Shaky Conclusions:

Something To Think About America's Day Began Pretty Shaky, This Morning. 9/17

Where America's Day Begins--that's one of the descriptions of Guam.  A pretty small--though it is the largest in Micronesia--island in the Pacific.  As I write in the morning, here in Virginia, it is already the middle of the night, tonight, there on the other side of the world. If America's day begins in Guam, then this day started badly. About 3:00 this morning EDT, a 7.1 earthquake, centered just twenty-five miles off Guam shook the island with enough force to get everyone's attention.  Surely such a phenomena, especially where our day begins, has to be a warning--maybe even a punishment.  Perhaps God is rattling our new-day to shake us from our complacency.  Maybe God is sending a signal to Washington.  "You think you are secure from attack?  You think you can ignore the cries of the refuges fleeing for their lives?  I can shake you from your position of faux-security as easily as I can shake your island on the far horizon." No doubt an imam somewhere is drawing entirely different applications from the shake-up in the place where America's dawn first creeps over the horizon. If you didn't read yesterday's STTA, I hope you will.  This one is a follow-up. As the old song goes, "He's got the whole world in His hands."  Yet, as my tongue-in-cheek interpretation of natural phenomena indicates, unless God gives us a clear indication of what something means, we are clueless.  And--I know I'll raise some antagonism here--folk who claim to heard from God about the why behind the what, haven't.  Hurricane Katrina wasn't a judgment on the Gay community, Sandy didn't strike New York in judgment against Mayor Bloomberg, and the fact that one person's house is bigger than another is no particular indication of God's blessing. When you ask me "Why?" concerning the What.  My answer is, "I don't know." Is there nothing we can learn from natural disasters and wondrous natural beauty? No, there is a great deal we can learn.  Psalm 19 tell us that the sky is the display of God's handiwork.  Job saw his smallness as he viewed the greatness of God's creation.  Basic characteristics inherent in creation can lead a thinking person to conclusions about the creator. But when we claim to know specific meaning behind specific happenings in the natural world we are, to quote Job, "declar[ing] that which I [don't]  understand, things too wonderful for me, which I [don't] know.”  (Job 42:3)   It's Something to Think About.

Does the sky prove God loves America?

Something To Think About God's Love in the Sky: 9/16

Does God love America? Yes. But there is some nuance that a one word answer doesn't give.  I'll get back to it in a moment. I was watching the news this morning.  One of the talking heads was quite enamored with this picture (I think I have the right one.)  He, quoting the claims of the photographer, pointed out that the sky looks like the American flag.  He went on to say something about this beautiful scene demonstrating God's love for America. OK.  It is a pretty picture, and in the same way that kids watching clouds see horses and men with beards, I can see that it does have some resemblance to the Star-Spangled-Banner. It's been a tough time for Americans.  ISIS has beheaded two American journalists, and bragged about it by posting video and threats online.  A nation "liberated" at great cost--most significantly of lives--now is in peril of descending into . . . I can't think of a word horrible enough to describe the thought. Our most cherished pass-time, at the beginning of a new season, is marked by controversy and scandal. So in Rorschach manner it is no wonder that one looking at the sky at the picture above would see the symbol of our nation, and then grow on to conclude, "It means God loves us." Let's all be anchor-people at this point, and anchor our thinking and imagining to some reality.   Scripture does indicates that God is in control.  The Old-Testament books of Daniel and Esther abound with evidence of God's sovereignty.   Roman's 8:28 is a straight forward statement of that fact in regard to "those who love Him."  There are no exception sub-clauses in the verses that follow.  I conclude that God is in control of the sunrise and set.   But, But, BUT, our ability to read or decipher what events around us mean is very limited--maybe to the point of nonexistence.  If the appearance of the flag of one nation in the sky indicates God's favor, does the storm that bears down on another--and one doesn't have tax the memory to recall when that was my nation--indicate a lack of Divine favor?  Might Jihadis viewing the sky have concluded that this was a sign of God's confirmation of their plans to eliminate the nation that flies that flag? "Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? (Romans 11:33-35) Does God Love America? Yes. He loves Mexico, Russia, England, Iraq, and Iran. He demonstrated His love for the world by the gift of His Son. ls God pleased with what America is doing.  Clearly, not always.  Thankfully my nation has done many things right.  Sadly, there is much that is wrong.  It's not painted in the sky; it's written in the Book.    “Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.” (Proverbs 14:34)   Whatever nation one belongs to, whether that country is being blessed or headed for divine judgment, the Lord is willing to deal with individuals. More important than the question of whether God loves a nation is the assurance that God loves me. Have I responded to His love? It's Something to Think About. Click here to view a message about the bad news in the Bible that leads to good.

