A Cautionary Tale About Hearts

A blasphemous idea has been floated in support of Trump.  We are told that the David of the Bible was "a man after God's own Heart" - despite the fact that David was an adulterer, having had sex with a married woman.  Worse, David tried to cover it up.  Even worse, far worse, he arranged to have the woman's husband killed.  Since that's the case, they say, then Trump is also (holding back a gag reflex here) "a man after God's own Heart".

They neglect a very important fact.  Being "after God's own heart" doesn't mean David was like God, or that a little adultery didn't mean anything.  Consider the following verses - first, the "Heart" concept about David that is inappropriately applied to Trump:

"Acts 13:22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfill all my will."

I take this to mean that being a man after God's own heart is linked with the desire (which David certainly had) to fulfill all God's will.

However, David was a man - and although he desired to always do God's will - he failed miserably - and visibly - at least once. Consider these verses:

"1 Kings 15:5 For David had done what was right in the eyes of the Lord and had not failed to keep any of the Lord’s commands all the days of his life—except in the case of Uriah the Hittite."

Because of that, God was very displeased.  He sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this:

"2 Samuel 12;10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.

2 Samuel 12;14 "But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.”

I think it should be clear by now that we should not celebrate that we have a President who is a serial adulterer. David's heart's desire was to obey all the commandments of the Lord, but being a man, he failed once - miserably - in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.  The punishment was severe.  Don't dare to equate God's heart with that of an adulterer - or to equate David's heart with the heart of our President.  Be warned.  It is blasphemy. 

God is the same now, and forever. Think about it

We Must Bring Ourselves Together as a Family

In yesterday's post I told a little story of a very nice man who my wife and I met, spoke with briefly, and liked very much.  He turned our short conversation quickly to politics, and we were surprised at some of his strongly held beliefs.  He denied Russian Hacking, fully supported Trump's Trade War and Tax Reform. It was clear that he was a Republican.  A very nice one.

My wife and I are Democrats, who love our country and want us to be unified through dialogue, mutual give and take.  Our goal is to have justice and respect for every person.  Our approach to life is founded on a desire to live as the New Testament church did - sharing our resources to care for the poor, helpless, homeless, sick and infirm.  We believe there are many who are in need who do their best, but are not able to care for themselves.  It is not a duty, but a privilege to be able to help them, if only just a little.

Our conversation with our new friend of yesterday was too brief for us to attempt to find a middle ground - and it would have been a challenge to do so - but I had a strong desire to continue our dialogue and to understand him better - not to change his mind, but to know him better.

Last night I kept pondering the fact that this kind, friendly, very intelligent man had strongly held beliefs so contrary to our own.  I think at this time it is harder and harder to get to the bedrock truth on issues - an essential for making right choices.  With doubt cast on the veracity of the press, the media, and almost anything that is written or said, it is more and more a matter of each person 'believing what they want to believe'. 

An article I read today contains some poll results that are indicative of how deep and wide our divisions are: 

"…Take race and ethnicity. In 2016, nearly 75 percent of Clinton supporters said our growing diversity made America better; fewer than half of Trump supporters agreed.

Or immigration. More than 80 percent of Democrats view it positively; the 42 percent of Republicans who agree are slightly outnumbered by those who feel immigrants ― legal or otherwise ― burden America.

Or feminism and gender. Recent polls inspired by the Me Too movement show that a strong majority of Democrats consider sexual harassment a serious problem, but fewer than half of Republicans agree.
 
Or guns. Far more Republicans than Democrats consider gun ownership to be an essential element of freedom. Of all our societal debates, none breeds more anger, fear and paranoia."

Richard North Patterson (Huffington Post, 3/23/2018) "Exploiting America’s Tribal Warfare Is Donald Trump’s Survival Strategy" is the source for the poll data.

So there you are.  Strongly held beliefs that divide us as a country.  The Bible says that a "House divided against itself cannot stand." 

Please work for unity.  If you're a Republican, try to think of me - not as the enemy- but as a nice person, that likes you and wants all your concerns to be intelligently addressed and met. 

If you're a Democrat, try to think of the Republicans that the media tells you to "fight" with, as nice people that you can work with, talk with and come to a mutual understanding with.  

 Let's stop fighting and start working together for common solutions as a human family -  full of friendly dialogue, reasonable compromises and equal and fair treatment of everyone's needs and concerns.  We are all sisters and brothers.

