The coldest night of the year

Robbie, one of our clients, chats with one of the people who have donated coats, blankets and food to the mission to get us through this cold snap.

Matthew 25:31 – 40 (NIV) ³¹“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory.  ³²All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. ³³He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ³⁴“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ ³⁷“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?  ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ ⁴⁰“The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’

Memphis is currently undergoing the coldest period of weather that the city has experienced in the past 20 years.  As a result the news media has visited Memphis Union Mission, as they usually do during a cold snap, to  remind people in the community that there are some of us who do not have a home to go to when the weather turns nasty.

And so this year when the media came calling, we put out a message that the Mission is in need of warm clothes and blankets and food in order to adequately provide for the 375 or so people who will call Memphis Union Mission home during these next few days.

The response of the community has been overwhelming!

We have received an abundance of blankets, a collection of warm winter coats and loads and loads of groceries.  The following pictures don’t give an adequate representation of this outpouring.  Nevertheless we are grateful  to those who have been mindful of those who Jesus calls “the least of these.”

Robbie and Michael Kyle, director of the MIssion's food service, look over some of the things which have been donated to us by the people of Memphis.

Some of the foostuffs which have come into our kitchen today.

THANK YOU, MEMPHIS, for helping us through this crucial time in our ministry.

Remember that when the cold snap is over, the need will continue, and we appreciate your continued support, even when the weather turns nice again!

The view from here

Deuteronomy 30:8 – 10 (NIV) ⁸You will again obey the LORD and follow all his commands I am giving you today. ⁹Then the LORD your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers, ¹⁰if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Deuteronomy 30:19 – 20 (NIV) ¹⁹This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live ²⁰and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Something that is almost expected of us when we transition from one year to another or one decade to another is that we speculate about what the next era of our lives is going to look like.  The tabloid press pays its favorite psychics to delve into the events of the coming year.  And at the same time that we read their current predictions we look back at what they wrote about the previous year and wonder why these publishers are shelling out money for such unreliable information!

But it is also interesting to read about what what more reliable sources have to say about the year ahead.

Bill Johnson, senior pastor of Bethel Church in Redding, CA, and one of my spiritual mentors, looks to Isaiah 45:1 – 3, as the backdrop from which the Lord would speak to us during the coming year.  He says the coming year will be a time of open doors and open heaven in which the Lord will give those who seek Him the “treasures of darkness.”

Another one of my spiritual mentors, James Ryle, president of Truthworks, a teaching ministry in Nashville, says Isaiah 60:1 and God’s call on His people to “arise and shine” will set the tone for the coming year.  He admonishes us to show forth both light and the love, which he says are synonymous of the essence of God, into the world.

This morning, however, I received what I believe is my own word from the Lord about the year which is to come, and I would like to place it on the table along with all the others, for consideration.

About 60 miles from where I used to live is a monument to Custer’s Last Stand.  And while the namesake for the site was the loser of the battle, it commemorates the last great military victory by Native Americans in their losing battle to retain ownership of tribal lands. Since there were no photographers on the scene, we must get our impressions of what that July day in 1876 was like from drawings by the participants of that battle.  One of these shows dead horses which gave power to the commonplace weapons used by both sides in that battle.  The drawings are reminiscent of pictorial renderings of any famous battle, whether those of barbed wire and trenches of World War I,  burning tanks of Rommel’s defeat in North Africa, or of shot down aircraft in Vietnam.  What all of these have in common is that they depict technologies which are no longer valid on today’s battlefield.

It is in that context that I see what 2010 will be like for me (and probably you as well).  Here are some of the things I expect to happen in the year ahead:

These are troubling times. Decisions which we make, and those decisions which are made for us, have the potential to drastically change the ways that we live.  What we saw happening in both the ups and downs of housing market and to our 401(k)’s last year will continue in the coming year only with much more far-reaching effects.  Before His crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples that in the world we will be guaranteed trouble, but that He gives us peace in troubling times (John 16:33).  Last night I saw an advertisement by Allstate, the insurance company, where they stated during 2009 the nation learned many lessons, one of which was “the houses we bought were meant for living in, not for showing off.”  We will learn more about ourselves in 2010.

These are times of choices. We were fashioned by God to make choices.  The choices we make for ourselves are what mark us, for better or worse, as individuals.  The choices we make collectively are the hallmarks of our culture.  In Romans 12:2, Paul warns that our decisions ought not to be dictated by the pattern of the world, but by the work of the Holy Spirit living in us and how He is able to change the way we think.  The year ahead will find us making crucial decisions which will change us dramatically, first on the inside, and then as we become bold, on the outside.  As Christians, we are being prepared to change the world.  As are non-Christians with whom we will eventually come into conflict!  We must not shirk from this battle.

These are times of revolutionay change. It is no illusion that time is speeding up  It is true whether you are a six-year-old or a sixty-year-old.  What we need to remember in the coming year is that while it appears that time is out of our control, it is not out of God’s control.  In quantum physics, time is another dimension.  You and I are being prepared to live in a new dimension.  And while we live in times where fashions and styles change rapidly, as Christians we need to bear in mind that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  While our ways change, His ways are constant.  And it is in constant things that we mark the passage of time.

We are being prepared to live in just such times. God is preparing a people whose sole agenda is to see His Kingdom come.  Among that kind of people there is no room for partisanship, for we are not seeking our way, but His.  Scripture reminds us that our lives amount to nothing more than a vapor in the mists of time. (James 4:14).  In this context, we can not afford to be Communists or Capitalists, because we are also reminded that these, too, are passing away.

