holy week

Every once in a while, I read a verse of Scripture and think, "I wonder when that got put in there..." because it catches me as something I've never noticed before. As we are nearing the remembrance of Easter, one of those verses caught my attention:

"When Jesus was on the earth, a man of flesh and blood,
He offered up prayers and pleas, groans and tears
to the One who could save Him from death.
He was heard because He approached God with reverence.
Although He was a Son, Jesus learned obedience through the things He suffered
 And once He was perfected through that suffering
He became the way of eternal salvation for all those who hear and follow Him"
(Hebrews 5:7-9)

As they prepared to enter Jerusalem, Jesus knew what He was about to face. He even pulled His disciples aside to tell them plainly (because He had already told them a couple different times and the just didn't get it) that He was about to be mocked, tortured, executed, and raised from the dead. What was ahead of Him wasn't a surprise.

But He went anyway.

This wasn't the first time they had tried to kill Him. Not even talking about when King Herod ordered all the Israelite baby boys murdered, there are at least two times we're told about Jesus escaping death: the first started in the synagogue in Nazareth, and the second was at the temple in Jerusalem. In Nazareth, Jesus stood up and read from Isaiah:

"The Spirit of the Lord, the Eternal, is on me.
    The Lord has appointed me for a special purpose.
He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
    He has sent me to repair broken hearts,
And to declare to those who are held captive and bound in prison,
    “Be free from your imprisonment!”
He has sent me to announce the year of jubilee, the season of the Eternal’s favor:
    for our enemies it will be a day of God’s wrath;
For those who mourn it will be a time of comfort."
(Isaiah 61:1-2)

Jesus was in His hometown, and Luke tells us that at first the people were amazed by His words. But then, somebody remembered that this was the kid they had watched grow up--just the son of Joseph, right? But then Jesus stepped on their toes (He was really good at doing that) and compared Himself to the prophets Elijah and Elisha. Luke says His words infuriated those in the synagogue. They drove Him out to the edge of town, determined to throw Him off the cliff:

Mount Precipice at Nazareth

But we're told that Jesus walked through the crowd and left.

The second time was in Jerusalem. Jesus was in the temple, and people were again amazed at what He was saying. He had just been the reason a woman caught in adultery hadn't been stoned. But then He went and stepped on toes again, telling the people there that if they were truly sons of Abraham, they should start acting like it. He told them that instead they were sons of Satan, and they were acting like him. Instead of being driven to repentance, those in the temple were driven into a rage and picked up their stones again--but Jesus again slipped away.

Jesus walked away from death twice and undoubtedly could have again...but He went anyway.

On the way to Jerusalem, He spoke to Philip and Andrew:

My spirit is low and unsettled.
How can I ask the Father to save Me from this hour?
This hour is the purpose for which I have come into the world.
But what I can say is this: “Father, glorify Your name!”
(John 12:27-28)

He was "unsettled"--that maybe the biggest understatement of all time. Jesus knew He was about to face the death that coined the phrase excruciating, and He was "unsettled". As He prayed later, He was literally sweating blood, a condition that is called hematidrosis and happens under extreme stress or fear, when capillaries around the sweat glands burst. He spent His last night on earth praying for His disciples--praying for us--when He was under so much stress that His blood vessels were bursting. He prayed for the Father to do something else--something that would take away the suffering He was about to endure, the horrific death He would experience on the cross.

But He went anyway.

When they came to arrest Him in the garden, when He was betrayed with a kiss by one of the men He had been closest to here on this earth, His followers tried to fight. Peter cut off the ear of Malchus, and Jesus reached out, touched the man's severed ear, and healed it. He could have walked away again--after all, when they said who they were looking for and He spoke the words of the Ancient of Days--"I AM"--there was so much power simply in His voice that those who came to arrest Him fell to the ground (John 18:4-6).

But He went anyway.

