Some things are too good not to share. My friend, Dr. Bob Kaylor, lead pastor of Tri-Lakes United Methodist Church, and a leader in the Wesley Covenant Association, has led his church to produce the best election yard sign ever. Wait for it…

These rules, written in 1774, are as appropriate today as then.

• Vote for the person you judge most worthy
• Speak no evil of the person you voted against
• Take care your spirits are not sharpened against those that voted on the other side

And if you think they’re not appropriate because, after all, “our side” represents the will of God and anyone disagreeing can’t possibly be following Jesus, please see my blog Following Jesus? written on January 7, 2020.

Pastor Kaylor’s purpose in producing these signs is to “…inject some wisdom, civility, and compassion into the [political] conversation.” A worthy goal. If you want to order signs for yourself or your church, please go here.

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. (Romans 12.16, NIV)

Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. (Romans 13.1, NIV)

Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human authority: whether to the emperor, as the supreme authority, or to governors, who are sent by him to punish those who do wrong and to commend those who do right. For it is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people. Live as free people, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as God’s slaves. Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor. (1 Peer 2.13 – 17, NIV)

I love it when things and people work as you want them to! After my friend Henry’s warning of a dishwasher shortage when I reported my dishwasher breakdown back on September 18 (see comment), I was mildly concerned. But when the repairman told me how much to fix the existing washer, I opted for a new one (if I could find one!). The lady at Home Depot couldn’t have been nicer, and we found a dishwasher with the #1 criterion: in stock. 10 days later, two nice young men delivered and installed the new one, and everything works.

And works is the key word. A team of people had to build the machine (with materials provided by other teams). Home Depot had to have a system in place for finding it, paying for it, and scheduling delivery. Then the delivery/installation guys had to know what they were doing. All had a good attitude. They acted like they enjoyed their work, and I hope they know they were performing a useful and important service. Because even though we can and did get along without a dishwasher, we are thankful to have one again!

God looked over everything he had made; it was so good, so very good! It was evening, it was morning— Day Six. (Genesis 1.31, MSG)

Take care of yourself, have a good time, and make the most of whatever job you have for as long as God gives you life…Yes, we should make the most of what God gives, both the bounty and the capacity to enjoy it, accepting what’s given and delighting in the work. It’s God’s gift! (Ecclesiastes 5.18, 19, MSG, emphasis mine)

In everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. (1 Thessalonians 5.18, NKJV)

I’ve been thinking a lot about MARGIN and its importance in doing what God wants us to do. And in the spirit of “give a small boy a hammer and everything looks like a nail” I’m seeing margin in this familiar story:

As Jesus and the disciples continued on their journey, they came to a village where a woman welcomed Jesus into her home. Her name was Martha and she had a sister named Mary. Mary sat down attentively before the Master, absorbing every revelation he shared. But Martha became exasperated by finishing the numerous household chores in preparation for her guests, so she interrupted Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you think it’s unfair that my sister left me to do all the work by myself? You should tell her to get up and help me.” The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha.Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Are they really that important? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.” (Luke 10.38 – 42, Passion Translation)

I have often used this as an application of priorities: Mary had hers right, and Martha didn’t. But it could also be viewed through the lens of margin. Martha was living with no margin. “We have a lot to do, and it has to be done NOW!” Jesus and Mary are living with margin. “All that stuff will get done eventually, but we need to talk right now.” Both Mary and Martha are in the same situation, but Mary chooses to believe she has margin (time) to talk with Jesus.

I shared this observation with my friend, Montgomery, Alabama-based lobbyist and licensed local pastor Pat McWhorter, the other day, and Pat told me a story that went something like this:

I was accompanying an Alabama judge on a trip. We were in the Phoenix airport, I think, changing planes, and we were walking quickly through the concourse. Suddenly, the judge took a hard left, nearly knocking me over since I was on his left. Turns out there was a young mother bending over her baby in a stroller, and the mother and baby were in some kind of distress. The judge went over to see if he could help. The judge could have been like me, intent on catching our flight, thinking about his upcoming meetings with CEOs and other high-level officials, but he saw someone in need and stopped.

Pat attributed the judge’s action to his compassion and the fact that his antenna was up for what was going on around him. I would also add margin. Like Mary and Martha, Pat and the judge were in the same situation: in the airport with a plane to catch. Pat, like Martha, assumed no margin. The judge lived as if he had margin to help people. 

Walking down the street, Jesus saw a man blind from birth. (John 9.1, MSG)

Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” Matthew stood up and followed him. (Matthew 9.9, MSG)

I recently read the Good Samaritan story during my morning time with God (Luke 10.25 – 37), and I recalled the modern-day experiment retold in Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point. Here’s part of a summary by another blogger:

In the experiment, seminary students were each asked to prepare a short talk on a biblical theme and then walk over to another building on campus to present it to a group of undergrads.  In between the two buildings, the researchers placed an actor dressed as a derelict, slumped down in an alley, coughing and groaning. They then watched to see if the seminary students would stop and help the man or not on the way to giving their theological presentations…It didn’t really matter if the seminarians were presenting a talk on the Good Samaritan or whether they went into ministry primarily to help out humanity or not. The only thing that mattered is whether or not they were in a hurry. To one group of students, the experimenters would casually say, “It will be a few minutes before they’re ready for you, but you might as well head over now.” To the other group they would look at their watches and say, “Oh, you’re late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago.” In the group that thought they had plenty of time, 63 percent stopped to help the man. In the hurried group, only 10 percent stopped to help. –Mike O’Quinn, March 2, 2017, emphasis mine

The primary application is “context.” When the context was “hurry,” few stopped. In our case, our hurry kills margin. And with no margin we’re sometimes disobedient to our most fundamental calling of loving our neighbor (the context of The Good Samaritan). Maybe that’s why Dallas Willard is often quoted as saying,

You need to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life. -Dallas Willard

That brings us to Jesus’ lifestyle of margin. He never seemed to be in a hurry. Jesus stopped to heal a woman while on the way to help someone’s daughter. (Luke 8.40 – 56) Jesus seemed to have margin all the time. Here’s a story that starts with Jesus leaving Judea for Galilee  by way of Samaria (John 4.3, 4), and it ends with his spending two days in a Samaritan village:

Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word.  (John 4.39 – 41, ESV, emphasis mine)

When Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem for the last time to do something VERY important, he still had time for Zacchaeus:

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” (Luke 19.5, ESV)

I say that not because I’m a fan of the Russian space program, but because I remember the day well, and since I was in the space operations business in the Air Force, tracking Sputnik’s successors, it’s a day we celebrate in our family!

Last year’s Sputnik Day blog featured sanitation technology sponsored by Bill Gates. This year we need to pray for a different kind of technology: the scientists who are developing the COVID-19 vaccine. Interestingly, Bill and Melinda Gates have an interest in that too.

I applaud the efforts of everyone, but, as always, our real help comes from God who may work through anyone he chooses.

He said, “If you listen carefully to the LORD your God and do what is right in his eyes, if you pay attention to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the LORD, who heals you.” (Exodus 15.26, NIV)

Surely he will save you from the fowler’s snare and from the deadly pestilence. (Psalm 91.3, NIV)

It’s all about power, isn’t it? All the political wrangling whether it’s about the potential validity of election results or who sits on the Supreme Court, people, parties, coalitions, are all jockeying for power. That was the problem with the debate, wasn’t it? And according to an article I read recently, it has always been thus, in the US all the way back to the transition between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Here’s how it starts:

If you want to know the roots of the country’s present polarization over the Supreme Court, we have to go back. No, not to the contentious hearings for Brett Kavanaugh two years ago, nor to Sen. McConnell’s decision to deny a hearing or confirmation vote to Merrick Garland, who was President Obama’s 2016 pick to replace Justice Scalia. We must go even farther back than the drama of the Clarence Thomas hearing in 1991 or the attacks on Robert Bork’s character in 1987.The real point of origin is one of the first judicial controversies in the history of the American republic, decided in the landmark 1803 Supreme Court case of Marbury v. Madison. If you think judicial politics is polarizing and opportunistic now, consider what John Adams and his partisan allies did in the closing days of his one and only presidential term. Why We fight so Ferociously over the Court, by David French, Wall Street Journal, September 26, 2020

