A friend sent me the following. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do, and that it will help you to understand more about our place in the world as the United States of America. We are certainly not perfect - but I believe the following four anecdotes illustrate what this country is really about.... Jerry.
(1) When in England, at a fairly large conference, Colin Powell was asked by the Archbishop of Canterbury if our plans for Iraq were just an example of empire building by George Bush.
He answered, 'Over the years, the United States has sent many of its fine young men and women into great peril to fight for freedom beyond our borders. The only amount of land we have ever asked for in return is enough to bury those that did not return.'
You could have heard a pin drop.
(2) There was a conference in France where a number of international engineers were taking part, including French
and American. During a break, one of the French engineers came back into the room saying 'Have you heard the latest dumb stunt Bush has done? He has sent an aircraft carrier to Indonesia to help the tsunami victims. What does he intended to do, bomb them?'
A Boeing engineer stood up and replied quietly: 'Our carriers have three hospitals on board that can treat several
hundred people; they are nuclear powered and can supply emergency electrical power to shore facilities; they
have three cafeterias with the capacity to feed 3,000 people three meals a day, they can produce several thousand gallons of fresh water from sea water each day, and they carry half a dozen helicopters for use in
transporting victims and injured to and from their flight deck. We have eleven such ships; how many does
France have?'
You could have heard a pin drop.
(3) A U.S. Navy Admiral was attending a naval conference that included Admirals from the U.S., English, Canadian,
Australian and French Navies. At a cocktail reception, he found himself standing with a large group of Officers
that included personnel from most of those countries.
Everyone was chatting away in English as they sipped their drinks but a French admiral suddenly complained that, whereas Europeans learn many languages, Americans learn only English.' He then asked, 'Why is it that we always have to speak English in these conferences rather than speaking French?'
Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied 'Maybe it's because the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you wouldn't have to speak German.'
You could have heard a pin drop.
(4) Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane. At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on.
'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously
Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.'
The American said, ''The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it.
'Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France !'
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained, ''Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find a single Frenchmen to show a passport to.'
You could have heard a pin drop.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Friday, February 6, 2009
CROSSING THE GENERATION GAP
A friend sent me the following story. I had heard it many years ago - and loved it then. I still love it. Perhaps you will as well.
His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college.
He is brilliant, profound, and very bright. He became a Christian while in college.
Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students but have no idea how to go about it.
One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his t-shirt, and wild hair. The service has begun, so Bill goes down the aisle seeking a seat.
The church is packed and he can't find a pew. Bill gets closer and closer to the pulpit. When he realizes there are no seats, he just sits down on the carpet.
About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, an elder is slowly making his way toward Bill.
The elder is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane, and as he starts walking toward this boy everyone is saying to themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do.
How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?
The church is utterly silent. All eyes are focused on him. You can't hear anyone breathing. The minister can't even preach the sermon until the elder does what he will do.
Then they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With difficulty, he lowers himself, sits next to Bill, and worships with him.
Everyone chokes up with emotion.
When the minister gains control, he says, 'What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.'
[Read this, and then read James 2:1-9. - Jerry.]
His name is Bill. He has wild hair, wears a T-shirt with holes in it, jeans, and no shoes. This was literally his wardrobe for his entire four years of college.
He is brilliant, profound, and very bright. He became a Christian while in college.
Across the street from the campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. They want to develop a ministry to the students but have no idea how to go about it.
One day Bill decides to go there. He walks in with no shoes, jeans, his t-shirt, and wild hair. The service has begun, so Bill goes down the aisle seeking a seat.
The church is packed and he can't find a pew. Bill gets closer and closer to the pulpit. When he realizes there are no seats, he just sits down on the carpet.
About this time, the minister realizes that from way at the back of the church, an elder is slowly making his way toward Bill.
The elder is in his eighties, has silver-gray hair, and a three-piece suit. A godly man, very elegant, very dignified, very courtly. He walks with a cane, and as he starts walking toward this boy everyone is saying to themselves that you can't blame him for what he's going to do.
How can you expect a man of his age and of his background to understand some college kid on the floor?
The church is utterly silent. All eyes are focused on him. You can't hear anyone breathing. The minister can't even preach the sermon until the elder does what he will do.
