Some Random Thoughts on Easter Afternoon

*Jesus is risen! Hallelujah, what a Savior!

*He is risen! He is risen indeed! I enjoyed teaching the Kindergarten-First Grade Sunday school class to say that this morning. I’m thankful for The Gospel Project. The kids are responding well and listening to the lessons, and we are having a great time using the curriculum. 

*You know, every Sunday is a celebration of Resurrection Sunday really, but there is something extra special about gathering together on Easter. There was such joy this morning in the worship service, and I count it a blessing to be able to meet with other believers as a family to share in worshiping our Lord and Savior together.

*There are a lot of things about social media that can be negatives, but today it was really neat to see all the Resurrection greetings flooding the Facebook and Twitter feeds. It was a neat reminder of the bond Christians have with believers all around the world. There was one especially moving post on Facebook as a friend who is currently in another country adopting their daughter posted Easter greetings from that country She told a moving story of being able to worship with an international group of believers in several different languages, and how she and her husband were able to share the gospel with someone they met  during their travels who was asking questions. 

*Speaking of negatives of social media, I felt a little frustrated with people who were over the top offended by Google’s most recent stupidity today, by calling for us to write Google and complain because Christians need to let their voice be heard. Here’s my take on that: The best way for us to make our voice heard, in my opinion, is to do what I commended in the paragraph above - rejoice in the real meaning of today, loudly and clearly and joyfully. If we’re known for being prickly and offended by a company that has never claimed to be a “Christian” company, we come off sounding whiny and negative all the time. I’m not a big fan of boycotting, because to be consistent we’re going to have to boycott just about everyone and go live in the woods somewhere, and we just end up sounding hateful. They didn’t tell us we couldn’t celebrate Easter, they just didn’t choose to do so themselves. I don’t expect Google to act like Christians, and, let’s face it, if they HAD chosen to portray something about Easter it would have been the Easter bunny and Easter eggs most likely, and that isn't what today is about, either.  Complaining to them won’t change their opinion if they are already not inclined toward Christianity, and we come off looking angry and mean-spirited and easily offended on a day when we should be celebrating the greatest announcement ever made to mankind, “He is not here. He is risen, just as He said!” If we get sidetracked into barking at Google, then they win. Just move on over to Bing and forget ‘em, which is what I did. 

*On a lighter note, my husband requested that we try lamb this year for our meal, because he just loved the food when he was in Bosnia several years ago and has always wanted me to try making something like it here. We made Greek style roast leg of lamb today, and it was VERY good. I also made deviled eggs to please my middle son - they are his favorite. I very much dislike making them, because I am a disaster when it comes to peeling hard boiled eggs, but for love of the boy I did it. Took an insane amount of time to make for how quickly they are eaten, but he liked them.

*And last, but not least, there were a few blog posts I read during the last week that I’ve been meaning to corral into a post to share, so I’ll add those here.

Christ Forsaken from the Ligonier blog was very good.

Here Come the Bunnies! from Tom Chantry I liked, too. Every year it seems that Easter becomes more and more secularized by the world, but that should not mean we have to cave to it. Big surprise, but we don’t “Easter Bunny” at our house. Here again, the holiday just is too rich with meaning to trivialize it by focusing on bunnies and eggs. Do it or don’t, but I also don’t think we need to worry about not calling it “Easter.” 

Raising Daughters in a World that Devalues Them: 7 Things We Must Tell Them. As a mother of a daughter, I really appreciated this post. 

How to Rock Twitter Like a Pharisee was good, too. Great reminder to check our motives before posting our thoughts, and I'm trying to remember and practice it.

Biblical Christianity Needs Both Javert and Valjean. Y’all know how much I like Les Miserables, and I enjoyed this post. Good thoughts in the post, but also in the comments, at least in the first few I read the other day (I haven’t checked since then).

I Finally Finished the Book!!

I finished it! I finished reading Les Miserables last night. Whew. That is a long book. I feel  a little silly to feel such a huge sense of accomplishment. All I did was read a book. But what a book! (Funny typo....I almost had 'Hugh' for huge. Ha ha! Get it, Hugh Jackman?) The first time I tried to read it, years ago, I didn’t make it very far, and I’d always meant to try again, so after seeing the new movie, I bought a translated copy for my Nook. Not the easiest thing I’ve ever read, either, but I’m glad I did. I can’t say I understood every page, as he goes into great detail about things I couldn’t follow since I didn’t know the French history or all the philosophers he mentioned, and the translator chose to leave several poems and songs untranslated including the last lines of what was written in pencil on the tomb stone and I don’t know French, and, frankly, some of the longer digressions were a little bit hard to wade through, but in the end the story is worth it.

Though it goes against my usual opinion, I have to say that this is probably the only time I’ve found where I think I like the movie better. It’s a good thing I saw the movie and loved it, so I would recognize that the difficult passages are very much worth wading through. I’m impressed with how well the musical sticks to the story for the most part. I found myself humming songs from it as I read. There are some changes, of course, I mean it’s a 4015 page book after all, but it is remarkably faithful to the main story. For most of the book I liked the movie version of Marius much better than the book version, though I ended up liking him better near the end. And I loved Little Gavroche in the book. You learn much more about him than in the movie, and I cried when he died. Lots of crying in this book. Hence the title.

I cried when Marius and Cosette married, because the description of Jean Valjean’s emotional turmoil is heart wrenching. And I cried at the end. Side note: I might have snapped a bit at my husband who, when noticing my sobs at the end proceeded to take that precise moment. while I was enjoying all the pathos and still reading, to tease me with, "Cheer up, you knew how it ended, right?"  Seriously, don't spoil the moment when someone is in that other place while reading a good book!! I enjoy the catharsis. Sorry, Drew.....

Speaking of that, I saw this on one of those e-card things on Facebook today: "That moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize that everyone is just carrying on with their lives as though you didn't just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a paperback."  Exactly! 

I’m not sad to be finished, as it took me just shy of 3 months to finish the thing, but I’m glad I read it, and I’m glad I read it unabridged. Those more boring passages are important, too. Even the 53 pages discussing the sewers of Paris. Wowza. Made the mistake of starting that section while I was eating lunch one day. Urp. 

