Does America have a future? Of course it does. But I fear for it. The presidential debate on Tuesday evening reveals a nation sharply divided, each candidate championing the cause of his political supporters. Class division, racial division, economic division, philosophical or ideological division—while it can be argued that every election exposes the divide in our nation, the reality is that this one seems ratcheted up exponentially, no small thanks to the incendiary fueling injected into our national conversation by 24/7 "real time" internet commentary. Consider the potential fall-out from either election outcome. Were the President to be reelected, the hostility of the political right in this nation could threaten governmental gridlock before which the past four years would pale in comparison. Were the President to be defeated, the bitter outcry of the political left could threaten vast swaths of national life through economic boycott and strikes. The truth is that either election outcome could potentially sound the death knell for an already moribund economy. Class and racial divisions? The fallout implications of such potential strife is beyond calculation (but not imagination). I fear for America's future. Does that mean Christian voters, Seventh-day Adventists included, should abdicate their citizenry right and responsibility to vote? Not at all. In the words of our Lord, we must "render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's" (see Matthew 22:21). But given what lies ahead for this nation, irrespective of our political persuasions or private votes, the second half to Jesus' admonition is even more binding, "and render to God the things that are God's." And what belongs to God in a season of such national divide, on the eve of such economic distress? Surely this hour demands our most fervent prayers for this land. "Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all . . . for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence" (1 Timothy 2:1, 2). We must band together to pray for the leaders of this nation and every nation on earth. The unthinkable fallout inevitable with economic collapse portends a chapter neither the church nor the nation is prepared to face. May not God yet spare His people for the critical Three Angels mission that is our raison detre? That is, after all, Paul's compelling reason for intercessory prayer: "For this [praying] is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all . . . to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth" (1 Timothy 2:3, 4). We must pray and labor for the salvation of Americans, for the salvation of the inhabitants of every nation on earth—for all earth children are to be the recipients of God's urgent Three Angel appeal and warning. In my short lifetime I have not witnessed a more consequential season than this one. And so I earnestly pray for the awakening of the church I love and for the salvation of the country I inhabit. And I urge you now to join me in these prayers.
Pastors' Blog
By Pioneer Pastors
The internet and wire services have been abuzz with this week’s national survey report from Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. “For the first time in this nation’s history, the United States does not have a Protestant majority” (http://news.yahoo.com/report-us-protestants-lost-majority...). The new study reports that Protestant adults now comprise 48% of the nation. And apparently nobody is surprised. After all, for the first time there are no Protestants on the U.S. Supreme Court or on the Republican presidential ticket. So what’s the big deal? Among other demographic notables contributing to this decline in Protestants, Pew researchers report “a spike in the number of Americans who say they have no religion.” That’s an increase from 15% to 20% of the populace over the last five years. I.e., one out of every five Americans declares “none” when asked to describe their religious affiliation. Is America destined to follow Western Europe into a burgeoning secularism? Over recent years church attendance on that continent has plummeted, leading Pope Benedict XVI to convene this week a three-week synod of bishops from around the world, “aimed at bringing back Roman Catholics who have left the church.” It is clear from Pew research that in the U.S. Protestants, Catholics and Christianity in general are facing a major challenge in retaining their adherents. So what does that mean for a university congregation like ours? Pew finds that “one-third of adults under age 30 have no religious affiliation, compared to 9% of people 65 and older.” That means that the demographic slice of young adults represented by this university is the least likely to pursue religious affiliation. But that does not mean this one-third is godless. To the contrary the Pew category of unaffiliated “encompasses majorities of people who say they believe in God, and a notable minority who pray daily or consider themselves ‘spiritual’ but not ‘religious.’” So what will it take for young-on-young or older-on-young to reach them? Isn’t the strategy Jesus modeled the most effective one for us, too? “The Saviour mingled with [people] as one who desired their good. He showed His sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then He bade them, ‘Follow Me’” (Ministry of Healing 143). For a generation increasingly distancing itself from formal religion, Jesus’ method of growing friendships with those He wanted to reach makes sense, doesn’t it? Drop in on their dorm room, join them at the cafeteria, engage a conversation around their interests, put them on your prayer list, invite them to join you—i.e., set out to win their friendship. Because apparently it’s always been true—the “nones” and the “unaffiliated” will say “yes” to your friendship while they say “none” to your religion. So I say, like Jesus let’s go for the “yes” first—then the “none” will follow.
