SoulFood (17) Rights, Responsibilities and the Animals

        The case was advanced to the courts because a significant number of Americans felt that Tom and his siblings had been severely mistreated over the years. In fact some more radical voices claimed that ever since Tom’s ancestors left their ancient dwellings they have been discriminated against relentlessly. Their freedoms have been curtailed. Their once “noble” status has been downgraded to the lowest form of entertainers in many western countries.

         Lawyer Steven Wise will lay out a cause that is the culmination of 30 years of seeking rights for Tommy and his family. Wise has been hired to show that Tommy is himself the ideal candidate to demonstrate to the judges that long-term abuse is the common factor in how they have been treated.

         Do you remember when U.S. corporations were made “legal persons” for purposes of taxation, political campaign contributions and other oddities?  That’s the basis for Ms. Natalie Prosin to sponsor this unusual case in her capacity as executive director of the Nonhuman Rights Project. You see Tommy is a chimpanzee. She would like to use the testimony of primates expert, Jane Goodall, to secure legal rights for animals in general, but more specifically for Chimpanzees.  Presumably, if the Albany, New York court agrees, that could be extended to elephants and dolphins too.

        Tommy, who has been kept in a cage by his owner, needs rights for intelligent animals that are otherwise reserved for humans. The chimp’s owner, Patrick Lavery, says Tommy lives in an expensive enclosure while waiting his place at an animal sanctuary. Ms. Prosin is unimpressed. The U.S. already has some of the most comprehensive animal protection laws in the world, but lawyer Wise will be tasked to argue that chimps need to be granted rights over their own bodies.

        We, who are ardent animal lovers, agree that animals should be well treated. We are the people who keep zoos and circuses on their toes, because we'd be outraged by filthy cages or malnourished animals. Every Christian should see themselves as a minor custodian of the earth and its resources. I argue though, that writing into law for an animal that can’t speak, some personal legal status is a step too far.

        The plethora of American legislation is a terrible indication of the death of common sense in our society.  If I understand correctly, this case could award intelligent animals (and who gets to measure that,) the right to withstand “imprisonment against their will.” To be blunt: no individual cages. Yes, but what if it was a $150 000 cage? No cages! Well, what if Tommy likes his cage and goes in there willingly? Oh, perhaps then an expert might be able to say the law won’t apply to Tommy.

       I think a victory in this case will put an end to biomedical research on monkeys. Perhaps you think that is a good thing. Can you just imagine though the court cases that will arise?  All of this has come about because well-meaning people have rejected the notion of us humans, being the custodians of the earth. There’s been a 40 year campaign to reduce the value on human life to coequal with all other animals. It’s just another affront to the Creator’s plan. Having said that I do admit that sinful humanity has fallen far short of the stewardship commission we were given.

Soulfood (16) Marriage and Fighting

      The best and the worst marriages remind me of prize fighting in the sport of boxing. The worst marriages, because there’s blood and bruises everywhere. They are bent on slugging it out to the bitter end or until one of them quits. We’re sad to see one of them throw in the towel. What had great prospects ends in defeat by resignation.  Nor should one of the partners completely demolish the other until he or she is just an empty shell of what they once were.

       How then is the best of marriages comparable to the sport of the pugilists? The likeness is in the rule keeping. No horseshoes inside the gloves. No low blows. No biting or head butting. No kicking. Obeying the commands of the referee. Only box with the 10 or 12 ounce padded gloves. No punching when the opponent is down. No sucker punches to the back of the head. No hitting below the belt. When the referee calls for a break the boxers must each take a step back before continuing the match.

       You may already have seen the parallels. Fights happen in every marriage. Yes, even the strongest ones have disagreements. You don’t cease to have opinions after wedlock!  For a marriage to be strong, the partners must make themselves heard and understood on the important developments that life brings towards them. Sounds good – until the back and forth disagreeing gets heated.

       After 40 years of pre, and during, marriage counselling I offer you some of the rules I have helped couples set down on paper. Why paper? When a rule gets broken it helps to be able to point to a previous agreement.

       No horseshoes inside the gloves. When fighting let’s not escalate the words to levels beyond what the present clash requires. “You always” or “you never” are seldom accurate. Throw out those old horseshoes. They don’t belong in your battles. 

         No low blows, no biting or head butting. The marital equivalent is name-calling. The spouse who resorts to that is both unworthy and disrespectful. That spouse has lost sight of the objective of the conflict. We fight about an issue, not against each other. We fight to find resolution rather than to belittle each other.

        No punching when the opponent is down. Read each other’s emotions. A low day may look to you like an opportunity for an easy victory. It seldom turns out that way. Pick the right time for a serious marriage tussle. Going out for a meal and fighting may not sound best but low talk in a public place could work.

       When the referee calls for a break the boxers must each take a step back before continuing the match.  You are not likely to have a third party to objectively monitor all your duels. But there is great value in whoever needs it to call a “time out” in the argument. Go cool down.  Walk around outside. Pray. Consider. Then make sure you come back and resume the rumble.

       No sucker punches to the back of the head. No surprises in your heated discussions. Be completely fair and completely open. 

       Boxing happens inside a defined ring. Don’t fight in the bedroom – ever! In fact having a particular room or place turns out to be best. You have to go there. You have to stay there until it’s over. When it is, some couples have a decision book where they write down what was agreed and both sign it.  Fight. By all means fight, but do it fairly and within your rules. Not mine, yours! Discuss this. Decide and then keep to those rules.

SoulFood (15) The Lion King and the Phantom

      For years Agatha Christie’s play, The Mouse Trap, was considered the all-time successful money spinner in theater.  It holds the record for the longest initial run of any play in history, with its 25,000th performance taking place on 18 November 2012. People had to book well in advance to buy tickets and its lead was secure until a somewhat Hunchback-of-Notre-Dame musical opened in London's West End in 1986, and on Broadway in 1988.     Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical was from the French novel Le Fantôme de l'Opéra by Gaston Le Roux.  The Phantom of the Opera’s plot is about Christine Daaé, a beautiful soprano, who becomes the obsession of a mysterious, disfigured musical genius.

      Phantom became the longest running show in Broadway history by far. Its 10,000th Broadway performance was on 11 February 2012. Move aside Mousetrap! Theater goers have spent 5.6 billion dollars world-wide to come see it. Over 130 million people in 145 cities in 27 countries have lined up for a performance. On Broadway alone it has grossed $845 million.

