One of the most remarkable books I have had the privilege of reading, several times, is Booker T. Washington's Up From Slavery. Let's face it, we live in a land of abundance to the point of profligacy. I recall too many years ago our teachers telling us when we desperately wanted our trinket, "Offer it up for the less fortunate." They knew something we would learn as we matured: we soon weary of our trinkets. If someone said that today, we'd be carting him/her off to a padded white room.
What so fascinates me about Up From Slavery is Washington's philosophy of life that developed as he suffered his wretched life. He tells us, "My life had its beginning in the midst of the most miserable, desolate, and discouraging surroundings." There were no agencies to remove him from these terrible circumstances. But - it was because of his peculiar circumstances that he became a great man. This was his furnace of cleansing where he became a bar of gold. I suppose that is what so bothers me about what I call the "evolution of comfort" today. No one is to experience anything that bothers him/her. It is truly amazing what we will not endure.
I have no inside information on why one person is asked to scrape the bottom of the barrel looking for the scraps of life in his/her hell, while another person is the king of his/her particular hill. One thing I do know: the person who can rise above it all is the more fortunate of the two. In our insane quest for me-myself-and-I, we have lost the virtues of sacrifice and gratitude.
One of the outstanding attributes of Washington's character was his lack of resentment. Instead, he forged a betterness out of the chain of a bitterness that could have rendered him totally useless to his people and to his society. What a lesson for those of us who grumble over an anthill! If I had to choose which virtue I most admire in his life, it would be this one, for he had so very much over which to be bitter. When we think that our life is a lemon, read how Booker T. Washington made lemonade, and then served it to others.
"From the time that I can remember having any thoughts about anything, I recall that I had an intense longing to learn to read. I determined, when quite a small child, that, if I accomplished nothing else in life, I would in some way get enough education to enable me to read common books and newspapers." Washington understood that his road to true freedom was within himself. There is no excuse for not learning to read in this day of free education and libraries. We are not enslaved, folks! The only slavery is in our minds, and our lack of willingness to "be up and doing," as the adage goes. Another adage says, "You can take a horse to the water but you can't make him drink." You can take a child to a book, but that child must be motivated to want to read and to learn. The only obstacle to success today is me-myself-and-I.
This is an amazing biography about an amazing man. In our milieu of extreme comfort, this book helps us to understand that life is not always what we want it to be but, as Washington proved, we can help make it what it should be. There are certain heroes in my life that I wish I could have met, and Booker T. Washington is surely one of these. Please download the book and read it.
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Granny Fogey again!
"I made a covenant with my eyes not to look upon a girl" (Job 31:1 TLB); "How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" (Genesis 39:9 NIV).
"Set a strong guard about thy outward senses: these are Satan's landing places, especially the eye and the ear" (W. Gurnall).
We live in an age of uninhibited sex. It's everywhere, for the taking and the giving. Lest we don't already know, God is the One who issued sexual standards: "God wants his people to keep the sexual side of their nature untainted from sin..." (Anonymous). Sexual sin catches up with us in physical diseases and guilt. Unfortunately one of the side effects, venereal disease, afflicts babies, also. We owe it to the unborn to keep them unborn if we are going to invite sexually-transmitted diseases. And let's not blame it on society, either, if we wind up on a death bed because of something we could have prevented by saying an emphatic "No!"
I've noticed through the years that pornography has seeped into everything. The advertisements have been unclothing for years, under the guise of letting us know what the latest is in undies and fundies. We can make that covenant with our eyes, as did Job, but at some point we have to open our eyes to see where we're going, and there we are, the unveiling.
By the way, there is a progression: pornography to rape, anger to murder, etc. Ted Bundy discovered this. Only hours before he was executed convicted serial killer Ted Bundy gave an interview to Dr. James Dobson. Bundy indicated that violent movies on cable could affect others in the same way printed sexually violent material had affected him: "There is loose in their towns and their communities people like me today, whose dangerous impulses are being fueled day in and day out by violence in the media in its various forms, particularly sexual violence. Let's come into the present now, because what I'm talking about happening 20 to 30 years ago in my formative stages, and what scares and appalls me, Dr. Dobson, when I see what's on cable TV, some of the movies coming to homes today (and of course now we have any video you want that can be rented). The stuff they wouldn't show in X-rated adult theaters 30 years ago...it can get into the home to children who may be unattended or unaware that they may be a Ted Bundy who has that vulnerability, that predisposition to be influenced by that kind of behavior, that kind of motive, that kind of violence. There are kids sitting out there, switching the TV dial around and they come upon these movies late at night. I don't know when they are on but they're on, and any kid can watch them. It's scary, when I think what would have happened to me. I am scary enough." I had a dear friend who scorned what Bundy said and who thought I was incredibly naïve, but why would he lie at that point in his life?
It's a known fact that the promiscuous person winds up with diseases of both body and mind, that it is now literally a death sentence. It is not God who punishes us for our sins so much as it is our own willful sinning. God does not make our misery - we make it with our intentional disobedience. Our best strength and our most useful years are in our youth, so let's not waste them on sexual sin. What a tragedy is the shattered gift of life which often comes from fooling around. My dear young people, sowing wild oats reaps a terrible harvest!
Lest you think Granny Fogey is foisting her version of morality on the world, Jesus warned us in Matthew 5: "But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (V.28). Jesus cautioned us many times to guard our minds, for it is here the consequences are determined. And we are the keepers of our own minds and hearts, not mother, father, peers or society. We will stand before God in the judgment by ourselves. Mom and Dad will not be able to come to the rescue.
