Back from the Springs

It's good to know I have a few readers who notice when I don't post - thanks to Dove Mountaineers Gary Oglebay and J.B. Phillips for noticing I was "absent" for a week. My summer travels are now officially over.

I was in Colorado for a couple of reasons, the main one of which was to visit new my granddaughter Ellie, the first Askew girl in three generations. Her dad is our son #3, Samuel (going by Sam now, of course), who works for Uncharted Waters Sports Ministry in Colorado Springs. It was fun to see Samuel in action as a ministry leader, sports coach, husband, and father.

And it's good to be back home.

Going the Distance

Right here in our own worship room (Pusch Ridge Cafeteria) Uncharted Waters Sports Ministry of Colorado Springs conducted a wonderful week of Bible-based sports activities (July 12-16) in basketball, soccer, and cheerleading for about forty children in the community, including Dove Mountaineers Henry and Daphne Newman.

UW team staff members are college student athletes, and our team hailed from California, Washington, Oklahoma, and Ohio. The theme was "Go the Distance," and included inspiring stories of contmeporary athletes as well as excerpts from the life of Paul.

Special thanks go to Dove Mountaineers Steve Johnson and Peter Dittiger for their coaching assistance.

Next stop: civil disobedience?

"...in the absence of absolute standards of truth, decisions are made by whoever is in power...."






Today's Breakpoint by Chuck Colson, which you can read here continues the commentary on the Hasting College discrimination case. Near the end of the article, Colson expresses the opinion that decisions such as this (especially the irrational statement against "loyalty oaths" by Justice Kennedy) threaten to put all of us who signed the Manhattan Declaration in jeopardy of being arrested for civil disobedience.

All I can say, is "I'm ready." It is sad to think I survived practicing the Christian faith openly in a communist-controlled colony (Macau) during the height of Mao's Cultural Revolution (1969), only to become a danger to America's well-being in my old age.

Bring it on!

What the Hastings students should and should not do

At the end of the article, Viewpoint Discrimination, in the July 17 issue of World, the question was raised whether this case will be reopened in the lower courts. The basis for reconsideration would be twofold: (1) Hastings may not have enforced the all-comers policy consistently across the board; (2) Hastings apparently did not establish the policy until after the Christian Legal Society had requested official status and been denied.

Regardless of the outcome of this second chance, I want to suggest some things that should and should not happen. First, for the responses I hope will not happen.

I hope this will Supreme Court decisions not be trivialized by inaccurate e mail forwards that end up on Snopes or TruthorFiction.com. I hope that this will not be reduced to a purely partisan issue in the upcoming election rhetoric (after all, there were justices appointed during Republican administrations who voted against the CLS, too). I hope there will not be a petition campaign (they accomplish nothing), or a protest assembly at UC Berkeley, or shrill interviews in the media. I hope there will not be badly written “letters to the editor” in major news outlets.

Here’s what I do hope. I hope that current students in the Hastings College of Law who are Christians will purpose more firmly than ever to assemble in every possible legal venue: the school café, common room, lobby, terrace, or wherever. I hope that they will practice free speech while assembled and, yes, even pray – openly, visibly, unashamedly. I hope they will invite unbelievers to participate in their coffee klatches, study groups, and lunch discussions. I hope they will discuss current events and legal issues with respect to God’s eternal revelation, and not as though human political maneuvering will be man’s salvation.

If they are further marked for discrimination or persecution, I hope they will make careful appeals. I hope that college officials will have a difficult time denying their appeals because of the wise and winsome way in which they are presented. I hope that they will have achieved respect for their intelligence and work ethic before such appeals are made, so that it will be even harder to discriminate against them in good conscience.

I hope that in completing assignments, they will give serious consideration to the Biblical principles and commands which are implicated in each lecture and project. I hope that, where appropriate, they will unashamedly quote God’s word in their assignments. And where they feel it would mean punishment or disqualification to do so, I hope that they will speak the counsels of God in their own paraphrases. I hope that they will represent and defend their cases so reasonably, that the only basis on which to censure them will be that of their faith, and not because of their poor character or scholarship.

