Is Neeking Up Onyu?

 As attested by St. Paul to the early Church at Rome, each Christian is set apart from the world. We read…

“I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.” (Romans 12:1-3 RSV)

The statement above seems one concerning Christian responsibility. We of the Christian faith are set apart from the world and called to sober judgment about ourselves and the times in which we live. Take this commission heart, for we are viewed as threatening by principalities and powers within an age now focused on human and socialistic universality. What’s more, I truly believe the Church found in the American realm is slowly and somewhat unknowingly being diminished in power and number.
The evidence of this societal course was recently highlighted in a newscast about the tensions rising in the world Olympics in Paris. This turmoil is creating tensions as anti-religious trends emerge. Though the political call is seemingly for increased tolerance, the tensions present are not confined. Violence often breaks out against congregations and persons trying to  hold to traditional morality. As well, recent racial and religious unrest among other European nations... and our own continent... is symptomatic of a general decline in Christian influence in the post-modern world.
Am I unreasonably paranoid? Possibly. However, I do think we of the American church should note the causes and live prophetically in coming days. Let us be aware of the forces in the world poised against the spread of the gospel and growth of the Christian Church.
Subtlety is their masking. To make my case, first consider trends in birthrate and the act of abortion. Many mainline Christian church denominations, now exhibit diminished negative conversations against the taking of a yet-to-be born human life. Often touting human overcrowding and family financial limitations as justification, many in the Church have contributed to our reduced national birthrate, one now below the normative and sustainable worldwide rate. Our baptismal numbers are thus abysmal. Catechism classes wane and Church populations are in decline across the congregational spectrum as this "greying" of the Church occurs. These factors persist, yet denominations such as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in American (ELCA) freely fund abortions through insurance carriers as elective medical procedures. In this subtle way, many mainline church leaders and clergy support pro-choice political agendas. Therefore these make their denominations a sacrifice placed on altars more acceptable to modern societal standards.

 Consequently, both American society and the Church is satanically and sinfully being de-populated by these trends! Like a frog being boiled in a pan, the water in the baptismal font is therefore heated slowly. We become too self-absorbed in congregational murmur about declining memberships, so that our navel gazing is less than prophetic.
Many mainline Christian denominations also now embrace alternate lifestyle unions in clergy positions, and are bold enough to claim that these relationships are without sin. Thus we promote childless a lifestyle and ignore an ancient ban within the faith passed on to us by ancient Hebraic society. This ban on childless, same sex unions promoted growth within the tribal systems of the chosen people. We in the modern Church ignore this timeless biblical mandate against homosexuality, thereby allowing the example of a self-centered humanism. This avenue mires the Church in lessened populations. As well, in order to demonically offset the loss of Christian birthrate, the state and apostate churches promote immigration via open borders. This causes an influx of persons from other nations, many of whom possess low education levels and criminal mindset. Various denominations applaud this illegal influx as doing works of social justice.

In, But Not Of This World!

Because we Christians are often considered now as “alien residents” in our society simply by our wending our path through a gospel resistive American culture, we take note of lessened reception to gospel proclamation and Christian opinion. Rampant agnosticism promotes this non-procreative thrust until our Christian youth consider marriage as passe’, child-bearing as financially lame, and Church membership is viewed as party to an archaic lifestyle. This slide into Christian population suicide is forwarded by a public education system that challenges traditional sexual norms, family cultivation, and the religious anchors of a faith community.

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Consequently, if we factor in other modern geographic challenges posed to the maintenance of family connections, because our children mature and go into society we find ourselves having communications with them only through electronic social media. Thus we see the numerical growth of real Church community and family structure under great peril. Efforts to use electronic forms of dialog that forward the gospel message often meets with "shadow banning" by computer platforms.

 What should be our response? Join together at the altar of our God. Let us join together first in Christian community and pray to the Father for forgiveness of sins through Christ Jesus. Pray for the growth of the Church and the future of our witness. Let us learn anew the ancient methods of evangelism beyond those rooted in child birth. Would the granting of these skills put us in  competition with other populations and religious expressions? Surely! But allow the scriptural record to teach us that in spite of persecution, peril, and more, God shall preserve the faithful Church. Remember truly that God rejoices in our efforts toward abundance!

 Let the historical and biblical record of the people of God provide witness as we break away from destructive societal influences and then remain faithful to our calling from Christ to proclaim the gospel. Through divine power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Church shall indeed be transformed to emerge triumphant even though Olympic seas boil with the subtle activities of the satanic realm. Lord.., we pray, let it be so.

 

 

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Crusher Wrestled With Life!

