It’s Crazy to be Lazy

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I don’t remember why, but I once set out to study or at least reference the parable of the talents found in Matthew 25.  That lead me to the similar story in Luke 19.  Finding the differences interesting, I became curious and this is the result.

The two stories are in Matt 25:14-30 and Luke 19:11-27. On a little side note, be careful of the headings that might be in your Bible. In this case, the one over the Luke passage in my version is particularly misleading. This story is not primarily about money usage, and that is made apparent from the content of verse 11. Headings are great, but they are also a form of commentary inserted by the publisher and should be taken only as guides for finding particular passages and not necessarily accurate descriptions of what they mean.

Comparison and Contrast

Though these stories are similar, they differ in significant ways and so I take them to be told by Jesus on separate occasions. It appears from context that he shared them at the approximate time of His entry into Jerusalem days before the crucifixion. They both share a theme of responsible stewardship while the master is not present. Mathew’s account is part of a series of parables emphasizing preparedness for His return. Luke tells us in 19:11 that Jesus is responding specifically to the belief that His kingdom would be established immediately. The string of parables in Mathew may be a response to a similarly motivated question (Matt 24:3.) Both highlight three slaves, though Luke says that there were ten slaves given one mina each.

Both parables feature a master giving charge of money to his slaves. In Matthew’s account each was given resources according to his ability. Luke’s version gives the same amount to all. In Matthew the two successful slaves both double what they have been given. In Luke they increase ten times and five times respectively.

Luke adds another dimension to his story by recording that the master was a ruling official. Jesus is clearly illustrating His kingdom in this parable. The dissidents who refuse His rule are to be slain before him, just as all who reject Jesus will face a final judgment when He returns.

The accounts of the unproductive slave seem to differ only in minor detail. The major points are consistent between them. They both have an unreasonable fear of the master born of a misunderstanding of his character. They describe him as opportunistic and demanding at best. The description they provide implies evil rather than good (Matt 25:24; Luke 19:21.) They both choose to hide their master’s money instead of using it for the purpose he intended. They attempt to justify their action by means of the accusations cited above.

In both cases the master’s response is also similar. Since both slaves behaved in the same manner, we may apply the judgments of the master in both passages to both slaves. They are described as lazy, wicked, and worthless. It appears that if they had even done the minimum of putting the money into a bank they would have been spared. I will not attempt to address the implied indictment of banks except to point out that God had commanded His people not to charge each other interest (Ex 22:25.) Jesus is speaking to Jewish people here, so this is the context they would have for the reference to banks.

Both slaves have their money taken away and given to the most productive. In Matthew Jesus goes on to say that the worthless slave is to be thrown out into “the outer darkness.” He uses language here common to other references that He makes to Hell. We may safely deduce that the slave of Luke’s story is bound for the same fate.

Conclusions

These are illustrations of principles of the Kingdom of God. They tell us what God is going to do, how we must respond, and what will be the consequences of our response. Jesus is master and king. He gives to us different resources in the form of money, ability, circumstance or anything else that we may use. Some things are given according to our ability to use them. Others are given to everyone equally. We all have access to His love, grace and mercy. All who have believed in the Lord Jesus have been given of His Spirit (1 John 4:13.)

We must now choose what we will do with what we have been given. It was given to us to put to use. It is expected that we will cause it to multiply. Some of us will produce an abundance so great that it seems to others to be too much. Some of us night not be able to produce very much at all. God’s requirement is that we do all that we are able to do. We bring Him joy when we put His gifts to good use, and He will reward us accordingly.

The lazy slaves in these parables are not simply complacent nor are they ignorant of the master’s expectations. They have made a conscious decision not to do what has been asked of them. This becomes clear as they attempt to justify their actions upon the master’s return. Despite the evidence of his goodness they deem him to be unreasonable, demanding, and dishonest; taking what does not belong to him.

We do the same. We redefine God in a manner that permits us to do as we choose. Perverting the good news of His grace we cite our inability to live according to His standard and falsely justify our sin. We take what He has given and hide it in a hole where it can do no good for us or anyone else. We make Him into a fierce and tyrannical being and then act in self-righteous rebellion against our manufactured nemesis. All the while our true enemy laughs, knowing that we have sealed our own doom.

Another thing that strikes me about these parables is that there does not seem to be an expectation that the money is to be returned. Though it clearly belongs to the master and each slave brings it back along with the increase they have made from it, he seems to indicate that it will remain in their charge as if it were their own (Matt 25:28; Luke 19:24.) This exposes another flaw in the thinking of the lazy slaves. The money was given to the slaves for their own benefit, not that of their master. By returning unused what was given to them, they completely missed the master’s intent, which was to bless them, insulting him on several levels.

