Linda went into the hospital for a total knee replacement on
Thursday, Nov. 3rd and was released on Wednesday evening, the 16th. The
promised three days in the hospital took a little longer than we expected, but
Linda is now home and recuperating. For those of you who were supposed to get
birthday cards, anniversary congratulations and returned phone calls, please
forgive. It was not our intention to offend, but life does have a way of
getting in the way of our best intentions.
The time setting in the hospitals and thinking about our life
and what it all means did bring some focus however. There are a lot of things
that we have spent time and money on which are of no real value, and there are
a lot of things that we should have spent more time and energy on. I suppose it
is best to understand sooner than later, but later is not too late and any
understanding has value, whenever it occurs to us.
There are several things I am playing with and would like to
write about in time:
1. American Exceptionalism
We propose that we are a nation blessed by God and to observe
what has happened to this nation over its life span would be evidence of that.
But to attribute that grace that has been freely give to us, to some happenstance
of fate is to short circuit the general laws of nature. That is, we live in a
cause and effect world and yet from time to time we think that we are blessed
by luck or some other quirk of chance. If we are blessed by God then, is it
possibly, that those blessings are ours because of the foundations of our
nation and that in discovering those principles, we have walked into the
blessings of God? That is, it is not that God looked over history and decided
that he would bless our nation, well, just because? Or is it possible that in
honoring God we are blessed because we are on His side?
So then, is it also possible that our national problems are
also caused by our walking away from our founding principles? To fundamentally
change America, may be the worst possible thing we can do! Maybe, taking a
giant step backwards is the best way to take a positive step forward.
2. The Authority of the Church
If we live in two kingdoms, the
kingdom of man and the kingdom of God, as most of us affirm, than why is it that
we assume that the greatest power base is political and legal? Why do we allow
the direction of our world to be governed by those who carry political power?
Now don't get me wrong here. I
lived through the days of the silent majority and the Christian quest for
notice and approval in the political world, and the small degree of patronage
we got from the powers of this world did little to give the church the power it
needs or the world around us any favor with God. I am thinking that we have
tried to gain our power from the systems of this world and are missing the
point of the power of the kingdom of God.
Is it possible that an alliance
with earthly government should not be our chief objective and that setting our
creation free from the fall will require much more than government legislation?
Is it possible that we, the church of the living God, had abdicated our
responsibility by leaving the world's systems to bring redemption to the
kingdom of man through carnal legislation? Is it possible that we have a
responsibility to legislate in and to the heavenly kingdom, that which was paid
for on Calvary? If it is paid for, then where is it? I suspect that we feel it
is being withheld for a future time or for another dispensation, or that our
politicians will stumble on it sometime in the future. But is it really? Is it possible that the
blessings of God that were purchased on the cross, only await the
implementation of the sons of God?
These things I think about and I invite your input. I am old
now and I probably should set down and shut up, but there is something stirring
in my spirit that will not go away. I feel like there are things to be birthed
by His spirit that are so exciting and just around the next bend in the road.
Will you join me in walking together on this road of
discovery and let us see what our Lord might be bringing to birth in us - of
Him!
Pastor Dave
