Rejoicing in the Dark

   Let me preface what is to follow by saying that I believe in a practical Christianity--a faith that exists not behind cloistered doors in ivory towers, but rather in the real world.  In fact, I would go so far as to use practicality as a litmus test for truth; if your doctrine doesn't work, then it isn't true.  One of the myriad of issues with the Osteen-ish , 'Every Day a Friday', 'Your Best Life Now', 'name it and claim it' gobbledygook is that it doesn't work.  It sells real well among the upwardly mobile in a big city in a rich country with access to clean water and food good and medicine, but try selling that snake oil to Christians in Sierra Leone or Haiti.  It doesn't work, so it isn't true.

  Now with all that in mind, lets take a look at Ecc 11:7-18. The Bible says  "Truly the light is sweet , and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun. But if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity."

  As with most of the Bible, there is a lot packed in there, but I want to zero in on a very practical sentiment: the days of darkness are many and if you live long enough, you'll see your fair share.  I don't know why that surprises people , after all Job already told you that "man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward". You and I were born into a broken world that has been in a constant downhill slide since our ancestors were forced out of the garden.  There is plenty of sorrow and sadness to go around, and if you stick around, you'll get some to call your very own.  Isn't that encouraging? Isn't that practical?

  Look at the verse again.  You might have missed it the first time. A man can rejoice in all his days, even the dark ones.  It is possible, according to scripture, to not only 'stand' in the evil days, but to 'rejoice' in the dark days.

  I saw this and I really started digging.  I have had, and am still having, and still will have, some dark days, and if victory is possible , I want to find it.  I think I found 4 areas where a man can rejoice even as the world crumbles around him, even as his mind turns on him, even as nothing goes right, even as his best days are behind him.

  We'll start in Psalm 139:12, which says "Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."  I know what it is to have dark days. I know what it's like to be discouraged and dismayed and frustrated. I know what its like to feel like I don't have a friend in the world. I know what its like to  have no idea what to do next, or to even understand why things are happening.  But you know something? God has never had a day like that. God acknowledges that some days are dark, but they are only dark to you.  You , dear Christian, are not alone in the dark, and the One in there with you can see just fine.  Somebody knows what going on, even if that somebody isn't you, and you can rejoice in that.  You can ,in the midst of your misery, be glad in that.

  Moving on to Psalm 31, we find, " I will be glad and rejoice in thy mercy: for thou hast considered my trouble; thou hast known my soul in adversities; And hast not shut me up into the hand of the enemy: thou hast set my feet in a large room.  Have mercy upon me, O LORD, for I am in trouble: mine eye is consumed with grief, yea, my soul and my belly.  For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing: my strength faileth because of mine iniquity, and my bones are consumed. I was a reproach among all mine enemies, but especially among my neighbours, and a fear to mine acquaintance: they that did see me without fled from me.  I am forgotten as a dead man out of mind: I am like a broken vessel. For I have heard the slander of many: fear was on every side: while they took counsel together against me, they devised to take away my life.  But I trusted in thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my God."  Notice that the author (David) is, as the saying goes, in a 'world of hurt', physically spent and emotionally wrung out like an old rag. Every day is not a Friday , and he is not having his best life now. He sits there amidst his sorrow, alone, friendless--and rejoices in God's mercy.He rejoices that God knows his situation, and he acknowledges that it could be worse.  That's a legitimate stand to take, and a legitimate way to rejoice in the dark.

  Our next stop is Habakkuk 3:17-19, which says "Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. To the chief singer on my stringed instruments."  Here we have a man having a very dark day. If we take the text at face value economic ruin and starvation aren't off the table.  And 'yet' Habakkuk purposes that he will rejoice in the Lord. Why? Because (get ready for some deep theology) God is strong. He rejoices in God's ability and willingness to get involved in the struggles of His children, and because God is strong even when Habakkuk isn't, he knows someday he will walk out of this particular valley, and he rejoices in that.

  We'll finish up in Psalm 119:161-162, which says "Princes have persecuted me without a cause: but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. I rejoice at thy word, as one that findeth great spoil."  Once again, the author is not a person without problems. He is being persecuted, apparently by the government, but in the middle of  that, he is able to rejoice, not in his circumstances, but in God's word.  It doesn't make his problem go away , but it does give him confidence. He has the written revelation from the One who cannot lie, and to him it a treasure beyond compare. Through it, he is able to have the victory.

  There you have it, folks. Four things.  A lot more could be said about each of these points, but, what do you think?

My Battle

  I'm going to tell you something you already know. It's horrible out there. Depending on when you  read this, Isis will have just blown something up or  Hamas will have blown something up or maybe  the PLO will have a  resurgence and blow something up. Syria is unstable, or maybe it's Libya this week. Some guy in a suit is giving a speech somewhere about how if you just vote for him he can fix it all, and he sounds a lot like the last guy that  said  that he  would fix it all.  Groceries cost more than they used to, and the price of gas is going up. The dollar is on the decline, or maybe the yen is on the rise, or both. A police state is being assembled around us. Some government  somewhere  has passed a law that takes more money from you and gives it  to somebody else.  Somebody else is, as we speak , is writing a law or voting on a law that will remove some of your liberties.  Our schools are crumbling. Somebody shot somebody somewhere last night.  Perversion is everywhere and is protected by law.  Immigrants are flooding the countryside, and that may or may not be a bad thing, depending on who you ask.  Inflation is rising, or falling, depending on who you ask.  We may or may not be destroying the environment , depending on who you ask.   There is an expert  under every rock , with a solution that is either the direct opposite of the last guys solution, or more of the same slightly reworded.
  Let me be very clear; if you are saved, none of this is your problem, and none of this is your fight.  This is their world, not ours, and they are making as big a mess of it as they can.  They think they are smart, and all their  history proves is that they are not.  They have the  music they want, and the  movies they want, and  the dress standards they want, and they don't really care what God thinks or what you think. For a child of God to become overly concerned about the affairs of this world, especially the ones over which he has  no control is folly.  Not only do we  not have any control, or any real input, but we don't even really have a stake in the game.
  We have been called out of this world and given a job to do. That job is not to run for office or register more Republicans or improve public morality or feed the starving children of Africa or end the slave trade or write laws  intended to  curb the incurable lusts of the  unregenerate.  We have not been tasked  to fight against gun control or shut down the abortion mills. Our task, as ambassadors of Christ is not to defend the Constitution or to change the culture. Our job is to glorify God by preaching the  gospel of Jesus Christ in every venue  afforded to us.
  The Bible  tells us in 2 Timothy 2  " No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier".   So China adjusts their trade policy?  So  Cuba invades Key West? So a Martian lands on the White House lawn? So what? People will worry and people will fret abut tomorrows headlines just as much as they  worried and fretted about yesterdays headlines, and you and I  have just as much ability to  influence those  headlines today as we did yesterday, which is to say, none at all. We have just as much responsibility to fret and worry and be manipulated by the fearmongers today as we did yesterday, which is to say, none at all.
  Now I am a big fan of the Constitution, and I enjoy the liberties it allows me to preach the gospel.   But my brothers and sisters in Christ have lived victorious Christian lives without one for almost two millennia.  For me to fret and worry that Obama (or the puppet to follow) is  going to stop this thing is a good indicator that I don't understand what this 'thing' is.  People served God during Nebuchadnezzars reign  just as much as people served God under Joseph Stalin just as much as people served God under Ronald Reagan.  As much as I sympathize with the idea that we fight for our liberties, the liberties are not the end in themselves, and if they were snatched away tomorrow, we would still have the same job to do.
  I  didn't get saved until 1995 but somehow I  vaguely recall how American evangelicals were meddling in politics in the late 1980's. Good men got sidetracked and stopped preaching the gospel to lost people, opting instead to spend their time attending Moral Majority luncheons and trying to get smut off of television. Prayer breakfasts were held ad ininfitum where  politicians looking to  get votes promised men like Robertson and Falwell the sun moon and stars if they could just persuade their people to pull the level for them versus the other guy.  They used us like a pimp uses a prostitute, and millions of people marched into hell in the meantime. 
  As we  trudge on into yet another election cycle, let me admonish you to keep your focus. Vote or don't vote, I don't care. Just remind yourself that we are pilgrims and sojourners, and this is not our home, and this is not our fight.