Two important ways to guard against sexual immorality are self-control (one aspect of the fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5:22), and being faithful in marriage. Yes, I know, what antediluvian ideas!
C.S. Lewis made the observation: "They'll tell you sex has become a mess because it was hushed up. But for the last twenty years it has not been hushed up....Yet it is still in a mess. If hushing it up had been the cause of the trouble, ventilation would have set it right. But it hasn't" (Christian Behavior 1944). Perhaps we should return to the days of hush!
I realize this wonderful comment by Otway is outdated: "O woman, lovely woman! Nature made thee to temper man; we had been brutes without you. Angels are painted fair, to look like you; there is in you all that we believe of heaven--amazing brightness, purity, and truth, eternal joy, and everlasting love." Lovely: beautiful, graceful, refined, personable, undefaced, affectionate, tender, sympathetic, devoted, interesting, amiable. I will always believe that a young man is more attracted to Mr. Otway's woman. Surely this is the lady he will want to bear his children, if he cares about the future.
In his book, Living Above the Level of Mediocrity, Charles R. Swindoll quotes Dr. Dobson: "First, men are primarily excited by visual stimulation. They are turned on by feminine nudity....Second (and much more important), men are not very discriminating in regard to the person living within an exciting body.... [The man] can become almost as excited over a photograph of an unknown nude model as he can in a face-to-face encounter with someone he loves....Women are much more discriminating in their sexual interests....She yields to the man who appeals to her emotionally as well as physically. Obviously, there are exceptions to these characteristic desires, but the fact remains: sex for men is a more physical thing; sex for women is a deeply emotional experience.” (From What Wives Wish Their Husbands Knew about Women.)
One of my favorite Bible verses is Isaiah 32:8 NIV: "The noble man makes noble plans, and by noble deeds he stands". Pornography is not noble or profound. We seem to have lost our dignity and our shame. We can't even blush anymore! "Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts?" (Matthew 9:4). Can you imagine Jesus looking at pornography, whether magazines, TV or videos? If we can't have Jesus sitting beside us when we read or view anything, then we should not be viewing it!
"O Lord, how profound are your thoughts!" (Psalm 92:5). God wants us to have the mind of Christ, which is indeed profound; "Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart" (Deuteronomy 15:9); "Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths" (Isaiah 59:7); "They came to Jesus, and saw the one who had been demon-possessed..., sitting and clothed and in his right mind" (Mark 5:15) Notice the juxtaposition of clothed and in his right mind!
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Removing those i-o-u's!
Years ago I taught the Book of Proverbs to our young people in church. One of our lessons was on contentment, which is in such short supply in these days of overabundance and our entitlement mentality.
One of the best descriptions of contentment I've come across is this one: "Contentment is not satisfaction. It is the grateful, faithful, fruitful use of what we have, little or much. It is to take the cup of Providence, and call upon the name of the Lord. What the cup contains is its contents. To get all there is in the cup is the act and art of contentment. Not to drink because one has but half a cup, or because one does not like its flavor, or because some one else has silver to one's own glass, is to lose the contents; and is the penalty, if not the meaning of discontent. No one is discontented who employs and enjoys to the utmost what he has. It is high philosophy to say, we can have just what we like, if we like what we have; but this much at least can be done, and this is contentment,--to have the most and best in life, by making the most and best of what we have" (Maltbie Babcock).
So we're having a really bad day, or so we feel. Ah, we feel! Over the years I've discovered that thought is a powerful weapon against our feelings. When I'm having a self-pity party (and we're lying if we say that we never feel sorry for ourselves), I bring my maddened heart to a halt and ask, how could this be worse? I mentally drag out my credit-debit sheet (see my devotion, "Life's Credit-Debit Sheet"), and discover that the blessings so far outweigh whatever is happening at the moment, that I thank God for all the graces in my life and get on with the current duty.
An example - a quite frivolous one, I admit: one day I was hurrying around trying to get organized and back to the hospital where my husband was recovering from surgery, and I noticed the house was getting hot (you folks in Michigan must be laughing). Our air conditioning - gone! We live in Florida, and how grateful I am to be here but, when it is hot, it is HOT. We need air conditioning like you folks up north need heat. So - thank You, Father, that it's not the middle of August; thank You, Father, that we have fans; thank You, Father, that we have so much to thank You for! That took care of the temporary discontent over the air conditioning. Call it God-conditioning.
"What a grand power is the power of thought! And what a grand being is man when he uses it aright; because, after all, it is the use made of it that is the important thing. Character comes out of thought; or rather thought comes out of character. The particular thoughts are like the blossoms on the trees; they tell of what kind it is. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is'" (Sir Walter Raleigh).
Now let's see about those IOUs in our life. I truly believe these are a huge source of dissatisfaction. What we think folks owe us is tantamount to moral blackmail. Entitlements make up a large part of the federal budget, and I do believe that we start to think, well, "they" owe me - that ubiquitous "they". After all, I pay taxes! The problem is, WE are the taxes, and eventually this payout runs out. The pie is no longer there to divvy up.... Think about it - please!
As for relatives and friends, what really do they OWE us? I know the Bible says WE owe THEM love and faithfulness and forgiveness. I'm still looking for what they owe us....
