We Can Still Make the System Work

I have been encouraged and excited about the recent Tea Party gatherings around the country. We had probably a dozen or so in North Carolina alone. There is no telling just how large this movement is. The day after the Tea Parties, I purposefully looked at Yahoo! News to find any stories.....locating only one, which states the Tea Parties are Republican in nature and another odd story about Sarah Palin....not really about anything that has happened to her, but just reminding us all of how debilitating her situation is, politically... just in case we forgot. They have apparently taken on the job of reminding us, in addition to reporting the news.

But notwithstanding, this is no longer a debate about conservatism or liberalism. The Tea Party people scan both sides of that coin. Those who say it is between conservatism and liberalism are living in the past and such positions are not relevant to the concerns we face now, regardless of where you stand politically.

The real division is now between those who wish for United States sovereignty against those in favor of trans-nationalism. What is trans-nationalism? It's the consent to give up economic, legal and administrative sovereignty and giving it to an international organizational collective. Proponents of trans-nationalism liken their position as 'working well with others' and criticize others as 'isolationists'. In fact, both are false assessments.

Wanting national sovereignty is not equivalent to being an isolationist. There are degrees of those out there that do believe in isolationism. However, identification of those who wish the U.S. to remain sovereign is not isolationism. Likewise, 'working well with others' does not equate to giving up economic and legal autonomy to an international authority. Those that use that in support of moving toward global currency or international law courts, regulatory oversight, etc., are masking the consent to relinquish national determination with the virtue of cooperation, when there is no equating them. For example, participation in a neighborhood association does not equate to relegating your bank account, children's school, extracurricular activities and vocation to them.

Replacing the dollar, yen, Euro and other currencies with the SDR, Bancor or other new global currency will take our national monetary policies out of our hands and into the hands of the World Bank.

Signing our names on the dotted lines of international legal documents make us answerable to a world law court and our citizens under the authority of the same.

Creating taxes that are payable directly to an international body, like carbon taxes, will take away representative taxation. Those in favor of such taxes and fees will say we are still represented but on a global basis, will have a difficult job defending that position to U.S. citizens...at least those who still have some focus on things outside of their immediate circle of sufficiency.

The above all entail relinquishing our legislative, judicial and executive branches to a global authority, or at least make them subservient to it.

If relinquishing our sovereignty is the right thing, no argument has been made for it, other than disingenuous catch phrases and horrific warnings if we don't. I still remember Paulson and Bush talking about 'systemic risk' just last fall, with regards to the financial crisis. Some even predicted the declaration of Marshall Law if bailout money wasn't doled out immediately. I hear it all the time from Geithner, Bernanki and Obama. If we don't agree to their course of action, all hell will break loose, our homes will burn down and our pets will die. And this has been used by both parties. It isn't a partisan habit. It's a ruse to get us to either 'go along to get along' or scare us into compliance.

How did we get here?

I have a theory....Improvements in technology have been so exponential, it has changed the way we think, work and live our lives. We now have cable and satellite, which provide us with hundreds of channels of content. We have several 24 hour news channels, internet access to millions of computers around the globe, cashless banking....even the concept of remote controls, alone,.....have been introduced to make our lives easier, more convenient and to help us do more with less work. There are remote controls for ceiling fans, light switches, computer access....even smart homes where everything can be controlled through remote access. These things have helped make us complacent about things beyond our immediate circle...and haven't made life easier for us but created even more distractions to deal with, again, in our immediate circle. Technology has allowed us to cram in more in the same amount of time. We have families, homes, work....our immediate concerns....which are now 100% of our concerns, for most of us.

As far as national and even local affairs, we trust talking heads with ties or dresses, beaming over our flat screens, to provide us news, without critical thought. We trust our entire democracy in the hands of the inner-rings of two political parties and all we have to do is simply show up and vote for the candidates they hand pick for us. In fact, now we don't even have to stand in line. We can vote at home. Everything is made for our convenience and personal peace....and our liberties, freedom and self-determination are outsourced in the hands of authorities we don't even know much about or critically examine.

