Christmas 2020

I hear a lot of whining about what a rough year 2020 has been. Imagine a year when the government has banned public meetings of your church. Violations of the ban are likely to get you fined or imprisoned. Speaking the truth of the gospel has been outlawed. Personal expressions of your faith are being criminalized. Society as a whole is not just ignorant of the Bible; they are belligerent to its message of salvation. Those who attempt to spread the Good News are often persecuted and sometimes even martyred. There has never been such a troubled year.

Except that what I just described was the situation facing the first generation of the church. And it grew explosively. When the Roman Catholic church took the place of secular government in the Middle Ages, it again became dangerous to express beliefs that were contrary to the controlling powers. The Roman church viciously persecuted biblically patterned groups like the Waldenses and Albigenses; men like Wycliffe and Hus were persecuted or martyred for telling the truth as they believed it.

Although the Reformation brought some relief for truth-tellers, even Calvin was known for harsh judgments against those who disagreed with his particular brand of reform. When a group of people attempted to escape persecution for their beliefs in Europe in the Seventeenth century, they founded Plymouth colony in the New World, only to carry on the exclusiveness and bigotry they were leaving behind. Folks who wanted to practice a private version of the faith outside the community were shunned or worse. “Papists” were banned outright, a feeling that carried all the way to the presidency of John F. Kennedy in the 1960’s.

Everyone is familiar with the “under God” controversy surrounding the Pledge of Allegiance and the battle to remove the Ten Commandments from public spaces. I heard yesterday that an HOA somewhere won’t let a homeowner put a cross on his own property. Despite the promise of the First Amendment, religious speech is criminalized being branded “hate speech” when it criticizes a protected group. 2020 has been a tough year, but it’s really nothing new.

I have been introduced to a new way of looking at the situation facing Christians by Dr. Michael S. Heiser. I discovered Heiser’s enlightened view when I read The Unseen Realm: Recovering the Supernatural Worldview of the Bible a few years ago. (See “Understanding the Book of Job: The Heiser Effect”) Since then, besides a couple re-reads of Unseen Realm, I have followed more of what he has written. Heiser is a scholar of ancient Mideastern languages, particularly biblical Hebrew. His work has opened my eyes to the supernatural worldview of the biblical writers and their audience.

This matters at Christmas because of what Christmas means in the supernatural world. As the word came to the Apostle John from heaven: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ.” Heiser opens our eyes to the fact that bringing a new King into the world upsets those who have claimed rulership of that world for millennia. Jesus’ dialogue with Satan during His temptation proves that the dark lord assumed ownership of the kingdoms he offered to the King. (Mt. 4:9-10) The King said He was bringing a sword (Mt. 10:34) and the kingdom would come by force. (Mt. 11:12)

The baby that shepherds worshipped in the manger would grow to become the divine/human representative of God charged with the retaking of the kingdom. The Savior had to live in the flesh so that He could die to save all flesh. His physical death was required to regain the lost kingdom and to purchase life for Himself and all who believe on Him. The marvel is that the Messiah didn’t stay dead; He was raised from death to reign over the earth, first in a spiritual victory; then He will ultimately return to reign physically with His faithful followers.

In 2020 we are in the same place as our brothers in 120 and 1220 and 1620: we are in the midst of a cosmic battle for control of the earth. The word John heard from the 24 elders was, “We give thanks to you, Lord God All-Powerful, the one who is and the one who was, because you have taken your great power and have begun to reign.  And the nations were angry.” (Revelation 11:17-18) The reign has “begun,” but the spiritual powers have not yet been put fully in subjection. “The nations” are angry because they see their power being drained away.

Heiser paints a clear picture of how the “nations” are associated with the powerful beings that populate the spiritual realm. Even before the Messiah came, the Psalmist noted that, “the nations rage.” (Psalm 2:1) Psalm 2 ends with a warning for the “kings” who rule the earth: “So then, O kings, be wise. Be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve Yahweh with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son lest he be angry, and you perish on the way, for his anger burns quickly. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Heiser makes it abundantly clear that these “kings” are the spirit beings that God, the King of spirits, placed in charge of the nations while He took Israel for His own. (Deuteronomy 32:8)) The nations were set aside temporarily while God worked out the redemption plan through Israel. The fulfillment of that plan began in a manger in Bethlehem. It continued through the agony of Messiah on the Roman cross where a victory was won over death. It continues in 2020 with the struggle of Christ’s followers who attempt to bring the Kingdom of light against the kingdom of darkness. ((See “Bringing the Kingdom”)

If this seems like a dark message to share at Christmas, remember that when Simeon prophesied over Mary at her baby boy’s temple presentation, he told her a sword would pierce her heart. The New Testament is full of warnings that tribulations and trials will come. We are in a war; expect trouble. The thing that makes this a happy message is that we know who wins – who has won really. We cannot be surprised that things are tough; it was promised. The good news is that persevering produces strong faith (James 1:2-4) and suffering is the “evident token” of our salvation. (Philippians 1:28)

Smile and sigh at the wonder of the manger. Marvel at the angels’ announcement to the shepherds. Then grit your teeth and take a deep breath so that you can stand firm when “the nations rage.” Remember Who stands by your side. Remember the closing line of Psalm 2: “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”

Adolescence. Ugh!

