St. John Studies

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God [ Italics and underlining mine] [Romans 3:23].

What does this verse really say?

For me it says we are all sinners…and it would be best to be honest about it.

Bingham Hunter, in his book The God Who Hears, says this is something we all need…personal honesty. God cannot respond to unholiness in His creatures and not admitting to our sinfulness is one of the worst things we can do.

Yet we do it all the time. A large number of Christians are totally preoccupied by what they call “major sins of society” and they feel they can stand in judgment against people who commit those major sins. I call these people the “Jerry Springerites.”   If you are a big fan of that show, I apologize, but reactions to the show serve to make my point about the hypocrisy of Christians. I am not even sure that Springer’s guests are real.   They tend to have all kinds of aberrant behaviors. The usual script for the show is people are confronted by some of their friends and family members whom they have hurt by their behavior.   It could be the spurned spouse, the out-of-wedlock pregnant girlfriend or the abused family member. The whole show is about being honest and accusatory about bad behavior. I have heard several God-fearing folks say “Wow, I may be a bad person, but at least I have not done that! At least I don’t behave that way!”

My response to this is, are you sure you don’t sin just as bad? How can you be sure?

Thank goodness you can hide your sins; they are not on a television program for all to see.

The Apostle Paul is the best antidote for the Christian who is “holier than thou.” Read Romans 1:18 to 3:18 and you will see Paul confronting all Christians with the fact that sin lives in us just like it lives in the non-Christian. If we want further words about our sin, read [1 John 1: 8-10]: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make Him out to be a liar and His word is not in us.”

Bingham says somehow we emphasize that God’s justification of believers is enough for us to have daily holiness, when it is not.   We are deceiving ourselves when we take up the mantle of holiness, forgetting that we have our own daily struggle with sin. For us to have a chance to get in God’s good graces, it is best to have personal honesty about our lives.   It is also important for us to acknowledge that God knows our failures: He knows our sins, our hearts, our evil intentions even though we have mastered the art of hiding them from those in the world. God knows our intentions.

I wish I could say I have a life without sin, but that is not the case.   I have a sin nature that is very real, a sin nature that goes back to Genesis and the original sin in the Garden of Eden. It is the sin all men have.   I will carry this all my days. I need God to help me overcome my sin. I need the power of the Holy Spirit to help me fight my penchant toward sin. As I sin, despite my best efforts, I need God’s grace to forgive me as I repent my sin and ask His forgiveness. I acknowledge I have fallen short.

For me to claim I lead a sinless life is an abomination to God for God knows I will reap what I sow. To make matters worse, for me to claim a sinless life or even a holier life than others is shameful.   I am not telling the truth to people around me and God knows of my lies.

Two of the most popular verses from the Bible are “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus says that to the accusers who are about to stone the adulterous woman at the well. He confronts the “holy” people with their own sinful natures and they admit they are sinful by leaving the woman at the well without casting a stone. Judge not lest you be judged is in Matthew as Jesus throws down the gauntlet to the “good folk” again; He says if you want to judge others, you will also be judged by that same standard, implying that this will not make you happy.   It is so easy to see a speck in someone else’s eye and you cannot see the plank in your own.

Think about those people you see on The Jerry Springer Show. We might look down at them and think we are better than them. As we compare ourselves to them, we might even feel justified in having a positive attitude about our lives with God.

But let me tell you one thing they have going for them.   Their sinfulness is in the open. It is real. It is on display for all to see. It is honest, a lot more honest than the holier than thou Christian who presents the false front.

Maybe it is even refreshing as their sins are open for all the world to see.

Personal honesty.

“We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him” {italics and bold, mine} [James 9:31].

Recently, I posted on the fear of God. I discussed the idea that God is so holy He is unapproachable and yet we need to approach God in order to pray. But the fear of God can be a good thing, motivating us to pay attention to our behavior and motivating us to do good and avoid evil.

As you can clearly see from the scripture above, a prerequisite for getting God to hear your prayers is for you to fear God.

How can we get past the word fear?

Most of us cannot imagine fear being a good thing. I don’t know about you but my experiences with fear have resulted in very uncomfortable feelings. I associate it with a sense of dread, a lingering feeling that I am in danger and I could be harmed by someone or something. Some of my fear is irrational.   An example from my life is my fear of MRI machines.   They are too tight and I can’t go into one unless I am unconscious. Even thinking about being unconscious in an MRI makes me have the “willies.” What will happen in this machine? Nothing, except I will get a full-body x-ray.   My reaction is an irrational fear.

