Pastor Hurst

DON’T GIVE UP ON VICTORY

It is stating the obvious to say life is a battle. The Christian life is a battle. All-out war. However, life’s being a battle not only bespeaks of its struggles, losses, wounds, causalities, and hardships, it also bespeaks of its victories, spoils, gains, and acquisitions. Some forget this. Yes, we are in a battle, but that only means there are victories to be had. Some have given up on there being any such thing as victory. Some have given up on victory just before it would have been theirs. That was Richard the Lionheart in the Third Crusade. Twice, the Lionheart with his crusading army fought his way to within striking distance of Jerusalem and turned back. The second time, victory, had he only known it, would have been all but sure. On the first attempt, the Lionheart had fought his way down the Mediterranean’s coast, the western border of the Holy Land, conquering each successive port city he encountered. Then, he fought his way eastward towards Jerusalem, painstakingly slow, in order to rebuild fortifications between which he could string a supply line back to the ports. He reached the point where the next march would have ended at Jerusalem, the goal, the aim, the prize. This first attempt at conquering the Holy City in 1191 ended in a Crusader council of war convened by Richard I. It determined that given the winter conditions and the enemies’ superior numbers in the field around the City and garrisoned within, Jerusalem could not be taken. An eyewitness later disagreed noting later that the crusaders did not take into account that the enemy troops had become so exhausted, affected by the same conditions, that, their famous commander Saladin, having trouble keeping them together, had disbanded them and sent them home. He had left himself only a small number to defend Jerusalem. There was a window of time before a contingency of fresh troop reinforcements arrived that Jerusalem’s walls could have been breached and her defenders driven out. Yes, in 1191 Jerusalem very likely could have been conquered by the Lionheart. Instead, he and the crusaders turned back short of victory. In that second attempt in 1192, during the better weather of summer, the Lionheart again marched his troops to Jerusalem. This time it was Saladin that held a council of war. He and his generals concluded that they and their army were set for defeat. Saladin decided to leave Jerusalem and began preparations to do so. That evening his scouts reported that the Crusaders had mounted up as if prepared to attack, then, instead of heading towards Jerusalem, they returned to their tents. The next morning, July 4, again the Crusaders abandoned the field and gave up on Jerusalem. The Crusaders had again been on the cusp of victory, taking the Holy City. They gave up on victory just before they would have obtained it. They gave up on a victory that would have been all but certain. They turned their backs on Jerusalem. They retreated. Seeing them leave, Saladin and his armies within the City’s walls rejoiced with great delight and, instead of deserting Jerusalem, remained entrenched. The crusaders’ leader, the Lionheart, wasn’t so, well, Lionhearted. The Third Crusade was the Christian’s West largest and most organized crusade, led by the greatest of its kings. Yet, when the Lionheart left the Holy Land, Jerusalem was still held by its Islamic conquerors. As I write this, I keep hearing the words of a song our choir sings: “Don’t give up on victory.” Don’t give up on victory. Don’t turn back from victory. Don’t give up on victory over the temptation with which you are struggling. Don’t give up on victory of reconciliation in your marriage. Don’t give up on victory in reaching your God-given goals. Don’t give up on victory in a turn-around in the decline in your church. Don’t give up on victory of your lost family’s being saved. Don’t give up on victory of a soul, mind, or body healing. Our commander and King is more than Lionhearted. He is the Lion. He will not only lead us to victory, He has already obtained it. We don’t fight for victory. We fight in victory. You’re on the brink, the cusp of victory. Don’t turn back. Don’t abandon the field. Don’t retreat. Let me just say it again, “Don’t give up on victory.” Pastor Clifford Hurst

