A friend mentioned to me the other day that she could tell how busy I was by how often I update my blog. That’s not too far off, actually! Almost daily I will think of something to write about, many times even making a note to myself to remind me later to post it. Then life gets in the way. Yesterday, for example, I had three counseling sessions, made two hospital calls, studied for four hours, answered a couple of dozen emails, wrote five letters and spent time with Cynthia (who was babysitting sick grand kids most of the day) trying to figure out what to do about her dad’s sudden turn of bad health (he experienced heart failure Tuesday evening and is in intensive care at the moment)—should she go down there; wait until things develop further?
Anyway, I’m not complaining, just letting you know I am not sitting under a juniper tree sipping D.P. all day. But you already knew that!
We were in Ridge Farm last weekend. The Leaches came from PA to attend the conference and visit for a few days. Morris has been trying to get us to a local steak house for years, so we went down early to enjoy an evening with the Chesnuts before the conference got going. Dan Gross, Ray Keable, Morris and I were the speakers. I taught John 1:29, John 6:29 and John 20:29—needed to get those “29s” out of my system!
They returned to PA Tuesday evening—traveling via Amtrack—and got home Wednesday evening ok. Its always good when they come for a visit. We get to laugh a lot.
This morning I watched a few moments of the 911 memorial service from the Pentagon. I was struck that the news channels had people talking—talking—talking during the activities, even up to and including the moment of “silence.” I suppose they can’t help themselves—they obviously think they have such important things to say and love hearing themselves saying it. Thank God for C-Span, where I eventually got to watch what was going on.
While on C-Span, I noticed they were playing a press conference (on one of their other channels) where Ron Paul was speaking. Frankly, he makes too much sense to be a politician! His idea of America being a republic and not an empire would go a long way to solving many of our so-called international problems.
That got me to thinking: I prefer celebrating July 4th. Oh, I understanding remembering September 11 and why we do that too. But few still have memorial moments for December 7th—Pearl Harbor Day; or many other such important dates I could list and no one would know why.
But we all know July 4th. I like it best because it represents the best of what America is all about. Freedom. Liberty. What concepts! These are essentially Christian concepts; at their root they are Bible concepts. They certainly have nothing to do with religion! Nor human wisdom or philosophy. Nor politics, for that matter!
What a juncture in history when the forces of national life and spiritual awakening converged to form the most amazing moment in the history of the Time of the Gentiles! A new land open for discovery and development; a place to put into form and substance the spiritual impact of the Protestant Reformation; a opportunity to throw off Saul’s armor and walk with David’s sandals and sling.
As we watch the tail lights of this “great experiment” slowing disappearing over the dam, I still like to remember what was. So, as I go to make next week’s radio programs (my big task for the day) and study for Sunday and the upcoming Oregon conference, my mind is buoyed by the memory that even when folks don’t fully realize it (as our founding fathers surely didn’t), God’s Word has an impact that far exceeds what seems possible or real. That’s true for nations. It’s true for you and me too.
Maranatha!
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