The One who had

• turned water into wine
• brought a boy back from the brink of death
• given Simon Peter a catch of fish so big it threatened to sink the boat
• cast out demons many times
  
• cured Simon Peter's mother-in-law
• healed lepers
• healed a paralyzed servant from a distance
• raised a young man, young girl, and Lazarus (after days in the grave) from the dead
• spoke to the storm and calmed the wind and the waves
• healed a woman who touched the hem of his garment from bleeding for 12 years
• opened the eyes of the bling
• made the mute speak
• restored a man's withered hand
• fed 5,000 from 2 fish and 5 small loaves of bread
• healed the deaf
• spoke to a tree and caused it to wither
• "There are so many other things that Jesus said and did; and if these accounts were also written down, the books could not be contained in the entire cosmos." (John 21:25)

He stood before Pilate, who asked if He was a king, and still focused on telling others the message He had been sent to share:

"You say that I am king.
For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the cosmos:
to demonstrate the power of truth.
Everyone who seeks truth hears My voice."
(John 18:37)

 

"He is the exact image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of creation, the eternal.
It was by Him that everything was created:
the heavens, the earth, all things within and upon them,
all things seen and unseen, thrones and dominions,
spiritual powers and authorities.
Every detail was crafted through His design,
by His own hands, and for His purposes.
He has always been!
It is His hand that holds everything together."
(Colossians 1:15-17)

This is one of those passages I call one of my physics verses--His hand holds everything together, the only viable explanation for how the protons can possibly be held together in the nucleus, and the only way all the atoms in creation don't spin into oblivion. He could have spoken a word, and their whips and blows couldn't have landed, or His flesh could have withstood all of it.

He could have stepped into earthly power, toppling all the governments of the world with a single thought. He could have claimed the authority given to Him by the Father and made the earth His footstool then and there. He could have avoided the pain of death.

But He went anyway.

What makes us think for a second that He was held to the cross by those nails? This One who had power over all creation, who could heal, who could control the elements--could He truly be held by those chunks of metal? He could have stepped down from that cross at any moment. He could have walked away from all of it. He could have looked at the hatred in the eyes of those mocking Him, cheering for His death, and decided they weren't worth it... that I wasn't worth it.

But He went anyway.

The One who stepped out of the throne room of heaven, who left His place at the right hand of the Father, chose obedience. He chose to let Himself be beaten and mocked by those He had come to redeem. He chose to let them drive nails--made from the metal that had been created at the beginning through Him--through His hands and feet. He chose to let the weak flesh of humanity take precedence over the omnipotence of His divinity. He chose to submit to the will of the Father instead of His own:

 

"Though He was in the form of God,
    He chose not to cling to equality with God;
But He poured Himself out to fill a vessel brand new;
    a servant in form
    and a man indeed.
The very likeness of humanity,
He humbled Himself,
    obedient to death—
    a merciless death on the cross!"

(Philippians 2:6-8)

Jesus prayed that He wouldn't have to suffer death on the cross. He pleaded with the Father, but He chose obedience. He chose us. He wasn't ignored by the Father in His suffering, and even His words on the cross were meant to remind up of that--"My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

It's hard to see at first, when you look at those agonized words of the Son crying out to the Father, but even in His agony Jesus was choosing us. He was choosing to give us words that would ultimately drive us to the feet of the Father, because they would drive us to Psalm 22:

"¹ My God, my God, why have You turned Your back on me?

    Your ears are deaf to my groans.
² O my God, I cry all day and You are silent;
    my tears in the night bring no relief.

³ Still, You are holy;
    You make Your home on the praises of Israel.
⁴ Our mothers and fathers trusted in You;
    they trusted, and You rescued them.
⁵ They cried out to You for help and were spared;
    they trusted in You and were vindicated.

⁶ But I am a worm and not a human being,
    a disgrace and an object of scorn.
⁷ Everyone who sees me laughs at me;
    they whisper to one another I’m a loser; they sneer and mock me, saying,
⁸ “He relies on the Eternal; let the Eternal rescue him
    and keep him safe because He is happy with him.”

⁹ But You are the One who granted me life;
    You endowed me with trust as I nursed at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰ I was dedicated to You at birth;
    You’ve been my God from my mother’s womb.
¹¹ Stay close to me—
    trouble is at my door;
    no one else can help me.

¹² I’m surrounded by many tormenters;
    like strong bulls of Bashan,^[b] they circle around me with their taunts.
¹³ They open their mouths wide at me
    like ravenous, roaring lions.

¹⁴ My life is poured out like water,
    and all my bones have slipped out of joint.
My heart melts like wax inside me.
¹⁵ My strength is gone, dried up like shards of pottery;
    my dry tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
    You lay me in the dust of death.

