New thinking is developing regarding the Psychology of Your Future Self. It touches on the argument that I have made for the psychology of future guilt. There are some who display such a transciency that no prospects of a future are seen in their present plan of action. A friend who loves as if he/she is ready to pull out of life and move on in a moment’s notice, falls under what I feel is a false understanding of their future self. Expectations they feel do not apply to others, nor feel applies to themselves produce this transciency. It’s not necessarily “living for the day,” but more of a lack of vision based on such things as a past disappointment that anticipates a future disappointment. A tendency to limit our future expectations can come from failed expectations we have put on older, and once respected adults in our lives who have utterly dismantled what we perceived maturity to be, and what was ideally expected to be successful, virtuous, loving, flawless, and decent. This burden has crossed my mind that some of you may be at a point in your life when you are walking the fence when it comes to what you see in your future. You are at a crossroads in your life. You are thinking about the worthiness of continuing on as you have been and seeing a future with little hope, or a change with new aspirations with only faith to see it. It’s like, you can pull up your stakes and be gone at any time. It takes just as much faith and attention to concentrate on improving our present attitudes to improve our future lives with our current relationships. Actions and words can betray us often. We begin to focus on ourselves which causes the apprehension of separation to lessen when we interpret others as “holding us back.” “Liberation” is a rationalization for our actions. True guilt is most generally the result of succumbing to a misguided interpretation of our future self.
Category Archives: Strategy
The Sense of Duty
DUTY is not following the path of least resistance. Conforming to the status quo is caving to fear. Thomas Paine once said, “That which we obtain cheaply we esteem too lightly.” It is a cheap and useless life that gives in to its own gratification and ease of movement. Following the path of least resistance will only take you down the crooked path with no aspirations for success and not thought of failure. I noticed an oxbow lake today while I was driving about. Geologically speaking, an oxbow lake is a river divorced of it’s source. The path of least resistance can drive you on a quick and easy ride, meandering about the plain, but once erosion takes its course and the path is made to change in the weakness of a lesser challenge (another path of least resistance), it leaves the bow in exchange for a wild and reckless path elsewhere. In its wake a lake is formed like is shaped like a bow left to itself. The oxbow lake dries up having no life and no impulse of progression or momentum. Stagnant, it is useless. Jesus says, that whoever finds their source of water in Him, “the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14)
Duty comes from the root word that means “to owe.” DUTY! It is what you are obligated to do because of the trust instilled in YOU. It is the privilege of serving in a capacity that is uniquely yours and no one else’s. It is YOU who has been tasked with the responsibility to do it—to pay it forward. It is the occupation by which we will be judged by future generations as they scrutinize your life.
DUTY is the cohesion that holds the integrity of armies together. It confirms our mission to keep the faith once and for all entrusted to the saints. Since faith is ALWAYS equal to action (you can’t have faith without it) I define faith as belief in action. Faith can be acted upon presently, and not necessarily in some future place. Hope is in the future. Faith is believing the bridge will carry you and acting on it by walking it. What else holds the church together? Hope and love. Hope sees what love lives to do. Love in the attitude that seeks the others best interest or highest good. Our duty is to live with the highest ideals in hope that the other can attain to much when we give for their benefit. God had it all figured out. Love is sacrificial. If you have ever felt like nobody knows or cares about what you have faced with integrity, just remember, even though you and your character may be overlooked and undervalued by those around you, God sees and remembers – for eternity.
What you’ve been through and what you are going through is not unseen Frou. God especially sees and my CONSTANT prayer is that your FAITHfulness is rewarded by the blessing which you HOPE to have in the exercise of your LOVE.
Regarding an Abusive Relationship
I recently came across an article which condemns churches accused of the practice of enabling abusive men by counseling couples against divorce. I agree that there could be a minority of churches who counsel in such a way and through fear coerce a spouse to remain with the abuser and continue in abuse, but I would say they are a minority. Counseling a person to stay in an abusive relationship is not the common practice, I assure you. Scripture is clear on the kind of love that should be encouraged as in the kind of sacrificial love Christ affords His bride, the church. Churches that are scriptural will esteem the counsel of Paul in 1 Corinthians 7, to separate from such a one. Separation is not the problem, however. More couples should be afforded the counsel of separation in order that a path to reconciliation be allowed (1 Corinthians 7:11). Separation, therefore, is in fact biblical. Taking the words of Christ to heart, the problem lies in the adultery created when a divorced person re-marries another. Jesus says in Mark 10:11-12 (NASB)
11 And He *said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her;
12 and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.” No, we should not encourage abuse. We must encourage reconciliation by the right means. We must encourage pre-marital counseling and parenting in order that dating and courtship determines adequately the character of the potential spouse. We must encourage men to be enablers not of abuse, but of accountability as husbands and fathers who themselves give headship their Lord. The pattern of 1 Corinthians 10 is applicable. The beauty of a woman’s character brings honor to her husband. An honorable woman brings glory to not only her husband, but also to Christ. The husband is honored by the glory of his wife and Christ is honored by his display of being the image and glory of Christ. He that honors Christ as His image will cherish, protect, provide, and love his wife, to the point that he would lay down his life to save her. Her respect for him will come from his conviction of love for her. And this is scriptural, as in Ephesians 5. The one who created marriage between a man and woman has always had the best counsel for its preservation.
Homosexual by Birth?
Here is the response I gave to a friend of mine who heard a preacher say that there are those who can be born homosexual:
Yes, homosexuality is a sin like any other and maybe nature’s corruption could be understood in a way that we all have the capacity for and are born killers, rapists, sodomizers, adulterers, idolators, sorcerers, etc. if left to our own devices. Our natural tendencies give license to all kinds of evil. But to say we were born all of the above can not stand in the face of prevenient grace and the learned behavior and development of condemning sin (the soul that sins will die- Ezek. 18:20). I don’t believe there will ever be evidence of a homosexual gene, but I believe there is an age when in the course of the development of a young person, he/she decides their sexual identity and it is determined by a number of mitigating factors. It is most generally the result of a time of abuse, but undoubtedly the product of a condition of a world governed by the principality and power of the air; the prince whose kingdom is temporary yet influential over this world. On this subject, we can not deny the chemistry of some who are born with an hormonal imbalance. As far as lower and higher testosterone/estrogen, this is a fact and many who are born that way have historically been relegated to be artists, eccentrics, etc., if you follow me. In our society, these seem most apt to be victims of sexual confusion as they struggle themselves with this imbalance. It is a weakness, as any has a weakness exploitable by Satan. Evidence exists that these with an imbalance (not inherent as genetical) were identified and were found suitable for functions as eunuchs throughout history. Remember Matt. 19:12 (NIV) “For there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others–and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.” Hope this helps brother.
Marriage Revisited
People who are Christian and remarried carry with them the guilt of a broken vow. It grieves them to the point that the remorse they feel burdens them with a guilt that is born daily. It may not be based on a conviction of any doctrine or interpretation of Scripture, but on the reality of the severing of what was once “one flesh” with another. Countless times in Scripture, husbands are called to ‘rejoice in the wife of your youth.’ Husbands are admonished to not covet the wife of another nor anything of another’s possessions. Jewish and Christian husbands have even read of the hatred God has for the practice of divorce for the reasons of grave consequence to the raising of godly children and the preservation of the sanctity in marriage (Malachi 3).
The revelation of God’s faithfulness to His bride Israel, and later to His church is revealed as the kind of bond that is ever forgiving, ever loving, ever lasting, and ever faithful. Men like Hosea had to be faithful to the point of redeeming an unfaithful wife from prostitution and disavowment of her unity with him. The example of Christ is illustrated by the kind of love that gives up His life for the sake of His bride the church.
