What's Love....Got To Do With It?

I read this morning in the paper that December is the month where the greatest number of proposals for marriage occur.  Many would think that February and Valentine's Day would be the number one month for proposals, but according to the article and a quoted professional proposal planner December is five to six times more active in terms of interest in her services.  A jewelry businessman also stated that diamond engagement ring purchases were 50 to 60 percent higher in the month of December due to the expressed intent to propose marriage.

Now many would say without thinking that two people are in love and with Christmas, the winter wonderland some experience, the gift giving, family gatherings and the like that it is just a natural time to pop the question.  What I thought about, however, was deeper than the location, time of year or method of proposal.  From whence did love come?  We speak about love quite a bit - in music, with regard to foods we find particularly appealing, vehicles or new electronic gadgets we purchase and utilize and others.  We say we love many things, and in point of fact before proposing there has usually been an exchange of the very phrase "I love you" on numerous occasions.  But i'm not even talking about the statement of love, or the idea that love is a part of our every day lives.  What i'm concerned with is where did the whole concept of love come from in the first place.  We must preface the entire question with the understanding that love is a term that connotes more than just physical intimacy.  When we speak of love and marriage there is an implicit understanding of forever, of something that lasts, of giving of ourselves to another, of sacrificing for someone else.  Where did that come from?

It is hard to see from an evolutionary standpoint how it would ever have arisen.  For furthering a society, procreation is a requisite, and for safety it is well appreciated that gathering in groups is better for survival than going it alone.  It seems quite counter-intuitive to hold to a belief that the flourishing of human existence is maximized by sacrificing and suffering with another. It seems much more reasonable to hold to some sort of physical intimacy with whomever one chooses to be the best mate and more of a communal sense of responsibility toward rearing children.  No one particular set of parents, a group of adults all sharing in the responsibility of making each child the best possible specimen for the next generation of more advanced evolutionary bi-products.  Complex sociological concerns are not really the point of the post, but do bring light on the importance of the question.  If love as a complex set of emotions that drive human behavior away from the most beneficial evolutionary circumstances then it should be cast away lest humanity be passed over by another more capable of discarding such unnecessary notions.

Unless of course love is the ultimate expression of human existence.  What if love is actually the pinnacle of humanity, the core of what really makes human beings what they are?  As it turns out, my personal devotions for this month have me in the book of 1 John.  In the fourth chapter, and verse 4 it reads, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God."  Wait, love comes from God?  The source of the pinnacle of humanity was imparted to us from our Creator?  Yes, it seems the only way to understand what love is, why it is so important when it seems to contradict human flourishing it to understand that it comes from God.  Not only do we find in 1 John the source of love, we also see what it is to love (an example for our benefit and use in copying behavior that expresses love).  See here chapter 3 and verse 16, "This is how we know what love is: Christ Jesus laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers."  So here we have an action and an imperative.  Christ died for us, therefore we ought to lay our lives down for others.

This is repeated in Chapter 4 verses 7-12, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.  This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.  This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.  Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

More tomorrow on 1 John and love, but I hope we will all be spurred on to think carefully and deeply about what it means to love, the origin of love in human existence, and how we ought to display love in our own individual lives each day.  Knowing God and atoning sacrifice are central here, as clearly read in the last verses, which will be a great topic for tomorrow...

True Love

Imagine two young people, been in church their whole lives, one a pastor's daughter and the other a deacon's son who pursue each other and finally get married who now have four children and fifteen grandchildren.  What would you say about that couple and their beginning?  Super couple with a great background and off to a solid start?  No chance of divorce with those two?  Perfect example of how Christian families should begin and will work out if done right?  Well, Norm Wakefield from Spirit of Elijah Ministries described his relationship with his wife (and her relationship with him) as idolatrous, and testified to the first 10 years being a "train wreck".  I suspect this is the case far more often than most believers will even admit, for fear of letting out the awful truth that we who profess Christ as our Savior mess things up sometimes too.

