Three Cultural Shifts Every Christian in America Needs to Watch – Part 3

The Sanctity of ALL Human Life

It is the responsibility of government to protect the most helpless in our society. No one is more helpless than an unborn person. They require the maximum protection in order to grow and mature and to become self-viable. Since January 22, 1973, it has been open season on the unborn in America. The new standard (as of 1973) of whether a life is worth living or not is: Does the mother want the child?

This cultural shift has eroded USAmerica in at least three ways:

1. Any culture is reliant on reproduction. As I blogged about in part 1 of these three cultural shifts that every Christian in America needs to watch, it takes a fertility rate of 2.11 for any culture to sustain itself. If we want America to survive, we must have babies and lots of 'em. Since 1973, we have aborted over 50 million citizens who would have been progenitors of the American way of life. We have aborted 50 million people who would have been working, tax-paying citizens, contributing to a Social Security system that is fast running out of money. In a very real sense, we have aborted our Social Security away.

2. The culture of abortion has led to intellectual chaos.
Scenario: a woman is on her way to an abortion clinic to abort her child. While on the way she is mugged and killed. The perpetrator is caught and charged with DOUBLE murder. Make sense? Not really. More chaos: when can you legally abort your baby? The answer to this simple question is a moving target. There have been times that abortion was only legal early on in the pregnancy (how early depended on which State you lived in, which is a whole other issue). And there have been times when a woman could literally give birth to a full term baby. The birth occurs in such a way as the baby would be turned so that the feet come out first. The head of the baby would stay in the birth canal. The abortionist would then insert an instrument into the birth canal designed to crush the head of the baby. The head would finally be extracted with the rest of the body. It's called partial birth abortion and it is legal because the baby is not a "person" because the mother has decided she doesn't want "it." Now, if something goes wrong and the head accidentally comes out of the birth canal before it is crushed, the law requires that the baby be treated as a human being and given medical care. Make sense? Not really. And America continues down the slippery slope. President Obama, as Senator Obama, supported legislation that allows a baby "accidentally" born during a botched abortion to have medical care withheld. Basically, the child is left on a table, or put in a trash receptacle, to die.

President Obama has said that he is pro-abortion BUT that he wants to see fewer abortions. This is another example of intellectual chaos. Follow with me.

If someone is pro-abortion, then they acknowledge that abortion is morally acceptable, i.e. there's nothing wrong with it.

If there is nothing wrong with abortion, then why do "we" want to see fewer abortions? Let me ask that again: IF THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ABORTION, THEN WHY DO WE WANT TO SEE FEWER OF THEM?

The only reason we would seek fewer abortions is that we acknowledge that on some level, abortion is harmful. And if abortion is harmful how can one be pro-abortion? It is ALL intellectual chaos.

The first two erosions of American culture have led to the third and perhaps the most dangerous.

3. Life is no longer precious. You cannot kill over 50 million people, legally, and NOT become desensitized to death. This will impact how any culture values life. And in America the only life people really value seems to be their own.

We have now entered a debate over nationalized healthcare. The purpose of this post is not to evaluate the pros or cons of a national health system, but as a pastor, theologian, and observer of culture, I am going to tell you where such a system will lead. Since we do not value life on the front end, there is no reason to believe we will value life on the back end. Government has already decided when life can begin and government is about to decide when life, perhaps your life, will end. When the government doles out health care, they have to make decisions based on supply (of both medical resources and financial resources). When either one of these is lacking, a choice will be made. Someone will be left out. Someone will be deemed unworthy of receiving care, of living. Oh, it will be couched in terms such as, "This person has already lived their life," or "We would only be prolonging the inevitable," (by the way, death is inevitable for ALL of us). And that someone could be your father or mother. Your wife or son or…you.

Why would we NOT think this will be the case?

Notice the tone of the dialogue in recent days. The pro-life position has now become the extremist position in America. Pro-choice is now the moderate position. The culture has successfully marginalized those of us who hold to the sanctity of all human life. We are now extremists.

But we extremists are growing in number it appears. The cultural battle over issues of life is far from over. As Dozer correctly pointed out on this blog, "A recent Gallup poll has revealed that, for the first time since it began asking the question, a majority of Americans self-identify as pro-life." See http://www.jodyhice.com/

We will have to stay tuned to see how this cultural shift will play out, but without a doubt there is shifting going on over the issue of life.

