Afghanistan and the Lack of Moral Order

    The debacle in Afghanistan has been heartbreaking to watch over the last few days. People dropping from planes as they try futility to hang on for dear life, bodies discovered in wheel wells of planes, children being thrown over razor wire to soldiers on the other side in hopes of being sparred a life under Taliban rule. A rule that, thanks to American soldiers, NATO allies, Afghani nationals, and contracted workers, has been non-existent for 20 years. Since America went to war in Afghanistan in response to the attacks on 9/11, they have kept the Islamic terrorists regime, known as the Taliban, from taking back power in Afghanistan and harboring other Islamic terrorists groups like Al Qaeda who, led by Osama Bin Laden, perpetrated the attacks on the Twin Towers in New York, the Pentagon in Washington DC, and the failed attempt on the White House that resulted in the brave actions of the passengers of Flight 93. 

    Those events burn in my memory like no others as I watched them unfold on my television that Tuesday morning, three days before my 21st birthday. People leaping from 100 story buildings to avoid burning to death, the phone calls to relatives from planes to say goodbye, the aforementioned bravery of the passengers on Flight 93 to take back their plane and prevent further devastation, and the heroic first-responders who ran into those Towers in hopes of saving as many people as they could before those same buildings horrifically crumpled to the ground. For my generation 9/11 is the event that shook us from adolescence to adulthood. The soldiers that became the character studies for my favorite movies from that period were my age. Their lives ever changed by their desire to serve their country and defend the honor of this great nation from savages who despise our freedoms and our way of life. One of my greatest regrets is that I was not one of them. I trust in God's providence to know that had He intended for me to take that path, then that is exactly the path I would have taken, but I will always live with the "what-if's". 

    Watching everything unfold this week has brought a fresh sense of pain to my heart and mind as I have reflected on those events now almost 20 years ago. I began pastoring less than one month after that day, I got married a few months afterwards, and in the last twenty years God has blessed my wife and I with seven children in the midst of many moves and pastoring five different churches. Yet, as I have watched the events in Afghanistan unfold this week, I am greatly disturbed by the continual trend that I have witnessed over the last twenty years of the growing rejection of objective truth and the foundational destruction of a clear standard of morality. What we are all witnessing in this country and abroad is the consequences of secular ideology and a humanistic worldview coming to bear. 

    Now, I know that many detractors will say that my rational is a leap too far, but once we understand that ideas, both good and bad, have significant consequences, then perhaps you will be able to see what I am talking about. Ultimately, our problems are spiritual in nature. Your greatest problem, just like my greatest problem is sin. And not just sin in the abstract, but our individual sins are our greatest problems. If you are a believer in the Gospel of the Bible, the sins I am referring to are the sins you must come to terms with and acknowledgement of to rightly understand the vicarious death of Christ on the cross for those sins and in your place of judgment in regards to those sins. Those are the sins you must be turning from (repentance) both instantly and continually, because of their soul-killing design to keep you separated from God and His good grace. However,  because sin has so infected the world and everything in it, like a devastating disease much worse than Covid-19 or its variants could ever be, the consequences of our collective sins have affected our hearts and minds in ways we can not even imagine. Sin, and its infectious results, has thrown this world into moral chaos. It has left spiritually dead and blind people asking all of life's grand questions, yet never coming up with any real or satisfying answers, because the ability to know and be known have been made even more complicated by, you guessed it, sin. 

    That is why an event like what has happened in Afghanistan is so unique in its ability to get almost universal agreement in its horrendous outcome. Everyone watching can see that it was done almost intentionally haphazardly. It so boarders on the grossly incompetent that its hard to imagine how anyone did not mean it to go so poorly. Journalist imbedded in the region have been warning for weeks and months about the impending fall of the nation at the hands of the resurging Taliban, yet no one in leadership seemed to care. Bagram AFB which would have been ideal for evacuating all non-essential and essential personnel before a complete troop withdraw would have been the ideal place to orchestrate that project, yet it was closed down and all contractors and military persons sent home. The backbone of the Afghan army, US air support and intelligence, taken away or sent home; leaving the Afghan army unable to fight as they had been trained by the US. And the slanderous words against the Afghan army about not willing to fight, also proven to be false when one considers that since 2014, when President Obama made great cuts in our troop presence in the country, over 50,000 of their troops have died in conflicts with the Taliban. This year alone they had suffered somewhere around 2,000 deaths, while the US had not suffered a casualty in Afghanistan since February 2020, nearly a year and a half ago.  Even with a force of only 2,500 American troops, we were still able to keep the Taliban from attempting to take over Afghanistan and help the Afghanis to continue to make their country safe and build a stable and lasting government. Christians were free to worship, women were free to exist, and children able to enjoy life. 