I had all this in my head when I read this text:

However, your real source of joy isn’t merely that these spirits submit to your authority, but that your names are written in the journals of heaven and that you belong to God’s kingdom. This is the true source of your authority.” Then Jesus, overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s anointing of joy, exclaimed, “Father, thank you, for you are Lord Supreme over heaven and earth! You have hidden the great revelation of this authority from those who are proud, those wise in their own eyes, and you have shared it with these who humbled themselves. Yes, Father. This is what pleases your heart and the very way you’ve chosen to extend your kingdom: to give to those who become like trusting children.. (Luke 10.20, 21, Passion Translation, emphasis mine)

It’s about God’s Kingdom, not our petty little kingdoms. 

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance?… Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust…. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. (Isaiah 40.12,15, 17, ESV, emphasis mine)

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. (Psalm 2.1 – 4, ESV)

I wasn’t sure I was going to comment on the “debate” this week, but Heather Holleman’s reaction, along with her Penn State students, was too good not to share:

Today, everyone in class agreed that nobody really listened to each other during the first presidential debate. We all agreed, for once, that we miss civility and civic discourse. We miss kindness and thoughtful listening. My students tell me that nobody won the debate; we all lost.

Ironically, we all feel more united because of this common enemy of hatred, insult, and rude behavior on both sides of the debate. A rare moment of togetherness! – Heather Holleman, September 30, 2020

I like that she made something positive out of it: togetherness!

Here was my reaction:

The biggest problem is that no one is setting an example of decent behavior. We’re endorsing a culture of shouting each other down. The whole primary debate scenario for Republicans in 2016 and Democrats in 2020 was a shouting match. 

Stay away from all the foolish arguments of the immature, for these disputes will only generate more conflict. For a true servant of our Lord Jesus will not be argumentative but gentle toward all and skilled in helping others see the truth, having great patience toward the immature. Then with meekness you’ll be able to carefully enlighten those who argue with you so they can see God’s gracious gift of repentance and be brought to the truth. This will cause them to rediscover themselves and escape from the snare of Satan who caught them in his trap so that they would carry out his purposes. (2 Timothy 2.23 – 26, Passion Translation) – I am well aware that the target for this instruction was a pastor, not politicians; however, why not everyone?

Continuing the theme of our conduct in the world, Tuesday’s blog My Preferences? was on the importance of not being demanding. Yesterday, we looked at A Deserved Protest about a Netflix movie. Today, I’d like to wrap this up by thinking again about our own behavior.

I’ve asked previously, what happened to all the people? There were only 120 in the upper room in Acts 1. What happened to the 5000+ whom Jesus fed, for example? Here’s the answer. Jesus said:

How disastrous it will be for the city of Korazin! How horrible for the city of Bethsaida! For if the powerful miracles that I performed in Korazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have humbled themselves and repented, and turned from their sins. Tyre and Sidon will face a lesser degree of judgment than you will on the day of judgment. And Capernaum! Do you really think you’ll be highly exalted because of the great things I have done there? No! You’ll be brought down to the depths of hell because of your rejection of me! Luke 10:13-15 (Passion Translation)

Bethsaida is where Jesus fed the 5,000 (Luke 9.10). Capernaum is where the Roman centurion’s servant was healed, as well as the paraplegic who was lowered through the roof (in front of lots of witnesses!). 

It’s not enough to experience or witness Jesus’ power. I must humble myself, repent, and turn from my sin. 