BLUE RASPBERRY JOLLY RANCHERS

There are things in life that really cause me to wonder. One thing I spend time bumfuzzled over and wondering about is Blue Raspberry Jolly Ranchers. I just don’t understand. To help myself stay awake while traveling, I purchase a large variety bag of Jolly Ranchers. I prefer one with the traditional flavors: Apple, Blue Raspberry, Cherry, Grape, and Watermelon. I wish I could buy a bag with these flavors minus the Blue Raspberry. Blue Raspberry is my least favorite; grape, probably my most. This is the thing I wonder about: I keep my variety bag of Jolly Ranchers in my vehicle’s console. While driving, I open it and, keeping my eyes on the road, reach in blindly and pull out a Jolly Rancher. If I pull out a Blue Raspberry, I am disappointed, but to avoid waste, I make myself eat it. This, I think, also contributes to eliminating the Blue Raspberries from the bag giving me more of a chance at a different flavor next time. If only it would work that way. Here is my wonder—and, perhaps, my curse, but before I share it, let me analogize it. If Blue Raspberries were to represent bad experiences in life (trials and troubles), Grape represents the good ones (blessings). I want Grape but, it seems, I mainly get Blue Raspberries. And that’s my wonder.--a disproportionate number of times, I will reach into the bag and pull out a Blue Raspberry. You say, “Probably no more than other flavors; it just seems like you do because you dislike that flavor.” No, really. Ask my wife. She travels with me. One time, particularly disgruntled with extracting only Blue Raspberries, I insisted she watch. That day of travel, I blindingly, drew from the bag six Blue Raspberries successively in a row. Six! With five different flavors, what are the odds of that? I was annoyingly flummoxed. How can this be? Does this just happen, no explanation, just happens? Is it just a coincidence? Is it a fluke, raw randomness? Does a gleeful, pesky tiny demon live in the bag and push the Blue Raspberry flavored pieces towards my grasping fingers? Has the cosmos conspired against me determined to persecute me by foisting the Blue Raspberries upon me? Is there any scientific, logistic, or statistical explanation? Is there a physiological property in my fingers that magnetize them to Blue Raspberry? Is God chastising me trying to wean me from my sweet tooth? Is my wife clandestinely taking all the other flavors out of the bag? Is there more of the Blue Raspberry denomination in the bag to begin with, a greater ratio of that flavor increasing the odds of my picking it? Are the Blue Raspberries during packaging added in the center of the bag which makes them more accessible to my reaching hand? Do I not notice when I draw my favorite flavor out in a long chain of succession? You can tell I’ve spent a lot of time wondering about this. What do you think is the reason I keep getting Blue Raspberries? Or is there no reason? No, please, don’t give that answer. I do not like thinking there is no reason. I do not believe in coincidence. I do not believe in random. I believe that everything has a cause except the Uncaused One. Yet, I do not believe in determinism, predestinationism. I believe that God has given us free will. But, even beyond cause and free will, I believe that God is sovereign. God is in control. God’s will WILL happen. He does all things for our good and His glory—and, thankfully, our greatest good intersects at the junction of His greatest glory. Yes, we have free will. Yes, everything has a cause. But, yes, the steps of a man are ordered of the Lord. Even when he seems to keep getting Blue Raspberry Jolly Ranchers.