    Now that is all gone. For the first time in 20 years Afghanistan will be a host to Islamic terrorism, and a country that sits in the middle of a strategic area, boarding Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and China, has been turned back over to a people who joyfully shout, "Death to America." From a strictly strategic mind, the decision makes little to no sense. Even if you are someone who falls on the "endless war" side of the debate, the fact that Americans were not dying there, and were still able to keep a strong watch over a good number of our other enemies should warrant enough reason to stay. Now, to go back in will mean full-scale war and American loss of life. That potential certainly still exists since Americans  and our allies have been trapped behind the Taliban lines at this point. How could we have let such a debacle take place? How could we have abandoned friends, colleagues, countrymen so callously? The answer is our lack of moral order and the rejection of objective truth. 

    This is not the first time American government leaders have engaged in such cowardice and morally offensive behavior personally or on the global stage. We have always struggled with our morality both as a nation and as individuals, and we will continue to do so until the Lord returns. Yet, the degradation of our moral collapse has not smacked us in the face like it has recently. For Christians our constant fight in the culture wars has been mocked for some time. Our fight against issues like abortion on demand, homosexual marriage, transgenderism, and all the rest, has been characterized as bigoted and hatred towards people more than a fight for the soul of America. And, granted, in some of the ways we have pursued these issues there has been a lack of love and care for the hurting and the broken. It truly is the complexity of being a Christian in a world gone mad, because we truly believe we have the greatest news anyone would ever want to hear (and desperately needs to hear), and yet the way we communicate that message can be incredibly off-putting and offensive to the very ones who need to hear it. We can come across as people more concerned with imposing a standard of morality, than wanting to see hearts and minds changed by the Gospel. Legalism, a call to self-righteousness as the means of God's approval, is often what is heard by people, rather than the Free Grace of Christ that changes people by its power. That is what makes the balance of these things so difficult. 

    Christians know, or at least they should know, that there is a moral standard that God holds all people to, and that is the moral standard that He has set forth in His Holy Word. The clearest of these standards are seen in The Ten Commandments, but of course there is a much larger communication of God's law throughout the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, that deal with God's overall plans for national Israel as they make plans to take over the Promised Land and become a new nation fulfilling much of the promises that God had made to Abraham. Some of these laws are misunderstood and mocked today as being outdated, controversial, or just plain barbaric. They are not understood in light of their original audience, context, or the sensible guidance they were providing for a people called to live radically different than the people that would be around them. Israel designed to be a beacon of hope to the world not only as the people of God, but also as the people that were to be a blessing to the Nations for the Glory of God. Their national distinctives served as a contrast between them and the rest of the peoples. It did not make them better in any sense of superiority, but it did make them separate. What plagued Israel, as well as what plagues the people of God today, is that we do not always like being different. Like Israel, we too, become embarrassed by the standards of living God has set for us, or we see the standards not as guard rails, but as self-defining markers for boasting in our own self-righteousness. That is why we shrink back form telling others, and ourselves, what God's standard for you, your family, your church, your work, your play, and your government is because we fear not living up to that standard ourselves, or that it's somehow not necessary to live by God's standard today. 

    That is why if someone wants to understand the lack of morality that we see today in all areas of life, first they need to understand the churches' unwillingness to stress a true moral standard for fear of being labeled "legalist," "fundamentalist," or "extremist." Second, they also need to understand the moral relativism of the secular culture that has come from the Enlightenment period until now, emphasizing personal autonomy at the cost of personal responsibility. These two things coupled together have lead us to where we are today. Unsure of which direction to go. Unsure of how to communicate objective truth or a right moral standard. We look to our leaders and we see people void of truth-telling and lack any sense of moral obligations whatsoever and we dismiss the project out of hand. However, the people of God never have this excuse for not carrying out what we believe to be morally right and truthful. We have an obligation to these things above everything else. If we truly are believers in Christ as LORD, then we have been freed from sin and shame to live honest and pure lives in this fallen world. We have a responsibility to speak out about immorality and to tell people that God will hold everyone accountable for their sins one day, and that includes governments. 