 OFTEN WE find that heroes in our life are hard to identify. Sometimes they are right beside us and are taken for granted. Watch and find out about one such person...

Talking about a brother by another mother!

Christians and Voting!

 

GIVEN RECENT headlines and televised conversation about the political outcomes of state elections, we see that turbulent issues are now affecting the political scene in the United States. With this, I firmly believe that we Christians need celebrate the gift of freedom that has been secured by the sweat and blood of members of this wondrous society and its military might. It behooves us to deeply consider future political actions. We have a right responsibility to do so in this free world. We are called to freely and responsibly vote in our elections. Consequently, as baptized members of the Church brought forth in Christ, we should certainly shoulder our responsibility to examine all future candidates and issues carefully. We need to properly participate in our democracy and raise our voices high in both Church and state.

First let us correctly realize that the Church still has influence. According to the power of God expressed through the Holy Spirit, Christians are certainly called to give voice in all matters according to a proper interpretation of Holy Scripture. Over centuries this power has brought the Church to internally consider many issues, using processes that often spawned both conflict and consensus. In the past, these issues in the Church were expressed both internally and externally. From this sometimes tumultuous process, such as in the Protestant Reformation, we historically attempted to decide that which was ethically right and seemed meritorious for the future of gospel proclamation. Similarly in civil governments in our nation, state, or local powers, there exists for us a similar pathway. Political conflict and consensus helps to form the future.

 However, know that a gross misunderstanding exists amongst us. We ask ourselves, “Should Church influence society and its laws?” If so, how so? By sermons alone? Or by sermons and civil action? Further, we internally ask… "Can we of the Church rightly participate in marches and demonstrations?" Also, "Do we hold the right to contemplate and use civil disobedience?"

 Some persons wrongly state that according to the U.S. Constitution, there should be strict separation of Church and state. Indeed there is throttling legislative language read in our founding document, but it rightly applies restrictions only upon the government. The Constitution as read, forbids the government from establishing an official, national religion… and does not in any way restrict any church from influencing the workings of the state. Given this fact, we may advocate, demonstrate, support and influence political party, concepts and candidacy. For this historical reason, we in these United States find that full and active Christian participation in the American political realm is greatly encouraged. This holds true for either clergy or laity whether the issue before us is taxation, jobs, healthcare, abortion or simply putting in a new traffic light up at a local intersection.

 How far can we Christians go to exert our freedoms? As a pastor, while I choose not to endorse a particular candidate or party from the pulpit… I do address the issues before our congregations, our nation and in the media’s public square. In this I stand well within Church tradition, and my Lutheran heritage.

 To bolster my opinion, I call upon support from ancient times. For example, Saint Augustine, a Catholic theologian far greater than myself.., stated clearly that God exerts rule over sinful creation through the duality of influences from both Church and state. Both social entities may properly exert divine good will. The proper tension that may exist between the two ruling powers was discussed by Augustine during the throes of the declining Roman Empire’s struggles. During the early 5^th Century A.D, Augustine wrote “The City of God”. That document favored Christianity as expressed over competing religions and philosophies, and clearly declared that God allowed not only the success of Rome, but also the sack of Rome. Therefore in saying, he stated that we as Christians can considers ourselves rightly called to be influential in the rise and fall of governments and all governmental matters. In this nation, we presently do so peacefully using both prayer and vote.

 We of the Church have a dialectic responsibility to converse with the government. This is one duty from which we should not shrink! By doing so, we stand against societal chaos. From blessed Saint Augustine, we read about the nature of the earthly, peaceful political nation, as defined by him as the “earthly city”. He used symbolism garnered from the biblical book of “Revelation” or “Apocalypse” as written by John.

“Now, when victory remains with the party which had the more just cause, who hesitates to congratulate the victor, and style it a desirable peace? These things, then, are good things, and without doubt the gifts of God.

 But if they (of the government) neglect the better things of the heavenly city (the Church), which are secured by eternal victory and peace never-ending, and so inordinately covet these present good things that they believe them to be the only desirable things, or love them better than those things which are believed to be better… if this be so, then it is necessary that misery follow and ever increase.  (St. Aurelius Augustine, The City of God 15.4.1)

Thus we see that Augustine described a Church called by the Spirit of God to be free and loving, and a supportive entity to any beneficial government. However, should a government work against the good, the Church before God should work over against the failing. Therefore, we as Christians are given the task of holding the government’s irons of rule to the fire. We are to give voice for keeping of right things to be the Right things. We participate in the political process, championing for rightful things that are clearly expressed in scripture. It is a point of ethical notice the influence of such persons as Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who spoke and acted against tyrannical governance during the 20th Century.