HIDING THE DEPLETION

The time has come to begin thinking about it. Although I am still five to seven years removed from qualifying age, the subject of Social Security keeps coming up. Sometimes I bring it up. Usually, others. It’s just par for the course for many I hang with. Invariably, when someone is contemplating when he will “go on Social Security,” he will qualify his intent with “if it doesn’t run out by then.” Way back when I began to be politically conscious, forty-plus years ago, I heard that social security was going to run out. It hasn’t. That it hasn’t serves as numbing, seemingly conclusive evidence that it never will—and I, so close to needing it, sure hope it doesn’t. Yet, as of 2020, the United States has a negative birthrate. This portends disaster for Social Security (SS). Here’s why: In 1960 the ratio of workers to beneficiaries of SS was 5 to 1. In 2005 it was 1 to 1. In 2010, 2 to 9. And, for 2020, 1 to 3. For those in Rio Linda, as Rush Limbaugh would put it, that means that in 2020 there was only one worker paying the benefits for every three SS beneficiaries. Yet, this depletion of funds is being masterfully hidden. Now, I’m not noting this about SS to disturb the elderly or to bore the young, but to make a point. It’s this: When the depletion of a resource from which one successfully and regularly draws is unknown or hidden, its recipients are lulled into a false security that the resource will always be there. Over and over, we hear, “We are having a rough time in America, but America is the greatest nation in the world. America is the freest nation in the world. America is the richest nation in the world.” All true! But, for decades, as folks have drawn on these resources of freedom, wealth, and opportunities and have received a consistent, unfailing abundance of these things, there has been an exponentially plunging depletion of these resources. And make no mistake, our liberties and opportunities and heritage are resources just as certainly as the oil in the ground and the fertile soil on top of it. Why the depletion? For the same reason there is a depletion of SS resources: The ratio is rapidly changing between those who believe the things about America that made her free, rich, and great, and those who don’t. The number of those who don’t is expanding rapidly. And, again, when the reality of the depletion is kept hidden, folks do not realize, nor are they concerned, it’s happening. They think the resource will always be there. A little analogy: Suppose, every morning you go to the refrigerator and from a pitcher pour a glass of orange juice. Today, you have no worries that tomorrow, and the next day, you will be able to do the same. You will have your glass of orange juice tomorrow. It will be there. No worries. Unless. Unless you notice that the juice in the pitcher is being depleted. If you notice that, you will be concerned and take measures that you do not run out of orange juice ensuring that tomorrow there will be enough for a glass. But, let’s say we paint the pitcher black. You wouldn’t be able to see the lowering level of juice each day through the sides of the pitcher. Oh, you say, “We could look in from the top.” Okay. Let’s put on an opaque lid. Now, you wouldn’t be able to see the depletion. Wait, you say, “I would be able to tell from the lessening heft when I lifted the pitcher from the fridge’s shelf.” Okay, let’s leave the pitcher in the refrigerator and attach it to a pivoting cradle so juice can be poured from it without lifting it. “But,” you protest, “Even just rotating the pitcher on the pivot you’d still be able to perceive its weight.” My, but you’re persistent. Okay. Let’s put a servo on the cradle and automate it. Now, push a button, and the pitcher tips in its cradle and pours orange juice into your glass. If we have completely hidden the depletion in the pitcher, we will believe that the next morning and the next morning, and the next morning, we will have our glass of orange juice. Then, one morning, we will push the button, the pitcher will tip in the cradle, and there will be no juice poured out. Make no mistake. Greater efforts are being made to hide the depletion of America’s greatest resources. We continue to draw on them fully believing tomorrow there will yet be more. We will until--until they’re all gone: Liberties. Free-markets. Democracy. Capital. All gone. The enemies of truth, reality, and freedom will have been successful. The enemies of truth and freedom will have done with America what the Darkside hackers did by shutting down the Colonial Oil Pipeline. A local resident today went to a gas pump in the Southeast where, each time in the past when he needed gas, he pumped his tank full. Today, not a drop came out of the nozzle. Thank God, there is never a depletion of the spiritual resources of God through Christ. And, I’m not hiding anything to say that. It is available what you need today. Tomorrow. Next week. A year from now. As we used to sing, “There is a river, that never shall run dry.” Jesus visited the Temple during a great celebration commemorated by a dead ritual. As the priest’s upturn pitcher emptied out and the poured-out water quickly absorbed into the ground, Jesus could take it no longer. He stood and cried: “Your pitcher is empty. Your spiritual resources are completely depleted. But come unto me and drink. Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water.” There is a resource you need never worry will be depleted. If you need it tomorrow, it won’t have run out by then. Nothing being hidden here.

Is It The Cooking?

Harry Truman, while a congressman, supposedly said it when receiving complaints about the pace he was setting with his investigating committee. “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” Probably, this expression came from the time before homes were climate-controlled, and kitchens could become brutally hot, especially in the summers. The gist of the saying is that if you can’t deal with the pressures and difficulties of the task in which you’re engaged, you should, rather than complaining, leave it to others. In years past, I have piously and condemningly said this of others who complained about the difficulty of their endeavors. Then, experience taught me something: Sometimes it isn’t that you can’t take the heat of the kitchen; it’s that no one likes what you’re cooking. Now, if folks don’t like your cooking, maybe it IS your cooking. Or, maybe it’s their appetite. Doing ministry, I am willing to admit, sometimes it is my cooking. One thing for sure, looking at today’s worship and word as a table Christ has prepared and spread, if I find it unappealing, undesirable, it won’t be His cooking. It must be my appetite.

