“Sir, you attract more skinheads than free Rogaine. You have more people marching against you than cancer. You talk like a sign-language gorilla that got hit in the head. In fact, the only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c–k holster.”

Steven Colbert
addressing Donald Trump

“This whole thing about not kicking someone when they are down is b.s. Not only do you kick him—you kick him until he passes out—then beat him over the head with a baseball bat—then roll him up in an old rug—and throw him off a cliff into the pounding surf below!!!!!”

Michael Scanlon, aide to Rep. Tom DeLay
referring to Bill Clinton

I heard a recent study on NPR. It said that the way to make money in today’s media is to get more people to “follow” you……… to get more “clicks”. More clicks leads to more advertising income and this grows your paycheck. It went on to say that, by far, the most effective way to get more “clicks” is to choose a person or group of people, identify them as “others” and then attack them relentlessly.

You don’t have to spend too much time watching the media……..the people whom we once called journalists……and our politicians……. the people we once called our leaders……..to realize that this has become the “business plan” of the big names in our culture…..the talking heads who dominate our media……. and our politics. They earn their living by creating discord among us. The more divisive they are……..the more divided we become……….and the bigger their paycheck and/or their campaign fund becomes.

Is it any wonder that we are at each other’s throats?

The discord in our society is not an accident. It is intentional. And it is driven by money…….and the desire for power. I recently heard this described as
“the hate/industrial complex”.

It turns out that hate……….is a thriving business. It has become a multibillion dollar industry. And if you watch many of the shows on Fox and CNN, you are feeding it. If you despise Trump……or Pelosi……then you are a supporter of the “hate/industrial complex”……….and, unfortunately, you are also its victim.

But

It doesn’t have to be this way.

Christianity tells us of another path. The very heart of this path is not hatred…….but love.

So……..the next time some representative of the “hate/ industrial complex” launches into an attack on some “other” person or institution……….just remember that your creator asks……no……demands that you love them……..both of them.

We must learn to practice disagreement without adding contempt. We must argue against the idea without attacking the person.

You must decide whom you want to follow:

Colbert, Scanlon, or God.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.”

Jesus, NIV

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Jesus, NIV

“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.”

John, NIV

“Practice warm-heartedness”

The Dalai Lama, when asked how to deal with contempt.

I am reading a book:

“Love Your Enemies: How decent people can save America from the culture of contempt”

    by Arthur Brooks

I recommend it.

We all experience loneliness.

It can be brief or it can seem endless. In either case, I think that it is hard to be lonely and happy at the same time.

Loneliness and happiness are mutually exclusive.

I believe that God wants us to be happy……..joyfull. In fact, I would go so far as to say that happiness is our natural state. I have heard it said that joy………happiness…….is the surest sign of the presence of God. Happiness will be a central feature of paradise. Joy is our natural response to God.

I believe that our deep abiding desire for happiness is a reflection of God’s heart.

If happiness is what God wants for us, then I have to believe that loneliness is not part of God’s plan.

We were clearly created for relationship. If you ask 100 people who are near the end of their lives what the was worst thing that ever happened to them, the answer will usually be the loss of a relationship.

The Bible can be summed up in one sentence:

Love God and love your neighbor.

To rephrase: nurture relationships with God and your fellow man.

If we steadfastly work toward those two goals, we will be happy rather than lonely.

I have often said that the only route to true lasting happiness is to love and care for others. But, it is difficult to will ourselves to love someone. It is much easier to care for their needs. And one of their needs…….just like you…….is relationship. Care for the needs of those around you and love will grow……. relationships will grow……… happiness will grow.

So……….the fix is to care for others. Build relationships, and you will find happiness. Build your relationship with those around you……build your relationship with your creator.

And, it turns out, that is also the fix for loneliness.

I wish that I could say that I am good at this……. unfortunately, I am not.

Something to work on…………today.

But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 

Moses, NIV

God sets the lonely in families

David, NIV

Sounds pretty straightforward. And yet I see people and institutions fail at this simple task over and over.

So….what are the steps to solving a problem?

Have a good hard honest look at the truth of the situation. Forget about your appetites. Forget about your politics. Forget about what will get you ahead. Forget about what you want. Forget everything that the “talking heads” have told you. Focus on the truth. This will be hard work, because there is a lot of bad data out there…….and almost every source has an element of bias and manipulation. No matter how absurd an idea that appeals to you is, you can find a dozen “experts” on the web who will tell you that you are right. Apply this test…….if it doesn’t line up with the command to love God and to love your neighbor…….throw it out.

