with Brian Tubbs
Personal Ramblings
An Appropriate Ronald Reagan Speech for Veterans Day
0190 days
In honor of Veterans Day 2011 (11-11-11), I would like to post this classic speech from President Ronald Reagan during the 40th anniversary observance of the Normandy D-Day invasion. Reagan’s soothing, fatherly voice and the rhythmic cadences of his oratorical style are very much on display here, especially as he tells of Private First Class Peter Zanatta and his daughter, Lisa Zanatta. Listen to this wonderful speech…
The ending of this speech always brings tears to my eyes. What a great tribute to World War II veterans and a great challenge to all Americans — even today.
Choosing Courage Over Fear: A Personal Lesson Learned From My Grandpa
0197 days
What is courage? Many years ago, my father explained that the answer to that question is to be afraid of something and yet to do it anyway. The occasion of that lesson was my explaining to him and my mother how I overcame my fear of heights (not once, but twice) to voluntarily take part in a rappelling exercise on one of my National Guard drills. I still remember how scared I was, when I did it. I’ve always had a bit of a phobia with heights. My dad looked at me and said: “That’s courage. Being afraid of something and doing it anyway.” My fear of heights, however, is nothing compared to the fear that Staff Sergeant James Gibson faced over 60 years ago when he stood down a German Tiger Tank (and won!) or when he charged into a squad of German soldiers, firing his rifle and tossing all the grenades that he had!
Yesterday, November 3, 2011, I had the honor and privilege of preaching the funeral for my grandfather, James Gibson. While I’m not sure any words from me can do his life and legacy justice, I’d like to try to add a personal lesson I’ve taken from Grandpa’s life — one that I didn’t share yesterday in my message, because it was so personal and specific. And because I needed some time to really sort it out. It’s a lesson that I hope will remain with me the rest of my life. There’s a lot more to Grandpa’s life than his service in World War II. Having spent years in the coal mines of West Virginia as well as in factories and in the Postal Service, Grandpa was the hardest worker I’ve ever known. He was also honest, upright, and thoroughly devoted to his wife of 68 years, my grandmother. All these things and more I tried to bring out yesterday, and I hope I did satisfactorily. But there’s a personal lesson that I want to share with you now.
My uncle, John Huffman, worked for 25 years with the Department of Veterans Affairs. In that capacity, he filed a claim many years ago for my grandfather for post-traumatic stress disorder. This gave my uncle a chance to interview Grandpa about his experiences, drawing out of him numerous stories of his time in World War II. I had heard bits and pieces of the stories over the years (from Grandpa and from my mom), but reading the transcript of these interviews a few days ago was the first time I had seen them all together in one place. It was a very moving experience. Uncle John said that Grandpa related to him that he and his friends went after the enemy “with abandon” (Grandpa’s words). They “threw themselves at the enemy,” ignoring and shutting down their fears. It was the way Grandpa dealt with his fear.
The conversation with John called to mind a story Grandpa related to my mother many years ago, which she of course passed on to me. According to the story, Grandpa’s platoon was pinned down in a house or barn and outnumbered. And the lieutenant, scared out of his mind, cowered behind a door. When a soldier asked Grandpa if he was afraid, he barked back: “Of course I’m sacred, but I ain’t gonna hide behind no door!” If I’m not mistaken, this was the same firefight in which Grandpa charged out of the house and attacked head-on a squad of German soldiers that had he and his men pinned down. As Grandpa related the story, the enemy squad surrendered….and did so, thankfully, before they realized Grandpa was completely out of ammunition!
There’s another account, during the Battle of the Bulge, where German tanks were running down our infantry men. Grandpa and one of his buddies decided enough was enough. Grandpa grabbed a fellow soldier, who had a bazooka and tried to get him to stand and fight. Terrified, the soldier refused. So, Grandpa took the bazooka from him, got a 5-second ‘crash course’ from the petrified soldier on how to operate it, and fired it himself at an oncoming Tiger Tank! His buddy, Johnny, then got on top of the tank and hurled a grenade inside.
