Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, "Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!"
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end."
Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man?"
And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible."
Then Mary said, "Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.
Luke 1:26-38

On this day, the Church celebrates the Annunciation. According to Wikipedia,

When the calendar system of Anno Domini was first introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525, he assigned the beginning of the new year to March 25, since according to Christian theology, the era of grace began with the Incarnation of Christ.

Whenever I read the Biblical account, I am reminded of Hannah in 1 Samuel. The simple and profound faith of Hannah and Mary contrast sharply with the doubts of the two priests Eli and Zechariah. But isn't it amazing that the birth of John was announced in the Temple. Yet the birth of the Messiah was announced in an insignificant village to a young woman. Of course, God's ways are always best.
Nazareth was a small village of less than two thousand inhabitants. It was so insignificant, that Luke gives its location in Galilee, since many of his readers might not have known where to locate it or even heard of it.
In Judaism, a virgin was a young woman of fourteen or younger. Luke's word parthenos also means she had never had intercourse with a man, which she indicates herself in verses 34-35. As Mary was a woman, so young, and unmarried, she had no social status. The angels words were certainly startling. Highly favored one, the Lord is with you, blessed were not normal phrases used in greeting, especially to her. This teenage girl has joined the ranks of Noah (Genesis 6:8), Lot (Genesis 19:16, 19), and Moses (Exodus 33:13). God would be with her through all the upcoming ordeals. (Note: she did not highly favor herself, nor bless herself. But these were the gifts of God to her. If you want blessed, go to the Source, not the recipient.)

He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.
Luke 1:32-33

This language comes from God's promise to David in 2 Samuel 7:12-16:

When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before Me. Your throne shall be established forever.

And also from Isaiah 9:6-7:

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of His government and peace
There will be no end,
Upon the throne of David and over His kingdom,
To order it and establish it with judgment and justice
From that time forward, even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.

Mary's Son would be the Mighty God.
The angel told her, "For with God nothing will be impossible." When the Lord had told Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the LORD?" (Genesis 18:14), Sarah had laughed (v. 12-15). Mary showed greater faith than her ancestor, simply submitting to the will of God.

I've started receiving flyers in the mailbox for local and state candidates. There's not a lot of information on them and, at least for the one I received yesterday, nothing on the website. So what can you do?

Last night I got a flyer from nice looking man who wants to be my representative in the State House. He had a pretty wife and three nice looking kids. But I didn't see much about his politics. But I did see a website.

I tried the website. Just a place-holder. Clearly his campaign is just starting. But that doesn't mean he's not my guy. If he is my guy, then I can support him from the beginning. To find out if he's my guy, I sent him an e-mail.

If you get flyers in the mail for local elections, don't throw them out - unless there are glaring problems with the candidate. To give you an idea what to write, here's what I wrote:

Exodus 18:21 says, "Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens." I do not believe in voting for the lesser of two evils, so I have some questions to determine if I can support you as my representative.

1. Is Jesus Christ your Lord and Savior?

2. Do you oppose amnesty for illegal aliens?

3. Do you oppose NAFTA? GATT? WTO?

4. Do you support withdrawal from the UN? removing UN headquarters from American soil?

5. Do you support regulating foreign commerce? oppose unfair trade practices?

6. Do you support defending our borders by bringing home our troops from foreign countries, especially the unconstitutional war in Iraq?

7. Do you oppose laws that prohibit the free exercise of religion?

8. Do you support anti-sodomy laws?

9. Do you support reducing our budget by radically reducing spending on education and social programs?

10. Do you agree that life begins at conception? Abortion is murder and should be prosecuted accordingly?

I am really enjoying the commentary at The Price of Liberty and I need to add it to my blogroll. On March 24, Doug Newman wrote:

Romans 12:9 instructs us to 'abhor that which is evil.' There is no exclusion for voting. Christians are supposed to abhor evil. Period. The lesser of two evils is still evil, and we Christians are not to put our stamp of approval on it.

Don't vote for evil just because everyone else does. Our current form of government (OCFOG), which Hillary, Obama and McCain all fully intend to make larger, costlier and more intrusive than ever, is evil. There is nothing sacred about it whatsoever. No, this is not Kim Jong-Il's North Korea. Yet millions will vote away what is left of our freedom for no better reason than that they want to vote for a winning candidate. As an old friend once said, I don't mind losing elections, but I do mind losing my freedom.