IF PEOPLE WERE PREPOSITIONS

Nerdish as it seems, I am enthralled with grammar. Many feel grammar is boring, useless, and, at best, a necessary “evil.” I think it’s spiritual. God chose to have His revelation communicated via written words, and written words involve grammar. I am particularly interested in prepositions—you know, that part of speech that shows relationships between nouns. My interest in prepositions is probably attributable to the role they play in the exegesis and interpreting of the Bible. Prepositions in Greek carry fuller and more nuanced meaning than in English. Teaching prepositions in an English class, I would use the illustration of a tree and a squirrel. A preposition was anywhere the squirrel would go in relation to the tree. Up the tree. On the tree. Around the tree. Under the tree. In Greek, the aspect of movement is more pronounced in the use of prepositions, yet I would use a much more mundane visual to illustrate them: I would draw a large circle to represent the stationary noun and then draw tangential lines, arrows, dots, dashes to represent a preposition’s relationship to the circle and label each with the corresponding preposition’s name. For example, above the circle I would draw a length of horizontal line and label it “huper,” Greek for above. Below the circle, I would draw a parallel line and label it “hupo,” Greek for below. Now, I’m sure, this has all been very tediously boring, but this week, my musing of this illustration of prepositions suddenly enlightened me to what is wrong with the increasingly popular modern approach to Bible interpretation. Think of the large circle as the Word of God. Think of parallel lines, the one above and the other below the circle, as people interpreting the Bible. Some approach the Bible from above. Some from below. There was a time when any honest student of the Bible attempted to interpret and apply Scripture from the below position. What does that mean? It means the interpreter saw the Bible as the absolute, authoritative, infallible, inspired Word of God. This student, as he grappled with understanding what the Bible said, saw that he must subject his own opinions, ideas, preferences, prejudice, etc., to the objective meaning of the text. The text was right, and he was wrong. The Word judged him, not he the Word. Contrarily, today, the progressive who approaches the Bible sees himself as above the Word. He can do this because he does not see Scripture as the absolute, authoritative, infallible, and inspired Word of God. He does not see Scripture as having objective meaning, unchanging and true for all, but as a text to critique, deconstruct, and then reconstruct to conform to his already-held beliefs. These above -the-Word interpreters see the Bible, not as the revelation of God, but as a collection of stories narrating past people’s spiritual journeys, quests, questionings, searches. These stories can be helpful in one’s own quest for truth. Thus, one reads the Bible and picks and chooses the parts he feels would be helpful to him in his own quest for truth and spirituality. The parts he deems suitable, he incorporates into the tapestry of his own self-concocted beliefs. In other words, he sits in judgment of what the Word means, what of the Word is true, and what of the Word he considers applicable or not applicable (useful or not useful to him). More dangerously, he is free to take the Word and reinvent what it actually means. He can redefine words and give them the meaning that would fit his contemporary culture. Interpreting the Bible from above is to treat it as text that is to be subjectively understood and applied. Interpreting the Bible from below is to treat it as text that has an objective meaning that is not to be tampered with but obeyed. For example, “Christians” who support same-sex marriage famously practice above-the-Word interpretation: They redefine words, reject parts of the Bible as being antiquated, impugn the character of the OT God, etc., and then say, “The way I read the Bible, the way I see it, there is nothing wrong with homosexuality or same-sex marriage.” They do not see it as wrong because of the way they read the Bible. They read it from above. They pompously subjected the Bible to their own convoluted designs by imposing their ideology upon it. Through this lens of their own thinking, the Bible is twisted to fit the template they force upon it. To interpret the Bible from below is to seek the literal, objective, intended meaning of the text understood in its literary, cultural, and historical context. Having as closely as possible ascertained that objective meaning, one then conforms his thinking, life, attitude, etc. to the application of a text’s meaning. He is below, under, the Word. He subjects his life to the Word and refuses to subject the Word to his own way of thinking. So, with the circle being the Bible, are you the preposition above or below it? Is your approach to understanding Scripture huper or hupo?