Lest you think my Grandpa made these things up or exaggerated these stories to make himself look good, I’d like to point out two facts. First, Grandpa rarely spoke of his war experiences. It took years for some of these details to come to light. Second, the U.S. Army decorated him with two Silver Stars — one for each of the episodes I’ve laid out in this article. These exploits may sound like they are from a Hollywood movie, but they really happened! I could also talk about how my grandfather navigated his way through a minefield to rescue an enemy soldier or how he distinguished himself in other firefights, but there’s no need. The two Silver Stars, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart (plus all the service medals) are testament enough to his bravery and courage. James Gibson was the real deal….a true, bona fide American war hero!
Yet he was a flesh-and-blood human being. He admitted he was scared. He was afraid numerous times. In one instance, in particular, when his unit was bombed for several days straight and all he and his buddies could do was hunker down in their foxholes, he admitted to coming close to a nervous breakdown! Grandpa was a normal guy who was as scared as the next guy, but he made a choice to do something with his fears…something that made him a hero.
I will probably never face combat like Grandpa did. And I certainly don’t want anything I write here to sound like I’m putting myself anywhere close to the same level as Grandpa. I am unworthy to be mentioned in the same sentence with James Gibson. But I can certainly be inspired by him and I can certainly learn from him. And, so, in addition to my admiration for his marriage, his honesty, his character, and his work ethic, I am full of respect for his courage. And it’s a lesson I hope to take with me through the rest of my life.
Courage isn’t about having no fear. It’s about being afraid and doing what needs to be done anyway. For me, I have no need to fear combat death. But there are other things a person can fear. We can fear loss. We can fear death. We can fear rejection or criticism. We can fear uncertainty. We can fear many things about life. And if I’m to take Grandpa’s lesson to heart, my job from this point forward is to acknowledge my fears, and then to run past them with courage and do what needs to be done.
Thank you, Grandpa.
Make Your Life Count
0226 days
Life is fragile and brief. Though our church recently celebrated the life of an incredible lady who just turned 100, I’ve also attended the funeral of a newborn baby. As a pastor, I’ve been involved with families who have lost loved ones at all stages of life. And I myself have experienced loss, having buried both of my parents well before their time.
We have no idea how long we will have in this life. Will it be 70 or 80 years as Moses indicates in Psalm 90? Will it be more? Possibly, but it could also be less. I’ve had situations where people were diagnosed with a disease and were dead within weeks of the diagnosis! Sudden….totally unexpected. I remember when my father passed away…no warning….no anticipation. Just one heart attack and it was over. Only God knows how long we have.
Two things, however, are clear: 1) We will ALL face death one day. It’s the ultimate statistic….10 out of 10 people die. And….2) We only have ONE life, so we better make it count.
I don’t write this to trouble anyone. On the contrary, I want to encourage you to reflect on your life (whether you’re 15 years old, 30 years old, or 80 years old) and ask yourself these questions….
1) Are you right with God?
2) Do you know where you will spend eternity when your life on this earth comes to a close?
3) Are you right with your loved ones?
4) Are there things you’ve said or done for which you should apologize and seek forgiveness?
5) Are you carrying malice or bitterness toward others?
6) Do you need to reconcile with someone important in your life?
7) Are there goals or priorities that you know you should attend to, but haven’t?
Life is short and it’s fragile. It’s too short to ignore the likelihood that God exists. (If you’re an atheist or agnostic, you are – with all due respect – living in rebellious ignorance of the evidence that’s plainly there for alll to see!) Make sure you are right with God. There is no relationship more important than that one! And that relationship begins with Jesus Christ. Get out your Bible and read John 3 and Romans 10, and then ask yourself honestly and prayerfully if you’ve called on the name of the Lord and if you’ve been born again.
And life is too short to carry grudges, bitterness, malice, and anger toward others. Let go of any hate. Let go of anger. Be humble and gracious. Be forgiving. Do what you can to reconcile. If you’ve been terribly hurt by someone and need help getting through that, seek out the counsel that you need. There’s no shame in getting counsel. There’s only shame if you know you need help and refuse to get it. And if you’ve wronged someone. Make it right.
If, as you’re reading this, you are overwhelmed by guilt, debt, sin, suffering, etc., then start making a change right now. Get on your knees. Turn your life over to God or, if you’ve already done that, renew your commitment to the Lord. Start praying every day. Get into the Word every day. Get into church – and be faithful. Surround yourself with God-honoring, Bible-believing friends and seek out wise counsel. Set some goals. Work on your self-discipline. And ask God to help you out of the pit you’re in. And….look around to see who else you can help out of their pit.