In the same way we, as husbands, know that our devotion must likewise be unto death for the sake of our wife (Ephesians 5:25-33). Further agreement comes from 1 Corinthians 7 where it confirms that God commands that husbands and wife remain together and if separated from one another, allow room for reconciliation; that only death can annul the marriage union. Having not fulfilled the full extent of your vow of love to the wife of your youth, love will be void when attempted in another whose knowledge intimately has been violated by the joining to the former. To “uncover the nakedness” of a man’s wife is to indeed uncover the nakedness of the husband, and this leaves the Christian man to be in conflict with his soul because it is not her nakedness but his that he has uncovered (Leviticus 18 and 20).
What can be done? It must obviously follow that reconciliation should occur. To spouses who are remarried, it would be difficult to separate and return to your first spouse. If the occasion presents itself, it MUST occur. If, however, it does not, then each offending person must live in repentance of adultery as with any sin. And, like any person in repentance, he or she must bear the testimony of a wrong choice relaying to others the adverse affects adultery has had.
The Cultural Malstrom and the Presence of Christ
I’ve been reading a book by Stephen Mansfield called “Faith of the American Soldier,” and in spite of all the theological arguments that exist, the soldier on the battlefield takes comfort in knowing that God is with him. In the book is an episode a chaplain has with a driver about to convoy on one of the most dangerous roads in Baghdad, Route Ireland. The chaplain asked the young soldier, “How can I minister to you?” What the soldier said has become for some the soldier’s prayer: “What do I want? Sir, I wanna’ know that Jesus is in my Humvee.”
Another chaplain said that his favorite name for God, and one he teaches his soldiers, is “Emmanuel—God with us.” It is a common confession among soldiers, “I want to live, but I want to be ready when I die even more.” With society changing in ways that is leaving the institutional religious construct in the proverbial dust, it is imperative that we translate GOD WITH US to our families, our friends, and with whomever we find ourselves. Will you be ready? The best strategy to for evangelism of millennials is to make the Truth relevant and make the Truth REAL. We must first demonstrate the practical application of Truth before our words can make a practical application to others. Do you know Immanuel?
Ben Franklin and Morality
I’ve been meditating on the moral code brought forth by Benjamin Franklin and have come to some conclusions. Firstly, let me say my source for observation is the very works that represent the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin conveniently arranged by The Modern Library, a Random House publication of 1944.
The moral code of Franklin consisted of thirteen virtues:
- Temperance. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
- Silence. Speak not but what to benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
- Order. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
- Resolution. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
- Frugality. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e. waste nothing.
- Industry. Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
- Sincerity. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and if you speak, speak accordingly.
- Justice. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
- Moderation. Avoid extremes; forebear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
- Cleanliness. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
- Tranquility. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
- Chastity. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dullness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another’s peace or reputation.
- Humility. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.
Franklin was prompted to pen these virtues when following a sermon on Philippians 4 where the evangelist found five points of significance from the text involving virtue:
- Keeping holy the Sabbath day.
- being diligent in reading the holy Scriptures.
- Attending duly the publick worship.
- Partaking of the Sacrament.
- Paying a due respect to God’s ministers.
Ben Franklin and every other person of faith have the expectation of morality within the context of worship. But we as Christians should have the expectation of living the morality of Jesus, which is only reasonable. Immorality profanes the name of Christ when it becomes common in worship. Can we as Christians be as vigorous in the pursuit of morality as the Junto was to Franklin’s society? Our righteousness should exceed what is beyond “religion.” The world who seeks after a definition of morality should not find it lacking among God’s people. It is not a moral code whereby we are obligated to fulfill and be judged by as if to nullify grace, but rather the fruit of a confessing spirit whose faith is at work on the basis of the Holy Spirit who resides within.
