God Or Caesar

In the battle between our Judeo-Christian culture and secular humanism the lines of battle are clearly drawn and the issues of freedom are crystal clear. But it does not seem many Christians are aware of the ramifications of this ongoing struggle.   Just what are the Biblical parameters that should govern and guide godly Christian behavior in our contemporary culture? Just how do we apply general Biblical principles and particular precedents to the specifics of our daily dilemmas? Just where do we draw that fine line of distinction between obeying God and/or Caesar? Has the distinction between legitimate laws, legislative tyranny and bureaucratic authoritarianism been so blurred and obscured that good and brave men hesitate, vacillate, and sincerely mistake compromising collusion for commendable cooperation and craven cringing for cautious courage?

What does the example of such great men as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego say to us in our circumstance  today? Is their unwavering obedience to a prior claim of the law of God and their subsequent refusal to obey the law of their land to be equated at all to the prior claim of the law of God today that we rear and educate our children in the way of God and protect them in the battle for their minds from the evils of secular humanists? Does our commission and imperative to promulgate God's Word, especially in our families and Churches, encompass the concept that our children belong to us rather than the state?   To God rather than to Caesar?   There are those in places of power today who seem to sincerely believe that Caesar has the prior claim!

Can we justify refusal to obey unjust and tyrannical laws and unjust bureaucratic degrees, standing on the same ground Peter and John occupied when they defied authority and cried, "It`is better to obey God than man," when they were denied the right and freedom to proclaim and teach the. Word of God?  Or does the mere fact that a law has been duly passed by a Parliament or promulgated by a bureaucrat make it sacred and sacrosanct and deny Christians the right of legal and orderly challenge lest they be accused of refusal to submit to ordained authority? In the dichotomy of God versus Caesar today, how do we render unto both their lawful and scriptural due?

Although specific answers would be as difficult and varied as the circumstances demanding  a response, it is obvious that the concerned and committed Christian citizen must re-examine his orientation and motives and do his utmost to ensure he responds as his fathers in the faith have responded throughout the ages.   Christian citizens must not be intimidated by governmental authority or authorities.

Surely even in our politically correct, post-modern culture  today there are certain things over which the state is not absolutely sovereign. There must be certain circumstances that not only justify, but demand,  a Christian citizen's resistance of tyrannical laws and regulations. There must be a time when we must rise up and cry out, "Enough!" This much we know, Caesar is not sovereign over God, His Church, His Gospel, or the spiritual life and ministry of His people. Caesar is not sovereign over the Christian's family or Christian parents as they seek to rear their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Happiness Is

We Americans take our guarantee of the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness rather seriously. Our founding fathers, in graphic language, wrote the guarantee on paper and successive generations have attempted to prove the validity over and over again. The din and confusion and hustle and bustle of their relentless pursuit of that elusive mirage called happiness is an all consuming passion of our time. "Ever seeking, but never coming to," is an apt description of our society.

A song making the rounds these days 'Happiness Is..," is an amusing yet sad commentary on the paradox of our pleasure mad contemporary society. It seems the whole world is engaged in a frantic headlong chase of that deceptive phantom called happiness.

Life in our twentieth century is graphic reflection of this obsession with the trivial. A clown is hired to make us laugh and then a melodrama is viewed to make us cry,. A stimulant is taken to pep up the sagging torso and then a depressant to calm it down. A sleeping pill is swallowed to induce a blissful slumber and a beanie is gulped for a state of artificial alertness. As millions are spent on cancer study, tens of thousands daily and habitually commit suicide in defiance of all conclusive evidence and in the name of happiness. Rock and Roll, designed to tickle the savage foot patting instinct, ripples and rumbles over the air waves and then Beethoven is wafted along to soothe the savage breast.

Thousands ascend to the mountain to escape the savage heat as other thousands descend to the valley to escape the fierce cold. Whole population centers move to suburbia to elude the deafening den of the city and then build shopping malls all around themselves. A whole phalanx seek the cultural advantages of the suave metropolitan centers and yet plant gardens atop their penthouse patios to bring a bit of country to town. A host daily pack their bags and head out West, following Greely's advice, on the road they meet an equally disgruntled crowd heading East.

