A Prayer For Our Nation

Lord God, King of the Universe, my heart is broken. It's been broken, or cracked rather, but today's events highlight the evil that seeks to divide, kill and destroy. I pray for the United States of America and for its people. Lord I pray that you don't leave us to our own ways. I pray for believers throughout the Country, that in this dark hour, our boldness to share the hope that we have would increase and that your Holy Spirit would embolden us to reach across divisions of politics, race and gender to bring our focus back to your Son, who gave up his own life so that we could have nearness and eternal life with you.

I pray for Charlie's wife and his two precious children; be close with them in these coming days, weeks and months. Would your lovingkindness be shown to them in ways they have never yet experienced. I pray for peace in our nation. Lord - please help us!

Another School Shooting Tragedy

I wrote this SIX years ago and I feel like I could have written it today. Very little has changed and this morning's school shooting in Minnesota is only a reminder of that fact. This shooter targeted a Catholic School, as it seems others have in recent memory (the shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville in 2023 comes to mind). It is becoming increasingly obvious that the demonic is at work - we label it "mental illness" here in modern times, but when you read the manifestos and watch the videos that these shooters create, 'mental illness' doesn't quite seem to fully explain it.

One thing that has changed is how quickly our society picks up on the same old tired arguments after these tragedies. It used to be that it took a week for those arguments to start, now they start immediately. Ban guns! This is the NRAs fault! Blah. Blah. Blah. According to Everytown for Gun Safety's 2024 report, Minnesota ranks 14th in the nation for the strength of it's gun laws. They have red flag laws, they require background checks for all gun sales, then even have laws requiring the guns be safely stored and kept away from children, and also laws that ban possession for those who have been involuntarily committed and/or have been found to be a danger to themselves or others. In other words, common sense legislation exists in Minnesota, and yet this still happened.

Banning guns is not a feasible solution. There are too many guns and the legal fight you would get if someone were to try and ban guns would last decades. So there has to be other things we could do, and that's what I spent some time talking about in this post from six years ago. It's counter-intuitive, but we need to stop covering these crimes on TV and social media. It is infamy that most of these school-shooters are after, and if there's no infamy to be had, we remove one of the primary motivators of these crimes. It may be too late even for this approach - but one thing is clear: what we've been doing, isn't working.

It's Not Guns - It's the Template

An Emotional Jesus

I had an interesting back-and-forth on X/Twitter recently and it inspired a blog post. It was an exchange around a criticism that someone expressed about The Chosen portraying a Jesus that was 'overly emotional'. Here is their criticism in their own words (aimed at The Chosen series):

"The crucifixion of Christ is not a cinematic experience meant to stir emotions, it's the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes (Rom. 1:16). It's not a moment for dramatized sorrow or performative grief. He died, was buried, and rose, defeating death and bringing eternal life. We're not meant to weep like spectators, we're called to believe and proclaim the Gospel. Emotionalism doesn't equal faith. Truth does."

Starting with what I agree with - yes, emotionalism doesn't equal faith and yes, we are certainly called to believe and proclaim the Gospel in response to what Jesus has guaranteed and secured for us on the Cross (the forgiveness of sins and eternal life)...but to suggest that emotion is not involved at any point in the story of Jesus, to me, is absurd. Not only was Jesus an emotional person but I believe the writers of the New Testament were, at least in part, engaging their own emotions when conveying the life and deeds of Jesus AND asking us, the readers, to engage ours.

An Imperfect Show

I talk about this show all the time - I think it's a wonderful show. Is it flawless? No. Do I disagree with some of their theology? Yes. Do I think they are portraying heresy? No. If I thought that I wouldn't watch, much less have my kids watch it, and I also wouldn't recommend it to anyone else. I will say - their depiction of Jesus is a little over-the-top emotional for me, but I also recognize that the New Testament gospels portrays Jesus as a man with a lot of emotions: sorrow, frustration, joy, anger, sadness, and compassion...all emotions which Matthew, Mark, Luke and John record for us to read ourselves. In keeping with that, The Chosen's portrayal of Jesus in the series is a character with a wide variety of emotions.

An Exhortation to Constant Use and Training

The initial draft of this was pretty harsh. As I was mulling it over, I read James 3 which is about the power of the tongue and so I rewrote this, coming at it from a different angle. My heart is this: to see more fruit, both in my own life and well as in the lives of other believers I know. What I see in myself, at times, and in many others around me, is a lack of intention and seriousness - this bears itself out in Biblical illiteracy and theological laziness...Peter has a very straight-forward exhortation in 2 Peter 3 which reads, "But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess." It is with that in mind that I write these things - to encourage us all to search out the Scriptures so that we might have an answer for those who ask.

The Premise

The Bible can be read, in English, by anyone and be understood at a surface level. I believe that even at a surface-read level, it has the power to change a heart because it is the very words of God himself. Having said that - simply reading through the words of Scripture is milk. The author of Hebrews says, "Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." (Hebrews 5:13-14) I think the important part of those verses is the section that says, "who by CONSTANT USE have TRAINED themselves." Our faith requires something of us, and in order to properly understand what we are reading, we are likely going to have to work (i.e. train).

I want to give some examples of some of the ideas I see on X/Twitter (and other places) that are a result of shallow understanding.