Blessings,

Jeff

Monday Morning Leadership Devo

Leading From Darkness Into Light

Last week, our church hosted James Walker as our special guest speaker for both of our morning worship services. James is the president of Watchman Fellowship out of the D/FW region of Texas. Watchman Fellowship is an apologetics ministry specializing in world religions, cults, and the occult. We had booked James back in the summer and I had been looking forward to his coming for many months. I knew it would be good, but man, it was really good. James has such a passion and heart for the gospel and has given his whole life to sharing the Truth of Jesus in a world where people believe any and everything. James is actually a former 4^thgeneration Mormon, so he understands more than most what it is like to step from darkness and confusion into the Light.

James’ topic for the Sunday was the prevalence of the occult in mainstream America. If you don’t believe me, just listen to his sermon here. Everything James shared was excellent, but one particular point he made really struck me. He pointed out that around 20 years ago, the experts were decrying the coming demise of Christianity. They postulated that in the next 20 years or so, people in America would become more Atheistic and that there would be this very clear divide of two camps in our country: Christian and Atheist.

But that is not what has happened. America has not become more atheistic, but instead it has become more spiritual than ever. Not more Christian, but more spiritual. People believe all kinds of things today. The variety of belief can be overwhelming at times for the Christian.

I was reminded of my freshmen year at Oklahoma Baptist University. It was the first day in my required Intro to Philosophy class. Philosophy classes are not necessarily the favorite of students and many Christians in general don’t trust philosophy at all. They see it as a waste of time, and some Christians see philosophy as dangerous. They equate philosophy with strange thoughts that lead Christian minds away from Jesus. So I was on my guard when I entered the classroom as a new freshman in college. I’ll never forget how the aging Dr. Wester began the course. As if knowing there was a propensity of distrust in having to take a “philosophy” course, Dr. Wester opened his Bible and read us a verse:

Passage for Reflection:

Colossians 2:8 (NLT)
Don’t let anyone capture you with empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ.

I will never forget the next words out of Dr. Wester’s mouth, “The Bible tells us to avoid empty philosophies. So let me ask: how are you to avoid them if you don’t know what they are?”

He had me hooked. In fact, I would go on to become a philosophy major, Dr. Wester would become my mentor and advisor, and my senior year, I was awarded the Senior Achievement Award in Christian Philosophy. And it all began with a challenge to study and know the empty philosophies of this world.

Listen, my friend, empty philosophies and spiritualities are everywhere… yes, even in our own hometown. People are looking for answers and they are looking in many, many places. As Christians, we need to be armed with the enemy’s playbook. We must know what others believe so that as we love people, we can also share with them the Truth of Jesus and the error of their worldview.

That is why I love and appreciate Watchman Fellowship. And that is why I was so enthused as James Walker shared with our people last week.

“Lord, may I lead with knowledge and wisdom those who are in darkness to the Light. Amen.”

Blessings,

Jeff

PS – I highly recommend that every Christian bookmark and frequently visit the Watchman Fellowship website. You will find it an invaluable treasure house of free resources on all the various belief systems in our world.

Three Cultural Shifts Every Christian in America Needs to Watch – Part 2

The Mainstreaming of Homosexuality

Two years ago I preached a sermon on the sin of homosexual behavior. In the sermon I said that the mainstreaming of homosexuality in America was going to be THE issue that the church would be forced to deal with in the future. Oh sure, there have always been gay people in any culture even our American culture, but American Christians have historically taken the attitude of “as long as ‘they’ don’t bother me, then I won’t bother them.” On top of this do nothing attitude, churches have, for the most part, completely mishandled gay people by singling out the sin of homosexuality as being “bigger” and more “repugnant” than other sins and thus completely rejecting the sinner along with his/her sin. Church has not been a safe place for a gay person genuinely struggling with this sin and trying to seek forgiveness and help. As a result, gay people have found no help from God’s people in recognizing homosexual behavior as sin and finding freedom from it.

But we have now reached a tipping point in America as it relates to homosexuality. Gay people can no longer be ignored and Christians can no longer hide in their church buildings and pretend that the culture is not shifting. Where we are today has been coming towards us like a freight train for years. The writing has been on the wall. Hollywood normalized homosexual behavior a long time ago. A ground breaking movie like Brokeback Mountain would no longer be ground breaking today. Gay couples on prime time television are now a staple.

