What's my standard?

I have for some time found myself in a discouragement so hidden I could not even identify it.  I could only tell that something seemed amiss.  Only my daily time in the Word has helped, as has my faith in the unswerving God.  If He loves me – no matter the trial – I can stand.  Yet my standing was without knowledge, without understanding.  And in that trial I could see a complete leaning upon Him.  Proverbs 13:6 unlocked for me a door of understanding: Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless,

But wickedness overthrows the sinner.

As I read this verse, my thoughts turned to the wicked age in which I live and how righteousness is defined.  People today frequently, without having a moral compass to follow, use the government as a standard.  Most would recognize it as an imperfect standard, but accepted it for the most part, holding to a private ethic where the legal definition offends their sensibilities.  This all works fine for the most part.  One need not go to God for that standard – for that would also betray their great lack before His perfect moral standard.  In addition, one’s arguments are easily defended, if the government is standing behind you – so he need not wrestle about the intellectual oversights this ethic holds….

Until the law changes…

This house of cards quickly falls down as the legal definitions change from time to time and place to place.  In fact, today there are so many ambiguities in the government ethic that one will find himself a lawbreaker, no matter where he turns. 
I personally have struggled with this, not to say that I look to the government for my ethical standard – but that as a Christian – who does not want to pour shame upon my Lord’s head, and who seeks to follow the laws as my country had defined them, I found myself at odds more and more frequently, to the point that I despaired of even avoiding such entanglements. I am reminded of a quote from Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged, “One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt.”  Nevertheless the bottom line is that I am guilty – regardless of the right or wrongness of the law and I must pay.
And then the Lord had me read todays’ verse:  Righteousness guards him whose way is blameless, but wickedness overthrows the sinner.

And freedom is given.  Even though I seek to obey this world’s law, I had forgotten the cardinal standard of righteousness is not legality, but the moral truth of this most Holy God I serve.  And though found wanting before Him, there is an escape – the grace of God through Jesus Christ’s perfect life and sacrificial death on the cross for me.   And I have freedom. 

Righteousness (true moral righteousness of Christ) really does guard him whose way (my way does not, but Christ’s life and death were substituted for me) is blameless.  Praise the Lord!

Quitting Facebook...

     FYI - to all you my friends (real friends!!!)  -  I have quit facebook, and my account is being deleted.  I am just too influenced by other's posts and I also feel that there is a HUGE privacy issue I'd rather not be a part of.  We can still be friends though, right! ;-) 

     I still have e-mail.  I suppose some of you might think me a hermit, after all, isn't Facebook the modern equivalent to television?  Well, call me crazy Dave, but don't call me late for dinner!  I have spent my whole career in computers and there really is such a vacuum in the world of cyberspace.  Real relationships with real people in the flesh is so much more....real.  But they also take work, and perhaps that is the issue at hand.  Facebook is a chore.  It's wonderful to have some contact with so many, but how many CLOSE friends can someone have?  I read somewhere (long before FB) that men usually have only 4-5 close friends at any one time in their lives.  If that is true, and we seek to have many times more "friends" on FB, how does that devalue those friendships?

     We have all felt the pain of someone misunderstanding your opinions, posts, etc.  I sometimes think, that in an effort to make FB seem all the more real, we put things out there that perhaps ought not to be.  Think about what you would say verbally, when people are present.  Sure we don't want to be fakes - but neither do we want to be so emotionally exposed that people don't really know us.  Think about how much easier it is to explain something to someone face to face - where you can hear voice inflection and see facial cues.  And how many of us have sent an e-mail off only to find out how easily it was misunderstood... or worse yet, typing it out in a fit of passion, but never intending it to be seen.... but it does!  Oops!  We all make mistakes and the fatal flaw of the convenience of Facebook, e-mail, and the cyber-world, is that we do so much with such ease we frequently overlook the appropriateness of our words.  Sure, I don't want to be politically correct just because that’s the elitist way, but what is wrong with a little discretion? 

     I will be the first to tell you that I have been occasionally offensive in my posts.  I have tried NOT to be, but the nature of the medium, is what it is.  So my plan is to periodically post a blog entry.  This will be a little window into what I am thinking, without having to consider every newsy item that scrolls by the news feed.  The world moved by just fine before FB, and I think it will be just fine afterwards. 