And should any of the above activities be forbidden by the college, I hope that these Christians will unambiguously explain why this is unconstitutional and discriminatory on the part of the college. And should it still go badly for them then, I hope that they will take personally negative consequences rather than compromise or deny the reality and relevance of their faith.

Viewpoint Discrimination

Our discussion this past Sunday in WorldMovers concerned a recent Supreme decision which upheld the right of University of California Hastings College of Law to deny normal student organization communications and access to facilities for the Christian Legal Society, on the grounds that membership was not open to "all-comers." Implicit behind the decision was the fact that the organization's statement of faith defined marriage in the traditionally Biblical way.

Well, there it is. Sex trumps EVERYTHING in our culture, and there is no such thing as deviance - ever. Even Supreme Court justices, sworn to uphold a document written two hundred years ago, can show that they are just as post-modern and cool as the latest sex idol on television.

But I'm letting my vitriol show...you can read a calmer version of this event here; in fact, I wish you would.

For the benefit of WorldMovers (and others), here is a review of the points we committed to in class on Sunday:

Prayer Points
1. Pray for campus organizations like Conspiracy, Reformed University Fellowship, and Campus Crusade. Steve promised to keep us apprised of Conspiracy events which need prayer coverage.
2. Pray for Christians in public forums who will begin to experience viewpoint discrimination of the sort in this incident, that they will not compromise.
3. Pray for Supreme Court justices to have wisdom, especially "swing vote" Kennedy.
4. Pray for American Center for Law and Justice and Alliance Defense FUnd.

Talking Points
1. Speak that truth is eternal and does not change with whims of fashionable political correctness.
2. Ask someone, "Why is sex the most important thing - always?"
3. Ask people to give a good reason for the candidates they support in the upcoming primaries.

Action points
1. Pray!
2. Find ways to encourage and support Christians in university settings.

Tomorrow: How I hope the Christians of Hasting College will respond.

And another reason

Although I cannot endorse everything from this ministry, I would be remiss if I did not admit that some of my understanding of and appreciation for the need for daily repentance on the part of those who are already Christians comes from early exposure (1974) to this book by Basilea Schlink: Repentance - the Joy-filled Life.

"We can praise God for many things, but no exultation on earth can or will surpass the exultation over God's gift of the forgiveness of sins. The song of rejoicing, 'Bless the Lord, O my soul,' resounds not only here on earth, but throughout the heavenly spheres, for there is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents. And if the anthems of praise for all God's goodness to us in this life cease one day, another song will be raised by the heavenly throng above - the song of the Lamb who has borne our sins."

Why I emphasize repentance so much

One of the things that readers of my articles in Presidentialprayerteam.com have noticed is that I urge readers to first pray prayers of repentance before prayers of intercession. It's just too tempting for Christians to believe the problems are always "out there" rather than "in here."

Years ago I was on a community task force about a particular social problem. I eventually resigned from this committee because of the presumption of everyone (except me) that the solution to any human problem was "a program of education." Returning to my Christian school, I used this experience to remind teaachers that "education (alone) cannot redeem, but the redeemed can be educated." In a recent blog in which he reviewed Glen Beck's new book, Pastor Douglas Wilson said much the same thing in this excerpt:

The solution to the political pathologies we see in Washington today is to get involved and "get informed." But the biblical answer is repentance, and repentance all the way down. Our solution is not to get angry at what "they" are doing to us, but rather to be grieved at what we have done to ourselves.

A Primer on Political Dualism

Pastor Douglas Wilson has been reviewing James Davison Hunter's book, To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World. In a future blog I would like to share some of his insights on this important work, but some clarifying definitions might be in order first.

The general topic of political dualism should be of interest to all Dove Mountaineers just now because of Pastor Allen's recent expositions on justice from Micah. It should be even more interesting to WorldMovers becuase of our experiences in applying scriptural analysis to contemporary social issues.