A few nights ago, Karen and I stood on the portico of the Lincoln Memorial in the nation’s capital. It was this Lincoln who once observed, “It is good policy to never plead what you need not, lest you oblige yourself to prove what you can not.” The adage may be true for politics, but not for evangelism—that divine calling that compels the community of faith to both plead what it must and prove what it can on behalf of Christ’s evangel. Which is why on the next night the Korean Adventist community gathered across this continent as the KNET 2012 satellite series, “A Future and a Friendship You Can Count On,” was beamed from outside the nation’s capital to North America. Two and half million Koreans live in the United States and Canada—15,000 of them Seventh-day Adventists, who are passionate about reaching their compatriots far from their homeland. Thus it was my privilege to stand beside Pastor Don Kim and preach nightly—in English and Korean—to the fifty to sixty downlink sites across the continent. The truth is we were flying on the updraft of ten thousand prayers! The Korean Christian community is known the world over for its deep commitment to collective praying. Korean houses of worship on any continent open early in the morning and close late at night for prayer meetings. As we were preparing to leave our hotel this Sunday for the drive home, a Korean family stopped by to say good-bye. I apologized to them for having to awaken early to meet us before we left. Iris, a young board certified pediatrician at nearby Johns Hopkins, said not to worry, “We were at prayer meeting this morning at 6.” On a Sunday morning? At 6? Korean Adventists believe in the power of collective prayer! And it was clear to me that God honored both their intercessions and their evangelism. Anchorage, Toronto, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Chicago, and yes, Berrien Springs—as the nightly reports came in from the multiple sites, our team of pastors and church members at the host site in the Baltimore First church rejoiced. This is the first time the Korean Adventist community has undertaken a project like this in North America. (Previous events were uplinked from Seoul and relayed to America.) And so you can sense the enthusiasm in the air at our site with the large white HOPE-TV satellite truck outside—LA reported 40 guests in attendance and Napa called in with news that nine individuals will be baptized this Sabbath (two reports in English I could understand), and our own attendance in Baltimore grew nightly until Sabbath morning’s full house of worship. The Korean women’s choir, Bistori (“The Sound of Light”)—replete with colorful garb and heavenly music, flew in from LA Friday for the final two sessions. It was a God-blessed event—because you prayed. And so I end this brief report with a personal word of thanksgiving to my home congregation. Your own passion to share the everlasting gospel and your commitment to partner in prayer are two very special gifts for which I continually thank God. And I dream of the day when team after team of young and not-so-young evangelists-to-be are sent out from this campus and congregation to a world that desperately needs to know Jesus. After all, who better to obey His command, “Go into all the world,” than this university named after a missionary, whose bronze arm outside our front door keeps pointing to the lost world that is our mission, too?
That’s what colleges and universities across the land are discovering! Here’s how Justin Pope announced it: “College health officials are finally realizing that healthy sleep habits are a potential miracle drug for much of what ails the famously frazzled modern American college student: anxiety, depression, physical health problems and—more than most students realize—academic troubles. Some studies have found students getting adequate sleep average a full letter grade higher than those who don’t” (South Bend Tribune 9-12-12). Did you catch that? A full letter grade higher! How much sleep will make the difference? Hold on to your seat, because young or old we’re not used to numbers like this. The recommended daily sleep for college students is nine hours a night. Impossible, we all mutter. I know the feeling! Nine hours? Back in the 1960s and ‘70s college students were getting around eight hours of sleep each night. That number dropped to seven hours by the 80’s. And surveys indicate it’s closer to six hours a night these days. We are a sleep-deprived nation, college age or not. But universities are no longer taking these numbers lying down. Campus campaigns, from Hastings College in Nebraska to the University of Louisville, are targeting adolescent biorhythms with campus-wide “flash naps” (an afternoon sleep-in, arranged in advance with public safety so they’ll “know it’s not an epidemic of something”) or beds in the student center from which pajama-clad educators lecture passers-by on the value of even a quick afternoon nap. The truth is sleep loss is more debilitating a practice than we first thought. University of Delaware psychologist Brad Wolgast observes that “many students who think they have attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder are often just sleep deprived.” He also notes: “‘When you find depression, even when you find anxiety, when you scratch the surface 80 to 90 percent of the time you find a sleep problem as well.’ . . . (Wolgast is also seeing more students who’ve been prescribed sleeping pills, which he says usually harm sleep patterns more than help”) (ibid). So if you’re having difficulty sleeping these days, why not drop by the campus counseling center. Help is much closer and even simpler than you thought. And what’s not to like about turning some Z’s into A’s? Unless, of course, we’re talking about sleeping through the “last days.” Our now concluding miniseries, “The Dark Night Rises,” is anchored in a single New Testament passage that without apology warns us about sleeping through this climactic chapter in earth history. But Paul is describing a spiritual lethargy and drowsiness, not a physical sleep. “Stay awake and sober” he passionately appeals to his readers (I Thessalonians 5:6, 7). For wide-awake is the divine antidote to a civilization lulled into the “sleeping sickness” of the dark knight. To sleep now is a death trap, Christ Himself cautions (Luke 21:34-36). So “watch and pray.” How? Give an ear to “The Dark Night Rises”—THREE. In the end the good news is that the God who watches over you “neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:4). And when you have Someone who will keep watch with you through the dark night, what’s there to fear, no matter how dark the night becomes?
Now that the brouhahas of the two major political parties in this nation are behind us—namely their back-to-back presidential-nominating conventions—allow me this moment of non-partisan reflection. The longer I live and the more presidential campaigns I survive, the deeper grows my conviction that the life of unabashed self-advancement that seems a requisite to politics these days is blatantly antithetical to the radical call of Christ. Let me hasten to clarify that by this conviction, I am not suggesting that there is no place for the fully-devoted follower of Jesus in politics or in the legislative, judicial and executive branches of government. Joseph, Daniel, Esther, and Nehemiah are compelling biblical examples of divinely-placed believers who rose to highly influential positions within their respective governments. William Wilberforce is a shining example from our “modern” annals. God honors those who honor Him in the realm of service to humanity, including political leadership. But given the political climate in this nation—where 24/7 news cycles hyper-magnify every slip of the tongue and wink of the eye ad nauseam, where candidates and their political action committees spend literally billions of dollars in campaign ads eviscerating their opponents, where ethical standards and moral convictions it seems are banished from the arena of political contest by expediency and greed—you have to wonder how long a Peter or a James or a John or a Mary could survive a run for political office, while maintaining a radical devotion to Jesus and the ethics of His Sermon on the Mount. Perhaps the Prisoner was engaging in more than early-morning banter with the hastily awakened procurator—perhaps in that interrogation Jesus was deftly confronting Pilate, himself a political appointee of Rome, with a higher ethic. It certainly is clear that in these words Christ pronounces the steely truth about those who would take up their own crosses and follow Him: “‘My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here’” (John 18:36). And if His kingdom is not from here, then surely His followers live by a morality and an ethic that does not prevail here either—a morality that allows your opponents to nail you to a cross while you seek their forgiveness and reject personal retaliation, an ethic that leads you to turn the other cheek, to pray for those who “despitefully use” you, to love your enemy. No wonder when they came to crown him king, Jesus ran from office rather than for it (John 6:15). No wonder when the devil offered Christ the kingship of this world in exchange for His soul, Christ turned from office rather than toward it (Matthew 4:8-10). No wonder on the eve of His death Jesus spoke a “last word” about political ambition and position by simply instructing His disciples, “‘You are not to be like that’” (Luke 22:26). No wonder you and I have second thoughts about the political discourse of a nation drifting farther and farther from the decency and respectability of our beginnings. And no wonder we will find no savior in the contest this fall.
