Why I don't believe in democracy!

 Why I don’t believe in democracy 

Last week we had our primary elections.  We participated in the supreme act of democracy, the voice of all the people making their opinions heard as we began to select our leaders.  I actually don’t believe in democracy because I think everyone is equal, or equally qualified to lead.  Sometimes you stop and ask what we believe and if what you have believed is Biblical or not. Popularly, democracy means that all men are equal. But what do we mean by “equal”?  Without carefully defining what we mean by “equal” we can come up with some pretty dangerous ideals. 

In fact, no one actually believes we are all equal. You don’t believe it and I don’t believe it. If you have ever used the reviews of past customers or patients to consider which mechanic or dentist you will use, you don’t believe that all are equal. If you did, you would simply go to whatever mechanic or dentist you happened across.  If you have ever asked a friend, “Do you know of a good barber, painter, tutor, etc,” then you believe some are better than others and you do not believe in equality.  I have a friend that I am not sure is capable of driving a car; I would never get in a car and ride with him.  I have another friend that, every so often, I lay back, allow him to poke around in my mouth, occasionally jab me with a needle and use a drill on my body.  I do not consider these men equal. 

 “We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal…”  In what ways are all men equal?  Are they equal in raw I.Q.?  What about physical ability or appearance?  In what way are all men equal?  People are equal in only two ways.  They are equal only in the sense that all men are equally created in God’s image.  The very underpinning of our concept of democracy is the concept of God the creator.  All men are of equal value because of their value before the Creator.  But that is not the reason I believe in democracy. 

There is another Biblical concept of man’s equality, and that is the reason I believe in democracy.  All men are sinners.  All men have a capacity for evil that is dramatic and terrifying.  The Biblical teaching on the Fall and the result of the Fall means that even the best of men can, under certain circumstances, become a threat to other men.  The more power that a man has, the more he has the capacity to inflict harm, and if he has unlimited power, he is capable of inflicting almost unlimited evil.  I want such men restrained by other men, by all men.  I would at this moment like to go into a lengthy discussion of my own political theory.  But I will suffice it to say that the intended representative democracy of our founders is the best possible form of government.  It is made possible by the goodness of men and made necessary by the evil of those same men.

 Finally, I want to say-need to say-that I have no hope that even the best elected officials can bring this country to where it needs to be; that can only be done by God.  And He has chosen to work through the church, the disciple, and the family.  Which means that while my voting last week was important it wasn’t nearly as important as my morning prayers.

Thoughts on the Texas shooting

Have you ever noticed that before God made anything He created the environment first. Before God created plants he made the soil. Before God created fish He made the water. Before God created asteroids He made the firmament or space. God always creates the environment before He creates that which will fill the environment; that's important for us to understand.

Before God created Adam He created the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was more than a geographic location; it was an environment. The word Eden means presence. In Eden, Adam was in the presence of God. In some special and unique way, God walked with Adam in the cool of the evening. As a whole, Eden was the presence of God. That is why Adam did not need a church house or a temple. He did not need a prayer bench or an altar. He did not need a prayer book or a copy of sacred Scripture. Adam didn't need these things because he was in the presence of God. In Genesis 28 it says, “The Lord God planted a garden toward the east in Eden, and there he placed the man whom he had formed.” God made the environment Eden His place of presence and then He made the man and put the man in Eden.

This is important for us and directly related to the shooting in Texas because the environment is critical for the creation. If you take a plant out of the soil, it malfunctions and dies. If you take a fish out of water, it malfunctions and dies. If you take an asteroid out of space and throw it down into the atmosphere, it malfunctions and burns up and dies. When you take man out of the presence of God, man malfunctions and he kills people.

It would be interesting to do a detailed research project on the worship life of those people who shot up schools. From Columbine to Heritage High School to Sandy Hook and now to Texas do we find that those shooters were men who were consistently worshiping and in the presence of God? Or do we find that they are men who have completely disconnected themselves from the presence and the worship of God. I do not mean they occasionally go to church. Did they have some vague concept of God? Or did they in some way believe that they were God's hand of judgment? The question is, were these men consistently in the presence of God? I am not a person prone to gambling, but offhand I would be willing to bet everything I own against their being men of God.

