Cornerstone

September 11, 2016September 11, 2016 Susan Irene Fox Susan Irene Fox 9/11, Christian poetry, enemy, fallen heroes, foundation, God, Lord, memorial, remember

chief-cornerstone

In giving honor today,

For all who are fallen –

In remembering who are our heroes

And who is our enemy –

In giving honor today,

To the One who fell;

The same One who has risen

And remembering who the real enemy is

Let us give thanks

To all those who embody Him

Who stood and stand tall

And transmit His light and grace

Those who are bold and courageous enough

To fight when fighting is appropriate

To be living sacrifices

To never hate and always love

To those who raise His standard

And rush in to be His hands and feet

Lay their bodies and hearts on the line

Thank you.

"Tribute in Light" memorial — “Tribute in Light” memorial

This is what the Almighty Lord says:

I am going to lay a rock in Zion,
a rock that has been tested,
a precious cornerstone,
a solid foundation.
Whoever believes in him need never be shaken.” (Isaiah 28:16)

Then Jesus asked them, “Didn’t you ever read this in the Scriptures?

‘The stone that the builders rejected
has now become the cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing,
and it is wonderful to see.’ (Psalm 118:22-23)

I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation that will produce the proper fruit.” (Matthew 21:42-43)

Thank you to John Lewis at Not For Punks for the inspiration for this poem.

Voting

June 7, 2016 Susan Irene Fox Susan Irene Fox Christianity, doctrine, Father, God, Gospel, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Lord, Love, peace, Son, unity

Theology2 I live in the U.S. in the State of California and I voted this morning.

Did my Christian world view influence the way I voted? Sure. How could it not. I’m also a 65-year-old woman. That also influenced the way I voted. So did the sum total of my life experience.

So now I await the results, along with the residents of this state, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota and South Dakota. The final primary is next week when the District of Columbia votes.

Of course, these are only the primaries. The general election date is November 8^th.

And every presidential election year I pray. I began praying back in April last year.

“This prayer is also for all the believers who will follow [these disciples] and hear them speak. Father, may they all be one as You are in Me and I am in You; may they be in Us, for by this unity the world will believe that You sent Me.

“All the glory You have given to Me, I pass on to them. May that glory unify them and make them one as We are one, I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.” (John 17:20-23)

Why do we allow The Enemy to throw us into disunion over anger or litmus tests?

How many give The Enemy a foothold by ranting on Facebook, “liking” or retweeting a negative comment, telling or passing along a sarcastic political joke, or refusing or forgetting to pray for those in office?

How many choose to protest with fists and angry words? Applaud the arrogant and proud rather than humble and courteous? How many prefer those who can shout the loudest rather than those who listen and work for peace and unity? (Matthew 5:3-9)

How many, if the person you vote for is not elected, are already determined to pass along your anger to others, to become bitter and cynical, to refuse any attempt at peacemaking or unity?

“You’re familiar with the command to the ancients, ‘Do not murder.’ I’m telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother ‘idiot!’ and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell ‘stupid!’ at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill.” (Matthew 5:21-22 The Message)

Why is unity so difficult for those of us who call ourselves Christians? Why do we make life difficult for each other, disown each other and tell each other we’re going to hell if we disagree doctrinally Theology3 with each other? Do you know how many different theological doctrines exist? The images shown are from the table of contents from only one book* – 323 pages of seventeen different doctrines and 2-4 different sides of each of those doctrines. Doctrine is merely man-made and though it may be based on Scripture, it is still widely interpreted.

Jesus did not pray for us to be one with doctrine. He prayed for us to be one with Him and with the Father.

The Holy Spirit is in us in order to accomplish this oneness. If we ignore the Spirit of God and instead worship doctrine or agendas or a person running for office, aren’t we guilty of idolatry? Haven’t we walked away from our First Love? If we have, we must turn back, and remember what the Gospel is truly about. (Revelation 2:4-5)

Dear Lord,

May You hear again this faithful refrain of the words Jesus prayed: may we be as one as You and Your Son and the Spirit are as one; may we all be as one in You as You are in us. In that oneness, may be treat each other with love, grace and dignity, and in that unity show the world who You are in us.

