On a Lighter Note

I don't know...I just thought this was so funny...the look on the mother's face is priceless: "My son is an idiot." She looks like she just realized that this kid will be living with her for the rest of her life.





This comic strip, Close to Home, is drawn and written by John McPherson.

Discernment for Supporting Organizations

I have made it a habit in my life to always check out the webpage of organizations I am considering to support. Sometimes you have to dig deep, but it's worth it to know who you are supporting through money, volunteer work, etc. Once you learn about them, then it's important to hold that organization up to the clear light of Scripture and exercise discernment. My pastor did just that in evaluating the organization, Black Lives Matter.

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What follows is another message concerning the fallout our nation is experiencing after the recent death of George Floyd.

One thing that I’ve seen almost everywhere lately is the call to show one’s support for the organization known as Black Lives Matter (BLM, for short). We are told that one can demonstrate solidarity with BLM in a variety of ways: sharing a BLM related article, posting a black square on Instagram, using related hashtags, kneeling before a black person, and so on.

What I’m about to tell you is that Christians should be very reticent to lend any credence to the BLM organization. Before I explain why, please allow me to lay out a few qualifiers.

The first is this: Obviously, any Bible-believing Christian should be willing to loudly and cheerfully declare that the lives of black people genuinely do matter. In fact, we can go much farther. As people who have been created in the image of God, the lives of black men and women are sacred. And their lives are due the decency and respect that should be given to any being who bears the image of the living Creator (James 3:9-10). Of course, the same can and should be said about any human person, regardless of their racial heritage.

As for the second qualifier: Not all support that is given for the idea that black lives matter is intended to be support for the BLM organization. Many well-meaning people these days, including believers, desire to show their solidarity with the idea and not with BLM proper. That said, the credibility of the BLM organization has dramatically increased in the public consciousness because of the indirect, even accidental, support it has received from many.

Is legitimizing the BLM organization a bad thing? I would argue that is. And the reason is simple. While the BLM organization supports things that many decent people would agree with (equal justice for all under the law, an end to police brutality, etc.), BLM also promotes positions and ideas that Christians should reject.

For example, on the “What We Believe” page of their website, we read this:

We are self-reflexive and do the work required to dismantle cisgender privilege and uplift Black trans folk, especially Black trans women who continue to be disproportionately impacted by trans-antagonistic violence. (https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/)
 
And this:

We foster a queer‐affirming network. When we gather, we do so with the intention of freeing ourselves from the tight grip of heteronormative thinking, or rather, the belief that all in the world are heterosexual (unless s/he or they disclose otherwise). (https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/)
 

While a Christian can join in opposing senseless acts of violence perpetrated on anyone, a Christian cannot lend their support to sexual and gender practices that are clearly at odds with God’s word (Deut. 22:5; Rom. 1:24-32; 1 Cor. 6:9-10; etc.). 

We also find this disturbing BLM claim on the same “What We Believe” page: 

We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable. (https://blacklivesmatter.com/what-we-believe/)
  
What is so troubling about the statement above is that the nuclear family is not a “Western-prescribed” notion; it was instituted by God Himself as the basic building block of human existence at the first moments of creation (Gen. 1-2). By working to disrupt the nuclear family, BLM, either wittingly or unwittingly, is striving to disrupt God’s design for society. Incidentally, such a goal also puts BLM in league with evil movements like Communism, which desired the same disruption.
 

The above are just a few examples of BLM positions that should cause Christians to recoil. There are others, but I think those will suffice for now.

The point is simple: Christians cannot lend their support to any organization that is so blatantly at odds with the teachings of the Bible. They cannot do this explicitly. And they should labor, whether it’s in person or online, to not do so implicitly or accidentally.
  
While we can gladly affirm the importance and even sacredness of every human life, let us never promote an organization that so blatantly rejects vital tenants of our Christian faith. As we are commanded…

14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? 15 Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? 16 Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 17 “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate,” says the Lord. “And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you. (2 Cor. 6:14-17)

Prayer for our Country

"Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution,[b] whether it be to the emperor[c] as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants[d] of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor. - 1 Peter 2:13-17

Prayer from the 1906 Presbyterian Common Book of Worship

Almighty God, King of kings, and Lord of lords, from whom proceed all power and dominion in heaven and earth; most heartily we ask you to look with favor upon your servants, the President of the United States, the governor of the state, and all others in authority. Give them the spirit of wisdom, goodness, and truth; and so rule their hearts, and bless their endeavors, that law and order, justice and peace may everywhere prevail. Make us strong and great in the fear of God, and in the love of righteousness; so that being blessed of you, we may become a blessing to all nations, to the praise of the glory of your grace, through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Doing Good in the Eyes of the Lord

"'Do not be afraid. These are the things you are to do: Speak the truth to each other, and render true and sound judgment in your courts; do not plot evil against each other, and do not love to swear falsely. I hate all this,' declares the Lord." - Zechariah 8:15b-17

Light in the Darkness

"The richest grace, does it not lie in the heaviest sorrow? Was it not 'in the burning fiery furnace' the three Hebrew children saw 'the form of the fourth, like the Son of God,' walking in the midst of the fire? It was when 'Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was,' that he spake with Him face to face and heard His voice. And how often it is in 'the thick darkness' Jehovah reveals Himself as the Comforter of His people! The cloud which settles down upon a desolate home, He graciously fills with His own presence: we find it to be 'secret of His Tabernacle,' the 'pavilion' in which He 'will show His Covenant.'

