Brooks & Dunn meet Isaiah & Co.

"When the day comes that I don't love you

every star will fall out of the sky

every mountain will tumble down

and every river run dry."

- Every River

(Kim Richey/Angelo/Tom Littlefield)

-BMI/ASCAP

Listening to Brooks & Dunn perform their heartfelt rendition of this song, earlier today,(Steers & Stripes, Arista-Nashville) (besides being deeply touched by the serious intensity of it), my brain patterns registered a similar expression of eternal commitment. Now where?...oh, right...

Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night...

If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, the seed of Israel also chall cease from being a nation before me for ever."

(Jeremiah 31: 35, 36 ,KJV)

"My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips."

(Psalms 89: 34, KJV)

and, lastly, even though those unthinakble and presumably impossible events actually should come to pass -

"For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be

removed; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD..."

(Isaiah 54: 10, KJV)

ooo

Who is my Brother?

Around the world, peoples of all ages and from all walks of life, have taken up a hue and a cry against governmental oppression of Iranian activist citizens. Protesting the outcome of Iran's recent election, which once again placed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power, these people have been beaten and arrested, and in at least twenty cases, death was the result of police crackdown.

In London, a reported 600 protesters gathered outside the Iranian embassy. Several hundred people demonstrated near Times Square in New York City, and a small group of Iranians living in New York have formed protests outside the U.N."to call on the world body to investigate human rights abuses in Iran." In Brussels, Amsterdam, and Geneva people carrying placards, listening to speakers or wearing green headbands symbolic of this protest movement have gathered for the cause of freedom. The Eiffel Tower bore silent witness to several hundred rallying at Trocadero Square in Paris. Vienna, Rome, Norway, Copenhagen...near 3000 demonstrators showed up in Stockholm. The list goes on, people - and is this giving anyone else chills?

In smaller yet nonetheless potent groupings, the Australian cities of Sydney, Melbourne and others hosted the voices of protest, as well as Tokyo and Seoul. Activists outside the Iranian embassy in Prague denounced the brutal treatment of Iranian dissenters of the election results.

I have never, in my lifetime, been aware of such an international gathering & outpouring of public support for oppressed citizens of another country. (Although it is true, not that long ago I wouldn't have been paying attention to events on a larger scale...so I may have missed it.)

Here is what I'm seeing - because the world has witnessed the liberation of Iraq from the tyranny of a Saddam Hussein, and the inception of a democracy, and because the world is now witnessing a powerful helping hand being extended to the people of Afghanistan, that their lives may be freed from the threat of Taliban control, citizens around the globe have taken heart. The cause of freedom is just, and they know it. Some will not be silent. "...Iranian Nobel Peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi urged the international community to reject the outcome of the Iranian election and called for a new vote monitored by the United Nations." (USAToday)

To Shirin Ebadi, I say, "Rock ON!!!"

The Iranian people and their com padres worldwide are crying out against killing, imprisonment, mistreatments and abuse of rights, against dictatorship and injustice. Thomas Jefferson's prediction of over 200 years ago (link) that "this ball of liberty...is now so well in motion that it will roll around the globe..." stands true yet today.

It has not stopped rolling.



(Source)

They wanted a King !....or, The Evils of Monarchy

"And ye have this day rejected your God...ye have said unto him, Nay, but set a king over us." (1 Samuel 10: 19, KJV)


It almost breaks my heart to read through the eighth chapter of 1 Samuel in the Old Testament. It was so not in the heart of the LORD to place an earthly king over the people of Israel. He could not have been any more clear, nor more specific, in His warnings to the people regarding such a form of 'leadership'. But "Nevertheless the people refused...and they said, Nay, but we will have a king over us:" (1 Samuel 8: 19, KJV) Eerdman's Handbook to the Bible (p.235) points out that, in those days (and I point out, in days yet to come!) "having a king mean{t} conscription, forced labour, taxation, and loss of personal liberty. But even this does not deter them."

Now wouldn't you think such dire consequences as outlined in 1 Samuel would stop Israel dead-in-their-tracks, so to speak, as concerns demanding a king? Plus, the LORD spoke his warning through the prophet Samuel, a man of God well-known by all, and a force to be reckoned with. If the people would've listened to any human, it surely would've been Samuel. But Biblical history tells us otherwise. The elders of Israel "said unto him, Behold...make us a king to judge us like all the nations." (1Samuel 8: 5, KJV)

ooo

We see here the tendency of man to progress towards 'kingly government'. It may surprise you to learn that this concept was expressed by Benjamin Franklin, during Revolutionary times!

