Are we returning to 200 AD?

Saeed Abedini is Iranian, a father of two, and a Christian Pastor. He returned to Iran to establish a secular orphanage for children he knew were abandoned and on the street. 

One year ago he was arrested and sent to a notorious prison until his trial. Recently he was transferred to a prison which is a warehouse for the most violent criminals in Iran. Sources in Iran declare that no one gets out alive. 

President Obama has brought up this case with Iran's hierarchy, and asked for his release, once. In the meantime he has loosened economic sanctions on Iran (unilaterally) held secret talks with many Islamic nations, and destabilized Israel's position by isolating her from the decisions being made. It does not seem like the President is supporting Judeo-Christian anything.

Thus the title, which describes the last era that had such a weak support for anything Christian. As a result, Christians will have to rely on God, not the State, for their freedom of religion. To have freedom of religion, without imposition, is a wonderful gift. America has enjoyed that gift for centuries. America has prospered because of that gift I believe. 

Now the world's great thoughts are deteriorating before our lives come to a close: philosophy has run into a dead end, art is fragmented and degrading in quality, science is particularized and stagnating. Politics is no longer about great ideas but about dealing the most vicious lie at the last minute. Virtue is in guerilla warfare with raunch in all spheres of entertainment, education and civil life. 

In the degradation comes a religion that prides itself on total control and domination over all aspects of life. Society, politics, and private life are ruled by strict and brutal law. There is no mercy, no grace. That is Islam. 

So America is now led by a man who will bow to the Islamist, and take advantage of the "weak" Christian or secularist. Islamists have become important minorities in the Western world countries, increasingly imposing acts of terror on unwilling populations. The question now arises with the leaders of Christian nations have the will or ability to protect the "weak"? Aggressively, the answer is no. Especially in other nations.

Christian towns in Egypt are reported to be destroyed and the inhabitants raped, murdered, and driven into exile. Christian Kurds are now the object of Islamist hunters in Iraq and surrounding nations. Syrian Christians are the first casualties in a war they want no part of. And Israel is left to fend for itself in a militarized and vicious region of the world.

President Obama has the chance to pressure Iran to release one man out of a prison known for short sentences due to murder. This orphanage planter, Saeed Abedini, could be saved... unless we are living in 200 AD and the rules of religious freedom or toleration have been suspended. Hundreds of thousands of people are watching the leaders of the free world to find out if there is a refuge left. Yes, President Obama, it is that important.

Revelations

I talk to a lot of people. 

Sometimes we talk about issues that are personal in nature. Perhaps a child is dealing with learning difficulties, an adult is dealing with a spouse that has lost hope, or maybe the issue is deeply personal and its being revealed for the first time. I don't ask for details but the situation is quiet and private and the interpersonal veil is parted for a few minutes. A real connection is made, a real issue bubbles to the surface.

Its a privileged moment. I don't forget those conversations. But when I remember them with a quiet question at a later time more often than not I get an embarrassed look and a quick "Everything is fine now" review. 

Everything is not fine. The pain is still bubbling under the surface, the issue is not resolved, and the solutions are still murky. I really hate to hear that a divorce has been filed, a child is pregnant, or someone attempted suicide. And if I knew about it personally and was not allowed reentry to the situation it makes me wonder about the state of people today. 

Are we so closed off from others today that communal living, sharing life with people around you daily, is too much of a threat? Are we at the point where we do not create confidants, only party-pals and work acquaintances? 

Perhaps so. In that regard, I'll be faithful to remain open to those moments to point to the Solution and Way. Harmony can only exist in a soul when it is in tune with the Creator. 

Perhaps that is why I get put off... the answer to divorce, out of wedlock pregnancy and utter hopelessness is out of tune with our fallen world. I'm being asked to endorse a course of action that is on the wrong side of harmony. 

You Are All Apple Fanboys

Samsung is racing their technical timeline to introduce a 64 bit processor into their flagship phones in 2014. Why? Because the iPhone 5S has one. Microsoft touts their Surface tablet against the iPad (much like the Zune was promoted against the iPod). Windows was introduced as the answer to Apple's graphical user interface OS and the application of the mouse. Does anyone remember WYSIWYG?

My point is simple: You are an Apple fanboy even if you hate the company and culture. Why? Because they make technology work the way you want it to. Then they get on to the next project of making insanely great products. Copycats be sued. Competitors be damned. Still the tech world orbits around the base ideas Apple brings to market. 