I would correct one thing he said, though. At the beginning of the commentary, he said, "While the Bible says nothing about voting, it does guide us on how we should live."

I disagree.

I think the Bible does say something about voting. It's part of a favorite passage of mine that I use when people suggest that God endorsed a monarchical system:

Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds, rulers of fifties, and rulers of tens. (Exodus 18:21)

In Exodus 18:13-27, Jethro counseled Moses to establish a representative appellate court. The people were self-governed and every seven years heard the reading of the Law. This was their government until the time of Samuel.

In 1 Samuel 8:4-22, the elders of Israel asked Samuel to make a king to judge them. In this passage, the Lord tells Samuel all the terrible things a king would do, such as taking their sons to war, taking their property and giving it to his servants, taking a tithe for his officers and servants (if only our taxes were just a tenth!), taking their young men and donkeys for his public works, and taking a tithe of their sheep.

So, I would say that God did want us to be self-governed and wanted us to elect our own representatives: able men, God-fearing men, truthful men, benevolent men.

None of our "top three" qualify.

In yesterday's Washington Post, Alec MacGillis wrote:

Mike Gravel is headed to the convention in Denver. No, not that one. The septuagenarian former Alaska senator, who, depending on your viewpoint, was an amusing or aggravating presence in the early Democratic presidential debates, has announced that he is joining the Libertarian Party and will be competing for its presidential nomination in Denver in late May.

... Andrew Davis, a spokesman for the Libertarian Party, said that Gravel was welcome to compete for the party's nomination, noting that the only requirements for running were meeting the constitutional requirements for the presidency, being a member of the party and being willing to accept its nomination. But he said that Gravel might face a tough sell on some issues -- while the party's membership agrees with his stances against the war in Iraq and the military draft, among other issues, it differs with his stances in favor of universal health care and higher spending on public education.

Yeah, I can imagine Libertarians might have a hard time swallowing

a universal healthcare system that provides equal medical services to all citizens, paid for by a retail sales tax (a portion of the Progressive Fair tax). Citizens would pay nothing for health benefits.

[well, nothing but a retail sales tax! How high would that have to be???] or

Senator Gravel believes that global climate change is a matter of national security and survivability of the planet. As President, he will act swiftly to reduce America's carbon footprint in the world by initiating legislation to tax carbon at the source and cap carbon emissions. He is also committed to leading the fight against global deforestation, which today is second only to the energy sector as a source of greenhouses gases. However, any legislation will have little impact on the global environment if we do not work together with other global polluters. China, India and under-dveloped nations all work together fighting climate change can only be effective if it is a collective global effort. As President, Senator Gravel will see that the U.S. launches and leads a massive global scientific effort, integrating the world's scientific and engineering community, to end energy dependence on oil and integrate the world's scientific community in this task.

That's just what we need: an alarmist for president. He considers "the normal state of our accustomed natural world" to be "a matter of national security and survivability of the planet."???

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Police seized a cache of 35 weapons on Tuesday, including illegally [sic] modified assault rifles and machine guns from the ... apartment of a gun collector...

The State Police Street Gang Unit North and borough detectives found an armory of loaded guns and 3,000 rounds of ammunition in the apartment of Joseph Leone, 57...

Ryan said police turned their attention to Leone, who had no criminal record, when questions were raised about 'whether he's in the right frame of mind to be in possession of weapons.'

Ryan would not specify who raised the questions, or how police were alerted...

Leone has a curios and relics license, which permits him to possess certain rare and novel weapons.

I would love to be on that jury.

You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.
Matthew 5:13

Salt. It's a seasoning for food. This we well know.

Salt is a preservative. Many cultures have partaken of salt to ratify compacts, because of the symbolism of preservation. In this sense, we preserve the earth from decomposition or destruction.

Salt also refers to wisdom and grace, as in Colossians 4:6:

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one.

Our translation "loses its flavor" comes from the Greek moraino. It was used not only for salt losing flavor, but also a figure of speech for someone being made a fool. You may recognize its root moros, from which we get our word moron.

