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When you feel like just shutting it all down, closing the doors (imagining of course they’re mine to close).  People are so ungrateful, so selfish and self centered, i see it so clearly in myself and even more clearly in others.  Humanity is so lazy when it comes to all the right things and so zealous and motivated when it comes to all of the wrong things (or so it seems).  If i am able to see it, if we are like that towards those we can see and physically interact with then how much more severe is the problem when it comes to the One we cannot see, we cannot always feel, or cannot physically interact with (or so it seems).  This complacency is a cancer destroying us from the inside out.  This lack of satisfaction in the One Thing.  The One Thing that matters, the one thing that has any weight of glory or worth.  This is the One Thing that constantly goes unnoticed, goes purposely ignored.

We are such a stiff-necked, rebellious people.  We revel and pleasure ourselves inside our houses like filthy swine rolling around in the filth we eat and have eaten and will soon eat again.  We demand that our entire existence and the surrounding universe revolve around those pleasures.  The only problem is our existence and this universe thankfully cannot ever, not even for but one moment, facilitate those pleasures.  The moment we think we have manipulated the order of the universe, that we have ‘got one by The Man’, is the moment that we sowed our corruptible seed and we immediately reaped our corruption—our conflict began. We will always reap death and destruction; it makes no matter how beautiful the seeds we sow look like, how pleasant they feel or smell or even how wonderful they taste.  It doesn’t even matter what they sound like accompanying the music in their hollow homes.

We are dying of starvation and malnutrition while we sit at a banqueting table.  Are we blind or are just not willing to see?  Does the answer to that make any difference?

We often don’t like what we see and assume we are just reading the wrong script.  ”Um, excuse me, stop everything, I believe I have the wrong script, I must have picked up someone else’s part.  This couldn’t possibly be my role.” We’re pretending to be in an imaginary theater all the while sheepishly standing on the stage (the only stage) as the extra, the casualty, the butt of the joke wanting nothing more than to simply run off the stage, escaping the spotlights and hide behind the curtain in the shadows.  But escaping the stage isn’t going to be as easy as you may think, go ahead and try but you will soon find that the stage transcends you because the story transcends you.  You’re always in front of an audience.

N.D. Wilson observes from a tilt-a-whirl:  Complain.  Whine.  Be a fusser.  The story needs those as well, because every butt needs a joke, and the audience must laugh.  Whether they (and God) laugh at or with is up to you.

The curtains have already been torn away revealing the stage.  There is no other theater and no alternate scrips to be the wrong ones to read.  There is one stage—one story.  You are a part whether you like it or not, all of creation is.  You can kick and scream but you are here now and the story needs that too, consequently the author cast you even though you didn’t make the audition—you didn’t even sign up…

Living by the Spirit.

Text: Romans 7:18 – 8:11

When discussing life as a Christian, or when discipling believers, you are inevitably faced with, usually by very sincere, desperate Christians, the infamous question “How do i do that?”, “How do i just abide in Christ”, or “How do i walk in the Spirit?”. These question although possible to answer Biblically, are usually the wrong question to be asking, at least at first. That being said, they should not be casually brushed off because their reason for asking is generally because these sincere, desperate Christians at times find themselves presenting their members to sin (Rom. 6:13) and experiencing condemnation, shame, and guilt.  (*They could also be experiencing self-righteousness, pride, and arrogance but generally when Christians are having these experiences they are not asking anybody any questions because they think they have arrived.  I digress.)

The christian how questions, in my mind, are like someone asking me how to breath.  “How do you get the air to fill up your lungs? I get so out of breath and i just know that all i need to do is to take a big, deep, breath. You make it seem so easy, like you’re not even trying.”

To anyone who has ever breathed before, the question is pretty silly, even though there is a factual answer.

We generally link “things we do”, that are as important as breathing or living in the Spirit, with an absolute necessity for us to be sure and “get it right”.  With something this essential, yes it needs to be right that’s for sure but is it really a question of us “getting it right”.  Yes i can consciously take breath at this very moment but if i was responsible for every breath that i had to have every time i had to have it, lets just say we would have to seriously redefine things like cat nap, and multi-tasking, not to mention, concentration would take on a whole new meaning.

Think for a moment what it would be like if breathing was a conscious act with no natural instincts involved.  How would you even know when you needed a breath?

If we are breathing, we are alive.  If we belong to Jesus Christ, we are in the Spirit (Rom. 8:9), this is an eternal reality that cannot be altered – in Christ we are eternally alive (John 3:16, Col. 3:4).  When, however, we are not walking according to the Spirit when in fact we are living in the Spirit, we are being rebellious, wether it be conscious rebellion (we all know what this looks like), or subconscious rebellion (i.e. ignorant disobedience, dead works, etc.) it makes no difference because the remedy is the same – repentance, a changing or renewing of the mind and moving in the other direction.

Walking according to the flesh when we are in the Spirit is like holding our breath, when we are now created to breath.  Don’t quickly forget that there is no neutral, in other words, if we are not walking according to the nature that we now posses, it is active rebellion any way we try and spin it.

So when i understand the phrase “walking in the Spirit” for what it actually is – my new nature in Jesus Christ, i easily equate it to the second-nature, or automatic work of breathing, and yes it is an action, a work, which by the way isn’t a bad thing (James 2:17-18).

As we continue with the thought, holding our breath when we are now created to breath, is not something that can be subconsciously done (unless you are sick, in that case my point is simply reinforced), it is an active rebellion.  When we work in, and of ourselves trying to accomplish something, we are rebelliously holding our breath, now whether our motives are right or wrong at this point, it makes no difference because we are depriving ourselves of oxygen, we are disobeying our nature.  This is obviously not a good thing and can hardly be deemed accomplishing anything, and as we all know, it cannot be sustained for very long.  In fact it is impossible to hold our breath and die, we pass out and immediately start to breath again, it’s like a built in fail-safe.

For the sake of discussion lets say that holding your breath equals your fleshly “accomplishments” and the longer you are able to sustain yourself without oxygen the more you are “accomplishing”.  Now at the point of you passing out because of your hard work, you become un-conscious, and instinctively and completely apart from your will, take a breath.  Everything you had been working to “accomplish” is now destroyed and you are completely incapable of sustained control of the situation – being your life as it pertains to breathing, and it makes no matter how strong your will.

Read through the gospels and repeatedly you will see the words of Jesus proclaiming our fruitfulness if we belong to Him – if we are in Him, it is not a question of if we will bear fruit but rather when we will and very possibly how much we will bear (John 15:5, Luke 8:8,15, Mark 4:8, 20).

This is how the vertical or spiritual reality and the horizontal or natural reality correspond, the spiritual reality is worked out in our natural lives.  Our christianity, not might be, but will be perceived in one way or another by the world, not sometimes but all the time.

This may be alarming for some but the good news is if we have been born-again, made new creations in Christ Jesus through our death and resurrection with Him, we are abiding in Him, we belong to Him.  That is salvation, that Christ has saved us from ourselves (2 Cor. 5:17), from our first father Adam in whom all died (1 Cor. 15:22), and given us new life in Him (1 Cor. 15:22)  Dying so we may die, and living so we may live.

Everything in the natural order speak of, and glorifies Christ, and thus is directly tied to the spiritual reality.  The spiritual is always the foundational or original reality; it always comes first followed by the natural outworking.

This working out process is the same kind of work as breathing.  Paul in his letter to the Philippians sheds some light on this process.

Therefore God has highly exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee would bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you , both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:9-13

It is God who works in us for His good pleasure, this is how we work this reality of salvation out.  This is how we breath; this is how we bear fruit, this is how we abide, God in His grace, works in us for His good pleasure and we trust and believe that He is (Gal. 2:20, Gal. 3:3-6, John 6:28-29).  The same way that we trust and believe and even know that our next breath is going to come even if we forget to “do it” or even if we don’t will or desire it to.  We can rest easy knowing, trusting that our Head will keep our bodies doing what it must do to continue living.

Stop holding your breath trying to accomplish things, breath easy, knowing that it is God who is willing and working in you for His own good pleasure. If we have been made new creations – made to breath, we are partakers of that pleasure with every breath drawn.

“For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor? Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?”  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be glory forever.  Amen. Romans 11:34-36

The only reason we dislike the idea of being “robots” is because as humans we are always on the controlling side of things… Animals, innovation, technology, relationships, etc. including robots. Do robots hate the idea of being robots? They do in the movies, but what about real life?

I have been thinking alot about american government lately and particularly the topic of the “environmental crisis”. Doug says it like it is! I will have more to say about this soon!

Stewardship Schmoowardship – by Douglas Wilson
Topic: Wealth and the Christian

There are many things that are exasperating about the soi disant stewards of the environment, but the central exasperating thing about them lies right at the heart of their claim. This is especially true of Christians who tell us that Jesus requires us to be “stewards of the earth,” and that being green is a spiritual value.

And so it is. The problem is that the greens always turn everything brown. And here is why.

The Greek word for steward is oikonomos, the word from which we get economy, and economics, and all the rest of those dismal words. A steward provides household law; he is the one who keeps track of things, or is supposed to.

“And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward” (Luke 16:1-2).

The ability to give a reckoning, to give an account, is right at the heart of stewardship. Now when modern Christians talk about “stewardship of the earth,” they are almost always talking about cultivating feelings of general benevolence, coupled with good intentions that desire a good and green outcome. This cultivation is expressed by making a law in favor of the contemporary cause de jure, without any regard for what this does everywhere in the system. This is like a bookkeeper who makes an entry in the ledger in one place, without any awareness of the fact that this will affect his columns of numbers everywhere else in the ledger. He eventually turns the page, and is surprised, astonished, flummoxed. He promises congressional hearings, the kind of hearing that is guaranteed always to leave the real culprits alone. This is because the real culprits are the ones holding the hearings, which is kind of convenient, come to think of it. The last thing these people have on their minds is an accounting, and the last thing they are prepared to do is give an actual accounting. But that is what stewardship is.

