Grace and Peace

George Whitefield (1714-1770) was a British born evangelist who came to America and preached through out the colonies.  Benjamin Franklin estimated that he preached to a crowd of 20,000 in Philadelphia.  Franklin then became Whitefield's publisher and friend, although he never shared Whitefield's faith. 

Because of his public and prominent ministry, Whitefield was a constant target of criticism.  He once received a vicious letter from a vocal opponent that accused him of wrongdoing.  Whitefield's reply was brief and courteous:

Dear Sir,

I thank you heartily for your letter.  As for what you and my other enemies are saying against me, I know far worse things about myself than you will ever say about me.

With love in Christ,

George Whitefield

No matter what we do, we can never satisfy all of our critics.  The best we can do is set our heart on pleasing God and leave the rest to Him.  I would much rather depend on the mercy of the Lord than be at the mercy of the mob.

When a man’s ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. (Proverbs 16:7 ESV)

Two men sat on a park bench watching a squirrel in a big oak tree.  The squirrel was looking up at a limb so far above it that it looked like "a leap of suicide."  As the men watched, the squirrel jumped, missed, and landed on a branch several feet lower than the intended target.  Immediately, it steadied itself, got ready, and jumped again this time hitting the desired limb.

The older of the two men remarked, "Funny, I’ve seen hundreds of them jump and a lot of them miss on the first try, but I’ve never seen one give up.  I guess they must think it’s better to take a risk than spend your whole life where you don’t want to be."

Maybe you aren't where you want to be or where you know you need to be.  Nothing says you have to remain where you are.  Why not climb up higher today?

But when he came to himself, he said, "How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.'" (Luke 15:17-18 ESV)

Gordon Wilson held his daughter's hand as they lay trapped beneath a mountain of rubble.  It was 1987, and he and Marie had been attending a memorial service in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, when a terrorist bomb went off.  By the end of the day, Marie and nine other were dead and sixty-three had been hospitalized.

Gordon refused to let anger overcome him and lead him down the path of revenge.  He said, "I have lost my daughter, and I shall miss her.  Angry words will neither bring her back nor bring peace to this country.  But I bear no ill will.  I bear no grudge.  That will not bring her back.  Don't ask me, please, for a purpose (in this)...I don't have an answer (for that).  But I know there has to be a plan.  It's part of a greater plan and we shall meet again."

Later, Gordon said that his words were not intended as a theological response to his daughter's murder.  He had simply blurted them out from the depth of his heart.  In the days and months after the bombing, he struggled to live up to his words.  It wasn't easy, but they were something to hang on to; something to keep him afloat in the dark hours.

He knew that the terrorists who took his daughter's life were anything but remorseful, and he maintained that they should be punished and imprisoned.  Even so, he refused to seek revenge.

"It would be wrong for me to give any impression that the gunmen and bombers should be allowed to walk the street s freely, but whether or not they are judged here on earth by a court of law, I do my very best in human terms to show forgiveness. Those who have to account for this deed will have to face a judgment of God, which is way beyond my forgiveness. The last word rests with God."

The Apostle Paul said, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21 ESV)."  These words challenge much of the thinking that saturates our society.  There we are urged to "look out for number one" and "take matters into our own hands."

Gordon Wilson's story testifies that there is another way.  Even in the most terrible of circumstances, with God's help, we can overcome evil with good.   Wilson chose forgiveness and that allowed him to find peace and comfort in God's grace.  The effect of his choice reached far beyond his own personal "peace of mind and heart' as, at least temporarily, his words broke the cycle of killing and revenge in Northern Ireland.  The local Protestant paramilitary leadership felt so convicted by his courage and example that they did not retaliate.

Rather than being crushed by grief and eaten away by a desire for vengeance, Wilson found a way to triumph, to bring reconciliation into his life and the lives of his countrymen.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21 ESV)

WARNING:  CLICKING ON THE LINKS PROVIDED WILL EXPOSE YOU TO THE VILE TRUTH ABOUT FRED PHELPS AND THE WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH OF TOPEKA, KANSAS.  I AM PROVIDING THE LINKS THAT YOU MAY BE FULLY AWARE OF THE DANGER OF THIS GROUP.

Since 1791, The First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America has been a zealously guarded freedom.  The Amendment in its entirety reads:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Although we have the right to "Free Speech" that doesn't mean we should always exercise it!  A case in point is the hate-mongering pastor and congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas.  They have been a "burr under my saddle" for a number of years (in fact, since I first came to know of their existence in 1990).  Their brand of "Free Speech" is an affront to any sensible individual.

They will bring their "traveling show" to Jacksonville, NC this Saturday (01/19/2008) and the next (01/26/2008) according to their website.  They will be protesting the Marine Corps in an attempt to grab headlines due to the Marie Lauterbauch case.  In a press release, they state their clear contempt of the United States and its military.

Be aware that these protesters do not represent mainstream Christianity nor most Baptists.  They are a dangerous lunatic fringe which distort the truth of Scripture.  Do not be deceived by these people and do not give them the publicity they crave.  Instead, pray that God will thwart their evil plans and cause the harm they seek to do to be minimal.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929.  He was the son of a Baptist pastor and followed in his father's footsteps.  King is best remembered as a leader in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950's and 1960's.  In 1957, he spelled out his peaceful strategy of non-violent resistance to racism in America.

