Evangelicals and Muslims Together?

  Sunday, CNN featured this article on its website, "How Evangelicals Could Grow to Love Muslims." I agree with the guy's basic premise that evangelicals could get over their prejudices against Muslims, just as they got over their one against Catholics from 50 years ago.  The subplot is that they would also make natural allies for Republican social conservatives since many Muslims are socially conservative.  (This same would apply to Latino immigrants; if the Republicans would compromise on the immigration issue, they could gain a powerful constituency that would be a very natural alliance.)

 Anyways, I considered posting the article on Sunday because I thought it said a useful thing.  The  'need to hate [or simply, be against something]' which the article matter-of-factly mentioned is certainly not a Christian ideal.  So, there ought to be some question as to what has hijacked our thinking so that the outside world doesn't even know us by our love!  

 But it was the headline article on Hank Williams Jr.'s tirade against President Obama, mentioning Islam, today which made me decide to blog.  Now, the President has attempted to make it clear that he is a Christian in his own understanding.  Obviously, he could be lying.  But, that's not really the issue.

  Would it be a bad thing if he were a Muslim?

  No.

  Not from a Christian perspective, other than in regard to his soul - followers of Jesus have usually lived under unbelieving rulers.  From an American perspective (which should be secondary for followers of Christ), it would also be a positive outcome of our values to elect someone who was not from the majority faith.  It would be the most basic expectation of our values to say that someday someone of another faith would lead this country which claims to hold freedom of religion as a core tenet.  Otherwise, we undermine the core of the word freedom and relegate those of other beliefs to second-rate status ...if it would be 'un-American' to have a President who claimed something other than Protestant-ism.  But, that's a sidetrack.

 To return to the original article, it is noteworthy that all sitting justices on the US Supreme Court are Catholic or Jewish in faith.  (Remember that this religion was formerly vilified in US politics.)  Now, of the four Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates, only one (Barack Obama) claims to be Protestant - the others are confessedly Roman Catholic or Mormon.  Politics is an odd world, but amid the many shades of gray which it creates, Christians should try to live out their Lord's commands, not become party to one earthly agenda or another.

 As for Americans generally, it is vain to decry one who 'takes away your freedom' and at the same time say that that one has no right to power, when it is the freedoms you cry for which he champions by being in the position he is in.  Neither race nor religion nor gender are sufficient to disqualify someone from office based on American values.  I do not speak for Christian values here, though if the freedoms that are being championed truly were derived from Scripture as many claim, than that also must be considered.

Eternal Expansion

  I was reminded this morning of the fact that in many ways we have no idea what God has prepared for His people in eternity.  Certainly we have glimpses, but eternity is rather veiled.  The passage that reminded me of this is Isa 9:6-7 which describes the Son who has been given to us, giving Him glorious titles of divinity and goodness.
 Then, it says that the increase of His government and of peace will be unending.  What will the everlasting expansion of administration of the Prince of Peace look like?  How will peace grow forever in a place of perfection?  What mysteries does the Might God and Father of Eternity have in store for us?

Shame.

  In the video I am about to recommend, Brene Brown shared truth that our culture and our selves need to hear.  I came across it on Anthony Bradley's website and watched it because I thought it would be relevant to something I've been thinking about.  It was relevant to a whole lot more... me, the world I live in, the world I'd like to live in.  How to live 'whole' lives, why we don't have the connections to others that God made us to have, the depths of our need for honesty about our brokenness, and many other insights.  May you find a needed part of God's truth in this video, for your self and then for your neighbor.





Two tidbits: "You cannot selectively numb emotion."  "Courage... the ability to tell who you are with your whole heart."


I rarely watch 20-minute videos; I never take notes; I always listen while working on something else.  I watched; I took notes; I focused.

Beyond the Dream (Team)

Obviously it is not news that Kobe and LeBron have both said that the 2012 USA Olympic mens basketball team could beat the 1992 'Dream Team.' Obviously it is also not news that Jordan and Barkley have ridiculed the notion. Frankly, it is ridiculous!

I am a casual basketball fan at best, but when I can glance at the names on THE Dream Team and know of all but one of them (Chris Mullin), and he's still a Hall of Famer, that was a stacked roster. Beyond that, not only was the Team itself inducted into the Hall of Fame, everyone on it except the single college player (Christian Laettner) was individually inducted into it. It seems ludicrously absurd to suggest that the current US team will come even close to having 11 of 12 members in the HOF, much less being inducted in as a team. I think, Kobe is the only one on the team that is a lock for the HOF...

Having said all that, there is one similarity between the two teams, Coach K...

... and now, this casual fan will return to rooting for the USA and hoping for another gold medal by the mens basketball team!

