Listen to a Wise Man: Thomas Sowell

After many a disappointment with someone, and especially after a disaster, we may be able to look back at numerous clues that should have warned us that the person we trusted did not deserve our trust.

When that person is the President of the United States, the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited.

Many people are rightly worried about what this administration's reckless spending will do to the economy in our time and to our children and grandchildren, to whom a staggering national debt will be passed on. But if the worst that Barack Obama does is ruin the economy, I will breathe a sigh of relief.

He is heading this country toward disaster on many fronts, including a nuclear Iran, which has every prospect of being an irretrievable disaster of almost unimaginable magnitude. We cannot put that genie back in the bottle-- and neither can generations yet unborn. They may yet curse us all for leaving them hostages to nuclear terror.

Conceivably, Israel can spare us that fate by taking out the Iranian nuclear facilities, instead of relying on Obama's ability to talk the Iranians out of going nuclear.

What the Israelis cannot spare us, however, are our own internal problems, of which the current flap over President Obama's injecting himself into a local police issue is just a small sign of a very big danger.

Nothing has torn more countries apart from inside like racial and ethnic polarization. Just this year, a decades-long civil war, filled with unspeakable atrocities, has finally ended in Sri Lanka. The painful irony is that, when the British colony of Ceylon became the independent nation of Sri Lanka in 1948, its people were considered to be a shining example for the world of good relations between a majority (the Sinhalese) and a minority (the Tamils). That all changed when politicians decided to "solve" the "problem" that the Tamil minority was much more economically successful than the Sinhalese majority. Group identity politics led to group preferences and quotas that escalated into polarization, mob violence and ultimately civil war.

Group identity politics has poisoned many other countries, including at various times Kenya, Czechoslovakia, Fiji, Guyana, Canada, Nigeria, India, and Rwanda. In some countries the polarization has gone as far as mass expulsions or civil war.

The desire of many Americans for a "post-racial" society is well-founded, though the belief that Barack Obama would move in that direction was extremely ill-advised, given the history of his actions and associations.

This is a president on a mission to remake American society in every aspect, by whatever means are necessary and available. That requires taking all kinds of decisions out of the hands of ordinary Americans and transferring them to Washington elites-- and ultimately the number one elite, Barack Obama himself.

Like so many before him who have ruined countries around the world, Obama has a greatly inflated idea of his own capabilities and the prospects of what can be accomplished by rhetoric or even by political power. Often this has been accompanied by an ignorance of history, including the history of how many people before him have tried similar things with disastrous results.

During a recent TV interview, when President Obama was asked about the prospects of victory in Afghanistan, he replied that it would not be victory like in World War II, with "Hirohito coming down and signing a surrender to MacArthur." In reality, it was more than a year after Japanese officials surrendered on the battleship Missouri before Hirohito met General Douglas MacArthur for the first time.

This is not the first betrayal of his ignorance by Obama, nor the first overlooked by the media. Moreover, ignorance by itself is not nearly as bad as charging full steam ahead, pretending to know. Barack Obama is doing that on a lot of issues, not just history or a local police incident in Massachusetts.

While the mainstream media in America will never call him on this, these repeated demonstrations of his amateurism and immaturity will not go unnoticed by this country's enemies around the world. And it is the American people who will pay the price.

Worm Tongue is Dead!

If you read the post yesterday, you know that I had a critter in the garage wrapped around Ken's fishing poles. I had been watching him for two days as he just hung out, or so I thought to laze around in the garage. I used my critter story to illustrate something I sure do need to heed, and that "I can't forget there is a snake in the garage." So often we look outside ourselves for the major sin problems and obstacles that we face daily, and forget that the biggest problem that we face is a catastrophe going on in our own hearts, and that problem is one we must fall on the mercy of God to "fix."

My problem with Worm Tongue was taken care of by a source outside of myself, my husband. He came home and tried to do the same thing that I first tried to do, pick up the fishing poles off the ground. He was taken aback when he first saw Worm Tongue. He decided that he should do something about the snake, and ran into his own snaffu. Worm Tongue was hooked. No wonder he stayed in the garage for two days! I will once again use this for an illustration of a greater truth.

We have a huge problem of sin that we cannot handle, not with all the positive self esteem, positive thoughts, and positive will power that we could possibly muster. Just as the snake was "hooked" in my garage and not going any where unless someone outside the garage took care of it. Just as Ken took care of Worm Tongue, Christ on the cross took care of our sin at great cost to Himself. He took the penalty on Himself, he "unhooked" our sin in order that He could redeem a Holy people for Himself. Included in what He did for us, sin no longer has a hold a "hook" on us. He "killed" the snake in our garage.

