16. May 2012 by BruceSmith.
What If…
What if He was there in the beginning?
What if He was there for my beginning?
What if He was there for my first smile?
What if He caught my first tear?
What if He is bottling all my tears?
What if He knows all my weaknesses and yet loves me still?
What if He watched me choose wrong and did not quit me?
What if He dances with ridiculous joy when I hit it out of the park?
What if my disasters are His opportunity?
What if I always have another chance?
What if my future is not dependent upon hooking another whale, but rather,
finding myself in the belly of the whale He sent my way?
What if my poverty allows His richness to be enough?
What if my worst nightmare is held in His hands?
What if my end is a new beginning in Him?
What if His dreams for me are bigger than my fantasies?
What if my giving up does not push Him away?
What if my fear of destruction does not destroy His care for me?
What if my numbness can be turned to tenderness?
What if my desire to run will lead me back to Him?
What if my rage can be overcome by His relentless joy over me?
What if this dark dark moment will someday offer light?
What if this seering pain is felt and known by Him?
What if this suffocating pressure can be lifted by one whisper from Him?
What if all the closed doors and dashed starts are forcing me toward His call?
What if my pettiness can give way to His grandeur?
What if my deepest dysfunction finds a cure in Him?
What if my death leads me an eternal beginning?
What if my worship of the world can give way to a hunger for something lasting?
What if this unrelenting discouragement can give way to hope?
What if He is real?
What if He is watching?
What if He cares?
What if I can know Him?
What if He will carry me?
What if He will not drop me?
What if my inability does not define His ability?
What if i can fight through the valley and find the mountain again?
What if my desire to die will not snuff out His offer of life?
What if the stares, laughter and pointing of others forces me to run into His arms?
What if when everyone I know doubts me, He champions me?
What if when I doubt myself, He still champions me?
What if my disappointment with the “church” is understood my Him?
What if He loves me…no matter what?
What if ? What if?
Bruce Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
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14. May 2012 by BruceSmith.
Somewhere Over the Rainbow… Halo?
Have you seen the cover? For anyone with an ability to think logically, let alone, with any biblical background at all, or an understanding of the framers of our American experiment and their values, this is completely shocking if not intellectually suicidal. Newsweek, lending another liberal voice to the gay marriage parade, has placed nothing less than a halo, a rainbow colored halo, on the “First Gay President”, as they refer to the supposed Commander in Chief. Tina Brown, in keeping with the cover imagery, touts the value of “leadership” as she praises the CIC (Commander…) for coming out of the closet, in her column “Captains Courageous”. America wants its heads of industry and heads of state to “lead”, she affirms. Lead? Lead?
Is this what we just witnessed? “Leadership”? Moreover, is biblical imagery, as it applies to Godly creatures, those who worship God and do His will, haloed celestial beings, in keeping with the new brand of gay leadership touted by Mr. Obama and the liberal administration? Is this leadership or poll followership, and monied, loud, manipulative, agenda-championing group cowering?
Leadership? Is this what we just got in America? The bible suggests that where people and nations go away from His clear pronouncements bad things happen, moral decline sets in, and God is not overly happy. In fact, yes, the idea of God’s anger is clear, scripturally, when a people and its leaders choose to follow lifestyles, militantly and jubilantly, that God absolutely opposes. From a Christian perspective, one can use Christ’s name, point to scriptures and concepts taken out of context, and call oneself a religious person, AND be completely void of any true concept of leadership or Godliness. To use Christ’s name for political gain while actively supporting and championing the aggressive movement of those determined to follow their own desires, could not be further from biblical Christianity or true leadership. Not all who use His name, Jesus said, will be found worthy on the other side. This is true of individuals and groups, and institutions.
We cannot help but fear whether or not what began in full in the 60s has fully come home to root and blossom in our day. The separation from any form biblical reason, as God defines it, cannot bode well for this country if we are unwilling to stem the tide of immorality any time soon. We have lost all desire to even keep God in the picture at all. We have re-defined the picture, again. The math is no longer certain. The integers are up for grabs in the sexuality equation now before America. The game being played in the halls of power and in the throngs of those using power and money to manipulate the system to fulfill a compulsion to remake God in one’s own image is a very dangerous one indeed. We seem to want rules only if we can craft them. Otherwise, rules are a drag (pun intended) on our lifestyle choices. We want to rule the church out, and throw reason out the door. This is our garden, and Eve is no longer invited.