College Football and Christianity

  I was born in Louisiana, and when you are born in Louisiana, the doctor holds you up and asks you if you are a Saints fan. If you say  'no' they drop you off at the Arkansas border. So as a dutiful native of the Bayou State I sat through literally decades of bad football. Remember,  Saints fans  were the  original 'brown paper bag over the head' fans, and we were encouraged that, even if you had to hide your face, you still backed your team.  So I watched the games and cheered for the players and  was excited when they won, and discouraged when they lost. I spent a lot of time discouraged.  I know  of what I speak when I talk about  team loyalty.
   But one day, when I was  maybe 14 or so, it struck me that although the team was  headquartered in Louisiana, most of the players weren't natives.  Here I was supporting  what I perceived to be the 'local boys' when the truth is they were all carpetbaggers who  wore my  team's colors for a paycheck.  Taking this even further, it wasn't my team, it was Tom Benson's team, and above that, the National Football League's team. They managed to extract years of loyalty to me out of the simple coincidence that they established a franchise of their business in the same vague geographical designation as my birth.
  I mention this because  college football season in the South is in full swing, and people who never attended, for example, the University of Georgia will  deck themselves out in red and black, bark like dogs, and talk about what a good game 'they' played. Otherwise rational people will sit on their couch at home (after dressing up) and  talk about how 'we' beat them when 'we' wasn't even at the game.  My current residence is near the  Florida-Georgia border so we have people that have lived in Georgia 99% of their life, but because they were born 10 minutes south of the border, proclaim themselves lifelong Florida fans.  It's a little odd.  They will drape their kids, who weren't born in Florida, in Florida colors and begin the  inculcation of regionalistic tribalism.
  People are, at their  heart of hearts, tribal, in nature. Everybody wants to be part of something; they want to be part of a group. They want to be able to identify with something larger than themselves, and  they will pay through the nose for the privilege.  The great college rivalries, are , in essence , the exact same thing as warfare, but with less bloodshed (unless it's a Raiders game) and they are basically, no different than the  great  inter-tribe contests of the Incas or the Mayans. The dynamic is the same; my group can  beat your group. People  identify themselves with the group and  glory in the accomplishments of the group whether or not they contributed anything to the 'victory'.
  For the most part, this stuff is  harmless escapism and good-natured fun.  It gives people who aren't athletes somebody to cheer for, and I'm certain that's all good and well.  Where I get a little  confused is when people who claim to have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and claim to have passed from death unto life and claim to have had all their sins washed away and claim to have been placed in Jesus Christ  show very little interest in identifying themselves with that particular tribe.  People who will paint half of their face blue  so they can  sit at home and watch a millionaire play a child's game show  no interest in bearing any sort of reproach for the one who  suffered and died for them.
  Shouldn't being part of that group, the blood-washed band, trump all other groups? Shouldn't  the excitement over what  Jesus has done make all these other team accomplishments seem  silly by comparison?  People will attend these games and be  confrontational towards the opposition.  They will wave signs  and learn chants, knowing that those guys in the other colors aren't really their enemies,; it's just a game. Some of those same people will   become oddly silent when it comes time to express opposition towards the  very real enemies of  their Saviour in a contest that is not a game.
  Every year  myself and a  small group of dear friends attend the Georgia Florida game in Jacksonville. We  stand outside the stadium and  we  preach and hold signs and try to tell people  about Jesus. We get opposed by drunks, but that doesn't bother us. Drunks should be opposed to us. What does bother us (or more accurately, me) is that in a crowd of over 100,000 in and around the stadium, there will be, maybe 30 people standing up for Jesus.  Maybe.
  Even in our church, I can tell you, with a fair amount of certainly, who will be going and who will not, even this early on.  I know who will probably take off work to be able to go and I know who  wouldn't be caught dead with us.  I'm not saying everybody has to do what we do, but if you pass up a chance to root for Jesus so that you can stay home, watch TV, dress in  funny colors and root for  nobody special, I'm not mad at you, I'm just very very confused.

The Hope in the Gospel

"We give thanks to God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,  Since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which ye have to all the saints,  For the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel;  Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit , as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth:  As ye also learned of Epaphras our dear fellowservant, who is for you a faithful minister of Christ;  Who also declared unto us your love in the Spirit." Col 1:3-8
  Verse 5 says that there is a hope available to us, and that hope is contained in the  gospel of Jesus Christ.  Most saved people would  say that  this hope is that  they will die and go to heaven and  spend eternity with Jesus. That's certainly true, but it's worth mentioning that, according to Hebrews 2:3 we have a "great" salvation.  Not "great " as in "really nice", but rather "great" as in  "really big".  There are elements to my salvation that are so large and so expansive that I'm like a man standing on a mountain that can't even see the whole mountain. Only by backing up  am I able to see the whole thing, and so I want to back up a bit suing the Scriptures and  show one little piece of this great  salvation and the hope contained therein.
"Wherefore , as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned :  (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come" Rom 5:12-14
  The one thing all men everywhere have in common is death.  The thing that binds the  Beverly Hills debutante with the kid squatting in a hut in  South America is  that they both will die. Men spend fortunes   trying to avoid it, and trying to postpone it, but yet it catches every single one of them without fail. If you eat too much you die, if you eat too little  you die. If you get too hot or if you get too cold you die. Whether you eat good food or junk food, you die. If you jog or don't jog, you will still die. You can die in a bar fight or die in a nursing home, you will be just as dead.  Even if you do everything right, if you just hang around long enough, you will die.   Regardless of brains or beauty or riches, regardless of reputation or position, culture or caste, you and I  both have an appointment with a  hole in the ground.  When this happens we weep because we somehow understand that this thing , this horrible  breath-stealing thief, is the result  of something  in humanity's past that went horribly wrong.  When death happens we  put what's left of that person in a box and put that box out of sight so that nobody has to face what happens next. We do our best to dress up and dignify what is a horribly undignified process.  There is no reason for death to be dignified; it's the result of  sin.
  When Adam fell, we all became horribly broken. Adam stood there, after having been made in the image of God, with a  soul that would never die, and a body that was subject unto death.  The first Adam put the penalty of physical death on all his descendants.  Every broken heart and every tear and every grave is the continuing fruit of Adam's transgression.  People  weep and cry and blame God, but God didn't invent death, man did.
  Knowing all that, and knowing that death is coming for you as sure as the next sunrise, what you really need is  not more money or more pleasure or more toys or cleaner drinking water, what you really need is some way to avoid that hole in the ground. What you need is  a hope.  
  "But I would not have you to be ignorant , brethren, concerning them which are asleep , that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope.  For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again , even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep .  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:  Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  Wherefore comfort one another with these words." 1 Thess 4:13-18 
  Our hope isn't just the redemption of our souls, and the washing away of our sins. It's not just  eternal life around the throne of God. It's so much larger than that.  Our hope is that, should death claim us, and we get put in the  wooden box, that the Lord Jesus Christ himself is coming to get us out of that box!  He'll rejoin our redeemed souls with our redeemed bodies and we'll be whole again, never to  die !  But it doesn't stop there!
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away ; and there was no more sea.  And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying , Behold , the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.  And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away ." Rev 21:1-4
  Someday Jesus Christ, who submitted himself unto death even the death of the cross and tasted death for every man. will make death submit itself unto him.  Jesus Christ who delivered us from the power of death and took away it's sting with his own  conquering hand, will destroy death itself so that it can never hurt anyone ever again.  Someday somebody will dig the last grave ever.  Someday somebody will shed the last tear ever. Someday the last Adam will have fixed everything that the first Adam broke!  That's the hope in the gospel.

Islam Isn't the Problem....

 Islam isn't the problem, dead churches are.

  In my circles, there has been a great amount of fervor  and hand-wringing about the coming Islamic threat in recent years.  We have watched the demographic  shift in Europe over the last couple of decades, and we have watched the increasing boldness of  radical Islam in those places as their  population has swelled with immigration and conversions.  We know by their own statements that the Islamic world is full of  ambitious men who see themselves as the chosen instruments by which the the re-institution of the caliphs and Islamic dictatorships of  centuries past will be accomplished.  These men see in these demographic shifts and political vacuums the means to  fulfill what they view as Islam's great mandate; the subjugation of all other faiths and peoples.  People  in my circles look around them and they see the same thing happening in America, and they are  probably right.  Through immigration and proselytization, the  Muslim population in America  is exploding.  People in my circles in hushed tones talk about potential solutions, including deportation and  anti-Muslim legislation, lest we  become like Europe.  Throw into the mix rabble-rousing politicians who refuse to let a good crisis go to waste, and who  promise to stand for 'American values' (whatever those are nowadays) .  These politicians  feed off an  'us vs them' mentality, and will gladly contribute to the xenophobia if it gives them a chance to wrap themselves in a flag and claim to be the good guys.
   There certainly seems to be cause for alarm. In Europe, the Muslim population increased from 30 million in 1990 to  44 million in  2010.  Some of this is from immigration, and higher birth rates, but not all. Over 100,000 of the Muslims in Britain are adult converts. France reportedly has an adult convert population of   almost 100,000 , most of them men under 40 in their prime child -rearing years.  The United Nation  claims that  Islam in Europe has grown 142% since 1989. This population of immigrants and converts are  reshaping whole neighborhoods as has been  called a 'demographic time bomb'
  Let's say it's all true.  Let's go ahead and indulge all of our  worst blue-eyed nightmares.  Let's say that there exists, at some level , a concerted, almost conspiratorial effort  to flood the western world with Muslims.  Let's say the caliph-wanna-bes see our civilization  as rife with moral decay, and  ripe for the picking.  Let's say that their  intent is to establish a significant enough presence in the West to eventually, either thorough vote or conquest, propel themselves into power and  subjugate everybody else.  Let's say they all sit around in their caves at night  and stroke their beards with glee at the prospect of a Muslim President in America, and the institution of Shirai law over the rest of us.
  Is the solution borders and walls and  barbed wire fences and lines drawn in the sand and anti-Muslim laws?  Is the solution  suspicion of everybody wearing a headdress and an stiffening of our natural  dislike of everybody different from us?  I submit to you that the solution is something much more intangible, yet incomparably more powerful; the solution is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
  You see, the  rise of  Islam in Europe has been attended by the decline of something else; real evangelical Biblical Christianity.  For centuries  Europe lead the way in having a vibrant, living church presence in which the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it's life-changing power was  tirelessly proclaimed  publicly. Though   huge swathes of Europe lived under the domination of  popish superstition, there was always  in existence an aggressive, confrontational Christianity, particularly in England which  gave us such spiritual giants as  Tyndale , John Wesley,  George Whitefield and C.H. Spurgeon. Islam existed side by side with these men, but could never get a foothold because the red-hot preaching and fervent spiritual lives of these men and those that followed them held it at bay.  Truth was so openly  and shamelessly  promoted that error could scarcely get a word in edgewise.

