The book is filled with examples of courage, commitment, sacrifice and the inexpressible brotherhood of warriors.  Luttrell pulls no punches as he deals with the rigors of SEAL training and the incredibly high wash-out rate.  The tough training highlights the inner strength of those who press forward and graduate.  Later he tells us about the courage of his wounded teammates fighting against impossible odds, their love for one another and their commitment to their country.  His teammates weren’t the only courageous people in the mountains.  We learn from Luttrell about the honor and bravery of a mountain village that take him in and shelter him from the Taliban, and we experience the hate of those who killed his friends and who would kill us all if given the chance.

There were times as I read that I found myself angry, then shamed by the honor and love of those selfless heroes, American and Pashtun.  I also found myself inspired and encouraged by honorable and courageous humanity.  I was being challenged as I read and I like that. Then it happened.

You see, I can be a cheapskate.  In fact I bought this book at a used store for half price.  I fanned through it before I bought it to be sure it was whole and not so marked up that it would distract my reading.  It was good and I got a bargain.  But as I read almost to the end of the book, I found a partial sentence underlined in pen. The underlined passage had to do with a conjecture that good things always have a bad side.  As I read I slipped from the world of heroes and fell into the pit of misery that must have been the home of the previous owner.  I wondered who could read such a story, go past all the heroism and sacrifice and zero in on one partial sentence of fatalistic and negative philosophy.  What was this poor person like?  How did they survive in the world?  Did every sunrise remind them of dusk?  Were they like some vulture who flew over the most beautiful rolling green landscape looking for some rotting death under a bush?

In the SEALS and Pashtun, I found courage and faith; in the Taliban I saw blinding hatred; in the previous reader, I discovered entrenched and toxic despair.  How tragic.  Regardless of our circumstances, all things still work together for good to those who love Him.  We are not as those who are without hope!

Warning: Lone Survivor is an adult book with graphic violence and language.  Remember, I told you so!

I have the same problem when I think about things. (I try to think about something at least once a month.)  So in this installment you are receiving all the little things I thought about that were not related to my monthly think.  They are incomplete because I ran out of think time.

Why does everyone deserve everything? I saw on TV that I deserve to be safe, a good night’s sleep, and mobility.  If I deserve it, why do I have to buy something, spend money to get it?  It seems that folks are eager to believe they are deserving.  This got me to thinking about what I really deserve.  I didn’t like what I came up with.  The Bible says the wages of sin are death.  Those of us who believe the Bible rarely press to get what we deserve.  Really, I have it pretty good.  My home, family, ministry, and community are all probably better than I deserve.  I hope they don’t figure it out and start demanding what they deserve.

Are we chasing our spiritual tail? I saw an announcement for a Christian group recently that indicated that with their help we could have freedom from our struggles with anger, control issues, anxiety, and perfectionism.  Perfectionism?  Isn’t that what this is all about?  I believe the Lord wants to work within us to make us like Him.  We must beware though, lest we become spiritual hypochondriacs.  Let’s ask the Lord for a good dose of common sense.

Who’s ready to die? I have a picture on my computer desktop of British troops on D-Day, lying on their bellies on the beach while their officer stands over them.  Why was he standing? Thoughtful consideration of the soldiers’ situation reveals, as do their own words, that when they gave up the idea of trying to survive, they became effective warriors and leaders.  In their minds, the only goal was to do the job they were there to do and perhaps save their companions.  We need more Christians who have given up the thought of life for the goal of pleasing the one who has placed us here.

Next week has been set aside as National Police Week.  As next week ends, special memorial services will be held in Washington and around the country to honor those who have given their lives during 2009 in service to their communities.  Since 1962, May 15 has been designated as National Law Enforcement Memorial Day.  Thousands will gather to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice to keep peace in their communities and to protect their fellow officers and the innocent.