2 Peter 3:10 – 13 (ESV) ¹⁰But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. ¹¹Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, ¹²waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! ¹³But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

When YWAM’s Dean Sherman teaches this passage in his course on spiritual warfare, he evokes the image of the Alka-Seltzer “plop, plop, fizz, fizz” commercial.  We are eye-witnesses to the ways of this world being dissolved. And that makes Peter’s question to us all the more urgent:  What sort of people ought we to be?

We can wait and be changed.  Or we can be changed and wait.  With all the perils inherent in the latter choice, that’s the one I will be making this year.  I leave 2009 standing, as Israel stood, a river’s span away from the land of promise.  I hope that next year, this time, will find me standing where God intends for me to be thus hastening the coming of the day of God.

Deuteronomy 30:9 – 10 (ESV) ⁹The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, ¹⁰when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

One Christmas (Part 2)

Can’t you hear them bells ringin’, ringin’?

Joy, don’tcha hear them singin’?

When it’s snowin’, I’ll be goin’

Back to my country home.

Christmas time’s a-comin’

Christmas time’s a-comin’

Christmas time’s a-comin’

And I know I’m goin’ home! — Tex Logan

⁶ For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

⁷ Of the increase of his government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this. — Isaiah 9:6 – 7 (NIV)

Jake awoke from his dreamless sleep early and got in line for the morning showers.  It brought back memories of his days of glory, the inter-city rivalries on the basketball court, scoring the winning basket and then hitting the showers for the celebration.  But this day there was no celebration, just a different crowd of naked men looking into one another’s hollow eyes trying to find a purpose, some reason to make it through the coming day.

After getting a set of clean clothes from the clothes room and after a breakfast of cold cereal and surplus cellophane-wrapped pastries a few days past their expiration date, Jake was pleasantly surprised when the building supervisors were in no hurry to rush the hundred and fifty or so men who had sought shelter the previous evening out of the building.  They all knew that on Christmas day in Memphis there’s no place to go.  There would be no church groups serving sack lunches out the back of their vans.  Everyone would be home with their families in festive mode.  It caused Jake to think about where his family was and what they would be doing.  He didn’t have a clue about either question!

When he had about all the warmth and stale air which the mission was able to offer, he decided to  put on his new cap and gloves and to stroll the vacated streets of the city.  The rain of the previous night had stopped, but the wind hadn’t.  Jake zipped up his FedEx coat with the reflective strip across the chest, and made his first major decision of the day.  Should he head toward downtown or midtown?  He chose midtown, toward the hospital district.  Since the libraries weren’t open, there was always the emergency rooms where he could drop in an warm up if it got too cold.

You could fire a Civil War cannon down Poplar Avenue and not hit anyone.  The streets were that deserted.  There weren’t even any drug deals taking place in the parks, mainly ’cause it was the end of the month and it would be another week before the disability checks would come out.

Jake walked the empty streets.  About a block away from The Med, the county’s trauma center and experiment in single-payer healthcare, Jake came to Forrest Park whose centerpiece was a statue of Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest.  Being a “northerner” he thought about the peculiar twists that these southerners place on history.  Forrest fought in the “war of northern aggression”.   He was one of Memphis’ more notorious residents.  Jake wondered about the reason for the statue.  Did it commemorate Forrest’s skill as a military tactician or his experiment in social reform known as the Ku Kux Klan?

For a reason unknown to Jake at the time, he began to think about how his life was similar to Forrest’s.  There were some things he was proud of.  After all he was a damned good welder.  But there was his shady side too.  Then it stuck him.  Damned good!  An oxymoron, like military intelligence.  That’s what he and Forrest had in common.

Just month ago, one of Jake’s friends died in the Med ER.  Hauled away in a Memphis Fire Department diesel ambulance to the ER, to the county morgue and who-knows-where?  There would be no statues cast of Jake.  There would be no memories of his existence if the same fate were to befall him.

And then something else struck Jake.  Being a metal sculptor of sorts himself, Jake looked at Forrest’s majestic profile, and that of his horse.  Here was a guy just like Jake but preserved in heroic light.  Jake remembered the day he was hired to help a famous sculptor work out the technical details on another work of art.

It was an iron crucifix commissioned for some national cathedral somewhere.  Jake helped weld the body of Jesus to His cross.  That Jesus was no heroic figure.  He was a broken man, the outline of his ribs showing through his metallic skin.  A gaping wound in His side.  Most religious icons depict their objects of worship  as serene figures surrounded by halos and angels, similar to Forrest.  But here is the Savior of the world, the Creator of the universe remembered as a man who was broken.  A damned good man — just like Jake.

And then Jake remembered the accusing voices of the previous evening.  If Jesus was real, then the devil was real, and Jake began to realize that in his life the devil was more real than Jesus had ever been.  Jake, the welder, was damned, not good.  And Jake remembered the times he had dozed through the chapel services which were mandatory if he was going to get a free meal.  About the times they talked about a man’s life being nothing but a vapor.  About the misunderstood Jesus guy who raised up a group of eleven men, a lot like Jake, who changed the world in their lifetimes and paid the price with their lives.  World changers have purpose.  Jake had none.

Enough of this, Jake thought.  It’s cold.  I’m not going to the Med where I could catch the flu and die!    Two hours in the cold reality of the world this day was all he could take.  And so he retraced his steps back to the Mission.  The doors to the Mission were about to open again for another helping of turkey and dressing and another dull chapel service.  But this time Jake decided that he would try his damnest to stay awake and see if there would be any forthcoming answers to the puzzle which he had been presented with in the park that morning.