¹⁶ A throng of evil ones has surrounded me
    like a pack of wild dogs;
They^[c] pierced my hands and ripped a hole in my feet.
¹⁷ I count all my bones;
    people gawk and stare at me.
¹⁸ They make a game out of dividing my clothes among themselves;
    they cast lots for the clothes on my back.

¹⁹ But You, O Eternal, stay close;
    O You, my help, hurry to my side.
²⁰ Save my life from violence,
    my sweet life from the teeth of the wild dog.
²¹ Rescue me from the mouth of the lion.
    From the horns of the wild oxen, You responded to my plea.

²² I will speak Your Name to my brothers and sisters
    when I praise You in the midst of the community.
²³ You who revere the Eternal, praise Him—
    descendants of Jacob, worship Him;
    be struck with wonder before Him, all you children of Israel.
²⁴ He’s not put off
    by the suffering of the suffering one;
He doesn’t pretend He hasn’t seen him;
    when he pleaded for help, He listened.

²⁵ You stir my praise in the great assembly;
    I will fulfill my vows before those who humble their hearts before Him.
²⁶ Those who are suffering will eat and be nourished;
    those who seek Him will praise the Eternal.
    May your hearts beat strong forever!
²⁷ Those from the farthest reaches of the earth will remember
    and turn back to look for the Eternal;
All the families of the nations
    will worship You.
²⁸ The Eternal owns the world;
    He exercises His gentle rule over all the nations.

²⁹ All the wealthy of the world will eat and worship;
    all those who fall in the dust will bow before Him,
    even the life that is headed to the grave.
³⁰ Our children will serve Him;
    future generations will hear the story of how the Lord rescued us.
³¹ They will tell the generations to come
    of the righteousness of the Lord,
    of what He has done."

 

He could have chosen Himself, but He chose obedience--and He chose us.

 

parenting teens

 My mom once asked her own mom what she thought was the hardest part about raising kids. I'm not sure when their conversation took place, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was after one of the many... spirited disagreements... we had when I was growing up. Part of Memaw's answer was, "If you can love them through junior high, you can love them through anything."

Honestly, junior high was one of the reasons I left teaching. The politics were the main reason, sure, but I'm not going to lie to you and say I loved teaching hormonal young teenagers. I've often said that it didn't seem like my students could really connect with my odd sense of humor and bluntness until they hit about sophomore year. That's the year they would start saying I wasn't too bad, then by junior or senior year they actually seemed to like me a little. 7th through 9th grade, though? Yeah, there wasn't a whole lot of love lost between us. I remember telling my mom once that I was having a hard time dealing with the teenage girls in my classes, and she said, "Of course--you didn't like teenage girls when you were a teenage girl."

Right now, we basically have 5 teenagers at home: 12, 14, 15, 17, & 17. Let me tell you, that's a whole lot of hormones and a whole lot of drama! 3 boys, 2 girls. I would have thought that the boys would be easier to deal with through the teenage years because everybody always talks about how emotional girls are... but my goodness, teenage boys are definitely no picnic!

We've had lots of talks in our house that sound about like this:

"It's simple biology. As a teenager, your mind and body are flooded with so many hormones that your brain simply doesn't work. I'm not saying anything about you personally--all teenagers are dumb. That's the purpose of parents. My job isn't to be your friend. My job is to save you from all the dumb decisions your hormone-flooded brain would make on its own."

Sure, there are lighthearted moments when they roll their eyes but still smile, and all is right with the world. But there are also moments when my teenagers think I'm the worst mom who has ever walked the planet: too strict, a know-it-all, dumb as a brick, unfair, pushy, smothering, overprotective... I'm sure there have been plenty of words thrown around in anger.

Just like I'm sure I threw plenty of them at my mom.

Just the other day after a particularly ugly blowout with one of our kids, my husband and I were talking. We were trying to figure out if we had handled things the right way, if we had managed to get through to our kid in any sort of meaningful way. The only thing that came to mind that made me feel like maybe I wasn't completely failing at this "mom" thing was a verse:

"Train up a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not depart from it."
(Proverbs 22:6)

I'm a questioner and an over-thinker. I can't remember a time in my life when I ever felt certain I was doing things the right way. I question my abilities at work, as a writer, as a wife, and--most of all--as a mother. I can't help but wonder how much I'm messing things up, and I marvel at why in the world God would trust me with bringing up 5 of His children. I mess up regularly. I get things wrong. I say the wrong thing. I do the wrong thing.