     So I haven't gone anywhere, just pulling the plug on Facebook. 

     As for the MANY photos I have uploaded, I have even more than those on the computer, and will plan I categorizing them and putting them on a DVD/CD for all family members who want it.  Thanks,

Dave

The fear of man is a snare!

"Man's mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes, US author & physician (1809 - 1894)

I sit here writing this while listening to some Bach and the falling rain outside.  I was out earlier this morning and while it was early, it was not so early that it should be so dark... So I took my trusty Smartphone out to see what the weather had in store for me, Thunderstorms - 90% chance of precip... Looking up, the clouds were rather thick and dark...  a fit beginning to this day...

Yesterday, my wife & two younger children left for Colorado to visit the Grandparents, and my oldest left for a short retreat to Northern Wisconsin.  I am alone at home.  Earlier yesterday I had been feeling down, and ran across a video message from Alex Jones (http://youtu.be/lsp5n3Lc1hU) which really made me feel bad, and quite helpless.  For I know a great many things, and yet I know so little!  And what can I do with what I know?  In 2008, due to the economic crash, I was awakened as to a lot of bad things going on in society.  So I begin to get Bunker Mentality.  What is bunker mentality?  Google it!  But what can I do, I kept asking myself.  And how easily I am swayed by the darkness outside, for I know the darkness within.

As I have wrestled over these feelings and emotions over and over again, I find that society has no answers.  And I think about that quip, "Ignorance is bliss" and I would sometime long to go back to days of ignorance, and faced with what looks like some very great darkness, who would not?  It's the same idea one gets when we look back, with rose colored glasses, at ones youth. But those glasses are rose colored, and the truth is not there...  How can you know what was true?  Though you were there, were you not captivated by your mind's interpretations of events as you had them explained to you?  Childhood is simple, because we are not able to grasp some things beyond the concrete, and once we have passed the concrete time of development we are under the tutelage of those who, also being influenced by their peers and surroundings give to us, their aspect of knowledge.  Again I say, where is the Truth? 

I reject outright the simple idea that truth is relative to the person.  As if "my truth" can be different than your truth and yet both ideas be truth?!  It's ridiculous on its face, and logic demands a better explanation.  As Ravi Zacharias likes to say, Even the relativist acknowledges the truth, that he should look both ways before crossing the street, for it's either the bus or me!  Both/and thinking will get you killed!  And I am surprised that we somehow think, within such categorical boxes, that we can have diametrically opposed ideas, and yet both be right.  This "Coexist" bumper sticker philosophy sounds great, until one realizes that what we believe matters, and we cannot co-exist, without having either a great conflict, or a great compromise.  Neither of which is pleasant to think on, and so we ignore the truth.  And since it was recently played, another example of this is John Lennon's song, Imagine.  The world thus imagined is so devoid of reality as to be completely un-reality.  But let's travel down this path for just a moment...  It really sounds like Utopia that he is describing.  Another look with rose colored glasses at what the world might look like, only if....

But an honest look at your own internal heart should convince you at least that this world (Utopia), could never exist... at least not if YOU were part of it.  Remember, I said an honest look.  At this point, I may have some readers checking out.  Offended that I would suggest they are less than the person they think themselves to be.  But even if today, they live uprightly (which I would argue they don't), they at least would admit some "youthful indiscretions" of the past.  I certainly can.  Consider the fact though that these "indiscretions" affected people then also, for the worse.  Those people have a past history too now, and ought they, and all of us simply put that in a box? Hiding the past does not remove it from reality.  Even if it could be so, it would not be right.  The truth of the matter is that because of our wicked heart, we have hurt others in the past, and apart from a change of heart, by the master of our souls, as recorded in Jeremiah 31:31-34, we have NO HOPE of such a utopia, and will hurt others again.  The myth of Co-existence is that while we do so, we will continue to hurt, maim, and kill others due to our sinful heart (see Jeremiah 17:5-10). Now I have done it... I dared state the problem is sin.  Anyone not offended yet? You will surely have to wrestle through this writing now!

