No insignificant people

My God, with His lovingkindness, will meet me.
Psalm 59:10, RV of 1901

No insignificant people
Amy Carmichael

To some of us, there often comes such a sense of the vastness of things and of our own insignificance that it can be a shaking thing. It can even shake our faith in the truth that our Father regards with compassion even the fall of a single sparrow.

To me, one of the proofs that God’s hand is behind and all throughout this marvelous Book we know as the Bible is the way it continually touches upon this very fear in us – the fear that we are so insignificant as to be forgotten. That we are nothing. Unconsciously, His Word meets this fear, and answers it – not always by direct statement, but often by giving a simple, loving story.

Daniel, for instance, was so overwhelmed by this supernatural vision of the vast, majestic march of history and the glory of the Lord that his physical strength vanished – until “a hand touched me” (Daniel 8:8-10).

John, looking through the thin veil of time into eternity, saw his Lord – the Lord he had seen pierced – now holding in His hand seven stars. John declares, “I fell at His feet as though dead.” Immediately – just as though this fallen one mattered more than the seven stars, as though there were no stars – “He placed His right hand on upon me (Revelation 1:16-17).

Isn’t it beautiful that there was no rebuke at all for their human weakness? And there never is a rebuke for our weaknesses either. “The soul of the wounded calls for help, and God does not regard it as foolish” (Job 24:12, Rotherham).

He comforts. He lays His right hand on the soul wounded by weariness, or fear, or any kind of weakness at all. And He says, as if that one were the only soul in the universe:

O man, greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee. Be strong – yea, be strong! (Daniel 10:19, Rotherham)

Alleluia!

I will lift up my eyes...

I will lift up my eyes to the hills;
Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
Maker of heaven and earth!

He will not allow your foot to be moved;
He who keeps you will not slumber.
Behold! He who keeps Israel
Shall neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD is your keeper,
The LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not smite you by day,
Nor the moon by night.

The LORD shall preserve you from all evil;
He shall preserve your soul:
The LORD shall preserve your going out and coming in,
From this time forth and even forevermore!

Alleluia!

Selah.

Thoughts between daughter and Father

BE OCCUPIED IN THE GREATEST THINGS

The daughter, though consoled by the love of her Lord, found herself so preoccupied by…disillusionment that she was bound in spirit and not free for her rightful work. But her God uncovered her eyes, and she saw this preoccupation as a bond from which the Spirit of Liberty was waiting to unbind her.

And she knew that she must be occupied in the greatest things. She was doing a great work and she could not come down to those little things. If they did not seem little things to her, she must ask herself this question: Was He whom she called Master and Lord always understood? Was He never misjudged? They laid to His charge things that He knew not, to the great discomfiture of His spirit. Is it not enough for the disciple to be as her Master and the servant as her Lord?

THE SECRET OF CONTINUED ENDURANCE

The daughter asked, “What is the secret of continued endurance?”

Her Father answered,

“It is found in seeing Him who is invisible. It is found in looking at the joy that is set before thee. It is found in considering Him who endured. It is found in taking for thine own the words of one who was tempted to wax faint: ‘In the day when I cried Thou answered me, and strengthened me with strength in my soul.’ It is found in staking thine all upon the lightest word of the Lord, thy Redeemer. It is found in loyalty. It is found in love.”

HAST THOU COME TO THE END OF MY RESOURCES?

Her thoughts said, “My enemies live and are mighty; and yet I have requested that they, even mine enemies, shall not triumph over me or over those whom Thou hast given me, my Father, for they are Thine. But I have come to the end of my resources.”

Her Father said,

“Hast thou come to the end if My resources? Is the Lord’s hand shortened? Dost thou not know Him whom thou hast believed? Art thou not persuaded that He is able to keep that which thou hast committed unto Him? Know thy Lord and thy heart shall find repose in Him. Thine enemies shall not triumph over thee or over those whom I have given thee.”

And the daughter said, “I will cry unto God most high, unto God that performeth all things for me, even the cause that I have in hand. Lord, all my desire is before Thee!”

Note: Prayer thoughts from Amy Carmichael, writing from India, where she singlehandly stood against the racist caste system, rescuing young girls from ritual Hindu temple prostitution -- at risk of her own life. Countless redemptive miracles were wrought from her prayer life... here is a glimpse into that inner beauty, beauty which can lead us in our own relation and work!