Do we really think about Love in terms of Christ's love for us?  I mean really think about it that way.  A brief review of scripture shows with certainty that He loved us BEFORE we did anything to deserve it.  Do we really love people before they do things we want, or give us things we desire?  How about it husbands, do we love our wives, serve them, bring them flowers, write them little love text messages throughout the day, buy them gifts for no reason, without any expectation of physical intimacy later on?  How about it fathers, do we spend time with our children, read books, play sports, work projects, have devotions, without any expectation of obedience or verbal approval of our parenting as a result?  Do we love our families, giving of all we are, without any expectation of something in return - or do we love them like a football team, spending time and cheering them on as long as they are winning for the entertainment we derive from the investment?  Sobering to think we are all creating for ourselves idols and carving them with precision every day.

Go to Spirit of Elijah Ministries website and look into the book "Equipped to Love" by Norm Wakefield.  The man is gifted by God to speak to relationships in real terms, identifying real loving relationships from idolatrous ones.  It will open your eyes, as his talk did mine, to the correct way to think and pray for help in experiencing God's love for us in a deeper and more intimate way, and how we can be successful in loving others and ourselves in the way God loves us.

We don't have relationship issues, or communication problems, or repressions of this or that from past situations by and large.  We have a sin problem in that we are experts in habitual creation and formation of idols from which we derive our fulfillment.  We need all the resources we can to identify ways in which we can rely completely on our God and Savior to bring fulfillment in every area of our lives.  Norm's book is a good one to add to your collection.

Real Relationships

We met again on the afternoon of November 12 to hear from Norm Wakefield of Spirit of Elijah Ministries on the topic of relationships.  Again the presentation was tremendous, and was a fresh way to look at interpersonal relationships (via the interaction between Jesus and Peter {a.k.a. Simon).

Mr. Wakefield brought out the idea that Peter wrote his letters (1 Peter and 2 Peter) from his life experience, most especially the last few weeks he spent time with Jesus before His crucifixion.  From those experiences he was able to write to the early church members in difficult situations they were experiencing - see specifically 1 Peter chapter 2 and 3.

In a nutshell (so as not to repeat material that is available through the website link above, which I would strongly recommend) Peter's concept of relationship changed when he stopped seeing Jesus as Lord consummated by power and law and began to see Jesus as Lord consummated by love and experience.  In other words, not King and ruler by political rule but Shephard who saved His sheep by laying down His own life.

My mind has been all around this concept for weeks now and to be frank what has bothered me most is the issue of obedience and devotion to the commandments of God if all is love an experience.  I mean, if every relationship is all about love then won't that make Christians pushovers, ready to be bowled over since we can't really stand up to people we are supposed to love, right?  I mean if love dominates all relationships then we couldn't tell people they are doing something wrong, engaging in wrong behavior, etc.  We'd have to just let everyone do our own thing without making them feel bad by telling them they are living wrongly, right?  Actually, no.  If we really love our Lord and love other people then we will be compelled to live rightly ourselves, constantly aware of our actions so that we never behave (in thought, word or deed) in a way that would shame the Gospel or cause any other believer to stumble [in other words live an example].  We will also love others enought to point out wrongdoing, and here's the key, only from a motivation of desiring them to know the love of Christ in their lives and only as their lives do not align with clearly commanded and modeled biblical principles.  It is out of our love for our Lord that we identify and point out behavior inconsistent with biblical principles, so that we can share the message of love with others so they might be able to know the love of God in their own lives.

It's a different perspective, and I believe the correct one.  The key is motivation.  We as believers have probably not done ourselves any favors as we tried to take the short road and just proclaim that others are living wrong and on their way to Hell out of an attitude of pride and arrogance.  How much more effective would it be if we just thought constantly of what Christ Jesus has done for us, how much we love our Lord, and as a result live a life dedicated to showing how much we love Christ and love others by sharing the love of Christ and those same areas where their lives do not align with biblical principles because we want them to know the freedom, hope and joy that comes from looking for our fulfillment in Christ alone.  I have a feeling we would have some real and close relationships that honor the Lord.  And that is our purpose in life anyway, glorifying the Lord.  He is worth the effort.

Sight Unseen?

"Some Things You Can't Unsee"

Such was the tag-line for a recent movie just released in theatres.  It caused me to think again on an ever-present reality for contemporary American society; that of audio-visual exposure.  It is undeniable that media overload is a daily ritual for many around the world.  From cel phones capable of everything from making calls to downloading text, music and video via mobile internet connection to thinner, lighter and more highly defined television screens in almost every establishment it seems that whereas in years past the struggle was to "find a signal",  these days to remove yourself from media is the real coup de etat.  So, in the current culture of media immersion, does this statement really mean anything?  Further, as this site is dedicated to Biblical Christians thinking about current topics, what are the implications, if any for the believer?