Then Jesus, overflowing with the Holy Spirit’s anointing of joy, exclaimed, “Father, thank you, for you are Lord Supreme over heaven and earth! You have hidden the great revelation of this authority from those who are proud, those wise in their own eyes, and you have shared it with these who humbled themselves. Yes, Father. This is what pleases your heart and the very way you’ve chosen to extend your kingdom: to give to those who become like trusting children. (Luke 10.21, Passion Translation)

It’s Jesus’ people who need to repent. We tend to focus all our attention on people out there. But here’s a verse, if it applies at all, applies to us: 

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7.14, ESV)

When written, 2 Chronicles 7.14 applied to the nation of Israel under Solomon. If if applies today, it doesn’t apply to the nation but to the believers within the nation. 

For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? And, “If the righteous is scarcely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?” (1 Peter 4.17, 18, ESV)

J. Allen Blair, a preacher I heard years ago, said that the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel is that they will repent, too, if judgment begins at the household of God. Again, it’s we who need to repent first. 

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God… Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. (Ephesians 5.1, 2, 15 – 17, ESV)

I don’t usually wade into a secular company’s bad behavior that other Christians are up in arms about, partly because of what I wrote yesterday. Believers could stand to be a bit more winsome in their interactions, I think.

That said, Netflix’s movie Cuties, which sexually exploits pre-teen girls (look it up if you haven’t seen this story) merits a mention. Interestingly, I can’t find any stories in the mainstream media supporting people’s concerns. The prevailing view is, “Just watch it. You’ll see it’s against the sexual exploitation of girls.”

But one can make a point without showing the behavior they’re supposedly against. My son Mark captured the issue well, I think, in his usual creative and concise style:

Whenever it was, a couple weeks ago, when the Cuties poster came out and people were up in arms, Netflix said, “Oh it’s a bad poster, sorry, that’s not what the movie is about, give it a chance.” Now we’re seeing the actual movie and it’s as bad or worse. If I were making a movie about how bad it is to burn puppies, I wouldn’t set puppies on fire with focused shots on the puppies going up in flames, scenes that would be huge hits with the puppy-burning community, and destruction of actual puppies in service of teaching us a broader lesson about the challenges faced by puppies as they face incineration. -Mark Ewell, on or about September 10, 2020, via Facebook

Unfortunately, the uproar has drawn more attention to the movie, and it was one of Netflix’s most-watched last week.

I generally don’t sign petitions telling companies what to do. I can (and did) cancel my subscription, however. 

With respect to petitions, one organizer of petitions, Steve Cleary of RevelationMedia wrote this insightful comment when asked whether or not such petitions were effective against a large company like Netflix:

For me, the question whether we can influence Netflix is far less important than the question of whether or not we can influence followers of Christ to safeguard their homes and stand for righteousness. – Steve Cleary, RevelationMedia.

That’s a good perspective!

Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul. (1 Peter 2.11, NKJV)

But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving…Therefore do not become partners with them. (Ephesians 5.3, 4, 7, ESV)

I saw something I hadn’t noticed before in Jesus’ instructions to the 70 he sent out in Luke 10:

Don’t feel the need to shift from one house to another, but stay put in one home during your time in that city. Eat and drink whatever they serve you. Receive their hospitality, for you are my harvester, and you deserve to be cared for. When you enter into a new town, and you have been welcomed by its people, follow these rules: Eat what is served you. (Luke 10.7, 8, Passion Translation, emphasis mine)

Twice Jesus told them to eat what they were served. The Passion Translation has a note on that:

This instruction to “eat what is served” was given twice, for the Jewish dietary laws were not meant to be a hindrance in their ministry, nor were the disciples to demand certain foods.

The 70 were traveling teachers, men with some inherent respect in their own culture, but they were not to use that authority to demand either their preferences or to correct some violation of Kosher law as the Passion Translation note suggests.

I think as messengers of the gospel in this culture, we could go a long way by not always demanding our rights. We could stand to be more winsome and less in-your-face. 

Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives. Make the Master proud of you by being good citizens. Respect the authorities, whatever their level; they are God’s emissaries for keeping order. It is God’s will that by doing good, you might cure the ignorance of the fools who think you’re a danger to society. Exercise your freedom by serving God, not by breaking the rules. Treat everyone you meet with dignity. Love your spiritual family. Revere God. Respect the government. (1 Peter 2.12 – 17, MSG)