Lovers of Death

All who hate me love death.
Proverbs 8:36

Representative Diana DeGette in an email I received some weeks ago sent assurances that the ObamaCare bill would not cover abortion. Now I see she is furious that the bill passed the House with the Stupak-Pitts amendment that insures it won’t cover abortion.

It’s clear that she is both a liar and a lover of death. It’s not health care she is primarily concerned about but the expansion of abortion.

DeGette has also been insatiable in her promotion of Human Embryonic Stem Cell research. This despite the fact that embryonic stem cells show very little promise, have many problems and kill a little baby. Induced pluripotent stem cells (not from embryos) are where the action is. She acts as if they don’t exist and ignores the true science in their favor. Maybe it’s because no one has to die to acquire them.

Pray for leaders like Diana DeGette. Proverbs 21:1 says: The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. Thank God she isn’t a king! Nevertheless, the principle applies; God can turn her heart and work through her despite her love of death.

For interesting information on the truth about Stem Cell research, see StemCellResearch.org

Philip

Prayer

In the book A Praying Life, Paul Miller wrote that sometimes we don't pray because we want to be in control and sometimes we don't pray because we think we can't be in control: "But the point of prayer is shifting control to God." Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.

I believe in prayer. Every weekday morning I pray for family, friends and even some people I don’t know like the “homeless sign” guy on the corner near our house.

I added a friend last night; Randy has been diagnosed with Lymphoma. I will carry a burden for my friend during this difficult time.

Another thing I pray about is our political leaders. I use a verse out of Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will. I pray for God to surprise our leaders by having them do things they didn’t plan to do.

Prayer is mysterious. Isn’t it awesome that the God of the universe beckons us to ask Him for things. What if we neglect prayer? Are there good things that will be left undone and bad things that will come to pass?

I always hope that people are praying for my family and me.

Philip

Sacrifices

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. My thoughts in red.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
Psalm 51:17

Perhaps
if I give You
some of my time.
Perhaps
if I give You
some of my strength.
Perhaps
if I give You
some of my things.
Perhaps
if I give You
some of my thoughts.
Perhaps
if I give You
some of my success.
Perhaps
if I give You
some of my relationships.

Some…. We want to give some. We are afraid to give all. It happens repeatedly because there is always a new area of our life where we are being challenged and changed.

We don’t get it right one time and that’s it. We don’t one day become mature in Christ. We are constantly realizing that there is another area to work on.

Surely
these sacrifices
will bring You delight.
Surely
these offerings
will bring You joy.
I'm quite willing
to give a tithe
I'm quite willing
to interrupt
my schedule.
I'm quite willing
to volunteer
to serve.
I'm quite willing
to do
my part.

My part…. I want it defined so I can do it and then go on. I like my schedule. I want things to fit nicely. I don’t want my plans interrupted. I don’t like things left hanging.

But I get the sense
that You're not satisfied
with a piece of me.
I get the sense
that momentary giving
momentary service
momentary sacrifice
momentary ministry
the momentary turning
of my heart to You
will not satisfy You.

He wants it all and all the time. He wants me to yield, to let go, to open my hand, to close the schedule book.

But I must admit
that I'm afraid
of what You require.
I'm afraid of a
broken spirit.
I'm afraid of a
contrite heart.
I'm afraid to be
crushed by Your grace.
So I try to
distract You
with my service
distract You
with my time
distract You
with my money.

Again. I gave it all before but it’s new again; a new area where the light is shining; a new area to learn the same lesson again. It seems it should be easier.

Deep inside
I know what You want.
Deep inside
I'm sure of what You require.
I'm afraid
because I want to hold onto
my heart.
I want
to give it to other things.
I want to
pursue pleasures
outside of You.
I'm afraid
to give You
what would satisfy You.
I'm afraid of a
broken heart.
So I regularly offend You
with empty offerings
and vacuous praise.
Hoping
to my own destruction
that you'll be satisfied.

The common thread of all these lessons is I should trust. It’s new and unfamiliar but You are the same. I will be most satisfied when I am satisfied with You. I will be safe as I yield all to You.


Take a Moment

Stop and celebrate how Jesus' willingness to pay the ultimate sacrifice enables our sacrifices to be acceptable to God.

Philip


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Medical Marijuana Quacks

In the newspaper recently, there has been a lot of coverage on the doctors who are signing applications for “patients” who want legal pot in the Denver area.

I wasn’t surprised Sunday when I saw the name Dr. David Muller in a Denver Post article. Muller is a psychiatrist in the Cherry Creek North area.

Last year a friend of mine tried to commit suicide using prescription drugs. When his various prescription bottles were being collected, Dr. David Muller’s name appeared. There was another doctor represented who provided most of the drugs. My friend had become severely addicted to various drugs that were supposed to help with depression and sleep problems. Instead of helping, the drugs were destroying his mind and body. Any competent doctor would have noticed it if he cared.

I wonder if there is an underground where certain doctors lurk. They pass out prescription drugs to anyone willing to pay the fee and now are signing pot applications. I guess if you run in the right circles they are easy to find.

My friend wasn’t served well by his pill pushing doctors and the potheads aren’t either.

Philip

Pets and the Rapture

I think I’ve seen it all:

Christians who believe they will vanish from Earth in the rapture can now hire an atheist to care for their pets.

Eternal Earth-Bound Pets

What’s even stranger is they will probably get some customers.

Philip

Child Sex Trafficking

I went to a seminar last night on Sex Trafficking. It’s a subject I am not very familiar with so I wanted to learn more. What I know so far is that child sex traffic isn’t just something that goes on in other countries even though United States tourists are responsible for 25% of the child sex traffic business. It’s going on in our country and probably not far from our homes. It’s estimated that around 300,000 children are working as prostitutes in the United States. At the seminar, it was said that many of these children are kept in a cage in a basement.