Visual Assault

I'm not a history "buff", but my grandfather was well versed in military strategy as he was an Army man and lost several brothers in war.  I remember him telling me of some of the exploits of Patton and MacArthur in particular.  So, while no expert by any means, I am aware that from minor skirmishes to full campaigns there are numerous methods of assault.  One of the most effective that comes to my memory is where a group of soldiers was extended too far, and their enemy gained their flank and successfully cut off their supply lines.  They were soon overtaken due to a lack of those munitions necessary to wage war on their opponent.

Malcolm Muggeridge wrote what I believe to be the masterpiece on media for Christians in his Christ and the Media.  I'll refer to his work often throughout this post and strongly recommend it to all who read, not just for the content specific to the topic, but also as an example of great writing style which is not present here.  In his first lecture, Muggeridge writes:

"The prevailing impression I have come to have of the contemporary scene is of an ever-widening chasm between the fantasy in terms of which the media induce us to live, and the reality of our existence as made in the image of God, as sojourners in time whose true habitat is eternity.  The fantasy is all-encompassing; awareness of reality requires the seeing eye which comes to those born again in Christ."  (p. 30, first full paragraph)

Interesting language that, media induced fantasy versus Godly reality.  In the example of military strategy one could say that humankind has been enticed by media to move ever farther from reality, and being so estranged from its moors is ripe to have the supply line of truth cut off.  Ultimately that is what is at stake, truth.  There are several terms to describe truth as the accurate description of reality (correspondence theory, et. al.).  As the propagator and distributor of fantasy, it is only logical that the more engrossed we become in the world of the fantastic the more the mere notion of reality is bludgeoned by the blunt instrument of media until truth has been beaten to death.  Is that language too harsh?  Is all this just an overreaction?  Consider a contemporary example in the fictional Bourne series.  Many read the books in sequence and enjoyed the stories, following the character through memory loss, a gradual discovery of who he really was and ultimately living on his own terms again deciding who he would be.  Then came the movie trilogy.  Who, after having seen the movies could thereafter ever read the books and see the name Jason Bourne without seeing with their mind's eye the actor who portrayed the character on the big screen?  Could this be anything short of a violation of the imagination, anything less than the foisting of an image onto the mind of the reader, ultimately not providing a tacid and temporary sensory experience but instead a deliberate and permanent shackling of thought?  It's even worse than thought at first blush.  Not only is the reader no longer able to exercise the freedom of imagining any figure he wishes through the course of the book, but the image that has been seared into his mind is not even the actor as he exists in reality but only a fantastic caricature.  Reality is replaced with artificial appearance through stylists and make-up artists; classes in martial arts and foreign languages project an expertise in physical and linguistic areas that quickly fade following the final day on set; choreographed chases in various vehicles with the use of stunt doubles, quick shots from many camera angles and carefully planned scripts portray genuine acumen in driving and wit; all this to form a single image that is completely true neither of the character viewed in the writer's mind nor tethered to the reality of the actor.  Complete fantasy that sweeps the viewers away, luring them further and further into the world of make believe until they no longer want to live in this dreary world of reality, but would rather remain in a field of the fantastic.

So we see the chasm of which Muggeridge spoke, the all-encompassing fantasy of which he warned.  But what of the seeing eye that allowed some to remain aware of the real world, that vision that comes to those born of Christ keeping them fixed close to their line of supply?  Was it not William Blake who said,

"This life's dim windows of the soul
Distorts the heavens from pole to pole
And leads you to believe a lie
When you see with, not through, the eye"

As Ravi Zacharias so eloquently stated, "We were created to see through the eye with the conscience, we are living now in a world where we see with the eye, devoid of a conscience." (my paraphrase).  With the introduction of computer aided graphics, high definition cameras and three-dimensional graphics we are fast approaching the day in which human actors are no longer needed for film or voice.  Many times animals, species, even cultures die out through various circumstances, but we may be witnessing the unfolding before us the extinction of the human actor and for the first time the creature being annihilated is applauding his own demise.  Such is the fate of the one engulfed in fantasy, reduced to seeing with the eye, not through it, and imprisoned by the replacement of free, independent, rational, real, true thought and imagination with forced, lock-step, irrational, fantastic, disingenuous regurgitation and replication.

