One Person at a Time...

Our New President...

I'm watching the inauguration of our new president, Barak Obama, as I write this post.  While there has been much hype about this day, I must say as I sit and watch it, even though Mr. Obama was not my choice, still I marvel at how our system works.  The hope, vision and unity that Sen. Feinstein has called us to is idealistic, and rightly so.  We need ideals toward which we strive.  Rev. Rick Warren's prayer rightly called us to acknowledge God first--as Father, as the one, true and living God, and rightly acknowledges the blessing of living in a land where it is possible for Mr. Obama to rise to the highest position of leadership. May Mr. Obama lead with the humility Rev. Warren called God to provide, and may we truly be forgiven when we forget that ALL our blessings come from you.  May all people of goodwill work for the things Rev. Warren asked God to give us the power to do--justice, liberty and peace.   I am so glad that Rev. Warren closed his prayer in Jesus' name in several languages and the Lord's prayer, and did not bow to the pressure of the world to offer a "generic" prayer.  My prayer is that God will lead President Obama and Vice-President Biden to in all things, and that they will listen to His voice and do His will.  I pray that I will be a faithful citizen of heaven first, and that through that citizenship, I will be a faithful citizen of the United States of America.  I pray that for all of us who bear the name of Jesus.

The "Last Lecture"

Below is a YouTube video of a hopeful view of the future by a Carnegie Mellon Professor who is dying of cancer. Unfortunately it doesn't display a hope-FILLED view of the future as Jesus' promises are absent!

Why Not?

I'm sure most of us are asking, "Why?" when we reflect on the senseless shootings and loss of life at Virginia Tech yesterday.  That was my first question. I quickly moved from that, though, to the one which serves as the title of this post, "Why not?"  Our culture assumes people are basically good or neutral and all we need is a little positive input and direction in order to be productive members of society.  God's word assumes we're born in sin and born as "enemies" of God.  That sounds so harsh.  The reality is while most of us will never carry out such a heinous crime as we saw on video from Virginia Tech, the capacity to do such things is within us all.  We're born with the propensity to do evil.  From our youngest days we're self-centered, self-willed and seek our own good.  Only by the grace of God does any society function.  John Calvin called it "general grace." It keeps us from destroying one another.  Unless, we move beyond that to the specific grace offered to us in Jesus Christ, we can expect headlines like yesterdays everyday. 

Some say the world is becoming more and more evil.  God's word tells us that in every era "Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint." (Proverbs 29:18 NIV) When we fail to learn and live God's word and ways, the result is death, theft and destruction.  Our hearts and prayers go out to the families of the victims.  As followers of Jesus they go out to the family of the shooter as well.  As followers of Jesus we must set ourselves to the task of sharing God's revelation first with our lives and then with our words.  Then the people around us will ask, "Why?.... Why do you live that way?"  There's no better door than that through which we can offer Jesus to them.