      So a somewhat dark plot, with enticingly excellent music by a modern Mozart, cornered the world’s love of entertainment. You might expect a preacher like me to see the analogy: Satan’s work is so very similar. There is always huge sensory titillation, but always desiring to lead to ultimate captivation. 

       Le Roux’s play does however build to the desired “happy ending.”  Christine returns the Phantom's ring to him, and he tells her he loves her. (Oh, tell the Evil One you have a new and deeper love now in your life!) Christine cries, forces herself to turn away, and exits with Raoul.  (No matter how dear the association with evil – give your heart to Christ.) The Phantom, weeping, huddles on his throne and covers himself with his cape. The mob storms the lair and Meg pulls away the cape—but the Phantom has vanished; only his mask remains (Wow, what a powerful ending!)

        In the New York theater world the Phantom rules no more!  A musical show that my wife and I saw in London, is now in its 16th year on Broadway.  It’s been playing in London since 1999. We both were deeply moved by the opening song by Rafiki, the mandrill. She transported us back to the beloved sound of Zulu music. Even now I get touched by the strident, yet haunting sound of that song. Broadway's all-time highest-earner, it became the first show to pass $1 billion (£605m) early in 2014. I speak, of course, about The Lion King.

       This amazing show was based on the 1994 Disney animated film of the same name.  The music was written by Elton John and the lyrics by Tim Rice.  Hans Zimmer wrote the music score. The Lion King debuted July 8, 1997, in Minneapolis, Minnesota at the Orpheum Theatre. It was a huge success and premiered on Broadway on October 15, 1997at the New Amsterdam Theater.

       I’m tempted to discuss the plot, but won’t. There might just be a reader left who hasn’t had the pleasure of seeing this awesome story.  Here’s all I will reveal.  Scar is a mean hyena who hates Simba the Lion.  The story drives down to a huge battle at the end. Simba's friends fight the hyenas while Simba battles Scar to the top of Pride Rock. Only one victor can remain. With the battle won, Simba's friends come forward and acknowledge Simba as the rightful king. Simba ascends Pride Rock and roars out across the kingdom.

       Here’s a take away from an old preacher like me: The Lion of the Tribe of Judah ascended a skull-shaped Pride Rock and there, fought all the dark forces of evil for the rights to justly forgive sinners who broke the Creator of the Universe’s moral laws. He looked like he was losing, but cried at last: “it is finished.” Days later an empty tomb sent a roar across both the globe and the centuries. Evil cannot even play the card of human death as its final victory. Jesus is Lord even over that!

       Stepping back to theater one more time: The Lion King has routed the Phantom.  So should it be for the King of Kings has defeated the Phantom Prince of this world.  Maybe in your life the Phantom had a long reign. May it be SO over today!

SoulFood (14) China

        "The best time to buy umbrellas is when it's not raining." Those were the words of a young businessman when the dot.com bubble burst was bringing disaster on many like himself. He is like the best shoe salesman that an American company sent to a primitive tribe. The salesman before him failed to sell anything. His message to the company read: "hopeless. These people don't wear shoes." After weeks of successful shoe selling the second salesman cabled: "wonderful. These people don't wear shoes!"
        You have heard of Amazon.com, Priceline, E.bay and cheap tickets.com. I bet not many have heard of Alibaba Group. Just because you haven't dealt with them should NOT make you skeptical of their reach and power.
          His name is Jack Ma or Ma Yun. He is a 50 year Chinese entrepreneur who has been on the cover of Forbes. Ma was born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China to a couple of cultural dancers. Poor?  Yes, very. Ma thought learning English would help him. A 45 minute daily bike ride took him to a hotel to converse with foreigners. He guided them around the city for free to practice English.  Plenty of brains? Not particularly. He failed the entrance exam twice for Hangzhou Teacher's Institute.
         Don't laugh. Before anyone in China understood the internet he persuaded companies to let him build their web sites. Listen to Jack tell of his first attempt to convince buyers:  "the day we got connected to the Web, I invited friends and TV people over to my house. We waited three and a half hours and got half a page. We drank, watched TV and played cards, waiting. I was so proud. I proved that the Internet existed."
       For a year he endured much frustration running an information technology company: the government's China International Electronic Commerce Center. In 1999 Jack started Alibaba.  It's a business-to-business site. We are talking 79 million members from more than 240 countries. How's that for a Great Leap Forward? This is a company that forced EBay to close down in China.
        So just how well are they doing? In November 2012, Alibaba's online transaction volume exceeded $13 billion. 320 million shares of Alibaba are about to flood the market. Some investors are selling shares of other stocks to buy Alibaba shares. Speaking of the "Alibaba Effect" a commentator wrote: "Alibaba is selling 320.1 million shares, which means it could raise as much as $21.8 billion, which would top Visa’s record-breaking IPO of $17.9 billion in March 2008."
        Stop thinking of China as a backward, communism dominated, third world country. In recent years I have understood the power of a prophecy that may well link China to the end times scenario. Revelation 16 verse 12 "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great Euphrates River, and it dried up so that the kings from the east could march their armies toward the west without hindrance. " Is that first century language for road preparations going on in China today? The great western highway has already reached Afghanistan. Roads in the "300 series" stretch from west to east (e.g., from Lhasa in Tibet through to Dandong in Liaoning province)
          The bible says a 200 million strong army will march into the Middle East. This unbelievable army, comprised of an unprecedented number of men, will possess the firepower capable of killing one-third of all the inhabitants of the Earth!  How many soldiers does China alone have under arms?  One and a half million.  They have 618 million ready for active duty to draw upon. Never before has a military of this size been possible.
         China has an awesome triad: numbers, brains and wealth. A healthy respect for her should infuse our military planners. Jack Mas are arising yearly. Even if they invented nothing, their ability to translate modern technology into mass use is staggering. To my mind China is indeed one of the "Kings of the East" in Bible prophecy. The remaining riddle is as to why it would be in the national interest to invade the Middle east with that size army. Such is reading prophecy. It makes full sense only when the time has come.

