What a week it’s been. Turbulent, frightening,
thought-provoking, disturbing, enraging, sorrowful – you might want to add your
own word there. I turned off the television last night after 15 minutes disgusted
with the pundits of the Left and Right. Flipping from one “news” channel to the
next I heard nothing but raw propaganda purposefully shaped to inflame rather
than to inform. My time on Facebook was equally disturbing: hateful, biased, uninformed,
blaming, and racist comments. I went to
bed troubled in heart, filled with questions, and fell asleep in prayer for
insight, for wisdom, for change that starts
with me.
I must pause to make this lengthy disclaimer - There is enough self-awareness in me to
realize that as a 65 year old white male with conservative leanings, I have
blind spots, probably some big ones. This blog, as thoughtful as I may try to
be, as prayerful as I am for the Spirit’s wisdom, will include “Jerry” – a man
who distrusts government, who believes in self-reliance, who values order, who
is a passionate about authenticity, who loves Christ and His Church, who loves grace
and redemption, who has known life in largely rural settings, etc. Have my
ideals evolved over the years? I certainly hope so, God helping me. Is there a
ways to go? Yes, there is! Asking the hard questions of myself is unpleasant.
Admitting to feelings that are unworthy of Christ, my Lord, is painful. I want
to settle into my old comfortable ways, to ‘shut out’ the protests, to just get
things back to ‘normal,’ like so many of us who have never known real
discrimination.
America’s real problem
is not political, it is spiritual. Before you heave a sigh and say, “Oh,
yeah, here he goes. Here comes the old stuff about prayer in school, abortion
on demand, and gay marriage,” let me hasten to say that it’s much more, way
deeper, than those things. We have become worshipers
of other gods – Money and Self our top gods. Even many Christians do not truly ‘serve’ God,
though they may say they do. Their “God” exists to serve their needs. Prayers
are mostly ‘bless me’ petitions focused on personal health, wealth, and
comfort.
Radical discipleship that calls for the death of Self is
nearly incomprehensible to the majority of Christians, simply making no sense
to us, for we love self-fulfillment, personal rights, and self-expression. We
talk about God but the God of the Scripture no longer exists for most of us. He
cannot command our hearts, cannot judge our actions because we have made Him
too small, too trivial, peripheral to our ‘real’ life not the core of our
existence, the One Who gives us life and meaning.
Arrogantly
we define God instead of God defining us. Yes, where we are as a nation is the
logical outcome of our 100 year march towards the exaltation of SELF, the gradual
elimination of the holy and majestic Lord from our consciousness. He has not forsaken us, we have forsaken
Him. We proudly believed that technology
would save us, that education would reform us, that laws would restrain us. And
the last 3 months have revealed their empty promises.
How can we change? The basic choices we need to make include
humbling ourselves, repentance ( going past regret), entering into prolonged
silence, and earnestly asking God to reveal Himself to us.
Jesus told us that there are just 2 commands.”‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest
commandment. And the second is like it:
‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’" (Matthew 22:37-39, NIV) Ask the Holy Spirit to give understanding
about what He meant. Ask yourself if you really love God more than life
itself. Ask if you love the ‘other’
(black, white, rich, poor, male, female) like you love yourself. IF you come up short, and you will, because
we are all sinners, there is an answer.
At the end of ourselves there is Jesus Christ. He is found in repentance
and received by faith.
There is so much to say, but I will stop there today. Here
is a word from the Word. Please go beyond just reading it. Spend some time with
the Living Word allowing for the Scripture to transform your mind and heart.
"When we were
utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners.
Now, no one is likely to die for a good person, though someone might be willing
to die for a person who is especially good. But God showed his great love for
us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. And since we
have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly
save us from God’s judgment. For since we were restored to friendship with God
by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be
delivered from eternal punishment by his life." (Romans 5:6-10, NLT)
"And so, dear
brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be
a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he
has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior and customs
of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way
you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how
good and pleasing and perfect his will really is." (Romans 12:1-2,
NLT)
________
Change my heart, O God,
make it ever true,
Change my heart, O God,
may I be like You.
You are the Potter,
I am the clay,
Mold me and make me,
this is what I pray.
Change my heart, O God,
may I be like You.
-- Eddy Espinosa
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