Stand Up and Dance

Yesterday waiting for big brother to get home from school we all sat around watching Elijah, who’s three, dance to Veggie Tales Christmas music. But he got tired of dancing alone, so he started saying, “Stand up, Grandma. Stand up and dance.” “Stand up, Grandpa. Stand up and dance.”

So trying to get out of the post election doldrums this phrase, “stand up and dance,” has haunted me today. The election results and polling clearly show that the moral absolutes that God ordains are still respected by many people. So stand up for them and don’t lose heart. Then get on your knees and pray for Obama and our leaders to be in line with the majority of Americans on the beauty of God-given life and marriage.

And dance because presidents come and go by God’s decree, but God remains the same yesterday, today and forever.

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor (or the president).” ESV 1 Peter 2:15-17

So "Stand up and dance," For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. " ESV Romans 13:1

How to Vote

John Piper offers this excellent perspective on life and voting:

"This world matters. But it is not ultimate. It is the stage for living in such a way to show that this world is not our God, but that Christ is our God. It is the stage for using the world to show that Christ is more precious than the world.

So it is with voting. We do not withdraw. We are involved—but as if not involved. Politics does not have ultimate weight for us. It is one more stage for acting out the truth that Christ, and not politics, is supreme. "

Read the entire article here.

Brain Game

Last night I listened to John Lennox and Richard Dawkins debate Darwinism and Christianity. The debate was a congenial conversation between two Oxford professors, a mathemetician and a biologist. While I couldn't understand all they were discussing, it was refreshing to hear something more intelligent, polite and rational.

I tried to keep an open mind, but that's not really possible. Dawkins said he is tempted to worship when he sees nature, but that feeling should be dismissed because it has no rational basis. He also accredited that kind of worship to unthinking people. Poor Mr. Dawkins. Little does he know that God inspires everyone to have the same response.

Lennox made a passiononate argument about atheism needing faith in order to follow it.

We as Christians have become lazy in our thinking and we focus too much on our feelings. True Christianity engages the mind and the heart. In fact, true faith is only possible when the mind explores every avenue of faith. True faith asks the hard questions and doesn't accept so called truth just because the church teaches it or everyone else believes it.

Christians today have flabby brains anesthetized by too much television, the pursuit of wealth and shallow worship.

"And this is eternal life, that they KNOW you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." John 17:3, ESV

Engage your brain and get to know the creator of the cosmos and all else that is out there!

"When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
what is man that you are mindful of him,
and the son of man that you care for him? ...

O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!" Psalm 8:3,4,9 ESV

Farewell Big Brown Dog

Last week we said goodbye to this big brown dog. We'd been putting this off for two years but when he could barely get up in the mornings and he lost his sight it was time to say goodbye. His last morning he ran straight into the house with a loud thud. He still ran at a good pace and didn't know when something got in his way. He got into the van and watched out the back window and went down the hallway with the vet wagging his tail, enjoying the trip and being with people.

I wrote this a couple of years ago:

"Ten years ago this old dog came to us by a family who lived in the city. At the time our children were going off to college and the house was just too quiet. At first he was a little more noise than we wanted. He never has learned to stay in a crate or outside when we are around. He barks incessantly to be with us. And that's why he's so hard to let go. He's always been around begging for food, nosing his way into our rituals. We've stepped on him in the dark where he lays in the middle of the floor. He gives us a sense of protection even though he could be bribed with a little food.

I can't imagine not having his big tail thumping on the floor or not hearing his steady breathing during the night. His friendship, his steady breathing, his thumping tail is a calming influence that I don't want to be without. He's learned our habits and our words. He's more than a dog, he's a Good Dog and faithful friend."

Well, now it's been a week and there's no tail thumping in the morning when we get out of bed. There's no dog trotting around the house when we come home. He's been replaced by a little dog who stays in a crate and can't thump her tail because someone cut it off.

But here's the question, why did God create these faithful friends? I have no idea, but they sure are fun to have around and can be a distraction from living life with people, the ones who truly bear God's image.

So they are just dogs, coming and going, but not really that important.

S-I-N

I believe that God has his hand on our oldest grandson. He loves the Bible and listens to the Bible on CD everyday. With his excellent memory he remembers Bible story details that I will never be able to keep in my aging brain. It's a challenge to keep up with him. The other day I asked him why he was afraid of the dark and he spelled it out: "s-i-n." He knows that Satan dwells in darkness and he's aware that he sins. When I told him that he has the purest heart that I know he disagreed with me and confessed his sin like lying to his mom and dad. His parents' goal right now is to help him balance his fear of sin with the truth that he is safe in God.

On the other hand, most of us are too complacent in our sin, including myself. I think one of the reasons God put us with other people is to help us see the sinfulness in our hearts: the selfishness for our own way, anger when things go wrong, the desire to lie in order for others to approve of us, even the shame of being a Christian in a non-Christian setting.

John Piper's sermon this week says that, "We Are Stiff-Necked, Rebellious, and Unthankful. We should learn from this how stiff-necked and rebellious and unthankful we are. That’s why 1 Samuel 12 begins the way it does reminding the people how God saved them from Egypt and then gave them the promised land and then rescued them from evil kings. And each time they forget God and go after other things. That is not just the story of Israel. It’s the story of humanity. It’s the story of my life and your life. Even as Christians, we are not steadfast in our affections for God. We have thankful days and unthankful days. And even our thankful days are not as thankful as they should be. Just think of how joyful and thankful you would be if your heart responded to God himself and his ten thousand gifts with the admiration and gratitude that he is worthy of. So God gives us pictures of ourselves in stories like this. He allows his people to drift into this kind of ungrateful and idolatrous seasons so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world held accountable before God (Romans 3:19). "

As always, Piper cuts to the quick.