One of the best descriptions of contentment I've come across is this one: "Contentment is not satisfaction. It is the grateful, faithful, fruitful use of what we have, little or much. It is to take the cup of Providence, and call upon the name of the Lord. What the cup contains is its contents. To get all there is in the cup is the act and art of contentment. Not to drink because one has but half a cup, or because one does not like its flavor, or because some one else has silver to one's own glass, is to lose the contents; and is the penalty, if not the meaning of discontent. No one is discontented who employs and enjoys to the utmost what he has. It is high philosophy to say, we can have just what we like, if we like what we have; but this much at least can be done, and this is contentment,--to have the most and best in life, by making the most and best of what we have" (Maltbie Babcock).
So we're having a really bad day, or so we feel. Ah, we feel! Over the years I've discovered that thought is a powerful weapon against our feelings. When I'm having a self-pity party (and we're lying if we say that we never feel sorry for ourselves), I bring my maddened heart to a halt and ask, how could this be worse? I mentally drag out my credit-debit sheet (see my devotion, "Life's Credit-Debit Sheet"), and discover that the blessings so far outweigh whatever is happening at the moment, that I thank God for all the graces in my life and get on with the current duty.
An example - a quite frivolous one, I admit: one day I was hurrying around trying to get organized and back to the hospital where my husband was recovering from surgery, and I noticed the house was getting hot (you folks in Michigan must be laughing). Our air conditioning - gone! We live in Florida, and how grateful I am to be here but, when it is hot, it is HOT. We need air conditioning like you folks up north need heat. So - thank You, Father, that it's not the middle of August; thank You, Father, that we have fans; thank You, Father, that we have so much to thank You for! That took care of the temporary discontent over the air conditioning. Call it God-conditioning.
"What a grand power is the power of thought! And what a grand being is man when he uses it aright; because, after all, it is the use made of it that is the important thing. Character comes out of thought; or rather thought comes out of character. The particular thoughts are like the blossoms on the trees; they tell of what kind it is. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so he is'" (Sir Walter Raleigh).
Now let's see about those IOUs in our life. I truly believe these are a huge source of dissatisfaction. What we think folks owe us is tantamount to moral blackmail. Entitlements make up a large part of the federal budget, and I do believe that we start to think, well, "they" owe me - that ubiquitous "they". After all, I pay taxes! The problem is, WE are the taxes, and eventually this payout runs out. The pie is no longer there to divvy up.... Think about it - please!
As for relatives and friends, what really do they OWE us? I know the Bible says WE owe THEM love and faithfulness and forgiveness. I'm still looking for what they owe us....
Elijah and his dunghill
1 Kings 19 is one of the most remarkable chapters in the Bible. For the
depressed and lonely it is a necessary chapter, for it encourages a view of God
as a Presence who loves in spite of what we do and what we are. It is a display
of God's power, as well, and is similar to the rebuke God gave to Job when Job
questioned and murmured (although given similar circumstances, how well would we
have endured?). God answered Job out of the whirlwind (Job 38:1) as he sat on
the dunghill with his friends, and He answered Elijah in the still small voice
on Mount Horeb, as Elijah peeked out from the cave in which he sought to hide
from the world in which he was so disappointed (1 Kings 19:12).
Even in discouragement God meets us where we are, whether we have unwillingly and unwittingly landed on the heap of the rubbish and wreckage of life or we are hiding in a cave, away from what we perceive to be an inhumane humanity. He knows whether we need the whirlwind or the soft breeze to get us back on His track. God knows that we damage our compass of life now and then with the heat of our passions and the cold of our indifference. Our "sense of instrumentation" becomes faulty and we head in the direction of a living death. We need to regain the sense of "mission and submission."
It is interesting that Elijah, Moses and Jonah all requested that they be allowed to die. Listen to Jonah: "Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:3); Moses: "If this is how you [Lord] are going to treat me, put me to death right now" (Numbers 11:15); Elijah: "I have had enough, Lord, take my life; I am no better than my ancestors" (1 Kings 19:4c). Job's troubles drove him to cursing the day he was born: "May the day of my birth perish..." (Job 3:3a). His existence which was a joy before has now become his intolerable burden. It is good for us to know that God's greatest heroes had their moments of despair--and that there are some prayers God does not answer the way we would like.
It is also good to know that one of God's great heroes, Paul, said, "It is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this...I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith..." (Philippians 1:24,25). Paul wanted Paradise where the weary find rest, the sad find joy, the lonely find kindred spirits, the fearful find safe harbor, and the doubting Thomases and Thomasenas find assurance and reassurance.
But earthly claims checked Paul's desire, and check ours, also. He wanted to dissolve but instead resolved against his own wishes. Paul obviously had no fear of dying, but his eye and heart were single to the glory of God and that meant staying in his earthly vessel for a while longer. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." We are "treasures in jars of clay."
Paul also pleaded with God through earnest and prolonged prayer that an irritation be removed from his life. Paul did not take a fatalistic attitude about pain and suffering; he knew it was all right to ask God for its removal. "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take [the thorn] away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12:8,9). So it is not wrong for us to plead with God to remove a sorrow or an annoyance from our life. Indeed, as our Friend, He expects us to ask Him so that we may receive. In the meantime, "I [Jesus] have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers [and sisters]" (Luke 22:32). His grace is His prayer for us. And there is a condition which Paul understood, as well: after we are strengthened, we then are to encourage and inspire others: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:3,4).
