The War

I have used the metaphors of war because that is exactly how the Bible describes the conflict between God and Satan. But our struggle is a very different kind of war. The revolution of the kingdom is not a revolution of violence to be won by force. It does not advance on the basis of earthly power or principles of warfare. It has no tanks or guns or bombs. Its weapons are paradoxical: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We go out into the world assaulting the gates of hell by loving our neighbors—even our enemies. We go to the broken and ragged places to comfort the afflicted and bind up the brokenhearted. We carry the message of a new hope into our workplaces, schools, and town halls. We bind up the wounds of abuse, exploitation, addiction, and alienation with acts of forgiveness and healing. We are called to care for the widow, the orphan, the alien, and the stranger—to lift up justice and fight economic disparity, to speak up for the voiceless and hold our governments accountable, to challenge racism and bigotry, to be generous with our money-and to live lives of integrity. We see value in the worthless, find strength in the weak, and anoint the downtrodden with significance. We seek to right every wrong and take every thought captive to obedience to Jesus Christ. Our opponents are disarmed when they see our breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth buckled around our waist, and the helmet of our salvation. We march on feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. Every act of kindness, each moment spent in prayer, and every expression of love in the name of Christ pierces the heart of the enemy and sends him into retreat. These are the gentle weapons of the kingdom. There is still evil in the world, but evil is on the run.

                                                     -Richard Stearns, Unfinished

Surveillance

In a society that does not fear God, the only way to establish justice will be to put everyone under constant surveillance.
                                                                                -Vishal Mangalwadi, Truth and Transformation

Influence

As strange as it may seem, it may happen at times that the church is most influential when it is indifferent to exercising influence.

                                                                 -Richard John Neuhaus, The Naked Public Square

Adam Smith and Medical Societies

 

“People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”

                                                          ― Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations

What Systems Foster

Systems will tolerate and adapt better to trouble-making complainers and incompetents, than to creative thinkers who disturb the status quo or homeostasis. 
                                                                   -Edwin Friedman, Generation to Generation

Soldiering in a Free State

The problem with a good country, a free country, is that when no one is attacking, the soldiers have nothing to do. They are not assigned to round up citizens, kill for sport, invent torture devices, or any number of things that might keep them better occupied or sharpen their skills. They will always be a step behind when it comes to the initial battle with villains. Yes, strength and abilities are helped by training and will improve with battle. But the true strength of a free country must come from freedom itself. On the surface this may appear weak and the fight hopeless. But goodness and freedom make a deep river that is not soon dried up in the heat, and can be trusted to supply. A mighty force can be made of those who in freedom band together to take down a rising evil.

Marriage Illusions

Most of us get married to the great American marital dream. Marriage is going to be that happy state in which we get all the nurturance and care and love and empathy and even the good advice that we didn't receive in our families. Marriage is going to help us feel better about ourselves; it is going to make life easier and more secure. It does, for a while. We form a very tight, dependent unit, and we help each other in all sorts of ways: advice, sympathy, mothering, teaching, We have a lot to give each other.

But sooner or later this psychotherapy project fails.  The major reason is that the protagonists get very scared that they are each going to lose their individual identities in the dependency. So the couple begins to back away from each other, mistrusting. How can you safely depend on someone with whom you're struggling for dominance in the relationship?

If the partners could stick with the backing away and endure the aloneness for a while, the problem might be solved. They would get over being so dependent, and marriage wouldn't feel so threatening, But it rarely happens that way. Instead, they usually find a substitute for the dependency.

                                                                                   -Augustus Napier, The Family Crucible

Define Wrong

We have become so conditioned to measuring the rightness of what we do by the quality of emotion it generates that we've developed a new version of relativistic ethics that might be called the Morality of Fulfillment. 
                                              -Larry Crabb, The Marriage Builder

Of course, visceral repulsion to wrong is a very useful check on human sin. But the problem is that these emotions can be swayed, manipulated, numbed, and even used as a form of excitement. Clearly, our feelings are an insufficient sole measure for ethics on a personal and public scale. Thus the goal of "blind justice," in our public court system. This idea that we search for a moral truth apart from ourselves and our feelings, is evidence of a moral being above ourselves. It also supports our question as to what distances us from this moral being. The scriptures say that this is due, in fact, to our moral failings themselves. 

