Good Morning Friends,
A life of privilege has its pitfalls. And depending on government to solve the problems is a great disappointment. But if you think it could not be worse, think again. Still, I have hope for something better. Perhaps you are plagued by some artificial anxieties related to what you are experiencing now…. But maybe some issues you are concerned about are really counterfeit concerns… fabricated frights. The point is that we do not see things clearly because we just don’t want to. If you are anxious, whether the concerns are real or not, part of the problem might be you have not let God open your eyes to the deeper nature of the battle. Yes, there is oppression in the world and yes just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you but think with me for a moment and imagine that perhaps we can be fighting the wrong conflict. Maybe the real conquest is not what the world tells us. Maybe the challenge of courage is not external at all. Maybe the first thing is to have the right strategy from the inside. So as a bonus I have added 110 quotes from FDR who spoke to the issues we face. Still, I ask, Will We Heed The Right Warning Signs Without Being Paralyzed By Fear?
Scripture: Then he began to reproach the cities in which most of his deeds of power had been done, because they did not repent. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? No, you will be brought down to Hades. For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I tell you that on the day of judgment it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom than for you.”
Matthew 11:20-24 (NRSV)
In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it. When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller’s Field, and say to him, Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram—with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah—has plotted evil against you, saying, Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it; therefore thus says the Lord God: It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.) The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all.
Isaiah 7:1-9 (NRSV)
Message: Just because the Lord loves us does not mean Jesus didn’t get frustrated and even angry at times at the lack of faith of even the towns in Galilee close to his home. In today’s Gospel text we find the Lord giving a signal of total exasperation in the form of a gasp of sorts from which we get the English translated word, “woe.” The text from Isaiah works well in counterpart to the issue. In the period more than 700 years before the time of Christ, the Judahite king Ahaz, installed as sole ruler of the southern kingdom had his own woe. He was faced with an invasion by his northern neighbors, and the northern tribes of Israel allied with Syria. And this was a horrible threat because the aggressors were planning to kill Ahaz and all his offspring and put in a puppet king. That action would extinguish the line of Davidic kings and void the prophecy of Nathan. However, just as God specializes in taking our crooked lines and turning them into a purposeful reality beautiful, God’s plan will not be thwarted. Sometimes even when we refuse to follow His way, He turns our rebellion into a good outcome, but generally an outcome we refuse to like. Isaiah told Ahaz to trust in God, but Ahaz, did not trust, he did not ask for a sign, and tried to solve the problem through unholy alliances by calling on Assyria to help him. Assyria trampled down the Syrians, utterly destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, dispersing all the people across their empire in such a way as to create the diaspora, and made Ahaz and Judah pay tribute. But God still carried His loving plan forward anyway. Because Ahaz and his young wife, Abijah daughter of Zechariah, soon welcomed a son into the world, a son who would become one of the great kings of Judah, and ancestor of Jesus, Hezekiah. These events delayed the ultimate fall of the southern kingdom until the Babylonians conquered what was left. The Babylonians allowed some of the Jews to remain in the land and took the others to Babylon. There the Jews were able to coalesce into a united people loyal to the true God, and after several decades when Babylon fell to Persia, they were able to return as a united people to their home. From this people came the hope of Mary and Joseph and ultimately Jesus. But the woe in a new form still persisted as it does today. Right now, the whole world is in the grip of a sea change. It seems to many that there are no winners. It seems to me that it is time for us to imitate the early Christians and trust God for the victory. Political solutions treat the symptoms and rarely cure the disease. Education solutions fall short too unless they are focused on the transformation of the way we think and risk and step out in faith. For the disease is the loss of faith in God, and disobedience to His commandment that we love one another with a unity of action. Friends we need wisdom, but we need Christ’s mercy more. We need to overcome our fears that can grip us with an immobilizing terror and keep us from succeeding in life. We need to see the signs and repent and love. The places we call our homes, where are hearts are, the places we go to worship need to become the places we learn anew to worship God from the inside out.
And So, there can be a stillness in the chaos that embolizes us with a fear that can steal our joy. But then God will be God and sometimes we have mercy bestowed on us. Fear can take our courage and leave us shaking uncontrollably for we all fear oppression and injustice. We all fear the unknown. To overcome the external oppression, one has to overcome the internal fear. It is not an easy task, for history is filled with examples of the oppressed becoming oppressors who never stopped fearing. Two thousand years ago everybody was looking toward Rome as the oppressors, and they were. But perhaps the focus was a bit misplaced. You have heard it said that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that is true for there is really nothing else for us to fear. And believe me, God does not want us to waste our lives needlessly fearing and you don’t want that either. But friends, in time you will find that only God’s perfect love castes out all fear. Then we learn that there is something about being in the presence of someone who is stronger than we are, that soothes our fears and gives us the courage to love and be loved. When we love, we are victors over our fear. Jesus used the word woe to describe what we are to fear, and I would have to say it must have been a lot like John the Baptist saying “repent.” Webster’s dictionary says that woe is “used to express grief, regret, or distress.” It denotes a condition to be dreaded, possibly signifying impending doom, condemnation and/or the wrath of God. Jesus uses the word seven times in scripture, perhaps indicating God’s judgment will be complete and perfectly just. Unfortunately, today people are still rejecting the warnings of Jesus and moreover the responsibilities he instructs us to obey. In our day, we still must forgive–and work against–the sins of our age. The message of Christ is the only one that makes sense. Unfortunately, we like those Hebrews before us seem to forget the miracle of God in our lives. We fear the wrong things when we need to love.
