a nation...

 We are not a nation built by bureaucrats.

We are not a nation built by politicians.

We are not a nation built by the godless.

We are not a nation built by the government.

We are not a nation built by the uncaring.

We are not a nation built by the weak.

We are not a nation built by the selfish.

We are not a nation built by takers.

We are a nation built by those who chose to set out on voyages that carried them across an unknown ocean, to settle a land they had never seen.

We are a nation built by those who left everything they had ever known with the hopes of creating a better life.

We are a nation built by those who signed the Declaration of Independence with the words, "with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

We are a nation built by those who loaded up their families to take on the dangerous journey "out west" because they were looking for opportunity.

We are a nation built by those who helped their fellow man--not because of any government mandate, but because they saw the inherent worth in other human beings who were created by God.

We are a nation built by those who put their commitment to God first, their commitment to their family second, and their commitment to each other third... all far ahead of their commitment to the government.

We are a nation built by those who stood firm in the face of fear, those who refused to quit even when everything was stacked against them.

We are a nation built by those who have chosen to stand shoulder to shoulder with their brothers and sisters in arms, a steadfast force against all threats, foreign and domestic.

We are a nation built by the brave.

We are a nation built by the pioneers.

We are a nation built by the inventors.

We are a nation built by the hard-working.

We are a nation built by the dedicated.

We are a nation built by the underdog.

We are a nation built by the resilient.

We are a nation built by the resolute.

We are a nation built by the bold.

If we want our nation back, we have to get back to those values. We have to choose what's right over what's easy. We have to choose God and family over self. We have to choose bravery over fear.

a prayer for our nation

 Dear God,

I know You were there at the founding of our nation. The founding fathers weren't perfect by any means, but they did their best to consult You at every step. They wanted to please You, to create a nation that would serve as Your light to the world. For generations, that was the case. Our nation sat as a beacon on the hill, a light in the dark, salt to preserve and help heal a broken world. We have been seen by the rest of the world as a Christian nation, and for the majority of the life of our nation, that's what we've tried to be. As a nation, we claimed Your promises for ourselves--we claimed the covenant.

Like the founding fathers, we weren't perfect. We made wrong choices. We promoted attitudes and actions that went against Your plan, even when we knew better. We started moving further from Your plan, pushing You aside. We demanded that people should abandon their faith when they entered the public square--insisting that freedom of religion meant freedom from religion instead. We pushed You out of our schools, out of our courtrooms. We insisted that we could take care of ourselves and pushed You away from our families, deciding that we didn't have to follow Your plan. After all, we know better than You do how best to run our lives. We've moved so far away from everything You wanted for us.

We broke the covenant.

Father, we don't deserve Your blessings. We have purposefully pushed You out of the very fabric of our nation, and now we wonder why it's all unraveling. We've stared You in the face and demanded that You give us our own way, like petulant children. And it seems like You have. You've taken a step back and let us have what we want.

And somehow, as everything is falling apart around us, spiraling into chaos and discord, we have the delusional idea that we are getting better.

Our families are disintegrating. Fathers are absent, which leads to broken families and broken kids who end up breaking laws and finding themselves in dark places. We've made the decision on our own that Your design for marriage is outdated--it doesn't matter if children have a mother and a father; they can have two of each (or even multiple of each), even in the face of all the evidence that shows those situations just lead to more brokenness. Instead of teaching our children that they have inherent worth as Your creation, we've told them that their worth is tied up in their identity, and that their identity is something that can and should change from one moment to the next.

God, please forgive us for not standing up for You. Please forgive us for staying silent as You've been pushed aside. We've sat by as Your word has been twisted to fit an evil agenda. The enemy has been on the attack, and we've been cowards. We've watched as the nation founded on Your word has been changed into something that totally goes against Your word, and we've done nothing about it.