But consider this: if you are the salt of the earth, then are you not the salt of philosophy? The salt of ethics? The salt of society? The salt of art? The salt of music? The salt of fashion? The salt of science? The salt of the government?

If you are the salt of the earth, then what on earth are you not the salt of?

(Perhaps grammar, because I ended that last sentence with a preposition. Shame on me.)

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.
Matthew 28:16-20

"I will declare the decree:
The LORD has said to Me,
"You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
You shall break them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel."'
Psalm 2:7-9

I will declare Your name to My brethren;
In the midst of the assembly I will praise You.
You who fear the LORD, praise Him!
All you descendants of Jacob, glorify Him,
And fear Him, all you offspring of Israel!
For He has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted;
Nor has He hidden His face from Him;
But when He cried to Him, He heard.

My praise shall be of You in the great assembly;
I will pay My vows before those who fear Him.
The poor shall eat and be satisfied;
Those who seek Him will praise the LORD.
Let your heart live forever!

All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the LORD's,
And He rules over the nations.

All the prosperous of the earth
Shall eat and worship;
All those who go down to the dust
Shall bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep himself alive.

A posterity shall serve Him.
It will be recounted of the Lord to the next generation,
They will come and declare His righteousness to a people who will be born,
That He has done this.
Psalm 22:22-31

Are the nations not His inheritance? Are we not His disciples? Has He not told us to teach them to observe all things that He has commanded us? Are we not the salt of the earth?

Will you be salt? Or a good-for-nothing moron?

Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, and about the sixth hour.
John 19:14a

Jerusalem swelled with pilgrims for the Passover. The sacrifice of lambs had to start early in the morning to complete them all by sundown. The final offering would be slaughtered at the ninth hour, a little before 3 p.m.

Now when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Some of those who stood by, when they heard that, said, "Look, He is calling for Elijah!" Then someone ran and filled a sponge full of sour wine, put it on a reed, and offered it to Him to drink, saying, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to take Him down."

And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.
Mark 15:33-37

There, between the two colleagues of Bar-Abbas, Christ cried out, "It is finished." (John 19:30)

And in the temple, the priests blew the shofar. The final sacrifice, the Lamb for the nation, had been slain.

For the law, having a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices, which they offer continually year by year, make those who approach perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered? For the worshipers, once purified, would have had no more consciousness of sins. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:

"Sacrifice and offering You did not desire,
But a body You have prepared for Me.
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You had no pleasure.
Then I said, "Behold, I have come--
In the volume of the book it is written of Me--
To do Your will, O God."'

Previously saying, "Sacrifice and offering, burnt offerings, and offerings for sin You did not desire, nor had pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the law), 9then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Your will." He takes away the first that He may establish the second. By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God, from that time waiting till His enemies are made His footstool. For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.

But the Holy Spirit also witnesses to us; for after He had said before,
"This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the LORD: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them," then He adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.

Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.
Hebrews 10:1-25

Likewise He also took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you. But behold, the hand of My betrayer is with Me on the table. And truly the Son of Man goes as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom He is betrayed!"
Luke 22:20-22

It had been determined that Jesus would be betrayed.Yet, God's wrath (woe) was upon the betrayer.

This had been the plan all along:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
Ephesians 1:3-6

Consider this: the Cross is the reason Adam lived. Had God no plan of redemption, Adam would have died physically as promised when he ate of the fruit. But, because of God's plan of redemption, Adam lived, dying only spiritually, so that the Seed of the woman could one day be born.

If God had determined that Jesus would be betrayed, then He must be betrayed. And Jesus knew who would betray Him. Otherwise, God's will is random.

What about Herod? Pilate? The Romans? The Jews?

For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.
Acts 4:27-28

All authority is under God and even when they act to overthrow that authority, they only act according to His plan. When the people cried out for Barabas, they unwittingly cried out for the fulfillment of God's eternal decree.

I can't tell you how many times I've reminded my son of Joseph and his brothers when things "go wrong."

But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.
Genesis 50:20

How can God determine that an event will occur if it depends on the "free will" of the many individuals involved? Could not just one of them blow the whole plan? If an individual's "free will" were to thwart the eternal decree of God, would that individual at that time then not have more power than God? If God's plan were to be fulfilled, would not God then need to intervene and overrule someone's will? In either scenario, at some point, God must be sovereign over the wills of the individuals involved, especially over specific individuals.
And this passage in Acts states very clearly and unmistakably that Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles [the Romans] and the Jews all did whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death
Acts 2:23

Question #8: How salty should the "salt of the earth" be?

