Lost in the Battle; Sifting Through the Politics to Find Truth

The Integrity of the Upright Guides Them,

but the Unfaithful are Destroyed by their Duplicity.  Proverbs 11:3

When was the last time you saw an unbiased news report?  As I tuned to the news to find out what was happening with a tragic event from this week, I found myself frustrated trying to sift through all the political agendas.  The event was one of the most tragic I have seen in my life, but it was worsened by opportunistic reporters.  I wanted to know the basic facts of what happened and to connect with the care being provided for the surviving family members but I found myself lost in the battle. It sickened me on many levels. 

First, it was repulsive to watch political pundits grossly manipulate the population for their own agenda.  There was no real concern for the people hurting and suffering, only emotionally driven speeches designed to take advantage of the situation to push their political interest.  Most of the rhetoric was crafted to hook the masses with their pain and suffering.  So little of the reporting spoke to the specific event.

Second, it was saddening to watch the general population allowing themselves to be manipulated so easily.  Has America become this naive?  I think we see the slant when it happens from the other side of the political isle but most are blind to the narratives that stroke their agenda.  It seems as if so few care that they are being used. 

Lastly, our country has lost its ability to report news.  Not to be too cynical, but all news broadcast appear to be propaganda machines.  They push out just the right amount of emotional bait needed for the masses to nibble; however, most take the bait hook, line and sinker.  Have news reporters lost their integrity?  Do they care about honest unbiased reporting?  Is there any shame in out-right lies?

Regardless of your political party, you should care about your personal integrity over all.  Honesty and integrity are fundamental principles taught in Proverbs.  There is very little chance of being a model Christian leader when you lack the ability to represent truth. I have no problem saying that I support a particular candidate and at the same time do not agree with all aspects of that candidate or a political party.  There is no way I would compromise my integrity simply to gain more votes for an election.  If  I did, could I ever expect anyone to listen to me present the gospel of Jesus Christ?  Obviously it is a resounding NO!

And in case your wondering....when you so blaring misrepresent the truth, manipulate the wounded and abuse your position of power, you have lost my confidence and trust regarding anything you report.

We need #Reconciliation

False Growth

"The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature." Luke 8:14


     On my last day off from work I engaged in one of my favorite past times, yard work!  However; on this particular day I needed to clear away a few bushes and small tress on the back side of my yard that met with a wood line.  What I thought was going to be a few hours of removal turned into a thorn infested fiasco.  As I looked at the tree line from my back deck, I thought I was enjoying the lush green row of bushes and trees that connected my yard to the woods.  As I got into the tree line I found myself in a thicket that had overrun the entire area.  I tore my cloths, scratched my arms up and fought the entire day to only cut the thicket back enough to have three 10 ft. piles of brush that needed to be hauled off.  Almost every tree had vines growing up it that branched off into huge leafy canopies.  As I pulled the thirty foot long vines down I was amazed at how I could not see the false green in the trees.

     For several hours I contemplated the parable of the seed and sower found in Luke.  The thorns had grown up through the bushes and around the trees so subtly that what appeared to be good healthy growth was actually weeds blocking the sun and inhibiting what we wanted.  The vines had overtaken several trees and their leaves masked the bare limbs.  The Lord impressed on my heart that "this is how weeds overtake someone's life."  Very slowly fear, anxiety and distracting coping mechanisms overtake the hope in your heart and your ability to reason in faith.  When the worries of life become strong enough they block you from the light, separating you from the spiritual source of life and growth.  When you look at yourself from a distance you may appear to be lush and green.  You may appear to be healthy and full of growth, but when you get into the weeds you find that there is more fear than faith growing in your life.     

     What an overgrown mess to fight through.  It was no simple task removing unwanted thorns and vines that slowly made their way around everything.  Fortunately, by getting right in the middle of the thicket, I was able to determine what needed to stay and what needed to go.

     Maybe we can take a closer look at the individual elements that make up our lives rather than glossing over who we are as a whole.  Maybe we see leafy growth in our lives that looks good from a distance, but it is actually the "riches and pleasures" that give us a false sense of growth.  A personal examination may be painful to work through, but well worth the effort when we come out of the thicket of anxiety and doubt.

If it is God's plan for you...

"'I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord..." Jeremaiah 29:11

     E. V. (Ed) Hill, who pastored Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, tells the story of how "Mama's" love and prayers changed his life. During the height of the Depression, Hill's real mother, who had five children of her own, didn't have enough food to go around, so she sent four-year-old Ed to live with a friend in a small country town called Sweet Home. Ed just called her Mama. As he was growing up in Sweet Home, Mama displayed remarkable faith which led her to have big plans for young Ed. Against nearly insurmountable obstacles, Mama helped Ed graduate from high school (the only student to graduate that year from the country school) and even insisted that he go to college.