Father, please forgive us. We don't deserve Your blessings, but in this moment we beg for Your mercy. We fall before You in brokenness and humility, knowing that we don't deserve mercy--but that's the amazing thing about You. When we don't deserve it--when we turn our backs on You and demand our own way and push You aside and break our promises--You keep Yours. You promise mercy and grace to the undeserving, to the broken people like us.

"if my people, who are called by my name,
will humble themselves and pray and seek my face
and turn from their wicked ways,
then I will hear from heaven,
and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
(2 Chronicles 7:14)

Stand up and speak

 Pastor Allen Jackson recently said, "I think when you accept your Christian identity card for the Kingdom, you forfeit your neutrality with evil."

In my writing here, I haven't been very vocal when it comes to politics. A quick count based on the "politics" tag shows 37 of 409 posts, so 9% through the years. Of those, I've been pretty diplomatic in my writing--encouraging you to do the research and exercise your right and responsibility to vote, no matter who you vote for. I've basically remained neutral...but I don't think that is something we can do any longer.

If you listen to the loudest voices in our society right now, we as Christians should keep our beliefs out of our politics. We are told to keep quiet, and if we do on occasion try to speak up for biblical truths we are told that our words are hateful and bigoted. As a result, most of us have listened. We've pretty much agreed to sit down and shut up.

It's past time for us to stand up and speak.

In the past, politics in the United States were very different. The Left and the Right disagreed on how best to better our country, but both sides (for the most part) truly wanted to strengthen our nation and create a strong, patriotic society that could stand as a beacon of hope in a dark world. Both sides valued freedom, truth, and Christian values. Both sides valued the Constitutional Republic many before us have fought to preserve, the "great experiment" that has proven to be for the betterment of the world for generations now. Both sides had the same end goals in mind, they just disagreed on the best means to accomplish those goals. People on opposite ends of the political spectrum could sit down together and have a civil discussion about their differences while taking note of all the things they had in common. At the end of the conversation, they were able to shake hands and walk away, usually even remaining friends.

Today, that's not the case. The Left and the Right are no longer two sides of the same coin. In this election, we aren't faced with two choices that want to strengthen our nation. Instead, the choice is between two sides that are diametrically opposed. Given the current state of politics in our country, I don't believe a Christian can vote for Kamala Harris and claim that vote is in line with the will of God.

Let me say that I'm not saying every individual person on each side of the political aisle holds to the descriptions you'll find in this post. I'm not even saying that Kamala Harris personally holds to all these views--just like I'm sure there are beliefs she holds that I won't cover. However, when you vote you aren't voting just for an individual. You are voting for the policies that will be put into play when that individual steps into a position of power and for the hundreds (if not thousands) of people who will be put into leadership positions throughout the nation when that individual is elected President of the United States. With that in mind, lets dive in.

A vote for Harris/Walz in November is a vote for the Left. So why would I say a vote for them does not fall in line with the will of God? Well, for one, the Left continually presents arguments that are in opposition to each other:

1. The slogan, "My body, my choice" has been hailed as a battlecry for years now, the way the Left holds itself up as a champion of women's rights. They want to say that women have the "right" to abortion, ignoring the moral and scientific truth that the baby in a woman's womb is a unique, distinct human being with their own inherent worth and dignity. To be honest, abortion alone should be enough to show any follower of Christ that a vote for the Left is a vote against a biblical worldview. That same group, though calling for control over one's own body, forced people to be injected with an untested vaccine. They declared that no one had the right to make their own decision because that decision might put someone else at risk. And now that those shots have shown dangerous side effects, what about that risk?
   