Could it be it is darker than we’ve imagined? “The Dark Night Rises”—but do we comprehend how dark this night? Two emails—one at the beginning of the summer and the other at the end—have set in motion a chain of thoughts. Maybe for you, too. The first email came from a young friend of mine, a student at this university, who is in Bangkok, Thailand, on a short-term mission: “Hello Pastor Dwight—Doing student missions over here in Thailand this semester has been quite eye opening. Before I ever left I thought to myself that all was good out ‘in the mission field’ . . . however, there are still great needs out here. Before I left I used to think that places like North Korea were the only locations left to be reached by the gospel, yet I’m working here in Bangkok (city of millions) and there is so much need spiritually. Even people in this (what we call) ‘reached’ area have no idea who Jesus is other than some word maybe they’ve heard on the Hollywood movies that roll through here. Sure there are little pockets of missionaries here and there all over the world yet there is SO much work to be done. I’m doing video stuff mostly with a little graphic design, and I’m not in the middle of nowhere. . . . Yes, there are regions out in the middle of the jungle that need to be reached, but people need to realize that there are mission fields in the cities as well. Missions isn’t the typical out-in-the-boonies kind of thing anymore. . . . I suppose my point is if you have a sermon series anytime soon that has any reference to missions or spreading the gospel, tell them the truth. It’s like nothing is happening out here. We need workers. . . . I’m really getting tired of this world. Let’s finish this work. . . . Pieter Damsteegt.” Then a few days ago I received an email from someone I’ve never met. But he and Pieter are obviously on the same page: “Hello Pastor—I’ll keep it short. I’m 25, doing mission work in Africa. From Boise, ID. Preached in my first evangelism campaign last month in the DRC [Democratic Republic of the Congo], in the midst of 20,000 UN troops protecting Goma from attacks by a huge rebel army. Was with a team of 19 other speakers, thousands were baptized, 87 at my site. Will be in Ghana in November for another series with a team of 44 other speakers, and am currently in Rwanda doing work. . . . The teachings [he listens to our podcasts @ www.pmchurch.tv] have definitely reinforced my desire above all else, that God’s Spirit be poured out. So we can ‘tell the world’ and go home. . . . Just a few thoughts on how I see some of this reality: 1) I picture those whom the Spirit has been poured out on will be literally working to spread the Gospel from 4 a.m. to midnight every day. Working on minimal food, but maximum energy. All OTHER things in our lives will need to be dropped at once; 2) Timidness as a characteristic will be nonexistent; 3) Spiritual wisdom will reach new heights for those with the full power of the Holy Spirit. . . . I pray for you, Pastor. . . . Looking forward to meeting you, very soon after the Latter Rain. Trevor Loucks.” Back to Pieter for a moment—in a March blog he unburdened his heart over the lost in Bangkok: “In walking back to the mission compound I could not help but shed a couple tears. Here in the middle of the world there is so much darkness, and the candles that could be out there or any other dark place shining in the darkness are wrapped up in other lighted rooms, if you catch my drift. . . . Whether or not you choose to join the ranks of reaching others and spreading the gospel is up to you, but as long as I have breath in me, there’s at least one more person somewhere that I have to reach, and I have faith that God will lead me to that person.” (http://pietertheophilus.wordpress.com/2012/03/30/you-think-its-happening-but-its-not/) Two young men, one solitary passion even as “The Dark Night Rises”—their eloquence the obvious fruit of their immersion into this world for Christ. But then what more need be said than, “Here am I—send me”?
