Category Archives: Current Events

I bit into a grape not long ago.

I love grapes but to my dismay, this one had a seed in it.

Somehow, in my haste, I had missed the label on the package. I would never have purchased grapes with seeds.

Seeds spoil the succulent fun.

Of course, where would we be without them? There would be no grapes, or apples or any other fruit or vegetable without seeds. I still vividly remember buying vegetable seeds for my dad’s garden when I was a kid in Connecticut.

Dad, who didn’t know what a small garden was, would have great ambitions every planting season. After careful study, he picked out the seed packages he wanted and he knew the brand names. I marveled at his attention to detail; his encyclopedic knowledge of all the instructions.

Sometimes he’d ask me to pick them up at the store and he was always very specific.

I figured what’s the difference?

I remember the luscious and colorful squash, corn or carrots pictured on the outside of the package in all their glory. But the seeds were disappointing and never looked like much. When harvest time came it was from those tiny inconspicuous seeds that a bountiful and beautiful garden, cultivated with deliberate care and blessed with the rain and sun from above, had grown.

It was another valuable agricultural lesson I learned in spite of my rather apathetic disposition toward gardening.

Beth and I were in Atlanta recently attending the Haggai Institute Global Summit. What an exciting event. Recognized Christian leaders from around the world had converged to share the Haggai Experience. These men and women had taken Haggai’s leadership training for evangelism.

They didn’t resign their professions but instead had returned to their native lands – and their occupations – and joyfully shared the Gospel with their countrymen – in their own language and culture.

This is a model of global evangelism unmatched in power and effectiveness anywhere in the world.

While much of the third world closes its doors to western missionaries, Haggai Institute bypasses visas, lengthy language courses and cultural acclimations to take the love of Jesus Christ to unexpected and previously unreached places.

Haggai’s leaders are trusted because they are not strangers from away – they are one with those they reach.

Whether it is an artist in China, an environmentalist in Indonesia, a scientist in Bulgaria, a doctor fighting AIDS in Nigeria, or a businesswoman helping the victims of war in Ukraine, the leaders of Haggai Institute are making this world a better place – and sharing the Gospel while they’re doing it.

Never has there been a greater need. Never has there been a more exciting opportunity.

Since 1969, Haggai Institute has prepared nearly 100,000 men and women from 188 nations to present the Gospel to those who have yet to hear that God loves them so much that he sent his Son to die for them.

The leader of our Mandarin ministry in China, a gifted young man named Ezekiel Tan, shared a quote with us in Atlanta:

“You can count the number of seeds in an apple but you can never count the number of apples in a seed.”

Jesus told us that the “kingdom of God cometh not with observation” (Luke 17:20, KJV). There are often no visible signs of God’s work – no news broadcasts or prime-time specials. Much of what God does in this world begins in unremarkable and small ways. It’s often undercover and unnoticed.

A recent report reveals that there may be close to one million Christians worshipping in secret in Iran.

God’s kingdom grows and expands and it advances not through geopolitical shifts or military conquest but through the daily dedication of the disciples of Jesus and their quiet deeds of love and kindness.

When he described God’s kingdom, Jesus compared it to a mustard seed.

“It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of garden plants”, he said. “It grows into a tree and birds come and make nests in its branches” (Matthew 13: 32, NLT).

The influence of God’s kingdom may not be easily observed or loudly lauded in a world reeling from evil and drenched in suffering, but its transformative power is making the lives of millions better.

God does great things from tiny seeds.

There is no stopping the power of God. There is no thwarting the purposes of God. There is no killing the love of God. There is no defeating the kingdom of God. The gates of hell shall never prevail against it.

Christianity had to go worldwide. It had no choice.

This was its founding charter, its far-flung vision and its forging mission. Jesus made this crystal clear to his first followers on the Galilean mount of his ascension.

Before God brings the curtain down on this fallen planet, purges it with fire and makes all things gloriously new, Christ’s Great Commission will first be fulfilled. The Good News must be preached to all nations (Mark 13:10).

The story must be told.

Through ministries like Haggai Institute and its global leaders, this divine mission could be achieved in our lifetime.

May we always remember that in this great enterprise, no one can count the number of apples in a single seed.

