The Light in the Woods

11/19/08 Inspirations                Life is simple – love God and do His will. You atheists out there can play the role just for the experience of it. Praise life by acknowledging that it’s good to let God have His way, because anything that goes against love and peace and joy in the world is a result of a human failing, not a divine one. Human failing will go on and on and on without relief, as long as man is in control. It’s fashionable to think that man is all there is, so of course man must be in control. Allow then that if each of us would step aside and consciously let love have its way, the world would have to be a much better place. God is that love, whether you believe in Him or not. Love God and do His will, and see how simple life is.

10/26/08 Reflections          It’s the creeping corruption of our society that bothers me the most. We took a good thing like the civil rights movement and got high on the drug of public protest. In affirming the liberty of the individual, we were empowered. But as is typical, we went from using that power of bettering the plight of the individual to the extreme of “If it feels good, do it”. It’s gotten worse ever since, because each succeeding generation will have it more and more ingrained in them that it’s all about “me” and what I want. And we’ve found that what we want is no longer the nobility of freedom and justice for all, but sex, money, getting high, possessions and power.

This hasn’t escaped the notice of the rest of the world. There are two factions: first, those who love us when we export the new values of “the more and the more decadent the better” and hate us when we export the old values of liberty and justice for all; second, those who love us when we provide an outlet for what they are selling, and hate us for rubbing our decadent culture off on them.

This is hard for those of us who love our country the way it was when conceived. We want everyone to have the freedom and blessings we’ve enjoyed, but we are ashamed of what’s been done to our culture and don’t want its degeneration spread to innocents.

To me, the current world financial crisis looks like the merciful work of God in that it shows us how deeply connected we are as citizens of the world. It reminds us that we not only share commerce, but culture as well. We need to be careful that, if we can’t change the corrupt moral nature of our society, at least we can guard against exporting it, even if in most cases it might seem to be too late.

Can we encourage freedom and justice throughout the world without corrupting others with our own misplaced morality? Of course we can. But when we try we are mistrusted, because word of our sinfulness has come before. All that many know of America is Hollywood, Las Vegas, Wall Street, and excess in everything. We don’t realize how conservative the part of the world is that needs encouragement to throw off the burden of the sheep mentality that leads to tyranny. All the tyrants have to do is to show them our example of how we’ve turned God’s blessings into self-absorption; to equate freedom with a slide into immorality. Better for people to allow government to live their lives for them than to risk God’s displeasure, whatever God is to them.

The only way to improve the world is to fix what’s wrong with ourselves first, and then use God’s blessings to encourage morality along with freedom and justice. We need to get back to the God of the new covenant; the merciful God who lives inside us. Once we’ve recommitted our selves and our society to the desires of God, we can count on the continued wealth and personal peace we’ve enjoyed. Even better, when we export God’s favors in charity to less fortunate neighbors, we will have the powers of God behind us – we cannot fail.

I look at the unbelievable gifts God has showered on this country and I have to believe that this is how God works for the betterment of all — through one nation.  But when I see what we’ve done with those gifts, feeding our egos and our appetites to the exclusion of God’s designs, I wonder if God will put up with us long enough to affect the change back to Him that we so desperately need — before we can offer what we are blessed with to societies that are not free to develop it. I don’t think it’s arrogance on our part, but the unfolding of God’s master plan. How I hate knowing we’ve thumbed our noses at it; how I dread the feeling that God has already begun to take His gifts away from an ungrateful nation. My consolation is that we may learn from it before it’s irreversible.

9/5/08 Reflections              They have a concert coming up called “Stand Up To Cancer” — all sorts of song artists donating their time (and getting lots of publicity) for a good cause, the eradication of cancer. But the radio ads couldn’t leave well-enough alone. They actually gushed: “This concert will be the start of the end of cancer!”

I’m no medical expert, but I’d be willing to bet that if cancer can really be ended, it will more heavily reflect on the hard work of medical professionals and researchers than on a bunch of singers. These concerts are a great way to raise money, but to claim this one is the “start of the end of cancer” is to minimize the efforts so far of the thousands of people (researchers and donors) who have already done so much, without looking for publicity, to find a cure for cancer.

God can and does work through various channels, and I would never presume to say that one way is wrong and the other right.  But it just seems indicative of the industry for them to claim to have the magic bullet; the only answer and the power to implement it. No mention of the good plan of God; no nod to the faith and hard work that came before and will undoubtedly persist to the end, concert or no concert.

5/8/08 Reflections              I learned a lot about myself from internet backgammon. I’m self-taught, playing both sides of the board at the same time. So when I finally played against an opponent, my strategies didn’t translate well; I was accepting risks that are taken advantage of in real competition. So I learned that I wasn’t as good at backgammon as I thought.

But it’s what not being good at it taught me that I find is really important. The more I lost, the more competitive I became, which says something right there for the value of adversity. But there’s another value of adversity – mercy. As competitive as I’d become, when I did come up against someone worse at the game than I was, I didn’t want to send them to the bar. I realized I was deliberately making bad moves so that they could have the measure of success I myself needed so badly when playing against better opponents. I did not “let them win” — I wouldn’t have appreciated that either. But I did give them a better chance than my roll of the dice warranted.

In short, I was trying to make a total stranger happy. A total stranger to whom my own identity was hidden and who had nothing to give me in return. I learned that if mercy can come naturally in me in internet backgammon, it must be available to me in more important venues. I may have underestimated my compassion, or else it’s evolving as I draw closer to God. At any rate, I’m glad for any compassion that shows up in my personality.  There have been times when I suspected there was none there at all.

