Here we are once again in the political silly season. And you know, it’s a hard time for Christians to keep our hats on straight. And there’s no time that’s more important that we do keep our hats on straight because our’s is a government of the people and by the people. And, since we Christians fall in that broad category called the people, we are responsible before God for what this government does.

Now, what do I mean when I say it’s hard for us to keep our hats on straight? Well, there are two broad categories of Christians at large in the world. (Listen to this carefully now.) There are Christians who read the Bible regularly and there are Christians who don’t. Now I can throw the numbers at you, but you know I’m right on that. About a third of Christians read something from the Bible at least once a week. About a third reads something from the Bible once a year or less. The other third, well, they’re somewhere in between.

Now, I don’t’ have any statistics, but my reading suggests that in the eighteenth century those numbers were very different from what they are today. For one thing, in the seventeen hundreds, books were a lot more scarce than they are now. They were expensive. Many families may have only had one book in the house and it was—guess what—the Bible. Many people learned to read from the Bible. Books were expensive; books were rare. And while the founders of our country were careful not to establish any religion for very good reasons, they were all biblically literate and they governed the people who were biblically literate. So when Thomas Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, he didn’t speak of this or that God; he spoke of the Creator. That was a good thing. What our founders and presidents personally believed was not important. That they publicly acknowledged the Creator as the guarantee of the rights of man, now that was very important. So, where did the idea germinate that this is, or was back then, a Christian nation?

Well, it was because people read the Bible and their lifestyle and their human relations were influenced by the Bible, if not governed by it. Now mind you, I’m not talking about reading the Bible and then trying to preach it to your neighbor. I’m talking about living a life influenced by the Bible which, in turn, influences the people with whom you come into contact. The influence of the Bible on early American society was indirect, but pervasive. And the influence of Christian conduct on society was powerful. Not in any authoritative structure. No Christian wants a theocracy, but in the structure of example, persuasion and influence. Whether we like it or not, the strongest influence on the moral fiber of this young nation was the Bible. Let's look at how Jesus said it in Matthew, chapter 13.

You aren’t under any stress, are you? The funny thing about that question is that most people will answer that question with something like, No. Not really. But, in reality, far too many people are suffering from things like anxiety, high blood pressure, insomnia, depression, chronic fatigue, and an array of stress-related conditions.

How did we get here? Why are we being eating up with these illnesses? The answer could be that we work hard. In fact, the problem is that we think we have to work harder than God.

But God actually gave us a tool to deal with stress. But it is all too often ignored. What is it? Turn to chapter 2 of Genesis and we’ll take a look.

Referenced Works:

• From Sabbath to Sunday: A Historical Investigation of the Rise of Sunday Observance in Early Christianity by Samuele Bacchiocchi

I honestly don’t know what people expect in terms of a prophet. I don’t think many people even know where to look for one. You certainly would be making a mistake if you looked for one in a pulpit of a church or speaking in a stadium in front of 60,000 people. You aren’t likely to find a real prophet in those environments.

One ancient prophet, for example was a sheep-herder and a fruit-picker before God spoke to him. And he seems to have been a reluctant prophet, at that. He wasn’t schooled, trained or taught. On one occasion, when he had delivered an unpleasant prophecy concerning Israel, he was told to knock it off, go home, and shut up.

We’ll find his reply, as well as a most interesting principle regarding how God chooses to reveal his secrets to man, in the Book of Amos.

Would you agree that Jesus was a good man? I doubt that we could find anyone who would argue to the contrary. Would you then agree that Jesus was a righteous man? I am reasonably sure you would. But what exactly does that mean?

I have asked the question: If you only had a short time to tell someone about God, what would you want to be sure and tell them. Each of us might have our own list, but God gave us his in Jeremiah 9. [T]hat they have the understanding to know me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight[.]

The last thing on God’s list of things he wants us to know and understand about him is that he exercises righteousness in the earth. And since Jesus is God in the flesh, we would surely expect him to be an example of righteousness. But again, I have to ask, what does that mean?

If you sit down to read the Old Testament, you’re very likely to come across some events that are profoundly disturbing. There are instances where God commands Israel to wipe out whole cities—men, women, children, and animals. And it is not easy to reconcile these events with what we otherwise know about the nature of God.

People make two big mistakes when they tackle this issue. They try to justify God or they condemn God for allowing bad things to happen. As to the first error, God is sovereign and can do as he wishes. My task is not to justify God, but to understand and know him. As to the second error, this arises from the human desire to have our cake and eat it too. We want to be free to live our lives as we choose without anything bad happening to us.

But the freedom to live our lives as we choose means that we each have the freedom to harm one another—which we often do. The presence of evil in the world is relatively easy to understand. Man is free. Man commits sin. When we commit sin, bad things happen. And if God is just, then he cannot let evil deeds go unpunished. What can we know of God’s sense of judgment and justice?