A Lifestyle of Peace

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Ancient Doorways in the Brickhouse: Fields of Green in your Dreams

There's a little diddy by a band called "Populous with Short Stories" by the name of "The Holy See." I was thinking about it tonight, listening to the lyrics as I drove home from a meeting. Beautiful lyrics. Truly wonderful. The music I've listened to my whole life has hinted toward spiritual concepts. The lyrics go: "
By the cross where you hang
Has buried my effigy
I don't think you'd hang for me
Anymore
In a pond of your blood
Grand as the holy see
Drowns the antiquity
I'm looking for
With every single line you cast
I can't be bothered
I won't be bothered
With all the broken trust that's past
I won't be bothered anymore."

Fascinating. Very fascinating. We've lost more than we can imagine, if we can't see it. No and no again. I could never be bothered with the message of the cross. The literal event of the cross, in such stark reality, devastating the antique aphorism I'd always held in my mind. Such brokenness, I can hardly conceive of it. It can hardly move me. That's when one is truly lost. Unable to perceive! When one is unmoved by the powerful moments of life, by great sorrows and great joys, then one has truly been lost, and is experiencing soul death. How many dead souls I see walking the streets.

Another song I was thinking of, again with probing spiritual undertones... Fascinating. It's like God was hinting toward me, or I was hinting toward God. This was all pre-joining the team. Way back you know, back in the years of confusion. A song called "Hallelujah" by a band called "The Helio Sequence."

The second verse of the song, and the final chorus went like this:

Still we could not conceive the call
The midnight fell, we felt the measure fall
And we were feeling down
Some eyes were looking down at us
And waiting pensive, sad, and look
Up to the stars and counting all the suns and all the moons
How sad it was that we could not believe

And everyone who believes
And everyone who believes
And they said,
We all said Hallelujah
We all said Hallelujah
And everyone move around with ease
And everyone fell right to their knees and then,
We all said Hallelujah
We all want answers anyway
We all want answers anyway

It exemplifies a very powerful era of my life. Very, very powerful. Reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell's college experiences. Just roaming, no particular direction, losing a job because his sleep schedule was crashing around 5:30 AM and waking up sometime in the PM. I used to leave the house around 4:00 AM and walk the streets until sunrise, watch the sunrise, then go to bed.

As Brandon writes in "Hallelujah" he could not quite conceive the call. That was my experience as well. I couldn't quite conceive of it. I couldn't quite connect the dots. Waiting, pensive, and always watching the stars wondering. That was one way that I never, ever fell into the camp of outright atheism. Like C.S. Lewis wrote in the Screwtape Letters, wonder is a powerful doorway to the supernatural. I could not spend so many nights walking, pondering and staring up at the stars and fail to recognize pervasive powers at work beyond the material.

I couldn't make the leap either though. As Dr. Ravi Zacharias says, the truth is often surrounded by a bodyguard of lies. When considering Christianity I immediately pictured the pews. I pictured the people at Catholic mass shouting "hallelujah!" I'm sure at least some of them meant it. But I didn't.

I reflect on my Catholic upbringing sometimes. Though I wouldn't call it that really. As I've often said, I was raised in the practical religion of much of Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers and the Wisconsin Badgers (football). That was the religion. Catholic mass and CCD was something more arbitrary.

But I do recall, very vaguely, one year at CCD, just one, we had this incredible teacher for the Wednesday classes. She captured my imagination. She talked about God as if he was really real. I don't remember a lot of the details. I was only in about 3rd or 4th grade. What I do recall is a conversation with my mother. It was the end of the Catholic programming for that year as far as CCD went. And my mom had seen me going and actually starting to look forward to going. But that year was ending. I said Mom I'm afraid. I'm afraid because next year we won't have this teacher anymore. And the other ladies don't explain it like she does. My mom told me "well honey maybe you'll have another lady next year who really cares too." But the next year came, and sure enough, it was another lady who didn't seem to really believe it.

