Who are the Christians?

How can you tell who is in and who is out in the Kingdom of God? In any worship service or church event or gathering there should be a mixture of those who are saved and those who have yet to experience the power of salvation and relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  How can you tell who is who? Does it matter? In one sense it does not matter because we should seek to be kind, gracious, and generous with all. Besides it is only God who knows the heart of each person. 

However, when it comes to selecting people to lead and set the example for others with plans, projects, and ministries we need to know that we are selecting folks who are in the Kingdom of God to do the work of the King.  Everyone can help. Christians and seekers alike can enjoy serving and benefiting from ministry.  But the leaders who are setting direction and setting the example need to be folks who exhibit assured character qualities that verify they are followers of Jesus who have entered the Kingdom of God.

One such "litmus test" for whether someone is a Christian was shared by the apostle John in 1 John 4:19-21.

We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.

It turns out that "the Main Thing" of loving God is tied implicitly to loving each other.  We love God in response to His first loving us. We then are to love others first whether they love us or not.  We initiate the love the way God has done toward us.  Followers of Jesus who are ready to set the example are ones who take this quite seriously.  These are the Christians. When love and grace is fully experienced from God it is transferred to others.  This is "the Main Thing." ALL else hinges on this point.

There are many other evaluations needed in selecting people to lead, but none is greater than making sure he/she is a Christian.  And love for his/her brother is the first test.  We cannot simply muster up love in ourselves to share toward others.  It must first be experienced from the God of love. Accepting, forgiving, and enduring love. This supernatural love is to flow through us from God.

Please Jesus, peace will come

Proverbs 16:7 When a man's ways please the LORD, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

No one wants enemies. But whether we want them or not we all have them. How are enemies created? Where do they come from? Certainly you can choose a path of competition and rivalry that creates enemies/competitors of nearly everyone on a regular basis.  But even if you normally take a team player approach to life and seek the best of the others around you, enemies form who see you as an opposing force that must be beaten, defeated, or at bare minimum set in your “proper place” behind or beneath them.
Some enemies feel they can do what you do better and are out to prove it.  Some enemies are simply jealous of whatever benefits they see in your life.  Some enemies are looking for a shortcut to what you have and see taking you out as the best route to achieve it.  Some enemies have a sense of duty to protect something they see you wrongly handling.  Whether they have any authority over what you are leading or not they feel a sense of duty to depose your leadership.
Leadership (stewarding your responsibilities) is not for wimps. To lead well is to move a team forward. Other would be rivals who would wish to do things differently are natural byproducts of leadership.
In the verse above, the path of pleasing the Lord leads to protection and peace from enemies. Pleasing the Lord should become priority one for leaders in particular who more readily produce rivals and opposition by the nature of their position. So what “ways” are pleasing to the Lord?
Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith.  Faith is believing/trusting to the point that I obey/act.  I have faith in Jesus when I trust Jesus enough to do life his way: serving others, forgiving others, sacrificial love for others, honesty, submission to authority, and being aggressive to do my neighbor good.  God is pleased with these ways of living.  Then God makes even your enemies live at peace with you.
Do the enemies go away? No. Lead well (pleasing God) anyway and allow God room to handle the peace.

15 Years! Our Coastal Georgia Celebration

June 16-20 Monica I were able to get away for our 15th wedding anniversary celebration.  Our anniversary is actually May 13, but lining up schedules and securing childcare for our 5 children took a little time to set up.  We are thankful for both sets of grandparents who were able to watch the children during our time away.  Josiah and Ezra went with my parents on a camping trip to Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Monica's parents help down the fort at our home with the girls, Gabriela, Emily, and Ezra.  Without there help we could have never planned and made our trip.  We were overdue for some time away as a couple.  Six years ago we went on a cruise together for 5 nights. Five years ago we had a night away at Fountain Blue State Park in Mandeville, Louisiana (5 miles from our home at that time).  And since then, only evening out for dinner occasionally.  We enjoy our children and are never looking to "escape."  Where we go we expect them to go with us.  But some occasionally time away to refresh our relationship with one another is valued.