Be an encourager. Be a blessing to those around you. Love the people in your circle of influence. Add value to them. Build them up. Be a conduit for the Lord. Let God channel His love, grace, and blessings through you to others.
Life on this earth is short, but it can be great. Give your life to God each day and make it count for Him. As the Word of God says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
God bless you!
September 11 — A Day for Prayer, Thanks, and Remembrance
0252 days
As we mark this 10-year anniversary of the worst terrorist attacks ever committed on American soil, it gives us an opportunity to do three things:
- Pray that God protect our country and guide our nation’s leaders.
- Thank those people (military, public safety, first responders, medical professionals, etc.) who work so hard to keep us safe and secure.
- Remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day ten years ago.
May we each remember to do at least the above three things on this 10-year anniversary. God bless you. And may God bless America.
NY Mayor Bloomberg Needs a Lesson in History and Decency
0253 days
As a pastor, I try to limit politically-related posts. I understand that God makes no distinction between Republicans and Democrats in His kingdom. I want to be a loving, supportive pastor to everyone in the church God has privileged me to serve, regardless of their political affiliation. And I want to be an encouragement to everyone who reads this blog, regardless of whether you consider yourself conservative, liberal, Republican, Democrat, Independent, whatever. Nevertheless, a political post on this day is called for, as I am frankly outraged for the many first responders in New York who are being excluded from the main New York City 9/11 anniversary ceremony and for Mayor Bloomberg’s decision to likewise exclude prayer and clergy. Mr. Bloomberg needs a lesson in both history and decency.
First, Bloomberg’s decision to exclude clergy and prayer from the 9/11 ceremony is out of sync with the Founders. While the United States government was established as a secular mechanism, the nation itself was not founded in an atheist framework. The Founding Fathers were all strong monotheists. They all, to a man, believed in the existence of God and the reality of certain moral constants that governed the universe. Overwhelmingly, they believed that the United States was kissed by divine destiny and uniquely blessed by God. Most went even further and endorsed Christianity as the best explanation for God’s presence in the world and His superintending providence over the U.S. The late (and liberal) Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said it best: “We are a religious people whose institutions presuppose a Supreme Being.”
The Bloomberg administration’s excuse for not having clergy or prayer at the 9/11 ceremony is the incredibly complicated task of having to represent all faiths in a politically correct and “sensitive” manner. You can bet that the Founders would be flipping in their graves to hear that excuse. Sure, the Founders believed in the rights of all religious faiths to practice without government coercion or interference, but most of the Founders had no trouble encouraging and/or permitting prayers from Protestant and/or Catholic clergy at public functions. That prayers from these mainstream faiths might make minority faiths uncomfortable didn’t stop them. Reasonable accommodations were offered to the minority faiths, but you can’t stop all religious expression in the public square simply because Americans don’t unanimously agree on their religious beliefs!
With respect to the New York ceremony, there are plenty of Christian or Jewish chaplains available in the fire department, police department, etc. that could lead prayer for the occasion. At the very least, one of these chaplains could make a statement framing the moments of silence as time for prayer. I realize that this arrangement might offend atheists, but too bad. The United States is not an atheist nation. Never has been, and hopefully
never will be. As George Washington, the father of our country, declared: “No people can be bound to acknowledge the invisible hand which conducts the affairs of men more than the people of the united States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency.” I will side with Washington against the atheists any day of the week – and twice on Sunday. Quite frankly, it’s troubling to me that, at a time our nation should be asking God for divine protection, we’re afraid to do so at public events for fear of offending those who don’t believe in God. And then some people have the audacity to get angry with God when tragedy does occur. Does anyone else other than me see a problem with this? Better to take Washington’s advice. Let’s call on that “invisible hand” to continue to guide us and protect us.
That Bloomberg would bow to political correctness and snub God and the clergy is not surprising. New York is not exactly a bastion of old-fashioned, conservative values. That he would, however, snub the city’s first responders is something else entirely. When I first saw this a few weeks ago, I thought it was either a hoax or exaggeration. Or I thought that it maybe was a misunderstanding or snafu….something that would be quickly taken care of. Apparently, it’s all true. Citing a lack of space, the mayor of New York City has invited only a few first responders to the main ceremony marking the 10-year anniversary of the World Trade Center’s destruction. These are the brave folks who risked their lives and health to save lives on that fateful day! Many of whom gave their lives and many more face health complications to this day for their courage! Not to mention that many of these first responders continue to serve the city, protecting and saving lives.