The warm, musty air of the mission greeted Jake with a certain peace.   He assumed his regular position in the back of the room, but this time when the piaBno player began to play, Jake rose to his feet.  He began to sway and clap as they sang:

“Jesus, Jesus, oh what a wonderful child.

Jesus, Jesus, so lowly, meek and mild.

New life, new hope to all He brings.

Listen as the angels sing.

Glory, glory, glory be to the newborn King.”

By the third chorus, Jake caught himself singing, “O come let us adore Him.  Christ the Lord.”  This was the point in the service where Jake would usually begin to zone out.  And as the usual preacher began to preach his usual message about how Jesus’ birth was a real, historical event, and about how it fulfilled hundreds of Biblical prophecy issued centuries before Jesus was even born, as the preacher’s message reached its climax and as he began to fairly shout in his enthusiasm, what he read next caught Jake’s attention.

It was out of  Luke’s account of the Christmas story where the angel was about to mess up Mary’s life by announcing that she was pregnant.  Stabbing his Bible with his index finger, the preacher read: “29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. ³⁰But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. ³¹You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. ³²He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, ³³and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” [Luke 1:29-33 (NIV)]

There it was!  Jake’s name.  Jesus will reign over the house of Jacob forever and His kingdom will never end!  That was too good to be true!  But something inside of Jacob told him that that was the key to him finding purpose in his life again.  With Jesus reigning, Jake could be good, not damned.

In his haste to get back to his family on Christmas Day, the preacher dismissed the crowd for lunch.  As everyone was heading to the rear of the chapel/dining hall, Jake went against the flow to the front to shake the preacher’s hand before he left the building.  The preacher didn’t even notice the tear in Jake’s eye, and gave him the customary two slaps on Jake’s back and threw in an extra “God bless you” before he let Jake out of the bear hug.  He didn’t realize at the time that God’s mission had been accomplished that day.

Over his turkey and dressing and green beans and candied yams and cranberry sauce and huge slice of cake, Jake, like Mary, pondered the events of the day in his heart.  He knew that his life had been changed, and he was about to discover what the good life was going to look like.

Isaiah 9:6 – 7 (NIV)

One Christmas (Part 1)

One Christmas was so much like another, in those years around the sea-town corner now and out of all sound except the distant speaking of the voices I sometimes hear a moment before sleep, that I can never remember whether it snowed for six days and six nights when I was twelve or whether it snowed for twelve days and twelve nights when I was six. — Dylan Thomas, A Child’s Christmas in Wales

Luke 9:57 – 62 (ESV) ⁵⁷As they were going along the road, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.”  ⁵⁸And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”  ⁵⁹To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”  ⁶⁰And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”  ⁶¹Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  ⁶²Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”

For Jake, this Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/Winter Festival was unlike any of the others in his life.  This time it was rainy and he was pelted by ice-cold microbursts of water which, when they struck his face and his ungloved hands, was as though they had come from the pressure washer he used at work to wash the grease off the kitchen floor.  It was windy, like he always remembered, but this wasn’t the cold wind that came off of Lake Michigan which piled up snow outside of the El shelters in Chicago, his hometown.  This  wind was a hybrid of a Texas Blue Norther and a gulf breeze which kept the rain from becoming snow, but which gave the rain a not-quite-lethal velocity to bare skin.

And this was not his hometown.  In fact for the past year or so, he had no hometown nor even a home, for that matter.

The most recent twenty years of his past had caught up with him.

Back in Chicago Jake had been a pretty fair basketball player.  In fact it was the basketball, not the academics which kept him in high school as long as it did.  His sales of the marijuana that he didn’t smoke up, gave him money which bought him friends (and even passing grades from his teachers who admired his athleticism more than his lack of interest in the subjects they were teaching).  But by the beginning of his senior year, Jake’s interest in marijuana surpassed his interest in basketball, so he became a welder.

His dad had taught him to weld and he seemed to have a natural talent for drawing a bead which joined metal-to-metal.  He was quickly able to pick up on the latest  techniques using exotic gases which gave him the reputation of  being one of the best welders on the Lake Michigan waterfront.  His skill made him good money.  He could afford new cars which got him lots of female companionship, where he found a new wife, a new house and a new family.

His prosperity also led him to experiment with new drugs.  Powder  cocaine, prescription narcotics of all kinds.  The problem was that what happened in high school with marijuana was repeating itself again.  The pressures of being a husband and father were relieved in his recreational use of drugs.

He didn’t notice it at the time, but his pursuit of pleasure was imperceptively replacing his devotion to his family.  It was obvious to everyone around him, but imperceptible to him.  Over time, his wife took the kids and went home to her mother. Jake lost his job because he called in sick more than he showed up for work.  Jake moved to another “hometown” where he found plenty of work, and now free to live a solitary life, and the familiar cycle of drug use perpetuated itself with increasing frequency.

Economic conditions in the “Rust Belt” drove him further and further south to the “Sun Belt” to the docks along the Mississippi, to the streets of Memphis, to the kitchen of the Marriott Hotel where he worked at a temporary job serving up chicken cordon bleu to the endless series of conventions and holiday festivities.