  As the centuries wore on though, for a whole host of reasons, the church in Europe lost its fire.    There are no lack of villains to blame. For whatever reason, there was a cultural shift in European Christianity. People were no longer Christians because they had put their faith in the  saving work of Jesus Christ. they were Christians because their parents or grandparents had been Christians.  But these are  just symptoms of a much larger cause.  The lifeblood of  Biblical Christianity has always been  evangelism, and once that ceased to  be the focus of the  churches in Europe, their numbers dwindled, and the great cathedrals built by fervent men of years gone by became places to hold weddings and funerals.  Nobody was taking the gospel  to the lost, and  as the population got older, and birth rates  plummeted, the numbers  began to decline. By the time  two World Wars rocked Europe to  its core, the  voices that  could provide hope in the face of unspeakable tragedy were fewer and fewer. Young Europeans grew up in a post-Bible society, and lived their whole lives in a dry liturgy that could no more impart life than a  wooden plank can  sprout leaves.  Their children rejected the liturgy and believed in rationalism, and their children's children rejected the emptiness of rationalism and believed in nothing.  Their great grandchildren, dissatisfied with the  vacuum,  are embracing Islam. In Britain, there are, according to the Pew foundation, 4 times as many Muslims attending  mosque on Friday than there are  Anglicans attending church on Sunday.  Though biblical,  living Christianity exists in Europe, it is literally  being shouted out and legislated into obscurity by opponents ranging from atheists to  Muslims.  There simply isn't the manpower to reach the lost, and Islam has the manpower.

  Here in America, the churches are dying, but our apostasy takes a different from; we are  obsessed with entertainment and pleasure.  In America, the mentality is  that for a church to be relevant and effective, church services should be some sort of amalgam between a  rock  concert and a love -fest.  The militant, purposeful Christianity of generations past  has been replaced by  beach balls and cream puffs. The church doesn't take the gospel out in public. The church doesn't go door to  door telling people about Jesus.  The church in America wants to be your friend and not offend. The church in America wants to show you how cool and hip they can be. The American church is trying to catch up with the world as fast as they can in  an attempt to win the world. That has never been the biblical model.  Those few churches that still hold to the truths of the word of God too often  get caught up in the idea that  simply inviting lost people to a church service is sufficient  evangelism. This watered-down, pleasure-obsessed, invitational-not-confrontational  Christianity will most likely be followed up by a generation of  belief in  nothing, a vacuum which Islam will gladly fill.  The idea that Islam  will punish people for standing up for Jesus is  a bit  disingenuous; by the time it gets that far, nobody is standing up for Jesus anyway. 
  The solution is for the churches of Jesus Christ to  become vibrant and relevant again.  This isn't accomplished by hayrides and coffee shops; this is accomplished by the bold proclamation of the gospel to every creature.  This work is under girded and empowered by fasting, prayer, and belief in the Bible.  If that happens, the Muslim world can have babies till they are blue in the face, and  jump the borders until their legs get tired. When they get here, we'll preach to them, and even if they reject the  gospel, our light will hold their darkness at bay. This  is more conducive to the mission given the church than the 'can't we all just get along' philosophy of the political left or the 'bomb the brown people' philosophy of the political right. These immigrants are not the enemy, they are souls, and the last time I checked souls were our business.
 

The Submission Post

 I  was reading one of those  'anti' websites.  This  'anti' website was aimed towards my particular  flavor of Christianity.  There's a handful of  sites like this out there,  populated by  remarkably bitter people who  have, in a lot of cases, taken legitimate grievances and allowed those  grievances to poison their souls.  This  site had  various  doctrinal positions  categorized as 'deception' like 'The KJVO Deception' or 'The  Homeschooling Deception'.  The overall vibe of  the site is that people like me  are  stupid dupes at best and  oppressive control freak jerks at worst.  Frankly I've been called  worse by better people, so that doesn't bother me.

  What does bother me  is the  flagrant abuse of the meanings of words to promote an agenda.  You see this in the political realm where  words like  'tolerance'   are used to say 'I can talk, you must shut up'. This happens in the  bible realms too, where a word is redefined by usage to mean things that it doesn't really mean.These  folks at the anti-site have taken  enormous liberties with the  word 'submit'.  There are postings that talk about the horrible  egregious wrongs committed by oppressive control freak jerks from the pulpit in regards to  women.  They  attempt to make the case that these aforementioned jerks are wrong, and they make their case by changing the definition of the word 'submit'. They do this by appealing to  their dictionary, or to the 'original languages' or the marginal notes in their  NIV (as long as those notes agree with them). By the time these anti-folks are done, the word 'submit' means 'do whatever you want'.  It's quite a trick.

  But  what a word means in the Bible isn't defined by what the dictionary says it means; what a word means in the Bible is defined by how that word is used.  With that in mind,  before we  take a look at Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 (which are the passages whose application bothered them) I think it's fair to look at every other time  in the Bible that the word 'submit' is used in order to see what it means before we  try to figure out how to apply it.

  In Genesis 16,  Hagar the slave is skipping town to get away from Sarai how is ,at the very least, openly hostile towards her when  Hagar turns out to be  fertile where Sarai is barren. Is it   permissible to  be hostile towards your servant after she has a  child by your husband, especially after it was your idea? Probably not. Was Sarai in the wrong?  Probably so. However, in verse 9 Hagar is commanded to return to Sarai and submit herself under her hands.  I understand how  hard a thing that is to grasp in this modern age, but the fact is, in the very first appearance of the word, God tells a woman to return to her mistress even though her mistress is probably in the wrong! See how contrary that book runs to the desires of our flesh?

  What was Hagar supposed to  do when she got back?  What did God mean by 'submit'?  In 2 Samuel 22:45 the word is defined.  It says "Strangers shall submit themselves unto me: as soon as they hear , they shall be obedient unto me."  To submit is to hear what somebody says, and do it.  Not only to obey, but to obey as soon as they hear it. Delayed obedience is  disobedience. This definition is  backed up in Psalm 18:44 where the Bible says "As soon as they hear of me, they shall obey me: the strangers shall submit themselves unto me." My opinion or your opinion on this is  amazingly unimportant. That's what the word means.  Hagar was supposed to go back to Sarai and do what  she said as soon as she said it, even if Sarai was wrong.

  You don't have to agree with the commandment to submit.  You can think the commander is wrong, and you may even be correct in that assessment. From Psalm 66:3, you can even  be at enmity with somebody and still submit unto them!  The definition is  very narrow and doesn't require your agreement ,only your obedience. If you're looking for an application according to Psalm 68:30, one of the ways you  submit yourself is to part with your money, and give it to the one to whom you are submitting.

