RESPECTING OUR NATIONAL ANTHEM AND OUR FLAG

 

A writer for the Winchester, Kentucky SUN detailed turning on a recent UK basketball game and doing the usual whooping and hollering that most UK fans do rather easily as they support Coach Cal and our UK Wildcats. 

Even in this abysmal 4-8 season, this individual followed their lifelong practice of supporting Kentucky's Wildcats. However, this loyal fan's adoration turned to being literally "sick to my stomach" as "Unbelief struck me. No, it couldn't be true! However it was." 

What this writer saw, was something many of us have observed since Colin Kaepernick took his first knee several years ago during a flag ceremony at a professional football game. This phenomenon has been cussed and discussed ever since; berated by the President of the United States  and the pro's and con's of patriotism and true Christianity discussed by millions of sports enthusiasts and loyal citizens.

Our local commentator took the position that "there is no cause great enough for any team to take the knee when the National Anthem is played." Period. End of Report. I have long admired Kaepernick for his ability to stand on a principle for which he believed, take his licks for doing it, and move on with his life, for better or worse. Yet, just today I learned in writing this piece, that NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, has apologized to Kaepernick and admitted that he and the League would have benefited by listening to what Kaepernick was attempting to say. That gives me new hope for the NFL.

So, back to our local newspaper and the political sentiment around Kentucky. Admittedly, I am an import to Kentucky, here by reason of family connections and my personal adjustment as an ordained Minister and former Pastor, since 1951. Yes I am old enough to admit I have been around the block a few times. Yes; it means I am appreciative of being part of a social structure that affirms the positive side of a rather Christian society. Yes; I perceive being a born-again Christian is something that is positively assumed and affirmed in Kentucky. 

Kentucky has a Governor that I believe lives a transformed personal life and publically affirms his supreme allegiance to the Almighty and tries to practice the corollary of that in his politics by loving his neighbor as himself in ways considered political. I see it verbalized on my car tag-"In God We Trust". Equally, I see it expressed in the Governor's public life.

But back to the op-ed in the Winchester SUN ...  our local writer railed about Coach Cal's disrespect and raised the question of "What are we teaching our young people when they see our basketball team kneel and not stand for the anthem, flag and prayer?" That raises a question for me that you may, or may not like. I may be wrong, I am old enough to have been wrong several times in life, but it seems to me that the critics of Coach Cal, the Wildcats basketball team, and anyone else "taking a knee"; are as Pharisaical as the hypocritical Pharisees of the Bible who stood on the street corner and paraded their devotion to God with prayers that thanked God they were not women or sinful publicans.

Having grown up in a conservative Protestant Church, I have childhood memories of attending Cottage Prayer Meetings, as we called it them--informal midweek gatherings--frequently meeting at the home of my revered aunt and uncle. When it came time to pray; we neither sat nor stood; we knelt--on our knees before God. I have never forgotten that instance decades ago when, in my childhood I tired of kneeling at my seat and sat on the floor, and promptly fell asleep-- only to awaken with everyone standing on their feet singing the closing hymn. Of course, I was embarrassed ... but to this day, I cannot think of anything that better symbolizes faith and humility, prayer and worship, than bowing on bended knee--"taking a knee!"

I submit to the reader that the critics of these athletes who take a knee to protest something that seems morally indefensible to them, is to parade a Phariseeism that Jesus condemned by being nailed on a Roman Cross and left to die. Whether you stand or you kneel, I say, God bless America, But patriotism and Christianity are not one and the same, Being patriotic does not make you a model citizen, let alone a transformed Christian, but being a devout Christian will internalize your moral and ethical life and convert you into an improved citizen.

walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com --
loving God Supremely and loving our neighbor as our self is something we can all benefit from whether we stand or kneel.

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THE WAY I READ IT

The Weekend Edition of the Winchester (KY) SUN carried a front page quote by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron on Wednesday, 1-13-21.  Republican Cameron, a popular African American Kentucky politician called the behavior of Trump rioters who sacked the White House recently "despicable."

On the other hand, he readily admitted he had no regrets about supporting "the president." What I find interesting is that Cameron declared he would not call for Trump's impeachment because the the president had only seven days left in office, as if the length of time left in office had  anything to do with the rightness or wrongness of inciting insurrection. 