I can’t decide if it’s God’s sense of humor playing a joke on parents or an example of His deep wisdom that our children go through the trials of adolescence. It is not a modern development. I think I hear it in Joseph’s interaction with his brothers (Genesis 37); even Jesus at twelve (pre-teen? tweener?) demonstrated what looks like typical teenage behavior on one level. When He stayed behind in Jerusalem after the feast and was not found until three days later by his parents, his retort to His distraught mother might be updated thus: “Duh! You should have known where I was.” (Luke 2:49)

My own teenage rebellion was mild by comparison to some. I think my desire to please my dad and earn some expression of affection kept me from the worst I might have considered. As a teen in the sixties, I grew my hair as long as he allowed (collar length, no more). I listened to that dreaded rock music my parents despised (while they made me listen to classical in proportion to the rock). I smoked the tires a few times on my mom’s 396 c.i./325 h.p. Chevy Caprice station wagon. In the sex, drugs and rock-and-roll days, my deeds were very mild-mannered.

While the adolescent trials may be endemic to the human condition, I do believe our society has increased the likelihood that trouble may come. First, we have extended the period during which teens may express themselves independently. For most of human history until the late twentieth century, children went to work and began a more-or-less adult life at the start of adolescence. The development of universal education lasting thirteen years pushes adulthood and its responsibilities much later, even later yet for children who attend college right after high school.

The other societal phenomenon that makes today’s adolescent more likely to have problems is the freedom most children are given at an early age. In many modern homes, children have their own room, their own TV, their own computer giving them a degree of independence that was unknown until recently. Add to this the almost universal teenage driver’s license and often free use of a car, and you have a recipe for disaster. The teens who don’t kill themselves (and their friends) by driving insanely drive themselves into all sorts of places they would not otherwise be able to access. Prognosis: trouble.

One would hope that teens from Christian homes would be spared these temptations. As a teacher in Christian high schools for many years, I have witnessed the evidence that this is too often not the case. In fact, it seems as if the children from stricter parents tend to push the limits even harder than their less restricted peers. I cannot count the number of times I have heard teens say they despise rules when the reasons for the rules are not explained to them in any acceptable way. When petty infractions incur draconian discipline, many teens decide that all rules were made to be broken. I have seen many disasters including suicide committed by teens who could not bear up under the seeming mindlessness of their parents’ requirements.

One can understand the frustration that caused Mark Twain to quip, “When a boy turns 13, put him in a barrel and feed him through a knot hole. When he turns 16, plug up the hole.” Overkill, yes, but understandable. Children differ in how they react to adolescent trials and must be treated accordingly. As I watched things in the home where I grew up, I saw everything from complete compliance in one of my siblings to near disastrous rebellion in another. There is no one-size-fits-all approach as Twain humorously suggested.

The Bible principle that best instructs parents on this issue is found in the often quoted, often misunderstood Proverbs 22:6, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.” This is often misunderstood as meaning that parents can mold a child in the way they think he should go: make rules for him to follow. I don’t think this is what the Teacher intended. Hebrew is a picture language, and the picture painted in this verse is instructive. A literal translation might read, “Begin training your youngster according to his tastes (literally: mouth)….” Many parents do take the mouth analogy seriously, thinking of a horse’s bit that forces the way. I prefer to see it as a call to find out the child’s interests and talents and help him develop them. Naturally, if a child “likes” breaking things and hurting people, this does not apply. But generally, children gravitate toward things they enjoy, and they can succeed at. Here is where the parents “lead.”

This idea of helping a child find his sweet spot in life is a metaphor for what God does with His children, I think. He places His Spirit within us at [re]birth, and the idea is that we will develop the natural talents we are given alongside the spiritual gifts God provides each one of us. If we allow God to “train us up in the way we should go,” when we mature in Christ, we will find satisfaction and have no desire to, “depart from [God’s plan for us.]” I’m glad God’s treatment is not like Mark Twain suggested but instead of stifling us, He “provides us all things richly for [our] enjoyment.” That enjoyment is doubled when we seek His path for us and walk in it.

The New Iconoclasts

 I was visiting family last weekend, and somehow the question of who discovered America came up. I asked my eight-year-old (“I’m going to be nine.”) grandson if he knew. He shook his head, and to be fair, he may simply have forgotten that lesson if it was ever mentioned. However, when I asked if he knew about Columbus, his Mom informed me that they no longer teach that Columbus discovered America because he is thought to be an evil person. We also discussed the fact that the continent of America was probably “discovered” by Vikings, possibly Leif Ericson, long before Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492. And, of course, the island Columbus first landed on isn’t even American territory.

