Last summer, I had the privilege of taking a float trip down the Grand Canyon. It was one of the great adventures in life that you never forget. Many people go to the Grand Canyon, but to really experience it, you must float the Colorado River for a week and spend the nights on her sand bars and hike her side canyons.

A number of years ago, in another flashbulb life-moment, I took a float trip down the Warm River (it isn’t) in Idaho. It was on that trip that I got the call to Washington and my life changed forever.

I’ve floated the Arkansas, the Snake, the Green; big rivers & little, fast & slow. I’ve floated through the lush rain forests of Costa Rica and marveled at the plethora of color-splashed birds, howler and white-faced monkeys, sloths, and cayman crocodiles on every bank and log (makes you think twice about taking a swim).

Floating the rivers of the earth is a joy.

Floating the river of life is not.

At least, not in the long run.

I’m not talking about the moments when we take a time-out and just simply relax. We need to do that. I’m talking about the day after day, just floating along, in the flow of life…the river of a fallen world…a river where putting forth no effort at all produces weeds, where sweet corn comes forth only through hard and determined work.

A river that guarantees floaters will not end up in a good place.

Anyone can float themselves into a thorny or lifeless marriage; one that thrives requires serious tending…on both sides.

Citizens who float will soon awake and wonder what happened to their liberty; true freedom requires constant vigilance and sacrifice. The fallen river flows inexorably toward tyranny.

Believers who engage in a spiritual “float” will eventually find themselves in a ho-hum, sterile world of grey spirituality…simply going through the religious motions; a vibrant, abundant life comes out of a daily battle, fighting the good fight.

Floating churches die quiet deaths or end up in the backwater of some stagnant pond; the alive church works hard to equip the saints to change the world and its agape love is infectious to all.

The goal before us is upstream, not down.

So…

I’ve decided there’s just too much “float” in my life.

I’m revolting.

(P.S. I’m in Cape Cod. Will be speaking Friday night at Trinity Christian Academy. If any of you are in the area, please stop by!)

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Photo adapted from FineArtAmerica.com

He was a great follower of Christ; a great leader of men. He had a great mind, a great heart, a great calling. He was given ten talents and he returned a hundredfold.

I have mourned his loss. Many have. He is going to be greatly missed.

How now shall we live?

I have spoken to a number of people following Chuck Colson’s departure. They have all said much the same thing. They have conveyed a sense of sadness, not only for the loss of Chuck, but for the loss of a great leader. They have bemoaned the fact that we are losing the great men of our day and they are wondering who will take their place. They are wondering how we will press forward without them.

I think Chuck would have poo-poo’d this talk.
We talked about it.
I agree.

I wonder if we haven’t placed too much emphasis on “leaders”. Yes, we need them, but we shouldn’t be unduly dependent upon them.

At Pentecost, the Spirit of God didn’t come down upon “leaders” only, but upon all believers. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God dwells within you. We have the Word of Truth and the Spirit of Truth.
What more do we need?

Are we to sit around waiting for a leader to arise to tell us what to do?
This seems to be nothing more than an excuse…an abdication.

Are we to act as if we are impotent and incapable of action? Are we paralyzed, immobile, powerless to act on our own?
The Scripture calls us priests and kings.
Shall we act like pawns and puppets?

Don’t use the lame excuse that you need someone to lead you.

You have everything you need to fulfill the call of God in your life. Be excellent in your vocational call. Be fruitful in your ministerial call. Be a great Dad. Be a great Mom. Be a great son or daughter, sister, brother. Love God. Love one another. Love you neighbor. Walk blamelessly before God and men. Live in such a way that your neighbor asks you why you have such hope. Prepare yourself to answer that question. Be light in a dark world. Be salt in a sick culture.

Chuck replaced himself with thousands of warriors. He would be the first to say that neither they, nor you, nor I, need him to go on.

He was a mighty warrior.

I think his last word would be: “Fight on!”

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The old Hee Haw program had a recurring spot where four guys sang this woeful song:
“Gloom, despair and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all
Gloom, despair and agony on me.”

The spot was funny because the guys were so pitiful, groaning loudly between lines.