  The Bible moves  smoothly from definition to application and  in the New Testament the Corinthian church is told in chapter 16 verse 16 that they are supposed to  find people who are labouring  in the ministry, and submit to them.  If the definition holds, these  labourers may occasionally be wrong.  Everybody is.  The God who commanded you to submit  acknowledges throughout the Bible that 'all flesh is as grass' and that 'there is none that doeth good, no  not one' and  that 'man at his best state is all together  vanity'.  That same God  tells you to find people who are  legitimately labouring in the ministry, and   do what they say, as soon as they say it!  The qualification given in  1 Cor 16 isn't that  you submit yourselves to  people you agree with all the time or who see things the way you do.  The qualification is that  you submit yourself unto people who addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.  If you have a person who has addicted himself to the  ministry of the padding of his own wallet, or addicted himself to the ministry of his own self-exaltation then congratulations, you're off the hook. But you are still obligated to find somebody that is labouring, and  help them.  The way you help them is  you  do what  they say  as soon as they say it!  The Bible really isn't that hard to understand.

  The person you are submitting  to doesn't have a blank check in regards to you.  The burden and accountability they have  before God  is  really quite frightening according to Hebrews 13:17 and until you've had people labouring with you and  submitting themselves unto you, you have no idea how much sleep  the position costs you.  In the military and in the ministry, I have had people looking to me to make a decision, and I've had to  proceed on, worried  both before and after whether or not  my  judgment calls were  the right ones.  I have had people  labouring with me and submitting themselves unto me that were  much more talented at what we were doing than  I was. In fact, that has been the case more often than not. The decision , and accountability, was still mine, not theirs.  All they had to do was do what I said, when I said it, and if it was wrong, God would judge me, not them. True biblical submission  protects the  submitter, and  brings the submittee under the  scrutiny of the judge of all the earth.

  James 4:7 says we are to  "Submit yourselves therefore to God."  If the definition holds we are do what God said as soon as he said it.  What did God say? Among other things he said that you are to "submit yourselves unto the elder" if you are the younger (1 Peter 5:5).  As my dad  has told me more than once "I didn't get this old by being stupid."  God also told us  to "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake..." and if there was ever a commandment of God that I have struggled with, it's that one.  If you don't believe me, ask my wife.  The truth is I want to do what I want to do and I think I know best for my life.  I may even be right, and the  local government wrong, but the Bible still says what the Bible says.  Speed limits may  really be about revenue generations more than public safety, but I still have to do what they say as soon as they say if I am submitting myself to God.  My spirit bucks so hard against that I don't even like typing about it. 

  Now, having  prepared the  ground, let's look  at  Ephesians 5:22 ("Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.") and Colossians 3:18 ("Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.")  If that word still means what it means  every other place in the Bible, my wife is supposed to do what I say when I say it.  She is supposed to  do that even if she thinks I am wrong.  She is supposed to do that even if I am wrong.  She is supposed to do  it even if she is smarter or more spiritual than me.  There are no qualification  given in either chapter other  than  it be to  "your own husbands".  If I am wrong, God will clean my clock, not hers.  She is protected from the judging eye of God by her obedience while I am left flapping in the breeze by my position.  Knowing that, and knowing that God has given her gifts to be able to minister  to me, unless I'm a complete chucklehead, I'll listen to her counsel. I will consider that we are heirs together of the grace of life.  I will think about her and the kids before I decide. I will seek safety in a multitude of counselors. I will scrutinize what the word of God says.  But, and here's the tough part, even if I do  NONE of those things, she is still required by the  scriptures to  do what I say when I say it.  If I say 'wear this' or 'read that' or 'turn off the Facebook and come to bed', she needs to do it. Even if she doesn't want to. God will bless her and judge me.

 In closing, let me say this; the women's liberation movement  produced an entire generation of disobedient women who, after having  stepped out from underneath the protections of submission, raised  a generation of silly women laden with diverse lusts.  They 'preached' freedom, but they produced miserable slaves.  Unfortunately, that's the way that sort of thing always  turns out.  And if some preacher somewhere was a control freak jerk and mis-used his scriptural authority, just stand by, God's been dealing with stuff like that for a long time, and knows exactly how to  trim his wick.  Don't get bitter, and don't get rebellious.