I do not mean to offer a simple solution to what is a gigantic tragedy, an issue of deep personal complexity. But I will say this, all the legislative agendas on the left and the right, all the rage and fury expressed by conservative and liberal political leaders, all the efforts by Pro and anti-gun advocacy groups will never find a solution. We will not stop men from malfunctioning and killing others with a solution that comes out of a state capital or national capital. Because the problem is not a legal problem or a moral problem or a psychological problem or social problem primarily. Primarily the problem is that when men are out of their designed environment they malfunction and they die and in the process kill others.

 As of society, the idea of God doesn't fit well with our sexual and personal mores. We don't want a God telling us how we can act in our personal lives and in our sexual conduct. So, we have withdrawn from God’s presence (Eden).  We don’t want any busybody upsetting our selfish agenda, sexual or otherwise. However, when we got rid of God we also got rid of the author of life. The killing, the murder, the crime, the violence is the unintended consequences of sinful man saying, “I will reject God's authority so that I can pursue the pleasures I want.”  If you want to reject God's authority regarding behavior you will also inadvertently reject God's authority concerning life.

The only solution is for people to return to the presence of God in worship. The priority of worship ought to be greater than anything else in our lives. Forgive me for sounding like an old codger, but I'm going to do just that. There was once a time when the spiritual leader of the household would tell his family, “We are not going to do this, or that, or the other thing, because it will keep us from being in the house of worship. That sadly has become a rare attitude. It is much more likely now for people to say, “We will not go to the house of worship because it would keep us from doing this, that, or the other thing.” It is no coincidence that as we have been less and less a people in the presence of God we have become more and more a killing people.

Until you address the issue of men not being in the presence of God, the culture of killing cannot be addressed by gun control, new laws, more jails, mental health care options or early intervention profiles.  Certainly, we need to pray and our sympathy naturally extends to those who are so hurt.  But all the sympathy in the world will not make a difference.  Returning to the presence of God is the only solution.  

Worship GOD this week in the community of other believers or just wait for the culture of death.  

Chemical warfare and my enemy

 For over a year now I have been at war with a most stubborn enemy, Wisteria.  Wisteria is a bane, curse and utterly evil thing.  For a few moments a year it yields beautiful purple flowers.  Those flowers are the disinformation department of the Wisteria conspiracy, trying to convince us that Wisteria is worthy and should be unmolested if not actually nurtured and coddled.  But those flowers are a lie.

What is actually happening is that Wisteria is climbing every tree for miles around and choking them to death.  In the canopy the vines spread and compete with the host tree’s leaves for sunlight.  Given enough time the host tree grows weak and the weight of the Wisteria vines and foliage bend and break the limbs of the tree.  But that is only what happens above ground.  The roots spread like a pandemic underground and will attack the foundation of your drive and home.  Every so often the roots also send up vines to try to find other trees to kill.  They will even attack your house, carport or gazebo.  

Worst of all, Wisteria is hard to kill.  Cut it off and the roots send up 50 new vines.  Try to dig it up and you will be pulling its evil roots over much of your yard.  As you pull, it will break leaving behind one tiny sliver of itself to rise again like an unkillable zombie.  In the fall and winter you might feel you have won the battle and in the spring you find it coming back with a vengeance.  What a few cancer cells are to the body a little Wisteria is to the yard.

If you don’t want to surrender to the destructive power of Wisteria you will have a long and relentless fight.   Currently, I am in the chemical warfare stage of the battle.  With spring the new sprouts are popping up.  I welcome these innocent, delicate looking thirsty little sprouts with a strong mixture of the most potent herbicide on the legal market.  People say plants respond to gentle voices, so I sweetly tell the little plants, “Oh, little one, you look thirsty.  Let me give you a drink.”  Then I blast them with poison.  The next phase of the fight is to find where the most and strongest sprouts are growing up.  Dig there till I find the tap root, dig a small cavity and fill it with straight toxin so it can share this magical fluid.  

“Obsessive” you say, “over wrought” someone else adds.  Say what you like, for me there is an endless war on Wisteria.  “Death to Wisteria! We shall never willingly surrender one inch of tree bark, one clump of red clay, one drop of Miracle Grow fertilizer to this cancer of southern woods.  LONG LIVE THE TREES!”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer once said: “When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.”  I will leave it to you to draw your own comparisons between the battle with the flesh and my battle with Wisteria.  But know this for a certainty, those who say or teach that the life of faith is a life of ease, comfort and relaxation has not taken seriously the power of the flesh.