If truth is not to be found within us, or our interpretation of events, then where can we find the truth?  We cannot simply say, in the Scriptures, as I am desirous to do, because someone will cry foul!  Is it not these same Scriptures which were written down by men, and if men are suspect, how can we trust the Bible?  I do trust the Scriptures.  And one of the best logical explanations of my confidence in them is a short but significant and logically cogent statement by Dr. Voddie Baucham, "I choose to believe the Bible because it is a reliable collection of historical documents written down by eyewitnesses during the lifetime of other eyewitnesses. They report [of] supernatural events that took place in fulfillment of specific prophecies and claimed that their writings are divine rather than human in origin."  This is a rational and cogent defensive statement of my belief in the Holy Scriptures.  Yet, if I choose to, I can still reject the Scriptures, as this explanation only gets to the probability factor.  This makes the veracity of the Bible highly probable, but not assuredly so.  So where can I turn?  Where can you turn? 

As I began this commentary, it was on my despondency of the times.  And I am profoundly confident in the Holmes quote above, so I cannot retreat into ignorance once again.  And though the quip may be true, ignorance may be bliss, but it is still ignorance.  So I must respond to the darkness.  I have a responsibility to do so for myself, and my family. 

Where is the source of the darkness?  Nothing but men. And as the Proverb states, "The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe." (Proverbs 29:25)  In Acts 5 we read of both the fear of God and man.  Peter gives a statement to the leading authorities of the day, in Acts 5:29, "But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men."  So I really must come to a conclusion to the question of the source of truth.  For if the Scriptures be true, then I have a clear injunction to follow, and that is to trust God.

And the fact of the matter is that the Scriptures are sufficient, but only for those whose eyes have been opened to the truth, by the Lord.  Apart from looking honestly at your own heart, and recognizing the great wickedness therein, one cannot know the truth.  But if one humble himself, if he call upon the Lord, who will in no way cast out ANY who calls to him (John 6:35-38), the Lord will reveal himself, and the Scriptures are proven sufficient thereby.  There is no other way folks.  It is a matter of faith.

But this way, this way is so comforting!  For now I do not have to rationalize away my thoughts into tiny compartments.  Instead, I can trust the veracity of the One who has revealed himself to me in the Scriptures (He will do so for you too, if you but ask in humility), and no longer do I have to fret over the darkness within, for the light has come!   (Matthew 5:14 & John 8:12)

The Boycott Battles!

Lately I have been considering Christian warfare.  And I really don't think I like what I have been seeing.  I have, for many years, wondered about certain activities, and whether they were really what a Christian should participate in.

In the very late '80s I recall being in Chicago, and while out shopping with a friend, being told we shouldn't shop at one of the big box stores (K-Mart, Target, I just can't recall!) because they sold pornography. At the time I didn't think about it, but later I started to consider this idea. Obviously, I don't want to support the porn industry.  Yet the store wasn't an adult bookstore.  If I recall, they had some paperbacks that were pornographic in their content (not pictures - but the writing within.)  That was it - nothing else.

As the years have gone by, I have noticed that the AFA and other "family friendly" organizations are pushing with significant strength the use of the boycott.  This seemed sensible at first, and especially because the culture seemed to be so hostile to my conservative and Christian values.  But then I noticed something...  The culture was being changed by this movement.  Christians were being characterized in the news as militant and angry.  And judging what I was reading, the characterizations were sometimes right on target.

Further I pondered how much of the culture could I effectively change using this method? Are we called to change the world? And if you "followed the money" far enough, isn't it likely that I would find somewhere up the chain someone, or something I disagreed with, or who disagreed with me?  And how far could I take this witch-hunt?  I recall that according to Scripture we are to live in the world but not be of it.  And how does boycotting Wal-Mart help me to not be "of the world?" 

I am beginning to think that the truth of the matter lies in the sphere of this spiritual war.  As Christians we are called to battle.  There is no question of that.  There are so many passages on warfare that anyone who would dispute that would be laughed to scorn!  But in looking at those verses we learn much about the enemy, the tools of the war trade, the place of warfare, and even training for the battlefield. 

Who is the enemy?