Rick Warren is Exactly What's Wrong with Christianity

  By all means, watch this video so that you have some context for my comments.
  First of all, Rick Warren has been  apostate for years, so I'm hardly surprised.  But he was brought onto this show for the express purpose of discussing his 40 years of  marriage, and the 'secret' to t a good marriage. He certainly  deserves to be  congratulated, and  that accomplishment is worthy of note and celebration, but what happens next is horrific and has eternal consequences.
  Now I'm not stupid. I know  a guy only gets brought on a show like this because he is a known quantity. He wasn't going to say anything new or shocking. Rick Warren was vetted years ago, and they knew he would spew some  self-help-ish platitudes. They knew he would smile for the cameras. They knew he would be a nice guy, and he wouldn't beat them over the head with the Bible.
   I don't claim to be familiar with his show other than  being aware of its existence, but there are a couple of people  on the couch there that I recognize.  Whoopi Goldberg is there, and her hatred of God, and the Bible is pretty well established, despite having a preacher for a father.  In addition she has this warped view of Jesus that doesn't match the Bible.
  A bit further next to her is Barbara Walters who has, at least enough class and  poise to  not  say whatever pops into her head.  Mrs Walters has been at this game a long time, and though  she has a passing interest in eternal things,  doesn't believe the Bible at least when it comes to salvation.
  On the far end is Jenny McCarthy, who has made her initial mark in the world  by exposing her nakedness to men for money. She flouts her  early Catholicism, but claims weird things like salvation being found in her son, as opposed to the son of God.  It's interesting that at the 1 minute mark in this video she seems to imply that  Mr. Warren's faithfulness to his wife  for 40 years  is nearly impossible.  This is  probably  a window into her life more than his. Somehow, despite her pin-up girl roots, she has rebranded herself as  a nurturing supermom and an advocate  for autism cures.  Only in America can  you pull off a turn-around like that.
  So there you have it.  Rick Warren sits on the couch  with an assortment of Bible rejecting, man-hating harpies.  He has been  brought on the show for his opinion.  Behind him on the big screen are lots of pictures of Rick Warren with his  arms outspread and a glowing light behind him, as if he was the Messiah. He's even introduced as 'Pastor' and  Mrs. Walters  claims he is one of the most influential ministers in America. The stage has been set. He has been presented as an expert by the harpies.  Whatever he says next will carry a lot of weight with the audience. The hostesses, trained entertainers that they are at least pretend to hang on his every word.  Not only does he have a rapt audience  surrounding him, he has  a TV camera and an audience of millions.  Millions of people with a Godless eternity before them and the lake of fire awaiting them.  What does he say?
  Pretty much nothing.  He says  nothing you couldn't get from any number of unregenerate  self-help authors. He has a golden opportunity to stand up for Jesus Christ, and instead he says meaningless phrases like 'Love is a choice'. Actually, Mr. Warren, 'love' is a verb.  Sometimes a noun, but usually a verb.  He never one mentions the name of Jesus Christ and only mentions God once in passing as in 'we are committed to God', whatever that means.  Which God? The God of the Bible or the god of Jenny McCarthy?
  The audience and the  hostesses heard him speak for several minutes and not once did he offer them anything more than what they had  come with. They remained without hope, and without God while he pocketed the money and  gloried in the spotlight.
  How hard would it  have been to say something like " The beginning of the foundation of our marriage is a belief in the salvation available through the shed blood of Jesus Christ"  or "If it weren't for Jesus and how he saved me from hell, we wouldn't have a  good marriage." Or " Until I repented and believed the gospel, I had no idea what love even was."  I mean, I'm willing to give the guy  a bit of latitude here.  There are only a couple of reasons he  wouldn't have said  anything like that. One reason is that  he doesn't believe anything of the sort.  The  brainless  empty platitudes he regurgitated may in fact, be his opinion on the matter.  That's pretty scary in itself, but the alternative  may be worse.  He may know the truth and be afraid to say it. If you present the Bible to Jenny the harlot, and her conscience is pricked, you don't get invited back. Oprah won't promote your book if you don't toe the party line.  If that's the case, that he was silenced by either fear or self-love,the blood of millions is now on his hands.
  Mr. Warren is a best-selling author, and quite wealthy, and there is  no danger that the producers of 'The View' will be asking me to come on  anytime soon.  Nobody even knows who I am.  But I decided years ago that I would rather do the job the way God says do it and  by consequence labour in obscurity, than to sell and out and  be put in the spotlight. What Rick Warren has isn't even worth having. A Christianity where God exists  just to  give you a better life now or to   help you lose weight or to fix your crummy marriage isn't a  faith worth dying for, and that's why the Rick Warrens of the world have no martys.  When's the last time  you heard of somebody dying for their 'purpose driven life'?
  What's worse about it all is that because he has the spotlight, and the microphone, people like him   become the  definition of what Christianity is in the minds of the world.  Those of us that try to do right are accused of  being 'mean' and 'angry by comparison. Why can't you be  more like Rick or Joel?  The reason we can't be more like Rick or Joel is because we can't sell out God like they have.
The world promotes what the world approves of, and Mr. Warren..I'm sorry 'Pastor' Warren, isn't part of the solution; he's part of the problem.
  If you want a  gutless, spineless, gelding  Christianity,  you're welcome to it.  I'm going to keep the faith once delivered to the saints.

It bums me out tremendously what the church has become, and if it's got me bummed, imagine what Jesus Christ must be feeling.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/whoopi_goldberg_2.html#mHHVlZVl8ub853FE.99

It bums me out tremendously what the church has become, and if it's got me bummed, imagine what Jesus Christ must be feeling.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/whoopi_goldberg_2.html#mHHVlZVl8ub853FE.99

An Open Letter to Ronnie Dunn

Mr. Dunn,

  I recently saw you on an absolutely horrible  daytime show that used to at least masquerade as a health information program before it  devolved into  celebrity worship and fluff.  You were there showing off your COWBOY tattoo and promoting your new album.  Honestly, sir even though I  once enjoyed your music  I hadn't thought of you in years.  Part of this is no doubt because when I accepted Christ in 1995, he delivered me from  my old music, and so , no offense, you were just a musical echo from my past.  But I remembered  even back then, when people  were giving a summation of your biography as half of the group Brooks and Dunn, they would mention something about you being a Baptist preacher.  Like I said, I hadn't thought about this in years, and my memory is pretty shaky these days, so I decided to do a little  research.
  According to the   Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture , your mother was a "devout Baptist" and you yourself "enrolled at Abilene Christian College in Texas with plans to become a Baptist preacher". Wikipedia  lists you as a psychology major there, and even says you were the youth minister at Avoca Baptist church in Avoca Texas, but you were asked to quit the school because you  were "performing at local bars".  The internet is  pretty silent about whether or not the  church allowed you to continue to serve. I mean  one would hope that a  youth minister  that has been ejected from  Bible college would be asked to resign, but it's a crazy world we live in.
  Now you're not the first to travel this road from the  church house to the  road house. From Elvis to Alabama, to  Nat King Cole to Whitney Houston; it's a pretty common phenomenon.  And the 'almost a Baptist preacher' angle gives you a  certain amount of credibility with dumb Southerners like myself who can soothe their conscience about listening to your  bar music.
  Fame and fortune would soon be yours and  one day little  heathens like myself would delight in your music.  See, I consider that  really ironic.  You had the advantage of a Christian upbringing that I did not have, and yet you chose the sewer that I was already living in. You  picked the darkness after being informed about the light.  You knew about Jesus, and presumably you knew that people like me were going to spend an eternity in hell without Jesus, but other than  giving him a passing reference in a song (in the same line as a reference to beer), you said nothing. In the 19 years after somebody did reach  me with the gospel, as far as I can tell you have still said nothing.  You have never publicly  stood up for Jesus.
  So here we are now, the two of us, almost 20 years later, you and I.  I was once a slave to sin, and have been marvelously delivered by the blood of the Lamb.  You have played the world's music this whole time and danced to the world's tune, and have  been rewarded immensely.  But there you are, presumably saved, presumably heir to the same victory that I  enjoy; with a COWBOY tattoo and  singing a song about wishing you could have a cigarette.
  The role reversal seems  so tragic to me.  You have had the public eye and the public ear for  decades now, and you've used it to  pad your pocket.  Do you really know Jesus? I hope you really are saved, but at the same time, at the Judgment Seat of Christ you've got a lot of explaining to do.


Michael S. Alford
Publick Minister

Why Go to Church?