Your heart aches at times. Aches for moments when possibly maybe all the destruction could've been prevented. But there isn't such a way, is there? The past can't be changed. It's there, and I must make peace with it. Yet again, yet again, how can I prevent this from happening to future generations? How can I prevent dead men and women from teaching dead doctrines to my children? How can I prevent suffering? That is the vital thought.

You can create the perfect curriculum, the perfect catechism, the perfect book, or even the perfect form of government. But at the end of the day it all comes down to the person at the desk, and how much they care, and how much they pour into what they're doing.

I'm a sentimental man. I think about stuff like that. I love art and creativity. I love writing, reading, philosophy, music, and discussing issues. I like integrity, morality, and justice. Dad has slowly encouraged me to love people as well, and to love mercy. And even to walk humbly. Big Dad. Dad in the sky. God the Dad. God the Father.

The journey is important! It's super important. It's of vital importance. I think of something Carl Jung said, "The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." Let me tell, that one is the straight up truth. How many can say that in this life they've come even close to becoming who they truly are? So much pain gets in the way. There are so many things that happen, so many addictions and problems that drive us off course until the true self seems buried forever in compulsion and fear.

Then of course there is the sin nature upon the heart of every human. So to project even further from Carl Jung's original statement; How privileged a Christian is, to one day become who they truly are, freed from sin, freed from death, flesh restored, and restored to community with God, Son and Spirit. That is a rare privilege indeed.

I listened to a great deal of music in my time on the way here. It was the soundtrack of my life. In replaying work by Death Cab for Cutie, and Dismemberment Plan, there was a great deal of atheism smuggled in. There was a great deal of skepticism in those tunes.

Elliott Smith, Blur, Nick Drake, the Postal Service, Coldplay (I know, shut up), Sonic Youth, Boards of Canada, Radiohead, French Kicks, Filter, Foo Fighters, Thursday, Bon Iver, Deftones, The Walkmen, Spoon, Grizzly Bear, Mew, Clint Mansell, Bear McCreary, Pavement, The Album Leaf, Explosions in the Sky, Stereolab, Fourtet, Travis Morrison, Arcade Fire, Passion Pit, and on and on and on. All these bands, diverse styles and sounds, all with one common thread: they awoke curious realities within my mind. They triggered the creaking open of ancient doors, denied and rejected in the naturalism driven modern society that disallows anything that might lead away from consumerism. I was inexorably drawn by wonder, complexity, and something that might just be.. beyond all of this. Who could know it?

I also was unwilling to believe that the truth was simply determined by my personal preference. What kind of nonsense would that be? I'd been told that, but it seemed like an extension of the dollar menu society I came from. No, there had to be concrete truths independent of my own feeble preference.

It may have started with romantic love, or sex, or lust, the demigod of fashion culture, the miraculous, all powerful, invisible, and all fulfilling sexual relationship. Some will never go beyond that as their ultimate. How sad for them!

It's a secret door, very hard for anyone to block out. It's the secret door of the imagination, the secret door of wonder, of awe, of mystery, and curiosity. One can battle for and build of brick house of naturalism, like the public school naturalism indoctrination centers. They can cover the screens with sex, alcohol, depravity, and buy, buy buy.. but they couldn't stop me from reading A Wrinkle in Time. They couldn't stop me from watching Donnie Darko, or The Fountain. They couldn't stop me from searching out and finding bands like Radiohead and Mew. Despite the megaphone, I found myself nestled in a corner reading 1984 by George Orwell.

The God I understand, he loves to put little cracks in the system, for people like you and I to sneak through, and watch the stars, while the rest ramble on, sex obsessed, unwittingly addicted, and set upon oral pleasure induction at any cost, unending, penultimate. That is the permanent office of so many, such unrelenting devotion. Ironically, isn't that promising? That kind of dedication takes special determination. And how they love to be determined, don't they?

