We all see things through a glass darkly. Unfortunately, we all see things through our own tinted window.
Everything we have ever gone through in our lives, our entire upbringing, our families, our education, our work, our friends, our acquaintances, our mates, our children, our churches, our faith—all give us a window through which we view the world differently from the person standing right next to us.
We try to keep to our particular worldview—the one we choose—the one we want to have. I actually want to have a biblical worldview. Yet I do things each and every day that keep me from having that worldview, and it frustrates me. Every time I don’t thoroughly examine my own actions through the lens of Scripture I’m in danger. Let me give an example.
I love spy novels. I became especially enamored with Vince Flynn’s series of books about Mitch Rapp, the CIA operative/assassin who hunts down high-ranking terrorists for elimination (or information, which usually involves torture). Okay, let’s reconcile that with Scripture…hmmmm…I’m searching for a verse…know what? Through my tinted window, I may be able to come up with something that will justify my thirst for the elimination of a terrorist, and my agreement with Flynn that the terrorist eliminated was totally unredeemable. I wonder if really want to confer with the Lord about that, though…
Another example might be that I watch movies or television shows that are culturally relevant to today. What do I mean by that? Colorful language is prevalent, innuendo abounds, all of it is wrapped around humor so funny I’m just about rolling on the floor…my stress is being relieved…ahh…here we go! I found Proverbs 17:22a: "A happy heart is good medicine and a cheerful mind works healing." [Amplified Bible]. Oops…lets look at verse 22b: "but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Well! King Solomon just had to impart that bit of inspired wisdom! And in Proverbs 14:13 he said, “Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of mirth is heaviness and grief." [AB]. Gets me to thinking about what I find so funny…
All this to say, as I am learning more about the worldview I chose, I am learning more about true joy. Most of it comes in the morning for me. That’s when my worldview is closest to being worked out. It is only as my day progresses that it wanders from its true home. I’m learning to make those choices that more closely align me with the worldview I love, and to analyze fully the choices that steer me from the path of slavery to true freedom. It’s a wild and fascinating ride!
Friday, September 17, 2010
Monday, September 13, 2010
Total depravity = small government
Why am I an advocate of small government?
The answer to this question seems to me to be a no-brainer.
I am an advocate of small government because I am a five-point Calvinist Christian.
Specifically, I believe that mankind in general and all men in particular are in every facet of their humanity affected by Adam's fall into sin. This belief lends itself to advocating a decentralized civil government with the greatest number of powers being exercised by the individual people themselves since the ability of one citizen to tyrannize another is extremely small.
As groups of citizens band together and create rules of behavior, (towns, cities) they must delegate the enforcement of rules to a minority, (sheriffs, police, and judges) who have at their disposal pre-legalized, overwhelming force. For this reason the extent of their powers must be severely limited.
This principle continues up from individuals to the Federal level because of man's propensities to tyrannize his fellows.
The answer to this question seems to me to be a no-brainer.
I am an advocate of small government because I am a five-point Calvinist Christian.
Specifically, I believe that mankind in general and all men in particular are in every facet of their humanity affected by Adam's fall into sin. This belief lends itself to advocating a decentralized civil government with the greatest number of powers being exercised by the individual people themselves since the ability of one citizen to tyrannize another is extremely small.
As groups of citizens band together and create rules of behavior, (towns, cities) they must delegate the enforcement of rules to a minority, (sheriffs, police, and judges) who have at their disposal pre-legalized, overwhelming force. For this reason the extent of their powers must be severely limited.
This principle continues up from individuals to the Federal level because of man's propensities to tyrannize his fellows.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
I Used To Be a Liberal. . .
I was born in the 50’s and graduated from high school in the 70’s. I’m from the era of Billy Jack. Do I need to say more?
My senior year of high school I stuffed paper boxes for McGovern. I’m sure my mom and dad thought I had flipped a lid. When I told them it was for extra credit, they didn’t say a word. Although I was pretty consistently an A-B student, they weren’t going to argue with “extra credit.” Heck, they even paid for the gas!
Do you know…I had no idea how liberal I really was? On the one hand I abhorred the thought of abortion, but I have written proof of a letter written to the editor of a newspaper about how teen pregnancy ruins the life of so many people, from the baby right on through the grandparents of the mother. Of course there were no alternatives or options given to abortion—I’m not sure there were that many or that I was aware of them if there were. My grandmother was so proud of me for being published in the paper that she put it in my scrapbook! How is that for a memory coming back to haunt you?
