FreeTruth

One of the temptations we face when thugs take over government or the workplace or the neighborhood or the home is to run. We're tempted to try to escape, find a safer place, go into hiding, get away from the danger zone. I'm not sure this is the best way.

I wouldn't say that there is never a time to escape (after all I do remember an Acts 9:23-25 scene in which Paul escapes Damascus in a basket lowered over a wall, a scene that makes me smile as I play back the grainy footage of that night-time escape in my mind; a bit of a humbling moment for a mighty apostle, wouldn't you say?). Friends, if there is imminent danger to body or soul, escape is a very real option, and in some cases duty.

But something tells me that often God's preference for us in hard times, when the heat of persecution or cultural meltdown increases is not that we run but that we root.

You'll remember that Psalm 37:1-40 is God's counsel to us when thugs rule and evildoers turn up the heat. And among the many commands given us is that of Psalm 37:3--"dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness."

The Hebrew word translated "dwell" means to settle down, reside, stay. This is a call to stay put; to dwell in the land; to root rather than to run.

The additional admonition to "befriend faithfulness" is our translator's attempt to capture an uncertain Hebrew phrase. Check other translations and, instead of "befriend faithfulness," you'll find "feed on faithfulness" or "enjoy safe pasture" or "cultivate faithfulness."

One thing all the translation attempts have in common is a picture of steady, staying grace. Psalm 37:3 is either a call to settle down and be faithful, or to settle down and feed on God's faithfulness, or to stay and graze in the pasture of God's grace. One thing it is not is a call to run.

I'm reminded of God's words to His exiled people in Jeremiah 29:4-7. Folks, while in our own Babylonian captivity under thugs and thieves in high places, perhaps the best thing we can do is "build houses (or rent apartments) and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce" and then build godly families as Jeremiah commands.

In other words perhaps the best thing we can do is take root and bear fruit. Perhaps the best thing we can do is to go about the business of everyday living, quite indifferent to the turmoil around, just minding our own business (as Paul puts it in 1 Thessalonians 4:10-12), taking care of our own affairs, working hard, tending our families, living quiet lives of consistent godliness, and whatever happens, simply keeping on keeping on.

Hard times are not times to run and hide; they're times to stay and shine (Matthew 5:10-16). What the world needs today is not more Christians moving away from the hot spots, retreating into safety to build communes, but Christians dwelling in the cultural war zones and staying put come what may.

Today's world and church need willing Christian stayers: men and women who'd rather be faithful than safe; who'd choose deep roots in a war zone over a cozy bunker in the country; who stick it out in church and society even when the times get hard indeed.

Labels: Culture War, Faithfulness, Persecution, politics, Social Action

Psalm 37:1-40 is as good a soul-antibiotic as you'll find anywhere to remedy the disease of discontented rage infecting Christians in our topsy-turvy world today.

The first call of the Psalm is for us to trust; to trust God and commit our way to him. But why trust God? What do we know about God that is worthy of such trust when jobs are lost, careers screech to a halt, freedoms are curtailed, politicians remake our country, evildoers conspire in back rooms, and cultural morals sink lower (and stink more) than a cess pool?

I count no less than a dozen promises from God and about God that David passes on to us to undergird our trust in him. Let me point out a few:

1. God will break, crush, wither up, laugh at, obliterate, cut off, and in all other ways destroy the wicked (Psalm 37:2, 9, 10, 13, 17, 20, 34, 36, 38). God doesn't put up with wicked nonsense for long. There will be a day--in this world and in the next--when they will meet their end.
2. God will act (Psalm 37:5). I love that. Aslan is on the move. God moves, acts, works, does, rules, all to enact his plans. God is not silent and he's never still.
3. God will make justice blaze like the noonday sun (Psalm 37:6). Are we really being wronged? It'll be made right. Are our rights really being violated? God will not let that stand. Is injustice really happening? We need not fuss, fume, and fight for our rights. God will never let it go unresolved.
4. God is multi-generationally committed (Psalm 37:18, 25, 26). God loves us and our children. While evildoers will come and go, our children will remain forever, the blessed of the Lord. Friends: don't worry too much about your children's future in this mixed up nearly bankrupt world. They'll be fine. God has promised to see to it himself.
5. God is a spiritual hedonist (Psalm 37:4). Delight yourself in God (we hope to discuss how to do that tomorrow) and he'll give you your desires (i.e.-your delights and cravings). Think about that and you'll realize that it means that if you delight yourself in God, making him you highest desire and joy, you'll get more of God. God knows how to make his children happy, filling them with pleasure. It's by giving us himself during the raging afflictions of life.