God loves us. From the beginning he intended to lavish it upon us and that we would in turn give it to each other. This is how we return everything that we have been given. We multiply it by sharing with those around us. When we keep it to ourselves thinking that we need only return it to Him in exchange for salvation, we have become worthless for His purposes.

What follows is hard for us to accept, especially in our culture of increasingly socialist ideas of equality. It even sounds crewel. Take away from the one who has nothing even what he does have and give it to the richest one? How is that justice? This tells us several things. God rewards success. He even rewards extra success with extra blessing. This is true justice, for the one who works hardest deserves reward commensurate with his effort. This does not mean that God in his grace and mercy cannot reward equally someone who though just as committed did not produce as much. See Matthew 20:1-16.

Consider also that none of these slaves had anything before their master entrusted it to them. In the same way we have nothing that God did not give us, therefore it is foolish of us to judge Him for doing as He pleases with that which is His in the first place. The unproductive slave had nothing even when he had the money for two reasons. First, as we have just seen it is his master’s money. Second, he made no use of it. It did him no good because he hid it away and did nothing with it.

This should serve as a strong warning to all of us. We may genuinely cherish what we have, both the tangible and the intangible. Imagine you inherited a collection of rare and beautiful art. You have a family and you have been struggling to make ends meet. This collection will set you for life and allow you to care for your family. Invested wisely the proceeds would benefit generations to come. However, you cannot bear to part with it. You keep it in a closet. Every so often you secretly pull it out and admire it. Maybe you even let your closest friends get a peak at it, but then you hide it away again. Meanwhile your children go hungry. Not many among us would do that. Yet that is exactly what we do with a gift that is far more precious than anything man ever created on this earth. We hide it behind the walls of our churches and grudgingly let a few people slip in and have a look. It does not occur to most of us to take it outside and share it. If it does, it’s often someone else’s job. We just keep this life saving gift all to ourselves. If this is our attitude, maybe we need to question whether we really have it at all. It is a gift that is of no value to us or to our Lord if we will not share it.

Maybe you think that you have nothing to offer. In one sense that’s true of all of us. We have nothing that is not from God. If you have received Him, you have the greatest gift of all, and it is your responsibility to share it. God didn’t stop there. I know He has given you other things that he intends for you to share. My wife, Linda, and I attend a church with some people who are barely able to move or to communicate. They have a purpose in God’s kingdom. When I speak I often remind them that one doesn’t need a mouth to pray and that God responds to intercessory prayer. No matter how much or how little we think we have been given, God expects us to multiply it.

The Role of Local Government

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As I became more involved in politics at a local level a few years ago, I was faced with questions I had never thought about before. I’ve been following national government for years and have very definite ideas about that. The federal government should be strictly limited by the Constitution. It should do no more and no less. As stated by the Tenth Amendment, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

That grants considerable liberty to state and local government. In fact many would be horrified by the strictly religious nature of many a jurisdiction of the time. This leads to a more philosophical question. What are the reasonable responsibilities of a local government? It has considerable latitude within the framework of state and federal law and would have a lot more if the Constitution were properly observed and its principles carried forward by the states.

A local government must of necessity be concerned with the mechanics of day to day life in a way that higher entities need not be, but I remain convinced that sound principles of government will work at all levels. It should provide protection and keep the peace. It probably must to some extent be involved in the management of local infrastructure, but should stay out of the way as much as possible.

However, I also recognize that this kind of government only works when the people as a whole are of good character. If they refuse to function within the law and with proper respect for those around them, then it becomes necessary to have more authority in the hands of the government. John Adams said of the US Constitution, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” This is why there are some truths we cannot ignore, no matter how offensive they may be to a small segment of the population.

What does this mean in practical terms? I am still left with questions about what the local government should and should not do. I suppose one answer would be whatever the citizens decide that it should do. This is reasonable, but can we reach a point just as we have at the federal level when government has grown beyond the control of its citizens? When this happens, it is our right and responsibility to regain that control. Local municipalities regularly commit acts of tyranny every bit as egregious as those perpetrated at the federal level, less frightening only because they lack the overwhelming power of the Big Brother state. When they act in concert as in the case of New London, Connecticut one begins to lose hope. In this case the High Court ought to have done its job and protected the rights of the individual.

Citizens also may abuse their power. For example, zoning gets misused to assert the rights of one group over the rights of another. I understand the desire to keep some sort of order. Honestly I’m glad the city can keep my neighbor from tearing down his house and replacing it with a porn shop, but the question needs to be asked whether I should have the right to tell him what to do with his property. How is it that my rights are more important than his? Let’s consider something a little less controversial. I once attended a birthday party at a restaurant featuring a large outdoor deck with a mariachi band and Aztec dancers. The restaurant backed right up to a residential neighborhood. From our seats on the deck we could look right into someone’s pool in their back yard. I suppose if the owner of that house were the partying type he was in a prime location. He got free entertainment every night. I just kept thinking it must be a terrible annoyance to the people who live in that neighborhood to have that kind of noise going on all the time.