May we remember this today and every day throughout the rest of this year. May we pray for all our leaders, whoever they are, that they would seek to lead justly and compassionately, and that they would seek to be peacemakers and unifiers. Amen

*Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology by Gregory A. Boyd and Paul R. Eddy, © 2009, Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI

Learning the Verses of Bird Song

February 21, 2016February 18, 2016 Susan Irene Fox Susan Irene Fox birds, Christian poetry, God, harmony, hymn, Jesus, Lord, Love, love song

You carry your love song to me

Through the verses of the day’s bird song

As I learn to hear your sweet voice

I’m carried by you all day long

If flitting on some finespun fronds

Or balancing on highest limb

Your voice arrives in known refrain

Ethereal and graceful hymn

Ah, robin, wren or nightingale

At sunrise or sundown you greet

This concert strums my strings of heart

And calms me with enchanting tweets

Your harmony restores my soul

The gentle notes speak of your grace

This feathered melody lays soft

The tender fleece of your embrace.

My heart is full, my peace complete

In this life only partly known

But summon me and I will hear

The love song from your voice intoned

For the Lord your God is living among you.
He is a mighty savior.
He will take delight in you with gladness.
With his love, he will calm all your fears.
He will rejoice over you with joyful songs.

Zephaniah 3:17

Thanks to John Blasé at the beautiful due for the inspiration for this poem.

Kitchen Table Conversation: Justice

February 10, 2016February 8, 2016 Susan Irene Fox Susan Irene Fox Christianity, exploited, foreigners, forgiveness, God, grace, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Lord, Love, orphans, prayer, widows

What is justice

And what it isn’t

“Here is My Servant whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in whom I take great delight. I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will proclaim justice to the nations.” Matthew 12:18 (Isaiah 42:1-2)

According to Dictionary.com:

Justice: the quality of being just

Just: guided by truth, reason and impartiality

Justice has nothing to do with punishment. It has nothing to do with anger or revenge.

Oh – to the world it means punishment. To the world it means anger and revenge. But aren’t we supposed to be different than the world? In it, but not of it?

So what does that mean, and what did Jesus say about justice?

Woe to you, experts in the law and you Pharisees, hypocrites! You give a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, yet you neglect the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faithfulness! You should have done these things without neglecting the others. (Matthew 23:23 emphasis mine)

Jesus talked about why an ‘eye for an eye,’ and ‘hate your enemy,’ doesn’t work if you are born again. (Matthew 5:38-39; Matthew 5:43-44) He told us why punishment doesn’t work if you are born again. (Matthew 9:13)

Jesus didn’t make up these concepts out of thin air. He was correctly interpreting God’s Word for his followers and the teachers of religious law. He let them know the way they had been interpreting the Word of God for all those years had been wrong; they had used God Word to shame, exclude and punish people instead of grant grace and mercy.

Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land. The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. (Leviticus 19:33-34, emphasis mine)

When Christians show bias toward groups of people, point fingers at them, accuse them of being evil, tell them they are going to hell, we can no longer rationalize this behavior as just and right. This behavior is not guided by truth, reason and impartiality. This behavior is not led by the Holy Spirit. This behavior does not lead people toward Jesus.

Learn to do what is right.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows. (Isaiah 1:17)

He will give justice to the poor
and make fair decisions for the exploited. (Isaiah 11:4)

The Lord longs to be gracious and merciful to you.
He rises to have compassion on you.
The Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all those who long for him. (Isaiah 30:18)

Our denomination doesn’t matter; our political affiliation doesn’t matter. Our accomplishments don’t matter. To truly show justice, we must surrender our own wants, our own agendas, our own rights to God’s. We must pray to make His desires our desires.

We must open our hearts and minds to receive His unceasing gift of unconditional love, scandalous grace and outrageous forgiveness. Until we allow ourselves to accept His unrelenting and lavish love, grace and forgiveness, we are unprepared to give away the overflow to those around us.

It is in the giving away of love, grace and forgiveness we show justice. It is in the unbiased, compassionate offering of love, grace and forgiveness we allow ourselves to be guided by truth, reason and impartiality. It is as we bestow love, grace and forgiveness, no matter who the recipient, we begin to see the beneficiary through the eyes of Jesus.

Rethinking Conspiracy Theories

December 1, 2015November 29, 2015 Susan Irene Fox Susan Irene Fox Caesar, choice, Christianity, holocaust, immigrants, Japanese internment camps, Jesus, Jewish, Lord, Pharisees, Syrian refugees, terrorist

Have we become a society of judgment and rejection? Do we enjoy seeing others on the chopping block of elimination or exclusion? Do we thrill at the prospect of someone being delivered the harsh reality of an extinguished torch?