First off, consider the enemy.  Without dispute Satan wins that hands down.  But he also has his minions, we might call principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness.  Now let me ask you a question...  Are non-believers part of the enemy's ranks?  As I thought of this it occurred to me that if they are not, this boycotting business is way out of line, since it punished those who were not even a part of the ranks of the enemy.  And plainly, this IS where I stand.  How can I take out my vengeance on someone who, though plainly ACTING like an enemy, was simply under the influence of the real Adversary, Satan?!  And isn’t vengeance the Lord’s anyway?

Where do we fight?

Next, where is this battle to be fought?  Let’s look at a few verses on the matter:
                For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor. 10:3-5)

       For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Eph. 6:12)

       When the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. (Isaiah 59:19b)
       Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands. (I Samuel 17:47)

       You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. (2 Tim. 2:3-4)

Notice that this warfare is not "according to the flesh” so the sphere is Spiritual, not earthy.  In 2 Corinthians we read that there is battle in the mind of the believer.  Language such as "casting down arguments" and “knowledge of God" make this clear enough.  In Ephesians we see it is "in the heavenly places".  In Second Timothy, Paul is advising Timothy not to "entangle" "himself with the affairs of this life" again plainly demonstrating that this soldier ought to be in the locale of the battle and that it is not in "the affairs of this life".  This culture war is a ruse.  I believe that it is part of Satan's war against the saints to keep us from being effective in the true Spiritual battle found in heavenly places and in the arena of the mind.

What kind of war is it?

Lastly, it is a Spiritual battle that, apart from God's hand we will lose!  Look at what David said to Goliath, "Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will give you into our hands."  David is flat out telling Goliath that he will fight this battle not in the strength of his arm, but in the power of God.  As the prophet says, "the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against" the enemy. 

We do not fight this battle in the flesh, nor by the strength of our arms or numbers (as a boycott suggests), nor in the sphere of this world, nor against the POW's of the enemy (non-believers).  Oh how much damage has been done by those well-meaning, but very misled Christian leaders?!  Ought we instead to be more interested in the equipping of the saints, teaching and admonishing them who and where and with what we wage this war according to the Scripture?  Instead we divide our influence and effectiveness by fighting in the wrong place against the wrong enemy with the wrong tools!

May God help us to be a Spiritual people who seek to get at the enemy with Prayer and Truth and Faith in the One whose battle it is to win!  Amen.

Like a wild goat

Still my heart,
      Quiet my spirit.
 For the world has captured my desires once again.

Calm my soul,
      Slow my mind.
 For the worries of the world quickly take root each day.

Steady my heart,
      Hold my hand.
 For I forget You and all the benefits You bestow.

Lord – May You be my desire,
            May You be my gardener,
            May I remember all Your benefits,
                    That I may have
                                                 a still heart,
                                                 a quiet spirit,
                                                  a calm soul,
                                                  a slowed mind,
                                                  a steady heart, and
                                                  a held hand,
                                                                      and not be such a wild goat.


Too often I find distraction when I need to find my Lord.

They left us

The loss of a loved one is hard to get over. Time heals the wound, but the scar of their having left the world remains. They are vivid reminders of the pain of departing. Today is the 8 year anniversary of Mom’s passing. And April itself has become a bittersweet time also because just over 2 years ago Scott also was taken. They left us for the most part with little warning of the grief their leaving would bring.

They left us, it was their time.

They left us, and now we cry.
Others will leave, we can’t tell who they’ll be
Others will leave, what if it’s me?

They left us, for another place
They left us, and we’re left in the race.
Others will leave, to finish the course,
Others will leave, that we know, of course.

They left us, and now we ache.
They left us, and will we break?
Others will come, to replace they will not,
Others will come, will they fill the spot?

We cannot tell when our time is up
We cannot tell who’ll be next…
Should we live fatally day by day,
or is there a hope for that day?

 

Only a trust in the righteousness of the one true judge gives one comfort for that day, whether it be our day, or another’s.
Thank You Lord, for your perfect assuring love! Amen.