Sometimes I wonder at the culmination of popular philosophies and worldviews and it seems to be the ultimate unity in diversity of interrelated interdisciplinary architecture all designed and implemented to reject, resist, and run from God and place man upon the throne. Think about it... post-modernism, whatever I personally relatively believe is true. New age, I am the deity, and I must realize it. Evolutionary biology, all is material, there is no need for a god of any kind, the system is closed tight! Materialism, everything is meaningless, so do whatever you want. Determinism, everything I do is predetermined, so I am responsible for none of my actions. And atheism, there is no god so I am accountable for nothing. And to top it off, what is the one thing that has held back mankind? Religion. It all fits so neatly together as the unifying worldview of the amoral selfish child. It cries of a person desperately seeking to give his poor behavior an all access pass from any measure of shame. It points to an individual who has deified sexuality, and himself. The arrogance is monumental.

Even in the power of that system, God snuck in. He showed himself to me in art, music, writing, cinema, and in so many other ways as well. But I was not able to piece it all together. It was clear by the end that I could not come to it on my own terms. I couldn't quite break through the ice. I carried a Bible around with me everywhere I went. I read from it constantly. But I couldn't break through the ice. It's like I was forever circling the outside. But I couldn't connect it to my life, and realize that the message wasn't just to be read, but to be invibed and lived.

Reminds me of the lyrics of a song called "Beach" by Mew:

It is green outside
Where it seems magical
And if nothing works
We'll do nothing
I hope we're on time

And we shouldn't look at the sky
The perilous light
We were not allowed outside
And no one could tell us why

I got worried
With shaky hands
So we said the words that we kept
For worrying times

I was on my way, I swear
But I lost my way somewhere
And the trees were glistening

From the silver trickling water
When the rain returns

We had our suspicions
Thinking what my heart confirmed

It is sweet outside
Where it seems magical
And if nothing works
We'll do nothing

Save yourself tonight
Asleep in the dark
I hope we're on time

Some of us can feel it, inside. Like the line from the Matrix movie, "You've known it all your life, that something is wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but you can feel, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad." The fallacy was almost perfect. But Father God, found me there, broken and beaten, trying to find my way out of the interminable labyrinth of confusion in the world, in myself, and in my own guiding light, jaded, and sending me in the wrong direction. God met me there, entered into my delusions, just where I was, in my writings, in my dreams, in my stories, and revealed himself in a way that I knew it could be no other. And I also knew that he had revealed himself to me, not because of me, but because of him. But as long as I sought, he seemed then willing to break into my fantasy and reveal his own reality. That was the gift of immeasurable value. I knew then I had not found it, that final truth, but that final truth had found me, and that truth was a person, named Jesus Christ. He was willing, I was willing, so he saved me from the construct around me, setting me finally, with a cup to my lips, like water in a desert, here is the truth my son, I am the truth, the way, the life, come and follow me. And so I did. I had nowhere else to go, and he was willing to start there with me. That is the immeasurable gift. That is the wonder, the awe, the magic, the hidden conclusion of reality, that I could always sense and notice along the edges, the glitter at the edge of the storm clouds, but could never grasp into my hand, finally revealed, like through a glass darkly, but later to be revealed in totality, and what a glorious day that will be. On that day I will know him, the truth incarnate, as well as he knows me. He leaves the signs and hints along the way, but gives me the option to seek after those things or to go my merry way with the rest of the world. Seek out the wonder, and seek out the mysterious. Draw upon the creativity within, and explore the majesty without. Perhaps you'll find yourself at wits end one day in a field of green in your dreams staring into the eyes of a man who says he is the truth.

Until then, friend.

John 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Colossians 1:15-17 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Depression & Meaninglessness: Where is God in the depths of despair?

Ecclesiastes 2:17-23 (NIV) So I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. ¹⁸I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me. ¹⁹And who knows whether that person will be wise or foolish? Yet they will have control over all the fruit of my toil into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless. ²⁰So my heart began to despair over all my toilsome labor under the sun. ²¹For a person may labor with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then they must leave all they own to another who has not toiled for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. ²²What do people get for all the toil and anxious striving with which they labor under the sun? ²³All their days their work is grief and pain; even at night their minds do not rest. This too is meaningless.