Someone did some very nice 3D work on this one:

I've heard some say that nothing can separate us from God, except ourselves. Until we die, we still can reject God and lose our salvation. We're really not certainly saved until we are dead. Huh?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

"For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.
Romans 8:35-37

It's a temptation when tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword afflict us to think that God is judging us. We think his wrath is on us. He's forsaken us. Or we think it will never end.

But Paul says that whatever happens, we must stand firm in faith -- the faith that once God embraces you in love, He never lets you go. I really think that the "depravity" issue is what confuses people on this. Because if you've got a firm grasp that you are indeed sinful and guilty, and that God is infinitely holy and righteous and just. You can't turn His heart. You can only turn His stomach. But, in spite of that, He choses to love you. Since nothing you can do would make Him love you, there's nothing to make Him stop loving you.

"But what if I did something really bad?" Have you ever done anything good? Did you think you had done enough good to swing the balance? No? Ever have a lustful thought? Let's estimate that you had one once every couple days or so. Let's take that out to 164 thoughts per year. God sees every one of those as adultery. Now consider how you'd feel about your spouse committing adultery 164 times this year. After five years, that's 820 times. Have you done anything really bad yet? We don't see the sinfulness of our sin.

If you were God, and really saw your sin, you would never save you. But God is infinitely merciful and just. He is infinitely merciful that he would take an 820-time adulterer and save him. He's infinitely just in that the full wrath and curse of God for those 820 acts of adultery was placed on Jesus. And He did that almost 2,000 years ago, which, in case you hadn't notice, was before you were ever born. You hadn't committed any sins at that point. This was even before you were conceived in sin (Psalm 51:5). So every one of your sins was future. There is no sin you can commit that was not already covered by Jesus. (I'm speaking to believers, of course).

What about the tribulation, distress, persecution, etc.? Of course, as the author of Hebrews says:

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:

"My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD,
Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
For whom the LORD loves He chastens,
And scourges every son whom He receives."

It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten? But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
Hebrews 12:5-8

Don't be ungrateful! The Lord is chastening you because He loves you. He is perfecting you. When you are chastened, your first thought should be that God loves you.

Be encouraged:

And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.
Jeremiah 32:40

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
John 5:24

And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
John 10:28

being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;
Philippians 1:6

For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
1 Thessalonians 5:9, 10

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
1 Thessalonians 5:23, 24

But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one.
2 Thessalonians 3:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that does not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
1 Peter 1:3-5

Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith--the salvation of your souls.
1 Peter 1:8b, 9

Since JD brought it up and I never really covered it:

Question #7: Could Judas have refused to betray Jesus?

Can anything challenge God's grace?

Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:30-31

Paul says predestined = called = justified = glorified. Could it be plainer?

If anyone could fall from grace, then the chain would be broken, and no one would be guaranteed salvation. If this were possible, then Jesus would be lying when He said:

All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
John 6:37-39

When Jesus prayed for His disciples, He said:

Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He shall give eternal life to as many as You have given Him...

I have manifested Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours, You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word...

I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
John 17:1, 2, 6, 9, 10

Christ has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). Jesus told some of the Jews:

I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in My Father's name, they bear witness of Me. But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand. I and My Father are one.
John 10:25-30

Now I'm going to start to show my hand. I'm not asking these questions just to rehash many of the things I've written about here before. I am leading toward something else. I want to follow these to their conclusion. I want us to better explore what a Biblical worldview really means.

Tough Question #6: Are we the defeated? Or are we conquerors?

In the National Review yesterday, Liam Julian wrote:

A. J. Duffy, president of United Teachers Los Angeles, tells us that California's Second District Court of Appeal was correct to rule last week that parents without teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home -- i.e., that most of the 166,000-odd homeschooled students in the Golden State could be truants and their parents may be violating the law.