Friends: don't curse the day or bemoan the times. Today's crises fuel the furnace out of which the pure gold of knowing God and delighting in God emerge. God loves to please us, so he's promised to give us our deepest desire: to know and be known by him. The Bible and experience tell us that trials, tribulations, thieves, and thugs do not diminish the believer's joy; they accentuate and increase it.

So let us embrace these troubled times as a gift from God through which he is going to give us more of himself! Do not fret over evildoers, for what man means for evil, God means for very great, very enjoyable, very satisfying good.

Labels: Culture War, Faith, Joy in Trials, Persecution, politics, Trust

Having seen that we are not to fret or fuss when evildoers have the rule over us, we need to learn from David what we are to do. Psalm 37:1-40 is laced with positive imperatives well worth our reflection.

Let's start where David does: "trust in the Lord...trust in him, and he will act" (Psalm 37:3, 5). This is connected in Psalm 37:5 with another command to "commit your way to the Lord." The Lord calls us in difficult times under dangerous people to make sure that our primary response is one of trust; trust in God.

The Hebrew words speak of entrusting ourselves to God. One word means literally: to roll onto. We are to roll our way onto God. That's another way of saying what Peter says: "[be] casting all your cares upon him for he cares for you" (1 Peter 5:7). 1 Peter was written for believers in days of thugs and thieves as well. His counsel then matches Ddavid's counsel hundreds of years before. Cast or roll your cares onto God.

Friends, I do not mean to be cliched. What we need in these troubling days is not bogus religious platitudes. What we need is real Godward faith; a conviction that every ruler, every thug, every thief, every trial is nothing more than a puff of air momentarily exhaled by a soveriegn all-wise, all-good heavenly Father who has nothing but the good of his people and the glory of his name in mind. Each will vanish as quickly as it appears, once its divine purpose is complete.

What we should feel, speak, and live in these hard days is simple, solid trust. What people should see and hear above all the shrill cries of Fox News on the right and NBC on the left, is our steady, calm, peace-filled voices, saying: "Our God is in the heavens doing whatever pleases him" (Psalm 115:2-11) and "Though he slay us, yet will we hope in him" (Job 13:15).

Every word we speak, every attitude we express, every response we exhibit should communicate that "though this world will devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God hath willed his truth to triumph through us." I am in God's hands, not man's. And there I am truly and eternally safe--even if persecutors come, arrest, and kill.

So Christian: rise up against the tide of rage and fear. Stand in God and in an unshakable trust in his good and sovereign hand. And make sure that it shows. The world desperately needs to see that someone on this crazy planet has the inside scoop on Who's really in control.

Labels: Culture War, Faith, politics, Social Action, Trust

Sorry for the few days away, but it could not be helped.

In my current series I'm trying to answer the political/social crises of our times with a biblical perspective. Psalm 37:1-40 is a timely and powerful response, not only to the thugs and thieves that govern us, but also to the less than stellar, that is to say: the largely ungodly response that many Christians are displaying toward these powers that be.

Given that we've had a few days pause, let me review to get us all up to speed. Friends: this is a moment for us to shine, not to whine; a moment to radiate hope and grace, not to communicate despair and rage; a moment to so live in the midst of confusion and chaos that people actually ask us for the reason for the hope that is in us (1 Peter 3:13-16), not see in us the same frustration and fury that they see in everyone else!

So (by way of review) I've asked the question: "How is your present ('Christian') response to all these evildoers different from that of others in the world who share you basic political or economic point of view, but who are not Christians?"

I have also wondered if our response reflects a sound, solid, sure conviction that while presidents and kings come and go, "in the end there will be only one King standing?"