Peter’s Denials
Testify, Testify, Testify
Mark 14:66-72
This evening I want to look at a very famous episode in Peter’s life that no doubt left him feeling regret for the rest of his life. The episode I am talking about is the missed opportunity to testify of his relationship with Jesus Christ on the same night Peter said he would give his life in his defense. We are people who can verbally say, “I would die for Christ.” but when asked to testify of him, we betray him by our words and deeds. Matthew 26:58 sums up Peter’s drifting away, “But Peter followed him, Jesus, afar off.”
Why are you a Christian? It’s not a spectator sport. Pittsburgh Steeler fans may wear a number seven jersey, but they are only Ben Roethlesberger in licensed apparel. Put them on the field and try to run a play against any NFL tackle and you’ll see the black and gold turn to black and blue. Many churches are Christian in name only, and many Christians by fashion accessory or body art, and it makes me want to rip off the church sign and replace it with “No-tell Motel,” or “Country Club” instead. I once came upon a church outside of which the marquis said, “Our services are Rated G for everybody.” Upon entering the church building and seeing how everyone was dressed, I wanted to change that G rating to an R. Dietrick Boenhoffer is quoted as saying, “The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children.” Adultery and fornication are still illegal in about two dozen states, but it goes unlicensed in our churches. Minnesota: “When a married woman has sexual intercourse with a man other than her husband, whether married or not, both are guilty of adultery and may be sentenced to imprisonment for not more than one year or to payment of a fine of not more than $3,000, or both.” North Carolina: “Fornication and adultery. If any man and woman, not being married to each other, shall lewdly and lasciviously associate, bed and cohabit together, they shall be guilty of a Class 2 misdemeanor: Provided, that the admissions or confessions of one shall not be received in evidence against the other.” Matthew 5 is the best instruction for us to choose the more excellent way when it comes to virtue. “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees . . .” Jesus says, “Yes, you’ve heard you should not murder, but I say if you are angry with your brother, you are just a guilty.” Whether it is murder, or marriage, Jesus wants us take the moral high road.
Are we a Christian in name only? Like Peter, do we resemble the Galilean but change our accent and way of speech when challenged to testify? Colossians 3:2 says, “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth.” The common theme in Scripture is that morality is a virtue to be prized, and immorality the enemy to be spurned. Morality is a blanket word that covers many qualities of righteousness and not any particular conduct. May we never say that the moral choice was not convenient. Yes, I’ve heard sermons on forgiveness and it’s easy to say we forgive, but how many make restitution and truly bear fruits worthy of repentance, as Zachaeus did when he repented and restored what he had taken dishonestly, times four.
Conservative Muslims are winning a majority in Europe in part because of their system of morality and family values. I am not a prophet, nor am I the son of a prophet, but I forecast that Sharia law will gain greater acceptance in the western world because the church has denied its place as a moral beacon for a society that is drowning in immorality. We are turning our backs on the innocent and condemning ourselves to the fate of the worst offenders and those who corrupt such innocence. Secular organizations are doing what churches should be doing and that is pitiful. Statistics paint a picture of our society in a moral dilemma that the church is in a position to prevent.
1) From the face of innocence, came the first challenge. It was a small girl, a servant of the High Priest who only knew Jesus as a demon possessed conjurer of magic who brainwashed weak-minded Jews into thinking he was the Messiah. What Peter could have done to help that one, innocent little girl. Mark tells us that the cock crowed after the first denial. To Peter, a warning ignored making the denial all the worse.
Our churches are so contaminated with immorality that we are corrupting the innocent in our midst. To these little ones whose parents are Christian in name only, Jesus represents nothing of a Lord and Savior; not the Lord of their mom, or their dad, if they have one or the other. More than that, the leaders in our churches are not articulating the person and character of Christ, nor are they translating the teaching of Christ for our young people in their tolerance of immorality. Jesus says in Mark 9:42, “And whosoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it were better for him if a great millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.” Did you hear that? That was the first crowing of the rooster.