But what a story. One thing I found interesting was how both Javert and Marius did not seem to have a capacity to understand or allow for true repentance. Once a convict, always a convict. But while the true nature of Jean Valjean’s repentance proved to be Javert’s undoing in that he just could not come to terms with it, it proved to be Marius’ undoing in that he finally saw it for what it was, and what a shame to have that understanding come so late. I love this story. I won’t go into English paper mode and try to break it all down for all its symbolic glory, but I really did enjoy this book. 

Is it geeky that I’m so excited that today is the release date for the DVD that I had to go out this morning and buy this?

Guess what we’re watching tonight!

Random Thoughts in March

Something about the promise of spring makes me want to start blogging again. I don’t know that I will be any more regular about posting, but I do miss writing here. I realize my last few posts have been sort of heavy, and it occurred to me that I could write a fluff post now and then to keep the blog alive.

So, some random thoughts for today.

I have a rather large amount of homemade butter frosting left over from an earlier project, and upon pondering what I could do with it, I thought, “Homemade cinnamon rolls!” They don’t have to be only for special days, right? Consequently, I am waiting for the bread machine to finish the dough and thought I’d work on a blog post while I wait. My kids will call me blessed in the morning, I’m sure, because we’re having cinnamon rolls on an ordinary Saturday with really good frosting. Of course, it will blow my whole calorie budget for the day if I don’t exercise somewhere along the way tomorrow, but, the kids will enjoy it. The boys will, anyway. My daughter informed me on Christmas morning that she ‘doesn’t really care for’ my cinnamon rolls. That sounded very funny coming out of a 6-year-old mouth. At least she was polite about it. She doesn’t seem to like sweets a whole lot. Just give the girl a hunk of cheese and she’s a happy camper. 

Speaking of my daughter and her quirky cuteness, I once wrote a post here about how she hated my hair when I cut it short. Well, since about October I've been trying to grow out my hair. Growing out my bangs has been driving me crazy, but it's almost to the point where I could think about showing a before and after picture. Not quite, but we're almost there.

It’s nice to see that spring is on the way. One of my very favorite things about spring is the flowers blooming. My daffodils are almost here, the tulips are starting to sprout, and one little purple flower that is lovely even if I can’t remember what it is called has already bloomed and been damaged by the frosty mornings we’ve had. Brings this scripture to mind: “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” (1Peter 1:24). As thankful as I am for the pretty flowers that last for a season, I’m so much more thankful that the word of the Lord remains forever! 

As far as what I’m calling the Scripture memory personal challenge for 2013, I’ve been working on memorizing Isaiah 53 and reviewing Philippians. I’m not sure what I’ll work on next yet. The time spent pondering on scripture as you spend time trying to memorize it is priceless. It takes me longer than it used to take to master a passage, but I enjoy the effort and how it often spurs me toward prayer as I think on it.

As to writing that children’s story I mentioned a while back, I did get it started, then life got super busy and I didn’t get very far. I need to get back to it as things settle down a bit, hopefully.

As to reading, I am STILL working my way through Les Miserables, which I started right after Christmas. Granted, I also read two other books during the past 2 1/2 months, but it’s taking me a long time to get through this one. I’ve read more than 3000 Nook pages, and still have about 600 or so more to go - I’m about 85% finished. :-) I am enjoying it mostly. I say mostly because there are parts I find tedious and don’t really understand what he’s talking about, but when he tells the story, I like it. And the translator of the version I’m reading chose to leave most of the songs and poems untranslated, so I have to flip through pages of French. Kind of misses the point of reading an English translation if you don’t know what those sections are saying. But, it’s a great story. This may be the one and only instance I’ve found where I liked the movie better than the book. It’s probably a good thing I saw the new musical movie first. That way, I knew the story is incredibly worth wading through the more boring sections. Then again, I find myself with songs from it stuck in my head as I read. 

Speaking of liking the book better than the movie, I didn’t even try to watch ‘The Bible’ on the History channel. I just didn’t feel confident they’d get it right, and judging by some of what I’m hearing about it, they didn’t so much. I’ll keep reading my Bible, and leave the movie alone, I think. Judging by all the buzz, just one more thing where I’m out of step with, well, just about most people I know. That and the fact that I don’t get all the Protestants who are giddy and gushing about the selection of a new pope. As my husband says, the Reformation happened for a reason. Know your history!

Well, the dough is ready for me to make it into cinnamon rolls to be baked in the morning, so I should bring this post to an end. Mission accomplished.

But before I go, I would be remiss if I didn't share the latest goofy church sign sighting: "Feeling chilly? Let God be your comforter." My husband told me he almost drove off the road when he saw that one the other day. 

And on that note, Happy Friday! And happy (almost) spring!

Happy Pi Day

We're having apple..... :-)

Where Assurance Rests

I ran across this post today, and I think it’s very good. It’s a review of a book that is very popular among evangelicals, at least, judging by its ubiquitous presence in various manifestations throughout the Lifeway catalogue that regularly shows up in my mailbox(book, study Bible?????, and children’s version, to name a few) and by how many people mention it and quote from it often on Facebook. I found this review of the book very good, and I recommend it if you’re one of those people who has friends raving about the book Jesus Calling. I have not read it, and do not intend to.

However, what I want to discuss here isn’t the book Michael Horton is reviewing but the fact that several of the concerns he raises meshed exactly with something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently, and that is that the concerns he raises aren’t exclusive to that particular book, but with MUCH of the teaching, writing, preaching, talking, singing and culture of the evangelical movement. In fact, the reason that book with those particular concerns is SO popular is a symptom of something disturbing, and that is that we in the evangelical movement for a large part are not teaching the gospel well and exclusively. I think we are losing, or in many cases have already lost our way. We say in our doctrinal statements and mission statements and the like that we believe the gospel, but what practically comes out in our teaching is that we don’t really trust it. Not really, because we end up teaching a kind of ‘trust Jesus and try harder’ sort of thing that ends up being works moralism not grace, though I don’t think we intend it. I’ll see if I can explain what I mean.