The weather was great.

The lodge was beautiful.

He enjoyed the tour.

Cibolo Creek Ranch is an exclusive resort in West Texas, not far from the Mexican border.

He was here for the weekend to do what he loved just about more than anything else – hunt.

He dined with the other guests Friday evening and was his usual animated and jovial self.

Still, he was tired from the trip and at around 9:00 PM, he graciously excused himself and retired to his bedroom. The next morning he failed to join the others for breakfast but they thought he had chosen to sleep in. After he didn’t show later, there was concern.

When someone knocked on his door there was no answer.

Upon entering his room, they found him lying in bed, clad in his pajamas.

“He was very peaceful,” the resort owner later told NBC News.

Somewhere in the night the well-ordered and monumental life of Antonin Scalia came to an end. His incredible mind, unconscious in sleep, would think no more. His passionate heart, courageous, convicted and filled always with joy and the love of life, beat its last.

Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court, Scalia, 79, was the brilliant intellectual anchor of the conservative wing of that Court. Widely regarded as Ronald Reagan’s most significant appointment to the bench, Scalia served nearly thirty years. His eloquent opinions, often as a dissent from the Court’s majority, were the stuff of legend. His arguments were powerful, his logic incisive and his manner cordial but direct.

Scalia, a proud and devout Roman Catholic from a Jesuit background, loved his family, his faith and his country.

He also cherished the Constitution and thought the founders who wrote it should be heeded.

He was a conservative icon.

He leaves a rich and historic legacy as arguably the most consequential jurist of our time. There is now a silence on the Supreme Court – and a void – that will not be easily filled.

For all his brilliance and influence, Antonin Scalia could not order the time or circumstances of his step into eternity. He had made his weekend plans but God had made his own long before.

In every unexpected death, especially one so notable, you and I are reminded of the uncertainty and brevity of life and the sovereignty of God.

“We can make our plans,” Proverbs tells us, “but the Lord determines our steps” (Proverbs 16:9, NLT). “For what is your life?” James asks. “It is even a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away” (James 4:14, NKJV).

“… a puff of smoke, a mist …” (The Amplified Bible).

Our lives – even the lives of the great and mighty among us – are so terribly fragile. Someday for every person the silver chord shall break. The time and cause of that separation have been determined with the same divine precision that set our entrance into this life.

God knows – and he alone declares – the end from the beginning.

You and I have a rendezvous with death and eternity. It is an appointment we must keep, all our other plans notwithstanding. We shall not be late; we shall not be early. And we shall not know.

Woody Allen famously remarked, “I don’t mind dying, I just don’t want to be there when it happens”.

But he will.

The word “appointed” in Hebrews 9:27 of the King James Version is pregnant with meaning. Our death in this world was specifically arranged before this world was formed. Our appointment cannot be canceled, postponed or re-scheduled.

Justice Scalia kept his at a ranch in West Texas.

Scalia’s death not only reminded us of life’s uncertainty. It also set off a political firestorm that has dramatically raised the already high stakes of this presidential election. It reads like a fast-paced novel.

The senior conservative justice on the Supreme Court dies unexpectedly while on a hunting trip in West Texas. The White House is occupied by a liberal lame duck Democrat who is African American. The United States Senate is controlled by the Republicans.

This sudden shift in the Court’s ideological balance takes place against the backdrop of one of the most contentious and bizarre presidential campaigns in American history – starring a controversial former Secretary of State, a card-carrying Socialist and a bombastic billionaire.

Get some popcorn and grab a front-row seat!

Truth is so often more exciting and implausible than fiction.

You can’t make this stuff up.

Watching this drama unfold over the coming weeks and months, we’ll all get a refresher in civics.

The President has the constitutional right to nominate a justice, just as the Senate has the constitutional right to confirm or reject that nomination. Madison and his colleagues called this “advise and consent”. It’s the delicate checks and balances they built our government on.

Yes, the stakes are incredibly high this year.

Christian leaders – and especially pastors – need to realize this and urge their congregations to pray and pay attention. If there was ever a time to reject the high cost of indifference this is it.

Generations will be indelibly shaped by what happens in the next ten months.