Our first night we spent at a beautiful bed and breakfast in Savannah, Georgia.  The Confederate House Inn on Drayton Street was the location.  Colleen, the owner and caretaker, showed us around.  We checked into the room and them went down to River Street to explore the market.  The city reminded us so much of New Orleans where our honeymoon started 15 years ago and where we lived for 2 years. The live oak trees covered with Spanish moss were a familiar site.  The cobblestone streets, tall stone stairways, and river views were beautiful.  We enjoyed everything about the downtown area except the New Orleans type smells.  For dinner we traveled our to Tybee Island where we discovered A.J.'s Dockside restaurant.  The setting and food were amazing.  This was Monica's first time on the Georgia coastline.  She immediately loved the Tybee Island feel and decided that we would return there for the night on Friday.

We left Savannah early Wednesday morning to travel to St. Mary's Georgia to board the ferry for Cumberland Island National Seashore.  After purchasing a sack lunch we boarded the ferry with our backpacks loaded with what we would need for the 2 night stay primitive camping on Cumberland.  When we docked at the first port on Cumberland we saw our first wild horse.  We thought at that time that we would see these everywhere on them island.  Actually this was the only horse we saw until we prepared to leave the Island on Friday.  At the second port on Cumberland, Sea Camp, we disembarked the ferry and met with the park ranger to receive our back country camping permits.  We filled our 24 oz. water bottles at the ranger station and began the 5 mile hike toward Hickory Hill, our home for the next two nights.

We took several breaks along the trail to rest our backs and legs.  It was extremely hot and humid.  The sites along the way included more live oak trees, saw palmettos, and lots of bird activity.  After 3 miles or so we reached the Stafford Beach camping area where 4-5 groups were camping.  At the Stafford Beach bathhouse we filled all our water containers and secured our filters for drinking (all water from this point had to be treated/boiled). This would be the last time we would see a flushing toilet and shower facility for two days.  Upon leaving Stafford Beach we took a right on a trail in which we should have took a left.  We ended up on the beach. Although we knew this was not the way we intended to travel, the sight of the ocean and white sand was a welcome surprise.  We encountered a family who lives on the Island.  The gentleman was very kind to check on us to make sure we had everything we needed and were feeling well. We dropped our backs down to the sand, ripped the shoes off our weary feet and ran to the ocean where we waded out knee deep into the beautiful surf.  Monica and I both we surprised at how hard and compact the beach.  I had assumed that the beach would be covered with broken shells like many others Atlantic Coast beaches, but the sand was clean and white with several unbroken large shells.  We found our first sand dollar within minutes of combing the beach. For the next mile and a half we hiked looking for the black and white marker pole that would lead us to the trail to Hickory Hill. We saw lots of evidence of horses and hogs but we did not see any around Hickory Hill.

We set up camp and enjoyed some re-hydrated red beds and rice with warm kool-aid.  After boiling the water, who has time to wait for it to cool off. We came to actually enjoy the warm kool-aid. We hoisted our packs in the trees for the night in order to keep the animals from reaching our food.  And soon after dark we went to bed.  The ground was hard and made it very difficult to rest well. But when everything was quiet we could hear the ocean waves breaking on the beach.  And the bugs in the trees sang us to sleep.

We spent the entire next day on the beach totally alone.  We saw a park ranger drive by in a truck and one man on a bike.  We had the beach and the day to ourselves.  We played, swam, napped, walked, and talked. An incredible day that I will never forget.  We found a starfish, large shells, and saw multiple sea turtles nests. That night we enjoyed chicken and rice meal that was re-hydrated with boiled water.  This night our campsite was visited by an armadillo friend who we think stole our starfish. In the morning we we began the 5 mile hike back to sea camp to catch the ferry.  An amazing adventure.

We would spend the next day and night on Tybee Island enjoying the scenery and A.J.'s Dockside restaurant. Returning home we were grateful for the opportunity to experience such natural beauty and time alone to refresh our relationship.

