As an American, and as a Christian, I despise this.

When I think of banning those who desperately need our help, I think of two things which immediately discount it as an option. One is as an American, and one is as a Christian.

***As an American, I thought of our guiding principle of justice. INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. I have seen judge after judge, lawyer after lawyer, layman after layman say that the most important element of the American system of justice is to error on the side of mercy. We convict ONLY when evidence mounts "BEYOND a reasonable DOUBT". "Better that ten guilty men go free than one innocent man be convicted." What does that say about convicting the entire Muslim nation, especially when the countries excluded from the ban are those countries which sent us the terrorists who HAVE killed Americans?

***As a Christian, I thought of the Lord's description of the Last Judgment ⇨ Matthew 25:31-46 at the end of the Olivet Discourse:

“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’

Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

I don't want to be the country the Lord finds guilty of the latter.

Immigration, refugees, and the Bible

It's been my policy to be non-political for the most part on this blog - the emphases of my writing is on Christ (with some sports and band teaching thrown in on the side), and Christ's teaching emphasizes that the TRUE government is God Almighty, not anything our secular minds can fabricate. God's laws supersede anything Mr. Trump, Mr. Obama, or any Congress can manufacture.

Having said that, it is and always will be my duty as a Christian writer to contribute my two cents to the conversation when something comes up that is a direct manifestation of OR a direct contradiction of the Lord's teaching, and disappointingly, the latter has come up this past week.

The Lord our God could not have said it in stronger terms - we are to treat the sojourners as our brothers. The nation of Israel, His people, were refugees themselves, escaping slavery in Egypt and BECAUSE of that heritage, God repeated over and over again, throughout the Torah, in Leviticus and Deuteronomy especially (that's where most of His commands and commandments are), that in the spirit of brotherhood, ALL sojourners who come your way are to be fed, respected, allowed to live within your tribe and nation, and so forth.

(If you're not fluent in the Bible, you may only remember the "Old Testament" God telling Israel to go and obliterate other tribes, other nations of people. If you read those sections in their entirety, you'll find that God often used Israel to send His Judgment on those other tribes, they should be wiped off the earth. In a similar manner, centuries later, God used Assyria and Babylon to punish Israel for its idol worship transgressions. But as for individuals who had not committed offense? Exactly the opposite - treat them like your brother.)

Ah! But that's the situation here, "Mr. Act II Ministries"! These refugees the President is banning from coming to America are terrorists!

Are they, though? 

Look at the list of countries banned:

• Iran.
• Iraq.
• Syria.
• Sudan.
• Libya.
• Yemen.
• Somalia.

Interestingly, the countries which were the home nations of the 9/11 terrorists, and from which the vast majority of those who have caused American deaths - Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, and the UAE - are NOT on the list. The seven countries banned have produced exactly ZERO American deaths through terrorism this century.

Why?

I hate to accuse the President of the United States of unethical behavior, but it's a fairly clear answer: not having divested himself from his businesses, it's in his personal interest to keep those four countries in the American loop so his businesses can continue to operate there. This is why we need to see his tax returns - to know where else he has monetary interests. Fortunately, we know some of his connections, because we know where Mr. Trump's businesses have involvement. His companies are not in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, or Somalia. They ARE in Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Egypt, the UAE (and Russia. But that's a problem for another day).

Mr. Trump has made a point of defining himself as a Christian. So, let's see who it is Christ says is most important, by going to the most well-known section of His most famous speech: The Beatitudes of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:2-10)...

2And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying:

3“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

5“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

6“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

7“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

8“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

9“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

10“Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

 
If those don't describe refugees in general, they don't describe anyone. 

Let's consider another proclamation of Christ's: Matthew 19:23-24 ⇨

23And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

By the way, before you go bashing the President for his (supposed) riches - we really have no idea if he really has any money, of course, as we've never seen his tax returns - think about who our Lord was really talking about. "Rich", in a global context, really means anyone who has a house with running water, toilets, and similar luxuries; a car to transport around in; and has the luxury of fast food and movies, for example. We are all that rich person who will struggle to enter heaven. 

