Worldly Wisdom Ruins Households

These lyrics from Warren Zevon's song "Disorder in the House" set up my Quote of the Day:

Disorder in the House

Disorder in the house
The tub runneth over
Plaster's falling down in pieces
By the couch of pain

Disorder in the house
Time to duck and cover
Helicopters hover over 
Rough terrain

Disorder in the house
Reptile wisdom
Zombies on the lawn
Staggering around

Disorder in the house
There's a flaw in the system 
And the fly in the ointment's gonna
Bring the whole thing down

The floodgates are open 
We've let the demons loose
The big guns have spoken
And we've fallen for the ruse

Disorder in the house
It's a fate worse than fame
Even the Lhasa Apso 
Seems to be ashamed

Disorder in the house
The doors are coming off the hinges
The earth will open and
Swallow up the real estate..."
                                Warren Zevon



Quote of the day: by Tony Evans

"Do you know why our homes have disorder? Because too many of our marriages and families operate out of envy and ambition. Instead of everyone upholding the central goal of the home, every family member wants his or her agenda. What else can you have but discord? That's earthly wisdom. 

But James offers us another kind of wisdom, the 'wisdom from above' (v. 17), which he says is first of all 'pure.' That means it's authentic, transparent, clean, like God's Word. Psalm 19:8 says, 'The commandment of the Lord is pure.'

God's wisdom is also 'peaceable,' promoting unity and not strife; 'gentle,' meaning considerate; 'reasonable,' willing to take instruction, ready to listen to people who make sense; 'full of mercy and good fruits,' giving practical help to others; 'unwavering,' taking a stand on principles instead of flowing one way today and another way tomorrow; and 'without hypocrisy,' not wearing a mask. That's what a wise person looks like." 
Tony Evans, Theology You Can Count On, page 142-143

"But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. Such 'wisdom' does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice." James 3:14-16

" But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23

Not on facebook Club

     This day and age, there must be a disclaimer for everything. So here it is for this post: 

1. The internet, including facebook, can be used for good or ill. See my upcoming post on the dangers of the internet, especially for young people. 

2. If you are on facebook once in a while, and use it to reach out to lonely people, or in a ministry, free from self-absorbed, self-centered, self-promotional poser motivations, great. This post is not for you. 

3. The marriage mentoring I am involved with tells a dark story of facebook. I’m not talking about porn sites here, I’m talking about facebook and its sad impact on relationships, marriages and the family. Facebook is not a person: However, your spouse, best friend, children, grandchildren, parents, etc. and yes, even politicians, are people—real human beings! Facebook is not a license to take liberties with the lives of others, whether you know them or not, and does not give license to spend time on facebook in lieu of time with one's spouse or children.

With that, I will begin...

Welcome to the Not on facebook Club. This will be a monthly, or perhaps even one-time newsletter to keep members posted on what they are not doing, and where one cannot see copious amounts of photos of children, grandchildren, puppies, iguanas, prom dates, inaccurate political diatribe and links to indie bands. 

Members of this organization do not concern themselves with what they, or others, eat for breakfast, where they grocery shop, or details of their daily workout. They do not say things like “LOL late for work again...,” or “OMG what is up with Robert and his wife in apartment 2B, OMG?!” 
       Club members do not “like” (thumbs up) or “dislike” (thumbs down) comments, paraphrases, quotes taken out of context, or character assassinations of politicians, rock stars, United Nations members and mother-in-laws.

            Not on facebook Club members raise children, work hard, volunteer, mind their own business, cook dinner, pull weeds, attend to dentist and oil change appointments all without public broadcast and fanfare. Many club members still utilize conveniences such as landlines, rolodexes, postage and paper, along with the human foot and voice, to stay in touch with others.

            Members of Not on facebook need support! We are written off by anyone under the age of 35 and admonished by women in their 50’s and 60’s who brag endlessly about how they are their kids BFF’s on facebook. Sadly, being on facebook = “in crowd.” Not on facebook = “out.” We need to stick together!

Not on facebook Bylaws:

1. We will continue to read primary sources and research political candidates instead of adopting sound bites from late night comedians and then accepting them as if they are legit political commentary and worthy of repeating.

2. We will never cross the boundary of privacy by posting a picture of anyone, anywhere, “learning to potty,” getting a bad haircut or giving birth.

3. We promise to let other people’s news be their news, and wait to hear things “from the horses mouth.” If you do not know what that means, you better make sure you are not already on facebook.

4. We will spend time with our children instead of time on facebook writing falsified accounts of how great they are, or lamenting constantly (and again, most likely unrealistically) about how frustrating they are.

5. We will never ever discuss anything about our marriage that we would not discuss with our spouse. In fact, we will prioritize the boundary of privacy in our marriage by never discussing our spouse or marriage in a public, cavalier manner.

6. We will not maintain running commentaries on the dating and personal lives of our children. We will let their news be their news, not ours. We will let them grow up out of the internet spotlight. We will let them decide, when they are all grown up, whether or not they want their life broadcast on facebook, and then, if they sadly so choose, we will let them do the broadcasting, not us.

7. When having a bad day we will take it to the Lord in prayer (and share personally with a trusted confident, in person, if the need is great).