SoulFood (13) A Moral People

      500 years ago Hugo Grotius wrote advice for rulers: “He knows not how to rule a kingdom that cannot manage a Province.” So obvious, and yet neglect of track record can see people in power who lack personal discipline. The “Peter Principle” applies to government positions too. Are you in charge of a team or a family? Grotius says to you: “You cannot regulate a family if you don’t know how to govern yourself, you cannot govern yourself if your reason isn’t stronger than your appetites; nor can reason rule unless it is itself ruled by God.” The person who discovers submission to upright authority finds true freedom. Yet that’s only true within a rules-respecting society.

      Grotius mentioned rule by God. This implies far more than occasionally or even often attending a religious gathering.  Being ruled by God means knowing God and comprehending God’s wishes in life circumstances. It’s both knowing and doing what pleases the world’s Creator. Unselfishness is just another way of doing His will. What is the use of being religious without being moral as well?

      In the USA our final authority appears to be a very old, yet still ‘living’ document. One of the first realities new immigrants observe in America is that the final judgement on any action is whether or not it is in line with the Constitution.  This great document is one of earth’s finest articles of government. However it too requires a people who are ruled by God. President John Adams said: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other.”

      If we are to avoid the struggle of Russian Tzar Peter the Great, who lamented that the hardest of all his conquests was self rule, we need to perceive the importance of religion plus morality in daily life. A village can only influence a child – it takes obedience to parents (parents who are themselves obedient to God) to raise that child. Too many homes teeter forwards on constantly reworked compromises between tired parents and willful kids, instead of being places of moral order. The taming of the will happens best in the first 5 years of life. Parents, that's your responsibility and you cannot do it harshly: The child’s will must learn how to submit to authority without the child’s spirit being trampled on. Compliment, praise, encourage, but never yield when expecting obedience.

      The Jewish prophet Samuel was instructed by his mentor to reply thus to God’s call: “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” Poet James Burns captured it in the verse: O give me Samuel’s heart, a lowly heart that waits where in Your house You are, or watches at Your gates by day and night, a heart that still moves at the breathing of Your will.

      In the 1796 farewell address George Washington advised the nation: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.”  Political prosperity doesn’t begin and end in Washington. The reason many in Hunterdon don’t have to lock their doors at night is because their neighbors are moral enough to refrain from stealing. The true greatness of a country is measured by citizens who act uprightly even when assured that they could escape punishment for doing wrong. Your personal righteousness exalts this nation.

      The last word goes to Noah Webster – yes founder of the Webster Dictionary – who opined: “The moral principles and precepts contained in the scriptures ought to form the basis of all our civil constitutions and laws. All the miseries and evils which men suffer: vice, crime, greed, injustice, oppression, slavery and war; proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible”  

SoulFood (12) How the sea got here

      In a first for space history; a spacecraft called Rosetta, was recently maneuvered alongside a speeding comet to begin mapping its surface in detail. The spacecraft fired its thrusters for six and a half minutes to finally catch up with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. "We're at the comet!" said Sylvain Lodiot of the European Space Agency (Esa) operations center in Germany.
       "After 10 years, five months and four days travelling towards our destination, looping around the Sun five times and clocking up 6.4 billion km, we are delighted to announce finally 'we are here'," said Jean-Jacques Dordain, director general of Esa.
       Launched on board an Ariane rocket in March 2004, Rosetta has taken a long route around our Solar System to catch up with comet 67P. In a series of fly-pasts, the probe used the gravity of the Earth and Mars to increase its speed during the 6 billion km chase. Many hope this visit to the comet will verify the current theory about comets and our sea. That is just one of its many tasks.

       Wait, there’s a connection between comets and the blue waves of earth? Some say there is.
       How much water is in the ocean? - National Ocean Service - About 96 percent of Earth's water is in the ocean. That's enough water to fill about 343,670,000,000,000,000,000 gallon-sized milk cartons... 343 billion BILLION gallons.
       How did that much water get here? The Bible says God made the sea. Some scientists accept that as one possible answer to a great mystery.  Others however are banking on another explanation. Perhaps the most popular theory says that, shortly after the Earth formed and cooled, millions of asteroids and comets, saturated in water, slammed into the planet, releasing their payloads to form Earth's oceans. This idea was first put forward at the University of Hawaii.
      There are some mathematical problems with this explanation. For example: if we took Haley's Comet as one of average size and bearing the amount of water that it does, we would need 150 million of such sized comets to bring us our sea. Now we don't just mean fly past us like most comets do. We are talking about 150 million collisions.
      How many years would that take at the present rate of comets colliding with earth?  First we ask when was the last one? 13 thousand years ago has been suggested as the reason for the sudden destruction of the dinosaurs. Let's say then that we are due for our next one soon. 150 million times 13 thousand years means the first impact should have been 195 000,000,000 years ago. That is 195 billion years ago.  Oh oh. That is 13 times older than science estimates the age of our earth.  In other words if the sea came riding here on comets the ocean would be very much smaller than it is. That is where a few desperate scientists resort to faith! They just believe – because it fits their theory – that the rate of collisions and the amounts of water were much higher in the early years.
      Now if we have to add faith into the discussion, we may as well include a category labeled: “Intelligent Design.”  So could God have made the sea? That's no worse an explanation than the best that believers in chance plus time have to offer. The origin of the sea remains a mystery and it calls for faith one way or another.

       “And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.”

       Too simple an explanation? It would be simple for an all-powerful, all-knowing Being, Who can best be thought of, in scientific terms, as the “first cause.”  

SoulFood (11) Anatomy of a Temptation

      My Rotary friend, Mark, brought something to my attention that solved a long-standing mental quandary. Mark told me that archeologists have now uncovered King David’s palace in Jerusalem. A visit there wasn’t on the itinerary for the tour I led in October 2013. While everyone else slept at the hotel, before sun up, I jogged to what’s known as the City of David. It’s outside the walls around Jerusalem that Muslim ruler Saladin ordered built. It sits on a narrow ridge running south from the Temple Mount in the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.

       A sleepy guard, near the end of his shift, let me in. That morning I finally came to see what really happened the night that King David slept with the beautiful wife of one of his top generals and set in motion a cruel line of events that tore his own household apart. You can read the story in 2 Samuel 11. The chapter ends with: “the thing David had done displeased the Lord.”

      I was in my early teens when I first heard the story. A king who wasn’t where he should have been gets some air by a walk up on the roof of his palace. He sees a beautiful woman bathing. The Bible says he asked who she was. The reply was that she was the wife of one of his closest military men, Bathsheba of Uriah the Hittite. Huh? How could he NOT know? He’d seen her many times. There would have been court functions where Uriah and Bathsheba would have been present.