“At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. In struggling for human dignity the oppressed people of the world must not allow themselves to become bitter or indulge in hate campaigns. To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can be done only by projecting the ethics of love to the center of our lives.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s principled leadership inspired a generation of young civil rights protesters to embrace the peaceful strategy of non-violent resistance—even when they endured violent acts of bigotry.  The history of the civil rights movement in America is filled with stories of heroism in the face of hatred. But perhaps no single incident tested King’s principle of non-violent resistance better than Bloody Sunday—the name historians have attached to a monumental protest march in Alabama.

On March 7, 1965, around 600 civil rights marchers planned to walk from Selma, Alabama to the state courthouse in Montgomery. In accordance to Dr. King’s strategy of non-violent resistance, they were peacefully protesting the harassment which prevented blacks from voting. On the outskirts of Selma, the marchers arrived at the Edmund Pettus Bridge where they encountered a blockade of state troopers and local patrolmen.

Despite warnings not to cross the bridge, the protesters forged forward and were viciously attacked. The troopers and patrolmen struck them with billy clubs, whipped them, stabbed them with cattle prods, and showered them with tear gas. Amazingly, the marchers chose not to fight back, and were beaten mercilessly. Journalists snapped horrific pictures of the violence to capture its brutality. Images of bruised and bloodied protesters quickly flooded the news outlets to give America a sickening glimpse of the assault.

By holding true to the principle of non-violence, the Selma marchers were able to prick America’s conscience with the moral justification of their cause. Their message of freedom and equality spoke loudly through their silence as they underwent painful beatings. By sacrificing their physical well-being, the protesters at Selma won a major moral victory for the cause of African-Americans in the United States.

Martin Luther King, Jr., through his unwavering belief that love was more powerful than hate, helped transform the way we view race in America.  May we truly be a nation where people are not "judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Christianity and the Bible have always garnered opposition.  In 298 A.D., the Roman emperor, Diocletian, began an aggressive and orderly persecution of Christians.  Among other things (imprisonment, torture, execution, etc.), Diocletian ordered every Bible burned.  He thought by destroying the Scriptures he could destroy Christianity.  He was wrong!

In less than 25 years, Constantine became the first Christian Roman emperor.  He considered himself responsible to God for the spiritual health of his subjects and ordered fifty copies of the Bible copied by hand at government expense.

A few years before the American Revolution, Voltaire (French essayist and philosopher François-Marie Arouet) wrote that the Bible was an outdated legal and moral reference, which was in great part metaphorical, and was most surely a work of man, not a Divine revelation from God.  He further asserted that Christianity would no longer exist in one hundred years.  He was wrong!

By May 30, 1778 Voltaire was dead.  Within fifty years after his death the Geneva Bible Society bought his house and used his printing press to produce Bibles.  It remains the most read, most printed, and most loved book in history.

Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for "All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever." And this word is the good news that was preached to you. (1 Peter 1:22-25 ESV)

Alexander Hamilton was born on January 11, 1755.  Hamilton was ever a strong advocate of our Constitution and very few people have made a comparable contribution to the substance of American government. He served as the first Secretary of the Treasury and his reputation remains unrivaled in the areas of sharp finance, principled politics, hard work, intellectual acuteness, and bravery.

In spite of his many admirable traits, Alexander Hamilton was not a perfect man.  He admitted that “his heart was ever the master of his judgment.”  In other words, he was often carried way by his emotions.   Hamilton could be ill-advised in speech, opinionated, supremely self-confident, and uncompromising in his nature and methods. His temperament and impetuous nature led to a long standing dispute with Aaron Burr.

Based on his opinion of Burr, Hamilton deemed it his patriotic duty to avert Burr’s ambition to become President.  Burr was tied with Thomas Jefferson in the popular vote for the presidency in 1800; thus the decision was thrown into the House of Representatives.  Hamilton urged the House to side with Jefferson, who consequently won the election.

In 1804, Aaron Burr tried to attain the governorship of New York .  Alexander Hamilton denounced Burr as "a man of irregular and insatiable ambition … who ought not to be trusted with the reins of government."  After this political and personal defeat, Burr challenged Hamilton to a duel.

The duel was fought at Weehawken on the New Jersey shore of the Hudson River opposite New York City.  At the age of forty-nine, Hamilton was shot and mortally wounded.  He died the following day, July 12^th, 1804.

Hamilton, although opposed to dueling after the fatal shooting of his son Philip in a duel in 1801, went to meet Burr out of a sense of obligation.  Even though he wielded a dueling pistol, he had no intention of firing on Burr.  Eye witnesses have attested that his weapon went off involuntarily as he fell after being shot by Burr.

Alexander Hamilton told the minister who attended him as he lay dying, “I have no ill-will against Colonel Burr. I met him with a fixed resolution to do him no harm. I forgive all that happened.”

Forgiveness is the right choice.  Be sure to forgive quickly, before anger leads you to a place of desperation and destruction.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. (Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV)