The Lawgiver

"Mom, who did the Pharisees believe in?" Jacob asked from the backseat of the car.
"Themselves," I answered. "They believed in themselves, in their ability to keep the law." And it was one of those moments when teacher and student were learning together because as the answer was coming out of my mouth, I was having a God moment. It was like a word of wisdom, and the words were not mine.

God is the Lawgiver.
He has created this world and set it in motion.
In Him we live and breathe and have our being.
And from this incredible, eternal Mind comes Law which sustains His creation.
He wrote scientific laws, like gravity.
He wrote economic laws, like supply and demand.
And He wrote moral law, which He originally entrusted to Israel.

His Law cannot be broken without serious consequence.
And therein lies the irony...
because break it we do.
Daily.
Hourly.
Minute by minute.

In short, He wrote a Law we cannot keep.

This Law that is impossible to keep demonstrates to us what is right and what is wrong.
The Law reveals to us our sin,
which reveals our dead-ness,
which reveals our need for a Savior...
someone who can keep the Law,
and pay our penalty,
and make us right with God.

That is the function of the Law.
And in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, He interprets the Law to implicate us all.
If there was any doubt as to our ability to achieve right standing with God through the Law,
it was all cleared up then.
"Think you've kept the whole law? Let's talk about calling your brother 'Raca.'"

No wonder the Pharisees were mad.
They thought that Jesus was making the Law impossible to fulfill.
But He wasn't adding new requirements.
He was acting the Judge, interpreting for the people what the Law had always meant to the Lawgiver.
The Law had always been impossible to fulfill!

Being the Lawgiver is serious business.
And it is a job reserved for God Himself.

But over the last few years, the Lord has been showing me how much I like to play Lawgiver.
I write new laws
and hold others to them
and make judgments based on whether they 'keep' them.

What is 'sin' but the failure to keep the Law,
literally 'missing the mark?'
So when I write a new Law, and others fail to keep my law...
I'm really saying they are sinning, because they're missing my mark.

I can think of laws I've written regarding all kinds of issues of conscience:
homeschooling
birth control
youth groups and children's church
nose rings and tattoos
women working outside the home.

(We need to have standards. 
Christians are notorious for feeling, rather than praying and thinking, their way through life.
We need to be in the Word, applying the Word...
and I'll get to that.)

I can have a value on homeschooling and commit to it, come hell or highwater.
I can define what I think it is and what I think it's not.
I can even assess, based on my definition, "I don't think X is homeschooling."
But I cannot say that not homeschooling is sin.
I cannot say that because God does not say that.
Ever.

I don't want to write any more Law.
I am a worm.
I am but dust.
I am not qualified to write Law.

God is holy.
God is perfect.
God is the author of Creation
and the source of all knowledge
and the source of all wisdom.
He alone is qualified to be the Lawgiver.

"Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen."  (I Timothy 1:17)


Lord, help me to remember that You alone are the Lawgiver.
And I am the sinner--saved by grace.

(Up next, what I'm learning abut issues of conscience and setting standards...)

Worship in Truth

I am a wounded soldier

But I will not leave the fight

Because the great physician is healing me.

I am loved; I am accepted

By the savior of my soul.

Yuck.

----------------------

How many songs do we sing in church which do little to magnify the love and glory of the One who loved us and gave Himself for us while, at the same time, going to great lengths to remind ourselves how special we are?

How many refrains fail to humble us before a Holy God by minimizing the death sentence we so richly deserve and the One who absorbed it for us?

The Church is flimsy these days,

preaching a flimsy gospel

and engaging in flimsy worship.

In short, we're telling a tale of humanism.

In short, we're lying about the work of the Cross.

In God's eyes, we're not the victims.

We're the perpetrators.

And our sin--not our pain--separated us from a Holy God.

It would be more accurate to sing a song like this:

I was an AWOL soldier

'Cause I had left the fight,

And the Good Creator's wrath was on me.

