by King Nebuchadnezzar. They were at the mercy of hostile conquerors, but God commanded "... seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace." Jeremiah 29:7

The unruliness of America today stems from a spiritual problem, and I believe spiritual problems call for spiritual solutions. If the church of Jesus Christ prays in the way Jeremiah described, the church will move toward peace and the nation around us will do the same. How do I know this? God promises.

"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command the locust to devour the land, or send pestilence among my people, if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:13-14

Shock and awful ...

"But because shock events destabilize a society, they can also be used positively. We do not have to respond along old fault lines. We could just as easily reorganize into a different pattern that threatens the people who sparked the event." So wrote Heather Richardson in the Dallas Morning News.

Who can disagree that the manner in which the president's executive order on immigration was put in place last weekend, was a shock?

It WAS a shock. To that extent I concur in Heather Richardson's opinion piece. However, I have no way of knowing whether it's motive was to shock people, or whether the author was the president's advisor Steve Bannon. Perhaps it makes no difference.

I also agree - to a limited extent - that the shock presents an opportunity. Not an opportunity for "threatening the people who sparked the event", but for collaborating with Congress and the White House to refine and explain the policy.

Ms. Richardson's piece provoked me to reflect more deeply on what is happening as a result of the order. As usual for almost a decade, the news media took sides and members of Congress retreated into opposing corners then came out fighting.

Isn't it time Congress functioned as a refiner of policy rather than an arena for mortal combat?

In my view Congress has failed too long to cooperate with one another and fulfill its constitutional role of advising and checking the president. All Members, House and Senate, Democrat and Republican, have a serious stake in maintaining the functionality of their respective chambers. Does Congress want to become as nonfunctional as the human appendix?

The prolonged dysfunction of Congress may at least partly explain the wracking chaos of the recent primaries, general election, and post election periods.

Both parties-all parties-are stakeholders in our constitutional republic. We still have the implements of a republic. Let's go back to using them so we can keep it!

Pray boldly, not hesitantly ...

"Three things may give boldness in prayer. We have a Father to pray to, and the Spirit to help us to pray, and an Advocate to present our prayers. God's children should in all their troubles run to their heavenly Father, as the sick child in 2 Kings 4: 19: ‘He said unto his father, My head, my head.' So pour out thy complaint to God in prayer. ‘Father, my heart, my heart; my dead heart, quicken it; my hard heart, soften it in Christ's blood. Father, my heart, my heart.' Surely God, who hears the cry of ravens, will hear the cry of his children!"
Thomas Watson, The Lord's Prayer.

Night Flight: Climbing out of Baltimore

February 4, 2016

One evening last week my wife Barbara and I flew out of Baltimore's BWI airport en route to Dallas after a brief visit with our Virginia and Maryland family. Out the window I watched as the lights of the Washington,DC metropolitan area spread out horizon to horizon.

I love looking at city lights from above. In my teens and early 20s I served as a crew member on an Air Force transport plane. One evening after dropping off passengers at Washington,DC, we headed cross country to Dayton, Ohio to drop off a few more passengers. We had left Puerto Rico earlier in the day, and by now it had gotten dark.

Sitting on a jumpseat between the two pilots, I watched the lights of cities and towns roll up from the horizon, loom and disappear under us. It was like breasting waves of darkness and light. This short night flight, from Washington to Dayton showed me a majestic America that still lives in my heart.
It made me proud to serve the people these brilliant passing clusters of light represented.

Leaving Baltimore last week I had a similar feeling as I watched darkness replace the lights of cities and towns as our Boeing jet climbed and set course to Dallas. Then questions began arising in my mind as the wind passed by my window.

What would happen to our people if suddenly all the lights in America went out, or even became significantly more dim? A memory of the New York City blackout of 1977 passed briefly through my mind; pictures of looting, rioting, and arson. This memory was quickly replaced by darker questions.

Has the light dimmed in America? Is the light going out?

Teaching His first disciples on the mountain, Jesus said: "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden."

How much light are we modern disciples shedding in our land? How many of us are looking more like shadow than light?

These questions left a much different feeling than the feeling I had as an airman on my night flight from Washington to Dayton in the late '60s.

"You are the light of the world", said Jesus Christ to His disciples. How true is this of me? How true is this of Jesus' modern church?

The feeling I have as I write is not the majestic  feeling I enjoyed decades ago, as cities passed beneath our military wings en route to Dayton. Instead what I feel now is God prodding me to turn more directly to the light and get some to share with the troubled people of this present time.

Published previously on Facebook

No U.S. History for History Majors?

"... the overwhelming majority of America's most prestigious institutions do not require even the students who major in history to take a single course on United States history or government."

From, No US History? How College History Departments Leave the United States out of the Major, Study by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, published July 2016

https://www.goacta.org/images/download/no_u_s_history.pdf

Christmas Eve morning, December 24, 2016

I woke up this morning at 6 AM. I stayed in bed till seven, musing about Mary and Joseph and the soon to be born Jesus. 

They may have still been journeying from Nazareth to Bethlehem at this morning hour. Or resting at the conclusion of the arduous 90 mile journey on foot or on some beast of burden. I cannot imagine the pains of a woman heavily pregnant and approaching the time of birth in this situation.

Nor was this all. They had no place to call their own for this life-changing event when the best available birthing chamber was a place where animals were fed. Picture this vulnerable young woman with her inexperienced husband in the place we commonly visualize as a stable! I suppose things could've been worse, but they were certainly poor! And then the precious baby was wrapped up and placed in a feeding trough!

That God would condescend for his Son to make entrance into our world in this way is appalling! For a Jewish couple accustomed to strict cleanliness in worship, this must've felt like the very opposite of a blessed event!

God was not lacking compassion, however. He first sent angels to inform shepherds about the coming of the promised Savior, then sent the jubilant shepherds to tell the weary Mary and Joseph the marvelous way God had revealed the Savior's birth to them.

For all the pain and fatigue of travel, and the struggle of giving birth in rough and grimy surroundings, Mary and Joseph celebrated with the shepherds and their loving God the birth of His promised Savior Jesus Christ the Lord. How that must've transformed what would otherwise be squalor and misery!

This gift of hope and joy despite circumstances is the same gift those who believe in Jesus Christ can expect from God the Father as we remember the birth of his Son amidst the turmoil of the world. For all of us, if we place our eyes on the risen Jesus, the celebration can be a truly holy time. We can share to some extent the God given joy that came to Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds.

Luke, chapter 2

A genuine celebration of Christmas

A Prayer for the Poor in Spirit

Originally posted on on her blog  December 15, 2013 by Lynne Hybels

 A prayer of Oscar Romero

“No one can celebrate
a genuine Christmas
without being truly poor.
The self-sufficient, the proud,
those who, because they have
everything, look down on others,
those who have no need
even of God–for them there

Shutterstock photo

will be no Christmas.
Only the poor, the hungry,
those who need someone
to come on their behalf,
will have that someone.
That someone is God.
Emmanuel. God-with-us.
Without poverty of spirit
there can be no abundance of God.”

God, help me realize how poor
I am.  Poor at loving, poor at discerning,
poor in wisdom, poor at choosing
obedience, poor in generosity,
poor in seeking You.  And so you
come to me.  To me. Emmanuel. 
With your abundance of all I need.
Thank you. Thank you.

From ...

https://www.lynnehybels.com/a-prayer-for-the-poor-in-spirit/