But sometimes, I get it right. Sometimes I know the right words to say. Sometimes I know how much to push and how much to back off. Sometimes I get through to my kids in ways other people can't.

All the time, though, I know that God is working in their lives. I look at them and get glimpses of the potential they have, hints of the strong, amazing men and women they will hopefully become one day. I pray that, like Christ, they will grow "in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." (Luke 2:52). I continually pray that they will be able to overcome my mess-ups and shortcomings to become men and women who chase after God. I pray that they will be mighty warriors in a world that is full of spiritual darkness and spiritual battles.

I will never be a perfect mom. I will mess-up. I'll say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I'll lose my temper. I'll misunderstand. I'll take things the wrong way.

But through it all, I pray my kids will always know that I would give my last breath to protect them. I hope they can see that, despite my failings, I'm doing my best to follow God while I'm leading them.

...but man, the teen years are hard!

Christian Nationalists

 For a long time, I was of the persuasion--as were so many others who consider themselves politically conservative--that the differences between the political right and the political left were ultimately minor. After all, we all want what's best for the country and best for each other, right? Sure, there were differences in how we wanted to go about reaching the end goal: those on the left were for higher taxes and welfare programs while those on the right were for lowering taxes and teaching people to support themselves, but the end goal of both was for the individual to become successful. Both sides wanted to see a furtherance of the beliefs of our founding fathers:
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

In recent years, though, I've come to realize that the right and the left don't have the same end goal in mind.

Nothing makes that more evident in recent times than someone who is supposed to be an unbiased journalist making this claim: The conservative right is full of extremists who "believe that our rights as Americans, as all human beings, don't come from any earthly authority. They don't come from Congress, they don't come from the Supreme Court, they come from God." (Heidi Przybyla, Politico reporter)

Extremists? It makes you an extremist to believe the very thing laid out in the Declaration of Independence? The journalist went on to point out how Christians seem to believe Christian things... how unbelievable is that? Well, given the state of the world today I suppose it is a pretty unbelievable thing to many people. However, the truth hasn't changed. The things God laid out in Scripture as being right and just and true haven't changed because the times have changed. His plan for men and women and marriage and families and morality is still just the same. It doesn't make someone an extremist to believe the things that Christians have believed for 2,000 years... and that the Abrahamic faiths believed for thousands of years before that.

The idea that Christians should keep their faith out of politics is idiotic. It is never possible for any of us to make decisions apart from our personal system of belief, and no one except Christians are being told to do so in the United States today. And actually, that's not even always the case. When it comes to social justice, people don't have a problem evoking the name of Christ to support whatever point of view is best supported by the current "right side of history."

The thing is, there is only one right side. I'm not talking about specific political parties or specific politicians. We shouldn't care about being on the "right side of history" because that changes based on who is in power at the time. The only truly right side you can be on is if you are standing behind God. That means standing firm on His ideals, even when they go against the popular or the mainstream.

~It means believing men and women were created as distinct groups for a reason and that we each have a specific role to fill. That role doesn't change just because I think I know better. It means that I am called to submit to my husband even though my own stubborn pride tells me not to. It means that my role as a wife and a mother has to come before my career. It means that we should protect our daughters from having to compete physically with our sons because there are natural, inherent differences between the sexes.

~It means believing that God's plan for marriage has always been one man and one woman united for life. People get hung up on the twisted versions of relationships that are portrayed in the Bible, claiming that makes them "biblical" and therefore acceptable before God. They somehow ignore that the Bible tells about murder, deceit, adultery, and a whole host of other things that people don't try to claim are "biblical" just because they appear in the Bible. The Scriptures are full of broken, imperfect people who messed up. That's what makes it so powerful for the broken, imperfect people (like me) who can see themselves in the stories they read. God's plan isn't to keep people from "living their best life," or whatever else people argue. Instead, His plan is because He knows what gives us the best chance at living a meaningful, purpose-filled life. He knows that nothing compares to the experience of being a parent. He knows that men and women balance each other in ways we can barely even realize, even when we see that played out in marriage. He knows the pain and heartbreak that comes from trying to live outside of His plan.