Old Ben Franklin reminded us that “God governs in the affairs of men”.

We have just seen his hand again. You may be sure he has a purpose.

Strange how much history can hang on a single heartbeat.

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven”.

It is the hour of decision. The time for this noble purpose is upon us.

You and I must choose.

Let’s not kid ourselves. The stakes have seldom been higher.

Our families. Our faith. Our freedom. Our future.

Our country and today as never before, yes, the world.

We enter upon our quadrennial season of presidential politics blessed as no people on earth have ever been blessed – with the individual right and collective duty to determine the destiny of our American Republic.

Men gave their lives to defend our freedom of self-determination. They fought and died so you and I could quietly mark a secret ballot and have a voice in deciding who one of the most powerful people on earth will be.

Only three men have occupied the Oval Office for the past quarter century. The American voters have elected each of them twice.

Their longevity in the White House makes this election even more important – perhaps the most significant of our lifetime.

Americans enter this political season angry, fearful, disillusioned and deeply divided.

The Christian voter looks to God, places ultimate trust in Jesus Christ and embraces hope over despair.

How then, shall we vote?

1. We must think for ourselves and never let anyone else take the place of our own judgment, aided by prayer and reliance upon the God of the nations. There are those who would earnestly and with sound conviction seek to influence our vote. Some are less sincere. They seek power and boast of their “numbers”. But while our vote may be informed by others it must never be manipulated or taken for granted.

If you value your citizenship, then pray, read, study and mediate – for yourself. No one should speak for you – not your husband, not your wife and not your minister. Beware of endorsements. God’s not endorsing anyone. It may take more work, but thinking independently is worth it.

If you do that when you buy a car, why not when you vote for the leader of the free world?

2. Where a candidate stands on the issues matters more than where he attends church. A candidate’s religious beliefs, likes yours and mine, is a question best left to himself and God. The founders were wise to prohibit a religious test for public office and even wiser to insert that prohibition in our Constitution. They rightfully feared both prejudice and pandering.

Let faith be weighed among other considerations but never alone. Martin Luther said he’d rather be governed by a competent Hun that an incompetent Christian. Luther was right.

3. On abortion and gay marriage the next president will be able to do little, if anything. While they matter deeply to Christians as issues of biblical morality, these divisive questions must not determine the Christian’s vote at the expense of other public policy concerns.

What a president believes about the definition of marriage won’t matter much if he makes a mistake with North Korea, Iran or Russia.

4. Where a candidate stands on non-economic issues, however, still matters deeply. A president’s views on family, social responsibility, crime, gun control and religious liberty will help to shape the direction of our nation in many ways that transcend mere economics. His or her views on the judiciary, for example, could determine the makeup of the Supreme Court for decades.

5. Nothing matters more than a person’s character. And when that person is the President of the United States, his or her character can be paramount in charting the nation’s course. Our country’s greatest leaders have been men of courage, compassion, vision and integrity. If there is one moral issue that should loom large for the voter of faith, this is it.

The next president will face staggering domestic and foreign policy challenges. Among these are creating opportunities for economic growth, rebuilding a dangerously weakened and obsolete military, forging a just immigration policy, reducing the deficit, restraining an arrogant and bloated federal bureaucracy, reforming entitlement programs, and restoring the trust of America’s allies.

Any two or three of these would test the ability of the most gifted executive.

So our next president would do well to remember the humility of a new leader’s ancient prayer for “an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?” (I Kings 3:9, KJV).

Following the vote in Philadelphia approving the new Constitution, an anxious observer standing on the steps of Independence Hall asked Benjamin Franklin what kind of a government had been created, a monarchy or a republic. Dr. Franklin, who had wisely guided his younger colleagues in designing the greatest document of self government in the history of the world, smiled and told the lady, “A republic, if you can keep it”.

If we can keep it.

Preserving our Republic is what this next election is all about.

Nothing less is at stake.

This summons the thoughtful, well-informed, active and sober engagement of every Christian citizen.

Fear and anger are powerful emotions.

So is sadness.

So is hate.

Paris triggered them all.

The bloody carnage in the City of Love was the latest assault in a new world war unique in its methodology, its aims and its stakes.

