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:

SOUNDING SMART

I don’t have a lot of pet peeves. At least I don’t think I do. But please humor me by letting me vent about one of them.

It’s what people do to make others think that they are smart. In doing this, they either fall for the old “form over substance” error (or hope that others will). Or they apparently think that regardless of the merits of what they say, these tactics make up for any lack of truth or reliability.

Here are a few of them:

Being passionate – the emotion or “hot air” takes attention from the actual content that is being communicated. It says, “I’m smart – see how emotional I can get about this?”

Seeming cool & professorial (whatever that is) gives the impression of studied, dispassionate impartiality.  

Pushing the limits on polite speech (aka cussing, etc.) in order to sound sophisticated, clever, or cutting edge.

Using all kinds of supposedly authoritative information. Mounds of words & paragraphs prove nothing, especially if it’s too much for anyone who actually has a life has time to sift thru.

I’ve done my share of academic research & writing. Enough to know that a few letters behind someone’s name isn’t a guarantee that they are a reliable source of information.

Real experience in the real world, speaking with clarity & conciseness – that’s where smart comes from & where it is expressed.

The job of a teacher (in broad terms, a teacher is anyone who wants to communicate & bring information to others) is not to cloud things or complicate the subject. It is to “make the complicated simple.”

MOTIVATION

Our New Mexico legislature is apparently looking again at the legalization of recreational pot. I can’t speak as an expert on medicinal pot, but I will speak on what some legislators & special interest groups want to do in de-criminalizing & legalizing recreational.

What I say is based on 3 things: 1) the historical prohibition of producing, selling, possessing, & using pot after it became an issue in America; 2) common sense about it that is based on its effect on people (there is plenty of research out there if you care to google it); & 3) the negative effect pot has had on my & following generations.

Motivation is a huge part of why people do things.

Legislators & the special interest groups who advocate for legalization of recreational pot don’t do that in a vacuum. They also don’t do it from altruistic motivations. 

One of the primary arguments they use is that it will increase tax revenues coming into the state treasury. (Ironically, they claim that they will use part of those revenues to fund better mental health care.) They have a vested economic interest in the legalization & taxation of recreational pot. 

THIS CANCELS OUT ANY CONCERN THEY MIGHT HAVE FOR ITS NEGATIVE RESULTS.

On the other hand, people who oppose legalizing recreational pot have no economic interest in the results of the legislation. If it passes, we are not affected negatively or positively. (At least initially; public safety & other issues will ultimately raise vehicle insurance rates, etc. But that is another issue for another time.)

What I am saying is that those who oppose pot legalization are motivated for reasons that that are actually altruistic. We have nothing to gain or lose economically. But we do have specific concerns & reasons why we believe it should continue to be against the law.

Remember this when you start seeing propaganda intended to push this down our throats.

MY FRIEND DOC RYAN

I lost a special friend a few weeks ago. The sad thing was that I didn’t realize he was gone until today. A January 1 Facebook message from another friend in the Philippines somehow got overlooked.

Many people knew my friend simply as “Doc Ryan.”

We met him in October 2008 in Mindoro. He was an instructor for a mini-medical course Deborah was taking. He was a Filipino who had studied medicine in the US & could have, if he wished, stayed here & done very well for himself.

Instead he chose to return to the Philippines & dedicate himself to serving God by using his training & skills there.

I know Doc Ryan knew & loved the Lord. He could be very straightforward in dealing with people, but that characteristic was just an overflow of his passion to give his best to them for God’s glory.

Doc Ryan was with us for nearly all the medical outreaches we hosted. He understood the sacrifices that medical professionals make in giving their time (usually almost 2 weeks including travel time to & from the Philippines), energy, & finances. 

He also had a gift for stepping into situations that others couldn’t handle. (You would have to participate in a medical mission to understand this.)

I’m not sure how old Doc Ryan was when cancer took him. Maybe early 50s. Honestly, as a doctor he made a much better care giver than patient. He probably erred on the side of working too hard & not taking good enough care of himself.

But a couple things are sure.

He loved the Lord & demonstrated that love thru his love for people.

He is now in the presence of the Lord he loved.

We’ll miss you, Doc. 

But we’ll see you in the morning.