Category Archives: Politics

God Rest The Queens

Academics & The Arts, Poetry, Politics

Mary and Elizabeth,
Both required to reign;
It appears that the two
Desired the same thing:
To believe as one will
Leaving all to God until
A harm is done another,
Then crown must interfere.

Despite the common interest
In their subjects well-being,
Brewed a never-ending tempest
Among those believing
The way of the right
Should be the crown’s achieving.
Pop sentiment in sight,
Tensions had to be relieving,

Cousins thrust into the tide
Of the crowd’s lustful screaming,
Lost decency as guide,
Sent sentiment careening
Round the curve of Mary’s neck.
Faithful dog at feet lay curled
In death would not reject
His beloved mistress hurled

Into the after-life.
Her end was her beginning,
Blade lifted her from strife,
In death she knew her winning.
Elizabeth remained to toil
With the issues of the earth
Eventually would meet the soil
Freed from position of her birth.

Copyright 2016.  L.L. Shelton.

Bride On Fire

Church Culture, Living the Word, Politics, , , , ,

The strangely fluid and beautiful creature leaps and bounds in bright colorful array engulfing the structure that is the object of its appetite.  A crowd gathers, for a moment stunned by the apparent freedom of this gaily frolicking entity.  Then, as if shaking off a kind of stupor, someone screams to be saved.

In answer to the plea, a courageous number of that fantastic fraternity formed to fight this very devil, soon arrive and begin their bold work. The flames are doused and the remaining folks gathered at the scene, staring at the remnants of the edifice as it smolders amid the ashes, observe as the next skilled team arrives and begins the important work of inspection that will ultimately, hopefully, determine the origin of the monster.

The Church is on my mind, and having lived more than a half century now, it is my estimation that the road to perdition begins with one’s elevated view of oneself.

In  America, no more than 2% of our total population is gay, and approximately .8% of the 2% are involved in a same sex relationship, and fewer still are legally married.  Clearly, we have a much greater problem with other sexual sins in this country, such as fornication and adultery.  Of course, even the criminal sexual sins of child molestation and rape occur more frequently among us than does the sin of practicing homosexuality.

The sanctity of marriage is intended to be built upon a foundation of sexual purity which applies to all people.  The foundation has been under attack since humanity began.  Most of the twentieth century saw the institution of marriage, an institution necessarily established by God for our protection and to increase our joy, being questioned and demeaned by American society in general.  Yes, even we, the organized church felt it necessary to debate many issues surrounding the sanctity of marriage and family long before beginning to argue its very definition.  I submit to you that we, as a church, failed to properly defend marriage against those relatively minor attacks, thus we now stand perilously close to losing the war.

However, while It may be too late for us, as a nation, to raise the stakes- it is never too late for us to up the ante as the church.  Jesus did.

Jesus said, “Let’s begin with understanding lust as a sexual activity sinfully equal to adultery.  Let’s begin by demanding of ourselves a clean heart.” 

If we, the American population of the church, begin cleaning at the level that Our LORD mandated we may be able to effect the kind of change in our nation that is seen as nothing short of miraculous. 

Copyright 2015, L.L. Shelton

You Can’t Legislate Morality and Other Fallacies

Politics, ,

Does anyone else remember this catch phrase- you can’t legislate morality?  I heard it often.  I didn’t think about it as often.  I’m really thinking about it now.

America, not only can we legislate morality, but we do it everyday up there in DC, and in every voting booth around this country.  May  I submit to you that we’ve been a bit confused regarding the difference between morality and true spirituality?

Morality is a set of standards put forth, by which a society or an individual agrees to be governed.  Spirituality is something else altogether, it may imply a moral code, but only if that code is felt or believed to be necessary by the person possessing his spirituality.

Again, I urge that we Christians take our place in the governing of society wherever and whenever possible.  Of course, it is understood that we belong in church government and in the pulpits, but we belong everywhere!  We are to live in this world! We are not to be like those who take their places among the unbelievers, but we are to take our places among the unbelievers…our places.

True Christians have the opportunity to legislate morality in this nation.  Scripture makes it clear that while we cannot legislate true spirituality, we may be given the opportunity to legislate morality. We are America! As of today, we have that opportunity! This great and imperfect nation needs True Christian leadership at every level.  Let’s stop allowing the world to intimidate us, and get to work!