Amazingly, even certain mainline denominations have begun to dismiss homosexual behavior as sin and have instead viewed the historical taboo as a culture issue instead of a moral one. The result is acceptance of same sex marriage and the ordination of gay clergy in the Episcopal church and in certain facets of the Presbyterian church, just to name two.

The homosexual community has successfully turned the debate into one of equal rights using the civil rights movement as a framework. To be gay, we are now told, is the same as being black or white or Hispanic. You can’t choose your race and you can’t choose your sexual orientation.

But the tipping point has been reached, I believe, over the issue of same sex marriage. This is a game changer to be sure. Just a couple of weeks ago, Maine became the fifth State to legalize same sex marriage. The FIFTH State. That means 10% of the United States endorses gay marriage. One of those States is Iowa. That’s right, Iowa. It’s easy to disregard California (which by the way voted down same sex marriage in a State wide vote, but don’t think the battle there is over), or New York as being extreme, but Iowa is middle America. Iowa is common, salt of the earth folks. And in Iowa, two men or two women can now marry each other. The reason we have reached a tipping point over the issue of gay marriage is this: as more states legalize same sex marriage, the harder it will become for other states to refuse. It’s the domino effect. And because the whole issue of sexual orientation has been framed as an equal rights issue, the pressure for hold out states will be great. Can you imagine even one state still legalizing slavery today? It’s all or nothing because we are a UNITED States for good or ill. In time, and that’s all it takes is time, all 50 states will normalize gay marriage.

Mark my words, this is a slippery slope we are now going down. By legalizing same sex marriage, we are destroying the whole basis for civilization as designed by God. That’s right, designed by GOD. Marriage was God’s idea, not man’s. It was God that said that marriage is one woman and one man together. That is the standard. Anything else is not marriage. What same sex marriage does is change the standard. We are told now that the standard is consensual love between any two people regardless of gender. But let me ask you this, based on this new standard which emphasizes and champions LOVE regardless of gender, then why stop at two. Why can’t, now, three people be married? Or four or more? Based on this new standard, how can you argue that two is better than a plurality? And what about man who wants to marry his mother or sister? Or a woman who wants to marry her daughter? If the standard is love regardless of gender, how can you argue against this? At this point we have marital and societal chaos. Oh, you think it will never happen? Go back 30 years…just 30 years and ask anyone if they could ever see the legalization of two women as a marriage.

By the way, this all has direct tie-in to the other cultural shift I addressed last week in Part 1. In order for any culture to survive, fertility rates must be high. It doesn’t take graduating top of your class to understand that any culture that normalizes gay marriage is going to have lower fertility rates and thus be a culture in risk of dying.

Every Bible believing Christian is going to feel the impact of the mainstreaming of homosexuality. It will not be able to be ignored. Much is said today about hate speech. With the normalization of homosexuality based on a civil rights platform, we are closing in on the day when it will be illegal to speak out in any way that it critical of homosexual behavior. To call homosexual behavior a sin will be tantamount to hate speech. That means that the sermon I preached two years ago could one day soon get me arrested. Just look at what happened to Miss California, Carrie Prejean, a few weeks ago when she was asked a direct question about what she believed. Her belief in marriage as being defined by one man and one woman made her the subject of public scorn. This kind of scorn is what Christians can expect as the new norm. Tolerance has now been re-defined from “you must accept my right to my opinion” to “you must agree with and endorse my opinion.” All viewpoints are now equal, except for the Christian viewpoint. Christians are now the recipient of the new discrimination.

The question is what will be our response? The church chose silence in the past, foolishly hoping that ignoring the sin of homosexual behavior would insulate them from it. Now the church is going to be bullied into silence. But will we remain silent? Will we be willing to speak the Truth about God’s order for a culture? Will we champion God’s design for a society, built around heterosexual unions of one man and one woman, producing lots of children and teaching them God’s ways? Will we love people who are gay and separate the sin from the sinner? This is not cliché speak. Will the church be serious about loving gay people, confronting them with the truth that homosexual behavior is a sin, and point them to forgiveness and a better way to live? Do we love people enough to lead them into God’s best instead of man’s worst?