Accurately identify the problem. Don’t get distracted by the most immediate symptom. Dig down to the root cause. For example: the problem of climate change………no………it’s not “greenhouse gases”………..the root problem is overpopulation. Trying to solve climate change by attacking CO² is like trying to cure your brain tumor by taking aspirin for the headache.

Tease out the part of the problem that you can affect…….the part of the situation that you can change. Don’t waste your time coming up with changes that somebody else should make. As a general rule……..other people don’t change…….but you can. Stop yelling at the other guy and quietly change your own behavior.Do something concrete to fix the part of the problem that you can affect. Don’t waste your time whining about the other guy and his failures.

So……. what is wrong with our world?

If you dig down through the symptoms to the root cause, you will find that the problem is us……. every last one of us. The problem is that we keep doing things that are wrong…… some of us more than others……but all of us, nonetheless. This is sin. And don’t kid yourself…… we do it every day.

So…… what is sin?

Sin is anything that separates us from our creator. Sin is any act or thought or belief that violates rules number one and two…… love God……love your neighbor. Sin destroys us by defeating the only reason for our existence…..loving.

SIN DESTROYS US………BY DEFEATING THE ONLY REASON FOR OUR EXISTENCE…….LOVING.

So……..how do we fix our world?

Stop complaining about the other guy. Stop being angry at “them”……whoever “they” are for you today.

Find someone today and show them your love in a concrete way. Start in your family but then move on to strangers. Then start cleaning up the parts of your life where love is missing.

That’s all.

Then get up tomorrow and do it again.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails.

Paul, NIV

We love because he first loved us.

John, NIV

Authority:

the power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience.
“he had absolute authority over his subordinates”

Oxford English Dictionary

Authority is an interesting idea. It has two levels. The first and most immediate is the power that it gives to the person bearing it. Behind this power, however, is another level. All authority is bestowed. It is delegated to the person who has it by a higher source. And that higher source is the true center of power. The higher power must be legitimate. It must be true. Any authority that we encounter in our lives, ultimately, is a reflection of this higher source of power. Unless you are this legitimate, true higher power, you cannot create your own authority.

The truth about authority:

Authority must be given to you.

Authority must originate from a true, legitimate source of power. This higher power may be many steps removed, but all authority passes down through a chain of command.

There can be only one true, legitimate, ultimate source of authority. Anyone who claims authority is either acting on behalf of the legitimate higher power………or is an imposter who has created his own authority………or is acting on behalf of an imposter who has created his own authority.

Real authority is permanent.

Real authority never changes.

We all exercise some degree of authority. You may have authority over an army of millions. Your authority may be limited to your Labrador retriever. In either event, if you are honest, you need to know where your authority ultimately comes from. More to the point……you need to know if the source of your authority is legitimate.

For the Christian, this is simple. The ultimate and only legitimate source of authority is the God of the Bible……the God who teaches us to love him and to love one another.

For the secular humanist it is far more problematic. In practice, the secular humanist relies on multiple sources of authority. They are often in conflict. They change frequently. The authority that was preeminent when you were a child is no longer on your radar. The authority that told us that the earth is flat and is the center of the universe has been replaced by NASA. There is a darker side too. We are very good at choosing an authority that endorses the things that we want to do…….. the things that satisfy our current appetites.

Possible sources of secular authority:

Science
Our political party
Fox news
CNN
Donald Trump
Nancy Pelosi
Our appetites

So…….my challenge for this week is this:

Make an honest search for the source…..or sources……of your authority.

Then ask the fundamental question…….is the source of my authority legitimate…….is it true?

Because, in the end, this will determine if your authority, if your life, is legitimate.

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.

Mathew, NIV

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

Jesus, NIV

You don’t hear much about humility in our modern culture. When was the last time you heard somebody recommend that we should be more humble?

Name one media personality, one leader, one captain of industry who is truly, comprehensively humble.

And yet the Bible repeatedly mentions being humble as a key trait of the mature Christian.

Humility is a growth goal that I have struggled with for my entire life.

So what is humility?

First of all, humility has very little to do with your strengths and weaknesses. We all have strengthens. We all have weaknesses. We all have a pretty good idea of what they are. Humility is not about saying that you are not smart when you are. It is not about saying that you are weak when you are strong.