Meanwhile, the refugees have nothing. Even if they had something back in their home country, they have nothing now.

Perhaps it is we who should be asking for their help getting into Heaven.

But our means into Heaven is through them. When you know your Bible, as our President does not (which he's demonstrated many times - recall the "Two Corinthians" episode at Liberty University?), you immediately think of the Last Judgment, recounted here from the ESV from Matthew 25:31-46 at the end of the Olivet Discourse:

31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.33And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. 34Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,^f you did it to me.’

41“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”

If we do not help the least of these, as the Statue of Liberty promises we will, we are dooming ourselves to eternal punishment.

A word from pastor Philip De Courcy

 I started listening to De Courcy on CSN simply because I loved his beautiful Irish lilt of an accent. But he has a very profound and fundamental view of Christianity that often resonates with me, even though he comes on at a time I can't often hear him. (Seven in the evening, locally.) I finally went to his website for the first time tonight (Know The Truth, which can be found at www.ktt.org.), and found this quote on his homepage, which I think is just about the best answer to someone who refuses to live for Christ because "His commands are so restrictive!"...

"Rabindranath Tagore, the son of the Maharishi, became a gifted composer and poet.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913.  He said this … “I have on my table a violin string.  It is free.  I twist one end of it and it responds.  It is free.  But it is not free to do what a violin string is supposed to do – to produce music.  So I take it, fix it in my violin, and tighten it until it is taut.  Only then is it free to be a violin string.”  A life attached to Jesus Christ is the only life that can know true freedom.  We were made by God, for God, and life cannot be truly lived apart from the God who has made Himself known in the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ!"

Where is YOUR "bliss"?

On Fridays, I teach private music students at home, which allows me recovery time from an already sedentary job M-Th teaching our alternative school. The advantage/disadvantage of my condition: my bosses found a low-activity job that uses my skills to the maximum without exhausting me. It's the only reason I can still call myself a classroom teacher. But once a week, I get to utilize my music education knowledge again: I teach every band and orchestra instruments, piano, guitar, bass, banjo, whatever they bring to play. I even have a young man to whom I'm teaching composition. Versatility has its merits.

Additionally, one of my private students is struggling in his academic subjects, so occasionally I work with him on those as well; certainly I keep up with how he's managing in his classes. Today, he told me about a book he's reading, entitled The Geography of Bliss. It's by a man named Eric Weiner, formerly of NPR, and the premise of the book is that he went exploring the world "looking for happiness" - that is, researching the places that were considered the happiest places on earth: Iceland, Denmark, Bhutan, etc. They had different emphases - one values tolerance above all else; another emphasized inner tranquility, another staying out of each other's way.

And I found myself twitching.

Oh, I've no doubt Mr. Weiner means well, and even my student took the entire search with a grain of salt. But if you're a Christian as I am, you already know where I'm going to go with this, don't you?

Isn't our happiness, our joy, our bliss, supposed to come from having the Holy Spirit within us?

This young man's a Christian, after a sort (almost all youngsters are still searching for what that word really means for them, my children included). But it felt like my duty to clarify that concept to him, and perhaps some of you may need to hear it one more time as well.


There are two sides of the coin in the universe: there's what the world offers, and there's what the Holy Trinity offers. Christ Himself said in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt 6:24), “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money." We can either try to be satiated with the things that only money can provide - cars, houses, foods, even sex and companionship - or we can be fulfilled by the Holy Spirit within us, that perpetual joy which should reside in every Christian.

In my life, especially in recent years since my salvation, my temporal happiness has been strained to and beyond the breaking point. I've suffered through the illness, deterioration, and death of my beloved wife and soul mate, Melissa; my own illness and deterioration (not yet death, although at the New Year it looked bleak for a few days), the financial burden that comes with severe illnesses in this country (even before the quest to eliminate affordable health care by this Congress), and a number of other issues not worth bringing up to make the point. And yet, even when my day-to-day happiness might have been affected by these events, there was always still this joy within my soul that says, "I am the child of the living God, beloved and cared for regardless of anything else. How can the problems of this world affect me, when this is not my true home?  