BTW- For those of you who read my posts consistently, there is no contradiction here.  You can love someone without wanting him to be your President (or your preacher).  And,  President Carter, no disrespect intended, according to Scripture, neither being black nor being a woman is being involved in a lifestyle that is declared by God in Scripture to be offensive to Himself.

A Note to The Westboro Baptists and to All Who May Have Misunderstood Christmas

Bible Talk, Church Culture, Living the Word, Politics, , , ,

While I may not be compelled to label you as goats, as you are and will be labeled appropriately by One greater than us all, I do stand with Danny Akin and others who have considered the possibility.

Are you unaware of the Absolute Truth and Authority of Scripture? Is it possible that you do not consider the entire Word?

Have you considered the Word of The Lord in Matthew 2:8, 9:4, and 12:25? God knows your thoughts! Are you as angry with yourself for your own evil thoughts, as you are at the openly homosexual for his? Have you considered the Word of The Lord in Luke 5:22, Luke 6:8, 9:47? Have you thought about His Word in Mark 2:8, 8:17, and 12:15? How about John 2:23?

Is one man’s sexual offense greater than that of another? I am sure from Scripture that God hates fornication, adultery, homosexuality, pedophilia, and the like. He also hates gossip, envy, and divorce. God hates sin because He loves man and sin destroys man.

Is one man’s thoughtful or behavioral response to any temptation weighed differently in heaven than another’s? Is one man’s illegitimate desire or action more offensive to God than that of another? I submit to you that the answer is no.

And so we have Christmas! God came as Christ to be with man, so that the man who is with Christ will no longer be ultimately destroyed by his sin! Hallelujah! God with us!

I do believe there is Scriptural evidence to support our understanding that heavenly rewards may be adjusted according to our record here, and there is tremendous empirical evidence to support the fact that the natural consequences of sin vary greatly and are certainly destructive according to the degree of depravity displayed in the offense.

However, whatever the natural consequences of sin, our mandate as individual Christians is to love in Christ, all of humanity; and to call one another to account as well as others, in The Spirit of Love. (Luke 6:27-36)

Of course, we must consider that it is NOT loving not to call ourselves and one another to account when we are obviously offending God, according to His Word; as then we would be helping ourselves and one another along the path to evil, to compounded sin, or to hell.

This is why it is so important for each of us to remember that we are unable to effectively call another to repentance when we have sin that we have failed to forsake in our own lives, thus we must daily confess our obvious and secret sin, seeking forgiveness for all that is in us that has offended God and then receive that forgiveness. Only then, may we be ready to assist the next man. (Luke 6:39-42)

And one conspicuous way to assist each other is to meet the need we all share as human beings for love, grace, encouragement, companionship, and tenderness.  Some say that we cannot offer these things to those outside the church because we are not to fellowship with the unbeliever. If you are one of them, I submit to you that we have a tendency to misunderstand the term “fellowship” in this instance, as it is intended to imply that we must not engage in those things that are an offense to Our Wonderful God no matter our company or our circumstance, however we are encouraged by the example of Scripture to engage any human being in the love of Christ Jesus Our Lord.

Furthermore, we can offer these things to one another more readily without falling into sin ourselves if we are keeping up the spiritual disciplines in our own lives! My friend, and brother in Christ, Dr. Don Whitney, has written a most excellent and readable guide for today’s Christian called Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life. It has been a benefit to me and I highly recommend it to all.

May God help us this Christmas and always to remember that Christ is Christmas! And may He assist us in our attempts to aid one another in His Almighty Love!

Gay Marriage Has Another Day in Court

Politics

CA Proposition Eight is in court. This is as good a day as any to reconsider our position on this subject, as the church. For Love is a many-splendored thing, and an often misunderstood thing.

Where do we, as a church, get our definition of Love? It must come from The Great Lover, Himself. Where may He be found? In His Holy Word, in His Holy Spirit which is indwelling the true church, and in His Father- He is found.

By His definition, it appears that to love does not mean to tolerate my sin or the sin of another, nor does it mean to persecute my self or another, because of the sin inherent in self. But, rather Love calls for a new way. He calls for us to willingly and in the Spirit of grace, acknowledge our sin and that of others and to call one another to repentance, a turning away from sin, that we may truly LIVE.

Is it loving, to realize that one is walking directly into the path of a speeding train, and to simply pat that one on the back, as you watch him move steadily toward his physical death, and tell him how amazing he is for having triumphed in finding his own way? Is it loving to watch a child play in the middle of a busy intersection and congratulate yourself for being liberal enough to tolerate his independence?