They grew up together in this small Maryland town, those two 19-year-old college coeds. Summer was their favorite season. And what’s not to like about a sultry night high atop the railroad bridge in Ellicott City? Which is where Elizabeth and Rose were dangling their feet this Monday around midnight—their last night before heading back to college. The view beneath the stars above that sleepy neighborhood is why the bridge has been a favorite destination for generations. The young women tweeted their friends. “Drinking on top of the Ellicott City sign.” “Looking down on old ec.” Photos attached to their tweets “showed their view from the bridge and their bare feet, one with painted blue toenails, dangling over the edge.” Another tweet, “Levitating.” Minutes later a CSX freight trained loaded to the brim with coal thundered down the tracks toward the bridge. Witnesses later described the squealing of brakes and the roar of a crash, as the train derailed, dumping its payload of coal onto the dark city street beneath the bridge. The two girls’ bodies were later found beneath the coal. “Friends tweet before dying in Maryland train derailment” read the headline (South Bend Tribune 8-22-12). Is the story a metaphor of life anymore? Beyond the bitter pain and loss of two young friends and two devastated families, that terrible tragedy in Ellicott City remains a tale of how quickly, how in an instant life as we know it can change. Irreparably change. Forever. The ancient writer Paul in Holy Scripture scribbled a prophecy once of how the world—the one you and I live in and call “home”—will end. Read his prediction—even just once—and you, too, will sense how eerily similar to Ellicott City is this prophecy. A week from today we begin a mini-series that will examine this one-line prophetic prediction: “The Dark Night Rises” (that’s with an N, not a K). Because it is dark. The night is rising. And the end is thundering through the midnight toward us. But you don’t have to be found tweeting the night away oblivious to the impending. Join me right here next week—and with eyes wide open, we can face the rising night together. With Him.
While the roar of the Thirtieth Olympiad is still ringing in our ears, may I muse outside the box for a moment? Wouldn't it be nice if somebody could find a way to bring 10,500 of the world's athletically-inclined young to play together in these 26 sports and 39 disciplines without (and that's the key word) having to end up with so many who go home with no medal at all? But of course, just to be in the Olympic games is a huge accomplishment worthy of personal satisfaction and collective honor. But still, isn't it only human nature to categorize athletes in the "winners" or "losers" column? I'm thinking of Morgan Uceny—a hometown girl just a few miles south of us in Plymouth, Indiana. As David Woods of the Indianapolis Star put it: "This is the other side of Olympic glory. Half a lifetime of preparation [Morgan is 27], of dreaming, shattered in an instant." For years Morgan, Plymouth High School's #1 alumnus and a Cornell University graduate, has been training for this single race, the women's 1,500-meter sprint. Last Friday afternoon it seemed the whole town crowded in front of the school auditorium big screen to cheer their favorite young athlete. And Morgan ran in medal-winning time for 1,100 meters. Only 400 meters left to go. The crowd on both sides of the Atlantic roared. But then, according to the Tribune, "the back kick of a Russian runner struck the inside of Uceny's left knee," and she went down. Hard. In the final lap. The rest of the young women finished the race, while Morgan still down on her knees sobbed into the track. Her race unfinished, her Olympic hope dashed. Is there a medal for "almost"? "'I've never experienced such a heartbreaking moment,' she later said on her Facebook page....'As soon as it happened I knew it was over, and I couldn't control the emotions'" (South Bend Tribune 8-11-12). Who could? I doubt there's a way to eliminate winners and losers in any athletic game—it's what makes the game a game. "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize [wins]? But then Paul offers a stunning word of hope for the "loser" in me: "But we do it to get a crown that will last forever" (2 Corinthians 9:24, 25 NIV). Timeout! Did you catch that "we"? Plural. Because in life's race to the Kingdom there is more than one winner. Many, many, many more! Nobody has to lose! The secret? "Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith" (Hebrews 12:1, 2). You're a new freshman on campus—fix your eyes on Jesus (we'll help you do that here at Pioneer every Sabbath)—and you'll finish the race. You're a longtime runner in this marathon of life—same secret—keep your eyes on Jesus— and you, too, will finish the race. No matter our disastrous spills, if we want Him, the only perfect Runner will race beside us until we cross the finish line, too. Thanks to Him, Morgan and you and I can go home a winner.