Paul said in Philippians 1 that he would in truth prefer to die than live, if it were up to him, because this was only a business trip he was on:

"Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. I am hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better. But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account."

No Christian should ever fear death. For us, it's simply a bus ticket directly home, do not pass GO, do not collect any worldly money. We are here on a business trip, to help the God we worship gather more people to His Side before we die. For that, "to remain in the flesh is more necessary" - otherwise, why would God have left us on earth? Wouldn't it be more reasonable once we're saved to simply take us up to Heaven? 

Maybe. But that's why we remain: to recruit for Him. What a wonderful job! So, be filled with joy, because we've got the best job in the world: salespeople for the perfect getaway! Our pay is infinite, although delayed, and the fringe benefits are to DIE for!
 

The Turing Test and the Cross Examination

Have you ever heard of the Turing Test?

Alan Turing, whom the 2014 movie The Imitation Game was made about (I think it was Eddie Redmayne playing him), was a genius mathematician, a genius cryptologist, and a prescient in the field of artificial intelligence, far ahead of his time. 

He predicted that one day we would develop a machine that could think like a human, and he proposed the Turing Test as a means for determining whether a machine had reached that point or not. Essentially, the test is that you have a human and the machine each behind a barrier, and a third person has five minutes or so to ask either "being" any questions they can think of, with the goal being the determination of which one is the machine and which is the human being. The answers are all provided in written form, so you can't use vocal inflections as a gauge, but otherwise that's the deal. Every test that has appeared to be successful so far has always proved to be a fake. 

In my latest book, Day 0001: The Singularity and the Six-Day War, I set the scenario in the future twenty years, to the year 2037, the seventieth anniversary of the Six-Day War, and I've replaced the Turing Test with what I call the Medvedev Exam, a series of 23 tests that encompass intelligent behavior outside of the realm of humans (the premise is that dolphins and aliens should also be able to pass, where they probably wouldn't pass the Turing Test). But the concept of the test is now ingrained in our society with respect to AI, or artificial intelligence, since Turing's method of evaluation arrived sixty years ago.

As Christians, we should fail our version of the "Turing Test". Call ours the "Cross Examination", if you will.

When someone meets you for the first time, they should be able to tell that you're a Christian, without hearing you specifically extol the virtues of Jesus Christ. If they can't tell that there's something about you that's different from the average 'heathen' on the street? Maybe there ISN'T anything different. Maybe you're not much of a Christian after all.

Try it for yourself. Test your friends and neighbors. Without telling them what you're looking for, engage them in a conversation. Make it natural, about whatever you might discuss on any normal day. Do they demonstrate their Christianity in their manner, in their speech, and in their behavior? Do you notice they say or behave differently than a "normal" person might? Before the "God bless you, friend!" comes up in conversation, were you able to tell that they were a disciple of the living Christ?

And then, test yourself. When YOU greet people, is there something significantly different about YOU? Hard to tell from the inside, I know...but just the mere act of trying to behave that way, being conscious of the fact that you carry the Lord of the Universe around within your soul everywhere you walk, should help you pass the "Cross Examination" among both acquaintances and strangers.

And THAT'S THE POINT! We are to be lights on a table, the city on the hill, the salt of the earth. Jesus specifically ordered us to be different from the world, so that the lost souls looking for the answer would see the joy that is within us, and ask what we have that gives us that joy. And THAT is our cue to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You don't have to throw it against every wall you see and pray that it sticks - if you're faithful, and you're faith-filled, God will give you the opportunities to spread His message of love and acceptance. 

I've watched Him giving me more opportunities of late - as I've tried to dive into becoming more completely His doulos, His "slave", He has been providing me chances to show my Christianity, to provide help for folks with car trouble, to give alms to the needy, to serve as Jesus served. And I highly suspect that the more faithful I am to Him in this, the more opportunities He will bless me with, and the more He will bless my life in general.

I'm trying to pass the Cross-Examination. And you should, too.

Visual Poetry

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FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE SENT HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON TO DIE FOR US

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The last thing I'll probably ever say about the "Deflategate" case...