There is a part of me that aches with meaninglessness. I cannot describe fully, how terrible it is. Who can manage it? Solomon the writer of Ecclesiastes describes the pain of wisdom. He described the meaninglessness of the daily life.

I've always, even before becoming a Christian, been keenly aware of the meaninglessness of life. I've always been a deeply depressed young man. Maybe I just read too much. And maybe it's been a tough walk. Psychologists say that the impact of a divorce, in particular, an ugly divorce is often worse than the death of a parent, on the children involved.

There are many types of pain in life. There are many ways to hurt. But who can say that they are happy? I've asked that question to many, and the most common answer is that they are not happy. Many say that God wants us to be happy. And I believe that. The question I wonder about is the timing. Happy now, or happy later?

Ecclesiastes 3:1-13 (NIV)

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under the heavens:

²    a time to be born and a time to die,
    a time to plant and a time to uproot,
³    a time to kill and a time to heal,
    a time to tear down and a time to build,
⁴    a time to weep and a time to laugh,
    a time to mourn and a time to dance,
⁵    a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
    a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,
⁶    a time to search and a time to give up,
    a time to keep and a time to throw away,
⁷    a time to tear and a time to mend,
    a time to be silent and a time to speak,
⁸    a time to love and a time to hate,
    a time for war and a time for peace.

⁹What do workers gain from their toil? ¹⁰I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. ¹¹He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet^[a] no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. ¹²I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. ¹³That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God.

Timing is everything. Who can know the mind of God? Who can perceive a being without beginning or end? I have yet to understand the self existence of God. The first question is always, well, who made God? Anything that exists has a beginning, right? Then I think, if I was God, I would be intensely disturbed by the notion of how I came into existence. I would be terrified to ask who I was, and how I came into being. Because everything I am aware of has come into being, including myself. At any moment before 6:00 PM on April 6th, 1985 I did not exist aside from inside the belly of my mother. Nine months prior I did not exist what-so-ever.

In a very real way, I find myself incapable of understanding a self-existent entity capable of generating a universe with mere thoughts and acts of will. The notion is beyond my ability to comprehend. Because by all the calculations I muster, there must be something before and therefore the designer of what is after. But logically there must be a first undesigned designer. Origins is an absolutely fascinating topic. But I'll leave it there.

The past few days have been an absolute whirlwind of emotional chaos and depression within my own mind. I very often struggle with intense, crippling depression. I struggle with anger too, and frustration. I don't know how most people do it. This is such a difficult existence. I find myself so isolated from those around me, that I can hardly bear it. I find myself so desperately crippled by fear and worry that I can hardly keep going day by day.

Always in my mind is the starkness of the limitations of this Earth. Always in my mind is the evil, the political corruption, the next mission and the next lost cause to champion. The burden of my heart is for the millions around me who seem brainwashed to care for nothing but sports teams, television shows, drinking, and sex. I try to tell them about Jesus Christ, and it's not even that they have questions or don't understand, it's that they just don't care. I'm gripped with the hopelessness of the human condition. There is very little I can do. Only when the Holy Spirit grabs someone, does anything change; Or when someone is sufficiently defeated to offer a surrender, and come to God in earnest humble seeking.

The noise is incredible. I find myself captured by it too so often, by the screens, the phone screen, the laptop screen, and noise of the radio, the music, the videos, and the noise of endless goings on and news and stories and cinema. I make war for my prayer life, for quiet time with God, but I find myself losing that war. I make war against sin, and I find myself with surprising victories at times, but so often still trapped in certain patterns, whether it's food, or coffee, or cleaning or overspending.

Thankfully, God breaks every chain. It happens, over time. But I find myself frustrated, with the pain. Often the agonizing, drizzling pain over a single day. The anxiety, the worry, the anger that grips me at times. It seems so unmanageable at times, like I might just explode. Of course this is nothing new. This is not surprising. Such is mentioned time and again in the Bible. Elijah found himself deeply discouraged after his greatest victory. Job, with good reason, found himself deeply impacted by suffering. Jonah fell into despondency and anger. Moses doubted his own abilities. Gideon had little faith. Thomas doubted. Peter denied his friend. Jesus wept.