How anyone with even a smidgen of intellect, let alone biblical ideology, uses imagery from the bible to support a cause so at odds with everything God stands for and is so clear on in scripture…its astonishing. More astonishing, perhaps, are the words of a man so capable, so intellectually accomplished, so steeped in rhetoric and reason, or so it seemed to many. The crowned leader of the free world, ivy league trained, cannot see the lack of logical consistency in using Christ’s message of passion for truth and character while at the same time promoting a legislative movement that is utterly contrary to nature, purity, biology, and God’s idea of love, intimacy and sexuality? This is true cosmic imbecility.
What is crushingly difficult to watch, moreover, are those organizations who support such agendas and lifestyles while referring to themselves as a “church”. Those institutions that have so completely abandoned reason and biblical teaching, and have sought to remake it into something it never was, more than that, have turned it 180 degrees from its moorings, have little hope of either changing hearts, changing our society, or fulfilling the call of God to change the world for good. They may contribute to further decline, but they will do little else. Lest you disagree, consider the studies on such declining institutions from the last several decades.
Like the nation Israel, when she pursued exactly those things God told her not to pursue, and as happened with Adam and Eve (remember, again, not “Adam and Steve”), decline and difficulty ensued. When a heart chooses to harden itself against anything resembling true leadership and truth, one cannot expect a good result. The warnings are there for a reason. God is not merely whistling Dixie when He points us to His agenda for love and marriage, and when He conveys abhorrence for a given activity. He, as should we, loves those involved in rabid pursuit of a false rainbow. He, nor should we, relent from the standard of truth.
What Tina Brown, those pushing the gay marriage agenda, and a liberal administration cut off from healthy standards of reason and rationality really want is a another golden calf of self-defined living. The problem is, made in the image of God, for relationship with Him, we are not our own, we are not the makers of truth, we are not the final measurement of life. God alone occupies the unshakable, unassailable, and unchanging seat of absolute truth. He is truth. He is the truth-giver. If we are to lead and love appropriately, we must embrace and follow Him fully. Anything less is false living. To run so passionately toward something so far from His heart, is altogether broken.
If this is an historic watershed moment in American history, as many are proclaiming, then may God help us. Its not the kind of watershed any of us really want I fear. All civilizations face unique moments where the future lies in the balance. Is this one for us? Can we re-fit the halo, rip it from the hands of His angels and toss it any which way we choose? Will the fancy paint job do? Are we really up to the challenge of leading a nation according to our own desires? If we choose this route, are we ready for the results? Will we blame Him when His warnings come to fruition? The “Death of God” movement decades earlier did not kill Him off, so, now we try again. This time we seem hell bent on re-defining Him and His standards, knowing we cannot get rid of Him. The lunacy of this idea is laughable. We are actually trying to re-define the one who defines us all. We are telling Him, enamored with our super-power status in the world, that we know better. Whatever we want, in fact, IS better. We will call Him when we want Him. Or, more likely, when we need Him. And need Him, we will.
We can only hope and pray that as a people, God’s redemptive body on the earth, we will actually do the prayerful leading as we live and move and have our very being defined in Him. Our “leaders” will not point us toward His call. No, they are following the call and cravings of others. May we lovingly, logically, and whole-heartedly push our “leaders” to discover, again, what it means to lead. Leadership comes from having an internal compass, one founded upon an Eternal compass, and not a navigational test center that is steered by polls and general opinion.
Yes, this is a democracy, not a theocracy. Yet, we must remember, those who began this American experiment did so with a foundational understanding that God enabled the start and sustains the future.
Watershed? Historical? Our trip over the rainbow as humans on planet earth? We had better think this one through between now and November.
Bruce Lee Smith
www.blog.optimuschoice.com
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10. May 2012 by BruceSmith.
I am filming a TV interview today, debating, the ongoing political drama around the definition of marriage issue. As you are aware, I’m sure, President Obama and his administration, the first sitting President in history, have now weighed in in favor of redefining marriage fundamentally. Is this a big deal, is it all about rights as American citizens, is this really a civil rights issues? These are the questions I will be debating on WLAE TV, Ringside Politics, with Jeff Crouere. It will air Friday night and Sunday night, and we will update you on the times.
Bruce Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
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4. May 2012 by BruceSmith.