First, I highlight some excellent, excellent points from Michael Horton’s blog post that I referenced and linked to above: 

"Yet I kept asking, “What purposes”? “Who is Jesus and why should I fix my eyes on him?” In short, the gospel is taken for granted. When exhortations to trust are separated from a clear proclamation of who Christ is, what he has done, and why he is therefore trustworthy, trust simply becomes a work—something that I need to gin up within myself." 

And this: 

"Compared with the Psalms, for example, Jesus Calling is remarkably shallow. I do not say that with a snarky tone, but with all seriousness. The Psalms first place before us the mighty acts of God and then call us to respond in confession, trust, and thankfulness. But in Jesus Calling I’m repeatedly exhorted to look to Christ, rest in Christ, trust in Christ, to be thankful and long for a deeper sense of his presence, with little that might provoke any of this. Which means that I’m directed not actually to Christ but to my own inner struggle to be more trustful, restful, and thankful."

I think this is a problem with MUCH of the teaching and books and preaching and ‘Bible studies’ and thinking in evangelicalism today. We focus too much on OUR purpose and finding 'something more' and finding the BIG thing we're supposedly to be about and what WE are FEELING and struggling with internally and focus MUCH too little on Jesus: who He is, what He has done in saving us, and how to rest our hope in HIM and in HIS finished work on our behalf, and instead of always spinning and spinning searching for 'something more' we would do much better to seek to know His revealed word, study and meditate upon and learn and pray for wisdom to understand and obey what He teaches us as we spend time in the Bible that He has given us and listen to preaching that faithfully teaches the BIBLE - and to do that we need to hear the scripture taught and explained, not ideas or the latest church growth strategy or pep talk, but the WORD. THAT is how we know Him. 

We say Jesus is beautiful and we say that we want to know Him more and that we want to be Christ followers and we sing songs that endlessly repeat how we love Him and He loves us, but they are shallow, emotion ginner-uppers that don’t really talk much about WHY we love Him and WHAT He has done to show His love to us and WHO He is that makes Him so worthy of our love and worship and following, and it leaves us trying so hard to gin up that emotion for Him with nothing solid to point us there.

Here’s something I’ve come to realize over the past few months or so, and that is that we too often take passages that are all about grace and preach law from them instead. I have spent my life listening to pep rally sermons that focus on favorite Bible verses taken out of context to spur us on to really, really, really live for Jesus, especially during my stint as a teenager growing up in youth ministry, exhorting me to not waste my life, dream BIG dreams for God, find my PURPOSE for being ON THIS PLANET, finding the way to CHANGE THE WORLD, find the BIG thing I’m to do for God, live better, do better, serve Him harder, seek Him more deeply, seek for more-more-more of Him, love Him better, get it from my head to my heart. But we weren't really told how to do that, exactly. We weren't explicitly taught to hear Him in His word alone. I spent a large part of my older teen years and young adult years as went to Bible studies and retreats and conferences that fed the discontent BEGGING God to show me the BIG thing I was supposed to be doing that surely I was missing it! PLEASE, God, I don’t want to waste my life, PLEASE don’t let me miss the big, kingdom thing I’m supposed to be doing, and PLEASE, why do I feel this way? What am I missing? How many times have I prayed and asked Jesus into my heart, so worried that maybe I didn’t REALLY mean it the last time but I SO want to MEAN it this time. I went to concerts and got all pumped and I went to retreats and camps and revival meetings and nailed papers with my sins to a cross or sent those sin-filled papers through a shredder and promised that THIS time I’d really be on fire, THIS time I really was surrendering all, surely THIS time I REALLY meant it, crying real, genuine, heartfelt tears every time! And when Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.....came and I went back to the boring ol’ humdrum of life and, well, the passion of the mountain top fizzled to the daily drag of everyday life and I once again began wondering, did I REALLY mean it? Was I REALLY saved? I remember sitting in a women’s retreat Bible study meeting BEGGING God to show me what I was missing. I was a young wife and mom, but surely that’s not all I was supposed to be doing, was it? Was I impacting anyone for the kingdom just being a wife and mom, was I missing the BIG thing, maybe I’d already missed it, maybe it was too late? I went to so many church leaders over the years and begged them to help me know why I was feeling this way, why I felt so defeated all the time, and I don’t think I ever got the clear, explicit gospel answer I desperately needed.

Friends, that is EXHAUSTING. And it is NOT the gospel. Finding your purpose for BEING ON THIS PLANET (can you tell I’m getting weary of hearing that phrase?), begging and pleading with God to show me the BIG thing I’m supposed to do with my life, trust Jesus, yes, but also try harder, do better.....is NOT the gospel. 

The good news of the gospel is that I am a wretch. I CAN’T do it. That is the point. Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to His cross I cling. Jesus paid it ALL. ALL to Him I owe. These are NOT just words to songs (and more’s the pity we don’t sing such gospel rich songs as often anymore. Ahem.) My life is hid in Christ. Because He fulfilled the law and suffered the wrath I deserve for my sin on the cross and rose again, I am free from the curse of the law. As His forgiven, blood-bought child, He very well may place a burden to do some ‘big’ thing on my heart, He may call me to go somewhere far from home and share the gospel there.....or He may call me to be a wife and mom here, faithfully serving Him day in and day out, being a faithful church member, community member, sharing the faith, teaching children’s Sunday school, teaching my children day in and day out as we arise, as we sit and as we walk along the way. And that is NOT a small thing.  Somewhere along the way we have lost the idea of vocation - that everything we do is to be done as unto the Lord. It’s not that some things are BIG things but others are boring and not what we should aspire to. 

For every person in the history of Christianity whose name we have heard, there are thousands more who we have never heard of, but who were faithful servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our passion ought to be to serve our Savior whole-heartedly and with abandon, not to be spinning and spinning and begging and pleading for our BIG thing. Our purpose is to know God, to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Spend time in His word, pray, learn to obey Him in the small, everyday things, and when and if He leads you to so-called bigger things, obey Him there, too, but don't discount the joy and importance of living for Him and serving Him in the 'mundane' things and don't miss out on the everyday graces and progress in the faith He is working in you because you're so concerned you're missing the big thing. Learn to find your satisfaction not in how passionate you ‘feel’ about Him, but in HIM. 