This is a reality that spans boundaries. It represents the situation at the national level, all the way down to local city halls, chambers of commerce, school boards, etc. Without a bottom-up approach of our involvement in the process, it will be left to opportunists and they will probably not have your best interests at heart, unless you have a lot of what they are after. And after they get it from you, you are no longer an interested party. But unless we all start taking an interest again in the process that was given to us and described by people like John Adams as a project like the world has never seen, it will be co-opted by others without concern for it. And the gift will be taken from us with no recourse outside of a repeat at Bunker Hill, which will cost much more than sacrificing a dinner at home to attend a local meeting or two.

Our democracy requires more than bloviating in coffee shops, internet blogs, media outlets or voting from home, every two or four years. It requires involvement from the grass-roots level. Participation in local precincts, districts, counties and states, so that actual real people outside of political machines can help pick and support candidates, long before the primary begins. This will mean real choices by the time the electronic voting booths do get dispatched. Otherwise, we are only voting for insiders predetermined by party leaders and as it is now, those party leaders are ready to sign away our autonomy as a nation. It also requires our abilities to see past party lines and stop trying to stretch our interpretations of everything that happens to fit our party's limited categories. Our political parties have been watching the house for us and the house is a wreck.

I am as guilty as the next person when it comes to this. But I recognize this in myself and find it imperative to change. I find it imperative to write this to others, even with my own complacency.
And the reason I haven't participated before is because I had a hard time finding relevance of the process with my own life. I have a family, work, my own home.....hard to see past that, particularly when I watch people cannibalize themselves on television over political issues. Seems like a circus, rather than a system. I know that is why you haven't been involved either.

On the whole, I am positive about our country. I think our system will work, if we work at maintaining it. If we don't, we will lose it completely. But, on the whole, even if we relinquish our autonomy, lose our nation and become one state of many in a world alliance, I still have hope. Keep in mind, I trust Scripture and I know how this will all turn out. I also have trust in the sovereignty of a God that doesn't sweat any of this. For those of you who are followers of Christ, there is no reason to assume this sort of involvement in your country's government is a tacit lack of trust in God's sovereignty anymore than to assume your personal responsibility is the same. Your responsibility in taking care of an incredible gift given to you is not in defiance of His providence, but a part of it. Likewise, those of you who do not believe as I do....we still are part of the same nation that was founded on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (the classical definition of happiness contrasted to the understanding of that word today). There is no reason to reject what I have to say simply because I come from an evangelical Christian background. You are also a fellow citizen of the greatest country in the world and along with me, we can strive to keep it that way and respect each other, without having to respect each other's differences of opinions. That's what makes this country so awesome.

I just don't want to see it crumble. And I watch it crumble daily. Those Tea Parties gave me hope. Those were real people. Despite the news stories, they are not expressions of Republican agendas. There were all kinds of people out there and they all had one thing in common......love for our nation and our constitution, in that our nation is 'by the people, for the people and of the people.' If you are like minded (and I pray you are), let's keep it that way....and get busy right where we live in finding the right people for 2010.

Let me warn you now: from watching people actually having done this (and succeeding), be prepared to face great opposition from within your own political party. They are used to deciding all the names for you and won't like to hear from you. But sometimes a little inconvenience is a great thing. One more thing....if you insist on watching the local news or even cable news for information, PLEASE don't make it your sole source of information or give them more credit than what is due them. Look into what is going on through several sources yourself. Learn to distinguish between news and gossip. I think if you do that, you will find that most of it is gossip. I used to intern at an ABC affiliate and I can tell you from experience, those people know how to report, but that doesn't make them even close to being an authority on any topic outside of journalism....and even then, I think some are shaky in that area as well.

For those with the fortitude and time to get through all that ranting, thanks for reading.

How To Be A Good Person

Man, that is about the boldest title I have ever come up with for anything I have ever written. Anyone who knows me well, realizes how bold that was. That's alright. I'm keeping the title anyway. It's difficult for me to imagine that I could be a reference point for a topic like this. But, my confidence is not in myself which, hopefully, will make more sense by the end of this article.

Are you a good person? It's a good question. Being a Christian, that question has an entirely different depth to it than it being asked by someone with another worldview. And, to dispell popular myths, the idea of Christian goodness is not reduced to avoiding beer, women and saying 'sh#%'. I know that sometimes that seems to be the long and short of it...coming from us alot of the time. But to embrace that as the biblical concept of goodness is to avoid what the Bible says. The Bible goes far deeper than simple list of things to avoid or things to do. It deals with our hearts...our very center. And the Bible is far more useful than Snopes.com when it comes to these things. Trust me with that.

