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| I've been doing a series of "what to do with it" sermons. What To Do With It: Adolescence...What To Do With It...Spiritual Seniority... What To Do With It: The Resources God Gives Us...What To Do With It: Dreams and Difficult Choices. The one I had not counted on was "what to do with it: a shoulder fracture." Well, tomorrow the doc will tell me more about what to do with it. But one thing to do is slow down a bit, luxuriate in the Lord's Presence, marinate my mind in the sweetness of God's Word, and write a new blog. There's nothing especially spiritual about having one's arm in a sling, unless it serves as a reminder that the arm of the flesh fails. Some of my reactions have not been "devotionally appropriate". A grown man wincing over minor discomforts isn't all that inspiring. As the radiology technician did my xrays, I wondered how recently she might have treated young men or women whose limbs might have been lost in service to our country? America has its ills, economically and spiritually. But we are greatly blessed. So, What To Do With It? Religious Liberty. APPRECIATE It. Appreciate the cost paid to defend our liberties. Realize that while Gitmo's detainees will do all they can to access the American justice system, people in their homelands can often be jailed and executed for acknowledging that they are followers of Jesus Christ. Taliban are not great believers in religious liberty. While we coexist here in a land where citizens may publicly hold any faith or none at all, do not forget that some of these faiths serve the will of The Destroyer. Study this legacy of Religious liberty in America--"the first freedom" Thomas Jefferson called it--and you will see that Baptists were some of the most vigorous proponents of the cause. Colonial America was not so free. Thank God today and every day for our spiritual liberty. EXERCISE It. "It is for freedom that Christ set us free, so do not be tangled up again with a yoke of bondage." Freedom is what our founders described as the God-given right to allow no human power to rule over the dictates of a person's individual conscience. Freedom is believing and living in a way that truly fulfills your deepest sense of your Maker's intentions. It is a liberty divinely given, written, and defended that we might approach God, know and worship God as He invites us freely to do. But we are obligated, because only One Liberator can free us to enter eternally into God's Kingdom. "If The Son sets you free, you will indeed be free." Exercising our faith means it is our obligation to witness. Jesus is Lord of all. No government can ever grant you or deny you the right to worship or witness if you understand that this is your birthright from God. And in America, it is the law of the land--exercise your religious freedom. It's too important to leave underground. What else would you say about how we can strengthen this liberty in our time?
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I don't know if the studio got Ben Stein's money for this film, but I won't cry because they got ten dollars from me. My son and I took in the 9:30 showing last Thursday night, with a grand total of seven in the audience. I'm guessing the target audience was somewhat larger, but I ask myself, "Who should see this movie?" I hope that you, the reader, will.
Steve, my son, is a young media professional himself. We both wondered aloud how intellectually honest this film was going to be, or whether the film would have journalistic integrity. Steve and I don't always share the same political perpective, but we both agreed that Mr. Stein's movie had stylistic comparisons with something that Michael Moore might produce. We can safely say that Mr. Moore would not have made this movie, though.
The film builds its statement on a series of interviews with once-respected scientists and researchers who immediately lost jobs and professional influence over suspected sympathy with the theory of intelligent design. Stein introduced several qualified teachers and researchers whose promising careers in science faded when Darwinian dogma was publicly acknowledged as problematic. The Message: Academic freedom? Really?? Whatever the box office sales, this film will succeed, at least, in showing how close-minded our open-minded intellegencia can be.
The viewer may not be surprised to hear some of the celebrated intellects of our day ridiculing the notion of a Supreme deity to whom the universe owes its origins. But prepare for a surprise at some of the alternative suggestions you will hear on how life originated. (I'll bet "No one really knows" is where Professor Dawkins wishes the cameras had quit rolling.)
Se habla "klingon"?