You see: a right relationship with, and view of, God should enable us to stop fretting (remember: the psalmist exhorts us not to fret three times). So Christian: "Cool down. Chill. Don't get emotional heart-burn over the thugs and thieves of human society. Whatever right responses there may be--like speaking out against evil, voting evil out of office when able, not conforming to the evil, rescuing victims from the evil, and praying for the evildoers--one thing we are not to do, is go into a slow burn. Don't become a boiling cauldron of worry, anger and rage (Psalm 37:8). Just don't go there."

The psalmist would have us be content, not envying the wicked or desiring more than we have (Psalm 37:1, 16). So what if politicians take away our present standard of living? So what if they limit our freedoms? So what if they don't listen to our voice? So what if they seem to get away with political thuggery? So what if my taxes go through the roof? So what--and yes, I mean it--if the USA we have known is forever a thing of the past?

Christians and the Church have flourished in conditions far worse than any on our horizon. We should prepare to do the same without grousing or complaining. The testimony of the gospel and the glory of Christ is at stake. We should be far more concerned about handling the abuse of our rights with grace than we are about the fact that our rights are being abused.

I'm not advocating that these evils don't matter at all, or that they shouldn't grieve us (for all evil should grieve us). But I am saying that whatever a right response to them might be, it does not include fret, rage, and discontentment. We should not fret over evildoers or allow ourselves the crippling and dishonorable "freedom" to rage against others or sink into unhappy discontentment because society just might be taking a really bad turn for the worse.

Based on David's inspired words I'd ask: "Do you have a little? Do you have today's bread, a couple of outfits to wear, something simple to get around in, a roof over your head, a glass of water, enough health to get by? Then you are better off than the D.C's power-grabbers and all the kings and presidents on earth. Make sure to enjoy what God has given you more than you worry about what government is taking away. Don't panic and fret over the media and cultural elite's seeming stranglehold on our culture. In the end they will perish while you endure."

I think that an accurate read of American history reveals that she has endured thugs and thieves at least as bad, and I think, far worse than what we have today (read about the political, business, slavery and segregated world of the 1,800's through 1960). I'm telling you: those were evil, evil days; days of unspeakable injustices at the hands of slave owners, business tycoons, and political power-brokers.

Yet those evildoers have come and gone--and the Church and people of God remain and are going strong! Brothers and sisters: in the end there will only be One King, One Power, One Dominion standing--and we'll be part of His kingdom.

So Psalm 37 has helped us to see what we are not to do in reponse to culture's thugs and thieves. From here on for the next several days we'll look at what we are to do. I hope you'll stay tuned.

Labels: Culture War, Faith, politics, Social Action

When the world seems run by scoundrels, and when it seems like their skulduggery works so that they prosper, it can be tempting to wish we were in their shoes. This is one of the tempations that David challenges us to avoid in Psalm 37:1-40. "Be not envious of evildoers" (Psalm 37:1)!

One reason it's folly to envy those in power and who seem to be getting their way at the expense of others is that their flower is fast fading (Psalm 37:2). For the righteous to wish for what the wicked has--their power, their wealth, their influence, their victoires, their control of the White House, their manipulation of the system--would be as foolish as if the sun would envy a hundred watt bulb! The sun is more brilliant, and the sun's radiance more enduring. The 100 watter will flicker and die.

In short, the powerful and prosperous above us will "wither like the green herb" beneath a blazing sun (Psalm 37:2), while "the heritage of the blameless will remain forever" (Psalm 37:18).

For this reason, "Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked" (Psalm 37:16). Do you have a little? Do you have today's bread, a couple of outfits to wear, something simple to get around in, a roof over your head, a glass of water, enough health to get by?

Then you are better off than the D.C's power-grabbers and all the kings and presidents on earth. Enjoy what God has given you more than you worry about what government is taking away from you. Don't panic and fret over the media and cultural elite's seeming stranglehold on our culture. In the end they will perish while you endure.

Do you have a little with a righteous standing before God in Christ? You have more than all the wicked kings of earth combined! Do you have today's bread along with an increasingly transformed and righteous life by the sanctifying mercy of the Holy Spirit? Then you are the rich one. You are the truly powerful one. You are the one toppling the dominions and powers within by the grace of God.