Duffy missed a fine opportunity to keep quiet when he said, "What's best for a child is to be taught by a credentialed teacher." This echoes other union honchos and even former California Superintendent for Public Instruction Delaine Eastin, who wrote in 2002 that all schooling in her state needed to be supervised by professionally trained teachers. Furthermore, Eastin noted, "Home schools are not even subject to competition from private schools, where the marketplace would presumably ensure some level of quality and innovation."

Such statements are risible. Los Angeles Unified School District enrolls some 700,000 students taught by the credentialed teachers that Duffy represents, and a mere 33 percent of those pupils are proficient in reading, only 38 make the grade in math, and only 44 percent ever graduate. What's best for a child, it seems, has little or nothing to do with the credentials Duffy cherishes.

Illiteracy. Failed grades. Drop outs. Well, at least the rules are reasonable, right? Wouldn't we all rather have our precious children in public school's which are so much more reasonable, as the Chicago Tribune reported yesterday:

Contraband candy has led to big trouble for an eighth-grade honors student in Connecticut.

Michael Sheridan was stripped of his title as class vice president, barred from attending an honors student dinner and suspended for a day after buying a bag of Skittles from a classmate.

School spokeswoman Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo says the New Haven school system banned candy sales in 2003 as part of a districtwide school wellness policy.

When Skittles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Skittles.

Lou Dobbs on the Alex Jones Show:

At The Price of Liberty, Carey Roberts writes:

Back when she was a student at Yale Law School, Hillary wrote in the Harvard Educational Review that 'marriage, slavery, and the Indian reservation system' constitute dependency arrangements that must be abolished. Ridiculing the notion that families are 'private, nonpolitical units,' she demanded that we 'remodel' the time-honored institution.

Two decades later she wrote It Takes a Village, the socialist manifesto that justifies governmental intrusion into the most intimate aspects of family life.

And Clinton's 2003 book Living History reads like the autobiography of a woman obsessed with feminist activism, a power-mad princess in a pantsuit.

Dr. Brian Melton at the Intellectual Conservative writes:

Educated people today seem to be embracing concepts that clearheaded philosophers of an earlier era would quickly recognize as lunacy. An interviewee of the San Francisco Chronicle (long known as a nationally ranked platform for less-than-brilliant comments) has recently trotted out one of the oldest, but most disturbing ideas: that the government has a more basic claim on children than parents do.

Over and over, in my study of Scripture, I have found good doctrine has been applied to bad models. Yes, fathers have authority in the home. But when that authority is applied to the wrong model of the family, fathers rule as tyrants in the home, not as Biblical, Christ-like servant leaders, stewards of a Godly legacy.

Another bad model comes in Christians, especially American Christians' understanding of their role as citizens. They take Romans 13:1-2:

Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves.

So American Christians read the newspaper, whine like mules, and pray for something they call "the rapture." Instead, they should recognize that the American government (whether the politicians will admit it or not) is still a "government of the people, by the people." Think that through: in America, you are the authority behind the government.

As Bryan Johnson wrote in the National Review, September 26, 1994:

CONGRESS and the American people have an agreement: Congress can create laws, but they should be necessary and effective. In return, once a law is passed, the people (or most of them, anyway) will obey it. When that agreement breaks down, so does the rule of law. Ineffective laws, or laws that encroach too much on the private domain, breed cynicism, contempt, and non-compliance. [emphasis mine]

When the apostles were told they could no longer preach the Gospel, they responded, "Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." (Acts 4:19, 20)

Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." (John 14:15)

God said, "You [not the State] shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house [not the village], when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up." (Deuteronomy 6:7)

Do you think it will just get better if you sit on your couch with the remote? You can't watch the State rob you blind (they already mug you annually, the next mugging scheduled in 34 days) of your liberties. You're not allowing suffering for yourself. You're bringing it on your children and grandchildren. What a legacy. I know the legacy I want to leave for my family:

According to The Press Association:

Ultra-conservative Southern Baptist leaders have performed a shock U-turn, saying their denomination had been 'too timid' on environmental issues and had a biblical duty to stop global warming. The statement, signed by the president of the Southern Baptist Convention among others, shows a growing urgency about climate change even within groups that once dismissed claims of an overheating planet as a liberal ruse. The conservative denomination has 16.3 million members and is the largest Protestant group in the US. The signatories of A Southern Baptist Declaration on the Environment and Climate Change acknowledged that not all Christians accepted the science behind global warming. ... But the leaders said that current evidence of global warming was 'substantial' and that the threat was too grave to wait for perfect knowledge about whether, or how much, people contributed to the trend.