~It means believing that every human was created by God, knit together by Him in their mother's womb, with a specific God-given purpose for being here on the planet. It means that we are all the same, despite surface differences in appearances, and should treat one another with dignity and respect. We should stop playing "identity politics" and instead focus on teaching our young men and young women how to develop character. We should, "Teach a child how to follow the right way; even when he is old, he will stay on course." (Proverbs 22:6)

~It means believing that Jesus meant it when He said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6) And since we believe that He was telling the truth, it means wanting everyone else to find their path in Him. It means wanting to tell the whole world that we've found the only way out of the mess and that we want nothing more than to see them walking the same path. Yes, it means wanting the whole world to come to a saving faith in "Yeshua Hamashiach" (Jesus the Messiah) because that was His final instruction to us:  "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19 & 20a)

This fall, the citizens of the United States of America face an election with unprecedented consequences. Political parties and politicians can't save us. No matter who is (or who isn't) elected this November, that is not where we find our hope.

"When trouble surrounded me, I cried out to the Eternal;
    He answered me and brought me to a wide, open space.
The Eternal is with me,
    so I will not be afraid of anything.
    If God is on my side, how can anyone hurt me?
The Eternal is on my side, a champion for my cause;
    so when I look at those who hate me, victory will be in sight.
It is better to put your faith in the Eternal for your security
    than to trust in people.
It is better to put your faith in Him for your security
    than to trust in princes."
(Psalm 118:5-9)

We are in a time where the battle is between good and evil, a spiritual battle that has spilled over into the natural world. We have to decide which side we are going to stand on--the "right side of history" or God's side.

And no matter what happens in November (and in the months that follow), we have to keep standing. We have to commit to speaking the truth in love so that we can reach a broken world desperate for hope. We have to stand in the public square and use the wisdom and knowledge that comes from God to argue logic with those who use only illogical arguments. We have to point to science as the study of God's creation, something that reveals Him throughout, just like Scriptures tell us. We have to follow Jesus's command to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us (Matthew 5:43-48). We have to commit ourselves to following Christ, no matter what that may mean for us.

Parents, step up

 Like every generation before us, we bemoan the current state of the younger generation.

And like every generation before us, it's our fault.

Go back a couple generations to those known as the "Silent Generation," and you find a group of men and women who grew up with a focus on work. Their parents knew the struggle of the Great Depression and the Great War, and the Silent Generation was taught to rely on themselves and their families. These are the ones who "walked uphill both ways" to school, the ones who often dropped out of school to work and help take care of the family.

They grew up and had kids, and many of them wanted to make things better for their kids. After all, their parents were hard on them, so they don't want to be so hard on their kids. The Silent Generation had to work hard, often missing out on the small joys of childhood because of the family responsibilities they had to take on, so they wanted to make sure life wasn't as hard for their kids. So the "Baby Boomers" came along, raised by parents who made sure their kids had a better childhood, then learned to work as teenagers. Most of this generation had jobs through high school, but they weren't relied on quite as much for paying family bills.

The Boomers, like all teenagers, thought their parents were too hard on them. So they decided to take a step back from being so controlling. They started asking their kids for their input into "family decisions." Working during the school year? How about a trade for just a summer job? They let their kids make more decisions, stay out later, have more "recreational time." They still understood the value of hard work and competition, so they pushed their kids to compete in anything and everything.

The Boomers raised Gen X , who--as is the nature of everybody's kids--thought their parents got this whole parenting-thing wrong. With this generation came the idea that competition was bad and that hurt feelings were unacceptable. Kids who grew up saying, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me," went on to raise kids with the idea that hurtful words were the end of the world. Instead of competing in sports, their kids played ballgames where nobody was allowed to keep score and everybody got a trophy. The generation who grew up having "Family Meetings" realized that they hadn't been prepared to make adult decisions as kids, so they chose the route of "Helicopter Parent," hovering around their children at all times, not allowing them to make any decisions.

That brings us to the Millennials, the generation raising kids today, Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Raised in a world where hurt feelings were seen as cruelty, this generation is making sure nobody ever says a cross word to their children. No one else is allowed to correct them, not even authority figures (like teachers) who have always been respected in the past. Instead of teaching kids how to take responsibility, Millennials are teaching their children that nothing is ever their fault. Instead of teaching truth, they are telling their kids that we don't really have a definition of truth... your truth is whatever you feel like, and anyone who disagrees with you must hate you.