I plead with my friends to give far more time and attention to enjoying, reading about, delighting in, and being satisfied with all they have in Jesus than they do reading about, fretting over, fighting for, and arguing about what the government is taking away, or how government might be better run.

I'm not saying that we shouldn't speak up or be concerned. I'm just saying that if you're fretting and fuming on a regular basis about all that's wrong with the world and the powers that be, you're letting them take away far more than your freedom or taxes. You're letting them take away your joy and contentment.

Whatever government can take away, they cannot touch a heart contented in God. Friends, whatever you do, don't envy the wicked or pine for the good old days. Live in the present moment of God's goodness and righteousness--and whatever happens you will be able to remain unfazed and unflappably joyful in your soul.

Labels: Contentment, Culture War, Faith, politics

So what do we do when it seems that thugs and thieves have the upper hand with no one to stop them? How do we respond when the wicked flourish, and the righteous don't?

Once again I call us back to Psalm 37:1-40. There are more than 20 imperatives in this Psalm, with 3-5 more implied commands for us to keep in mind. Three of them tell us what not to do when the wicked prosper; the rest tell us what to do. Let's look today at one of the "thou shalt nots", thrice repeated in the Psalm:

"Fret not yourself because of evildoers...
"Fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way...
"Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil" (Psalm 37:1, 7, 8).

Sounds a little emphatic doesn't it?!

The Hebrew word repeated in each of these verses actually means: to burn, to kindle, to get all heated up. The translation "fret" is actually a little weak. It speaks of emotion more heated than mere fret or a tad of worry. David is telling us not to get all "hot and bothered" when the wicked seem to have the upper hand.

Cool down. Chill. Don't get emotional heart-burn over the thugs and thieves of human society. Whatever right responses there may be--like speaking out against evil, voting evil out of office when able, not conforming to the evil, rescuing victims from the evil, and praying for the evil-doers--one thing we are not to do, is go into a slow burn. Don't become a boiling cauldron of worry, anger and rage (Psalm 37:8). Just don't go there.

In Psalm 37:8 David gives a compelling reason why we must not travel that road --"Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil." When we allow the prosperity and success of the wicked to get to us, we begin to share their wickedness. Sustained fret and anger, even when we think it's justfied, begins to eat at the soul, and sin is not far behind. Fretful anger leads only to evil.

Soon, instead of loving, doing good to, and praying for our enemies, as Jesus tells us to, we will be:

-cursing the wicked
-plotting against them ourselves
-justifying lying and shenanigans of our own to try to dethrone them
-indulging unsubstantiated rumors about them
-believing the very worst about them
-hating and despising our enemies

So what do we do? One way to turn down the heat a bit is to consider the following question: "When all is said and done, what is the very worst that man can do to me?" Jesus tells us in Matthew 10:28 not to "fear those who can kill the body, but cannot kill the soul."

The very worst that man can do to me is kill me. But when man kills, God makes alive. What man puts in the ground God raises up. If the wicked persecute the righteous they only add to the reward of the righteous (Matthew 5:10, 11). If they kill the righteous, they only hasten the day of the saints' going home to glory.

Man's worst is God's best. That ought to help cool our passions.

Labels: Culture War, Faith, Hope, politics, Social Action

Yes, the circumstances of the righteous in Psalm 37:1-40 still exist today. Wrongdoers have power and they use it for agendas dripping with evil. Driven by a lust for self, power, money, sex (yes it can be proven that sex of an immoral nature is the real motive behind various contemporary social, political, and even scientific views of our times), and a raging enmity against God (Psalm 37:20), they scheme against God and godliness everyday of their lives.

And often they prosper in their scheming ways (Psalm 37:7). I don't know about you, but it's hard to avoid the impression that political thugs and thieves are sitting in the same dark secret rooms where they've hatched their evil plots, now lighting up a victory cigar while smirking about how they've pulled another fast one on the peons below.

Evil men tend to be smug. In the preceding Psalm we see that the wicked has "no fear of God...[and]flatters himself...that his iniquity cannot be found out...[and] plots trouble while on his bed" (Psalm 36:1-4). This smug scorn of God, God's Law, and God's people continues prevalent today at every level of human society, right up into the halls of the White House, and across the world.