There is no doubt that suffering is part of life, and the reaction against suffering is pain, sadness, depression, doubt, fear, and agony.

That was the one thing that cheered me up a bit over the past few days. I remembered that Jesus Christ, my own God, is intimately acquainted with suffering. Jesus suffered. He cried out to his Father in heaven. He wept over so many people not being able to hear his message. He felt frustrated as many of his followers refused to follow him anymore, because his teaching seemed too hard. He wept over the death of a friend. He wept watching his friends' friends crumbling in grief. Jesus was nailed to a cross, to die slowly. Perhaps nearly as bad as dying slowly, was the mental trauma of such a death. He was mocked, ridiculed, when he knew deep down that he had never done anything wrong. Not even a little. He was laughed at. He was shamed.

In the past, when I found myself in a hospital bed, or in jail, or sitting before a judge... it wasn't always the ordeal that was the worst part. The worst part was how people looked at you, how people treated you. They looked you in the eyes angry, ashamed, and their eyes said: "you are bad. you are wrong. you are evil." When children are abused early in life, according to psychology, the worst part is being treated like an object, instead of a person. And that's how they looked at Jesus. They treated him like a demon, a monster, and condemned him, hung him up, and spit on him as he died slowly.

The point of this description is to emphasize one point: Jesus understands when I suffer, when I feel lost and alone and isolated, and he understands when you feel depression and despair. He knows. He understands. And he cares.

Understanding that my God knows exactly what I'm going through, and "walked the walk" as it were, I can then begin to see that the problem is not with God, the problem is with my perspective. It's easy for people to lose perspective in this world. It happens to me all the time. I'm a fallible human, it just happens.

How did Jesus confront his accusers? He asked them questions. In so doing, he opened them up within their own thinking and helped them to see the truth from a new perspective.

I was "advised" by a dear friend, watching me bitterly peruse in my own morass, to take a new perspective. She said "Justin, stop it and write a gratitude list. Now!" And I did. Would you like to see it? I knew you would.

So I asked myself: "What do you have to be grateful for?"

I came up with:
I'm grateful for the people who encourage me at 11 am on Tuesdays.
I'm grateful for bottled water.
I'm grateful for a warm house to live in, thank you Father.
I'm grateful for 2 years of recovery!
I'm grateful for my friend Chelsey.
I'm grateful for my job at the Salvation Army.
I'm grateful for my church that I go to.
I'm grateful for my heavenly Dad.
I'm grateful for Jesus Christ.
I'm grateful for the people at the shelter that I get to help.
I'm grateful for 89Q.
I'm grateful for my home group.
I'm grateful for almond milk.
I'm grateful for my mom and sister.
I'm grateful for the grace of God.

Most of us, all of us, have a lot to be grateful for. When I start to focus on the negatives, the corruption, the lost, the defeated, and the hopeless then I need to find a new perspective. Jesus understands my isolation and depression. But Jesus invites me to be grateful in him and his completed work. Jesus reminds me to be filled with all joy despite trials and persecution, and suffering.

In closing, Colossians 3:15-17 (ESV) says "And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
(underline added for emphasis)

Friday, November 14, 2014

The Elegant and Meaningful Message of the Book

1 Peter 1:3-9 (NIV) 3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. 6 In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. 7 These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 8 Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, 9 for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

There is so much noise surrounding the Bible. There is so much rhetoric. There is so much bias. There are so many skeptics, with so many things to say. But when you actually open up the Bible and read it, wow. Just wow. The message is elegant, beautiful, deep, and meaningful. There are so many ideas, so many stereotypes. It's taught to mean things it never meant and twisted to say things it never said. But in the end, when I actually, myself, open up the book and read it myself, I find something quite different.