But I often run into people who seem to see everything through a negative lens. There is no joy, everything is going down hill. If it isn’t the government or the media, it’s the culture or this generation or the schools or taxes or moral decay or…whatever.

Do you know someone like this? Is it you?
Is it me?
…sometimes?
…all the time?

One of the key verses that I want to focus on in a future worldview DVD series is the verse from 1 Peter 3:15
“…but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect…”

I find this to be a fascinating verse. We honor Christ as holy by being prepared to make a defense to those around us. But the interesting part is that it implies that people are asking us these questions because they see “hope” within us.

When is the last time someone asked you “Why are you so hopeful?”

If you haven’t experienced that lately, maybe it’s because you don’t appear to be a hopeful person.

Now, I know exactly what some of you are thinking: “But there isn’t much to be hopeful for! Why, just look at what is happening to marriage, look at what the government is doing, look at gas prices, look at the number of abortions, look at what is being shown on TV, look at how our religious freedoms are being taken away, look at what is being taught in schools, look at the language and sex and violence in movies, look at terrorism, look at health care costs, look at the entitlement mentality everywhere, look at…

STOP!

Makes me gloomy and doomy just to list it all.

But are we to be surprised at this?

We, as God’s people haven’t been tending the garden. Are we now to register surprise or be aghast that there are weeds growing everywhere?

If you have a tendency to blame Satan for all of this, let me remind you that in a fallen world, this all happens naturally.

If we continue to hide the light under the bushel basket, do we have any right to complain of the darkness in the house?

If we fail to be salt in the culture, can we gripe about it rotting?

I got up early Easter morning, while it was still dark, because I wanted to go way beyond my normal morning run turn-around point. I wanted to get beyond the trees to see the horizon and watch the sunrise.

I wasn’t disappointed.

It was gorgeous.

I was thinking about all of this because I’m fighting my own sinful nature right now and going through a situation that makes me want to gripe and complain and just be perfectly sour. Reminds me of an old tune that sang “Vinegar, vinegar, vinegar man…pepper for a tongue and pickle for a nose, stick a pin in him and vinegar flows.”

Gosh! I don’t want to be like that!

Easter morning. Jesus rose from the dead, just as He had promised. He is alive!

Paul reminds us that it is because of this that we are to be a people of hope. We are not a people of doom and gloom.

Even with a garden full of weeds.

With a sacrifice so great and a resurrection so powerful, how can I fall into such pitiful hopelessness?

I’m revolting.

And I’m revolting against gloom and doom; against denying, by my attitude and actions, the hope that has been so clearly and powerfully laid before me.

Yes, we’ve got a lot of work to do. Let’s roll up our sleeves and with hopeful hearts start to weed together.

Let the revolutions begin!

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Nero Blamed the Christians for Burning Rome

In a California case, a man wanted to trim the hedge between he and his neighbor’s home, but since he didn’t have a hedge trimmer, he talked his neighbor into holding one side of the lawnmower while he held the other and thus they began to trim the branches and thus the mower slipped and cut off his thumb. He sued Sears and won a large settlement because they had failed to tell him that he couldn’t use his lawnmower as a hedge trimmer.

Today, we read in the paper that a mother is blaming school officials for expelling her child for using school equipment to fill his tweet with the “f” word and the President is blaming the rich for our problems.

We live in a culture of blame.

It is one of our most cherished cultural characteristics. This is what is behind the Occupy movement: blame the 1%; it is used to drive socialism and greater governmental control: you are oppressed by corporations, by the rich, blame them; it is one of the most debilitating things among many within the black community today: blame whites; conservatives blame liberals; liberals blame conservatives; Christians blame non-believers; atheists blame religion; it is listed as the main cause for homosexual suicides: blame homophobes; parents blame teachers rather than spanking their kids when they get in trouble; etc. etc. etc.

If I am having a bad day, it certainly can’t be my fault…I need to find someone to blame.

It bubbles up from several sources.