It is difficult for me to give a decent explanation of the dualistic position,since I don't personally espouse it, but I'll give an attempt here. As Christians, we know that what the world needs more than anything else is the gospel of Jesus Christ. I hope none of us would disagree with that. Dualists would say that we must emphasize the kingdom to come over the kingdom of this world. Again, most Christians would agree, but this is where differences in emphasis begin to emerge. How much is too much emphasis on this world? Extreme dualists would say that since the world is going to hell in a handbasket anyway, we should see this world only as a stage on which we prepare the way of the Lord for the kingdom to come. While we might engage with the culture and politics of this world when necessary, we must not have the illusion that anything we can do would actually change (improve) it. Therefore, it would be bad stewardship of time and wealth to devote serious energy or resources to cutural and political causes.

Many Reformed Christians would counter the extremes of dualism with what we call "the cultural mandate," the responsiblity of thinking and caring Christians to apply the wisdom of the scriptures in every venue of life. This position is especially important to those of us who labor in Christian education. We know that the children we teach will end up in a variety of life callings, most of which would not be classified as vocational ministry. We delight in teaching every academic discipline in harmony with the revelation of scripture, so that our students will remember - as they work in banking, real estate, law, medicine, construction, and commerce - that they can apply God's wisdom to not only "making a living," but to portraying the gospel through the redemptive qualities of their work.

Again, many who call themselves dualists would agree with some aspects of the cultural mandate, but as we go farther down the two roads of dualism and integrational living, differences begin to appear which are more than matters of degree or emphasis. I will comment further on this in future posts. But for the time being, think about these two positions and some of their implications in light of your own life priorities.

Wiker's interesting book

One of the three book clubs to which I belong just finished Benjamin Wiker's Ten Books that Screwed Up the World - and 5 others that didn't help. While Wiker strongly recommends reading the originals (the books themselves), I would recommend reading his anaysis first (but afterwards works, too).

Wiker, a Ph.D. graduate of Vanderbilt, is a Catholic scholar who has taught at Marquette, St. Mary's, Thomas Aquinas College, and Franciscan University, is also a senior fellow with the Discovery Institute. He has also authored A Meaningful World: How the Arts and Sciences Reveal the Genius of Nature and Answering the New Atheism: Dismantling Richard Dawkins' Case Against God. His newest (which I look forward to reading soon) is Ten Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Imposter. I'm not going to reveal the imposter; you'll have to look it up for youself!

Wiker begins with his review of four of the five that "didn't help": classic works by Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, and Rousseau. Wiker makes the case that historically, these set the stage for the insidious ideas that followed in books by the "top Ten": Marx, Mill, Darwin, Nietzsche, Lenin, Sanger, Hitler, Freud, Mead, and Kinsey. The book concludes with the fifth "also-ran," the more contemporary Betty Friedan.

After reading Wiker's insightful analysis of each of these works, one can only shake one's head in wonderment at how so much of the world managed to be taken in by these silly, but dangerous, notions. Hobbes, Rousseau, and Mill were pioneers of amorality to which purveyors of modern slogans such as as "If it feels good, do it" owe much of their thinking. Marx, Lenin, Hitler and Sanger managed to candy coat violent imposition of their will on others as a moral virtue, while Darwin and Mead raised animalistic naturalism to the kind of parlor respectability one can find in National Geographic and PBS specials.

Why do I like this book? We need to be knowledgeable of these classic influences on the current societal woes with which thinking Christians struggle each day. This book gives us analysis we can trust, and verbiage we can quote. Arm yourselves!

Nuclear Security Summit

Here's another reprint from a past Presidential Prayer Team article, this one on President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit.

Will We Be Safe?
Breaking down the recent Nuclear Security Summit


As Christian intercessors, we look frequently to I Timothy 2:1-2 as our marching orders for continuing and continuous prayer for our President and other leaders. The second phrase in verse two is “that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life…”

Yet we also all know that war is neither peaceable nor quiet. What, then, are we as Christians to think of the recent Nuclear Security Summit, particularly the outcomes to which President Obama committed our country? Read more

In a nutshell, our President committed to (1) reduce the circumstances under which the U.S. would launch a nuclear attack (eliminating, for example, retaliation against certain nations for use of chemical or biological weapons); (2) forego development of new nuclear warheads; and (3) move toward reducing the historic nuclear arsenals of the United States and Russia.

