Irony

We just got back from vacation. We had a great family time, spending a couple days in Hershey PA and a couple more days in Washington DC. It was a trip full of 'ironies' for me. It was exhausting, yet refreshing at the same time, if that's possible.

The ironies that come to mind mostly surrounded things in our nation's capital:

Irony #1 - While visiting Arlington National Cemetery, the place where thousands of American heroes have been laid to rest, we were brow-beaten by a customer service representative who could barely speak English. She was frustrated because we couldn't understand her. I am all for the 'melting pot' thing, but it's a sad irony that I came to pay my respects to the fallen Americans and someone enjoying their freedom in America, working at Arlington, considers their privilege of working there as 'just a job' instead of the honor that it is.

Irony #2 - The Holocaust Museum and the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History just a couple blocks from each other has me scratching my head. Let me explain. Everyone knows about the Holocaust and the genocide that took place at the hands of Adolph Hitler. On the side of the Holocaust Museum there is a quote by Ronald Reagan: "We must make sure that their deaths have posthumous meaning. We must make sure that from now until the end of days all humankind stares this evil in the face... and only then can we be sure that it will never arise again". Sadly, Adolf Hitler exploited the racist ideas of Darwinism to justify genocide. Where do we find Darwinism in Washington DC? At the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, of course - two blocks away. Busloads of high school kids being indoctrinated into evolutionary thought. They don't even try to hide it or be subtle about it anymore - there's a new film at the museum about butterflies called 'Partners in Evolution'. If we want to make sure something like the holocaust repeats itself, I suppose we can continue to teach our children that we were not created in the image of God, but rather we are a product of chance.

Irony #3 - We live in a culture that is trying to get 'God' out of the public square. Some people even want to re-write history and say that the founding fathers were not Christians and that our country was not founded upon Christian/Biblical principles. The irony in this is that God, Eternal Father, Jesus Christ, the Almighty, the Creator, and other like terms are inscribed or engraved into virtually every marble wall, monument, building, statue or other memorials in the city.

Irony #4 - We visited the Bureau of Printing and Engraving. We saw literally millions of dollars in stacks and bales. We saw expensive buildings, expensive cars, expensive clothing, expensive houses. It's a different lifestyle in that city. I know people who have migrated to D.C. in pursuit of all those expensive things. And yet true joy seemed elusive in the faces of those whose eyes met mine on the street. The stress, the rush and the rat race of the work day drowned out any small hope of peace and happiness. The silence in the Metro stations was deafening as the thousands of empty faces proceeded to their next destination, just like they did yesterday and the day before. I wondered about all that money and its false promise of happiness.

More thoughts on Washington DC in upcoming posts next week.

Glad to be home,
Mark

Last Day!

Today was a day of 'lasts'. Sort of...
Today was my oldest son's last day of school. Sort of... he'll start second grade in 90-some days.
Today was my last day of work. Sort of... I'll go back on June 2nd after a week or so of vacation.
And so it will also be my last day of blogging. Sort of... I'll be back on with fresh posts when we return.

We'll make a stop in Hershey, PA. Some people call it "the sweetest place on earth" - for us it's true, but it's not because of the candy. After we visit mom and dad, we're headed somewhat south - to Washington DC (someone's got to straighten those people out). Our plans include visiting the Iwo Jima Monument and other Arlington sites, Mount Vernon, Smithsonian, Lincoln Monument, Jefferson Monument and any other special attractions on the Mall or in the city.

I'll share some pictures when I return.
Pray for our safety.
Blessings,

Mark and the gang

Personal Steps to Political Victory

I gotta be honest. I am not real excited about the choices for President this coming November. I think the conservatives in this country have been deserted. On the Sean Hannity website there is an article that outlines 'Hannity's 10 Steps To Victory'. I agree with what he says here to large degree. Our country needs some strong leadership in these big issues like national security, education, energy and health care. There is no doubt that these serious issues need to be addressed.

But I would like to submit my own 'steps to victory'. Without these 'steps' being taken by American Christians, it probably won't matter who is in the White House.

1). Pray for our leaders. "First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity". - 1 Timothy 2:1-2.

2). Give thanks in all things. "In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus." - 1 Thessalonians 5:18. We are an ungrateful people at times. We need to be thankful, because the last time I checked, we still live in the most free country in the world.

3). Learn to be content. "For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am". - Philippians 4:11. No matter who is the President of the United States, we must learn contentment, knowing that God is sovereign. "The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes" (Proverbs 21:1). If that verse doesn't give us confidence in God's sovereignty, even over the President, then there is no such confidence anywhere. This confidence should bring us contentment.

4). Use restraint when the urge to 'argue' politics strikes. "He who restrains his words has knowledge, and he who has a cool spirit is a man of understanding. Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is considered wise; When he closes his lips, he is considered prudent" (Proverbs 17:27-28). One of the quickest ways to disqualify ourselves from sharing the gospel with someone is getting into an argument over politics. A political disagreement may alienate us from a friend or work associate forever. They may never listen to us again when it comes to the weightier matters of the gospel.