From Kevin van Valkenburg, ESPN the Magazine, in an article about Tom Brady... He makes a phenomenal point about the lead-up situation to "Deflategate":

"There is one important but mostly forgotten scene in the Deflategate mess. It came after the Patriots outfoxed the Ravens in the 2014 AFC divisional round, using only four offensive linemen and declaring one receiver ineligible to create confusion for the Ravens' defense. Brady threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns. Baltimore coach John Harbaugh was annoyed, feeling the Patriots had exploited a loophole in the rules. He predicted the league would make such tactics illegal in the offseason, and he was ultimately correct.

"When informed of Harbaugh's comments, Brady couldn't resist offering a cheeky dismissal and twisting the knife. A smile spread across his face as he spoke. "Maybe those guys gotta study the rulebook and figure it out," Brady said. Within a week, someone -- the Ravens deny it was them -- turned that statement around on Brady. The Colts insisted the league check the PSI level in Brady's footballs during the AFC championship game, and leaks, allegations, depositions, lawsuits and mayhem followed. It was a kangaroo court, in a way, with the outcome barely taking into account the evidence. If there's one statement Brady would take back, it might be that dig about the rulebook."

I thought the Belechick play design in the Ravens game was utterly brilliant at the time, and for some reason I was personally offended that they legislated such a clever tactic out of the playbook. But if IT led to the checking of the footballs? (Or, more precisely, the comments by Brady et al led to the PSI checks?) Ironic, at the least. Undoubtedly most of the league KNEW Brady played with the under-inflated footballs: the rule was instituted at his and Peyton Manning's request in the first place, and he was on record as saying how much he preferred the grip.

So the bending of the law was true, I have no doubt. But the rubbing in of the exploitation of the rulebook could very well have led to that being turned against them, to the detriment of both Brady and the NFL, in the long run.

(PS - it was a STUPID rule in the first place: why are you allowing two different kinds of football depending on who's on offense? You flip sides of the field, all that sort of thing to make the game as even, as fair as possible. Why the NFL gave in to the star power of Manning and Brady and gave them this is beyond me.)

Someone suggested that the NFL would go to significant lengths, if not to keep the Patriots from winning, at least from keeping Tom Brady from being the MVP, so Roger Goodell wouldn't have to present the trophy to him, this season in particular. While I don't base my North Star on the NFL's ethics and behavior, that seems far fetched to me. Unless we see a smoking gun during the game on Feb 5th, don't spend any time worrying about it. (But the very fact that I bring it up...)

It really is remarkable to see the longevity of the Pats' run at the top of the heap: Seven straight trips to the conference finals? Seven years in a row that they were one of the four best teams out of 32? In a league that prides itself on parity, that's an amazing feat, and one that had never been accomplished before, even "pre-parity" (which I date from Rozelle's leadership - it was his mantra, originally). The year before that streak? Brady's injury year, when they managed to go 11-5 with a back-up QB.

One of the most remarkable things about Bill Belechick's coaching is how he exploits every little detail, as witness that play against the Ravens. (Remember, they won that game b y two TDs - the two they got on running that play twice and scoring both times.) How often have you seen them pick up someone's dropped player off the waiver wire and make them a useful cog in their machine? He's probably the ultimate "Fantasy Football" player, in that he knows which positions on his team are important and must be paid and pampered (QB, TE, etc), and which positions can be filled with exchangeable parts (he's notorious for plugging any old RB in and getting him 100-yd games!). The cases where he's pushed the fringe of the rules - "spygate" comes to mind, of course, although I've never understood that rule, particularly. And regardless of what he said, do you believe that someone with the "I NEED to know everything that's going on!" mentality he has really had NO knowledge about the inflation of footballs? But y'know what? That's life in the NFL. You could take away those edgy issues and he'd still have the best team most years. You could take Brady away and they'd still go 11-5. You could injure half his team, and they'd still make the conference finals. I don't like the man's image - I certainly don't know the man - but I admire the heck out of him as a coach.

(a tiny football update)

We said we weren't going to do any more public NFL predictions until we could refine our model to make it at least the equal of the Vegas oddsmakers.

So, I want to report on our practice trial on this latest version. 