Columbus did eventually get to the American mainland where he continued his “evil” European domination. I will not deny that the European taking of the Western hemisphere was arrogant imperialism with a large dose of bigotry and condescension. However, to discard all mention of the great explorer is to lose a sense of his truly great achievement: he debunked a false notion that ruled the scientific community of his day. He proved the earth was not flat. He may have miscalculated the planet’s size, but he was correct about its shape. He opened the door for the Age of Exploration.

Columbus also extended the reach of the dominant culture of his day, the consequences of which were not fully positive. Nor were they completely negative. Say what you will about 15^th century Roman Catholic theology, Columbus and subsequent explorers did bring knowledge of the Savior of the world to the “new world.” In his own words, Columbus expressed his desire to bring Christianity to the people of the newly discovered continent. Secular historians, the sanitizers of history, put his evangelistic zeal in the category of arrogant imperialism. How dare he think his religion was superior to that of the natives.

While modern missiologists will no doubt shudder at the tactics of Columbus et al, their motives cannot be impugned. Certainly, the explorers of the Enlightenment day sought riches. Had Columbus not promised to return with ships laden with gold, Ferdinand and Isabella would never have financed his venture as a missions trip. We may never know whether his primary motivation was economic, religious, or simply a burning desire to prove his round earth theory. But if we erase Columbus from the history books, we will never get to have that discussion.

It is a discussion worth having. Just as Israel was commanded to remember her history, America should remember hers. I realize the history of Israel is the story of God’s redemption of the human race and therefore eminently important, whereas America’s history is not inspired Scripture with eternal significance. However, in the same way that the Israelites could track the coming of the Messiah through her past, Americans can trace the development of a nation that is unique in all human history. There are valuable lessons to be learned from a study of the American foundations. We live in an ordered universe where the principle of cause and effect operates not only in the “hard” sciences like physics but in the social sciences as well.

To erase great men from our history because they were greatly flawed is to eliminate the possibility of learning from the ill effects of their actions. To hide their flaws as my grade school history did with Columbus isn’t ideal either. Surely a balance can be found between painting him as the devil incarnate and whitewashing him as God’s righteous servant. Even a third-grade student could be made to understand the man’s sincere religious motivations and his prowess as a navigator and sailor while recognizing his moral and fiscal failures as an administrator.

I know my third-grade grandson can understand the nuances of flawed people. Like too many young children today, he has had live with the consequences of moral failure. Children should not be “protected” from the reality of the mixed alloy of human character; it is valuable information. The Bible certainly does not gloss over its heroes’ moral difficulties. Remember that David and Moses were both murderers. Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived according to the biblical record, couldn’t control his carnal desires. Peter denied his Savior at a critical moment while all the others closest to Jesus fled into the night.

I believe it is foolish arrogance to read our twenty-first century political/moral sensitivities back into history. Deleting Columbus or any other person who doesn’t meet a modern, politically correct standard has the same effect as the ancient historians who made up tales that suited their fancy. Mythology makes for entertaining reading, and often it presents moral lessons, but it is not a substitute for a true account of actual events in the past.

This is a big problem, but a committed group of parents could stage a coup at the next school board election and influence a local body to make changes that would lead to an honest history curriculum. Even within the dreaded Core standards now adopted by most states there is room for a local district to supplement their history texts with those that present the real thing. Our children deserve to know where we have come from as a nation. Who knows; maybe if our public schools had been teaching history honestly for the last few decades there would be fewer young people who think socialism is the answer to all our problems.

December 6, 2020

In the weeks and months leading up to December 7, 1941, there was a battle going on in Washington DC. The opposing sides were called the Hawks and the Doves; they were also called interventionists and isolationists. The battleground up to that point had been ideological. All-out war had been raging on both sides of the world: Europe was falling under the blitzkrieg of Hitler, and Japan had begun grabbing territory in a number of places. The battle in Washington was between those who thought America needed to get involved in Europe and those who thought not.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt was leading the Hawks; he saw the wisdom of helping our allies in Europe both to protect them and to stop Hitler before He spread his mayhem to our shores. On December 6, the Japanese and Americans were in a heated negotiation in which the Japanese were looking for assurances from the US government that continued Japanese expansion in the Pacific would not be opposed by the US. Japan was promising the US that they had no designs on anything close to Hawaii, let alone our West Coast. Because the Hawks wanted to step in to help fight Hitler, they were desperate for a way to avoid a war on two fronts. They were willing to let Japan have a few islands in the South Pacific and some territory on the continent of Asia if they wanted to take it.