Let’s take a quick look at each of these outcomes, starting with the last. Reduction of nuclear arsenals has already been successfully undertaken for some time now, without an apparent weakening of the security of either nation. In addition to U.S. and Russia, Mexico and Ukraine have also willingly agreed to reduce their capability to produce warheads.

In regard to point two, President Obama has indicated that other non-nuclear weapons are probably more important and effective in facing the kinds of disturbances we have seen in recent years. Opposing voices would reply that these weapons have only been effective because of the larger threat of nuclear power which stands behind them.

Yet it is point one that has many of the President’s critics most disturbed. By giving various specific scenarios when the United States will or will not utilize nuclear weaponry, critics say that the President has thrown away the advantage of “ambiguity.” To understand this, think of the playground bully who says, “You better give me the ball or else I’ll…” and never finishes the sentence (all the while looking menacingly at you with tightly clenched fists).

For those of us sitting on the sidelines, the questions that quickly rise are “Will we be safe?” and “Will others play fair?” President Obama has wisely stated that the real nuclear threat is not from the signees of the security accord, but from “rogue states” such as North Korea and Iran, and terrorist groups such as Al-Qaida. It would appear to the casual observer (and reader of news reports) that any nation would be wise to retain a nuclear deterrent option against these lawless threats.

The Christian notion of “just war” has been around since the times of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. It is precisely against lawless oppressor nations and bullying terrorists that those who fear God may have to take up arms, in defense of the defenseless. In one simple verse of the Old Testament, Jeremiah 22:3, we can see two of the primary principles of just war. This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of his oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the alien, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. The two principles are: (1) do not allow oppressors to dominate the weak, even to the use of force to deter them; and (2) do not harm innocent onlookers in the process.

The Bible implies that we should not be able to lead “peaceable and quiet lives” knowing that there are others suffering from injustice when we have the power to stop it. In addition, we have a duty to protect those who depend on us directly – our family and neighbors. As Christian intercessors, we ought then to pray that:
• Our nation will always be found on the side of right;
• Our nation will have the self-discipline and wisdom to remain strong enough to protect ourselves and others who come to us for aid;
• Our nation will never use its strength unjustly;
• Our leaders will fear God and seek His wisdom in questions of the use of force to resolve conflicts.

The question still remains: “Will we be safe?” For that answer, we can look to Psalm 20:6-7, and find great comfort…

“Now I know that the Lord saves his anointed; he answers him from his holy heaven with the saving power of his right hand. Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.”

In honor of the sisterhood...

Financial Reform Bill

In WorldMovers Sunday School class, we have had some discusssions about economics and the Bible. At the request of WorldMover Audrey Johnson, here is a reprint of the article I wrote for Presidential Prayer Team web site on the upcoming Financial Reform Bill vote:

Financial Reform Bill

The near-collapse of the world financial system in the fall of 2008 and the global credit crisis that followed gave rise to widespread calls for changes in the regulatory system. In June 2009, President Obama proposed sweeping reform legislation. After months of negotiations and weeks of debate, on May 20, 2010, the Senate passed a reform bill similar to one the House had passed in December. On June 10, a committee began addressing differences in the bills.

The three primary features of the Senate bill, as summarized by the committee, are:

Consumer Protections with Authority and Independence: Creates a new independent watchdog with the authority to ensure American consumers get the clear, accurate information they need to shop for mortgages, credit cards, and other financial products.

Ends Too Big to Fail: Creates a safe way to liquidate failed financial firms; imposes tough new capital and leverage requirements that make it undesirable to get too big; and establishes rigorous standards to protect the economy and American consumers, investors and businesses.

Federal Bank Supervision: Streamlines bank supervision to create clarity and accountability; protects the dual banking system that supports community banks.

Other provisions in the bill would eliminate loopholes for risky practices, allow stockholder to limit executive compensation, require accountability for credit rating agencies, and empowers investigators to aggressively pursue fraud and conflicts of interest.