    No longer can we allow political leaders to embrace immorality and turn a blind eye. This was not the practice of believers in either the Old or New Testament. The Old Testament is filled with examples of prophets holding bad leaders accountable, not just in Israel or Judah, but even in the surrounding nations. And the New Testament is just as clear with John the Baptist serving as the clearest example of someone willing to call out the sins of the Gentile ruler, Herod the tetrarch. Of course that does not mean that this is all Christians should be doing, especially as a means of trying to perfect this fallen world, but we do bear a responsibility to hold those given the sword to not use or abuse that God granted right for immorality or the furthering of evil. 

    The events that unfolded in Afghanistan this week were indeed evil. They were chaotic scenes brought about by the immoral handling of the situation overall. President Biden had a moral responsibility to withdraw our armed forces in a way that would guarantee the protection of the most vulnerable first and then the rest of those who had been promised safe passage next until all the equipment and soldiers were ready to head home. That should have been the scenario if you believed in a full-withdraw from the country. Another scenario might have been the continued presence of a minimal amount of American soldiers who could have continued to support and aid the Afghan military and their efforts to keep their country out of the hands of terrorists. This also would have allowed America to keep its promises to her allies, and maintain a presence in a country that is in a strategic area concerning other nations and regions in the world that do not like us, and seemed very intent on causing us harm. The anti-war crowd may not like to admit it, but we live in a fallen world where nations and bad organizations seek to cause trouble for others. They hate us because of our morals and freedoms. They hate us because of our views on equality of opportunity. The do not believe a nation like ours deserves to continue on, and even if that idea might be shared by some in our own halls of Congress or the White House, America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

    We cannot continue to sit by and watch the decay happen around us without a fight. The Church must be the light that we have always been intended to be. If we will preach the Gospel, make disciples, love our enemies, and seek peace with all, then we can demonstrate to those around us what a true Biblical Worldview is all about. We can show them how we expect husbands and wives, moms and dads, family and friends, and even neighbors and strangers to get along. We can get back to a shared moral understanding of how to love and care for one another, while also respecting individual freedom and liberty. From there we can also hold our government accountable to live up to its purpose in existing. Before our Founders ever set pen to paper, God almighty bestowed upon His creation rights that transcend governments. These rights do not come from governments but are the responsibility of governments to protect and keep safe for generations. When these rights are put at risk or infringed upon, it is the duty of the government to take up the sword in protection of its people. It must rightly punish the guilty and seek and defeat those who commit such acts. Government does not get the chance to co-op these duties out to other sources, anymore than the church gets to sell its responsibilities to parachurch ministries. The institutions God has established from the beginning must serve in the capacities He has ordained, because that, too, is their moral obligation in faithfulness to the Holy God. 

    Father God, forgive me for not living faithfully in conformity to your rule and authority. Forgive me for using me liberty as an excuse to sin, more than as freedom to obey your faithfully. Forgive me for not being bold and courageous in the face of opposition, but instead shrinking back and avoiding confrontation. Forgive me, LORD, for not valuing the institutions of Family, Church, and Government the way you have ordained them to work and function for all people whom you have made. God, use your Church to be a beacon of Hope and Light, making disciples of all peoples from all places on this earth. God, use good governments to protect the rights you have bestowed upon all of your people, and help them to wisely administer the sword upon those who seek to hurt, harm, or kill the lives that you have created in your image. Heavenly Father, may the families of this earth recognize you as God alone, and your Son, Jesus, as the only Savior and LORD of all the earth. May they all come to the recognition of their sins and shortcomings before a Holy God, and may they see your love and light in the person and work of Jesus, and once your Holy Spirit has brought new life to their dead hearts, may they call out in saving faith to Christ Alone for His all-sufficient grace. May your Gospel and Greatness and Wonder and Power be made known to all the Families of the earth through your Church now and forevermore, in Jesus name, Amen! 

    May God bless His Church. May God bless our troops. May God bless our country. May God bless the world. Amen!

Psalm 80:14-19

 

From the Pastor

Psalm 80:14-19

O God of hosts, turn again now, we beseech Thee;

Look down from heaven and see, and take care of this vine,

Even the shoot which Thy right hand has planted,

And on the son whom Thou hast strengthened for Thyself.

