Music Monday: There She Stands by Michael W Smith

September 11, 2001 will be a dark for many in my generation. People lived in fear for weeks and still to this day. Many people in our country did what they could to help the victims of the terror attacks that happened on that day.

Many singers have written songs about that day and one of them was Michael W Smith, who was asked by President George W Bush to write one. The song Smith has written is called, "There She Stands." I normally don't do patriotic songs on Music Monday, but with it being 9/11, I willing to make an exception.

As The Supreme Court Hearings Begin...

Today is the day that the Supreme Court is beginning deliberations over whether or not legalize same-sex marriage in the United States. Some feel it will happen while others are optimistic that is won't. According to reports that I have heard, the court will not make a decision until this summer which is similar to what they did last year in with Hobby Lobby.

As the hearing begins, I invite everyone to pray for the Supreme Court during this time. Also pray for America as well as the church. As we wait for the final decision, he are a few posts you might want to take a look at:

9 Things You Should Know About Same-Sex Marriage by Joe Carter

Why Not Gay Marriage? by Kevin DeYoung

In Defense of Marriage, the Rule of Law, and Ordered Liberty by Albert Mohler

Here's Hoping the Supreme Court Will Handle Same-Sex Marriage Like Other Nations by Trevin Wax

God's Kingdom Is Everlasting

I am pretty sure you have heard by now that the U.S. Government has officially shut down due not coming to an agreement on funding itself and the Affordable Care Act a.k.a. Obamacare. It is sad because you see two political parties not willing to work with each other and there going to be some people not being able to work because they work for government agencies that will close due to the shut down. Our city is home to Shepherd Air Force Base that has over 12,000 employees and a great majority of them will not get paid because of the shut down. Thankfully, they did agree to pay the military in case the shut down did happen, which it did.

If there is one thing that we need to be remembered, as Christians living in America, is that God's kingdom does not shut down. There are no two sides going against each other for funding or derailing a policy. God's kingdom is an eternal kingdom that has no elections every four years to see who will be running it. Psalm 145:13 says, "Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures throughout all generations." This is good news for all Americans that our prayers will continue to be heard. God will still be in the business of saving people. Churches will still preach the gospel. God's kingdom does not stop because one government is not working. This shut down should help us cry, "Come Lord Jesus!!!" because His kingdom is perfect. He runs it.

Independence Day and Christianity

Happy Independence Day America! I hope everyone has a great day filled with fireworks, hot dogs, or whatever you have planned for today. For many Christians, they celebrate the Fourth of July as a sacred holiday while others wonder why should we even celebrate this day because our true citizenship is in heaven (see Philippians 3:20).

So, is there anything wrong with being a Christian who loves their country. I do not believe there is anything wrong with being a patriot. Nehemiah was grieved that the wall of Jerusalem was destroyed. The disciples wanted to know if Jesus was going to restore the kingdom to Israel. However, we do not need to be mean-spirited to those we do not agree with nor do we need to celebrate our patriotism more than our freedom we have in Christ.

The Resurgence talks about being a Christian and a patriot that fits really well with today's celebration of Independence Day:

As Christians, we have much to learn about engaging the democratic process in love. Many Christians have been violent, mean-spirited, and downright nasty toward those with whom we disagree with morally and politically (the same people that God sent his Son to die for, people with whom he has called us to share the gospel with). But if our political engagement is carried out in a way that does not reflect the love of God as expressed in Jesus Christ, then we run the risk of damaging the bridge between Christians and non-Christians.

ARE WE GUIDED BY LOVE FOR GOD AND OUR NEIGHBORS?

Researchers David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons did not surprise many when they found that “Christians do not respect leaders whose political viewpoint is different from their own.” Their research paints an uncomfortable picture of the way Christians are perceived by many people who feel that Christians are more influenced by radio talk show hosts than Jesus and the Scriptures.

