Respecting an Establishment of Religion

            As I was searching the Word this morning to find something to share for the “Word of the Day,” I ran across these verses in the first chapter of Jeremiah:

⁴ The Lord gave me this message:

⁵ “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.”

⁶ “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!”

⁷ The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you.

⁸ And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

⁹ Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said, “Look, I have put my words in your mouth!

¹⁰ Today I appoint you to stand up against nations and kingdoms. Some you must uproot and tear down, destroy and overthrow. Others you must build up and plant.”

            The interesting thing about this particular passage – as it concerns me today – is the fact that the Christian faith is being persecuted at an alarming rate. I understand that since its inception it has been scrutinized and persecuted even to the point that Jesus was crucified and most every one of his disciples were martyred to prevent “The Way” from prevailing but this generation might really be the last opportunity for our society to reclaim our Judeo-Christian values.

            As an Army National Guard Chaplain, I can only give you a snapshot from my foxhole. There appears to be a consistent theme of challenging Chaplains to defend their callings at the expense of their faiths. By that I mean, in order for a Protestant Christian Chaplain to continue serving the Nation and Constitution, we are being challenged by entities within our government and organizations outside our government to compromise what we have sworn to “uphold and defend” not only as written in our Constitution but as agreed upon within our various denominations and Endorsing bodies.

            Jesus said, “If the world hates you, remember that it hated me first” (John 15:18). It’s not surprising to be persecuted. What’s surprising is the methodology, by which Christian Chaplains are being attacked – in the name of pluralism, Equal Opportunity, quotas, Political Correctness … whatever! You name it! But here’s the beauty in the beast: through all this we get to share the light and hope of Jesus Christ! Regardless of the oppression, we have the power of the Holy Spirit, compelling us to rise above this and share his hope! “And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world” (1 Corinthians 15:19).

I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13).

For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed, but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die (Philippians 1:20).

This is why we work hard and continue to struggle, for our hope is in the living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers (1 Timothy 4:10).

But Christ, as the Son, is in charge of God’s entire house. And we are God’s house, if we keep our courage and remain confident in our hope in Christ (Hebrews 3:6).

Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true (Hebrews 6:11).

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your Christian hope, always be ready to explain it (1 Peter 3:15).

            I encourage you – all of us – to pray for our Chaplains – the men and women serving those who serve. May they never be put in the position to compromise their own faiths regardless of which faith they claim.

Amendment 1 to the US Constitution

            “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Defenders of the Faith

The Bird in the Ceiling

            All morning while I’ve been at work there’s been a bird in the drop ceiling. I’ve heard it jumping around up there and have even hit some of the tiles hoping to “scare” it out of the area but it seems to have made the space above my office its new home. I borrowed a broom from the guys across the hall hoping that I could lift a tile and give the bird an escape route.

            As God so often does, He painted a picture for me concerning my own life and the sin I so easily get caught up in. Like the bird “trapped” in the drop ceiling, so my life “trapped” in sin is similar. Sometimes I get into the sin by chance, sometimes on purpose but, I guess, it’s ultimately my choice to enter into sin … or, at the very least, to entertain the temptation to sin.

            I know that Scripture tells me this: “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure” (1 Corinthians 10:13).

            Just like me giving that little bird an escape route with the open tile, God gives me – He gives each of us – an escape route from temptation. Whether it be claiming his Word or making something blatantly obvious like hanging up the phone during a risqué phone call to someone besides one’s spouse, God always gives a way out – the opportunity to do the right thing.

            Let’s make the hard right instead of taking the easy left.

Of Mice and Men

Last night I heard them again … the critters … the mice that had left their droppings in our utensil drawer. I had been sleeping in the Blue Room right off the kitchen (not because I was in the dog house but because our niece, Lily, is staying with us) and at about 2300 I’d hear a mouse or mice rummaging through our kitchen drawers – dirty rats! Mind you, this is a rental house that we’ve only been in a month. At our house in Livingston we had two possums living under our house. It seems like these crazy animals are drawn to us.

            Anyway, being the good wife that she is, Amanda was proactive and got some traps. Of course, being the good husband I am, I baited them and placed them. After placing them, Amanda and Lily went back to our bedroom to settle down and watch a movie because I was in the Blue Room watching Hurt Locker and didn’t want our visiting 11 year old niece to watch a war movie. So I’m sitting there watching the EOD guys do their thing and all of a sudden – SNAP – and then the twitching and kicking of an animal trying to escape its inevitable death.