Don't Forget there's a snake in the Garage!

I have made a new discovery about our new house in Charlotte. Yesterday Bama, our golden retriever, saw or smelled a critter outside on our side porch in the ivy. She ran and smelled, but to no avail. Then as I was calling her to the back yard, I noticed the critter. He or she was a snake. I am not crazy about snakes, but it didn't look like a snake that I should freak out about. Later on in the day I went to get into the car in the garage and noticed that two of Ken's fishing poles had fallen down so I bent down to pick them up and set them right up against the wall. They felt too heavy for two fishing poles, so I investigated. Wrapped around the bottom of both poles was the snake. He or she looked like the same snake that was in the ivy. Every time I have gone into the garage since then, there has been the snake wrapped around the fishing poles. Margaret and I decided to name him today. I wanted to name him Sauron, but Margaret wants to call him Worm Tongue. So, Worm Tongue it is. I wrote on the white board a message, "Don't forget there's a snake in the garage."

Our new "friend" in the garage has gotten me to think. We as Christians cannot "forget about the snake that is in the garage." Sometimes we as believers take the outward temptations very seriously, but we forget about the "snakes" that are in our own garage. The Bible tells us that our hearts are deceitfully wicked. We underestimate the sin that pervades our motives, our thoughts, and the unknown recesses of our hearts. The Word of God has to be our daily mirror of choice, asking the Holy Spirit to show us those parts of our hearts that we ignore or pass the buck all the time, and stay humble before God as He uses His Word in order to expose sin that we rationalize away. The Word has got to be a priority in our lives or we too will forget that there is a snake in the garage.

Frustration, Frustration, Frustration

Living in Charlotte right now feels like living in a world of utter helplessness. Constantly frustrated because I cannot do the things that I want to, I feel helpless to live my life in the way that makes sense to me. This illustration breaks down to a certain degree about what a Biblical truth, but bear with me.

I can’t talk on the cell phone without being in just the right spot, hold my head in a certain way, or feel like I have to drive to Target to have an uninterrupted call. I love my animals, but we decided to have them only live downstairs to protect the wood floors upstairs, so we put the invisible fence under the stairs, and now that I live here I am finding that I stay upstairs most of the day, thus I never see my dogs. That makes me feel like a part of my enjoyment of life is gone. I can’t, I am absolutely helpless to get the brand new printer to work on my computer, the wireless feature won’t work, the CD installer is no help, and it won’t even print while my computer is plugged into it. I have to email Ken whatever I want to print so that he can print it from his laptop. The cable company came to install the wireless router for our computers, and it only works in one room! That means I can’t get on line in my bedroom, I have to sit on the stairs in the hall in order to get online, except if I am in Ken’s office. I can’t get online downstairs, unless I hold the computer in the air! The most frustrating thing about it is that I am helpless to change any of this. I have no “router expertise, printer prowess, invisible fence experience, or phone skill. I am helpless! I either have to wait for Ken to come home (he’s out of town till Wednesday), call each company that takes care of each area, or go to the Lake House and “pretend” that none of these problems really exist. I have come up against a mighty brick wall, and am oozing with frustration due to my utter helplessness to change any of it.
As I was pondering this, at 4 am-that’s how frustrated I am, it dawned on me that the Law of God serves this same purpose in our lives as human beings. Reading Michael Horton’s book (review below) has stimulated me to ponder the Law and Gospel. The Law serves as a brick wall that we as humans ram our heads against realizing our utter helplessness to do anything completely right that it commands. It’s a reflection of God’s character, a character that I can never achieve on my own apart from Christ.
Horton on page 136-137 says:
“The covenant of law sworn by Israel at Mount Sinai was not, ‘We will try really hard to have our best life now,’ (as quoted from Joel Osteen) but, ‘All this we will do.’ To confirm their oath, Moses splashed blood on the people, visually ratifying their commitment to personally and perfectly fulfill the terms of the covenant. It is no wonder that the Israelites, terrified by God’s commanding voice, begged Moses to be their mediator. Yet when Moses was absent from the congregation, receiving this law from God on the mountain, the people decided to construct a more user-friendly representation of God-the golden calf-which, instead of inspiring awe and fear, encouraged them to a lighter form of worship: ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.’ (Exodus 32:6)
“If God’s voice of law does not de-center us, throw us off balance, and judge our best efforts as having fallen short of God’s glory, we will never flee to Christ as our Mediator greater than Moses. Instead we will come up with our own representations of God-the golden calves of our own forms of worship-gentle suggestions for life, and helpful advice that lulls us into thinking at last we have a friendly God who does not provoke the cry, ‘God be merciful to me, a sinner!’ (Luke 18:13).