2. While somehow championing women's rights, the Left also insists that biological men should be allowed to participate in women's sports. They want to do away with the legislation that ensured women would have private spaces like bathrooms and locker rooms to themselves, replacing it with Title IX rules that allow men who "feel" like women to enter those spaces. These decisions have already led to a whole host of injuries inflicted on women and girls, due simply to the biological fact that the bodies of men develop and grow differently than the bodies of women.
3. The Left calls themselves the side of Science, yet they continually ignore any science that doesn't support their narrative. They insisted in 2020 that we "listen to the Science!" while ignoring and vilifying anyone who pointed out flaws in what was being presented as the Official Decree of Science--even if those raising concerns were doctors and scientists pointing to the data and research available. They scream about Global Warming (though the name has been changed to Climate Change) and how we should all stop driving and eating red meat because we're killing the world while ignoring (a) the historical data that shows the cycle of warming and cooling that has always taken place on our planet, (b) the overwhelming data that shows natural disasters getting better instead of worse, and (c) an increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere would actually help to reduce things like famine (seeing as how plants thrive on an increase of carbon dioxide, resulting in a greening of the planet), which they claim climate change will make worse. Now, they insist that chromosomes have nothing to do with whether someone is a man or woman, that babies in the womb aren't alive, and that cosmetic surgery can change your gender (though if chromosomes don't determine your gender, I'm not sure you can make the argument that genitalia do).
4. They claim to be the side of inclusion and acceptance, yet vilify anyone who doesn't think like they do. If you disagree with children undergoing hormone therapies and surgeries that will have lifelong consequences, it must be because you hate children and want them to die...or at least, that's what the Left would lead you to believe. If you don't think biological men should compete in athletic events with biological women, you are hateful. If you don't agree with them on pretty much any issue, it isn't because you have thought through, researched, and come to a valid conclusion--it must be because you are evil and hate anyone not like yourself.
5. The Left is the side of lawlessness. They are demanding an open border and citizenship for all those who have entered our country illegally. They are calling for police departments to be defunded, leaving communities more at risk from violence (Chicago, San Francisco, New York...). They promoted the riots of 2020, calling it "mostly peaceful" when people were injured, stores were looted, property was burned, and livelihoods were destroyed.
6. Harris and Walz have both shown a total disregard for the United States Constitution, pushing against the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 10th Amendments in public speeches. The Left continually talks about anyone on the Right being a "threat to democracy" while actually being the ones actively talking about and trying to take away the rights we have been given by God and guaranteed by the Constitution. Never mind the fact that we are not and have never been a democracy, since our founding fathers knew that would lead to nothing more than mob rule...

Let me be completely transparent here--I'm not saying I believe every Christian should be voting for Trump this year. I didn't vote for him when he won in 2016 and I voted for him in 2020; in both cases, my vote came after lots of prayer and searching the scripture, and I voted the way I believed God was directing me. As a follower of Christ, you should do exactly the same.

I'm also not saying that the results of an election could ever be a surprise to God. He knows who will be elected in November. He knows what is ahead for our nation. That's just as true now as it was when Daniel spoke these words to the king of Babylon:

"Praise the name of God forever and ever,
        for all wisdom and power belong to Him.
²¹     He sets in motion the times and the ages;
        He deposes kings and installs others;
    He gives wisdom to the wise
        and grants knowledge to those with understanding.
²²     He reveals deep truths and hidden secrets;
        He knows what lies veiled in the darkness;
        pure light radiates from within Him."
(Daniel 2:20-22)

If our nation enters a period of peace and economic recovery, that will be due solely to the mercy of God--a blessing we definitely don't deserve. If, on the other hand, we stay on the current path of destruction? If He chooses to let us have what we are demanding--a nation without Him--and we race down this road of rebellion straight into His judgment?

Well, that, too, is in His hands. And through the chaos, He will protect a remnant.

dear christian teachers...

As schools are starting back, you're on my heart a lot right now. Whether you are walking into a public school or private school, you're headed back to the front lines of a battle you haven't been prepared for.

You're prepared to teach--I don't mean that's the battle. You know your material, you have your curriculum, and you've been trained in all the methods of classroom management. For that matter, teachers are required to get more hours of professional development each year than many of the health professionals I know. You know your subject matter. You've spent hours figuring out 3 different ways to understand something so that you can walk into a classroom and teach it...usually 5 different ways. You are more than prepared for the education side of your job.