The Doves believed that neither the Pacific nor the European wars were any of our business. They may not have approved of some of Hitler’s policies (some of which were not yet known), but they pointed to lucrative business arrangements currently in place with many German companies. To declare war on Germany would not only cut off profitable trade with them; it would inevitably cost millions of dollars the US could ill afford as we were just climbing out of the worst depression the country had ever seen. The Doves were just as anxious as the Hawks to see some arrangement made with the Japanese but for different reasons. None of them cared if the little Emperor of a tiny island far away wanted to expand his territory, and they never imagined he had the military might or the temerity to attack the US.

The US Constitution and sound economic thinking were on the side of the Doves. From an emotional point of view, history may also have played to their hand. WWI had cost countless lives and dollars, and no one wanted to see a repeat performance of that costly event. President Wilson’s team had gotten around the Constitutional problem of using the US military for purposes other than strictly protecting our borders; the Doves did not want to see that card played again. The problem was then and is now that the President holds the trump card: only he can declare war. Congress must eventually approve funding, but the country can become deeply committed with just a declaration from the White House.

As everyone knows, all bets were off on December 7. Japan surprised both Hawk and Dove (though some were suspicious beforehand) by attacking Pearl Harbor. The December 8 declaration of war against Japan moved the Axis powers to declare war on the US. By December 11 the US answered in kind. WWII was now our war too. Some would say, macabre and it sounds, that the war was good for America; it lifted us out of the depression and set us up for the greatest period of growth industrially and economically the world had ever seen.

After we returned victorious, we kept the factories cranking and became the world’s most rabid consumer nation. While wonderful economically, consumerism is not necessarily an unmixed blessing. The social and cultural changes brought on by the war cannot be overstated. Women were suddenly incorporated into the workforce and became a necessary cog in the economic engine. This changed both corporate and family dynamics. While it is true that many women stayed home raising Boomer babies during the fifties, by the sixties the need to choose between career and homemaking drove more and more women into full-time employment.

The baby boom came to a screeching halt when birth control became not only readily available but nearly a necessity. The decoupling of sex from procreation also instigated the expansion of free love without biological consequences. Abortion on demand legalized by Roe v. Wade in 1973 encouraged the woman’s rights movement and further destroyed the meaning of “family.” In order to maintain the lifestyle that had become expected, two incomes were required. The “latchkey child” was born.

The industrial/technological race that had begun with the war effort continued and a little-known organization called DARPA (primarily a military outfit) brought the world-wide-web into being. Once computers and the Internet because ubiquitous, all our social structures changed dramatically. Children became attached to blinking screens and stopped reading. Social “networks” took the place of face-to-face relationships for young and old alike. Cybercrime developed encompassing everything from industrial espionage to pornography. The world grew very small.

Here ends the history lesson as I recall it; I may be off on a detail or two, but I stand by the general drift. Now the WHAMM. The world began a radical transformation on December 7, 1941. No one can say what might have happened had Japan not attacked Pearl Harbor or had we not joined the battle in Europe. Perhaps we would have come to our present state without the explosive pressure of the military/industrial complex fueled by WWII. The fact is we got where we are in the same way a frog gets boiled: put him in cold water and turn up the heat; he will boil to death.

As Christians, we should be mourning many of the changes that happened since December 6, 1941. As Christians, we should be watching what is happening in our country today. I believe a Biden presidency will mark a declaration of war on the America that has existed for approximately three centuries. I believe Joe Biden will be a puppet for the forces of progressive ideology that want to fundamentally change America. If you think I am crazy, I think you aren’t paying attention. The progressive wing of the Democrat party is in control; they are saying openly that they want America to be dramatically different from what it is today.

Except for their policy on immigration, which sincere Christians might debate, the Democrat platform is largely unbiblical; parts of it are anti-Christian. As bad as that sounds to me, it is not un-American (except the anti-Christian part); the US is not a Christian nation. We are not governed by a theocracy, nor do I want that. What I want is for Christians to wake up and realize that the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation is being excavated out from under us. If that is what the majority of Americans want, then that’s what we’ll get.

I don’t think a properly educated majority would want it though. I’m not even sure a majority of those who voted legally in the last election want it. However, because the last generation of school children were not taught history, and because they had moral relativism crammed down their throats, a great many people who are old enough to vote think they want what the progressives are selling. Add to that number the sizeable apathetic portion of the “moral majority” as it was once called, and you have the reason for our current situation.

There may be no way to avoid a Biden presidency. If the Senate falls into Democrat hands as well as the White House, the damage to the America I love will be substantial over the next four years. Obama had a pretty good run at progressive hope and change during his eight years, but much of that was undone by President Trump. Biden’s gang will start hacking away again with even more power if the Senate is theirs, but that too could be countered if a conservative administration follows in four or even eight years. Maybe the radical Democrat policies will scare enough people into voting them out in 2024; maybe not. I know God is in control, but so did some of the Israelites who ended up in Babylon for seventy years; they sat by the river and mourned their loss. I hope I don’t have to join them.

