Saturday, June 21, 2008 America #1 America #2

Saturday, June 21, 2008

America #1 America #2

First From Julie's Keyboard:

I've often thought on why the 23rd Psalm seems to be the most quoted, memorized, or refered to, section of scripture. Didn't most of us commit this to memory before any other section when we were children?

You can hardly attend a single funeral in which it is not used (especially at the grave site). This week I decided to take a refreshing look at it again. This time it just seemed to share so much more with me. Of course, it was always there. But maybe now my eyes and ears were ready to get past the redundancy of repetition to let it speak to me in a more personal way.

For only six short verses of writing, this piece is loaded with provision for the life of any believer. If we study this in light of a shepherd and his sheep, it brings on so much more clarity. When we take some time to look at the characteristics of a good shepherd and then look at the characteristics of sheep (who aren't always very good), this is truly amazing.

The shepherd takes such care of his sheep. He sees that they are not harmed. He sees that they are well fed with the choicest of foods. He leads them to the areas of best provision for food and rest. He gives up on no sheep. Even the meanest sheep is not below his cognizence.

On the other hand, sheep should faithfully listen to their shepherd's voice. True sheep do not follow a misleading voice. When a sheep strays from the fold, you had better bet that shepherd is going for him. A sheep true to character is meek, quiet, useful and sociable. They're non offensive animals. They remain humble before their shearer to be of use. If sheep remain in the fold of the shepherd, there is nothing to fear. Straying from the eye of the shepherd is a gamble with life itself.

Turning our eyes to Psalm 23, if the Lord is our Shepherd, we shall not want. What could we possilby have need of with Him as our Shepherd? He goes on to list His great provision for us. "He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:" This is prime territory for resting and feeding. All provided by the Shepherd. "He leadeth me beside the still waters." Now these waters are not stagnant ponds, nor are they raging rivers. But they are gentle purling waters for the refreshment and pleasure of His sheep.

"He restoreth my soul:" What good news! He won't leave His sheep to be downcast in spirit with oppression. "He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake." This is awesome! Thank God that He will lead us in His right way. Notice now that He does it because of Who He Is. It's not our merit. It's not our acts of good and deeds that we do because we are so obedient to Him. It's for His Name's Sake! We don't earn His provision and protection. It's just there for us. Isn't that good news?

Yes, we will walk through that "valley of the shadow of death." But, guess what? In Him we never die. We just go on to be with our Great Shepherd in a different realm. We have no evil to fear because He is eternally with us. "His rod and His staff comfort us." This rod represents His Word given to keep us in His way.

His Word teaches and reveals to us His Truth, the Gospel that makes us free. It is said that the crook in the rod was often used as a mode for counting the sheep as they passed under the crook. The staff which represents God's Spirit, leads and guides us on our life journey. A gentle nudge here and there will keep us heading in the right path.

Our Shepherd has prepared a table for us while our enemies (this world) is all about, yet He is protecting us with His great provision. We can dine without fear of misfortune. He's anointed our heads with oil and an overflowing cup. What abundance He provides. We never face life alone. Not for one moment. We're His. No one or no thing takes us from His mighty hand.
So, we can expect His goodness and mercy to follow us all the days of our life, and then for eternity we get to dwell with Him forever!

I don't know about you. But this sounds like a deal anyone would be foolish to pass upon. Who's your shepherd today? Everyone follows someone or something.

The Lord is my Shepherd! I pray that He's your choice too!
Have a blessed week!

Julie
Scripture Reference Psalm 23
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America #1



SAN JOSE, Calif. - Homosexual "marriage" will be on the agenda as the Presbyterian Church USA begins its biennial meeting this weekend in California, where same-sex weddings became legal this week.

Delegates to the General Assembly will be asked to rewrite the church's Book of Order to allow Presbyterian ministers to conduct wedding services for homosexual couples. The church constitution currently defines marriage as a covenant between a man and a woman. (Associated Press)

By order of its state Supreme Court, California began legally marrying same-sex couples this past week. The first to be wed in San Francisco were Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, pioneering gay-rights activists who have been a couple for more than 50 years.

. . . denying gay Americans the opportunity to marry is not only inhumane, it is unsustainable. History has turned a corner: Gay couples – including gay parents – live openly and for the most part comfortably in mainstream life. This will not change, ever.

Because parents want happy children, communities want responsible neighbors, employers want productive workers, and governments want smaller welfare caseloads, society has a powerful interest in recognizing and supporting same-sex couples. It will either fold them into marriage or create alternatives to marriage, such as publicly recognized and subsidized cohabitation. Conservatives often say same-sex marriage should be prohibited because it does not exemplify the ideal form of family. They should consider how much less ideal an example gay couples will set by building families and raising children out of wedlock. - - - - Gay Marriage Is Good for America. By JONATHAN RAUCH June 21, 2008. Mr. Rauch, a senior writer with National Journal and a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, is the author of "Gay Marriage: Why It Is Good for Gays, Good for Straights, and Good for America" (Holt Paperbacks, 2004).

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121400362307993399.html?mod=rss_opinion_main



America #2

Sodomy, n. A crime against nature.
(American Dictionary of the English language, Noah Webster 1828.)

This crime, tho repugnant to every sentiment of decency and delicacy, is very prevalent in corrupt and debauched countries where the low pleasures of sensuality and luxury have depraved the mind and degraded the appetite below the brutal creation. Our modest ancestors, it seems by the diction of the law, had no idea that a man would commit this crime [anal intercourse with either sex]. . . . [H]ere, by force of common law, [it is] punished with death. . . . [because of] the disgust and horror with which we treat of this abominable crime.

Zephaniah Swift, A System of Laws of the State of Connecticut (Windham: John Byrne, 1796), Vol. II, pp. 310-311

If we reflect on the dreadful consequences of sodomy to a state, and on the extent to which this abominable vice may be secretly carried on and spread, we cannot, on the principles of sound policy, consider the punishment as too severe.

For if it once begins to prevail, not only will boys be easily corrupted by adults, but also by other boys; nor will it ever cease; more especially as it must thus soon lose all its shamefulness and infamy and become fashionable and the national taste; and then . . . national weakness, for which all remedies are ineffectual, most inevitably follow; not perhaps in the very first generation, but certainly in the course of the third or fourth. . . .

To these evils may be added yet another, viz. that the constitutions of those men who submit to this degradation are, if not always, yet very often, totally destroyed, though in a different way from what is the result of whoredom.

Whoever, therefore, wishes to ruin a nation, has only to get this vice introduced; for it is extremely difficult to extirpate it where it has once taken root because it can be propagated with much more secrecy . . . and when we perceive that it has once got a footing in any country, however powerful and flourishing, we may venture as politicians to predict that the foundation of its future decline is laid and that after some hundred years it will no longer be the same . . . powerful country it is at present.

Sir John David Michaelis, Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, Alexander Smith, translator (London: F. C. and J. Rivington, 1814), Vol. IV, pp. 115-117