But.

If it was possible, what would  a “Christian” Nation look like?  How would it be ruled?  Would it be Theocracy?  Would there be room for other religions?  What sect of Christianity would make the rules?  Would it be a Theocratic Democracy (is that even a real type of government?) Would the government be weak or strong?  Would Christianity be legislated from the top down or would new societal norms dictate the actions of folks?

How would we view and treat the poor?  In a Christian nation, who would be the oppressed and how would we deal with them?

Would we have a military?

How would corporate entities be viewed?  What would their rights and responsibilities to society be?  Would the business of America be business?

What do you think?  How would society have to be changed to make our nation a Christian one (or is it already?)  How would our government change or stay the same?   Do Christians even have enough interest in this world to worry about such things?  Let me know what you think in the comments.

Oh, and here is the article I talked about: http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/current-events/op-ed-blog/28097-the-rise-of-christian-libertarianism

Luke 3

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.7 And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ 8 And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. 9 Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (ESV)

As I was reading this parable a couple of things occurred to me.  The first is that the tree isn’t expected to bear fruit without the work of the vinedresser.  The second is that there seems to be a limit to how long the master will wait for the tree to become useful.

Who is the vinedresser in your life?  Is there someone who is spreading…well let’s call it fertilizer and giving you the spiritual sustenance that you need?  Are you helping someone else to grow?  I don’t think that as Christians we can really be alone and expect to grow in our faith and our work.  We need help and we need to help each other.

The other thought is a little scarier to me.  While I am waiting around trying to figure out what the Lord wants me to do, time is running out.  I know that I have a tendency sometimes to sit back and wait for answers, to pray and be still and listen, but not to act.  I think that the parable is a warning that God won’t wait forever on us.  This is why the vinedresser is so important.  The vinedresser takes responsibility for the tree.  He doesn’t want the tree to be destroyed so he does the work necessary to give the tree the best chance of bearing fruit.

What do you think?  Are you being a vinedresser to someone?  Are you doing everything you can to help those around you bear fruit?  If not, what can you do that will help others?  What can others do to help us?

I harder question for me to answer is “What is the favorite gift you have ever given?”  I had to think a bit on that one.   This is supposed to be the season of giving, and yet so often I think more fondly on what I have received than on what I gave.  So what do you think?  Is it just me or are we all just a bit too selfish?

Not to sound to hokey, but I think the best gifts I have ever given are the ones I made.  One year, my wife and I made photo frames for a bunch of our family.  Another year it was pillows and bags that we made.  Both times I felt like it just felt so much better to have given something that took more time and energy than just shopping.  I know it sounds totally smug, right?  But hey, even the Grinch knows that the best gift doesn’t come from a store (unless that store is Hobby Lobby.)

So tell me, what was the best gift you ever gave to someone else?

In a totally unrelated note, I want to share a site I heard about earlier today.  Sounds pretty cool and is an interesting way to use the balance on those gift cards you are about to get to help those in need.  Check out GiftCardGiver:  http://www.giftcardgiver.com/index.php

Anyway, one reason I am on this kick is that I am obsessed with two of his songs in particular.  One is “Casmir Polanski Day,” which I have repeatedly proclaimed one of the greatest Christian songs ever written even though it is horribly melancholy and  in the end the song’s character is really questioning his faith.  The other is “To Be Alone With You,” (lyrics below.) A song that sounds like any ordinary sweet love song until you listen to the lyrics.

He is a singer who often writes of a questioning faith, and he puts his relationship with Christ in very human, honest terms. Do you think there is a lot of value in this?  I think that one of  the reasons that “Christian Music” is so often praise music is that folks are afraid to really allow themselves the freedom to express doubt or questioning or anything that might look like weak faith.  What other writers or singers or artists do ya’ll know that can effectively express a relationship with Christ from an interesting angle or talk honestly about their walk with God?