Brown Party Platform Part 2 What Government Needs NOT Do

In my last post on things government needs to be involved with for the common good I listed several areas. You may want to read that post first.  But here are a list of areas in which I think the government needs to be hands off.  The implications of these areas not having government control and involvement will require a reassertion of many rights expressed in the Constitution of the United States Bill of Rights.  These have been infringed upon over the years by legislation, judicial decisions, and executive overreach.  A candidate that I would support needs to stand on the Constitution that he/she will swear to uphold including its Bill of Rights and other amendments.  Here are the areas in which the government should be removed from involvement, regulation, and entanglement:

• Religious belief and practice of people. People of faith and people of no faith should be able to express their beliefs or lack there of so long as they do no harm to other citizens. No persecution of the religious or discrimination in rights and privileges based upon religious belief and practice.  The implication would include, however, no more government holidays simply based on religious holy days and festivals (Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, etc.) No picking religious favorites with holidays. Employees of government should be allowed a set number of religious days to observe by not working if they so choose or considered vacation days if they are not religious. No charitable donation deductions for taxed income (see my other posts about national sales tax to replace variable income tax system). Churches and religious organization should not campaign or endorse parties or candidates even if the facilities owned by the religious groups serve as community meeting places for voting or debate. 
• Guns/weapons/swords/rocks/lasers/rockets/tanks/sling shots.  People have the right to bear arms or the right to bear no arms and lean on the law enforcement protection. Prosecute people for harming people.
• Freedom of speech and ideas to flow freely on any source of media so long as it does not infringe upon the right of a person or vested company. Copyright protection is valid. Mass hysteria inciting speech such as yelling fire in a theater is not protected.  But the press, the Internet, the airwaves are public access to companies and people seeking to have their voices heard. This includes campaign donations.  Limiting who and how much a person or organization can donate is limiting speech.   Any limitation of free speech by the government is infringing upon the rights state in our Bill of Rights.
• Marriage. Government (federal, state, or local) has no business being involved in marriage. Governments should protect individual rights of all people .  Marriages, however, are religious ceremonies endorsed and performed by religious communities of faith. Outside of religious communities, marriage has no definition, values, or benefits that could be agreed upon by all. Also, religious groups need not feel compelled to conduct marriages that are then later defined differently by a government.  For example, my view of marriage need not equal a Morman, Jewish, or atheist view of marriage.  Let not the government pick favorite groups to endorse or needless include all.  Protect people's freedom of religious expression in belief and practice. If taxes or race purification is no longer a motive for the governments to be involved in marriage (which is how the federal governments got involved in the first place) then government has no business in marriage definition or recognition.
• Let people assemble whenever for whatever purpose so long as it is not harming people or property.

Feel free to discus.  Tell me what you think.

Blog Post One on Brown Platform Ideas for Government

There are lots of things up for grabs right now in our republic.  It is important to refocus on some large ideas of how our government, economics, faith, and science relate to one another.  Political sound bytes, religious catch phrases, and knee jerk reactions to large scale issues will not solve our problems.  Institutions are being redefined and re-purposed all around us. A few examples include governments, family, educational systems, and faith communities.

We need large scale public discussion about the role and realm of government, faith communities, families, and the economic system.

For the purpose of this article I will limit the topic to the role and realm of government. In a republic in which we elect representatives to legislate, execute, and interpret laws we need to periodically clarify the role and realm of government's influence on daily life of the citizenry. Our form of government is one in which citizens decide for themselves what we want government to do for the common good of the people.

Here are a few things that are in the common good for all citizens:

·         Clean water

·         Breathable/unpolluted air

·         Availability of food

·         Land use and tools that are available for all. Examples would be waterways that can be navigated for trade, Internet, communication, phone/cellular network, monetary system, highways, railways, libraries of knowledge and the arts, public parks for recreational use preservation, energy production, airways for communication  and travel

·         Safety from harm or danger in multiple arenas of life

·         Health care

·         Shelter

·         Growing base of knowledge and exploration

·         Agreed upon norms for treating each other (justice and equal protection for all)

Government plays the primary role in providing systems, institutions, and infrastructure for these large common good categories. Much of what we have in place in government in our country has developed in response to these needs for the common good of the citizens. Many of these needs are ancient and common to people of every age in history, but some aspects of these items for the common good are new for our century.