But that's not why you're on my heart. That's not your main battle.

The battlefield you walk onto every morning is the one on which the battle for the souls of our children are being fought, and I don't know that there's enough training in the world to prepare you fully for that fight.

You are facing landmines of apathy and disrespect, fiery darts of anger and ignorance. You have agreed to teach children in a world that is pushing everyday to take childhood away. They are exposed to lies and evil at every turn, even in the kid's shows that are supposed to be "safe" for them. They have had their innocence stolen, and they've been pushed to think that innocence was a bad thing, anyway.

You are fighting against social media, where worth and meaning are determined by "likes" and clicks, to instill in the kids in your care a sense of self-worth, a sense of dignity based on the fact that they are made in the image of the Almighty God. But while you're trying to show them how they have inherent worth, the world is telling them that they should change their entire identity, that if they feel awkward and out of place--two feelings inherent to the adolescent experience--then they must have been born in the wrong body. While you are trying to teach them to take responsibility for their own decisions and actions, the world is telling them that ever choice they make is simply the result of all the things that have happened to them in their lives, things out of their control, and that means they have excuses for every poor decision and wrong choice. While you are trying to get them to learn to pay attention, to have an attention span greater than that of the average goldfish, you are being told by the "experts" in education that you should change your instructional method to match their non-existent focus. While you are trying to teach them that hard work and doing your best is what matters in life, every other message being pushed at them says that those are "old fashioned" concepts at best, racist and bigoted at worst.

You are being told all the time to keep your beliefs to yourself, to just sit down and shut up with all those old ideas. You are told that you can't talk about your beliefs with students (totally wrong and unconstitutional, by the way). You are told to keep your faith out of your work, that the values our nation has honored up until about 5 seconds ago are hateful and unloving.

You are in a battle against a world that has taken pride--something regularly condemned and warned against in Scripture--and turned it into something to be celebrated. A world that has decided that God's truth isn't really true after all, a world that teaches our children to "live your truth" and "follow your heart" instead of acknowledging that there is an ultimate Truth outside of anything any one of us thinks or believes.

You are in a battle that drains you on a daily basis. I know your heart; I know you are in this fight because you have been called by God to take a stand for these kids. My prayer is that you will have the strength and courage to stand firmly in your faith. I pray you will be bold, that you will in all ways at all times be willing to be a defender of the faith, a mighty warrior for God. I pray you will love these kids enough to want the best for them, which means expecting the best out of them, no matter who is standing against you in that.

I pray you will take the time each morning to put on the armor of God so that you are ready for the day's fight. I pray you will practice the Fruit of the Spirit with the kids who have been entrusted to you, and that when you don't have the strength to be patient... or joyful... that you will feel God's strength. I pray you will stay the course and keep fighting, even when you feel like you're fighting on your own or that the battle is too hard, and I pray that you will be given glimpses of what your fight is accomplishing in the hearts and minds of the kids you teach.

Hang in there. Keep fighting the good fight.

light in the dark

 I've been listening to Allen Jackson again, and he said something that stuck in my mind: "One of the reasons we find ourselves in this mess we're in is we've stopped imagining the promises of God were necessary and we started accepting the promises of a government." In another sermon, he pointed out that the only way for darkness to increase is for the light to diminish.

We are living in an incredibly dark time right now, and it just continues to get darker. And as much as we would like to blame all those who are against God, this mess isn't their fault. It is ours--the people who claim to be followers of Christ, who have decided that it's okay for us to hide our light under a bushel.