I was treasonous. I was in rebellion

to the authority of the King.

Jesus' death satisfied God's wrath,

Not His pity.

And Jesus went to His death for me while I was still a teeth-gnashing traitor against Heaven.

How many of our worship songs lie about that Truth?

Happily, there is a rich, true theology found in the old hymns.

They told the Truth about us

(probably because they were written back when the Church preached the True Gospel).

"Now to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be.

Let your goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee."

"My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought,

My sin, not in part, but the whole,

Was nailed to the Cross and I bear it no more,

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, o my soul."

"Bearing shame and scoffing rude

In my place condemned He stood.

Sealed my pardon with His blood

Hallelujah, what a Savior!"

Unlike the old hymns, modern 'worship' has fallen far short of telling the Truth.

Fortunately, though, not every new song lacks good theology.

And for every insipid refrain of "More love, more power" and other seven/elevens like it, modern hymn writers are beginning to return to Truth in worship.

"Behold the Man upon the Cross

My sin upon His shoulders.

Ashamed I hear my barking voice

Call out among the scoffers.

It was my sin that held Him there

Until it was accomplished.

His dying breath has brought me life.

I know that it is finished."

"I beheld God's love displayed.

You suffered in my place.

You bore the wrath reserved for me.

Now all I know is grace."

"I am the thorn in Your crown

But You loved me anyway.

I am the sweat on Your brow.

But You loved me anyway.

I am the nail in Your wrist.

But you love me anyway.

I am Judas' kiss.

But You love me anyway."

True worship accurately depicts God's love.

He made the first move.

He loved us while we were sinners,

Not while we were helpless victims.

Who loves a hurting child?

Who loves a wounded puppy?

Who loves victimized woman?

We do.

Big.deal.

But who loves a criminal?

Who loves a traitor?

Who loves a snivelling, blasphemous dog?

God does.

BIG, VERY BIG, DEAL.

Preach a false gospel,

or sing a false gospel,

and we paint a lying picture of a small god and a potent humanity.

Preach and sing the True Gospel, however,

of a Holy God and a wretched, filthy humanity,

and we properly understand the Love of our very Big Redeemer.

That, my friends, is what it means to worship in Truth.

Soli Deo Gloria.

Sea Turtles

Sea turtles never thrilled me much.

I remember the annoying little cages on South Florida beaches where the eggs were protected.

I remember rolling my eyes and being irritated that some tree-hugger somewhere was taking all the fun out of my day at the shore.

But...

I have a new-found respect for sea turtles.

For theirs is a journey of sanctification.

Their road is hard.

It is long.

It is narrow.

The sea turtle's life is hard from the very beginning.

Three days to reach the surface of the sand from the egg.

Forty horrid meters from the place where they are hatched to the current of the Gulf Stream.

Predators.

Sand crabs.

Seagulls.

About seventy more kilometers once they find the water...

to their first rest--if they find a raft of floating seaweed providing refuge from underwater predators.

From day one of the believer's journey, the Predator is after our soul.

To kill. To destroy.

And those not called according to His purpose laugh at our journey,

mock our sovereign protection,

and accuse us of ruining their fun.

We must keep our eye on the horizon,

Put one foot in front of the other.

To go on is to face a new host of dangers.

But to stand still is to perish.

The sea turtle instinctively catches the Gulf Stream which takes it from the tropical waters off the coast of Florida...

to the frigid North Atlantic.

Along the way, it must dodge hungry blue sharks in the south

and lazy, open-mouthed basking sharks in the north.

Four thousand kilometers to its waiting place.

And there it eats and grows

And waits

and waits

and waits.

It takes the sea turtle five years to reach its waiting place,

And fifteen years for nature to give it permission to leave.

We, too, spend much of our life waiting.

But if we grow impatient and move out ahead of the Redeemer,

we do so at our peril.

