Xavier Pacheco

This was really well done.  Just watch it.

I've several acquaintances, close friends and family who consider Obama to be the right choice.  Their agreement with his economic and foreign/domestic stances are considered seriously. I can appreciate that and do not care to argue those well-thought out positions. 

However, for those that profess to be Christian, I felt it necessary to post a link to Justin's Taylor's blog on why "Voting for the Most Extreme Pro-Abortion Political Candidate in American History Is Not the Way to Save Unborn Babies."   This is not a political matter in my mind, it is a matter of moral conviction.

I'll be to the point.  To vote for Obama is to condone murder.  Let me say it clearly, IF YOU VOTE FOR OBAMA, YOU ARE CONDONING THE MURDER OF HUMAN BEINGS!

I'd also like to respond to one of Taylor's readers who says, "Of course it isn't. But if you don't tie yourself mindlessly to a single issue, there are plenty of other reasons to vote for Obama."   To not consider this single issue as paramount would be to mindlessly (or rather deliberately) ignore God's will against murder (Ex 20:13).  It would be to place your hope for prosperity, peace, better fiscal policy and foreign/domestic affairs, etc., above and against the very will of God.  Consider it, pray about it, act on it.

I just got back from a two-night camp-scouting trip with my son Zack. We had a great time. Zack enjoyed the camaraderie with other boys and time with friends from his pack. I simply enjoyed the time spent with my son and in seeing him have so much fun.  As these things go, it was not all wonderful and at times I found myself getting impatient with activities that seemed to be thrown in for various reasons, an easy sign off on an achievement or a time filler while we waited for something more exciting to do, like BB guns!  I caught myself thinking, "Not another craft" or inwardly lamenting over having to wait for 15 minutes in the food line.  I finally caught myself and remembered one of my favorite verses, Deuteronomy 6:4-7:

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up.  Deut 6:4-7

What was I doing!? I had forgotten that every moment is an opportunity for me to teach about God's character reflected through Christ! Zack didn't care whether he was doing a craft, shooting the BB gun or waiting in line. He was with his dad (walking by the way); that is all that mattered to him. Rather than being an example of discontent, I could have been teaching Zack about patience as we waited in line and gratitude for the work and willingness of the volunteers who put the program together. There was plenty of opportunity to teach about humility and considering others as more important then ourselves. Fortunately, by God's grace, I recovered and the time together was wonderful.

I am so utterly grateful that God has blessed me with a son who doesn't measure the quality of our time together by the activities or things I throw at him but rather by the mere fact of being with his dad. Though I'm sure I will fail at times, it will be my purpose as a father, to use every opportunity (walks by the way) as teaching opportunities to teach Zack of God's holiness, love, grace and mercy shown through His Son, Jesus.

Scout motto:  Do your best.  I'll try to remember that.

Why do we do this? Just yesterday my wife received another one of those mass emails calling on Christians to help stop Atheist's attempt to get rid of any television programming that uses the word "God."  The title of the letter was "DR DOBSON'S PLEA FOR ACTION."   According to the email, "We are praying for at least 1 million signatures. This would defeat their effort and show that there are many Christians alive, well and concerned about our country." Of course it was a hoax which you can read about here.

There are only a few points (rants) I'll make here.

Christian Paranoia

I simply can't imagine what it must be like to carry around this perpetual Christian paranoia that they (the atheists, liberals and aliens) are out to get us; to take away our prayer, bibles and God forbid our TV!  To be honest, why do we care?  We hardly read our Bibles anyway.   I mean, c'mon people - you are embarrassing the rest of us! 

I'm beginning to believe that this is true spiritual warfare, having to undergo the insurmountable embarrassment stemming from your unwarranted paranoia.  I was an atheist, and this sort of hype never made me tremble with fear that the Christians were mounting a counter-attack. Frankly, it was laughable back then.

Christian, start acting like there IS a GOD, and that He IS SOVEREIGN and that you have NO FEAR because our future is CERTAIN! Our efforts should not be about fighting the aliens but about reaching the lost and proclaiming the Kingdom.

Next rant....

Mass Emailing

This is simple.  DON'T DO IT!  Just don't.  If you must tell somebody, call your mom, a friend, but don't press that send key no matter how deep the temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).

edit ---  If you have an email list of people that you normal send to, please blind copy them (BCC). If you don't know what this means, learn it before sending your group email. Furthermore, give everyone the option of opting out of your list. There, I said it.  -- end edit.

end rant.

Oh, by the way, if you pass this message along to 10 other people , an angel will bless you today.