As I write this, the Officer Down Memorial Page (www.odmp.org) reports that line-of-duty deaths are up over 20% from this time last year when the total was 126.  Traffic accidents are always a significant contributor to officer deaths, and the last few months are no different.  What is different is that recently officers have been targeted for attack and ambushed, and the main reason is that they were wearing a law enforcement uniform.  Officers working in their cars on computers or together in coffee shops have been gunned down without warning.  Those who run toward the sound of gunfire to selflessly put themselves between harm and us deserve better than that.

If you agree, here are some things you can do:

Find some way to say thank you to a peace officer in your community.  “Thanks for your service, deputy/officer” will work just fine.

Tie a blue ribbon on your car aerial during National Police Week (May 9-15) to show your support and appreciation for the work law enforcement does.

Refuse to buy into the self-centered narcissism of our culture by living selflessly for Christ and others.  Your courageous contribution to the climate of our society can help change the culture, make our communities safer, and make the job of our law enforcement professionals easier.

John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

For more information check out the COPS website:

http://www.nationalcops.org/

You are receiving this letter because you are now or have been a part of our fellowship.  As we move to within days of the Easter celebration, I want to let you know about some of the things we believe God would have us do in the coming days.

It has been my long-held belief that there are foundational changes that need to happen to the modern Church of Jesus Christ.  I will attempt to list a few of these things in the coming paragraphs.

At Lakeview we are far from perfect, and we have found the changes we have made have come as part of a journey that brings us to new territory at each bend in the road.  We also realize that there is an innumerable group of people who attend church meetings each week who love the Lord and want to serve Him.  Our emphasis is not the people, but the system–a self-perpetuating organizational structure of processes, doctrine and, of course, thought.

Here are (briefly) some of the things we will give our effort to change, in our own hearts and minds and in the Christian world around us.

Believers, alone and together, should be about building people, not organizations. In the United States, there are millions of members of the Lord’s Church and tens of thousands of qualified leaders.  Think of what could be accomplished if our attention was turned from building organizations and meetings to equipping people.

Christianity is not a meeting.  It is unfortunate that most churches believe that their meetings are the most vital spiritual time their attendees will have during the week.  Of greater shame is they believe that is the way Jesus wants it.  Churches even go so far as to teach their people to expect it.  Don’t we understand that Christianity is not a meeting, and that an emphasis like that diminishes the value of the everyday lives of believers?  Those days and hours lived in no one’s presence or accountability but that of the Lord.  Life is not lived in a meeting; Christ is glorified by my work-a-day life, if I purpose it so.

Attendance at a meeting is not a measure of God’s blessing. I’ve been to many church growth and pastors’ meetings that emphasized how to grow our meetings.  You would think this was a command of the Lord.  I can find no direct command or indirect encouragement in the New Testament to make our meetings bigger. Unfortunately, we have few if any qualitative measures of maturity, only quantitative measures based on attendance, conversion cards or offerings.  We don’t know how to measure success and maturity in life because we cannot count the lack of failure.  Children who do not stray and marriages that stay together have no place on the tally sheet.  Our emphasis on numbers has caused us to be carnal in our outlook and evaluation.

There is no biblical basis for modern children’s and youth ministry.  Study after study tells us that parents are the most influential people in their children’s lives; yet when we get to church, we separate them.  We tell parents our children’s workers are trained to minister to their children, implying it takes some special enablement to tell them about Jesus.  Our constant repetition of that refrain minimizes the importance of parents (to whom God gave the task) and makes it easier for parents who now feel inadequate to relinquish their kids to a youth pastor.  Why not keep families together?  A place can be provided for the occasional restless or screaming little one and families can worship and study together.  Kids can see their parents respond to the Word of God and parents can see the same for their kids.  Why have churches taught parents to abrogate their responsibility in this most important area?  I’ll write more later about the false premise of adolescence.

The gospel of self is not the Gospel of the New Testament. The true gospel tells the story of God’s amazing grace. It is the story of a Holy God who loves us and sends His Son to die in our place.  It is amazing because we are completely undeserving and have no value except that which God applies to us.  In this Bible Gospel, we must acknowledge our unworthiness and utter helplessness to better our situation in order to receive this gracious gift.  We bring nothing except our helpless and hopeless state; and we receive because of His grace, not our worth.