Protecting the Flank

If it is common knowledge that one strategy in war is to move around an opponents flank and cut off his supply line, then a prominent feature of logistics in a campaign must be diligence and persistance in protecting one's flank.  In our case we must be ever cognizant of the maneauverings of our enemy.  On this point we must be clear, the battle is real and the truth is at stake.  In his second lecture, entitled The Dead Sea Video Tapes, Muggeridge again gets to the heart of the issue and provides a salient and striking description of the necessity of being persistant in maintaining our watch:

"Good and evil, after all, provide the basic theme of the drama of our moral existence, and in this sense may be compared with the positive and negative points which generate  an electric current; transpose the points, and the current fails, the lights go out, darkness falls, and all is confusion.  So it is with us.  The transposition of good and evil in the world of fantasy created by the media leaves us with no sense of any moral order in the universe, and without this, no order whatsoever, social, political, economic or any other, is ultimately attainable.  There is only chaos." (p.46 paragraph 4)

Should we become so entranced by the visual effects and imagery before us, we run the risk of being swallowed up by the ideas of "good guys" wearing black and "saving the day" through murderous revenge; of the interchangability of loathsome characters and supposed innocents through surprising situations; of the overpowering feelings of yearning for the termination of all "happy endings" as they have been done to many times and no longer has any appeal.  Is it possible that through certain script maneauvers, camera angles and choreographed facial expressions and childhood flashbacks a group of filmmakers might convince an audience that they should feel sorry for the villian and actually desire to see him get off scot free? 

In his second lecture, Muggeridge examines the troubling question of what archeologists might say years from now when looking back on the video evidence left behind.  He writes:

"What, may we wonder, would the archeologists make of us?  Materially so rich and so powerful, spirtually so impoverished and so rear-ridden, having made such remarkable inroads into discovering the secrets of nature and into unravelling the mechanisms of our material environment, beginning to explore, and perhaps to colonise, the universe itself, developing the means to produce in more or less unlimited quantities everything we could possibly need or desire, to transmit swifter than light every thought, smile or word that could possibly entertain, instruct or delight us, desposing of treasure beyond calculation, opening up possibilities beyond envisaging, yet seemingly haunted by a panic fear of becoming too numerous, to the point that there would be no room on earth for its inhabitants and an insufficiency of food to sustain them...Never, the archeologists will surely conclude, was any generation of men, ostensibly intent upon the pursuit of happiness and plenty, more advantageously placed to attain it, who yet, with apparent deliberation, took the opposite course, towards chaos, not order, towards breakdown, not stability, towards death, destruction, and darkness, not life, creativity and light.  An ascent that ran downhill, plenty that turned into a wasteland, a cornucopia folded.  This, as it seems to me, cannot but be the archeologists' general conclusion from the material available to them."  (pp. 53,54)

and more pointedly,

"The archeologists will surely marvel at the high hopes placed in this educative process, seemingly regarded in the society under examination as a panacea for all ills, material, mental and spiritual; at the proliferating campuses, the ever-multiplying professors and teachers instructing more and more students in more and more subjects; at the vast sums of public money expended, and at how the pundits of the classrooms and lecture theatres were held in the highest esteem, to the point of being invited to hold forth in the television and radio studios, and even to participate in government at the highest levels.  More books published, plays produced, building erected in a matter of decades than heretofore in the whole of recorded time; the scene set for the greatest cultural explosion of history, a Venice or a Florence on a continental scale.  And the result?  Instead of sages, philosopher-kings and saints, pop stars, psychiatrists and gurus.  Looking for a Leonardo da Vinci or a Shakespeare, the archeologists find only a Rolling Stone.
     Surveying and weighing up the whole scene, then, will not their final conclusion be that Western man decided to abolish himself, creating his own boredom out of his own affluence, his own vulnerability out of his own strength, his own impotence out of his own erotomania, himself blowing the trumpet that brought down the walls of his own city tumbling down, and, having convinced himself that he was too numerous, laboring with pill and scalpel and syringe to make himself fewer, until at last, having educated himself into imbecility, and polluted and drugged himself into stupefaction, he keeled over, a weary battered old Brontosaurus, and became extinct?"  (pp. 57,58)