ISIS claimed responsibility for more than 129 dead and hundreds injured. The radical Islamic terrorist group had carefully planned six separate attacks across the city – all of them successful.

President Obama found himself at the G-20 summit in Turkey repeatedly defending a piecemeal policy that once vowed to stop ISIS but many insist has only emboldened it. The President has refused to consider any military options beyond air strikes and sending advisors.

People are fearful.

When a Syrian passport was discovered near a dead militant, many immediately suspected the stream of refugees coming to Europe and the United States from Syria and other countries in the Middle East – ironically fleeing the very turmoil and ruthless violence represented by the Paris attack.

Were terrorists sneaking in with the refugees? American compassion was now confronted by our need to be protected.

A majority of the nation’s governors vowed to stop the immigration. The President implied that was un-American.

Evangelical pastors joined the chorus of controversy from their pulpits the next Sunday. They condemned the Paris massacre and demanded stronger action from the government. One well-known Baptist minister told his church that “as Christians” we must love, forgive, pray and share the gospel with those who oppose us.

Then he exclaimed that he agreed with Donald Trump “that it’s time to start bombing the you know what out of ISIS!”

He received a standing ovation.

Bombing or sending troops – these are military responses. Christians, as good citizens, acknowledge the biblical role of the state in securing justice and protecting the nation. In a fallen world, government “beareth not the sword in vain” (Romans 13:5, KJV).

This war against ISIS will not end with a negotiated settlement. No surrender instruments will be agreed to or signed on the deck of a battleship. No arms will be laid down. The enemy will only be stopped when it is destroyed.

This is the sad but undeniable truth of the matter. No political correctness can change it. Reality is a very stubborn thing. Millions of Americans don’t believe we are being adequately protected in this global crisis or that our government has always acted wisely or courageously on the world stage.

But there is more to this – and there must be more to our response as believers. No matter what may be happening in this world – no matter what the danger or the threat – we must never forsake the primacy of the spiritual.

If we don’t see all of life and its events through the lens of our Christian faith, we either don’t understand it or we don’t believe it.

The Church of Jesus Christ is not the state – it stands above the state. And Christians are more than patriotic citizens. Our thinking must be informed by more than fervor, flag-waving and vengeance.

We must begin by giving our fears and anxieties to God. He knows we’re only human but to dwell in fear is to dishonor the Sovereign who is over all the nations and forces of this world.

This includes ISIS.

The world may panic and Jesus tells tell us that in the cataclysms of these last days men’s hearts will fail them for fear (Luke 21:26). But he tells us to “be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33, KJV).

We must also understand and keep in mind the nature of this present conflict.

There is no greater example of the spiritual warfare being waged against Christians than the rise of international terrorism sponsored by radical Islam.

This is part of the cosmic struggle being fought between good and evil; against Jesus by Satan.

To understand this is to respond wisely and confidently.

As Paul exhorts us to take on God’s spiritual armor, he reminds us that “we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12, NLT).

That is the nature of it. Those are the stakes.

Just as it is a mistake for our government not to acknowledge the true nature of the political and cultural conflict, so it would be equally short-sighted for believers to misunderstand its spiritual dimensions.

ISIS is not our enemy. Satan is.

And because he takes on the Son of God – who rules forever in majesty and power – the devil’s doom is sure.

In this we may rejoice.

Like the conflict itself, so too our weapons are spiritual.

Paul tells the Corinthians:

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds” (II Corinthians 10:3-4, NIV).

When asked at the age of 92 if he might summarize the lessons of history in a single sentence, renowned historian Will Durant replied:

“Love one another. My final lesson from history is the same as that of Jesus … Love is the most practical thing in the world.”

The only force powerful enough to overcome hate is love.

Let us pray for our enemies. Let us ask God for the strength to love them.

In the end, it is our greatest weapon.

May God bless you and your family.

She took her stand. She paid a price.

To many she’s both hero and symbol.

To others she’s a bigot and law-breaker.

Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused, “under God’s authority”, to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, remained quietly defiant in the face of judicial threats. When she didn’t back down, a judge had her remanded to jail indefinitely. Though she could have posted it, bail was denied.

