COMPARTMENTALIZATION

One huge reason for the condition of our country is that Christians have been conditioned to not bring their faith into the marketplace of ideas. Religion needs to be kept within the four walls of the church, separation of church & state, blah, blah, blah.

“Secular” government doesn't by default mean that policy, legislation, etc. are to be neutral. That's actually impossible. Legislation by its very nature reflects some kind of moral standard.

This idea of keeping the various areas of life neatly separated is called compartmentalization. It reflects the idea that the mind is separate from the body, the emotions are separate from the mind, personal ethics & honesty from job performance, & so on.

Education is now seen by many as imparting knowledge & skills to people, & nothing more. Very few people believe that it is concerned with character development or moral outcomes.

Of course, this has to a certain extent been twisted by some “PC” aspects of education. The progressive “education” that we’re seeing in much of primary, secondary, & higher education is better described as re-education aimed at forming specific attitudes, characteristics & behaviors. That’s what we see being played out in the streets & neighborhoods of some of our cities right now. But that’s another topic.

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God as having a transformative influence on culture. “He spoke another parable to them, ‘The kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three pecks of flour until it was all leavened’” (Matthew 13:33). It’s impossible to influence a culture without being intimately involved in it.

So, Christian, pray. But don’t just pray. Get involved. Speak up. Join an organization. Meet your neighbors. Run for political office. God has a place for you here & now.

PRAYING GIRL, PRAYING GRANDMA

The best I can figure, it was 48 years ago today, September 17, 1972, in Omena, Michigan, when Jesus Christ became so real to me that I surrendered my life to Him. I’ve never been the same since.

There were many people involved in the process that brought me to that day, & ultimately to this day. But I want to talk about just 2 of them.

"Gram" Higgins & our son Allen

My grandmother, Rachel Juanita Higgins, had been a believer as a child. But she made some wrong choices & her life took a different direction because of them. Over most of her adult life she was a working mother, raising 4 sometimes challenging daughters. But late in life she returned to the Lord & prayed faithfully for her children & grandchildren. She saw me come to the Lord & went to heaven just a few months before I graduated from Bible college in 1980.

Deborah's senior picture

My wife Deborah came to know Christ at the age of 12 & has never wavered from the path of discipleship. She is the most generous & sincere person I have had the privilege of knowing. Shortly after her conversion, she was encouraged to begin to pray for her future husband. Part of her prayer was for someone tall, with blond hair & blue eyes. She obviously didn’t get that. But she also prayed for someone who loved the Lord & was called into ministry. She got that. But it took 6 years before she saw the answer.

In my rebellious, self-absorbed teenage years, I would never have listened to what either of these 2 women might have to say about God. But I am eternally grateful that God listened to their prayers for me.

You may be a parent or grandparent, burdened for your children or grandchildren who are not where they need to be in the relationship with Jesus. I’m living proof that you can still pray & expect God to hear & answer.

You may be a child or teenager who just wants to make the right decisions & be what God wants you to be. But you’re not sure it can happen, because you’ve seen too many relatives or friends go off the rails. I’m living proof that God will listen to your prayers & guide your relationships if you’ll just ask Him.

He wants to hear the heartfelt prayers of girls & grandmas. I know, because I’m one result of their prayers.

THANKFUL FOR ANOTHER YEAR

 I’m thankful to God for another year He has given me.

My mother in 1987

There have been a number of things that have hindered me from writing this blog (caring for my wife, a couple of long & important writing projects, & videos on prayer). But I just wanted to take a few minutes to share with you some thoughts about why I’m thankful for another year the Lord has granted me.

One truth that has become very precious to me is that God is in control of the circumstances of each person’s birth. That doesn’t mean that He has given me all the answers to the “Why” questions, but it does reflect His sovereignty & desire to bless each person & to advance His cause in the world thru that person.