      Back and forth the debate went in my head for 40 years. He was up on the balcony. He glances down to one of the houses and on that roof top is this lovely nude lady. Did she do it on purpose, knowing that he wasn’t away with the army like he should have been? Did he just pretend that he didn’t know her?  Who could blame a red-blooded man with great power under those circumstances? The curves of her body and the lateness of the hour; I mean…

      Many a sermon reduced it all to just two people in the wrong place at the wrong time lost their moral compass and did a reckless thing, a bit like two tired business colleagues at the end of a long trip away find themselves in the hotel bar and…

       The morning walk at the palace dispelled all that. Uriah’s house would have been down in the valley. I mentioned the king’s palace was up on a ridge. Bathsheba would have been but a tiny figure down there on the roof top. I think David believed it was her and only asked to be doubly sure. This was no unexpected enticement of the flesh. It dawned on me that David had been giving Bathsheba the furtive glance for quite some time by then.

       All these years of pastoring has taught me much about how temptation breeds sinful deeds. Almost always it starts inside the imagination. Men look at women, maybe one gal in particular, with a lustful glace. The glance breeds a day dream after a few hours. The daydream very subtly becomes an ambition over a week or two. Next comes the desire to be in her company more than the normal course of events allow. Lingering at the water cooler. A “chance” meeting in town. It’s all about wanting her to notice him on her radar. Smiles. Compliments. Little favors. Excuses for a phone call. This is all part of the game.

        But this kind of temptation is two way. She starts to like it that this man, married or not, powerful or not, rich or not, though the former of each of these sure helps, is reaching out to her. She repays him with a happy glance. She lets her hand linger on his arm just a bit longer than needed in an innocent conversation. She omits to mention that a flirtatious remark of his, is inappropriate, should she already be married. At last she agrees to “have coffee.” The train has now left the station!  One or both may still be in denial, but whenever either party has someone else with whom this new “friendship” would be awkward to disclose all the details – the ride towards sin is under way.

         They laugh. They play. Fingers touch then entwine. A wink. A special shared joke or song. It’s all so happy until the hammer falls and the sin happens. The Bible says sin brings forth death. It never goes any other way. The next weeks are a heart struggle against truth. In the end lives are ruined. Regrets pile up. Tears flow. The next weeks are a heart struggle against truth. In the end lives are ruined. Regrets pile up. Tears flow. Confession and repentance are now the only hope. There will be consequences but at least the guilt can be faced and erased.

          King David – run from the balcony! Get back to where you should be. Temptation is the glistening skin of the brightly colored serpent gliding towards the hand of the enthralled child. Its “run” or “ruin.” There are NO other choices!

SoulFood (10) Too old to be trustworthy

      As the bus stopped at Israel’s Parliament building I was eager to cross the street to a nearby museum. I came to see a document that had intrigued me for many years. I hardly noticed the throngs of tourists headed to The Knesset, because I was there to see the Dead Sea Scrolls. This museum’s roof looks like the circular clay pots in which the scrolls were found. The roof, in a fountain pool, is painted white. Nearby stands a stark dark-colored wall. A sign explained the symbolism. The Essenes, a small ultra conservative Jewish sect at the time of Jesus, considered themselves “sons of the Light.”  They saw the world as a great battle between the light of God’s holiness and the darkness of sin and human wickedness.

      I had visited the remains of an Essene settlement. It was in Southern Israel at Qumran. The day was hot and the desert rocks shimmered. They had a very austere life. As I wandered among the ruins I pondered the gift these long gone devotees had given to the 20^th Century. My mind went to AD 70. The news then was bad – very bad. Roman General Titus, who later became emperor, was devastating the land in reprisals for the Jewish Rebellion that broke out a few years before. Everything Jewish was slaughtered or burned.

      The Essenes hid their library of hand-copied scriptures in clay pots. The pots were placed in caves in the hills. The hope was that after the trouble ended they’d all return and the settlement would be repopulated. Rome’s swords flashed, the buildings were destroyed, the old were butchered, the leaders were crucified and the young were dragged away in chains. No one returned. The pots were layered in dust for 1900 years.

      I wasn’t raised in a Christian home. My early days as a believer were filled with questions. One of my struggles was to believe that the Bible was authentic. Even if the original documents were written by God’s own hand - the Bible claims that inspired human penmanship was the mechanism- I couldn’t believe that copy after copy could be made during hundreds of years without errors creeping in.

      My pastor mentioned that 2 decades before, a goat herder had flung some pebbles into a desert cave in Israel, heard some pottery breaking and upon investigating made a discovery that shocked the world. The manuscripts were nearly lost by bits being sold cheaply to tourists, but another long story illustrates the zeal by which they were regathered.

      Even in training for the Christian Ministry I audited lectures that presupposed that the book we now hold as The Bible, can, at best contain only fragments of the original documents. A Doctor of Divinity went to great lengths to “prove” to us that its text was untrustworthy. One of his lectures contained the case of the 3 Isaiahs. The book in our Bible by that name was supposed by some scholars to have been three small books and these were lumped together.

      All of this is background to why I was so keen to see a particular scroll on display at the museum. One of the pots contained the entire book of Isaiah. The staff regards the find as sacred and when a Jewish woman to my right tried to sneak a photograph she was escorted out by a very stern security guard. I didn’t need a camera for I was misty-eyed as I recorded every inch of that glass-covered scroll in my mind.

      I was looking at a miracle. Mind you perhaps the miracle was in the modern Bible back in my hotel room. Not a word was different. The Bible verse came to mind: “The grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of our God shall stand forever” Isaiah 40:8

        

SoulFood (9) The Present Persecution of Christians

      How serious is a video made by the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram? The man himself is no joke. U.S. government called him a global terrorist. They put a price of $7-million on his head. In the last six months Boko Haram has killed 2 053 people. So who are these thugs? Their name implies: “People who are committed to the prophet’s (Mohammed’s) teachings.” But even more bluntly it can be translated: “western education is fake.”

      So when this leader, Abu Shekau says, on video, to Christians: “we don’t care about that religion of yours,” he means a lot more than apathy. Nigeria is Africa’s most populous state. The northern half is Muslim-influenced and the north of the North is fanatically anti-Christian. When they hear him chant, at the end of the recording: “Christians, you are in trouble, Christians you are in trouble,” Nigerians take Shekau seriously.

