Observing Bible Abominations...Abomination #2: A PROUD LOOK

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him...a proud look..." (Proverbs 6:16-17 - KJV)

Observing Bible Abominations...Abomination #1: CHEATING

Are there yet the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the short measure that is an abomination?
(Micah 6:10 - New King James Version)

Osama Bin Laden is Dead

As an American, I join in with the rest of the country in breathing a collective sigh of relief in knowing that Osama Bin Laden has been removed from the world stage, and I applaud the obviously successful efforts of our (American-born) Commander-In-Chief (who has had a very good week, by the way) and the amazing soldiers who executed a virtually flawless raid on the Pakistani mansion/compound belonging to Bin Laden. I wish it hadn't taken so long to find him, especially since he has obviously been hiding in plain sight, and I regret that we are still at war in Iraq and Afghanistan...but at least he's gone, and at least it happened before the up-coming 10th anniversary of 9/11.

Being as patriotic as the next guy, I was moved by the spontaneous celebrations that broke out at the White House and in Times Square and at Ground Zero last night, and I certainly don't want to be insensitive to the pain of the families who lost loved ones on that horrible September morning a decade ago...families that will never have full closure from the atrocities of that day, no matter who is assassinated...but I am sober today. Relieved? Yes. Happy? Not really...at least not totally.

Just yesterday I preached on "The Fruit of the Spirit is Kindness", and even though what was done in Pakistan in the last few hours apparently had to be done, I can't in good conscience rejoice in the death of anyone, no matter how evil they are. Am I glad he's gone? No doubt about it. I'm glad to know that we don't have to dread another of his videos coming out that shows he's still alive and still a threat to our safety. But I am grieved that we live in a world where this kind of thing still has to happen at all.

The President gave a short but brilliant speech last night, in which he pointed out that Osama Bin Laden does not represent Islam, and he's right about that. In fact, Bin Laden has killed more Muslims than he has any other group. But where my mind is today is that the real enemy is not Osama Bin Laden or any other person...it's religious fundamentalism.

Fundamentalism kills...be it Muslim or Christian or that of any other religious persuasion. The Crusades, The Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, the violence between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland, the Ku Klux Klan, the Taliban, etc...it's all about religious intolerance, and people are vicitimized by religious intolerance on some level every day.

Today I'm proud to be an American. I'm proud of our President and our troops. I love my country, and I want it to be safe. But I'm really, really tired of religious fundamentalism, and all the hatred and death that it inevitably causes.

Terrorism happens every day in the name of religion...believe me, I know of what I speak.

Just wanted to share some thoughts.

God bless America...

God is Love. Period.

If I speak with human eloquence and angelic ecstasy but don't love, I'm nothing but the creaking of a rusty gate. If I speak God's Word with power, revealing all his mysteries and making everything plain as day, and if I have faith that says to a mountain, "Jump," and it jumps, but I don't love, I'm nothing. 3-7If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love.

  

 Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn't want what it doesn't have.
Love doesn't strut,
Doesn't have a swelled head,
Doesn't force itself on others,
Isn't always "me first,"
Doesn't fly off the handle,
Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn't revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit. We know only a portion of the truth, and what we say about God is always incomplete. But when the Complete arrives, our incompletes will be canceled.

When I was an infant at my mother's breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good.

We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!

But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

1 Corinthians 13 - The Message

REALITY CHECK!

Today's affirmation from A Year In The Now...

"And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." (John 8:32)

Today I will live in the now! I will live in the now because I am a real person, experiencing the real God in the real world. I will live truthfully today, understanding the difference between walking by faith instead of by sight, and living in denial of reality. Today I will reconcile my preparation for the worst case, with my expectation of the best case in every situation that arises.


Today I will be sober without being sullen – mature, but not morose – levelheaded, yet lighthearted at the same time! Harmony, balance and a genuine sense of serenity will display the peace that passes understanding through my life. The peace of God makes me shockproof today, so that, come what may, I am calm, cool, and collected in every circumstance.


Today I will not waste my time trying to be someone or something that I am not. The people in my life will have an authentic sense of trust in me, because my self-truth will give them permission to be who they really are, and to like who they really are.


Today I will embrace the inevitable. If I can't change it, I will adapt to it, and will live freely and peaceably, choosing to go with the flow, accepting life as it really is. Today I choose truth-inspired tranquility, and welcome honesty-induced happiness. Parting with illusions will bring great relief to my soul, as I live the liberated life with godly contentment.


Today I will tell the truth, plain and simple. My stories will need no embellishment, my memories will remain intact, my ambitions will be realistic. I will see life the way that it is, and call it as I see it. Whatever is built on a lie in my world will fall, because it should fall, and I will have no fear today, because the Lord is my shepherd, and I do not lack or want for anything.


Today I will not get involved with the silly games that people play when trying to relate to one another. I will let my "yes" be "yes," and my "no" be "no," providing a safe haven for those, like me, who seek the truth in the world. I will move on from those who refuse to live in authenticity.


Today I will get a grip on reality. I will not fear telling the truth, or hearing the truth, taking both praise and criticism in stride. Today I will enjoy the effect of speaking the truth in love, even to myself, and today I will live in the now!


Father, help me to live truthfully today. In Jesus’ name, amen

Food for Thought

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
- e.e. cummings, 1955


“But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10 - Today's New International Version)

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. - Oscar Wilde, De Profundis, 1905

Who in the world do you think you are to second-guess God? Do you for one moment suppose any of us knows enough to call God into question? Clay doesn't talk back to the fingers that mold it, saying, "Why did you shape me like this?"
(Romans 9:20 - The Message)

The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune.
- Boris Pasternak

The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them.
- Thomas Merton

A New Song

Ray Boltz, composer of such Gospel classics as 'Thank You', 'Watch the Lamb', and 'The Anchor Holds' has been the recipient of two song awards from the Gospel Music Association's Dove Awards. 'Thank You' received the 1990 Song of the Year award, and 'I Pledge Allegiance to the Lamb' received the 1994 award for Inspirational Song. He also was one of various artists contributing to God with Us: A Celebration of Christmas Carols & Classics, which won the 1997 award for Special Event Album. He is a great songwriter...and his best days are ahead of him...

God's gifts and God's call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.
(Romans 11:29 - The Message)

For God's gifts and His call are irrevocable. [He never withdraws them when once they are given, and He does not change His mind about those to whom He gives His grace or to whom He sends His call.]
(Romans 11:29 - Amplified Bible)