Then they see this elderly man drop his cane on the floor. With difficulty, he lowers himself, sits next to Bill, and worships with him.
Everyone chokes up with emotion.
When the minister gains control, he says, 'What I'm about to preach, you will never remember. What you have just seen, you will never forget.'
[Read this, and then read James 2:1-9. - Jerry.]
Thursday, February 5, 2009
BASIS FOR UNITY
Not long ago, I received the following question.
Christ is distinct from the Father, but He is also God (John 1:1) Christ is called God in Hebrews 1:8 and John 20:28. Matthew 28:19 associates the Persons of the Trinity under one name and there are also Old Testament references (Deuteronomy 6:4). In Psalm 2 the Messiah and God the Father are differentiated but both divine, as are the spirit and the Father in Isaiah 48:16. Can you please tell me more about the Godhead? I do believe that there is one True God in His threefold personality.
To this, I gave the following answer:
Thank you for your question.
The relationship that exists within the Deity (Godhead) is truly one of the great mysteries - but how could it be otherwise? To explain it, one would have to be God, as would any who would understand the explanation. Yet, there are many things we can know about this relationship.
One thing we know about God is that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Certainly this is not all that God is, but love is basic and fundamental to His nature. This is true so much that John says in this verse, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
Now, one of the things about love is that it must have an object. Can you imagine love that has no object to love? As humans, we learn to love by being loved. God, who is love and who is also eternal (that is, He has always existed), did not "learn" to love - but being Trinity, He always existed in community where there is relationship. The basic fact of that relationship is love.
In this, we can think of the Godhead as Family. But this is not like our imperfect human families where tensions and (sometimes) even hatred mars family love. This is Family where perfect love exists eternally. This Family is one and this Family is perfect love.
The beauty of perfect love is that it seeks other objects to love. This can be seen in a human family when a husband and wife who, as an expression of their love for each other, want a child to love as well. With the Divine Family, this led to Creation. "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.... So God created man in in own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:26-27). God not only created creatures whom He could love; He also created creatures who had the capacity for loving each other. "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
That is, it was good until sin came into the world. How did sin come? It came when the serpent convinced Mother Eve that God did not truly love her as much as He claimed, that God was holding out on her by forbidding her the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The mistrust that entered the world by that sin quickly spread. When Adam was confronted by God with having disobeyed, what did he do? He immediately blamed God and the woman! "The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (Genesis 3:12). Not only was there a rupture in Adam's love for God by that mistrust, but there was also a rupture in Adam's love for his wife!
It was to restore love in the world that Jesus came. It was God's love that sent Him (John 3:16). He said that the greatest commandment is to love God; the second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:34-40). Later He "raised the bar" on the love we are to have for others: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34). This love was to be the sign of His disciples. Just how great that love is is seen two chapters later: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love" (John 15:9).
Does this explain the relationship among the Godhead? Does it remove the mystery? No, it does neither of these. Yet it does point us in the right direction, a direction that is frequently lost in the theological niceties of human minds attempting to explain how there can be one God when there is a plurality of persons.
The Godhead wants us to share in the love that is in heaven. This is a sharing that begins even now, but will exist in a fuller perfection when we go up into glory. The apostle of love declared, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). Later in that same epistle he wrote:
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! .... Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
Even now, we are already privileged to be in the Family of God, but John says we will not know how great this will ultimately be until that great day when we see Him as He is - and finally realize fully the purpose for which He created us, to be in His image and His likeness.
To the above answer, I would like to add the following:
What does all of this have to do with unity?
Simply that love is the glue that holds us together - and the love that is in the church (congregation, brotherhood) is to be of the same quality as the love that exists in the godhead.
I always thought that loving one another as Jesus loves us is a high "bar" as a standard for our love. Yet, when Jesus told us He loves us as the Father loves Him, my previous concept was blown away.
Now, consider the progression:
Christ is distinct from the Father, but He is also God (John 1:1) Christ is called God in Hebrews 1:8 and John 20:28. Matthew 28:19 associates the Persons of the Trinity under one name and there are also Old Testament references (Deuteronomy 6:4). In Psalm 2 the Messiah and God the Father are differentiated but both divine, as are the spirit and the Father in Isaiah 48:16. Can you please tell me more about the Godhead? I do believe that there is one True God in His threefold personality.