Davis, a Christian who said she could not in good conscience violate her faith and God’s law by signing the marriage licenses, sat in jail for nearly a week. It could have been longer, but the judge relented and released her. He warned her not to interfere with the issuing of marriage licenses to homosexuals.

Kim Davis is an elected official. She serves the public and is employed by the government. In the absence of federal statute and much of anything else except growing public support, the U.S. Supreme Court in June decided that gay marriage was a sacred constitutional right. After that, Davis’ job description changed. She must now put her official imprimatur on an intimate – and suddenly legal – union she considers a sin.

Although signing marriage licenses is only a small fraction of her duties as a county clerk, to her this was a matter of conscience.  It was also still part of her job as a government employee.

It was a conflict not easy to avoid or resolve.

For Kim Davis however, it wasn’t so hard.

She refused to bow to the latest golden image of government-sanctioned political correctness and expanded perceived “rights”.  She wasn’t thrown into a fiery furnace or a lion’s den, just jail. But, like those ancient Hebrews, she stood her ground as an act of faithful obedience to God.

Not alone certainly, but still in a clear minority today.

Kenneth Upton, senior legal counsel to the gay lobby, was concerned that Kim would become a martyr to the cause of bigotry. Pointing to a photo of Davis in handcuffs, Upton said, “This is what the other side wants. This is a biblical story, to go to jail for your faith. We don’t want to make her a martyr to the people who are like her [intolerant bigots?], who want to paint themselves as victims.”

Kim Davis is an unlikely hero – or victim. She’s a Democrat who has been married four times. When opponents railed at her hypocrisy, her answer was simply to say she’s been changed by the power of God’s grace. Not so hard for a Christian to grasp.

Ever since Peter and the apostles declared to an enraged authority, “We ought to obey God rather than men” (Acts 5:29, KJV), conscience and civil disobedience have been an important part of the “biblical story” and the history of Christianity. In the Old Testament, the Jews in exile offer an inspiring example of courageous and unswerving allegiance to divine law – and a willingness to pay the price for loyalty to a higher power.

Perhaps Kim Davis should resign as county clerk. Perhaps there can be no accommodation to her religious conscience. After all, she’s a public employee and the law says gays can get married. So if signing their marriage licenses violates her conscience, then resigning is the only right thing to do.

After all, government and the law march inexorably forward. Society calls this progress. And individual conscience must submit to the inevitable. It must submit to power.

That’s a popular point of view.

We get agitated and impatient with conscientious objectors.

The Supreme Court decides what the Constitution means. Of course, the Supreme Court isn’t always right. History reveals its tortuous and contradictory legal path, especially on the matter of slavery.

Who knows what Jefferson and Madison might think of Kim Davis – or homosexual marriage as a constitutional right. It was Jefferson, after all, who suggested to his close friend that he draw up a carefully-worded list of specific rights that would safeguard the individual conscience against the encroaching power of the State. These first ten amendments to the Constitution became our Bill of Rights. Among these unalienable rights was the free exercise of religion.

Natural law, bequeathed by “Nature’s God”, was the foundation of our Constitution. Today, that foundation continues to crumble amidst a mocked obsolescence.

One thing is certain: our founders were wary of the government’s power to deny any person’s beliefs.

“No provision in our Constitution,” wrote Jefferson in 1809, “ought to be dearer to man than that which protects the rights of conscience against the enterprises of the civil authority.” These “rights of conscience”, Jefferson argued, must never be submitted to civil rulers. “We are answerable for them to God.”

Of individual conscience, Dr. Martin Luther King wrote:

“Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks the question, is it politic? Vanity asks the question, is it popular? But conscience asks the question, is it right?”

Kim Davis gave her answer.

Hundreds of thousands of Christian refugees fleeing Syria and other troubled lands for their very lives face that question daily.

And living in a time of escalating conflict between conscience and culture you and I must ask – and answer – that same question.

May God bless you and your family.

O’Reilly’s is great!

Whatever part for my car or truck I need, the helpful, friendly folks at O’Reilly’s will have it in stock or they can order it. Considering that my truck, a daily driver, is 36 years old and my car is 50, O’Reilly’s has been a lifesaver on countless occasions.