Many of the concerns which first prompted the legislation revolved around the “too big to fail” category above. In response to that concern, proposed legislation would provide more authority for regulators to monitor everything from mortgages to complex securities. This is meant to keep future financial time bombs, like the no-documentation loans and collateralized debt obligations of the past decade, from becoming rife. Secondly, financial firms would be forced to reduce the debt they take on and to hold more capital in reserve. This is the equivalent of requiring home buyers to make larger down payments: more capital will give firms a bigger cushion when investments start to go bad. Finally, if that cushion proves insufficient, the government would be allowed to seize a collapsing financial firm, much as it can already do with a traditional bank. Regulators would then keep the firm operating long enough to prevent a panic and slowly sell off its pieces.

While some opposition to the bill would expected from minority Republicans, critics of the bill include members of both parties, including some who were involved in drafting the original House version. As you pray for the committee and the upcoming July vote, keep in mind some of these concerns:

• Some of the original drafters, including Rep. Scott Garret (R-NJ), believe the bill gives too much authority to expend federal monies for bailouts; he would prefer to see some of these handled privately by strengthening the Bankruptcy Code.
• Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE) would prefer clearer limits on Federal involvement as well, with a firm limit on the amount of government insured deposits a firm can hold, as a way of capping its size.
• Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) further believes that the emergency lending authority this bill will give to Federal regulators leaves room for “massive taxpayer exposure,” essentially leaving all taxpayers vulnerable to fund bailouts for huge corporations.
• Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Sen. Kaufman see the bill as giving too much authority to federal regulators, just as the Obama administration desired. Their concern is that the crisis last year “was not that they [federal regulators] were asleep on the job, but that they had little interest in doing it,” according to Kaufman.

For the past hundred years, the role of the federal government in regulating and directing the economic functions of corporations and private citizens in the United States has increased steadily and dramatically. There is probably little that can be done at this point to completely rid the American economy of such regulation. However, the twentieth century should have taught us that neither capitalism or socialism hold the ultimate cure for the covetousness of the human heart. Only repentance before God in faith of redemption through Christ can liberate us from the greed that courses through human veins.

As individual believers, we must pray to be good stewards of that which God has entrusted to us, without covetousness, and with charity toward others. As Christian citizens, we must pray for wisdom for those responsible for federal coffers containing a huge amount of our collected wealth.

Go the Distance!

Tonight Dove Mountaineers Steve Johnson, Peter Dittiger, and I will be meeting with other Tucson volunteers and a team of Christian college athletes to prepare for a great week of evangelistic sports camp. We are expecting about forty kids from five to eight pm each evening at Pusch Ridge Christian Academy, to enjoy learning soccer, basketball, and cheerleading skills, along with inspiring Bible stories, sports hero stories, and songs - all under the theme, "Go the Distance!" Please pray that this will be a spiritually fruitful week for these children!

Greetings from North Carolina

I won't see you at church tomorrow, because I am in North Carolina honoring the couple pictured here, on the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary. Walter and Mary Lynn Porter were the young, energetic Baptist campus ministry leaders at Valdosta State University in 1966 when they volunteered to direct a summer missions work camp for fourteen college students from eight different campuses. The location was the Cherokee Indian Reservation in North Carolina, and the goal was to build a new facility for a Cherokee congregation that had outgrown its one-room wooden building. It was a powerful summer for each of us.


That was when Linda and I met. I loved her work ethic and humor; maybe she liked my paint-spattered face. For nine years we were not on the same continent long enough to get married.

By the grace of God, this is what the church looked like at the end of our eight week adventure. Bethabara Baptist Church still worships there, but they have added an expansion and a beautiful face lift to the front since that long-ago summer. In 2006, nearly all of us were able to return for a reunion, and it was a thrill to worship in this building again. But this week end we gather a the home of one of our members (we call ourselves "the chillun") in Asheville, North Carolina, specifically to honor Walter and Mary Lynn. They blessed us in many ways, and it is a joy to be able to tell them so this week end!

Like no place on earth

Like most Dove Mountaineers, I have been a member of other churches before this, and some of them pretty good ones. But I submit that NOWHERE ON EARTH can one choose from as rich a palette of identities as those available to members our church.