            Sure enough, I put the movie on pause, walked over to the drawer, slid it open and Jerry mouse was twitching the last few seconds of his life away. Out of respect for the dying (I don’t think it was that formal to be honest with you but I’m just trying to make this thing dramatic) I closed the door and allowed him to go home to the great Cheese Head in the sky alone. He died alone!

            Of course, I felt compelled to share this great victory with Amanda so I went to the room and told her that with 15 minutes of putting out the trap we had our first KIA. She had a look of disgust on her face but asked, “How big is it?” That planted a seed in my mind: “Why not take a picture of it and text it to her?” I did. Haha. Amanda heard the second trap snap around 0200 and sure enough, the mice community had sent out a second mouse either for recovery or recon. Either way, it paid the ultimate price.

            Now this morning – while I’m doing my Bible study – these mice came back to mind and as God so often does, He uses them for an illustration. These mice – in some people’s mind – weren’t doing anything to hurt anybody. Maybe so but they were where they weren’t supposed to be and they were taking a dump there to spite us! Knowing that mice want food, Amanda and I set out a trap with bait we knew would be attractive to them.

            Isn’t that how Satan works us? Think about it! Think about the Garden of Eden.

¹ The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

² “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. ³ “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’”

⁴ “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. ⁵ “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

⁶ The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. ⁷ At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.

            Satan knew exactly what Eve wanted! He knew the desire was for that which looked, smelled, and in fact, tasted good. But it was that very thing – that bite – that forced the trap to snap down on her “neck,” break it, and choke the very life that she was searching for right out of her.

            Aren’t we all like that? Don’t we go after what looks good, what’s appetizing, knowing full well that it’s not the best? It’s not God’s will that we simply feed our appetites. We are to be fed – by the Spirit. We are to be filled – by the Spirit. We are not to feed the flesh.

The Greatest Show on Earth

It's been about a month now that Amanda, the kids, and me moved over to Knoxville. Despite it being a tough decision to move with the distance now between family, friends, church, and the great land that makes up the Upper Cumberland, Amanda and I both feel like it was good decision.

Obviously, one of the perks of moving from a small, rural town to a larger city is that you get a wider variety of things of which to be exposed. For instance, Knoxville has a great Greenway trail. It also has a great view of the Smokey Mountains from almost anywhere in the city which means proximity to the Park and to Beech, Sugar, and Cataloochie for skiing (if and when it snows)! There's also a variety of dining, shopping, sporting events, and education. The number and variety of churches here is pretty amazing here too.

As I mentioned before, along with variety comes proximity. We no longer have to drive an hour and a half to see a show we might want to see. Case in point, the circus. It was in town over the weekend and we took the opportunity to take the kids and one of our nieces. It was a lot of fun. WB&BN would still make P.T. Barnum proud (and I say that like I know the old boss).

It's been billed as, "The Greatest Show on Earth," and people still come from miles around to see what kind of "magic" the performers and animals will create. The only disappointing comment I heard was from an older spectator who complained that there were no lions! Oh well. There was a guy who let the Clown drive a Jeep loaded with people over him! That's right! Drove it over him!

People came eagerly - expecting to see something. There was a woman like that in the Bible. She had a nasty medical issue for most of her adult life and all she wanted was to be healed. So she went doctor to doctor trying to get healed. It wasn't until she approached The Greatest Show on Earth - Jesus - in the midst of a crowd that she really began to fully understand how great He really was. She just touched his garment and was made whole.

How many of us are willing to do that? Press in despite the mob? Press in knowing that his power will overwhelm us? Press in despite the inadequacies in every area of our lives - the ones we try to hide as well as the ones that are easily exposed?

One of the coolest things I saw at the circus this time was the acrobat who walked upside down 100 or more feet off the ground ... with no safety net ... just sticking his feet in some contraption that was loops hanging from the scaffolding. Amazing!

Jesus is like that ... amazing? He does that which is breathtaking! He does that which is well worth the price paid!