I read an article in the newspaper last week about a nationwide crackdown by the FBI on child prostitution. Almost 700 people were arrested and 52 children were rescued. It went on to say that since the beginning of the project, almost 900 children have been rescued and most of them began prostitution around age 12.

That should knock us out of our chairs. How can we not be moved? With what little I know about this subject so far, I know I must learn more and that some kind of action will be required. Prayer will be first and then those prayers will need feet.

I was left feeling empty last night after the event. I expected to be educated and then given some tools. The education came but I felt the message fell short of what it could have been. As I heard it, the call was for us to become completely dedicated to Jesus, for fathers to be fathers, and to lift up God in worship. Then righteousness and justice will come down and problems like child sex trafficking, abortion and idolatry will be taken care of.

I don’t disagree with the need for changes in our lives and churches. I know we are far from what we should be.

I have been involved in leadership in the prolife movement for over twenty years. I have done my share of trying to motivate people and pastors to involvement. I have heard just about every argument of what we should or should not do to combat abortion. Some say all we should do is pray and God will do the rest. Some back certain laws and others say that Christians shouldn’t be involved in politics. Some say we should establish more pregnancy centers to provide compassion and support for abortion minded women. Some say education is the key. Some support direct action such as picketing and sidewalk counseling and others say that is too confrontational. And sadly most sit on their butt while providing criticism of those who are trying to do something.

I have always supported a multi-faceted approach. We need to work on every front. We need laws, we need education, we need pregnancy centers, we need protest and we need prayer. There is a spot for everyone to get involved.

So that is why I was disappointed last night. Every day I seek to be pure before God and I know I need to be a better father but I know I can’t stop there. If there are young boys and girls in my community who are being held captive in some way and are being sold for sex they need help now. I want to know what God wants me to do. I now have knowledge and I will be held accountable for what I do with it.

I don’t know the answers; I don’t even know the questions but I’m praying for revelation of what to do from here.

Here is a link to the newspaper article mentioned above.

Here is a link to the FBI Innocence Lost National Initiative

Here is a link to Children of the Night

Philip

Appealing to God's Glory

Thoughts from my reading in Whiter Than Snow: Meditations on Sin and Mercy by Paul David Tripp. My thoughts in red.

Then you will delight in right sacrifices . . . ; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Psalm 51:19

You're always in a safe place when you're appealing to God's glory. This is exactly what David does in Psalm 51:18-19: "In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem" (NIV). Why? "Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar" (NIV). David is essentially saying, "God, bless your people, because if you do, they'll live for your glory." This is what all truly biblical prayer will do. We often reduce prayer to a laundry list of self-focused needs in which we ask God to exercise his power for the sake of our comfort or for the purpose of self-glory. You know the requests:

"God, give me wisdom at work (so I can make more money and acquire more power)."

"God, alleviate my financial woes (so I have more money to spend on the pleasure and possessions that will make me happy)."

"God, help my daughter to be more respectful (so that my evenings will be more peaceful so I can get the things done that I want to get done)."

"God, work in the life of my husband (so I can finally experience the marriage of my dreams)."

"God, give me a better relationship with my neighbor (so he will like me enough to make his dog quit trampling my flower beds)."

"God, please heal my body (so that I can do the physical things that I love to do)."

This is a good thing to think about. It’s always good to pray but maybe the motivation isn’t always right. Things can get so mixed up that we may not see the motivation clearly. Is it for me or for the greater purpose of God’s kingdom and glory?

So much of our prayer has nothing to do with the glory of God. Regrettably, in much of our prayer we're actually asking God to endorse our pursuit of a whole catalog of self-focused false glories. For God to be willing to do that would not only mean a denial of who he is, but it would also mean our destruction.

It’s good that God doesn’t always answer prayer the way we want. We may not be self-focused but we may not be seeing the bigger picture. This is where trust comes in. If things aren’t going the way we want, we wait.

But perhaps you're thinking, "Paul, it doesn't seem loving for God to be so focused on his own glory. How does it help me to have God's zeal for his own glory be greater than his zeal for anything else?" This is a very good question and worthy of an answer.

First, don't fall into evaluating the character of God as you'd evaluate the character of a human being. God is not a man and cannot be judged by the standards that he has set for human beings. For a human to be obsessed by his own glory would be a horrendous spirit of pride and self-aggrandizement. But not so with God.

We mess up when we create God in our image. He is not the same as us. We need to remember that He is God and we are not.

So, it is right, good, and beneficial for God to find his greatest pleasure in his own glory simply because he is God. You see, in delighting in his own glory, calling us to live for his glory, and enabling us to do so, God frees us from our self-destructive addiction to self-glory and the endless catalog of false glories that comes with it.

There are a lot of things that fit in that catalog. We are always looking for something that puts us higher than others. It may be education, money, accomplishments, sports, Bible knowledge, game scores, cars, toys, words, etc.

So, God's unshakable commitment to his own glory is the most loving thing he could ever do for us. It's what redeems us from us and breaks our bondage to all the things in life that we wrongly think will give us life but lead only to emptiness and ultimately death.

So when I live for God’s glory I am the most happy, satisfied and content. I experience what I hoped to find in so many other things that proved to be disappointing.

A question from the meditation:

How much of your prayer is dominated by requests that have to do with your vision of glory? What changes in your prayer would take place if your prayer was shaped by an appeal to God's glory?

I am trying to keep this in mind as I go through my prayer list. It’s a subtle but true distinction. I may not even be me that I am praying for. I might be praying for someone else but not see how my prayer should be focused. Am I praying for comfort, promotion or help that simply benefits them or am I looking at the bigger picture? In praying right, I align with God’s will and glory.

Philip


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