The heavens declare

The heavens declare the glory of God,
The firmament showeth His handiwork;
Day unto day they pour forth speech,
Night unto night they show forth knowledge:
There is no speech or language
Where their voice is not heard!

The BANA project: A miracle begins with a gift!

BANA means children

Ladell Patterson
Logos Global Ministries

Bana means children in the Sesotho language. Bana: the children of Lesotho, Africa, who need real care! Bana: the life-giving focus of Logos Global Ministries [LGM], which now cares for hundreds of AIDS orphans, leveraging indigenous networks for critical training and care. LGM has quietly become a permanent presence in this desperate country, working through its Lesotho arm, THE BANA PROJECT OF LESOTHO, to offer hope in the midst of seemingly hopeless circumstances. These people are threatened on every side for daily existence. For them the Bana Project is a miracle of hope: Loving eyes that look to the children, see their desperate needs, and offer them a better future.

The project is currently supplying Basotho Blankets to help the children during the winter months, which are now beginning. The highland winters of Lesotho can be brutal. The lowlands around the capital city, Maseru, experience a mild winter even though the temperature drops below freezing most nights. But in the highlands the people and animals die by the hundreds: a lack of fuel or money for its purchase means deadly results. During such drastic times, snow and wind bring unthinkable hardship for the locals. We only pray that it will not be one of those winters!

The need is great, but God is raising up people around the world, people called to join LGM in the battle for orphans. Just last week a prominent lady of the community in Lesotho came to the site where the children are cared for and brought with her a load of used clothing. There seems to be no other way to get used clothing into the country, so this lady was a Godsend. Her charity will do more than warm the bodies of the small children: Their hearts also are feeling the comfort of good clothing.

A month ago a lady called me with an offer to build a large garden project for the orphans – with another $50,000 gift! Fresh vegetables and fruit are of great nutritional value if they contain no contaminates or polluted ingredients left there by pesticides: Lesotho struggles with the quality control that we take for granted here in the USA. However, this garden project will now make healthy produce a reality!

Several months ago someone offered a gift of $50,000 for a sewing factory so that the ladies of the community could make school uniforms for those who do not have them. Education is such an important part of the orphans hope! Now they will have uniforms manufactured by their village peers.

A friend with extensive exposure to LGM, who has offered timely counsel, advice and encouragement, recently donated $1100 for the project. And God continues to whisper on the night wind, calling caring hearts to stand in the gap, and stand for this project.

We’re also learning the lesson of fed multitudes in Galilee, where Jesus took a small boy’s lunch and fed five thousand and more. This miracle principle is echoing greater and greater for Lesotho: Little by little we receive 10 dollars here, five dollars there, 50 or a hundred…slowly moving toward our original goal: to find 1 million people to give $5. Youth groups and other groups are starting a campaign to see how many $1 bills we can raise, all for the orphan care project!

We are still praying that a large grant will come to us, like $5 million, or more. I feel confident that it will happen on God’s timetable, but until then we count the blessings of miracles already come, of lives already changed.

You are invited to join us in prayer, for it alone will continue the success that has already come to Logos Global Ministries. Here are a number of things you can pray:

• God, give us that mountain we have prayed for so long. Drive back the forces of evil that refuse us access. Show LGM Your plans and make it all happen, according to Your will.
• Lord, continue to speak to those whom You want involved in the project. Visit those who have already answered with Your Holy presence. Guide them daily as they prepare mentally and spiritually for their assignments.
• Father, will You open the windows of heaven upon The Bana Project of Lesotho to supply all their needs? I know You will, for You have promised over and over again that You care for the orphans as Your own children. In this promise and on Your character we hold them up in prayer.
• Almighty God, Creator of all things, will You surround and support the little children in Lesotho who have no parents to care for them? When they are hungry, help LGM to be there. When winter sets in, keep them warm with Your love. Completely meet their needs through the church and through your chosen vessels. We ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, for the sake of Your children and for Your glory. AMEN!

God bless you for your prayers, and for your concern! Remember that a miracle begins with a gift – sometimes even a gift that seems so small will begin a blessing that reaches hundreds and thousands of lives. So hear the call! Join the project as God leads you, and together we’ll make a large difference in Lesotho.

Yours in Christ and for the Kingdom,

Ladell Patterson
Note: This article was written in consultation with Loy

The worlds of nature and of grace

HYMN: Behold the glories of the Lamb

Words: Isaac Watts, 1688
Tune: St. Fulbert

Behold the glories of the Lamb
amidst His Father's throne.
Prepare new honors for His Name,
and songs before unknown.