I don’t know who came first, but whose rights should the city protect? Whose rights are actually in question? We have defined a lot of things as rights that are not rights at all. There may be a question of what is right in this situation, but is there a question of rights? Should not government be a defender of what is right?

Is it right for a city to force a resident to modify his property because his neighbors don’t like the way it looks? I suppose one may argue that the home owner has a responsibility to maintain the standards of the neighborhood in which he has chosen to live as a courtesy to his neighbors. He may in fact do financial harm to them by lowering the value of their properties. Is it right for them to force him to do so, even if it will cause him harm?

These are some of the questions I ponder as I watch my own city government in action and contemplate my level of participation in it. I have not even touched on the monetary issues. I suspect that if its functions were reduced to those essential to the maintenance of the city and the rest were left to private enterprise, there would be far fewer monetary questions to address and we would enjoy even better service.

I would like to know what others think about these things. Your comments are welcome on the blog or on Facebook.

Why?

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I hate to say it but there is likely still a cassette recording in someone’s possession that proves this was one of my favorite questions as a kid. I don’t have a lot of experience with children, but I understand I was not unique in this. It’s something we all want to know about everything. That questioning never really stops. As we grow up, sometimes we learn the answer. Other times we conclude that we cannot or do not want to know it.

We are always searching for reason. We want to know the purpose behind everything that happens and everything that is. When we are young, most of the time the answers are easy. Someone else has already learned them and all we need to do is ask, but soon we learn some questions are harder to answer. The scientists, the theologian, and the philosopher all seek to answer the question of why. Some decide we don’t need to know, but are then compelled to tell us why we don’t need to know why..

It is a question that when asked about things that really matter defines what life is about. Why are we here? Why do we choose? Why is there evil in the world? This is a new line of thought for me, and I claim none of the aforementioned titles; but it seems to me the world we live in can be explained by answering these three root questions, all leading back to the one, “why?”

Maybe the best answer for such an all encompassing question is also one word, “God.” I would prefer Yahweh, since that is the name of the one true God and ultimately descriptive in itself. It means “I Am” and that He is explains everything else. He does not need a reason because He is the reason. For many this is not a good enough answer. It claims to explain everything while seeming to explain nothing. We’re looking for proof. It is hidden in plain sight. New discoveries are made all the time that show for anyone willing to see that what God said through Paul is true.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. (Rom 1:20 NASU)

Here we have THE ANSWER, but we want more specific answers. I believe they are contained within the nature of Yahweh. The first question, “why are we here,” also has a single word answer, love. Odd as it may sound, love also answers the third question and on one level the second also. Evil must exist so that we can choose good. To understand why I’m saying these things, take a look at this article, entitled God, Man, and Love.

We live out our lives on that second question. More pointedly, why do we do what we do? I’ve written before of my wife’s favorite pair of questions, “what are we doing and why are we doing it?” I think the latter is most critical. I have known people who do good things for evil or selfish reasons. (I would consider evil and selfish redundant terms.) We see it in our personal lives, and we see it in governments. Much of the supposed good our own country has done over the past century has in fact been evil in disguise. That’s another topic for another time.

Let’s make it personal. Have you ever had something done for you or given to you out of impure motive? How does it feel? Wouldn’t you have rather gone without? If we are honest with ourselves we will see that we have done likewise. Motivation is always the key, particularly among those with whom we claim to share love. You expect restaurant staff to serve you out of duty. You pay them to do it. You expect your spouse to serve you out of love, and you do the same. If either of you loses the motivation of love, the relationship begins to break down.  It is the same with God. He is not as concerned with what you do as with why you do it.

1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing. (1 Cor 13:1-3 NASU)

That’s why.

Judgment as Love

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I have a friend who is greatly disturbed that the church has moved away from preaching God’s judgment in favor of His love. I understand the concern. Our entire society is moving away from the idea that any action must have consequences. This denial does not negate the fact. I think that most judgment comes in the form of cause and effect. When we act contrary to God’s design, He need not actively intervene in most cases in order to bring about punishment. His judgment is built into His creation. Admittedly this may be considered just word play. It is through His active creative energy that we exist at all. In that sense it cannot be said that anything happens without His doing it. This used to make me uncomfortable, and I know that for many in the tradition I come from it amounts to heresy. It seems to make God the source of evil. The same logic that leads us to His existence inevitably leads to this conclusion. If He created everything, then He created the potential for evil, if not evil itself. Or, maybe evil exists in the basic structure of reality. Anything that is contrary to Him is by definition evil, since He is good. That still leaves us with God creating beings with the potential to do evil, thus being an indirect cause of the evil we suffer. Why?