The mandate from His Holy Word is plain: We, as the true church, are to indiscriminately love all of humanity. But it is obviously past time for us to reconsider what it means to genuinely LOVE.

Related post: Prop 8

Yoga or Human Cloning? How Do I Choose?

Church Culture, Living the Word, Politics, , ,

Yesterday, a couple of things were intriguing enough to inspire me to type. First, a good friend sent me a link to a story on yoga and Christianity, which calls to account a man for whom I have the greatest respect, Dr. Albert Mohler. And so I was off in the direction of spiritual and physical connection- will, intellect, emotion, body- distinct and yet one…

Oops! Suddenly called away from this train of thought as when on my lunch break I am made aware (thanks to a tweet) of Mississippi’s Initiative No. 26 and the highly interesting language used therein: “…from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof.” Awesome! Maybe Dr. Seuss is right- A person is a person no matter how small!

Now what was it that I was thinking over… that I was going to blog over? Oh, yeah! Dr. Mohler’s aggravated assault on yoga… Never mind that, now! What about human cloning?!

Wait just a minute here… Are these two things truly so unrelated? Is anything truly unrelated? Think. Think. Think.

We humans are definitely a combination of will, intellect, emotion, and according to faith- spirit, all housed within and inextricably intertwined with a physical body- until that moment in which the physical body dies… And even should teleportation become possible we would still be simply a collection of physical particles soon to be reassembled (hopefully), in the proper order (again, hopefully). This means that we would still maintain physical property.

And isn’t an embryo, or a newly made fully developed human body, according to Holy Scripture, the physical house of will, intellect, emotion and spirit for someone? Where is the evidence, Scriptural or otherwise to support the theory that the house has to be developed to a certain point before it contains these other elements common to a human? Or that the house must go through a certain order of development to become the house of the man? And we thought abortion was an ethically tough issue to wade through! For our children and our grandchildren: I hope we’ve been thinking on this cloning stuff…

And Dr. Mohler, surely we must admit that yoga does not present a real threat for a True Christian, as he is, according to much Scriptural evidence, currently and for eternity possessed by the Holy Spirit of God and therefore is undergoing a transformation that will not fail- a transformation that will result in His own likeness.

I know that when I practice yoga… okay… I don’t really practice yoga, but I know that if I practiced yoga… I would be terrible at it… but that’s not the point. The point is this: I would not connect in a spiritual sense. It could not possibly be anything but a physical exercise for me, as I belong to One who governs my spirit with His own, and should my will decide to participate in yoga, or whatever- my spirit remains yoked with the Spirit of God. This is the primary reason that I hate my own sin.

Those who participate in yoga without His indwelling presence, those who do not know Him, are risking a spiritual connection, but not to The One True God. They may get connected to something … I mean- have you seen Poltergeist? Wandering around spiritually without Jesus is definitely risky!

But, back to this cloning thing and MS Initiative 26… what is the functional equivalent thereof anyway?

As the church, we need to be ready with some hard Scriptural evidence to support the ethical stance we will take as the church on the primary issue of human cloning and on all of the secondary issues which will flow from it. God has given us everything that we need in His Holy Word and we should be a step or two ahead of the world- not a mile behind it.

The Separation of Church and State, Part 2

Politics, , ,

While listening to Ken Ham, of Answers in Genesis, give his lecture entitled “Why Won’t They Listen?”; I was reminded of Proverb 16:26- The laborer’s appetite works for him; his hunger drives him on. In this case, Ken Ham is hungering and thirsting for righteousness, not only for his own personal righteousness, but for that of many. Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness in a corporate sense? Do we long to free the oppressed? Do we pine for justice for the people?

Since we know from Scripture that authority is a good thing, and we understand that it is the abuse of authority that is a bad thing; we Christ-lovers should seek to fill positions of leadership on this earth, and to propel one another into positions of authority in every arena of this life, with the idea of Christianity dominating this world- though we will not fully succeed until that day. Then, we must surround our fellows in leadership with every form of encouragement!

The system of government presently in place in America, courtesy of our nation’s founding fathers, allows for our involvement in and use of authority. Since we know that we are in possession of The Truth and Real Love, we must certainly and joyfully participate in the governing of both church and state, as well as in the leadership of the arts, the sciences, and all of education; seeking His dominion over all things and using these systems, to the best of our abilities, in the hope of accomplishing truth and justice for all.

We Christians must do our best to participate in the world while not participating in sin, dominate where ever possible, and use the system to accomplish the greater good. This is our privilege.