We may feel like our lives our stagnating,

But all the while, God is preparing us for the road ahead.

The hard road.

The long road.

The narrow road.

Narrow.

At least half of all sea turtles fail to make the initial trek from sand to sea,

lost to their very first encounter with predators.

And only one in ten thousand of the surviving half make it to their twentieth year...

...when the fruit-bearing begins.

How many of us have known fellow sojourners whom we thought followed the Lord in earnest,

only to find that their true passion was not God's glory...

but their own.

Lost.

Not on the narrow path now--because they never were.

And then...

the sea turtles turn twenty, and they instinctively move out from their waiting place

To find a mate,

To do what the Creator put them here to do:

To bear the fruit that propagates their species.

Only now are they mature enough to bear serious fruit.

After much danger,

Much travel,

Much waiting.

Only now are they ready to head back, with that fruit,

to the land of their origin.

And all the while, their instinct has guided them through the treacherous Gulf Stream...

...where their God-given immunity has protected them.

Some predators turn out to be no predators at all.

As other sea creatures succumb to the poison of the man-o-war jellyfish,

Not only do sea turtles swim through them, immune to their sting;

They feast on them.

A table...

in the presence of their enemies.

Isn't it just like God to lead us into the valley of the shadow of death,

only to find that we need fear no evil?

Sea turtles have their jellyfish,

And Christians have their lions.

But those lions--as Bunyan pointed out--are chained.

The sea turtle finds a mate and returns with her fruit to the beach whence she came.

Alone.

There she beaches herself and deposits her fruit in the sand.

Alone.

There will be a day when we stand before our Creator-Redeemer.

Alone.

Returning to the land of our citizenship,

Just us and our fruit.

We will look back on this journey called life...

This hard, long, narrow journey,

A journey our Creator-Redeemer has intricately ordained for us from the beginning.

I wonder if we parents are setting the right expectation for our children.

Do they know they road is hard?

Do they know the road is long?

Do they know the road is narrow?

They need to know;

We need to tell them.

Tell them that 'sanctification' is spelled "l-o-n-g-h-a-r-d-n-a-r-r-o-w."

Tell them that "longhardnarrow" is what conforms us to His image.

Tell them that "longhardnarrow" produces fruit in keeping with repentance.

Tell them, as Spurgeon did, that everything is right on schedule.

And tell them that those who persevere on the "longhardnarrow" meet their Creator-Redeemer on the beach once again, this time with their fruit, to hear Him say,

"Well done, good and faithful servant."

Elephant Rooms and Bones to Pick

Debate.

I love it.

But I don't love it because I think it's fun to disagree.

I love it because I love Truth.

It was after a debate with my husband that I had a major paradigm shift in my theology.

And suddenly, the whole Bible made so much more sense

And it read with much more clarity.

I finally understood who God really is

And who I am in Him.

Yes, real debate yields real fruit

Because it uncovers real Truth.

Some believers are afraid of debate.

I don't think they'll say that. They'll couch their objections in Christian terms.

They'll say it's unsafe...

Or dangerous for personal relationships...

But I think that's sad.

I think it's sad that people of the Book are afraid to pursue Truth relentlessly.

And somewhere during a debate, someone starts to lament the lack of Unity.

Okay, I admit it.

I can be too quick to fight for Truth

and botch Unity.

And when Unity and Truth seem to be at odds...

I admit that I tend to err on the side of Truth.

Not that what I have to say is the Truth.

But I'm typically not afraid of disagreement.
I'm more afraid of error.

Just this past week, if you were paying attention, you would have observed the festooch over Elephant Room Two (ER2), which is the second gathering of diverse Christian brothers to discuss their differences in a healthy and public sort of way....

...until someone wanted to discuss differences in a healthy and public sort of way.

When Dr. Voddie Bauchum wanted a showdown on the Trinity, he found himself on a plane back home before the event even began. I always appreciate men who cannot be swayed by 'civility.' In contrast, I am deeply disappointed by others who have self-righteously declared that they are for unity--even if it means agreeing to disagree on the Trinity.