My assurance does not rest in how sincere I think I was or wasn’t at each of those pep rally type events. My assurance does not rest in how sincere I think I was when I prayed ‘the prayer’ for the umpteenth time, or whether I prayed it just right. My assurance rests in what Jesus did on the cross. I cannot stress how important it has been for me to finally get to this understanding in the midst of the do more, do more, try harder, try harder, dream bigger, love more preaching I have heard my whole life. 

I spent the first 4 months of 2011 memorizing the book of Philippians. And I have spent February of this year reviewing it, meaning, I have spent countless hours meditating on Philippians. I love chapter 3:7-12, “But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith - that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” Did you catch that the righteousness is not my own, but that which comes through faith in Christ, and that we do what we do, obey Him, seek Him, seek to live for Him because He has MADE US HIS OWN. The things that Paul lost and left behind and counted as rubbish, were the do more, try harder, be better of legalistic Phariseeism, as he spells it out in the beginning of chapter 3. We do not have to do, do, do, strive, strive, strive, for more, more, more to gain acceptance with God. If we are in Christ, we ARE accepted in the beloved. We ARE His. We ARE counted righteous in Christ. To finally understand the significance of this is to finally, finally, stop wondering if I really, really meant it or if I really, really repented or wondering if I’ll waste my life while I plead to find the BIG thing and to rest in the fact that Jesus did it ALL. I am accepted and beloved and positionally righteous in God’s sight because Jesus took the wrath I deserve on the cross. I am free from striving to nail it down AGAIN. And I am free to obey Him and serve Him with abandon from a heart overflowing with gratitude that is founded on WHO He is and WHAT He has done. Knowing who He is and what He has done, I WANT to live for Him. I don’t want to waste the life He has placed me in and I want to live faithfully day in and day out, and when I stumble and confess it, He is faithful and just to forgive me and cleanse me from all unrighteousness.

And one more thing, I have learned in my years of walking with Jesus that change might happen all at once in a life, but more often, it is a gradual growing in grace as you submit yourself to God’s word. When you look back over the course of your life, you begin to realize that you are not the same person you were five years ago, ten years ago, and that the Holy Spirit has been shaping you to be more like Christ as your desires change to be more like His and as you learn to love His word more, love others more, and share your faith as an outpouring of a life devoted to Christ. 

Jesus IS beautiful and worthy of praise, and worthy of being served wholeheartedly and given our very best. Let’s do a better job of lifting HIM up and telling WHY we should love Him and worry less about OUR purpose and OUR dreams and visions and wants and desires and seek to see HIM glorified. 

Two books I highly recommend that have helped me to process through these things recently:

The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler

Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart: How to Know for Sure You Are Saved by J. D. Greear

And When You Walk By the Way

Deuteronomy 6:4-7

(4)“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. (5) You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. (6) And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. (7) You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

I found this blog post the other day after Todd Friel mentioned it on the Wretched Radio broadcast I was listening to. As I read it, I thought that he made some spot on points, and I cannot tell you how seriously I wish we as evangelicals would take a hard look at what is said in this post and repent and turn back to preaching the Word and explicitly preaching the gospel well. This is the quote I pulled out from the blog post when I linked to it to share with my Facebook friends this week: “I love the church, and I want to see American evangelicalism return to the gospel of repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins; not just as something on our ‘what we believe’ page on our website, but as the core of what we preach from our pulpits to our children, our youth, and our adults.” I encourage you to read and prayerfully consider what is said in that blog post, and as I said earlier this week when I shared it on Facebook, I find all the points spot on, but I especially highlight #9, #7, #3, and #2, and his final warning is stern and necessary, in my opinion. 

I think one reason I find this blog post so important is that I grew up in the evangelical subculture atmosphere he describes here. There, but for the grace of God, go I. And I mean that emphatically, I’m not just spouting a cliché. It is only by God’s grace that I am not one of those statistics who leave the church. I look back over my testimony, and I see that it is only by God’s grace that the faith become my faith rather than just something that was taught to me that I never caught. And friends, that’s the bottom line isn’t it? If these kids are walking away from the faith, oughtn’t our true concern be that they never had the faith to begin with? And that is tragic and cause for concern. I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking along these lines, and I believe one thing we in the evangelical churches in which I have been steeped have not done a good job with is being explicit with the gospel. (I recommend The Explicit Gospel by Matt Chandler, and I’m currently reading Stop Asking Jesus Into Your Heart by J.D. Greear.) We assume it, but we do not adequately spell out the cost and necessity of repentance and faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins. We spout out our shorthand jargon about ‘asking Jesus into your heart’ and about how life with Jesus is just better, but we don’t explain this well at all, and we do NOT do a good enough job of truly teaching what repentance is, how wretchedly sinful each and every one of is and how desperately we need to repent. I know because as I listened to Todd Friel one afternoon on the Wretched program as he talked to a professing Christian college student and asked him to explain why he should become a Christian, this poor kid gave a very confused answer about asking Jesus into your heart and how life is better with Jesus. And I sat in my kitchen floor and wept, because I realized that had someone asked me that question at that age, I would have been just as confused about how to share the gospel with someone. I believed in Jesus, I loved Him, I believe He had truly saved me, but it wasn’t until I was in my late 30’s or early 40’s that I began to understand that the way I’d been taught to share my faith wasn’t right, it wasn’t clear enough. What people need isn’t to ‘ask Jesus into their heart’ without an adequate foundation of repentance laid or to have a better life. They need to recognize that there is a Creator, He is God, we have sinned and broken His law and are under His wrath and are desperately separated from Him because of that sin, we are sinners, but while we were yet sinners He sent His Son, Jesus, to take the wrath that we deserve, He took our sin and suffered the penalty we deserve when He died on the cross and He rose again. The debt is paid, and what we must do is recognize we are sinners, and that God commands that we repent of our sin and submit to and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is gracious and merciful so that those who repent and believe are granted the right to become the children of God, our sins are forgiven on the basis of what Jesus has done on our behalf. THAT is the gospel. Anything less, and we are not lifting Jesus high enough or telling people what they desperately need to hear.