As an auto supply store, they’ve got all kinds of parts.

So does Planned Parenthood.

Even staunch pro-choice advocates had to grimace at the breezy, nonchalant discussions recently caught on undercover video. Officials of Planned Parenthood talked about harvesting tiny body parts of unborn babies as if they were making after-dinner plans.

Or stopping by O’Reilly’s

Even the liberal Washington Post conceded the videos were “hard to watch”.

Planned Parenthood’s senior director of medical services spoke of the desirability of a “17-weeker” because he or she was “more likely to yield what we needed.”  By the second trimester, the baby had grown big enough to offer “the tissue that you want”. A fourth of the agency’s abortions in Los Angeles are performed in the second trimester.

The overwhelming majority of Americans believe abortions in the second trimester should be illegal. But they are not.

And so over drinks in a restaurant Planned Parenthood folks talk about using “less crunchy”  techniques  when pulling a baby from the womb of its mother so as not to damage key organs. Someone observes that “intact fetal cadavers” can be had by altering the abortion procedure.

This is so tragic and sickening that it is indeed “hard to watch”.

We all should sympathize with young women with unexpected or problem pregnancies. We should support medical research in the relentless pursuit of cures for dreaded diseases. Fetal tissue, the argument goes, is invaluable to this laudatory medical effort. Less commendable is the greed and callous ethics that lead to the despicable trafficking of infant body parts for money. A doctor once remarked that this profitable business was like “the goose that lays the golden eggs”.

When the United States Senate, in response to the videos, debated a bill to defund Planned Parenthood, the predictable arguments were heard. This agency offers a wide-range of services to improve women’s health, including contraception that prevents unwanted pregnancies and abortions. The legislation, however, would have shifted resources to other health care providers that don’t specialize in harvesting body parts.

The bill was defeated in a close vote but the deep moral concerns are left unresolved.

When a society begins to devalue the lives of its weakest and most defenseless members, its collective conscience, in the biblical term, is seared. Abortion has become so commonplace for so long that it was inevitable that the bodies of unborn babies would become commodities, means to a greater end, useful instruments of medical research and experimentation.

Fetuses not babies; tissue, not people.

Morality never exists in a vacuum, nor does it remain unaffected by choices and opinion.

That which is at first objected to, if seen frequently, becomes in time tolerated and, if it lasts long enough, can be approved of. Familiarity too often breeds a cavalier moral indifference.

The Planned Parenthood videos jolted our awareness of what abortion on demand is and what it involves.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts accused abortion opponents of wanting to take our country back to “the 1950s or the 1890s”. But if it’s a historic parallel the senator seeks, it would be the 1850s.

On March 6, 1857, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its infamous decision in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. Dred Scott, a former slave, had escaped his master and sought legal recognition of his freedom and citizenship.

But according to Chief Justice Roger Taney and a majority of his colleagues, the authors of the Constitution had viewed all blacks as “beings of an inferior order, and altogether unfit to associate with the white race, either in social or political relations, and so far inferior that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect” (emphasis added).

Black people weren’t people at all. They were common chattel property, just like a wagon or a cow.

Democratic presidents Pierce and Buchanan and presidential nominee Stephen A. Douglas all shared this view.

When it comes to the rights and personhood of unborn children in the 21^st century, Elizabeth Warren, Hillary Clinton and others in their party are the natural and direct political descendants of Pierce, Buchanan and Douglas.

The trafficking in the body parts of murdered infants in the womb conjures up the diabolical heartless experiments of Nazi doctor Josef Mengele at Auschwitz. His favorite experiments were on twin children, without regard to pain or consequence. After all, this was for medical science and these children were only Jews.

As you and I prepare ourselves for another presidential election, when abortion will again be debated, let’s remember and courageously affirm the preciousness and beauty of all human life. It’s precious to us because it’s precious to the God who made us.

“You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body,” the psalmist marvels before his Creator, “and knit me together in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13, NLT).

You and I are “fearfully and wonderfully made”.

We are God’s work of heart.

So is every unborn child.

May God bless you and your family.

He’s a Jew.

He’s a highly intelligent and sophisticated journalist and commentator.

