Week 39 2013 The Prime Directive

It seems like forty was the magical age where my health took a turn and I started a daily regimen of medication needed to extend and improve my life.  I was diagnosed with hypertension through hereditary channels, meaning that if I do not take my medication daily I put myself at severe risk of having a stroke.  That was twenty-four years ago.  Since then, there have been various maladies that have added various medications to my daily routine.  Most of them are taken once daily.  However, there is two that are taken twice a day, and one that is taken three times a day.  As frustrating as it is, without these medications I would likely have already either died or been debilitated because of the effects of aging and the natural progression of life that results in death, which, of course, we will do most anything to avoid.

As important as it is to maintain my daily regimen, I can be distracted causing me to miss taking my meds at their scheduled hour.  When this happens, my body reveals my indiscretion through the negative impacts the meds are designed to suppress.  Therefore, I take measures to keep me focused on these life-giving/improving measures.  I keep a pill box on my night stand, and I set out pills that I need to take before bed and soon after I wake up.  I also set alarms on my phone to remind me when it is time to take various medications.  Yet, even with these safeguards, I am sometimes distracted because of being involved in one project or another.  Therefore, my wife acts as another safety net, asking me if I have taken my meds.  She worries that I will feel myself being nagged.  But, that is not the case.  I am grateful that she cares enough to ask.

The world is full of distractions.  We are bombarded with them.  It can be very difficult to maintain our focus on those things that are truly important.  I’m reminded of the Family Circus comic strip segment tracing the little boy’s distracted journey taking him through all sorts of places while attempting to reach his goal that could have been reached in a short period of time through a direct route.  We have all seen this happen in real life.  As parents we are constantly reminding our children to stay focused.  The television is turned off, music is forbidden, and friends are not allowed while our grandchildren are doing their homework.  Distractions are held to a minimum to help assure their success.  Those who would purposely place distractions in their way are not true friends.  In fact, they are enemies, intended or not.

In my Christian walk my primary focus is on the Lord Jesus.  His primary directive for my life is to seek and save the lost.  There are various strategies offered to keep me focused.  Daily Bible study, regular church attendance, active participation in related activities, and making myself accountable all help to keep me focused on Jesus.  My love for Him helps to maintain my focus on seeking and saving the lost, for that is my prime directive.  I need these safeguards, because Satan is always looking for ways to distract me.  There are challenges to my faith every day.  If I am not actively engaged in the aforementioned activities, my faith could easily be weakened.  Over time, if not checked, my faith could crumble and be lost.  Realizing the consequences of no faith, I take measures to keep myself from being distracted.  It is imperative to remember my first love, that being Jesus, nurturing that love and keeping it strong.  If someone challenges my faith, it is equally important that I have a ready answer to that challenge.  When I don’t have that answer, there are others within the family of God who are able to help me find that answer.  We are not left on our own.

What about the second part of our Christian walk?  If we are maintaining the first aspect, focusing on Jesus, we know how to fulfill the second.  Seeking and saving the lost will become second nature, no pun intended.  What could possibly distract us?  Everything!  However, there are some distractions that disguised as good things.  Scripture tells us that Satan masquerades as an angel of light.  Thus, issues that are important can be used to distract us from the prime directive.  I lean toward believing in a literal six-day creation, and find much of the current thought on evolution to be offensive and an attack on my faith.  But, I wonder if Satan isn’t using this issue to distract me from fulfilling the prime directive?  When I have the opportunity to discuss the gospel with an unbeliever, I would rather not discuss evolution versus creation, gay marriage, abortion, or any other worthwhile topic that has the potential to distract us from the prime directive.  These are all topics of which I hold passionate opinions, and they make good conversation with other Christians.  We may be able to come up with helpful strategies to overcome.  There is nothing wrong with being proactive in matters that are clearly unbiblical if done so in view of the prime directive.  Satan is a master of distraction.  The best way to keep him from gaining the upper hand is to stay focused on the prime directive, not being led astray while promoting the gospel to the lost.

Week 38 2013 Judge, Jury, and God

I’m a Christian.  Furthermore, I am happy to be a Christian.  This identity places me in an isolated community of other somewhat like-minded people.  Like any family we have our spats and disagreements.  But, when the rubber meets the road, extreme persecution takes place, areas of agreement are attacked, we come together in support of our common ideals, our communal identity.  We are generally our own worst critics.  We tend to tear each other down, exposing perceived faults, in essence, becoming judge and jury in our condemnation.  Unwittingly, we take the position reserved for God, separating the wheat from the tares.  To make matters worse, we do all of this in the presence of unbelievers, bringing shame upon ourselves, presenting an ugly portrait of the very God we extol, and leaving the door open for well-deserved criticism from those who love to discredit any belief in a Creator.