8. When having a good day, we will take it to the Lord in praise.

9. We will not have too high a regard for ourselves, and will remember that, just as we may be traveling to enchanting places, going to the latest restaurants, hearing the latest music, serving in the latest ministry, seeing the latest movie, doing the latest thing, rebelling in the latest fashion, having a baby, getting married, going to a party, going on a journey, running a marathon, painting a picture or taking a photograph.....so are a million other people.

10. We will not let facebook become another person living in our homes, and will continue, in fact, to be

Not on facebook.

Christian Response to Disaster

From the Calgary Herald website, August 20^th, 2013, quoting a volunteer who helped with the June 2013 flood clean-up in Bowness, Calgary:

“The Red Cross is great at what they do and they raise a lot of money, but organizations like Samaritan’s Purse were the ones who were organized and getting the real work done — they were amazing.”

As I write this, Samaritan’s Purse and the Rapid Response Team is deploying to Boulder, Colorado. Thank you, Samaritan’s Purse and the Rapid Response Team for all you do in the name of Jesus and for often being the first to respond. 

“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

1 Thessalonians 1:2-3

The Knowledge of God

Quote for the day:


"But at least consider who God is, and as you consider God, expect to find fallacies in your thinking." 
Edward T. Welch, Heart of the Matter: Daily Reflections for Changing Hearts and Lives

"We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God..." 2 Corinthians 10:5a

"Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." 2 Peter 1:2

Faith's Call for Civil Rights

Excerpts from an article written by Matthew Brown and published today in the Deseret News out of Salt Lake City:

 "...it was the preaching of Christian and Jewish leaders that took place Aug. 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to an interracial mass of about 250,000 and millions more on television that became the most enduring memory of the historic gathering — particularly the famous "I Have a Dream" speech given by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., a clergyman who became the most powerful figure of the Civil Rights era.

"What a lot of secular liberals have never understood about King is that religion wasn’t just an opportunistic accessory. It was his driving force and utter motivation," said Jonathan Rieder, a sociologist who has written about the religious roots of King and the Civil Rights movement. "It was the source of their vision of justice."

During the past decade, scholars and historians have reexamined the Civil Rights movement, with some making the case that without religion and the belief that God was on their side, the movement's organizers and footsoldiers wouldn't have endured the violent backlash to boycotts, marches, civil disobedience to segregation laws and other direct action.

Read the entire article here:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865585076/March-on-Washington-showcased-religious-roots-of-Civil-Rights-movement.html

"Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?" Isaiah 58:6

The Pit of Self-Esteem

In the book, The Pilgrim’s Progress, the character Christian asks the character Ignorance the following: 

“You think you must believe in Christ when you don’t see your need of Him! You see neither your original nor your present weaknesses, but you have such an opinion of yourself and of what you do that it plainly renders you to be one who has never seen the necessity of having Christ’s personal righteousness to justify you before God. How then can you say, ‘I believe in Christ?’”

For 38 years of my life, I was a “church-goer.” It would never have crossed my mind to call myself a Christian, and no one in my family or church ever used that term. We were Presbyterians, not Christians (and very liberal Presbyterians at that!). The notion of being a Christian was something utterly foreign to me. 

I went to church because that was what “good” people did. I got married in a church. I participated in infant baptisms in churches. But the name of Jesus Christ never crossed my thoughts or my lips. In fact, the name of Jesus was a big “no-no” in my upbringing. To name Jesus would make us “holy rollers,” “hypocrites” and the like. The same held for the Bible. That Book was nothing more than a spiritual prop for the liturgical-based tradition that I understood to be “church.”

My childhood church, while never coming out and saying they believed in Christ, still called themselves a church within a Christian denomination. There are many other people and churches who do say they believe in Christ yet want nothing to do with Him, personally or corporately. 

I recently attended two very old churches in downtown Boston. I was struck by the promotion of vagueness, of belief in platitudes that could have come right out of a Reader’s Digest feel-good story. The speaking was all about “surprises from God” and “being good just the way we are.” This is the insanity I grew up listening to! And we know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. How many times can we be told how “good” we are before we finally figure out that it’s not working? How long before we finally entertain the idea that perhaps we aren’t so good after all?

All my years of striving and positive self-talk had left me judgmental and critical: in short, a victim. There was no growth in personal integrity. My dissatisfaction with life only grew worse. But I was told to keep “believing in myself.” And I continued to attend churches that catered to self-esteem, adding link after heavy link to the chain that was dragging me deeper into darkness: the dark empty pool of ME.

The chains of dysfunction were finally cut when beautiful voices carried the Good News of Jesus to my ears. I finally saw myself as the sinner that I am; a person with no answers, lost and in need of Jesus. Jesus busted through the image of myself that had built up over the years and He halted the progression of those heavy links of self-pride. And one by one He began to remove them.

In His mercy, as the weight was lifted, I began to rise from the depths of the pit of self-esteem that the world and I had dug. Jesus freed me by trusting me with His picture of reality, asking me if I’d like to leave the life of humanistic insanity behind. Thus began the giving over of myself to Jesus: a life of sanity, finally! A life of results and regeneration at last.

“Churches” that esteem self are nothing but institutions of ignorance and false hope; peddlers of human high regard; worshippers of waywardness.

Isaiah 53:3 says, “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

This hiding from Jesus continues today in the hearts and minds of those who relentlessly choose to go it alone by esteeming themselves. If, indeed, we are depending on personal righteousness, how then can we say, "I believe in Christ?"

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.” Colossians 2:8