      Go with me now to Mosul. The cowardly Iraqi army threw down their weapons and fled. In roared what we now call “Islamic State.” In just one weekend all Christians got this ultimatum: 1) Stay and convert to Islam; 2) Pay Islamic tax (which is too much for most families to pay); 3) Leave Mosul taking nothing but their clothes. Christians who stayed would be executed. And they were!

         Consider these mournful words: "Too many of us thought that forced conversions and expulsions of entire religious communities were part of a distant, medieval past. There was little that we could do to stop this horrible episode.” Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, head of Interfaith Affairs at the Wiesenthal Center.

        Yes Rabbi, you and I could do little, but while our President fiddled with executive orders over birth control pills, the US military sat on its hands as Syria burned. Bombing a few trucks threatening a mountain isn’t going to cut it, any more than Bill Clinton’s cruise missiles did in preventing 9/11. If you are going to strike – hit training camps and supply routes. Hit very hard. Do it yesterday already!

        But I must also add that the USA isn’t the world’s policeman. In 50 countries where persecution happens, at least one event every 3 months, 27 of them are lands where its weekly or even daily in the last 14 days. More Christians have died for their faith in the 21^st Century than in all the others put together. Can the US take on 50 countries? The Jewish holocaust is becoming small pickings by comparison.

       North Korea, armed with its police state forces and neighborhood spies, kills its Christians quietly and efficiently. It rivals the Muslim threat in numbers jailed and tortured.

       So the Western mind cries out for a solution. There isn’t one! Not in this present evil world. Jesus knew that from the beginning. He startled his hearers saying: “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”  Jesus predicted: “A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.” At least the situation is not yet at: “Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me.” He was right about the other. It’s only a matter of time!

     Love generously. Live boldly. Witness clearly. Die bravely. There will be enough grace for each of those.

SoulFood (8) On being good inside.

      In French history class I met two ideas: “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains” as well as the concept of the “Noble Savage.” The latter came from John Dryden's play: The Conquest of Granada (1672) As the idea gained traction in Europe, the earl of Shaftesbury wrote: Inquiry Concerning Virtue (1699), suggesting that our moral sense is inborn and based on feelings, rather than taught by religion. It was a short walk to believing any tribe not yet debased by civilization as being innately noble.

      Thus the first idea derived power by suggesting that the real problem of the ordinary person was not internal.  Rather the poor or the victimized were chained by wrong society systems. Remove the “chains” and all people will revert to their internal state of goodness.  Thus the liberal concept of “right” government was born. The left-leaning thinker presupposes that the ordinary citizen’s heart is mostly pure and unselfish. No need to spend time reforming the individual. It’s the country’s laws that are wrong.

      These folks shudder at the Bible’s view of inbred sin. The liberal mind can’t believe that toddlers are innately spiteful, selfish and cruel. To them a book like William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies” has the wrong world view. So let’s experiment. Fill a room with 5 three year olds and 12 toys. Place an adult in charge who believes ardently that, left to themselves, the kids will spend 3 hours in happy, contented play. When the first fight over a toy happens charge the adult to just smile and observe. The hope is that very soon the children’s inborn, peaceful, unselfishness will resolve the conflict. Yeah right!

      Bible readers are not surprised at the conflict. The text says that foolishness is in the child’s heart and that correction is required. Our Book says a child must be trained in righteous ways. In the opening pages of the Bible tell that brother on brother murder was one of the first events of civilization’s history.

      How then does one explain that most of us feel ourselves to be basically good on the inside, with just a few nasty “external” traits?  The Bible speaks to that as well.  It calls the epicenter of our conscious being “desperately wicked,” but also “deceitful above all things.”  Here’s the bitter pill: thinking yourself to be essentially noble and good may be the biggest lie you ever swallowed. Nevertheless we are also still capable of unselfish actions at times.

      An old song asks if there is no thorough cure from the “thralldom of indwelling sin.”  Thankfully there is a remedy. It starts with the rueful agreeing that the Bible, rather than your feelings, is the accurate mirror of the soul. That includes the willingness to take the concept of sin seriously. Sin is conscious rebellion against the known will of God. You discover His will by a diligent study of the scriptures.  

      After that you soon realize that the next steps to internal goodness are the confession of your sins and the request for God’s forgiveness. It’s as practical as just owning your guilt and praying a simple prayer for pardon. No fancy words. No poetic utterance. No mantras. Just speak it as simply as you can.

      Not much further to go. The next phase is also a prayer. Having believed that God, Who promised to forgive, has done so, you may ask Him to come into your life. Think of it as opening your front door and handing Him the house keys. Now give Him permission to clean any rooms you were not aware needed doing.

SoulFood (7) Managing Time

      The TV series Seinfelt was billed as “a show about nothing.” Until this morning I feared that this week’s blog would be one about nothing. I was void of ideas. Ah, but then Seinfelt wasn’t really about nothing – it portrayed situations that related to most people’s ordinary lives. So it was that at 05:30 my morning bike partner and I spoke of this blog. He suggested I write about something that challenges all of us: the wise management of “the daily 24.”  

       A common problem in the west is the average family coming to the end of the month with too many bills and too little money. As prevalent is coming to the end of the day with too many outstanding jobs and too few hours. Two elementary ideas saved me from burn-out in the early years: not every urgent job is really important and the whole of every job needn’t be done in any given day.

       In recent years I have been expanding the thought of life within the 21 day envelope. Depending on your makeup, your attitudes to what’s happening right now are influenced by either the past 14 days plus the 7 up ahead or the other way around. If the last fortnight has been full of calamities and disappointments it could affect your confidence level going into the next week.

      The stewardship of time can help your success rate. A Bible verse changed my ability to manage dates: “Teach us O Lord to number our days that we might apply our hearts to wisdom.” The high goal of your life ought to be gaining wisdom. What that entails is fodder for some other discussion. Let’s consider the “numbering of days.”

      Think with me about 21 days. Of all twenty one the most important 24 hours is… this day. Of the 21 you can do the least to change the last 14 – duh! So how about deciding to stop thinking about at least 7 of them? Just work with what has been happening in the last week. Even if it’s been rough – just think about the most recent troubles. So far so good.

       Which way is time going? Certainly not from the past into the future. Time is like a river flowing towards you from the years up ahead. Now let’s take the seven days we stole from last week and place it up ahead. The next 2 weeks can be the most influential factors on how you will spend today. What has all this to do with “numbering our days?”

       On your phone, I-pad, computer or even in book form; you need a calendar. Get one that allows you enough space to write something every half hour. A fortnight has 672 slots. Each of those 30 minute periods can be managed. Subtract the amount of sleep you know you need to function well and you should still have about 550 slots. Now ask an objective friend to help you list the most important things you want to get done from now till the end of the year. Succeeding in what’s important has a price to be paid.

      You might have to give up TV. Perhaps your showers will be much shorter. Now think of the important things as jobs – jobs that can be broken down into little goals that will add up to the final accomplishment. Can you discipline yourself to never work on any of those goals for more than 60 minutes per day?  A half hour of ardent, inspired attention is worth far more than 2 hours of fumbling.

      Remember the “river?”  What if interruptions occasionally are so urgent that they rob you of a slot or two. Take that calendar and, at the end of the day, cast the slot up ahead two or three days. Our best use of time is just one, worry-free, industriously lived, day that ends with a thankful spirit and a tired head! Each day has enough troubles of its own. Dividing your tasks means you work smarter rather than harder.

SoulFood (6) The End Justifies The Means

       My problem with presidential power is when it is used unconstitutionally. The country’s constitution wasn’t written to tell citizens what to do; so as much as it was to protect us from the whims of those in power. Sometimes I’m in favor of the changes proposed, but I remain concerned when the methods chosen in executive orders almost circumvent the constitution.

       Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli wrote a book called The Prince. I find distasteful that he argued for public and private morality to be two different things in order to rule well. He was on thin ice when asserting a ruler might act immorally at the “right” times to gain political aims, even noble goals. Taking that to its zenith, you arrive at Joseph Stalin’s maxim: “if you want to eat omelets you must break a few eggs.”  While many miles from the horrors of Communist dictatorship, we are experiencing Machiavellianism in our politics.

        The New Jersey Legislature wants to bring before voters an amendment to the state constitution. I like the change. The trouble is the sponsors waited too long to get it before the assembly. The rule says: "At least 20 days prior to the first vote in the house in which such amendments are first introduced, the same shall be printed and placed on the desks of the members of each house." That gives us all time to comment on it or call our representatives.

       At 5pm on a Friday night the Assembly Speaker, Vincent Prieto, called the Assembly back into session for a quorum call. Only one member of the Assembly arrived. I presume the others had gone home for the weekend by 5pm. Now here’s where Prieto thought the end justified the means: he opened the vote tally machine and told staff members to go to the desks of the members of the General Assembly while those members were absent and vote "Present." 70 such votes were recorded. No Vincent, no!

          Joshua Kaplan said of Machiavelli: “He emancipated politics from theology and moral philosophy.” Speaker Prieto, is there something immoral about pretending that absent elected officials are present, and then voting on their behalf?  President Obama plans to sign executive orders soon prohibiting discrimination against gay and transgender workers in the U.S. government and its contracting agencies. President Lyndon Johnson prohibited federal contractors from discriminating based on race, religion, gender or nationality in hiring. Obama plans to add sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protections. He thus seeks to emancipate politics from theology. 

          At present we have the tax scandal in which certain liberals are accused of using the I.R.S. to make life very difficult for conservative organisations that have for years been a thorn in the side of left-leaning politicians. This is a worrisome example of misuse of methods.

          If Mr. Obama is not an aberration, but part of a trend, I see more struggles ahead, because the American Constitution was written with plenty of theology and moral philosophy! It was written with a Judeo / Christian worldview. 13 years ago, on a  Chicago public radio program, Obama said the document had “deep flaws,” adding that the country’s Founding Fathers had “an enormous blind spot” when they wrote it. Adding fuel to the fire he opined that the Civil Rights movement had failed to bring about an economic redistribution of wealth in America.

          Forced respect for homosexuality, redistribution of wealth, these are two of the rallying cries of international socialism. Stacking the courts with liberals has helped the left overcome the constitutional protections given to the voters and the states.  The end is clearly in view and whatever means will serve that destination is deemed acceptable. It may be modern and it may be pragmatic, but it’s not the way Judeo / Christian countries care built.

         More importantly than all this: we each need to search our own hearts as to when we will be tempted to use unethical methods. One - you will never forget it when you do. Two - its a slippery slope when you succeed.  Guard your heart!

SoulFood (5) Kidnapped to prevent Kalalah

       “You may be a Redneck if….” is the way some jokes start. They have made one American comedian very famous. People are tickled by his gentle ribbing of what is an obvious stereotype.  Mr. Foxworthy has been falsely called the author of a new series: “You may be a Muslim if….”  It’s a rerun of the 2007 jokes: “You might be part of the Taliban if…”  One of the new quips says: “You may be a Muslim if you have nothing against women and think every man should own at least four.”

       Polygamy is only representative of about 3% of Muslim families, but it’s part of how Radical Islam has given many in the West a slanted view of Mohammed’s teachings. Fanatics fasten onto Sura 4 vs 3: “if you fear that you might not act equitably towards orphans, then marry from among [other] women such as are lawful to you - [even] two, or three, or four: but if you fear that you might not be able to treat them with equal fairness, then [only] one - or [from among] those whom you rightfully possess.”

       The last word should give you pause: “possess.” Come with me now to a meeting of sad hearts in a hotel in Abuja, Nigeria. Twelve of them were the parents of girls kidnapped three months ago by militant Islamic group: Boko Haram. They were taken to provide wives, some say, to prevent Kalalah. That’s a term in Islamic inheritance referring to someone with an estate but no direct descendants.

        A Pakistani man rose to speak at the hotel, but after stammering a few words he broke down and sobbed. Tears flooded throughout the room! The 90 day ordeal still holds no prospect of the kids’ safe return. The speaker, Ziauddin Yousafzai would be a name unknown to us, were it not for the bravery of his, now just 17 year old, daughter Malala. She came with him to that hotel meeting to express solidarity with the kidnapped girls.

      "I am going to stand up for them," she said, adding that she thought of them as her sisters. Do you remember why Malala is now so world-renowned that The U.N. has proclaimed July, 14, 2014 in her honor?  When that happened last year, she opened her acceptance speech with: “First of all, thank you to God for whom we all are equal and thank you to every person who has prayed for my fast recovery and a new life.” Recovery from what?