This story takes the cake—the wedding cake! They met and fell in love at a rodeo, the barrel-racing bride and her bull-riding groom. And at their wedding last month on the plains of central Kansas, Candra in her white gown and Caleb in his cowboy hat and jeans were picture perfect. And so was the twenty minute outdoor wedding service replete with glorious music—almost. Because some of the 250 guests sitting on folding chairs not only kept their eye on the nuptial couple, but also on their cell phone weather reports and the sky behind the couple. But then, when you live in Kansas (just ask Dorothy!), I suppose you get used to the weather’s unexpected twists. Literally.
Which is why if you look watch the wedding video of the newly-weds, Candra and Caleb Pence, you’ll see what everyone else saw—two EF-3 rated tornadoes in the distance twisting between 138 and 167 mph and sucking up the Kansas earth. Look at the video for yourself—it’s gone viral on YouTube—young lovers saying “I do” a twister bearing down on them! Only in Kansas. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myYAJGrMtP0)
What a paradigm of life on the planet these days—a rumbling storm twisting somewhere off in the distance, barreling our way, we think—and life goes on—and “I do’s” still get said—must be said, really. Because what better time for the human race to discover the profound compelling of God’s love than in the path of an approaching storm? What better time to respond to that relentless and self-crucifying love than in the face of what may yet be the “big one” that earth has been awaiting?
Having just returned from four camp meetings in three weeks, I’m grateful to testify that the preaching of Calvary’s love (on the Camp Meeting at Sea cruise and at Alaska, Upper Columbia and Michigan camp meetings) still moves human hearts to reciprocate with the “I do” of grateful love in return. The cross, even in (or especially in) the context of earth’s approaching storm, still has power to grip the mind and heal the life of those who meet the Savior there. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). The “I do” of Calvary draws from us our own “I do,” does it not?
After all, love must be pledged, even in the face of the approaching storm. Or rather, especially in the face of the approaching storm. Which makes today’s celebration of the “I do” make sense, doesn’t it?
If you’re not into bizarre this Memorial Day weekend, don’t read any further. News agencies this week reported that a glass vial of President Ronald Reagan’s blood (reportedly taken after his attempted assassination in 1981) was being offered for sale by a British online auction house. PFCAuctions.com has confirmed it is auctioning a vial containing what appears to be a specimen of dried blood, labeled with “Reagan’s name, his patient ID number, the date, and the name of the hospital’s chief thoracic surgeon” (South Bend Tribune 5-23-12).
The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation in Simi Valley, California, issued the following statement: “‘If indeed this story is true, it’s a craven act and we will use every legal means to stop its sale or purchase’” (ibid). The owner of the glass vial purportedly received it from his mother, who had been connected with George Washington Hospital, where the President was rushed after John Hinckley Jr’s assassination attempt. The auction house reports that bidding is up to $11,000 for this sample of dried blood.
Beyond the flagrant invasion and violation of medical privacy that this sale represents (whether you’re a president or not)—how much is a drop of blood really worth?
Ask that question this weekend when the nation pauses to remember the supreme sacrifice that tens of thousands of American military personnel have paid in order to preserve our liberties, and the price of a drop of blood skyrockets, doesn’t it? But on this “official opening weekend of summer” how many of us will even pause to ponder the costly legacy of our freedom?
How much is a drop of blood really worth? Ask that in the shadow of Calvary, and every convicted and forgiven sinner will whisper of an infinite cost, an eternal price. “You were liberated by the precious blood of Christ, like that of a flawless, spotless lamb” (I Peter 1:19 Common English Bible). “Precious” indeed that blood, offered “without money, at no cost” (Isaiah 55:1).
Memorial Day. Because the blood that has set us free, keeps us free, “without money, at no cost,” the most precious commodity in the history of forever. Amen.
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