December 10, 2009

Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

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I like that song.

The Christophers put it this way: "It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness."

Or as C.S. Lewis often suggested, "It's better to point people to heaven than tell them that they're going to hell."

Be that as it ought to be with folks who have good news, a fruit of the Spirit - evidence of intimacy with God - is joy.

Or as Donald Grey Barnhouse often said, "If you aren't joyful - I mean radiantly, abundantly, joyful - you, obviously, don't have any idea of what God has done for you in Jesus."

You can tell lots about people by what's on their faces.

It often betrays what's in their hearts.

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Getting back to the song, it was written by Chris Rice and is part of Miracle on Main Street which is a Christmas pageant that will be presented by the children of our family of faith on 12/13 (go to www.belvpresbyterian.org for details).

For the second time in four years, our children compelled me to be in it.

I play the mayor who is something of a bah humbug until he gets it/Him with the help of children who get it/Him.

It's a wineskin-stretching experience pour moi; 'cause I've never felt called to acting.

When I was in seminary, I always struggled with our speech department because so much of it seemed like posing/pretending; so much so that one of the professors - a woman with the appropriate initials of VD who coached the cast of The Honeymooners - said to me after an audition for something, "Well, you're not a basket case - but close."

When I've taught in seminary, I tell my preaching students that if they don't believe what they're saying, they're acting and won't have the passion to exhort/encourage or whatever else is supposed to happen in the pulpit.

Or as James Brown, not the singer but the founder of the Presbyterian Charismatic Communion, said to me back in 1977 when I couldn't figure out why my church wasn't growing, "Nothing can happen through you that has not first happened to you."

A salty missionary got it/Him: "You can't give away what you ain't got for yourself."

Parenthetically, now you know why some churches grow and others don't.

Be that as it is, I'm having a hard time memorizing my lines because that process is so far out of my box and charismata; but I'm trying really hard because our children's joy for living in/through/for Him is so contagious/compelling.

While I don't enjoy the process of my part in the pageant, I'm feeling so blessed by the children's exuberance/excitement that I'm overcoming those damning bah humbugs who hang around all seasons.

Hmm.

Maybe they'll be infected by the kids.

If it can happen to me...

In other words, if you're one of those KDers who's cranky/contentious for Jesus or have no real interest in Jesus, check your local papers and go to a children's Christmas pageant.

It'll be a lot better than most sermons; 'cause lots of preachers preach/pose/pretend and aren't really that into it/Him anyway.

You can see it on their faces just like, uh, the faces of...

I see lots of mugs that aren't very merry.

Maybe that's why Jesus talked so much about children getting it/Him.

So, again, go to a pageant and see...and...maybe...

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In a related story, PBHO's health care bill is moving ahead/behind (depending upon your ideological bent); and it looks like it will include federal funding for abortions.

Dirty Harry (Doesn't he look like a happy camper?), the Wicked Witch of the West (Wild horses dragging me by the tongue on a desert island couldn't persuade me to...), and other barbarians who want to save Polar Bears while enabling infanticide while seeing no intellectual inconsistency not to mention sin in any of their illogic are getting help from mainline denominations (viz., The Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, and United Methodist Church) who have all "chimed" in to insure the death of babies by personal choice/volition/whim/selfishness/whatever-rationalization-works-to-kill-the-kid.

Get this!

Those mainliners - What the hell are they mainlining? - are saying abortion is a "God-given right" that prompts their advocacy of federal funding for, uh, murder, uh, they not I mean, abortion.

Here's part of their press release: "Reforming the health care system in a way that guarantees affordable and accessible [abortion] for all is not simply a good idea - it is necessary for the well-being of all people in our nation...[There is a]...social and moral obligation to ensure access to abortions at every stage in an individual's life."

As Blutto would say, "Holy ___!"

Picture this scene.

"Hey, Jesus! Abortion is a God-given right!"

That may be as shocking to Him as mainline pewsitters hearing something about Jesus and Biblical faith and morality from their pulpits.

With all apologies to the Christophers and C.S. Lewis, it's that kinda talk that brings up thoughts/realities of hell.

Anyway, all of those independents/non-denominationals/emergings/sideliners better start making plans for expansion again; and who in God's name will want to send $ to enable those kinda guys/gals?

One professor's protest: "Please tell me what gives our denominational leaders the authority to sign letters endorsing political issues like the current amendment concerning US Government funding of abortion?...This is only the latest in denominational endorsements of political issues for which we, the members, were not consulted. What gives them the right? It is not a 'moral' right, because most of the time what they endorse is morally debatable if not outright outrageously immoral."

Talk about a thanatos libido.

Geez.

I thought Satan was smarter than that.

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Getting back to the pageant, Paul Swedlund went home to Jesus in 1994; but before he died, he called mainliners to life with this stirring comment that converted me: "When you look at the children during a children's sermon, you see a difference between them and who's in the womb. God doesn't!"

God forgive me, but people who make abortion the rule rather than exception remind me of Black Sabbath's song about their kind.

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Moving to another lighter subject, some Huckaboo fans are ticked 'cause I'm not so mindlessly lining up for his parade like PBHO's sycophants.

Sorry.

I just can't get around the Confederate flag thing (scroll down to the last KD).

It's very personal for me.

I don't like racists because Jesus doesn't.

He loves 'em which makes me love 'em; but He/I don't like 'em.

And ever since He added a black son to our family, I've become especially sensitive to, uh, overt/covert/conscious/conditioned crackers.

I've always been sensitive to the race thing; ever since I got kicked out of the black section of a military base as a child by MPs who said I wasn't supposed to be "in that part" of the base and they never had a reasonable response for my simple question: "Why?"

Here's the deal.

Huckleberry is either a racist or panders to racists for their votes/$.

Every black knows/smells/sees that.

And if you don't, that's because you're not...

The Confederate flag symbolizes racism to black Americans.

Period.

When that Foxey celebrity stops saying it's O.K. to fly it, I'll rethink...

On the other hand, now that Sarah has pulled within 1% of...

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Blessings and Love!