I’ve addressed this in other posts if you would like more perspective on that question, but I believe the answer is love. In order to love Him, we must be able to choose. We cannot choose if there is no choice. That doesn’t compromise His sovereignty. Since He already knows the end from the beginning, all of us have been predestined by the fact of our creation. That he knows our choice before we make it does not absolve us from making the choice, and that choice is crucial.

That is why I can say that judgment is part of love. I agree with my friend that we do a disservice to those we would reach with the good news of God’s love when we do not expose the consequences of spurning it. I only suggest that we need not deemphasize love in the process. Just like a good father who teaches his children through discipline, Yahweh teaches us. Would anyone who has studied the Bible thoroughly doubt that He loves His people Israel? What then can we make of His many pronouncements of judgment except that He means to redeem them? That is exactly what He did, and the entirety of the Bible shows how He used even the evil to bring about ultimate good. He has completed it in Jesus, and this generation may well be the one to see the final evidence thereof.

When we share the good news, we don’t need to try to strike some sort of balance between judgment and love. We do need to speak of judgment with love. If you saw a child running into oncoming traffic, would you not try to get him out of harm’s way? If you saw a blind man walking toward the edge of a precipice, I hope you would warn him to turn around. Would you spend any time wondering if these people might reject your attempts to save them? Most of us would not, yet there are people all around us who are heading for their own eternal destruction. We just stand by and watch, fearing some minor bit of unpleasantness if we should intervene. Thank God that you do not live in a country where your life truly would be on the line if you speak the truth. Use what you have been given. I am writing to myself as well. Whether Jesus comes back tomorrow or centuries from now, our own time is short, and every day we remain silent someone loses life forever. What kind of judgment awaits us for our lack of love for the dying around us? Maybe it will be that we find ourselves living in one of those countries I made reference to. We could be closer than you think. Maybe this would be God’s love in action for us. It would force us to choose between love of our comfort and love of our God.

Defining The Least of These

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I read this article several years ago.  We see it in the news all the time, usually much worse than this, but my heart was caught by this young man’s story.  Occasionally you may hear an American Christian speak of persecution.  It is not unknown here and I do believe it will increase; but we hardly know the meaning of the word in this country.

We speak of the problems we have here.  They are real.  Our church exists to address a small part of them.  My thought is that if ever there was a definition of “one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them” (Matt 25:40) it is the persecuted church around the world.  The original article and the site it came from are gone now, but another has taken up the cause.  Explore the site. See what is happening in Syria, Iraq, Egypt, China, India, North Korea, Vietnam, Sudan, Somalia, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the list goes on.  People who didn’t have much to start with are losing family, home, and livelihood for the sake of Jesus’ name.  We should be doing what we can to help everyone who is in need, but I believe we have a special responsibility to these who have given all to follow Him.  In a nation so rich that even our homeless can find enough to live on and in some cases have cell phones and Internet access, are we doing enough to help our fellow brothers and sisters who have been driven from their homes, crowded into squalid refugee camps, and tortured for their faith?  I don’t think so.

World Watch Monitor

In February Jehanzaib Asher, 22, was working in a barbershop his family jointly owns with his cousin in Wana, South Waziristan – a Taliban stronghold in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas in Pakistan’s northwest – when the Islamic militants showed up to try to convert him to Islam.

It was not the first time the Taliban’s Noor Hassan had delivered strident sermons to him and his relatives, and this time Asher decided not to listen silently. He defended Christianity by citing verses from the Bible, and Hassan and another Islamic militant viciously beat him – breaking his left leg and some ribs and leaving his left hand non-functional.

All Natural

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

I’m somewhat amused by our fascination with things that are “natural.” The label is usually applied to things we ingest, but it’s also seen on everything from soap to clothing. I don’t think I’ve seen a natural car yet…Oh wait…I think we call those horses. As I recall from my reading they dirtied up a city like no car ever could.

Now don’t get me wrong. There is nothing superior to God’s creation. In fact I have to believe that God gave us everything we need on this earth to solve any problem we may encounter. Most of it probably grows “naturally.” That is essentially what we mean by the term natural. It required no transformation by the hand of man to make it what it is.

But how much of what we call natural can really fit that description? Unless you went out into the jungle and pulled it out of the ground yourself and ate it, it has been through man made processes. Natural is a meaningless word. Man has never really created anything. We only take that which God created and arrange it in new ways to form something that would not come to be without our intervention. There is nothing that is not natural since all of its components came from nature at some time. The distinction of organic versus inorganic is more meaningful, but even here there is human intervention to bring the desired organic elements together.