At its core, humility is about recognizing your place in the hierarchy of the universe.

As a group, secular humanists see mankind as the top of the pyramid. For the secular humanist, there is no being above man. The secular humanists, as a whole, answer to no one. They are the final arbiter of right and wrong. They are the final arbiter of truth. The secular humanist can be wrong; but, only by violating the rules and principles that they themselves have created.

The creationist sees man as a being on a plane that is not the top plane. The creationist concedes that there is a cosmic plane that is completely superior to our world in every way. The creationist allows that there is a being who is completely superior to us in every way. This being, the creator, is the only arbiter of right and wrong……..the only arbiter of truth. A creationist, if he or she is being honest………and an great many Christians are not, must use the creator’s definition of right, wrong and truth. So a creationist, must seek out, study, and follow the moral code of the creator. This is very hard.

It is not hard because we can’t find the code……..it is there in plain sight…… Love the creator…… Love your neighbor. It is hard because we resist the idea of not being in charge. We hate the idea that someone else gets to make the rules. We hate the idea that someone else tells us what we can and cannot do.

And there is the great irony.

In our hearts, Christians really want to be secular humanists. In fact, many…….perhaps most…….Christians are functional secular humanists.

The great challenge for Christians is to be humble. Humble enough to submit to the leadership of our creator.

The bad news is that we just are not very good at humility.

The good news is that humility is connected to one of God’s great promises……..a promise that we desperately need in America today:

“if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

God, NIV

One line from my daily prayer.

Let me start out by saying that I have been blessed. God has opened many doors for me.

I believe in God…….a God who loves me, who has promised that he will take care of me, who has me in his hand.

Please don’t get me wrong…….I’m not looking for sympathy.

But……..God has also closed a lot of doors in my life……..more than my share, it seems.

Some of the time, this has sent me in a new direction that turned out well.

But, a lot of the time, even after waiting for decades, I just can’t see the silver lining.

For the life of me, I cannot see the upside of the illness, injury, and death that has stalked my family.

What to do?

Deny God? I could say that if God really cared about me, he would never have allowed this. So….either he doesn’t care…….or he doesn’t exist.

Hate God? I could accept his existence, but lash out at him for the closed doors……the bad things that he has done…….or at best has allowed to happen.

Suffer in silence? I could box God up in a corner and never go there…….isolate my pain from my creator. Blame it all on fallen man…….or Satan.

Scream at God:, “What in the world were you thinking?”, “Why did you throw my family under the bus?”, “Why aren’t you on my side?”

Or I could open up a conversation. Pray……..read the owners manual. I could try to see the big picture. I could try to look at this from God’s side.

And I would learn a few things about God……my father……..Abba.

He loves me.

Abba loves ME.

He has plans……..for me…….for my well-being.

He has prepared a place for me, an open place…….when he is finished with me…….in this place.

He also has plans for you……..and for several billion other people that neither of us has ever met…….or even imagined.

God, Abba, is weaving a giant tapestry of billions of lives…….and I can only see a few threads of it. Perhaps the black thread that runs through my family is there to support and contrast a golden thread nearby. Maybe my pain…….is helping somebody else.

So……..I will trust God.

I will trust in his love.

I will trust in his promises.

If my thread today is black……….I will trust God…….
I will serve my place in God’s design.

The key to successful living in hard times is to understand and accept that we are not at the center of the universe…….we are a tiny part of something much bigger……..that a creator who loves us is building something that we can neither see nor comprehend.

But God can see it all………and he loves you and me…….and he has promised that he will take care of everything……..in the end.

the Lord was my support.
He brought me out into a spacious place;
he rescued me because he delighted in me.

David, NIV

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Jesus, NIV

There is a lot of bad teaching going on out there.

I’m not talking about the toxic preacher raining hell and brimstone down on “some other guy”. I’m talking about teachers……in our schools telling our children stuff that is just wrong. I’m talking about bad ideas being sold by the media and by our popular culture.

I have grand-daughters. One of them came home from her public school. She was talking about some LGBT issues and it was clear that she was being taught that this is normal and OK.

I need to make 2 things clear from the start:

First …….as Christians we are required to love our fellow man. This is not a recommendation. This is not optional. It is REQUIRED. This includes the loving the LGBT community.

Second……..school is a place for our children to learn facts and ideas that they will need to function in society. It is not a place to conduct social engineering. It is not a place for “educators” to sell their political views…….their opinions on sex.