I’m certainly glad Bloomberg and the city want to honor the victims and their families for what happened in September 11, 2001. But there should be no separating the victims and their families from the first responders and their families. How can you say that a worker on the 57th floor was a victim but the firefighter who raced in to save him was not? Those first responders who saved people that day and tried to save others – and those who sorted through the debris in the days after the towers fell – are all victims too. And they are heroes. And they should not be excluded from the 10-year anniversary.
I’m sure the city is doing other events to try to honor these brave men and women. I’m not accusing Bloomberg of snubbing or ignoring them altogether. But I am taking him to task for his terrible judgment and insensitivity here. The ceremony from which they’re being excluded is the main, primary ceremony. It’s the one that everyone will be focused on, and it’s the one that should honor all the victims and heroes of that fateful day. And it’s the one that should also publicly and clearly beseech God for His divine protection.
Defending the United States of America
0322 days
The United States of America is not (and has never been) a perfect nation, but I do tire of the continual attacks on the honor and legacy of the United States so often heard from the Left. Here is an edited video clip from a panel discussion featuring conservative author Dinesh D’Souza, in which he defends the honor of the United States. An appropriate clip for the 4th of July season…
For more on this subject, check out the complete panel discussion at…
“Enemies of the State: Why The US is Hated” – panel discussion sponsored by Uncommon Knowledge and the Hoover Institution
…and also Dinesh D’Souza’s book What’s So Great About America?
Happy Birthday, America!
Lessons I’ve Learned in Pastoral Leadership
0438 days
In the fall of 2004, I surrendered my life to full-time pastoral ministry, and since the summer of 2006, I’ve had the privilege of serving as the lead pastor of two wonderful churches. From 2006 to 2009, I served Sligo Baptist Church in Wilmington, Ohio. While in Ohio, I also served as the part-time administrator of Wilmington Christian Academy, a small Christian school in Clinton County, Ohio. And then, in the fall of 2009, the Lord led Jane and me back to the Washington, DC area where I now serve as pastor of Olney Baptist Church in Olney, Maryland. In the course of the last five years, I’ve learned a few things about leadership and about ministry. I shared some of my thoughts on Facebook a few days ago, and thought I’d provide an updated version of that article here at my ministry blog.
“Seven Lessons on Leadership I’ve Learned as a Pastor”
When I was in my teens and twenties, I wanted to be a leader. Those who knew me well back then will remember how high those aspirations were. Whatever God had in store for me, I knew leadership was a part of it. I remember, as a very young teenager, I felt God might be calling me to the ministry. I resisted that call, much to the delight of my mother, who said she never wanted to see me become a pastor, because pastors get hurt. My reasons for resisting the call were more selfish. I wanted to get into politics, and perhaps make a lot of money along the way. By the time I got into my 30s, I recognized that doing things my way wasn’t getting me anywhere, except for frustration. I surrendered my life to the Lord’s will, and He quickly led me back to that original calling — the ministry. First, as a Christian school teacher, and now, as a pastor. I should say that Mom was happy with my surrender to that call, though she still worried about me (right up until her passing), because she knew how sensitive I am and knew God had to still grow me some more.
Since answering God’s call, I’ve been a Christian school teacher and department leader, a pastor of two churches, and the administrator of a small Christian school. And I’ve had plenty of that leadership thing to which I once aspired. And, let me tell you, leadership looks much more attractive from the outside than it does from the inside.
While I believe I’m doing what God called me to do, I have to be honest and share some lessons of leadership that I’ve personally (and, at times, very painfully) learned. I hope that these will be a help to those of you reading this who are in a leadership role or who may one day aspire to serve in one.
1. Leadership is based on responsibility.
Leadership is NOT about giving orders or being in the limelight. It’s about responsibility. You’re not a true leader, unless you fully and completely engage the people you’re working with and totally embrace the responsibilities you’ve been given. This is why one sees Presidents age so rapidly when in office. Responsibility can be heavy. And, while I don’t for a moment think I have responsibilities as heavy as the President, I can tell you that church leadership (and school leadership) carries a heavy sense of responsibility. Check out Hebrews 13:17, which tells church member to obey their leaders, because those leaders “watch out for your souls.” That’s a powerful phrase. I literally have to watch over the souls of the people in my church. Talk about heavy. It’s definitely a sense of responsibility that reminds me to get on my knees and pray….a lot.