I was in my mother’s womb for 10 months & just a little over 6# in weight at birth. A few weeks before the due date for my birth my parents had suffered the loss of my oldest brother Eddy (age 4 or 5 years) from a lingering childhood disease. For whatever reason, God allowed this & a result was the delay by several weeks of my introduction to the world. Even though I never met my brother Eddy, I know that I will see him in heaven.

A highlight every year because of the wonders of digital technology is receiving birthday greetings from the scores of friends the Lord has given me over the seasons of this life. Something especially neat is that this aspect of my birthday covers 2 days, because of our many friends on both sides of the International Date Line.

So today I’m celebrating with the family how the Lord has given me another year to love & serve Him in this world.

PRAYER FOR OUR NATION: IMPRECATORY PRAYER

What I want to share with you today is kinda the other side of the coin from what I shared yesterday.

I’ve been doing short videos, encouraging you to pray thru Psalm 140 daily to stand for righteousness & against the lawlessness that is spreading like a cancer. One part of Psalm 140 are examples of what is called an “imprecatory prayer.” Here is it:

As for the head of those who surround me, may the mischief of their lips cover them. May burning coals fall upon them; may they be cast into the fire, into deep pits from which they cannot rise. May a slanderer not be established in the earth; may evil hunt the violent man speedily” (verses 9-11).

What is imprecatory prayer? One definition of imprecation is the “The act of... invoking evil; a malediction; a prayer or expressed wish that a curse or calamity may befall someone” (Wordnik).

It goes without saying that Christians have had a real problem with this concept of prayer for a lot of reasons. But I want to bring this subject up in the context of what is happening in our nation right now.

Please take a minute to watch this video. You may want to turn your volume down, as it has some extremely disgusting language in it. (If you listen to the first 5 seconds, there isn’t really any need to listen to the audio of the rest. It’s all pretty much the same.)https://twitter.com/i/status/1282070412466282496

What were your emotional response & thoughts about what you saw (& heard, if you kept the volume up)? To be honest, I felt & thought a lot of things. But the one thing I want to share with you is that I was angry. Not just on behalf of the officer that was disrespected, attacked, & injured. 

I was angry because if enough of this happens, the police will be de-motivated from protecting the people in this neighborhood. They need someone between them & the thugs the officers were trying to deal with. 

Where is the justice for the elderly, children, & disabled in the neighborhood who can’t stand up to the criminals? Who is going to protect the small business owners & their employees?

How do you feel when you see this happening? Everything is turned upside down & backward. Evil is considered good, & good evil. Here is an observation from another blog about imprecatory prayer:

While some would object that it is not patience at all to pray to God for the destruction of their enemies, that idea is simply wrong. If destruction is truly warranted and is the will of God, to pray for it is neither impatient nor wrong. Taking individual vengeance is both wrong and impatient. Rom. 12:19 "Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, "VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY," says the Lord." Not taking one's own vengeance, but waiting on God to use His tools (natural means, governments, other evil men's predilection for evil, etc.) to bring His vengeance is exactly what patience is.
Also, anyone who would plead for God to relieve him from the evil of his enemies must truly make sure that his enemy can not rightly ask for the same relief because of the pleader's action. The righteous imprecatory prayer is a tool for the innocent only.

You can read the entire blog at: https://www.bible.ca/ef/expository-psalm-35.htm

There is nothing wrong with praying that God will deal with those who stand between justice & the hurting or afflicted. David did it. We can do it, & this is a season when we need to.

WHAT GOD WANTS

I've been looking at Exodus chapters 25 to 40 about the construction of the tabernacle for a couple of weeks now. Probably the most incredible thing that I've seen there is how God chose to provide it for His people at that time. 

He instructed Moses about the details. He had Moses commission 2 men to design and to create the structures. He directed Moses to have the Israelites donate the materials to be used to build the tabernacle, its furnishings, & the instruments to be used there. The same is true of the priestly garments that were to be provided for Aaron & his sons.

The reason this is so incredible to me is that God could have just spoken & the tabernacle would have appeared. That's kinda what Aaron claimed that happened with the golden calf when Moses was up on the mountain. "I just threw the earrings in & out popped the idol!" God could have snapped His fingers & made the tabernacle appeared out of nothing. 