Jesus asked His Father to be spared the cup when He knelt in agony in the Garden. He had told his disciples, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). He wanted company in His agony. He asks them later, "Could you...not keep watch with me for one hour?" (v.40). What a loving rebuke! Yes, Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, was acquainted with grief. He even prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (v.39).
Jesus prayed to be spared death but He willingly died. It appears that His prayer was not answered and yet it was, for Jesus fulfilled His mission. God did not answer the prayers of Moses, Elijah, Jonah or Job, for their missions were not yet fulfilled. All prayers were and are answered because strength was and is given to meet the trials; finally, God's will was and is done in all our lives. What we wish does not determine God's will, whether we wish the release of death or the pleasures of life. It is God who determines the courses and discourses of our lives.
In our fears and griefs of life, and the seeming unfairness of what others do, we run away just as quickly as Elijah from Jezebel and Jonah from Nineveh and Moses from Egypt. We, too, would like to shed the skin, the lien--the terrible obligation--of our life. We, too, feel that we are no better than our predecessors; in fact, we may be making a huge mess of life. "But I said, 'I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing...'" (Isaiah 49:4). When Keats was dying, he said, "I have written my name on water." Later, Keats' name was written on marble. Christ Himself would be perceived as a total failure on earth--and Christ's name is written on hearts and for eternity.
The good news is that God is there in the whirlwind of tragedy and failure and He's in the still small voice of conscience, too. He knows our frame, that we are made of dust and fragile hearts; He redeems our life and crowns us with His love and compassion. Praise the Lord, O my soul! (Psalm 103).
Some have condemned Elijah for running away from Jezebel and for requesting that God take his life. But there is another side--certainly a more humane view--of what Elijah experienced. Elijah's fire on Carmel became a more gentle breeze on Mount Horeb and he learned treasured lessons there, alone and friendless (so he thought) that he could not learn in the heat of the so-called victory over the false prophets of Baal. Even Elijah had to learn that great lesson we all must learn: "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:14).
Sometimes, like Elijah, we have to be put in a cave to get out of a "cave mood," as one author calls it. "There he went into a cave and spent the night" (1 Kings 19:9). Elijah was shut into his littleness so he might understand the largeness that God was about to show him. God was processing Elijah for a greater work. "He [God] brought me into a spacious place" (Psalm 18:19a).
There is a dichotomy here with Elijah: he fled to save his life and then asks that it be taken away. We are all dichotomous leaves waving with the winds of what we perceive to be misfortune when it might be the breath of the Lord trying to bring breadth to our life. It was so with Elijah as he swayed with the strong squall of Jezebel's threats. Moses, too, struck for God's cause but not in God's way: "One day [Moses] watched [his own people] at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew...He killed the Egyptian..." (Exodus 2:11,12). God sent Moses into the desert to prepare his heart and body and mind for the more spacious place of saving his people. There are times when we have to be "caved in" to gather strength and to learn valuable lessons so we may be worthy to do God's work within the greater plan which He has for us.
But what about the discouragement and physical exhaustion we experience as human beings? Does God really understand how frail we are? Yes! When we fail and fall, He lifts us to even greater heights of work for Him. "The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down" (Psalm 145:14). Our Lord's life on earth was spent in putting down the lofty and lifting the lowly. "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first" (Matthew 19:30). If we think we are last in fame and fortune, we need to remind ourselves that it is the meek who God calls His children. And when we are bowed down with infirmities of mind and body, He reaches down to raise us from a living death.
From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me;
From shades of night to plains of light,
O praise His name, He lifted me.
(Hymn, He Lifted Me, Charles H. Gabriel, 1856-1932).
"So he [Jesus] went to her, took her hand and helped her up" (Mark 1:31). He does no less for all his helpless children. But Jesus came and touched them. 'Get up,' he said, 'Don't be afraid'" (Matthew 17:7). "People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them" (Luke 18:15). "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again" (Proverbs 24:16). Seven times; seventy times seven times; whenever we fall! The secret is in getting up again. What a great comfort this verse is to the discouraged who grope for strength and find they do not even have the strength to gather strength. "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:14). The good man's fall is an event; the bent of the good man's life is goodness. This was so with Elijah. It was so with Peter, too. One look from our Lord and we weep bitterly over our fall from His grace and graciousness (Matthew 26:75).
"The eternal God is your refuge (not a cave!), and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27). Underneath our sorrow are arms that lift us to the shore of serenity. "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" (Mark 4:38). He said to their storm as He says to our chaos, "Quiet! Be still!" (v.39). "Then the wind died and it was completely calm" (v.39b). "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
"I have made you and I will carry you" (Isaiah 46:4). Because He created us, He will carry us! What a sublime thought this is to the brokenhearted. "`For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jeremiah 29:11). It isn't God's plan for us to be defeated and to run away. He will even carry us to the designated place He has for us, but if we are running in the wrong direction, we will run by ourselves.
"So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:6); "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31); "I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done" (Psalm 118:17). People are often in danger: Joseph in the pit, Moses in the ark of bulrushes, Job on the dunghill, David's narrow escapes from Saul, Paul who was let down in the basket, and Jesus who "hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds" (John 8:59) for His time had not yet come. "But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus" (Luke 6:11); "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first...But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason'" (John 15:18,25). They hated without reason, only with emotion that is prejudiced. Jezebel hated Elijah because of emotion, and Elijah ran away from this unreasonable woman.