His concerns for American liberty seem to mirror those of the ancient prophet of Israel. "I am apprehensive, therefore...that the Government of these States may in future times end in a monarchy." (Albert H. Smythe, ed.,The Writings of Benjamin Franklin) Franklin believed that the American citizenry might eventually fall under the illusion of 'kingly government' providing equality among all. (W. Cleon Skousen, The 5000 Year Leap) In a word, security? Which engenders survival, promotes happiness and makes possible liberty and its enjoyment. (Another way of phrasing "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?) Author Michael Novak writes "liberty needs the sunny warmth of culture and ideas and the nourishing rain of favorable institutions of politics and economics." (The Universal Hunger for Liberty) Conditions must be right, as with the blossoming of any planted seed. Franklin and other Founders shared with the prophet Samuel a great concern for the manner in which those conditions were courted.

In this lure towards 'kingly government' which so troubled Ben Franklin, and the clamor of ancient Israel for the same, I see the deceitfulness of law (as opposed to grace) wreaking its havoc. I see in the physical world the demonstration of a spiritual dynamic. Many people seek a structured formula (Old Testament law, or just plain law, period!) which, by adhering to it, will let them rest assured that, before God, they are 'okay'. In similar manner, 'kingly government' will guarantee 'security', or equality. Everything will be 'okay'.

Wrong. On both counts.

In God's realm, "...by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight." (Romans 3:20, KJV). Doesn't work. Not gonna happen. Worse than a waste of time, because "the letter {of the Law} killeth." (2 Corinthians 3:6, KJV). Conditions are not only NOT 'okay', they deteriorate into destruction.

In the earthly realm, government by a 'king', or monarch, has never worked, either. Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to George Washington ( from Paris in 1788), wrote this: " I was much an enemy to monarchies before I came to Europe. I am ten thousand times more so so since I have seen what they are. There is scarcely an evil known in these countries which may not be traced to their king as it source... " (Edward Dumbault, ed., The Political Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Ch.3, The Blessings of Free Government) Previously, in the spring of 1785, Jefferson had strongly urged James Monroe to visit him in Paris, for the express purpose of gaining a sharper, more clarified view of the American system of government compared to that of monarchical Europe. He wrote "My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of and which no other people on earth enjoy. I confess I had no idea of it myself." (Ibid.) Though Jefferson was fully aware of defects in the American system, as is true today still, his belief was that government of and for the People could be repaired and improved by the People - "whereas the evils of monarchical government are beyond remedy." (Ibid.)

A single human ruler wielding all power is the formula for tyranny. And if you think about it, why would an individual even want to be all powerful? To dictate concerning the lives of others? The answers do not bode well for those under that individual's rule. Reinforcing a god complex is one answer that occurs to me. Which brings to mind another Old Testament event, when Lucifer (which means 'day star', btw - interesting...) made this determination in his heart : "I will exalt my throne above the stars of God...I will be like the most High." (Isaiah 14:13, 14, KJV) Intending to exalt one's self as God, however, has this result: "...thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." (Isaiah 14: 15, KJV). God complexes are not healthy. They do not bring health to the people.

ooo

Power and authority are with God, and come from Him (Romans 13: 1). Our use of it, when it is in our jurisdiction to do so, whether in the family, on the job, or in the governing of a nation, needs always to be to protect and serve. The temptation is to abuse power, applying it to meet one's own needs/desires - the challenge to effectively handle it requires His grace, which as its pre-requisite requires in turn our willingness to receive it.

on a more Personal Note...

Now that the Fourth of July has come and gone, I'm thinking it's time to get back to my writing here...well, I'm vacillating as to what direction to take. I'd 'scheduled' myself to publish a follow-up post to my Israel piece, one focusing on the Palestinian perspective. I just can't seem to muster up the focus & discipline needed to actually do that!