To this, I gave the following answer:
Thank you for your question.
The relationship that exists within the Deity (Godhead) is truly one of the great mysteries - but how could it be otherwise? To explain it, one would have to be God, as would any who would understand the explanation. Yet, there are many things we can know about this relationship.
One thing we know about God is that "God is love" (1 John 4:8). Certainly this is not all that God is, but love is basic and fundamental to His nature. This is true so much that John says in this verse, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
Now, one of the things about love is that it must have an object. Can you imagine love that has no object to love? As humans, we learn to love by being loved. God, who is love and who is also eternal (that is, He has always existed), did not "learn" to love - but being Trinity, He always existed in community where there is relationship. The basic fact of that relationship is love.
In this, we can think of the Godhead as Family. But this is not like our imperfect human families where tensions and (sometimes) even hatred mars family love. This is Family where perfect love exists eternally. This Family is one and this Family is perfect love.
The beauty of perfect love is that it seeks other objects to love. This can be seen in a human family when a husband and wife who, as an expression of their love for each other, want a child to love as well. With the Divine Family, this led to Creation. "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.... So God created man in in own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:26-27). God not only created creatures whom He could love; He also created creatures who had the capacity for loving each other. "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."
That is, it was good until sin came into the world. How did sin come? It came when the serpent convinced Mother Eve that God did not truly love her as much as He claimed, that God was holding out on her by forbidding her the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The mistrust that entered the world by that sin quickly spread. When Adam was confronted by God with having disobeyed, what did he do? He immediately blamed God and the woman! "The woman you put here with me - she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it" (Genesis 3:12). Not only was there a rupture in Adam's love for God by that mistrust, but there was also a rupture in Adam's love for his wife!
It was to restore love in the world that Jesus came. It was God's love that sent Him (John 3:16). He said that the greatest commandment is to love God; the second is to love your neighbor as you love yourself (Matthew 22:34-40). Later He "raised the bar" on the love we are to have for others: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another" (John 13:34). This love was to be the sign of His disciples. Just how great that love is is seen two chapters later: "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love" (John 15:9).
Does this explain the relationship among the Godhead? Does it remove the mystery? No, it does neither of these. Yet it does point us in the right direction, a direction that is frequently lost in the theological niceties of human minds attempting to explain how there can be one God when there is a plurality of persons.
The Godhead wants us to share in the love that is in heaven. This is a sharing that begins even now, but will exist in a fuller perfection when we go up into glory. The apostle of love declared, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:3). Later in that same epistle he wrote:
How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! .... Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)
Even now, we are already privileged to be in the Family of God, but John says we will not know how great this will ultimately be until that great day when we see Him as He is - and finally realize fully the purpose for which He created us, to be in His image and His likeness.
To the above answer, I would like to add the following:
What does all of this have to do with unity?
Simply that love is the glue that holds us together - and the love that is in the church (congregation, brotherhood) is to be of the same quality as the love that exists in the godhead.
I always thought that loving one another as Jesus loves us is a high "bar" as a standard for our love. Yet, when Jesus told us He loves us as the Father loves Him, my previous concept was blown away.
Now, consider the progression:
- I love you as the Father loves me.
- You love one another as I love you.
- We are to love one another as the Father loves Jesus.
How do I love you? Certainly not as much as the Father loves the Son - but is it even the same quality of love? It is certainly not as constant as the heavenly love, but does it make real differences in how I treat you?
When I look at members of my congregation or brotherhood as objects of God's love - and therefore, as objects of my love, I will begin to love as I ought. As long as I regard them as competitors instead of my lovers, there will be tensions among us (potential or real).
Until the congregation begins to develop interactive love such as the Godhead has always had, unity will be a Chimera. When we base our unity on perfection of agreement of understanding of the Word of God, we will never have unity. It is when we allow God's love to be poured into our hearts by God's Spirit that we will find the unity of the Spirit. Then, in that love, we will find it easy to maintain that unity because it will be unity in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
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