Don't Worry 'Bout It:

SOMETHING  TO THINK ABOUT Generally speaking each STTA is a stand alone.  This one, however is the last of a series of four.  You might want to go hereand read the last three STTAs, start with 1/14 and work back to yesterday.   "Aiming at nothing," and "Mission Creep," are ways of describing people or organizations who have no, or have lost their, direction.  "Rigid," "Inflexible," or "Suffering from hardening of the categories," describes others, on the other end of the spectrum, who fail to adapt to changing conditions. How do we maintain a balance between being flexible but lacking in core convictions, and being rigid about things concerning which we ought to flex?  I've been especially concerned about the end result of a life.  It's possible to be so blown by the wind that the end will reveal a result determined by external, often impersonal, and sometimes hostile, forces. Speaking to the Ephesians the Apostle Paul said, that mature Christians would not be, "tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine."  (Ephesians 4:14)  Yet an examination of the great Apostle's ministry indicates a remarkable flexibility.  See 1 Corinthians 9:19-23 for an example.  It is absolutely clear that Paul wanted to be effective, but above that he was committed to being faithful.  I need to make obedience to God the number one objective of my life.  Of course, in order to do that I have to understand the commands.  That is a life-long project.  As I live a life of obedience, I run into a lot of forces that would toss me here and there, and carry me about.  It may be to appropriate to adapt.  In fact there are times when obedience demands that I flex.  The Pharisees were not wrong because they kept the rules.  They erred because they kept too many rules, sometimes being blinded to essential, by an undue focus on peripheral matters. I should try to be effective, relevant, engaging, and useful, but I should never be any of those things if it means I must be disobedient to God.   There are a lot of things I face that I don't understand and can't control, but God does, so I must trust Him. So, after four days of musing, I find myself back in SundaySchool.  Mrs. Marsceau is holding up the flash cards to a song, "Trust and Obey, for their's not other way to be happy in Jesus, but to Trust and Obey. It's STTA.

Only One Know-It-All in the Universe:

It's a bit long for a one-liner, but it does have that "keep it in your pocket it will be handy" quality that one-liners need.

If God couldn't do anything I couldn't understand, He wouldn't be much of a god, would He?  

I enjoy and acknowledge the benefits of modern technologies, but hasten to remind you and me that this world, and especially the God of this world is bigger than my mind can envision.  

Modernism was/is--I don't know whether we are living in a new version of modernism, postmodernism, or an era that defies labels--at its best when it recognized the order and predictability that God, Who is infinitely consistent (Immutable), and applied that to the study of and respectful use of the natural world.  From the technologies that have grown out of the understanding the nature of steam, to the complex calculations that are involved in sending back pictures from distant planets, to this collection of silicon, plastic, and copper on which I am typing this message, science and technology have brought us incredible benefits.  When scientific knowledge and technology become arrogance, the notion that we have it all figured out, that is modernism--or call it what you will at its worst.

The Biblical portrait of this world includes a misty horizon. God has graciously told us a great deal about Himself, His creation, and particularly the portion of the creation known as "me."  To extrapolate from that, however, and claim that I know all that is to be known beyond what God has revealed, is to say the least foolish.  If God is truly God then He is the only know-it-all in the Universe.

God does a great deal that I don't understand.  My mind is not big enough to encompass Him, but He has told me enough about Himself so that I can trust Him.  My point of security is not that I always understand.  It is that I understand enough to know that God is trustworthy.

And that is enough.

 It's STTA. 

God Isn't Lacking in Good Sense:

I recently wrote about the brief summaries that I try to come up with for my Junior High Sunday School class.  In that STTA I mentioned a one-word-er, "Hold!"

I thought I'd explore this a bit.  Here is another.

"God is not an idiot."  (I use that word not to refer to one who is unable to think clearly, but who doesn't, or even chooses to not, act in a clear thinking manner.) 

Certainly no Theist who takes her information from the scripture would ever claim that God acts in a manner that doesn't reflect clear thinking--not in so many words.  However many people claim practical, Divine contradictions that are signs of idiocy. 

• I acknowledge that God tells me to do (you fill in the blank), but I claim I can't do it.  So, God Who made me, and knows me, Psalm 139, has given me a task to do without the corresponding ability to do it?  Doesn't sound like clear thinking to me.
• God has given clear guidelines for living--actually "guideline" is to soft a word--yet I see my situation which clearly falls under the purview of one of God's laws, as utterly unique (Check this out.) and therefore God's law and the associated consequences don't apply to me.  
  It makes the God of the universe look like a despotic and idiotic office-manager who writes grandiose sounding policies that don't apply in the real world.

God is not an idiot.  He did think this through.  It may be hard, but you can obey, and obedience is clearly what is best.

It's something we ought to learn by Junior High.

 It's STTA. 

A Remarkable Man:

I have come to appreciate Joseph, the Old Testament patriarch, all over again.  Over the past couple of months it has been my privilege to hang out with Joseph, as I've prepared and shared several messages about his remarkable life.  

One the traits of Joseph's life that I find remarkable is his acknowledgement of God's sovereignty.  At the end of his story there are some clear statements about God's ways.  

In Genesis 45:5-7 Joseph says that it was God Who sent him to Egypt.  Remarkable because Joseph was talking to the very people who had seized and sold him into slavery--the means by which he came to Egypt.

Later he said, " . . .am I in God's place?  As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. . . ."  (Genesis 50:19-20)

Psalm 105 gives some further information about Joseph's treatment. "Joseph . . . was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron;"  (17-18)

For thirteen years of his life Joseph was either a slave or a prisoner, yet as he looked back he could see God's hand in what had happened.  God was/is bigger than the petty jealousy and cruelty of his brothers, the conniving ways of a wicked woman, and the forgetfulness of a fellow-prisoner who could have helped prisoner number J-O-S-E-P-H.

I know God is certainly bigger than the petty offenses that come into my life.  I'm praying for the grace to acknowledge that even though others might mean it for evil, God in His sovereignty not only intends it for good, but actually brings good to reality.

Lord, make me like Joseph.  Amen.

 It's STTA.