Let elders worship at his feet,
the Church adore around,
with vials full of odors sweet,
and harps of sweeter sound.

Those are the prayers of the saints,
and these the hymns they raise;
Jesus is kind to our complaints,
He loves to hear our praise.

Eternal Father, who shall look
into Thy secret will?
Who but the Son should take that book
and open every seal?

He shall fulfill Thy great decrees,
the Son deserves it well;
Lo, in His hand the sovereign keys
of heaven, and death, and hell!

Now to the Lamb that once was slain
be endless blessings paid;
salvation, glory, joy remain
forever on Thy head.

Thou hast redeemed our souls with blood,
hast set the prisoner free;
hast made us kings and priests to God,
and we shall reign with Thee.

The worlds of nature and of grace
are put beneath Thy power;
then shorten these delaying days,
and bring the promised hour!

The BANA project for Lesotho orphans

I’ve been encouraged recently, hearing about the BANA project for Lesotho orphans. The project is working in a non-traditional manner, using indigenous networks to reach the local orphans. Ladell Patterson is leading the project here in the U.S.A., soon to be in Lesotho, with a heart aflame for the cause. On a recent administrative visit, he and his son Allen found far more than they expected! Listen to his moving description of the event:

The rains had returned with a vengeance. Now we looked at the Lesotho lakes, ponds and gullies full and running…as if there had never been a shortage of rain. The entire country bloomed greener that I have ever seen it… Crops peaked through the formerly parched soil – a visible answer to prayer…

But the crop-giving rains turned the roads to mud! The car slipped and slid down to Tsikane's home and we wondered how on earth we would climb out the next day. Immediately we received word: You are to speak to the village chiefs and committees regarding the BANA project! So we prepared, with only two hours to spare.

Then the outpouring of hope captured our hearts. Some 800 people greeted us, surrounding us and crying their happy cry – dancing around, shaking and kissing our hands. Some of them had never met me and this was Allen's first group gathering to experience. What a greeting! I was not aware what was about to happen.

Tsikane introduced us and said a few words about our hearts and our vision. Allen spoke a few words of thanks and encouragement towards the project. As I walked forward to speak my heart suddenly leaped within me! I was so moved to see such a large delegation awaiting us. They had come from all 17 villages where we are working. A news reporter joined the crowd, along with the steering committee of the whole project. A representative from the chief’s office was there and many, many other people. Several cast iron pots wafted smoke in the background – promise of welcoming food being prepared. My heart threatened to beat out its socket: These people were really serious!

I gave greetings to them, and thanked all of them for their dedicated efforts. I recognized all those important people who were there. Then I told them of our entire vision, what we wanted to do in Lesotho, and they came unglued. They clapped, gave the happy cry and our hearts soared together, two diverse cultures meeting together with one common cause: to help the children of their villages who have no parents…

Ladell goes on to tell how moving the event was – he could think of no past experience in Africa that equals it: a true convergence of calling and destiny, the pleasure of God. In his words, it seemed as if God is saying that “we must do all within our power to continue putting this project on the map.”

Ladell’s passion comes through, powerfully, in his words:

I want the entire world to become involved. These kids need all we can give them, and as a side effect to it, thousands of lives will be touched and possibly a nation will be saved from annihilation. There were Christians, Jehovah Witnesses, Catholics, Lesotho Evangelical Church, and many other groups. They were all aware that we were Christian. They did not seem to care. Lives are being touched and changed and they seemed to want to be a part of it. The BANA Project is certainly a success. However, there is much, much more to do and their needs will never go away. We are going to be there for each child as they grow up and take their place in Basotho life. There is education, training, preparation, and many things to do for the children and we intend to be there.

You can read more here and here, but it is true: God is calling this project into existence, with the purpose of saving many lives, and perhaps a nation. Ladell and the others have come to the kingdom “for such a time as this!”

People are seeing the vision. Generous donors have heard the calling on the night wind, and moved to contribute. Lives are being touched and healed. The word is going out, with hope and healing in its wings!

And, there is room for your heart and action, should you sense the call!