I'd swim across Lake Michigan
I'd sell my shoes
I'd give my body to be back again
In the rest of the room
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you
To be alone with you

You gave your body to the lonely
They took your clothes
You gave up a wife and a family
You gave your ghost
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

To be alone with me
You went up on a tree

Here are links to some of his videos:

To Be Alone With You:

http://youtu.be/4vgy5g-djuA

Casmir Polanski Day (live)

http://austincitylimits.org/component/seyret/video/105/Sufjan-Stevens#tabs-2

And I promise something more cheerful next time!

Maybe this will make it better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqYWiypaatM

Is it ever right for Christians to support war?  I know that there is the idea of a “just” war, and I know that there is a lot of war and genocide in the bible.  One of the blogs I have been reading posted on the idea of how the Just War theory is applied in the real world.  I found it very interesting and thought provoking.  You can find it Here:http://peacetheology.net/2011/10/06/pacifist-reflections-on-the-just-war-tradition/

My question today is when, if ever, do you think it is appropriate for Christians to go to war?  Let me know in the comments.

I bring this up because I feel there has to be a better way to spread the Good News that isn’t trying to “sell” the Good News.  It is hard, though.  I mean the very nature of trying to tell someone why you think they should follow Christ is to try to convince them that it is better for them than what they are doing now.  And within our culture we know, practice and have perfected the art of persuasion!  It is so tempting to take the tools of marketing and apply them to witnessing.

I am really hitting a wall in my evangelism.  And by “wall” I mean I am not doing it.  I try to be a good witness.  I even try to mention Jesus sometimes.  But I know that isn’t enough.  I have been justified through the blood of Christ.  I should be shouting that from the rooftops.  And yet…

I have a problem with door to door evangelism because it feels too much like selling.  I believe that living as commanded is a great way to be a witness for the Lord.  I know that taking care of the poor, caring for those who are downtrodden is a way of showing the love of Christ, but it takes a long time and you never know if you are being  effective.

What do you think? What is the most effective way that you share the Good News?

I have often heard the story of Moses and the burning bush.  I have even heard that he was reluctant.  But as I was reading this book, the author paraphrases five very specific excuses that Moses gives the Creator of the universe (Exodus 3-4).

1- Who do you think I am

2- Who are you, really Lord?

3-What will people think?

4-What skills do I really have for this?

5-Surely someone else can do this?

When called by God to rescue the oppressed people of the Lord, Moses was able to come up with several reasons why he couldn’t do it.  And why?  Because he was focused on himself.  Moses was right, there was no earthly way that he could walk into Egypt and rescue his people.  All of his excuses and hesitations were probably warranted.  But what he was not focused on or thinking of was the power of the Almighty.

I don’t know how often the Lord has put on my heart an action he wants me to take.  I do know that there are times when I feel led and my first reaction is far too much like Moses.  Don’t you know who I am, Lord?  I can’t possibly do that.  Is it really you?  Surely there is someone who can do this better.  The problem is, when the Lord calls us to action, he isn’t asking us our opinion.  When Moses asks, “Please send someone else.”  that is when the Lord’s anger is kindled against him.  The Lord calls who he will.  And who are we to tell Him that He is wrong.  God has a history of using the weakest and the least to accomplish His mighty works.  And when we refuse Him, we are rejecting His power.  When we feel led by God to do something and say “No,” we are really saying that we don’t believe that He can do what He says He will have done.

I know my excuses.  I have a million.  Some of them are even true.  But what I also have to have is Faith.  Faith in my Lord and Savior that He will be my strength.  If I am to claim to be a follower of Christ, I have to get rid of the excuses and let His will be done.

What do you think the biggest excuses Christians have for not following Christ or  for not answering what God calls us to do?

But when I read the verses listed, I had a couple of thoughts that got beyond the modern political climate.  The first, obvious thought was, “wow, you really got to hate someone to wish their kids orphaned and their wife a widow.”  That thought was almost immediately followed by, “wait, this is in the Bible.”  This is a pretty severe curse that is being uttered here.  Looking at the whole Psalm, it is an intense outpouring of emotions. I began looking at the Psalm and its loud and thorough cry for vengeance.

