Tried With Fire

Though troubles assail and dangers affright, Though friends should all fail and foes all unite; Yet one thing secures us, whatever betide, The scripture assures us, the Lord will provide The birds without barn or storehouse are fed, From them let us learn to trust for our bread: His saints, what is fitting, shall ne'er be denied, So long as it's written, the Lord will provide We may, like the ships, by tempest be tossed On perilous deeps, but cannot be lost. Though Satan enrages the wind and the tide, The promise engages, the Lord will provide. His call we obey, like Abram of old, Not knowing our way, but faith makes us bold; For though we are strangers we have a good Guide, And trust in all dangers, the Lord will provide When Satan appears to stop up our path, And fill us with fears, we triumph by faith; He cannot take from us, though oft he has tried, This heart-cheering promise, the Lord will provide He tells us we're weak, our hope is in vain, The good that we seek we ...

In the light of President Trump's recent dinner with "evangelical" leaders , this quote from How the Nations Rage is remarkably prescient: "The [religious right] movement stood up for good things, but its language tended to be apocalyptic. It gave earthly political outcomes - a vote on a law, an election, or a Supreme Court case - an outsized importance. Too many exclamation points and all cap sentences tell our non-Christian fellow citizens that our policy agenda is more important than the gospel itself. It says THIS ELECTION IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN THE WORLD! It communicates that we're really just a branch of this or that party. It says that God is not so big after all. That is why we have to scream." 1 And to quote another book, "Fear is the political language conservative evangelicals know best." 2 In contrast: Jesus responded to them, “Do you now believe? Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scatter...

The following is a quote from How the Nations Rage: Rethinking Faith and Politics in a Divided Age by Jonathan Leeman (pg. 133-135). "Here's the larger point: Christians should listen to what Republicans and Democrats have to say on welfare policy, tax policy, racial reconciliation, the refugee crisis, and growing suicide rates. But our thinking shouldn't start or stop there. Our thinking should be more expansive, more complicated, more personal, more human. Our political instincts should develop by living inside the loving and difficult relationships that comprise a church. You might even say our political thinking should be pastoral..." "Inside the local church is where a Christian politics becomes complicated, authentic, credible, not ideologically enslaved, real. It's in these real-life situations where you're forced to think about what righteousness truly is, what justice truly requires, what obligations you possess toward your fellow God-imag...

1. To Christ the Lord let every tongue Its noblest tribute bring When He’s the subject of the song Who can refuse to sing? Survey the beauties of His face And on His glories dwell Think of the wonder of His grace And all His triumphs tell 2. Majestic sweetness sits enthroned Upon His awful brow His head with radiant glories crowned His lips with grace overflow No mortal can with Him compare Among the sons of men Fairer He is than all the fair That fill the Heavenly train 3. He saw me plunged in deep distress He fled to my relief For me He bore the shameful cross And carried all my grief His hand a thousand blessings pours Upon my guilty head His presence gilds my darkest hours And guards my sleeping bed 4. To Him I owe my life and breath And all the joys I have He makes me triumph over death And saves me from the grave To Heaven the place of His abode He brings my weary feet Shows me the glories of my God And makes my joy complete 5. Since from Hi...

"American history reveals ambiguity in Americans' behavior and faithfulness to the principles on which the nation was founded. Americans have been true, false and indifferent to their stated ideals over time. There is no golden age to go back to, no glorious past to recover or to "take back." America consists of Americans who are flawed and fallible human beings. Americans have set themselves on a pursuit of justice, equality, of opportunity and of natural rights and freedoms. But Americans of every generation have continually struggled to understand what those things mean, how they are to be applied and who gets to enjoy them to their fullest extent. Religious people have always been influential in these issues, but even religious people who are dedicated to divine principles sometimes fail to see clearly and act faithfully. All people, including Christians, succumb to selfishness, short-sightedness, violence and vice. The human condition is complex, thus the Ame...

This is an excerpt from Tempting Faith by David Kuo, quoted in Believe Me    by John Fea. Kuo served in George W. Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships. As a conservative, pro-life Christian, he wanted to serve the poor and believed this political position would help him influence policy towards a more "compassionate conservatism." Kuo quickly learned that power and compassion do not mix very well. His efforts were largely ignored unless there was political gain to be had, and any influence from Christian leaders was token. "Making politically active Christians personally happy meant having to worry far less about the Christian political agenda." This involved inviting them to events as part of the crowd and giving them "little trinkets like cufflinks or pens or pads of paper" to take home and show "just how influential they were." For... the White House staff, evangelical leaders were people to be tolerated, not peo...

I happened upon this TEDx talk last night as I was clicking from one link to another. Although the speaker, Canwen Xu, was only 18 years old when she gave this talk, I heard my story even though several decades separate us in age and the little details are different. Here are a few lines that resonated with me and brought me to tears: I became more and more Americanized, I also began to lose bits and pieces of myself, parts of me that I can never get back, and no matter how much I tried to pretend that I was the same as my American classmates, I wasn't. For people who lived in the places I lived, white is the norm, and for me, white became the norm too. Society uses our success to pit us against other people of color as justification that racism doesn't exist. But what does that mean for us Asian Americans? It means we aren’t quite similar enough to be accepted, but we aren’t different enough to be loathed. Foreign but not quite foreign. American but not quite America...