We Make a New Friend

Yesterday at the doctor's office, we waited for a relative to return from his appointment.  We waited in the foyer, sitting on a couch and enjoying the fresh Spring air that gushed in with the coming and going of each person, as the glass doors opened and shut.

A big man with a beautiful large service dog entered, slowly walking by.  The dog's bright, intelligent eyes glanced at me and I said, "Hi, Pooch" as our eyes met.  The dog seemed to dance for a few steps, looked directly into my eyes and bobbed it's head up and down just enough to acknowledge me.  I felt like I'd said hello to a person.

"That's a beautiful dog", I told my wife.  She agreed.

The man went into the pharmacy and we were still waiting for our relative when he returned on his way out.  "What a beautiful dog!",  I said to him as he went past.

He stopped and told us, "Yes, she's a very rare breed of St. Bernard with three short layers of hair and unusual markings - as you can see, white with large brown spots."

I said, "She looks very intelligent, caring and sensitive".   He paused for a moment, looking at me carefully and replied, "Yes, she is.  Her name is Maritta".  Then he sat down next to us and we struck up a conversation.   Perhaps we was a little lonely.   His wife had died a few years earlier.

I decided to brag about an especially smart cat we once had named Scampy, that had trained us to let him eat at the table with us.  We would cut up Scampy's meat the same as I cut them for my wife - little small pieces.  He had his own plate, jumped up onto his own chair, sat down and ate like a gentleman - extending just one claw from what would be the little finger of our right hand, and using it like a fork.  He would jab one piece of meat a a time, lift it to his mouth and eat it, just as we ate our meat with a fork.  Every now and then he would utter a pleasant "Meworrrowwwrr" sound, which we took to mean he liked it.

Our new friend laughed out loud, and said, "Maritta thinks she is a person, too", and pulled out his phone with some pictures of Maritta sitting on a stuffed chair (she filled it, and sat in a very human-like manner-with her head held up high and with her front paws extending all the way down to the floor like our legs would).

A lady walking by on her way out, stopped and looked at Maritta saying, "That's a beautiful dog.  I would like to have one like that."

Our new friend said, "If you have $100,000 dollars, you can buy one.  They're pretty rare."  It was clear he wasn't joking.  The lady lifted her eyebrows, paused, then turned and left.

It was a delightful conversation and we had made a new (and most likely very affluent) friend.  But then he turned the conversation to politics, and shocked us when he started praising the Trump administration and how their tax reforms had caused the Chinese to have their solar panels manufactured here in the United States instead of China, and how that had "created new jobs".

Then he went on, revealing that he had been an electrical engineer working on the electrical grid control systems and assured us that they were invulnerable to hacking, and we had no fear of the Russians attacking our grid.  He ended by saying that the notions that the Russians had hacked the DNC for Hillary's email was all  just propaganda, and that it had been an "inside job".

I didn't argue.  It would be the simplest way for Hillary's emails to be taken, but it required discounting all the reports, facts and hard data that our own Cyber Security forces had gathered showing that the Russians had definitely invaded the DNC network.

Instead, I pointed out that every country, including our own, did Cyber Hacking of other countries in conjunction with their Cyber Security efforts.  It was just a fact of life in our technological internet connected world.  He agreed.

The conversation faltered at that point and the relative that we were waiting for came out to join us, so we shook hands with our new friend and parted on friendly terms.  The dog, Maritta, bobbed her head up and down in a friendly manner, saying "Goodbye" as we left.  He was a very nice, intelligent, likeable and friendly man with a very special dog - and my wife and I both liked him.

Every day I get emails from organizations or causes that I support that are loaded with "Fight" talk, loaded with Fear and Anger over the direction of our country.  It becomes personalized, "Us" (the Democrats) vs. "Them" (the Republicans).  My wife and I remembered the scripture in the New Testament where Paul states "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

That very likeable, nice and intelligent man with the special dog is a good example of why we must recognize that we are not fighting against people, like our new friend, but against the activities of the spiritual wickedness sponsored and directed by the Devil of the Bible.

The Devil wins if we make the fight for the poor, the disabled and the helpless a fight against other people.  He loses if we love our neighbors who disagree with how we vote, and simply pray for us all to work together as brothers and sisters - who may often disagree, but never fail to love one another.

Let's fight to win by loving (or at least liking) those who disagree with us, and fight mutually with them - not against them - for "liberty and justice" for all.