Its interesting how things develop when you are listening, motivated, and sensitive to what God may be saying to you. I’ve been in creative mode recently, and in particular, in art and photography mode. As is often the case, the creative juices tend to get going when I’m coming out of a particularly stressful, depressing, challenging, and otherwise exhausting period of life. Those who study creativity point to the inspirational process often being ignited by difficulty and internal struggle. They also suggest that when someone turns off the jets and just rests and daydreams, great inspiration can come roaring in. This has been the case with me lately. Feeling exhausted and generally spent from life’s challenges, I went nearly catatonic for a string of days. Finally, the creative juices kicked in and I’ve been in this manic state of idea development.
One of the fronts I’ve been working on, as I said, is the photography front. When I write, often, I think of fine art correlations that would be great to implement along with the writing, and it works the other way as well. Today, working on a photography project demonstrating the absurdity of abandoning God’s direction for life, sexuality, and family, I begin think and write as I wrapped up the shoot. Unexpectedly, and unprompted by me, someone, along the course of the day, asked me why people get so hung up on the whole gay marriage thing. Their approach, not thought through very well or for very long, was simply, “If they want to do wacky things, let them. They are not hurting anyone. Why should Christians get so hung up on voting against gay marriage?”
They had no idea that my photo shoot today concerned that very topic. I had no idea my photo shoot would be so directly in play with a real time question on this day, and I had no idea I would read an article late in the day about Billy Graham vocalizing (a very rare thing for the iconic preacher who has stayed away from politics since the Nixon days) his support for voting against gay marriage and his attempt to rally others toward the same.
Due to the impacting, if not shocking nature of my photos today (humorous, sarcastic, and ironic as well), and the potential for confusion from viewers who would not know me or take my writings into consideration, let alone be aware of my humor, sarcasm, and penchant for metaphor and irony, I was wrestling with whether or not to actually use and publish the photos addressing this highly politicized issue. The events of the day have lent me courage and confidence to publish the photos and create a space for dialogue.
Le me state it clearly; I am completely convinced, along with many astute culture watchers, sociologists, and psychologists, that the one man and one woman biblical view of marriage is THE way for us. Marriage, originally a union between Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, is clearly in the plan from day one. The biblical account is without any lack of clarity in that God placed Adam there, and then formed Eve to walk with him. Culture would not even have an idea or concept of marriage had God not began things this way. Indeed, society would not exist any other way. We all come from that original pairing that necessitated a particular physical equation on each side. The plumbing is unapologetically fitting, as we might note. The efficacy of the plumbing, ie. childbirth, is quite clear as well. The natural course of things, without any muddiness at all, is Adam and Eve, birthing a little Anne or Steve, and on and on it goes. God said, in fact, be fruitful (while abstaining from that one fruit, mind you) and multiply. Adam and Steve cannot multiply! The biology, the science many worship, tells us this empirically. Only Adam and Eve make that happen. Any other way is a ridiculous attempt to play God. Such an attempt is at once humorous and horrific. Its humorous because, well, I wonder if God might be saying, at times, “How those two gonna try to make that work!” And horrific, because it is so contrary to the glorious and potentially thrilling plan God offers humankind. Its logical insanity.
To make a mockery of His dream and provision for us is indeed horrifying, horrifyingly sad. It limits our lives, distorts our thoughts and passions and pursuits, fills us with confusion and a legitimate sense of guilt, and it promotes a development of societal dysfunction, even as it forces those involved to abandon any life attachment to the idea of absolute truth. Obviously, if we abandon God’s original narrative for love and sex, we must abandon, like it or not, any other compulsion to the idea that God defines truth and human activity. This is why, on this issue, so fundamental, much is at stake. If we allow marriage to be re-defined as a society, we open Pandora’s Box to much more. We teach our kids and others, in so doing, that man’s ideas have no boundaries, no consequence, and no obligation beyond self. In the words of C.S. Lewis, in living this way, we have become like the flower’s scent turning away from the flower. Its laughable. The flower must chuckle vigorously even as it weeps for the scent’s apparent madness and futility. It goes without saying, the scent only exists because of the flower. Yet, demanding its autonomy, it runs from the flower, and merely fades away into oblivion.