Here's your chance to play "Are You Smarter Than a SBC Leader?"

Go to the Heartland Institute and take The Global Warming Test.

Doug Newman's essay today, "Jerks for Jesus" reveals this problem more:

However, [Fred] Phelps and his crew are hardly the most obnoxious Christians in America. This dubious honor belongs to a group numbering in the millions, 99.44% of whom are far more polite and civil.

I speak of the big government groupies in the Religious Right. They are absolutely everywhere. And while their personal behavior may be far more desirable, the real-world implications of their beliefs are positively gruesome.

They positively FREAK OUT over things like The DaVinci Code, but are either in total denial or in total support of America's bobsled ride into totalitarianism. They recklessly pervert Scripture in order to justify the total state.

They want you to think that Jesus' instruction to "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's - Luke 20:25 - means that we should give unto Caesar everything Caesar demands and then siddown and shuddup.

They want you to think that Romans 13 commands unquestioning obedience to secular government. Never mind that the Bible contains numerous examples of civil disobedience. Never mind that Paul, the author of Romans, was a chronic jailbird who wrote four of his Epistles while behind bars.

If the SBC wants a cause, why aren't they focusing on the attacks on home schooling? You'd think a church would be more interested in defending parental rights and keeping families together than in promoting political propaganda:

The California Court of Appeal ruled Feb. 28 that it is illegal for parents without teaching credentials to home school their children. Violation of that law can lead to fines and criminal prosecution. The court even warned that such violations would subject parents to the juvenile court system, which 'has authority to limit a parent's control over a dependent child.' The threat is clear: Home-schooling families can end up in jail or even possibly lose custody of their children if they don't comply. Some bloggers have argued that the decision does not imperil home-schooling, because the court only struck down these parents' attempt to enroll their kids in a private school while teaching them at home. They argue that the parents would have been OK had they followed the 'statutorily prescribed' methods for home schooling...

Didn't have any takers on this one, and perhaps its a dead issue. The national religion (aka SBC) for the most part agrees with "eternal security." But there are some deeper issues here.

For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.
Romans 9:15, 16

If Pharaoh could not resist God's hardening, can a sinner resist God's mercy? Who's really in charge?
Psalm 115:3 says

But our God is in heaven;
He does whatever He pleases.

Isaiah 14:27 says

For the LORD of hosts has purposed,
And who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
And who will turn it back?

Daniel 4:35 says

All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth.
No one can restrain His hand
Or say to Him, "What have You done?"

If we remember Paul's words in Ephesians 2, that we are dead in trespasses and sins, then Ezekiel's Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37) reveals a lot. The bones were not given a choice. If the Lord causes breath to enter them, they shall live. We are as dead as the bones. If God would have mercy on us, then we will have mercy.

Indeed, Acts 13:48 tells us

Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.

Continuing with Ephesians 2

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
Ephesians 2:4-7

For a look at foreknowledge vs. predestination, see this post.

Question #5: Can anything challenge God's grace?

Great commentary by Garry Reed at the River Cities' Reader:

The folks at the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration Services have devised a new citizenship test for those few illegal immigrants who, for some unknown reason, are actually trying to become lawful citizens. The new questions, the bureau claims, are calculated to better measure how well newbies understand what it means to be an American rather than how well they can memorize answers. Which means that citizen wannabes will simply memorize the new politically correct answers to the new questions and will still not know what it really means to be an American. Of course, most libertarians are convinced that most natural-born citizens don't know what it really means to be an American, either. As a service to all, here are some actual test questions followed not by the politically correct answers but by the actual realpolitik answers that have been certified as being true based on real-life experience.

Coach Dave has an excellent and, unfortunately, poignantly true commentary on the state of the Church. Click to read the full article...

Despite what the political parties would like you to believe, the problem in America is not the politicians, it is the pulpits. I hate to break the news to you, but most of America’s pulpits are filled with cowardly men. They are a shame to the Christ they claim to serve...

Okay, I have to comment on this one:

American naval forces fired missiles into southern Somalia on Monday, aiming at what the Defense Department called terrorist targets.