In Week 17, which is notoriously radical regarding how teams play (some very good teams rest their starters for the playoffs; some medium level teams play their hearts out for a playoff berth, some lower teams play all rookies to see what they have for next year, some teams literally couldn't care less what happens that game), we disregarded two games (Pittsburgh/Cleveland and Dallas/Philly) because of the first category, and watched the other games carefully for signs of the other categories. In the end, keeping all fourteen others, our system went 6-8 against the spreads. Eh.

In the three rounds of playoffs so far, we went 2-2 the first weekend (picked all winners correctly but lost thinking Detroit and Miami would stay closer than the spread), and 2-2 the second weekend - nailed the two NFC games, missed the AFC games by a couple of points the wrong way (NE favored by 16 - we said 14, won by 18....KC favored by 1, we said 2, lost by 2). Not terrible. 

And yesterday, we happened to get both games right - our point spreads were bigger than the Vegas numbers, and both Atlanta and the Patriots won easily. So overall in the playoffs we're 6-4, guaranteeing an overall win for the FOLLOWING FOOTBALL odds system, for what it's worth since we didn't publicize our predictions in advance. 

The upshot is that we think we have something in place for the fall of 2017, although we will keep tinkering between now and then. And of course, Australian Rules Football season starts next month, with the pre-season games for the men and the seven-round inaugural AFL-Women's season starting on February 3rd, and we'll be hip-deep in our force-feeding you info and our predictions for all things Aussie, which you have the complete right to ignore completely. (But...hope you don't!)

PS - We see New England by 2 in the title game on Feb 5th. The opening line in Las Vegas is three. 

So who tempted whom?

            One of the most famous elements of the Gospels, about the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, is the tale of His temptation in the wilderness, immediately following His baptism by John The Baptist. Jesus immediately headed out into the wilderness, as described by Dr. Luke in the fourth chapter of his gospel, verses one through thirteen:

1And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness 2for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. 3The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.” 4And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’” 5And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, 6and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. 7If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” 8And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’”

             9And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, 10for it is written, “‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’ 11and “‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’”

            12And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’” 13And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

            So, score one for the Good Guys, obviously. The devil tested Christ, and He resisted temptation, and the devil was thwarted and went away. But why is that important? For that matter, why even include it in the Gospels?

            The writer of the letter to the Hebrews knew. (Whomever he or she was.)

            4:15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 

            Christ is our High Priest, and as such, He can empathize with our sins because He too has been tempted by sin. True, He cannot actually BE tempted, lacking a sin nature, but He felt the pressure of the temptation and thus knows what it’s like when we suffer the same pressure.

            Now, here’s my argument: Who was the one who really suffered temptation?

            There’s an expression I only recently became aware of, HALT, that describes the four conditions that prevent our making reasonable decisions (in other words, conditions that pressure us to give in to temptation), and as such are conditions under which we should NOT make important decisions.

            HALT is an acronym for Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired. When we feel hungry, angry, lonely, or tired – the bottom floor of Mazlow’s Hierarchy, if that’s something you’re familiar with: our basic necessity level – we are in a mindset to cure THOSE problems alone, not anything at a higher level of thought. If you’re exhausted, deciding between insurance companies is not a very high priority to you. If you’re furious about work, you don’t really care whether your girlfriend stays or goes. If you’re starving, you don’t care if your younger brother takes your birthright privileges, like Esau in Genesis 25. Priorities.

            So, right after Jesus was baptized, probably at the height of His human powers, He put Himself in the most visibly vulnerable position He could manage. He was hungry – He hadn’t eaten in forty days! He was lonely – He hadn’t seen another person since His baptism. He was tired – He’d been hiking in the wilderness all that time (without food!). Three out of the four – Jesus only got angry in a calculated manner.

            Jesus looked as vulnerable as He could possibly get.

            How could the devil resist? Answer – he couldn’t.

            So, who tempted whom? Jesus knew that without a sin nature, nothing the devil tried on Him would be effective, no matter what His condition was. But He wanted that victory over the devil on the record, too. So He tempted Lucifer into attempting to tempt Him, and succeeded. Now, Christ had that detail on His record (for writers like that of Hebrews to note), and the defeat of the devil to reassure His people.