The thing I find laughable is the assumption that just because it is natural or organic it is good for you. How many epidemic scares have we seen in the last few years?  Ebola nearly had us paralyzed with fear.  Why?  It’s all natural; it must be good for you! No one in their right mind would accept that, yet we snatch up items on the supermarket shelf that say organic or natural with the idea that they are going to be better for us without questioning what makes them organic or natural. Cases of e coli infection are higher with organic foods because they are grown using dung for fertilizer. Want some potatoes?

I’m not saying we don’t corrupt or misuse what God has provided. WE do, and we don’t need to look to chemical factories to find examples. Last time I checked, Marijuana, the opium poppy, and coca all grew naturally. We should be prudent in choosing what we consume, but we should not buy into the lie that anything man touches becomes bad. Man used his God given ability to make the world better. Enjoy all of God’s creation, even the stuff we’ve rearranged.

God, Man, and Love

The Lion's Roar Posted on by

How can I share with you what God has given me? It is a personal experience, but I think it has given me insight into how we can all come closer to Him. I don’t know that there is any direct prompting from the Holy Spirit for me to write this, but if I have chosen to express my thoughts and feelings in this way before how can I not share this? If ever this has been a platform for sharing the message of truth then how can I omit one so powerful? So I pray for Yahweh’s wisdom as I attempt to share something with you that should be new to no one who has had sound Biblical teaching. What makes it new is the personal revelation of what it really means. I pray that I can say it in a way that will make it as real to you as it is becoming to me. I have known the words most of my life. I have believed them with my mind. It has taken longer for them to work their way into my heart. I do not suppose what follows to be complete, though I pray there will be no error in it. I just want you to see what I am seeing and be set free thereby.

Have you ever thought about who God must be? If you are willing to acknowledge that He is, what do you think He is like? How did all of what we see around us come to be? Though I will not spend much effort here arguing for His existence, I think it is important to lay just a little foundation on that point. It is not possible to bring something from nothing. The problem with any theory of how the universe began that does not acknowledge intelligent design is that it must generate substance where there is none. No matter how far removed one imagines that instant of beginning, ultimately it must be faced. Nature and logic demand a creator.

If there is a creator, consider what sort of being He must be. He must be outside of space and time. He has the power to create all that we have ever known or seen. To say that He is big is a poor description at best, because He must exist beyond the physical realm where size has any meaning. He is so much greater than us and so much different than us it is a wonder that we can relate to Him at all. I’m using mail terminology because that is the way He has chosen to reveal himself to us, but the creator of procreation who has no equal cannot be said to have gender in any way that we would understand it.

How can such a being relate to us? Why would he? What would motivate Him to create in the first place? Even scientists who still refuse to acknowledge Him note that everything about the universe is fine tuned for life right here on earth. I do not doubt the power of God to have created the conditions for life anywhere of His choosing and not necessarily discernible to us, but what we have learned seems to show that we are the focus of all His creation. Can we suppose that He did all of that because he was bored? Can we imagine that he takes no interest in the life He designed the universe to support?

If I may resort again to the inadequate metaphor of size, we must be to God less than the sub-atomic particles observed by scientists only with the most sophisticated technology are to us. The difference is impossible to describe. What could His interest in us be? Certainly it is more than the scientist’s for said particle, which is at best an object of rewarding study and perhaps a living.

There is an answer that bridges the incomprehensible gap between man and his creator. That answer is love. I do not speak of the perversions we label as love, but that which is patient, kind, humble, respectful, unselfish, forgiving, truthful, and everlasting (1 Co 13.) Some of these may seem strange words to describe the love of the almighty creator. I did do some considerable paraphrasing, but when you understand what He did for us, they don’t seem quite so strange. Amazing, yes! The passage referenced above concerns the kind of love we ought to have for each other, but it uses the same Greek word we find associated with God’s love (1 John 4:7-8.)

I’m trying to keep the apologetic to a minimum, only using enough to illustrate who God is versus who we are, but as I hope to speak also to those who have not yet decided what they believe or who may be convinced of the truth, I will touch briefly on the written source of that truth. That is the collection of historical documents, poetry, prophecy, and letters of instruction that we call the Bible. There are those who say that it contradicts itself, but if the supposed contradictions are understood in context they disappear. I suppose one may say that about any religious writing, but what cannot be said about any other book is that the more we discover the more evidence we find of its accuracy. The cohesion of the disparate material written over thousands of years that comprises the Bible is unmatched. It is the revelation of God’s nature, purpose and relationship to man. It tells a story of love that has no equal. This is why you will see references to its text as substantiation for what I share with you.

The Bible also tells us who we are without Him, and that is not a pretty story. We rebelled from the very beginning (Gen 3.) We’ve been doing it ever since. Most of us are fine with the obvious stuff. We agree that it’s wrong to lie, cheat, steal, or murder. Even adultery remains on the bad list for the majority of people. Now consider what Adam and Eve did. Most of us wouldn’t think that was so bad. So God said not to eat off of this one tree and they did it anyway. Surely this is worth a slap on the wrist at worst, right? Oh how tragically wrong!