Related posts: Obama Is Not The Problem; And Freedom for All; The Right to Bear Crosses; America Held Captive

Election: God’s Choice

 Election is such a loaded word. It has created an historic divide within the church, and it creates serious problems with those outside the body of Christ as well. The basis for God’s electing power rests solely on His existence as Creator. As the potter does to the clay, so the Heavenly Creator chooses what to make of each lump of human clay. Only those jealous of God’s power question His right to exercise election by His grace. He chooses whom He will, and the chosen properly rejoice, but in humility they recognize it is by grace alone that they stand.

The resistance to or denial of God’s right to elect stems from the original sin of Adam in the Garden of Eden. God chose to give Adam and Eve all things freely to enjoy with one exception: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were allowed to take the fruit of any tree but that one. (Genesis 3) It was necessary for God to make this Adam’s choice, for only in having a choice does freedom mean anything. Adam demonstrated the reality of human free will by choosing to rebel against God’s command; Adam chose independence over dependence. The sad result is that because of Adam’s rebellion, all humans are now independent unless their Creator graciously chooses to bring them back to the dependence of His family in Christ.

To become a part of God’s family, a new birth is required. As Jesus told Nicodemus, a second birth by the Spirit is the only way to get back into God’s good graces. We are all born of water, which is to say born of Adam, but only the chosen are born again or born from above by the Spirit. It is as Paul says repeatedly: we were dead, but God chose to make us alive in Him through Christ. The New Testament also frequently uses the metaphor of adoption to describe our situation in God’s family. Neither by birth nor in adoption does the child choose his family; the parent does.

The child in the orphanage looks at the child chosen for adoption with jealousy; it may seem unfair that one is chosen and one not. The difference with the adoption by God is that the offer of adoption is made to all. The mystery of election is that God chooses those who choose to accept His grace. Someone once explained election by imagining a sign over the entrance to Heaven. From the outside it read, “Whosoever will may enter.” Looking back from the inside it read, “Only the elect may enter.”

Some argue that this condition negates the possibility of human free will and makes us all puppets strung along by the Divine Puppeteer. This is not necessarily so. Even though I have been chosen before the foundation of the world, I do not have evidence of that choice until I begin to explore its ramifications. God may work behind the scenes, as it were, drawing me to Himself, but until I acknowledge His work, I have no proof that He even exists, let alone that He has chosen me. Prior to the moment I turn to God, the fact that Heaven knew me was unknown to me; I didn’t know my true identity.

The pages of the Book of Life are hidden to me. Before I chose to believe God and accept His grace, I had no idea if my name was in the Book or not. Now that I have turned to God, I am not without a witness to the fact that I am chosen; Holy Spirit confirms to our spirit that we are children of God. Confirmations of my status as elect of God pile up as I pursue my walk with Him. A day finally came when I was able to say that I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep me until the day of His revealing.

To me, the reality of God’s sovereign election becomes a source of great comfort. First because I know my adoption was purely by His grace and through His power, nothing can remove me from His family. Second, acknowledging God’s absolute sovereignty in personal election is linked with my belief that He is sovereign over everything. If God did not reign completely over everything, He could not promise anything, including my eventual eternity with Him. If the ancient enemy of God controlled even one thing outside of God’s permissive will, the end of the story could not be written with any certainty.

It matters if God is totally sovereign. I will give an illustration ripped from today’s headlines, as they say. I am writing this as the debate over who won the 2020 presidential election continues. People from both sides of the debate speak with certainty about their conclusions. The problem is that the two opinions are mutually exclusive. Either the election was legitimate, and Biden is the rightful winner and next President, or the election was rife with fraud and the outcome is uncertain. I chose this illustration purposely, not just because it is timely as I publish this article, but also precisely because I don’t know who will take the oath of President in January. On one level, I don’t care who is going to be President because I know who rules the universe, and He is sovereign over President Trump or Biden.

Someone may say this is irrelevant to my election to salvation, but it is not. The same God who has the right to choose who will join His family also chooses who will be President. This is the inarguable result of believing in a totally sovereign God. If the Democrats stole this election through voting fraud on a grand scale, they did it only because God allowed it. If legal cases are presented and won placing President Trump in for another term, that too is by the rule of God. I don’t see how it can be both ways having God be sovereign in the affairs of life but not in election to salvation. Either God is sovereign, or He is not.

The real mystery here is that while God is totally sovereign, humans have total free will. I am forced every day to choose what to eat, what to wear, which lever to pull in the election, and so on. The fact that God already has those decisions figured into His grand design is irrelevant to me because I don’t know what God knows. I still have to make choices. It took me years to get to that realization, but now that I am here, I am at peace. I pray you may find peace as well. Choose to hear the psalmist share God’s recommendation: “Be still and know that I am God.” Let God be god and make the best choices you know how. Then don’t fret; He’s got this.