If it does, the way I read that is that we have lost our moral compass and are left with a relative morality that has no fixed point of right and wrong, something like the old Fletcher relativism that became popular a few decades back. AG Cameron also affirmed, according to THE SUN that he has committed to an "orderly transition of power." I have now lived through World War Two, the Korean War, and an ongoing host of global conflicts involving the American Military Forces of which Americans have always been very proud. 

However, the way I read our history, we have been rather intentionally committed to an orderly transition of power since first electing George Washington as the Father of our country and then finding a suitable successor to replace him when he resigned. That being said, when has it not been as American as apple pie to be committed to an orderly transition of power between one president and another. 

To be anything less, was un-American. To  be anything less, was Benedict Arnold. To  be anything else was treason--seditious. Having been born in these United States of America, it has been my privilege to have a multitude of friends who were born abroad and for one reason or another pushed their way to the safety of America, where the American way of life guaranteed them an orderly transition any time there was a change in any part of the political system.

Out of that heritage of political freedom and liberty and justice for all, the way I read Daniel Cameron's Republican rhetoric is purely that, political rhetoric, with a subtle implication. For the way I read Cameron's commitment to an "orderly transition of power" raises the hackles on the back of my neck as I ask myself, does a vote to impeach Donald Trump imply a disorderly transition of power? 

As I look to the People's House and its almost military lockdown, preparatory to Joe Biden's installation as our 46th President, it removes most of my doubts but prepares me for the orderly transition that has been our tradition since George Washington turned his official duties over to his successor that many years ago. 

Is there any other way to read it ?????

walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

THE REALITY OF TOMORROW

The Biblical hymn writer reminded us long ago that "He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds" (Psalm 147.3).   John Milton was an English Puritan who wrote poetry second only to that of the Bible. Milton lost his sight in the cause of liberty and righteousness, standing by Oliver Cromwell and the Puritan Commmonwealth. It was in Milton's blindness that he wrote "Paradise Lost."  In his blindness, he also wrote a sonnet on his blindness, the last line of which  reminds us, "They also serve who only stand and wait."

God gives his finest gifts to those who wait on the Lord. God may somehow take from us earthly things but he bestows upon us better things. God may take away human  strength, but only that he may bestow heaven's strength. John Milton lost his eyesight, but that did not prevent him seeing the celestial cities of God. John Bunyan spent years of his life in prison, but not without discovering the journey we read as Pilgrim's Progress. The Biblical people of God found themselves in slavery and foreign captivity, in order that they might love the "Promised Land." God sometimes removes old landmarks from our lives, but never without lifting our eyes to a newer and more beautiful life experience.

The Sculptor pictures an angel in the solid rock before he begins to chisel it out. The Artist sees a beautiful picture before he paints it on the canvas. The Architect imagines a magnificent building before he draws up the plans. God works in our lives like the skilled Artisan he is.

God lets this Old House turn back into the dust of the ground in order that he might build for us an even better house that he has envisioned; a house made without hands and eternal in the heavens. As I look ahead and see my 94th year on the near horizon, a few month from now,  I approach it with the awareness that God bestows his best gifts upon  those who look faithfully up to him. 

This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com wishing you God's best. 

LIVING WITH SINGLENESS OF PURPOSE

 

When James Garfield entered Hiram College, he was a youth with limited preparation but one clear purpose: he purposed to obtain an education. That singleness of purpose allowed him to squeeze six years of study into three and enable him to earn the coveted degree.

Having that single purpose, young Jim Garfield taught school to feed himself. Beyond that, he “shut the whole world out from his mind save that little portion of it within the range of his studies.” He readily admitted to knowing “nothing of politics or the news of the day, reading no light literature, and engaging in no social recreations that too his time from his books”¹

It was with this singleness of focus that young James eventually found it possible to win a coveted seat in the United States Congress, and to finally  live in the White House and serve his country as the Presidency of the United States of America. The intensity of Garfield’s purposeful focus revealed itself when he reflected on the words of his severest critics regarding his presidency. Garfield concluded, “I would rather be beaten in right, than succeed in wrong.”²

What captures your attention? What holds your focus? Jesus taught his disciples to seek the Kingdom of God first, ahead of everything else. Having done that, Jesus announced that they would discover their needs being met (Matthew 6:33). Achievement in life requires a well-focused faith, but it is through such faith that we acquire dividends that can be found in no other way than by focusing purposefully on the will of Our Heavenly Father.