  If I've heard it once I've heard it a  thousand times; you don't have to  go to church to worship God.  This statement is usually made in response to a  question like 'Are you saved?', and isn't an answer to the question at all. If I ask 'Are you saved?' and your  response is 'You don't have to go to church', it's as nonsensical as if I had asked 'What color is my shirt' and you said 'It tastes like chicken'. It's a dodge; an evasive tactic to get around what was asked and at the same time  steer the conversation  towards whatever grievance the person has against some church somewhere or some pastor somewhere.  In fact,  just last week  a guy told me that God was actually against people going to church.  That was  just one  of  several weird  things he said all of which eventually led back to the  heart of the matter; he was mad at some preacher somewhere.
   Let me say this;  I don't blame you if you're mad at some preacher somewhere. I preach, and I pretty much stay irritated with myself.  But if you do as  some of my family have done and  stay away from church  for  multiple decades because this one guy  in this one place did this one thing, you're just being stupid.  Find another place, find another guy, and  wait for him to do some  completely different thing so that you can get mad all over again and stay home.  Go for it.  Take your ball and go home.  Pout.  We will all be impressed with your ability to not only get hurt and stay hurt because after all, that's hard to do. After all, you're  the only person that's ever been hurt or discouraged  or disappointed.  In fact, we would all be really impressed if you started a blog or website or something where you can tell everybody how  hurt you've been. Maybe you can find other bitter people and you can spend your 'worship time' blasting an making snide comments about people you used to pray for.
   I'm getting off topic.
   I won't argue that you can't read the Bible  by yourself at home,because obviously you can and you should. You can also pray by yourself at home and sing at home, and you  certainly should.  But the fact is  that God has instituted the gathering of believers together because  there are certain things that God wants done in all our lives that can  only happen when we assemble.  If you stay home, you will miss out on what God wants to do  in your life. Rather than listing all the  really swell reasons  you have for staying home, let me show you  a handful of reasons from the Bible  why you should go. Since we are all so self-obsessed,  I'll even leave out the ones where God benefits, and just focus on the ones that benefit you.
 1. Giving  I  figured I'd start out with the  one that is most likely to make people stop reading. There is  another post in the works that deals with giving, but the Bible says in 1 Corinthians 16 " Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given order to the churches of Galatia, even so do ye.  Upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store , as God hath prospered him , that there be no gatherings when I come."  One of the reasons you should go to church is so that you  can give away some of your money.  If you hold to the idea that  church isn't for you, then  you surely wouldn't be bothered if we showed up at your door with a collection plate, would you?  Somehow I suspect that you would.  The Bible is clear; God says get together  on the first day of the week and take up an offering.  If you want to skip that,  go right ahead, I'm not your dad.  But giving is fun, and  the work will get done either way.
  2. Growth .  The Bible says in Ephesians 4  "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:" God desires  to grow you and to  use you to grow others. To accomplish this, God gave to the church people who can preach and teach the Bible so that  those people might  help perfect each other. As you 'worship God' in your deer stand or in your living room, or at the beach (these are all places that people  have assured me where they can worship God while avoiding the question) ask yourself this ; who are you edifying, and who is edifying you?  The concept implies that you have to be around other people to do it.  The local assembly is where you can  learn some Bible, where you can  have your iron sharpened by other iron, and where you can learn to tolerate people who are less mature and less spiritual than you. 
 3. Friendship  In Romans 16 , Paul names some names. " I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea:  That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and of myself also.  Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:  Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks , but also all the churches of the Gentiles.  Likewise greet the church that is in their house. Salute my wellbeloved Epaenetus, who is the firstfruits of Achaia unto Christ.  Greet Mary, who bestowed much labour on us.  Salute Andronicus and Junia, my kinsmen, and my fellowprisoners, who are of note among the apostles, who also were in Christ before me.  Greet Amplias my beloved in the Lord.  Salute Urbane, our helper in Christ, and Stachys my beloved.  Salute Apelles approved in Christ. Salute them which are of Aristobulus' household.  Salute Herodion my kinsman. Greet them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord.  Salute Tryphena and Tryphosa, who labour in the Lord. Salute the beloved Persis, which laboured much in the Lord.  Salute Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine.  Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them.  Salute Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them."  All theology aside, if that group of people  had simply gotten saved and then lived a Lone Ranger Christianity, Paul never would have known them, and they never would have known each other.  They never would have known the joy of not only  ministering, but ministering and labouring together. I have my own list, and it includes not only people in both churches that I've been a part of, but street preachers all over the world.  If you don't have a list like this, you don't have any idea what you've been missing.  How are you supposed to bear one another's burdens if you don't know who one another are?
  That comes with it the risk that you'll be  hurt, or  swindled, or lied to or lied about. That's definitely a possibility. But everybody else you go to church with is also  taking that chance with you. So you MIGHT have a bad experience if you go, but you WILL  miss out if you stay away.  That's pretty easy math, I think.

Christians and the State

  On the issue of  the Christian, and  the  role of government, I have friends on both ends of  the spectrum and  most points in between. I am probably going to leave out various important nuances in their positions, inadvertently constructing straw men. This is not my intent. but here goes.
  I have friends that consider themselves stateless libertarians or will even go so far as to call themselves anarchists.  Their position (perhaps oversimplified) is that liberty is a gift from God and that since governments tend to curtail liberty, the government cannot also be a gift from God. These anarchists will  say that ,scripturally, the kingdoms of this world are satanically run, and satanically owned.  The state, they would say, is the  very citadel of Satan, and as such  so  we owe it no  allegiance.  They would  point to the power grabs and abuses of  the state (regardless of who is in charge) as proof of this  malfeasance, and say that  government power is the enemy of humanity.  They  oppose the initiation of force against any individual, and since that's pretty much all government does is make people do things by force, they  must oppose the government.  That's one extreme.
  I also have friends that consider themselves  'minarchists'.  They hold that government is a necessary evil and  begrudgingly support some basic government functions as long as those functions support and protect their natural God-given rights.  I personally think that Thomas Jefferson would probably qualify as a minarchist.
  I have friends who consider themselves 'constitutionalists' and think that a person who opposes the  government opposes God.  There is  some pretty significant  scripture for this position. And rounding out the  spectrum, I have friends who cite Romans 13 as their proof text that whatever the  government says goes, and  we ought to be happy about it.  Pay your taxes with a smile on your face and thank God it isn't any worse.  There is a subset of this group that don't even vote, since, by their logic, a vote against an  incumbent is in itself an act of rebellion against the  power God has placed in your life.  That would be, in my estimation, the other end of the spectrum.
  Perhaps its an intellectual glitch of mine that I  can  experience a certain amount of sympathy for all these positions.  It's an issue I think about  quite a bit, as a public minister, and  by the time I get done  exploring this, you may be as confused as I am about what I think, but here goes:
  Governments are instituted by God. Scripture is clear on this, and the pattern,  in scripture appears that  bad government is a punishment for  a wicked populace.  Liberty is indeed a gift from god, and when that liberty is misused, that liberty is withdrawn. In the meantime, barring some sort of  national repentance, we are commanded to  submit ourselves unto every ordinance of man for the  gospel's sake.  The  world systems and world governance are at the moment, satanically controlled, but even under those conditions,  the Holy Spirit wrote to the churches to obey them and pray for the human  representatives. It's a complicated idea, with  tricky applications that must be universal to be of any use whatsoever. What in the world is a freedom-loving  person who wants to obey the scriptures  supposed to do?
  I wont be doing a blow-by blow dissertation of Romans 13, which was the original idea for this post.  I won't  claim, as some have, that Romans 13 is mistranslated, but rather that Romans 13 must be understood in light of other scriptures. I won't waste  one minute of your time ( at least not today) bogging down into  the nuances of what is and is not legitimate government.  Instead,  I want to  highlight three principles that should  help establish what exactly our attitude and actions should be as citizens of heaven who are, for the time being, stuck here.

