FIGHT FOR AMERICA
Comedian Jim Gaffigan says “I normally don’t have a burger, a brat, and a steak but… it’s 4th of July. And I need the energy if I’m gonna start blowing crap up. It’s what the founding fathers would want.” I’m thinking our founding fathers may have wanted a bit more than that, especially for the future of our unique democratic republic form of government. While not all were committed Christians, many of America’s early leaders believed in the truth of Psalm 33:12 that tells us “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people he chose for His inheritance.” But on this 248th birthday of our nation, I know believers often have a very negative, gloom and doom attitude about the present state of our country- and I agree that America seems to have moved far away from the Christian principles that guided us for a long time. But I still hold out hope that there might be a revival of godliness in our nation if believers step up and take the lead.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett wrote about the cure for America’s ills. He said “I submit that only when we turn to the right things–enduring, noble, spiritual things–will life get better. Most important, we must return religion to its proper place. Religion provides us with moral bearings, and the solution to our chief problem of spiritual impoverishment depends on spiritual renewal. The surrendering of strong beliefs, in our private and public lives, has demoralized society.”
He continues “Today, much of society ridicules and mocks those who are serious about their faith. America’s only respectable form of bigotry is bigotry against religious people. And the only reason for hatred of religion is that it forces us to confront matters many would prefer to ignore.” But then he offers this challenge: “Today we must carry on a new struggle for the country we love. We must push hard against an age that is pushing hard against us. If we have full employment and greater economic growth–if we have cities of gold and alabaster–but our children have not learned how to walk in goodness, justice and mercy, then the American experiment, no matter how gilded, will have failed. Do not surrender. Get mad. Get in the fight.” I agree wholeheartedly. But just what might that mean?
First of all, we need to acknowledge the power of prayer and lift up our nation regularly and fervently along with praying for all of those in positions of political authority. As Paul wrote, “The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply…” (I Timothy 2:1,2) And then, as we vote and become aware of the issues in our country, it’s vital that we speak up as we stand for truth. In Colossians 1:23 we read how important it is to “fully believe the Truth, standing in it steadfast and firm, strong in the Lord, convinced of the Good News that Jesus died for you, and never shifting from trusting him to save you.” Biblical morality must be returned to, but even more than that is the hope of our nation based not on who’s in the White House, but Who reigns as Savior and Lord in people’s hearts. President John F. Kennedy famously told his fellow Americans in his 1961 inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” What believers need to do for the sake of their country is to truly live out their faith that we might experience revival in our land.
In His Service, Jim

While sports fishing off the Florida coast, a tourist capsized his boat. He could swim, but his fear of alligators kept him clinging to the overturned craft. Spotting an old beachcomber standing on the shore, the tourist shouted, “Are there any gators around here?!”
“Naw,” the man hollered back, “they ain’t been around for years!”
Feeling safe, the tourist started swimming leisurely toward the shore. About halfway there, he asked the guy, “How’d you get rid of the gators?”
“We didn’t do nothin’,” the beachcomber said. “The sharks got ’em.”
That doesn’t sound like a very relaxing vacation! At this time of year, a lot of folks will be heading off somewhere to get away on what we call a “vacation”. The dictionary defines it as “an extended period of leisure and recreation or in travelling, especially one spent away from home.” I think with the way God wired us as human beings, we need those extended times so we can rest both our bodies and minds whether we leave our homes or not. The riddle asks “Why don’t mummies go on summer vacation?” Answer: They’re afraid to relax and unwind! I know for myself when I’m on vacation, rather than constantly being on the go, I especially enjoy time to relax and unwind. The truth is we need to be able to take it easy, especially if we’re leading busy, demanding lives.
Our Maker understood this right from the beginning. After creating this world, He established a weekly Sabbath that we might have a day when we can rest from our labors. That’s vital for our physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. The Sabbath is a gift God has given mankind for those who may be tempted to constantly burn the candle at both ends. Psalm 127:2 tells us “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat— for He (the Lord) grants sleep to those he loves.”
But there’s another important aspect to our Sabbath times whether weekly or on vacation. In Hebrews we read “There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest…” (4:9-11) Dr. Samuele Bacchiocchi wrote, “’The Sabbath rest that remains for the people of God’ is not only a physical cessation from work… but also a spiritual entering into God’s rest made possible through Christ’s complete redemption. The physical act of resting becomes the vehicle through which one experiences the spiritual rest. We cease from our daily work to allow God to work in us more freely and fully.” When we take the time for leisure and recreation, the Lord is able to re-create us, renewing us with the invigorating sense of God’s refreshing, eternal life which has come through our Savior’s work of salvation. And that helps recharge our batteries strengthening us for when we return to our daily tasks.
In the movie Forrest Gump, he asks, “Mama, what’s vacation mean?” to which she responds, “Vacation is where you go somewhere… and you don’t ever come back.” But for us, when we go away for some kind of relaxing, Sabbath vacation, we do “come back” to our everyday challenges, our service to those around us and our commitment to Christ and His Church. And our time of “vacation” (whatever that may be for you) helps make us more of what our Lord wants us to be.
In His Service, Jim