By the way, I found an interesting story on the web. As I said at the beginning, there have always been gay people in every time and culture. No society is immune from this particular sinful behavior. The Russians are even dealing with it. Apparently in Moscow, the gay community is seeking the right to conduct gay pride parades much like what we have seen for years in America. But the Russian government has chosen to BAN these gay pride parades. That’s right ban them. Their stated reasoning is that such parades by the gay community would “interfere with the rights and everyday lives of ordinary Muscovites.” In a statement issued by the Moscow City Hall, they further explained that “society's absolute majority does not accept gay lifestyles or their philosophy."

It is interesting to me that an atheistic government has found moral ground on the issue of homosexual behavior and in America we have lost it.

Blessings,
Jeff

Monday Morning Leadership Devo

Licensed to Lead

I had the opportunity last week to license to the ministry one of our young men. Landon Riley is a godly young champion for Christ. He feels a distinct call to full-time vocational ministry and is currently doing all the right things to prepare for and live out that call. He is a student at Oklahoma Baptist University and will be spending the summer in the Houston, Texas area as a junior high intern, getting practical, on-the-ground experience.

A license to ministry is a first step toward eventual ordination to the ministry. By licensing Landon to the ministry, we, as a church, are saying that we recognize his call, believe in him, and are supporting him and encouraging him to move forward and to begin “practicing” ministry as he has the opportunity. At some point in the future, after Landon has a record of ministry to support his calling, we will then ordain him. Yes, these are human processes, but the process is designed to engage the church in Landon’s life and to provide a base of credibility and support for him as he moves into the ministry. It’s a win-win for all of us.

And so we found ourselves the other night at this “formal” licensing service. Landon shared the testimony of his call, and I then issued a challenge to him directly. While my words were meant for Landon, they were also meant for the encouragement of the church as a whole. To be a minister of the gospel is to be in an important and critical role of leadership in people’s lives. I wanted to capture this idea for Landon and provide for him some key points to always return to as he moves forward into ministry.

And so I thought I would share these same thoughts with you today by way of a devotional.

• Keep your focus on Jesus. Don’t become so focused on ministry that you forget who it’s all about.


• Love the Church. The Church is people, and this can be hard to do at times, but loving people is the essence of ministry.


• Uphold the Bible as God’s inerrant, infallible Word. Study it, learn to preach it / teach it. It is amazing that some of those who carry the title today of “clergy” deny the truth of God’s Word. The Bible IS the standard of all Truth and this can never be forgotten.


• Get the best preparation you can (education). Degrees are like keys on a key chain – the more you have, the more doors you can open. God forbid that there be some door you want to walk through one day but don’t have the key to open. At this point your ability to minister and lead is limited.


• Be a lifelong learner. Read, read, read. NEVER believe that you’ve learned it all.

• Marry a woman called to be the wife of a pastor. Who a minister marries will determine the level of ministry effectiveness he will have. Yes, God calls women to be pastor’s wives just as He calls pastors.

• Be sensitive to other people. Of the previous generation(s) and of the next generation. This balance is extremely difficult but necessary.

• Be willing to go anywhere God wants you to go.

• Be willing to do anything God wants you to do.

• Teach your children to love Jesus and love the Church. Family first, ministry second. Don’t let your children hate God and the church because they stole Daddy from them.

Passage for Reflection: Ezra 7:10

As a gift verse, I gave this bit of Scripture to Landon. Take time to read it and pay particular attention to the word “heart.”

“Lord, may I understand that all Christians are called to minister. Amen.”

Blessings,
Jeff

Three Cultural Shifts Every Christian in America Needs to Watch – Part 1

In addition to the Monday Morning Leadership Devotional that I post each week, I am going to spend the next few posts highlighting three very important cultural shifts that every Christian in America needs to watch. I think it is obvious that America is changing. For many Christians this can be scary. Fear breeds confusion and confusion breeds more fear. The Book of 1 Chronicles describes a group of Jews called the Sons of Issachar. We are told that they were “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.”

Christians in America need to become the sons of Issachar. We need to understand the times we live in so that we can know what we as believers and what America as a whole ought to do.

The three cultural shifts I will highlight are not politically correct and will be open to much criticism – which only serves to highlight the changes that have and are occurring in our country. Changes that will not only impact every believer in Christ, but every citizen of this country…and not for the better.

Cultural Shift Number 1 – The Growth of Islam

Islam is on the move. That’s no secret. But the growth and goals of Islam have been severely underestimated and misunderstood by the global community and by both ruling parties in American politics.