Perhaps that is why Nike has kept the FuelBand in the iOS camp rather than branch into the Android sphere. I cannot imagine the chaos programmers endure when faced with the questions of "What version?" "What manufacturer?" "What bloatwear?" only to have the landscape change three or four times a year with Google's upgrade schedule. What a nightmare. Nike likes a winner, one that performs regularly and spectacularly, even if a little pricy. And so do I.

Thug

The sign said "705 killed on Michigan Highways in 2013". This on October 16, 2013. The total should be higher tomorrow. And what was my thought? "I wonder how many murders in Chicago so far in 2013?"

There were 500 in 2012, 204 as of July 4, 2013. 

Mostly black on black, mostly shootings. 

Two smaller communities well known to me have relatively disasterous numbers. Flint, MI has far fewer residents but holds the per captia murder title for 2012: 1 in 1613 residents were murdered. Detroit is close behind: 1 in 1832 residents were murdered.

What is it about "Thou shalt not murder" that is so hard to understand?

I hear words spewed in the popular communication channels for these communities like thug, respect, ho, bling, caish, homie, cracka, and references to self in the third person. Is this a community without the second person in grammar? A generation where even the value of the first person is lost to the third? The individual centered on the first person is selfish, self-centered. The individual centered on the second person may be altruistic or manipulative. But the individual centered on the third person is soulless. The "person" is gone, only the story remains.

I believe that it is this person, who lives in the third person, who is capable of living in a culture of things to be used for personal benefit, including people.

What level of trauma, chemical abuse, neglect and/or training has to happen before this level of mayhem is considered normal for Washington Heights, or Flint, or Detroit? 

Its very similar to the conditioning our troops receive in order to wage war and kill the man in front of you in battle. Only there is no de-conditioning because the "battle" never ends when the grounds are your home. 

I read of a young man in Chicago who left his project home to escape the violence. His intention was to become a cop and help end the rampage of death. He returned to visit friends and family still there. He was murdered before midnight on the same day. 

There is good news for these soulless men and women on the handle end of the pistol: You really can be a person again. You can be "bought back" from the hellish vapor you have become. You can find the respect that matters: first from God then from within. You can have a peaceful night's sleep without the help of an outside substance. You can, if you first respect the person of Jesus Christ and the reason why He was born. 

Thugs. Learn some grammar: Jesus came to save your first person, so you can find true meaning in service of the second person. Let the third person go, it doesn't exist.

Screens

Had a great question last night: Why are screens and information considered our Saviors these days?

Screens flicker and promise. Mesmerized kids merge their brainwaves to the speed of the game or websites they frequent. Homework slows to a crawl as the iMessages, Skype requests, and other "social" media notifications blink on the screen. Is this the best way to educate our kids?

A worksheet is a worksheet on paper and online. One is not "better" than another. However that is being passed along as educational progress in some circles. I'm not sure the research would bear out the assumption that if it's on a screen it's inherently better learned. Nope. 

What I can report is screens have been responsible for lost sleep, lies, deceipt, very low quality homework, and teachers passing off classroom teaching for online videos. Now there is the problem of time: one child is required to use her computer for assignments, even when it takes her three times longer to finish the assignment. 

Each child should be encouraged to learn. Many can learn fine with the aid of the screens. But many others need to hear, touch, and move the material before they learn it. For too many IT stands for Idiot Tech. Schools should adjust their assembly line expectations and get back to the business of learning. 

Am I Lot? Part II

I do not come from a classic "prophetic" heritage in my christianity. My base is the Bible. My growth is through application and teaching others. I've had my ups and downs in the spiritual walk. All in all, it has not been so difficult. Most of my pain has been self inflicted.

The world is changing now. I hear the voices from two and three generations ago sad at the changes they witnessed during their era. I am looking two more generations on from that and compare their world with the world my grandchildren will be living in. What will they say when they too are grandparents? 

Perhaps that is why Lot stirred my soul so greatly.  

Parenting is leadership. What we teach our kids will last. Do we teach Christ for today, or the Christ of yesterday. There was a comment recently that the good old days weren't really so good. Should Christians still be arguing for Prohibition? Or perhaps demonstrating a different life completely?

Jesus wasn't reminiscing about the lost Temple, or the sacrificial system. Instead he showed how a life lived sacrificially was enough, no matter the government or current state of religious affairs.

