If, within 8 seconds of someone giving you something, you turn and toss it into the wastebasket, what kind of message do you think that sends to the giver? Answer: That you didn't like it and you don't want it. That's the message I wish to send to the Republican party.
We who compromise our convictions on election day (because we don't want to throw away our vote) forfeit any just cause for criticism when the lesser-of-the-two-evil politicians follows suit.
When we think that the next 4 - 8 years are more important than the next 30 or the last 30, we are too short-sighted.
When we say that our elected officials are representatives "of the people," and when those representatives stink, what are we saying about ourselves? (At least in this, we -- and they -- speak the truth.)
My guess is that, of all of us who are self-proclaimed conservatives, there were more of you who will wish that certain third party or independent candidates could hold office but won't vote for them than there are of us who will wish it and declare those wishes by our vote. In such a case, which group is really letting the other down -- the compromising majority, or the conscientious minority?
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Thursday, July 31, 2008
Thursday, July 10, 2008
We Lift Them Up to the Lord
His hands were trembling the most, though his whole body quivered. He felt so … naked, even in this crowd – especially in this crowd. Never before did the shabbiness of his fig-leaf sewing seem so obvious.
Yet here he stood: not daring to look up, holding something above his head, something that throbbed, sizzled, and oozed. The sizzling and oozing came from the charring ulcer which ate away at it. The black ooze and bright red blood streamed through his fingers, down his arms, and over his body. The blood he didn’t mind so much, but the ooze seemed to sting and kill wherever it touched.
Why was he here? In his condition, this seemed to be the last place he should want to be and the last thing he should ever want to do.
But the pastor had said, “Lift up your hearts.” So here he was, doing just that. But what would God want with a heart eaten away by sin? Wouldn’t He just throw it away? But then perhaps He would provide a new one, a healthy one. But even so, what would prevent it from dying like the first?
That’s when, somehow, he began to realize something about the blood. The blood was not his. It was pure blood, pouring over his body, chasing the black ooze, diluting it, indeed washing it away. And as he glanced down through the wet blur from his eyes, he also noticed that he wasn’t naked either. The fig leaves were gone, and a clean, bright, white robe now completely covered him. “Wha- …, how …? Why?”
“If You, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared.” – Psalm 130:3-4
Yet here he stood: not daring to look up, holding something above his head, something that throbbed, sizzled, and oozed. The sizzling and oozing came from the charring ulcer which ate away at it. The black ooze and bright red blood streamed through his fingers, down his arms, and over his body. The blood he didn’t mind so much, but the ooze seemed to sting and kill wherever it touched.
Why was he here? In his condition, this seemed to be the last place he should want to be and the last thing he should ever want to do.
But the pastor had said, “Lift up your hearts.” So here he was, doing just that. But what would God want with a heart eaten away by sin? Wouldn’t He just throw it away? But then perhaps He would provide a new one, a healthy one. But even so, what would prevent it from dying like the first?
That’s when, somehow, he began to realize something about the blood. The blood was not his. It was pure blood, pouring over his body, chasing the black ooze, diluting it, indeed washing it away. And as he glanced down through the wet blur from his eyes, he also noticed that he wasn’t naked either. The fig leaves were gone, and a clean, bright, white robe now completely covered him. “Wha- …, how …? Why?”
“If You, O LORD, kept a record of sins, O Lord, who could stand? But with You there is forgiveness; therefore You are feared.” – Psalm 130:3-4
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