Apart from a genuine free market, it is not possible to give an accounting. In a nation where the resources (and the environment that contains those resources) are all managed by the government, stewardship is a conceptual impossibility. This is because when the markets are not free, nobody knows the true price of anything. When no one knows the true price of anything, this removes intelligent incentives, and creates a host of perverse incentives. The only kind of stewardship possible is legal, perverse stewardship, or illegal, honest stewardship. Remember, the rule of law is not “making something legal.” The rule of law is a constant, and it governs the refs as well as the players. If refs can change the rules of the game in the course of the game, that is not the rule of law, not even if the ref blew his whistle when he did it.

Imagine a gigantic yard sale, covering five suburban yards. Suppose further that none of those working the sale were allowed to put a price tag on anything, most things were still for sale, and those that were not for sale were put off limits, according to their whims, by about three policemen who were wandering back and forth through the sale, swinging their billy clubs. Now, get a megaphone, stand on a nearby porch, and urge everybody to “be good stewards.”

Hernando de Soto has shown, in his The Mystery of Capital, that Third World nations have plenty of resources, plenty of wealth. It is available and near at hand. What they don’t have is the rule of law, and the attendant concept of clear title. When no one has clear title, there is no basis for the generation of wealth, and no basis for stewardship of the resultant wealth.

What I am about to say may seem a bit radical, so let me begin with a biblical illustration of the principle. The Bible says that a man who does not discipline his son hates his son (Prov. 13:24). This hatred is objective, measured by the results. It is not subjective, that is, it does not key off the emotional state of the father who is doing this awful thing to his son. He is probably a bleeding heart, not a “hater.” But he still hates his son.

In that spirit, with that qualification, it has to be said that environmentalists hate the environment, in just the same way that statists and liberals hate the poor. They talk like nobody’s business. Their phylacteries are wide, and they give lengthy prayers in the synagogues. They are the worst. They tie heavy burdens on the backs of others, which neither they nor their cronies are willing to bear themselves. They are false. They are wrong. They are hypocrites. And Christians who parrot their line are in rebellion against the very idea of stewardship. They hate it; they don’t want to give an accounting of just how it is that they destroy the environment, and bring about the extinction of species. They don’t care. All they want to do is roll their eyes when you come in and ask to see the books. Books? We don’t want books! We don’t want to reckon, we don’t want to count. All we want is a law that guarantees a fine result, with birds chirruping in the trees.

But stewardship looks at the results. A review of stewardship asks to see the books. But these fuzzy benevolence stewards wants an accounting department that never has to add up any numbers. Numbers are tiring. Numbers make my head heart. Numbers aren’t very green. Right. And people who think like that are terrible stewards.

Every resource in the world has a true price. That is the price established for it by the hand of God when men and women are trading peacefully, and not thieving from one another. The legalization of this thievery, which many professing Christians are muddled enough to advocate, destroys the rule of law, and introduces thuggery to the management of the yard sale. They want to make it legal for the cops to club anyone who tries to sell something that would be bad for global warming. Later on, this afternoon, they will be clubbing those who sell items that will accelerate the undeniable threat of global cooling. They don’t care about the results, just so long as they get to club somebody.

Fishing is not necessarily something that i would say i love doing although i enjoy it. Probably more so for the evoked memories and reminiscent experience rather the the actual practice of ‘tricking and killing’ as Mr. Martin so eloquently phrased it.

As i was preparing to fish in something other than our tiny pond, for the first time in a good while i was reminded that i being older than seventeen must have a fishing license… whatever. So i went to Wal-Mart where they can be obtained, and just as i suspected the theiving, greedy, wicked america showed her true colors… Now you may think i am just really upset about having to pay thirty-five dollars for a ridiculously large piece of paper that has completely make-believe value seeing as this public water belongs just as much to me as it does to the ignorant game warden enforcing the preposterous rules i.e. the fishing license and it’s included restrictions, but that is not it at all. In fact when the kind sir behind the counter told me how much it was i politely turned around and walked away without purchasing one.

The reason behind my righteous indignation is that the supposed ‘christian nation’ that is america puts more value on the life of a fish or a sea turtle, or some freaking salt grass than it does on the invaluable life of an unborn child. So lets get this straight, i can pay the thirty-five dollar fee for a license to kill a fish but of corse only if it is within the proper restrictions. And if i am caught without one of these licenses’ then i am entitled to a citation for violation of the law of the state put in place to protect the right of the fish that is otherwise perfectly legal for me to kill, or better yet even if i have a license and i kill a fish that is under the ‘legal length’ aka to young (ironic i know) as deemed so by our thoughtful authorities or any variety of special species, then i am violating the right of nature via the fish, to properly run it’s corse. But abortion as Mr. Wilson articulately referred to as, “this sick war that adults have declared on children” is completely legal just because it is my so-called choice or right?!? Says who… oh yea the same people who gave me my fishing license.

Oh the wretched state she is in! Know this, the wickedness is not due to or proceeding from a singularly Democratic or Republican party, for the blood of the innocent is very much bipartisan and judgement will come to the unjust where ever they may lie. We the people… must urgently embrace repentance and turn from our wicked ways individually and corporately knowing that judgement will begin in the house of the Lord. Amen.