The link above is to a short article about the letter George H.W. Bush left for Bill Clinton when he left office and Clinton replaced him.  It is a great example of what I was talking about in my post yesterday.  It shows great character in Bush.  I will also mention that the second President Bush showed this same character as he has consistently refused to criticize Obama.  Both of these men have illustrated the verse "treat others the way you wish to be treated."  Thought it was neat.

Sarah and I watched President Obama's speech last night. He again demonstrated his rhetorical gift which helped him get elected. It was the latest and biggest statement from politicians that has swirled around the shooting of Congresswoman Giffords.

I really liked the speech.  I thought he did a good job and although there is plenty that I disagree with Obama on some things, I found a lot to agree with last night.  The biggest of these was the call to improve how we talk about each other.   Here's a quote:

“But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”

So much of the dialog today (and throughout American history for that matter) focuses on dehumanizing those who we would disagree with.  Now I am not saying that people aren't wrong sometimes.  Sometimes people are very wrong.  We cannot be afraid to take stands on truth and point out that someone can be wrong.  The problem comes where we step beyond what they are wrong about and treat them in a way that is unloving and disrespectful.  Let's look at the Bible for evidence of what the truth is about our discourse.

So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell. For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and creatures of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. But no one can tame the tongue; it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God; from the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way. (James 3:5-10 NAS)

Notice that it says we curse men who are made in the image of God. Who is that? EVERYONE! So it is saying that we shouldn't curse people but instead offer blessing. Do we have other example of this in Scripture?

"But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. "Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. "Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. "Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. "If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. "If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. (Luke 6:27-37 NAS)

These of course are the words of Jesus Himself, teaching how we should treat others.  Again, this does not mean that we can't point out Biblical truth and show people where their actions go against God's revealed truth.  It means that as we do that, we remember that we are all wrong on so many levels, we are all in need of grace and mercy and we are to be defined by our grace and mercy, not our anger and retribution, even verbally.

Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person. (Colossians 4:5-6 NAS)

Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:29-32 NAS)

God will come and judge the world and even now He disciplines.  He has told us to be messengers of reconciliation, illustrating his love and forgiveness in the way we treat other people and even talk to and about them.  Obama had good words.  There have been times when he has not lived by them in his political speech.  There have been times when I have not lived these words of Scripture either. We're still men in need of forgiveness.    Let's watch our mouths, even and especially when we talk about politics and those who we have disagreement, perhaps strong disagreements with.

Finally a day to start catching my breath!  :)   It has been a busy January and while it has been a good busy, it has meant that I have done a poor job getting to the blog the last week and a half.  It is so easy to get out of the habit and then have trouble getting back into it.   It's not that I don't like writing in the blog, I really enjoy it.  It is just that you can suddenly get out of practice and then find it easy not to get back to it.

I find that some people have the same experience with church, or devotions, or any other discipline.  We are all creatures of habit and we have to work to make sure we are cultivating the rights ones and breaking the wrong ones.  That means that even though this day has started to slip away and many of the things that I hoped to accomplish today remain undone, I am going to get a blog post written and out.  It is the first step of doing better with this.

Last night I got back into another activity I had been neglecting, and that is my Spanish lessons.  I am working on learning more Spanish to be of help to me while I am in the Dominican.  I will be a far cry from fluent, but perhaps I will be able to say one or two more things than I could say last year.  Enough for a minute or two of small talk with those around me.

This is just a side note, but my computer is giving me grief.  With all my heart let me encourage you NOT to buy from HP.  I expect that devices will have issues now and then and no company is perfect, but when they refuse to even admit to or help fix and basic design flaw that effects a LOT of people, this is a company that I would not trust doing business with again.  Too bad too, for there is much to like about this machine, but...

I guess I won't go into it here on this post, but there is definitely something to be said for all the discussion about our political dialog that is swirling around the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Giffords.  Maybe tomorrow's post?  I could throw in Fred Phelps and the Westboro church into that too.

I am really looking forward to this weekend with our annual meeting.  We are going to have a special morning service to get ready for the meeting with a message that will prepare us for our time together.  It is exciting to see what God is doing in our midst!

Ok, so this was just a personal update today.  Some random musings to get the dust off my blogging cap and back into the habit.   One additional note, although you will see little difference, I was able to update the blog software today which should help with the care and upkeep of the blog.

Now I'm going to get into some trouble with my kids.  They got the game "Trouble" for Christmas and we are going to play it together.  They are all excited.  Thanks to Nate and Charlene for this gift!

The link above is about the movement "We Can Know".  The article talks about what the people who are following this teaching are doing in preparation for May 21, 2011 when they believe Jesus is coming back.  All this is based on a man named Harold Camping's calculations from the Bible that says that the Bible gives hidden clues as to when God will return.

I have been to the websites and read some of the stuff.  I must say, I don't buy it.  This has nothing to do with the strength of my faith.  My faith is plenty strong.  It has to do with some pretty fuzzy reasoning and calculating.  He "figures out" exact dates for events in antiquity such as Noah's flood and actual creation.  This despite the fact that far more reputable scholars agree that while dates can be estimated, exact dates elude us.  There have never been clear answers to questions that include whether or not the genealogies in Genesis are actual or representative.  In a representative genealogy, some generations are skipped and the genealogy are a summary of the overall family tree.

All that to say that I find his date setting rather unconvincing, and that is before we consider the words of Jesus Himself when He says, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone."   (Matthew 24:36 NAS)

I just don't know how you get beyond this!  Jesus says NO ONE knows the day, not even the angels.  So why does Mr. Camping and his followers think they are an exception.

There is one more troubling quote in the article attributed to Allison Warden, a follower and promoter of Campings teaching.  She says, "If May 21 passes and I'm still here, that means I wasn't saved. Does that mean God's word is inaccurate or untrue? Not at all,"    So, she is more sure of this man's date calculations than her own salvation?  That is unfortunate.  When it comes to "we can know" it is much more supported in Scripture that we can know God and His salvation than we can know the date of His coming.

All that being said, Jesus could certainly come back on May 21, or the 22, or the 20th, of any other date.  He's coming when He's ready.  We are directed to always be ready.  The news we are to spread is the news of His love, His sacrifice for our sins, His salvation through His death on the cross.  Not the news of a date.  So get ready, because we are supposed to be ready, but I wouldn't worry about getting up on the roof on May 21.  And some of you will understand me when I say, I have 88 reasons to doubt the date.  :)

Three days before he was killed by an assassin's bullet, John Lennon gave an interview that has recently been published.  The link to an article about it is above.  It includes this quote:

He also spoke about the possibility of returning to touring. "We just might do it," Lennon said. But there will be no smoke bombs, no lipstick, no flashing lights. It just has to be comfy. But we could have a laugh. We're born-again rockers, and we're starting over ... There's plenty of time, right? Plenty of time."

It is startling to read his statement talking about having plenty of time knowing that he was about to die. We all think that we have more time. We do not like to consider our death or the frailty of our life. We like to live as if we had a guarantee. The Bible says:

Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (James 4:13-14 NAS)