While growing up, I used to hear words of a song which says “love me please, just a little while longer”. These days the need to be loved by somebody or anybody is so pervasive that it forms the undercurrent of most of our conversations.  So many people are walking around with low self-esteem and self-worth that it shapes the modern world.  This need to be loved and embraced forces us to air our dirty linen on national television, to embrace values contrary to our core and associate with people and things we would otherwise find repulsive. I  watch with interest as the public debate over the Libya “no fly zone” rages on, forcing the President to make a speech on national television.  The issue critics say, is to define the Mission and the role of the United States.  The folly of this is a third grader following the news knows the issues in this particular action.  To stop a madman from committing genocide while the rest of the world looks on, as we have done too many time before.
               
But the clamor is not about clarity but about who is taking the action and why.  The President’s clearly stated values in the past argues against military action, but what was at stake is his image and standing in the world.  So like a kid in the school yard who is caught between the friends he always had and the ones he desires a relationship with, he plays according to who he is with at the time.  Yet the options do not allow him to please both sides, and both groups prefer to plead ignorance rather than concede that it is possible this time, that we are doing the right thing for the right reason.  So even on an international issue of such importance pure emotions dominate both thoughts and actions.
               
This brings me to a conversation I had with my friend, which begun as part of my online Bible Study last Tuesday.  The issue revolved around the relevance of Christian ideals and values and whether or not they can positively affect the modern culture.  Whether the false interpretations of the Scripture in the past have done too much damage to be regarded as credible, and more importantly, does the person standing on the outside looking in perceive a compelling value in being a Christian from the “Christians” he knows?  My friend and fellow seeker took the discussion to members of his family this week with less than encouraging results.  It would appear that there are no compelling intellectual case we can make for inviting people to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ, and beyond that no practical solutions or applications which the wider culture can adopt to improve the life of mankind and their institutions.
               
Wrong! The truth is that Christianity offers the truest, sanest and most viable remedies for the intractable issues in the world. The problem is, it has not been realized in the hearts and lives of the purely religious Christian Community as yet!  We cannot proclaim what we have not experienced and we cannot experience what we have not applied, we will not apply what we are not taught or searched out for ourselves.  Most people do not even realize the Christians they know have never tried Christianity as it is outlined in the Bible.  Most people who have heard the gospel never heard that it is about a Kingdom designed precisely to rectifying of the world’s ills.  That God sent his son into the world (cosmos) because He loves the potential of human society.  Nor have we considered the primary needs of mankind are not tangible things but love, Joy, peace, and most of all-  answers to the questions, who am I? And what is my purpose?
               
The Bible alone answers all these questions, even the love and acceptance that someone still needs after reaching the most coveted position in the world.  The President’s life reminds us that no matter how far you travelled to get to the top, when you get there you will still have the same basic needs of everyone else, even if you don’t know it at the time.  Our disagreement with God is that He works from the inside out while we insist on outward manifestations.  So this week the President will ask those in the nation who did not vote for him to love him, and those who did to “love me please just a little while longer.”  And whether they do  or not it would still be written in the Scripture, “God so loved the World” and “I am come that you may have a full and meaningful life”. Go figure!

"It's Just A Thought"

EF

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