Now there are definitely differences between my silly earthly illustrations so don’t take it completely literally, but I can tell you this, my frustration is palpable. Just as when I “try harder” to fulfill the Laws commands I too run into this mighty frustration! I cannot fulfill it. I am absolutely helpless. My only recourse is to fall down on my knees and cry out as the tax collector did, “God be merciful to me, a sinner.”

Book Review: Christless Christianity by Michael Horton

I need constant reminding of what the Gospel truly means everyday. When I get tired of myself (like my last blog post), and feel like I just can't make it one more day, that is when I have forgotten about the Good News, the Gospel. God has once again knocked me flat, and used Horton's book as the heavenly reminder. He says on page 120, "We always gravitate back toward ourselves: 'Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love.' We wander back toward self-confidence just as easily as into more obvious sins."

Going into some of the movements of the "different" Gospel that we hear today, he examines the likes of Schuller, Osteen, Brian McClaren, and some of the emerging church leaders and what they deem as "good news." He briefly gives some historical perspective of how we got here through Charles Finney et. al., but quickly examines the difference between what Christ's Good News is really and the actual "bad news" of the preaching that lays our condition squarely on our backs. We all know where that leads to ultimately, but we are lulled too easily into believing that we can be our own good news. The true Gospel says that only in Christ will we ever be free. He has a terrific quote by CS Lewis as Lewis quipped,

"I haven't always been a Christian. I didn't go to religion to make me happy, I always knew that a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don't recommend Christianity." (From God in the Dock).

In another essay Lewis wrote,

"We are defending Christianity; not 'my religion'....The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it to or think it good for society or something of that sort. Now a clearly maintained distinction between what the faith actually says and what you would like to to have said or what you understand or what you personally find helpful or think probable, forces your audience to realize that you are tied to your data just as the scientist is tied by the results of the experiment; that you are not just saying what you like. This immediately helps them to realize that what is being discussed is a question about objective fact-not gas about ideals and points of view."

I need to hear this truth everyday, sometimes continually all day long. I cannot save myself, I am doomed, but God in His mercy has sent His Son on my behalf, and the Son willingly gave up His life for mine. I am saved the same way that I am being saved, by Grace through faith. I cannot work do anything, even my good works are as filthy rags. On my best day I am a hypocrite and let those down around me, especially if you were to examine the thoughts and motives of my heart. Christ's story of redemption saves me, not only by bringing me justification but by baptizing me into His resurrection life. This changes who I am, and my motives as well.

Horton puts it this way,

"It is no wonder that the average person today assumes that all religions basically say the same thing and that singling one out as the only truth is arrogant. After all, who doesn't believe in the Golden Rule: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'?....If religion is basically ethics-getting people to do the right thing-then why get uptight over the different historical forms?...What distinguishes Christianity at its heart is not its moral code but its story-a story of a Creator who, although rejected by those he created in His image, stooped to reconcile them to Himself through His Son. This is not a story about the individual heavenward progress but the recital of historical events of God's incarnation, atonement, resurrection, ascension, and return and the exploration of their rich significance. At its heart, this story is the Good News that God has reconciled us to Himself in Christ."

Why has this "preaching the Gospel" to myself again so encouraged me? I have real hope in Christ. When I look at myself, I see only a heart that is deceitfully wicked, and thus the previous blog post. Christ though, the truth is, that He has given me the only way to be reconciled to the Father, and He has actually paid the price for me, as well. That is Good News! I thank God for this wonderful reminder by Michael Horton.

No Good, Terrible, Very Bad Day

Somedays you just feel like why in the world did I get out of bed today? I have had one of those days. My kids are mad at me, I have a very bad summer cold, I seem to disappoint everyone that I love, and I am here in a new house and it doesn't seem like home yet. The worst is that I just found out someone I love very, very much has had the cancer word thrown at them. I feel like crawling in a hole and screaming, not at the Doctor, my kids, or anyone else I have let down today, but God Himself. That may sound blasphemous to some of you, but it all comes down to Him, now doesn't it? Yes, I have a responsibility in this too, and right now I am at the bottom of my list as far as people I like, but that still small voice in my head is telling me that He is with me, and my friend, and He works all things after the counsel of His will, but I don't have to like it. Pray for my friend. God loves her more than I could ever attempt to.

Days like this makes me long for Heaven even more than I do already...............Lynn

Glory in the Details by TM Moore

Glory in the Daily Details (7)

Written by TM Moore

tViewpoint, The Wilberforce Forum

http://wilberforceproject.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=222&Itemid=26

Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you. Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
Proverbs 4:24-26

We don’t have to guess about how to express the character of the Kingdom in the details of everyday life and culture. If we begin to focus our thinking on the kinds of standards we will embrace, the sources to which we will appeal, and the fruit we hope to realize in every area of our lives, this will gradually begin to affect the use we make of all culture, including that which we engage every day of our lives. Because we are so constantly pressed on by the surrounding culture of materialism, secularism, sensuality, and relativism, we are in danger of merely reflecting to our lost contemporaries the very culture which they themselves express. But we are children of the light, and more is expected of us.