That has been my experience in many areas. History is another example. I was very illiterate regarding history and as I read it, more and more I understand the present problems the world faces. Another area is regarding church history, the crusades, and the development of the New Testament canon. I had read books like the Da Vinci Code and the Gnostic gospels. Such fabrications, such obvious forgeries. Hindsight is always twenty-twenty. In retrospect I was looking for a reason to disbelieve. I read a bunch of conjecture and took it as fact. I watched the movie Zeitgeist as well. It was an interesting look at world politics, but it also tore apart Christianity. At first I was impressed. But after reading up on the topic, I realized that most of the information about religion in Zeitgeist was simply not true. I watched a rebuttal to Zeitgeists claims regarding Jesus, and similar stories in other religions, and almost none of Zeitgeist's claims held up under academic scrutiny.

Truth gets lost very easily in this world. So does trust. But there is one outside the system in whom we can trust. That is God our Father, through his son Jesus Christ.

Our Father in heaven is indeed faithful. And I will in return be faithful to him. During this present hour of struggle we must suffer in all manner of trials. I've found these trials particularly taxing on my emotions, my ability to keep going everyday, and my ability to sleep soundly. These trials often hurt badly, it's no doubt. But, as verse 7 says, the testing and building of my faith is yielding something worth more than gold. Did you know that an ounce of gold today is worth 1,180 dollars? An ounce is the size of a peanut. Imagine what your faith will be worth in heaven.

I choose to believe what God says today, in his book. That is a radical thing to do, even in a church setting. A lot of people will give it lip service, but they don't live it. After youth group they go home and have sex with their girlfriend. They go get drunk and watch the game. On and on. It's radical to really believe and follow the Book. Can you handle that? Can we do that?

Let's do it. Do you really believe him? I do. He says in verse four "This inheritance is kept in heaven for you." That's not just a nice religious thing to say, or a romantic tradition, it's a fact and a reality.

Verse 3, in his great mercy we have a new birth into a living hope. It's so elegantly stated, don't you think? The scriptures cut right through my mind, my emotions, and the Holy Spirit within gives me a trigger that what I'm reading is actually true. I love that. It's just awesome. It's amazing. It's foundational. It cuts through all the advertisements, false truths, sexualized culture, rhetoric, pomp, and lets me know there and then that God is indeed the sovereign creator of the known and unknown universe.

Verse 5, we through faith are shielded by God's power until our coming salvation. Wow. Shielded through God's power. I love that. I need that shield, everyday. When I wake up in the morning I take a few minutes to lean over and make my petition that God my dad would shield me from the temptations of this world. Verse 7 the perseverence of our faith through this world of skeptics, and reasons to doubt will, yes, will result in praise, glory, and honor at the coming of Jesus Christ.

Verse 8, though you don't see him, you know him, you love him, you believe in him. Remember what Jesus said to Thomas? Jesus said: "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (John 20:29).

Finally at the end of verse 8, and going into verse 9, you are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, because you are receiving the end result of your faith, which is the salvation of your souls. Very simply, it is eternal life we are receiving through Christ Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Christians in Politics: A Brief Analysis of Issues in the United States

Recently the Republican party claimed a majority in the Senate and increased their majority in the House of Representatives. Elections were held on the local, state, and federal level. In 2016 a new president will be elected. So... who cares?

It's important that Christians and non-Christians a like take part in the political process. Citizens need to hold their elected officials responsible for the decisions they make. Unfortunately we live in a time of unparalleled corruption in the government process and in the private sector. It's making life in the United States very difficult. So we must hold our elected officials accountable for the decisions they make, and we must also even more so, be in constant prayer for our leaders, purposeful, specific prayers for individuals and their attitudes and ideals.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 (ESV) First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

It's difficult to hold elected officials accountable. People go into politics, participate and very quickly they can become jaded and discouraged. But it has to be done. Though our primary purpose is sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, many of us are also called to participate in government.

