EDUCATION, ECONOMY OR PSYCHO-SPIRITUAL MATURITY?

 

And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;

And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;  And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. 2Pe 1:5-7

 

 

When you listen to politicians talk about solutions to the problems of our nation, you mostly hear them talk about the economy or about education. They seem to think that if everyone had equal access to wealth and became more intelligent, our problems would be solved. In other words, they act as if wealth and intelligence makes a person good. Historically we know this is not true.  We see extreme manifestations of evil in people who are wealthy and intelligent. And we see smart, rich people who are incredibly selfish, and who diminish, rather than enhance, the common good of the human family.  Some very intelligent, well-educated people get rich “on the backs” of those who are struggling financially. We understand that it is government’s responsibility to work for the economic and educational welfare of its people. And we understand that government cannot dictate religion. But true and sincere devotion to a God Who loves and desires the best for all people—Who commands us to love each other and responsibly bear our own burdens, and holds us accountable for how well we do those things, is the only final solution to the baser nature of the human personality which causes the problems that drag us down. Only within the arena of psycho-spiritual maturity do we use our wealth and intelligence wisely—that is, for the common good—not because anyone forces us to, or because laws dictate it, but of our own free will and choice.  This is why anyone who desires the prosperity of a nation [or any people-group] should encourage all pathways that lead to spiritual growth or wisdom [which is not the same as intelligence].  From the Christian standpoint, we realize how important Christ is in this regard. We see very clearly in the Bible that wealth and intelligence will never be enough to sustain or prosper the human family.  The Bible places knowledge under faith and virtue on the list of traits to acquire [see above verse]. And the knowledge that it encourages is first and foremost the knowledge of what God has revealed to us through the prophets and His son, Jesus.  

{Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman [in the Kingdom] who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth…2Ti 2:15}

And Jesus warns us sternly about the temptations of wealth—the deceitfulness of or delight in riches. And the Bible elsewhere cautions against the “love of money”, which is depicted as the “root of all kinds of evil”. [Mt.13:22, 1Tim. 6:10].  Without the self-restraint engendered by spiritual growth, the government must continue to pass and enforce laws that force us to be civil and fair. But laws can never do this successfully, and the culture begins to sink down under the weight of its cruelty, entitlement, meanness and selfishness. An external power becomes more and more necessary.  Many years ago I asked a German woman who had lived under the rise of Hitler’s regime how such a man could rise to power. She said “Oh, the people loved him. He made the streets safe to walk again.” Where spiritual maturity is lacking, the baser drives of the human nature dominate, and life becomes increasingly more intolerable. This is fertile ground for authoritarianism; someone with power to set things straight. But how rare has it been in human experience that powerful rulers have also been beneficent? Those who have been wise want to give the power back to the people. But that can only work if the people are wise and compassionate; in other words, spiritually mature. Democracy can only work if people are spiritually mature: not just smart and wealthy. And spiritual maturity must be cultivated over the course of a lifetime. The Bible teaches that wisdom comes only from God, and that He imparts it to those who humbly seek it—never to the arrogant or proud.

 

God, please help us to grow in all the personality traits that make us safe and good for each other, so that we can experience true peace and happiness.

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Terrorism: Only Effective Weapon

A secular philosophy can never prevail in warfare against a religion. The religious warrior is inspired by the passion of his faith and the hope of rewards in heaven. The secularist has only this brief earthly life, and he must protect and try to prolong it. The blood of the martyr inspires a hundred more. The blood of the atheist rots in the soil. The true believer in a god can never capitulate to any philosophy of man; he would sacrifice his soul—infinitely more valuable than his life.  Even the secular passion for “freedom” will not stem the tide of a religion that enslaves.  Only a religion that glorifies freedom as a gift from God can do so.

This is precisely why the only effective weapon against the Koran is the Bible. And the smartest thing for the opponents of the terrorism spawned by the Koran could do is to spread the Bible throughout the earth—even if they are not religious! Those who are propagating the Christian faith—those evangelists and missionaries in nations that persecute, kill or imprison them—they are the true frontline warriors  against terrorism. Every soul won to Christ becomes safe for the human family—even the atheist, homosexual, or most liberal secularist.  The propagation of even the most moderate forms of Islam keeps the Koran in the hands of readers who will interpret it as a command to subjugate by force those who do not believe in its god.  And the "moderates" will not have a voice, as they don’t today, because it is their “holy book” that espouses what the terrorists are enacting; and they are plagued with doubt that perhaps the terrorists are more obedient to their god than themselves.