2) The next opportunity to testify moved from what the little girl said to Peter, to what she in turn then took to the crowd. Here is where fear is greatly intensified and hearts have a tendency to grow harder. Here is where opportunity for glorifying God can meet with better result, or result in a bitter end. Peter who had throughout his time with Jesus, referred to him by such words as Master, Savior, and Lord, now finds himself reducing the Christ to the title of “this man.” The cursing referred to was not the use of profanity, but calling a curse upon himself if what he was saying was not true.
The opportunity of Jesus with the woman at the well is very similar. One on one: adjusting her understanding of the Messiah, her faith, her sin, and her life was totally changed. She therefore went to the crowd with the testimony, and as they researched the truth of Christ the Samaritans themselves exclaimed in John 4:42, “We believe, not because of your speaking, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” It’s the same with the Gadarene demoniac. Jesus denied him his request to follow, but this denial allowed the former necropolis dweller to move to the metropolis and capture the crowd who overwhelmed Jesus at his return to the area.
Our choice to act in translating who the true Jesus is will inspire others to investigate, and by the Holy Spirit convict them not on the basis of our words, but by THE WORD. If Peter had done what was right and relinquished the attention others had on him to his Lord, who knows what pronouncement the crowd would have made when deciding between Jesus and Barabbas. The Muslim who only knows seven sentences of Jesus that he reads from his Koran needs to know the truth. There is a crowd surrounding you, possibly moved by the testimony of one that stands eager to condemn and still you will not glorify Christ.
I once gave opportunity for a couple to confess once before a church. They had left under the worst kind of separation possible. They were offended and did everything imaginable burn every bridge on their way out, if you know what I mean. One Sunday, since I was the new preacher, they came forward to transfer their membership back into the congregation the had ripped to shreds. While in the presence of the group they had offended, I allowed an opportunity for reconciliation. They did not repent, but I felt better for giving them the opportunity.
3) The crowd eventually turned on Peter after surrendering two failed opportunities to testify. Peter finds himself in the area of the courtyard when the third challenge arose. The courtyard where Peter had been warming himself was just beneath the room where Jesus was offering testimony on his own behalf. All that was needed was the testimony of two or three. Didn’t Jesus have at least 12 disciples? Peter, standing within hearing distance of every false witness brought before the kangaroo court was as guilty as those standing before Caiaphas with false testimony.
While Peter was warming himself by the fire with the crowd looking for an answer, Jesus was getting punched in the face and spit upon. The church too often wants to warm itself and cozy up to the comforts of the world while we let Jesus get beat and spat upon while the enemy dares any to come forward as a witness. Worse than that, we stand reticent as false witnesses lead the masses astray.
These are days like none other. We are in the last days. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:11 that we are those “upon whom the ends of the ages have come.” Many in our churches stand as condemned as the Jewish leaders in Jesus’ day, blind to the coming calamity upon Jerusalem. Jesus challenged them and he challenges us (Luke 23:31), “If we do these things in the green, what more will the do in the dry?” Are we ready for the dry? I can prove to you many times over that the abomination of desolation as described in Daniel, and others, is not what the heathen commit toward the desecration of what is holy, but what those who are called to be holy do to forsake what is consecrated as God’s. Do you hear me church? Josephus gives us a graphic picture of what the Jews turned into when Titus laid siege of Jerusalem in A.D.68-70. You could not tell the sinners from the saints. It’s exactly the period Jesus warned his disciples against in Matthew 24 which caused the faithful to retreat across the Jordan to Pella.
Luke is the Gospel writer who tells us that at the moment of the last denial by Peter the cock crowed, Jesus turned and looked at him and he went out and wept bitterly. Did you hear that sound church? It was the second crowing of the rooster and the eyes of Christ are upon you.
Dr. Seuss and the “Zoad in the Road”
“Zoad” is not a nonsensical word like many he invented, but came from a Greek word that means “stair step” or “ladder”… indicating a device people would use to get somewhere.