 Therefore, for freedom’s sake before God, I urge one and all who are Christians to exert democratic influence. I ask you to refrain from centering on any singular candidate or party except for reason that the political entity expresses a right biblical will for the public realm. Then during the political process, if a chosen candidate falls short and is eliminated during primary elections… prayerfully choose the next best candidate based upon acceptable positions about the important issues at hand. Do not fear making hard, prayerful choices. Do not refrain from peacefully providing your political opinions in the public square and online community. Do not fall away from exerting your God-given freedom!  

And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. (Matthew 11:22-25)

  Being a Christian clergy person who is oriented by scripture, I do find myself supporting certain candidates and spurning others. I still chafe at the results produced by the most recent Presidential election. You see, based upon scripture, I personally and professionally champion such as those who align with biblical precepts. I yet publicly embrace those candidates who favor pro-life decisions. Additionally I want to elect persons who promote proper social care for infants, orphans and the elderly. In the same way, it follows that we should choose in the same manner about such issues as healthcare, gun control, prayers said in schools, border security and more. Complex? Yes! Impossible? No! As scripture reveals… all things are possible with God.

 Knowing our sinful finitude, I realize that I may only get agreement from a candidate on a majority of issues, with only minor positional differences outstanding. However, the shortfall should not hinder my participation in the process! All persons including myself are sinful, and as yet we live in an imperfect world... but God is not finished with any of us… even political candidates!

 Finally, I fervently back those candidates who support absolute freedom for religious expression. Know that the Christian church is called to be the presence of God working amid the nation to build up and maintain proper and precious freedoms. Subsequently, also realize there are powers that would silence our voices. In such stance, even as clergy I advocate a strong, politically-neutral military for this land. As a nation operating in a sinful world having many harmful and competing political and religious forces present, we know that some yet work demonically. It may only be the vigilance of our military and armed citizenry that allows us to persist amid the world as a free people. Therefore, with many important issues before our government, I ask that you may rightly agree that we Christians need to participate fully! So in prayer and supplication before our God, as a Christian and American, I ask you to participate heartily in any future political processes.

 

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Sheep, Goat, President or King?

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Decide Now Whom You Shall Serve!

Buck For A Buick?

OUR CHARACTER is largely inherited from those who proceed us. From the very beginning then, we need to work diligently in teaching needed foundations of faith to those who follow us on the roads of life. I think about this when considering the directions that our nation has taken in recent years.

 As a child born early in the years of World War 2, I sat making airplanes out of cigar boxes and brad nails while perched on a stone wall in front of my grandfather’s house. I waited each day for my father during those early mornings. I missed his laugh. He had been gone for far too long. I barely remembered his face as he served then with the US Navy in the Pacific.men in our family served. I missed them all… including my Uncle Carl. He was a very special uncle. He had a special car.

  Thus it was that I sat on my perch on the wall and admired that he’d driven home in a very special car. Uncle Carl had come home for several weeks from the war in Europe. During his leave time, he had taken his car from storage and parked the pale Buick convertible smack in front of my grandfather’s house on Shawnee Ave. in Plymouth, PA. The.car glistened with its white soft top all ready and waiting to fall far back… so a young boy like me could stand too daringly up high... venturing firmly to face the wind.

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 Consequently, I sat on the wall guarding the wide-whitewall tires jealously, so that Skippy, our fox terrier, would not.., heaven forbid, stain the wide white wall tires. By lifting his back leg and wetting the tires, I thought he would permanently etch them to conflict with the paint.

 I waited patiently on that wall. I waited building airplanes as I could until the mid-morning hours saw the sun rise high. My patience began to fade however, especially when I thought of riding in my Jodhpur shorts on the car’s hot, dark brown leather seats. I had practiced riding with legs lifted, saying the name of the car. However, in my youth I kept saying “Buck” instead of “Buick”.

My glee arose when my uncle stepped out on the porch dressed in his army uniform. He grabbed up Skippy and called for me to load up in the front passenger seat. Oh, the brightness of it all! A ride in the Buck was at hand. Even today I remember that scene humorously when I consider the matter. For you see… little did I know that the terrier and I were both riding as bait. Uncle Carl trolled through nearby streets looking for pretty girls.

Quality has its followers. Indeed, Buick automobiles were part of my household for several generations. You see, those cars were familiarly American. Buick still holds the oldest active American marque for an automobile. The original Buick Motor Company was the cornerstone for General Motors in 1908.