Psalms 111:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.”

Psalms 36:1 “Concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes.”

We must grapple with fear of God for as W. Bingham Hunter says “that without a sense of God’s awesome holiness, and the consequent ‘fear,’ we simply do not have biblical religion.”

Let’s define the Biblical notion of fear of God and we will all feel better: “theological fear is not primarily dread or repulsion for the fear object, but surrender to [God’s] authority” [Robert Morosco in Hunter, 21]. Fear of God is not irrational; not fearing God is irrational. In other words, when we deny God’s holiness, God’s power and God’s presence, we are irrational [and possibly we are being sinfully wicked].

In college, I studied the Age of Enlightenment.   This period which began in Europe in the 17^th Century was a period of two hundred years when man emerged from the Dark Ages and began to think again, create again and feel some sense of control over life. Certainly it was good to have some time where humanity left behind the fog of societal collapse of the Roman Empire. However, man makes a mistake over and over when he does not recognize the finite nature of existence.   There really is no security in worshipping things of this world. “Those who do not fear God as the transcendent, holy and infinite Creator replace His power and authority with either themselves, others or material things” [Hunter, 22] Romans 1:25 “They [have] exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is [to be] forever praised.”

We must never forget that God is our Ultimate Creator, our Ultimate Authority. What we make of our lives is His gift to us. What we possess in this life is His gift to us. What we feel in this life is His gift to us.

This leaves us in an eternal fight against egocentrism. It is so easy to feel powerful, insightful and in control.   But all that is illusion. In a blink of an eye, all that we cherish can be taken away and we are left with very little.

For the best proof of the need for the surrender to God’s authority one merely needs to read the Old Testament which is a record of Israel struggling over so many years to have a consistent submission to God’s authority. Over and over again, the Hebrews became so egocentric and were punished by God.   If only they had remembered how much God promised them in His covenantal relationship, life could have been so much easier. The Old Testament is one long story of God promising to help His people and the people promising to love God, only to fall away with worship of idols, intermingling with other cultures and breaking all of God’s commandments.   God punished them. They asked forgiveness. They were redeemed, only to fall away again.

Today, many Christians find themselves in the same situation as the Israelites. We don’t have the pure heart that we need to call out to the Holy One. We are distracted with our own life concerns and don’t realize how much we owe God. We think our day to day lives are all-important and we feel such pride in what we are able to accomplish.

We don’t see the need to submit to our Lord. We certainly don’t fear God’s retribution.

And then I hear Christians say “I wonder why my prayers go unanswered?”

“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.   There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.   So Moses thought, ‘I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.’ When the Lord saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, ‘Moses! Moses!’ And Moses said, ‘Here I am.’   ‘Do not come any closer,’ God said. ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.’   Then He said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham.’ At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God [Exodus 3].

Yet if we are to learn to pray, we have to learn to approach God.

As we see in Exodus 3 and so many other places, this is a problem because God seems so unapproachable. He is too holy. God is so holy that He is light; there is no darkness in Him at all [1 John 1:5]. God the blessed and only Ruler lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see [1 Timothy 6:15-16]. Over and over, God is a blinding light, an undiminished dazzling light.

It is no wonder that comprehending holiness is difficult. An unapproachable God asks that we approach.   What happens to us when we consider approaching God in prayer?

Many Christians don’t seriously consider the idea of really approaching God. They keep God at a comfortable distance as they ask Him for what they want.

What do you think when you consider the word holy?   What comes to mind? Maybe it is total absence of wrongdoing and sin. Maybe you envision a “holier than thou” person who does not smoke, drink, dance or chew and they make you feel bad because you do one of more of those things.   The holy person likes to use words like “no”, “don’t do that” or “avoid this”.   Often, people think words like that are very “uncool” and this type of person is too negative and no fun to be around.   I can visualize a pastor from the American west, the black suit, the high white collar and the thin face with the pursed lips, a condescending face, a face that communicates a lack of approval.