I wonder again if many will read these lines and think to themselves, "what a gross exaggeration, we're not going extinct we're making progress, changing all the time."  I wonder if maybe we have been fooled of late that any change is good simply for the fact that something has changed, never questioning if the thing proposed to be changed ever really needed to be changed in the first place, never imagining that there might be such a thing as a detrimental change, a change for the worse.  Could it be an exaggeration, all this talk of doom and gloom coming from something so innocuous as a television set?  I mean, we're only talking about amusement, right?

To this point my only examples have purposefully been fictional in nature.  Consider now things like the news, and historical accounts in documentaries and film.  Expectations from viewing audiences are that the anchor men and women are delivering factual accounts of events that transpired during the day or in the near past.  Have we stopped to really think about what is going on during that broadcast?  First the anchor people.  It is hard to believe those we see on the newscast every evening could possibly be the same people we see on the street because of the time spent in makeup before the lights come on; because of the contrived seating, standing, and change of set design throughout the broadcast; and because of the teleprompted recounting of the days events and forced banter one wonders what a real discussion with those personalities might be like in real life.  Take next the reports.  Investigations and interviews taking hours of communication and discussion with the people involved, some having just experienced horrific or disastrous circumstances; only to produce and edit the whole of the event down to a thirty second clip of a victim becoming emotional upon recounting the nearly avoided tragedy only to be cut off by the impending advertisement; where the most time and effort recounted in the exchange took place in the alignment of the camera so the interview could take place with wreckage and flashing lights in the background.  Take the documentaries and historical movies.  Is there any greater contrivance than the disclaimer below many of these features, "Based on a true story" and "Re-enactment of actual events".  Is it possible we have come to the point where such language causes us to proceed unquestioning to the belief that the people dressed up in different clothes, moving around an open stage built on a set of varying complexity and interacting with others whose responsibility it is to deliver a set of contrived lines in an effort to evoke a passionate response "just like in real life".  It seems that experience would have shown by now that the words "Based on a true story" are a rather transparent code for "Has no bearing on reality whatsoever".  The same can be said without any further comment on those convoluded productions called "reality shows". 

Perhaps the most egregious and damning of all the network attempts to be relavent while still providing a platform of change, intrigue and entertainment occurs, ironically enough, during times of greatest catastrophy and struggle.  I speak of course of the theme music.  I remember hearing it first during the Gulf War.  Each network assigned their specific theme music whenever an update would come up to report everything from advancements of troops, new decisions being made to execute the war effort and the announcement of more soldiers killed in the line of duty.  These periods of theme music and updates with multiple windows of pictures all appearing at the same time on the screen left a bitter taste in my mouth then that lingers to this day.

Engaging the Enemy

Now we come to the point where the wound has been opened and laid bare.  We have examined, at perhaps too great a length, the dangers associated with being drawn in to a world of complete fantasy where morality is transposed such that good and evil are interchangable commodities to be manipulated on a whim.  The question becomes what do we do about it?  As happens many times in battle, the enemies numbers seem to great and ours too small; we seem to have no recourse, no solid ground on which to stand no way to even hold our own amidst such a brutal onslaught.  What elixer is available to cure those feelings, to what bulwark can we run that will provide shelter from the attacks of the enemy, what will keep us from falling victim to such a criss-cross of morality?  Muggeridge again:

"To break out of the fantasy, to rediscover the reality of good and evil, and therefore the order which informs all creation - this is the freedom that the Incarnation made available, that the Saints have celebrated and that the Holy Spirit has sanctified."  (pp. 46,47)

and later in a summary list and subsequent statement:

"1.  Seek endlesly for God and for his hand in all creation...So, looking, we find him, finding him, we love him, and realise that in every great word ever spoken or written we hear his voice...

2.  Live abstemiously.  Living otherwise - what Pascal calls 'licking the earth' - imprisons us in a tiny dark dungeon of the ego, and involves us in the pitiless servitude of the senses.

3.  Love and consider all men and women as brothers and sisters, caring for them exactly as we should for Jesus himself if we had the inexpressible honour of ministering to him.