I'm not ignoring all the political upheaval happening right now. In fact, I'm probably paying more attention to it than I really should be--the chaos and lies have me distracted more than I would like to admit. I fully believe that we are in for more than most of us can even imagine in this election cycle, chaos so much worse than what we've seen in the past few days of a failed assassination attempt and a sitting President who dropped out of the race via a social media post. We are being lied to and manipulated on a daily-- hourly-- basis. In the midst of that, though, there is one thing that stands true:

"When trouble surrounded me, I cried out to the Eternal;
    He answered me and brought me to a wide, open space.
⁶ The Eternal is with me,
    so I will not be afraid of anything.
    If God is on my side, how can anyone hurt me?
⁷ 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.
⁸ It is better to put your faith in the Eternal for your security
    than to trust in people.
⁹ It is better to put your faith in Him for your security
    than to trust in princes."
(Psalm 118:5-9, VOICE)

There isn't a human being on the face of the earth in whom we can place our trust. There's no political candidate who is going to ride in and save us. There's not somebody coming to turn our country around and fix all the problems (though none of those are reasons not to vote). If we as followers of Christ don't stand up and speak out against the evil that's being allowed to flourish in our nation, we will see it continue to spiral into darkness.

If we believe God's word, that means we believe that God determined when and where we should live. That means, like Esther in the Persian Empire, we were born for such a time as this. Each and every one of us has a role to play in God's plan, and we have to stand and fight. We have to stop hiding, because it is only the Light that can push back the darkness.

God's blessing?

There's a verse in 1 Peter that I hadn't really noticed before. It's funny how that keeps happening to me...books and chapters I've read many times, on pages with underlining or notes, but all of a sudden I read a verse that I've somehow missed. This time it was while we were studying at church Sunday morning:

"For the time for judgment has come,
and it is beginning with the household of God.
If it is starting with us,
what will happen to those who have rejected God’s good news?"
(1 Peter 4:17)

I've been listening to Pastor Allen Jackson a lot lately. I highly recommend that you do the same, but I'll warn you first--he's probably going to step on your toes. One thing he has been pointing out a lot lately? We as professed Christians can't blame the decay in our nation on "them". Our nation is in free-fall because we--those who claim to be followers of Jesus--have failed. We have let a nation founded on biblical truth and biblical ideals fall apart because we have refused to stand for those truths.

It is almost July 4th, so here in the United States that means we're about to celebrate Independence Day. For almost 250 years now, that has always included the words "God Bless America!" I saw those words on a church sign on my way to work this morning, and I have to tell you that I immediately found myself shaking my head.

It isn't that I don't want God's blessings. I fully believe that the wealth, prosperity, generosity, and peace that defined our nation for so long were results of God's blessing. Right now, though, our nation has no right to ask for His blessing.

 Instead, we should be falling flat on our faces before a holy and just God, begging for His forgiveness and mercy. We should be thanking Him for the blessings He has poured out on us despite all our failings, and we should be begging Him to show us how to turn back to His plan. We should be coming to God in humility, apologizing to Him for all the times we have failed to stand for Him, begging Him to give us the strength to stand for Him now.

And then, we should get up from the dust, wipe the tears off our faces, and get to work. We should stand up and speak up. We should be the salt and light we are called to be in a broken, dark, hopeless world.

"Elections are important, they have consequences. We need to participate, we need to be aware... all of those things. But at the end of the day, we've gotta stop waiting for the elections to fix us. If we will have a heart change, God will engage the elections. If we don't have a heart change, the deterioration will continue." ~Pastor Jackson

We may be too late to keep our nation from falling into the pit, but we are never too late to lead people down the narrow path that leads to eternal life.

For some final words of challenge, from the One we claim to follow:

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
and do not do what I say?"
(Luke 6:46)

what if you aren't doing what you expected?

Growing up, I took French all the way through school and on into college. In elementary school it was because it was available--the high school French teacher would visit the elementary classes once a week and do mini lessons, mostly greetings and counting. In high school and college, though, I continued taking French for one very specific reason: it was a language spoken across Africa in many different countries, and I thought one day I would find myself in that mission field, living in a village way off the map, teaching about Jesus.