Unfortunately, I'm part of the Millennials. My generation is failing those who come next, the kids who are growing up in a world of false reality, lies called truth, and a total brush off of responsibility. We are raising confused kids and playing along with their confusion, making them think it is "loving" to affirm someone's dangerous, ruinous delusions. We are setting our children up to fail, then we are wondering why they do exactly what we pushed them into. Kids who never had to deal with the consequences of their actions in high school--who never had to honor deadlines, could redo assignments as many times as they wanted, had assignments shortened, tests read to them, and answers given to them--are going to college where (for now, at least) professors are still able to actually teach. These students are failing out of college the first semester, and nobody seems to understand why. Kids who have gone through their lives with no rules, no responsibilities, no guidelines, and no supervision are making decisions that ruin their lives and the lives of people around them, and for some reason my generation can't understand what went wrong.

So I'm talking to my peers when I say this: Parents, it's time for you to step up.

• Set boundaries for your kids.
• When they do something wrong, make them face the consequences.
• Stop blaming other people for your kid's failures.
• If your child doesn't do an assignment and gets a zero, it isn't the teacher's fault. In fact, back up the teachers at home. Grades that aren't up to your child's abilities? Your kid should lose privileges at home.
• Put limits on screen time, then enforce them.
• Refuse to go along with delusions.
• Don't support bad decisions.
• Stop coddling teenagers when it's your job to raise them to be responsible men and women in just a few short years.
• Teach them the importance of responsibility.
• Show them the value of truth and the danger of lies.
• Make sure they understand that "progress" only matters if it is headed in the right direction.
• Take them to church.
• Make them do chores.
• Set high expectations.
• Teach them to be respectful of others, then expect that behavior.
• Show them that they are supposed to do the right thing, even when it's hard.
  
  
  We've let things go too far to think we can fix everything, but maybe we can still teach the next generation enough that they will do better than we did. We should fall on our knees, ask God's forgiveness for how we've failed our kids, then rise up and start trying to set things right.
  

live not by lies

Lies surround us. That in itself isn't a surprising thing--Satan has used lies since the Garden. Not so long ago, I wrote, "Lies don't have to be silenced. The truth is much stronger than the lies, and even if truth is whispered while lies are shouted from the rooftops the truth will always win out in the end." I'm not surprised by the lies that are being spewed out by so-called journalists who seem to have just become talking heads who read what is handed to them instead of researching and studying and delving into matters deemed newsworthy. I'm not surprised that lies are being fed to our children through the media they consume--movies, books, television shows, and social platforms that feed them a constant diet of "self-affirmation" and "live your truth."

What I am surprised by is how many of us are just standing idly by, letting the lies take over.

I've been guilty of it myself, way too many times than I want to admit. I've let what has seemed at the time like an "unimportant" lie slip by without making an attempt to counter it. After all, like I wrote a few years ago, the truth will win out in the end, right?

The problem is, the truth isn't even being whispered.

"And they put whomever they want on trial, and brand the healthy as mentally ill—and it is always “they,” while we are—helpless.

We are approaching the brink; already a universal spiritual demise is upon us; a physical one is about to flare up and engulf us and our children, while we continue to smile sheepishly and babble:

“But what can we do to stop it? We haven’t the strength.”

We have so hopelessly ceded our humanity that for the modest handouts of today we are ready to surrender up all principles, our soul, all the labors of our ancestors, all the prospects of our descendants—anything to avoid disrupting our meager existence. We have lost our strength, our pride, our passion. We do not even fear a common nuclear death, do not fear a third world war (perhaps we’ll hide away in some crevice), but fear only to take a civic stance! We hope only not to stray from the herd, not to set out on our own, and risk suddenly having to make do without the white bread, the hot water heater, a [...] residency permit."

Those words were written by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and released on the day he was arrested and stripped of his Soviet citizenship--for warning about the dangers of Communism. 

That is where we find ourselves today, right now. We are watching our country slip away from us, down the short path to socialism and communism, and we are doing nothing. Too many of us are going along with the steady stream of lies, choosing to say we no longer believe the truth. 

"You can choose not to believe it's cold outside, but it won't raise the temperature." ~Pastor Allen Jackson

It was Mary Flannery O'Connor who once wrote, "The truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it." We can pretend like God's word changes with the times, that His truth is dependent on the current state of society or the latest cultural trend--but that doesn't make the belief true.