But back to the blog post I mentioned at the top. As I said, I agree with all the points he makes in that article, and I think it is a vitally needed warning in the evangelical church today. Critically needed. But, there is something crucial that is missing from those points, I think. As important as the local church is in discipling and shaping people, and it is, don’t mishear me! Also critically important is the home. What was modeled for kids in their home? That isn’t discussed in the blog post, but I believe it has much bearing on how the faith is passed on to the next generation and is also a critically needed factor. We can’t just drop our kids off at the church and assume our duty for spiritual training is done. The church can, should, and must come alongside parents and provide discipleship and solid teaching, but parents must be diligent to teach the faith to their children and model it and teach it as we walk along the way day in and day out. If we parents are satisfied with the shallow teaching hinted at in that blog post and in these types of churches, are we really growing and learning what we need to be able to adequately train our children? I'm not saying that every kid that walks away didn't have parents who modeled it in the home. We are saved by God's grace. But it is an important factor to look at. This is a deeper issue than we at first see in the post.

Something I count as a grace in my life is that though I came of age surrounded by things that are on that list, one thing in my life that stands out and which I believe God used to spare me and shape me and mold me and steer me through was the fact that my parents deeply believed and trusted God’s Word and loved Jesus truly. What I mean is that I had an example in them that I think is probably the most important thing I saw growing up. Let me explain. 

Christianity, faith, church were not something we did when we felt like it or just on Sunday. Talking about Jesus and what we were learning from His word were part of the warp and woof of my life growing up. It never would have even occurred to me to ask if we were going to church on a given Sunday. We went to church, that’s just what we did on Sunday, it wasn’t something we did when we felt like it and it wasn't trumped by other things when we didn’t. We didn’t join sporting events or other things that required us to consistently miss Sunday church. We didn’t choose to stay home for other things. We didn’t fritter away the morning on Sunday news programs. We knew, when Sunday morning dawned, if we were not sick, we got up and got ready for church. This wasn’t from a spirit of legalism, as I have heard people assume of people like us. No, we went because we didn’t want to be anywhere else. We wanted to be with God’s people on the Lord’s Day - even when there were times we were frustrated with our local church. It was what we did and who we were. I hear people talk about being dragged to church when they were kids. I never felt that way. I didn’t resent Sundays or Wednesdays or other times when we met together. I wanted to be there with my church family. And that is something I caught from home. 

I don’t remember more than a handful of times of formal, sit-down family devotions growing up. But what I do remember, more than I can count, were conversations around the dinner table, answers to questions I posed, discussions in the car and in the house during the day or evening or just all the time that centered around what my parents were learning and thinking about the Bible. As they learned and grew, we kids benefitted because it mattered to them and they talked about it. A lot. We had theological discussions often. They talked about what they were caring about and thinking about. And it shaped my thinking as I grew up. 

When I had questions, when I came home from school and didn’t know how to process things I’d heard, or when I was broken hearted or hurting, or when I was full of joy, in everything, my mom and dad talked with me and helped me to understand how to process things biblically. This was a way of life for us. We ordered our life around these things, not always formally, it just was who we were. Because it was what mattered to my parents, it was what they really believed and what shaped their lives, I learned to see the Bible as trustworthy and I learned to trust Jesus at a young age and grew in understanding, by His grace. 

My parents aren’t perfect people. I am not putting them up on some pedestal here. What they are, though, is disciples of Jesus. What I saw growing up was that they loved Him and loved His word, and in the imperfections of daily life, I saw that shine through as a consistency. For that I am grateful. I am convinced that is a grace given to me by God, to have had the kind of training that stems from talking of these things as we walked along the way of daily life. 

And that is something I hope to model and pass on to my children. My husband and I aren’t involved in our local church out of a spirit of legalism. We just see it as important and it is where we want to be. We don’t choose to do things that conflict with Sunday, because we WANT to be with God’s people on the Lord’s Day. I don’t read my Bible every day because I feel some legalistic burden to check off a duty. I read it because I want to grow close to God, and it is through His word that He speaks. I read it because I want to know it and apply it because I love Jesus, and the longer I walk with Him, the more I recognize how desperately I need Him and want to love Him more, and how grateful I am that He has kept me in the faith. 

So, as important as the warnings in that blog post are, and I think they are very important, may I add the encouragement that parents who truly believe Jesus and have repented and are learning daily to understand and live in the light of the gospel will talk to their children as they walk along the way, and that is a vital investment to make in the lives of our children. It is so important for them to see that the faith is true and vital and life-changing, not just something we ‘do’ on Sunday when we feel like it, and not just legalistic boxes we check off before we get back to ‘real life’ and not something that we allow things of the world to choke out. When something is important to you, you will talk about it. I am not saying that when a child walks away it is the parents' fault. What I am saying is that it is important to live out what we believe and live it 'out loud' and be talking about these things as the warp and woof of life. Let your kids know it is true and it matters and it is relevant to all of life. When my kids have questions, I want to answer them faithfully. We talk about important things. What our children see as important to us, they will notice, and my fervent prayer is that by God’s grace they will grow to become faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Whatever else they may say about us, my true desire is that they will never doubt that I firmly believed that Jesus is Lord, and that my steps and words were ordered in such a way that they matched my confession, and that it shaped the life we lived here at home, not just on Sunday, but EVERY day.

Not Really a Status Report - January 2013

Here we are on the 9th day of the new year, and I still haven’t written a status update or anything else on the blog.  I have a lot that I’m mulling over and pondering and working through toward understanding, just not anything I’ve been blogging out loud about until today.

First of all, I’ve mentioned before that I’m not a big New Year’s Resolution maker. The beginning of a new year is a good time to re-evaluate, though, so here’s what I’m trying to do as of this January 2013: 

• Exercise more and eat healthier - yeah, cliche, but true - I may never be the size and weight I was back in college, but I can be a better steward of the health and body God has granted me and take better care of it than I have been.
• Write....something, even if no one but my family ever sees it.
• Visit Facebook less, thereby reducing self-inflicted stress from that crazy source.
• Work on some Scripture memory.
• Be patient with the project of growing out my hair. My friend who cuts my hair is being really patient with me, working toward the style I want. I took her a picture of the actress who plays the mayor/queen in “Once Upon a Time,” and asked, “Do you think my hair would do this?” She thinks yes, but it will take quite a few months to get it there, so that’s what we’re doing. Growing out my bangs is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done hair-style-wise. I am growing to like it, though, because I’m beginning to see the end result taking shape. Slowly. 
• Pray daily for my husband and children. Should be a given, just making sure it's a stated resolution.