One is the notion that man is basically good. If he is good, then evil must come from something external to him. That is why, in many of the very sad cases like the school murders at Columbine or West Virginia or the tragic shooting in Arizona that left 6 dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seriously injured, we find the media concentrating on questions that focus on “what external causes moved this person to act this way?” Radio talk show hosts are prime suspects, poverty, oppression, etc. But rarely, if ever, are we allowed to address the true issue: the sinful nature of man that needs to be self-controlled, rather than stimulated and aroused or encouraged, as Maslow taught, and that it is subject to transcendent moral values rather than shrugged off as behavior that is accepted under the new moral of tolerance.

Another source is the lie that we will all be happy if we can just get everyone to follow our own personal story, our own personal script. If I’m not rich according to my script, someone is to blame for that. If I didn’t get the promotion that is in my script, someone’s to blame. If the world isn’t the way I want it to be, then find a scapegoat.

It’s easier this way. I don’t have to take responsibility for my own actions or lack of actions. And, I don’t have to accept the humbling notion that God has a bigger story and that I’m really not in control of much at all.

We have to revolt against this within ourselves because it is killing as a culture. It leaves us with a perpetual chip on our shoulder rather than taking responsibility and solving the problems ourselves.

I want to stop complaining, stop blaming, stop pointing the finger at someone else.

I want to take responsibility to act in a way that is right and true and beautiful.

I want to accept consequences for my own actions.

I want to increasingly accept, with joy, the sovereignty of God in my life.

I want to be revolting…against blame.

Let the revolution begin.

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“By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:35

Many years ago, my father moved the family to Guayama, Puerto Rico. He was part of an engineering team that came to the island to build and establish a clean refinery on its southern coast and eventually turn it over to local workers.

This is where I developed my love for Latin people and their awesome culture.

I am thrilled to be back.

For the last several days, I have been speaking at a Catacumba Retreat on the beach of Boqueron. 1200 people have come from all over the island to participate.

If you’ve never been on a retreat with passionate, loving Puerto Rican believers, then you are missing something very, very special. After three days of interacting, worshipping, praying, answering questions, eating together, and wonderful fellowship, I am overwhelmed by the love I feel for these people.

Although they deeply blessed me more than I could ever give in return, I was privileged to teach about something that has been weighing on me for some time and about which I am now ready to speak.

Here it is without any sugar:

The church is upside down. When we honestly look at ourselves, the design of God for His people is barely perceptible. He basically left us three commands: love God, love your neighbor, love one another.

We’re not doing very well.

The last one is intriguing to me, because Jesus said that “all people” would know that we are His disciples because of our “love for one another”. In John 17, He repeated this “unity” theme three times, saying that our “oneness” within the body of Christ would cause the world to believe that the Father had sent the Son.

Where is this witness today? Is it possible that the “world doesn’t believe” and “all people don’t know” because we evidence little unity or love for one another?

I’m not talking about watering down the Truth of God so that we create some compromised, meaningless doctrinal statement that we think will magically make us “one”.

I’m not talking about the artificial things that we have done in the past to somehow make us think that we have achieved “unity”.

No.

I’m talking about the visible, manifested love of believers in Christ for one another that He spoke of in John 13 and John 17.

I’m talking about a unity whose glory is found in the depth of the diversity of its parts, yet deeply loving one another. Unity becomes meaningless if all the pieces are the same. What kind of unity is that?

It isn’t.

Unity isn’t “sameness”.

Divine unity doesn’t come from forging the pieces into “look alikes”.

Unity that is glorious is a unity that springs from the very nature of God. It is bound up in His “Tri-unity” where three distinctively different persons are united into One..a Oneness that Jesus points to in John 17 as the pattern for our own unity.

One of the great privileges I have had over the last several years is to visit people all over the world who have gone through the Truth Project….people in whom God has done a mighty work. They are all very, very different. I have worshipped with brothers and sisters in ways that are strikingly diverse. I have met believers who have come together in small groups that one might consider to be on opposite ends of denominational poles…yet there has developed a love between them that is infectious.

Infectious to me and, if we believe Jesus, infectious to the world around us.

Being here gives one a vision for how it should be…brothers and sisters who deeply love the Lord, love one another, and have a heart and a love for the plight of the people around them, a desire to make a deep and abiding impact upon their culture in all areas of life.