Welcome to Dove Mountain Church, where one can be:

a thread in the Tapestry
a brother in the Band
a Resistor
a Conspirator
a Groover
a minute in the Happy Hour
a Barleyman
a Traveler
a WorldMover (of course!)
a Dove Mountaineer (above all!)

and the latest option: a Sister of the Water Buffalo!

The Weight of Glory

Elder Dave Bowen used a fragment of the C.S. Lewis sermon, "The Weight of Glory" in his message on June 27. Here is the climactic ending of Lewis's message:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.

All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization — these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit — immortal horrors or everlasting splendours.

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously — no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner — no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment.

Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbor he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat — the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

Cultural Adaptations

I'm sure all the ladies in the congregation were charmed by Pastor Allen's description of himself decked out in his Daniel Boone outfit as a little man. But I was struck by his insight in using this illustration of cross-culturalism. Here he was, an American child growing up in Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, and Australia, trying to cling to his national and cultural identity. As he explained, holding on to the myths of American folklore was one of the tangible ways he could identify with his native land.

It reminded me of a similar story my wife Linda tells from her missionary days in Peru in the 1960's. One of the mission families sent their five-year-old to Peruvian kindergarten so that he could become fluent in Spanish (most of the MK's in her mission were tutored at home). It was common in Peru at that time for kindergarteners of both sexes to wear dress-like smocks, which went almost to the ground. Fortunately, young Scotty Furr had no cultural biases against this, and was not self-conscious about it at all. He also saw no incongruity in trotting off to Spanish kindergarten with his Gene Autry cowboy boots sticking out from underneath his adorable little smock. But it was a source of amusement to my dually-cultured wife!

Metaxas on Wilberforce

In challenging us to "find the slavery issue of our generation" in his message on Sunday, Pastor Allen quoted from the 2007 biography of William Wilberforce, the English Member of Parliament responsible for outlawing slavery in the British Commonwealth. Metaxas, a Yale graduate, is already familiar to WorldMovers from the article we read about his newly published biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He is also no stranger to World magazine, which did a recent article about Metaxas's ambitious "Socrates in the City" project.

Here is a description of the Wilberforce book from Eric Metaxas's own web site:

Amazing Grace tells the story of the remarkable life of the British abolitionist William Wilberforce (1759-1833). This accessible biography chronicles Wilberforce’s extraordinary role as a human rights activist, cultural reformer, and member of Parliament. At the center of this heroic life was a passionate twenty-year fight to abolish the British slave trade, a battle Wilberforce won in 1807, as well as efforts to abolish slavery itself in the British colonies, a victory achieved just three days before his death in 1833.

Metaxas discovers in this unsung hero a man of whom it can truly be said: he changed the world. Before Wilberforce, few thought slavery was wrong. After Wilberforce, most societies in the world came to see it as a great moral wrong. To mark the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the British slave trade, Harper/SanFrancisco and Bristol Bay Productions have joined together to commemorate the life of William Wilberforce with the feature-length film Amazing Grace and this companion biography, which provides a fuller account of the amazing life of this great man than can be captured on film.

This account of Wilberforce’s life will help many become acquainted with an exceptional man who was a hero to Abraham Lincoln and an inspiration to the anti-slavery movement in America.

Reminders for WorldMovers

From this past Sunday's study of Gerhard Uhlhorn's Christian Charity in the Ancient Church:

Prayer Points:
1. Pray that we can regain the identity and practices of the first century church (Steve).
2. Pray for discernment in giving (Sherry).
3. Pray for repentance and confession for our lack of charity (Shirley).

Talking Points:
1. Government is not our Savior (or Provider). Remember the lesson of the Roman Empire.
2. We must simultaneously return to simplicity in our lifestyles, and full enjoyment of the simple pleasures of life, in order to live out the principle of moderation.
3. Biblical stewardship is a life of accepting responsiblity, not deferring responsiblity to others (especially the government).

Action items:
1. Consider Dave Bowen's principle of establishing a small amount that does not require accountability on the part of the recipient.
2. Consider the suggestion of carrying water bottles in your car.
3. Consider joining Kim Ritt's group in serving meals at Gospel Rescue Mission.

