²¹And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. ²⁴For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

So we know there is hope, otherwise God would not say so as plain as His black and white Word here.  But what about the ‘rebelson’ who not only leaves Mom and Dad high and dry (except for all the tears) but goes out of his way to tell them on the way out the door that he hates their guts and never wants to see them again?  And he has a litany of (manufactured in his mind) “offenses” you have perpetrated upon him and others over the years?  Any hope for a piece of work like that?

Yes, of course, since all ‘pieces of work’ are originally a product of the Father who ran out to meet this son and said, ‘ ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. ²⁴For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’  One has but to think of what Paul was doing before Jesus stopped him in his tracks and told him he had a new boss with new marching orders and, well, that Paul was going to not be the same guy at all anymore.  You want to talk about an angry, mean spirited person who had it in for others?  Paul had been putting Christians in jail, getting them beaten and murdered.  He was today’s equivalent of the prodigal who goes so far south from God that you’d be hard pressed to find anyone to tell you there is one wit of hope for such an odious and bitter person.

But there you are, again right there in black and white, (Acts 9.1-9) Paul gets knocked on his butt by Jesus and temporarily struck blind.   Jesus asked Paul, ‘why are you persecuting me’.   We should know the the “me” being persecuted Jesus was referring to believers in Christ Paul was having put in jail, beaten and killed. I hear Jesus telling Paul, ‘there’s hope for you’! Should we pray for our hard core prodigals that God would do whatever it takes to bring them back to himself?  Well, yeah. Whatever it takes Lord… for this my son was dead and is alive again, he was lost and is found.   Do we need to ask God to protect us in the mean time from becoming equally sinfully offended about the harsh stuff Junior muttered as he was leaving?  You betcha!

A SERMON FOR THE PRESIDENT
Ascension Sunday 2009
Eze. 32:17-21
Douglas Wilson
Christ Church – Moscow, ID
A.D. May 25, 2009

INTRODUCTION:
This Lord’s Day is Ascension Sunday, the day we commemorate the exaltation of Jesus Christ at the right hand of
the Ancient of Days, the day upon which He was given universal and complete authority over all nations, kings,
rule and authority. Our Lord’s name is the name which is above every name, and His is the name when spoken that
causes every knee to bow, and every tongue to confess, that He is Lord of heaven and earth. And, as we cannot
emphasize too much, this is not an invisible spiritual truth. It is simply, undividedly, true.

THE TEXT:
“It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto
me, saying, Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the
famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. Whom dost thou pass in
beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the
sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes. The strong among the mighty shall speak to
him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the
sword” (Eze 32:17-21).

SUMMARY OF THE TEXT:
One of the visions that Ezekiel was given was that of a parliament of kings, assmbled in the nether regions of Sheol.
The prophet was speaking of nations which had had their time of glory under the sun, but which, inevitably,
descended to the empty governance of shades and shadows. In Augustine’s trenchant phrase, among the nations of
men, the dead are replaced by the dying, and however splendid an empire might be for the moment, there is no
future for any nation outside of Christ. Below the earth is nothing but wisps of lost glory, and above ground
archeologists might be able to find the remnants of Ozymandian ruin.
Contrast this with what we celebrate on this day of Ascension. The Lord Jesus has been given all authority in
heaven and on earth, and He must reign until He has made His enemies a footstool. Of the increase of His
government there will be no end. Unbelieving kings descend to nothing. The faithful king has ascended, and He
shall reign for ever and ever.

STATEMENT OF THE EVIL:
When President Obama was first elected to the presidency, I decided that at some point something was going to
have to be said, and the only question was when and how. The clearest and most obvious time for this, it seems, is
in the time before our new president’s first nomination to the Supreme Court. That time is now, and Ascension
Sunday is an appropriate time to set the law of God and the laws of men side by side in order to have a look at
them.
The claims of Jesus Christ are inescapably political, and nothing whatever can be done to alter or change that. It is
unfaithfulness even to think about trying to alter that. But Jesus Christ must not be invoked in a partisan way,
which is quite different. These are words that are being declared by a Christian minister, and not by a Republican
operative. In the first place, I am not a Republican, and, secondly, if I were, it would remain my duty as a minister
to point out that Justice Souter, who is being replaced, was a Republican appointment to the High Court. We
need to remember that many of the justices whose robes are soaked with the blood of the innocents were
Republican appointees.

RECOGNITION OF AN ODDITY:
Now it may seem odd to preach to someone who is not present. But there are three reasons for preaching such a
message anyway. First, this is a message that all Americans need to hear because we elected you as our president.
You are a representative civil head, and there is no way to address you without addressing the nation. All of us need
to hear this. Second, we need to return to the time when kings were aware of the pulpit. Mary of Scots did not
attend church services where Knox preached, but they were the kind of sermons she would hear about. The Church
is not called to be a lobbying agency, so if we have something lawful and necessary to say to you as the magistrate,
it should be said here. And the third point is related. Ecclesiastes tells us that even a little bird can get a message to
a king (Ecc. 10:20). True, that is in the context of urging us to watch carefully what we say, and so every word of
this message is both measured and weighed. And while a righteousness king might find out what ungodly say about
him, it is also true that an unrighteous ruler might in this way be confronted with the plain teaching of the Word
of God.

THE REQUIREMENT OF HEAVEN:
Mr. President, your past record, your campaign promises, your political affiliations, your supporters, your political
philosophy, and your record since the election, all consistently indicate that your appointment to the Supreme
Court will be a pro-abortion nominee, one who favors the continued recognition of a ghoulish “right” to slaughter
the unborn. Your rhetoric, as displayed recently at Notre Dame, hypocritically aspires to transcend this debate, but
your record and actions indicate otherwise. You are radically down to earth in your support of unrestricted
abortion rights. This means that you will, or you have, nominated a pro-abortion judge to this vacancy. And so we
come to the central point of this message, declared by a minister of Jesus Christ, speaking in His name and on His
behalf. You may not do this. And if by the time this message is preached, you have already placed such a name in
nomination, you are commanded by the Lord Jesus to repent and withdraw that name. The one to whom you
answer forbids what you are doing.
You said in the campaign that you did not have “a litmus test” for your nominees, but it is important for you to
know and recognize that the Lord Jesus does have a litmus test for judges. He requires them to hate injustice and to
judge righteously (Dt. 1:16), to defend the fatherless (Is. 1:23; Jer. 5:28), and to keep the land from being soaked
with the blood of innocents (Hos. 6:6-8; Ps. 10:18).

ONLY SHEEP AND GOATS:
The kings in our text discovered what it was to sink away from the presence of the Lord. Faithful kings bring their
honor and glory into the New Jerusalem, but those who descend into the pit are tumbling from a great height, a
height which they refused to understand. Josef Stalin once dismissively asked how many divisions the pope had, but
this betrays a radical confusion about the nature of Christ’s rule. It is kings who hide in the rocks of the mountains
(Rev. 6:15). God is the one who sent an angel to summon the birds of the air so that they might gorge themselves
on the flesh of kings (Rev. 19:18). When you finally come to stand before Him, the one who is a true King, there
will be no presidents or parliaments, no Congresses and no courts. There will only be sheep and goats.
Published by: Canon Press ● P.O. Box 8729 ● 205 E. 5th St. ● Moscow, ID 83843 ● 800-488-2034

¹¹And he said, “There was a man who had two sons. ¹²And the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.’ And he divided his property between them. ¹³Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. ¹⁴And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. ¹⁵So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. ¹⁶And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.

¹⁷“But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! ¹⁸I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. ¹⁹ I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants.”‘ ²⁰And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. ²¹And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ ²²But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. ²³And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. ²⁴For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.

²⁵“Now his older son was in the field, and as he came and drew near to the house, he heard music and dancing. ²⁶And he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant. ²⁷And he said to him, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fattened calf, because he has received him back safe and sound.’ ²⁸But he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him, ²⁹but he answered his father, ‘Look, these many years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. ³⁰But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!’ ³¹And he said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. ³²It was fitting to celebrate and be glad, for this your brother was dead, and is alive; he was lost, and is found.’”

In this story Jesus tells us of a father (picturing God) and two sons.  One son pictures the tax collector/sinner of verse one of this chapter and the other pictures the self righteous Christian who can’t find the compassion to see the father’s heart for sinners. I have tended in the past to put the focus on the wrong person.  Actually the story gives more attention to the father and his reaction to the son’s return. The father’s response to the elder son’s resentment offers a clear roadmap for human fathers in terms of how they should answer a lack of compassion for sinners. So a better title might be “the story of the forgiving father” or “a father’s response to his two sons.”

I was first introduced to the very gifted Scottish sprinter Eric Liddell through the movie Chariots of Fire.  I was a sprinter in high school and was fortunate to have had the seventh best time in the U.S. for the 220 yard dash for a few weeks of my senior year track season.  When I saw Chariots of Fire in the 1980’s I very closely related to Mr. Liddell, his running career and his integrity as a Christian.  He took a courageous stand by not competing on Sunday (we call it ‘the Lord’s Day’).  Here’s a snippet of what Wikipedia has to say about this fine athlete and human being.

During the summer of 1924, the Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. Liddell was a committed Christian and refused to run on Sunday (the Christian Sabbath), with the consequence that he was forced to withdraw from the 100 metres race, his best event. The schedule had been published several months earlier, and his decision was made well before the Games began. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400 metres, an event in which he had previously excelled. Even so, his success in the 400m was largely unexpected. The day of 400 metres race came, and as Liddell went to the starting blocks, an American masseur slipped a piece of paper into Liddell’s hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, “Those who honour me I will honour.” Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand. He not only won the race, but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. A few days earlier Liddell had competed in the 200 metre finals, for which he received the bronze medal behind Americans Jackson Scholz and Charles Paddock, beating Harold Abrahams, who finished in sixth place. (This was the second and last race in which these two runners met.)  His performance in the 400 metres in Paris remained a world record for four years, and a European record for 12 years, until it was beaten by another British athlete, Godfrey Brown, at the Berlin Olympics.

Fifty years down the track and around the corner and I’ve morphed into one of those crazy cyclist who rides his road bike thousands of miles a year.  My cycling club is a group of (mostly older but a smattering of younger) riders I’ve learned to love and appreciate as friends.  We usually ride together three mornings a week, Tuesday’s, Thursday’s and Saturday’s in this glorious southern Oregon we’ve been so blessed to live in since 2000.  But a new tradition for our group has come along the last few years which means I have to skip some of the most beautiful and exciting rides we do all year.  Yep, you guessed it, riding on the Lord’s Day.  So with the exception of two vacation Sunday’s a year which I ride in large, organized rides in other states, I’ve skipped the neat Sunday odysseys our group does.  They’re usually a little longer, more picturesque, better weather season, and many times, the group stops at a restaurant or winery or other fun place to get refreshed and hang out together in the middle or following the ride.  We used to do those rides on Saturday’s years ago but for some reason many of them have been moved to Sundays.

I’ll grant you this sounds like a tough choice for a hard core road biker like me, but interestingly, it’s an easy one for me and Linda.  God has promised His people a bunch of cool stuff as they offer themselves up as a sort of ‘living sacrifice’ before Him on Sunday.  Stuff like peace of mind that comes when one is assured that his or her sins have been forgiven by God.  God’s promises or covenants (the way He relates to His people) are renewed both in the minds and hearts of believers during the worship service each Sunday.  God has recreated me in the risen Christ and I’m reminded of that miraculous truth each Lord’s Day.  By the time the other six days have gone by each week I’m in serious need of being re-reminded that (even though I acted like it at times) I’m not the old selfish me anymore, that He’s recreating me in the image of Jesus Christ.  And just who is Jesus Christ outside of the typical secular exclamation of wonder, fear or anger?  He’s the ‘Lord of lords and King of kings’, the creator and sustainer of the universe!  The One under who’s feet the Father will place all the Son’s enemies before the end of things comes!

Forgive me if you think this is too much religion/theology for a blog on cycling and Sunday’s, but really, don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it.  Allowing God to come ‘on any Sunday’ and recreate you according to His blueprint is nothing short of ‘take your breath away’ brilliant.  So in Eric Liddell’s memory, and everyone else who’s found out that Sunday worship is not about entertainment or comfort per se, but a time when God gathers us together and serves us.  It’s a feast of the most delicious and important order since we feast with God at a Common Table.  When God renews His covenant with His people it always climaxes with a common meal.

As a postscript, I’m told they’re talking about a sequel to Chariots of Fire.  Might be a treat, but sequels are unpredictable, of course, like Hollywood, where many are produced.

Now back to your regularly scheduled ride.

 

This week we’re helping the kids (Heather and Ray) with their kids (Elijah, Ezra and Obidiah) while Mom and Dad go into the hospital (St. Paddy’s Day) so Heather can be separated, as it were, from Samson Aaron Matney.  The disengagement, by skilled obstetrical surgeon hands, is scheduled for this morning in a little over an hour.  It’s a ginormous grandchildren treat week for me and Linda since we will also get to see Jessie and Chad’s Mr. little Peter boy.  Pictures worth a bunch of words.

We learn in Psalm 127:3-4 that children are a blessing from God: “Sons are a heritage from the LORD, children a reward from him.  Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in ones youth.”  So here we are, to pick up our crowns, and, to be honest, be blessed by the pride and love our kids and grandkids have for us as we all are regaled with the arrival of Samson. “Children’s children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children. (Proverbs 17:6)  And don’t forget how God spoke to Jeremiah about these things: “the word of the Lord came to me saying, “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1.5  (and, yes, I was thinking the same thing, how can folks call an unborn child a blob of whatever when God is speaking of his or her future before they are conceived?)  I know none of us are prophets in one sense but in another way, we all share in the calling to speak God’s word. 

And by the way, have you ever read the biblical story of Samson, one of God’s greatest Judges, in the book of Judges?  In a nutshell, the “angel of the Lord” (really it’s God Himself) appears first to Samson’s mother and then to both his mother and father and announces (to his mother), ‘you shall conceive a child and bear a son’ .  This should sound familiar to most and in my mind puts Samson in a league with few other great men of God before he was even born. 

It was also noteworthy, since up to that time Samson’s mother had been barren, no children.  The angel of the Lord then informed them that this child would be set apart and special from it’s mothers womb.  I’m trying to picture myself standing before the ‘angel’, I’m in shock beyond all accounting, but then God’s open the spigot a bit further.  The ‘angel of the Lord’ literally disappears up in the smoke (of a sacrifice Samson’s parents had prepared at the request of the ‘angel’.  Not too shabby a start for a young man who is not even conceived yet and another Samson who was just born this morning!  And not even written for a T.V. movie, the only commercial is God advertising Himself.

And the young man grew, and the LORD blessed him.   And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir him…

Obama’s decision is bad ethics, bad science, and bad politics. by Ryan T. Anderson 03/09/2009 from World Magazine Blog (my italics and bolds and underlines)

President Obama today fulfilled his campaign promise to lift federal-funding restrictions on research involving the destruction of human embryos. He couldn’t have done so at a more inappropriate time, for just last week scientists made headlines again announcing yet another breakthrough in what is known as “induced pluripotent stem-cell” technology. Following up on the initial breakthrough in November 2007 that allowed scientists to produce the biological equivalent of embryonic stem cells without creating, using, or destroying any human embryos, scientists have continued to refine their methods.

Last week’s announcement was the latest in a long string of developments. If Obama truly wants to find honorable compromises that the entire nation can accept in good conscience and even endorse, he should be promoting these alternative sources. During the ceremony this morning, Obama announced that by signing this executive order “we will lift the ban on federal funding for promising embryonic stem cell research.” Of course there never was a ban on federal funding for embryonic stem-cell research.

President Bush was, in fact, the first president in history to fund embryonic stem cell research. The compromise Bush reached, however, put restrictions in place that prevented the further destruction of human embryos. It is these restrictions protecting human life that Obama has lifted. Claiming that Bush’s compromise was “a false choice between sound science and moral values,” Obama announced that “the two are not inconsistent.” “As a person of faith,” he continued, he believes that “we are called to care for each other and work to ease human suffering.” Concretely, this means that “we have been given the capacity and will to pursue this research–and the humanity and conscience to do so responsibly.” How the destruction of tiny human lives fits into this humanity and conscience is not so clear.

Obama continued, noting that his stem-cell decision was just the starting point for a larger reevaluation of the role scientists will play in his administration: “It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it’s inconvenient–especially when it’s inconvenient.” But critics of human embryo-destructive research have never been hostile to science. The dispute is not about whether stem-cell science should proceed; it is about how it will proceed. Will it go forward in a way that respects all human life? Or will it regard the taking of human life in its early stages as justified by the desire to advance biomedical knowledge and seek therapies? Listening to scientists who tell us what they want to do doesn’t mean we should give them a blank check; we need to determine if what they’re proposing, especially when it’s inconvenient for unborn human life, is what they should be doing. And this isn’t just some obscure pro-life worry.

In 2007, when the great breakthrough of induced pluripotent stem cell technology was announced, both of the scientists behind the new technique explained the moral concerns that drove their research. Dr. Shinya Yamanaka told the New York Times: “When I saw the embryo, I suddenly realized there was such a small difference between it and my daughters. I thought, we can’t keep destroying embryos for our research. There must be another way.” At the same time, Dr. James Thomson, the original discoverer of embryonic stem cells, told the Times: “If human embryonic stem cell research does not make you at least a little bit uncomfortable, you have not thought about it enough. I thought long and hard about whether I would do it.” He went on to add that because of this latest technique, “a decade from now, this will be just a funny historical footnote.”

Last Chance — For Life     From Patrick J. Buchanan

Near the end of a town hall meeting in Johnstown, Pa., a woman arose to offer a passionate plea to Barack Obama to “stop these abortions.” Obama’s response was cool, direct, unequivocal. “Look, I got two daughters — 9 years old and 6 years old. … I am going to teach them first about values and morals, but if they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.” “Punished with a baby.” Which is the difference between conservatives and liberals. Liberals see the unborn as punishment. Conservatives as a blessing. Liberals see terminating the unborn as “viable choice” (pardon the pun). Conservatives see it as murder.

You just have to wonder about people who see murdering a baby as a way to avoid punishing the mother. Obama sees an unwanted pregnancy as a cruel and punitive sanction for a teenager who has made a mistake, and abortion as the way out, the road to absolution and redemption. The contrast with Sarah Palin could not be more stark. At the birth of her son Trig, who has Down syndrome, Gov. Palin said: “We knew through early testing he would face special challenges, and we feel privileged that God would entrust us with this gift and allow us unspeakable joy as he entered our lives. “We have faith that every baby is created for good purpose and has potential to make this world a better place. We are truly blessed.”

Between the convictions and values of Palin and those of Barack, then, there is a world of difference. In the culture war that is rooted in religious faith, they are on opposite sides of the dividing line. If abortion is the sacrament of the American feminists, then Palin isn’t a “feminist”.

Thanks to the Blog Right Mind – Found this during the recent presidential election but some acts, like Roosevelt said of the Japenese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 “go down in infamy.  It was originally published Saturday, September 13, 2008 7:10 PM by Right-Mind Filed under: Abortion

I read about a man  who squandered ginormous hunks of time on TV news.  He was retired and suffering with some physical disabilities, so getting out activities were kept to a minimum.  But I choose the word squandered for the hours he spent in front of the tube (should we be saying the chip these days?) because I enjoy doing the same sometimes.  But more often than not I find myself regretting that I missed the time it takes to enjoy a certain book or piece of music.  We live in a gorgeous part of the country and some days I’d trade my factoids garnered on the news for a pleasant walk down a country path where the only thing you can hear are God’s nature (birds singing, leaves rustling in the breeze and the like).  After sunset (some are feasts for the senses) a light show provided by a unfettered, all powerful, creative God is available for the price of turning ones head skyward out here in the country.

So do I need to know all day and half the night news falderal, as important as it may come across from the talking heads on television?  Yes and No.  I object to folks who stick their heads in the proverbial “unworldly” sand so they’ll be less likely to offend God in word, deed or eyeball.  Paul the apostle said we would do well to emulate him as he followed Christ on this earth.  Part of Paul’s M.O. was to be ‘all things to all men’ and that we might (as we’re observed and converse with family, friends and work associates) be ready to give an answer for that hope which lies within us.  This is Christ is us, the hope of glory.  Both here for a fulfilled life of serving our saviour and eternally.  That mouthful was was to say that it’s good to have at least some idea what’s going on in God’s world so we can have a halfway intelligent conversation about life, death and how one can optimistically live out both in the here and now.

But, no, we don’t need to be so well informed that we know better what some politician, sports figure or celebrity is saying but have not read, really regaled in, God’s Word on a given day.  Take just one example (then I’m going to bed).  Let’s take a few verses from Psalm 34:

¹¹Come, O children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the LORD.
¹²What man is there who desires life
and loves many days, that he may see good?
¹³ Keep your tongue from evil
and your lips from speaking deceit.
¹⁴Turn away from evil and do good;
seek peace and pursue it.

‘Fear’ usually connotes being afraid, but here it just as much refers to being in awe of or revering.  Can another human being teach us to fear (respect) God in the way God demands respect?  Well, no, but this is referring to God’s Holy Spirit, He indeed can teach us to fear God.  Verse twelve is like Lady Wisdom calling at the top of her lungs from the housetops, ‘who wants a full and completely fulfilling life?’  The answer is misleading taken out of context, saying, ‘don’t say dumb, disrespectful or deceitful stuff; Turn from disobeying God and start obeying Him.  Seek the good of all and don’t stop’.