These are brothers and sisters who have some doctrinal positions that are different than mine, yet we discussed them at length with an openness and hunger to seek the truth of God together and to wrestle with them in love.

How refreshing to me.

How refreshing this must be to Christ.

It is time to revolt against disunity.

Let the revolution begin!

[Written two weeks ago.]

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A young girl posted a video of herself on YouTube asking the question: “Am I pretty or ugly?” Most of the responses were cruel and hateful. The Internet has provided an open stage onto which anyone can walk and perform before an audience of millions. For those who espouse the notion that man is basically good, take a peek at what we do when there is no accountability for our actions; when we can wear an online mask and speak with anonymity. Many assured her that she was beyond ugly, calling her “fugly” and worse. Many made lewd comments. Some suggested she would be better off dead. One said: “You need a hug around your neck…with a rope…”

The Internet isn’t making us worse; it merely allows us to reveal, as a fallen race, what we are really like.

Many other young people have posted themselves on YouTube with similar questions and have gotten the same kind of ugly garbage in return.

So, you may think that I, too, am asking a comparable question: “Am I revolting?”
Well, I’m not.
(So, please…don’t comment on my appearance! )

I am not asking if you think that I “look” revolting.
I’m asking myself if I am “revolutionary”.

I’m asking myself if I am just floating in the river of a fallen world or swimming against it.
I’m asking if I am conforming to the pattern of this world or fighting in opposition to that pattern.

Am I “fighting the good fight”? (1 Timothy 6:12)
Am I “contending for the faith”? (Jude 1:3)
Am I being light and salt? (Matthew 5:13-16)

The answers aren’t good.
And the situation around us reflects the fact that most of us wouldn’t get a good grade either.

The body of Christ is in a virtual coma. We are like a valley of dry bones. Yes, we bluster; we make a lot of “religious” noise; we generate a lot of “religious” activity; we send a lot of money to our “religious” mercenaries; but we are having an increasingly diminishing impact on the world around us.

This has to change.

It has to change in my life.
I hope it changes in yours.

We need to be revolting.

We need a revolution.

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I’m taking a month off to pray and fast and mourn;
to study, prepare and grieve;
to seek His Face.

See you mid-February.

Soli Deo Gloria!
Galatians 6:9

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“And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” Genesis 3:15

When God spoke the earth into existence, it was formless and void—a lump of clay, so to speak, ready for the Hands of the Craftsman to begin the creative work of fashioning a garden teeming with flourishing delights: birds and fish, animals and plants, things that flew and swam, wriggled and ran, or simply stuck their roots into the perfect soil and brought forth fruit and vegetables, nuts and berries, nectar and flowers and shade and…well, all kinds of beautiful and life-enhancing stuff. But more than all of this, each of these living things was given the privilege and responsibility to recreate themselves. Birds laid eggs that brought forth baby birds that would grow up to lay their own eggs; animals gave birth to baby animals that would grow up to give birth to their own babies; plants produced seed that would fall onto the soil and grow into mature plants that would, in turn, produce their own seeds.

This was the grand plan of God.

But, something happened…something bad, something evil. Now, the garden produced weeds and thistles and thorns. Rather than delight in life, the Evil delighted in death; rather than beauty, it loved the vile; rather than fruit, it bore poison. It is hard to imagine how instantly a garden filled with light could become so cold and so dark so very, very quickly. And it appeared as if there were no remedy, no fix, no hope to get it back to the way it was before the darkness descended…descended upon everything…everything.

That’s when God told us about the Christmas Seed.

He didn’t say much. In fact, it wasn’t a whole lot more than a hint, a clue, a mere glimmer of hope. But with God, whose power and might is infinite, a whisper of promise is as sure as it gets. If He said He was going to take care of it, then we didn’t need a lot of details.

Was it mysterious? Yes, but it carried the promise that God, through this Seed, was going to destroy the Evil that had turned the light off in the garden. And if that happened, then maybe, just maybe, God also planned on turning the light back on as well.

But for sure we knew that before this Seed came, there was going to be war, and the war was going to rage between the seed line of the Evil one and the seed line of the woman.