Modern Christianity, in an effort to make the story more palatable, has watered down or removed the part of the story about the unworthiness of humanity.  In telling only part of the story, the Church has produced followers who believe the Gospel is about them.  They are demanding of God, without basic humility and without an understanding of God.  They cannot grasp the concept of Christ’s Lordship, or God’s sovereignty. They believe God is there for them rather than their existing to honor and glorify Him.

I’m asking for your help.  My heart goes out to the untold multitude of believers who have been frustrated and hurt by the modern church system.  There are also millions who do not know Jesus and who cannot hear our message because the culture of our church system speaks louder than our words.  I hope that if you agree with any of the above, you will take some time in the next weeks to visit our web site.  We will be adding to these topics regularly.  Further, if you agree I ask you to join us, not with your attendance or money, but with your heart and mind and prayers.

May the Lord bless you with a Christ-filled Easter.

Respectfully,

Pastor Jess

Rev. Jess Jessup

Pastor, LCC

God is wonderful and humans are depraved.  Any other worldview, to whatever degree it departs from this, moves away from fundamental reality.  The Church is supposed to be God’s means of sharing truth with the world.  It is tragically unfortunate that we think His song is about us.

Carly’s song always puzzled me because it was obvious it had enough specifics to be about someone or even more than one.  Wouldn’t they recognize themselves?  Would that be vanity?  I got to thinking about God’s love as manifested in what we call the Gospel.  He loved us (though we have no merit or value except what He assigns to us) and sent his Son to die for us.  When we acknowledge the truth of our need for a savior (we have no merit) and accept His sacrifice as a substitution to pay for our sin, we receive His salvation.  It is entirely a gift (free) of His great love and grace.  We do nothing but receive.  There is nothing we can do; we are powerless to deal with who we are.  All we can do is recognize Him and receive what He has done.

Since God has done it all, you’d think we would understand that the Gospel and in fact all of life is about Him.  It is for His glory.  It doesn’t take us long, however, to usurp the central place for ourselves.  We think that since God said it was about us, that it is about us (insert song here).  Wrong we are.  God’s love and grace extended to us is an indication of how great, loving and gracious He is.  Our unworthiness (further illustrated by our usurpation of the central place) is proof of His greatness.

Like spoiled children, we expect His good gifts and even demand them.  The greater tragedy is that many churches have made this vanity a part of their teaching.  The truth is God is not there for us, we are here for Him.  We are unworthy, and any blessing or gift is a token of His great grace.  We have attempted to lure people to God by telling them lies about themselves.  The realization of who He is, who we are and what He has done is the only thing that can set us free from the vanity of life.  Once free, we humbly give all glory to the Lord, expecting nothing in return.

When it is about us, it is not about Him!  Carly was right, but truth can set us free.

Abraham Lincoln; October 15, 1858

The old principles cannot be denied or escaped.  Whatever the guise it is shrouded in, it is enslavement to take from one what he would not give.  To say the other needs it more is no argument except for arbitrariness.  If he needs it, let him ask of him who has.  Let him who has give, and encourage charity in his heart.

When he who has produced is stripped of the fruit of his labor, he will have no incentive to produce more than he needs.  His slavery will be complete because it has taken his heart, his will.  Now, the source of production being destroyed, we are all deprived and without remedy will sink into despair.

Let us resist the tyranny of bad ideas, overthrow them in our own minds, and assail them wherever we can.  The force of truth and right will prevail if applied with diligence and consistency.

Have you heard about the United States Department of Education preparing to buy 27 Remington 870 12-gauge shotguns with 14-inch barrels?  I have to be one of the last people to deny anyone gun ownership or the right to protect themselves, especially law enforcement officers.  Heck, I’d like one of those neat blasters with the ghost ring rear sights myself.  But hey, I don’t want to talk about guns.  I want to talk about Big Government.