I loved missions. I drank up any story I could find about people who had spent time in missions. I loved when missionaries would visit our church. I loved hearing their stories about when they first realized God was calling them to the mission field, to a life following Him across the world. I just knew that one day I would stand before a church and share the story of how I was called and how I followed God on an amazing adventure to the middle of nowhere.

The thing is, that call never came. Despite my plans and all the hints I dropped to God, that is apparently not His plan for me.

For a long time, I've struggled with trying to figure out what I'm supposed to be doing for God. It's not because I think that works save us. I fully believe that salvation is a gift from God and doesn't depend on me. At the same time, though, I believe that our lives should show that we are followers of God. Our lives are supposed to produce fruit. As James wrote,

"In the same way, faith by itself,
if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”
Show me your faith without deeds,
and I will show you my faith by my deeds."
(James 2:18)

Or from Paul's letter to the believers in Ephesus:

 "For we are the product of His hand,
heaven’s poetry etched on lives,
created in the Anointed, Jesus,
to accomplish the good works God arranged long ago."
(Ephesians 2:10, VOICE)

 I know God has a plan for my life, things He planned for me to do. I can look back on my life--on the things I see as failures--and see how God orchestrated even those "failures" to lead me to where I am now. I can see His protection, how He steered me away from certain things that would have made my life very different than it is today.

But there's still part of me that is afraid I'm not measuring up, not finding that thing that God has planned for me. There's a fear that keeps a hold on me, whispering in my ear that I'm missing God's will for my life, that when I stand before Him one day, He's going to ask me, "What did you do with the gifts I gave you?"

...and I won't have an answer.

Part of it is probably just the insecurity I've battled my whole life. If you haven't learned more about me through my writing than you would ever really want to know, here's another--I feel like I'm a jack of all trades and master of none. I will try just about anything new and I love developing new skills, but I can't remember ever feeling like I was truly good at any of them. I see the flaws in everything I do, even if someone else is telling me good things. I'm always trying to measure up to some invisible standard (usually one I've arbitrarily set for myself), some idea of what it means to succeed, and I keep falling short.

Another part of it, possibly the biggest and most frustrating part to me, is my own pride. I have a hard time with the mundane. I've watched so many people in my life do amazing things to further God's kingdom. I spent my childhood thinking I would follow in their footsteps, that I would be instrumental in leading people to Christ. I've written about this before; I obviously haven't mastered this lesson yet: this life isn't about me.

But if I'm not called to do what I see as mighty, amazing things to further God's kingdom, who am I to say that I'm not doing what God has planned for me?

There are a few verses I have written on index cards that I carry around in my wallet, verses that remind me of how I should view some of the things I struggle with. One of them is this:

"So the Eternal One, who is the Holy One and Maker of Israel, says,
'Are you really going to question Me about what will happen to My children,
or lecture Me about what I should do with the ones I made with My own hands?
It is I who made the very ground on which you stand,
I who shaped the human beings who walk around on it.
I pulled the sky and heavens taut with My own hands,
and organized the army of stars that march across the night sky.'"
(Isaiah 45:11-12)

So once again, and probably many more times because these lessons are hard for me to learn,  I humble myself before the King and pray:

"God, sometimes I forget that You are God--and I am not. I get so wrapped up in trying to do all the things to somehow show You that I'm worth the sacrifice You made. I try so hard to prove myself, to do something. So Eternal One, who is the Holy One and Maker of Israel, please forgive me for trying to tell You what my life should look like. Thank You for Your promises. Thank You for Your plan, and that You have said that You determined my role in Your plan long ago. Forgive my lack of trust, and help me to let go of the plans I have for my own life and instead follow You. Help me to stop trying to make sure I measure up to some earthly standard and instead to see that in Your mercy, You have called me to You. You--the Creator and Master of the Universe--have made me Your child, and You don't require anything in return. You know that I can never measure up to the standard of perfection, but You love me anyway. I'm sorry for continually trying to tell You what to do with me, for trying to control my life instead of leaving it in Your hands. Help me to trust."