Home

Wake County, NC finds itself embroiled in quite a bruhaha.  The County School Board recently voted to stop busing children long distance to achieve "diversity" in schools.  You can read more on the controversial decision here:

http://www.witn.com/wakecountytriangle/headlines/88972557.html

This all comes as a sad amusement to me.  The state schools have been undergirded for 50+ years now by a Darwinian / naturalist / humanist worldview.  The much acclaimed "Father of Modern Education," John Dewey, was himself a bold socialist and a proud signer of the Humanist Manifesto I.  Dewey even traveld to Russia in the early 1900's to assist them in implementing the educational system of Karl Marx.  Dewey was instrumental in bringing German scholars from the "`rank`furt School" here to America, and he gave them "power positions" in schools and universities. 

The `rank`furt School embraced the worldview of Nietzsche and Foucalt, which came to be called "postmodernism."  Its central tenet is there is no absolute truth (of course we must quickly ask the postmodernists if it is absolutely true that there is no absolute truth).  Nietzsche wrote "God is dead . . . we have killed him."  Further, his worldview led him to declare "that all life is simply will to power" (Beyond Good and Evil).  In other words, MIGHT makes RIGHT.  This is Darwinian thinking applied to social ethics.  Don't believe me?  Just ask Hitler.

Why then, should the state-run school give a flip about whether or not each school has socio-economic and ethnic diversity?  (I purposely avoid the term "racial" because the Bible teaches we are all one race - Adam's.)  Why not just let the powerful keep going to the better schools with greater opportunities?  Why should a Darwinian care if the poorer or less privileged classes suffer?  Survival of the fittest, right?  We're all just advanced animals, so the natural laws governing the animal kingdom clearly are at work in the Wake County School System.  Let them run their course.  In the end, it will be best for our continued evolution as a human species. 

I am not hiding my sarcasm so well, am I?  The school boards and teachers and parents and children simply cannot live out the worldview that the education system as a whole embraces!  The irony is thick.  No matter how hard Darwinian educators try to get us to suppress this pesky thing called a conscience, and to jettison the absurd notion of actual absolute moral obligations to treat all people with dignity and respect, these things just will not go away. 

Deep inside, tucked away under layers of sinful corruption, mankind still possesses the very image of his Creator (Genesis 1:27; 9:6).  From time to time, even the Christ-less, depraved American culture and society demonstrates that the way of Jesus Christ is still best:  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength and with all your mind . . . and love your neighbor as youself." 

The laws of this nation were clearly founded upon that ethic, and were implemented, by and large, by men who were experiencing the restoration of God's image in them through faith in Jesus Christ.  Friends, the state-run schools may be forever lost in the moral swamp and confusion that is the inevitable result of Darwinistic humanism, but some of the constituents of those schools clearly are not.  You don't have to be either.

Whether or not it is economically prudent to bus children long distances in the name of diversity is not really the primary issue.  It is not my intent to endorse either economic imprudence or racism.  Both dishonor my God and Savior.  It is my intent, however, to manifest the moral bankruptcy of Darwinism, humanism, and/ or postmodernism.  The real issue for Wake County, and all Americans, is what kind of people we will be.  Good Samaritans?  Or Good Darwinians? 

"As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

I hate sin.  In my life.  In others' lives.  In our culture.  In our world.  This is who God graciously makes us in Christ - haters of sin and lovers of God.  So, it has been with great sadness that I have followed the now over-exposed exploits of Tiger Woods.  While the media circles like sharks around a bloody piece of bait, his adoring fans remain shocked and deeply disappointed.  He was, and is, the world's greatest golfer, an icon to millions of kids.  His downfall is not something to rejoice over or even to gawk at like the news agencies so want you to do.

The question I wish to address here, however, is how can we use this episode, and others like it, as an avenue for sharing the gospel with our children, extended family, co-workers, peers, etc?  Christians should not allow such opportunities to escape, for things like Tiger Woods' escapades can really be springboards to discuss things that matter forever.

First, as Christians we ought to never be surprised by sin, whether it is in Tiger Woods, ourselves, or our neighbors.  It amazes me how many Christians have expressed "shock" over Tiger Woods' behavior.  Really?  I mean, you have read your Bibles, right? 