Maybe you are like me and wonder where in the Constitution we found an education department in the first place.  Education was one of those things the States were to take care of.  Now we have a huge beauracracy in Washington dolling out funds for educational programs it likes and shutting off the spigot on the ones that don’t meet its arbitrary standards.  Even the uneducated know that whoever holds the purse strings has the control.  Where does the DOE get the money they send back to us peasants?  You’re right, they get it from us.  Why not just leave it here in the first place and let us set our own standards, build our own buildings, pay for our own lunches and hire our own teachers.

Back to shotguns.  The fact that the DOE has an enforcement section, the Office of Inspector General that needs SWAT shotguns, should be a wakeup call that the Federal government has gotten too big and paranoid. They’re’ afraid someone is going to steal all that money they are keeping for us. Maybe it’s time we started pulling the plug on this unwieldy and unresponsive monster; it will only be bigger later and it already has a shotgun!

“You can’t talk to a man with a shotgun in his hand.”

Here in the midst of winter drudgery, it is easy to fall into discouragement and depression, especially if we are waiting on a big thing.  Have you noticed that normal things don’t make the news?  You never see a tabloid with the headline, “Man Goes to Work” or “Mother Finally Gets Kids to Bed”.  In fact, you can do a million things well and no one notices; forget to yield the right of way and you’ll get your name in the paper.  Win the lottery and you’ll make the headlines; lose the ticket and you’ll make even larger news.

One of the writers I take like medicine is Oswald Chambers.  His daily devotional, My Utmost for His Highest, is good for the soul.  Here is what Chambers has to say, “The great hindrance in spiritual life is that we look for big things to do.  ‘Jesus took a towel…and began to wash the disciples’ feet.’ ”  Jesus did the ordinary slave thing.  It was done that day thousands of times by thousands of ordinary slaves.  He was sent here to serve, he was a servant, and he was only doing the natural thing.  Chambers also says this, “If I do my duty, not for duty’s sake, but because I believe God is engineering my circumstances, then at the very point of my obedience the whole superb grace of God is mine through the Atonement.”

Most of us will never see a big thing; but in the Lord Jesus Christ, there is purpose and meaningful endeavor all around us.  His life has made this so, and we thank Him.

Keep your stick on the ice!

Why the fuss?  Good question.  Some folks are irritated at anything Christian, so the reference becomes a target of their illogical and anti-freedom wrath.  I’ll talk about anti-freedom more in a minute.

Some have said that when the mostly Moslem enemies we are engaging learn of this (which they have no-doubt done from the press it’s gotten), they will have proof we are engaged in a holy-war against them.  These geniuses have forgotten that it is our enemies that shout “Allah Akbar” when they attack.  It is these extremists whose motive is to destroy Christianity and Judaism.  We fight them because they have attacked us.

From a spiritual perspective, a committed disciple of Jesus should give honor to God for his success and thanks for all blessings.  The developers of the unique light-gathering ACOG added verses to their product that honored Jesus as the Light.  They were doing no more than glorifying God for their ability to harness light for the aiming system in their product, a product they developed and manufactured that was useable by our military.  I understand that a customer can make demands on the seller for what he needs before he buys the product.  The interesting thing here is that the verses have been there for years.  Someone must have gotten their feelings hurt and whined about it to someone who believes that people only whine when they are right.

In recent times these folks would have been highly regarded for glorifying Christ in their business.  In today’s anti-Christian American culture, they will bow to pressure and remove the verses from sights sold to the military.  Those sights are expensive; but now I’ve got to get one, one with an appropriate verse about Jesus being the Light of the world.  I won’t mind at all having a Jesus rifle.

BTW, I hope none of our warfighters have access to any of Bach’s music.  A committed believer, he inscribed most of his music with SDG, short for Soli Deo Gloria, which means “To God alone be Glory”.  Good thing he didn’t make optics.

If an angry and rebellious man shakes his fist in defiance at God and while doing so is struck by lightning, we would likewise tend to him and make note that railing at the Almighty is perhaps not the wisest thing to do.

It is not unkind to make such judgments.  In fact, it would be unwise and foolish not to observe, draw conclusions and learn from the ill-conceived actions and thoughts of others.  Let us not be unwise without being unkind.  At the same time, let not others naysay our kindness because we recognize their foolishness.