Here are a few new ideas that I propose serious conversation in public forums for our politically aspiring candidates for public office as they pertain to major needs of the common good of the citizenry.

1.       Clean, potable water solutions. How will our states and communities agree to share this natural resource and protect the water for all? There needs to be a clear vision for how we could do this on a larger scale than merely allowing states to fight over this common resource that is needed for communities.  I am in the opinion that we should not have to purchase high priced water to drink out of bottles.  Greater incentives from the government for advancing the technology and distribution of water will be vital this century.

 

2.       A communication "highway" that is wireless and accessible by all. Much like radio wave transmission, Interstate highways, and federal waterways are accessible by all so should a wireless and accessible communication highway of data be available through a sea to shining sea grid of Internet accessibility by increasingly more devices (private sector development). Cellular towers, satellite, and other modes of transmission yet to be developed should be part of growing infrastructure that is maintained and expanded by government agencies. This should include a growing robust security system that fights cyber terrorism, identity fraud, and protection of private property.

 

3.       Accessibility to further education and skilled trade post secondary school.  At different points in our history we have decided that certain levels of learning should be universally available to our citizenry.  K-12 (sometimes pre-K-12) education is currently available for the education of the children and adolescents. More educational tracts (by choice) should be accessible to students beyond secondary education (high school).  Trade school certificate programs, liberal arts education, and career based education degrees should be accessible to all through government grants to qualifying accredited institutions.  The growing availability of on-line learning environments can make this available to all who choose to further their education who may choose to also enter the workforce and begin families.  A base level of grants would be available to students who maintain passing grades through termination of their program (degree or advancing to graduate level programs). Federal grants available to all.  No more illusions of winning it big through state run lotteries (a tax on the naïve and gullible) which are used to pay for education.  If we believe that education is important and should be accessible to all then let's pay for it together through taxes (more on those later). Students who prefer to go to institutions with tuitions and fees above the base grant level would have to go through private means of paying for their education or institutional and private scholarships.

 

We will need an increasingly skillful and educated citizenry.  Through technological advances we can provide quality education to masses of people through our most gifted educators and skillful tradesmen and artists.

 

4.       Health care (including mental health) available and accessible to all.  Yep. All. We need a health care system that is driven by doctors and scientists who do not have the in-between insurance (gamblers) companies dictating rates of service and protocols for care.  Let the doctors and scientists pave the way for a healthcare system that is just toward all citizens and residents. We need a divorce of the government, employer, and insurance company marriages that are ripping the authority from medical professionals and robbing the patients. Doctors seeing patients. Doctors making decisions about care. Doctors setting rates of payment. People paying for their care through taxes (for routine and emergency care) and a competitive marketplace for other specialists health care services that compete for our business (including surgical procedures).

 

5.       Taxes: Federal sales tax on all purchases. Elimination of federal income taxes. Everyone pays a percentage tax (not yet determined) on anything purchased from a proprietor. Taxes of each person's purchases will be tracked.  Full monthly rebates will be returned to citizens (and approved guest workers) who have an income levels verified in the bottom 20 % of wage earners.  A graduated monthly rebate will be distributed to the bottom 21% - 90 % of wage earners. For example 90% will be returned to someone in the 21 % group of wage earners and a 21 % rebate will be returned to someone in the 90 % wage earner group.  The top 10 % simply do not receive a rebate on their sales taxes paid.  There are incentives for the top 10 % to invest their earnings for zero tax.  They are only taxed on purchases. And here is the kicker.  Social Security and healthcare for all is provided for through the sales taxes.  Therefore no more payroll taxes for employers or employees. Savings and investments for retirement are not "purchases" and are therefore tax free. Purchases that are tax exempt? Education (tuition only), medical expenses and prescribed medications, homes, land, water, fuel, and electrical power.

 

Much more later…ideas…let's start talking solutions.

And notice what things government does not need to be involved in…lots of areas where it has overstepped its role and realm.