But he chose to use people to provide materials for it & to do the actual work, following the blueprint that He had given Moses. 

Among many things, the tabernacle was intended to represent God's presence and to carry the the furnishings where God was understood by the Israelites to dwell among them.

God dwelling among people, being with them, working in & thru them, is profound.

His revelation in Christ reveals that Jesus fulfilled God's desire embodied & expressed thru the tabernacle. "The Word became flesh & dwelt/tabernacled among us."

As miraculous as the reality of our experience of God's presence is in our lives now, the hope that we have as believers in Christ goes even beyond that. In the end, Scripture tells us that the Lord will be the light in the New Jerusalem. He will dwell in a tangible way in the midst of mankind. There be no need for a sun or moon because the Lamb, Jesus Christ, will be the light. God will tabernacle with with mankind.

We know that God has placed in us a desire for Him. But do you realize that He also has a desire for us? He wants to be with us, living in us. He wants to work in us and transform us into the image of Christ. He wants to work thru us to bring that same transformation of others' lives.

Be encouraged that he wants to be with you. He's done everything necessary for that to happen.

SOMETHING IMPORTANT ABOUT CHINA

Earlier today I heard a sound byte of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo talking about China. He used a term to describe China that is profound & extremely important. In referring to China, he referred to it as "the Communist Chinese government." In a 15-20 second soundbite he used this phrase twice.

Why is this important?

Mainland China is vast. It's also not a monolith. What I mean is that throughout China there are many different ethnicities, cultures, languages, & religions. The various people groups there are divided & distinguished by these differences. The thing that holds them together as a nation is not the willingness or even the desire of the people to be united. What holds them together is the martial power of the central government. This is a really important thing to understand & remember when discussing mainland China.

Sometimes people think that disparaging the Communist Chinese government is racist & disparaging to the Chinese people. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Unlike the ideal of the United States, where government is constituted of, for, & by the people, in a communist state like mainland China the government is the power. The government is constituted of, by, & for the government (aka Communist Party). This is the reality regardless of any phraseology in the name of the country.

So, the term that Secretary Pompeo repeated (the Communist Chinese government) was really important.

When we speak of the Chinese people, or of any of the various ethnic, religious, cultural, or linguistic groups, we are speaking of those particular people. 

When we speak of the Communist Chinese government we’re not speaking about the people. We are speaking about the absolute power that the Chinese Communist Party wields to force its will on & to control the Chinese people.

That distinction is really important.

MISSING GOD'S HOUSE

There are potentially some positive results could come from the coronavirus situation that we're facing.

Our time in overseas for 15 years gives a perspective for one of the things that I would like to see happen.

When we lived outside the US we were rarely able to attend a church where the services were in English. We really enjoyed the churches where we were involved and were blessed thru the great relationships with people in those churches. 

But when we did have occasion to attend an English language church it was an opportunity to to really soak in and appreciate the ability to communicate without needing to navigate another language & culture.

Since returning to ministry in the US, we have continued to appreciate our the local church for that & many other reasons.

One of the fallouts of the situation with the coronavirus is that in some states the government has either suggested or mandated as an emergency measure that there be no gatherings of people over 100, 250, 500, etc. 

So, depending on the state, there will be people this weekend who may not have the option to attend a church.

I would like to see disciples of Christ develop a new appreciation for the local church. Our tendency when we have something is to take it for granted. As believers, we are human & prone to taking our church for granted. Our involvement & experiences in the congregation are a huge part of our discipleship process. 

The possibility of having to miss a time together with God's people once, or even over several weeks, should awaken people who genuinely love the Lord suddenly realize the treasure that they have in their local congregation: fellow disciples & spiritual leaders who oversee the ministry. 

Whether this happens to you personally or not, I encourage you to not take your local church for granted. 

Appreciate it & love it. 

Pray for it and be a blessing and a strength to your pastor & fellow believers in that congregation.

Don't be like this: