Foxholes and Christians

I'm sorry for the delay. I had a major internet outage. Since yesterday was September 11, I'm posting this reprise from 2006.
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(I wrote this in the days following Sep. 11, 2001. I wrote it for myself. Not too many others have seen it. But on this, the 5th anniversary, I thought I'd share it with others. It's longer than my normal post. I think it's worth it.)

The events of September 11 and following have been shocking, frightening, unnerving, devastating. They have stirred emotions and responses that one wouldn’t have found a week before the aircraft hit those buildings and killed thousands of Americans. In the aftermath, an interesting series of events has unfolded. A resounding “God bless America!” has been shouted around the country that has resoundingly evicted God from America. The masses have flocked to prayer services. Leadership has called on God for support. The President has declared that God is on our side. The old saying, “There are no atheists in foxholes”, has been demonstrated once again. My question, however, isn’t about these frightened people who are turning to God in time of trouble. My question is about Christians. In this new surge of spirituality, what is the Church offering? What are the Christians doing in the foxholes?

The public responses have been embarrassing at best. One Christian leader has stated that America got what it deserved. This is a running theme in many churches. We are a decadent country, and God is judging America. Others are backpedaling. “God didn’t have anything to do with this,” they assure us. “God is a gentleman.” Some religious leaders are on a similar bandwagon. “This isn’t God’s fault – it’s the fault of Man’s Free Will.” Private responses have been similar. Christians have responded with everything from “Kill ‘em all and let God sort it out” to “God loves everyone and would never allow this to occur.” So, with this gaping national wound bleeding from our televisions and a mad rush for support and answers to the best place to find support and answers – the Church – all we have to offer is either an angry God who smites His enemies or an uninvolved God who was just as appalled as we were and wishes He could have done something about it.

What ever happened to the God of the Bible? This God seems to be a different sort of God than the one of which we’re hearing from Christians. This is what God says about Himself in the words of Scripture:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble. "To whom then will you liken Me that I should be his equal?" says the Holy One (Isa. 40:21-25).

Have you not heard? Long ago I did it, from ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, that you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, they were dismayed and put to shame; they were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, as grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up (Isa. 37:26-27).

I am the LORD, and there is no other, the One forming light and creating darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these (Isa. 45:6-7).

These are words from Isaiah, but they are God speaking about Himself. He says that from His viewpoint human beings are “like grasshoppers”. He says that He “reduces rulers to nothing”. He says that He destroys their crops. He says that He plans to destroy their fortified cities, and He brings it to pass. In Isaiah 45, God Himself declares that He creates calamity. This is the image God is presenting concerning Himself.

Does God cause bad things? It is important, in answering the question, that we understand that God does not cause sin. Very clearly, “God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone.” (James 1:13) But don’t be deceived into believing that God does not cause unpleasant events. He says He creates calamity. And even in the sin of Man, God is not out of control. He doesn’t cause evil, but He surely ordains it. Our clearest proof is our most blessed event, the death of Christ. No sin was more heinous than Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Christ. Of this event, Jesus said, “For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!" (Luke 22:22) In other words, God planned for Judas to do what Judas would do. It was foreordained. Judas still bore the responsibility of his choice (“Woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"), but his sin did not mean a deviation from God’s plan.

Do not be deceived. God is sovereign. He plans the events that bring us happiness. He plans the events that bring us sorrow. It is all in His hand, and it is good.

Solomon writes on the same topic in Ecclesiastes.

Consider the work of God, for who is able to straighten what He has bent? In the day of prosperity be happy, but in the day of adversity consider -- God has made the one as well as the other so that man may not discover anything that will be after him (Eccl. 7:13-14).

Solomon claims that God has made both the day of prosperity and the day of adversity. He claims that God does it for a reason.

Interestingly, throughout Scripture we see people who understand this and accept it. Job says, “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). We would look puzzled at Job. “The Lord took away? And you say He is to be blessed?” But God’s perspective on Job’s comment is “Through all this Job did not sin” (Job 1:22). We see the same concept from Sarah in Genesis. She tells her husband, “The Lord has made me barren” (Gen. 16:2). Clearly Sarah is not happy about it, but there are two features present that we lack today. First is the absolute certainty that God is in charge. It wasn’t “a fluke of nature” or “a string of bad luck”. The Lord did it. The second is that, while she may not have liked the condition, she accepted it and worked with it rather than complaining. She worked in the wrong direction, but to her it was not “unfair” of God to do what He had done. To her, God had the perfect right to do what He would do, and He did.

This God is a different God from what is being offered to many within the Church today. This God is a God who is intimately involved in everyday existence. This God doesn’t retreat from saying “I am the One creating calamity.” Instead we read that God “works all things after the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). David rejoiced in the knowledge that God had ordained all his days (Psa. 139:16).

Consider Daniel’s viewpoint of his God:

The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with some of the vessels of the house of God; and he brought them to the land of Shinar, to the house of his god, and he brought the vessels into the treasury of his god (Dan. 1:2).

This is a key example of God at work. Today’s Christian would say “God does not do bad things; these things are caused by Man’s sinful Free Will.” The events described in Daniel are as bad as they come. Judah was overrun and sent into captivity. The Temple was overrun and its holy vessels were put to profane use in a pagan temple. It doesn’t get any worse. But Daniel starts with the very clear statement as to who was in charge in all of this. “The Lord gave” them over. It wasn’t pleasant, and it wasn’t pretty, but this same Daniel who believed that God had actually given His people into captivity and His holy vessels into pagan use still stood firm in his faith, as evidenced by the rest of the book of Daniel. In Daniel’s view, God Himself brought all this to pass, and in Daniel’s view God was allowed to do so – it was “fair”.

Consider Jeremiah’s viewpoint of his God:

He has filled me with bitterness, He has made me drunk with wormwood. And He has broken my teeth with gravel; He has made me cower in the dust. And my soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, "My strength has perished, and so has my hope from the LORD."

Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness. "The LORD is my portion," says my soul, "Therefore I have hope in Him." The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the LORD. It is good for a man that he should bear the yoke in his youth (Lam. 3:15-27).

Here we have Jeremiah standing in the ruins of his homeland. There is no doubt that Jeremiah is unhappy. Faith in God’s sovereignty does not necessarily mean bliss. He says he has no peace. He says that he has even lost hope. Then something occurs to him that renews his hope. What is that? “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness.” We know these words. They’re in our songs. But Jeremiah lived them. He understood that nothing around him brought comfort; nothing around him gave reason for hope that circumstances would improve. His single source of hope was in the simple, sure confidence that God was God. While we clamor for joy or peace or blessing, Jeremiah said, “I’ve lost all that . . . but God is good enough.” Paul says the same thing. “I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ.” (Phil. 3:8) Knowing God is enough.

Consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s viewpoint of their God:

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to give you an answer concerning this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up" (Dan. 3:16-18).

These three men stood on the brink of disaster. They were about to suffer a horrible death. So hot was the fire they were to face that it killed those who threw them into it. They spoke confidently, as we would have our heroes do. “Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire.” “You tell them, guys,” we cheer. “God can deliver you. Trust in Him.” We’re behind them. But they aren’t lost in a false sense of “God only wants us to be comfortable”. They recognize that this may not be His plan. “Even if He does not . . . we are not going to serve your gods.” Here we would typically draw the line. If God, in our estimation, is going to be fair to these guys, He must reward their faithfulness to Him by saving them. To do otherwise would not be right. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego disagree. To them, God decides who lives and who dies, and God is just in doing so. His saving them from the fire is not the expected result of their faith. To them, this is right. Their God is the One who decides. Their God is right in what He decides.

This is not the vengeful God being portrayed on one end, the “hands off” God in the middle, or the “He loves us too much” God being offered on the other end. This is the God who is intimately involved in the everyday existence of human beings. This is the sovereign, omnipotent, omniscient God who brings both affliction and comfort, justice and mercy. This God answers our cries of “That’s not fair!” with the simple retort, “Who are you, O man, who answers back to God?” (Rom. 9:20) This God grants us suffering (Phil. 1:29). This is the God who leads us through the valley of the shadow of death. There may be painful and frightening things in this valley, but “I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me.” This is the sovereign Lord who “comforts us in all our afflictions” (2 Cor. 1:4) and provides a peace that passes understanding (Phil. 4:7) by never leaving or forsaking us (Heb. 13:5). We don’t have confidence in God because He makes us comfortable. We have confidence in God because He is God, because He is sovereign, and because He will always do what is best.

We have attempted to “fill in the blanks” where God is concerned, and we have failed badly. When some in Jesus’ day tried to do that, Jesus responded accordingly:

Now on the same occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And He answered and said to them, "Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or do you suppose that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, were worse culprits than all the men who live in Jerusalem? I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:1-5).

Jesus’ disciples made the same mistake with the man born blind.

His disciples asked Him, saying, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he should be born blind?" Jesus answered, "It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was in order that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:2 3).

In both cases, people grossly misjudged the circumstances. As Job’s “friends” who gathered to inform him that his suffering was the result of his sin, these assumed that bad things do not happen to good people. The premise is “If something bad happens to you, it’s because you did something wrong.” Jesus disagrees. “Do you suppose that these Galileans were greater sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered this fate?” Jesus makes two clear points. First, not all unhappy events are punishment from God. Second, we all deserve unhappy events. We have tricked ourselves into believing that we deserve pleasant circumstances, and God is unfair or angry if we don’t get them. What we have missed is that we deserve Hell, and any pleasant event in life is an act of sheer grace on God’s part.

In fact, Jesus holds that unpleasant events can actually be God’s plan, “in order that the works of God might be displayed.” From the perspective of our Lord Jesus, our dire circumstances are God’s opportunity to shine, to display His power, to show His strength. God told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9). We view our pain and suffering as things to escape. God views them as opportunities for Him to declare His glory.

Did God judge America? Perhaps. Or did He merely withdraw His hand of protection? Could be. But it is folly to try to explain God’s intent in the events of September 11 without a specific word from God. It is foolish to assume, for instance, that they are God’s judgments and chastening for specific sins. Instead, we need to recognize that every bad thing that happens is part of God’s curse upon humanity for our rebellion against Him in our father Adam. We dwell in a cursed world. So we should not jump to the conclusion that all bad things that happen are God’s acts of retribution for specific sinful actions. Jesus’ teaching in Luke 13:1-5 makes this clear. Every evil that befalls us beckons us to return to God Himself. We need to flee the anemic God offered by our therapeutic culture who loves everybody without discrimination. We need to flee the irate God of the other view that capriciously smites His enemies with wild abandon. The God we need is the God of Daniel, who sovereignly ordains calamity for good purposes. The God we need is the God of Jeremiah who removes tranquility while remaining faithful. The God we need is the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who may not meet our expectations of what we might like, but is certainly to be trusted to perform what is best. We need to see, with Joseph, that “you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good” (Gen. 50:20). This God is not a powerless god who cannot intervene, nor is He a “gentleman” who does not intervene. He is not subject to Man’s Free Will nor given to fits of temper. He is the LORD God Almighty (Rev. 4:8), the King of kings and Lord of lords (Rev. 17:14), the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end (Rev. 22:13). He is God of all, over all, through all, and in all (Eph. 4:5), for Whom and through Whom are all things (Heb. 2:10).

It is only in that sovereign, good, faithful God that we can find a peace that passes understanding in times of harsh crisis, and it is only that God that we can offer to the hurting world around us. Any other God is not God at all, but a caricature of the True God – an idol carved by human hands.

How Do You Live?

Former Christian musician, Keith Green ("former" in the sense of "He's gone to be with the Lord," not "former Christian"), asked, "How Can They Live Without Jesus?" I think it's a reasonable question. "How can they live without God's love?" I, for one, wouldn't make it. In a world gone crazy, the majority are happy with irrational excuses and surface pleasures, but if I didn't have a God who loved me and a Savior who saved me and a Lord who was over all and through all, this just wouldn't be tolerable. As Paul described the Gentiles in his letter to the Ephesians, I would be "separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12). How do they do that?

In one verse, Green offers some possibilities.

Maybe they don't understand it
Or maybe they just haven't heard
Or maybe we're not doin' all we can
Living up to His Holy Word.

That one bothers me. We're often fed this notion that we're to blame. We're not doing enough. We're not taking the message out enough. We're not living it right. If only we did that, God could save more. It's a lie, you know. God isn't stuck up there, begging for help. He saves whom He will save without fail. It is true that we don't say it or live it sufficiently. We are horrible at the Great Commission. Some are good at "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation" (Mark 16:15), but that's not the Great Commission. The Great Commission is "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matt 28:19-20). "Preach the gospel" is only the start of the Great Commission. Making disciples ... teaching them to obey all ... that's another thing entirely. We do fall short and ought to ... you know ... obey better, but ... the lack of faith in Christ is not due to our shortcomings (Eph 2:1-3; 2 Cor 4:4).

So ... how do I live with Jesus? I make a practice of being filled with the Spirit (Eph 5:18) because I can't even get close to perfection on my own, and confessing sin (1 John 1:8-10) because ... I still sin. I ultimately rely on the only One who is able to perfect in me the good work He began (Php 1:6) as He conforms me daily into the image of His Son (Rom 8:28-30). Like Paul, I say, "Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus" (Php 3:12), all the while counting on the God who works all things after the counsel of His will (Eph 1:11).

The Unexpected Standard

I started thinking about a little phrase in Scripture. In Romans, Paul writes, "Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life" (Rom 6:4). How many places does that (or something like it) occur? We're commanded to accept one another "as Christ also accepted us" (Rom 15:7). We're to "walk in love, just as Christ also loved you" (Eph 5:2). Husbands are to love their wives "as Christ" loved the church (Eph 5:23, 25). Jesus said, we are to love one another "even as I have loved you" (John 13:34). Paul told the Ephesians, "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you" (Eph 4:32). There's a trend.

The phrase "do this as that" is a comparison phrase. That is, "do this" has a particular meaning, but "as that" adds the standard, the method. Don't "do this" any way you want ... do it "that" way. Over and over we are commanded to do things that are simple on the face of it. Accept one another, walk in love, love one another, forgive each other ... but those aren't "however you want." They are to a standard. They aren't "to the best of your ability." They are "as Christ." The method, the standard, we're supposed to meet is ... "as Christ."

That's a tall order. "As Christ." Like Jesus's instruction, "You are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:48). Another "as." Another impossible standard. Another reason we need to keep our eyes on Christ and rely on God's working within us .. the One who "is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy" (Jude 1:24).

Paul's Prayer

At the end of Paul's letter to Ephesus, he asks them to pray for him. Mind you, he's writing from Rome ... from imprisonment. So you can be sure he wants their prayers. What is it that Paul really wants from God?

With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit, and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints, and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak. (Eph 6:18-20)

Well ... that was unexpected. Did you notice? Paul doesn't ask for release. He doesn't ask for comfort or justice. He doesn't ask for anything at all ... for himself. He asks ... to be allowed to "speak boldly." He asks, as prisoner of the Lord (Eph 4:1), to be enabled and empowered to serve the Lord ... in chains. He saw himself as an ambassador, and that was more important than freedom.

We're not normally like that. We're normally requesting lots of pleasant outcomes. And I'm not suggesting that's a bad prayer. When Paul had his "thorn in the flesh" (2 Cor 12:7-8), he "implored the Lord three times that it might leave." Prayers for relief are normal, expected, even called for (Php 4:6). But my question ... for me ... is will I demand the answers I seek, or seek to please Him first? Will my highest desire be what I want from Him, or "not my will, but yours"? Will I say with Paul, "I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong" (2 Cor 12:10).

Hope

The "Weeping Prophet," Jeremiah, wrote Lamentations ... because he was lamenting. He was devastated about the destruction of Jerusalem. In the midst of it, Jeremiah writes about hope ... or, rather, the lack of it. That's right. Jeremiah says, "My soul has been rejected from peace; I have forgotten happiness. So I say, 'My strength has perished, And so has my hope from YHWH" (Lam 3:17-18). This prophet, this chosen mouthpiece of God, says his hope from YHWH has perished.

Biblical "hope" isn't your garden variety "hope." In English, "hope" is defined as "to cherish a desire with anticipation : to want something to happen or be true." That sounds right. But biblical hope has a different ... tint to it. The word in this text is "expectation." It is more than "to want something." It's expecting something. That is, it's not so much a question of "if," but "when." In the famous love chapter in 1 Corinthians, Paul writes, "But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor 13:13). That Greek word is "to anticipate" Again, not "if," but "when." Biblical "hope" is a certainty not yet become real.

Back, then, to Jeremiah. His "expectation" from the Lord has perished. But ... then ... he says, "Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope" (Lam 3:20-21). What does Jeremiah recall that renews his hope ... his expectation of something good? "YHWH's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness" (Lam 3:22-23) He says, "YHWH is my portion. Therefore I have hope in Him" (Lam 3:24). Not "things are gonna get better." Not "I'm sure He'll do what I want." No. "In this situation without hope, this despair, I find Him to be enough." What about you? His circumstances looked as bleak as they could be. He did not find hope there. He found it ... in God alone. He found God's reliable lovingkindness to be sufficient. He found that, simply having the Lord, he was satisfied. Do you? Are we satisfied with just Jesus? Or do we need more? Do we hope in just Him, or are we expecting ... something better?

Oh, No ... Not Again

Most of us are ... doing okay, right? I mean, nothing ... overwhelming. You know ... "I'm okay; you're okay." The basic "goodness of man." We're not ... that bad. Even Christians, who know better, don't really think they're that bad. Maybe not as good as, say, Jesus, but certainly better than others ... at least morally. I'm pretty sure if we're thinking that way we're badly mistaken.

I remember the first time I read Paul's 7th chapter in the epistle to Rome. You know ... Paul the Apostle. He talks about the difference of "spiritual" and "flesh" (Rom 7:14) and the problem that every single believer has ... "sin which dwells in me" (Rom 7:17). Wait ... Paul? Sin dwells in him? He explains. "For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not" (Rom 7:18). Paul ... we ... I have nothing good in the flesh. He goes on to say, "For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want" (Rom 7:19). That ... is every one of us. Paul gets so frustrated with this constant battle inside him with sin that he cries, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24).

Have you ever been there? It should be every believer's constant problem. We never arrive. We never obtain sinless perfection. We never are perfectly loving God or our neighbors. We are constantly fighting sin. Hebrews says, "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us" (Heb 12:1). Sin ... entangles us. So we look to our only solution ... Christ (Heb 12:2; Rom 7:25) If you're not conscious of your constant sin problem, you're complacent, not competent. If you are aware of it, I encourage you as I encourage myself ... run the race (Heb 12:1-2). We didn't get saved on our own. We won't endure on our own. He will do it. So ... we are to run with endurance ... repeatedly placing one foot in front of the other ... "fixing our eyes on Jesus."

News Weakly - 9/6/2025

Times Have Changed
Once again, "Emperor Trump" is being opposed by the justice system (puny emperor). A federal judge ruled his deployment of National Guard troops in Los Angeles was a violation of federal law. The argument was that it was "unprecedented" and potentially unconstitutional. It wasn't unprecedented. In 1965 President Johnson deployed troops in Alabama without the consent of the governor. He wasn't taken to court. So, clearly, this is an anti-Trump thing, not a legal issue.

No Kings
The "No Kings" crowd got another slap in the face when a federal judge voided Trump's freeze of $2.2 billion in funding for Harvard. This silly Judicial Branch keeps forgetting that Trump is an emperor and keeps bringing about ... checks and balances ... you know, like the system is supposed to work.

Unclear on the Concept
A thousand employees at the Department of Health and Human Services have demanded that their boss resign. Like that would happen in a corporation or any other business? They're angry because Secretary Kennedy is violating the Constitution. Now that's a new one. Where does "do medicine our way" come up in the Constitution?

Keep Playing the Trump Card
Some time ago, Trump asked to have the Epstein files released and was denied. Representative Massie is petitioning the same. Trump referred to the issue as a hoax. (I suspect "the issue" that is "a hoax" is not the Epstein crimes, but the constant efforts to drag the president into it.) I am not a "Trump guy," but this whole thing stinks. The Democrats and their Justice Departments have had this stuff for decades. They never trotted it out to torpedo Trump. The Justice Department (Republican and Democrat-led) never dragged Trump into it. Trump asked for the release of ... documentation of his guilt? Look, I know he's not a sexually moral guy, but when did we become the nation that believes in "guilty as soon as we feel like he is" without examining ... you know ... facts or evidence? It's painful and embarrassing to watch. (I also think the apparent run on "anti-Trump" news is a clear indicator of TDS -- Trump Derangement Syndrome -- as the Left media ramps up to destroy their most hated man and not for "justice.")

Unloving
Nine-year-old Renesmay Eutsey was found dead after being reported missing. They're charging her adoptive mother. Her adoptive mother ... someone who chose to adopt her. Also another adult woman. In Paul's second letter to Timothy, he warns that people will become evil in the last days (2 Tim 3:1-9). In that list of ways, he included "unloving" (2 Tim 3:3). The word is specifically "without natural affection" ... lacking familial affection. When a mother who adopts a child kills the child, it simply points to Paul's "last days" ... and breaks my heart.

Your Best Source for Fake News
I just had to snicker. The Bee has a story about Trump inviting doubting Democrats to touch the hole in his ear, linking the Bee's satirical claim that Trump claimed to have "done more for Christianity than Jesus," the current ongoing furor that the assassination attempt was a hoax, and, of course, Jesus and Thomas after the Resurrection. Perhaps sacrilegious, but ... I get it. On a completely different tangent, a celebrity mom is delighted to announce that her unborn baby is transexual ... after having three abortions. (Because, as we all know, "unborn" and "baby" is a non sequitur.) (Oh ... wait ... so is that "trans before birth" idea.) Finally, with the news that Greta Thunberg is going to Gaza (actual story), Hamas terrorists are distancing themselves from her. (She claims she's not an anti-Semite, but applauded a soccer team that urged the destruction of Israel. It's okay, Greta. We believe you. (wink).)

Must be true; I read it on the internet.

Current Events

This is just ... too easy.

But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. (2 Tim 3:1-8)

Without a lot of comment ... it feels as if Paul wrote ... about our day. "Come, Lord Jesus" (Rev 22:20).

Love, Love, Love

We Christians love the topic of God's love. One of our favorite verses is "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16). God ... loved the world. Scripture repeats this theme, like "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16) and the remarkable, "But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ" (Eph 2:4-5). Just two of many. It's too bad, then, when the world steals this love from us and gives us a pitiful substitute.

As evidenced by the disheartening number of "Jesus is my boyfriend" songs (including Lana Del Rey's Jesus is My Boyfriend), too many of Christians have bought the notion that God's love for us is affectionate, even romantic in nature. It's not. And ... we know it. How? It recently occurred to me a "proof." At a wedding, the traditional vows promise "to love and to cherish, till death do us part." Now, think about that. Think about that with the "love is an emotion" template. We're promising to "have an intense feeling of deep affection" ... till death. No one can promise to feel anything, let alone "till death." No! Absolutely not! Because love isn't an intense feeling. It is a choice.

Recently in Scripture I've noted multiple places that offer a telling perspective on exactly what biblical love is. Of course, there is familial love and brotherly love and love for pizza, but I'm talking about this "till death" love ... the vowed unconditional love ... the love that God has. This perspective is actually repeated. Jesus told His disciples to love one another not just "as you love yourself," but "as I have loved you" (John 15:12). How is that? He died. Paul told husbands to love their wives "just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her" (Eph 5:25). He told the Ephesian Christians, "Walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma" (Eph 5:2). And Paul told the Philippians to have the mind of Christ that included emptying Himself (Php 2:5-8). Biblical love, then, isn't a feeling. It is an emptying of self in order to obtain the best for the loved one. Like Christ dying for us. Oh, that we would learn to walk in that love ... for Christ, for each other, for our spouses. It's a choice, you know. Don't buy the "feeling" version. Feelings occur, but biblical love is a choice you can make.

Worthy

In Revelation there is a scene in heaven involving "myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands." They said in a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing" (Rev 5:12). Now, "worthy" isn't a complex word. In fact, it practically defines itself. It refers to something ... of worth. The original Old English word for "worship" meant "the condition of being worthy." Originally, "worship" meant "to acknowledge someone's worth."

It makes sense. God is of ultimate worth. I mean ... there is no one and nothing of higher worth. He is all in all, over all. From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things (Rom 11:36). "To Him be the glory forever." So ... worship -- the recognition of His worth-ship -- is rational ... even mandatory. So ... how did "worship" come to be defined as "singing"? The original Hebrew term was literally to "bow down." "Come, let us worship and bow down" (Psa 95:6) simply says "bow down" twice for emphasis. That is, Old Testament "worship" began with "on my face before God." And music was often employed, as the existence of the Psalms shows. But worship wasn't defined as "music." Rather, music had to be defined as worship when it drew attention to ... God's worth-ship. And we are commanded to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs (Eph 5:19; Col 3:16), so songs as worship aren't wrong ... they just don't define worship.

My point here isn't music. My point here is worship as a function of "worthy." Jesus said, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also" (Matt 6:21). That which we treasure will be the place that we love to be. Therefore, if God is our ultimate treasure, there is nowhere else our hearts would want to be. That would obviously not be limited to Sunday mornings (or whatever tradition you're used to). It would be all the time. It would not be limited to singing. It would be in any and every form that glorifies God. It would not be a simple, emotional response. It would be a life llved "on our faces," so to speak, constantly aware of His magnificence and our need for Him. Our failure to worship like that isn't a symptom of a bad definition. It's a symptom of our inadequate love for Him ... our inadequate treasuring of the God who made us.

Armed and Ready

Paul has that whole, famous, "Whole Armor of God" passage in Ephesians. It's interesting to look at. Like, the point of the armor is that we're not facing flesh and blood (Eph 6:11-12). We're not facing gun problems or bad politicians or crime or the Christian-hating world. We're facing demonic powers. Much bigger. Much worse. Much beyond our capacity. So we're to "be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might" (Eph 6:10) and not our own. It's interesting that the armor isn't for charging the enemy. It is intended so that "you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm" (Eph 6:13). Stand firm? What happened to "onward Christian soldiers"? No ... stand.

The armor itself is notable (Eph 6:14-17). Most of it comes from Old Testament references. All of it is essential ("whole armor of God" -- verses 11 and 13). I imagine Paul sitting there, writing from the Roman prison where he's chained to two Roman soldiers. "How can I tell them about this idea? Oh, I know. These two guys are perfectly outfitted." Maybe. But each piece has its specific purpose. A belt to hold you together (truth). A breastplate to protect your vital parts (righteousness). Shoes so you can run on uneven ground (the preparation of the gospel). The shield to defend against launched weapons (faith). A helmet to protect your mind (salvation). And, of course, the sword ... our only offensive weapon (the word of God). So truth holds you together, righteousness protects your "vitals," preparing to give the gospel helps you run, faith shields you, and your mind is protected ... by salvation.

It was interesting to me specifically on that "shield of faith." In Genesis, God comes to Abram and says, "Do not fear, Abram, I am a shield to you; Your reward shall be very great." (Gen 15:1) That's interesting. Perfect, in fact. If our "shield" is God Himself, He is perfect for defending against Satan's attacks (Eph 6:16). It would seem, then, that our perfect shield is our shield ... as long as we trust Him. Faith holds the shield in front of us. If we trust Him fully, He fully protects us (1 John 5:18). That's good to know. We need this armor. All of it. We need the word of God. All of it. But we suffer from delusions of adequacy and think, "I've got this." We don't. Put on the armor.

Standing

In Ephesians, Paul opens with this glorious,

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. (Eph 1:3)

Really remarkable. "Has blessed us." Not "will bless us." He already has. And "every spiritual blessing." Not holding back. He lists some of those spiritual blessings in the following verses (Eph 1:4-14). But there's an interesting repetition.

Paul says He has blessed us "in Christ." That is, the blessings we have are found in Christ. Only those in Christ receive those blessings. But Paul hits this theme hard. In the examples that follow, Paul says "in Him" or "in Christ" or "in the Beloved" seven times. That's real repetition. Why? Because our blessings which we already have are a product of our standing in Christ. The fundamental message of the book seems to be our standing in Christ. That is, Christ is definitely the focus, and our position in Him is essential.

This becomes really important in the "application" portion of the letter. He spends the first three chapters telling us our position in Christ. Then he says, "Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called" (Eph 4:1). He calls for a lot in this walk, but it only becomes possible if we begin "in Christ." It only makes sense if we are positionally and permanently in Him. And we are. So, for instance, we can "stand firm against the schemes of the devil" (Eph 6:11) because we are "in Him." It's the only place we can stand. It's important, then, that we remind ourselves that it's not us. It's not our strength. But ... in Christ, we can stand in our struggle against the dark forces (Eph 6:12).