            Of course Jesus can resist temptation.

But apparently, the devil cannot.

Inauguration Day

Today, January 20th, 2017, is the quadrennial celebration of democracy in the United States of America - the peaceful transfer of power between one administration and another. For that, we thank George Washington. Lin-Manuel Miranda gives us a fascinating representation of that moment in his landmark musical Hamilton, where President Washington tells his most trusted cabinet minister Alexander Hamilton that he's not running for a third term - and his reasoning permeates our society even today.

"If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on. It outlives me when I'm gone. Like the Scripture says, 'Everyone shall sit under their own vine and fig tree and no one shall make them afraid.' They'll be safe in the nation we've made."

It turns out he's quoting there from Micah 4:4, which talks of the Mountain of the Lord in the Millennial, which is followed by (to me) an even more appropriate verse, Micah 4:5 ...

"For all the peoples walk each in the name of its god, 
but we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God forever and ever."

The people today have quite different "gods" that they follow. Some do follow the true Lord, of course, but many follow money, or power, or blind patriotic loyalty. 

Some people are their own gods.

Today, we change from the administration of a demonstrably Christian president who spent eight years defending himself against charges of being a Muslim because his name rang of Islamic overtones, to a president who speaks the words and politics of Christianity but lives a life as far from that of Christ's teachings as is humanly possible. We change from a Democrat to a Republican. We change from a president which a large segment of America detested and another segment adored, to a president whose demographics were exactly the opposite - it would be hard to find a person of political awareness in the US who cared for Mr. Obama and Mr. Trump exactly equally (unless they simply hated ALL politicians, which is true more and more often.)

And yet, the words from Mr. Miranda's musical that stick with me today are the ones in the following song, sung by King George III - "They say George Washington's yielding his power and stepping away. Is that true? I wasn't aware that was something a person could do. I'm perplexed. Are they gonna keep on replacing whoever's in charge?"

Yes, yes we are. We've done it successfully previously, 43 times in a row. We've done it through a change of political beliefs. We've done it through natural death, and through assassination. We've done it through resignation and scandal. 

And today will be no exception. Regardless of the opinions of many of its citizens, perhaps even some of those performing the ceremony, the process will continue, and at noon EST we will transfer the power of the office of the "leader of the free world" from one man to another, as mandated in the US Constitution.



Now, here's the important part of this process.

No matter what you think of Mr. Trump, or Mr. Obama, or anyone else involved in the politics of the situation... God is the One Who is in control. 

God chose Mr. Obama to be POTUS for the last two terms. And He chose Mr. Trump to be POTUS now. So that's the way He wants it.

Let me throw my thoughts at you about the situation. I am not of the belief that Mr. Trump is a Christian, because of his demonstrably non-Christian actions - demeaning women and the underprivileged, completely unforgiving, compulsively untruthful, and unable to control his impulses. I also don't believe him competent enough to discharge his duties in the office, and I worry that his poor performance there will have grave results for all of us. 

But that's not to say that his opponent should have been elected. God arranged that too. If you have any doubt that He wanted Mr. Trump to be President, look at what he got to campaign against: an array of ineffective Republican candidates who split the rest of the vote, and then a Democratic candidate who not only embodied what the nation was despising about government but who demonstrably cheated to defeat her primary opponent. Add the fact that the two main "third party candidates" famously knew nothing about even the basic workings of government, and it's hard not to come to the conclusion that God wanted Mr. Trump to become president. Would he have won against, say, Mr. Obama or Mr. Bush 43 were they running again? Or any of a dozen competent possibilities who ARE still eligible? Probably not. God put him here against these candidates at this time because He wants Mr. Trump in office.

Why?

I don't know, but I trust Him. His ways are better than my ways, His thoughts are higher than my thoughts, and if it's His Will that Mr. Trump is our president, then I will honor and respect that Will. (And it must be His Will, unless I'm ready to abandon the truth of Scripture, which I'm not.)        