That’s a good start for now.

For daily Bible reading this year, I am going through the same chronological plan I used last year, but not going to let it legalistically bind me if I get behind, daily chapter from Proverbs, and reading through the book of John several times first, then do the same with other New Testament books. I’ve found that when I only do a through-the-Bible program, sometimes my devotional and steeping and pondering and application of passages tends to suffer, so that’s why I’m not worrying if I get it all in on the posted day and adding in a book to read more than once. (I don’t use the word ‘meditation’ because the meaning of it has become so warped anymore, though were I to use it, I’d mean steeping and pondering and applying the Word, not something mystical.) 

Other reading this month: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (obviously a translation, since I do not know French).  I am liking this much better this time around. I attempted to read it once years ago, and got bogged down in it and never got very far. But this time, I saw the movie first, something I almost never do, and now that I know what a great story it is, I’m liking the book much better. I LOVED the movie, by the way.

I’m also re-reading The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur. The reason I am, is that I’ve been feeling anxious,frustrated, a bit discouraged, and.....well....I’m having a hard time coming up with exactly the right adjective to describe just what I’m struggling with as I have come to the conclusion that there is a very gapingly large lack of discernment in the Evangelical world today. I’ve come to the conclusion that if something is popular, I’m immediately wary, and that I do not trust our popular evangelical leaders to protect the flock from error. I do not like having to be this way, but I am finding that is where I am these days. 

Look up "Jesus Culture," "Bethel Church," "New Apostolic Reformation," and "Judah Smith" for starters on some things that are being mainstreamed and set before our youth without any caveats and see if it doesn't concern you a little.

As to what else I've been mulling, the original version of this post had a long section here on some things I've been pondering and working through, but I rethought having that long-winded thing here and I believe I'll just point you over to the Team Pyro blog for an idea of what I've been thinking about and concerned about recently. Frank Turk is writing a series and doing a much better job than I can in discussing Passion 2013. He pretty much is getting at the crux of the issues I'm working to process, too, and doing it thoughtfully and well. Here is part 1 and here is part 2, and his clarifying comment at 7:51 AM on today’s post is excellent. I’m looking forward to what he’ll post tomorrow in the ongoing discussion.

The Heavens Declare

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.

Psalm 19:1

My kids and I got to see something very cool this morning on the way to the bus stop. It was several shooting stars, one of which was very bright. I’ve never seen a shooting star before today, and we all stood there in amazement, shouting, “That is SO cool!” as we watched the sky this morning before the sun came up. One of the few things that makes walking to the bus stop not so bad in the dark morning hour is how bright the stars are here. We live in a place where you can actually see lots of stars, and I love it.

Turns out, as a friend let me know, what we were seeing was the Geminid meteor shower, which is supposed to peak tonight. I’m thinking I’d like to try to see it. 

Anyway, walking home from the bus stop, scanning the starry sky, I got to pondering about creation and how beautiful and somewhat terrifying it is. When I was in college, I took an astronomy class for one of my science credits, along with the required lab class. During lab, we had several nighttime exercises when we were required to trek out to the dark part of campus where the telescopes were, and we had to find certain things and view them. I still get eery chills remembering how I felt looking at Saturn through the telescope and seeing its rings. It’s one thing to look at a picture, but to look through the telescope and know that you’re actually looking at the real thing hanging way out there in the silence of space is somehow overwhelming and just a bit frightening to me. I think I felt that way because space, the universe, is just so vast and mysterious and huge and OUT THERE, and when I get to thinking about how huge it all is, it is almost more than I can comprehend and I don’t know the word for the kind of uncomfortably awestruck feeling it gives me. Then I start pondering God and the fact that He spoke all of that into existence from nothing. How vast, how measureless, how awesome must our God truly be. 

And when you ponder that for a bit, and then you start thinking about His eternality, that He has always been with no beginning or end, if that doesn’t start making your mind spin and make you feel a sense of awe like you’ve never known, then think about this: That God, who is so immense and awesome and, let’s face it, terrifying, had the compassion to send His Son, to put on human flesh and walk among us, and to rescue us from our helpless state of sin and rescue us from our terror and enable us to love and worship Him. 

He knows our frame, and He remembers that we are dust. 

He is God With Us - Immanuel - and the angels spoke of His glory to the shepherds in the fields on the night when Jesus was born as Immanuel, Redeemer, the God who saves men from their sin. And then He grew, He lived as fully God and fully man, no sin, perfectly in submission to the will of the Father, perfectly fulfilling the Law of righteousness that every single one of us has broken in a vast number of ways, and He preached the good news of the Kingdom that He had come to seek and to save that which was lost. 

And when His creation, His people to whom He came but who knew Him not, crucified Him, Jesus, the glorious, perfect Lamb of God, He cried out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!” Have you ever pondered the riches and immensity of that? The One who holds all things together, through whom and for whom all things were created, and He hung on a cross, put there by the very people  whose breath depends upon Him, and He cried out, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Deep, and rich, and amazing grace, almost more than I can comprehend. (Read Colossians 1:15-23!!!)

He knows our frame, and He remembers that we are dust. 

His immense love, mercy, and grace are amazing. He died, taking the wrath and shame that are rightfully ours, we wandering sheep who every one has gone its own way and been the enemy of God, and He purchased redemption for those who would place their trust in Him alone.  He rose again, the veil of the temple having been torn in two from top to bottom, His sacrifice the final and perfect and only effective sacrifice for sin, and He is seated at the right hand of the Father making intercession for those who belong to Him in repentant, trusting faith.

And we know all of this because, not only did He give us the heavens, which declare His glory, testifying in terrible beauty to the evidence of an all-powerful Creator, but even more, He gave us His Word. Jesus is the Word made flesh, and in His mercy and grace, He gave us the Scripture so that we could know Him, love Him, repent before Him and worship Him, because that truly is what is best for us. 

He knows our frame, and He remembers that we are dust.