"Can the Ethiopain change his skin, or the leopard change his spots?  Then you who are accustomed to doing evil can also do good" (Jer 13:23).

"What comes out of a person is what defiles him.  For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality . . ." (Mark 7:20-21).      

Friends, we all have heart disease.  It's called sin.  We are sinners by nature, in the very core of our beings.  Tiger Woods was born a sinner.  So was I (Ps 51:5).  We sin because we are sinners.  We act in character, if you will.  And, if left unchecked by the grace of God, sin can cause any one of us to do, say and think ruinous things.  Our sinful heart disease is terminal.  It controls and masters us, enslaving us from the inside out (see Romans 6-8).

Second, Tiger Woods will not find mastery over his sin via Buddhism.  Brit Hume is right.  Only Jesus Christ offers what Tiger really needs.  Buddhism is an atheistic religion, much like evolution / Darwinism (but that discussion is for another day).  It is precisely the atheistic worldview that leads people to behave like Tiger has been.  No God, no objective standard of right or wrong, no accountability, no worries beyond the grave = each individual determines what is "right for him or her."  Tiger's sexual exploits were perfectly consistent with the atheistic Buddhist worldview.

Yet, oddly enough, Buddhists preach salvation through human self-effort.  They strive to eliminate desires / craving via the 8 Fold Path laid out by their founder, the Buddha.  The path includes things such as Right Thinking, Right Speech, Right Conduct, Right Effort and the such.  How they determine "right" apart from an objective Law or Law-Giver that transcends all things is beyond me.  And, how do you eliminate desire in your life by desiring the 8 Fold Path?

Add to this that Buddhists generally view suffering, and individual persons as merely illusions.  None of it is real.  This life is just a mirage.  Tell that to Tiger's wife and children.  Tell it to the numerous women he treated as worthless pieces of animal meat.  I wonder if Tiger himself really believes that he himself is just an illusion with a ginormous bank account?   

Tiger does have a problem with desire, to be sure.  SINFUL desires are ruling his heart and life.  Sin masters us all, that is until Jesus breaks into our lives and enthrones Himself in our hearts.  The only solution to sin is Jesus.  Jesus experienced real suffering, bearing the real wrath of the real God in the place of real sinners like Tiger Woods, who rightly deserve God's justice.  And Jesus rose from the grave, conquering the great enemies of our souls, sin and death, forever.   God out of His great love and mercy comes to people, convicting them of sin and their need of Christ, by the power and presence of His Spirit, and gifts them with repentance of sin and faith in the person and work of Jesus.  God offers real forgiveness of real sin committed against a real God who is really holy.  This forgiveness of sin cannot be earned or merited through self-effort.

"For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them" (Eph 2:8-10).

"So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ" (Romans 10:17). 

Wow!  There it is!  Real power for real living.  This is what Tiger Woods needs.  He needs a new Master.  He needs the Spirit of God living in him, enabling him to fight back against the sin in his heart and life.  He needs to hear and know the truth, for the truth shall set him free.  Freed to serve and please God, being empowered by His gracious Spirit and Word.  Freed to say "no" to temptation.  Freed to repent and trust the only person who is perfectly satisfying to God - Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God.  Tiger, like everyone else, needs to be brought into union with Christ.  He needs to be changed from the inside out.  He needs a heart surgeon whose name is Jesus.

Let's pray God puts people into Tiger's path who will speak truth into his life, so that He can have the opportunity to escape the snare of sin, not just now, but for all eternity.  May God help Tiger find The Way, instead of the 8-Fold Way.  Let's share this goods news of how a holy God has made a way to reconcile unholy people to Himself through the person and work of His Son, Jesus. 

*For more information on Buddhism, visit www.4truth.net

For the next few posts, I want to begin challenging readers to think very seriously about the obstacles that might stand in the way of growing more cross-centered in their homes (marriage, parenting, sibling relations, etc.).  After all, it should come as no surprise that if a follower of Christ makes a commitment, by God's grace, to pursue holiness and Christ-likeness in one or more areas of life, battles will ensue.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph 6:12). 

Are you aware of the battle raging for the heart of your home?  Your own hearts?  Your spouses' hearts?  Your children's hearts?  Your brothers' and sisters' hearts?  Following hard after Jesus comes at a cost (Luke 14:25-35).  We do well to consider the cost of a cross-centered home. 