Others in the Scriptures were in the same situation: often at odds with society and government but true to the revealed Word. Perhaps it would be good to be a little Christ for those in need and asking questions. Perhaps it would be best for our children to demonstrate a faith that doesn't rest on hemlines or physical prowess. Perhaps it would be best to sit at the feet of the Savior and grow mature in the faith before we go on a political rampage. Perhaps...

Lot

Lot's choice to separate from Abraham's family was logical and clear. Green land, cool breezes don't compare with barren rock-land. The good life was just over that mountain. Lot wanted it all. So he gathered his family, friends, servants, flocks and vast wealth to travel to the Jordan Valley.

To be fair, Lot had grown up in the shadow of his Uncle Abram. Lot's father died early and Abram took him in. When Abram left for the promised land Lot had a slim chance to choose to stay in the hometown. Lot lived with Abram's decisions. He saw Abram make poor decisions only to come out stronger on the other end. 

Genesis 13 retells the classic moment when Abram gives Lot the right of first choice. Both were rich. Both were in the same business with scant resources. Families were bickering. Something had to give. Do you want the east or the west, Lot, you may choose. 

The Lord God was not consulted by Lot at anytime in this process. Abram was a careful Uncle, but his example would not be enough for a God inspired decision. By sight, by self, the decision for the Jordan Valley was easy.

Lot was beseiged soon after his entrance to the valley. His riches and business had attracted the unsavory. Abram had to save Lot's life by force. Not much longer after that Lot's friends are picked off by the sodomites and adulterers into lives of sin filled ease. 

Genesis 18 and 19 detail Lot's end. And what do we find? Lot's riches are gone. Lot's business is gone. Lot has no servants, no extended family, his daughters aren't even married yet. Lot has no influence, instead he is forced to live unprotected outside the city walls. His habit is to linger by the gates of the city to turn people away from the danger within those walls. It is all he has left of his heritage.

Odd visitors arrive to counsel Lot and his family to leave their post to flee from the coming wrath. Lot hesitates, why? 

The visitors force Lot into action. The destruction begins to descend on the city. Lot's wife turns to view the horror. She is turned into a pillar of salt, a reflection of her stony soul. Lot's daughters stay with him through the small town of Zoar where Lot fails his prophetic opportunity to flee to the Jordanian mountains. 

A small cave houses the three in their depressive isolation. The daughters choose as the father did throughout his life: the seen over the unseen, the selfish over the godly, the flesh over the spirit. Lot is enticed by them to drink heavily, is used by his daughters to impregnate themselves, and inadvertantly spawns the nations of Moab and Ammon. 

Lot is described in 2 Peter 2:7 as a righteous man distressed by the "filthy lives of lawless men". However, Peter is concentrating on the lawless men. The concern of this review is with those of us who are called to make decisions about our family, work and friends. 

Let us not become so like our degrading society that we are not different for safety's sake. Let us choose to pray, wait and listen for the truth of God to be pressed into our soul. Let us choose paths of blessing, even through the rough rocky results of that decision. Let us also stand firm for our family, build an altar of remembrance, and seek to influence our neighbors to trust Christ for their direction in life. So Part I ends.

Return

I blinked and four years+ have passed since I opened this blog. Amazing.

So here's the update: I'm a grandfather five times over, with two more on the way. The 13 year old is quickly heading for that 18th birthday we talked about on the couch. He still has some of those same "bents" but he's becoming a pretty capable young man.

I have seen God surrounding this family as it extends to different states and then returns. He has been faithful through the years in ways that reveal themselves only in retrospect. I'm still promoting the same drug as I did then. I'm in my tenth year now... and the end is in sight. God will be at that end. There will be a direction, pray that I walk in it.

Dreams are elusive things, wisps of ideas that form and dissipate.

We are attending a different church than we did in 2009. Outreach is exciting, but discipleship is forever. The second is what this little band of Christians needed for a while. That and a closer fellowship.

Responsibilities have been pared away to the bare minimum, which is a surprise. How did that happen?

I read a study today that highlighted the reality that upwards of 75% of seminary graduates are not pastoring after five years in office. Some denominations have a much higher dropout rate. I am not alone. That is not comforting.

One key issue brought out in the comment section of the review was prayer specifically for and with the pastor. Someone believed in the power of prayer enough to spend time with the flock leader for the purpose of spiritual encouragement and fortification. That was a sense, an urge, I had during the mid-2000's. Permission was given at that time to set appointments to do just that as I traveled around the state.

I sense a wisp, do you?