My parents didn’t talk about politics or current controversial affairs much, although looking back they always voted pretty conservatively. The only exception was Carter—the peanut farmer. To this day, my mother will talk about the traitorous peanut farmer who stabbed the Virginia peanut farmers in the back. It was the last time she voted for a Democrat—me too, actually. It was the first time I could vote.
I remember when Rush Limbaugh first came to the radio scene. To some of us he was a breath of fresh air, expressing ideas that we felt but never heard anyone on any of the airways communicate. He was brash, in your face, shocking in his methods, but he sounded truthful to us because he expressed something publicly that we felt privately. No one else was expressing those views with such success. We were thoroughly entertained by it. Then I was unpleasantly shocked to find that my intelligence was questioned because I listened to him and found him entertaining.
It wasn’t long before I was learning about hate—in America. I never paid much attention to it before. It seemed to me that it was just “freedom of speech” and that freedom included the right to fly flags, burn flags, pledge to flags, pray, worship…I can’t even list the freedoms there are so many we are given. Men and women of all faiths died to give us those freedoms. I understand we have the freedom to hate—but as a Christian I do not have that freedom.
Why this diatribe? I’ve been thinking lately that what might work us up is what we are digesting. Newspapers, magazines, Internet, television, and radio all set us up to digest emotion. Evidently emotion is now a commodity. Do we want to contribute to the culture in such a way that we sell ourselves totally to the information age and its offerings? In February I went to a great seminar a friend of mine presented in which she suggested a Sabbath from “gadgetry,” or technology. Another of my friends expressed it this way in one of his weekly newspaper articles:
Rex Alphin: Information Proclamation
I’m going to try the concept. I think it will be a good exercise in realizing how dependent, how addicted we have become to information.
As for being liberal or conservative, I’m not sure exactly where I stand politically anymore. I suppose I’m somewhere in between, constantly looking for someone, anyone who speaks a shred of truth. I think we’ll need more than a Sabbath to figure that one out.
My senior year of high school I stuffed paper boxes for McGovern. I’m sure my mom and dad thought I had flipped a lid. When I told them it was for extra credit, they didn’t say a word. Although I was pretty consistently an A-B student, they weren’t going to argue with “extra credit.” Heck, they even paid for the gas!
Do you know…I had no idea how liberal I really was? On the one hand I abhorred the thought of abortion, but I have written proof of a letter written to the editor of a newspaper about how teen pregnancy ruins the life of so many people, from the baby right on through the grandparents of the mother. Of course there were no alternatives or options given to abortion—I’m not sure there were that many or that I was aware of them if there were. My grandmother was so proud of me for being published in the paper that she put it in my scrapbook! How is that for a memory coming back to haunt you?
My parents didn’t talk about politics or current controversial affairs much, although looking back they always voted pretty conservatively. The only exception was Carter—the peanut farmer. To this day, my mother will talk about the traitorous peanut farmer who stabbed the Virginia peanut farmers in the back. It was the last time she voted for a Democrat—me too, actually. It was the first time I could vote.
I remember when Rush Limbaugh first came to the radio scene. To some of us he was a breath of fresh air, expressing ideas that we felt but never heard anyone on any of the airways communicate. He was brash, in your face, shocking in his methods, but he sounded truthful to us because he expressed something publicly that we felt privately. No one else was expressing those views with such success. We were thoroughly entertained by it. Then I was unpleasantly shocked to find that my intelligence was questioned because I listened to him and found him entertaining.
It wasn’t long before I was learning about hate—in America. I never paid much attention to it before. It seemed to me that it was just “freedom of speech” and that freedom included the right to fly flags, burn flags, pledge to flags, pray, worship…I can’t even list the freedoms there are so many we are given. Men and women of all faiths died to give us those freedoms. I understand we have the freedom to hate—but as a Christian I do not have that freedom.
Why this diatribe? I’ve been thinking lately that what might work us up is what we are digesting. Newspapers, magazines, Internet, television, and radio all set us up to digest emotion. Evidently emotion is now a commodity. Do we want to contribute to the culture in such a way that we sell ourselves totally to the information age and its offerings? In February I went to a great seminar a friend of mine presented in which she suggested a Sabbath from “gadgetry,” or technology. Another of my friends expressed it this way in one of his weekly newspaper articles:
Rex Alphin: Information Proclamation
I’m going to try the concept. I think it will be a good exercise in realizing how dependent, how addicted we have become to information.
As for being liberal or conservative, I’m not sure exactly where I stand politically anymore. I suppose I’m somewhere in between, constantly looking for someone, anyone who speaks a shred of truth. I think we’ll need more than a Sabbath to figure that one out.
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