― 

The Runaway Corrections Officer and the Psalmist

Vicki Sue and You

She was middle aged, not especially attractive, but not homely.  She was well-liked and respected by her co-workers and supervisors.  She lived in a comfortable home in a community with many family members nearby.  She was within days of retirement and had mentioned plans to move to Florida after retirement.  Then the strangest thing happened.  Something that reveals that she was lost.  

This week I have been reading Psalm 119.  Few people would describe Psalm 119 as their favorite Psalm.  It is perhaps best known for being the longest chapter in the Bible. We treat this lengthy psalm as if it were a middle school bully, best to be avoided because it is so large and intimidating.  It is in reality a gentle and gracious series of prayers about how to live the good life and how to be a good person.  In its conclusion you feel that the author is, in spite of some hardships, living a life of peace or wholeness with and before God.

Since Luther nailed his document to the church door there has been a concerted effort to teach that we are not saved by our works, but rather by God’s grace.  We have, at times, emphasized that so much that sometimes we act and even teach that our behavior doesn’t matter.  “Doing the right thing is important, but since it won’t save you don’t worry about it too much” is the implication if not the actual statement.  We are so emphatic that works don’t save us that we act as if our behavior is unimportant.  Psalm 119 corrects that, it draws beautiful links between trust in God and practical living.  Reading this Psalm of meditations and prayers that focus on God’s Word you are struck by the beauty and peace that a relationship with God brings.

Now, back to the story of the middle aged lady.  Her name was Vicki Sue White, you may have followed the story in the news. She was the corrections officer who threw everything away.  Beautiful and peaceful are words that would never describe the final chapter of her life.  After helping her boyfriend escape from jail, Vicki's life moved toward the hopeless conclusion of a police chase, a car wreck and a self-inflicted, gunshot wound.  We will never know why she did what she did.  We are incredulous as we consider the monstrous stupidity of her final choices.  Had she died in the line of duty the family would have been stung by the loss, but comforted in the respect and admiration of friends, family, the neighbors and the law enforcement community at large.  As it is, she will be remembered with great sorrow, unanswered questions, and shame that will always surround her memory.  

In Deuteronomy 30:15, we are told that we have a choice, “life and prosperity” or “death and adversity”.  We see that contrast dramatically demonstrated in the lives of the Psalmist and Vicki Sue. But we need not be a peace officer turned outlaw on the run with a convicted criminal who is accused of murder to be a person choosing death and adversity.  In our world most people are not violent, spectacular criminals.  They are simple, happy sinners living life on their own terms and hoping to avoid great personal disaster while trying to also avoid God.   I think of Hector (not his real name).  Hector is married with two kids, both parents work and live in a 3/2 home in a small neighborhood.  As far as I know, they are not hidden criminals, but they also are for the most part indifferent toward God and His word and in some cases overtly hostile.  From conversations I have had I know that they are miserable, treat each other poorly, and live with a  high level of conflict.  But it is hidden behind the facade of social and cultural respectability.  

There is no spiritual Switzerland, there is no spiritual neutrality.  If a person is not for Christ, they are still at war with Him.  They may not be as dramatic as Vicki Sue in their behavior but they are all the same on the wrong side of eternity.   Everyone you know who is not a disciple of Christ is bound and doomed to a future worse than suicide in a car wrecked in a ditch.

There is much more to say and many rabbit trails we can go down, but for the moment let us not be seduced by the ideal that all the nice people we know are somehow okay.  They are not.  Perhaps we need to restore the old phraseology. Instead of talking about the “unchurched” maybe we should once again refer to them as “Lost”. You know many Vicki Sues.

Hacking Satan's Mainframe

 

While I have never been, especially good at I.T. I do have my moments.  Recently I was able to hack the mainframe computer of The Pentagram (Satan’s military office complex).  I wasn’t able to get much information before the burning sulfur firewall blocked off most of the files.  However, I was able to download the following document.  I am not sure how long this military doctrine has been in effect.  It has been updated and revised several times, but doesn’t not appear to be a recently developed strategy.  Please forward this to as many people as you can and if you find that I suddenly disappear don’t worry I have gone underground for a few days.