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb… Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.” (Psalm 139:13,16)
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH
The following is from a “Focus on the Family” article by Glenn Stanton: Regarding the history of Christianity and abortion, the question of the value of life inside the womb was really quite simple and direct. It didn’t revolve around highly technical questions of when life and personhood began. Still, these early teachers of Christian orthodoxy had a very direct and irrefutable rationale.
1. If abortion is needed to bring the death of a child, that child is considered to be living.
2. If living, the child had to have received that gift of life from God – the giver of all life – and God is actively sustaining that new life in His goodness, even in the secret of the womb, as Psalm 139 teaches.
3. Therefore, abortion is to be condemned because it rejects the goodness and sovereignty of God.
Many biblical passages talk about God’s value of life. However, we can also see in the history of Christianity and abortion that Christians have held this belief, inherited from their Jewish roots, since the beginning. They also held it boldly and consistently.
(Today) many Christians believe that the topic of abortion and God’s value of all life, no matter how young or old, is something individual believers can agree to disagree on… This was certainly not the case in the earliest centuries of the Church. There was crystal clarity on the matter, expressed with strong and unwavering conviction. And the only thing that has changed in recent years is politics and rhetoric. These certainly do not determine proper Christian belief, conviction and practice.
Thankfully, the Christian church has grown increasingly responsive to life in the womb and the needs of women dealing with unexpected pregnancies. We can confidently say that today is the golden age of Christians responding to the needs of the unborn and their mothers in need. As Warren Cole Smith, president of Ministry Watch, illuminates so well: “The idea that pro-lifers don’t care for babies after they are born has been a convenient slander hurled against pro-life Christians. To cite just one example, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass) once said pro-lifers believe “life begins at conception and ends at birth.”
Smith counters, “The biggest problem with that clever line is that it is simply not true.” He explains that today there are more than 2,500 pro-life pregnancy centers (like our local Pregnancy Help Center) where the staff show up to work every day with one single purpose: to compassionately aid pregnant women in hard places and help them and their child thrive.
Every corner of Jesus’ body throughout the earth must continue the expansion of this true and uncompromising teaching about the evil of abortion and the inestimable value of pre-born life, coupled with compassionate action toward those in need.
In His Service, Jim