But today the party season was over, at least for a week until New Years.  He was blue himself from having eaten so much leftover chicken the past few weeks.  He was experiencing the last of the high from the eight-ball of crack he had purchased with the last of his paycheck from the Marriott.  Before the crash hit, he swung by Squirrel Park (known by polite Memphians as Court Square) to pick up a sack lunch from the latest in an endless series of church groups dealing with their seasonal bouts of guilt over their lack of compassion for the poor and homeless, before wending his way to the Mission which was his latest version of “home” for the past several weeks.

He walked in the door, wiped the rain and the condensation from where the warm, peculiarly scented air of the mission had fogged up the metal-pitted lenses of his glasses, and got settled in for the night.

This was the Christmas part of the Christmas/Hanakkuh/Kwanzaa/Winter Solstice celebration.  He was the last of the arrivals that night and got the last of the Christmas casserole served by the last of the volunteers who came to serve that evening.  And as he was hustled into the holding pen while others turned the dining hall/chapel back into the House of God, a warm, but uneasy feeling came over Jake.  He knew the drill.  He’d have to sit through another sermon before things would quiet down enough to the point where he could like down and sleep.  But Jake had learned the art of sleeping while slumped down in the most uncomfortable of chairs.

This was part of the crash which always happened when the surge of dopamine in the pleasure center of his brain subsided.  But this was different.  The voices in his head were telling him that the way his life was going, this was likely to be his last festive season on the planet.  And something told him that there was something missing in his life — that the meaning of life was to be found in something other than the earning and spending of money, and that he had probably missed out on whatever that meaning was.

Jake shuffled into the chapel and found a seat in the back of the room where he wouldn’t have to stand up when the singing started and where he could begin his evening slump into half-sleep.  But this time the voices in his head wouldn’t let him drift away peaceably.  They were accusing voices taking him back into key times in his life where he could have made different decisions.  He coulda stopped smoking marijuana and sharpened his baskeball skills.  He shoulda been a better husband, father and welder on the waterfront.  He woulda done all that if life woulda not been so hard.

Jake’s personal accusers drowned out the familiar carols which were part of the Muzak at the Marriott and which were now being sung off-key and a little too loud by the guy sitting beside him.

They stopped when the non-descript preacher who apparently did not have a name, stood up to speak.

He talked about a couple who were homeless in a strange city Bethlehem, known as the “House of Bread”.  Just like Memphis, Jake thought.  Lots of money by the folks who worked in the concrete canyons of the city and who stayed in the expensive suites of the Marriott, but where little trickled down to man on the street or to the man in the pulpit who apparently wasn’t part of the mega-church monopoly of the Gospel of the city.

The preacher went on to tell about the man who was placed in the feeding trough when he was born in the House of Bread, who quit his carpenter’s job to become an itinerant evangelist in a culture which was at best lukewarm to his version of the Gospel.  A culture where people were drawn to his message, but who knew that it wouldn’t play out in the real world.

But what if that was the way that life was supposed to work out, Jake thought!  What if the rest of us got it wrong.  What if the meaning in life was not about who got the most,  but about who gave the most?  What if there was an element of truth to the accusing voices he was hearing in his head?

The sermon was over.  Jake and everyone else in the room was given a gift-wrapped cardboard box.  He was now the proud owner of another toothbrush, a rather nice pair of gloves and a stocking cap (which would be great to wear the next morning), the usual Gospel tract, some sweets, some chips, and some other stuff.

As he lay down on a mat in the dining hall/chapel, now transformed into a dormitory for unwashed homeless men, it was his Bethlehem where he fell into a deep and dreamless sleep while silent stars rolled by.

(To be continued)

The longest night of the year

Matthew 10:17, 28 – 31 (NIV) ¹⁷“Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over to the local councils and flog you in their synagogues. . . . ²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.  ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. “

Mr. Potter to George Bailey: "You're worth more dead than alive."

It’s a movie which has become a staple of our Christmases – Frank Capra’s classic It’s a Wonderful Life. It was released about the same time that Memphis Union Mission began its life, when the nation was recovering from its latest World War.  Its theme deals with how a solitary man can influence, and be influenced by, the culture of the community he lives in.

The movie’s main character is George Bailey whose family is in perpetual conflict with the autocratic banker of Bedford Falls, Mr. Potter.  The key to the plot of the movie is when George’s Uncle Billy mislays a crucial bank deposit and jeopardizes the reputation and the very existence of the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan.   In an attempt to salvage the business, George goes, hat in hand, to Mr. Potter to plead for a loan.  When Potter asks about collateral, all George could come up with is a $500 life insurance policy.  Potter then goes on to say: “Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me ‘a warped, frustrated, old man!’ What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds. Nothin’ but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy.  You’re worth more dead than alive!”

That shocking assessment of George’s existence sends him into a downward spiral which requires divine intervention to save his life and to help George (and us) to come to the realization that it is not the bottom line on the balance sheet of our lives that make us people of worth.  Instead our real value is found in our relationships and the kindness we show to other people.

We need to be reminded of the lesson which George Bailey learned that snowy night on the bridge leading to Bedford Falls, because at most other times of the year we’re prone to measure men the same way Mr. Potter does, according to the color of their skin, or which side of town they hail from, or by what kind of car they drive.  We do this in spite of the fact that we’re reminded in the Old Testament that God does not look at the outward appearance of a man, instead He sees our heart (1 Samuel 16:7).  And when the Gospel expanded to the Gentiles in the New Testament, Paul tells us that our relationship to Jesus is not based on our nationality, our sex or which side of the tracks we were born on  (Galatians 3:28).