Why did God create this tree in the first place? Why would he even give them the opportunity to disobey? It is because love is not evident until it is tested. Without this test, we could neither know the depth of our love for Him nor the depth of His love for us. It is this love that He desires. He knew what would come of this tree and of His commandment not to eat from it. Yet he created it anyway, knowing what He would have to do to make things right again.

God does not give us rules for the sake of rules. He is not a controlling despot with a sadistic streak waiting to catch us breaking a rule so that he can punish us. This is the nature of Satan, not of Yahweh. Though it must have broken His heart to do so, he gave them the opportunity to love something else more than they loved Him, so that one day His creation could love Him fully as He loves His creation. Even in this He showed His loving nature. He gave them the commandment to spare them from harm. That is the motivation behind God’s laws. They are meant to show us the way that leads to real life. When we do things that are contrary to his design for our lives, we bring upon ourselves all manner of evil. God does actively bring judgment on those who have spurned His love.  Nothing happens that is beyond His control, but mostly consequences come because the world works according to His design.  Beyond the fact that He is the one who sustains all of creation, most of what happens to us is a consequence of exercising natural laws, just as stepping off a cliff will result in a plummet to the bottom whether done so with intent or not.

In this first story we see his exacting standard. It was not the act itself which condemned them. It was the intent of their hearts. Jesus illustrates the same concept when he expands on the commandment not to commit adultery.

27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY’; 28 but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matt 5:27-28 NASU)

Most of us think that we are good people. We may acknowledge a little sin, but we think it’s not so bad. We imagine that if the weight on the good side of the scale is heavier than that on the bad side, God will let us in. We forget with whom we are dealing. Our creator defines and demands perfection. He is only interested in our deeds in so far as they reflect our hearts. He is looking for perfect love. Because he is God, we cannot hide our true nature from Him. He says of us through Paul quoting David in Romans 3:10-18:

10 as it is written,”

THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE;
11 THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS,
THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD;
12 ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS;
THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD,
THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE.”
13 “THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE,
WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING,”
“THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS”;
14 “WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS”;
15 “THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD,
16 DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS,
17 AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN.”
18 “THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.”

How is it that our creator who knows us all intimately can say this of us and yet still love us? This is a mystery we may never fully comprehend. Yet He does love us. It is only at the point when we realize how depraved we really are that we begin to appreciate the mercy and grace of God. Raised in a pastor’s home and staying mostly out of trouble, I have lived what most would consider a good life, but I have seen the standard by which I must be judged, and I have been found greatly lacking. I look back over that so-called good life and see a series of terrible mistakes. I also see something else. I see God’s mercy. I see how just as he did throughout the Bible He has taken even my error and woven it into a pattern that will result in good. That does not mean He condoned the evil. He saw it coming and planned for it. That’s just what he did for all of us. Before we could know or love Him and while some of us even hated Him, He came as one of us to die for all of us (Rom 5:8-9.)

This is an amazing truth. We have already explored just how indescribably awesome God is. Would you become an ant to rescue all ants from extinction dying in the process? That doesn’t’ begin to illustrate the difference between us and God. We don’t have much love for ants, but what about dogs? Would you do it for dogs? Most of us regard our own lives more highly than that. The truly astounding fact is that even though we are so much less than God, He loves us with everything He has. He created us in His image to love and to be loved. In the physical realm there is no comparison between us, but in the spiritual realm we have been made like Him and are destined to be with Him forever.

Jesus said, “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free (John 8:32).” It has certainly happened for me. I can’t earn the love He freely gave to me (Eph 2:8.) That means that when I pray, it is not because I must but because I can! When I read the Bible, it is because I want to know and love my creator, not because he expects it of me. When I sin it is not the fear of punishment that drives me to repentance.  It is the knowledge that I have grieved the One I love who first loved me. I am learning to trust that he knows my failures past, present and future and will not abandon me. I can come to him not in the fear of my flaws, but in the assurance of His grace and mercy. I can do the things that He wants me to do in the assurance of that love.

I do not want to speak of judgment. I do not want to contemplate the end of His mercy. I am well aware that his patience does have an end and have often feared that I have surely reached it. However, I cannot leave off that part of the message. God will not force you to love Him, but you cannot be in His presence unless He through the sacrifice of his Perfect son has cleansed you from your sin. He is just as well as loving, and he cannot be so if he suspends justice for ever. I believe that all of us who take an honest look at our hearts know that we do not meet His standard of righteousness. The worst thing about Hell is not the fire and torment that the Bible describes. The worst thing about Hell is eternal separation from the best lover you could ever have. Hell is the end of all hope for that which God created you to know.