With that insight, consider Dr. Seuss’ poem: “The Zoad In The Road”:
Did I ever tell you about the young Zoad?
Who came to a sign at the fork of the road?
He looked one way and the other way too –
the Zoad had to make up his mind what to do.
Well, the Zoad scratched his head, and his chin, and his pants.
And he said to himself, “I’ll be taking a chance.
If I go to Place One, that place may be hot
So how will I know if I like it or not.
On the other hand, though, I’ll feel such a fool
If I go to Place Two and find it’s too cool
In that case I may catch a chill and turn blue.
So Place One may be best and not Place Two.
Play safe,” cried the Zoad, “I’ll play safe, I’m no dunce.
I’ll simply start off to both places at once.”
And that’s how the Zoad who would not take a chance
Went no place at all with a split in his pants.
Socialism and the Christian Response
Most of this is copied from my facebook responses to friends of mine who take a socialist slant. The economic arguments for socialism are many, but as Christians our Lord has set up “house rules,” literally as translated in Ephesians 1 and 3 “oikonomia” that the Christian must remember when considering where his citizenship lies.
Response to a socialist: Jesus did not come to rule over an earthly kingdom, in case you haven’t realized that yet. Of course, the radical Jews of Jesus’ day were of the same expectation. The Kingdom of Heaven is not an unreachable goal. In fact, one can attain to it now if he should choose. Look to Luke chapter 6 and Matthew chapter 5 where you will find that blessedness can be found regardless of social conditions and riches are found in our obedience to God when we lack everything except a willing heart to serve. The church of Jesus Christ was not set up to bring about cronyism, thuggery, forceful confiscation of wealth and property. The NT is clear, we were each bought with a price, whether slave or free (1 Corinthians 7). LIberation theology has no place in the church, or anywhere for that matter. My citizenship is in heaven and Christ’s kingdom is the Kingdom of Heaven. God’s kingdom is not a matter of eating or drinking (Romans 14). I hope this is clear to you.
Response to a socialist: Funny thing is, history is forgotten too easily. If it weren’t for Republicans, including one of the most famous Republican, Marin Luther King, Jr., the Democrats would have voted down civil rights legislation that Republicans wanted to secure. This is symptomatic of the “rights” engendered by democrat socialists. They are the ones at liberty to determine what “rights” are. If it is not in the best interest of the state, too bad. Look at every municipality and governing body regulated by democrats. At the very beginning, Barry and Michelle hated America, and now since the dems have been in control, according to the democrat assessment, America is more evil even though they have been the ones in the driver’s seat. There will always be new rights, new benefits, new victims, and the rhetoric will never end until communism is the rule of the land. By then, as in the past, a different fence will be built, not to keep people out, but to keep them in. It is, to coin a popular phrase, the radicalization of America. the socialist insistence on the use of propaganda to control the masses is apparently working for the young kool-aid drinkers. Disregard of socialism’s historically proven dead end is being willfully ignorant.
Response to a socialist: We must open our eyes and look past the propaganda to the bigger world with bad men who are brandishing hostility. We are at a vulnerable moment and our country is only concerned about free things and entitlements. One nation under God is what we must be. Having this principle will mean we understand that all authority is given by God and the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness come from Him, not social capital via social theocracy/liberation theology. We must resist the radicalization of America by socialists who try to steal the identity of the family through social identity in an institution. We must resist the radicalization of America by not dividing classes of our citizens into the haves and have-nots, by race and economics. We are all equally able to experience the liberty of the Gospel of Peace, Jew or Greek, Slave or free, male or female. Show me a person who by socialism or atheism was lifted up from the shame and guilt of sin into a life filled with joy, self-respect, and a heart for serving others. Humanism, atheism, communism, and socialism does not produce this. These are theologies of control.