The BANA project of Lesotho is making a difference in our time, our world of desperate need. Stay tuned here for more to come…

God bless,

Loy

See the sign of love appear

HYMN: God whose love is everywhere

Words: Timothy Dudley-Smith (c) Tune: Christingle Praise

God whose love is everywhere
made our earth and all things fair,
ever keeps them in His care:
praise the God of love!
He who hung the stars in space
holds the spinning world in place;
praise the God of love!

Come with thankful songs to sing
of the gifts the seasons bring,
summer, winter, autumn, spring;
praise the God of love!
He who gives us breath and birth
gives us all the fruitful earth;
praise the God of love!

Mark what love the Lord displayed,
all our sins upon Him laid,
by His blood our ransom paid;
praise the God of love!
Circled by that scarlet band
all the world is in His hand;
praise the God of love!

See the sign of love appear,
flame of glory, bright and clear,
light for all the world is here;
praise the God of love!
Gloom and darkness, get you gone!
Christ the Light of life has shone;
praise the God of love!

Blogging may be light...

I'm getting ready for the track!

To all who've been reading and responding to my posts, I say a big thank you. Many of you have encouraged me greatly, and I trust you are encouraged in this journal!

However, blogging will regretfully be lighter in the short term, as circumstances mitigate. I'll try to keep brief updates coming for the Hopegivers orphan care situation in India. And in the meantime I recommend www.persecution.org and also the www.Hopegivers.org site [for email and other contact info].

God bless all of you, and see you at the track! :-)

The one who knows us best...

...loves us the most

Jesus didn't reply to the men, but rather stooped down
and began writing in the dust.
Some say He wrote the deepest sins of each man,
from oldest to youngest...
At this silent writing, their shouting ceased
and stones dropped from their hands.
Slowly they walked away, from oldest to youngest:
From shouting slogans of false justice,
so willing to sacrifice a desperate woman
on the altar of tradition,
to walking quietly away...
thus the Power of His silent act.

And He turned to her: "Woman, where are your accusers?"
"I see none, Lord..."
Yet her unspoken question hung between them,
like a leaden stone in her soul...
His next words took that weight away:
"Neither do I condemn you, go, and sin no more!"

The One who knows us best loves us most;
The only One who can condemn us chooses to forgive us,
and takes the stones from our hands and heart:
This is not justice, it is something Higher.
It is Him. His eyes tell us what our hearts cannot believe:
He has given us Himself instead of stones!
"Go, and live in Me!'

A meditation of Resurrection

A lesson from a childhood sunrise service

Early Easter mornings usually take my mind back to a sunrise service of my childhood. In those days, the sunrise service would begin in the pre-dawn darkness, and we would finish as a hint of pink light crowned the eastern sky. And we would declare to the wakening world, “He is risen!”

But this year wasn’t service as usual, for it featured special visitors. Very early in the morning, my father drove a few miles down the road to pick up a worshipper for the service. It was so early in the morning, that he happened to pass two drunks on their way home from the local bar. They had stayed to last call, and weren’t feeling any pain. But Dad rolled down his window and offered them a ride. They said, “Sure, preacher!” But once they got in the car, Dad invited them to church. “What, church this time of morning?” they asked. “It’s a sunrise service,” Dad replied. “And you’d be welcome!”

And so they came to church, their first time in years.

They managed to stay awake, so I’ll have to give them credit. But when it came time for Dad to read the scripture lesson, we nearly lost it. For that morning, Dad read from the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, at her graveside vigil. The old Authorized text reads something like this: “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom He had cast seven devils…”

As soon as Dad read the words, “out of whom He had cast seven devils…,” one man turned to the other and said, in a dramatic, drunken stage whisper,

“THAT SOUNDS LIKE YOUR WIFE AND MINE!”

:-)

It echoed through the little church in stereo, and nearly brought the house down. I’ll never forget that service!

Looking back, we just have to laugh. But it raises a serious point of human nature. It is so human: two guys sitting in sunrise service, battling the sin of drunkenness, yet focused on the infidelity of their wives! Not their own evident issues, but the perceived issues of others.

Even at sunrise service, even at Easter, when we see our Lord’s rising from the grave, His victory over sin, we still cope with our own sinfulness. It’s the fallen human condition. This is our condition – maybe not drunkenness, or infidelity, but something: a lack of discipline, judgmental spirit, broken word, or relational failure – and it’s far too easy to see another’s need, before our own. This is our natural state, but it is not our true state.

And so, we can get discouraged. The cross truly shows us the destructive power of sin. Sin separates us from God, from one another, and from ourselves. Even in Holy Week, we struggle with separation. Even in sunrise service, we ask,

“Is sin the last word for me? Is separation the last word for my life?”