Make no mistake, the goal of Islam is global domination. Islam demands that all other religions cower and submit to the will of Allah. Peaceful coexistence is not an option. It is estimated that 15-20% of Muslims are of the extreme fundamentalist variety. In other words, willing to blow themselves up to kill you. And so, we are told, the vast majority of Muslims are peaceful people, willing to tolerate people of other faiths. While this may be true from a short sighted viewpoint, when taking the long view, all Muslims are taught and seek global domination.

The Muslim community has discovered that there is more than one way to conquer a nation. You don’t necessarily have to shoot, blowup, or behead the enemy. The preferred method of Islamic domination? Immigration. Western civilization has lost its will to maintain national identity. As a result, the western nations of the world have opened their doors to any and all peoples and in doing so, they have also chosen to bow to the culture of Islamic immigrants rather than require their new citizens to adopt the western culture of their new nation.

I have led two mission trips to London, England in the last 10 years to work in the public school system. Both times I was struck as to the number of Muslim students in English schools. It is, to be honest, shocking, in light of perceptions about English / western culture. In discussing Muslim growth with English teachers, I was told that the situation in France is much more pronounced. France, I was told, is on the verge of becoming an Islamic State. No wars, no battles, no “Jihad.” Just immigration. France is willingly turning their nation over to Islam because they do not have the will to define and promote the national culture.

What is happening in France is happening all over Europe. And it is happening in the United States. I have included (at the bottom of this post) a video in this post that every Christian needs to watch. I cannot verify the statistics wherein, but you will get the point of the video very clearly. It is alarming and Christians and all Americans should be alarmed. America is a democracy which means the majority rules… “we the people”, you get the idea. So what happens when the majority of Americans are Muslim, when “we the people” are Islamic?

To cut to the chase of this 7 minute video, please note:

For any culture to sustain itself from one generation to the next, it takes a birth rate of 2.11. This means that for America to retain its national identity, every couple needs to produce 2.11 kids. Now my wife and I have 3 kids, so we’ve done our job and are actually ahead! But a couple that has only 1 child pulls the birth rate down. Make sense?

Throughout all of history, no culture has ever turned around an overall birth rate of 1.9 and the “experts” say that a birth rate of 1.3 would be impossible to recover from. In other words, a culture with a birth rate of 1.3 is doomed.

So let’s apply these numbers to the nation of France. France currently has a birth rate of 1.8 among its French population. They have already dropped below the threshold from which any nation has ever recovered. But Muslims in France have a birth rate of 8.1. You can see the writing on the wall can’t you? In southern France, there are now more Mosques than churches.

Among the 31 countries of the European Union, the current birth rate is 1.38.

So what about America? The current birth rate among Americans is 1.6. If you add in the birth rate of Latino immigrants, our birth rate jumps to 2.11. While these numbers signify a dramatic shift in American culture to include Latino elements (salsa now beats out ketchup as the number one condiment!), Latino countries are essentially Christian which enables America to still be a nation which embraces Judeo-Christian values and morals.

But, Islam is on the move. Muslims have not only discovered that they can move here, but they also know that they can out-reproduce us. In 1970, there were 100,000 Muslims in the US. Today, there are over 9 million.

Add to the above demographic information, attitudes and fears towards Islam and Christianity, and you will understand why this is one of the three crucial issues we all need to be concerned about.

It is open season on Christianity in America. Christian values, morals, and standards are all subject to attack and ridicule. It’s the “in” thing today to beat up on Christians. It’s accepted and almost expected. On the flip side, it is taboo to criticize Islam. Not only is it not “politically correct,” but I believe people are fearful of Islam. We’ve seen too many people killed and maimed, too many riots in Islamic countries, when anyone dares to poke fun at Muhammad, Islam, the Koran, etc.

So what do we do? Political solutions are hard. The political arena is just not friendly to Christians and I am not sure it will be ever again. Certainly, we as believers need to exert our influence and pressure in the world of politics as much as we can. And we need to encourage our young people to be politicians and join the battle on Capitol Hill. But let me tell you one thing that we can do. We can fight fire with fire! In short, Christians need to reproduce. We need to have kids and lots of them. Now I’m not saying throw the pill out the window. Birth control, I believe, is a matter of conscience. But I do believe that God wants Christians to be fruitful and to multiply. This past Mother’s Day, we dedicated 22 babies at our church. It was awesome. I couldn’t help but think about the rising army of Christians they would one day represent. And that’s what we need, babies and lots of ‘em. So if you are a Christian and you are still in those child bearing years, go ye therefore and populate. You will be doing more for the Kingdom than you may ever realize.