Mark

Four O'Clock in the Morning

Taking a break from my Romans commentaries last night, I decided to open another Puritan paperback by a man named Joseph Alleine, called 'A Sure Guide to Heaven'. I never heard of this guy until recently, but the subject matter of this work interested me and so I made the purchase.

The back of the book says, ‘When the spiritual history of the Western world in the 20th century is written, it may well be seen as the epoch of spiritual sloth and slumber’. The purpose of the book is to alarm and awaken people to the concerns of life and death.

The introduction tells us that Joseph Alleine lived in the mid-1600’s and was very protective of his study time. If his friends interrupted him, he would say ‘it is better that they should wonder at my rudeness than that I should lose my time; for only a few will take notice of my rudeness, but many may feel my loss of time’. For someone who took great pains to evangelize the lost, study time was essential.

Alleine certainly knew how to redeem the time. He made it a regular habit to wake up every day at 4:00am. He spent the next FOUR HOURS in prayer, contemplation, and singing psalms. Is it any wonder he was effective in ministry?

I barely made it out of the introduction and was convicted about my own slothfulness. I love my morning sleep. Apparently much more than some quiet study in the Scriptures.

Mark

Game Ball!!

We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone. See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people. - 1 Thessalonians 5:14-15


My youngest son plays for the Yankees. Not the New York ones, but for the local T-Ball league. Those kids are hilarious. Last night he won the game ball. You would have thought he won the seventh game of the World Series! A little encouragement goes a long way. His coach is excellent in the way he teaches the kids. They’re learning how to hustle and pay attention. Learning how to throw and bat correctly and run the bases and work together. Working together! Good attitudes… confidence... That game ball was pretty important to my son (and to me).

It made me wonder how many game balls I gave out today…

Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou My Vision has to be one of my favorite songs. It ranks right up there with How Great Thou Art and Great is Thy Faithfulness.

Men lack vision. Our best 'seeing' is often only hope for next week or next month. Some people have enough 'foresight' to plan well enough to pay for their children's higher education or have a materially secure retirement for their sunset years. But this alone is a lack of vision. What kind of 'vision' do we have for our children and our grandchildren and their children after that? What kind of faith will our descendents a hundred and fifty years from now have because of the vision that we had? Will those descendents love God? Or will they seek after wealth and other perishable wreaths?

Be Thou My Vision. The line, 'Thou and Thou only first in my heart' is always the toughest to sing, because I never want to be lying or half-truthful as I sing it. Almost every time, that phrase never makes its way out of my voice box. If I can destroy all sense of 'possessing', someday I might be able to sing the whole song with a pure heart.


Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.

I Set My Bow in the Cloud

The psalmist bursts forth praise in Psalm 19 by exclaiming that 'The heavens are declaring the glory of God'.

Who doesn't love a rainbow?!! This beautiful bow and reminder of God's faithfulness was set over our neighborhood this evening right after an easy spring rain.

For Better or for Worse

Yesterday, I was definitely outside of my comfortable Christian element. I spent some time at a non-Christian wedding. Alot of time. Not that I was enjoying myself so much that I just couldn't leave - I was there to help the photographer take a few photos, so we were there for the duration. So while I was enjoying the photo aspect of the wedding, it was the emptiness of the whole affair that made it such a drag. I never saw so many open bottles of beer under one roof. Anytime I needed to find the groom, all I had to do was look no more than five feet away from the bar. I can't imagine the tab for the booze at this wedding, but the executives at Budweiser couldn't have been happier. I wondered how all these drunk people were going to make it home safely. Emptiness. I couldn't help but think, 'this is as good as it gets for most of these people'. A really good dinner, a few beers, a couple wild dances, a limo ride... Emptiness.

Solomon summed this wedding up in three words "All is vanity" (Ecclesiastes 1:2b).

The Green Samaritan?

This global warming thing has gone too far! I have been saving all the advertisement type flyers that I get in the mail, and it's almost comical to go through them. One of them encourages you to 'go green' by using recycled plastic for your centerpieces at your wedding. I'm still not regretting the traditional flowers at our wedding reception, even though the environmentalists would probably have my head now. Some of the ads are suble, using shades of green for their borders, and green ink for the text - all designed to get you thinking about saving the planet.

Don't get me wrong, I am all about being a good steward of the place God has given me and my children to live in. I don't want them drinking bad water or throwing their McDonald's wrappers out the car window. But how arrogant are we, that we think WE are causing 'global warming'? We've taken climate change away from the Maker of climates. The One who makes the sun come up in the morning no longer has control over the temperature of the sun, or of the earth? Are you kidding me? I think if anyone is going to save the planet, it certainly isn't going to be you, me, Al Gore or Kermit the Frog (it's not easy being green!).

Instead of being caught up in another fad that really has no scientific basis, I would suggest that we catch a passion for something with more substance. We know from real science and modern technology when life really begins and its about time we start saving babies. You want to 'go green'? Let's put the gazzillion-dollar abortion industry out of business. How do we do that? Learn the truth about abortion. Learn the truth about Roe v. Wade. Learn the truth about the devastating effects of murdering the unborn. And then do not be shy about spreading the truth about it. Our country's future is at stake here. No, our planet's future is at stake.