Nuts and Bolts
1. Steve Johnson will lead this Sunday: the assignment is p. 13 in the current issue (Gulf Oil Spill).
2. Try to be in the room by 11:10.
3. There are four subscriptions left at the church discount.

Happy Fourth of July!

It is a sign of the faulty education in the majority of our nation's schools that contemporary Americans continue to scoff at the notion that the "Founding Fathers" were men of faith, who based their decisions on principles derived from God's Word. On Independence Day, let us look at a few sayings of just one of those early American leaders: John Adams, Signer of the Declaration of Independence; Judge; Diplomat; One of two signers of the Bill of Rights; Second President of the United States .


The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity. I will avow that I then believed, and now believe, that those general principles of Christianity are as eternal and immutable as the existence and attributes of God.1

The Holy Ghost carries on the whole Christian system in this earth. Not a baptism, not a marriage, not a sacrament can be administered but by the Holy Ghost. . . . There is no authority, civil or religious – there can be no legitimate government but what is administered by this Holy Ghost. There can be no salvation without it. All without it is rebellion and perdition, or in more orthodox words damnation.2

Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in polite company: I mean hell.3

The Christian religion is, above all the religions that ever prevailed or existed in ancient or modern times, the religion of wisdom, virtue, equity and humanity.4

Suppose a nation in some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited. . . . What a Eutopia – what a Paradise would this region be!5



1. Thomas Jefferson, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Washington D. C.: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XIII, p. 292-294. In a letter from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson on June 28, 1813.

2. Letter from John Adams to Benjamin Rush, from Quincy, Massachusetts, dated December 21, 1809, from the original in our possession.

3. John Adams, The Works of John Adams, Second President of the United States, Charles Francis Adams, editor (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1856), Vol. X, p. 254, to Thomas Jefferson on April 19, 1817.

4. John Adams, Works, Vol. III, p. 421, diary entry for July 26, 1796.

5. John Adams, Works, Vol. II, pp. 6-7, diary entry for February 22, 1756.

Illegal Immigration

At the request of Dove Mountaineer and WorldMover Kay Long, I am reprinting here an article I originally wrote for Presidentialprayerteam.com.

Few events have brought as much attention to the state I call home as the recent response over SB 1070, the Arizona Immigration Law. Characterized as “discriminatory” and “racist,” what the bill essentially says is that it is now against state law to be an illegal immigrant. Read again carefully: It is a crime to be illegal.

Why would such a statement stir up so much negativity? Nothing is more volatile in our nation than any hint of color or ethnic bias. To analyze this current problem, look briefly at the nature of immigration in America.

Legal immigration has quotas to limit the number of immigrants coming from a given locality. More applicants apply each year than the quotas allow. In spite of unemployment and economic decline, the United States is still a highly sought destination by most of the world’s people. Virtually all of the illegal immigration comes from the southern border. Some of the traffic from the south involves ruthless and well-financed drug cartels. Because we are a liberty-loving people, past proposals for a border fence have not become reality. Once across the border, illegal newcomers are generally able to blend into the prevailing culture inconspicuously.

What that backdrop, consider these figures:
• Some 11.2 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1990 and 2000. This, added to the 6.4 million children born to immigrants already here, accounts for almost 70% of the population growth in the past decade.
• Immigrants now represent more than one in every ten U.S. residents, the highest percentage in 70 years.
• Over the next 50 years, the U.S. Census Bureau projects that immigration will cause the population of the United States to increase from its present 270 million to more than 400 million.

Arizona’s Governor Jan Brewer, who is receiving the brunt of the criticism for signing the bill into law, has been a non-corrupt, principled governor in her brief term to date. While national pundits, both liberal and conservative, have ridiculed the new law for being “unenforceable,” most are missing the governor’s point: getting the attention of the federal government. It is the national government, not Arizona, which has failed to secure the southern border, and which has failed in terms of immigration reform. Now the whole nation is aware of this situation.

For over 200 years Anglos, other immigrants, Mexicans, and Mexican-Americans have lived in Arizona without any of the conflicts which characterized the troubled settling of Texas and other parts of the U.S. In Tucson (a mere 60 miles from the U.S./Mexico border), Spanish is taught to Anglo children and English to non-English speakers. People of all backgrounds who live here love the blended flavors and sounds of our border culture.