When an atheist stands in the place of God, becoming judge and jury in condemnation of the church, they do so with the proper credentials.  Not having a perceived faith in an eternal being, they have no fear of being condemned by the One who is able to ultimately bring that condemnation.  When judgment day comes and they are forced to bow the knee their only shock will be that He really does exist.  On the other hand, when those who have known that God is real stands before His throne and hears the words, “Depart from me, I never knew you,” the shock will come having to acknowledge that they have wrongly taken the place of God in judgment of others and excluding them from a place in the kingdom that citizenship is only founded in and by the Lord.  These will discover that their pious position of judge, jury, and God has resulted in their own exclusion from the kingdom of which they had presumed to have exclusive control, refusing or offering membership to those of their choosing based upon their interpretations of God’s word.

Therefore, I am a Christian.  The only reason I find myself in God’s kingdom is because He chose to add me.  Membership in His church has never, nor will ever, have anything to do with what anyone else deems to be proper credentials.  I am fully aware that as I walk the streets of this kingdom I am walking side by side with some who will ultimately be removed.  And, that that removal will be done by the only One qualified to do so.

Week 37 2013 So, Are You Really Conservative?

My wife and I had a good discussion this morning on government policy and our national economics.  She is trying to understand all the hullabaloo over the debt ceiling.  I’m not sure that I have the answer.  From my simple mind it simply means that the more we borrow, the more we have to pay back, along with more interest.  So, it seems like a bad idea.  Having said that, it is also a bad thing when we can’t pay our debts.  Long term, it would seem that if our nation will make cuts in the budget we will have the means to pay our debt down.  Short term, the cuts can’t come fast enough.  This is where it goes beyond my simple mind.  The numbers are too staggering.  Which leads to a broader discussion on what it means to be a conservative.

The rhetoric coming from most conservatives would have one believing that we support less government.  I hold this position.  However, what do we do when the rubber meets the road?  For instance, when fuel prices starting increasing, how many of us echoed the mantra saying that our government needs to intervene?  Issues like this seem to be so overwhelming we feel helpless, so we turn to something bigger than ourselves.  Hence, the government becomes our big brother who will go to bat for us and force the bullying oil companies to quit beating up on us.  Thus the real question is, how do we accomplish this without big brother?

In a free-market economy the consumer has the power to regulate prices and quality.  In order to exercise that power, consumers must come together.  Unfortunately, we aren’t very good at doing this.  In the early eighties car manufacturers were alarmed when consumers quit buying new cars.  By not buying Americans were saying that prices were too high.  As it started to become critical for the suppliers, they came up with a strategy to encourage the public to start buying cars again.  They offered rebates, and people started buying new cars again.  I was shouting, “Don’t do it!  Rebates aren’t enough.  They need to lower prices!”  However, even though we didn’t go far enough in our boycott, it did demonstrate that we can have an impact when we will work together.  As to fuel prices, we obviously cannot boycott the oil companies collectively.  But, we could choose to target one at a time for limited periods of time.  You can be assured that a month long boycott of Shell would hurt enough to give all oil companies pause.  These corporations have the financial resources to hire lobbyists that can effect legislation barring the use of our own natural resources, thus impacting our government in ways that we are not able.  The end result is less government, lower fuel prices, and less dependency on nations that delight in hurting the American consumer.

The government bailout of General Motors was fueled by another American consumer boycott.  This one came about in response to inferior products.  Foreign manufacturers were putting out higher quality vehicles with better fuel economy at competitive prices.  Instead of responding to this crisis by giving the buying public what we were demanding, GM looked to the government for a handout and got it.  Ford, on the other hand, didn’t take government money.  Instead, they began producing cars that can compete with the foreign producers.  The new Fords have gone head to head with Toyota with vehicles that match or exceed in quality, fuel economy, and price.  The end result has been a win win for consumer and producer.

These examples challenge us to either live out our conservative views or quit calling ourselves conservative.  Or, the reality that true conservatism is merely an ideal.  My purpose is to merely encourage each of us to examine ourselves before we start using labels to provide our personal identity.