He made it so simple. He gave you all of creation to testify to who He is. He gave you the Bible to explain it. He gave you His son to redeem you from the curse of your sin. He allowed the misery in your life not to destroy you but to show you that the end of your way is death. Just as he presented Adam with the choice in the garden, he presents you with a choice now. Turn from that which destroys to Him to gives life. He has loved you with everything that He has. Why would you choose to break His heart by turning away? There is no pleasure on this earth that is worth the cost of that decision.

9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” 12 For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; 13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.” (Rom 10:9-13 NASU)

If you don’t know Him yet, don’t wait. Give yourself to the one who gave Himself for you and learn what real love is.

(Originally published October 10, 2009)

Ten Commandments If Your Boss is Your Facebook Friend

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  1. Thou shalt not ignore thy boss’s friend request.
  2. Thou shalt never unfriend thy boss.
  3. Thou shalt not post updates to thy timeline while thou shouldst be working, even if thy boss doth fill the earth with posts.
  4. Thou shalt not let thy gaming app post updates to thy timeline during working hours.
  5. Thou shalt not curse thy company, neither shalt thou confess openly that thou hast dumped its stock.
  6. Thou shalt not post status updates about thine other job.
  7. Thou shalt not post pictures of thy new Porsche when thou hast not received the denarii to buy a bicycle.
  8. Thou shalt not write words of love on the timeline of the one who worketh beside thee.
  9. Thou shalt not call thy boss a fool, for then thou shalt be in danger of the Hell of fireing.
  10. Thou shalt not tell of thine interview, but if thou hast violated these other nine, thou mayest do so, for verily I say unto thee that thy time with the one who rules over thee now is short.

Musings of a “Heartless” Conservative

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What is the health care debate really about? No doubt there are some on either side of the issue who are fighting for nothing greater than personal gain or security, but anyone who is willing to look at the participants in the debate honestly will have to admit most of us want everyone to be cared for. I’m talking about the general population here. I think the politicians involved are an entirely different matter. I find it impossible to imagine that intelligent people who have been in government for decades do not know the harm they have done.  I also find it hard to believe that the major media cannot see their own bias.

We all have our reasons for being for or against government run health care or any other social program for that matter. I would dare say that many of them are in fact selfish. The Bible tells us that none of us are good, and one only needs to look around to see the truth of this. Only to the degree that we practice Godly principles, whether we know them as such or not, do we have a functional and civil society. People who lack coverage and have medical needs want to get those needs met and see government as the source. People who either understand the long term consequences or fear losing what they have want to keep the government out. These are broad generalizations but they illustrate the point. It’s mostly about our own well-being and how it is we think that is best served. I think this needs to be said, and we should take a hard look at ourselves, especially if we are among those who call themselves Christians.

From here out I will assume that is what we are doing, and indeed many are. It is unfairly said of us that we are without care for the less fortunate. Somehow because we do not think the government should do it we don’t think it should be done. This is a vicious misrepresentation of the issue. The question conservatives are asking has never been whether or not people should have care, but whether civil government should be involved in providing it. On this people who genuinely care for the needy may honestly disagree.

My wife and I find ourselves right in the middle of the hard realities of this question. Many of the members in our church draw their living from Social Security and depend on Medicare or Medicaid for their health needs. I confess I am a bit reluctant to speak out in opposition to these programs when I personally know people who have no other recourse. Yet I don’t think any them will tell you that they are happy with the care they receive. How can we fix a bad system without hurting those who depend on it? I don’t know that there is a way.

Ultimately the system must parish. Either we dismantle it in a careful and compassionate way or it will collapse along with the rest of our economy and we will find the suffering multiplied. When we go wrong, whether personally or as a people, we suffer the consequences. There will be a terrible cost one way or the other. In the name of compassion we have instituted a system that oppresses people while claiming to help them. While “good” people were involved, they were deceived into supporting evil. The current health care law is another such evil. The end result will be more suffering instead of less. We are already seeing the rotten fruit.  Those who hoped to cure our ills through the intervention of an impersonal government agency are becoming victims of their own folly.

Many say that government must do these things because no one else will. Really? How did we get all of these hospitals branded with names of religious origin? Did government set those up? I suppose at one time it could have, but there’s this thing called the Constitution that is supposed to proscribe government activities. Until this century we had some idea of what that means. I don’t know if there are any of those hospitals left that still function as Christian institutions, but that is how they were founded.