2. Leaders get criticized.
I hate this one, but God has worked me over on this point more than any other. Most of my life, I recoiled from, withdrew from, and tried to avoid confrontation and criticism. Unfortunately (for my sensitivity), leadership is all about confrontation. It’s all about agitation. Why? Because leadership involves change. It involves moving people from one place to another and challenging people to do X or Y, when they may have other plans. It involves sticking your neck out. And, quite often, it means that you’ll get criticized — sometimes gently. Sometimes, not so much. Sometimes, the criticism is based on a misunderstanding. Being misjudged and criticized unfairly is the hardest type of criticism. Of course, sometimes, the criticism has merit. 
And a good leader learns from it and is humble enough to admit when he or she is wrong. The fact is that God has grown me in this area more than any other in leadership.
3. Leaders disappoint others.
This is the second hardest challenge of leadership for me personally. In fact, at this point, it may have become #1 (since God has worked me over so much on the criticism side of things). I hate disappointing people and letting them down, especially good people. This is especially difficult when it comes to employment related decisions, and our church has been going through this the last few months. Not easy. Not fun. My nature is that I want to encourage everyone and make everyone around me feel good. It’s why I love to crack jokes and have developed a sense of humor (that is, at least SOME of the time, effective ). But there are times when the laughter needs to stop and tough decisions need to be made, and people get hurt or disappointed. And the leader is right at the center of it, and there’s nowhere to hide. A good leader has to stand up straight, make the tough decisions, and accept that some people, including solid, good, wonderful people, might be hurt. This also drives me to my knees quite often, because it’s where I have to trust God to provide the comfort that’s needed, because let’s face it…God is a much better comfort provider than I will ever be.
4. Leaders must be followers.
No leader can become a leader, unless he or she is first a follower. And not only that, but no leader can remain a leader, unless he or she remains a follower. In my case, as the pastor of a church that’s congregationally governed, I’m accountable to the overall body of believers, while specifically following God Himself. That means, as the apostles taught, I must be in the Bible and in prayer continually, because that’s how I get my marching orders. In I Peter 5, the Bible makes clear that I answer to the Chief Shepherd. If I’m not following my leader, then I forfeit any right to lead the flock over which Jesus put me.
5. Leaders must be accountable.
As Harry Truman once said, “The buck stops here.” Until I became a pastor, I had the privilege of being a part of the organization, exercising some influence and leadership, but being safely within an umbrella of leaders above me. That’s not the case, when you’re “the Guy.” While a certain amount of lee-way and patience can and should be extended to leaders at the top (when it comes to mistakes, inefficiencies, problems, etc. within the organization), there comes a point where all eyes are on the leader to address situations and resolve problems. And there’s nowhere the leader can run or hide. The leader is…the leader. And he or she is accountable.
6. It’s easier to give an opinion, than to make a decision.
When I was lower in the leadership food chain, I had lots of opinions and ideas. And I would often share them. The higher up I got, the more aware I became that sometimes, leaders must say ‘no’ to ideas, even sometimes GOOD ideas, because of the need to maintain direction and balance in the organization overall. Giving an opinion is easy. Opinions are the cheapest commodity on earth. Making a decision is hard, because it affects more than simply your mood or state of mind or even your life. As a leader, the decisions you make affect a lot of people. This requires wisdom. And wisdom is not a cheap commodity. Read the book of Proverbs. Wisdom is more precious than gold and all the precious gems in the earth. And it’s something I pray for every day.
7. Leaders need prayer.
Forgive me for being self-serving here, but leaders need prayer. Many years ago, one of my pastors made a decision that was particularly difficult. I remember that people were often free with their opinions, but not so much with their prayers. I remember many years before that, one of the pastors I worshipped under fell into sin. Once again, many people were free with their criticisms and condemnation, but what about their prayers? One of the first things that went through my mind, when I heard the news, was: “I should’ve prayed for him more.” The real convicting thing is that I rarely prayed for him, and thus I consider myself partly to blame for the sin he fell into. Why? Because we as people are commanded to pray for our leaders, and prayer packs POWER! The apostle Paul tells us in I Timothy 2 to pray for those in authority over us. We should pray for our President, for example. And our Congress. And our Supreme Court. And our state and local governments. And, yes, our pastors! We should pray for our leaders. They need it.