4.  Read the Bible and related literature...These are the literature of the Kingdom proclaimed in the New Testament; words which became flesh and have dwelt among us, full of grace and truth...

5.  Know Jesus Christ and follow his Way, like Bunyan's Pilgrim, withersoever it may lead...

...it is precisely when every earthly hope has been explored and found wanting, when every possibility of help from earthly sources has been sought and is not forthcoming, when every recourse of this world offers, moral as well as material, has been explored to no effect, when in the shivering cold the last faggot has been thrown on the fire and in the gathering darkness every glimmer of light has finally flickered out - it is then that Christ's hand reaches out, sure, and firm, that Christ's words bring their inexpressible comfort, that his light shines brightest, abolishing the darkness for ever.  So, finding in everything only deception and nothingness, the soul is contrained to have recourse to God himself and to rest content with him."  (pp. 76,77)

And what do we do with the knowledge that the trailer from the movie is patently false in its statement that some things cannot be unseen?  When in fact once seen, nothing can be unseen, and moreover imprisons the mind?  Some may choose to remove the televisions from their home, vowing never again to set eyes on the screen regardless the material.  To him I would say that I understand, respect the decision and wish him well.  Some may choose to turn away from the truth, to remain indignant and continue to proclaim "it's just harmless TV" and continue to imbibe with impunity.  For him I lament and pray with the knowledge that the Holy Spirit can bring reality to bear on even one so steeped in the fantastic.  Some may understand the situation completely, continue to watch with discernment in a very limited fashion, to read more than watch, to think about ramifications and entailments even during what is sold as amusement (to deliberately cease to think).  To him I would say may God bless and protect and find a partner for accountability as temptation will come your way early and often.

I close with Muggeridge once more:

"What a Christian can do in whatever part of media he may be working, whatever his lot may be cast, is to continue to be a Christian.  Thereby, he may not be able to change the appreciably; they have their own conditions and circumstances.  Inside the media, however, he can and should sustain his Christian witness.  He may find this very hard, very hard indeed, because of the incompatibility between God and Mammon - in this case, between Christ and the media.  We are told to make our light shine before men.  That is our Christian duty; the results are God's concern, not ours." (p.83)

How Should We Then Insure

I must admit that my heart has been heavy the last few days.  I spent the two days before the House vote on the health care bill reading the reconcilliation and amendments package.  I spent the two days after the vote continuing to read and gaining as much clarity as I could to what has now been voted into law.  Yesterday and today I have been reading through my favorite blogs and listening to a variety of talk shows and reading the local paper for how people are reacting to the legislation and I find myself torn on how to respond.  I see that both sides of the argument have some legitimate concerns (where the people expressing their views on the legislation are legitimate in their arguments).

On the one side, people are concerned about how difficult it is for individuals to purchase health insurance for themselves or their families;  how it is difficult for small businesses to offer company-wide health plans for their employees because they cannot buy into the larger market plans; how pre-existing conditions and the current state of rising health care costs are a major area of concern for the general public.

On the other side, people are concerned about how liberty is being usurped by the legal requirement that individuals must purchase a product from a private entity; how small businesses are being required to provide company health plans under threat of fine or penalty; how the experience of history shows wide ranging social plans administered by the government have all ended up bankrupt and the economic factors suggest the plan is doomed to failure before it begins.

As one who has done his best to read and understand the bill as it currently stands, I believe in many areas there is not enough information to adequately argue one way or the other.  A few examples:

1) The contention has been made that if individuals like their current coverage they can keep it.  Opponents say the bill will make it impossible for individuals to afford to keep their current coverage whether they like it or not.  In the text of the bill, all health care coverage carried by individuals and offered by employers must be Qualified Health Benefit Plans (QHBP)s.  Specific coverage offered by a QHBP is to be stipulated by the Secretary who is appointed by the President upon passage.  So, really at this moment no one knows what even constitutes a QHBP.  Until that is determined, making any kind of determination about current plans must be held in abeyance.

2) The contention has been made that health care costs will decrease as a result of the enactment of the legislation, while opponents charge the bill will drive health care costs up and bankrupt the nation.  In the text of the bill, the rates and methods of determining the rates for health care plans, like the make-up of a QHBP is to be determined by the Secretary upon passage of the legislation.  So, again at this moment no one really knows whether nationwide health care costs will go up or down.