Paul is Against the Law - Fallacy

I've seen and heard this idea many times and it's that Paul (and some even say Jesus himself) was preaching against the Law of Moses. If you read Deuteronomy 12:28-13:18, Paul and Jesus would be considered false witnesses if that is what they were teaching (punishable by death). Jesus was falsely put to death on these grounds, and so was Paul, but in a less direct way. There isn't some new standard that is suddenly applied when Jesus comes on the scene. Paul is not rewriting Torah and making up stuff as he goes...he would have been considered a Biblical expert (which is to say, Old Testament expert) in his time and everything he says is fully informed by the Tanakh. If it appears he is saying that the Law of Moses is not longer in force, then either a) we have translated his message poorly and have mixed up what he is saying or b) we are misunderstanding him.

The Justice of God

I'm reading through The Great Divorce (C.S. Lewis) again and came across this quote:

"That is what mortals misunderstand. They say of some temporal suffering, "No future bliss can make up for it" not knowing that Heaven, once attained, will work backwards and turn even that agony into glory."

This reminded me of a thought I had some time ago. Justice seems like a pretty strong theme throughout Scripture. I did just a cursory Google search on the subject and it returned many verses, from Genesis to Revelation, here are just a few:

- Deuteronomy 32:4 - "The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and with iniquity, just and upright is He."

- Job 37:23 - "The Almighty - we cannot find him; he is great in power; justice and abundant righteousness he will not violate."

- Psalm 33:4-5 - "For the word of the Lord is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the Lord."

Isaiah 30:8 - "Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all of those who wait for him."

Isaiah 61:6 - "For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them."

Micah 6:8 - "He has shown you O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

Here is the thought I was reminded of: our earthly concept of Justice, I want to argue, is just a shadow of what actual Justice is. Take, for example, murder. If someone commits murder, we say that the murderer is "brought to Justice" when they are arrested, tried, convicted and sentenced for their crime. There is a rather bombastic state's attorney in the county that I live in and he like to release press bulletins when a  particularly heinous criminal is 'brought to justice' through a conviction and prison sentence.

Is that justice though?

Sharing a Thought

I was thinking today - the Jewish people (the religious ones anyway, not speaking about atheist Jews) may not believe that Jesus is the Messiah and they may even go so far as to hate Jesus and denigrate Him. BUT, they are trusting in the same promises of God that we Western Gentile Christians are. Namely - that God is a) going to one day release the World from the Curse He placed on it, b) restore/renew all things, including our right relationship with Him and c) do away with Satan, evil, sin, suffering and death forever. I don't mean to minimize the seriousness of denying Jesus and the Cross, but I do mean to underscore the fact that the very roots of our faith are the same as theirs. To say that it's a different religion is to miss the large areas of commonality between the two.

One more thought, related to that - in Romans 11, Paul says, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers and sisters, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and so all Israel will be saved. As it is written: "The deliverer will come from Zion; he will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is my Covenant with them, when I take away their sins." (Romans 11:25-27). Imagine how quickly the hearts of those believing Jews who currently hate Jesus will turn when they see him return in Glory. Because they are already believing in the promises of God, made to their forefathers, won't their hearts instantly turn (mixed with the pain of regret, I imagine, as well) when they see Him? Food for thought.

An Italian Experience

I'm starting this post the morning after having returned from nearly two weeks in Italy - so pretty jet-lagged and a little emotional.

What I Loved:

Italy is an objectively beautiful country. We flew into Rome, spent a couple of days there, then went to the Tuscany region for five days and then to the Amalfi Coast area for four days. In Rome you have the history and the art. In Tuscany, you have the beauty of the rolling hills, the quaint villages, and the wine/olive oil, and in Amalfi you have the beauty of the ocean next to the mountains. Every region we went to was very different, but all of them were beautiful in their own ways. My favorite was Tuscany - Tuscany is like the Napa Valley region of California, but covers a much larger area and has a much deeper history. I loved the small villages and we were fortunate to see many of them (Lecchi, San Sano, Gaioli, Radda, Montepulciano). There is a charm and quietness to them that is unlike anything I've seen here in the US. For example - when we arrived in Florence, we did a little exploring there and then drove to where we were staying in the Tuscan countryside. We needed some basic groceries and just happened to stop in Lecchi (it was unplanned). The small village grocery store was open and then gentleman who owns and runs the store, Paolo, was incredibly helpful and welcoming. We probably ended up spending more money there than we were expecting, but he was patient and offered us samples of all the meats and cheeses he recommended, and it was all fresh. It was such a pleasant experience that we drove specifically to visit his store again later in our trip. In that same town was a wonderful little restaurant called Malborghetto - the owner himself took my reservation and then it felt like we were eating in someone's backyard while we were there. Excellent food, wine and atmosphere. There are a lot of stories like this from our time there.

I loved the pace of life there as well - at first I was a little taken aback by how long some of our meals took, but I came to like that pace...just a lingering and an enjoyment, not the rush and urgency I so often feel here in the US. A lot of the places also close middle of the day - open for lunch, closed mid-afternoon, and then open again for dinner. I think I need to remember this takeaway, especially with family -- to enjoy a meal that just lingers...and really, to make space for it; to not rush to clear the table when people are done eating or to rush to the next thing, just sit and enjoy time together.