Now, I have no intention, desire, or motivation to be crass, ugly, or without grace. We all are without hope until and unless we offer ourselves to God. We all need forgiveness for a whole slew of wrongs within us. We all, like the apostle Paul, do that which we wish we would not do, and we long to do that which we should, though we fail to do so far too often. This does not mean, however, that we neglect to speak truthfully and compassionately and directly about an issue so profound and fundamental as this one. We have become so scared to debate reality in the public square when it involves Christian teaching. Yet, there seems to be no fear from the secular side when it comes to mocking God-followers. They are venomous in their speech, art, and pronouncements of all sort. The best-seller list continues to see titles and manuscripts beating God to death as it were. Millions are paid for art that totally profanes God’s name. The cross and the message of the Gospel can be spit on, urinated on, and bashed without apology, yet, say one thing about sin (that vulgar three letter word to secularists) or cultural demise, and you are castigated as a freak and a puritanical farce, and shunned to the outer banks of society.
The marriage debate, logically speaking, should be no debate at all. How can we make the case that a man should be with a man or a woman should be with a woman when science (secular culture’s idol) tells us that cannot work if cultures are to propagate and survive at all? Its fundamentally silly at best. You can’t fit that round peg into that metaphorical hole, at least not if one wants to see life come forth.
Truth here, on this issue, like all biblical issues, has nothing to do with HOW we interact with others in terms of our love and compassion for all people. God is exceedingly clear, in scripture, regarding His disdain for anything outside the one man/one woman idea, and yet, He is abundantly clear regarding His love for all that fall short of His call. The message of the Prodigal Son in Luke’s gospel is just that. The Father watches with deep love and profound sadness as the son runs to ways unlovely, and as the son repents and turns back to the Father, the Father is found to be running toward the son in forgiveness and restoration. This is the message for all living outside the bounds of God’s plan. The call is for all of us. Any culture, person, or “church” that rejects this reality is rejecting the truth, the gospel of God, and God Himself. The turning is from a false idea and identity, and a running toward the God-defined pursuit of life. The real party, the story conveys, is to be found in God’s house, with Him and His people.
Is it possible (though science demonstrates this is quite rare) that some may be more genetically predisposed to certain male/female characteristics than others of the same sex? Perhaps. However, our response to such, amidst compassion and grace, is to call people, like those who may be more predisposed to other “isms” or addictions, to embrace a passionate pursuit toward God’s good plan for them, and ask for His grace as they struggle to find their way forward continuing to make progress. The hunger to live for God even as one may be struggling through a sin issue is light years away from denying the truth of God because of someone’s own desires and choices. Because we are people of free will we do have “choices”. Yet, not all our choices are God’s choices, and when we willingly step outside His choices for us, we cannot expect a good return on that investment. It is not God’s fault our lives and emotions and relationships get so messy when we turn from His call. We cannot point the finger at God or His truth-tellers when we don’t like the message.
We must remember, God’s provision and standards for life are designed for our good and for the good of cultures and peoples everywhere. He loves us and knows how desperate life becomes when His people move outside His will. Further, we must recognize, nothing we do in life is merely internal. All our actions, public pronouncements, and activities, have corporate and cultural effect. We are so excited as a nation about the power of one vote, yet, we want to deny that other things we do and say have any effect on society at all. “Its not hurting anyone!” is a totally false view. Our “sin”, and that is God’s word, impacts everyone. It impacts families, friends, lovers, enemies, kids, teens, co-workers, … everyone. Our cumulative beliefs, activities, and desires make a difference in the world. This is why the bible is so concerned with how we live. Its not about rules for rules sake. Its about our being fully alive, in God’s plan, for our sake, the sake of others, and because that’s how we thrive in life and in God. Our music, our words, our business practices, our relational choices, our desires, our thoughts, our facial expressions, our emotions, our art, our debates, ALL of it matters in God’s eyes. “Do EVERYTHING, as unto the Lord” the scriptures tell us.” And we are encouraged, “Let your light shine before all people…that they may see your good works and praise your Father in heaven…” Anyone who buys into the thinking that certain actions don’t hurt others, or should not have consequences, when they are outside God’s standards, is merely shrinking away from God’s call to hunger for Him.
The moment we face right now as a culture is pivotal, as they all are. This is true in that each moment can offer us a seminal opportunity to continue the momentum toward God, or further the descent from Him. Like the Satan figure in Milton’s Paradise Lost, we feel ourselves wronged and singled out by God when we cannot have what we want-our autonomy and self-worship. In our furor over God’s “Godness”, we rage on television, on the streets, in the courthouses, on sit-coms, and everywhere we can, trying to demand our rightful place as little gods who want what we want, even if 8 billion of us want something different. Can you image a world with 8 billion different gods with 8 billion different ways to build culture and family? Could this pregnant reality be at work in our angry, addicted, confused, depressed, divorcing, starving, oppressed, violence filled world already?
We must remember, the thirst to run from absolute truth and live for our own agenda is actually a thirst for chaos and frustration. Logically speaking, its intellectual imbecility. A good God, one who has designed the world, one who started the narrative, one who reaches down in the loving death of His son, can be trusted with sexuality, family, relationships and everything else. He put the formula in place in order that we might experience life to the full. Try as we might, outside the boundaries of His care and direction, we have no hope of making life, love, relationships, or anything else work. Its been tried for millennia, and its not worked yet.
My hope, and the hope of many looking to God for direction (amidst our imperfections), is that we might encourage one another to consider the humorous, horrific, and hallucinogenic nature of pursing the illogical hope of getting the most from life by separating ourselves from absolute truth and the Truth Giver. We can do better. The goal of those debating for “traditional marriage” is a vigorous drive to see our nation and its people be and become all we can be and become, as designed by our Creator, the One who has allowed us to pursue this great national experiment called America. History has proven, sociological study affirms, and personal reality attests, when societies abandon moral standards, allow individuals to re-define reality, and place an undue importance on the “rights” of the person rather than the lasting good of the people, those societies begin to decay, and ultimately come unglued. Once the foundation is destroyed (and there is nothing more foundational that this issue…its where cultures began, way back when, in the Garden) the edifice will collapse.
May we all look up for our direction, not within. May we learn to think logically again. May we find our compass in the words of our Creator. May we pursue grace and truth always.
Bruce Lee Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
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2. May 2012 by BruceSmith.
The End of the Day
The sky was awash in a tangerine red blaze ,
Rumblings and peels of thunder soothed my soul,
Flashes of pearlized electricity ran wild across the sky,
A deep rouge libation ran like a river across my tongue,
Night was setting in,
I let go, for a moment,
Of all life’s confusion and sordid discontents,
The depression and fatigue withered away,
Though but for a moment,
I felt repaired, nearly serene.
I breathed long and slow,
The rain spoke to me,
Whispers of rest,
Little green monsters croaked out a song of delight,
Songbirds let the jazz fly,
I was, and that was all,
That was enough,
At the end of the day.
Bruce Smith
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1. May 2012 by BruceSmith.
LIFE IN 3D! THE SUPERHERO’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
by Bruce Lee Smith // www.bruceleesmith.co
What is Life in 3D! The Superhero’s Guide to the Galaxy? I’m glad you asked. Unlike any book you have seen, perhaps, Life in 3D! begins with our human hunger to live a bigger life, works through many of our deepest and most practical life questions, and offers a guide for building the life we long to live.
The book launches us from desire to decisive living as we navigate the issues that impact all of us; relationships, failure, sex, money, belonging, raising kids, impacting the world, and much more. Readers will be inspired by the Superhero metaphor, hear the questions of honest seekers, and find keys to moving closer to that dream life we so desperately want to find.
This is no Christian cliche book. There are no trite answers that don’t resonate with reality in a dog-eat-dog world. The topics of real life are faced head on, with a deeply rooted theological AND everyman approach. The questions we all wish we could ask an empathetic listener are voiced in the book by real people, no holds barred.
Readers of Life in 3D! will find this book humorous, thought-provoking, user-friendly, and practical, even as it challenges them to think deeply about issues that impact their lives. Stories, familiar heroes, and compelling drama fill the page from cover to cover, and a guide for groups is found at the back where readers can walk through a new vision plan for life, peering into the past for clues, and looking forward to adventure.
If you have been looking for that book that you can take with you, and pick up at any time for insight and inspiration, this may be just the book for you. In a world with so many competing ideas, this book offers a sane look at our culture and what God has to say about our way toward a more rewarding life. If you, like me, have always had that sense that life should be more, that WE should be more, then give this book a chance to inspire you. Find perspective for your broken heart, inspiration for your faltering dream, drive for your weakening resolve, hope for your sense of despair, and passion to live out your God-inspired purpose. Ultimately, this is a book about recapturing our calling. This is a book that helps us find our way back to the plan God had for us when He formed us in the womb. A plan not to harm us, punish us, or otherwise depress us, but a plan to prosper our hearts and give us life to the full. He has more for us, really.
Does that sound like a better dose of reality that we are offered on sit-coms and TV dramas? If so, you may want to give this book a chance. What have you got to lose? Let’s find the Super-heroic calling we were meant to live, together!
NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM and at WWW.BRUCELEESMITH.CO *******
Grace and Peace,
Bruce Lee Smith
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1. May 2012 by BruceSmith.
LIFE IN 3D! THE SUPERHERO’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
by Bruce Lee Smith // www.bruceleesmith.co
What is Life in 3D! The Superhero’s Guide to the Galaxy? I’m glad you asked. Unlike any book you have seen, perhaps, Life in 3D! begins with our human hunger to live a bigger life, works through many of our deepest and most practical life questions, and offers a guide for building the life we long to live.
The book launches us from desire to decisive living as we navigate the issues that impact all of us; relationships, failure, sex, money, belonging, raising kids, impacting the world, and much more. Readers will be inspired by the Superhero metaphor, hear the questions of honest seekers, and find keys to moving closer to that dream life we so desperately want to find.
This is no Christian cliche book. There are no trite answers that don’t resonate with reality in a dog-eat-dog world. The topics of real life are faced head on, with a deeply rooted theological AND everyman approach. The questions we all wish we could ask an empathetic listener are voiced in the book by real people, no holds barred.
Readers of Life in 3D! will find this book humorous, thought-provoking, user-friendly, and practical, even as it challenges them to think deeply about issues that impact their lives. Stories, familiar heroes, and compelling drama fill the page from cover to cover, and a guide for groups is found at the back where readers can walk through a new vision plan for life, peering into the past for clues, and looking forward to adventure.
If you have been looking for that book that you can take with you, and pick up at any time for insight and inspiration, this may be just the book for you. In a world with so many competing ideas, this book offers a sane look at our culture and what God has to say about our way toward a more rewarding life. If you, like me, have always had that sense that life should be more, that WE should be more, then give this book a chance to inspire you. Find perspective for your broken heart, inspiration for your faltering dream, drive for your weakening resolve, hope for your sense of despair, and passion to live out your God-inspired purpose. Ultimately, this is a book about recapturing our calling. This is a book that helps us find our way back to the plan God had for us when He formed us in the womb. A plan not to harm us, punish us, or otherwise depress us, but a plan to prosper our hearts and give us life to the full. He has more for us, really.
Does that sound like a better dose of reality that we are offered on sit-coms and TV dramas? If so, you may want to give this book a chance. What have you got to lose? Let’s find the Super-heroic calling we were meant to live, together!
NOW AVAILABLE AT AMAZON.COM and at WWW.BRUCELEESMITH.CO *******
Grace and Peace,
Bruce Lee Smith
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26. April 2012 by BruceSmith.
Life Thought: when life’s realities have dashed u upon the rocks, sunk ur hope, and drowned ur dreams, u must find the courage to climb back in the boat, hoist the sail again, pull up the anchor of depression, and chart a new course forward. There may yet b a rescue for ur dreams and a horizon of hope ahead. When u most want to sink and b done with it all, DON’T. Try once more. Bruceleesmith.co
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23. April 2012 by BruceSmith.
Ron Artest, World Peace, and Human Trafficking
Mr. World Peace, formerly, Ron Artest, is at it again, throwing elbows and knocking people out of games. World rage, it would appear, wins again, in the battle against world peace. Why, despite our proclamations and efforts, are we so often sidetracked even amidst our best attempts to reform our lives?
The Secret Service (no pun intended) prostitution scandal continues to expand, and today another agent has been implicated. This agent, it appears, brought a prostitute to the hotel our American President was to stay in while attending a summit of leaders from the Americas. At least 12 agents now are implicated, and military personnel on top of that. Human trafficking at the highest level of American security? Systemic corruption or something else? It would appear the former.
The apostle Paul warned us, all of us, of the reality of sin which lingers within us. He also warned that sin, running its full course, brings disaster, soul death. Additionally, the scriptures warn us that our systemic sin, our passion to run after that which we should not, will be exposed, and the fallout will be human carnage.
It seems that, yet again, we find the wisdom of the scriptures to be not only true, but timeless and relevant. In a world where truth is outdated and passe according to the culture makers, the bible remains a constant source of help and direction for our lives.
Internally, we recognize the forces at work here. With Paul, all the figures of the bible, Mr. World Peace, and all other living humans, we struggle with the compulsion to feed our inner drives for pleasure and self-preservation. This is the human condition. Like Artest, we cannot hope to find true inner peace apart from a transformative relationship with Jesus Christ. It was He, in fact, who said, “I am the way, the truth, the life…” And it was He who said, “I have come that you might have life and that to the full”.