For more information on abortion and PRO-LIFE issues, see the following websites:

http://www.epm.org/articles/pla39.html

http://www.ehd.org/

http://www.abort73.com/

A Man of God - Aiden Wilson Tozer

A few days ago marked the 45th anniversary of one of the great ones. A.W. Tozer went to be with the Lord on May 12, 1963 - his headstone marked with the engraving 'A. W. Tozer - A Man of God'. Tozer is the author of many books, including the Christian classic, 'The Pursuit of God'. This book has had a profound impact in my life. Aside from the Bible, this is probably my most favorite book on my bookshelf. I've read it numerous times and it still speaks to me. I highly recommend it.

Here are a few quotes from it that are worth reading over and over again:

It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the kingdom, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table. Page 8

Sound Biblical exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the Living God! Page 9

How tragic that we in this dark day have had our seeking done for us by our teachers. Page 16
The simplicity which is in Christ is rarely found among us. In its stead are programs, methods, organizations and a world of nervous activities which occupy time and attention but can never satisfy the longing of the heart. Page 17

The man who has God for his treasure has all things in One. Page 19

Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and things were allowed to enter. The roots of our hearts have grown down into things, and we dare not pull up one rootlet lest we die. Things have become necessary to us, a development never originally intended. God’s gifts now take the place of God, and the whole course of nature is upset by the monstrous substitution. Page 22

The way to deeper knowledge of God is through the lonely valleys of soul poverty and abnegation of all things. The blessed ones who possess the kingdom are they who have repudiated every external thing and have rooted from their hearts all sense of possessing. These blessed poor are no longer slaves to the tyranny of things. They have broken the yoke of the oppressor; and this they have done not by fighting but by surrendering. Page 23

God wills that we should push on into His presence and live our whole lives there. This is to be known to us in conscious experience. It is more than a doctrine to be held; it is a life to be enjoyed every moment of every day. Page 34

The great of the kingdom have been those who loved God more than others did. Page 38

No one need to be poor, because if he chooses, he can have Jesus for his own property and possession. Page 39

Self is the opaque veil that hides the face of God from us. Page 43
Let us beware of tinkering with our inner life, hoping ourselves to rend the veil. God must do everything for us. Our part is to yield and trust. We must confess, forsake, repudiate the self-life and then reckon it crucified. Page 44

Why do the very ransomed children of God themselves know so little of that habitual, conscious communion with God which Scripture offers? The answer is because of our chronic unbelief. Faith enables our spiritual sense to function. Where faith is defective the result will be inward insensibility and numbness toward spiritual things. Page 49-50

If we cooperate with Him in loving obedience, God will manifest himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a nominal Christian life and a life radiant with the light of His face. Page 60

It will require a determined heart and more than a little courage to wrench ourselves loose from the grip of our times and return to biblical ways. Page 66

Our thought habits are those of the scientist, not those of the worshiper. We are more likely to explain than adore. Page 74

It is important that we get still to wait on God. And it is best that we get alone, preferably with our Bible outspread before us. Page 76

If you would follow on to know the Lord, come at once to the open Bible expecting it to speak to you. Do not come with the notion that it is a thing that you may push around at your convenience. Page 78

Faith is the gaze of the soul upon a saving God. Page 83

The man seeking mercy looks straight at the God of mercy and never takes his eyes away from Him until He grants mercy. (Psalm 123:1-2) Page 83

While we are looking at God we do not see ourselves – blessed riddance. The man who has struggled to purify himself and has had nothing but repeated failures will experience real relief when he stops tinkering with his soul and looks away to the perfect One. Page 85

As long as Christ sits on the mediatorial throne, every day is a good day and all days are days of salvation. Page 88

The cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, an upset in our relation to God and to each other. Page 93

Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and bring Him nearer to our own image. Page 95

God being who and what He is, and we being who and what we are, the only thinkable relation between us is one of full Lordship on His part and complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that is in our power to give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less. Page 96

"Be thou exalted" (Psalm 21:13) is the language of victorious spiritual experience. Let the seeking man reach a place where his life and his lips join to say continually, "Be thou exalted", and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before and becomes the very essence of simplicity. Page 97

Pride, arrogance, resentfulness, evil imaginings, malice, greed are the sources of more human pain than all the diseases that ever afflicted mortal flesh. Page 104

The meek man cares not at all who is greater than he, for he has long ago decided that the esteem of the world is not worth the effort. Page 106

The rest He offers is the rest of meekness, the blessed relief which comes when we accept ourselves for what we are and cease to pretend. Page 109

Let us practice the fine art of making every work a priestly ministration. Let us believe that God is in all our simple deeds and learn to find Him there. Page 117

It is not what a man does that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it. The motive is everything. Let a man sanctify the Lord God in his heart and he can thereafter do no common act. Page 120-121

If A.W. Tozer could speak to us today, he would tell us that his 'pursuit of God' was well worth the effort.

Mark