But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear.  (Isaiah 59:2, NASB)

Job Security

There is a profound tendency when one attains a position of high power in business to be terrified of losing it and, hence, a profound temptation to sacrifice one's integrity in order to hold on to it.  As far as I am concerned, a prime rule governing the civil use of power in business is: "Forget about job security!"...

By the time a person reaches a position of top management, her heart will either belong to her personal ambition or to a Higher Power. If to ambition, then her primary consideration will be the politics of the situation, her popularity, and what is most likely to make her look good so as to preserve or enhance her position and its power. If her primary allegiance is to a Higher Power, it will be to what is "right."  This does not mean she will give no consideration to politics or that what is right will be clear; it is a matter of the primary orientation of her instincts...

                                                                           -M Scott Peck, A World Waiting to be Born

I Believe in Science

      The advances of science in the modern age have come at the cost of certain traditional reasons for belief in God. When we had no idea how the universe came into existence, it was easier to ascribe it all to an act of God, or many separate acts of God. Similarly, until Kepler, Copernicus, and Galileo upset the applecart in the sixteenth century, the placement of Earth at the center of the majestic starry heavens seemed to represent a powerful argument for the existence of God. If He put us on center stage, He must have built it all for us. When heliocentric science forced a revision of the this perception, many believers were shaken up.

     But a third pillar of belief continued to carry considerable weight: the complexity of earthly life, implying to any reasonable observer the handiwork of an intelligent designer...Science has now turned this upside down. But here, as with the other two arguments, I would like to suggest that science should not be denied by the believer, it should be embraced. The elegance behind life’s complexity is indeed reason for awe, and for belief in God—but not in the simple, straightforward way that many found so compelling before Darwin came along…

      Now that molecular mechanisms, genetic pathways, and natural selection are being put forward to explain all this, you might be tempted to cry out, “Enough! Your naturalistic explanations are taking all the divine mystery out of the world!”

      Do not fear, there is plenty of divine mystery left. Many people who have considered all the scientific and spiritual evidence still see God’s creative and guiding hand at work. For me, there is not a shred of disappointment or disillusionment in these discoveries about the nature of life—quite the contrary! How marvelous and intricate life turns out to be! How deeply satisfying is the digital elegance of DNA! How aesthetically appealing and artistically sublime are the components of living things, from the ribosome that translates RNA into protein, to the metamorphosis of the caterpillar into the butterfly, to the fabulous plumage of the peacock attracting his mate! Evolution, as a mechanism, can be and must be true. But that says nothing about the nature of its author. For those who believe in God, there are reasons now to be more in awe, not less.

                                                                                      -Francis Collins, The Language of God

Dr Collins is currently head of the National Institutes of Health. He lead the Human Genome Project to map the entire human genome: a wildly audacious goal when initiated, it was ultimately successful by 2003.

My advice regarding the book “The Language of God,” is that you could skip the first two chapters and start with chapter 3. Philosophy is not his field, and others have done a better job saying the same thing (I suggest reading Mere Christianity). But after that, it is really worth the read.

Sacrifice

Sacrifice is at the heart of Christian faith. The people of God in Old Testament times offered animals for their sins--lambs, goats, bulls, and pigeons. Jesus offered himself as a perfect, final sacrifice so that the animal sacrifices would not have to be repeated.

Sacrifice, surrender, and suffering are not popular topics nowadays. Our culture makes us believe that we can have it all, that we should demand our rights, that with the right technology all pain and problems can be overcome. This is not my attitude toward sacrifice. I know that it is impossible to relieve the world's suffering unless God's people are willing to surrender to God, to make sacrifices, and to suffer along with the poor.

From the beginning of time the human heart has felt the need to offer God a sacrifice. What is an acceptable sacrifice? One that is good for the people of God. One that is made on behalf of the world.

The words of Jesus, "Love one another as I have loved you," must be not only a light for us but a flame that consumes the self in us. Love, in order to survive, must be nourished by sacrifices, especially the sacrifice of self.

Suffering is nothing by itself. But suffering shared with the passion of Christ is a wonderful gift, the most beautiful gift, a token of love.

I must be willing to give whatever it takes to do good to others. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.

                                                                     -Mother Teresa, In the Heart of the World

Truth

"When you see something, say something. And you say it with the facts and the reporting to back it up. You make the choice everyday to exemplify honest because the truth exonerates and it convicts, it disinfects and it galvanizes. The truth has always been, and will always be, our shield against corruption, greed and despair -- the truth is our saving grace"
                             

                                                                         -Oprah Winfrey