But someone has to pay the bills. Currently, illegal immigrants can receive a driver’s license, social security card, food stamps, free education, and free health care. This would be hard enough for tax-paying citizens to bear – even if border residents were not seeing their property destroyed by immigrants camping their way north; even if there were no drug-trafficking violence; even if public services were not suffering because of excessive numbers of people in the lines.

On a personal level, God’s people are exhorted from beginning to end of the Scriptures to be gracious to those of a different nationality or ethnicity:

The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Leviticus 19:34

Do not forget to entertain strangers: for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2

As citizens of a nation troubled by the complexities of this issue, we should humbly pray:

Heavenly Father,

We cry out to you on behalf of all the residents of this land. We pray for those in need of basic subsistence, and ask that we would be shown where we have the responsibility to help. We pray for those who know you not, and ask that believers would be fervent in living and sharing the Gospel with all, regardless of nationality. And we pray for our nation’s leaders, that they would seek your wisdom, not turning a deaf ear to the cries of those suffering from these problems. May you, triune God, be glorified in all that comes to pass, as we trust you for a solution to this crisis.

In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

The painting that started a quest

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. Revelation 3:20 KJV





Dave Bowen cited this painting by Warner Sallman as an element the Lord used to start Dave's quest toward discipleship. Although I had seen many reproductions many times, it was not until adulthood that someone pointed out to me for the first time that there is no external handle on the door. Dave explained the implication that the door must be opened from the inside.


Sallman is also the artist of this well known "Head of Christ" which was ubiquitously displayed in churches and homes in my childhood. To be honest, I never found it very appealing. Even as a child I found it overly sentimentalized. Ironically, the biography of Warner Sallman says that he was inspired to paint this way when the dean of Bible Baptist Institute, Dr. E. O. Sellers, said to him, “Sometime I hope you give us your conception of Christ. And I hope it’s a manly one. Most of our pictures today are too effeminate.”



Probably most of the people of my generation did find it too effeminate, even though it was Sallman's intent not to portray Jesus that way. By the time the defining moment of our Christian era came along, the Jesus Movement of the 60's and 70's, we were more comfortable portraying Jesus with somewhat shorter hair and a "revolutionary" style.




As Reformed Christians, a concern for the second commandment ought to discourage us from attaching too much importance to any visual representation of Christ. The danger, however, in a total abstention from Christian imagery, is the implied gnosticism it leads to. If Jesus can't be represented visually, it is tempting to forget He was a man, God Incarnate, in the flesh. The only danger I see of imagery, of course, would be the danger of worshipping a specific image of Christ.




At this stage in life, I prefer historic or iconic art; they give Christ a place in history without too much danger that such artistic depictions will become idols. I am fond of these two images by Reformation era artist Matthias Grunewald.




As for iconography, I stated earlier that it has the advantage of not being too close to human realism. Yet its colorful imagery conveys story and meaning in a delightful way. My very favorite icon of all time is this depiction of the Trinity by fifteenth century iconographer Andrei Rublev.







Finally, I close with this modern iconic version of the very painting that Sallman made famous. And we are thankful that it pleased God, in His Providence, to use Sallman's version to draw our brother Dave to Himself.

The four objections of Hitchens

In his message Sunday, Dave Bowen quoted from noted ahteist Christopher Hitchens these four objections to Christian faith:

1. It's wrong about origins.
2. It's wrong about the nature and purpose of man. Christian faith, according toHitchens, promotes "maximum servility and "maximum solipsism."
3. It is the cause of dangerous sexual repression.
4. It is ultimately grounded in wishful thinking.

Actually, these are four great categories from which to criticize the atheist position, as well. Take #4, for example. The atheist has to rationalize away enormous quantities of evidence regarding the authenticity of scriptures, the historicity of Christ's life, the record of Christian accomplishments in spite of great obstacles, and much more - only to HOPE that there is no hell. Now that's wishful thinking.

If you are not familiar with Hitchens, you can read more about him on the site that ells about his debate with pastor Douglas Wilson here.