The extraordinary message of 1 Kings 19 is that it is God's ordinary way of caring for us. Lest we think God is neglecting us, let us remember that He gives provisions and not visions when we are in distress. He uses the common means, rest and food: "Then he [Elijah] lay down under the tree and fell asleep ("I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety" Psalm 4:8). "All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat'" (1 Kings 19:5). In the depths of despair we are to rest and then, bidden by God Himself, we are to get up and to eat. He asks us to do our part. We must not let the seeming facts of what is happening in our life to eclipse our faith and obscure our vision of God and so keep us from going to Him as He comes to us.
"The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you'" (1 Kings 19:7). Not once but twice he is bidden to arise from his lethargy of body and spirit and eat for strength so he might continue on his journey. God does not give up on us! "So [Elijah] got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled..." (1 Kings 19:8). God prepared a table in the wilderness for His beloved Elijah who thought he had failed God. What a glorious lesson! Surely He prepares a table for us in our wilderness and provides for us a satisfying Bread of Life. We are to feed on Him that we may have the strength to live in and for Him.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" (Mark 14:38b). Christ Jesus could say this to His beloved disciples who slept through His lonely hour because He, too, knew rejection and sorrow and hunger and weariness to the extreme degree. God understands that we are not willfully weak. On the one hand, we have sins of infirmity; on the other, we have infirmities that are not sins: fatigue, natural consequences of growing older, hunger, thirst, environment and heredity. This does not excuse us from overcoming, but it helps to know that God empathizes with us because "He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).
It is after we are strengthened that He deals with the immediate problem: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9b); "But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" (Genesis 3:9); "Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?'" (Genesis 4:9). God asks us, too, why are we where we are and what are we doing with our lives. We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, and this means being responsible and acting responsibly: both a willing and a doing.
Elijah ran away from his responsibilities. Adam and Eve ran away from responsibility for their actions. Elijah's circumstances did not add up to reasons to run away and neither do ours, much as we long to do so at times. "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13).
Only God knows our quiet and pervasive influence in the lives of those with whom we endure, and that is what it is at times in our lives. If we are not where God wants us to be, then God calls us by name and lets us know through that still, small and effective voice of conscience: silent because no sound is audible ("He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets" Isaiah 42:2); small because it is simple and not portentous; effective because it is God who speaks: it is the Divine Whisper of Mind to mind.
“Why are you here and not at your post of duty?" Why are we elsewhere? "Why do you go about so much, changing your ways?" (Jeremiah 2:36). God wants us to stay at the post of purpose and service. We may have to tie ourselves to it when the storm and earthquake come, but how good if we can say with Paul at life's end, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). If the post crushes our heart and we feel at times that someone has driven a stake into it, then let us remember that God chooses not to work in the earthquake but in our heartbreak, and we may take heart--and His heart--in this thought.
"The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by'" (1 Kings 19:11a). After we are refreshed and have strength enough to get up, then we must go up: ascend the mountain to holiness of thought. God cannot feed a mind that is supine. There is a meeting of minds on the mountain. This is where we hear the Divine Whisper. The mountain is a spiritual retreat and this is where God sent Elijah and where He sends us. "Leave your cave of despondency, and come up to Me so I can give you a new song and a new trust--and a new thrust!" He says, "Come up to Me that I may give you rest of mind...but you must have the will to meet My will. As long as you make no effort, then I cannot make it for you."
How ironic that two men who requested death did not die but were translated! How fortunate for us that God does not answer every prayer! We ask amiss. If we ask contrary to God's will and for our ease of responsibility, then He in wisdom does not grant our request. But He will answer according to what is finally best for us.
Even in discouragement God meets us where we are, whether we have unwillingly and unwittingly landed on the heap of the rubbish and wreckage of life or we are hiding in a cave, away from what we perceive to be an inhumane humanity. He knows whether we need the whirlwind or the soft breeze to get us back on His track. God knows that we damage our compass of life now and then with the heat of our passions and the cold of our indifference. Our "sense of instrumentation" becomes faulty and we head in the direction of a living death. We need to regain the sense of "mission and submission."
It is interesting that Elijah, Moses and Jonah all requested that they be allowed to die. Listen to Jonah: "Now, O Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live" (Jonah 4:3); Moses: "If this is how you [Lord] are going to treat me, put me to death right now" (Numbers 11:15); Elijah: "I have had enough, Lord, take my life; I am no better than my ancestors" (1 Kings 19:4c). Job's troubles drove him to cursing the day he was born: "May the day of my birth perish..." (Job 3:3a). His existence which was a joy before has now become his intolerable burden. It is good for us to know that God's greatest heroes had their moments of despair--and that there are some prayers God does not answer the way we would like.
It is also good to know that one of God's great heroes, Paul, said, "It is more necessary for you that I remain in the body. Convinced of this...I will continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith..." (Philippians 1:24,25). Paul wanted Paradise where the weary find rest, the sad find joy, the lonely find kindred spirits, the fearful find safe harbor, and the doubting Thomases and Thomasenas find assurance and reassurance.
But earthly claims checked Paul's desire, and check ours, also. He wanted to dissolve but instead resolved against his own wishes. Paul obviously had no fear of dying, but his eye and heart were single to the glory of God and that meant staying in his earthly vessel for a while longer. In 2 Corinthians 4:16, Paul says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day." We are "treasures in jars of clay."