As Christians, we have to remember that politics do not supersede God, nor replace our confession of faith and life in Jesus Christ. Discussions about political matters do not mean that our involvement and manner of conduct is compartmentalized from our faith. Regardless of someone’s political affiliation, we are commanded to love and pray for our leaders—not for their death and eternal damnation, but for their wellbeing, so that we may lead a peaceful life. It is this attitude and behavior that is good and pleasing to God (1 Tim. 2:1–3).

Even though we may disagree with others (and each other) on a host of political issues, these disagreements do not give us the right to disrespect, degrade, or debase those with whom we disagree.

Read the rest here

Also check out: Born Again on the Fourth of July

Video Sermon: Christian and American by Darrin Patrick

This is probably one of the best sermons I have heard on Christians praying for governing officials and putting Jesus where He belongs in our worship. The text that Darrin Patrick preaches from is a familiar one when it comes to praying for politicians:

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth (1 Timothy 2:1-7).

Should The Church in America Display the American Flag?

Today is Flag Day in the United States. Today is the day our country remembers the U.S. flag being adopted as our flag in 1777. The American flag has been displayed in various places throughout our land which includes schools, banks, the Post Office, and even a few restaurants.

Some churches have the flag displayed on a pole outside their building, but a great majority of them has them displayed in their worship centers on the opposite side of the Christian flag. During Vacation Bible School (VBS), the first pledge that is normally spoken in a large assembly (depending on how the church does it) is the pledge to the U.S. flag.

Last year in Christianity Today, there was a debate between Douglas Wilson, Lisa Velthouse, and Russell D. Moore about should the American flag be displayed in the church sanctuary (or as I prefer to call our gathering place, the worship center). Each one gives their opinion on the matter respectfully and honestly.

Douglas Wilson:

A Christian church has absolutely no business displaying a national flag in the sanctuary, at least not as it is commonly done. The church born at Pentecost was a reversal of Babel, not a doubling down on the fragmentation of Babel.

Our churches should not place any unnecessary barriers to the worship of visiting Koreans, Russians, or Portuguese. We already must deal with natural and providential barriers, such as differences in language. In Christ there is neither Jew nor Gentile (Gal. 3:28). I wouldn't want to worship in a sanctuary with a Scythian flag up front (Col. 3:11), and the Golden Rule requires that we not do to the visiting Scythians what we didn't very much like when they did it to us.

The New Testament is all about this principle. Where customs interfere with transnational fellowship, those customs must give way (Acts 15:29).

Of course, I do want to note that this should be taken as a general principled stand, which is not the same as a perfectionistic one. I am not interested in applying any strictures to churches that are renting space in American Legion halls or in high school gyms, where a flag would already be displayed in the ordinary course of things. I am simply arguing that the flag up front should not be part of how the church as the church arranges things. When we in the church have a decision to make, we shouldn't decide in favor of displaying national flags.

If the church places an American flag in the front of the sanctuary, this becomes part of our sacred architecture, and therefore says something. It becomes a shaping influence.

Important questions should come immediately to mind: What is this saying? And is it scriptural? It should not be too much to ask for some kind of scriptural agreement with what we are saying before we say it. Placing a flag in a sanctuary has many possible implications. It could convey the idea that we claim some sort of "favored nation" status. It could imply we believe that the claims of Caesar extend into every space, including sacred spaces. It could imply that our version of Christianity is similar to some kind of syncretistic "God and country" religion, where patriotism and religion are one and the same.

It is unlikely that we as Christians would display another country's flag, such as the flag of communist China, in a sanctuary. So we should seek to be consistent in our choices. One last caution is in order: Many don't like the national flag in the sanctuary because they have no natural affection for it anywhere. But being a Christian doesn't mean we should hate our home country, just that we should know how to rightly order our allegiances. This is why, in my ideal scenario, the elders who vote in session to remove the American flag from the sanctuary should all have that same flag on their pickup trucks, right next to the gun rack.

Lisa Velthouse:

In recent years, I have become one of those people who can get choked up at the sight of a rising American flag. Hats with "Veteran" stitched across the front and yellow-ribbon magnets can have a similar effect. I am neither a nationalistic person nor an especially patriotic one, but I have two years under my belt as a military wife. Those two years have caused me to see different things now when face to face with our country's symbols. I see many reasons to display our flag proudly.