I did not post last week because our Sabbath was spent, enjoying God's creation at Grand Teton National Park. We camped for five days and six nights in one of the most beautiful places in the world.   The psalmist wrote truly:

The heavens are telling the glory of God;
and the firmament proclaims his handiwork. Psalm 19:1

In my last post on the Sabbath, I said that the Sabbath attests to God as the Creator of all things.  When we look upon the magnificence of creation, it should compel us to worship the Creator, not creation itself.  Certainly, God's creation is worthy of our appreciation and stewardship, but never our worship. 

I wonder to what level we fail in directing our worship to God. I'm speaking primarily to those of us who call ourselves "Christians."  I can only expect non-Christians to worship "other gods", though they are without excuse (Romans 1:18-20).  We, however, know that God alone is worthy of our worship.  So, I'm leaving this post open for discussion, I am wondering how we Christians fail in properly directing our worship to God.  I am not necessarily looking for a list of the things we worship, but rather how we fall short in our worship of God. I look forward to your comments.

Shabbat Shalom!

This week as the Sabbath approached my thoughts shifted from why we observe the Sabbath to why we celebrate it. We should not think of the Sabbath as a cyclical, repetitive event but rather as a final celebration of God's creative and redemptive activity.  A popular and faulty teaching is that the Sabbath is a necessary rest that allows us to be replenished for the upcoming six days of work. This teaching is antithetical to what Sabbath rest conveys.  In the creation account, God rested on the Sabbath when He had finished His work. There was no more work to be done in creation. God did not rest on the seventh day so that he could repeat His creative activity for another six days again and again. His creation was final and it was good.  As we celebrate the Sabbath we ought to be entering its rest in that frame of mind.  Yet, is it realistic to think that we can actually finish our work in the six days preceding the Sabbath?  In my line of work, this is unrealistic and unthinkable, oftentimes I approach the Sabbath with unfinished business.  I have heard the argument that it is more honoring to God that we finish our work rather than keep the Sabbath, but how does this line up with the theology behind the Sabbath?  One teaching of the Jewish sages on Exodus 20:9 that I believe well reflects the meaning of Sabbath rest is that we are to "Rest on the Sabbath as if all your work were done. Another interpretation: Rest even from the thought of labor."  ¹ .

This is utterly important because the Sabbath attests to God as the creator of all things. This truth, so foundational to our Christian faith, is expressed as a witness when we celebrate the Sabbath and affirms this essential creed.  Our unfinished efforts speak only to our finite limitations. Our celebration of the Sabbath, speaks to our acknowledgement of God's infinite being and perfect finisher of that which He begins. This has profound implications in the Sabbath's relation to God's redemptive purpose (a post for later).  To bring our "finished" business as a way to honor God, above His sanctified and holy day is no different than to bring an unworthy sacrifice in the manner of Cain.  George Elliott beautifully illustrates this purpose in the Sabbath:

The reason of the institution of the Sabbath is one which possesses an unchanging interest and importance to all mankind. The theme of the Creation is not particular to Israel, nor is worship of the Creator confined to the children of Abraham. The primary article of every religious creed, and the foundation of all true religion, is faith in one God as the Maker of all things. Against atheism, which denies the existence of a personal God; against materialism, which denies that this visible universe has its roots in the unseen; and against secularism, which denies the need of worship, the Sabbath is therefore an eternal witness. It symbolically commemorates that creative power which spoke all things into being, the wisdom which ordered their adaptations and harmony, and the love which made, as well as pronounced, all 'very good.' It is set as the perpetual guardian of man against the spiritual infirmity which has everywhere led him to a denial of God who made him, or to the degeneration of that God into a creature made with his own hand. ²

My brothers and sisters in Christ, I urge you, bring not your unfinished (or finished) efforts as that by which to honor God. Rather, rest in Him and his Sabbath which He made for you (Mark 2:27). In a day when we tend to super-spiritualize God's ordinances we forget that they were given to us as blessings and reminders of who His is.

There is much to be said about the Sabbath and particularly as it relates to redemption in Christ. I intend to share my thoughts weekly, following the Sabbath. I will draw from various sources, Christian and Jewish. I look forward to receiving your thoughts and insights as well. 

Until next week,

   Shabbat Shalom!

  ¹ Quoted in: Abraham Joshua Heschel, The Sabbath: Its Meaning for Modern Man. (New  York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1951), 32.

 ² George Elliott, The Abiding Sabbath. (New  York, 1884), 17-18.