The Center for Strategic Conquest

666 Hacker Way

Menlo Park CA

Diabolic Internal Planning Strategy (DIPS) is the overall strategic plan and guide for this stage of the War on Heaven and Humanity.  This guide has been developed at the senior advisor’s conference for the Prince of Darkness and has been approved by his war council and is to serve as the primary guide for principles of engagement until such time as it is officially superseded. 

Since ultimate victory is no longer possible and since the conquest of Heaven itself is a non-viable objective, the Dark Prince has decreed that all our powers should be used in creating as much separation between God the creator and His “in His image” special creation.  We can delight ourselves with the realization that the agony we inflict on humans and they inflict on each other wounds the very heart of our enemy. 

DIPS has two primary objectives.  1) To inflict maximum hurt and injury on the enemy and those the enemy loves.   2) To create a circumstance in which recovery toward what the enemy desires will be as difficult as and take as long as possible.

 

During the short time span called the incarnation we had hoped that we could bring a division and hostility between the Father and the Son.  Having failed at that we will forever face the painful disadvantage of God as Father.  Our strategy calls for us to keep that reality secret from humans.  If humans conceive of God as the loving Father we shall not be able to keep the sons of Adam from flocking to him.  So, we must distort that understanding of God.  DIPS operates on the fundamental principle that the best way to distort an understanding of God is by distorting the male half of humanity.  If no one can see God the Father in the men of earth then they will not want to see the God of Heaven.

Our three main weapons systems have not changed, but have been significantly upgraded.  There is no need for systems R & D, but field innovation and force multiplier concepts are strongly encouraged.  By way of review and to exemplify the ways in which our systems have been upgraded consider the following examples:

Weapon System 1: The craving to experience more.  We formerly called this the lust of the flesh, but many field units began to actually believe this was a reference to sexual appetites only.  (It is acceptable for humans to think this, but not for our operational agents).  It does not matter if the craving to experience more pursues sex or adrenalin or wings and beer.  As long as the male is so concerned with having more experience at the cost of knowing God, it matters not what he pursues.   Our agents have done an excellent job of confusing males into thinking that casual sex, risky behavior, followed by sports, beer, and wings is an ultimate expression of machismo.

Weapon System 2;  The craving to have more.  Because males not taught by the Holy Spirit are fools we have convinced them that they must display their value in what they pretend to own.  The desire to have for the sake of enjoyment is less useful for us than the desire to have to impress or to be accepted.  Males are perhaps most foolish when they imagine that they are free of the lure of fad and fashion.  The man who buys a bicycle for the joy of riding is of little use.  He must be taught that if he has all the “right” gear, uses the right phrases, and keeps company with the right people he will be accepted.  Let the fools collect hobbies not for the fun of a hobby, but so they will think many people approve of them.  The wonderful thing about more is it never arrives.  

Weapon System 3;  The craving to be more.  We have done marvels in turning the once negative word pride into a positive attribute.  While the “craving to have more” is often driven by the desire for the approval of others, the craving to be more is driven by a male’s desire to be a self-made man and to worship his maker.  Since Adam imagined he would be equal with God, this has been our greatest weapon.  A male may find the flesh and the world’s things inadequate, but rarely will he admit to himself that he is inadequate.  Awe, the delight of pride.  It matters little what the male holds his pride in as long as it becomes his primary identity. 

A word about force multiplying.  If we can bind any male with any one of these weapons we have tied his wrists with strong ropes.  If we can engage him in two or more of these vices in the same behavior we put the rope around his neck.   If we can get him trapped in all three by the same vice we have the rope around his neck and have him standing on a rocking chair.  For example, if a man has a sexual temptation to which he yields, but instead of repenting spends time to identify with others who have the same temptation, and will spend his resources to promote their cause and travel to their protest, we bind that man in the craving to experience more, to have more, and to be more.  All of which breaks the heart of God.  Our ultimate defeat is a completed fate, but by Satan using these force multipliers we will harm all we can on our way to ruin.