I realize that everyone can make an assumption as to what these unknowns might be and then project outcomes, but at this point it is simply unknown.  More important to me is the emotion that is present on both sides and what the Christian response should be (where responses will be honoring and glorifying to God).

I'm going to throw out some questions that have crossed my mind in the last few days and maybe some of you others who have read the legislation or are also seeking to give some really good answers can help me out.  I already know how i've answered these questions, but i'd like some additional input.

1) Is this whole health care and insurance topic a bi-product of the affluence of our society?

2) Is there a point at which a man can tell another man he must help his neighbor?  Does loving one's neighbor as oneself apply just to the follower of Christ or to everyone?  Does the United States' embrace of a secularized mindset have any bearing on this question, i.e. is the Church the only group who ought to love their neighbor as themselves?

3) Where do personal responsibility and accountability to God cross with the ideas of "general welfare"?  What I mean by this, is the founders of the nation continually used the phrase "by the dictates of his own conscience" for the governance of an individual's behavior, does that concept still stand today?

4) When we speak of insurance, at what point are we beginning to point people to the government or an agent instead of to Almighty God?  Put another way, when do we as a nation begin to see our days here on earth and those can provide temporally for our needs as those in whom we put our faith?

5) Is there a way for believers in Christ to be set apart as unique in this environment so that we will be seen as different and be curious as to how they can change to be more like us (which is to say more like Christ)?  In other words, what opportunities for witness and evangelism are available in this tumultuous time?

I appreciate any thoughts as I believe the issues are deeper than just the 90 seconds they are typically given on news and talk shows.  Thanks in advance for Godly wisdom and input. 

Christmas Truth - Day 4

"I will proclaim the decree of the Lord: He said to me, 'You are my Son; today I have become your Father. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will rule them with an iron scepter; you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Therefore, you kings, be wise; be warned you rulers of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry and you be destroyed in your way, for his wrath can flare up in a moment. Blessed are all who take refuge in him." Psalm 2:7-12

Jesus of Nazareth, born in Bethlehem was Lord and Christ. Messiah, Savior and God become man. This prophecy was fulfilled at the birth of the child, and referenced in New Testament scripture many times:

Hebrews 1:2-3,6 says, "but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word...And again, when God brings his firstborn into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship him.'"

Romans 1:2-4 says, "the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendent of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with his power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord."

All I wish to add to that reading of the Word is that Jesus claimed to be God, nothing less. At Christmas time as we sing the songs of the Christ child and celebrate the birth of the Savior, what strikes me is how completely unfathomable is the means by which God chose to provide for our salvation. We are never told in scripture so it would be only a guess, but I can't imagine that at some point Luke, after having questioned so many people about the birth of Jesus, would have run across someone who would have said something like, "I always thought the Messiah would have just appeared on the scene, straight from heaven in a flash seen by a multitude strong and powerful, marching into Jeruselum to claim His rightful place as King and ruler over the whole world. Never would I have guessed that He would have come into the world as a baby. Perhaps a baby like none other in the history of the world, but a baby nonetheless. I just never would have guessed."

That's the way I feel. I am expecting a new baby this Christmas. It is amazing enough that God would send His Son to be fully human, but to send Him as a baby, having gone through a full 9 months in the womb of Mary, fully Man in the truest sense of the word. A descendent of David in His human nature, but full of power and majesty as the very Son of God. In light of this Christmas truth two more scripture passages come to mind:

1 Corinthians 1:26-30 "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of nobel birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things - and the things that are not - to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God - that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. Therefore, as it is written: "Let him who boasts boast in the Lord." In this time when children are not even considered fully human that I put my faith in God, who used the very basic humanity of a developing child in the womb of a virgin to give His Son as a gift for the salvation all who would belive on Him. I boast in that truth this Christmas, that that which no one would plan and see as foolishness (a King coming as a child), in the weakness of a baby and lowly in stature (born in a manger, son of a carpenter) is the very righteousness, holiness, and redemption for my soul.