And here is where our Easter morning text speaks so loudly:

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God…

The resurrection of Christ means something radically new for human life. Yes, we have been bound over to sin in every aspect of our being. But now, in the risen Christ, our life is in a very real sense bound up in God. Bound over into sin, yes, but now bound up in Christ to divine life. The verse says we are “hidden with Christ in God.”

The text goes so far to say that Christ is our new life.

Christ is the fount and reality of new, real existence. As Augustine said when he came to the knowledge of new life in Christ: “O God! When I was outside you, I was outside myself!”

Our true self is a risen self. Truly the text says: Christ is life, new life.

And it goes on to give a list of powerful sins, which Christ can help us conquer: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. Or, putting it in modern terms: Living life treating bodies like objects and treating objects as the essence of life, living as a slave to things we taste, touch and feel, devaluing others in the process. Isn’t this our world? Without Christ, we are only slaves to these things. With Christ, we can break free from their power and control. As Augustine put it, in Christ we go from non posse non pecare to posse non pecare; or, “not able not to sin,” to “able not to sin.”

That is the power and hope of the gospel. Christ has defeated that which defeats us. As the psalmist put it, “Our sins are stronger than we are, but you are stronger than they are, and you will blot them out!”

When skeptics mocked the early Christians for believing that Jesus could rise from the dead, the Christians merely responded: If Christ is not raised, how then can He give us the power to live this new life? The skeptics could not answer…

There is something about the life of Christ which wins for us a possibility of new life.

The proper response before the risen Christ is not “your wife and mine,” but rather your life and mine – a life of great need, yes, but also a life of great possibility, because our Savior has power over our sin, and our grave…

Jesus is risen, and stands among us this morning in the Holy Spirit, offering us a new beginning, offering us our true selves.

As we die with Him, we are raised to new life.

Amen.

A song for Easter vigil

Resting from His work today

Resting from His work today
In the tomb the Savior lay;
Still He slept, from head to feet,
Shrouded in the winding sheet,
Lying in the rock alone,
Hidden by the sealed stone.

Late at even there was seen,
Watching long the Magdalene;
Early ere the break of day,
Sorrowful she took her way
To the holy garden glade,
Where her buried Lord was laid.

So with Thee, till life shall end,
I would solemn vigil spend,
Let me hew Thee, Lord, a shrine,
In this rocky heart of mine,
Where in pure embalmed cell,
None but Thee shall ever dwell.

Myrrh and spices will I bring,
True affection's offering;
Close the door from sight and sound,
Of the busy world around;
And in patient watch remain,
Till my Lord shall come again.

That Hideous Strength

When the Straight meets the Crooked...

Good Friday: The Straight meets the Crooked

by C.S. Lewis

Note: Lewis received complaints for his use of the word “damned.” He understood the criticism as he was opposed to swear words in principle, but he responded to the effect that he did not use frivolous swearing; he rather used the word as it was intended: if something was truly of the damned, then it was not swearing to call it what it was.

When the Straight meets the Crooked

Meanwhile, in the Objective Room, something like a crisis had developed between Mark and Professor Frost. As soon as they arrived there Mark saw that the table had been drawn back. On the floor lay a large crucifix, almost life size, a work of art in the Spanish tradition, ghastly and realistic. “We have half an hour to pursue our exercises,” said Frost looking his watch. Then he instructed Mark to trample on it and insult it in other ways.

Now whereas Jane had abandoned Christianity in early childhood, along with her belief in fairies and Santa Claus, Mark had never believed in it at all. At this moment, therefore, it crossed his mind for the very first time that there might conceivably be something in it…

“But, look here,” said Mark.

“What is it?” said Frost. “Pray be quick. We have only a limited time at our disposal.”

“This,” said Mark, pointing with an undefined reluctance at the horrible white figure on the cross. “This is all surely pure superstition.”

“Well?”

“Well, if so, what is there objective about stamping on the face? Isn’t it just as subjective to spit on a thing like this as to worship it? I mean – damn it all – if it’s only a bit of wood, why do anything about it?”

“That is superficial. If you had been brought up in a non-Christian society, you would not be asked to do this. Of course it is a superstition; but it is that particular superstition which has pressed upon our society for a great many centuries. It can be experimentally shown that it still forms a dominant stem in the subconscious of many individuals whose conscious thought appears to be wholly liberated. An explicit action in the reverse direction is therefore a necessary step towards complete objectivity. It is not a question for a priori discussion. We find it in practice that it cannot be dispensed with.”