Every man who comes through the programs of Memphis Union Mission is constantly confronted  with the fundamental principle of economics that the value of anything is determined by what other people are willing to pay for it. When they hear news reports concerning panhandling in the downtown area of Memphis, they know the value which the culture places on their lives.  But what the world would say a homeless man’s life is worth and what the Lord would say a homeless man’s life is worth are two vastly different figures.

The Biblical principle is that God Himself ascribed value to us before we were even born, by sending His Son to pay the price for our sins on the Cross (Romans 5:6 – 8).

Here at Memphis Union Mission we daily apply these principles in our ministry to men who, for various reasons,  have been told by our culture that they are “worth more dead than alive”. Every pastor here can tell names of men who we have had the privilege of knowing, and whose lives have been changed by (or in spite of) the things that we have been shown in Scripture and that we have passed on to them.  It is not uncommon for us to receive letters or phone calls from men whose faces we have forgotten but whose names we remember years after they have left our programs who tell us of their come-back from abject poverty and who are now fathers to their children and productive members of the community.

But there are some whose lives have been cut short due in large part to the way they treated their bodies during decades of substance abuse.  Men who despite their failing health, whose lives were changed by an encounter with their Savior, but who had limited  opportunity to apply the lessons learned here to real-life situations.

And so it is on December 21, the longest night of the year, that we take time to remember those who God has called out of darkness and into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9), who began to realize how valuable they really were, before sickness and disease snuffed out their lives.

This year there are four who at one time were part of the program I admiminster  who died, leaving behind little else than  the memories we have of seeing them come into the light of knowing that they really were men of great worth.  Men who, even though their lives were shortened, have fulfilled their destiny of living in the reality of a relationship with their Savior.

They died in different ways – trauma or illness.  But they all died unexpectedly, in a sense before their time.  They all died leaving behind only a few to mourn their passing.  Those who should have been close to them were not because trust between them had been broken.

Because the world system closely resembles Mr. Potter’s way of assessing a person’s worth based on his assets and accomplishments, these men did not have an expensive funeral.  Their final resting places are not marked.  They leave behind a mere handful of people to mourn.  But we mourn because while we were able to see these men make unmistakable moves toward a real and personal relationship with their Savior, we were only able to see the outworking of that relationship for a relatively short period of time.

Privacy concerns prohibit me from stating their names, but here are their photographs taken when they were new to the program at Memphis Union Mission.  I gaze upon the optimism they expressed then, and I realize that it is but a shadow of the joy they know now.

Jesus said, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  As we observed their lives we saw them take heart, and we remember their courage this year on the longest night of the year and we concur with Jesus that they were worth more than many sparrows.

Christmas upside-down

WE REMEMBER THE BIRTH OF JESUS THE CHRIST

WE’VE BEEN TOLD STORIES OF OLD

GOD CAME AS A CHILD

TO CHANGE THE DESTINY OF ALL MEN

TO SHOW FORGIVENESS TO SINNERS

TO BELIEVE SUCH THINGS IS MISGUIDED.  THE TRUTH IS

HE WAS JUST AN ORDINARY MAN WHO LIVED AN ORDINARY LIFE

THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE THE TRUTH SAY

WE PROCLAIM HIS NAME, IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US

WE SHARE THE WONDER OF THE SHEPHERDS

WE SING THE SONGS OF THE ANGELS

THIS IS NOT WHAT IS REAL

SHEPHERDS WERE NOT AWAKENED BY ANGELIC ANNOUNCEMENT

THERE WERE NO WISE MEN CELEBRATING THE BIRTH OF A KING

I’D BE LYING TO YOU IF I SAID THAT

FOR THE CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE

THERE WAS NO ROOM IN THE INN

FOR THE SON OF GOD

THERE WAS BUT A HUMBLE STABLE

WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT

THIS IS THE REALITY OF CHRISTMAS

That’s what I used to think.  But then I made room for Him in my heart and Jesus turned it all upside-down.

Re-read the narrative again, this time reading the last line first and proceeding up the page to the first line.  You’ll find it makes better sense that way!

The hard path to peace

Romans 12:14 – 21 (NIV) ¹⁴Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.  ¹⁵Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.  ¹⁶Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. ¹⁷Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.  ¹⁸If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.  ¹⁹Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.  ²⁰On the contrary:     “If your enemy is hungry, feed him;     if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.     In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” ²¹Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Jeremiah 29:4 – 7 (NIV) ⁴This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  ⁵“Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.  ⁶Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease.  ⁷Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Victims of Rwandan genocide

In April of 1994, an extremist group of Hutus who had control of the government of Rwanda went on a rampage of genocide, killing 800,000 of the estimated one million Tutsis while the United Nations, the Catholic Church (the predominant Christian denomination in Rwanda) and the rest of the world did nothing for 90 days.  That bloody period of Rwandan history was chronicled in the Oscar-nominated film Hotel Rwanda,

Meet Jeannette Nyirabaganwa.  She has at least 100 reasons to hate Anastaz Turimubakunzi.  Both live in the African nation of Rwanda.  Jeannette is Tutsi,  Anastaz is Hutu.   It was during the time of national genocide that Jeannette’s husband, her baby, her parents and  and 100 other members of her family were murdered.  In the war’s aftermath, Anastaz confessed to the murder of Jeanette’s husband.

Following his release from prison in 2005, in a remarkable act of forgiveness and reconciliation, Jeannette hired Anastaz to work on her coffee plantation.  What is happening in Rwanda today is part of a move of God which is taking place in other parts of the continent which have a violent past as part of their histories. 