This seemed appropriate with this being the month with April Fools’ Day. Con Campbell writes: A man walked into a convenience store in Wollongong, Australia, put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the cash drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register, which the clerk promptly provided. The man took the cash from the clerk and fled, leaving the $20 bill on the counter. The total amount of cash he got from the drawer? Fifteen dollars.
We all act foolishly at times—even if, unlike this thief, we’re trying to do the right thing. The key is how we learn from our foolish behavior. Without correction, our poor choices can become habits, which will negatively shape our character. Sometimes it’s hard to admit our foolishness… Perhaps we need to reflect on a particular character flaw, and that’s painful. Or maybe we need to admit that a decision was made hastily and next time we should take more care. Whatever the reason, it never pays to ignore our foolish ways.
A key to overcoming foolishness is found in the wisdom of Solomon. He wrote “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7) There’s a lot to be said for being a God-fearing person with a healthy respect for God who, in turn, looks to the “wisdom and instruction” found in the Bible. But there is one way in which it’s good for us to be a bit “foolish”- at least by the world’s standards.
1 Corinthians 1:18 tells us “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” James Banks shares this: The Bible teaches that “the foolishness of God is wiser” than the cleverest human wisdom (I Corinthians 1:25). “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness” of the message of a suffering Savior to rescue “those who believe” (v. 21). God always has ways of surprising us. Instead of the triumphant king the world would expect, the Son of God came as a suffering servant and died a humbling death by crucifixion—before He was raised in unsurpassable glory.
In God’s wisdom, humility is valued over pride and love shows its worth in undeserved mercy and kindness. Through the cross, our unconquerable Messiah became the ultimate victim—in order to “save completely” (Hebrews 7:25) all who place their faith in Him! Praise God for that! It seems that there are some aspects of our faith that may seem like foolishness to some, but that’s ok. There’s a lot to be said for being a “fool for Christ”.
In His Service, Jim

Michael Burch defines a “comeback” as a return to glory or success against overwhelming odds. His list of candidates for the greatest comeback of all time includes Tiger Woods, who had dominated the PGA for years before encountering personal problems and injuries and falling out of the top 1,000 in the world golf rankings making him think he may never play again. But in 2019, despite not having won a Major title in eleven years, he won the Masters.
We could add to that list George Washington, leading the Continental Army that was on the brink of disaster at Valley Forge where around 2,000 men died. Facing a military superpower, he was struggling with a disastrous supply crisis while also trying to retrain and reorganize his men before mounting a successful counterattack at Trenton. There are many great comebacks in history, but without question the greatest comeback was accomplished by the man Burch calls “an obscure Palestinian Jew named Jesus.”
A man took a vacation to Israel with his wife and mother-in-law, who he didn’t get along with very well. During their time in the Holy Land, his mother-in-law unexpectedly passed away. The following day, the husband met with the local undertaker to discuss funeral plans.
“In cases like these, there are a couple of options to choose from,” the undertaker explained. “You can ship the body home for $5,000, or you can bury her in the Holy Land for just $150.” The man took a minute to think about it, and then announced his decision to ship her home.
The undertaker, intrigued by his decision, said, “That’s an interesting choice. Can I ask why would you pay $5,000 to ship your mother-in-law home, when you can easily bury her here for $150?” The man promptly replied, “About 2,000 years ago, a man died and was buried here. Three days later he rose from the dead- and I can’t take that chance!”
Jesus’ comeback was something He had clearly predicted at least three times, like in Matthew 16:21 where we read, “From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” After His resurrection, on the Day of Pentecost, His apostles boldly preached that Jesus had, in fact, died, “But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death…  God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.” (Acts 2:24,32) Jesus’ victory over death had impacted them in a profound way. It should be the same for us. Because He conquered the grave, we also can experience great comebacks, certainly at our resurrection, but also here in this life.
One more comeback story: During his lifetime, Abraham Lincoln had two businesses that failed, the love of his life died, he had two nervous breakdowns, he lost one son at age four and another at age eleven and he lost eight elections. But despite so many setbacks, in 1860 at the age of 51 he was elected President of the United States. Lincoln, like Jesus Christ, reminds us that we may be down, but that doesn’t mean we’re out. Your comeback may be just around the corner.
Happy Easter, Jim

Scripture Spotlight “God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it.” Acts 2:32