Three standards should guide us in our thinking about what to wear, how to converse, how to treat other people and do our work, and all the other details of everyday culture. These are the standards of beauty, goodness and truth. By thinking often and deeply on all that is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise (Phil. 4:8), such attributes will begin to come to expression in every area of our lives. Three sources are available to us in searching out the meaning of each of these terms: Scripture, Christian history, and the work of the Spirit in our own day. Yes, we shall have to do some more focused reading and study, and to engage in discussions with our Christian friends about the form such matters might take. But if it means that we will walk in the light, and the light of Christ will shine through in all we do, won’t it be worth the effort? Finally, there are three fruits that we should strive to realize in all our cultural endeavors. The Kingdom of God, Paul tells us, is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Spirit. He continues, “Whoever thus serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved by men” (Rom. 14:17, 18). Can your conversation really express such fruit? Can these actually be visible in the way you work, how you treat the people around you, and all the daily details of life, down to what and how you eat and drink? We must believe it is so, for God intends us who are His children of light to shine like a bright lamp in all our good works, so that men may take note and give glory to God (Matt. 5:16). All day long the way you engage in everyday culture is making a statement about you and what you believe. Let us resolve that, increasingly, all our cultural activities will become staging-grounds for advancing the Kingdom of light.

A Merry Heart

Elton Trueblood said,

“The Christian is [merry], not because he is blind to injustice and suffering, but because he is convinced that these, in the light of the divine sovereignty, are never ultimate.”

Lessons from Michael Jackson

From Breakpoint written by Chuck Colson

(best thing I have read about the passing of Michael Jackson)tt

The Pinnacle of Success?
The Passing of a Pop Star

July 8, 2009

I am an aging, white conservative Baptist. My taste in music runs from Bach to Mozart to Lawrence Welk. Indeed, my staff might say I am the un-hippest man alive.

So you might think that I am surprised by the frenzied and non-stop media coverage of the death of Michael Jackson—perhaps the greatest pop star of all time. But I’m not.

You may think that I don’t “get” why his fans by the millions are grieving, buying up Jackson CDs like they are going out of style, holding vigils at his mansion, desperately trying to get tickets to his memorial service in Los Angeles. But I do.

Here is why they have reason to mourn: Michael Jackson was, by any standard, a musical genius. His albums and his videos thrilled successive generations of pop fans. In fact, I was enthralled myself when I first watched his video presentation at an Epcot exhibit some 20 years ago.

There was, indeed, no one quite like Michael Jackson. And now there will be no new albums, no comeback concert tour, no new dance moves. That’s why they’re mourning.

But here’s why they—and all of us—should mourn the real tragedy that Michael Jackson’s story is. Andrew Sullivan at the Atlantic Monthly blog said it well: Michael Jackson “was everything our culture worships; and yet he was obviously desperately unhappy, tortured, afraid and alone.” He was, as Sullivan noted, nothing but a creature of our culture, which puts “fame and celebrity” at its core, with money as its driving force, without regard for the person caught up in it or the character he exhibits.

By numerous published accounts, Jackson was emotionally abused by his father, a man consumed by the idea that his child could be a superstar. Jackson was a drug addict accused of pedophilia, given to all manner of bizarre behavior. He was, in the end, as Bob Herbert opined in the New York Times, “psychologically disabled, to the point where he was a danger to himself and others.”

It makes the scenes of adoring crowds pushing and shoving to get near yesterday’s memorial service, and the non-stop live television coverage, all the more bizarre and tragic. We worship the celebrity for his fame, degenerate lifestyle not withstanding.

Jackson achieved the summit of what this culture values most—fame—and paid for it with his life. And that is a tragedy.

Life is filled with teaching moments. And for parents, this tragedy is an opportunity to talk with our children about what they really want out of life—what matters most.

And it’s also a time for parents to look in the mirror and ask what we really want for our kids. If the answer is success in life, then we had better know what that definition of success is.

That’s because even Christian parents are not immune to the siren song of fame and fortune for their kids. It’s great that your child can sing and dance. It’s wonderful that he can hit a baseball a country mile. She just might win that academic scholarship to Harvard.

But winning that scholarship, or playing in the major leagues, is not the Christian definition of success. Doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with your God is.

Character matters. Not fame. No matter how un-hip that sounds.