Five years ago this week, I spoke at the White House Christian Fellowship. It is the flagship Bible study of the White House, one of seven they had back then, one of 25 within the administration. I spoke about Acts 15 - the study was titled "The Good Fight." The end of the hour featured White House staffers asking me a lot of questions about my work at Dover Air Force Base and about the war. They asked me outright if I thought the troops were behind the war. Shannon and I were given a little tour of parts of the administration that most folks don't get to see.
One thing is for sure: no one back then could have predicted the state of the world and the nation today. The war continues. We are still in Iraq! The presidential election campaign is what no one ever thought it would or could be. Barak Who? The world economy is melting like the witch at the end of The Wizard of Oz. Wow, it's something to look back at yesterday's future and compare it to the reality of today.
I wonder how many Bible studies there are now, or will be next year at this time?
If you would please upload your study. I would be interested in reading it.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that as creatures trapped in the boundaries of space time we never see things clearly, particularly when we look "to the future"? (Where are those flying cars? I am soooo disappointed!)
The Lord lives in the "eternity of Now" (CS Lewis in Screwtape, I think). We parse time, particularly "the future", according to our whims or dispensational theologies, rarely making room for the horrors capable of a fallen nature. Who would have thought that fuel and people laden commercial planes would be used as bombs against the World Trade Center? That banks would willingly lend money who were obviously ill prepared to take on a $500,000 mortgage? Evil and greed know no bounds. But I am wrong to expect Christ like behavior from those who have not been transformed. If, as one of the redeemed I struggle against my own nature (which is really really awful let me tell you...), how impossible is it for those still in the grip of sin to behave? The question becomes, why am i shocked? The hearts must be transformed as you stated in your earlier blog.
But where sin abounds, how much more the grace of Christ? If we rely on our own senses to stumble through history, it is as people wearing the "fatal vision googles". When we walk with faith we are not fixated on circumstance but the eternal song of Creation. We are rarely surprised by history only delighted by the Creator has not abandoned us. And He has been so faithful to me, even in the midst of my unrelenting stupidity.
I'm having trouble figuring out how to upload my study. I'll keep at it. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteJohn
Pastor John, thanks for trying! I appreciate it very much.
ReplyDelete