He calls himself a conservative but takes liberal views on several social issues, including abortion and gay marriage. He writes for The New York Times as a columnist. He has been a regular on National Public Radio.

He greatly admires John McCain, and is a Republican who says the party must move beyond Goldwater/Reagan ideas of limited government. However, he has worked for such conservative publications as National Review, The Wall Street Journal and The Weekly Standard.

He’s suspected by both the Right and the Left – which means he’s unpredictable in his views.

Some would say conflicted.

Yes, I’ll admit it, I like David Brooks. Not because I always agree with him but because I know he’s thoughtful and insightful – and worth reading and listening to.

Brooks has written a few books. The last one, just published, is entitled The Road to Character.

 Mr. Brooks shares studies of several historical figures from Augustine to Eisenhower and analyzes how they developed their character.

 “I wrote this book not sure I could follow the road to character,” Brooks says, “but I wanted at least to know what the road looks like and how other people have trodden it.”

Ironically, Brooks takes a Christian view.

Followers of Jesus Christ, especially those in leadership, would do well to consider the profoundly orthodox biblical perspective offered by this unorthodox political commentator and cultural Jew. Brooks is a breath of fresh air – bracing perhaps but a wonderful antidote to our pervasive shallowness.

In his closing chapter, The Big Me, Brooks takes direct aim at the arrogance and superficiality that threaten American Christianity.

He enumerates a Humility Code which he argues is central to walking the road to character.

“We don’t live for happiness, we live for holiness” Brooks writes.

“But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do”, Peter insists, “for it is written: ‘Be holy, because I am holy’” (I Peter 1:15, NIV).

Pursuing happiness may be viewed as a semi-constitutional right, but God places a much higher priority on being holy. Peter traces the divine command back to Leviticus. David Brooks is familiar with the scriptures and the ancient Jewish law. And he understands that the singular desire for personal satisfaction breeds selfishness and entitlement.

Holiness breeds character.

Some of this country’s biggest and fastest growing churches feed on greed, envy and headlong ambition.  Materialism has replaced spirituality – in fact, it has been falsely represented as spirituality.

“God wants you to be happy!”

But an ancient writer called that pursuit “chasing the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

When Robert E. Lee handed a small child back to his parents he told them, “Teach him to deny himself.”  Here was honest and simple wisdom spoken by a man of greatness who had walked, through adversity, the road to character.

Jesus tells us to take up our cross.

“We are flawed creatures,” Brooks reminds us. This is the key to grasping the crisis of our time with peace and discernment.  Man’s inhumanity; his cruelty and oppression; his audacious immorality and his fearsome capacity for unmitigated evil are all rooted in this fundamental truth about the world and our place in it.

Calvinists call this “the total depravity of man”. They are right. In the face of recorded history and in the moral rebellion and turmoil of our new century, even the most incurable optimist must concede this central truth.

“Humility is the greatest virtue,” Brooks points out, and “pride is the central vice.”

CS Lewis agreed, adding that in the sin of pride, all other sins find their true origin. Pride makes us entitled – to success, health and wealth. Pride makes us too easily and irreverently familiar with a sovereign and awesome God, too unwilling to bow before him, too quick to judge others and too independent to stand in the need of grace.

Pride was the cause of humankind’s original fall and it continues to cause heartbreaking disasters. The narcissism that infects our culture is the result of defiant pride.

Humility is the path to true greatness and the only road to character. Proverbs and the psalms reflect it, Paul and Peter exhorted it and Jesus modeled it.  Every one of the lives Brooks studied and wrote about was marked by humility. It may be an elusive virtue but it is an essential one and well worth cultivating.

Humility makes us indebted – to God for his mercy and to others because of it.

“The struggle against sin and for virtue is the central drama of life,” Brooks asserts, and “character is built in the course of your inner confrontation.”

That struggle lasts a lifetime. It’s called perseverance.

As great as he was, the apostle Paul mourned over his too often defeated battle against his sinful nature. In wrestling with my own flesh, I have often drawn comfort from Paul’s inner conflict.

“No person can achieve self-mastery on his or her own,” Brooks concludes, and so “we are all ultimately saved by grace.”