Pray we embrace the message of Jesus. Pray we repent. Pray we not let our anger get the best of us. Pray we not reject the opportunity to love. Pray we be quick to love and slow to judge. Pray therefor for those who are addicted to drugs. Pray for those who are wise in their own eyes. Pray for those who deal treacherously for personal gain. Pray for hypocrites. Pray for those who build by unrighteousness. Pray for those who seek the Day of the Lord not realizing what they are asking for. Pray we believe in the victory of Jesus. Pray we understand that Jesus spoke about woe to get us to change direction. Pray we stop galloping into sin. Pray we prepare for the coming of Christ. Pray we experience new mercies each day. Pray we turn around and giddy up in the right direction. Pray our hearts are no longer troubled by all the woe of the world. Pray we heed the warnings of Jesus to avoid being made fearful by the world. Pray we stand firm in our faith.
Pray we realize the spiritual nature of the battle. Pray we submit to God. Pray that we are cognizant of our emotions. Pray we experience the presence of God’s love on our lives. Pray we realize that when God is with us there is no reason to fear…when God is for us, no one can stand against us. Pray we remember our victories with God. Pray we not dwell on the fact we are smaller and weaker and outnumbered. Pray we realize that the Holy Spirit in us is greater than the evil in the world. Pray therefore we seek the Kingdom so that we be with God and actively seeking to love and be loved.
Blessings,
John Lawson
Best Franklin D. Roosevelt Quotes
1. “Let us move forward with strong and active faith.”
2. “I ask you to judge me by the enemies I have made.”
3. “In this war, we know books are weapons; and it is a part of your dedication, always, to make them weapons for man’s freedom.”
4. “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely.”
5. “When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot, and hang on.”
6. “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
7. “That, in its essence, is fascism—ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power.”
8. “Remember—remember always—that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.”
9. “I’m not the smartest fellow in the world, but I can sure pick smart colleagues.
10. “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little.”
11. “Books cannot be killed by fire. People die, but books never die.”
12. “We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.”
13. “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself.”
14. “A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land—purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
15. “The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education.”
16. “No man and no force can abolish memory.”
17. “To reach a port we must set sail—sail, not tie at anchor; sail, not drift.”
18. “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the assessment that something else is more important than fear.”
19. “The only limit to our realization of tomorrow will be our doubts of today.”
20. “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.”
21. “Happiness is not in the mere possession of money.”
22. “There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still.”
23. “A conservative is a man with two perfectly good legs who, however, has never learned to walk forward.”
24. “Our strength is our unity of purpose—to that high concept, there can be no end save victory.”
25. “It isn’t sufficient just to want—you’ve got to ask yourself what you are going to do to get the things you want.”
26. “Never before in all our history have these forces been so united against one candidate as they stand today. They are unanimous in their hate for me—and I welcome their hatred.”
27. “The truth is found when men and women are free to pursue it.”
28. “Competition has been shown to be useful up to a certain point and no further, but cooperation, which is the thing we must strive for today, begins where competition leaves off.”
29. “In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”
30. “Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy, forget in time that men have died to win them.”
31. “The only sure bulwark of continuing liberty is a government strong enough to protect the interests of the people, and a people strong enough and well enough informed to maintain its sovereign control over the government.”
32. “I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable of utilizing them.”
33. “We have learned that we cannot live alone, at peace—that our own well-being is dependent on the well-being of nations far away. We have learned that we must live as men, and not as ostriches nor as dogs in the manger. We have learned to be citizens of the world, members of the human community.”
34. “We are steering a steady course toward economic oligarchy, if we are not there already.”
35. “Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.”
36. “Some people can never understand that you have to wait, even for the best of things, until the right time comes.”
37. “Never underestimate a man who overestimates himself.”
38. “There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations, much is given. Of other generations, much is expected.”
39. “The first responsibility for the alleviation of poverty and distress, and for the care of the victims of the depression, rests upon the locality—its individuals, organizations, and government.”
40. “If you treat people right, they will treat you right—ninety percent of the time.”
41. “Be sincere. Be brief. Be seated.”
42. “We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals. We now know that it is bad economics.”
43. “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people.”
44. “A Reactionary is a somnambulist walking backwards.”
45. “Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.”
46. “Great power involves great responsibility.”
47. “They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.”
