PLUS

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

In Southern California this year, we experienced a fairly rare phenomenon called a super bloom.  Because of the excessive rain during the wintertime, beautiful poppies covered the fields, the hills, and even the desert floor.  It was a magnificent sight.

A little over a hundred years ago, Western Europe experienced its own super bloom.  In the middle of the brutal conditions of World War I, beautiful poppies covered the battlefields and even the hastily dug graves of fallen soldiers.

Seeing this super bloom, a Canadian doctor named Lt Col John McCrae wrote the following after presiding over the funeral of a friend:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders Field

In these few short stanzas, the dead provide a simple reminder to the living.  Live up to their legacy.  Catch the torch they have passed on and hold it high.

This Memorial Day weekend, may we honor those who have passed on before us.  May we do so not just on this holiday weekend, but throughout the year.  We must do so in remembrance of our military heroes.  Yet, let us also do so for our Christian heroes.  All the while, may we remember that our best tribute to them is to catch the torch they have passed on to us and hold it high.

PLEASE HONOR THE MEMORY OF OUR BRAVE FOREFATHERS AND PRAY FOR OUR ABILITY TO LIVE UP TO THEIR LEGACY. May we hold high the torch that they have passed on to us … though poppies grow.

Admin Note:  This is the 500th PLUS post.

Hosea 4:6-7 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:  because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me:  seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.  As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.”

Psalm 81:11-13 “But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.  So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust:  and they walked in their own counsels.  Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!”

Harry R. Truman (not President Harry S. Truman) lived at the base of Mount St Helens, and was the owner of a lodge that bore the name of that famous mountain.  In the lead-up to the massive eruption on May 18^th, 1980, residents all around the rumbling volcano were evacuated to prepare for the impending and looming danger.  Truman refused to heed these ominous warnings.  In fact, he scoffed at the earnest officials who demanded that he leave, saying such things as:

• “You couldn’t pull me out with a mule team. That mountain’s part of Truman and Truman’s part of that mountain.”
• “If the mountain goes, I’m going with it.”
• “The mountain ain’t gonna hurt me.”

At 8:32:17 am on Sunday May 18^th, Mount St Helens erupted with a force so violent that it created the largest-ever landslide and sent a cloud of ash 80,000 feet into the air. In a moment, Truman was covered with 150 feet of volcanic debris.  He rejected the warnings of the experts and perished immediately.  He was prophetic in his arrogance as he walked in his own counsels – Truman is indeed a part of that mountain forever.

As individuals, as society, and as a nation, we must never scoff at those who earnestly warn us of the impending and looming danger.  We must never refuse to heed the ominous warnings.  Instead, we must embrace His knowledge and hearken unto to His voice. We must never allow our glory to be changed into shame.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERCIAN CHRISTIANS TO HEED THE WARNINGS OF OUR LOVING GOD.  God yearns for us to hearken unto him and walk in His ways. Don’t make God pull us out of our disobedience with a mule team.

Hebrews 11:33-35 “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the allies.”

Hebrews 12:1 “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.”

On May 12, 1962 General Douglas MacArthur spoke for the last time at his alma matter of West Point. It is known as his Farewell Speech, and has profoundly shaped and captured the culture of that institution and of the United States Army ever sense.  As a part of that speech, MacArthur reminded those young cadets of the following:

“You are the leaven which binds together the entire fabric of our national system of defense.  From your ranks come the great captains who hold the Nation’s destiny in their hands the moment the war tocsin sounds.  The long gray line has never failed us.  Were you to do so, a million ghosts in olive drab, in brown khaki, in blue and gray, would rise from their white crosses, thundering those magic words:  Duty, Honor, Country.”

Indeed, the American solider carries with them the distinct honor of following in the footsteps of giants. This lineage comes with a large dose of inspiration and responsibility.  If they ever would stumble, a great cloud of witnesses that he calls the long grey line would cry out in a unified chorus to pull them from the precipice of failure.  The line must never be broken.

Similarly, the Christian carries with us the distinct honor of following in the footsteps of giants. This lineage comes with a large dose of inspiration and responsibility.  If we ever would stumble, a great cloud of witnesses would cry out in a unified chorus to pull us from the precipice of failure.  The line must never be broken.

PLEASE PRAY FOR AMERICAN CHRISTIANS TO BE INSPIRED BY OUR FAITH-FILLED LEGACY AND LIVE UP TO ITS WEIGHTY RESPONSIBILITY.  May we never fail as a part of our own long grey line.