The Trinity.

Uh, believers don't agree to disagree on the Trinity.

There are important doctrines.

And, yes, much to our chagrin, there are times to stand for Truth and eschew Unity.

Pastor Thabiti Anyabwile observed about ER2:

We were given a view of our own slippery and sometimes lazy grasp of the Trinity and other doctrinal issues of importance. Let's admit there's truth beyond our knowledge here. But let's also admit that too many of us have not sought to grasp what may be known.

Huh.

Sounds like Truth trumping Unity to me...

"Too many of us have not sought to grasp what may be known."

Right on, Brother.

Kevin DeYoung weighed in like this:

We need a more thoughtful theology of criticism... Let's avoid facile condemnations of all criticism, realizing that the statement itself is a criticism and the Bible is full of heroes who had lots of bones to pick.

The Church in general--and I specifically--need to grapple with when to stand for Truth and when to bow to Unity.

My experience tells me that it depends on the doctrine.

There are the first-tier doctrines (like original sin and penal substitution) that are so integral to the definition of our faith and the Truth of the Gospel that they are non-negotiable.

I would never choose Unity over Truth at this level.

There are third-tier doctrines (like baptism or dispensationalism or charismatic gifts). Widely diverse positions are held by believers on both sides of these doctrines and lots of others. But they don't change the Truth of the Gospel. I think these are the doctrines that require a Romans 14 behavior of us. They require us to live with each other in an understanding way.

So I have to remind myself at this level to choose Unity.

But somewhere in the gray between "always choose Truth" and "always choose Unity" I find a second tier of doctrines where the choice is not so easy. These doctrines I would call 'worldview-ish' because they are so foundational that they influence how I read the Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation. They are the pre-suppositional glasses I put on every time I pick up the Word.

I think those worldview-ish doctrines include:

Calvinism vs. Arminianism

Egalitarianism vs. Complementarianism

Sufficiency of Scripture vs. Scripture-plus-tradition vs. Scripture-plus-prophecy

This is the level where I have to proceed with great caution regarding Truth vs. Unity.

They're not deal-breakers when it comes to friendship, certainly not.

But they are serious issues.

And while I won't go twelve rounds with you on a third-tier doctrine,

I just might over a second-tier one.

Truth is knowable!

It is only our post-modern age that tells us it isn't.

All men have general revelation through creation and conscience.

And all believers have the special revelation of Christ and His Word.

Yes, indeed, Truth is knowable.

And believers should pursue it relentlessly.

To be sure, not every hill is worth fighting over, but...

There are some we should be willing to defend.

There are some we should be willing to to take.

And there are some we should be willing to die on.

He is the God Who Sees (Part Two)

Mom tears.

They flow for so many reasons.

When our children are little, we agonize over sleep, health, motor skills, intellectual development, growth charts, safety, nutrition, and social development.

We try not to compare, but we find ourselves asking,

Is this a normal child?

Am I normal mom?

What is normal, anyway?

Normal.

It's what we want for our children.

We want them to be just right.

And we lie awake at night worrying...

Too big? Too small?

Too social? Too quiet?

Too cautious? Too daring?

Too smart? Too slow?

Too passive? Too aggressive?

Moms of little children have such a difficult season to navigate.

We run on little sleep, little food, little experience.

We get advice where we are not looking for it

Or silence where we are.

And any time something seems to be 'not right,'

We are taken over with worry that our just right world

May not be just right, after all.

Most of our worries end up being unfounded.

But not all the time.

Mother of little children,

He is the God who sees.

He has not blinked.

He has not made a mistake.

He knows how the story ends.

He is sovereign and good.

He sees me.

He sees my children.

Days and nights...

Moons and months...

And I am the mother of growing children.

I worry less about their height

and more about their stature.