"The Divine love breaks through the gloom, as once it burst through the terrors of Sinai and the darkness of Calvary. It is not what we would have chosen; but in this dark cloud we learn that it is best sometimes to be alone with Him. The earthly lights are put out, that no earthly love may come in between Him and us." - B. M. Palmer

The Last Enemy

As today is Memorial Day, I was thinking about all of those who died in battle for various causes, some more nobler than others. But for the soldier on the field, or sailor on the ocean, or aviator in the sky, he gave his life regardless. Certainly I have never given my life for anything. Death is a terrible thing. It is the thing that really shows us that something is terribly wrong in this world. The world is off kilter. It's not the way it's supposed to be. But in this awfulness, Christians have hope. Death is not the end.

Yesterday I started reading a book by a 19th century American pastor, B. M. Palmer. He was the pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in New Orleans. The book, Lessons in Sorrow, is a memoir that recounts the death of Palmer's wife and several children. He knew of death intimately. In this passage, he tries to make sense of it, finding hope in his faith.

Many reasons can be assigned for this dread of death, styled by the Apostle "the last enemy." There is the natural instinct of life, which we share with the beasts of the field; a wholesome protection against the madness of despair which so often rushes its victim on to the guilt of suicide. There is, again, the awfulness of death as the penalty of the broken Law. How unnatural the separation of the soul and body, is shown when the spirit lingers in its tenement of clay and escapes reluctantly at last with the gurgling breath. Is it possible, again, to shake off the ties of life from which the soul has through years been drawing the sweetness of earthly bliss, and not feel the pain? Add to these our ignorance as to the details of a Future State, disabling even the imagination from transporting us to its scenes and pursuits. Finally, bring before the mind the pangs of dissolution, exaggerated often to the senses through the spasms of the body as it stretches to its death stature. Aggregate all these terrors in one single conception, and the wonder will be, not that death is an object of dread, but that Christian hope should be strong enough to overcome it as the last. The history [the passing of Palmer's daughter] just recited is only one of many, going to show that with the most sensitive and shrinking of mortals this fear is quelled at the moment of passing into the presence of our King. It is a grace reserved for this precise moment, guaranteed only then as the experience which is needed; and is possibly connected with the last acts of the Holy Ghost in completing the believer's sanctification. It has been said that the dying never weep; certainly the composure is beyond the power of nature, with which the dying saint yields up all the companionships of life, and sunders the dearest bonds of love. Ah, who can tell what new joys swell the bosom of the Christian the moment his feet touch the stones of the Covenant, as he follows the Ark "in the swelling of Jordan!"

The last sentence is a reference to Joshua 3 as the Israelites are finally allowed to enter the Promised Land after years of wandering in the wilderness. Upon death, all believers will enter the Promised Land, too, but one more glorious and lovely than the earthly one.

Jaws, The Sea Wolf, and Memorial Day

As Memorial Day approaches, we prepare for one of our family traditions: Watching the movie, Jaws. Jaws weekend includes watching the movie Jaws, of course, but also requires a couple of bags of Doritos (Doritos look like shark fins) and some Swedish fish. What a way to start the summer!

Of course, anyone watching Jaws will recognize that author Peter Benchley fashioned the captain after Captain Ahab from Herman Melville's Moby Dick. But, I think he also must have read one of my favorite books, The Sea Wolf, by Jack London.

One of the many memorable scenes in the movie is when Captain Quint challenges the manhood of the Richard Dreyfus character, Matt Hooper. He grabs Hooper's hands and says, "You've got city hands Mr. Hooper...been counting money all your life."

In The Sea Wolf, the captain is Wolf Larsen. After rescuing the narrator, Humphrey Van Weyden, from the sea after he fell overboard from another ship, Larsen effectively kidnaps him and puts him to work on the seal hunting schooner, "The Ghost." Compared to Larsen, Quint is Miss Pattycake. Larsen is a cruel, ruthless tyrant. Humphrey (the captain calls him "Hump" for short)is a man who has been living on an inheritance and is also a writer. Not exactly a man's man. [Note: If you remember, Hooper's family is wealthy. When Martin asks, "Are you rich?" Hooper replies, "Yeah."] In this passage, we see where Benchley may have borrowed the "city hands" scene from Jack London.

"[Larsen] Who earned it [your income]? Eh? I thought so. Your father. You stand on dead men's legs. You've never had any of your own. You couldn't walk alone between two sunrises and hustle the meat for your belly for three meals. Let me see your hand."

His tremendous, dormant strength must have stirred, swiftly and accurately, or I must have slept a moment, for before I knew it he had stepped two paces forward, gripped my right hand in his, and held it up for inspection. I tried to withdraw it, but his fingers tightened, without visible effort, till I thought mine would be crushed....

Wolf Larsen dropped my hand with a flirt of disdain. "Dead men's hands have kept it soft. Good for little else than dishwashing and scullion work."

So, what do you think?

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!