This is the earthly version of the holy God. Why is this relevant? Well if this person meets God’s muster, what must God be like? W. Bingham Hunter says “[God] is testy and touchy to the uttermost, He scans the world, ever hopeful of spotting a creature at whom He can screech, ‘You, you there with your hand in the cookie jar…you look like you’re thinking about having fun. Cut it out. Right now. And don’t you think about it again. EVER!’”

When you stop and think about holiness, it is supposed to hurt, it is no fun. If you make an effort to be holy, you are different from most folks and your holiness may even make you unattractive.

Why would anyone want to be holy?

God says “Be holy because I am holy” in 1 Peter 1:16. Why would anyone want to do that?

Let’s go back to the original idea. To learn how to pray, we have to learn to approach God, AND GOD IS HOLY!

It is all so confusing.   Approach God and yet God is unapproachable. Unholiness is so easy, yet holiness is so hard. Hunter even jokes around with the famous hymn “Take Time to Be Holy”. That hymn makes little sense. Why does it take time to not do something?

Maybe it all boils down to the idea that it is super easy to understand the negative aspects of being holy but we can’t comprehend the positive aspects.

In my next post, we will explore the idea of holiness as a positive thing.

Harder to understand?

You bet.

Worthy of serious consideration?

God says “Be holy because I am holy” in 1 Peter 1:16.

I think so…

W. Bingham Hunter digs a bit deeper than my previous post about why we don’t know much about prayer in today’s world. In his book The God Who Hears, he looks beyond the ideas that some Christians have no relational connection with God, some have no expressive ability, others use prayer as a Santa wish list and some quit praying due to the idea that God has allowed tragedy in their lives.

Those reasons are of course valid but maybe there are more complex reasons.

Here is what Hunter says.

First, prayer never generated much controversy in the early church. Early church leaders spent a lot of time fending off false teachers who questioned the divinity of Jesus or early teachings which tried to define the true nature of the Holy Spirit. There were church councils convened to produce orthodox positions for those major ideas, but there were no church councils devoted to prayer. What is the upshot of this? No one really tried to clarify standards for personal spirituality.   In simple terms, no one developed guidelines for how to pray or how not to pray. Hunter says “today, many systematic theology texts omit prayer, and those which include it can’t even agree on what the practice of prayer is: a means of grace? an implication for the atonement? a work of the Spirit? Pastors don’t attempt to teach congregations how to pray which leaves Christians scant knowledge about how to pray.

Secondly, in today’s world, many of us are so obsessed with science and technology that spiritual matters get less attention.   A specific example is the current attention we give to the advancement of artificial intelligence.   One has to look no further than the auto industry to see major advances.   There are many cars on the road today that are primarily controlled by humans but there are more and more AI features on vehicles that take over automobile operation. Today’s cars correct you when you drift out of your lane, start to back into something you are not aware of or get too close to something that is in front of you. This form of artificial intelligence is only one example but in a world that is more and more scientifically sophisticated, why call on God for answers? Maybe we can figure things out on our own?

Thirdly, we are hampered by our lack of reading God’s word. Yes folks, that dusty Bible that never gets picked up hampers prayer.   We are told to use the Lord’s promises as foundations for our prayer. We are encouraged to claim things that are in the Bible.   But how can the average man do this if he has never read those promises and has no idea what to claim? This leads to all types of distortion about prayer, “The name of Jesus is invoked over things He wouldn’t recognize” [Bingham, 11].

Finally, the American focus on economics has a negative effect on prayer.   If you are ever up in the wee hours of the morning, you will see television evangelists who tout the practicality of investing a “seed” in support of your prayer life. What does this mean? In practical terms, they are asking for money so they can pray for you.   If you give them fifty dollars, their prayer will result in you getting a major harvest in your life. If you need a new home, it will happen.   If you need a new job, you will get it.   All you need to do is invest in the prayer ministry. It all boils down to getting what you want and we all know that many in our society today have a bad case of “the wants.

Bingham Hunter is not willing to shy away from the many frustrations Christians have about prayer.   People feel heartache about not being able to pray.   People are upset that prayers go unanswered. People are unable to take prayer seriously for numerous reasons.

“I am convinced that a huge, but largely secret group of Christians genuinely longs to know both God and themselves better and they are weary of having to sing ‘It is well with my soul’ with their fingers crossed” [Bingham, 12].