       It started when, in a year, Militants, seeking to impose Sharia law, destroyed 150 Pakistani schools. They want no education for girls! Malala, then 15, wrote a diary named "Gul Makai" for the British Broad Casting website. Later, when peace was restored in her region, she was on TV channels and her articles and statements were published by many newspapers. The Taliban ordered her assassination. A gunman boarded her bus after school one day.

      Back to her U.N. speech: “On the 9th of October 2012, the Taliban shot me on the left side of my forehead. They shot my friends too.” She survived after treatment in England. “They thought the bullets would silence us. But they failed. The terrorists thought that they would change our aims and stop our ambitions, but nothing changed in my life except this: Weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.”

      Last week I met a wonderful lady named Kerry. She spoke at Rotary on behalf of her chapter of P.E.O.  Look it up, you’ll be blessed by this organization. Go Kerry! Go Malala! And “thank you to God for whom we all are (indeed) equal.” Islam and Christianity part company here. Jesus gave men and women equal worth. 

SoulFood (4)

Operation Protective Edge

        My last night in Israel was spent with the Rotarians at a club in Jerusalem. Rotary  invites  speakers. Very often it’s a representative of a charity or some form of business person. The talk that October night had the sobering title: “The ill effects of rockets on children.” Only in Israel would a Rotary Club hear such a presentation.

       Early this morning I was listening to a BBC report saying that in one day: Monday July 7, ninety rockets had been fired into Israel from the Gaza Strip. We are not talking July 4^th fireworks here, readers! When these missiles land walls fall down and shrapnel flies. The wail of the sirens in Ashkelon, Be’er Sheva and Ashdod sent the citizens, Jew and Arab, scurrying into the bomb shelters.

      Most of us can’t imagine what it’s like to live that way. One of the missiles was powerful enough to threaten Tel Aviv. The “Iron Dome” missile shield brought it down before harm could be done. If it were you, if you were holding your loved ones close in the air raid shelter, what would you want your country to do in response? Israel is very “eye for an eye”, and then some!

      In philosophy class or at a Sunday School convention some theorize about: “what if Israel just ignored the attacks?” Perhaps you have heard a well-prepared speech about how Hamas just wants peace. Let me put the 90 rockets in a day into a bigger context. There have been 450 since the year began. Widen the focus even more: 8000 missiles flew into Israel since 2005.  About how many rockets per month do you think is bearable? At what point should Israel respond in force?

      P.M. Netanyahu said: “We won’t tolerate rocket fire on our cities and towns.”  He added: “We do not go joyfully into battle.”  It’s about now that some wailing voices at the U.N. decry the fact that when Israel responds they do so with the full force of their military power. Operation Protective Edge is done with F-16s and smart bombs. Whole blocks near the border vanish. So far 38 Palestinians are dead. Many innocents will yet perish as well.

       Nobody should relish that thought. Nor, however, should anyone be so naive as to imagine air force retaliation can be done so surgically that only the Hamas terrorists who launch the missiles from among houses in those very same neighborhoods can be eliminated. Israel’s borders as they stand today are the spoils of war as much as what defines the southern boundaries of California. The empires of Europe have adjusted their domains by the sword. Who even knows what, say, Poland should look like.

       The U.N. should recognize that Israel holds the lands she does and has no desire to conquer an inch more.  She certainly could have advanced the Syrian border in recent days, but no. The Middle East isn’t any time soon going to become the sort of place where the rules of Cricket – or at least the spirit of the game – apply. My Jewish friends there send e-mails hoping for peace. I tell them I pray for peace. Yet Israel has to drive its tractors with boys who are just as at home inside a tank.

       I don’t write to defend Israel’s actions in every sense. The Jewish state isn’t some province of the kingdom of God in that when you are there you meet all, from the ultra-orthodox modern Pharisee to the strident atheist. Nevertheless, the thinking Christian must see through the left-leaning, bash-Israel-every-day, attitude of those who cannot fathom why we Christians see 1948 as one of God’s modern miracles.  Pray for the peace of Jerusalem!

SoulFood (3) You are only as free as you are Brave

       In Politically Correct America, it takes a very bold person indeed to state a view that crosses the liberal sensibilities. On the other hand it doesn’t require much courage to “go with the flow.”  Many are rushing to show that they have accepted homosexuality as a normal part of life. Both the news and entertainment media have spent three decades pushing us to adopt what the Bible rejects.

      Burger King now has what they call the Proud Whopper where, in their logo, the last E is replaced with the gay flag. Burger King is celebrating gay pride with a message on its Whopper wrappers. The fast-food chain has a video, showing scenes from San Francisco, where it sells the "Proud Whopper."  When you open it a message inside the wrapper says, "We are all the same inside." I support their right to say what they believe. Freedom of speech should never demand uniformity of ideas.

      Note though that when a company run by Bible believing Christians says that they believe in traditional marriage there are huge pressures towards censorship and much breast beating ire.   You might recall the outrage over comments by Chick-fil-A. People have lost their jobs because they have donated money to causes upholding one man one woman marriages. Nobody at Burger King is worried about their career because they were behind the Proud Whopper.

      So there is a price to be paid for speaking against the trend to force acceptance of a lifestyle that America in the pre 1900s regarded as one of the many expressions of humanity’s fallen state. In a way there is nothing new about finding it expensive to stand firmly in support of what the Bible says. The Braveheart line: “They can take our lives but they cannot take our freedom,” finds an echo in a hymn by Martin Luther: “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill, God’s truth abideth still.”

      In the midst of this debate we now come to our country’s birthday celebration.  It is popular for churches to include the Irving Berlin song: “God bless America.”  We will do that this Sunday. However a lady e-mailed me this reminder of how the song starts: “While the storm clouds gather far across the sea (and you will recall the world war setting of the poetry) Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free. Let us all be grateful for a land so fair, as we raise our voices in a solemn prayer….”

      Will we pray God Bless America, well-knowing that the drift away from His laws is now far advanced?  I write this not just with one issue in mind. The desire to redefine marriage is just one expression of liberal America’s shift from the world view of its founders. It was a concept of life that included the word “sin.” Sin is a conscious decision to live opposite to what God’s Word prescribes. In that respect we are indeed: “all the same inside."