On reading and books

In January 2008 I determined to do more reading.  It wasn’t exactly a resolution, although I suppose the idea was taken for that reason.  I just felt that as I reviewed the last few years, my former habit of reading had fallen off quite a bit, so I made a renewed effort to read again.  I also had to finally acknowledge the need for reading glasses.  It was funny how that happened.  I was sitting up in bed reading and my glasses slid down my nose by accident... and the letters leapt off the page!   Wow!  They were clear and big!  Then it dawns on me - this is the reading glasses phenomenon.  For a guy who has had glasses since I was two years old this was a surprise.  How did I get glasses in the first place you ask?  My Mother told the story like this:  As a toddler I would get hurt and when I went to look for Mom, crying, I would actually walk right into a wall or door post looking for her! 
But what a change all this reading has led to in my day to day thinking!  I completed at least 9 books in 2008, and have several others in process right now.  I have gotten in the habit of reading many different books at a time.  Right now I am reading numerous different books, from several different genres.  In addition to that I have read (not skimmed) numerous pamphlets and internet blogs. 

Ever ask how much or little we read today?  I did a quick Google search on this, “are we reading more or less today” and got more than 4 billion hits (in 2009 I got 34 million hits).   It’s a huge topic that even doctoral dissertations are being written on!  The ongoing debate is whether we are reading less, or whether we are simply moving our reading to the screen, which is harder to quantify. One of the main subjects was the difference in reading a paper object and reading the screen.  I have personally felt that I get more out of an internet blog that is physically printed, so when I see something of length written on the internet that I want to truly understand, I print it out.  Something about the words staying put on the page that’s soothing to the eye, I guess.  I have been reading with the Kindle app though and that seems easy enough.

Recently I have been cleaning out my office at work and part of that endeavor had me throwing away books.  Before you all start rumors that I might like a good old fashioned book burning! (Also, many of those [in Ephesus] who had practiced magic, brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver; Acts 19:18-19) Let me allay your fears - I work as an Information Technology professional by trade.  Over the years I would buy technical books on the details of some now bygone computer system or language.  So I was throwing away about 30 books on the likes of UNIX system Administration, and NT Administration, etc.  As I was tossing them into the dumpster (a paper only dumpster - for all you who like to recycle) I recalled that I have done this numerous times over my 15 year career in IT.  I am not even sure I will ever buy another IT related book again.  Why bother!

Think about all the truly junk reading we do today…  Reading bills, junk mail and much of the internet posts, which have no more value than trivial pursuit.  Not everything is worthy of reading.  One thing I have noticed about serious reading… It’s hard work!  Letting a good writer direct you (and I am not that writer!) to his mind on a subject, takes concentration.  Much of today’s written word is written in such a way as to require little of the reader, except his imagination.  To read C.S Lewis or J. R. R. Tolkien, requires a lot of work, and sadly many are not interested in it.  (see http://www.amazon.com/Experiment-Criticism-Canto-C-Lewis/dp/0521422817 for a good read on this subject)

So what are you reading these days, and why?  Ask yourself why you read what you read.  Perhaps you don't read at all.  Why not?  Afraid to be challenged, or just lazy?  In Ecclesiastes 12:12b we read, "Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh."  Ought we to abandon the practice?  If what you are reading is valueless, perhaps.  But not all reading is without good purpose.  Without the written Word, where would we be?  We would not even really know about the love of God in Christ.  "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25) 

One might try to argue the point of using oral tradition - but we have all played 'telephone' as children and know that won't work.  How do we know what we read is true and worthy of our trust?  Look at the books of today... When someone writes something outrageous everyone challenges him about it.  Look up the reviews on "She said Yes" (http://www.amazon.com/She-Said-Yes-Unlikely-Martyrdom/dp/0874869870/ref=cm_rdp_product) for a modern example. 

Think about "The DaVinci Code" written by Dan Brown.  This book is a fiction piece and many have reviewed it, because it contains content of a historical nature which is not true to the actual history.  How do we know that?  Just as there are those today able to refute the errors in Bernall's book, the ideas Brown is espousing were refuted long ago by those living at the time (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inaccuracies_in_The_Da_Vinci_Code). 

As for me, I am reading.   I have read several books on Christian Theology, Politics, History, some historical fiction, and of course, the Bible.  I challenge you to open a few books this year.  They will change your mind, and challenge your thinking.  You might even grow from the experience!