©2010, L.L. Shelton

The Separation of Church and State, Part 1

Politics, ,

Do we want our state to run our church? Do we want our church to govern our state? I submit to you that without the guaranteed separation of the two, either is possible.

I once thought that a church directed society would be good, but what is church? Is church a building, or a series of edifices, where people worship Christ? Is church an organized gathering of people who profess to believe in the existence of Christ? Is church a group of human beings who believe that Christ Jesus is the Son of The One True God and knowingly submit to His Lordship- to The Living Word of God? Is church a place where, or a group of people who, have something to do with Christ?

The separation of church and state is actually meant to imply the separation of religion and state, and is meant to impede any religion (including those of Secular Humanism and Atheism) from taking over the state, as well as to aid in the prohibition of the state taking over any religion.

The separation of church and state is reportedly first mentioned in a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to a group of Baptists concerned over their religious liberty. History assures us that at the time of Mr. Jefferson’s use of the phrase, Christianity was the only religion openly practiced in this country.

Interestingly, the religion of Christianity is unique in that it was never meant to be another religion separate from the core of a man, but rather ‘The Way of the Followers of Christ Jesus, The Lord of All’: It is meant to be a way of life actually lived. The directions for the way of the followers of Christ are of course contained in The Holy Bible.

I am especially concerned, today, that we, the True Church- The Followers of Christ Jesus, The Lord of All- will be made to submit to the governance of the state should we fail to recognize the importance of our binary state of being. Now, this is not a matter of urgency if the true Christians are permeating the institutions of man, as well as the institutions of God, but if we have failed to maintain our influence through leadership in these institutions, then we must take joy in the establishment of the first amendment to the great constitution of The United States of America, in that we know it protects our right to assemble together and to live out God’s Truth openly and without fear.

Oh, that we might be a country, in which the influence of the True Church is felt in every area- no, not simply felt, but acknowledged as the greater persuasion!

At this present moment, it appears that we have lost much of our influence in the institution of the state, and we must seek to regain it through active participation in our government – local, state, and federal levels. I am so grateful for those followers of The Way of Christ Jesus, The Lord of All, continuing to stay involved in the political arena, as I am for those working in the institution of our military- pledging to protect, to defend, and to honor this great and imperfect nation.

©2010, L.L. Shelton

Gay Marriage Ban Overturned

Politics, ,

Is the effort surrounding California’s Proposition Eight, banning gay marriage, and the fact that CA Proposition Eight has been recently overturned- as well as many other similar efforts concerning gay marriage- necessary? In 1989, Denmark was the first country to recognize civil unions. A civil union or similarly titled act, is one which recognizes the physical unions that the true church will not recognize; because of their failure to meet the standards clearly outlined by God, in The Word of God, which is The Holy Scriptures, the Truth which governs the true church.

Civil unions, and the like, permit these couples to exist in relative peace; being allowed the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness- or whatever are the rights protected by a particular society for its citizens- as  these unions define for them the same political legal rights as are extended to those couples who are recognized as married by the church. These unions also allow those couples, who recognize fully that they do not wish to include a God to which they show no allegiance in their own alliance with one another, to exist as a couple, with political legal rights equal to those afforded legitimately married couples.

At this point in time, the debate encircling California’s Proposition Eight, banning gay marriage, and other similar legislation is centered around the question:  Is marriage an institution which should encompass two consenting adults? Soon, the question may be:  Is marriage an institution which should encompass two human beings? Then:  Is marriage truly an institution that should encompass only two beings? The alarming trend is evident.

It appears that the institution of marriage originates with the Hebrew God, Yahweh, and that the definition of marriage is clearly stated by that God in His Word in the second chapter of Genesis.  The problem then is largely one of semantics.

Let those outside the church, our neighbors, be treated civilly, humanely.  May it be that we, as a church, treat them better than we treat ourselves- loving our neighbors as we love ourselves, as our King has ordered us to do in the twenty-second chapter of Matthew, verses 37-40.  Let us invite our neighbors into our homes and into our gathering places, and there let us love them.   However, let our neighbors not demand the rights of membership in the body, unless they have complied with the standard set forth in our Governing Body of Truth.  Let us not wittingly include (in church membership) those who do not agree with our constitution.

Lastly, if the world at large insists upon commandeering the term ‘marriage’ and its derivatives, maybe we must consider a new term to label and define the unions which we as a church are willing to recognize.