Mark himself was surprised at the emotions he was undergoing. He did not regard the image with anything at all like religious feeling. Most emphatically it did not belong to that Idea of the Straight or Normal or Wholesome which had, for the last few days, been his support against what he now knew of the innermost circle at Belbury. The horrible vigor of its realism was, indeed, in its own way as remote from that Idea as anything else in the room. That was one source of his reluctance. To insult even a carved image of such agony seemed an abominable act. But it was not the only source. With the introduction of this Christian symbol the whole situation had somehow altered. The thing was becoming unbearable. His simple antithesis of the Normal and the Diseased had obviously failed to take something into account. Why was the crucifix there? Why were more than half the poison-pictures religious? He had the sense of new parties to the conflict – potential allies and enemies which he had not suspected before. “If I take a step in any direction,” he thought, “I may step over a precipice.” A donkey-like determination to plant hoofs and stay still at all costs arose in his mind.

“Pray make haste,” said Frost.

The quiet urgency of the voice, and the fact that he had so often obeyed it before, almost conquered him. He was on the verge of obeying, and getting the whole silly business over, when the defenselessness of the figure deterred him. The feeling was a very illogical one. Not because its hands were nailed and helpless, but because they were only made of wood and therefore even more helpless, because the thing, for all its realism, was inanimate and could not in any way hit back, he paused. The unretaliating face of a doll – one of Myrtle’s dolls – which he had pulled to pieces in boyhood, had affected him in the same way and the memory, even now, was tender to the touch.

“What are you waiting for, Mr. Studdock?” said Frost.

Mark was well aware of the rising danger. Obviously, if he disobeyed, his last chance of getting out of Belbury alive might be gone. Even of getting out of this room. The smothering sensation once again attacked him. He was himself, he felt, as helpless as the wooden Christ. As he thought, he found himself looking at the crucifix in a new way – neither as a piece of wood nor as a monument of superstition but as a bit of history. Christianity was nonsense, but one did not doubt that the man had lived and had been executed thus by the Belbury of those days. And that, as he suddenly saw, explained why this image, though not itself an image of Straight or Normal, was yet in opposition to crooked Belbury. It was a picture of what happened when the Straight met the Crooked, a picture of what the Crooked did to the Straight – what it would do to him if he remained straight. It was, in a more emphatic sense than he had yet understood, a cross.

“Do you intend to go on with the training or not?” said Frost. His eye was on the time…

“Do you not hear what I am saying?” he asked Mark again.

Mark made no reply. He was thinking, and thinking hard because he knew, that if he stopped even for a moment, mere terror of death would take the decision out of his hands. Christianity was a fable. It would be ridiculous to die for a religion one did not believe. This Man himself, on that very cross, had discovered it to be a fable. And had died complaining that the God in whom he trusted had forsaken him, in fact, found the universe a cheat. But this raised a question that Mark had never thought of before. Was that the moment at which to turn against the Man? If the universe was a cheat, was that a good reason for joining its side? Supposing the Straight was utterly powerless, always and everywhere certain to be mocked, tortured, and finally killed by the Crooked, what then? Why not go down with the ship? Here Mark began to be frightened by the very fact that his fears seemed have momentarily vanished. They had been a safeguard…they had prevented him, all his life, from making mad decisions like that which he was now making as he turned to Frost and said,

“It’s all bloody nonsense, and I’m damned if I do any such thing.”

C. S. Lewis, The Descent of the Gods, That Hideous Strength (New York: Macmillan Publishing Co., 1976), 334ff.

The world’s Objectivity Room

We live in a world which, in its own powerful and seductive way, requires *objectivity training* for those who would be feted and successful. Look at the manicured and gelded news anchors – look at their “objective” references to religion and Christ, which gradually trample His person with subtle mockery and suspended disdain.

Listen to the NPR-like sotto voce when referencing Christ; look at the chosen caricatures of media and Christ; look at the breathless embracement of Jesus Seminar pseudo-scholarship, or the revisionist DaVinci Code: raw Gnostic fiction embraced as new truth.

It’s what happens when the Straight meets the Crooked.

Or, look at how the “objective” media flee the storyline of 2,500 orphans threatened for their faith, because their caregivers stand against a racist caste system – now victims of its unjust court system.