John 3:16-17 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

Christmas Truth - Day 2

"A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears; but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist." Isaiah 11:1-5

Such is the word from Isaiah the prophet sometime close to 700 B.C. Some 750 years later, Matthew records the lineage of Jesus of Nazareth in the opening of his gospel and we read:

"A record of the geneology of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham...Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David...Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ." Matthew 1:1-17

History is important in the prophetic scheme and as we see from this example the fulfillment of the prophecy that the lineage of the Messiah would be preserved. This is even more significant when we consider the tumultuous events that took place in the time period between Jesse and Jesus. We look at God's judgement of disobedience on the part of His people, the Babylonian captivity and exile from the promised land and see an example of God's faithfulness toward His covenants.

The passage in Isaiah also speaks to the responses of the Messiah when questioned by the people. It says He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes nor by what He hears with His ears. We see this very thing time and again in the gospels when Luke, for example, records things like "When Jesus saw their faith...", "Jesus knew what they were thinking...", "But Jesus knew what they were thinking...", "He saw through their duplicity...They were unable to trap him in what he had said there in public. And astonished by his answer, they became silent."

And so we remain today; silent and astonished before a man who did not judge by what He saw with His eyes, nor with what He heard with His ears, but who knew the very heart of man and spoke the truth with righteousness, precisely because this was no mere man, not just another great teacher, but because this was the Messiah son of David, son of Abraham, a shoot from the stump of Jesse.

Christmas Truth - Day 1

Well it happened again this year, thankfully. It has happened every year right around this time of year since I can remember and i've been happy to see it come each time. I am speaking of A Charlie Brown Christmas, of course. I watched a really nice cartoon with my wife and children, which is always time well spent. Something new occurred to me this year, however, that spurred my thinking and inspired me to a series of posts which will be forthcoming in the days leading up to Christmas day. The central theme of the cartoon was the real meaning of Christmas, something that is missed by the vast majority of Americans each and every year. Critical to answering the question about the real meaning of Christmas is truth.

Truth is correspondence. By that I mean that we know that something is true because it corresponds to reality. If I were to say that I am 6'-4" tall with dark hair, you would know that to be true by investigating those measurable attributes and comparing them to my statement. If my statements correspond to the real measurements, then my statement is truthful. This is critical to those of us who are followers of Christ because we don't follow His teaching because they make us feel good, or because we like most of what He says, or because our family always has; we follow Christ because we believe His teaching to be true. Due to that belief, we find the joy of the Lord that gives us comfort no matter the circumstance, we find the knowledge that the Lord will do what is right and can appreciate even the hard parts of His teaching, and we can appreciate the blessings that our progenitors have passed on to us.

So what is true this Christmas? Jesus says in John 14:6-7 "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him." Jesus is the truth. God has given us the privilege of providing the truth in the form of the Word that we can measure against reality. John 1:1-2 says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning."

These two scriptures point to the first truth i'd like to bring out, and that is the doctrine of the Trinity. The more I study and think about the Trinity the more beautiful a concept it becomes in my heart. Jesus claims to be God, not a mere man, not just a great teacher, but God. We see from scripture the concept of the triune nature of God (namely God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit). The first four words in the Bible say "In the beginning God...". The reality is that this universe is finite, and no matter the circumstances surrounding it's propagation the beginning was a caused event. The explanation that best fits reality is that the caused event of creation is due to God, the uncaused agent. Also, creation (which includes mankind) is the choice of the Creator. Because God exists eternally in three persons, He didn't need to create us for company. We need not think too highly of ourselves. There was unity in diversity from eternity in the community of the Trinity. We are created in God's image so it comes as no surprise that each one of us desires to be a part of a community. Companionship, support groups, families, gatherings of all kinds reflect the reality of the Trinity in each of our image-bearing attributes. Loneliness is always considered a bad thing, because it opposes the truth of the community.

When Jesus was ready to begin His earthly ministry we read in Luke 4:14-21 that He went to the synagogue and opened the scroll of Isaiah and He read, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has annointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, 'Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing'." Jesus said that He was the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning the Messiah.

In the life of Christ (that is, His birth, life, death and resurrection) represents a fulfillment of several hundred Old Testaments prophecies. I thought it would be a good idea to bring just a few of these to bear at this time to remind us that Christianity is not just a fanciful notion, but the TRUTH. Lord willing, tomorrow I will post on the fulfilled prophecy of the family line of Jesse.