I realize how fortunate I am.   Due to my circumstances, I feel I know God and have a growing relationship with Him.   I am a person who has few problems with words.   Thoughts come easily to me and I enjoy the exchange of ideas. Even with my background in speech communication, I have always had a natural curiosity about public prayer.   When I have heard prayers, I have always attended to them as a speech event and I have wondered what makes a good public prayer effective.   Over the years I have copied the phrases that seem to work and have tried to have a respectful attitude needed in public prayer expression.

It is not that way with everyone. Many people struggle with prayer.   What will follow in future posts is a discussion of a book that seeks to be honest about prayer difficulties.

My prayer for my posts is as follows:

As I seek to comment on prayer, I call upon the Holy Spirit to help me find words that will help someone learn about prayer using the book God Hears.

And I thank you God, my Father…

“Because prayer is an act of relationship, it should be an open and ongoing dialogue. First Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to ‘pray continuously.’ God may not be physically with us when we pray, but He is present with us, and prayer becomes our connection to Him. Whether we’re crying out in desperation or spontaneously asking for His favor, prayer is how we converse with God. It can be casual conversation or intense, emotion-filled petitioning. It can be done on our knees or in the car, shower, elevator or check-out line.*

I have to admit, I have prayed in all those places and many more.

2016 has been a year of prayer for me. I have had many prayers where God could have been in the room with me and we were having a conversation.   I laid my concerns on His throne.   The most intense prayer I had this year was when I got a phone call from a stranger about my wife being loaded into an ambulance and being taken to the emergency room of our local hospital. She had just had a car wreck. I remember getting in my truck and racing to the hospital, screaming to God. I wanted Susan to be ok.   I was scared out of my mind and I let God know it.**

But this post is not about me as much as it is about those who don’t pray.

Why don’t people pray?

Obviously, many don’t believe. They don’t know God. For many years, I felt like a man who could control life and I did not need God.   I had been introduced to God since my parents went to church but I did not have an ongoing relationship with Him. I did not take my concerns to Him.   I just worked things out myself and often I got stuck on problems that were not easily solved.   I had no idea that I could take my troubles and turn them over to God and have peace.   People who don’t really know God just try to handle things themselves and it can be frightening, it can be frustrating and it can be lonely.

Some people just can’t express themselves. They struggle to talk to humans; they struggle to talk to God. Words don’t come easy to everyone. To add to the problems of expression, many people feel they have to use the “correct” words to pray.   When you listen to people who pray in public, you will notice the same person repeating some phrases over and over, you know, “In God’s name” or “Thy will be done” or even “bless this food for the nourishment of our bodies.” There is a mistaken idea that there is some secret formula that must be used for prayer. I don’t think so. If you can, just express what is on your heart to God.

There are folks who talk to God as if He is Santa.   I guess this is normal but the wish list is there and you want what you want so you ask.   These prayers may be considered selfish but people pray them anyhow.   Instead of praying for people who truly have serious needs, we get distracted by our own needs.   Maybe this is due to the consumer-driver mentality that we have in our culture.   These prayers may not get God’s attention like other prayers can [I don’t attempt to reflect the mind of God].

The saddest person who does not pray is the person who has prayed for a loved one to be healed and they are not healed.   The loved one passes away. I know of a Christian woman who lost her child in a car wreck and she was the driver.   The mother survived the wreck but her little girl did not.   She prayed and prayed for healing and it was not meant to be. When her little girl died, she blamed God and went through a very damaging process of blaming God.   She got angry at God. She lost her belief in God and she dropped all her Christian relationships with friends and church family.   Things got so bad that she walled herself off from everyone and lived in her hate-filled world.   It is a common process because so many of us see God as a benevolent Deity, a caring Father who would never allow tragedy into our lives. The fact of the matter is that God is omnipotent but much of the harm that comes to us is not from God. People who mean to hurt us can have their way.   We can make horrible decisions that lead to pain and injury.   We do have free will.   We are allowed to make our way in this world and we steer ourselves toward disaster from time to time [sometimes even when God tries to warn us to correct our behavior].