We strive, yearn, and run after a full life, but in all the wrong places. As the song goes, we are looking for love, lasting love, in all the wrong places. We think we can pay for love, fight for love, apply power for love, earn love, command love, and demand love. God reminds us, He IS love. He is our soul’s pleasure, our biggest fan, our peace that passes understanding, and our source of rest. We can’t buy that, sex that, ingest that or create that on our own.
When we fight, lust, and hunger for one defining experience after another, we are running from the one source for that which we are truly craving. All that our souls yearn for are found in Him. In a world of rage, He is peace. In a world of lust, He is love. In a world of pain, He is solace. In a world of loss, He is gain. In a world of confusion, He is stability. In a world of storms, He is shelter. In a world of hate, He is a friend. In a world of relativity, He is truth. In a world full of criminality, He is the care-giver. In a world where people are used, He offers significance. In a world of abuse, He brings safety.
If you, like me, look inward, and outward, and see too much that resembles unloveliness, look in His direction today. He is not a rule book, He is not a task-master. He is a person, He is the Creator, and He is the One source of all we hunger for the most. The thirst for power, touch, provision, accomplishment, and every other human longing, find fulfillment in the One we were made for.
Bruce Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
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6. March 2012 by BruceSmith.
Moral Imbecility Abounds
We now live in a culture whereby our highest office takes time out of world affairs, nuclear threats, terrorists realities, and economic chaos in order to praise college students asking for coverage of pills to protect amidst the college-life pursuit of unmarried, uncommitted, unrestrained, and unlimited sex. Recreational sex, it is suggested, and before congress, is now being presented as a moral virtue worthy of the financial support of insurance companies and our government? Our highest seat of power, the highest seat of power in the world, in order to champion the liberal cause of “self”, deems it important to protect and defend an educated, scholarship(ed), assertive girl who is making her way through one of our countries most prestigious, rigorous, and accomplished law institutions? The poor girl. She has made her argument, astonishingly, before our congress, and though trained to take blows in a debate setting in one of our nations top schools, she somehow needs protection from those who disagree with her and who call her names? The President of the United States of America needed to weigh in on this? While I am no fan of Rush Limbaugh’s bombastic ways, this seems beyond sad, terrifying, and morally imbecilic. We have educated ourselves, and pleasured ourselves into imbecility. Our politics has become a game of untruths and charades.
History is replete with the outcome of nations who so cut themselves off from morality, reason, sanity, and biblical teaching. It never ends well. Its true of our lives individually, and its true of cultures. Clearly, it was and is a cheap political trick to avert dialogue on the real issue, and that is painfully clear to anyone with an average intelligence. Yet, it is much more also. Claiming the title of “Christian” no more makes one a true believer anymore than standing in a garage makes one a car. If we are to find our bearings again as a country who places its trust in God, we must aim higher. The worship of self, the embrace of any notion as a valid notion, and the rage and contempt for anyone who attempts to point us to biblical truth is leading us into an ever increasing cultural and societal decline. Despite our riches we are seeing psychological disorders on the rise. Medicinal approaches to every “condition” under the sun, new ones appearing every day, continue to plague us. We spend more time in shopping malls than in churches according to studies. We think little and absorb entertainment with addictive passion. And relationships crumble at an astonishing rate in home after home. Few kids have two parents in the home. Brokenness is the mantra of youth, as yet another school shooting has demonstrated. We are lonely despite facebook, eharmony, and twitter. And despair is more common than joy even for those with the most among us. Our politics has descended into little more than hyperbole, jargon, extreme statements and one-liners. There is little civility left in our “Civil Experiment”. What are we doing?
The bible encourages us, “Come, let us reason together.” In a culture where little that resembles reason exists, it becomes ever more important for those in the Church to actually be the Church. In word, deed, thought, action, affection, and pursuit, may God help us to frame the bigger debate in more compelling ways, find the heart of the matter, speak of the goodness of God, and point people around us to truth. More than anything we need truth. More than comfort. More than entertainment. More than wealth. More than fame. More than self. More than anything…we need truth. Truth, we are told, sets us free. In truth we find joy, freedom, life, and meaning. We know truth when we see it. Its clear when we hear it. It directs us when we submit to it. May we become, ever more, a people of truth.
Bruce Lee Smith
www.bruceleesmith.co
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