I believe that Jesus Christ was not just savior, Lord and redeemer. He is also the smarted man that ever lived. If He had something to say on this matter, which He did, then it would seem logical to listen to His words, read about His actions and try to figure out His entire demeanor and perspective on everything. Anyone could agree with me on that point. The powerful part of my proposition is that by doing this....following Christ....there is a supernatural aspect for those who also place their confidence in Him as Lord and Savior, that will not happen to the average person pursuing His teachings for only the value and virtue of the teachings alone.

Jesus replied to them, “My teaching is not mine but comes from the one who sent me. If anyone wants to do his will, he will know whether this teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own.
John 7:16-17

The biblical concept of 'soul' is sort of a synonym for life. Our soul is our life. And our life/soul is comprised of a will, mind, body and social context. All work together to make our life/soul. Our will is the decision center of our being. I use spirit and will interchangeably. Our mind is what contains thoughts, emotions and desires. Our body is what acts within the physical world. Our social context is our interaction with other lives that provide our relation and purpose in life. Without any of these things, we have no life. If any of those components are neglected or harmed, our life is harmed or even destroyed.

Everyone's spirit or will has been formed. The only difference is whether or not its formation is malformed or transformed. Our spirit can be either formed by the world we live or by God. There is no other option. And because everyone's will is formed according to the world around us, everyone requires spiritual transformation. No one, outside of Jesus Christ, naturally has a will in line with the Kingdom of God.

What does a life conformed to this world look like? Outside of obvious things, like violence, perversions, etc....take a look at the subtleties....like pride, anger, jeoulosy, lustful desires, greed. Consider someone who's been insulted and how that insult is handled. A soul transformed to this world will withdraw and probably attack the one who insults. That same soul, depending on its sensitivity, could withdraw from everyone in general or learn to take advantage of everyone in general. Sound familiar? How about someone else getting the promotion or recognition you deserved? What is your natural reaction? Is it true gratitude or resentfulness? See what I mean? I should have hit everyone by now.

A life conformed to God looks just like Jesus. Look no further than Him.

Once more, in order to align ourselves with His Kingdom, we must entrust our very lives to Jesus Christ and intentionally follow Him. According to Jesus' own words, His teachings are self-validating and vindicate His claims of beiing Lord, God and Messiah. If there is another option (and there are many), then either He lied or else these options are counterfeit.

Because our will is influenced by the world around us and because the world around us can be impacted by our decisions, there is an interaction between our spirit and our world, that work together for good or evil.

There are two ways to try to be a good person....work at it or entrust yourself to Someone who will help you become a good person. Listen to Paul's words in Romans 9:

What can we say, then? Gentiles, who were not pursuing righteousness, have attained righteousness, a righteousness that comes through faith.But Israel, who did pursue the righteousness that is based on the law, did not arrive at that law. Why not? Because they did not pursue it on the basis of faith, but as if it were based on works.
Romans 9:30-32

Here is one of many stark contrasts in Scripture between the two options. Works or faith? By works, Paul refers to the externalities and appearances. It goes far with other people, but has no value with God. The Jews observed all the feasts, festivals, holy days, rules and regulations....but their approach to righteousness (as well as all us, naturally) was to work hard at it. But success was not true righteousness but great acting. That sort of righteousness, according to Paul, was who could do a better job at disquising thier mess. Meanwhile, the gentile believers , who were alot more ignorant about Scripture or even serious religious dedication (considered religious peons), had obtained righteousness through confidence in Christ. Many Christians consider this text to mean that this righteousness was 'imputed' to them through their faith in Christ. I agree. But that is not all of it entirely. It also means this:

Place your trust in Christ and not only will you no longer be condemned by the law of God, but you will be given the freedom to cooperate with Him, knowing He will help you get better, without fear of what failure could bring during the process.

Either trust in your efforts at great acting and cover up a malformed soul, or place your confidence entirely in Him, uncover all the mess with a confidence that the mess no longer has the power to condemn and confidence that by cooperating with Him, you will be transformed into a person you never could become on your own.