God's moral rules for life haven't changed. He still knows what's best, what leads to life and what leads to death. We can try to paint Him in whatever light we wish, but it doesn't change who He is.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." (James 1:17)

So what do we do? In a world that is sprinting the wrong direction and calling it "progress," a world that is feeding our children a steady diet of lies, a world that seems to be spinning completely out of control, what can we do?

Solzhenitsyn has a suggestion:

"It demands of us only a submission to lies, a daily participation in deceit—and this suffices as our fealty.

And therein we find, neglected by us, the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal nonparticipation in lies! Even if all is covered by lies, even if all is under their rule, let us resist in the smallest way: Let their rule hold not through me!

And this is the way to break out of the imaginary encirclement of our inertness, the easiest way for us and the most devastating for the lies. For when people renounce lies, lies simply cease to exist. Like parasites, they can only survive when attached to a person.

We are not called upon to step out onto the square and shout out the truth, to say out loud what we think—this is scary, we are not ready. But let us at least refuse to say what we do not think!

This is the way, then, the easiest and most accessible for us given our deep-seated organic cowardice, much easier than (it’s scary even to utter the words) civil disobedience à la Gandhi.

Our way must be: Never knowingly support lies! Having understood where the lies begin (and many see this line differently)—step back from that gangrenous edge! Let us not glue back the flaking scales of the Ideology, not gather back its crumbling bones, nor patch together its decomposing garb, and we will be amazed how swiftly and helplessly the lies will fall away, and that which is destined to be naked will be exposed as such to the world.

And thus, overcoming our temerity, let each man choose: Will he remain a witting servant of the lies (needless to say, not due to natural predisposition, but in order to provide a living for the family, to rear the children in the spirit of lies!), or has the time come for him to stand straight as an honest man, worthy of the respect of his children and contemporaries?"

turn this thing around

 There's a relatively new song that gets played on K~LOVE quite a bit. It is called, "God, Turn it Around," by John Reddick. It's a simple, catchy tune that I've found myself singing a lot since it was first released last year. There's always been something about it that has bothered me just a bit, though, and until this morning I wasn't exactly sure what it was.

The lyrics basically amount to this:

I'm praying God come
And turn this thing around
God, turn it around

I'm calling on the name
That changes everything, yes

All of my hope
Is in the name
The name of Jesus
Breakthrough will come
Come in the name
The name of Jesus

He is up to something
God is doing something right now

He is healing someone
He is saving someone
God is doing something right now

He is moving mountains
Making a way for someone
God is doing something right now

 I've left out a decent amount of the repetition, but you get the picture. Great song, right? The thing is, this morning when it came on the radio I realized what it is that bothers me--as wonderful as the lyrics are, they seem focused entirely on circumstances.

Don't get me wrong, I fully believe God can change circumstances. He still sends miracles of healing. He is still moving mountains for people. He is still working every day all around the world. But from my own personal experience, I've found that God doesn't usually choose to change my circumstances.

Instead, He uses my circumstances to change me.

Life has thrown some pretty decent curveballs my way. I can assure you, the vast majority of those were circumstances I prayed for God to change. I prayed for Him to turn the bad around and make it good. I prayed for Him to move mountains. I prayed for Him to clear the road ahead and make a way.

More often than not, He chose to make a way that led me through the darkness. He chose to leave the mountain in place and tell me that His plan was for me to climb it. He chose to leave my circumstances the way they were so that He could make me turn around.

We are in the middle of dark times here in the United States, times I never really imagined I would see. This is an election year, which brings chaos of its own, but this year feels different. This year, it really seems like nothing about November will make anything better. I fear our nation has passed the point of no return, and that things will only continue to get darker. Yes, I will continue to pray for God to change our circumstances. I will pray for our nation to repent and turn back to Him. I will pray for God to bring His light to a dark land and change the hearts and minds of those in positions of leadership all across the nation.

More than that, though, I will pray for God to change me through my circumstances. I will pray that I will learn to trust in Him rather than princes. I will pray that I will rely on Him to provide my daily bread instead of putting my faith in my own provision. I will pray that He will draw my family closer to Him through anything and everything we face in a world that is growing increasingly dark, so that we can shine as His lights in a dark land.