Not too tricky right?  Well, yes, if one does not understand that the beginning of wisdom (to do the right thing) is the fear of God. Notice the order of verses 11-14, fear then do what God expects.  How does one get fear (of God) who’s forgotten or never had it?  By asking God for the humility to come to him like a child asking for lift up to the chair so the child can sit at the family table and eat with his siblings and parents.  God ask for fear (reverence) but He does not ask anything of us that He cannot provide.  I Corinthians 10.13 says ‘there is no temptation you will face but the kind that all folks face and God is FAITHFUL to provide a way for you to perform what He asks of us and more.  (my loose paraphrase).

So watch the news but don’t forget the “red hot peppers” of life as we used to say as we jumped rope as kids.  You’ll jump for joy, His Word will warm you from the inside out and… that’s right, I’m going to bed.  Good night.

Since my wife of 24 years (and the mother of our four children) died of cancer that started with her breast, I found the following little mailbag note interesting.  For me, it serves to clarify the connection between two killers.  This was in World Magazine Mailbag February 14th, 2009 issue, page 78:

Breast cancer surgeon Angela Lanfranchi says that first-trimester sponteneous abortions (of miscarriages) occur because of low hormone levels, so they do not increase breast cancer risk.   But if an abortion (either spontaneous or induced) occurs in a pregnancy with normal hormone levels, the abortion increases breast cancer risk by creating more cancer-vulnerable breast tissue (”Life or Death?” Jan. 17th, pg. 53).  City University of New York biology professor Joel Brind notes that a full-term pregnancy – but not an aborted one – leaves a woman with a lower long-term risk of breast cancer, compared to not having gotten pregnant.  A pregnant woman who chooses abortion will have a greater long-term risk of breast cancer than if she chose not to have an abortion. (this bold is mine)

<!– /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:”Cambria Math”; panose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1107304683 0 0 159 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-unhide:no; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:”"; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”;} .MsoChpDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; mso-default-props:yes; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:”Times New Roman”; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} .MsoPapDefault {mso-style-type:export-only; margin-bottom:10.0pt; line-height:115%;} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} –>
/* Style Definitions */
table.MsoNormalTable
{mso-style-name:”Table Normal”;
mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0;
mso-tstyle-colband-size:0;
mso-style-noshow:yes;
mso-style-priority:99;
mso-style-qformat:yes;
mso-style-parent:”";
mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt;
mso-para-margin-top:0in;
mso-para-margin-right:0in;
mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt;
mso-para-margin-left:0in;
line-height:115%;
mso-pagination:widow-orphan;
font-size:11.0pt;
font-family:”Calibri”,”sans-serif”;
mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri;
mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin;
mso-fareast-font-family:”Times New Roman”;
mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast;
mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri;
mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;}

I’ve seen the results of surveys that not only claim this is a “Christian nation”, they claim 224,437,959 or 76.5% of our population are Christian. Other statistics generally back these 2004 numbers up. So my (obvious) question is, if this nation is majority Christian, why are the crime statistics, teen pregnancies and drug use off the charts? And how about just plain old work ethic? I hated doing the lawn my Dad’s way (without cutting corners) when I was a kid, but at least most of us in Christian homes learned enough about work that we could hold down a job as we got older.

But today, divorce statistics among Christians, for instance, indicate that we get just as many divorces as anybody else. Christian parents report (at least the one’s who’ll cop to it) that a sizable number of their own teens struggle big time including the list of usual suspects, drugs, pre-marital sex/pregnancies, low grades and no college level education and trouble with authority on several levels.

Are we in need of a reformation in today’s church? Have we somewhere left our standard behind in favor of something seemingly easier or more palatable? And for that matter, what is/was our standard supposed to be anyway? “All Scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

I find myself asking, how much do I read the Bible and how much do I believe and act on it as God’s Word? Didn’t someone once say, without a vision, the people parish!’ As you might suppose, yes, the reference for that verse is the same source as the verses above about what obeying God’s scripture does for the Christian. Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keeps the law, happy is he. Proverbs 29.18. So, as I say, I find myself asking what my vision and standard is when it comes to the nitty gritty of how a live my everyday life. Like the other six days a week when I’m not in church.

“Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path…The sum of Your Word is truth, and everyone of Your righteous ordinances is everlasting” (Psalm 119: 105; 160) I hope to tackle this topic on a regular basis but suffice it to say that as a Christian, I fear we’re stumpling around in the dark as God’s people with nary a match, let alone a the lamp of God’s Word.