Reply to a socialist who thinks Jesus is one: This has been heavy on my heart and more and more prevalent as of late. I see this type of theology in the music that is becoming popular and in the mentality of many in the church. Your comment is relative to our discussion since the subject of the church bears consideration. It must be understood that on the day of His coming, each person must account for his own life. There will be no pass for victimhood and no sympathy for following in the path of others. Will we be identified with the name of Christ, the only name under heaven by which we must be saved, or by a denomination, cult, sect, or political party? Liberation theology has not part in the life of Christ or in the comparison to the church. The administration established by Christ is not to be considered an earthly economy.
Response to a socialist who says that the military is socialism: The military is compiled of volunteers. When subject of draft comes up, liberals will run and seek a deferrance. Mandated public services equal institutional slavery. My anti- economic slavery stance is common among veterans who served in areas where tyranny was law. Socialism will always generate slavery because of the people-controlling elements inherent to it and is a conduit to tyranny. I’m not a doomsdayer, only a student of history. I am not fond of a taxation/extortion-based government enslaving its citizens. Look at the basic historical tenets of socialism all too apparent these days: 1. Seduce the populace into accepting the government as the arbitrator of all problems; government from cradle-to-grave
2. Begin delivering on those services to make the citizens dependent
3. Take away the citizens’ guns
4. Increase taxes on all services while destroying any free market alternative services
5. Blame the chosen scapegoat for the inability to meet demand for services
6. Have the centralized national police force round up any dissidents.
These, of course, will be continued as the election cycle completes.
Anger and the Fallen Countenance
Transformed by Anger
Genesis 4:3-7, Daniel 3
Tonight as we continue our series on transformation, I want to look at the transforming nature of anger. Anger can lead to a fallen countenance. It can lead to a change in physical appearance and altered personality. Examples of a changed image are found in Cain, Pharaoh, and Nebuchadnezzar. Yoda said it best, “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” Icon is the Greek word for “image” in the Septuagint Icon is the figure of how in God’s image we were created. Letting anger turn to sin is the vandalism that defaces an otherwise beautiful object. (See Romans 1 and 2 and how the incorruptible gets exchanged for the corruptible.)
A wise person once said that holding a grudge is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. When you think about what a grudge does to us, how it occupies our thoughts, hinders forgiveness, defers compassion, and leads us into bitterness, we can admit the effects of a kindled anger are poisonous.
“Why, Cain, has your countenance fallen?” Cain was angry that God did not accept his offering. In asking this question God was attempting to help Cain understand that his anger toward Him was not justified. It was an anger of pride. It’s a simple confusion of whom we are trying to serve. God challenged Cain with taking stock in his convictions. “Doing what is right” will lift his countenance. It could have been that what Cain fabricated (lit. “cultivated”) as an offering was satisfactory to Cain, but not to God. God did not approve of Cain’s approach and his anger was cultivated.
First let me say that being angry is not a sin, but notice how the reference to what waits at the door if anger produces hate (Genesis 4:7), the hate that leads to suffering—sin. Anger is a normal part of life. Showing anger is helpful in allowing others to see your disapproval and understand your convictions. We must answer injustice with conviction. Anger turns to sin when in our pride our anger turns from attacking evil to attacking the evil doer. Ephesians 4:15-19 says we are to speak the truth in love and use our words to build others up, not allow rotten or destructive words to pour from our lips. Unfortunately, this poisonous speech is a common characteristic of fallen man (Romans 3:13-14).
What causes anger? Change? Instability? Hurt? Let’s look at Daniel 3.