It is burned with fire, it is cut down;

They perish at the rebuke of Thy countenance.

Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand,

Upon the son of man whom Thou didst make strong for Thyself.

Then we shall not turn back from Thee;

Revive us, and we will call upon Thy name.

O Lord God of hosts, restore us;

Cause Thy face to shine upon us, and we will be saved.

 

 

I have mentioned before the desire of God’s people, and the great blessing that is, to have God’s face shine upon us. This is seen in the priestly blessing given to the people of God in Numbers 6:22-27, which I read over our congregation after each members meeting on the second Sunday evening of the month. The people of God understand that to have God’s face shining upon them is to be living faithfully in His sight, and yet much of life’s hardships can lead us to believe that we are outside of His watch and care because of the difficulties that we so often encounter in this fallen world. This is why the words of the Psalmist are so comforting and important for us to read, understand, and follow.

This section of the Psalm reads like a prayer. It begins with a recognition of who God is, and petitions the Lord to turn, look down from heaven, and see over His people. It furthers the imagery by comparing the people of God to a vine that He has planted, and also interestingly on the Son who assists the father in cultivating and strengthening the vine. This idea must certainly have been in the mind of Christ when he used similar imagery in John 15 where he tells his disciples, “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.” Of course, looking back at the Psalm the writer mentions the vine being burned, cut down, and even perishing at the rebuke of the one planted it, and this certainly did occur to non-believing and unfaithful Israel, but it is also similar to the language once again used by Christ in John 15 when he warns that any branch not truly abiding in Him, the true vine, would be gathered and burned. In other words the Bible makes clear that all who are not in the vine and under the care of the vinedresser will be rejected for their unbelief and ultimately cast out.

The Psalmist then asks again for the hand of the Lord to be upon his people, perhaps even prophesying of the necessity of God’s people to look to the Son of Man for their strength and power, because that is whom the Lord God has given all authority and power to. For God’s people to have certainty that God’s gaze, favor, and hand are upon them; they must be in Christ Jesus. If they are in Christ, God will never turn his back on them. He will revive them in moments of distress and pain. He will restore them after season of hardships. There is undoubtedly assurance of salvation when our faith is completely abiding in the person and work of Christ as our strength and protector. In Christ we can be certain that God’s face is always upon us.

Rush Limbaugh: RIP

 The news of Rush Limbaugh's passing yesterday was the end of an incredible era that greatly shaped my view of politics and place in the conservative movement. I was saddened to hear of Rush's passing because of how much I appreciated his steadfast dedication to the greatness of the American experiment and liberties endowed by God. Admittedly, there were seasons I would listen more than others, especially during Obama's two terms, because conservative radio is always better during liberal tenures than GOP. HA! Yet I digress, Rush was not a perfect man by any stretch of the imagination. Due to chronic back issues he became addicted to oxycodone and ended up in rehab. He was married four times, pushed boundaries, and rarely apologized; yet his reputation as a generous, kind human being was unquestionable, especially in private. Rush introduced me to the great minds of conservatism William F. Buckley Jr., Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, and Walter Williams just to name a few, and fellow conservative radio voices like Mark Levin and Mark Steyn. He was an entertainer, a provocateur, and a master of the conservative mind. His talent, "on loan from God" as he loved to say at the beginning of every broadcast,  was undeniable by even his greatest antagonists. He essentially started the modern alternative media model all by himself, while keeping the radio industry going seemingly all alone as well. He was the Great Maha Rushie and I was a proud Dittohead for many years. I pray that Rush's confessed faith in Jesus Christ was genuine and true, and that his talent was humbly returned to his Maker yesterday morning. I am incredibly thankful for Rush being a Happy Warrior, who could laugh at himself as well as others. Rush's death is a loss to all, even to those who despised his thoughts and opinions. Rest in peace, Rush. 

My Cup Overflows (Psalm 23 part 3)

 

From the Pastor:

Psalm 23:5-6

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;

You anoint my head with oil;

My cup runs over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me

All the days of my life;

And I will dwell in the house of the LORD

Forever.