What about "separation of church and state?" someone might say. Well, that statement actually comes from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson. It's not actually a part of any legal document in our country. But of course we don't have or want a theocracy. We don't need that. We have a democratic republic, with citizens who have freedom of religion. Perfect, let's keep it that way. But of course Christians can participate in the government of the country they're a part of. It's a responsibility of any citizen. In addition, mention is often made of "God" such as on our currency when it says "In God we Trust." There is nothing wrong with that, no one is being forced to believe anything, yet the founders included certain references to God in the original framework. Anyone trying to change that has stepped outside the bounds of the Constitution. That should remain indefinitely in the framework of our country. Why? Because it works, it's built into the design of the country.

As John Adams said, "“Human passions unbridled by morality and religion…would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net.” (Source: John Adams Historical Society)

So what are the issues? What's going on in this country? We definitely need to get educated. I'll come out right now and say that I am a conservative leaning Libertarian. Both parties have failed this country in their own unique ways in the past fifty years. I tend to vote for 3rd party candidates, Libertarians or Constitution party candidates. I also vote for Republicans and some Democrats, depending on their voting record, but I do my homework before voting for anyone. (A good resource for checking voting records is a site called On the Issues.)

The United States has been slowly progressing down a dark path since World War II. I think a lot of us see it. We're not going to go all the way back to the 1940s, but let's consider the past fifteen years, since the events of 9/11 occurred.

The presidency of George W. Bush will forever be a scar on the honor and dignity of the United States of America. It was a time of the curtailing of civil liberties, economic trouble, corruption, surveillance, the bloating of the federal government, deficit spending, and illegal war. The war on terror began, a war that will probably never end. During the presidency of George W. Bush we saw illegal wiretapping, the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions act, financial industry bailout, and of course the invasion of Iraq. Then came the economic collapse.

Then comes on the scene the charismatic senator, Barack Obama. He campaigned on ending the war in Iraq, closing Guantanamo bay, restoring the Constitution, restoring civil liberties, dealing with corporate corruption, and going after Bin Laden in Afghanistan. I voted for Barack Obama in 2008, because I was so desperate for hope and change.

Unfortunately, the presidency of Barack Obama from 2008 to today has been very similar to the Bush presidency. We've seen continued building of the surveillance state, NDAA indefinite detention of American Citizens, scandals like Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS scandal, and the NSA surveillance scandal. The Obama administration even threatened to withhold social security checks from veterans and the elderly if Congress didn't raise the debt ceiling. Obamacare came out, a piece of legislation clearly written by the health care industry and for the health care industry. (IE: Guess who sets the rates?) President Obama's cabinet is full of lobbyists, including a former Goldman Sachs employee running the treasury and a former Monsanto lawyer running the FDA. Under Obama the drug war was expanded, and Federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries continued (in violation of state laws). Obama has given a lot of lip service to "protecting whistleblowers" but his administration has come down even harder on whistleblowers than the Bush administration did. The Obama administration has bombed Yemen, Libya, and very nearly began a war with Iran. Voters came out in force against any kind of bombing of Iran though, and that misguided venture was stopped. Of course there is also Obama's drone war in Pakistan which has left 2,400 dead, civilians included. I haven't even gotten to the wallstreet bailout, or the Federal Reserve's money printing, but I think we've established the high level of corruption. Need I go on?

Our leaders are not being held accountable, to the point that as I've previously mentioned Princeton and Northwestern have analyzed in a study and found that the United States is no longer a democratic republic, but an oligarchy, where a wealthy elite control the country.

The question must then be: How can be begin to hold our elected officials accountable?

Let's look at a few possibilities:

1. Be in contact with legislators via letters, email, and phone calls.

2. Sign petitions & share causes on social media

3. Write to local newspapers regarding key issues

4. Participate in local politics, councils, and committees

5. Talk to friends and family regarding important issues

6. Expose evil and promote the good

7. Run for Office

Perhaps you're wondering, what does all this have to do with Christianity, and the gospel? Well, probably more than you think. Consider abortion, since the Supreme Court ruling over 56 million dead. They have a word for that, genocide. How can I share the gospel with dead children? The answer is, I can't. As the culture becomes more and more depraved and sex obsessed, it becomes more difficult for Christians to stay faithful, and it becomes more difficult for people so lost in sin to come to faith in Christ. Corruption begins to infest every level, academic, economic, scientific, media, politics; everything becomes infected by the greed and depravity caused by people living without the Holy Spirit.