A word of warning.  While we desire the ruin of all people we focus our attention on the male half of humanity because that half poses the greatest dangers to our cause.  If every man in a community, area or nation were a godly man like his creator all our other tools would be useless.  Our glorification of sports and recreation would be reduced to harmless fun and games.  Our carefully developed progression of porn and our grooming of overly available, sexualized women  would be useless.  Our endless teaching of men to have self-esteem would be replaced with Theo-esteem.  We teeter on the brink of great success, but do not become over confident because godly men can be our undoing.  

Jesus Didn't

 Jesus did some amazing miracles.  Jesus turned water into wine, walked on water, fed multitudes with a small lunch, not to mention the healings.  Jesus healed the blind, took the cripple by the hand and lifted him up to walk. He healed those with epilepsy, speech impediments, horrible skin diseases and even death.  When you cure death that is a pretty amazing healing.  For all that, Jesus never healed anyone of lying.  Jesus apparently didn’t heal people of greed, pride, lust, hate or anyone of the vices He encountered.  Think about it for a moment: Jesus healed a shriveled hand withered by disease, but He didn’t heal a heart withered by anger.  Why is that?  I have a friend who teaches CPR and one of the key principles in CPR is you never give someone something that they can do for themselves.  Why would Jesus heal me of my addiction or habit or more directly sin, if I didn’t want to be healed?  I am not denying the power of sin, habit or addiction.  If I am waiting for Jesus to do something for me and I don’t really want it done then why would He waste His time on me and my problem?  If I want to hate someone or some group why would Jesus heal me of hate?  

Of all the Ten Commandments I suppose the one I break most consistently is the call to set aside a day of rest for worship, recovery and reflection.  I love working. I find great pleasure in work.  I love working on our house. Not far from my desk I have a long list of projects I want to do.  I love working with my church. I have teaching plans for at least four studies I want to lead and I have sermons planned for the rest of the year.  I have sermon plans for next year already in the works.  I have a list of people I want to go visit today. I love church work (most of the time).  I love to write.  It is work, but I love it. I have five novels that I really want to write.  I want to do a devotional commentary on Psalms.  I have about half a book written based on dumb things I have done and am outlining a book about how discipleship is like being a dog.  I could easily spend all my time writing.  If I were to suddenly win a lottery jackpot (I have been told I will not win because I don’t play), I don’t think my love of work or schedule would change.  

But now the irony, I find my creativity is diminishing and that I am frequently fatigued.  I am also finding that my concentration is seriously compromised.  Last night as I was saying my prayers before bed, I was asking God to restore my energy and vitality.  Why didn’t He miraculously zapp me with energy so that this morning I could roar into the day?  Maybe it is because I have ignored what He has said over and over in the Bible about rest.  I find the ideal of stopping work bothersome.  I want to rest, but only after I get EVERYTHING else done.  My wife suggested that after we complete the next phase of our house restoration we should get away for a couple of days.  I actually found that suggestion a little upsetting; I had a gut level twist.  Resting seems such a waste, I know it is not, but in my workaholic mind I feel that to not do is in some way evil.  If I am going to ask God to restore my energy, I must conform my life to what He says about rest.  

Okay, I have confessed something broken in me.  Can you do the same?  Can you look at an area in your life where you know that change needs to happen, but you are waiting for a zapp from God?  Join me in partnering with God.  As I work (there is some irony for you) on making room for rest in my life, I suspect that God will give me more than I expect by blessing and multiplying the rest I do take.  I came across a wonderful statement that I think we all should learn: “In Spiritual warfare the mightiest weapon is obedience to our Master.”

What is best for our children?

What is best for our children?

(For a number of reasons I have not posted anything to this blog for almost two years.  I have decided to return to posting blogs.  This is a re-post of something I wrote a few years ago.  It is so important that I decided that if I were to start blogging again this would be where I wanted to start.)

What is the best thing you can do for the future of your child’s spiritual growth?  It might be to throw mama out of church.  This is of course a hyperbole, a bit of an over statement but only barely. (Hyperbole exaggeration in the service of truth).  It appears that a mother’s leadership in the spiritual life of the children relative to the father’s may actually be destructive according to a study released in 2000 by Werner Haug and Philippe Wanner.[1]

 

This is not about the role of leadership of women in the church.  That is actually a secondary subject.  If we get the masculine leadership in the spiritual formation of children, the church will take care of itself. 