A RANT REVEALING MY ROAD RAGE

My road rage ranting has more to do with what is along the road rather than on it. I loathe seeing litter along our roadways. I do not know if it is true, but, to me, it appears that there is recently more trash than ever before along our streets and highways. My wife concurs as she shakes her head and says, "It looks like a third-world country." It’s worse. Third-world countries may not have the funds for an infrastructure of trash collection. We do. My wife and I might be correct about the increase of roadside trash; an article in today's paper (Thursday’s) noted that our county is spending more money than ever trying to keep up with litter collection along our roads. Trash along our roadways disturbs me, not just because litter is so unsightly, but because, I feel trash along our roadways increases in commensurate correspondence with the growing deterioration of the morality and values of America. I archaically hold to generalized axioms such as a cluttered desk indicates a cluttered mind. Thus, it’s not difficult for me to believe that trashed public places indicate the moral and spiritual uncleanliness of Americans, their homes, and their nation. My horrified revulsion at the sight of litter along our roadways is initially about aesthetics. Litter makes ugly. Litter along our roadways is like graffiti on our edifices. Secondly and more so, it’s about a chafing at folk’s irresponsibility. No one should have to be responsible for another's trash. A sign of a child's developing maturity is that he controls his bodily waste functions. He does not require another to change his diaper. Littering is a sign that the litterer isn't mature enough to take care of his waste. Worse is that the litterer does not consider that another will have to pick up after him. Selfish. This increase of litter in America comes during the greatest push ever for going green and saving the planet. I cannot believe that only those politically conservative litter. In fact, many conservatives are Christians who believe that God has mandated our stewarding the planet. No, many litterers are of the same political persuasion as folks who scream about climate change and the need to save the environment. Yet, these green grenadiers throw their trash right out there in the environment. Hypocrites! Yet, to be fair, I know that many who claim to be Christians and to hold the moral and spiritual high ground, also hypocritically litter. I was riding down the road once with a fellow minister who was castigating me for having a different theological view that he deemed more liberal than his. As he opined that I could not be spiritual and adhere to such a liberal position, he rolled down his window and threw out the wrapper from the candy bar he was munching. I may not be spiritual, but to me, his spiritual high ground went out the window with his candy wrapper. I know there are unspiritual, immoral, and hypocritical folks who don’t litter. Yet, I still believe that all this litter lining our roads is an indication that something is bad wrong with America’s mores. As we travel the roads haranguing about the trash, I enquire rhetorically of my wife, "Do these litterers treat their houses like this? Do they just throw their trash down on their living room floor?" If no, they are selfish narcissists who would never trash their own space but will another’s. They throw their fast-food wrappers out the window to keep their car clean while trashing the environment. Or, their littering does indicate the way they treat their own home. My wife concurs on this latter as she answers, “Yes, many of them live that way at home.” Whatever the case, I see the presence of litter as evidence of deep psychological, political, moral, and societal illness in America. People aren't "right" who litter. Something is deeply wrong. And, a country whose roads are so littered is not right. Not right politically. Not right morally. Not right spiritually. But I have ranted long enough about others. I must bring this home. I may be wrong spiritually/morally and not litter. But I cannot be right spiritually/morally and litter. One thing for sure, I do not want my heart and mind littered with what should not be there, with what trashes my life and soul. Two scriptures come to mind: First, “Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.” (Pro 4:23). Second, “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psa 51:10). Often during our ride-along-road-rants, my wife will say, “I just want to get out and start picking it all up.” That’s a noble but impractical solution. There’s far too much for one person to even make a start. Yet, I could start with my own heart. There are some things there that could be picked up and discarded correctly. I should probably start with my road rage against litter.