 

So far in this Psalm David has taken us from green pastures with still waters to deep, dark, and deadly valleys to now a banquet table overflowing with goodness and mercy from the Lord. This Psalm truly does a remarkable job of taking the believer through the experience of coming to our Great Shepherd in saving faith, navigating the realities and difficulties of a fallen world, to worship and joy in the presence of our Savior. Nothing from the believer’s experience seems to be left out, and this is important for us to see and understand especially as we arrive at the end of Psalm 23.

David himself had gone through many dark valleys, and with the Lord’s guidance, come out the other side worshipping God for His care and protection. Whether it was an encounter with a lion or bear, his inspiring acceptance of Goliath of Gath’s challenge, his struggles with King Saul, his fights with the Philistines, or even his own personal and family struggles; David was all too familiar with dangers that lurked in dark valleys. However, through these experiences David also knew very well the exhilaration and joy that came after these times that drew him closer to the Lord and led him to worship Him with overflowing joy and gratefulness. David knew in every circumstance that it was God who had delivered him. He knew that it was only by the Lord that he had any success, and Jesse’s baby boy was sure to give God all the credit for His faithfulness to this simple shepherd boy.

We do not know with any full certainty which of the many events in David’s life might have led him to pen this particular Psalm. Whether it was the encounter with the giant of the Philistines or one of the many others, but undoubtedly, he has come through and is enjoying a celebration even in the presence of those who had doubted, despised, and rejected David. In this last section of the Psalm David is seated at a banquet table, where it appears, he is the guest of honor. Seated there among all the other guests, it is David to whom the host comes and anoints him with oil, a sign of blessing and honor in eastern cultures. Much like Jesus would be anointed with oil, not by the host of a feast mind you, but instead by a woman who had experienced the saving grace of the Lord as was glad to not only anoint his head with expensive oil, but his entire body all the way to his feet. Likewise, David paints a picture of being so greatly honored and reminds fellow believers that they have been anointed with God’s Holy Spirit, poured out by the Master on us, as a sign of His love and grace. This anointing also covers us from head to toe, and the sweet-smelling aroma of God’s Spirit will never fade from His children.

There in front of David is set a cup which he describes as overflowing. Picture the host now pouring wine into a fine goblet. He is displaying his extravagance to his honored guest. He wants his guest to know that all that he has is his and even more. No matter how expensive the wine might be, it is nothing for the host to lavish it upon his guests. Their cups overflow in abundance as a sign of the overflowing love and care the Master has for each and every one us. There is no limit to the love of our great Heavenly Father. What he pours out upon His children He does so in great abundance. There is no vessel that can hold his mercy and grace. There is no limit to His love.

David knows that now, no matter what he may encounter, the goodness and mercy of the Lord will be with him always. Even if there are more dark valleys, the Lord will be with him. Even in his own errors and sins, the grace and kindness of the Lord are close at hand. “All the days” of his life David knows the outpouring of the Lord will be upon him, and that ultimately this will lead to David’s eternal dwelling in the presence of Lord forever. Oh believer, take heart that our worship here is but preparation for the eternal worship we will enjoy in the presence of the Lord forever. Yet, non-believer, realize that rejecting the Good Shepherd will leave you unprotected, uncovered, empty-handed on that last day. There will be no joy everlasting, but instead only pain and sorrow. Turn now to the Great Shepherd. Come to Christ and know the fullness of forgiveness. Know the greatness of His overflowing love and mercy. Know that one day we will dwell in houses not made by human hands, but in a place prepared by God the Father for the inheritance of His children. And there we will live forever and ever without end.

 

The Age of Sophistry

 According to Meriam-Webster's dictionary sophistry is "subtly deceptive reasoning or argumentation." In other words it when a person takes a truth but manipulates its claim to advance a falsehood. An example from our current history would be something like, "Thomas Jefferson was a slave owner, therefore he was an immoral man in all areas of life." The truth stated is that Jefferson was a slave owner, however the conclusion that "therefore he was an immoral man..." is deceptive reasoning based on that fact. Jefferson may have been immoral in other areas of his life, but one cannot make the claim that he was immoral all the way through on the basis of his view on slavery alone. Why not? Because the issue of slavery in his day was not viewed as the way it is in our day, first of all. But also because, it stands to reason that just because a person may have moral failures in one area of life does not mean that they have not contributed greatly to society or the common good in other areas. As a matter of fact, as I have written in other spaces, even the Bible is filled with stories of men who sinned greatly at times, but were still used of God in mighty ways for the good of His people and for the progressing of redemptive history. Yet the use of logical fallacies and the claims of moral superiority based on the manipulation of facts has only increased in our present age. 