Jesus' parable about the prodigal son raises this issue too. Remember the story? A rich man had two sons. One of the sons wanted his father to give him his inheritence before he died, so that he could run off and live like hell, which he did. The other son stayed behind and helped out his father. The son nearly destroys himself with wine, women and whatever else...decides he had it better at home and returns to see if he can simply be a servant, rather than an heir.

The father in the story runs up to him and embraces him as soon as the son makes it within view. There is a huge party on his behalf....fatted cow is butchered for good steaks and lots of celebration.

The other son is extremely indignant.

He approaches his father and in his anger, lets him know how he feels about treating the prodigal son with such gratitude when he never left his father's side the entire time.

The father tells him that he should be happy his brother returned, rather than worrying about what everybody deserves. It was never about how good either son was...as evidenced by both the one son's depravity and the other son's pride. It was about coming home to the father.

One thought his righteousness was based on his track record (appearances only). The other had righteousness through returning to his father and placing his entire life in his hands (humiliating but thoroughly transforming).

The externally righteous will always feel indignant towards those who obtain righteousness by faith. Consider Paul's words in Galatians:

So you, brothers, are children of the promise, like Isaac. But just as then the son who was conceived according to the flesh persecuted the son who was conceived according to the Spirit, so it is now."
Galatians 4:28-29.

The flesh is synonymous in the Greek with our natural inclinations, which is a works-based righteousness in conformance with the world, which is no righteousness at all. And this counterfeit righteousness is not only at enmity with righteousness through confidence in Christ. This sort of 'righteousness' provides alot of outward persecution against the 'children of promise', who are those whose righeousness is in Christ and through Christ by intentionally learning from Him.

The pressures of this world will hammer on your will, mind, body and social context until you look just like this world. And this world is also a very outwardly religious world. Just watch the Daily Show and see how morally outraged Jon Stewart can get or watch The View and hear all sorts of moral proclamations around a table. How about reactions in politics? The world is full of very outwardly morally motivated people. Problem is, outside of spiritual transformation through an apprenticeship in Jesus Christ, we are simply spraying Lemon-Fresh Joy on a pile of fresh dog poo.

Sorry for the analogy...but I don't know how else to communicate the facts of the matter. Maybe Isaiah says it better (not much better). "All of our righteous deeds are as filthy rags (used toilet paper in Hebrew)."

True spiritual transformation requires a clear vision of what we need, real intention to take steps in that direction, and the motivation to do it. God's grace supplies all three of these things. What we can do in this process is study Jesus and contemplate on it. We can spend time without any noise or diversions focusing on Him through study and prayer/meditation. We can also try to purposefully not have our way in things, whether that is food, drink or simply having the last word. It teaches us that we don't have to have our way. These things help us to learn how to recognize where He is working, when He is speaking and how to discern things better. Lastly, by placing confidence in Him, we can expect (confidence/belief/faith) that He will be doing things from the inside out to make us into something that resembles Jesus....an authentically good person.

But because of our condition and formation, it will probably be somewhat painful, humiliating and scary at times. There will be voices that try to make that pain, humiliation and fear magnified so that we quit. But be keeping in mind wonderful words such as "Great is He who is in you than he who is in the world", as well as others help us keep those voices at bay...and they will be many and often.

This is not a good world. That's pretty uncontroversial. And outside of what He teaches for our good, we resemble our world, whether we like it or not. That is controversial. Always has been. And until everything comes into conformity with His intentions, always will.

But His way brings forth His Kingdom into this realm like a little yeast in a large lump of dough. Heaven doesn't have to only be something we go to when we die. Heaven is also something we can have now and extend here, but only through faith. Likewise, hell is not only a place reserved for those who prefer it after death. It is also here and now too.

The closest places in our lives can be heaven or hell. We can choose self-protection, engage in attacks and withdrawals to and from others and by doing so, extend hell, rather than heaven. Or we can pick up our cross and follow Him, relax that our own lives are in good hands, enough to be able to serve others without fear or hesitation...thereby extending heaven here and now. Your confidence is in Him, not in your own efforts. And your confidence in getting better doesn't depend on your successes, but your confidence in Him finishing a work He started in you.

And as the song goes....'the world, will be a better place for you and me. You just wait and see.' (John 7:16-17)