Between Two Fires - evangelical Palestinian followers of Jesus

  Today I finished reading Between Two Fires: The Untold Story of Palestinian Christians.  I suppose it would be as surprising to most Western Christians as it was to me to find out that there are Gospel-believing and -obeying Christians, assembled as churches, ministering in the various sections of Palestine.  In all my reading and conversations, this has gone almost completely unmentioned.  (I came across this book while reading an excellent book by Nabeel Jabbour.)

  The testimonies of those who sacrifice and serve daily to share the good news of Jesus in words and works to those around them will be a source of encouragement and exhortation to any believer.  As the marginalized witness to a marginalized people, these brothers and sisters demonstrate what it looks like to love the Lord God first and then to love their neighbors (often, enemies) as themselves.  This is seen in the grime and the dirt of real struggles and failures and growth.  The book is mediocre in style and format but stellar in content.  I'd strongly recommend Between Two Fires to all those who love to see the Body of Christ in action and those who care deeply for the lost around the world.

 Technical details: It's a relatively short read at approximately 127 pages.  There's an excellent addendum at the end.

High and Low: Man and God

  Reading in Isaiah 5 this morning, I noticed an interesting comparison in verses 15 and 16.  The context is God's condemnation and judgment upon His people.  He says that this judgment will result in those with lofty, proud (literally 'high') eyes being brought low.  Then, He says that He, their God, will be exalted (literally 'high') when this happens.

  This is fascinating since the normal expectation when a god's people are crushed by another people is for that god to be humbled, brought low.  So, how is it that this God is exalted in His people's humbling?  

  The Lord of the Armies is exalted even when His people receive defeat and humiliation at the hands of others because He sent the defeat and humiliation.  He is the God of justice and righteousness, not some territorial god who is personally threatened by the success or failure of His worshipers.  Instead, He demands that His people be holy and obedient and clean, seeking to be as He is.

  And this was utterly impossible.

  

  And so, God Himself was humbled and exalted...

  ...so that His people might be people of justice and righteousness and humility, till the day He exalted them under His own exalted lordship.  He suffered judgment so that He might bless and heal them.

(images from here and here)

The Mountain of the Lord - an eschatological speculation

  I read the beginning of Isaiah 2 this morning and was struck by the way the God's temple is described: it is described as if it could literally be a Temple Mountain or a Mountain Temple... as if this great temple from which God will teach and judge the nations might literally be built into a mountain or carved from a mountain, a temple that would be by earthly measures worthy of the God worshipped there and the King served there!

 So, I looked around to see what the best mountain temples currently look like.  None fit the image in my mind, although some are impressive.  I'd love to see someone draw a magnificent imagined Mountain Temple.  But for now, here are the best mountain temples I could find...

A Temple in China

Honorable Mentions:

Monastery at Petra

(Petra's temple wasn't built into the mountain apparently.)

Monastery in Turkey

Aztec Temple

Hidden in My Heart

  While I frequently recommend authors, books or poems, I don't believe I've recommended a music cd on here before.  I've even posted thoughts on what the New Testament says about music.  But today is a good time to recommend a set of excellent cds.  We were given the first Hidden in My Heart right before our first daughter was born.  We loved it!  Calming truths of Scripture put to lullaby music.  

 Well, this week we found out that just as we are expecting our second daughter, they have released a second volume.  So, now we are finding out if we will love this one as much as we loved the first one.

You can listen through the cds on their pages, Scripture as poem and lullaby...

Book culture - an occidental phenomenon

   In Is That a Fish in Your Ear?, David Bellos provides some fascinating insight into the nature of literary translation and the languages and culture which accompany it.  Citing UNESCO's database of the top 13 most popular source languages for translation, only Swahili (and English) are not most frequently translated into English.  Swahili is translated most often into Russian, and then English second.
   75% of all translations are either from (65%) or into (10%) English.
   47% of all translated books were published in either English, French, or German.

   Bellos makes this poignant comment which should influence our thinking concerning how to spread the Gospel:

Culture is not the prerogative of any part or place in the world, but book culture [...] is heavily concentrated in Britain, the United States, France, and Germany. (pg 210)

   If you are thinking of ministering outside of those four countries, think through non-literary approaches and concentrate on them. Even though literature (particularly the Word of God) will be vital for the growth of the work of God, it may not be vital for the beginning of that work in many places.  Consider whether this was not true in earliest Christian times.

Blame-shifting the source of our sin

The source of sin lies closer to home than you or I may want to admit.  It's easy to blame God or the devil for our struggles, but the primary source of our sin lies within our own hearts.  Explaining temptation by saying, "God is testing me" or "Satan is attacking me" positions "me" either as the victim, if I am defeated, or the hero, if I prevail.  But confessing that "My heart is desperately wicked" provides no such comforts.  It heads off all attempts to shift blame, and cuts down all the pretensions of spiritual pride.

~ Colin Smith, Jonah: Navigating a God-Centered Life

(recently given to me by friends, and it's pretty rich so far.)