4/28/08 Inspirations              Gather together all the love you can come up with – wrap it up in your free will and give the whole package to God. He will accept it. If there is anything else to be done, He will not only tell you, but will also make it possible for you to do. How much more successful is your work of charity when it’s not done for self-congratulation, or in a sense of duty or guilt. When self has been abandoned and all is done is out of love, that quality will show in you, and that in itself counts for much. The first thing you should give to others is witness to the peace of spirit which comes with voluntary consecration to God. So accept this gift today so that you can gift others tomorrow.

3/18/08 Insights from Study            “Do this in memory of me” — do what? All my life I’ve been told Jesus meant we should ritually and symbolically re-enact the promise of the passion given at the Last Supper. It was something done for you in church so you’d never forget Jesus. I don’t think that way anymore. To me, what Jesus wanted was for us to give body and soul to God, like Jesus did to perfection, on behalf of others. Our service to others pleases God; our sacrifices for God’s creations glorify God Himself. Like Jesus, we can be a bridge between others and God. As God’s children, He desires for us to take part in gathering all to Him so that all may live forever. The same Holy Spirit that guided Jesus is available for us. I was taught to downplay Jesus’ role as example for man; I think because other religions also see him as a prophet, teacher, or all-around good person, and to concentrate on His messiahship is strictly Christian and more to be considered. Also, I was taught His supreme sacrifice was the main emphasis – the fact that He could do what man could not accomplish. But I like Jesus‘ role as good example, and I suspect when third world converts come to Jesus it’s the Jesus who was good to others and set the example for us to do the same. This strikes a chord in me – God telling us He knows life isn’t a bowlful of cherries, but there’s a way to make it better by being better, and then showing us how.

3/9/08 Insights from Study            In the example of the Lazarus story, it’s not enough to think of it as an analogy of resurrection, which it is. It’s not even enough to go further and think of it as about the work of redemption by Jesus, which it is. Today for me, the important part of the story of Lazarus is that he had been dead four days and had already started to decay. Jesus did not raise him up as a rotten corpse; Lazarus came out of his graveclothes a whole and healthy being. The Holy Spirit wants me to know, in enlightening me to this passage, that when God forgives my sin He doesn’t hold it over my head. It’s my own guilt that makes me pay. But to God it’s like my sins never occurred – I am whole and healthy and consistently being made worthy, as is anyone who has prayed to be Christlike with God’s spirit within. One of my biggest setbacks is that whenever I allow the world to invade my senses I find myself wanting to give up on it. Sometimes I feel like I hate everybody, myself included, over the way we reject God in our actions. Even if it lasts only a minute or so, it’s not Christlike. I’m not capable of consistent, unconditional forgiveness, like God, but I could do a lot better than I am.

2/17/08 Insights from Study       One devotional I read for the day has pretty much ruined my Sabbath. It’s all very well to think Jesus demanded peace at any price because He said to love our enemies. But to go on to say we must feed, clothe, shelter, educate, employ, provide health care and dignity to people who have their enemy’s guns to their heads – and the lives of those trying to help them – without defending their very lives first, show confusion of the realities of this life and the perfection of the next. I believe there are many times when war, or the rumor of war (nuclear weapons) is the only thing that allows help for the oppressed to take place. I wish this weren’t so, and I pray to God to intervene so that war becomes irrelevant, but that doesn’t seem to be in His plan so far. And if it isn’t in His plan, it isn’t going to happen regardless of man’s peaceful intentions. Pray instead that our wars are fought for principled reasons and are successful and as humane as possible. In that way lies peace, however fragile – enough peace to allow us to accomplish the things Jesus wants us to do for others less blessed. In the Old Testament divine intervention meant God used His chosen people as swords to strike down His enemies. Radical Muslims still do this for God, except they consider anyone who isn’t a Muslim God’s enemy, especially His chosen people. They don’t give a rip about Jesus, the New Testament covenant, or the peace Jesus preached. And they certainly don’t love their enemies, or uphold the dignity of life for those who get in their way. Now if you agree God desires us to be united under Islam, we should go quietly; the sooner the better so that peace can reign and we can all have an equal share in the wealth and resources of the Earth, just as the writer of today’s devotional pointed out Jesus wanted. But if you’re skeptical that the third world would be better off under Islamic rule than under freedom to accept Judeo-Christian charity, then you had better forget this pious utopia on Earth you ascribe to the following of Jesus. Unless you are willing to fight for it, you will have an ugly peace – a peace with no room in it for third world prosperity, you, Jesus, or a loving God. The peace Jesus promised was not of this world – He knows there will always be sin and therefore conflict here. And when He said “love your enemies” He was acknowledging that we will have enemies, and that it is possible to hate their sin against us without hating them as children of God. He is counting on us to recognize not only our enemies, but also the enemies of the oppressed, in order that we may be His instruments to do something to free the oppressed. This is as important as feeding, clothing, healing, etc. The thing to keep remembering is that anything we can do for our brothers and sisters we are empowered to do by the grace of God within us. It is God who decides what is important and what isn’t; how we should act towards this end and how we should not. But here’s what seems right in my own heart: first we must pray. Second we must make sure we aren’t contributing to the oppression for our own wants. Then we must see that we encourage peaceful charity as far as we are able. But finally, we must make sure that we remain able. In this way we follow Jesus, and take part in the peace that is promised, not in this world but after this world is no longer relevant.