Less about their nutrition

More about their worldview.

Less about their social skills

and more about their relationships.

The things that keep me up at night are the words they say that bubble up from hearts that are wrestling with adulthood

or wrestling with God.

What are they reading, watching, and feeding to their spirits?

And do they like it?

Who are they spending time with?

And are they worth it?

Will they marry the right kind of person?

Will they use their talents for God...or bury them?

Will they not forsake the fellowship of the brethren?

Will they follow hard after God

And love Him with all their hearts, all their minds, all their souls, all their strength?

When we remove the scaffolding of house rules, will this building that is my child stand because it is built on the Sure Foundation?

Or will it collapse because it's built on sand?

Moms of growing children,

He is still the God who sees.
He knows I love my children.

He loves them more.

He knows I want what is best for them.

He wants what is best for Him.

He sees their struggles

and growing pains.

He sees them wrestle with life

and wrestle with the Truth.

We see obstacles on their journey,

Obstacles that distract them...

or divert them...

or defeat them...

And our hearts start to pound.

But He sees obstacles as momentary, sanctifying afflictions.

My children are on God's calendar,

Not mine.

And everything is right on schedule.

And moms worry about ourselves.

Am I a good mom?

What kind of example am I setting?

What am I teaching them?

Forget about reading and writing.

What am I teaching them with the way I spend my time

or who I spend it with?

What am I teaching them about character or integrity or longsuffering?

What am I teaching them when I submit myself to the Word?

or don't?

And, most of all, we can find ourselves worrying about their eternity.

But as surely as God alone raised dead men to life, He raises my children, who are dead in their sin, to eternal life through Jesus' work on the Cross.

And when I remember that,

When I preach the Gospel to myself and remember Who is in charge of that Gospel and responsible for that Gospel, I remember that He is El Roi...

The God Who Sees...

and I rest.

Get Over It

One night last week, Brett was out of town, and I was holding down the fort. That's when it happened. War. Between the four year old and the six year old. It was the usual round of he-said/she-said. Drama. Tears. The whole shebang.

I got them tucked in, and though the tears had stopped, that indignant six year old lip was still stuck out.

I sat on the edge of the bed and brushed his hair back.

"Still mad?" I probed.

He looked away. "She's the worst person in the whole world!"

Scowl. Huff.

"Mmm hmm," I said. "And you did not respond correctly," I pointed out.

He looked at me like I had suddenly gone deaf.

He emphatically repeated, "She's the worst person in the whole world!"

Under my breath, I prayed, "Lord, make him a little wiser tonight."

Then I continued.
"Ethan, she did you wrong. No doubt about it. But, frankly, that's not what the Lord is concerned about. He's more concerned--MUCH more concerned--about how you reacted."

"But-!"

"No 'but' about it, " I cut in. "When you stand before the Lord, all He wants to talk about is how you respond when people do things to you. You will never be able to make her do the right thing. That's for the Holy Spirit to do. But you will answer to the Lord for how you react."

I could see the wheels turning.

Fresh tears. Fresh frustration.

"I wish Adam and Eve had never sinned!" he sobbed.

Good.

Here comes the wisdom.

"Yeah," I agreed. "That sin thing we inherited from them. Makes it tough, doesn't it?"

Nodding. Crying.

"And we all have to deal with that. So, people are going to hurt you because people sin. That's life. And life's hard. And you can't ever make people better. You can't ever make people behave. But you are still accountable for what you do in response. That, you CAN do because you have the Holy Spirit living inside you."

Understanding was dawning; I could see it.

The sniffles stopped. He breathed deeply.

Wisdom.

The fresh air of wisdom.

A few weeks ago, I read something like this:

Meh, theology isn't all that important.

How sad, most especially from the pen of a believer.

Raising little people to be big Christians is nothing if it isn't theology!

How do I tell them about God

but leave out the part about Him being sovereign and good?