 My grandfather had worked many years for a man who drove a fancy Buick convertible, one of the first Buick cars in our small town. As an elder in the Welsh Baptist Church down the street from the wall where I made airplanes as a boy, that man had a faithful employee who took care of the car. A slightly-injured miner who’d retired to the house next door to us earned extra income as he washed the car regularly and polished it once each week. Unfortunately, having persistently leaked oil a bit because rear main bearing gasket technology was also in its infancy, the car eventually was replaced by a bigger, black four-door Buick Special.

 I remember that in the early ‘50s, after that war was over the stone wall on which I’d sat echoed smooth sounds of Buick straight-eight cylinder engines, powering through a silent Dyna-flow automatic transmissions. The cars were far beyond the prideful boast of the first turn signals to ever to grace a car.

 

The Three C's that Made America Great: Christianity, Capitalism and the Constitution By Mike Huckabee & Steve Feazel / Trilogy Christian Huckabee and Feazel rally for America's return to the three Cs---Christianity, capitalism, and the Constitution. Pointing out how liberals and leftists are challenging the basis of what made this country great by promoting socialist policies, crashing free markets, and undermining our nation's founding principles, they call for votes and voices in defense of conservative values. 272 pages, softcover from Trilogy.

 

 

 That war was indeed over and cars became bigger. Returning warriors like my father came home. Families whose men found worthy work could then afford new cars and houses, and those were soon motoring to our Welsh Baptist church in large cars like the Buick. But try as I might in looking, among them was not found a pale convertible.

 Buick was a car that seemed to mean success. That car spelled upper-middle class. It meant that a family was growing. My father often said that you could usually tell the income, family prodigy and social pride of a man based on whether he drove a Chevy, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Buick or Cadillac… and also where he would sit in church on any Sunday morning. As well, back then he warned that the quest for power and position are often the roots of prideful sin.

  Indeed power was hard at work in the Buick. You could no longer get a new inline 8-cylinder Buick after ‘53. The car maker dumped the sturdy straight eight, and dropped in a V-8 with a four-barrel carburetor combo in its place beneath all hoods of new models. Buick soon pushed the engine size to greater heights, as the 401 c.i.d. V-8 engine entered the battle of engine verses brakes.

 

 A heavy weight in both pomp and circumstance, the late ‘50s Buick needed big wheels… and used big, finned drum brakes to curb the engine power. Buick’s high performance intermediate and small car models soon were tried out on the GM test track as prototypes from the division vied for attention against such as the Mercury Comet and Cougar.

 Finally during the ‘70s, Buick got performance radical by putting turbocharged V-6 power beneath the Regal hood. Painted in somber and threatening black, these cars boldly cast stones hard against a rock engineering wall that had believed that bigger was always better. I remember driving one of those dark beasts when I was still attending seminary part-time. The magazine I worked for had garnered the car for a photography session. As I stepped on the accelerator pedal, the engine barely squeaked the tires, and then the wind went “Whoosh”. I found out rapidly that a new generation had been born. The wind that had blown in a young man’s hair during WW2… had been captured and engineered into a small engine in order to blow the mind.

  Buick and I have traveled a far way it seems. For as I accepted the graceful privilege of being a pastor within my Lord’s church, the dust raised by generations of family and cars carried me to into the auditorium of the University of Rhode Island. And oddly, while kneeling… like the sound of a big block Buick 455 cube V-8, the sound began faintly, almost unheard during many verses of “Amazing Grace” being sung by a large choir. Soon I could hear another voice. I understood then the gift of the Spirit of Pentecost as spoken in the biblical book of Acts.

 Was it a trick of my excited mind? I asked. In retrospect I don’t believe so. Weeks later, a parishioner from Maine gave me a picture that was taken at my ordination. Within it, I was pictured as kneeling alongside another ordination candidate. She has become a good friend in ministry over the years. We were both ordained on those steps that felt like a rock wall. What seemed to be a photographic anomaly was present above us in the picture. Flames are clearly seen. Some have said it was a defect in the self-developing film. Others have said it was a reflection. I rather think that.., “Whoosh” said the Holy Spirit.

 As I consider this, though a few generations have passed since my days of making airplanes on a rock wall, the sound I heard repeats that which I said loudly to chase our dog from lifting his leg on the whitewalls. “Whoosh” is yet said to the Church as the Spirit comes to us in baptism. The sound often unheard by sinful ears, is divinely spoken to chase away evil demons. Its echoes speak softly to us at the communion rail when God is forgiving us our sinful ways of war and broken families. “Whoosh” is the sound that I feel on the back of my neck which marks when God, through his Son... is preserving us… echoing across the ages in Word, giving faith from one Christian generation to another.

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 Thanks be to God for all that is in that wondrous sound... for especially today I thank our Creator… for loving uncles and old Buicks that sat before me when I was yet a very lonely child.

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May the Lord be with you always!