Residents reached by telephone said the only casualties were three wounded civilians, three dead cows, one dead donkey and a partly destroyed house.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington, said the target was a "known Al Qaeda terrorist."

Hmm... which one? Al Qaeda employs cows and monkeys, now? Oh... a little later the article clarifies it.

The missile strike was aimed at Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan born in 1979 who is wanted by the FBI for questioning in the nearly simultaneous attacks on a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and on an Israeli airliner taking off from there, in 2002, said three American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on the strike or its details.

One American military official said the naval attack on Monday was carried out with at least two Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine.

Ah! That makes so much more sense now. A submarine fired "at least two Tomahawk cruise missiles" at a young man "who is wanted by the FBI for questioning." Is it just me, or wouldn't that make questioning more difficult?

Gee, I sure hope that I or anyone in my neighborhood is never wanted for questioning.

Job says in chapter 9:

"How can a man be righteous before God?
If one wished to contend with Him,
He could not answer Him one time out of a thousand.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength.
Who has hardened himself against Him and prospered?
He removes the mountains, and they do not know
When He overturns them in His anger;
He shakes the earth out of its place,
And its pillars tremble;
He commands the sun, and it does not rise;
He seals off the stars;
He alone spreads out the heavens,
And treads on the waves of the sea;
He made the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades,
And the chambers of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
Yes, wonders without number.
If He goes by me, I do not see Him;
If He moves past, I do not perceive Him;
If He takes away, who can hinder Him?
Who can say to Him, "What are You doing?'
God will not withdraw His anger,
The allies of the proud lie prostrate beneath Him.

"How then can I answer Him,
And choose my words to reason with Him?
For though I were righteous, I could not answer Him;
I would beg mercy of my Judge.
If I called and He answered me,
I would not believe that He was listening to my voice.
For He crushes me with a tempest,
And multiplies my wounds without cause.
He will not allow me to catch my breath,
But fills me with bitterness.
If it is a matter of strength, indeed He is strong;
And if of justice, who will appoint my day in court?
Though I were righteous, my own mouth would condemn me;
Though I were blameless, it would prove me perverse.
Job 9:1-20

Man cannot be just before God. In the presence of God, you cannot find one single instance of your life to justify yourself before Him. People may cry out for justice, but if truly given, we would all be in hell.

God is too wise to question. You may think you know an issue well, but you probably only know one side of the issue. At best you may know two or three sides to an issue. God is functioning with infinite wisdom on more facets to an issue than you can fathom. And He knows not only every side of every issue, every outcome of every contingency, but everything about every issue that could arise from every potential variable. You cannot judge God because you cannot begin to comprehend God.

You only know what you believe you perceive of the events you have chosen to acknowledge that are within your line of sight. You only know that your car is not defrosting the windows as quickly as you would like. But you are ignoring the blight that is killing a leaf on the tree outside your car, that will weaken that tree, that will cause it to rot, that will cause it to fall and potentially damage your house or injure or kill a precious member of your family. As you wait for your car to defrost you are ignorant of the squirrel running across the power line above you that will seek shelter in the transformer and knock out the power to your neighborhood. Which will cause certain phones in your neighborhood to not function during the power outage. Which will prevent a mother from calling emergency when her infant chokes. You see only what you want to see and you gripe that God doesn't have more concern about your defrost when He is aware of infinitely more variables than you can fathom - perhaps countless variables within your own vehicle. You're concerned about your defrost, while God is pouring grace and comfort into twenty-one house church leaders who have just been sentenced to labor camp in China. While you're turning on your windshield wipers to speed up the defrost process, the Spirit of God is breaking through the hardness of the hearts of the men who killed a pastor and injured his wife in Sri Lanka. God is directing His servants to share the grace and love of Jesus Christ with men that they do not realize are the very Muslim militants who just bombed a Christian library in Gaza. God knows all things and He knows the plans He has had in place and which He has been fulfilling since eternity past.

Do you want to judge what God is doing? The fact is: you don't know what He is doing. Nor can you or anyone else resist what He is doing. He is doing what He is doing. He is going to do what He is going to do. Neither you nor anyone else can do anything against it.