How do I teach them about themselves

but leave out the part about them being totally depraved?

and that every inclination of their hearts is only evil all the time?

and that, with that inclination, they must guard against responding to sin with sin?

How will any of us understand that God has only ever been about one thing--

His glory, not our well-being--without theology?

Without a proper understanding of theology, our children will be surprised when stupid sheep act like stupid sheep. They will be taken aback when God doesn't always intervene to prevent wounding. And they will justify their own sinful responses when they are sinned against.

In short, they will be victims.

You know victims.

They are walking wounded.

Their hurt is their most valued possession.

And they hang on to it more tightly than their favorite pair of jeans.

Instead of properly framing their lives in terms of the choices their own depraved souls have made--and the consequences of those choices--they improperly frame their lives as a series of wounds at the hands of other believers. And they can recite names, dates, and conversations

Word.for.word.

They live a 'woe was me', arm-across-the-forehead existence.

And they have the spiritual depth of a puddle.

If you don't think theology is important, quit.

Now.

Don't even bother going to church.

Or having babies.

Or homeschooling.

Without theology, you're not equipped to pass on a legacy to a new generation.

You don't know Who you are dealing with.

And you can't worship Who you don't know.

You're certainly going to lose this opportunity called parenthood.

Worse still,

You might lose this battle called life.

It's natural for my six year old to see himself as a victim.

But it's my job to not let him remain that way.

It's my job to lead him to the Cross,

To get him to drink deeply of God's wisdom.

And I'll be darned if I let my kids grow up to be victims.

Life's hard. Get over it.

Be a student of sound theology.

Teach your children sound theology.

And get over it.

Not of This World

Eleven year old eyes.

Blazing.

Indignant.

Faintly watery.

Bad experience with the neighbors. Again.

This time it was sneaky football rules.

And a basic lack of integrity.

And he was spittin' mad.

So he complained to the woman who would be spittin' mad right along with him. Mom.

As Brett says, "The apple don't fall far from the tree."

The flesh part of me would have liked to go out there and settle everything my way.

Take that football and shove it up their little pagan noses, for instance.

I'll admit it here. Turning the other cheek is not, never has been, easy for me.

But the Holy Spirit took over before I could get my cleats on...

You are not of this world, I reminded him.

You, me, the rest of us in this house...we step outside that door, and we are strangers,

and the world out there looks at us and mocks.

They don't get our standards.

They don't understand our integrity.

They're intimidated by our peace.

To those who are being saved, we are the fragrance of life.

But to those who are perishing, we are the odor of death.

And that's most of them.

The odor of death makes people run.

Whew! What died?!

It's the smell of their own rotting souls.

But we strangers are oblivious to a hopeless life,

A joyless life,

A life without peace.

No, we are not of this world.

We are citizens of heaven.

We are only visiting this earth.

But one day, we'll go home...

There were still angry words

And confessions.

My little apple had returned volley, apparently.

And he was still seething.

They're blind, I reminded him.

They're deaf.

And the only reason you and I are not blind, not deaf,

is because Jesus opened our eyes and our ears,

For no reason other than His own good pleasure.

And unless His own good pleasure leads Him to do the same for them...

they will die in their blindness and deafness.

I sent him away to do business with his Father.

Yusef Nadarkhani, a pastor in Iran is facing imminent execution...

For the high crime of claiming Jesus is Lord.

His country mocks him,

Is threatened by him.

He is not of this world.

He knows it.

They know it.

And they smell the odor of death.

So they want to send him whence he came.

And if they succeed,

He will cross that river.

He will meet his Lord.

And he will know, more than any of us left behind, that to die is gain.

But he will leave behind a family who will mourn him,

A wife and children, who are also likely not of this world

And who must find that to live--as a stranger--is hard.

To live as a stranger often hurts excruciatingly.

But to live as a stranger is Christ.

That evening, we chatted again.

We talked about Nadarkhani and neighbors and nations.