I want to emphasize my belief that the only effective weapon against a religion is a religion. We will never be able to suppress religion. We must refine it and understand it as a gift from the God Who loves us and cherishes freedom—even the freedom to disobey Him. The God Whose primary characteristic is Love—not dominion or subjugation. The God Who wins by loving His people; not by terrorizing them.
Mark Graham

Gov't Shutdown: Message to my Representative

Steve, Thank you for being a calm and reasonable voice for the common good. I am a conservative, Southern Baptist Republican. I voted for you. I did not vote for Obama. But I don't like the way the Tea Partiers are doing business. It seems to me it's gotten too personal, and they are becoming what they accuse Obama of being: power mongers trying to shove something down the throat of government and the American people. It's alarming. Moreover, though leary at first, I am beginning to see the feasibility of Affordable Care. My son, who has been without insurance and unable to afford it, will now have at least catastrophic coverage. I say lets work with it [Obama Care], and tweak it to make it work for the American people rather than throwing the whole thing out and starting back at ground zero, which was not a good place, as you know. I think there are probably millions who are discovering that Affordable Care isn't the monster it was first thought to be. My message to those who are holding up government to defund Obama Care: "You don't prevent a "train wreck" by causing a worse one." Please do all you can to get our gov't back on track, and into a more collaborative mindset. Respectfully, Mark Graham, Ed.D. LPC

Surrender or Die

And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads. Acts 9:5 [Saul's encounter with the ascended Lord on the road to Damascus]

 

The Greek word translated “goad” is Kentron:  an iron goad, for urging on oxen, horses and other beasts of burden, hence the proverb, "to kick against the goad", i.e. to offer vain and perilous or ruinous resistance.

 

I said, 'Now the Philistines will come down upon me at Gilgal, and I have not entreated the favor of the LORD'; so I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering."  

And Samuel said to Saul, "You have done foolishly; you have not kept the commandment of the LORD your God, which he commanded you; for now the LORD would have established your kingdom over Israel forever.   1Sa 13:12-13 

 

Both Saul, the son of Kish, the first earthly king of Israel, and his namesake Saul of Tarsus had inner conflict. Since the Fall, that has been the human condition. King Saul “forced” himself to make an untimely offering—a very costly mistake. What did he force himself against? Some better inner urging. [The Holy Spirit?] And as the Lord pointed out to Saul of Tarsus, he was kicking “against the goads.” He too, in his work of persecuting the Church, was acting against a better inner urging.  We have a common saying in Christianity: “fighting in the flesh.” It means trying, straining to do something, even something “good”, outside the peaceful, rested power of the Holy Spirit. It is activity based on wrong desire, need, or simply not in God’s timing.  And as Jesus related to Saul, who was about to become the converted Paul, it is a very hard way to live.  King Saul never stopped kicking against the goads, and he lost his battles, his kingship, and eventually took his own life to avoid being captured and killed by his enemies.  Saul of Tarsus did stop kicking against the goads; and God used him to give us a large portion of the New Testament, through which billions of people throughout history have been inspired into eternal life. Saul of Tarsus [now the reborn Paul] surrendered into an amazing victory. He surrendered to the lordship of Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah. He then became the persecuted one. But in the sufferings of that persecution, he clearly found the only true Life that exists for the human soul. He rejoiced in his sufferings for Christ. His life now had eternal significance.

This surrender is supremely exemplified by Christ Himself Who had previously prayed, in Gethsemane, for deliverance from the “cup” of the Cross; but then, in an earthshaking, history-changing, heaven-celebrated victory, proclaimed “Nevertheless, Thy will be done!”  Praise God forevermore and thank You Jesus, for this unspeakably awesome victory over all that is opposed to goodness and truth and love! Praise God for this victorious, courageous surrender.  

We all must make this victorious surrender. Over and over again, let us say “Thy will be done.”  Jesus has commanded us to Love God and man—even our enemies.  Along this pathway there will be tribulation, as He said, and as He experienced. We must not resist this tribulation. We must not “kick against the goads” of the Holy Spirit. To do so is only to create unnecessary suffering for ourselves. We need not strain in the Holy Spirit: we need only rest in Him. Then, as the saint has said, “all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.”  Even if we are stoned to death as Stephen, we will see Jesus standing at the right hand of God and our face will be as the face of an angel. We will peacefully pray for the forgiveness of those who cast the stones and commit our soul into His eternal, loving arms. [Acts 6-7].