SO... just for fun, let's examine why God would want him there. For obvious reasons, let's exclude the reasons his supporters would give: he'll do a good job, he will correct policies that have gone away from the way they should go, etcetera. Without agreeing or disagreeing, let's dismiss those by saying if they're true, then it's obvious that God would want Mr. Trump in office, and case closed.

What remains are the anti-Trump arguments, and why God would want him there IF he was indeed as unqualified as I believe him to be. (Again, in the interest of fairness, those who believe that Mr. Trump is the solution and Mr. Obama was the problem, play along by changing the names. The point will be just as valid.) 

Arguments for such a president? Perhaps God would want to weaken the US in the world arena? My reading of Scripture as an eschatologist sees NO basis for America's participation in the End Times activities. We have had our fingers in the Middle Eastern pie for decades - if we're approaching the End, perhaps it's needed to pull us out of the area to allow the final act to begin. 

No? Perhaps the friendship which Mr. Trump wants to pursue with Russia will have an effect on those End Times prophecies. Most analysts believe Russia is the Gog/Magog in Ezekiel's portion of the final act - could an enhancement of Russian importance bring along their portion of Scripture?

Or perhaps there's something else in store - a Pence presidency, either in 2020, 2024, or following an impeachment. Mr. Pence is well-known as a foe of the LGBT community; maybe that be a factor in His thinking?

Let's go way out into left field: what if Mr. Trump's policies and behavior become so outrageous that the Democrats and Republicans have to work together, to team up to throw him out of office, and that begins a new era of the two sides working together as they should, in bipartisan fashion, as they used to until the start of the century (for the most part)? Possible. ALL things are possible with God.




Here's my point: we have no idea what God is thinking. Nor will we, most likely. 

We will simply have to trust Him, whether He allows us a Barack Obama or a Donald Trump to be our president. Whomever God installs, we must recognize and honor, and pray for. This is not a zero-sum game! If Mr. Trump is a successful president, we will be better off than if he is a dismal failure. We are bound by Romans 13:

"Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.... Therefore one must be in subjection, not only to avoid God's wrath but also for the sake of conscience." (verses 1, 2, 5)

The cynical response to this comment of a friend of mine was to point out verse 6 and 7 had already been violated: "For because of this you also pay taxes, for the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing. Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.   

The friend argues that if this president, who has proudly admitted not paying taxes, and certainly not demonstrated respect or honor to those who it was owed, has already violated God's Word, why should we obey the rest of Romans 13 with respect to him?

Here's my answer. God didn't give US mercy because WE deserved it. He gives us mercy because HE is holy.

Similarly, we don't pay this man respect because HE deserves it - we pay him respect because the OFFICE deserves it, and OUR GOD DEMANDS it.  

If we are Christians, then we respect the office of the President (and the rest of the government) because it's the right thing to do, regardless of who HOLDS those offices.

By the way, in my mind that disqualifies a huge number of people who believe they're Christians but who publicly denigrated President 44, or who will publicly denigrate President 45. 

The very phrase "He's not MY President" cannot be uttered by a Christian American.   

So, where does that leave us? Right where we started. Today, January 20th, we will inaugurate our 45th president, and he will sit where Mr. Lincoln say, where both Roosevelts sat, where almost every good, bad, great and mediocre POTUS has sat, and assume the duties of the highest office in the land. And it is my fondest wish, as much as I wish for anything in the political sphere, that Mr. Trump succeeds beyond my fears AND hopes for him, because a failure in the highest office creates a failure that seeps throughout the nation. (I remember 1974.) It is my duty as a Christian and as an American to do what I can to make his presidency a success.

Now, that includes vetting his cabinet choices so the best people fill those positions - it includes arguing about policy decisions because that affects the success of the country and therefore his presidency - it includes being vocal about potential mistakes we see him make, in order to give him the chance to correct those errors. THAT'S not disobedience - that's participation in the government process. So don't assume you can't speak up. Not the same thing. But work within the system as best you can as a Christian, professing your Christian values and arguing for your Christian beliefs. 

That's our job as Christians, regardless of who holds the office.

Because we serve our King, first and foremost. 

Always.