The most common argument I hear for not hanging flags in churches is that flags fly over armies at war, and that under God's rule war will not be necessary. We will beat our swords into plowshares. Peace will be our banner.

Yes. But a flag is not war and war is not a flag. A flag is a symbol, and symbols are strong. The range of ideas and realities represented by a single symbol can be vast and broad. If we are going to say that a flag calls to mind terrible things, we must be willing to accept that a flag can call to mind greatness too.

It is no small thing, for instance, when a man or woman commits to serve in the United States military. It is a powerfully real idea, not a cliché, when you realize that someone—a real person—would be willing to pay what is often called the ultimate price.
Less than a week before I sat down to write this, a man my husband had served with was killed in combat, and several others from their company were seriously wounded. The rest of us do not have to bear the costs those men paid because they volunteered to pay them on our behalf. Every day they went to work knowing the risks.

In the military, such sacrifice is so common that at times it almost ceases to seem extraordinary. But it has echoes and glimmers of what is most incredible in Christian faith: that one would willingly lay down his life for his friends. Greater love has none than this, and even the extreme pacifist doesn't scorn it. This is one of the reasons why our flag is not out of place in a church.

There is the risk that some will confuse this perspective with the belief that America is Christianity and vice versa. But putting the flag in our local church does not mean we have made religion bow to nation. The symbol cannot be blamed. A flag on its own cannot display a community's full point of view; it is up to the community to do that. Different local church bodies will hold differing views and will mean different things when they hang or keep from hanging flags. Their positions on what that symbol represents, however, will be clearly evident no matter what they choose.

Russell Moore:

Every so often I hear of a pastor embroiled in controversy over his removing the American flag from the church sanctuary. The most memorable incident to me was the pastor who simply secreted the flag away in the middle of a Saturday night, as though the flock wouldn't notice the next morning. But, by dawn's early light, they saw the flag was not there. And that's when the metaphorical bombs started bursting in air.

I agree with the impulse behind such a pastor's concern. The church, after all, isn't an outpost of American society but instead a colony of the kingdom of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23; Phil. 3:20). Christian worship isn't a routine act of mere civil society, like a parent-teacher association meeting or a union gathering, but instead a gate between the covenant body and the larger gathering of the redeemed of all ages in heaven (Heb. 12:22-24). Your church is a "satellite campus" of the Mount Zion sanctuary, and the vast majority of worshipers at that sanctuary are not, and never were, American citizens.

The flag can be a perilous thing in an American evangelical subculture so infected with civil religion. Sometimes patriotism for the United States seems easier than patriotism for the New Jerusalem because it's so experientially immediate. This doesn't mean that we should treat Old Glory like an Asherah pole. Patriotism is dangerous, yes, but that's because it's a strong natural affection that's rooted in something good and right. When rightly applied, patriotism is akin to what God commands us to do in showing honor to our father and mother.

When we honor our country, we are recognizing that we are not self-made or self-situated. We are here, placed by God in a particular plot of land because of the sacrifices of forefathers and foremothers we haven't known. We have a responsibility to our neighbors of all faiths for the generations to come. Patriotism can become idolatrous, sure. So can family affection. But the gospel doesn't evaporate family love. It just re-narrates it, and situates it in a right context, in which we seek first the kingdom of God.

The same is true for the flag. Removing a flag doesn't remove the tendency to idolatry or triumphalism; it just leaves such things unaddressed and untroubled. If a congregation already has a flag in the sanctuary, the first step might be for the pastor to use it as an object lesson in a right-ordered patriotism.

The flag can prompt the church to pray for and honor leaders. The flag can prompt us to remember that national identity is important but transitory. There will come a day when Old Glory yields to an older glory, when the new republic succumbs to a new creation. Until then, let's reorder all our affections, including our flag-waving. But let's do so maintaining the paradoxical tension of "resident aliens." There is no need to play "Rapture the Flag."

Source: Should Churches Display the American Flag in Their Sanctuaries?