     She took Ed to the bus station, handed him the ticket and five dollars and said, "Now, go off to Prairie View College, and Mama is going to be praying for you." Hill claims that he didn't know much about prayer, but he knew Mama did. When he arrived at the college with a dollar and ninety cents in his pocket, they told him he needed eighty dollars in cash in order to register. Here's how Hill describes what happened next:

I got in line …, and the devil said to get out of line …, but I heard my Mama saying in my ear, "I'll be praying for you." I stood in line on Mama's prayer. Soon there was [another new student ahead of me], and I began to get nervous, but I stayed in line …. Just about the time [the other student] got all of her stuff and turned away, Dr. Drew touched me on the shoulder, and he said, "Are you Ed Hill?" I said, "Yes." "Are you Ed Hill from Sweet Home?" "Yes." "Have you paid yet?" "Not quite."

"We've been looking for you all this morning," [he said].

I said, "Well, what do [you] want with me?"

"We have a four-year scholarship that will pay your room and board, your tuition, and give you thirty dollars a month to spend."

And I heard Mama say, "I will be praying for you!"

Can We Recklessly Engage God?

  The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

                                                                                                                                Proverbs 1:6-7
      

     Fearing God is a lost theological concept in our current culture.  With no fear of repercussion; people take the Lord's name in vain, discard the importance of God in society and dismiss the need for any real interaction with God.  On the other extreme, some people will claim a relationship with God and express it as it were a casual purchase.  From this perspective, what society thinks of God has become a product of  social/politically driven doctrine.     

     Can we recklessly engage God?  Let us consider a few basic Biblical examples of interacting with God that will provide us a starting point for this meditation.

We have:

An Image of Adam and Eve walking in the presence of God, but later being removed because of sin

An Image of OT Priest safely entering into the presence of God after following the guidelines of sanctifying, yet another OT Priest falling dead in the presence of God because of unrepentant sin
An Image of Jesus gathering children around himself  

An Image of an ill woman pressing against a crowd and connecting with the healing power of Christ

An Image of a warning from Paul to "work out your salvation in fear and trembling" 

An Image of a warning from Christ "not everyone who says 'Lord, Lord' will enter into the kingdom"

An Image of the Disciples reclining with Jesus at the Last Supper....and Jesus washing their feet
An Image of the love and restoration of Christ demonstrated on the Cross
An Image of Jesus separating the wheat from the chaff in the Last Days

     Many will say “I believe in God and I’m good".  For some this claim of God is very distant, as if they are looking at a mountain range from afar off.  They believe in it but never move toward the mountain.  They can discuss the mountain in great detail, write about it extensively, provide you a guide book for a journey to the top, but they have never touched the foundation.  Their knowledge sounds extensive but it lacks the understanding and the experience of taking the first step onto the mountain.

     Others will explain God carelessly or recklessly; as if they have tamed a Lion.  You hear them express their relationship with God like someone fearlessly engage a lion on their own terms.  They do not realize that they do not engage the lion on their terms, but only engage the lion on the lion’s terms.

     In this proverb: "The Fear of the Lord is the beginning knowledge" frames a starting point of learning.  The understanding comes from the written revelation, the depth of intellectual study, spiritual reflection and the illumination of truth that only comes from God.  It also declares a warning at this starting point, "Fear God."       

   
     We may better understand this "Fear of God" if we consider a busy intersection.  If you recklessly enter a busy intersection there is something to fear; but if you understand the rules of engagement you can safely enter and not fear the intersection.   I do not live with fear every time I come into an intersection; however, I also do not just rush through on my own developed traffic rules.  I understand the risk of crossing a double yellow line in a blind curve.  I understand the risk of not reducing my speed on exit ramps.  I understand the risk of not honoring a yield sign.  When I follow the guidelines, it removes the fear and enables me to travel safely to my destination.

What does "Fear the Lord" look like in your life?

I pray you stay strong and straight in your journey with the Lord!

