Well, the people have spoken , and now know who our president will be come January. We will have to wait to find out whether Donald Trump’s election to a second time is God’s sovereign blessing, judgment, or something else.
There are, however, a couple of conclusions that are clear.
While the Democrats and Republicans differ on which social and political issues are more important to each, money is most important to both. The evidence is strong that those Democrats and Independents who voted for Donald Trump did so because of the economy.
Jesus was obviously right–He’s always right by the way–when he said that where one’s treasure is, there his heart will be also. That applies equally to one’s vote when that treasure is money.
It is becoming clear the defining moral issue of the younger generation is sexual identity. It is also clear that Evangelicals are finding themselves increasingly marginalized on this issue. Their resistance is equated with intolerance, and their opinions are increasingly reserved for hushed conversations with other Evangelicals.
The reality is there is common ground for conversation, though I doubt either side recognizes it. That common ground is found when one recognizes that even most in the LGBTQ community believe pederasty, pedophilia, and bestiality are wrong. In other words, like Evangelicals, the LGBTQ community believes there should be limits on sexuality.
The difference between the two is a disagreement over where to draw the line. Thus, for the LGBTQ community to insist that only they could be right about where to draw that line makes them as intolerant as they accuse Evangelicals of being.
This year is the 100th anniversary of Eric Liddell’s 1924 gold medal performance in the Paris Olympics, later memorialized in the 1981 Academy Award winning movie, Chariots of Fire.
There are a number of memorable lines in the movie but none better than when Liddell is explaining to his sister why he must temporarily put off the mission field to participate in the olympics:
God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.
Chariots of Fire (1981)
The thing is, apparently Eric Liddell never said this. These are the words of screenwriter Colin Welland. There’s not much about Welland’s religious beliefs on the internet. He was married though for 53 years before his death from Alzheimers, which is a good indication of something more at his core than secular humanism.
Still, I believe the line above was truly inspired by the Holy Spirit. It captures better than just about any single statement I have heard two components of God-inspired work.
The first is the teleological component: “God made me fast.” It’s unstated implication is inescapable: “Therefore He made me to run.” It was the implicit argument in what Liddell (fictionally) says to his sister in Chariots of Fire to explain why he should run, and it is a sound one.
Walls – “some of the best evidence we live in a fallen world.”
After another delayed flight and misplaced piece of luggage, we arrived home in the dark early morning hours. We were tired but, as always, glad to be home. That the trip home included airline logistical problems added a strange symmetry to our journey, but perhaps it was fitting.
We don’t always know what themes will develop on our journeys, even when they are planned around certain historical figures or events, and this one was no different. In retrospect it is clear this one was about evangelism and walls.
The historical figures we came across each day were like a dream team of disciple-makers: Patrick, Columba, Maughold, Aiden, and Cuthbert. King Jesus used Patrick to remake Ireland into Kingdom-territory, and then He did the same with Maghhold on the Isle of Man, Columba in Scotland, and Aiden and Cuthbert in Northeastern England.
Studying these Kingdom heroes seemed to inspire our group, as when Ann spoke to our taxi driver in Dublin about the Lord, and The Wife and I shared about the Lord with our taxi driver on the Isle of Man.
And then there were the walls. The first walls we saw were those in Londonderry, built in the early seventeenth century but becoming even more iconic during The Troubles of 1968-1972.
The most famous wall was Hadrian’s. As I mentioned in a post, walls are some of the best evidence we live in a fallen world. Walls are designed to keep people separated from one another. Emperor Hadrian built his wall in 122 A.D. after giving up on defeating the vicious pagan Picts in what is now Scotland.
Fittingly, Hadrian’s wall has been all but dismantled now, not just through the pillaging of people but through the presence of the gospel. The Romans could not tame the Picts so they built a wall. Columba introduced them to the gospel and there was no longer a need for a wall.