And boy, did it ever! Abraham was granted the understanding that the Seed was going to come through him. Later on, David was given the same promise. And the war to destroy that seed line was furious. It came from within and it came from without. There were times when it looked as if the Evil line had won. But it hadn’t. Even at the moment when the heart of the Seed stopped beating, when it appeared to all as if the Promise had died, death itself was insufficient to stand in the way of the plan of God to destroy the Evil one.

But why “the seed of the woman”? Isn’t this backwards? Isn’t it the seed of man that propagates the race? Certainly everywhere in Scripture where it speaks of human “seed” it is used of the man. Why such a strange element to this promise?

Well, hindsight is certainly better than the best glasses or binoculars or microscope. If all humanity was tainted with the “death” of Adam, then the Seed couldn’t come from the seed of man. But if He couldn’t come from the seed of man, how would it be possible for Him to come at all?

Ah! That is why He is the Christmas Seed!

That is why He had to be born of a virgin, born of God.

That is why Matthew and Luke, in their genealogies of Jesus, take care to make sure the reader understands that Jesus didn’t come through “man” but through a “woman”. Matthew begins with Abraham and repeats over and over again the phrase “the father of”…until he gets to Jesus. He does not say “…Joseph, the father of Jesus” which is how one would expect this genealogical treatise to conclude. No. Matthew takes a sharp turn and says “…Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called the Christ.” Luke traces Jesus’ lineage back to Adam, using the phrase “the son of” over and over again. But for Jesus, he states it this way “He (Jesus) was the son, so it was thought, of Joseph.”

The seed of the woman, not the seed of a man.

On Christmas, the mystery was no longer a mystery.

It wasn’t until years later, however, that God would move Paul to write these fascinating words, words that put a final bow on the promise made to Abraham 2000 years earlier and, I believe, connects to the mysterious promise made 2000 years before that in the garden:

“The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. Scripture does not say “and to seeds,” meaning many people, but “and to your seed,” meaning one person, who is Christ…Why, then, was the law given at all? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come.” Galatians 3:15-19

God made a promise to mankind that He would bring forth the Seed to destroy the Evil one and eventually restore all things. He protected that seed line from Eve to Mary. He protected it through the flood, with Noah. He protected it from Pharaoh and Ahab and Jezebel. He protected it from the Babylonians and the Assyrians. He protected it from Haman and Herod and Pontius Pilate. And then He protected it from the enemy’s final stand and snatched it from the clutches of death and the grave.

Oh, the wonder and grandeur of God who has given us a Savior, Christ the Lord!

Merry Christmas to you all.

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“Say to them, As I live, declares the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?” Ezek 33:11

On December 15, 2011, one of the most vocal opponents of Christianity walked through the door that separates mortal life from the immortal.

Christopher Hitchens book, “God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything” was one of many openly hostile atheistic books that have become popular in recent years. “Hitch” as he was called, was one of the champions of the “New Atheism” although he personally tagged himself as an “antitheist” because an atheist, as he saw it, could deny God but wish he were wrong, whereas an antitheist is one who delights in finding no evidence for Him.

Hitch stated that the Bible “was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals.”

He didn’t soften or hide his hostility to religion:
“We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”
“Organised religion is violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism, tribalism, and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.”

Dr. Mark Roberts analyzed Hitchen’s book “God is Not Great” and found that just in the areas where Hitch made truth claims about the New Testament (all derogatory), there were 15 errors and 16 distortions. For example, his claim that the four gospels couldn’t agree on anything of importance is blatantly false by even the most hostile of literary critic’s examination.

But this isn’t surprising in many ways. Hitch had a deep hostility toward religion and hostility can cloud observations and stimulate gross overstatements and false charges. It would be very good for Christians to keep this in mind when writers hostile to a biblical wordview speak or write. The same goes for most of the media.

It should also temper us when we write about our own opponents.

It may surprise people that one of my favorite quotes actually comes from Hitch:
“[O]wners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion that they are gods.” The Portable Atheist

That won’t win me any friends with cat-people, but I think it is actually quite a good observation of the stark difference between cats and dogs!