Looking back on my own life, I am often sorely disappointed in how little I have sacrificed to serve Jesus and to spread His love and message to my neighbors and to the ends of the earth.  In America, Christians can live so comfortably, and never really know what it means to truly give sacrificially, of their time, money, energy, talents, gifts, mind, heart and soul.  Or, can they?  Does Jesus the Christ actually allow for comfortable, non-sacrificial Christianity?  Even a cursory review of His teachings in the New Testament challenges this notion of what we Americans have called Christianity for far too long. 

Make no mistake, pursuing Christ in our homes, or anywhere else for that matter, is costly.  Jesus makes absolute demands upon His vassals, and has sovereign rights as our substitutionary Savior-Warrior-King to do so (1 Cor 6:19-20).  The Lord is graciously teaching me more of what it means to "count the cost."  And I am finding that for every little step of faith or sacrifice made, God is infinitely worthy of it; so much so that I hesitate to call anything I do in His service a "sacrifice." 

To avoid pontificating at length in this post, let me just leave you with this thought, based upon observation, personal experience, and the absolute authority of the Scripture:

Two idols are epidemic in Christian homes today, and they are preventing many of us from striving by grace towards the C2H ideal.  These American idols are: Busyness and Lifestyle.  They go hand-in-hand, and they are sucking the vitality right out of our hearts, our homes, and our churches.  Consider prayerfully how these idols seek to rule your hearts each day.  We will further explore in our next post.

For many evangelical Christians in the western world, this Sunday is "Sanctity of Human Life" Day.  It is mind-boggling and stomach-churning to consider the tens of millions of unborn babies we have wholesale slaughtered in this nation over the past four decades.  If anyone is still wondering where the Darwinian / Naturalist worldview leads, he or she needs look no further than the massive infanticide industry led by Planned Parenthood. 

The quotes from Margaret Sanger, as well as popular professor Peter Singer are well-known and by now well-published.  Sanger was clearly a racist by any stretch of the definition, yet is still lauded as a hero in some circles.  In the July 1983 edition of the journal Pediatrics, Peter Singer argues that in some instances the life of a pig has more value than the life of, say, a down syndrome baby. 

In that same article, titled "Sanctity of Life or Quality of Life," Singer wrote: "We can no longer base our ethics on the idea that human beings are a special form of creation, made in the image of God, singled out from all other animals, and alone possessing an immortal soul."  And this guy has shaped the minds of hundreds of our nations leaders as a professor at some of our more prestigious universities!   

Friends, the Nazi mentality is alive and well in this nation.  Is this really the kind of philosophy and worldview we wish to base our culture and country upon?

But my focus today is more upon the impact abortion has had, and is having upon families.  Here are some questions to fuel thought:

1) How many families have been deprived of holding that precious newborn miracle of God as she coos and squirms after feasting on warm milk?

2) What impact will the death of 40 million babies have on our nation fifty years from now?  We have annihilated an entire generation of Americans!  Economic impact will be certain, but more importantly than that, I wonder how many Einstein's, Mozart's, Billy Graham's, Ronald Reagan's, Mother Theresa's, and General Swartzkoff's we have killed off?

3) How many mothers who chose abortion now are haunted by the voice of unborn life late at night?  How many hurt deeply in silence?  How many desperately need the forgiving and healing touch of the Master, Jesus?

4) How many could-have-been Dads, who are typically given almost no say in the matter of abortion, grieve over the loss of opportunity to play ball with their boy?

So, what to do?  I offer up this prayer on behalf of all who believe we should praise the Lord, "for we are wonderfully and fearfully made" -

Oh Sovereign Lord, break our hearts for the spiritual poverty of America.  God, grant Your people in Your churches courage to call abortion the horrific sin and affront to Your holy character that it is.  God grant Your people in Your churches compassion to reach out with the love and hope of Christ to any and all who have been impacted by abortion.  God convict churches all across this land to pour their time, money and prayers into local pro-life pregnancy centers.  Lord, bring the American people to their senses, enable us to vote local, state and national leaders into office who are firmly pro-life, and help the electorate to "fire" pro-death leaders every chance they get.  Oh Lord, forgive us.  Heal us.  Grant us repentance, that Your glory might once again be restored to this people called Americans.  For the Fame of Jesus' Name, Amen.