March 19, 2025
Leadership Notes
{Last one of winter of 2024-2025}
The times in which we live are neither more nor less challenging than any other era in which followers of Jesus Christ lived. Varying by degree but not by the absence or presence of difficulties to negotiate. These are the weirdest of times…these are the strangest of times. It’s impossible to remain unsullied in our corrupting and corrupted world. But we do make valiant effort. Girded with the teachings of the Bible, we do our level best to honor God in all we do. Tough, right? We do fall short…
Life is kinda crazy. In my wildest dreams {although a Biblical understanding of human nature should preclude such an observation} I never thought we’d see the kinds of cultural dynamics we’re transitioning through. These are wild and wacky times.
Consider the current socio-political climate. For context, going back to 1976…first Presidential election I voted in…I cast ballots for Carter, Carter, Mondale, and Dukakis. Up until Dukakis, I embraced a distinctly liberal worldview. Now, for what it’s worth, I’d describe myself as Biblically/theologically conservative and socially/politically Libertarian. So there you go, whether anyone cared or wondered or not!
{This is leading to something.} With the rise of social media, beliefs and behaviors rapidly become something we’d neither expect nor predict.
Did you know that, in 2011, President Obama put his Vice President in charge of eliminating government fraud and waste? He even mocked what taxpayer dollars were being spent on. Weird stuff.
In 2010, VP Biden said we waste a heck of a lot of money. One third of Medicare goes to nothing useful. We have to figure out how to stop it from bankrupting the country. Weirder stuff.
In my youth, what attracted me to the liberal mindset was opposition to war. It seems now, the loudest voices for Ukrainian entanglement come from the left. Weirdest stuff.
Some in our culture call abortion “health care.” God bless Lenawee County Care Pregnancy Center and our full and unabashed support of the work they do. Real health care is saving the lives of babies.
Finally, a public school district in New Jersey organized a second grade – yes, second grade – field trip to the Alice Paul Center for Gender Justice. Did I say second grade? Yes, I did. And, surprisingly, there will be no parent chaperones for the trip. At their next spelling bee, one of the words ought to be “groomer.” What a world.
So, here we are. Negotiating a mixed-up, messed up world. The Bible addresses our dilemma:
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me
out of the world. Yours they were, and you gave them to me, and
they have kept your word. Now they know that everything that
you have given me is from you. For I have given them the words
that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to
know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that
you sent me. I am praying for them. I am not praying for the
world but for those whom you have given me, for they are
yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified
in them. And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the
world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your
name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as
we are one. While I was with them, I kept them in your name,
which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of
them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the
Scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to you, and
these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy
fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the
world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I
am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the
world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of
the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the
truth; your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have
sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself,
that they also may be sanctified in truth.
- John 17:6-19 {Jesus’ High Priestly Prayer}
Worshiping together and studying God’s Word are the ways we defend ourselves against the wickedness of this world. While never perfect, we do the best we can to enjoy the life and world God blessed us with.
With Much Love and Affection,
Richard
Comments