48. “A Liberal is a man who uses his legs and his hands at the behest—at the command—of his head.”
49. “I think we consider too much the luck of the early bird and not enough the bad luck of the early worm.”
50. “The parks stand as the outward symbol of the great human principle.”
51. “A Radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air.”
52. “Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”
53. “I sometimes think that the saving grace of America lies in the fact that the overwhelming majority of Americans are possessed of two great qualities—a sense of humor and a sense of proportion.”
54. “We and all others who believe in freedom as deeply as we do, would rather die on our feet than live on our knees.”
55. “Today, we are faced with the pre-eminent fact that if civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships—the ability of all peoples of all kins to live together and to work together in the same world at peace.”
56. “The essence of our struggle is that men shall be free.”
57. “We have faith that future generations will know that here, in the middle of the twentieth century, there came a time when men of good will found a way to unite, and produce, and fight to destroy the forces of ignorance, and intolerance, and slavery, and war.”
58. “This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. In this world of ours, in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight.”
59. “People, like charity, begin at home.”
60. “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”
61. “It is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”
62. “Books, like ships, have the toughest armor, the longest cruising range, and mount the most powerful guns.”
63. “Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.”
64. “Repetition does not transform a lie into a truth.”
65. “A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.”
66. “A war of ideas can no more be won without books than a naval war can be won without ships.”
67. “Do something. If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t, do something else.”
68. “We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.”
69. “People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.”
70. “War is young men dying and old men talking.”
71. “You are only an extra in everyone else’s play.”
72. “There is nothing so American as our national parks. The scenery and the wildlife are native. The fundamental idea behind the parks is native.”
73. “Organized money hates me—and I welcome their hatred!”
74. “For out of this modern civilization, economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things.”
75. “I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope.”
76. “They begin to know that here in America, we are waging a war against want, and destitution, and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy.”
77. “It is fun to be in the same decade with you.”
78. “We have always held to the hope, the belief, the conviction that there is a better life—a better world, beyond the horizon.”
79. “Hitler built a fortress around Europe, but he forgot to put a roof on it.”
80. “Presidents are selected, not elected.”
81. “Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere.”
82. “Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights and keep them.”
83. “Among us today, a concentration of private power without equal in history is growing.”
84. “In these days of difficulty, we Americans everywhere must and shall choose the path of social justice—the path of faith, the path of hope, and the path of love toward our fellow man.”
85. “We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace—business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.”
86. “We know now that the government by organized money is just as dangerous as the government by organized mob.”
87. “They had begun to consider the government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs.”
88. “True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence.”
89. “No man can occupy the office of President without realizing that he is President of all the people.”
90. “I have seen war. I have seen war on land and sea. I have seen blood running from the wounded. I have seen men coughing out their gassed lungs. I have seen the dead in the mud. I have seen cities destroyed. I have seen two hundred, limping, exhausted men come out of line—the survivors of a regiment of 1,000 that went forward 48 hours before. I have seen children starving. I have seen the agony of mothers and wives. I hate war.”
91. “The real truth of the matter is, as you and I know, that a financial element in the large centers has owned the government of the U.S. since the days of Andrew Jackson.”
92. “There should be no bitterness or hate where the sole thought is the welfare of the United States of America.”
93. “It is, in brief, that the country belongs to the people—that it is in process of making for the enrichment of the lives of all of us.”
94. “For nearly four years, you have had an administration which instead of twirling its thumbs, has rolled up its sleeves. We will keep our sleeves rolled up.”
95. “It is the purpose of the government to see that not only the legitimate interests of the few are protected, but that the welfare and rights of the many are conserved.”
96. “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
97. “The liberty of a democracy is not safe if its business system does not provide employment and produce and distribute goods in such a way as to sustain an acceptable standard of living.”
98. “We must especially beware of that small group of selfish men who would clip the wings of the American Eagle in order to feather their own nests.”
99. “It’s a terrible thing to look over your shoulder when you are trying to lead—and to find no one there.”
100. “Confidence thrives on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection and on unselfish performance. Without them it cannot live.”
101. “As a nation, we may take pride in the fact that we are softhearted; but we cannot afford to be soft-headed.”
102. “If we will not prepare to give all that we have and all that we are to preserve Christian civilization in our land, we shall go to destruction.”
103. “We know that equality of individual ability has never existed and never will, but we do insist that equality of opportunity still must be sought.”
104. “Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves; and the only way they could do this is by not voting.”
105. “The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”
106. “Our sons, pride of our nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor—a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.”
107. “The very soundness of our democratic institutions depends on the determination of our government to give employment to idle men.”
108. “Good government should maintain the balance where every individual may have a place if he will take it, where every individual may find safety if he wishes it, where every individual may attain such power as his ability permits, consistent with his assuming the accompanying responsibility.”
109. “Man’s desire to be remembered is colossal.”
110. “We must be the great arsenal of democracy.”
Daily Devotionals 