The world lives in open mockery of God, Truth, and Righteousness.

But God always has the last laugh. Indeed, "the Lord laughs at the wicked" (Psalm 37:13). When the kings of the earth "set themselves...and take counsel together against the Lord...saying, 'Let us break their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us,'" (Psalm 2:1-3) this is what happens: "He that sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision" (Psalm 2:4).

The Lord sits enthroned in heaven in open mockery of the thuggery of man. When man defies God's kingdom and seeks to establish one of his own, God simply laughs. He laughs a derisive, scornful, mocking, sovereign last laugh in return.

God laughs at them the way they laugh at us. The only difference is: God is holy and righteous in doing so, while they are simply fools.

And doomed fools at that. A major emphasis of Psalm 37 is the ultimate end of the unrepentant wicked (see Psalm 37:2, 9, 10, 15, 17, 20, 28, 35, 36, 38). They will be cut off and broken. They will perish, fade like grass in a blazing sun, vanish like smoke, simply "be no more".

So what does this mean? It means that when the wicked laughs at God, it leaves God unfazed and unchanged. But when God laughs at the wicked, it leaves the wicked in ruin and rubble.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, please know this: the unrepentant wicked will not long endure. If they insist on laughing at God He will soon have the last laugh. Their machinations and scheming prosperity simply will not last. In the end God wins.

In the shadow of this truth let us keep two things in mind:

1. First, let us pray for the wicked that they would repent before the laugh of God destroys them. So long as they have breath, there is opportunity for them to repent and come to Christ. Pray that God--in His just wrath--will remember mercy. Let us strive that when we think of the wicked fool who laughs at God we will be moved to compassion. For in man's folly is his ruin, unless he humbles himself before heaven's throne.
2. Second, if the wicked refuse to repent, let us simply never lose sight of this fact: our God is in the heavens deriding the arrogance of man. His sovereign plan is advancing toward the Day when the whole universe will hear the righteous, booming, blasting, consuming last laugh of God.

In the end there will be only one King standing.

Labels: Culture War, politics, Sovereignty of God, Trust

Recently in the space of minutes I read first, numerous comments by Christians regarding our present political/cultural/social situation, and then second, Psalm 37:1-40. The contrast was so sharp, so diametrically opposite, so glaringly revealing that I knew as a pastor and brother in Jesus, I would need to call attention to it. I do so not to criticize sincerely concerned people, but to call to a better and more soul and God-pleasing way.

Daily comments from Christians about our cultural situation and political leaders express such anxiety, such anger, such fear, such hostility, such despair, such rage, such angst that I am much concerned that we as Christians are missing a grand opportunity to shine forth something very different to a watching world.

We are missing an opportunity to shine forth Psalm 37.

Over the next week or two I think it could transform us to meditate together step by step through this Psalm for the deepening joy and shining testimony of our lives.

I'd begin by calling attention to what this psalm makes obvious: there have always been thugs and thieves in high places. David uses multiple words to describe those of his day:

-Evildoers (Psalm 37:1, 9)
-Wrongdoers (Psalm 37:1)
-The wicked (Psalm 37:12, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 32, 35, 38, 40)
-Enemies of the Lord (Psalm 37:20)
-Ruthless (Psalm 37:35)
-Transgressors (Psalm 37:38)
-Duplicitous thieves (Psalm 37:21a)

The psalmist calls his times "evil times" (Psalm 37:19) in which sufferings were many, and plotting and dangerous people (Psalm 37:7, 12, 14, 15) gnashed their teeth against the righteous, conniving and scheming to destroy. These were people who gathered in dark, secret, smoke-filled rooms to formulate evil devices and strike deals to foist their evil agendas on common ordinary run of the mill decent people, no matter what the cost in human life or suffering those agendas might entail.

Let me be clear right up front: I agree with my many Christian friends who believe that there are such thugs and thieves in high places today. The degree of political muggings and evil shenanigans currently going on is appalling. Evildoers are in high places (and by and large such evil-doing is bi-partisan, spilling over into Tea Partiers, libertarians and the whole lot of them). Everybody's got an agenda. Few have a truly godly one.