We are a nation on wheels. We demand more power plus economy, an insoluble problem the mechanical engineer claims to have solved, especially to the satisfaction of the automobile manufacturer. He says we can have our cake and eat it too. We dash down the street at breakneck speed only to come to a screeching, grinding halt to wait five minutes at a red light. The younger set takes the cue from the oldsters. They zip up and down roads in their hopped up, stripped down versions of mobile joy wagons, accelerating and decelerating in a mad frenzy and whirl until Mom and Pop hardly recognize them when they do drop by to replenish dwindling funds.

Happiness Is?? Perhaps to the old broken down mule that used to walk the circle of the old syrup mill it was the little enticing tidbit of corn tied to the end of the pole forever just out of reach .... that is if he could have ever reached it. Perhaps to the racing greyhound it is that mechanical rabbit that somehow always seems to just barely beat him to the wire ..... that is if he could ever catch it. Perhaps to a carnal man it is his endless fruitless, futile attempts to sate the desires of a fleshly appetite .... if he could ever satisfy them. But to the true Christian it is to, " Know that we Know HIM... " That's what HAPPINESS IS!"

Keeping On Keeping On

Luke 9:62 'And Jesus said unto him, no man, having placed his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God."

As a young lad I had the special experience of following a horse drawn plough as the land was being carefully prepared for planting and cultivation. There is hardly a thing that is more pleasant to my mind than those memories of long ago. In my mind's eye I can feel once more the pleasant coolness of the rich damp soil against my bare feet on a hot and humid afternoon. The earthy and pungent odor of new turned soil again fills the air around me.

In the quietness of my memory I can still hear the sound of the breaking plough ripping its way through the fallow ground, leaving in its wake a squirming trail of worms, grubs and insects, and the occasional nest of field mice struggling for survival. The sights and sounds of spring overwhelm me with a nostalgic yearning to set my hand firmly to the plough once more and yell out, "Giddap," to the team for just one more turn around the field!

But the memory of row upon row of shiny sod cleaved by the sharp plough also reminds me of sweating from sun to sun under the glare of a blazing hot sun. I can also feel the pain of muscles strained wrestling with a heavy turning plough. As the long afternoon of struggle wears on, I can feel once again a bone-weariness, giving way to an almost irresistible desire to lay aside my assigned task and make my way to the old swimming hole to frolic in its cold depths with the neighborhood boys.

It was in such a rural setting that I learned my first lessons of discipline. The discipline imposed by my desire to hear my parents say, "Well done!". The discipline required if I were ever to know the self-satisfying sight of a field well ploughed, planted, cultivated and harvested. What a great blessing parents impart to their children when they give them such a gift of a disciplined work ethic!

Jesus implies discipleship may be viewed as an expression of such discipline in the spiritual realm. The need for a serious and disciplined attitude and approach to the work of God has never been more apparent. It seems increasingly difficult to find people of God who are willing to carry His work on to an ultimate productive and fruitful conclusion. It seems many would much rather be frolicking with friends of the world in the cool pool of the pleasures of this world, than toiling as yoke fellows with Christ and fellow-laborers in the hot sun of the field of spiritual endeavor.

There is no doubt about the nature of our field of spiritual labor. Jesus commanded us to pray that the Lord would send laborers into the field of lost souls. We know what is involved in preparing the ground to plant the good seed. We know it is necessary to break up our fallow spiritual ground. We know a bit about the cultivation and watering often necessary to bring forth the harvest. We know we need to go forth with weeping, bearing the precious seed of the Word of God. We know the promise of the harvest to those who will really lift up their eyes to the possibilities involved in witnessing and soul winning. We know the law of sowing and reaping applies to the spiritual as well as the physical world and that our Lord has promised that we will joyfully reap in due season, if we faint not. If we would be His disciple, we but need to keep on keeping on for the glory of God!