To maintain your focus when walking with Jesus, means you prioritize God’s will above all else; you pursue Kingdom issues first, and above all else, you focus on His Presence. Private citizen, John Egglen, was a simple man, an ordinary deacon in a local Methodist church in Colchester, England. One snowy night, John pushed purposefully forward but found only a handful of people in attendance at the scheduled Service. Even the Minister failed to make it to church, but John was there.

What resulted that night was this: very ordinary deacon John found himself preaching a simple, and poorly-prepared sermon, but he was there according to his purpose. Deacon John’s sermon touched a thirteen-year-old visitor, who found shelter in the church from the stormy weather  and who later said, “Then and there the cloud on my heart lifted, the darkness rolled away, and at that moment I saw the sun.”

We know that thirteen-year-old visitor today as Charles Haddon Spurgeon! Within five short years, the still teenaged Spurgeon took charge of a small congregation at a  place called Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire. By the time Spurgeon achieved twenty years of age, he moved into to London where he became pastor of the famed New Park Street Chapel.

Spurgeon’s immediate popularity required the construction of the famed Metropolitan Tabernacle of London in 1861. Spurgeon often preached to as many as 10,000 people on any given Sunday. His sermons were published weekly from 1854 forward and were collected into fifty volumes, and Spurgeon’s sermon series bless the library shelves of many a Pastor yet today.

Singleness of purpose enabled citizen, James A. Garfield, to first acquire an education, and then to qualify himself as the future President of our United States of America. Because of his singleness of purpose, John Egglen obeyed God on a stormy and snowy night. That singleness of purpose led him to preach such as he had available in his simple and limited circumstances.

God, however, took John’s simple sermon  and blessed it, as he blessed the five small fish and two loaves of bread with which Jesus fed a Multitude.  John’s sermon led to the conversion of a man who became one our best-known preachers in the second half of the recent nineteenth century.

When you can live with singleness of purpose, Jesus tells us, we can “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness: and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33, NASV). This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com.

1 General James S. Brisbin, James A. Garfield. Philadelphia: Hubbard Brothers, 1880, p. 72.

2 Garfield, p. 28l. 

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WHEN WE PRAY

TOO OFTEN WE AS CHRISTIANS HIDE BEHIND OUR PRAYER MANTEL.

We see a need and we say "i will pray for you" and we do pray. However, prayer was never intended to be our only Kingdom activity. As a matter of fact, Jesus calls us to personal discipleship. That can mean many things, like those personal disciplines of fellowshipping together, reading our bibles, and you know them as well as I do. But sooner or later we have to discern between fishing and merely cutting bait. There comes a time to go into the harvest field.

Consider this: When Jesus faced the crucial showdown of heaven and earth, he could no longer just pray. The story tells us he sweat great drops of blood, as it were. There came that time of surrender, when he spoke the words from the depth of his soul. He would no longer say, I will pray for you."

His act of surrender came in his words, "Not my will, but thine be done." That commitment beyond merely praying carried him to the cross, and the crossover where he experienced the resurrection.

When we become a praying people, we, pray for the will of the Heavenly Father. That transitions us beyond the verbalization of "prayers" and carries us into becoming part of the resurrection--new life via healing--new life via financial sponsorship--new life via personal involvement/assistance--new life via a hand-up.

I remember a day when I did not feel I had the money myself, but I felt so led that I launched a personal Facebook Fundraiser for a certain individual. It just seemed the right thing to do. I remember the shock I felt.  It just seemed the right thing to do. I remember the shock I felt when a reader responded by sending the amount I was attempting to raise. I am still experiencing the pleasure of knowing I became part of changing a person's life at a critical point--life or potential death. That led to further involvement on my part but it brought further stability to a person of another race, color, and culture, that has become literally LIFE TRANSFORMING. I am humbled, but it was the right thing to do, in spite of It lost the element of sacrifice and became a valued investment.

I tell this story not to exalt me, for I feel no exaltation. I do recognize a quiet sense of abiding trust, but it required that I launch out deeper than I am accustomed to wading. As evangelical Protestants we make much of walking by faith, as Luther discovered and described it. I am finding that the trust of faith involves trust my fear of scammers to the Holy Spirit--to the Lord's gifting and guiding my direction via the good sense and sound mind he gave me, and then using it and trusting him for the rest.

walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com,

I am a blessed man