The First Principle: Non-Distraction
  I think the  first principle that needs to be covered is the principle of non-distraction.  I am a stranger, and a sojourner here; a pilgrim and an alien.  As the old song  says "This world is not my home, I'm just a passing through". That doesn't relieve us from obligations to our fellow man, but you must understand that the world is horribly broken, and has been for quite some  time. Our emphasis has to be on the spiritual since our  ultimate accountability to God won't be based on whether we  got this ordinance  passed or this  law repealed; it will be based off of what we did  with the the  gospel of Jesus Christ. There is  no crown given out at the Judgement Seat of Christ for 'sticking it to the man'. Whether you live  in North Korea, or Hong Kong, or the United States, Jesus still saves, and long after the empires of the world have crumbled to dust, he will still be all that he claims to be.  Hundreds of thousands of Christians have  lived their entire lives under tyranny and have  fulfilled the Great Commission and  led very successful Christian lives despite never having owned an AK-47. We cannot lose our focus  squabbling over the things of this world. I could campaign to  dismantle the TSA and succeed, but if that's all I ever did and my neighbor never gets the gospel, I have wasted my  time. That's not a cop-out, that's a matter of keeping perspective, and keeping that principle in view will give us a  way to keep our perspective amidst the clamor of application..
  For example, let's say I'm opposed to taxation, which I am. Let's say  that I believe taxation to be theft, which I do. Let's say that I believe there to be  scant difference between the highwayman and the Congress, which I do. I do not gloss over that the state is stealing from me, but  the same state is stealing from  my co-worker who is lost.  My attitude should be that, as  abhorrent as the theft is, I may need to tolerate it for the bigger picture. In other words, it is  better to have had a portion of your income consistently and systematically stolen from you, than to rail against it and lose your testimony.  As  a reviewer of this post pointed out, life very rarely is an either/or scenario. If you can do both, then by all means proceed.
 
The Second Principle: For the Lord's Sake
  But in the meantime I  do still have to live here and I do have to function under a  government that is increasingly  restrictive and hostile. It's a common mistake in Bible exposition to  quote only part of verse, but the oft cited "submit yourselves to every ordinance of man" isn't the whole verse, and it certainly isn't the  whole sentence. Looking at the whole sentence gives us our second principle.1 Peter 2:13-16 says "Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme ;  Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.  For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:  As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God"  There are caveats and  qualifiers given for your obedience to wit; you are to do it, not for your own sake, but for the Lord's sake. Paul  in 1 Corinthians 9  goes into various  inconveniences and restrictions he put on his  own life "for the gospel's sake".  You are required to obey the government and treat it as if it  was performing it's legitimate functions if doing so gives you more opportunities to  put the gospel out. If obeying the government hinders the gospel , it seems clear to me that you are free to disobey, and the Acts 5:29 principle ("We ought to obey God rather than men.") comes into play.  Paul went to prison and  never once complained that he was wrongly imprisoned, even though he was.  He suffered, and suffered well, and that  put to silence the ignorance of foolish men.  Paul understood that his imprisonment enabled him to reach men with the gospel that couldn't be reached any other way, so he endured tyranny for the Lord's sake.
  Here is an application. I despise the TSA. I  believe them to be  wicked, and a violation of all that used to be America.  I have, on purpose avoided flying because of them. But soon I hope to be traveling to the Philippines to preach.  I will probably have to submit myself to their  degradation, but I do it not because I think they are right or legitimate; I do it for the Lord's sake, and for the gospel's sake. I honestly can't see any way around it. I  also  maintain that , as I  will  give an account  to how I handled it as his representative, they will give account for being perverts and horrible instruments of a corrupt  state.


The Third Principle: Prayer
  Moving on to another oft-half-quoted passage of scripture, we arrive at 1 Tim 2.  It is often said that we are to pray for those in power, but looking at the whole passage ,we see once again, conditions and caveats.  1 Tim 2:1-4 says "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;  Who will have all men to be saved , and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.".   I am not obligated to pray for Mr. Obama's  drone warfare to succeed or for the continued inculcation  of socialism. I am supposed to pray specifically to God that Mr. Obama will leave me alone. Left alone, I  can live a  quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. Why would I want this?  According to  verse 4, I should want this so that the gospel can be put out!  There obviously are some other benefits to being free, but the main advantage of being free is not that I am free to do wrong, but that I am free to do  right!


 There are  obviously many facts to this, and I  don't purport to be  smart enough to explore them all, but let's take  these three principles and apply them to an extreme scenario.
  You are a Christian living in Nazi Germany  in the  the early 1940's. You are  commanded by the government to  turn in your Jewish  neighbors.  Are you obligated to obey? They are, after all, the government. If they take your neighbors and haul them off to  a death camp, they will probably never hear the gospel.  You are obligated by the gospel to disobey, and when the men  come with stick and guns to thump you in the head you will be suffering for righteousness sake.
  This same  Nazi  regime is taxing you to pay for the death camps.  I think you are justified in  hiding your income from them by any means  possible without lying, committing fraud or losing your testimony.   If you do any of these things, be aware that the men with  sticks and guns may come for you and put you in jail. You must weigh out if it is worth it and if you are going for the right reasons. If you must go to jail, go to jail for the gospel, not for tax evasion, but if a mugger  tells you to empty your wallet, you are under no obligation to tell them about the money hidden in your sock.
  You are  also allowed scripturally to  flee persecution if possible.  If Jesus' mom and stepdad can skip town to avoid  being killed by Herod, rest assured you can too.
  In the meantime you are to pray that God will  turn the hearts of the Nazi overlords  and  that they will leave you (and your neighbor ) alone so that you can continue to  get the gospel out.