Paul also pleaded with God through earnest and prolonged prayer that an irritation be removed from his life. Paul did not take a fatalistic attitude about pain and suffering; he knew it was all right to ask God for its removal. "Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take [the thorn] away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness'" (2 Corinthians 12:8,9). So it is not wrong for us to plead with God to remove a sorrow or an annoyance from our life. Indeed, as our Friend, He expects us to ask Him so that we may receive. In the meantime, "I [Jesus] have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers [and sisters]" (Luke 22:32). His grace is His prayer for us. And there is a condition which Paul understood, as well: after we are strengthened, we then are to encourage and inspire others: "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God" (2 Corinthians 1:3,4).
Jesus asked His Father to be spared the cup when He knelt in agony in the Garden. He had told his disciples, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). He wanted company in His agony. He asks them later, "Could you...not keep watch with me for one hour?" (v.40). What a loving rebuke! Yes, Jesus, the Man of Sorrows, was acquainted with grief. He even prayed, "My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will" (v.39).
Jesus prayed to be spared death but He willingly died. It appears that His prayer was not answered and yet it was, for Jesus fulfilled His mission. God did not answer the prayers of Moses, Elijah, Jonah or Job, for their missions were not yet fulfilled. All prayers were and are answered because strength was and is given to meet the trials; finally, God's will was and is done in all our lives. What we wish does not determine God's will, whether we wish the release of death or the pleasures of life. It is God who determines the courses and discourses of our lives.
In our fears and griefs of life, and the seeming unfairness of what others do, we run away just as quickly as Elijah from Jezebel and Jonah from Nineveh and Moses from Egypt. We, too, would like to shed the skin, the lien--the terrible obligation--of our life. We, too, feel that we are no better than our predecessors; in fact, we may be making a huge mess of life. "But I said, 'I have labored to no purpose; I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing...'" (Isaiah 49:4). When Keats was dying, he said, "I have written my name on water." Later, Keats' name was written on marble. Christ Himself would be perceived as a total failure on earth--and Christ's name is written on hearts and for eternity.
The good news is that God is there in the whirlwind of tragedy and failure and He's in the still small voice of conscience, too. He knows our frame, that we are made of dust and fragile hearts; He redeems our life and crowns us with His love and compassion. Praise the Lord, O my soul! (Psalm 103).
Some have condemned Elijah for running away from Jezebel and for requesting that God take his life. But there is another side--certainly a more humane view--of what Elijah experienced. Elijah's fire on Carmel became a more gentle breeze on Mount Horeb and he learned treasured lessons there, alone and friendless (so he thought) that he could not learn in the heat of the so-called victory over the false prophets of Baal. Even Elijah had to learn that great lesson we all must learn: "Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord" (Psalm 27:14).
Sometimes, like Elijah, we have to be put in a cave to get out of a "cave mood," as one author calls it. "There he went into a cave and spent the night" (1 Kings 19:9). Elijah was shut into his littleness so he might understand the largeness that God was about to show him. God was processing Elijah for a greater work. "He [God] brought me into a spacious place" (Psalm 18:19a).
There is a dichotomy here with Elijah: he fled to save his life and then asks that it be taken away. We are all dichotomous leaves waving with the winds of what we perceive to be misfortune when it might be the breath of the Lord trying to bring breadth to our life. It was so with Elijah as he swayed with the strong squall of Jezebel's threats. Moses, too, struck for God's cause but not in God's way: "One day [Moses] watched [his own people] at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew...He killed the Egyptian..." (Exodus 2:11,12). God sent Moses into the desert to prepare his heart and body and mind for the more spacious place of saving his people. There are times when we have to be "caved in" to gather strength and to learn valuable lessons so we may be worthy to do God's work within the greater plan which He has for us.
But what about the discouragement and physical exhaustion we experience as human beings? Does God really understand how frail we are? Yes! When we fail and fall, He lifts us to even greater heights of work for Him. "The Lord upholds all those who fall and lifts up all who are bowed down" (Psalm 145:14). Our Lord's life on earth was spent in putting down the lofty and lifting the lowly. "But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first" (Matthew 19:30). If we think we are last in fame and fortune, we need to remind ourselves that it is the meek who God calls His children. And when we are bowed down with infirmities of mind and body, He reaches down to raise us from a living death.
From sinking sand He lifted me,
With tender hand He lifted me;
From shades of night to plains of light,
O praise His name, He lifted me.
(Hymn, He Lifted Me, Charles H. Gabriel, 1856-1932).
"So he [Jesus] went to her, took her hand and helped her up" (Mark 1:31). He does no less for all his helpless children. But Jesus came and touched them. 'Get up,' he said, 'Don't be afraid'" (Matthew 17:7). "People were also bringing babies to Jesus to have him touch them" (Luke 18:15). "For though a righteous man falls seven times, he rises again" (Proverbs 24:16). Seven times; seventy times seven times; whenever we fall! The secret is in getting up again. What a great comfort this verse is to the discouraged who grope for strength and find they do not even have the strength to gather strength. "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus" (Philippians 1:6). "For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose" (Philippians 2:14). The good man's fall is an event; the bent of the good man's life is goodness. This was so with Elijah. It was so with Peter, too. One look from our Lord and we weep bitterly over our fall from His grace and graciousness (Matthew 26:75).