Anastaz and Jeannette

If you look at the body language of Jeannette and Anastaz you will see that there is much work yet to be done in their relationship.  And that brings me to one of the points I want to make in this posting.  You don’t have to like someone in order to be reconciled toward them. That’s because the process has its roots in unconditional love, the same kind of love which God has toward you and me.

The process of reconciliation which has swept across this portion of Africa has had economic benefits as well.  The economy of Rwanda is booming, especially its exports of coffee.  And Jeannette and Anastaz are thriving as a result of their tenuous friendship.

There is another story with which we ought to be familiar

Greg Mortenson and friends

In 2006 Greg Mortenson wrote a best-selling book about his experiences building relationships in Afghanistan.  Entitled Three Cups of Tea, the book chronicles Mortenson’s desire to reach the people of Afghanistan, one of the most isolated, backward nations on earth, by building schools.

According to Mortenson, Islamic religious extremism and distortion of the message of the Qur’an has roots in ignorance,  illiteracy and  poverty.  The antidote to those conditions is education.  And so, using the profits of his book, Mortenson has built more than 300 schools in Afghanistan, many of them in the areas where American troops will be sent to fight.

Mortenson was one of the people who Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, General David Petraeus, and other advisors to President Obama consulted prior to the President’s ordering of 30,000 additional troops to Afghanistan.  The leaders of our nation’s war council were amazed by the success which Mortenson had there.  There is, therefore,  an irony here that the plan which Mortenson espouses as the road to peace in that country, and which earned him a nomination for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize by a bi-partisan group of members of Congrfess, was trumped by the ultimate Nobel Peace Prize winner who ordered the escalation of the conflict there.

God’s marching orders to the Isrealites who were soon to be sent into 70 years’ exile in Babylon, articulated through the prophet Jeremiah in the prelude to the famous passage in Jeremiah 29:11, were for them to pray for the prosperity of the country in which they were sent to live.

If those were our marching orders too, what would that look like in Memphis, Tennessee where there are problems similar to those of Afghanistan and Rwanda.

The main thing that we can learn about these two stories is that one person can change a culture.

Jeannette’s decision to forgive Anastaz affected hundreds of others, and she herself was affected by others who chose that path before her.

Greg Mortenson’s drive to build schools which have been destroyed in lawless Afghanistan has impacted all parties involved in this war, and cuts to the root of what lies at the unrest there.

There are other Biblical precedents for this radical shift in cultures.  Joseph’s kindness caused Pharoah to believe in Joseph’s God, and Joseph was placed in the vanguard of changing that culture.  Daniel changed the heart of King Nebuchadnezzar, and caused him to change a rule where the king was the object of worship, to where the King of kings became the God of the Babylonians.

Forgiveness lies at the core of every one of these models.

And so it would seem that the lack of forgiveness lies at the root of every social problem which is impacting Memphis today.  Connect the dots from public corruption, black-on-black crime, fatherlessness, even the high rate of drug abuse and infant mortality in Memphis, and the dots will lead to a lack of forgiveness.  Forgiveness is God’s simple solution to all of our very complex problems.

So what do we need to know about forgiveness?

FORGIVENESS IS GIVEN AT THE WILL OF THE INJURED PARTY. It is most often the case that the one who inflicted the injury is unaware, or chooses to ignore what his actions have caused.  In a minority of cases the criminal actively seeks forgiveness, but until forgiveness is both sought and received, the process is incomplete.

Bills have been passed in Congress where the government of the United States has taken responsibility for the negative effects caused by national policy concerning Manifest Destiny and Slavery.  And yet deep social divides remain in the West and here in the South more than a century after these policies were abandoned because the request for forgiveness has gone unheeded.

THE LACK OF FORGIVENESS HAS GENERATIONAL CONSEQUENCES. Racism is inherited.  I recognize the effects of my father’s prejudices in my own actions, and I use them an excuse for justifying my behavior.  This is why there are gangs.  This is why children kill children.  This is why forgiveness is neither sought nor extended.

FORGIVENESS MUST BE UNCONDITIONAL. At the end of World War I the victorious powers imposed reparations on the defeated Germans.  Because forgiveness was not complete at its outset, the result was World War II.  Whenever someone suggests a national reconciliation for slavery, someone else always brings up the subject of reparations, and the process falls flat.  Forgiveness does not imply that someone gets off scot-free, only that it was included when Someone else paid a far more greater debt.

IT IS AT THE CROSS WHERE WE SEE THESE PRINCIPLES AT WORK. This is where we see a sinless Savior take on the sins of the world and satisfy the requirements of the Law which says the payment for sins is death.

It is at the cross where families reap the benefit of a father receiving the Father’s love and forgiveness.

It is at the cross where past offenses are buried in a sea of forgetfulness and where anyone who comes there can be set free.

What would Memphis look like if we looked to what is happening in Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda and South Africa and applied the principles we see at work there?  What if we do what Matt Damon’s character in the recently released movie Invictus does, and we see the effects on a municipal or even national scale to what takes place to a soccer team in the movie?

Memphis waits.  The world waits to see what happens when we extend and receive forgiveness from one another.  Taking the first step is ever so hard.  The rest will be easier.

What do Memphis and Afghanistan have in common?

Micah 6:8 – 9 (NIV) ⁸ He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. ⁹ Listen! The LORD is calling to the city—  and to fear your name is wisdom—  “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it.

John 20:21 – 23 (NIV) ²¹Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”  ²²And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  ²³If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

“When you kill one enemy, you then must plan for the one hundred enemies you have now created. No enemy ever stands alone. He comes with a mother and father, brothers and sisters. He has a wife and children, friends and neighbors. When you kill this enemy, you must be ready to face the angry revenge that comes from the grief of this loss for all the people who knew and loved this man. The only way to stop this endless chain of enemy killing enemy is to forgive it. And in doing so, teach each one that life is the most important, precious and valuable thing.” –Anwarshah Anwary, Freedom-A Journey Through Afghanistan-The Anwarshah Anwary Story

Ignorance and Want

“They are Man’s,” said the Spirit, looking down upon them. “And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it!” cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. “Slander those who tell it ye! Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And bide the end!”

“Have they no refuge or resource?” cried Scrooge.

“Are there no prisons?” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time with his own words. “Are there no workhouses?” Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol

Last week President Obama committed this nation’s strength and its moral character to take one step further toward the democratization of the Middle East, committing an addtional 30,000 troops toward restoring some semblance of order to the nation of Afghanistan.  Toward the end of his speech before the Corps of Cadets at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, the President expressed the hope that the nation would rally in support of this mission at a level reminiscent of the aftermath of the 9/11/2001 attack on our country.  The nation does not appear to be willing to respond to that call to arms.

It is not my purpose here to defend the President’s decision (for whatever good that might do), but merely to point out that there are some striking similarities between the struggle our nation is engaged in as we seek to bring democracy to some of the most repressive governments on this planet, and the struggle that we face to win the hearts and minds of the people who live in our own backyard.

If you’re interested in getting some in-depth information about this sort of thing, I suggest that you look to one of the most reliable sites on the internet giving information on the status of world affairs:  The CIA’s World Factbook.  It’s address is here: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/af.html

Scrolling down on that link and expanding the sections on the government, people and economy of the nation of Afghanistan, you’re going to find that Memphis and Afghanistan have many things in common.

GOVERNMENT: As you look at the list of prominent party leaders in Afghanistan, you will find all kinds of  factions vying for power in that nation.  In fact, the government of President Hamid Karzai does not represent a majority of the citizens of that country, any more than the government of Mayor A.C. Wharton represents a majority of the citizens of Memphis.   In order to gain and to hold on to power, both Karzai and Wharton have to bring together a coalition of factions within their jurisdictions to accomplish whatever goals they have in mind.  And because these coalitions are fragile, it is difficult to please a majority of their constituents, making governing their people very difficult.

PEOPLE: The infant mortality rate (the number of babies who die before they are one year old) in Afghanistan is the third highest on the planet, exceeding even that of some zip codes of Memphis.  The average time spent in school in Afghanistan is eight years.  Memphis schools graduate approximately 50 percent of its students.  Last week the Commercial Appeal reported that in some schools in the Memphis area one-third of the student body has been suspended from school sometime during the year for behavioral causes.

ECONOMY: Afghanistan has 40 percent unemployment.  Fifty-three percent of its people live below poverty levels.  Those rates are similar to many neighborhoods of Memphis.

In his address to the nation last Tuesday night, President Obama indicated that  all of these were factors which have been present in Afghanistan for centuries.  They have all contributed to the unrest in Afghanistan, necessitating our military presence there.

These centuries of problems in Afghanistan and the concern they pose to the rest of the world have made that country what one author who has written a history of that nation calls “The graveyard of empires.”  Its most recent victims have been the British and the Russians.  I suppose that this fact has not gone unnoticed by the United States and its allies.

In Dickens’  seasonal tale, A Christmas Carol, the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come warns Ebenezer Scrooge and us about the danger which Ignorance and Want pose to a culture.  Scrooge learns that prisons and workhouses cannot provide the solution to problems such as these.  In fact Scrooge learns that both the source of and the solution to those problems lie in the heart — his own heart.  Maybe that is the lesson which the Holy Spirit wants to impress on us at this time of year.

And so the Holy Spirit  addresses our heart problem through the Old Testament prophet Micah urging us to become at the same time people of justice, mercy and humility.  According to God’s Word,  finding that balance is a matter of highest priority for a city.

The question, therefore, is:  If a nation or an individual chooses to respond to this call, what is it going to look like?  In order to heal the wounds of centuries of injustice, will it take a blood-bath or a spiritual revival?  Both have the potential to produce change.  One is the favorite tool of nations.  One is how God chooses to bring about change.

We’ll look at the latter choice here tomorrow.  I hope you’ll come back and check it out.

Tide rolls!

Tim Tebow -- Overcomer

John 16:33 (NIV) ³³“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Some of the time we are mere spectators to history — His story.  And we realize that it is one thing to watch history, but it is quite another to make history.

Yesterday I was a spectator to what was probably a minor bit of history being made.  The University of Alabama Crimson Tide rolled to victory over Florida, overcoming the odds and the pundits, and wake up this morning as undisputably the best football team in the nation.  When they play for the national championship next month that game will be anticlimatic!

‘Bama showed us that football is a team sport.  Their offense was powerful and steady.  Their defense was unyielding.  Their coaching enabled them to control the clock.  On that particular Saturday afternoon, they brought all the elements of their game all together in a powerful show of strength.

The only thing that is unsettling about all this is that in football, as in the game of life, there are not only winners, but there are losers.  And that’s why my heart aches for Tim Tebow, the quarterback for the Florida Gators.  For it would be a lie to use “Tim Tebow” and “loser” in the same sentence.

Tebow is a winner and a class act all the way!  Last year, and for all but one game of this year he was a champion.  He proudly displayed to the nation and the world that he is a man of faith, quietly stating his beliefs not only in his words, but also in his eye black where he sends us to our Bibles to help us understand what he is really saying.