Why would we neglect to read and ponder and search the scriptures which make us wise unto salvation? He is not silent, and He speaks to us through His word. The heavens declare His glory, and His word reveals His story to us, His will for us, and His love for us. “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

What an awesome God. How deep, how vast, how measureless are the depths of His love toward His people. How deep and vast and measureless is the gospel when we begin to peer into its glorious depths. 

How thankful I am for the chance glimpse of a meteor shower this morning, which turned my attention to the glory of the One who created that meteor shower and who is giving me life everlasting through His Son. 

You can see information about the meteor shower at this link.

Fair Warning:

The following post is purely a rant, and if you don’t want to hear my strong opinion, walk away now. 

Fair warning: 

I'm done. 

We don't Santa during our Christmas celebrations at our house. We never have. It's just not part of our traditions and celebration, for reasons that are thought out and considered and on purpose. 

In the past, because of an incident I wrote about here, I've bent over backwards trying to prepare my youngest and help her know what to say or not say around her friends who believe in Santa so as to not be obnoxious to them. But, as of right now today, I'm done with it. With sadness and regret I realize today that in my misguided attempt at practicing being a ‘good neighbor’ with all my being so careful to prepare my daughter and help her know what to say, I found out today all I've done is totally confuse her. 

And, no offense to anyone meant, but that matters more to me than shattering someone’s belief in a lie. I am fighting tears at the moment for being so foolish as to make a bigger issue of this with my daughter than it EVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN. By making it an issue, I’ve blown it up into a big deal, when that is the exact opposite of what I meant to be doing. Lesson learned.

Today I told her she can and should talk about Santa however she wants to, I don't really care if people get mad at us anymore. She shouldn't have to lie when her friends start talking about their Christmas celebrations, and I found out today that she felt like that's what I'd been telling her to do. It wasn't, but she's now extremely confused. I’m done confusing her. Her friends can talk about their Elf on the Shelf and their Santa all they want, she should be able to talk about her Christmas traditions without a muzzle, too. So, I told her, no lying. Don’t argue with people, don't intentionally bring up Santa's truth or not truth, but just be honest about how you celebrate Christmas.

Now for the true confession:

I really don’t like Santa the way we do it in America, and I HATE the movie, "The Polar Express." Shocker there, I’m sure. If that makes me a Grinch, so be it. Bah Humbug and all that. I think it’s wrong to lie to our kids. For all the griping about “Happy Holidays vs. Merry Christmas” and “Holiday Trees” and whatnot, you know what I think? I don’t give one little rip whether someone says, “Happy Holidays” or “Merry Christmas” to me in the store or out around town - both end up feeling really forced anyhow, most of the time, and I'll smile and say, "Thank you," or "Have a nice day," and take no offense either way. I don't get all pushed out of shape if someone says, "Happy Holidays." And I don’t even care if they are silly enough to call what is obviously a “Christmas” tree a “Holiday” tree or call the RED and GREEN cake mix “Holiday” confetti cake when Christmas is the only RED and GREEN holiday I’m aware of. You know why? Because most of America isn’t really celebrating Christmas anymore, anyway. Most of America is celebrating the secularized, materialistic version with no room for Jesus - so let them have their “Holiday,” and happy on ‘em. 

I, for one, will continue to celebrate Christmas, and choose to enjoy it with my family in the way in which we choose. And I’m DONE apologizing and tiptoeing about Santa and worrying about offending over a lie. I don’t say that with rancor or anger, though I realize it probably reads that way. 

I’m just done making an issue where there shouldn’t have been one. I messed up, well-intentioned though I may have been, and I’m done with that.

A Few Thoughts About Prayer

I hear or see something said often that has gotten me thinking over the past few months. When someone asks for prayer, people will say something like, “Prayers sent your way!” I know and understand that is meant to be encouraging, but I fear it demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what prayer is. I don’t think I’m being nitpicky with this, either. I guess someone could argue it's just misuse of the phrase, like a grammar mistake, but somehow, I don't think so. I see it too often for it to be just an unintended error. 

See, I think for much of the pop culture of America, prayer has taken on a sort of pop spirituality definition that means little more than something along the lines of, “Good feelings, warm thoughts for you,” rather than realizing prayer is actually talking to Someone, and who that Someone really is. America is saturated in a kind of civil, sentimental religion, “God Bless America,” feel-good sentimentality that masquerades as spiritual that I think is becoming more and more pervasive. Less and less do people we rub shoulders with in our community really understand or actually believe in the real, true, almighty Creator God who has revealed Himself very specifically in His word and through Jesus Christ. What I’m noticing today is that when people talk about ‘God,' they really don’t have a clue about GOD, but they have in mind a kind of deistic god who is benevolent, but not really intricately involved in their lives except when some crisis comes along and they ask for ‘prayers’ but live pretty much without much thought for God any other time, and they certainly don’t seem to think much about what God may demand of them. He’s sort of like Santa Claus. He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake, he knows if you’ve been bad or good.....and you give him your list of wants/demands/wishes when you ‘pray,’ and if he doesn’t deliver or if your prayers aren’t answered the way you want or bad things happen to you, well, you get mad at him. This video says well, I think, how much of our culture has a wrong understanding of who God really is:

This sentimentalized spirituality that has so saturated our cultural dialogue is manifested in a number of ways. I think that’s one reason there’s so little discernment over books like “Heaven is for Real” and Joel Osteen’s feel-goodisms and Oprah and contemplative spirituality even in our evangelical churches and dialogues. We just don’t see the error for what it is because it’s so sweet and feels so nice and sounds so good. We were at a band competition once and the school band boosters of the sponsor school made an announcement before the awards that this competition had been dedicated to the memory of a girl from their band who had passed away. They said the family asked that instead of a moment of silence that we all cheer loud enough for her to hear us. There was an awkward moment of silence before the announcer came back on and said, “Come on, now, let’s hear it.” I am NOT mocking the pain of a family who lost their daughter much too young. NOT at all. My heart aches for them, truly, and while the stands awkwardly cheered, I prayed silently for the family. But that demonstrated, to me, some of the weird, sentimental spirituality so much of the culture around us embraces that breaks my heart when you see how very far it is from understanding the truth. In the end, it’s empty, wishful thinking, hoping for something better, faith in faith, but with nothing on which to rest that hope and faith. And my heart breaks for people who are burdening under that tyranny of hopeless hope.