So what do we do? David's inspired counsel to the oppressed victims of thugs and thieves differs sharply from the common response of American Christians. We'll examine that response in coming days.

But first let me ask a question to help you examine your own response: "How is your present ('Christian') response to all these evildoers different from that of others in the world who share you basic political or economic point of view, but who are not Christians?"

Is your response different in any clear and obvious way from Rush Limbaugh (the blustering rant), Glenn Beck (the mad Mormon), Bill O-Reilly (the verbal 'Catholic' bully), Sean Hannity (the smirking wiseacre), or any of the other conservative, anti-Obama, anti-establishment, government-bashing voices that don't seem to have a God-centered breath in their lungs, or Christ-satisfied, Heaven-trusting bone in their body?

Would an observer be able to tell the difference between you and them? Think about it.

As you do this, you may choose to read Psalm 37 repeatedly. Such reading in faith will be like an oxygen machine. It'll fill your lungs with faith and joy, yes even when thugs and thieves seem to prevail.

Labels: Culture War, Faith, politics, Social Action, Trust

Two "religious news" items came up on my monitor last Friday while I was at work. One, an electronic newsletter from the IRD (Institute on Religion and Democracy), and the other, a press release announcing the "Manhattan Declaration" sent to me by my friend in Chicago who edits Touchstone, and Salvo, two excellent Christian periodicals.

In the IRD newsletter, I learned that certain Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians are lobbying hard for the passage of the trillion dollar health care plan now moving to the U.S. Senate. Boards from these mainline Protestant denominations were angered by the recent U.S. House vote that prohibited government health insurance funded abortions (a pro-life victory won largely by the efforts of U.S. Catholic Bishops).

The other news I received Friday was of the issuing of the "Manhattan Declaration: A call of Christian Conscience." It is an eloquent plea from Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical believers to uphold the sanctity of life, the institution of marriage, and religious liberty. It also includes an emphatic refusal to compromise the proclamation of the gospel.

Old alliances no longer serve. Our Reformed and Evangelical views on these issues seem to align us more closely with the Orthodox and Catholic than with mainline protestant churches, many of which have joined ranks with "liberal elites."

I cannot remember the last time I described myself as a "Protestant." As a child I found the label handy in distinguishing myself from Roman Catholics, but I don't use it these days.

What do you think? Is it safe to publicly align ourselves with others who call themselves believers in order to stand together on the important moral issues of our day? Can we, while holding theological differences, still unite on other issues?

Over 22,000 have signed this declaration since Friday. What say ye... do we sign on, or no. And if not, why not?

Labels: Culture War, Guest Post, politics, Witness

I mentioned somewhere recently that a couple weeks back when the government run clunker program was going my mechanic called me and virtually begged me to participate. I can't imagine why...

I'm not sure that I could have said anything to make this good friend understand, since he and I don't come at life with entirely the same set of values, but maybe you will understand. I really had two reasons why I couldn't trade in my beat up car for a $4,000 gift start on a new one.

Reason one: in this particular case, the program seemed so much a money grab from the rich to give to others, that it felt--and I think it was--like theft. I simply felt I had no right to that money, that it was a pure political ploy to gain popularity among the masses at the expense of the better off in our society (i.e.-those who already pay a massively disproportionate amount of our taxes), and that participating in a political scheme of this sort would constitute stealing money not mine. The government was so brazenly taking $4,000 out of someone's pocket and putting it in mine, and that was so manifestly a matter of thievery that I couldn't stomach it.

Reason two: even with the $4,000 financial jump start, I would have been paying more in a year to get a new car than it costs me to run the old one. Others may think differently and with what seems like, and may be, good reason, but as for me, so long as I can keep my present car on the road less expensively than it costs to buy a new one (without imperiling anyone's well-being in the process), I'm sticking with the old.

It's not that I'm particularly special or penny-pinching in doing this; it's just that I have a car solely to get me from one place to another (it is neither status symbol nor toy to me), and so whatever can get me from one place to another safely and least expensively is what I'm going to drive. After all, I've got a few other treasures I'd like to accumulate and care for that are worth far more to me (and have dividends that last far longer!), than a new set of wheels.

I don't think my mechanic got this. Do you?

Labels: economics, money, politics, stewardship, theft