Titus 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.”

I Peter 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you.”

Matthew 28:5-6 “And the angel answered and said unto the women, Fear not ye:  for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified.  He is not here:  for he is risen, as he said.  Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated the resurrection of Christ on the day we call Easter.  It is the most hopeful day on the calendar, reminding all of the ultimate and eternal hope provided by Jesus even in the midst of a context seemingly filled with the deepest of despair.  He is risen, as he said!  Our blessed hope and lively hope boosts our spirits and secures our destiny.

Unfortunately, this message stands in sharp contrast to a world that is filled with despair and hopelessness as it rejects the good news of the gospel in the name of individual intellect and societal improvement.  As our self-sufficiency drives apparent progress and the crowning of individualism as our highest value, it also propels us towards a meaningless existence. This tragic turn is revealed in a stunning way in an article I came across recently entitled “Why Suicide Has Become an Epidemic – and What We Can Do to Help.” (https://www.newsweek.com/2013/05/22/why-suicide-has-become-epidemic-and-what-we-can-do-help-237434.html)

This epidemic is most acute in developed societies, prompting the author to beg the question: “What’s gone so rotten in the modern world?”  Stunning quotes from the article include:

• In a time defined by ever more social progress and astounding innovations, we have never been more burdened by sadness or more consumed by self-harm.
• More and more of us are living through a time of seamless black: a period of mounting clinical depression, blossoming thoughts of oblivion and an abiding wish to get there by the nonscenic route.
• In the land that commercialized positive thinking and put pill bottles in every drawer, depression has emerged as the most debilitating condition we face.
• But suicide is not an economic problem or a generational tic. It’s not a secondary concern, a sideline that will solve itself with new jobs, less access to guns, or a more tolerant society, although all would be welcome. It’s a problem with a broad base and terrible momentum, a result of seismic changes in the way we live and a corresponding shift in the way we die—not only in America but around the world.
• Sociologists in general believe that when society robs people of self-control, individual dignity, or a connection to something larger than themselves, suicide rates rise.
• Where conditions improve, life expectancy does too, and somewhere in this transition there is a tipping point, a Rubicon beyond which death is no longer a bone-fingered stranger but the man in the mirror.

The conclusion: “we’ve become our own greatest danger” and “humankind’s biggest health problem is humankind.”  Progress may be a misnomer in the modern and developed world.

The antidote may be to roll back the clock in some facets of a society that is recklessly and determinedly rushing forward at an unchecked pace.  It appears that we should be uplifting community, connectedness, and reliance on others.  We should be trumpeting purpose, dignity, and morality.  We should be reminded that we were created by a loving God and not fashioned by a random cosmic accident.  We should be turning back to the cross, where hope reaches far beyond the temporal.  We should be seeking a living hope through a Savior who has risen.

PLEASE PRAY FOR A SOCIETY THAT IS CRUMBLING FROM WITHIN, BURDENED BY SADNESS AND A STUNNING LACK OF HOPE.  May we point them toward the One who has risen … as He said.

Ephesians 6:12-13 “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.  Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

Late at night on May 2, 2011, IT consultant Sohaib Athar was working on a computer project in the hills of Pakistan.  On this unremarkable night, he was annoyed by the noises of helicopters and explosions. During the minutes of this distraction, he Tweeted out his observations and closed that string of thoughts with the following … “I hope it’s not the start of something nasty :-S.”  In reality, it was the end of something nasty.

Eight hours later, the world learned about what Athar had been Tweeting about.  Breaking the silence of the highly classified raid, President Obama proudly declared on live television that Osama bin Laden was dead. The nighttime noises heard by Athar were the ongoing raid itself and he had unknowingly journaled one of the world’s most noteworthy events live eight hours before anyone understood the full context of those observations.

There is much going on around us at all times.  Sometimes we understand all of it.  Sometimes we understand some of it.  Sometimes we understand none of it.  Sometimes it is related to flesh and blood.  Sometimes it is related to principalities and powers.  We rarely understand the full context of our observations.

Regardless of our perspective, we need to be vigilant and well-armed spiritually for the rigors and the nastiness of the day.

PLEASE PRAY TO BE SPIRITUALLY ARMED FOR THE CHALLENGING CONTEXTS WE WILL FACE.  Sometimes it is the start of something nasty.  Sometimes it is the end of something nasty.  Sometimes we are a part of breaking news without even knowing about it.