Not of this world can mean a whole spectrum of things.

It can range from mocking, bullying, and intimidation on one side

To torture and death on the other.

This thing you experienced in the street today,

This was nothing.

And it goes with your citizenship.

Tell your kids. Remind yourself.

There is no doubt about it.

Not of this world comes with a price.

But God be praised,

it also comes with a reward.

He is the God Who Sees

Your baby blues so full of wonder,

Your curly cues, your contagious smile

And as I watch you, you start to grow up

And all I can do is hold you tight.

Knowing clouds will rage and storms will race in

Rain will pour down, waves will crash all around

But you will be safe in my arms. (Plumb)

Her world was changing.

It was contracting.

It was expanding.

Changes she was not looking forward to.

Tears.

They are the stuff of struggle

Frustration

Fear

Pain

Anger.

She sat on my bed and sobbed.

From where she sat, the future looked lonely.

And to her, lonely was bleak.

And those tears came

And came

And came.

I watched the tears pour.

"He is the God who sees," I said to her.

She looked at me, wondering what that meant.

"These days, these changes, these challenges, they are not a surprise to God.

He hasn't blinked.

He hasn't let you go.

He knows what is ahead.

And He is allowing it.

More than allowing it, He is using it."

It's been three years.

She is weathering those changes.

And she seeing God's faithfulness.

But there are still days when she needs a reminder.

He is the God who sees.

Man tears.

They are different.

They make rarer appearances.

But they are gritty

And sweaty

And made of clenched jaws

And strained muscle

And boys becoming men.

And I find myself saying it again.

He is the God who sees.

He sees your struggle

He sees your growing pains

And your growth.

He sees your hopelessness

And your hope.

He has not blinked.

He has not forgotten.

He has not abandoned.

And everything is right on schedule.

El Roi is His name.

He is the God Who Sees.

They are my children.

They are the ones who need to be seen.

And I don't serve them well if I ever promise them that everything will always work out right

Because I do not know that.

I do not know that they will always have their health.

Or money.

Or companionship.

Or fertility.

Or liberty.

Or long life.

I do know that storms will come

And persecution

And the fellowship of His sufferings.

I know that because Jesus said that.

It is the stuff of sanctification.

And I serve them well if I teach them to stand in the middle of their sanctification

And proclaim to a watching world,

"God is good!"

For when they proclaim the goodness of God, they are being conformed to His image.

And as they are being conformed to His image, then the God who sees, looks at them and gradually begins to see...

Himself.

Castles they might crumble

Dreams may not come true...

When clouds will rage and storms will race in

Rains will pour down, waves will crash all around

But you will be safe in My arms.

Tea is for Tyranny

Brett and I were in the car listening to one of those talk-radio hosts whom we increasingly disdain these days. We shook our heads at their utter lack of understanding. "Republicans have co-opted the Tea Party," he said.

"The 'Tea Party' doesn't get the Tea Party," I sniffed.

The Tea Party.

The original Tea Party in Boston was not about a balanced budget.

It was about tyranny.

And it was the precursor of the American Revolution which produced the genius that is the United States of America

because it produced the genius that is the Constitution.

Tea is for Tyranny.

When King John signed the Magna Carta, that was the end of the Divine Right of Kings in England. It compelled the British monarchy to be fair to its subjects.

And when King George taxed his subjects in the Colonies without parliamentary representation, he was in breach of contract.

He was acting the tyrant.

So his subjects held him to his end of the bargain.

And Boston Harbor met Earl Grey.

Tea is for Tyranny.

Monetary policy tyranny.

Penalizing those who succeed and rewarding those who don't.

Raising the debt ceiling, even temporarily, and further saddling my children with the problem.

Tea is for Tyranny.

Patriot Act tyranny.

Knowingly and rebelliously violating the Fourth Amendment.

Spying on me.

Choosing 'security' over my liberty.

Without asking me.

