On January 20th, Barack Obama will become the next President of the United States. Two things have taken center stage regarding inauguration day. First, will Obama say “so help me God” at the end of his oath and secondly, will Rick Warren say “in the name of Jesus” at the end of his prayer? The two questions arise out of the battle by some to remove God from all areas of our government and the desire to include all Americans in a happy nonreligious family.
Some believe that Warren should offer a prayer that includes all Americans without offending anybody. For instance Bishop Gene Robinson, who has been selected to offer an invocation at an inaugural event, says in a NY Times interview, “that this will not be a Christian prayer, and I won’t be quoting Scripture or anything like that. The texts that I hold as sacred are not sacred texts for all Americans, and I want all people to feel that this is their prayer.” He continues by saying that he might address the prayer to “the God of our many understandings.” This idea of trying not to offend anybody is ridiculous. By having a prayer at all, some people are going to be offended.
Whether Warren speaks the actual words or not is irrelevant. What is important is the spirit in which he offers the prayer. For an excellent series of posts from Mark D Roberts regarding praying in Jesus’ name click here. In one post he says:
When Christians welcome children, or gather together, or pray, we do these things in the name of Jesus, whether
or not we say “in Jesus’ name.” To pray in Jesus’ name is come before God’s throne of grace, not in our own merit
or authority, but in the merit and authority of Jesus. We have no right to approach God’s throne of grace in our sinfulness, but in the righteousness of Jesus, we can be bold when we come before God in prayer (Heb 4:14-16).
Since Warren is a Christian pastor, I would expect him to pray in the spirit of Jesus’ name. If the prayer is not offered in Jesus’ name, what good is it?
Tina and I went to one of the morning services at Bayside Church today. Even though I have been going there for almost 2 years, I continue to be amazed at how great this church is. We were able to get seats in the front row and had an excellent view of Lincoln as he did an awesome job of leading worship.
Today's message was titled "Breaking the Grip of Discouragement." It was the second part of their 4 part series called "Break Free." Ray Johnston did an excellent job of teaching us how discouragement is a disease that can ultimately lead to not just spiritual death but physical death. The 3 main points of the message were:
Let God's grace resolve your past.
Let God's promises lift your spirit.
Let your hopes not your hurts shape your future.
I think I struggle with the second point the most. I tend to forget or even doubt that when I die I'm going to what Ray called "the land of the living." My desire is to focus on the fact that God has secured my future, to stop fearing death, and to remember that I have an inheritance to claim.
I just finished reading Thomas Sowell's book, "Basic Economics: A Citizen's Guide to the Economy." This is an excellent read for someone who wants to understand basic economic principles without all the mathematics that usually accompanies such a book. Sowell states that his purpose for writing this book was: 1) to show certain economic principles that can be applied to any economy and 2) to look at economic policies and systems in terms of the incentives they create. He does an excellent job of this by giving the reader a basic understanding of prices and markets, commerce and industry, and work and pay. Furthermore he educates the reader about national and international economics.
The chapter that most interested me was chapter 5: "The Rise and Fall of Businesses." Sowell says that most of the businesses we hear about are those who have succeeded on a large scale. He mentions a few companies, one of which is General Motors. But what interested me most was this statement, "industry and commerce are not static things, but dynamic processes, in which individual companies and whole industries rise and fall, as a result of relentless competition under changing conditions."
After reading this book you will understand why the automobile industry needs to adapt to changing conditions without the help of the government. Any why it is best for you and me if it is left alone.
For arguments sake, lets say that you and your family live in a comfortable home where all you want to do is to raise your children in peace. However, next door to you is another family who has some wild children who like to throw rocks at your home. Most of the time they will occasionally break a flower pot or even break one of your windows. Sometimes though, they will get lucky and hit one of your children. You have repeatedly spoken to the parents of these children, yet they do nothing about their unruly children. Now, not all of their children are bad, but enough of them are to be a problem. Occasionally there has been a nice peace that has been agreed upon, but inevitably that would be broken. How long do you put up with this before you take action? How long do you let your children live in the fear of being harmed before you say enough is enough?
If the Arab world refuses to deal with Hamas, Israel has every right to take action to defend itself.
This is the kind of garbage that gives Republicans a bad name. When are we going to learn? I'm glad to see that most of the leadership is coming out against Chip Saltsman.
For the last couple of days I have been thinking about transformation and what has God done in my life. I love listening to testimonials where someone has had a radical change because of accepting Jesus into their lives. For instance, someone who has battled with an anger problem suddenly becomes peaceful. Or someone who has had a drinking problem can now rely on Jesus instead of alcohol. However, I have never experienced a change like that.
I accepted Christ into my life at an early age, six years old, so it is difficult to tell people how he has changed me. I can point to certain areas in my life where I know God has helped me, but nothing that I would say was a radical transformation. But hopefully that is about to change.
The title of last nights service at Bayside was "The Gift of God's Love: 3 Ways to Experience a Transformed Life." The main points were:
Grasp God's love
Surrender to God's love
Live in the hope of God's love
Sounds pretty easy. But all of these points spoke directly to me and to areas I have struggled with. Hopefully in the coming year I can learn to apply these points and experience God's love to the fullest and have a transformed life.
