Praise The Lord, Plus More

My Christian cousins, enamored of looking good in mixed company, praise the Lord in concerts and Megachurches (do I repeat myself?), but might not subscribe fully to Isaiah's injunction --

Isaiah 12:4

4 And in that day shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people, make mention that his name is exalted.

Don't get me wrong. By and large, Lord-praising Christians are fine neighbors as long as they modulate the volume on the praise stations. They can typically be reasoned with in whatever disputes may come up, although not always in a Christ-like way.  No one is perfect obviously, but some make a better effort than others.

Isaiah doesn't just prescribe praise acclamation, but also:

• calling upon his name (prayer, I'm thinking), 
• sharing Christ's doings with others (telling parables and Jesus-doings that you hopefully know?), and 
• mentioning that the Lord is higher than we are (which requires us not to judge or poo-poo God's actions as if we have a superior morality).

Jesus is indeed great and praising him is justified. Let's all take the further step of acknowledging that He is better than we are and that we are becoming his disciples, not just enjoying Christianized rock shows. 

Parents, Consider Schooling Options for the Sake of your Children

There has been yet another school shooting and the media is hard at work to blame guns for this violence. Again, as I have said previously, one solution for these sorts of tragedies is a family decision to keep children away from systemically dangerous "targets" like schools.

Lisa and I made a choice early in our marriage to school our children ourselves as much as we could contrive. Part of our reason to live in the frontiers of New Mexico is the strong homeschooling tradition here and the "hands-off" approach the state government is forced to have about a parent's educational choices for their own children. We were able to take advantage of wonderfully "alternative" schooling opportunities, such as The Learning Center at House Schools, that we were able to find close by. We made conscious choices about the lives of our children and I feel these have paid off enormously.

Please, alongside the mass call for turning schools and communities into gun-free, prison-like "police states", consider the far more personal and responsible choices that each parent can make to better ensure a long and fruitful life for their children. Parents are supposed to put forth their best effort to rear their children into adults that can succeed, even in the dangerous world in which we live. I hope *you* put your children ahead of ideological agendas and don't ignorantly just hand the most crucial part of your child's life (and potentially the end of their lives) over to questionable institutions like public schools. For your child's sake, explore the different educational alternatives available to your family!

Say you are a sinner and get destroyed

I have never been a fan of people of any tradition crowing about the fact that they are sinners. It is like Jesus saving a person shows how wonderful he is by his redemption of totally awful people. The worse a person is, the better Christ looks.

My and your life is not about making Christ look good. It is about our opportunity to become better people and Jesus facilitating that by letting us repent (change) and straighten up before we face our final judgement. 

Isaiah 13:9

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it.

I like Isaiah  because he doesn't sugar-coat anything. Christ will not be the huggy teddy-bear in "the day of the Lord", using words like "wrath" and "fierce anger" to describe how he will operate. I note the "destroy the sinners" summary. I don't want to be in that situation and I figure most others don't either. 

Here is what I say to those that shout "I am a sinner" - STOP SINNING.