Though this may be true and though it is also true that Americans are among the most generous in the world, I don’t think the fear that too little would be done to take the place of government largess is without merit. As we slip further and further from our roots, the values that inspire us to care for others are replaced by selfishness. I know I keep coming back to saying the same thing just about every time I address major issues like this, but the truth doesn’t change. Our society will eventually collapse without a return to Yahweh, the one true God. There is no political solution that can adequately address the problems created by a self-absorbed people who refuse to see beyond that which makes for their own comfort or advancement.

I said most of us believe everyone should have care. I think that’s true, but only to a point. Everyone should have care unless it costs us something. I suppose a liberal could make the same argument regarding taxes, and I’ll even admit that some actually mean it. The problem is that most think someone else should be doing the paying. It’s OK to raise taxes to pay for someone else’s care as long as it isn’t their taxes. Herein lays one of the evils I was pointing to above. This is no more than legalized theft. We legitimize the taking of one’s property to give it to another.

So, what is the health care debate really about? There isn’t one answer to that question. Our motivations cross political boundaries. For some it is about a genuine concern for their fellow man. For others it is about protecting their own interests. Still others focus on the role of government in the process. That’s just a sample. I set out in particular to address the assertion that anyone who is against government sponsored care is without compassion. I hope that message came through, but it’s a little more complicated than that. The bottom line remains that we must choose as a society to live for the benefit of others above ourselves. That’s the way Jesus teaches us to live. I suppose that if a just program could be established with everyone involved working for the good of the other government run anything wouldn’t be so bad, but that’s not who we are. Therefore, we must establish a balance that limits the potential for evil and does the most good for all concerned. History has shown that government control of an industry does not work, media whitewashes of European systems notwithstanding. It is not compassion to institute such systems here.

Sounding Off on Noisy Traffic Signals

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Most people probably don’t know that some traffic signals have been designed to make noise so that someone who is blind will know when it is safe to cross the street. There aren’t many of them around. An acquaintance from years past once told me that they were common in Sweden. I think I remember the country right. Until recently I had only encountered two of them in my lifetime; both in front of institutions for the blind. The first was in Kansas City. The buzzer was so loud that you could hear it blocks away. The other was here in Dallas. It was a beep almost too quiet. I think I remember both being at one-way crossings, so there was no need to indicate which street was safe.

Several years ago, the city of Richardson upgraded the traffic signals on the corner nearest my house. The corroded old buttons that are pushed to signal a desire to cross were replaced with touch sensitive ones that beep to let you know they got the message. I thought that in this climate of strident demands from every tiny minority that the world cater to their slightest need that there might be some secret way to make these fancy new signals tell me when it was safe to cross. I tried pressing multiple times in rapid succession. I tried holding my thumb on the sensor for long periods of time. Yeah I know that was silly. People do that kind of thing all the time thinking somehow they are going to get the signal to change sooner. I just thought if it was going to beep at me to say I got it then maybe there was a way to make it give me even more audible feedback. Well, if there’s a secret, it remains a secret.

I thought about it realized that beyond the extra expense required to make them blind friendly, who defines what that is? If the signal is too noisy one can’t hear the traffic and that could be deadly. If the signal is too quiet the traffic noise will drown it out. Is there an established standard for what the noises mean? Does the beep or buzz mean stay put or cross? Ideally if there is going to be a noise it should come from the destination pole so that one is certain which way is clear. It should also be something that is easy to pinpoint and head for, especially in crooked intersections. That means it has to be louder, and what if by chance someone else who is blind is standing under that one?

Most of this post was written in 2009.  This summer I encountered something new and promptly asked the city if I could have them at several of the intersections I regularly use.  The difference?  These talk!  I was told they will remain in place in downtown Dallas where they were installed around the Sheraton hotel for the 2015 convention of the American Council of the Blind.  They tell you which street to cross.  They only do so if one pushes the button, which regularly emits a discreet beep so that one can find it.  While crossing you are told how much time you have left.  This goes a long way to eliminate some of the concerns I expressed.

I’ve put in my order, but the question I asked when I first wrote this is still worth consideration.  That is overall safety.  I have learned from experience that one cannot rely totally on what the signal is indicating, whether it can be seen or not. Some of them are not well calibrated to leave enough time for anyone to cross safely. Drivers turn right on red, turn left into the cross street on green, or simply disobey the light. Pedestrians must be always on guard regardless of visual acuity. At times one must disobey the signal in order to remain safe. I wonder if having audible signals in addition to potentially masking the noise of an oncoming vehicle may foster a false sense of security leading to more accidents. Now that we have more electrics and hybrids on the road, the noise issue is worse than it might have been in the past.

I look forward to having the audible signal, particularly during low traffic times when something might come barreling out of nowhere.  Still, if you can, it is better to work by traffic patterns. After all, the objective is to make it safely to the other side, and the greatest threat to that objective is the automobile driver you’re sharing the road with. I don’t care as much about what that light is doing as about what the truck that just turned in front of me is doing.