I understand that yesterday was an inauguration. It is the duty of all Christians to pray fo their leaders, something like the NZ parliamentary prayer:
Almighty God, humbly acknowledging our need for Thy guidance in all things, and laying aside all private and personal interests, we beseech Thee to grant that we may conduct the affairs this House and of our country to the glory of Thy holy name, the maintenance of true religion and justice, the honour of the Queen, and the public welfare, peace and tranquillity of New Zealand, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
(David Farrar, who writes Kiwiblog & I have just quoted, is a secular Jew. But he quoted it: and the prayer has not changed since then).
Now, I did nor realize this until this morning when I looked at the paper. Yesterday was Sunday: it was about celebrating my sister’s birthday (and phoning her: she lives a thousand miles away), hearing a sermon about celebration at church, and getting out into the sun and enjoying the view — until about 1 PM, when it started raining again.
For we are not supposed to fear. We are supposed to celebrate.
Isaiah 44:6-8
6 Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
7 Who is like me? Let them proclaim it, let them declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be.
8 Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? You are my witnesses! Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one.
Now, many will say, there is nothing worth celebrationg. That the small things I am talking about are immaterial. That the energy I expended yesterday means nothing, for the night is coming, and the West will fall.
They could be correct. The West is at a cusp. The west could fall. But we should not fear, because the fate of the church is not in our hands, it is in God’s. And he has a goal for this church of his.
1 I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, bone God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.
7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.”
9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) 11 The gifts he gave were that some would be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ. 14 We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their craftiness in deceitful scheming. 15 But speaking the truth in love, we must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped, as each part is working properly, promotes the body’s growth in building itself up in love.
We have to separate what is going on from what is not going on: some may call this the red pill, I call it seeing what is happening. (Yes that link is about paleo food. He’s correct about how our fast food diet is making us fat, and the analogy still stands). And I could talk about how this image of the church is behind the Hobbesian vision of society as a Leviathan, ruled by Christ.
What must do is not fear. That means we have to unplug from some things. For the secular leviathan (made as an evil mirror of the vision of the church) wants us enslaved.
- Do not watch the news. Last night son one wanted a bit of a debate, and Ann Coulter was on Geraldo. We lasted two minutes, becaue (as always happens) Ann and Geraldo started talking over each other. Much of the health news is simply wrong: it comes from case control studies, and these are incredibly difficult to do well. (The issue is getting an appropriate control group and asking the right questions. Both of which are hard to do rigorously.
- Do watch good movies. And by good I mean things that reflect the truth, ugly as it is: such as the wife in Banshee (episode one: not for the kiddies) clearly demonstrating she was an alpha widow, married to a provider — that series is going to shove the manosphere position down peoples throats.
- Don’t be scared to watch stuff for fun: that is big, dumb and full of explosions. Like the Die Hard franchise.
- Do celebrate the small things. They occur weekly, and we need to be thankful for them.
We are not called to be fearful, pushed around by any rumour. We are not supposed to cower. We are supposed to stand. And if the politically correct hate the fact that I drove about 50 miles taking photos yesterday — stuff them. They can wear that hair shirt. They can worship the secular leviathan. I choose to worship the living God.
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