In this post, I have attempted to write about practical reasons for man’s lack of prayer.   The person who tries to pray when there is no real connection with God, no relationship, the inability to express words, the Santa wish-list person and the individual who has been crushed by tragedy.  Bingham Hunter says that today is the “Age of Communication.”   I have my doubts. One of the things he cites is the current obsession with social media.   I don’t want to bash social media because people love it but as a communication professor, it is what I call “one way communication.”   You put your thoughts on twitter, Facebook and other outlets and people place feedback to your thoughts in response.   In today’s world the original thought may not be calculated in a very sensitive way and surely the responses are not.   I have seen some outrageous unfiltered comments.   People write words on their computers that they would never say to anyone’s face.

When it comes to prayer, if a person is fortunate enough to have a relationship with God, the response back from Him will not be “unfiltered”.   It will be what you need. I close with Psalm 55:22 “Cast your burden on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never permit the righteous to be moved.”

*James Dwyer   Relevant Magazine

**for those who don’t know, my wife has made a full recovery

Prayer…

What does it mean for you?

For so many years in my life, I just did it but was not sure anyone was listening, and in those days I did it very, very little.

There were the rote prayers of church service that were mouthed in unison with others, half thinking about what I was saying.

And then finally it all changed.

I had a moment of greatest need in my life.   I found myself backed into a corner with nowhere else to go and I prayed a prayer full of lament, a prayer full of regret, a prayer of great concern, what some would call a “foxhole prayer.” I prayed a prayer where I needed God for the first time in my life. In the circumstance I was in, I did not know what to do, so I asked God what to do.

And I got an immediate answer! I knew it as soon as it was received. It was not an answer that would have been from me but nevertheless, I felt it deep within my soul.   It came in the form of a voice from within my mind and it shocked me.   Nevertheless, I knew it would work.   I knew it would start my life down a new path and I knew I would never be the same.

I did what I was told to do.   In fact, I followed the instructions to the letter.

And it has made all the difference in my life.

From that day, approximately twenty years ago, I began to see prayer differently. I began to see that I had a God who was listening to me, a God who loved me, a God who was willing to work with me to help me be a better person.

I have always been an early riser and soon I began to lay down my burdens to my Lord early in the morning.   I guess many of my first prayers were selfish but I had a lot of problems and I needed a lot of help.   The main thing is I developed a habit of talking with God.   Also, I continued to feel that God was listening, that God loved me and cared that I was trying to have a relationship with Him.

At this time, I began to understand the idea of being born again.   I had gone to the altar and confessed my sins and confessed that I needed God in my life. I was raised to go to church but now I began to feel God at work in my life. I understood what it meant to have a hunger for Him, a hunger to worship, a hunger to pray, a hunger to read His Word.   I fell in love with Jesus Christ thanks to many Christian friends God sent my way.   They tenderly guided me to Him.   They were the human manifestations of Jesus, the answer to the prayer, “God I need help!”

The relationship has continued over the years. I still feel the presence of God, but I have had my mountain top moments and my times in the valley of the shadow of death but He was there and is here now through it all.

My prayer life has continued and I have found myself capable of praying in public. I have prayed for people in the grocery store. I have prayed for people on the street.   I have prayed with people over the phone. Sounds silly to some I guess but God seems to tell me when the time is right. I have never had anyone question my sanity.

Within this past year I have had a new prayer life.   I have begun intercessory prayer at my church.   It is a daunting task because I learn of the many troubles of my congregation and my community. At times I am filled with despair as I hear of someone who is struggling with cancer, suffering through the horrible effects of a car wreck, or living a life of constant pain.   I find myself overwhelmed by their situation and I can’t get their situation off my mind. I am humbled to pray for my church, the pastor and all the staff. I know there are forces in this world that want to keep my church from functioning and I pray for protection from those negative forces. I am humbled by this new role. At times I feel inadequate but I know people in my church need to do this and I am one of those people who have been called to do it.

On October 18, 2016, I fell ten feet from a ladder, breaking my pelvis. I am in the healing process that will take some time and I have come a long way. Let me tell you, I have had people all over my church and community praying for me. I have felt those prayers.   Lonely, anxiety ridden times were not so lonely because I have found God there with me in those scary hospital rooms. Many times I have felt a peace that is unexplainable, a peace that settled me down and got me through the night, got me through the pain. Truly, I have seen people in my life who have been placed there by God to help me through this time of repair and recovery.   I have never needed this type of prayer before, prayer for healing.   I am on the road to a full recovery and I am learning every step of the way. I watch for God, I listen for God and I am here to testify that He is real. He is working in my life, in my body.