So maybe, this is the song I'll focus on instead:

I'll find a way to praise You
From the bottom of my broken heart
'Cause I think I'd rather strike a match than curse the dark
Yeah, I'll find a way to thank You
Though the bitterness is real and hard
'Cause I'd rather take a chance on hope than fall apart

I don't think I'm ready to surrender to the dark

Even if my daylight never dawns
Even if my breakthrough never comes
Even if I'll fight to bring You praise
Even if my dreams fall to the ground
Even if I'm lost, I know I'm found
Even if my heart will somehow say
Hallelujah anyway

Yeah, I hear a hymn of triumph
In thе wilderness of my lament
In thе lowlands or the mountain tops, I won't forget
All that goodness that You have shown me
The promises that You have kept
There's better days on the horizon up ahead

("Hallelujah Anyway" by Rend Collective)

in Him

For the past few years, our little church has been reading through the Bible in chronological order. We took the outline put together by the Blue Letter Bible that schedules the whole reading for a year. I think it took us almost 3 years to make it through the first time... and this time through is taking even longer! I have to tell you, though--it is a wonderful study, and you're invited to join us. We meet in the tiny white building across from the salebarn in Green Forest. Breakfast and coffee at about 10:15, then the study right after. Come sit around the table with us. Eat, talk, laugh, cry, and truly study God's Word.

Right now, we are starting Paul's letter to the Ephesians. I was reading through the first three chapters this morning in preparation for our study this weekend. When Pop introduced the letter Sunday, he asked us to read and take note of how many times Paul wrote about things being "in Christ." Just in the first few verses, you can see why he pointed it out. If you look at verses 3-14, the focus is almost entirely on Jesus and what He does.

That's become somewhat of a foreign concept in today's world. More and more, it seems like we see faith as something that's all about us--what do I feel? What do I believe? What do I think is true? What does God do for me? How will faith make my life better? Or on a different level (and stepping on my own toes here), what do I do to earn God's favor? How do I keep proving that I deserve what God has given me? How do I prove myself?

Paul started his letter by addressing "those trusting in Messiah." The thing is, though, that's where the idea of what the people were doing stopped. He immediately switched gears:

~Blessed be God... who has blessed us in Messiah
~He chose us... in love
~He predestined us... through Messiah
~to the praise of His grace with which He favored us
~In Him we have redemption
~His grace... that He lavished on us
~He made known... His will
~His good pleasure... that He planned
~He will bring all things together in the Messiah
~In Him we were chosen
~He keeps working out His plan
~We are for His praise
~In Him we are sealed
~He is the guarantee of our inheritance

 I'm an incredibly independent person. Sometimes that's a strength, like when I needed to fix fence by myself after Nathan had surgery or when I had to trust that I could figure out how to pull a kid when a goat was having a difficult labor. But like all our personality traits, strengths can easily be our weaknesses. When my independence becomes a weakness, it means that I get it in my head that everything happening in life depends on me and my ability to do all the things. That can become how I view faith, as well. In those times, I start telling myself that God's love and favor depend on what I can do to please Him. If I fail, His love for me will fail. If I'm not doing enough to further His kingdom, it must mean that I'm not good enough for Him. If I don't live up to my end of the bargain, He won't either.

But here, Paul was reminding the Ephesians of something incredibly important, incredibly simple, and yet incredibly hard for me to cling onto--

It isn't my faith or my actions that matter to my salvation. It is simply Him.

All of my striving, all of my best effort, all of my accomplishments? They aren't worth anything. I can't move myself a single step closer to the throne of the King of Glory. I can't make myself worth any more to Him. I can't make myself look better, make myself worth loving, make Him think more of me.

The only reason I know that I will spend eternity with my Creator? Because He chose me. He looked down on me in the middle of all my mess--the ugly stuff I keep hidden from the world--and He said that I was worth dying for. He didn't weigh all my good and bad, then make a decision based on which there was more of. He simply loved me. Despite all the times I've failed Him or hurt Him, He loved me.

His mercy.
His grace.
His love.

Not me.

There's a song by Tauren Wells with this line in the chorus:

"It's hard truth and ridiculous grace
To be known fully known and loved by You"

How true is that? It is hard knowing that God knows me fully--all the hidden ugly stuff, too--and yet loves me so much that He chose to die in my place. What kind of ridiculous grace is that?