Can’t Fix This

My wife shared a devotional with me yesterday that hit me right where I live. It would have been fitting at any time in my life, but it is especially meaningful these days. One of the core characteristics of my personality is the need to fix things. This applies to everything: people, objects and situations. I remember as far back as my high school dating days, my girlfriend, now wife, would be upset over something, even to the point of tears sometimes, and I would ask what was wrong. She would usually say, “Nothing.” I would press, trying to find a way to help. I still remember her frequent response: “Stop trying to fix me.”

Then there is every car I have ever owned (over two hundred and counting) and every house we ever lived in (fifteen) that I wasn’t satisfied with on some level. There was always something I wanted to do to customize, improve, repair or remodel on every one. Ironically, I often failed to put my fixes on until just before we sold the item. We might drive a car for years with a sticky door latch, say, and then when I put it up for sale, I would fix the thing to make it more appealing. I mention that to say this: the desire to fix it percolated in my mind, but the motivation or opportunity to actually do something didn’t rise to the level of immediacy.

I have also fretted over the situations that surround me as well. Political, social, relational conditions that didn’t measure up to my wishes plagued my thinking with a desire to do something that seldom rose to the level of action. Things were never quite right at home, at work or in the state house or Washington. Somewhere about mid-life I began to hear the words of the Apostle Paul, “I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” I wanted that, but like every other thing I wanted to fix, I couldn’t seem to fix my longings to fix things.

Now that devotional my wife shared: “Problems are a part of life. They are inescapable, woven into the very fabric of this fallen world. You tend to go into problem-solving mode all too readily, acting as if you have the capacity to fix everything. This is a habitual response so automatic that it bypasses your conscious thinking. Not only does this habit frustrate you, it also distances you from Me.

“Do not let fixing things be your top priority. You are ever so limited in your capacity to correct all that is wrong in the world around you. Don’t weigh yourself down with responsibilities that are not your own. Instead, make your relationship with me your primary concern. Talk with Me about whatever is on your mind, seeking My perspective on the situation. Rather than trying to fix everything that comes to your attention, ask Me to show you what is truly important. Remember that you are en route to heaven and let your problems fade in the Light of eternity.” (Jesus Calling: November 30)

I can’t begin to tell you how deeply those words spoke to me. As I said at the open, they would have been appropriate at any time in my life, but now they hit me like a ton of bricks. If you have read my blogs lately, you know that I have been trying to fathom what is going on with the whole corona virus “pandemic.” The rampant fraud being alleged across the nation in the Presidential election has also caught my attention (understatement!) As I write this, we are living full-time in an RV we bought to be an occasional summer camper, not a daily live-aboard, so something bigger is necessary. A bigger trailer will mean a bigger truck to pull it with. Our financial situation is pressured as we wait for the sale of our house to be completed, and we stretch dollars to pay off the credit accounts we built up (mostly) from rehabbing the house (Mr. Fixit again).

I have never needed Heaven’s perspective more than I do now. I’m not afraid of death – far from it. I say with Paul, “for we live by faith, not by sight -- so we are confident and prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord.” That takes care of the COVID 19 scare. If you read my articles on the election, you know the political mayhem saddens me, but I know the One who is in control. As far as needing a bigger living space and something to pull it around which ties to the financial needs, God has always provided what we need to get by. If it is His will that we stay on the road, I believe there will be a way to afford larger quarters.

That takes care of the material/psychological things. The really important things have never been in doubt. The one thing I don’t feel the need to fix – couldn’t fix if I wanted – is my eternal destiny. Jesus bought my golden ticket on the cross; I know where I’m going. What I need most right now is to learn what Paul learned: “to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” I am getting better at that. Now, about those custom touches to my truck….

The Goodness of God in the Bad Times

I have been having an interesting discussion with a friend about how much responsibility God bears for the bad things that happen to people. I have been talking about this with many people and studying the Scriptures for decades; I even wrote a paper on it in Bible college. My friend has said previously that he believes God is in charge, but not in control, which allows him to think that God does not have responsibility for troublesome circumstances. This is difficult for me to square with the way God’s total sovereignty is revealed by His actions recorded in Scripture.

Perhaps the clearest statement of God’s sovereignty in all things is the shocking (to some) statement in Isaiah 45:7 where God tells the prophet, “I form light and I create darkness; I make peace and I create evil; I am Yahweh; I do all these things.” God stakes His very identity on the fact that He “creates evil.” We must first understand that the word “evil” here does not encompass moral evil. The Hebrew word speaks of calamity, disaster or unpleasant circumstances. To the surprise of many, God does not shrink for owning responsibility for these things which, in context, are His way of judging His people for their unfaithfulness.

One response to this is to read Isaiah 45:7 as if it reveals the Old Testament God, whereas Jesus reveals a different sort of God in the New Testament. This argument suggests that Jesus never created any “evil” while He was on earth. Rather, the Son was just, merciful, kind and good all the time, which appears to be the case on the surface. Certainly, Jesus did have a few harsh things to say to the religious hypocrites of His day, but He didn’t call down lightning or send fiery serpents to plague them, at least not during His earthly ministry.