I begin our new book The God Who Hears by W. Bingham Hunter with my personal testimony about prayer.   Maybe that is fitting. I know there are those who were like me. They think they speak to an empty room.   The God they are praying to is unresponsive.   We will discuss every angle of prayer in the upcoming days.

I thought it best to begin by exposing my bias.

Yes, I believe in prayer.

In military tradition, the “Last Post” is the bugle call that signifies the end of the day’s activities.

I use this reference to indicate that my post of November 8 [Election Day] is my last post as I reflect on Adam Hamilton’s Seeing Gray in A World of Black and White. However, it is not my last post on this blog.

I began posting my thoughts on this book on March 2016. That seems like so long ago but it really wasn’t. I decided to use this book because of the peacemaking nature of its content.   The book has caused me to reflect on many thorny issues that have divided the church, from evolution to the acceptance of other faiths. I have devoted posts to thoughts about the Bible. I have discussed the messy truth about spirituality.

I have finished this past several months on the most divisive issue of 2016, our presidential election and how it has torn the church apart.

I knew that much of Hamilton’s book is devoted to politics. I first encountered it in 2012 when Barack Obama was running for reelection.   That was a tense time and we did a speakers’ series on the book at my church.   Today the tension regarding politics is even worse.   I think anger is a more accurate word as we get ready to elect either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

I knew the politics discussed in the book would be tough to write about because I wanted to follow the premise of the book. I wanted to “find gray” in a world of black and white. When people are lined up against one another and demanding that others listen, I wanted to get people to realize there is more than just the right and wrong view or there is more than just the black and white view.   To find new ground you have to think about your position and think about other positions too.   You have to keep a cool head. You have to work to understand. You have to know where others are coming from.   You have to search for common ground.

For Christians this election has been so tough because of the choice we have to make between two very flawed candidates.   For me politics has always been a tough fit. I have never felt that comfortable as a Christian in the political arena.   John Piper* says it best when he describes Christians: “as redeemed children of God our primary and decisive citizenship is in heaven, not America.” To put it plainly, Christians are not supposed to be of this world; we are of God’s kingdom and this election has been so worldly that participation reflects poorly on our belief system.

I am not advocating that we not vote.   I recently broke my sacrum and my pelvis and I am in the process of rehabbing my body but I will go vote.

Still with my blog, I have sought to sow seeds of peace with Hamilton’s book, not seeds of discord.

I have tried to promote thoughtfulness, not anger and disgust for others’ positions.

I have asked that we find common ground, build bridges.   I want us to have harmony in our country.

I have faith in my Lord. I have faith in my fellow Christians. I even have faith in America. Kathleen Parker is a columnist for the Washington Post and she has some thoughts that I would like to pass along. Her thoughts look beyond the attention getting strife of the day…   “Today as we wring our hands and say things like this country has never been this divided before, we need to stop.

Yes, it has been divided before and we survived the division.

The Founding Fathers, for all their cleverness were hardly soft spoken. The Civil War needs no editorial comment. The 1960’s weren’t exactly a paddleboat cruise down the Mississippi.”

What is different now?   We are literally bombarded with news, much of it false. Too many people put outrageous things on social media.   Everything today is BREAKING NEWS! when it is really not.

Parker puts it all in perspective. “If Trump wins, he will be held in check more or less by a House and Senate…not even Republicans are eager to follow his lead. There won’t be a wall.   He won’t impose some religion-based immigration restriction…He won’t nuke Iran…He and Vladimir Putin will hate each other respectfully.”

If Clinton wins, “she’s not going to suddenly become a lunatic…She’ll manage the military because she like Trump, honors the troops and they know it. She will make her Supreme Court appointments and will protect Roe v. Wade but otherwise the jury’s out. No matter who she appoints, the Supreme Court will follow the box of chocolates rule. You never know (exactly) what you are going to get.”

Folks, we will survive this election.

Christians we need to realize we have a higher calling than just the rough and tumble of the political world. Our job is to testify to other Americans that there is a better way and that better way is not to make America great again. We need to remember that we are advocating for a transfer of citizenship…

That is our job and that “transfer” is an eternal one…

From Piper’s “Desiring God” Blog November 5, 2016