This leads me to the point for this week. Our culture is constantly teaching us things that contradict the teaching of the Bible.

For example:

A gun is a good problem solving tool.
Sex outside of marriage is good clean fun.
A well crafted lie can get you out of trouble or solve a problem.
Lying to your parents is normal….they are not too bright anyway.
Christianity is narrow minded.
Christians are hypocrites.
Abortion is a civil right.
An unborn child of not a real human being.
Rules are for saps…….they limit your style.

How should you and I react when society teaches us something that contradicts the teaching of the Bible?

I believe that the Bible is often the direct words of my creator, God. The rest is at the very least inspired by God. There are parts of it that are clearly symbolic. But, there are parts that lay down very clear rules. Taken as a whole, the Bible, gives us extremely clear guidance on what is right and what is wrong…….on how we should live our lives. And, more and more, the teaching of the Bible is at is odds with what our culture is teaching.

When the Bible speaks directly, we need to pay attention and to follow its instructions. When the Bible says something……and our culture, our political party, our friends, or our teachers tell us something different, we must choose between the Bible and the popular culture.

I believe that the Bible trumps our culture. I believe that “Love God…..Love your neighbor” is a far better credo than the ideas being peddled by our culture today.

The culture says, “it is your right to kill your unborn child”.
The Bible says, “before you were formed in the womb, I knew you”.

The culture says, “any form of sex between consenting adults of OK.”
The Bible says that sex is for one man and one woman within the confines of marriage .

The culture says that it is OK to lie to accomplish something important.
The Bible says, “do not lie”.

The culture says it’s OK to lie to your parents.
The Bible says, “honor your parents”.

The culture says, “hate the other political party”.
The Bible says, “love your neighbor”.

Clearly, this means nothing to you…….if you think the Bible is just an old collection of stories………a popular mythology.

But, if you are a Christian…….then it’s time to start paying attention. You cannot discard a part of the Bible because you……or your political party, or the popular culture, or your friends, or your teacher…….don’t like it. Neither you nor I are smart enough……wise enough……..righteous enough…….to make that distinction.

You are either a Christian first……….or a Republican first…….or a Democrat first………or a teacher or media syncophant first.

Life is not a buffet. The Bible is not a buffet either.

You don’t get to pick out the ideas that you like.

You don’t get to discard parts of God’s teaching because you don’t like them…….because Donald Trump doesn’t like them…….because Nancy Pelosi doesn’t like them.

Because you are not God.

You are not in charge here.

If there is a part of the Bible that you reject……..because some talking head disagrees with it……. If there is a part of the Bible that you reject because you favorite politician rejects it………please reconsider……..because, in the final analysis, you will not answer to Sean Hannity or Jim Acosta or Donald Trump or Nancy Pelosi.

Take all that you can of this book upon reason, and the balance on faith, and you will live and die a happier man. (When a skeptic expressed surprise to see him reading a Bible)

Abraham Lincoln

Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in obedience to all I command you, that it may go well with you.

God, NIV

Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death.”

Jesus, NIV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

Jesus, NIV

Interesting word.

Whether you think about it or not, you deal with impossible all day, every day.

You come to a stop sign, look left, look right……there are no cars in sight and so you pull out into the intersection.

But you didn’t look up……. Why?

You didn’t look up……..because it is impossible that a car could come zooming down from the sky to hit you.

We constantly make decisions based on a set of assumptions that operate in the background…….. assumptions that never enter our consciousness. These assumptions make life easier…..and they usually work…….but not always.

Impossible is impossible…… usually……..but not always.

We believe that impossible is a black and white issue. Something is either possible……or it is impossible.

The trouble is that what we call impossible is based on a set of beliefs…….and more importantly on a set of assumptions. Those beliefs and assumptions change over time. Many of them are not correct in the first place. Many, that are correct today, may be incorrect tomorrow.

The simple truth is that the list of things that are impossible changes daily. Things that were once impossible are now possible. You can travel across the entire continent of North America in a few hours………not too long ago that would have been laughable.

In our secular world, an infinite universe operating on an infinite time frame is considered possible……..but the eternal life of your soul after your death is impossible.

So…….here is the moral of the story.

Impossible is a slippery concept to build your life on.

Impossible is a very dangerous concept to build your eternity on.

Galileo, among others, noticed that Mars sometimes moved backwards in its orbit. The culture of the day taught that this was impossible because the earth was the stationary center of the universe…….because everything orbited around us. Galileo was excoriated by the popular culture of his age………but he was right. He was right and they were wrong because the assumptions made by the culture were wrong.