Spiritual principles are required to guide the hearts and minds of citizens; guided by moral beliefs people prosper and the free market can function. Without it, laws upon laws have to be added to protect against this, and prevent that, and eventually it all falls apart. Or as G.K. Chesterton said, "If men will not be governed by the Ten Commandments, they shall be governed by the ten thousand commandments.”

In conclusion, let's just briefly go through some key national issues that I hope you'll pray about, and get involved with as you feel called to do so. I'm not going to go into a lot of details on each particular issue but I will include a link for each issue, for further study. There are many, but these are some key issues:

1. Religious Liberty - if we lose freedom of religion, then we've lost our ability to freely be Christian. We must fight for religious liberty.

2. Civil Liberties - Hitler said that the best way to take power is very slowly over time, piece by piece. Slowly but surely our freedoms are being taken away in this country. Commit to restoring the freedoms that make America great.

3. Abolish the Federal Reserve - this agency has caused huge amounts of inflation of the US currency. As a result average Americans suffer, paying higher prices for the same products. Help Audit the Fed, help End the Fed.

4. Repeal Citizens United Ruling - The citizens united ruling by the supreme court has allowed billions of dollars to flow into the political process. It's a fatal wound on democracy.

5. Abolish Abortion - Pray about this issue, pray a lot. And get involved! People need to get educated about the science behind abortion. It's not even debatable based on the science alone, much less the moral implications.

6. Protect Net Neutrality - the internet is the last hope for the free exchange of information, other it's just the television "programming." Consider being an advocate for a free and open internet. Otherwise internet slow lanes may become a reality.

7. Label Genetically Modified Foods (GMO) - Monsanto has been fighting hard to prevent genetically modified foods from being labeled. Never-the-less people are fighting back, and there is a growing demand for organic food. The health effects on the United States people is obvious. Heart disease and cancer are out of control in the USA.

8. Protect Traditional Marriage - Some would prefer that government stay out of marriage entirely, but at this point, best to protect the traditional view of marriage.

9. Repeal Obamacare - This corrupt piece of legislation must be abolished. Pray about this issue.

10. Turn off the Television - boycott television media, refuse to watch the corrupt media corporations like CNN, Fox, MSNBC, ABC, NBC, and the other propaganda networks. Support alternative media, and internet news.

11. Deal with corruption in Banking & Corporations - How can we deal with the issue of corruption? More laws, less laws? Prosecution? Prayer?

12. Non-interventionist Foreign Policy - We as a country and a people are over 17 trillion dollars in debt. The wars in the middle east need to stop for financial reasons and moral reasons. Bombing countries and constantly manipulating events and installing puppet dictators has made us enemies all over the world. Supporting Israel is of course important, but invading countries and manipulating politics in the region has been a dismal failure over the past sixty years. Bring the troops home, bring the bases home, keep Israel protected, but 700 bases across the planet is too many.

There are many key political issues and all of them need dedicated champions. Get involved if you can, and be in constant prayer for the new leaders in the republican controlled Congress: for wise decisions, humility, character, and perseverance against corruption. In conclusion, as Malcom Muggeridge said "It would be difficult for anyone looking around the world today to resist the conclusion that something has gone very badly indeed with what we continue to call “Western Civilization.” This awareness tends to be distorted and muffled – if not obliterated – by the media, which manage to induce us to take for granted the continually explosive situations that confront us on every hand, and to see as an enlargement of our freedom and an enhancement of the quality of our living the steady and ominous erosion of the moral standards on which our traditional way of life has been based." - The True Crisis of our Time

Good luck and God bless. We'll need both.

"The most effective way to do it, is to do it." - Amelia Earhart

Psalm 33:12 (ESV) Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!

Works Cited

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