After the Cross and the establishment of His church, I think God’s unchanging nature is revealed anew. When the church was only a few weeks or months old, Ananias and Saphira felt the up close and personal judgment of God; they lied to the Holy Spirit and POW!, POW! Two dead. (Acts 5:1-11)  Then there is Paul on the island of Cyprus telling the crooked sorcerer, Elymas, “O you who are full of all deceit and of all unscrupulousness, you son of the devil, you enemy of all righteousness! Will you not stop making crooked the straight paths of the Lord! And now behold, the hand of the Lord is against you, and you will be blind, not seeing the sun for a while.” (Acts 13:10-11) ZAP! One struck blind.

That kind of harsh treatment did not stop there. A few years later, Paul told the Corinthian believers that some of their number had “fallen asleep,” a euphemism for death, because they partook of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner. (1 Corinthians 11:30) There is also the writer’s clear implication in the book of Hebrews that God uses unpleasantness to chastise His children. The verb, disciplines, used in Hebrews 12:6 is in the present, active, indicative tense. That tense is always used of a person’s direct action. Some may want these unpleasant occurrences to be a case like Job’s where God allowed Satan to trouble Job by giving permission as opposed to taking direct action. That position is difficult to support in the case of Ananias and Saphira or Elymas, and there is no clear ground for claiming the permissive, passive nature of any of God’s discipline.

This leads many to question the goodness of a God who can serve up badness to His own people. The answer is found in the Hebrews 12 passage. There are two good reasons for accepting that God “creates evil” in believers’ lives. First, the Hebrews author says it proves God’s love, the opposite of what some would think. Quoting the Old Testament in the New, bringing solidarity between the two, the Hebrew passage says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, or give up when you are corrected by him. For the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves and punishes every son whom he accepts.” (Proverbs 3:11-12; Hebrews 12:5-6) To add emphasis to the point, the writer continues, “But if you are without discipline, in which all legitimate sons have become participants, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Now all discipline seems for the moment not to be joyful but painful, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who are trained by it.” And there is the second reason God brings trouble into our lives: to give us “peaceful fruit.”

I agree that God is good all the time, and yet I will not shrink from saying that the troubles that come our way may be God’s doing so that He might conform us into the image of His Son. I remember that His ways are higher than mine. Romans 8:28 may properly be translated to say that God works all things in His loved ones’ lives [even the bad things] to accomplish His good purposes. Good can come from “evil.” The Cross of Christ is the ultimate, deliberate creation of evil by God. The goodness that came from that evil cannot be overstated. The entire sweep of redemptive history reveals a God who uses disaster, calamity and unpleasantness to bring about the salvation of the human race. Because of His love for us, Jesus faced the cross that His Father ordained because God so loved the world. When it comes from God’s hand, even “bad” can be good; it just depends on how you define “good.”

 

Related articles: Finding God in COVID 19; The Winnowing Fork of God; Today’s Chaldean Chastisement

Karen and Clair’s Excellent Travel Adventure Chapter Two: Installment Two

I’m not one to blather daily on Facebook about every little thing I do. However, when people learn that Karen and I are living full-time in an RV and travelling the country, they invariably ask what it’s like; many also claim they would love to do the same. Because of that interest, I am publishing another installment of my travel journal. You can stop here and move on to something else if you are not interested.

Week Six (Election Week!)

Our first week in Golden Valley was uneventful except for the national drama of the presidential election. As I write this on Saturday, four days after the election, Biden is still six electoral votes short of winning, but there is little doubt of the outcome. On the other hand, there is no certainty Trump will concede as he has expressed his distrust of the results in several states, promising legal challenges. What bothers me beyond the lack of trust in the system is the fact that once again half of my fellow countrymen (and women) have cast a vote to fundamentally change what America has been for centuries. They think they want a socialist country. I hope the result they get so obviously a bad choice very quickly, that in 2024 we can chuck the experiment and get America back on track.

Forget politics; que sera, sera. When we landed in Golden Valley last Sunday, I was slightly disappointed. First, the price had gone up $100/month since I reserved back in September. Then the park itself was underwhelming. It is all gravel except for a 12x8 concrete pad at each site. I knew from my web research that the trees, one for each site, were going to be small, but IRL they seem insignificant. They are little good for either shade or protection from the wind.

The wind has been easy to take until yesterday. We put up the screen room right away, but had to take it down in preparation for a two-day windstorm with 20-30 mph winds and gusts over 40. That event brought us our first dust storm. It was a small one, only lasting a few minutes, but it was dramatic nonetheless. We now have two or three days of rain in the forecast, so we will be closed inside our little (little) trailer for the duration.