For anyone reading this, I hope that this has been an encouragement to you, especially if you aspire to be a leader some day or are in a leadership position now. I encourage you to pray every day, read the Bible every day (including the Proverbs – great stuff on leadership there!), and also study leadership itself. Check out John Maxwell, for example, who has written some really great things on leadership. Most of all, remember this…
If you’re a follower of God, and you’re responding to God’s call, then God will give you the strength you need to do what He has called you to do. You just need to lean on Him and stay close to Him as He does this.
God bless you!
Related Reading
If you enjoyed this blog post, you may also want to check out…
“Biblical Leadership Skills” (Suite101 Protestantism)
Westboro Baptist Church is a Disgrace to the Cause of Christ
5443 days
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the constitutional right of Westboro Baptist Church members to picket and protest at funerals of American service members. For those readers not familiar with the case, Westboro Baptist Church is a fringe cult-like church in the Topeka, Kansas area. Westboro Baptist Church, for the last several years, has made it a habit to protest at military funerals and desecrate the American flag to emphasize what they believe is God’s judgment on the United States for the moral decline in our society, particularly as it relates to homosexuality. In the view of the folks at Westboro, the fact that service members are dying in combat is a manifestation of God’s judgment on the United States. For this reason, they picket funerals with signs that read “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” They’ve also waved placards that read “Thank God for 9/11.” Any bad thing that happens to America is good in the eyes of Westboro Baptist Church.
Gays and lesbians are singled out for a special kind of vitriol. Westboro Baptist Church teaches that (their words) “God hates fags.” In fact, those words make up their website url. That God disapproves of homosexuality is clear from the Scriptures. That God hates homosexuals is not at all what the Bible teaches. On the contrary, the Bible teaches that God loved the entire world and that Jesus came into the world to “seek and to save” those who are lost in their sins. While homosexuality is deemed sinful by God’s standard (in fact, the book of Leviticus calls it an “abomination”), it is but one of many sins called out by God. Others include putting false “gods” before the one true God, pride, the shedding of innocent blood, bearing false witness, lying, stealing, kidnapping, dishonoring one’s parents, greed, covetousness, adultery, lust, and on and on and on. There are hundreds of offenses specifically identified in Scripture as “sin,” many of them categorized as particularly grievous to God.
The bottom line is that anything that is apart from God’s holy standard is a sin. And…every single member of the human race, including all those who attend Westboro, are sinners. The apostle Paul makes this clear, when he writes in Romans that all of us “fall short of the glory of God.” This is, after all, the point of the story where Jesus spares the life of the woman caught in adultery. It was a grievous sin, and Jesus acknowledged it was “sin,” but he said that only those people who were WITHOUT sin were qualified to throw stones at the woman.
Why then does Westboro Baptist Church get this whole “sin” thing so wrong? The reason is that Westboro Baptist takes the harsh, imprecatory prayers of David in the Psalms literally. These include Psalm 7, Psalm 35, Psalm 79, Psalm 137, etc.). They therefore believe that God indeed “hates” people who break His moral laws and that God’s people should likewise “hate” offenders of God’s moral truth. Since God repeatedly commands His people to love, show mercy and compassion, and speak the truth in love, that makes Westboro Baptist guilty of breaking God’s moral laws too. I wonder if, in their mind, that would place them under God’s “hate” as well. Of course, I doubt Westboro Baptist members spend that much time studying the Bible or digging into theology, so that paragraph would likely be over their heads.
That David sometimes prayed death and destruction on his enemies and professed honestly before God that he hated God’s enemies is a matter of scriptural record. Lifting these verses out of their context, though, and building an entire theology around them is what has gotten the folks at Westboro Baptist into serious exegetical trouble. For one thing, if the lessons of David’s imprecatory psalms is that it’s good for Christians to hate our enemies, then how does that square with Jesus’s teaching that we should “love our enemies”? How does it square with Paul’s teaching that we should “speak the truth in love”? For that matter, how does picketing a funeral and holding up anti-gay signs fulfill the Great Commission? Jesus didn’t tell us to go into all the world and tell people that God hates gays and lesbians. He told us to go into all the world and teach them about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are to advance the cause of Jesus Christ, not be a disgrace to it (as is clearly the case with Westboro Baptist Church).