 

“I surrender all.  I surrender all.  All to thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all.” Judson W. Van DeVenter

 

Tolerance: Some Clarity

Greg Koukl, a Los Angeles based author, professor, talk show host, and Christian apologist, speaking at a recent conference in Monroe, LA, gives us some important clarity on the issue of tolerance. He points out that the classical idea of tolerance is being supplanted by a post-modern view. The classical view of tolerance is defined as treating each person with respect regardless of his or her ideas. The post-modern view is that no idea or viewpoint is more wrong than another.  History, life experiences and common sense tell us that some ideas are better than others: Some are right, wrong, good or better.  “We should have the freedom in public discourse to figure out which is which.  True tolerance applies to how we treat people, not how we treat ideas.” We should always treat people with dignity and respect. But we must not define tolerance as the consideration that all ideas are equally good.  The end result of this post-modern definition of tolerance would seem to be that no one could take issue with any idea without being considered intolerant. This would suppress  public discourse. The challenge facing Christians is our ability to walk the narrow pathway of having the courage, in the face of the accusations of “intolerance”, to speak the truth of the Scriptures; and the self-control not to “lose it” and react in anger or disrespect when we are treated as “bigots” or the like. As always, the primal enemies are fear and anger. May God give us grace to walk this pathway and be the light that Christ, in His Love for ALL people,  has ordained us to be.

FAMILY OF ORIGIN WOUNDEDNESS

 

 

 

As a therapist, I have seen the sometimes devastating effects of growing up with parents who are spiritually immature. Some of those parents are addicted to substances that destroy or severely impede their ability to properly love and nurture their children. Some of those parents are carrying a load of woundedness themselves, going back generations into the past.  Some of them are mentally unstable, narcissistic, unwilling or unable to become mature adults.  But no matter what psycho-spiritual condition our parents are in, we are vulnerable to them in the most formative and malleable stages of life.  God commanded us to “honor” them; and created us with a natural tendency to do so.  The word “honor” carries the meaning “to place heavy emphasis on the words of.”  Before we are even aware of God’s command to do so, we are born placing “heavy emphasis” on the words, actions, attitudes, etc. of our parents.  They have a deep impact on our lives—for good or evil.  I have met many people who wish that God had given them different parents, or who are angry at Him for allowing them to be born to their parents. Our innate vulnerability to our parents or caretakers has felt like a curse to some people. 

Here’s the good news:  The same God Who created us with an innate vulnerability to our parents has given us access through Jesus Christ to His Holy Spirit, and, in this Spirit, the power to overcome the full breadth, depth and height of the woundedness we suffered through them.  God is fair. He did not create us to be the victims of our parents’ failures.  [Read Ezekiel Chapter 18.] In Christ we find a healthy [not perfect] family that is able to be a manifestation of His love toward us. In Christ we discover “normal.”  Christ is the image we emulate now—not some dysfunctional human.  His Spirit is becoming the guiding power of our life, replacing the patterns and feelings we inherited from our earthly family.  Jesus said “If you continue in my word, you are my disciples indeed, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will make you free.” [Jn8:32].  A key word in that phrase is “continue.”  Healing does not come easy for anyone, no matter what kind of family we grew up in. Even if we have very loving, mature, and stable parents, life in this world is difficult and fraught with tribulation.  If I am “born with a silver spoon in my mouth” and do not ultimately come to Christ, that silver will tarnish and turn to mud. We are not responsible in any way for what we inherited from our parents; but we are one-hundred per cent responsible for what we do with it. And whether we were given five talents or one, we will be recompensed by God for what we do with them. [Mt. 25:14-30]. “To whom much is given, much shall be required…” [Lk 12:48].

The danger that we face when we are born into extremely dysfunctional homes is that we continue to wallow in the mire of victimhood, rebellion, anger, or feelings of deprivation and inferiority. Jesus lovingly [at first] and then powerfully confronts this tendency in us. God forbid [He does forbid!] that we should live out our lives under the curse of a dysfunctional upbringing. If we do so, we will pass it down to the following generation, just as it was passed on to us.

The solution:  We must enter the crucible of radical trust in Christ, radical obedience to His love, forgiveness and grace; and remain in it until all the remnants of evil that were projected into us through the imperfections of our parents are burned away in the “consuming fire.” [Hebr. 12:29].  This is a life-long process for all of us. It is our sanctification.  There is no better way to live. Whatever difficulties this Way leads through, it leads ultimately to abundant life, peace, joy and eternal life—all promised by our Lord. The fulfillment of these promises has been attested to by people who have been exposed to the worst of the worst in terms of life circumstances.  But only for those who have “continued”.

 

Honor your father and your mother. [Ex.20:12]

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. [Phl. 4:13]

That which is impossible with man is possible with God. [Jesus Lk 18:27]

And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. [Jesus Mat 24:12-13]