Spiritual Death

I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them. - Eze 39:24

This is how God deals with our sin--he hides from us. He separates from us. That is the fundamental definition of spiritual death and hell--separation from God because he removes himself from our presence.

Spiritual Blessings

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places...that we should be holy and blameless before him. - Eph 1:3-4

The blessing he gives us is holiness and blamelessness before him. Do I see holiness as a blessing? Am I more thrilled that he makes me blameless than I would be to win the lottery?

Civil War

I'm reading a book about American history: Kenneth C. Davis Don't Know Much About American History. It's written at a 4th grade level, so it's surprisingly interesting. It hits the high points of our history without going into excrutiating detail about any of it. I just finished reading about the Civil War, and here are some interesting quotes with my thoughts added...

"In Antietam, Maryland, in the bloodiest single day of the war, the dead and wounded top 10,000 on each side." -p 91 "About 620,000 people died in the Civil War." -p 93

• This really puts the 3500 dead troops in Iraq in perspective, now doesn't it? 10,000 in one day verses 3500 in 5 years. Yes, 3500 deaths is sad, but we need to remember perspective.

"Since the United States was the only significant democratic government in the world, Lincoln believed he was fighting to preserve freedom and democracy around the globe, not just in America." -p 94

• I wonder if Lincoln was accused of all sorts of evil motives for fighting this war. "He's just trying to make money for his northern friends in the cotton mills. The south had cotton, they needed cotton to make fabric, their profits were slipping because of it, etc."

Some other interesting things...

• Lincoln only had 1 year of education. I bet the newspapers made fun of him too.
• Lincoln was a very religious man. Who can identify where he got the line "A house divided against itself cannot stand"?
• The Civil War was going very poorly--then it turned around in a very drastic fashion and the north won
• Sherman's march through Georgia destroyed everything in a 40 mile wide path from Atlanta to Savannah. He did what it took to win the war. I bet women and children died in the process. I wonder if the Senate was trying to pass non-binding resolutions saying that was bad...

Dissipation

But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. -Luk 21:34

DISSIPATION, n.
3. Scattered attention; or that which diverts and calls off the mind from any subject.
4. A dissolute, irregular course of life; a wandering from object to object in pursuit of pleasure; a course of life usually attended with careless and exorbitant expenditure of money, and indulgence in vices, which impair or ruin both health and fortune.

What a terrifying verse! I know I am currently trapped in dissipation (#3) and the cares of this life. Am I ready for Christ's return? I feel I am so distracted by everything around me--even great things like my family and necessary things like my job. The trials of house-hunting and selling easily consume me. Oh how I need God's grace to save from my distractions, to focus my attention on Him.

Prescribed Procrastination

Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer -Luke 21:14

At first this sounds like the easiest commandment ever: Don't prepare. And it would be easy if it weren't for our instance on worrying. I know I'm going to arrested and suffer greatly for my faith if I don't give a good answer...but I can't think ahead about that answer. Yeah, that's pretty tough. Of course, I could think for months of elequent things to say and only end up fumbling over my words and robbing God of the glory of speaking through me.

Faithful Watchman

But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand. -Eze 33:6

This is a sobering passage. All Christians have been called to be watchmen, warning those around us of the wrath of God. I for one have a lot of blood on my hand due to my silence.

Spiritual Headship

For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. -Eph 5:23

This weekend the Lord revealed a great truth about leadership. Learning biblical headship and bodyship is the responsibility of both the husband and wife. I have often felt that women say they want men to lead, but then they take the reins themselves and don't give men that opportunity. It's as though they want men to lead them...but only if they're being led exactly as they want to go themselves, so there's really no leading going on. OK, that rant is completely irrelevant to this post...

Anyway, I've had a struggle as spiritual leader. For example, when we have people over for dinner, I typically wait for our guests to finish their sentence before interjecting that it's time to pray. Frequently, on the other hand, my wife will lean over and say "should we pray?" So now, she's undermined my leadership by not waiting to let me lead. What should I do? I figure there are a few options. I can say "yes," not helping the cause at all but unfortunately is my most common response. I can say "of course, I was waiting till the conversation had a lull," which is a little better but when I say it over and over it just sounds like I'm making excuses.

Or I can preempt her question. This is the path the Lord just revealed to me. In order for me to get her to stop trying to lead, I need to show her I'm clearly leading. If she's a worrier, then I need to let her know I'm taking care of things before she has a chance to worry about them. If she is in a bigger hurry for things than I am, I need to be in more of a hurry to act--even if it's a hurry to say let's be patient.

Hopefully, catering my leadership style to her following style will be effective. Hopefully, she'll learn to trust my leadership so completely that I can eventually lead in my style.