We made several 20 mile trips east into Kingman for groceries and hardware items. Home Depot to the rescue. And they have our favorite grocery: Smiths. Yay! We also went 17 miles west to Bullhead City to visit a Lowes because I was given a gift card by the generous folks at Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center. It was a wasted trip because they didn’t have the pipe I needed to hook up our sewer. Who could imagine they would not even carry 3-inch PVC? Really! That meant another trip to HD in Kingman. We also discovered a quirky but tasty treat in old town Kingman, in their Route 66 historical district. We have eaten at Rickity Crickets twice already. There are several other places we will try out as well as every fast food and sit-down restaurant you could want in the new part of Kingman.

I ordered an electric bike before we got here hoping it would arrive about when we did. FedEx has held it up for several days, but I am supposed to get it Monday. I am like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. I plan to ride it daily for my cardio exercise and hopefully explore some of the desert nearby. It is a fat-tire folding model which is supposed to be able to handle even sandy terrain with the tires partially deflated. The electric motor can be used either as a pedal assist or a full-on motor-driven bike. I get my bicycle and motorcycle in one toy. Karen is not overly pleased with the cost ($1,000), but I hope she will get over her disappointment. I dream of one day getting her one too.

We looked into another park just down the road, and we may move there in December to save the $100 we are paying here over the advertised rate. It is similar but with paved roadways and tall, mature trees surrounding the entire perimeter. That may help protect from the wind somewhat. We will lose the unobstructed view of the valley and surrounding mountains, but the savings and the protection should compensate for the loss.

Week Seven

Sunday November 8, 2020: First it’s the wind. Not a gale, but steady enough and strong enough to rock the trailer a little once in a while. Then the clouds darken, and the rain showers come. Not steady downpours like in Michigan, but scattered, now-and-then showers pelting just enough to sound mean on the fiberglass roof over my head. Suddenly the pelting takes on a sharper sound: hail. Little BB size ice pellets bounce off the roof and the gravel surrounding the camper. It lasts maybe a minute. It all stops for a bit, then starts over: rain then hail again… and the wind. Thunder, once then again. The sky is heavy, dark and low. We’re under a storm cloud again. I’m waiting for the rain to start again. And the hail maybe. The wind picks up; the trailer responds with a waggle. I think we will be right under the storm this time.

I can see fluffy cumulus clouds over at the southwest horizon. The setting sun reveals blue sky over there, but between me and them it is nasty. Flat-bottomed, bumpy gray that fades as the rain blurs the view. Maybe it’s just to our north. Red and orange on the radar says we are just out of its reach. But the rain is back; heavy and almost sideways in the wind. Forty-five degree angle on the window-tracks. Harder rain this time like a Michigan thunder shower. Sheets of rain freight train over the trailer.

Thirty-three degrees predicted tonight as the cold front that brought the thunderstorms also brought a drop in temperature. It has already dropped a few degrees, and the windows are fogging as the furnace burns propane to keep us comfy. Living in an RV is different than living in a house. I feel closer to nature, even though I am in a park surrounded by other campers. I only have an inch or so between me and the real outdoors instead of two-by-fours and fiberglass and shingles and an attic. Winter here means 20’s or 30’s at night and 50-60 in the daytime. I can handle that as long as the water lines don’t freeze. I may have to hook up the line heaters in December. We’ll see. I am loving it whatever happens.

The Rest of November

One week has rolled into the next in such a way that weekly entries are unnecessary. Don’t misunderstand that I am bored or have nothing to do. Quite the opposite. We have done some sightseeing, visited three desert wineries (Surprise!) and I have put about eighty miles on the new bike. I try to ride at least twenty minutes every day as my cardio workout. It is so much more fun to do that by cruising the desert two-tracks than sitting in the rec room on a stationary bike. We have developed a pattern of Monday breakfast in either Kingman or Bullhead City followed by shopping. Then on Friday we have our “date night” in one of the two, usually involving shopping as well. We have found some fabulous restaurants already, as you would know if you follow us on Facebook.

It is December 1^st as I write this. Today we are moving from Tradewinds to Adobe RV park five miles down the road. The wind I mentioned earlier blows through our current park stirring dust like crazy. I love the view the open arrangement provides, but the wind takes away some of the enjoyment. We will be moving to the center of Golden Valley the “city.” It’s little more than a few gas stations, convenience stores and swap meets (big thing here, I guess). Geographically, Golden Valley is about ten miles east-to-west and about forty miles north-to-south depending on where you draw the southern boundary.

I will miss my view; I can see the mountains marking the north, east and west edges of the valley from my campsite. Adobe is surrounded by trees that block long-distance views so that my neighbor’s trailers will be the main feature I see there. We are giving up the vista for two reasons: first it is $95 dollars cheaper per month ($240); second the park had paved drives and the surrounding trees I mentioned that will hopefully cut some of the wind/dust we are dealing with here. Sadly, the park will not allow any type of screen/tent structure on the lots, so we can’t use our attached screen room. If we find we can’t live without it, we may be moving again. Stay tuned.