Columbus sailed west and didn’t fall off the edge of the earth. This was thought to be impossible because the earth was thought to be flat. He was laughed at…….but he was right. The assumptions made by the culture, again, were wrong.

When I talk to a non-believer, they often will say, “you can’t possibly believe that the earth is only 4000 years old.” The subtext is, “you must be brain dead”.

Christianity is impossible because current science cannot account for a young earth……..or the resurrection of Jesus.

So……when someone tells you that something is impossible….when they laugh at you for the impossible thing that you believe………just remember Galileo.

If an idea is terribly important, don’t be put off……….because someone tells you that it’s impossible. Impossible just means that it is in conflict with the set of assumptions that they have made……..a set of assumptions that they probably can’t even list.

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

Mark Twain……..et al.

Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

Paul NIV

“With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Jesus, NIV

What is it about rules?

We know that we need them….don’t put your hand in the fire.

But, we chaffe against them….sex is for husbands and wives.

Give us a list of 20 rules and we will find 10 of them that we just don’t like.

Our inclination is to honor the rules that we like and ignore the ones that we don’t like. This way we get to do as we please.
This often doesn’t work well for those around us. Sometimes it doesn’t even work well for us. Ask any woman with an unwanted pregnancy that resulted from “recreational sex”.

In essence, we build a personal list of rules that we like…….a list that doesn’t restrict us from doing the things that we really want to do. Then we try to enforce that list of rules on everyone around us. And don’t kid yourself…….secular humanists are just as guilty of this as Christians.

So…..each of us operates on a home grown set of rules that doesn’t unduly restrict us……..that doesn’t stop us from doing as we please.

But…….is this honest………is this true?

A great deal of the rancor in our world today grows out of the conflict that arises from all of the different lists of personal rules that we each operate under………..and try to enforce on others.

Abortion is murder……..Control of my body is my right.

We must love and care for our fellow man……..we need a wall to keep them out.

How can what is right for you but wrong for me……be true?

I believe that this way of living is intellectually dishonest. We follow a custom set of rules that doesn’t inconvenience us……and we tell ourselves that we are “a good person”……..that we are living a righteous life. But, in fact, we are committing the most dangerous of all crimes……..we are lying to ourselves.

How do you know if you are guilty of this?

There is a fairly simple test. If your set of rules rarely tells you not to do something that you really want to do……if your set of rules rarely tells you to do something that you really don’t want to do……then you are probably dealing with a home grown, custom, set of rules………a set of rules that you have created that doesn’t interfere with your doing what you want. You are probably being dishonest with yourself. Either that…….or you and your set of rules are perfect.

Watch the talking heads on TV tonight. They are all trying to sell your their list of rules……..because, in their hearts, they think that they are right……that they are perfect…..that their set of rules is perfect……or at least close to it.

I don’t trust myself to make the rules…….and neither should you. We are both far too skilled at manipulating others……..of manipulating ourselves…….. to produce a set of rules that is honest……..that is true…….a set of rules that consistently tells us not to do things that we want to do…..that consistently tells us to do things that we don’t want to do.

How do we handle this?

The honest answer, the true answer, is to look outside of ourselves for a moral code.

In my life, I have used two different external moral codes. I won’t pretend that I have always followed them……..but I have tried. You can judge me for how they have worked.

I began with the Bible. In high school and college I drifted away and began using the Boy Scout oath and the Scout law. As an adult I have turned back to the Bible. Both of these moral codes are similar. On balance, they have both served me well.

Why have I settled on the Bible?

The first reason is that it is by far the most widely accepted moral code on the planet. Christians, Jews, and Muslims all use it……or at least parts of it.

The second reason and the more important reason is that Jesus used it.

Jesus died……a squad of Roman soldiers made sure of it. This is a historical fact.

The apostles and hundreds of witnesses saw him alive later on multiple occasions.

The resurrection of Jesus means that he was and is more than human…..that he was and is God.

So…….. if the Bible is a good enough moral code for God……then it is good enough for me………even the parts that I don’t understand…….even the parts that restrict me and my appetites.

I encourage you to explore the Bible as an external moral code……..unless you are already perfect.

The Cliff notes version?

Love God…..Love your neighbor.

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

Paul. NIV

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.

Jesus, NIV

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus, NIV