We live in an age of relativism. Whether it is Truth that is described as relative or morality, the intelligentsia of our day want to keep the ability of "knowing" loose and vague. This is most obviously recognized with the idea of gender fluidity, fluctuating sexual preferences, and historical revisionism that is taking place all of the country. One story sums this up pretty well when you simply look at the actress Ellen Page who recently came out as transgender. Before she has come to that realization she had come out a few years earlier as lesbian, and now she was coming out as transgendered. Since coming out as a man, she has now divorced her "wife", but without an explanation so far as to what this might mean for her sexual identity. This story also relates to historical revisionism because as soon as Ellen decided she was now Elliott, all mentioning of her past changed to support that claim. No longer had it been Ellen Page, star of the movie Juno, now it was Elliott Page. However, logically and historically it was not Elliott Page who has stared in Juno, it had in fact been Ellen. Confused? Of course! 

Yet, when truth or events do not align with those who control the narrative, suddenly things become a little more concrete. You must wear a mask if you want to stop the spread of Covid-19. You must bow the knee to the LGBTQ agenda. You must recognize the privileges that your color, gender, or economic background have afforded you. And you certainly cannot think for one second that our past election may not have been completely up to snuff or you certainly deserve to be cancelled from polite society! It is all sophistry! Illogical thinking leads to illogical behavior leads to illogical realities. The only thing one can be sure of today is that if you dare speak out on the inconsistencies and the irrational nature of the messaging today you will be pushed to the margins of public square. 

Those that practice such sophistication do so for the purpose of painting certain groups with a broad brush so that their voices no longer carry weight among the public discourse. Take for instance the awful riots at the Capitol on January 6th, although it was only a handful of people relative to the size of those gathered storming the Capitol building, it was later described as essentially everyone there, all Trump supporters, or even all Republicans that had engaged in the terrible activities of that day. Now, compare that to the events of the previous summer when protests turned to mob violence and riots nation wide. How where those events covered by the same media (CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, NY Times, and other leftward leaning outlets)? "Mostly peaceful protests..." Sophistry in action. 

From the pulling down of statues to the removal of names on buildings, all of the actions of the media (those mentioned above), mobs, and leftist have attempted to take one tiny shred of truth and turn it into something completely false. Take for instance the story that kicked off all of the summer riots, the death of George Floyd. No one defended the actions of the police officer that knelt on Floyd's neck till he died. No one pretending that his actions were acceptable, and yet even though everyone was agreed of what the truth presented lies, false information, and incomplete accounts of events flooded the airwaves and the internet. This could have been a moment of unity, and instead it was used as a weapon for divisiveness. This is what those that peddle in such behavior seek to do today. They want to appear wise, but in reality they are foolish. They may not see how wrongheaded and misguided they are because they are surrounded by voices, friends, and colleagues who serve only as a sounding board to reinforce such attitudes and behaviors, however the truth is much more objective than they even realize and pretty soon their folly will be made clear. 

The Apostle Paul writes in Romans 1:22 "Professing to be wise, they became fools..." This is the fate of those who seek to use pieces of truth to perpetuate lies. Their folly is always evident to those who are truly committed to truth seeking. Nothing will be hidden from plain sight on that final day when all things are laid bare before the Almighty God of the universe. The very one to whom all truth is derived is from whom all falsehood flees. The fool will be found out, and how humiliating will it be for him when the God he has so vehemently denied proves to be real, but so does the truth he so desperately suppressed. On that day the age of Sophistry will come to a screeching halt. No more will people be deceived, the truth will out, and those who have denied its power and clarity will receive their just reward. 

The Valley of the Shadow of Death (23rd Psalm part 2)

From the Pastor:

Psalm 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil;

For You are with me;

Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

In the hill country of Judah there were deep valleys known as “wadis”. These valleys were dried out river beds that were difficult to navigate not only because of their topography, but also because they were dark areas that let in little light. Due to this fact they became a place where dangerous people would lurk, or sometimes they would be a place for dangerous animals to lay in wait for unsuspecting prey. At other times sudden rains may lead to them becoming flashflood areas filling quickly with rushing water. None of these scenarios present us with a pretty picture of the valley David begins this next section of the Psalm with. Yet, this is the very point the Psalmist is trying to make.

Last week we saw how the Good Shepherd goes to great lengths to care for His sheep. The LORD nourishes His sheep with exactly what they need when they need it. It’s a beautiful picture of God’s love and tenderness for His children. However, verse four takes a turn to another very important reality of life in a fallen world. It is not all rainbows and rose gardens. Life in a fallen world can lead to danger and loss at any time. Whether problems come from natural disasters, acts of violence, or simply the results of bad decision making; our lives can change moment to moment in all of the situations. That fact has hit many of us very hard in this last year. This pandemic has been another reminder of the frailty of human life in this fallen world. “For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23a) Perhaps, you did not need Covid-19 to remind you of that fact, yet for many it seems to have come for that very reason. We are not entitled to or guaranteed from God one more breath than what He has ordained for us. He has numbered our days from the end to the beginning, and all that He has ordained is right.

However, the purpose of the Psalmist in contrasting this hard reality to the joys of the previous scene are not to scare us, but to assure us that even in the dark times and in the dark valleys our LORD is with us. The Good Shepherd NEVER abandons His sheep. As a matter of fact, our Great Shepherd became the sacrificial lamb on behave of His sheep, suffered death, and defeated death through the resurrection so that they do not have to fear death. The Psalmist may not have had the fullness of the Gospel in view when he penned these words, but he trusted God enough to know that even in the hard times the Lord was with him. In David’s life he has faced bears, lions, and even a giant! Yet, he always trusted that the Lord was with him, shepherding him as David shepherded the sheep of his father’s flock. That is reality the Psalmist is pointing us towards.

No matter where we go in this world, if you are a child of God, the Good Shepherd is ALWAYS with you. In life and even in death the Lord is with you. You will not have to cross Jordan alone! You will not have to face any earthly tragedies alone. The Lord is always there to comfort and guide you every step of the way. His Word is there to nourish our souls and His Spirit is there to comfort us, just as the rod and staff of a shepherd guides and protects the sheep. Oh, believer, please be assured as you read this that God is with you. He will never leave or forsake you. He will never abandon you. He will walk with you through all of life’s valleys and He will bring you safely home in the end. I pray that you are comforted and strengthened by these words this week. God bless you and may His peace rest upon you. Amen.

Which side is really for Freedom?

The Mississippi Freedom Caucus has submitted a resolution to the Mississippi Legislature to make Mississippi a "Bill of Rights Sanctuary State." I've provided the link below so that you can read about the resolution and where the idea originated. I'm intrigued by the idea because of recent actions and the need for states to make clear where the federal governments over-reaching and impinging on these issues must stop. Of course, it seems the real culprits at infringing upon or downright violating the significance of the Bill of Rights is coming from the private sector from Big Business and Big Tech. For those typically on the right of center, the idea of forcing private businesses to welcome all voices and consumers may seem hypocritical given those on the right usually being in support of freedom of association for private actors. However, what do you do when private companies and businesses have become so large that their actions against conservative or right of center voices, basically silences those voices from the public square? Sure, in times past those feeling marginalized by one group would just start their own venture in getting their thoughts and opinions out to the market place, but what do you do when your not even allowed access to the market place? These concerns are becoming more and more relevant because this is becoming the reality for more and more right of center and conservative voices. That's why I think something like what the Mississippi Freedom Caucus is doing might be something more states should consider if they want to protect their states and citizens from the growing infringements these companies are pushing. 

The question(s) needed to be asked, however, is who or what is giving these industries the notion that cancelling or quieting voices is right? That's not how this American experiment is supposed to play out. From the beginning it was a belief in the classical liberal notions of free speech, freedom of religion, freedom of assembly, and so on that drove our Founders to create the Bill of Rights in the first place. Sure, a constitution was important, but as equally important was a document that made sure the government knew what its limits were not what limits it could put on its citizenry. And while some may say this is why these businesses have every right to quell whatever voices they want, someone needs to ask "Was this what the Founders had in mind?" Now, that may to originalist for some, or even get to the heart of authorial intent too much for others, but that is exactly what needs to be asked right now. What if the government is not having to reign in the rights of its citizens because private business is doing it for them? Of course, in many ways the government is reigning in speech and other rights state by state during this pandemic by ignoring voices and information from one side of the aisle that it does not want their citizens to hear concerning Covid, its prevention, and its management. So it should not come as too much of a shock that these same party members now in control of two branches of the federal government would like to squelch dissenting voices through presidential order and legislative censures. Is this who we are? Is this what the USA has become? A place where those who disagree can no longer have their voices heard and their opinions expressed? Have we become a place that no longer thinks its citizens can hear differing opinions from particular sets of facts and form their own thoughts based upon the provided information? Can people not see that the reason why some have turned to conspiracy theories is not because of the freedom of opinions but because of the limiting of facts and voices to the discussion? 

It is time to stop the gaslighting (telling people that what they saw is not in fact what actually happened) and the marginalizing of any voice. Believe it or not, the Right does not believe that this should be the practice of Americans, nor its institutions, at least they certainly should not believe it. The Right should not have its own version cancel culture or method of getting rid of voices that do not go along with the party line. No, we leave that behavior to the Left because they know they are in the position of weakness. It is not those in the right who have to quiet dissenting voices, it is those who know their ideas and principles are lacking and insufficient. The Left loves cancel culture and encourages Social Media to stop the voice of opposition because their arguments against those voices are not based on science or fact, but instead are simply based on "feelings" and a desire to control the narrative. This should come as little to no surprise because that's what's been happening ALL YEAR LONG. From people being told that rioting and looting were "mostly peaceful protest" TO any opinion on Covid that did not align with their messaging being de-platformed TO the Hunter Biden story being immediately labeled disinformation for fear it may negatively impact the Biden campaign TO no willingness to even examine the potential for voter anomalies and irregular voting patterns in the last election. And we could go on and on... all of these actions have one thing in common. They been done for the expressed purpose of silencing voices from the Right so that they cannot interfere with the narrative and opinions coming from the Left. And truth be told this is what the new Left has become over the last decades. 

Once, the Left was committed to the Voltaire's idea of "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."  And it was the Right that had to constantly defends it seeming desire to silence those who objected to this notion, but something changed. Perhaps it was the hatred the each side grew to have for the other, or the very real concern in their mind from the Left that the Right was trying to force a morality or view that they found too oppressive, but somewhere along the way the Left started to forcibly quiet the Right. From college campuses to local restaurants, if you were on the Right you no longer had the right to be heard or listened to or even allowed to simply peacefully enjoy a meal without being shouted down or protested against. And this was seen and celebrated by those on the Left as some sort of new normalcy! Plus with the rise of the Black Lives Matter and Antifa (one of the most ironic names ever) organizations promoting violence and the disintegration of western society, it suddenly became "en vogue" for Leftist actors use any means necessary to stop whomever they believed to be the enemy. A cultic type mindset has now taken over, where any nonbelievers must be excommunicated from society because the threat they bring to the new orthodoxy must be stopped. So if you DO NOT believe boys can simply turn into girls overnight, or that female sports should be for whoever "feels" like a female, or that Covid is worth destroying the economy and stopping people from worshipping freely, or that masks will protect you from everything, or Joe Biden is just a nice man serving his country; then you must be silenced. You are the enemy of the state, a domestic terrorist. Now that is frightening! 

How far are they willing to go? Time will only tell. Does this cause me to live in fear? NOPE! God is sovereign and He is still ruling and reigning from His throne. He will continue to accomplish His purposes for the good of His children and for the Glory of His name. Does this mean I should take all of this lying down? Not at all! God has providentially chosen for me to live in this country, therefore I should value and appreciate my citizenry here. I should not value it in the same way that I do my citizenship to my Heavenly City, but if my Earthly City needs protection and assistance then I should serve it joyfully to the Glory of God. Many of us believe that the reason this nation possesses any level of exceptionalism is because it has chosen in its founding to value those things that our Creator told us to value from the beginning. Some have chosen to focus on this nations shortcomings in always holding up those principles as a reason to attempt to overthrow it. I do not think that is the right mindset to have. All people have been created by God and in Him image. All people possess dignity, value, and worth and should be treated that way individually and under the law. That does not mean that every opinion is equally valid or should be equally valued, yet it should be heard. We must learn to respect each other for who we are, not for who others think we should be. If we do not start to live this way soon, American exceptionalism will not only be a thing of the past, so will America itself.

 https://www.wlbt.com/2021/01/26/resolution-would-make-mississippi-bill-rights-sanctuary-state-heres-what-that-means/