David’s praying of the imprecatory psalms should be seen in the same light as Jonah wanting God to wipe out Nineveh, even after Nineveh repented. If you carefully read the Psalms and the book of Jonah, you will see that both David and Jonah express frustration with God’s mercy and longsuffering nature. They both want God to wipe out the enemy nations now! God, however, is a God of love, mercy, patience, and compassion as well as a God of judgment and, at times, wrath. It’s this complex nature of God that David openly and, at times, very eloquently wrestles with in the Psalms. We are to treat the Psalms as examples of one of God’s servants openly, honestly, and candidly pouring his heart out before the Lord. We are NOT to simply lift phrases from those prayers and then build some kind of twisted case for God’s hatred around them. To do so dishonors the context and true meaning of the Scriptures, and it contradicts the plain teachings of the Bible in other places, where God makes His love clear.
To be blunt, God doesn’t hate homosexuals. He loves them! The same is true for all sinners. God loves all sinners, including those at Westboro Baptist Church. And let me be clear…I too am a sinner. I don’t consider myself better than a gay person or any other sinner. I’m a sinner saved by the grace of Almighty God. I’m seen as “just” before God, not because of who I am, but because of who I am in Christ. I’m right with God, not because of my works, but because of the work done by Jesus Christ on the cross two thousand years ago!
That the Westboro church carries the name “Baptist” is an embarrassment to all true Baptist churches in the world today. That they are associated with Christianity is likewise a shame and embarrassment to all true Christians. I wish to make it plainly clear in this blog that followers of Jesus Christ should have nothing to do with churches or organizations that spew hatred and vitriol in the way that Westboro Baptist Church does. Other than praying for them to get right with God, God’s people today should have nothing to do with Westboro Baptist Church (or churches like them). We should proclaim the love and mercy of God to the whole world and teach the pure and true Gospel of Jesus Christ that can save any sinner from his or her life of sin.
As for the Supreme Court ruling, while I understand the need to protect free speech, I find it abhorrent that a group of professing Christians would want to disrupt a heartbroken family’s time of grief to showcase their twisted view of America’s moral decline. In this regard, I have to agree with Justice Samuel Alito, the lone dissenter in the High Court’s ruling, who said that “vicious verbal attacks that make no contribution to public debate” during “a time of intense emotional sensitivity” should not be given a blanket First Amendment protection.
Sadly, Westboro Baptist Church will continue to get the publicity it craves. It’s time for true Christians to rise up and get the kind of publicity that God’s people should get. A publicity that showcases love and not hate, a publicity that advances, rather than undermines, the cause of Jesus Christ.
What Would American History Look Like Without George Washington?
0455 days
This holiday weekend, which most Americans mistakenly call “Presidents’ Day,” is officially set aside for our nation to honor the father of our country, George Washington. But what if George Washington had never been born? How different would American history be without George Washington?
That is the question I ask in my latest blog post over at my “American Revolution & Founding Era” blog. You can read the article by clicking on the link below…
“What if George Washington Had Never Been Born?“
Enjoy your holiday weekend!
Hate Rears its Ugly Head in Olney, MD
0655 days
The B’nai Shalom Synagogue in Olney, Maryland was recently vandalized in what can only be described as a vicious act of hate and racism. Vandals spray-painted swastikas and anti-Jewish slogans along the walls, in the parking lot, and on the light posts. Most offensively, one of the slogans scrawled on the campus was “Work Will Set U Free,” a reference to the ominous sign written above the dreaded Nazi concentration camp in Auschwitz. This tragic example of bitter anti-Jewish racism should serve as a wake-up call to the Montgomery County community — and similar regions across the nation. Hate and racial divisiveness continue to plague our society.
I hope you will join me in prayer for the B’nai Shalom congregation and for Jews everywhere who continue to feel the bitter sting of such senseless hatred. And I hope that we, as Christians, will show the love and kindness manifested and exemplified by Christ. Though we have major differences of belief with Jewish synagogues, we stand with them in denouncing racism and hate in society.