Compassion for Haiti

"Harassed and Helpless, like sheep without a shepherd"   Matthew 9
             

It was a few months after the earthquake in Haiti when our response team landed in Port-au-Prince.  All of the news reports and security briefs did not prepare us for what we encountered.  As we exited the terminal, we were faced with thousands of Haitians pressing against a chain-link fence that surrounded the airport.  Everyone was begging for just one dollar.  “Carry your bags...one dollar, get your cab...one dollar, please....one dollar.”  As I looked across the ascending landscape all I could identify was a crumbling city and miles of makeshift camps. Our Church sponsored a school on the upper ridge and a partially erected shed on their property would serve as our headquarters.  Our mission was to connect with the local missionary, the school and a group of Pastors to assess what resources we needed from the States to provide continued support to their specific recovery effort. 

By this time most of the deceased had been collected and buried; however, there were an estimated 100,000 bodies still in the rubble. Everywhere we turned, humanitarian aid supplies were being sold.  There were shoes, cloths, tents, tarps and even NATO supplied water being sold for two dollars per 20 oz bag.  We spent our first few days working with the Pastors as they led “grass root” efforts in clearing away the debris from buildings.  I could not distinguish the Church from the long row of fallen buildings.  There weren't any contractors, inspectors or permits.  No heavy equipment, tractors or jack hammers; just lines of people swinging hammers, pulling out rebar and remixing concrete for a new wall. I was in shock as the day passed and we were still standing in front of a fallen building and had made no progress.  We needed wreckers, bulldozers and dump trucks to make a dent.  The optimistic enthusiasm I left the States with just collided with the prodigious depth of loss. These people were alone in their suffering, their government was absent, there was no law to protect them from crime and they did not have any sensible plan of recovery. Everything they were doing seemed to be in vain. I slipped away behind a pile of broken concrete and cried in my spirit. I could only think of Matthew 9 "When Jesus saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

That evening we had a meeting at the school with several pastors who were leading similar recovery efforts. We started a Critical Incident Debriefing, but ended up just listening and trying to take in what these men had been living for months.  One pastor could not help but cry out in anger "Why, why us... we were already the poorest country in the world....and now we don't even have that!” One by one they shared their anger, frustration, and even how they struggled with the sovereignty of God.  As the night came to an end and each left down the ridge to their prospective paths, I felt slightly conflicted.  I knew in just a short time I would leave for America while everyone here would face a continuing struggle with little or no resources. We vested ourselves, as well as our State side resources, to the people.

     It has been twenty years and the people are still struggling.  I sometimes hear American expressions of disgust or anger toward their situation.  While I would love to hold the corrupt government accountable for abandoning their own people, I have to keep my heart right toward the suffering.   We should all maintain our compassion.  Allow your heart to break for a people who have been impoverished for generations.  Have compassion for a society that struggles with out of control sickness.  Grieve for a people who, for comfort’s sake, are easily overlooked.  For they are truly “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”   

3 Strategies for Success; Romans 12:12

 "Be Joyful in Hope, Patient in Affliction and Faithful in Prayer" 

Joyful in Hope

                I’ll be the first to admit I look for “Murphy” to show up at every turn.  It has been said that the more responsibility you have the more contingency plans you have to make.  If you are not careful your expectations of life can become more about the negative hurdles than the journey toward success.  Being “Joyful in Hope” speaks to the mental and emotional state of being during trials.  If God is a part of our life, and He is, then God is a part of our trial and delivery.  So while life experiences may condition us to watch for the next hurdle, our expectation of God’s presence in our life should motivate us to maintain our pace toward the finish line. 

Patient in Affliction

                Patience is powerful.  Being “Patient in Affliction” does not mean to sit idle and do nothing.  Patience is meant to give you time to gained enough understanding to use wisdom in your next step.  Rather than being emotionally reactive with no time to develop a rational analysis or gain spiritual insight, use the delayed time period of affliction to empower yourself.  Too many people make rash decisions to get out of their trial as soon as possible.  In any situation you can advantage yourself with time.  Time to calm down, time to re-think, time to get your facts straight, time to seek spiritual insight, time to gain wisdom from others, time for the situation to possibly change, time to contemplate a better solution, time to decide if doing nothing could benefit you more than responding at all.  If you do not absolutely have to make an immediate decision, patience will empower you.     

Faithful in Prayer

It’s comforting when we have secure and meaningful relationships with the people who are important in our lives.  It’s the same way with God.  In uncertain times, it’s comforting to connect with God and know our relationship is secure.  When the disciples were battling the storm at sea, Jesus was asleep below.  When the disciples awakened Christ and sought His help, He simply stepped forward on the boat and spoke “peace, be still”.  Stop fighting your battles alone.  Don’t hesitate to pray to God in trials.  Seek Him out and bring Him to the forefront of your situation. 

“Father; help us to maintain our excitement about our Spiritual Journey, to wait strategically for your intervention, and to be able to recognize the