Stay tuned for the second and third cultural shifts that every Christian in America needs to watch.

Blessings,
Jeff

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother’s Day. A day that we honor the mothers in our lives. I have the privilege of having a great mother. I would be remiss if I did not point out that much of that which is good about me came from my mom. That’s the way motherhood works, it transfers things like character and integrity onto the next generation. I have also had the privilege of watching my wonderful wife grow into her role as a mother over the last 14 years with incredible skill and grace. This time I get to be on the observation end, watching all the little things about life being transferred into my children. Each of them, so very different as individuals, carries the unmistakable fingerprint of their mother. That’s one of the reasons I have such great kids. As a father, I am doing my best to raise leaders in my three kids. Difference makers. Influencers. But I realize that I cannot do this by myself. I need the aide of a good mother, and thankfully I have that in my wife.
Behind every great leader is a great mother! Don’t doubt me…and for proof just look at one of the greatest leaders in the Bible, Moses.

Passage for Reflection: Exodus 2:1-11

The tendency is to look at this passage and to focus on Moses. But don’t do that. Focus, instead, on his mother. Imagine having to give your baby away just to save his life! As I read this passage I come to understand very quickly why Moses ended up becoming such a leader and a man that the book of Hebrews later calls a man of faith. I see three ways in which Moses’ mom transferred great faith to her son.

1. Moses’ mother modeled faith. She stepped out in faith and defied Pharaoh’s order to have all newborn babies turned over to be put to death. She stepped out in faith and turned the baby loose into the waters hoping and praying that he would find favor with Pharaoh’s daughter. Not only was this crafty, but it was an act of faith. This would require God to get involved.

Hebrews 11:23 (ESV)
By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that the child was beautiful, and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

2. Moses’ mother marked him with faith. Pharaoh’s daughter allowed Moses’ mother to be his nurse until he was grown, probably around age four. Can you imagine sending your child away after four years to never see them again? But did Moses forget? No way. His mom had marked him. He knew not only who he was but whose he was.

Hebrews 11:24 (ESV)
By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,

3. Moses’ mother matured his faith. Notice these incredible words of Moses the leader:

Deuteronomy 6:4-8 (ESV)
4 "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.

Where did this maturity come from? Why the emphasis on teaching these words “diligently to your children”? Because Moses had this taught to him. By who? His mother!

Who was standing behind this great leader Moses? His mother.

So here’s to all the mothers out there. And may those of us entrusted with touching the lives of the next generation take the lessons of Moses’ mother and pass them on.

“Lord, may I model, mark, and mature faith in those around me. Amen.”

Blessings,
Jeff

Today is the National Day of Prayer

Established by Congress in 1952, the decision was made in 1988 to set aside the first Thursday of May to observe the National Day of Prayer. Traditionally, the President makes a proclamation on the National Day of Prayer calling the nation to pray and then he hosts religious leaders and publicly observes the National Day of Prayer in the White House.

But not this year.

President Obama has decided that this year he will give the proclamation but there will be no guests or public observance in the White House. According to his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, President Obama prefers to pray in private.

Now, I’m all for private prayer and I practice private prayer myself, but the President of the United States is not a private position but a public one. President Obama is our leader. And this year he has chosen to lead this nation away from public prayer. Remember, you lead by modeling. Should a nation, on a public scale, call upon God and seek His face? Yes. Consider the pagan king of Nineveh in the Old Testament book of Jonah.

Jonah 3:6-9 (ESV)

6 The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, 8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish."

Did this king seek to petition God in private? No, because he was a leader that understood that people were watching. And as the king goes so go the people. So he prayed publicly and called his nation to public prayer. This change in the public observation of the National Day of Prayer by President Obama worries me. It worries me for our nation and it worries me for him personally. Yes, it also makes me wonder what kind of Christian he is and if he is even a Christian at all. God only knows, but his actions regarding the National Day of Prayer don’t even rise to the level of the pagan king of Nineveh.