Are we now translating that recreational tour de force into real world execution through wholesale rejection of anyone who wants to cross our borders because “they” might be terrorists?

“Do not say, ‘Conspiracy,’ every time these people say the word. Don’t be afraid of what scares them; don’t be terrified. You must recognize the authority of the Lord who commands armies. He is the one you must respect; He is the one you must fear.” Isaiah 8:12-13

When will we learn from our own history?

During WWII, we rejected Jewish emigrants escaping the Nazi holocaust while placing our own citizens of Japanese descent in “internment” camps, incarcerating them for up to four years and destroying their lives in the process.

World War II prompted the largest displacement of human beings the world has ever seen—although today’s refugee crisis is starting to approach its unprecedented scale. But even with millions of European Jews displaced from their homes, the United States had a poor track record offering asylum. Most notoriously, in June 1939, the German ocean liner St. Louis and its 937 passengers, almost all Jewish, were turned away from the port of Miami, forcing the ship to return to Europe; more than a quarter died in the Holocaust…Government officials argued that refugees posed a serious threat to national security. Yet today, historians believe the concern about refugee spies was blown far out of proportion. Daniel A. Gross, Smithsonian.com, November 18, 2015 (emphasis mine).

As Christians, we can use all the excuses and rationalizations we want: There simply is no justification for refusing emigrants fleeing for their lives. None. Yet we continue to repeat our mistakes and shake our fist at God, insisting we know better.

Leviticus 19:33-34 “Do not take advantage of foreigners who live among you in your land.Treat them like native-born, and love them as you love yourself. Remember that you were once foreigners living in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.”

Leviticus 24:22 “The same rule applies to every one of you. It makes no difference whether you are a foreigner or a native. I am the Lord your God.”

Malachi 3:5 “I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who … exploit workers, widows, and orphans, who refuse to help the immigrant and in this way show they do not respect me,” says the Lord who rules over all.”

Galatians 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female—for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.

John 3:16-17 For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him.

If Jesus did not come to condemn us, why is it we take liberties to condemn one another? Why do we suppose we are greater than Him, and usurp God’s power and authority to judge, exclude and condemn?

When we automatically label an entire group of people potential terrorists, we place a wall in front of them. Just as females are not given an opportunity for an education in a country run by a Taliban regime, immigrants who Westerners reject out of hand as “possible terrorists” are not given an opportunity for survival, education or an inroad to the heart of our God.

We must rethink our approach to this before our own history repeats itself. We must take a stand. We must either follow Caesar, follow the Pharisees, or follow Jesus.

Who will you follow?

Is Grace Really That Amazing?

September 8, 2015October 31, 2015 Susan Irene Fox Susan Irene Fox Amazing Grace, DNA, God, Jesus Christ, living water, Lord, Love, redemption, surrender

Nearly every Christian I know talks about amazing grace. We discuss it in church. Books have been written about it from Paul Ellis to Max Lucado to Andy Stanley to Lee Strobel to Philip Yancey (just to name a few out of over 100 pages on Amazon.com). Not to mention the number of songs.

It’s interesting to note that in the Gospels, the only grace ever mentioned was about Jesus. Yet the apostle Paul wrote of the gift of grace in nearly every letter.

“We are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus Christ. Roman 3:24

It seems to me, however, many spurn this free gift. Why, then is it talked about it so much? Why do people pretend they value grace when they wear it like a cloak in church on Sunday morning and hang it up when they walk in the door at home Sunday afternoon?

When the gift of grace is put on for show and not welcomed into the mind and heart and soul, it is rejected; it cannot then transform, cannot be understood, cannot be passed along.

Then these very things that have come to me will be poured out as “rivers of living water” all around me (John 7:38). Even love must be transformed by being poured out “to the Lord.” Oswald Chambers

When grace is not allowed to become a part of our DNA, we cannot become the human beings created in God’s image we were meant to be. We must surrender ourselves to a loving God who wants to lift us higher, who wants to show us more than we see right now.

God wants to show us the image of ourselves through His eyes. Our perfect, flawless, beloved selves. And once we can see that – once we grasp the raw amazing beauty of it – we will pour His loving, living water over others so they will see themselves that way, too.

Now that’s amazing grace.