This is also the man who deeply loved his daughters and said that he would calmly and unquestionably lay down his life for them.

He also spoke of death as “being certain” and of life as “there is nothing more; but I want nothing more.”

When Hitch announced that he had esophageal cancer in 2010, much to his surprise, he was deluged with support and prayer from religious people. That should warm your heart. It did mine.

Why?

Because we see the worth of every human being, even those who openly deny and hate the One we love.

Because we do not take pleasure in the death of the wicked, because neither does our God, even though Hitch hated Him.

Sound familiar?

It should.

Because that is what we once were.

That should drive our perspective. Our Book demands it.

“Remind the people…to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and always to be gentle toward everyone. At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” Titus 3:1-5

For me and several of my friends, this was a sad day.

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“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me…” John 17:22-23

A few years ago, I had the blessing of traveling to Israel. Part of that trip included a visit to Bethlehem where we met with a group of absolutely awesome brothers and sisters in Christ. They know the deep cost of being a disciple.

While there, we visited the Church of the Nativity, where tradition holds that Jesus was born. It is built over a cave…a stable cut into the rock. Both Justin Martyr in the 2nd century and Origen in the 3rd, attested to this site as well as the birthplace of Christ being in a cave. I suppose our modern nativity depictions of a stable are easier to construct than caves.

As best we can tell, the original basilica was built in 333AD by Constantine’s mother, Helena, destroyed in the Samaritan Revolt of 529, and then rebuilt in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I.

To enter, one must stoop and squeeze through “the Door of Humility”. Nobody really knows who made that small doorway or why. Once inside, any thoughts of finding anything close to your imagined “nativity” quickly evaporate. The church is heavily iconic. Winding stairs on either side of the sanctuary lead down to the “Grotto of the Nativity”, the supposed cave. But it doesn’t look anything like a cave. It is primarily an altar covering a marble alcove. The alter has lots of gold gilding, candles, rich tapestry, etc.

Quite honestly, I’m not into the gaudy, iconic structures that characterize many of Christianity’s historic places. I would rather walk through a quite shepherd’s field and look at THE cave…a plain, humble cave where Jesus was born.

However, all that being said, the Church of the Nativity is a very old and historic place.

It is also deteriorating. The roof leaks and the timbers are rotted. It has been 150 years since the last major renovation.

Why?
Lack of money?
Lack of professional restorers?
Security problems?
No.
It is the bickering of Christian sects.

You see, the Church of the Nativity is claimed by Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Armenians and they don’t really get along. They are suspicious of each other and if one tries to make any repairs to the building, the other two see that as an aggressive claim to total ownership…gaining an upper hand, so to speak.

In 1927, an earthquake inflicted heavy damage on the church. That sparked 60 years of bickering before things finally got repaired.

The church was in the news last week, because the renovations are finally going to be made. But not because of the Christians. No. Because of the Palestinian Authority that had to step in to make it happen and save the biggest tourist attraction in Bethlehem…to save the church from the people who claim to follow Jesus who said that the world would know that they were His disciples because they loved each other.

(Is this where the world holds up the sign “Laughter!”)

When we were in Jerusalem, we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I have written about this earlier. The bickering there got so bad that Saladin, in 1192, assigned control of the church key to a Muslim family that has since passed the responsibility to lock and unlock the church down from generation to generation. In 1852, because the hostility between the Christian sects became so contentious, outside authorities divided up the church into little domains for each faction. It was like the teacher sending the quarrelling students to separate corners of the classroom. Go back and read my description of how a Coptic Monk, moving his chair to get some more shade, sparked a territorial fight that sent eleven people to the hospital. Or the time a burned out light bulb and who had the right to replace it provoked a fight that the police had to break up. Or why nobody can remove a ladder leaning against a second floor window.

Are we crazy?

We are certainly a bazillion miles away from the vision of Jesus.

When He was praying to His father, in John 17, Jesus asked, four times, that we “might be one” so that the world would know that the Father had sent Him.

I wonder why the world doesn’t know that the Father sent Jesus?

Could it have something to do with our constant bickering?

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