Look at how this militant Indian state can pass an anti-conversion law which specifically makes it a crime for Christians to care for orphans – humanitarian goodness hanged on a cross –, yet ignored with a yawn by those with media power!

Look at how sacrificial caregivers can be imprisoned without investigation or formal charges in court, without due process or bail, held and tortured until their assets are gone and bodies broken…all because they gave care to orphans in an old-caste culture which feeds on those orphans’ de facto slavery, and not a word said!

This is where the Straight meets the Crooked.

The world has its Objectivity Room, and one either accepts its training or Christ: Good Friday shows us the results of choosing Christ. Kota, Rajasthan is no accident.

But we still must stand with Christ, and with those who embrace the Straight. The Crooked may always and everywhere marginalize or torture the Straight, but something tells me the Straight will have the last word…

For the Straight is the Word and is of the Word: the Beginning will have the End.

Selah.

The way of the cross

Consider Him who endured the scorn of sinful men

"For consider Him that endured such hostility of sinners against himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

"Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and sat down at the right hand of God."

Heb. 12:3, 1-2

Go to dark Gethsemane

Go to dark Gethsemane,
Ye who feel the tempter's power;
Your Redeemer's conflict see,
Watch with Him one bitter hour.
Turn not from His griefs away,
Learn from Jesus Christ to pray.

See Him at the judgment hall,
Beaten, bound, reviled, arraigned;
O the wormwood and the gall!
O the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss,
Learn from Christ to bear the cross.

Cal'vry's mournful mountain climb;
There, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God's own sacrifice complete.
'It is finished!' hear Him cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.

When the Straight meets the Crooked

The cross is the sign of what happens when the Straight meets the Crooked. What is happening in Rajasthan is no accident. The deadly irrationality of militant Hindus, who pass laws to make orphan care a criminal offense, is nothing new. The spirit behind the men who torture Christian caregivers in India is the same spirit behind those who whipped Christ on the way to the cross.

But if we learn to die with Him, we may learn something else...

Congressional signers of the Akin-Wicker letter re: orphanage

U.S. Congress contacts Indian Prime Minister
The letter specifically mentions Hopegivers orphanage, and asks that Prime Minister Singh take a personal interest in the ongoing persecution of Christians and minorities in India.

Below are the members of U.S. Congress who signed on to the Akin-Wicker letter to Indian Prime Minister Singh, requesting that he take action to halt the religious persection taking place now in India. The letter specifically requests that the Hopegivers orphanage in Kota be protected [Emmanual Hope Home (EMI)] and that its leaders be released from prison.

The letter is listed in full, here. To which these intrepid members signed:

Page one of signatures:

Page two of signatures:


These signatories are worthy of our gratitude. If your congressperson is listed here, please consider sending a note of thanks.

A sword of blessing and peril

'The Lady of Lorien! Galadriel!' cried Sam. 'You should see her, indeed you should, sir... I'm not much good at poetry -- not at making it: a bit of comic rhyme, perhaps, now and again, you know, but not real poetry -- so I can't tell you what I mean. It ought to be sung. You'd have to get Strider, Aragorn, that is, or old Mr. Bilbo, for that. But I wish I could make a song about her. Beautiful she is, sir! Lovely! Sometimes like a great tree in flower, sometimes like a white daffadowndilly, slender like. Hard as diamonds, soft as moonlight. Warm as sunlight, cold as frost in the stars. Proud and far-off as a snow-mountain, and as merry as any lass that I ever saw with daisies in her hair at springtime. But that's a lot o' nonsense, and wide of my mark.'

'Then she must be lovely indeed,' said Faramir. 'Perilously fair.'

'I don't know about perilous,' said Sam. 'It strikes me that folks takes their peril with them into Lorien, and finds it there because they brought it. But perhaps you could call her perilous, because she's so strong in herself...'

Just thinking tonight about those who practice violence against Christians and then blame the Christians. Or, those who practice violence against women and then blame the woman for that violence: "Oh, she was too beautiful...and she dressed that way, etc." ad infinitas, ad naseum.

Those who blame women for their own sinful thoughts and actions, and those who blame Christians for their abuse of Christians, have taken their own peril with them into a land so fair, a land so compelling and wonderful that it reveals their innermost thoughts and calls forth their true character; and yet, for all that, it is a land about which they know nothing.

Their doom is sure.

Selah.