Tea is for Tyranny.

Parental rights tyranny.

Usurping the jurisdiction of the family by telling me I must be insured.

Telling my daughter she can have an abortion.

Without asking me.

Tea is for Tyranny.

TSA tyranny.

Giving up the very sound criminal science of profiling.

Harassing law-abiding citizens.

Tea is for Tyranny.

Self-determination tyranny.

Usurping the role of the Church

By legalizing or criminalizing what I eat, drink, smoke, chew, inject, or sniff

or any other non-encroachment activity I do in my own home.

Tea is for Tyranny.

Property rights tyranny.

Not letting someone build a mosque on privately owned property.

Urging a city council to fabricate zoning law to get around it.

Tea is for Tyranny.

Foreign policy tyranny.

Inspecting their arsenals.

Fighting their wars.

Removing and installing their leaders.

For our benefit.

And if you choose smaller-than-what-we-have-now government

over small government,

you are no more Tea Party than King George.

Smaller-than-what-we-have-now government is still much larger than the Founders intended,

Than the Constitution intended.

Smaller-than-what-we-have-now government...

merely places you and your candidate slightly to the right of Marx.

Slightly.

But it hardly makes you a Tea Partier.

So, no.

Rick Perry doesn't get the Tea Party.

Neither does Mitt Romney.

Nor Rick Santorum.

Nor Herman Cain.

A real Tea Partier wants a government of the Constitution.

Nothing less.

Nothing more.

Sam Adams must be turning in his grave.

Baby K

"What is my only comfort in life and death?

That I, with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own but belong to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who with His precious blood, has fully satisfied for all my sins and delivered me from all the power of the devil and so preserves me, that without the will of my Heavenly Father, not a hair can fall from my head..." (Heidelberg Catechism, question #1)

My friend Scarlett is a mom much like me. She loves her baby. She loves his baby smell. She videos his silly interactions with his older siblings. She takes lots of pictures of him in her arms or wearing his glasses or being adored by one of his relatives. She laughs when he laughs and hurts when he hurts.

Baby K is a baby much like mine. He's got fuzzy Woodstock hair, soft skin, and dark eyes. He loves his mom, his dad, and his big brother and sisters. He cries when he's uncomfortable and coos when he's happy.

But in one important way, Scarlett is walking a mom journey unlike any I have walked. And Baby K is in a fight for his precious life.

Baby K has Cockayne's Syndrome type II.

That means Baby K is aging prematurely.

That means people stare at him because they know intuitively something is different.

That means Scarlett finds herself educating people around her about this disease that only currently infects 200 to 300 people on the planet.

And, currently, it is both incurable and terminal.

Scarlett is one of those people who sees beauty in the world around her. God has gifted her with creativity and the eye of an artist. And while words are my vehicle for expression, Scarlett is incredible at being able to express a wide range of experience with beautiful materials. I never cease to be amazed at what she creates.

And now, Scarlett has turned her art into a way to bring awareness to Cockayne's Syndrome. She is turning the times when people gaze in curiosity at Baby K into an opportunity to educate them about this disease by handing them beautiful hand-drawn cards that explain his syndrome. She has also begun a way to raise money for the disease.

The symbol for Cockayne's Syndrome is the butterfly. Right now, she is selling butterfly cards and other related items on her site to promote awareness of Cockayne's Syndrome and raise money for a cure. If you are artsy and would like to give of yourself to this worthy project, please see Scarlett's site here.

It is hard to sit on the sidelines and watch as your friend must carry a burden you cannot help carry. I cannot make her heart stop hurting. But I can--and do--bathe Scarlett, Baby K, and the rest of her family in prayer. And I can get the word out about Scarlett's work on behalf of Cockayne's Syndrome.

So, give if you are able.

Pray for Scarlett.

Pray for Baby K.

And know that they are in the care of my good and sovereign God, who is our only comfort in life and death.

Amen.