"The eternal God is your refuge (not a cave!), and underneath are the everlasting arms" (Deuteronomy 33:27). Underneath our sorrow are arms that lift us to the shore of serenity. "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?" (Mark 4:38). He said to their storm as He says to our chaos, "Quiet! Be still!" (v.39). "Then the wind died and it was completely calm" (v.39b). "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
"I have made you and I will carry you" (Isaiah 46:4). Because He created us, He will carry us! What a sublime thought this is to the brokenhearted. "`For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future'" (Jeremiah 29:11). It isn't God's plan for us to be defeated and to run away. He will even carry us to the designated place He has for us, but if we are running in the wrong direction, we will run by ourselves.
"So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'" (Hebrews 13:6); "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:31); "I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the Lord has done" (Psalm 118:17). People are often in danger: Joseph in the pit, Moses in the ark of bulrushes, Job on the dunghill, David's narrow escapes from Saul, Paul who was let down in the basket, and Jesus who "hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds" (John 8:59) for His time had not yet come. "But they were furious and began to discuss with one another what they might do to Jesus" (Luke 6:11); "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first...But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason'" (John 15:18,25). They hated without reason, only with emotion that is prejudiced. Jezebel hated Elijah because of emotion, and Elijah ran away from this unreasonable woman.
The extraordinary message of 1 Kings 19 is that it is God's ordinary way of caring for us. Lest we think God is neglecting us, let us remember that He gives provisions and not visions when we are in distress. He uses the common means, rest and food: "Then he [Elijah] lay down under the tree and fell asleep ("I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety" Psalm 4:8). "All at once an angel touched him and said, 'Get up and eat'" (1 Kings 19:5). In the depths of despair we are to rest and then, bidden by God Himself, we are to get up and to eat. He asks us to do our part. We must not let the seeming facts of what is happening in our life to eclipse our faith and obscure our vision of God and so keep us from going to Him as He comes to us.
"The angel of the Lord came back a second time and touched him and said, 'Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you'" (1 Kings 19:7). Not once but twice he is bidden to arise from his lethargy of body and spirit and eat for strength so he might continue on his journey. God does not give up on us! "So [Elijah] got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled..." (1 Kings 19:8). God prepared a table in the wilderness for His beloved Elijah who thought he had failed God. What a glorious lesson! Surely He prepares a table for us in our wilderness and provides for us a satisfying Bread of Life. We are to feed on Him that we may have the strength to live in and for Him.
The spirit is willing, but the body is weak" (Mark 14:38b). Christ Jesus could say this to His beloved disciples who slept through His lonely hour because He, too, knew rejection and sorrow and hunger and weariness to the extreme degree. God understands that we are not willfully weak. On the one hand, we have sins of infirmity; on the other, we have infirmities that are not sins: fatigue, natural consequences of growing older, hunger, thirst, environment and heredity. This does not excuse us from overcoming, but it helps to know that God empathizes with us because "He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows" (Isaiah 53:4). "In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express" (Romans 8:26).
It is after we are strengthened that He deals with the immediate problem: "What are you doing here, Elijah?" (1 Kings 19:9b); "But the Lord God called to the man, 'Where are you?'" (Genesis 3:9); "Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is your brother Abel?'" (Genesis 4:9). God asks us, too, why are we where we are and what are we doing with our lives. We are our brothers' and sisters' keepers, and this means being responsible and acting responsibly: both a willing and a doing.
Elijah ran away from his responsibilities. Adam and Eve ran away from responsibility for their actions. Elijah's circumstances did not add up to reasons to run away and neither do ours, much as we long to do so at times. "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13).
Only God knows our quiet and pervasive influence in the lives of those with whom we endure, and that is what it is at times in our lives. If we are not where God wants us to be, then God calls us by name and lets us know through that still, small and effective voice of conscience: silent because no sound is audible ("He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets" Isaiah 42:2); small because it is simple and not portentous; effective because it is God who speaks: it is the Divine Whisper of Mind to mind.
“Why are you here and not at your post of duty?" Why are we elsewhere? "Why do you go about so much, changing your ways?" (Jeremiah 2:36). God wants us to stay at the post of purpose and service. We may have to tie ourselves to it when the storm and earthquake come, but how good if we can say with Paul at life's end, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7). If the post crushes our heart and we feel at times that someone has driven a stake into it, then let us remember that God chooses not to work in the earthquake but in our heartbreak, and we may take heart--and His heart--in this thought.
"The Lord said, 'Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by'" (1 Kings 19:11a). After we are refreshed and have strength enough to get up, then we must go up: ascend the mountain to holiness of thought. God cannot feed a mind that is supine. There is a meeting of minds on the mountain. This is where we hear the Divine Whisper. The mountain is a spiritual retreat and this is where God sent Elijah and where He sends us. "Leave your cave of despondency, and come up to Me so I can give you a new song and a new trust--and a new thrust!" He says, "Come up to Me that I may give you rest of mind...but you must have the will to meet My will. As long as you make no effort, then I cannot make it for you."
How ironic that two men who requested death did not die but were translated! How fortunate for us that God does not answer every prayer! We ask amiss. If we ask contrary to God's will and for our ease of responsibility, then He in wisdom does not grant our request. But He will answer according to what is finally best for us.
From Broken Glass to a New Mosaic
"You take wheat to cast into the Earth's bosom; your wheat may be mixed with chaff, chopped straw, barn-sweepings, dust and all imaginable rubbish. No matter; you cast it into the kind, just Earth. She grows the wheat-the whole rubbish she silently absorbs, shrouds it in, says nothing of the rubbish. The yellow wheat is growing there; the good Earth is silent about all the rest" (Thomas Carlyle).