In the 1950s, the mapping of deep-space may have fallen comparatively short of what science is capable of today. Still, the contribution of Dr. Wernher von Braun might be respected. He was practically the patron saint of twentieth-century space engineering, for those who place ultimate faith in technology. In 1959, he wrote:
"For all the scientific enlightenment of the last two centuries, we know of more mysteries in nature today than when the technological revaluation began. Science has in no way done away with God; it has only broadened the frontiers along which we can see his wonderful works. Science has not taken God away from man; man has taken God away from science." -Together, October, 1959. Vol.3, No. 10:16-
I guess he would be unemployed if he were around today too.
I don't often do film reviews. But go see Expelled... if you already did, let me know what you think. ("I give it 3 1/2 steeples")
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Need I say, tax time is taxing? Hey, let's offer a prayer of thanks. By grace, we made it this far. And how does the song go? "...and grace will lead us home?" Having bought a home in a new city toward the end of 2007, we have barely unpacked our boxes--but on April 13, we learned of township taxes due in just 2 days. Taxes of which we were unaware. But the tax-collection agency isn't there to offer a crying towel. What's due is due. (The church might exist to extend mercy and forgiveness. They don't.)
Whether we like the way it works or not, most of us do respect how it works and do what we've got to do. We render unto Caesar, or Caesar tightens the screws. We give diligence "knowing we all must give an account." That is why cars and lines of people stretched for a mile or more on April 15th... making sure envelopes were post-marked before it was too late. No distinction on that day, between the admiralty, and the guys who swab the deck. No preference given, whether you served on a jury, or sat on the judge's bench. It matters not whether you got there in a Ferrari or a beat-up tricycle. For every one of them April 15 is the due-date. "The day to give account."
Isn't it instructive to see the pains we all will go to, to make sure we don't get on the wrong side of tax enforcers? Isn't that an indictment, when so many disregard the coming of that Day when the stakes are much, much higher? On that Day--we've been notified--we shall give an account for the whole of our lives. There was once an impossible debt, and yet this was the debt for my guilt and liability that Jesus paid. So because of Him, before my Eternal Lawgiver, there is nothing more I owe. Except thankful worship, obedience, and love.
There is peace of mind for anyone who can say, "my debt is completely paid". Because the due date will be upon us before we know it. Peace to you, in knowing what the Lord has done for you.
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| Thank you to all from the Paoli Baptist Church family who came to the community service this Good Friday to worship and reflect on what the Lord Jesus sis for us, as He opened the way to bring us back to God. More than a daily blog, this is the devotional message I preached yesterday, for those who might want a copy. God's blessings! ~Pastor John The reading was from Mark 15:25 and 33-34 25 And it was the third hour when they crucified him… As I read further in this Scripture, what came to mind was an old revival hymn: There is sunshine in my soul today, more glorious and bright than glows in any earthly sky, for Jesus is my light. O there's sunshine! Blessed sunshine— when those peaceful, "happy" moments roll. When Jesus shows His smiling face there is sunshine in my soul. --but not on that Good Friday… 33 And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani? which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The night before He wept in the darkness of Gethsemane…He prayed that "this cup" might somehow pass from Him. But He knew the cup would not go away. He prayed "Thy will be done." Nothing held back when they came that night to seize him. And now at the Cross, nothing held back. Words full of anguish and astonishment. Words that sound like lostness…unless one listens more closely. Words some there misinterpreted. We do not want to miss their meaning. The night before this, He stood silent before interrogators. Those who examined Him demanded that He speak. He knew where He stood with the Father. He knew He would not be forsaken. Mark 14: 60 ... the high priest stood up in the council and asked Jesus, "Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you?" 61 But Jesus remained silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" 62 And Jesus said," I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven." For saying that, they said He must die. And now there dying, this question, Why hast thou forsaken me? Can He no longer foresee that place by the Father's side, when He asks why He is forsaken? He says, "My God." (Not like we say my God). He calls on God as one bound to God and God to Him. This is Israel's prayer. A prayer many had prayed. Maybe the