Blessing,
Jeff

Return of the Blog

Well, I'm back and blogging once again. I took a break from blogging about 15 months ago because I was wanting to devote my writing energies to my first book. Well, the book is done (see the left column for pic and details) and I no longer have any excuses. In the interim I had several people stop me and comment that they missed the blog. While the last 15 months have seen an explosion in the popularity of Facebook and the advent of Twitter, I don't have a Facebook and I don't do Twitter, but blogging seems to fit who I am/want to be, so here we go again.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly returns for another go around. I plan to post for sure, each Monday, a devotion focused on leadership issues plus at least one other post each week. So feel free to come along for the ride as I will be commenting on church, Jesus, culture, politics, money, and I am sure a whole host of other topics. You can subscribe to an RSS feed of the blog which is a good idea if you don't want to try and remember to check back for new posts. Feel free to forward what you read and to tell your friends to check out the interaction as well. I plan to leave comments unmoderated (for now) and to allow anonymous comments (for now) although I will admit that anonymous comments bug me because I think people ought to have the guts to own their words or not say anything at all. I do not plan on responding to anonymous comments.

Blogging is like the wild, wild west of the technological age. There's lots of space to roam, it can be hazardous at times, and sheriffs who enforce the law are far and few between. You'll find a little bit of everything in the wild west of blogging - the good, the bad and, yes, the ugly. The wild west of blogging is not for everyone, I know that. It's just another way for me to connect and interact with people.

But if you're game, then let's saddle up...

Jeff

Monday Morning Leadership Devo

Planting With Faith

Each spring my wife, Julie, and I plant a garden in our back yard. It’s not a huge deal, just some tomatoes, peppers and a few others things. This past Saturday was “planting” day and this year we decided to branch out and try something new. We have a stretch of additional property behind our backyard fence that runs the length of our backyard and is about 20 feet deep. I usually ignore this stretch of property but this year I decided to mow it and to use a portion of it to plant a pumpkin and watermelon patch. It takes a lot of room to grow watermelons and pumpkins, more room than our garden has, but the space behind our fence is really perfect to experiment with. And that’s what this is for us, an experiment. In our garden, we always buy seedling plants and put them in the ground, but in this new area behind our fence, I decided to just plant seeds. Seeds are much cheaper and since this whole thing is an experiment it’s no big deal if the whole thing is a flop.

So on Saturday, we planted our garden, and then I went with my seed packets to this new area to plant some seeds. The instructions on the packets said to only plant the seeds an inch deep. I basically just poked my finger in the dirt, dropped in a seed, and then covered it up. Since this whole seed planting business was new to me, several things struck me. First, I could not get over the feeling that planting seeds requires much more faith than planting seedlings. It’s hard to imagine that dropping a tiny seed into dry dirt will produce anything. At least with a seedling, the growth has begun. Planting a seedling feels like more of a sure thing. But working on my knees in the dirt, dropping seed after seed into the ground, I could not shake the feeling that nothing was going to happen. It’s almost as if three months from now, if I see nothing happening, that I won’t be surprised. I was also struck at how easy it is to plant seeds. Even though it’s not hard to plant a seedling, it’s really easy to plant a seed. It takes almost no effort at all. In fact, in the time it takes to plant a handful of seedlings, you can scatter and plant many, many more seeds. That led to a third thought. Since I was planting so many seeds (I planted everything in the seed packets), I felt as if surely something would happen. Even if only 10% of the seeds do anything at all, I will have watermelons and pumpkins! No guarantees, but a lot of hope.

So in the midst of all this first time seed planting, I thought of the words of Jesus.

Passage for Reflection: Mark 4:1-9

These words took on a slightly new but important meaning to me. Here are some additional thoughts:

1. We are required by Jesus to scatter seed.
2. My ONLY task is to scatter seed. I don’t have to worry about soil, food, rain, sun, etc.
3. Seed sowing requires faith.
4. Seed sowing is easy, it requires very little physical work.
5. Seed sowing is hard, you can feel like your efforts will produce nothing.
6. You can scatter a lot of seeds with little effort.
7. Most seeds will produce nothing.
8. The seeds that do produce will overwhelm you with fruit.
9. We need more people to sow seeds.
10. The one who plants seeds becomes the master of his garden, a leader, if you will.

“Lord, may I have the faith to plant seeds. Amen.”

Blessings,
Jeff