What a grand thought! Another wonderful concept: God takes our broken glass and makes a new mosaic for us. There is a story of a town during World War II that was bombed and its lone church reduced to rubble. The survivors in the town decided to use the broken glass from the former beautiful mosaics and make a new design from the shattered pieces. They had to put together their own shattered lives, too. They put their griefs into God's bosom and prayed that their lives would be whole again. Oh, how it touches my heart to envision our compassionate Father holding our shattered minds and hearts to His own; absorbing the anguish at the foot of His cross, for this is where all sorrow finds its way.
These past months we have witnessed so much broken glass, what I call the potsherds of life. First there was the shocking news of the 17-year-old boy, the grandson of friends of ours, who died after what he thought was an innocent night of fun, including drugs and alcohol (oh, young people, take care - this dear young man was the light of so many lives, and now it is snuffed out for one night of carelessness!); then the email from my beloved daughter-in-law in California that her sister was dying of malignant melanoma (she was beautiful, only 45 years old - she leaves a husband who adored her, and two teenaged children); and in the past few days the death of the recently-retired president of our local university, only 66 years old, he went in for a routine operation for a routine disease, and was gone in a matter of days. He had just retired from the university a few months before to spend time with his family and community, a beautiful soul who gave and gave and gave. I am so heartbroken! Nothing, dear friends, NOTHING is routine, is it?
Live today as if it will be your last. I pray it won't be, but we do not know. Look at your family with new eyes and a renewed heart. Don't hesitate to tell them that you love them; that they are your mosaic, the jewels that make your life sparkle!
What a grand thought! Another wonderful concept: God takes our broken glass and makes a new mosaic for us. There is a story of a town during World War II that was bombed and its lone church reduced to rubble. The survivors in the town decided to use the broken glass from the former beautiful mosaics and make a new design from the shattered pieces. They had to put together their own shattered lives, too. They put their griefs into God's bosom and prayed that their lives would be whole again. Oh, how it touches my heart to envision our compassionate Father holding our shattered minds and hearts to His own; absorbing the anguish at the foot of His cross, for this is where all sorrow finds its way.
These past months we have witnessed so much broken glass, what I call the potsherds of life. First there was the shocking news of the 17-year-old boy, the grandson of friends of ours, who died after what he thought was an innocent night of fun, including drugs and alcohol (oh, young people, take care - this dear young man was the light of so many lives, and now it is snuffed out for one night of carelessness!); then the email from my beloved daughter-in-law in California that her sister was dying of malignant melanoma (she was beautiful, only 45 years old - she leaves a husband who adored her, and two teenaged children); and in the past few days the death of the recently-retired president of our local university, only 66 years old, he went in for a routine operation for a routine disease, and was gone in a matter of days. He had just retired from the university a few months before to spend time with his family and community, a beautiful soul who gave and gave and gave. I am so heartbroken! Nothing, dear friends, NOTHING is routine, is it?
Live today as if it will be your last. I pray it won't be, but we do not know. Look at your family with new eyes and a renewed heart. Don't hesitate to tell them that you love them; that they are your mosaic, the jewels that make your life sparkle!
The Bill of No-Rights
The following has been
attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from GA.
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters.
We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NO Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.
ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from.
(lastly....)
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!!!!
"We the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt ridden, delusional, and other liberal bed-wetters.
We hold these truths to be self evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim they require a Bill of NO Rights."
ARTICLE I: You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV, or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II: You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc.; but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be.
ARTICLE III: You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful, do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV: You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.
ARTICLE V: You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI: You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII: You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat, or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII: You do not have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
ARTICLE IX: You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness, which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an over abundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights.
ARTICLE X: This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from, English is our language. Learn it or go back to wherever you came from.
(lastly....)
ARTICLE XI: You do not have the right to change our country's history or heritage. This country was founded on the belief in one true God. And yet, you are given the freedom to believe in any religion, any faith, or no faith at all; with no fear of persecution. The phrase IN GOD WE TRUST is part of our heritage and history, and if you are uncomfortable with it, TOUGH!!!!
Eager to Find
Fault
|
For they
were eager to find some charge to bring against him" Luke 6:7 TLB. They were
eager. What a way to spend one's time and enthusiasm! The Pharisees appointed
themselves vigilantes over the Anointed One. They were ever on the watch for an
apparent breach of their conventional rules. The Pharisee watches and sees that
which most don't bother to notice. He is cunning and diligent, and doesn't let
pass what is a breaking of his law. Never would it dawn on him that he himself
is breaking the Sabbath and every other day's law of kindness by his cherishing
of such hostility.
Pat Nordman And to think that the Pharisee used the cloak of hospitality for his peculiar brand of hostility (Luke 14:1)! To add to the viciousness of it, he laid a trap to ensnare Jesus: "There in front of him was a man suffering from dropsy." (V.2) The miracle here was no more spectacular than others Jesus had performed; what is unusual here is the contrast of the ever-present graciousness of Jesus and the surly vindictiveness of these keepers of the all-important Law. In Matthew 23 Jesus pronounced one of several woes: "Woe to you, teachers of the law. . .woe. . .woe. . .woe. . . You give a tenth of your spices. . .But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness" (Matthew 23:23). The wonder of this story is that Jesus accepted the invitation for He knew their hearts. But "He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" Matthew 5:45. He loves the Pharisee, too, which means He loves us. | |
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