Here's what happened:

After being immersed in such topics as slavery, Guantanamo, terrorism & counter-terrorism, and diving into other topics such as Presidential issues, earmarks, the Middle East wars, U.S torture policy...and so on and so forth...I needed a break from it all. I needed a break from serious reading and research of any kind, on any topic!! So I did something I haven't done in awhile: I rummaged through my piles on never-read fiction novels, with only one goal in mind, finding something all light and fluff! No serious reading for me, not for awhile. Nothing current events-y, no Revolutionary fare, either. Maybe some Patricia Cornwell, some kind of murder mystery or perhaps a romance with a suspenseful twist...

So that's where my head has been lately.

But as it turned out, I did come across a 'twist'. Just not a suspenseful one - and I found, for me, there really is no escape! Any of my readers familiar with C.S.Lewis will perhaps recall that Lewis referred to God as the great Hound of Heaven, may I say 'doggedly' (?) pursuing him, unrelenting in His quest. Well, in a rather humorous version of such Divine determination, I found myself most surprisingly confronted with the very thing I was (so I thought) escaping - and smack dab in the middle of my escape route too!

I'd unearthed a novel I'd completely forgotten I had, about a subject I rarely read. Its title was two-fold, a kind of lead-in mini novel called "Enchantment", followed by the meatier "Bridge of Dreams". Long story short, we're talking two hundred year-old ill-fated loves & unsolved murders, an ancestral English manor, and its guardian ghost. Not my customary fare. believe me, but I was looking for something different, and let me tell you, this was it! Set in Kent, England, I found the tale most absorbing. The scenarios switch back and forth, from the late 1700's to the present day.

So, the tale is weaving its magic, and I'm ensconced in it, when unbelievably...seriously, folks, unbelievably ! who do you think steps into the room? (the 'room' being Adrian Draycott's study, in 18th. century England) Let me give it to you verbatim -

"...From now on I trust no one." (Adrian speaking.)

"Not even me, Lord Ashton?" The fluid, cultured male voice had something foreign about it as it drifted from the doorway. The speaker was a tall man, with a high, arched nose and eyes of keen, cutting blue.

Gabriel stared at the American statesman who had already made a name for himself in England and France. "Is that you, Jefferson?..."

Just knock me over with a feather at this point! For the next two pages, and sprinkled here and there after that, our Founding Father briefly engaged with the hero and heroine of the novel, racing against time, flying through the night in a horse-drawn carriage, desperately trying to reach safety and save the heroine's life!

Despite my 'need for a break from it all', I was delighted! The story plot actually involved an element of the French Revolution, and that was in part how Thomas Jefferson made his appearance. I didn't see it coming, though! What a treat! Jefferson's time 'on stage' was well-handled, and actually very believable.

So now, I have no gumption at all to pursue Palestinian issues, yet am also loathe to not do so. I don't want to leave the subject unfinished.

Compounding my reluctance to stay 'current', I have begun reading 'The 5,000 Year Leap', (after reading AndyD's review (Political Friends blog) of it & then getting the book!) and the pull to sink back into things Revolutionary is gaining momentum!

So I'm hoping to work this quandary out over the weekend. Stay tuned!

Independence Day, 2009....by His grace!

"...My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." (Luke 1: 46,47, KJV)

As Americans across the nation, from purple mountains' majesty to the congested streets of New York City, celebrate the Fourth of July, as indeed peoples from countries worldwide know of this our great commemoration of freedom, I find myself moved by this freedom as never before in my life.


How precious is our liberty.


How can that which is purchased by blood be anything less? What can compare to freedom?

How great our God, He who designed this plan and He who also brought it to pass. He, the firstfruits, and now we, the favored ones who daily partake of that which has been provided for us. It is true, we yet fight for freedom on foreign soil. But we did not have to fight in that unprecedented American revolution that necessitated the drafting and signing of our Declaration of Independence on this day, two hundred and thirty-three years ago. We, my friends, are the heirs to Liberty! We have been born with that silver spoon in our mouths!

Are we worthy? Only because He has so declared it. More and more, I marvel, why did God place me in the great United States of America? Who am I, or, as King David so eloquently wrote in the Psalms, What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? It is essentially the same question I ask. My only answer dwells in God's sovereignty, and His Word. He hath done, and He hath said, Amen.

"..this ball of liberty...will roll around the globe...for light and liberty go together. It is our glory that we first put it into motion." ( Thomas Jefferson, June 1795 )


God bless America.

My fellow Americans, may your Independence Day be a favored one.