A German cartel thought they could undersell Herbert Dow in America and put him out of business, so they could continue to monopolize the market in Europe. They began selling bromine in America for about half of Dow's price. Very wisely, Dow sent his men to purchase all the bromine they were selling. He turned around and sold their bromine for about ten cents less than they could sell it in Europe, which was still a profit for him. When they tried to undersell him, they provided the means for him to undersell them and crush their hold on the market.

If a man can turn around an attack this well, how much more can God turn any attempt against His plan into the very means to fulfill His plan. Indeed, consider the ultimate attempt to thwart God's plan. What could be more effective in destroying His plan than to kill His own Son? We know how that turned out.

Do you really think your challenge can turn out any better?

"Surely you have spoken in my hearing,
And I have heard the sound of your words, saying,
"I am pure, without transgression;
I am innocent, and there is no iniquity in me.
Yet He finds occasions against me,
He counts me as His enemy;
He puts my feet in the stocks,
He watches all my paths.'

"Look, in this you are not righteous.
I will answer you,
For God is greater than man.
Why do you contend with Him?
For He does not give an accounting of any of His words.
Job 33:8-13

Is the Creator accountable to His creation? If I draw a picture and decide I didn't like the way it turned out, crumble it up and throw it away, am I accountable to that crumpled piece of paper? How ridiculous. Yet, my drawing is probably my own fault. However, God is perfectly just, perfectly wise, perfectly righteous. He alone is Good. There is no fault with Him. And what He does is always right.

If you truly grasp that God is good and right and just and holy and perfect and blameless, then why question Him at all?

God is good. He wants what is best.

He is wise, so He plans for what is best.

He is all powerful, so He can do what is best.

This is what John Piper calls the "best-of-all possible worlds." In his words:

...God governs the course of history so that, in the long run, His glory will be more fully displayed and His people more fully satisfied than would have been the case in any other world. If we look only at the way things are now in the present era of this fallen world, this is not the best-of-all-possible worlds. But if we look at the whole course of history, from creation to redemption to eternity and beyond, and see the entirety of God's plan, it is the best-of-all-possible plans and leads to the best-of-all-possible eternities. And therefore this universe (and the events that happen in it from creation into eternity, taken as a whole) is the best-of-all-possible-worlds.

This is crucial to understand this before we go further. If you look at Romans 9, and your first thought is, "That's way too much power for God. He can't be fair with that much power." You are missing this. If this much power were wielded by anyone else, you would be right. If a state had this kind of power, it would be a totalitarian monstrosity. If an individual possessed this much power, he would be a demonic tyrant. But this is our holy, good God. This is better than anything we could hope for.

So now, let's look back at the context of our question:

What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? Certainly not! For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, "For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth." Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.

You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?" But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it, "Why have you made me like this?" Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?

What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory, even us whom He called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?

When presented with this question, Paul could have easily said that God does not reject or elect anyone, but man makes that choice himself. But he doesn't. He could have said that God only elects but never rejects. But he doesn't. He could have said that God only rejects or elects based on His foreknowledge of a man's choices. But he doesn't.

Paul is very clear that God rejects or elects based on His own good pleasure. And he shows that man has no ground to dispute with God.

But consider this: Do you believe in moral absolutes? Do you believe that if I passed you on the street and slugged you, I would be wrong? Do you believe that it is wrong to lie? to cheat? to commit adultery? How?

How do you know what is good and what is evil? Is there not a standard? What tells us that adultery is wrong? That coveting is wrong? Is it not the Law of God?

And what is the source of the Law of God? It is the will of God. Right?

That same Will, which tells you what is right and what is wrong, is the same Will that is electing or rejecting from before the foundation of the world. So, you should see the ridiculousness of judging a will when the basis of your judgment must be that same will.

To another comparison. Go to a movie or read a book. Do you find the villain hateful? Don't you detest the villain? Don't you find him evil? But wait - this villain does not really exist but in the imagination of the author. Is the author then evil? No. But the author has created the villain as the foil to show the goodness of the hero. The hero and the villain are both in the mind of the author. The author uses both to proceed the story to the ultimate triumph of good.

We are all characters in God's story.

This morning I had the joy of baptizing my son. (The pictures are from a difficult angle, but we're getting a DVD from the church which was shot from the balcony. I'll try to upload the movie when I get the DVD).