 

According to the study, in each category when the mother’s practice is equal to or greater than the father’s practice the future participation on the part of the children declines.  (Carefully study the chart below.)  As we might expect, the role of the father’s leadership is the key factor in a child’s future faith practice.  However, there is critical observation that must not be missed. The greatest participation of children came when the Father was regular and the mother was non-practicing.  This is completely opposite of what we might expect, what we have taught, and what we have been practicing in the church in America.  We might expect that the greatest likelihood for children’s future participation would occur with both parents being active.  That is not the case.  This data is based on European families that are ethnic minorities, so there may be variables that are somewhat different in the American culture and church.  This study also did not take into account the gender of the child.  Nevertheless, the findings are staggering. 

 

While this study did not focus on leadership in the home, I wish to offer my conjecture.  I believe that in cases when the father attends regularly but the mother is the one who is providing the impetus for spiritual formation the faith development of the children will be diminished.  It is NOT enough for a father to attend service of the church HE MUST BE THE SPIRITUAL LEADER IN THE HOME.  What is important to the father will set the values, mores and ethics of the children.  By the fact that our children have a built-in hypocrisy detector, when dad is just going along with mom’s spiritual quest the kids pick that up and will adopt the real ideals of their dad. 

 

As the American church has tried to liberate women in the church by opening up positions of leadership we have allowed the men/husbands/fathers to wash their hands of the responsibility of spiritual leadership.  As this has happened in the functional life of the church it has migrated into spiritual formation in the home.  Show me a community where men have vacated the spiritual leadership of the church and the home and I believe you will see a community where the next generation is growing apathetic about their faith walk. 

 

No one is going to advocate oppressing women; that is foolish.  However, the time is long past for the church to call on men to love their kids into a dynamic faith by being the advocate for their spiritual practices.  We need to call men to be the default leader in the home for all matters spiritual. We need to call for men to take the family to worship, not sending them.  We need to teach dad’s to bring Biblical truth and values to life’s situations.   Dad’s need to be the ones who are seen as the Bible experts in the family.  It is dad who leads prayers at bedtime and thanks at meals.  Men’s ministry at the church needs to be more than macho, beast feast and Christian sports bar talk.  It must be a call to real faith on the part of men that flows into their children.  If you already believe the role of “Fathers” in the spiritual development of their children is critical then this study will provide you plenty to think about and work with in your faith an home.

 

We look at the moral chaos of our society, the declining influence of our faith on the next generation, and the steady and rapid decline of the church and we have two options.  One, you may begin developing a strategy to help men develop into the strong spiritual leaders in the home. Or, we can form an advance committee to oversee the closure of your church.

 

 

To that end we will begin XY, a men’s spiritual formation group, for the purpose of helping men see their role in the family, the church, and the community.  The centerpiece will be a bi-monthly gathering on the 1^st and 3^rd Saturday’s of the month at 7:00 AM.  It may not be easy but it will be worthwhile.

 

 

Parental Influence on Faith Practices of Their Children

 

 

Practice of Parents	Practice of Parents	Practice of the children	Practice of the children	Practice of the children	Practice of the children
FATHER	MOTHER	REGULAR	IRREGULAR	NON-PRACTISING	TOTAL
Regular	Regular	32.8	41.4	25.8	100.0
Regular	Irregular	37.7	37.6	24.7	100.0
Regular	Non-Practicing	44.2	22.4	33.4	100.0
Irregular	Regular	3.4	58.6	38.0	100.0
Irregular	Irregular	7.8	60.8	31.4	100.0
Irregular	Non-Practicing	25.4	22.8	51.8	100.0
Non-Practicing	Regular	1.5	37.4	61.1	100.0
Non-Practicing	Irregular	2.3	37.8	59.9	100.0
Non-Practicing	Non-Practicing	4.6	14.7	80.7	100.0

 

---

[1]

Werner Haug; Philippe Wanner (January 2000). "IV. The demographic characteristics of linguistic and religious groups in Switzerland". The Demographic Characteristics of National Minorities in Certain European States. Population Studies No. 31. Volume 2. Germany: Council of Europe. p. 154. ISBN 978-92-871-4159-0.