3:19-23 The king’s anger was WILD. In fact, the Hebrew play on words is that “his image (tzel’m, or icon) changed.” Tzel’m was the word for the image of God in which we were made in Genesis. The same word for the “image” to be worshiped on the Dura Plain (tzel’m) is used of Nebuchadnezzar’ “visage.” Instead of these wise men reviving his convictions in the ONE TRUE GOD, he was exasperated and convicted in the former ways. Exchanging wisdom for folly, his violence increased as seen in the furnace charged seven times hotter than normal. Matthew Henry says, “Nebuchadnezzar, in this heat, exchanged the awful majesty of a prince upon his throne, or a judge upon the bench, for the frightful fury of a wild bull in a net.” The impression made of the furnace temperature being heightened was not to dispatch the guilty sooner, but rather speak of the unequaled nature of the crime itself worthy of seven times more severe a punishment. The lesson is that indulging our brutish passions will lead to a level of violence that changes us physically and mentally.
The three were bound in their clothes, and mantles (in everything present of their image and God’s of their physical appearance). Was it to be consumed more slowly? Was it to strip them of their vestments? How irrationally hard-hearted and mad this tyrant became. The Revelation of John comforts us in the ideas that the second death likened to a furnace into which the tares shall be cast in bundles, to that lake which burns eternally with fire and brimstone. The believer may only experience a few minutes of agony, but the second death will be an eternity of torment from which no one will be delivered. As moved as we are in pity for the three, so much more should we be for the lost in the world.
The Septuagint records the Song of the Hebrew Children a 38 verse prayer which speaks of the elements, land and sea creatures blessing the LORD, with “praise and exalt him above all forever” in every verse. It is not in the original. It is not an outstanding example of Hebrew poetry. The Septuagint also mentions a prayer of Azariah (Abed-nego) who supposedly stood in the midst of the fire while praying a 19 verse prayer. The Septuagint also records that the kings men continued to stoke the furnace with brimstone, pitch, tow, and wood. The flames apparently rose 49 cubits above the furnace consuming nearby onlookers. In the Septuagint, the story goes that the angel of the Lord went down into the furnace with Azariah and his companions, drove out the flames and made the inside like a dew-laden breeze.
The point of this is, the incorruptible image and beauty of the king was tarnished, corrupted, when he kindled his anger hotly. Nebuchadnezzer knew that his earthly image was corruptible and perhaps he was thinking a replacement image would make up for what’s lacking. We would call that hypocrisy today, or “walking behind the mask.” The magnitude of the king’s anger could be paralleled to the range of heat that was ignited against God’s men. However, the image of God can not be corrupted when His faithful remain true. In fact, God’s image is purified by the fire of testing and only one as the Son of God will be seen and bring about a great deliverance. Transformation has an antonym. It’s called conformation. Conformation is changing from the outside in, but transformation is from the inside out. By being transformed by the renewing of our mind, (Romans 12:2) we will begin the change toward Christ-likeness and we won’t have to stand behind a mask, or a wall, or an image or identity on social media that is fake. I have friends who have at least 5 different profiles on facebook. Almost a different identity for every day of the week and for every kind of friend in an attempt to fabricate/cultivate an image. Our countenance is fallen if we don’t cultivate the Lord’s offering.
If you are not a Christian, you can shed yourself of all things false and the guilt that makes you think that God will never love a person as far gone as you. I challenge you to read Psalm 139. For the Christian, especially in these latter days, remember: 1) Attack the problem, not the person (Ephesians 4:29, 31). Along this line, we must remember the importance of keeping the volume of our voices low (Proverbs 15:1). 2) Act, don’t react (Ephesians 4:31-32). Because of our fallen nature, our first impulse is often a sinful one (v. 31). The time spent in “counting to ten” or “planning revenge” should be used to reflect upon the godly way to respond (v. 32) and to remind ourselves how the energy anger provides should be used to solve problems and not create bigger ones. Above all things, we are called to forgive. It is not our place to make forgiveness contingent on another’s repentance. Forgive anyway. Romans 12:1, 2 reminds us what a true offering is; what is holy and acceptable to God. It is nothing we can fabricate of our own, but only when He sees the image of His Son perfected by the sacrificial work of the Lamb of God will he find us acceptable.