Christian friends, we have the Something Better for which they hope. We know the gospel. We know the Savior. May we, may I, do a better job of articulating and sharing it with people we rub shoulders with. 

Anyway, back to prayer. The thing is, when I ask for prayer, I really and truly do not want prayers ‘sent my way.’ I can’t hear or answer prayers. Well wishes and kind thoughts are all well and good and very much appreciated. I am not knocking that at all. But they aren’t PRAYERS. Prayers, true prayers, are prayed to God. We pray to God for other people, we don't send prayers their way. God hears the prayers of those who come boldly before His throne through Jesus Christ, and, friends, that is the ONLY true way to pray to the God who created all that is. 

Words mean something. Prayer is talking to God. The only way to truly pray is to pray to the God who IS, and the only way to pray to the one true God is through His Son, Jesus, who shed His blood to forgive us our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness and be our ONLY mediator with the Father. Jesus alone is our High Priest, and it is in relationship with Him alone, cleansed by His blood alone, dressed in His righteousness alone that we can stand before God and pray. And the wonder of it is that as believers in Jesus Christ, we have the awesome privilege and burden and responsibility TO pray! How wonderful is this!

So, send kind thoughts my way if you want, but prayers? They are only to be to God.Only God can hear and answer prayers. Sending them my way, or the way of anyone else won’t do anyone any good at all. 

Hebrews 4:14-16

14 Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Some Things I'm Thinking About Today

I believe what I wrote yesterday.  I also think it would be hypocritical of me not to admit that believing it and feeling it are two different things. I’ll be honest here and tell you I am deeply disappointed with the results of yesterday’s election. I do not believe that the majority chose wisely yesterday. I could write a lengthy political post this morning detailing my frustration and disappointment, but I’m not going to do that. (Tom Chantry has some good thoughts on it, if you're interested.)

I will admit to you that I’m about having to sit on my hands not to make this a much longer post about some of the things I'm thinking through, not least of which is the implications it has on the issue of the sanctity of life, the definition of marriage, and a right understanding of economics. I believe we, as a nation, have gotten what we, as a nation, have said we want. Now all of us get to live with the consequences, and I have to say, I am not at all optimistic that those consequences will be anywhere near what I believe is the direction I want to see our country go. I have so much more I could say, but I’m stopping there. 

I’ll also be honest and admit to you that I’m having some attitudes and thoughts this morning that I have to confess are sinful. I’m praying through it and trusting God to keep my heart and guard my heart and mind and tongue as I seek to honor Him. 

So now let me tell you what I truly, deep down believe. God is sovereign. It is He who sets up rulers and brings them down. If this is the outcome of the election, then I absolutely believe God has a plan and a purpose in it. Someone asked me once if I think we are a nation under judgment. That’s a complicated question. I do not believe our nation has a special covenant like Israel did, and I am not one of those ‘reclaim America’ people who tend to make an idol out of our country and what they think it should be. In fact, while we’re being really gut-level honest here, please don’t stone me if I share that I haven’t felt real comfortable with the idea of placing my hand over my heart and pledging allegiance to this country (or any country) or singing, “God bless America,” for years. How can we as a people enact laws that enable us to kill millions of unborn children, just to name one issue, or daily shake our fists in the face of our Creator in countless ways, give no thought to repentance and holiness, and then have the audacity to think we can ask for God’s blessing on our unrepentant ways? That may be a controversial opinion, but it’s one I’m struggling with and have been for years. Don't take that wrongly, either. I am thankful for my country, I pray for my country, I want what is best for my country and I'm very thankful for the sacrifices others have made so that we can have the freedoms we seem so willing to take for granted and throw away today. But I am also wary of extreme patriotism that sometimes blinds us to the truth. What I pray for is repentance. That is what God blesses, repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We are just one of the nations. How I answer that question about judgment when asked is that I think we are a nation that has gotten what it has elected and chosen. I do believe that as a nation more closely aligns with righteousness, it will prosper, and as it choses otherwise, it will face consequences. Read Romans 1.

All that said, I am not in despair today. Sure, I’m disappointed, but, honestly, not much has really changed from yesterday. The mission of the Church is the same as it has always been. Granted, it may well become more difficult for Christians to have the freedom of speech we’ve always taken for granted in this country as political correctness and the ‘tolerance intolerance’ mentality gains ever more influence in our cultural discourse, but we need to remember that we are citizens of another Kingdom. Though we are called to be good citizens in the country where we are placed, our final allegiance isn’t ultimately to any country. As Christians, our calling is so much bigger than one nation. Our calling is to be proclaimers of the gospel and to live as salt and light and obedient servants of King Jesus wherever He calls us to be and in whatever time He calls us to live, to love even our enemies and to share with them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ and to live peaceably with all men, as much as it is in our power to do so. To be honest, I believe we evangelicals have been too willing to worship at the altar of the political process anyway. The gospel isn’t America first or reclaim America or God Bless America. The gospel is that Jesus has come to save sinners, for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

Here’s some things I’m thinking and praying over today, and rather than type out the whole passages, I’ve linked to them so you can read them. I’ll be honest and say some of it is hard:

Romans 12:1 - 13:14

1 Peter 2:13-17

Psalm 1

Psalm 46

Psalm 67

Election Day Thoughts

I know what outcome I hope for today, and I have now done my part as a citizen and voted for the choice my conscience can live with having voted for, and I’m thankful for a country where I’m free to do so, but I also know that however the election turns out, I will sleep tonight, because I know where my true hope lies.....and it isn’t in government. I know which candidate I believe is better for America, and I have definite political opinions, and still will tomorrow, but I also know that my hope isn’t in who wins an election or even ultimately in what happens to America. For generations, America has been a model of peaceful elections and transfers of government leadership, and I pray today will be the same. I pray all the media hype over potential riots, is just that...hype. But my hope, ultimately and always, is in my God, and I know that my Redeemer lives.

Isaiah 26:3-4

3 You keep him in perfect peace

whose mind is stayed on you,

because he trusts in you.

4 Trust in the LORD forever,

for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Philippians 4:5-7

5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The LORD is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Job 19:25

25 For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.

Philippians 2:9-11

9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.