	[109:1] Be not silent, O God of my praise!
	[2] For wicked and deceitful mouths are opened against me,
	speaking against me with lying tongues.
	[3] They encircle me with words of hate,
	and attack me without cause.
	[4] In return for my love they accuse me,
	but I give myself to prayer.
	[5] So they reward me evil for good,
		and hatred for my love.

Reading the Psalm brings up a couple of questions.   This Psalm asks God to curse those who accuse.  At the beginning the Psalmist gave only love and was repayed with evil. Did the Psalmist really love? They seem to have a love that expects kindness in return.  Now, I  think this is a perfectly human reaction.  We are affected by injustice and want revenge.  But aren’t we now commanded to react differently?  Did the Psalmist love with a limit and what does that mean for us?

[12] Let there be none to extend kindness to him,
	nor any to pity his fatherless children!

Wow, that is more than just, “God, show justice.”  This is a request of revenge and human vengeance.  Not merely a cry for what the accuser may deserve under the law, but punishment beyond what is called for.  What could possibly have been done to deserve this?  We aren’t told, only that the Psalmist is surrounded by “accusers”

And my favorite part, the section that I know describes how I far too often feel about myself:

	[22] For I am poor and needy,
	and my heart is stricken within me.
	[23] I am gone like a shadow at evening;
	I am shaken off like a locust.
	[24] My knees are weak through fasting;
	my body has become gaunt, with no fat.
	[25] I am an object of scorn to my accusers;
		when they see me, they wag their heads.

So, the Psalmist is perfectly Holy, blameless and a tireless servant of the Lord.  Aren’t we all?  To me, the entire psalm is from a human perspective and as a cry to God, fails to see the nature of God.  The poor, pitiful Psalmist is beset all around by evil and merely wants to see God wipe them from the earth.  Such a Holy attitude!  I want to see this Psalm as a warning of what happens when we start to feel pity for ourselves and  the trap that we can fall into when we start to feel persecuted.  I have no doubt that the Psalmist felt justified in his cry to God, but was he?

So what do you think?  How do you react when reading something like this in the Bible?  Do you have parts of the Bible that are just hard to reconcile with your idea of God?

The quoted section is this:

I do not believe that you Christians believe your own creed–for if you were persuaded that things really are as your Bibles teach, and that we poor lost people were really going to such a dreadful place as you say Hell is–then you would act more humanely toward us.

If you saw our houses on fire–you would run and help us to put the fire out; or if you saw us in danger of death–you would try to do something to save us. But you pretend to believe that we are going to Hell, and that Hell burns with fire and brimstone forever, and that once there we can never get out–and yet you talk to us about all sorts of things–but never say one word to us about saving our souls from this terrible doom!

So I have reasoned thus: either you Christians don’t believe what you say–or else you must be the most hardened and unfeeling wretches in the universe! Now, as I don’t believe that you are such cruel, hardened, and unfeeling people as this supposes–then I must conclude that, with all your talk–you Christians don’t really believe what your Bibles teach!

For if you really believe what you say about sin, and Hell, and our danger–then you would act differently; and if you have a spark of kindness in your hearts–you would try to save us from such a dreadful doom. And, on the other hand, if you do notbelieve what you profess–then you Christians cannot be honest; and to say the least, there must be a great deal of hypocrisy among you.

Now, I honestly tell you that these are the things which have stumbled me more than anything, and until I can see you Christians act differently–I will not be persuaded to believe what your sort of folks say.

 

I looked around and found the google book (located here http://books.google.com/books?id=nAUDAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false).

I recommend flipping through it, there are a lot of nuggets of wisdom in there!  I especially like the essay titled “How to Be Useful.”  It is advise we could all use!

Is it the music that is most important? The preacher?  The whole “vibe” of the Sunday morning service?  How about the other six days of the week?  Do you look for a church that offers a lot of bible studies?  What type of missions do you look for in a church?

If you had to boil it down to one thing, what would be the most important?