Symphony of Destruction

Tonight, Amanda and the Pooheads were back in Livingston so I was up in the Island Home residence (that sounds so snobby doesn’t it?) and was doing some Chaplain Accession stuff and homework, had iTunes running and one of my favorite songs from yesteryear came on: “Symphony of Destruction” by Megadeth. At the risk of getting Dave Mustaine fired up because of copyright laws, I’m going to reprint the lyrics and you tell me how fitting the words are for our current national situation:

You take a mortal man

And put him in control

Watch him become a god

Watch people’s heads a’roll … a’roll …

Just like the Pied Piper

Led rats through the streets

We dance like marionettes

Swaying to the Symphony of Destruction

Acting like a robot

It’s metal brain corrodes

You try to take its pulse

Before the head explodes … explodes …

CHORUS

The earth starts to rumble

World powers fall

A warring for the heavens

A peaceful man stands tall … tall …

CHORUS

What’s the Word saying to you on this one??

Facing the Giants

            So I’m reading my Life Journal schedule for today and it includes a couple of chapters from Numbers, some stuff from Psalm 90, and some stuff from Mark 2. Obviously, Numbers always seems like a challenge when you sit down to read it because of its very name. I mean, really, who wants to sit down and peruse the Bible like an accountant? Not bashing CPAs or anything but it’s just not my cup of tea, sitting around, crunching numbers.

            Moving on … one of the great stories in Numbers is that of Moses sending out the 12 spies into the Promised Land. From a military stand point, it was a recon mission by the best of the best. These guys were all tribal leaders of the people of Israel. They were hand-picked by Moses to go and bring back an assessment of what they were about to face.

            Now, the interesting thing about all this is that God had already brought them out of Egypt. He had already delivered them from the hand of Pharaoh at the Red Sea. He had provided for them with manna and quail in the desert. He had promised them that they were going to the Promised Land; that he would deliver it to them! ^“The LORD now said to Moses, ^‘Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes’” (Numbers 12:1-2).

            So, here’s what happened next:

²⁵ After exploring the land for forty days, the men returned ²⁶ to Moses, Aaron, and the whole community of Israel at Kadesh in the wilderness of Paran. They reported to the whole community what they had seen and showed them the fruit they had taken from the land. ²⁷ This was their report to Moses: “We entered the land you sent us to explore, and it is indeed a bountiful country—a land flowing with milk and honey. Here is the kind of fruit it produces. ²⁸ But the people living there are powerful, and their towns are large and fortified. We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak! ²⁹ The Amalekites live in the Negev, and the Hittites, Jebusites, and Amorites live in the hill country. The Canaanites live along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea and along the Jordan Valley.”

³⁰ But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

³¹ But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” ³² So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. ³³ We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Only Caleb was bold enough to say, “Let’s move forward on this.” Why is that? We often get this story told to us in some form or other and hail Caleb as the one, who walked in faith; the one who “faced the giants.” Here are just a few observations from my reading this morning and how God was speaking to me:

·         The key is verse 2: “Send out men to explore the land of Canaan, the land I am giving to the Israelites. Send one leader from each of the twelve ancestral tribes.”

o   Caleb was already walking in what God had promised the people.

§  Despite all the heartaches that Israel caused God through their disobedience and whining, there were some who truly followed him.

§  I believe that’s why Caleb was the only one who said, “Let’s go!”

·         He was the only one truly prepared to lay it all on the line because he’d been laying it on the line up to that point already.

o   Preparation + Opportunity =

o   Caleb, despite the giants, decided to believe what God had said and therefore overcame any fear that he might have had.

§  This makes me think of Peter walking on the water (Matthew 14:24-33).

·         Peter, despite his doubt later, got out on the water and walked!!!

·         The Church was built on what he did through the power of the Holy Spirit!

·         The key is that he walked in faith in a calling already given by God.

o   He was already in God’s will.

o   He was obedient.

o   And he was relentless about its pursuit.

§  He was eager to go claim it NOW given the opportunity!

My question then becomes: what is the Word saying to you? To follow along with what Alex Kendrick and the film Facing the Giants points out … what giants do you need to overcome? You’re already called so what’s holding you back? Is the thing that’s holding you back really bigger than the destination to which God is calling you to journey?

You know, it’s the journey that prepares you to take the destination. I pray that we allow it to prepare us as much as I pray that we push through the obstacles and challenges to get to our destinations!