Indeed we are Mr. Brooks.

It’s God’s matchless and amazing grace that gives us the strength, joy and confidence to travel our own road to character.

May God bless you and your family.

It was quite a sight.

The White House, historic icon and symbol of national leadership, was seen now in a new light.

The executive mansion, home of our presidents, over which its first occupant, John Adams,

had solemnly prayed, “May none but honest and wise men ever rule under this roof,” was suddenly bathed in the rainbow colors of homosexual triumph and pride.

This desecration of an American symbol was ordered by an enthusiastic president who, with nothing to risk politically, is clearly out of the closet on this issue.

President Obama, who has been described as America’s first “gay president”, called the gay-colored White House “pretty cool” and “a good thing.”

It was part of a national celebration.

Earlier that day, the United States Supreme Court, in a 5-4 split decision, declared homosexual marriage legal in all fifty states. It is now, said the court, a constitutional right that all Americans are duty bound to recognize, respect and support.

In his vigorous dissent, Chief Justice John Roberts asked, “Who do we think we are?”

The Court, in declaring homosexuality socially normative, legally protected and morally permissible – as the law of the land – has inverted right and wrong. Dismissing the legislative process and the millennia-long collective wisdom of civilization, the court not only re-defined the institution of marriage – it sanctioned and speeded America’s path toward the moral abyss.

The rainbow symbol suddenly was everywhere. Major corporations began marketing it to show that they too believed in love and tolerance.  Gay Pride parades were held in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. Thousands in the streets cheered, danced and hugged.

But for millions of other Americans it was a day for mourning.

This is a time of sadness that a great republic we all love has gone so far astray from God’s moral law. Truths deemed self-evident by our nation’s founders as derived from Nature and Nature’s God have been defied in the celebration of unnatural acts.

“Jerusalem staggers,” wrote the prophet Isaiah. “Judah is falling; their words and deeds are against the Lord, defying his glorious presence.”

The arrogance and pride of the people are manifest in their open and shameless rebellion.

^“The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves” (Isaiah 3:8-9, NIV).

Nor does corrupt and compromising leadership – both religious and civic – escape the divine judgment.

“Your leaders mislead you; they send you down the wrong path” (Isaiah 3:12, NLT).

The foundations of morality and faith in God which emboldened 13 wilderness colonies to challenge the greatest power on earth are crumbling. The current of culture is strong and fast-moving.

So, how should Christians live?

Redemptively.

We must not apologize, we must not compromise, and we must not temporize.  Nothing for the follower of Jesus Christ has changed with the court’s decision.

Because we worship an immutable God, nothing ever will.

We grieve because we love America. We know that the most strenuous dissent often goes hand in hand with the deepest patriotism. So our sadness is the broken heart of a wounded lover. Because we cherish all that this country stands for – and our noble heritage – we mourn this marked departure from the ancient and good paths.

This is not a time for panic or fear.

This is a time for choosing.

Being a prophetic minority will strengthen our faith and hope in God. It will make us more courageous Christians, prepared to stand for our beliefs or it will condemn us to a quisling accommodation with the world.

The day for straddling is over.

It is time to acknowledge the yawning chasm between legality and morality.

“Here I stand,” declared Martin Luther to a corrupt world, “I can do no other.”

Every American pastor worthy of that honor needs to be preaching God’s whole counsel and declaring his Christian conscience on the moral issues of our day. The godly pulpit ought to be the last place to try and hide. Christians need thoughtful, informed and principled leadership from their shepherds.

We must pray for our beloved America. That God may yet shed his grace on our land, knowing that spiritual revival and healing is still possible.

We must not only defend biblical marriage, we must resolve to be more devoted and loving husbands, wives and parents.

We must also love and respect our gay neighbor. He has not been created gay but he is still created in God’s divine image, no less than any Christian. The world knows the follower of Christ by his love. Let’s always remember and practice that truth.

In another moral crisis, the outcome of which we celebrate this weekend, Thomas Paine reminded his fellow citizens:

“Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.”

Let us remain soldiers of the cross and followers of the Lamb. May you and I never fear to own his cause or blush to speak his name.

And let us say a prayer for our country.

May God bless you and your family.