sort of prayer you've prayed. But for now, it is His prayer: a prayer that hangs tight to God. When pain and injustice were hurled at Him so fiercely, did God cease to be His God? Or does the call "My God" insist that the Cross itself cannot take this from Him? This cry is prayer. This outcry is Scripture, too… He was a Jew. He lived and died by these words. Beyond this, His outcry was prophecy. Since the earliest preaching of the apostles, the Church has believed that the Son of God's sufferings were revealed by the Spirit hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Liturgy and prophecy are somehow fused together in these brutal events. That is a daring statement— essentially the statement Jesus made in quoting this Scripture from the Cross. His faith is intact as His words tell the extent to which He is tested. When He endures agony, injustice, cruelty, and humiliation, his expectation is still anchored in the written word of God. The outcry is prayer and it is Scripture. Just now—the outcry is testimony to the storm raging within. It is prayer, it is prophecy, but it is plainly what he is going through: when He virtually goes through Hell for us. While hostility rages against love; He wants to see His Father's face, and hear God say, "You are mine. My beloved Son. I am well-pleased with you." No word yet of that sort. Only mocking insults, the groans of those crucified alongside him, the wretching sobs of his mother, and his own lament. Eloi, Eloi lama sabacthani? Hear Him call on God in the day of trouble. Hear how the ancient word portrays the struggle and points us to Calvary. Then hear that word we'd rather not hear—Forsaken! They wanted him crucified. What a vile way to die; worse than vile to a Jew. Whoever died that way, God thrust out of His sight. To be impaled on a crucifix as Jesus was, WAS to be Godforsaken! According to the Law of Moses. This was why the thought of a Messiah on a Cross seemed impossible to so many. To redeem us from the curse of the Law, Christ became a curse for us. That is how the Church explains it! What can it mean to be The Son of The Blessed, and feel all blessing withdrawn? When nature throws a shroud across the sky? when the few who will claim you become a heap of torment: watching you slowly and shamefully die? when the sound of the jeering mob echoes with demon laughter, the silence of heaven is deafening! That silence is God removed from sinfulness, and God MUST do this as His Son takes OUR SINS in full. Yet hear it again —"My God…. "My God." As the weight of the world's evil—the weight of our sins--bears down on Jesus' spirit. He claims that relationship: He surrenders His life; He does not surrender the confidence that God will claim Him. Some are here today facing situations that are excruciating. Maybe the pain or pressure comes just at the time you renewed your commitment to walk closer to God. Do you ever want to ask God "why?" When you get to that place, remember He did too. We came this Good Friday knowing why He was forsaken. Mercy was hiding from Him so that mercy might be shown unto us…so that we might not be forsaken. By faith-reliance upon Him, the Crucified, you and I who once would have been forsaken are forgiven and set free. Is there sunshine in your soul? In the ninth hour, Jesus of Nazareth did appear forsaken—but on the Third Day…
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One of the challenges and privileges we Paolians have is sharing space with a sister church using a different language. (Still our goal is that no one ever feel Pao-alienated!) I want to be able to say "Christ is Risen!" in Rumanian and Spanish. But pronouncing the words just right takes practice, humility, and love. For some whom God has led here, English is a secondary language.
As the Spirit of God gives new direction in ways to reach out to our community and "to all", some of us may want to gain new skills, like teaching English as a Second Language. A 3-day clinic will be offered in Philly from April 11 through 13... let me know if any of you want more details. Has anyone been praying about this? What a great way to befriend newcomers to our nation.
More thoughts on difficulty with words. This Good Friday there's a community-wide service between noon and three o'clock at Good Samaritan Episcopal Church. Several who minister in our area will speak; when my turn comes, I feel some difficulty with the words. Mark 15:34--"My God! my God! why have forsaken me?" Hebrew isn't even a secondary language for me. I had to look up the word "forsaken". It means forsaken; or left to suffer; or abandoned, deserted. It can even mean disowned... a difficult word. A Bible passage, yes, but more a passage through horrible dread: this agonied utterance from The Son of Man's soul.
In that passage, our Lord went where all of us have been.
And went beyond that, to where no one else has been.
In so dark a situation. "My God" is actually prayer...
...when was the last time you heard these words used that way?
Knowing God means knowing that prayer is not a secondary language.
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