In last week’s game his message was Hebrews 12:1-2, where he ran the race with perseverance. This week he quoted Jesus, our model of perseverance, Who encourages His believers to take heart because He has overcome the world.

In telling His disciples that, Jesus makes it clear that in this matter of  the game of life what really matters for us is that ultimately we are spectators and He is the Champion!  He lived the perfect life, died a criminal’s death, took away the sins of the world, and restored to us the authority which Adam, the father of us all, handed over to our enemy in the Garden of Eden.  And because one day we will all fall prey to and be defeated by death, we need to get this fact clear.  The Bible verse on Tim Tebow’s eye black was never about Tim Tebow, even if Florida had won the game.  It is only and ultimately true about Jesus.

Tim Tebow wept as that truth was made clear to Him yesterday.  Just as Jesus wept when His best friend Lazarus died (John 11:35).  Jesus wept again and all of heaven joined Him in the Garden of Gethsemane as He agonized over the prospect of His own death.

And yet three days later, just as Jesus told His disciples, just a few verses earlier in John 16:20  ^“I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.“  Had Tim Tebow had foreknowledge of how the game would have turned out, he would have probably chosen that verse for his eye black.

There is a time for us to be spectators to history as we were at the Cross and at yesterday’s football game.  Jesus overcame the world so that we could confidently assume our roles as overcomers, not mere spectators, in the tide of history.  We are part of His team, part of His story.  We can endure temporary setbacks such as when the other team gets more breaks than ours does, and then go on to the next challenge confident in the hope which Jesus’ victory gives us.

Now let’s, along with Tim Tebow and the rest of our team, go out there and make history!

Opposing tyranny

Romans 13:1 – 5 (NIV) ¹Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.  ²Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves.  ³For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you.  ⁴For he is God’s servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God’s servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.  ⁵Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also because of conscience.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me. — Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892 – 1984)

Because we honor justice and the common good, we will not comply with any edict that purports to compel our institutions to participate in abortions, embryo-destructive research, assisted suicide and euthanasia, or any other anti-life act; nor will we bend to any rule purporting to force us to bless immoral sexual partnerships, treat them as marriages or the equivalent, or refrain from proclaiming the truth, as we know it, about morality and immorality and marriage and the family. We will fully and ungrudgingly render to Caesar what is Caesar’s. But under no circumstances will we render to Caesar what is God’s. – Manhattan Declaration

As the nation reels from the tragic news that Oprah will be ending her show sometime in 2011, as it endures the suffering of paying $3 for a cupacoffee at Starbucks, and prepares to storm the megastores on Black Friday, the United States Senate will be wheeling and dealing into the night in an attempt to bring a cobbled up 2,000 page health care bill to the floor for debate.

And so it might be easy for us to overlook a significant Christian document which was released yesterday.  It’s called the Manhattan Declaration.  Its 19 pages can be read at: http://www.demossnews.com/manhattandeclaration/press_kit/manhattan_declaration_signers.

Drafted by Chuck Colson and others, and endorsed by 149 Christian leaders embracing the spectrum of faith life in Amerca, from Catholic, Anglican, Protestant and Evangelical traditions, the document details how the Body of Christ has rescued and kept civilization true to the principles espoused by Jesus Christ for century after century.  Though little noticed by the mainstream media (I have yet to hear mention of it on National Public Radio news), the Declaration draws a line in the sand, putting the Congress on notice that there are some things in the popular psyche that are intolerable for Christians.

For example a provision in the bill currently under consideration by the Senate which compels everyone covered by national health insurance to pay a fee which will pay for others to abort their babies, a procedure which will be made available to all under this legislation.

The Manhattan Declaration goes so far as to call upon Christians to engage in civil disobedience in the tradition of William Wilberforce and Martin Luther King Jr., whose leadership brought an end to the slave trade in the 1800’s and restored civil rights to the citizens of this nation in the 1900’s.

Because it advocates these extreme measures, the Manhattan Declaration deserves the thoughtful consideration of every Christian.

• Should the church concede its stand in the debate concerning the morality of homosexuality under the threat of the penalties of hate-crime legislation?
• Should your pastor be compelled to perform same-sex marriages when a refusal to do so might be construed as a violation of someone’s civil rights?
• Would you be willing to risk heavy fines and possibly be forced to undergo psychological treatment should you refuse to fund the operation of America’s national sin of abortion?

The publishing of the Manhattan Declaration mandates that we consider our options in these matters because this is no longer a matter of speculation, but is about to become a matter of fact.

The national debate on this subject is no longer a matter of the church trying to impose its “right wing agenda” on the nation.  It is about to impact the freedoms guaranteed to all by our Constitution.

In Romans 13, Paul tells us to submit to the authority of our national leaders.   He gave us this instruction under the direction of the Holy Spirit during a time when Christians were eaten by lions in the Coliseum or who were burned alive to provide light for the Emperor’s parties.  And so they are appropriate to provide guidance for us today.

The essence of the Bible’s teaching in this matter is this:  If you’re going to purposely defy man’s laws, you had better be prepared to pay the penalty imposed by man on those who break the law.  No complaining,  as sheep led to the slaughter are silent, endure the penalty.

Therefore the time to speak out is now, while this threat to everything that we believe is still to become the law of the land.  Martin Niemöller who was liberated from a Nazi death camp in 1945 would understand the urgency of this situation.

Revelation 12:10 – 11: ¹⁰Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say:  “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.  ¹¹ They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.