       Here’s Jesus on the matter: “Things that make people sin are sure to come, but how terrible it will be for the person who brings them! Suppose people lead one of these little ones to sin. It would be better for those people to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck. So watch what you do.”  All very well, until a time comes when sin is called good. That is a time for bravery. 

SoulFood (2) Unintended Consequences

    This Saturday it'll be 100 years since Gavrilo Princip fired the shot that killed at least 8 million and left more than 11 million wounded. He wasn't even a good marksman. Archduke Ferdinand's driver took a wrong turn, then backed the car right up to the assassin's feet.  He fired his pistol as a staunch anti-colonialist and became a Bosnian hero, until the Bosnian Civil War of 1992 that is. Croatian troops even destroyed the Princip family home. History has odd ways of being rewritten as perspectives change.
       Gavrilo's trigger finger unwittingly launched one of the greatest evils ever to befall the empires of Europe. World War One opened the door to rampant Communism, collapsed many of Europe's empires, spawned National Socialism (the Nazis) in Germany, Italy felt cheated of land promises and so very many young people were gone. 
       Another of the unintended consequences was that the wide-spread European belief in the trustworthiness of church denominations was undermined. By the end of World war two, trust was gone altogether.
       George Bush (2) said that Iran, North Korea and Iraq were the biggest threats to the USA immediately after 9/11. He chose Iraq for invasion and unseated the tyrant Saddam Hussein. Mine was just one of many letters, April 20, 2004, sent to him requesting that an early termination of American occupation was desirable. Instead our Army was tasked with the impossible job of nation-building. 
        Peter Galbraith's book, Unintended Consequences, has some odd theories, but in his list of unexpected consequences of the war he didn't consider what it did to one of earth's oldest bastions of Christianity. Christ's disciples became targets for waves of persecution under the wrong perception that America is a "Christian Country." Many fled from Basra and Baghdad and those who couldn't resettle in Lebanon or Syria squatted in Mosul and the Ninevah Plain. As ISIS butchered their way towards the center of Iraq, its estimated that 150 000 have fled the country. The troubles in Iraq have ended a Christian presence that dated to the first century.
      You and I must also come to terms with the "Law of Unintended Consequences." It is, I am afraid, a direct offshoot of the God-given privilege of Free Will. Where is God in all this terrible suffering? Where He has always been: in self-imposed limitation to human decision making. For example, He has bound Himself with respect for your next decision to sin against His laws of love and justice. Not that He cannot stop you from sinning, but that He will not. Your very next self-centered act of carnality will happen against His will. He will respect you enough to allow it. The trouble is - there will be consequences. The even worse trouble is - there will also be unintended consequences. Only time, as with Princip's shot, will tell how grave those unintended consequences will be.
       Oh please, use that same will to study and love and live by God's directives for holy living. You may think that a "narrow" way to live, but four decades in this world tell me the consequences are good.
       Sometimes the consequences are neutral and yet work towards the greater good. If you have studied economics you will recall a name from the distant past: that of Adam Smith. His famous metaphor of the "invisible hand" described what happens when the butcher and the baker ply their trade with zeal for personal gain, yet with integrity required by business laws. Smith believed that a society filled with upright, yet hard-working people, though they each seek primarily their own best interests, nevertheless benefit the whole of that community. It worked well in small towns and even prospered whole nations until globalization introduced a whole new playing field.
       Charity may well "begin at home," but yours and mine must not be content to stay there. The twin New Testament laws of "sowing and reaping" as well as "casting bread upon the waters" will add to this life many unintended consequences of blessing. This is the highest form of paying it forward. To refuse to live beyond the circumference of your home and family is to make the mistake of seeing to find your life. The unintended consequence is that your well mannered and "prudent" self-centeredness will result in you failing in opportunities to add joy to many people unknown to you and, worse still, will end up in you loosing your life as well. 
       Give yourself away! Give yourself to Christ. It will be the best investment you ever make. Oh, and be sure, you have to renew that gift daily, because there are unintended consequences for trying to rest on past commitments.

Introductions SoulFood (1)

What to say when introducing yourself?  In some settings it is made easy, like "Hello, my name is Andrew and I'm an ....." Since I shall be using this blog to express moral, biblical, and or ethical comments once a week (or if work pressures bite) every other week, I'd better say: "Hello, my name is Andrew and I've been a disciple of Jesus Christ since the end of the 60s."  I wish I could introduce myself as the perfect roll model for discipleship or even to say that my following of Jesus has been consistent without a flaw, but the best I can tell you is that, in this journey down the decades with Jesus, I have been a recipient of much grace.
       What more to say by way of introductions? "My name is Andrew and I am married to a godly woman named Carol who has not hesitated over the years to challenge my opinions." In the early years she said of our relationship: "being married to you is like the irresistible force meeting the immovable object."  I should add that I am the father of two sons, about as different from each other as chalk and cheese except for their ardent Christianity. Rich with two good daughters in law and five grand-kids.
      I used to be able to introduce myself as a marathon athlete.  I gave up those events, after 62 of them, when the costs involved became too rich for me. Now at 60 I'm just a runner.  Come to think of it, I used to be a biker, until I made the painful decision to sell it this year. When the big six oh comes up there are quite a lot of things you used to be, but its time for me to accept the advice I have dolled out for 40 years: "gracefully surrender the things of youth."
       I should introduce myself as a preacher and a pastor. I am much more the former and a lot less the latter. I am convinced that the king of preaching styles is what used to be called "the Expository Sermon."  Now its just called old fashioned and dictatorial.  Be that as it may, I have committed a lifetime to speaking about 49 times a year directly from a Bible chapter and the next Sunday following that with the very next verses. I don't consider the primary objective of exposition the teaching of the Bible. No, I believe the person in the pew has the right to ask: "what did God tell you to tell us from those verses this week?"  No clear answer = no sermon at all. As for pastoring, I am very limited, but major in clear solutions to personal problems.
       Politics - conservative.  Finances - live for cash.  Music tastes - declarative worship.  Pets - a retriever named Leo.  Cars - a Jeep.   Hobbies - travel.   Favorite places on earth: Hunterdon County USA, London England and Jerusalem Israel.  Military Service - South African Army Tank Corps.  Abilities (sort of) brass instruments, drawing, home repairs and writing creative English.
      That's about as much as you need to know. Send prayer requests and requests for my credit card number and personal loans to ajjpaton@embarqmail.com