Thank You, Lord!

It's time to lighten up a bit.

Below are scenes from our Thanksgiving celebration with family and friends at our home in Bellevue yesterday. We enjoyed such a remarkable time of fun...football...drama (the grandkids put on a skit about Squanto and the first Thanksgiving), and we consumed the most amazing meal you can imagine, prepared by our good friend, Master Chef Hal Decker, and his wife, Otgo.

The house was full to overflowing, with food, laughter and love!

All Kathy and I can say is, "Thank You, Lord!"

Bottom row from the left: grandkids Emily, Aria, Ryland, Gabriel,
Katelyn (holding her gerbil), Victoria. Next row up: Jen, wife of our
nephew Israel (sitting on edge of couch behind her), grandson Austin,
Pablo (husband of our daughter Coral), Coral holding son Christian,
our daughter Selina. Back row: Kathy's brother KC,
Matt (husband of our daughter Selina), granddaughter Kaelah (in front of Matt),
our son Rodney, Kathy, me standing behind Kathy,
our son Nathanael, Sonja (Pablo's mother) sitting on chair.

Our four adult children: Nathanael, Selina, Rodney, Coral

The grandkids.

The grandkids as they really are.

Chef Hal, dishing it out.

Emily, Katelyn and Aria with special guest gerbil.

Could A Culture That Has Swallowed Atheism Ever Spit It Back Out?

Is it possible for the Bible to be taken seriously once again in places where the Great Voice has been silenced? Once the Ten Commandments have been removed from the schoolroom walls, could they ever be put back up again? Could a culture that has swallowed atheism ever spit it back out?

During the decades Ukraine was ruled by the Soviet Union, atheism was the law of the land. The Great Voice was censored by force. But after Ukraine gained independence in 1991, some extraordinary things happened.

Thirteen years after Ukraine gained independence, I was invited by a Ukrainian school Superintendent to teach his administrative staff how to integrate the biblical worldview into the curriculum of their state-run school district. 

What!? Here was a man with responsibility for 16,000 students in a city of 125,000, wanting me to provide training in biblical worldview for the administrators of his 21 schools! When I first received the invitation, I did not believe he understood what he was asking. To make sure he understood, I spent three hours in his downtown office, going over the basic content of the courses I teach on biblical worldview.

To my amazement, I discovered this man was on a mission to restore Christianity to his culture. He had already introduced a very sound curriculum on Christian doctrine to his schools. He told me, "teaching Christianity is more important than academics."

Why? Because he saw Christianity as necessary for restoring Ukraine's moral compass. He was doing what he could to expedite this process, including having administrators of his schools implement a Christian-based "moral education" program, bringing in curriculum on Christian doctrine to restore what had been censored by force for over fifty years.

Yes, this man knew what he was doing, and he was intentional about it. He understood what most Americans have yet to realize regarding what we have willingly censored in the name of pluralism, multiculturalism, and political correctness. He understood the loss of Moral Bearings.

Could other places that have silenced the Great Voice bring it back once again? Sometimes I think America is past the point of no return. But then I remember what I witnessed in western Ukraine, and I'm reminded that with God, nothing is impossible.

I invite you to take a look at what I saw in the city of Uzhgorod, where the Ten Commandments have been re-posted on state school walls: http://youtu.be/iM5OyuiTQVI.

Pass it on.

This photo was taken the day I spent several hours in the office of the Superintendent of the Uzhgorod School District going over the content of the training course in biblical worldview integration I would be providing for the administrators of his twenty-one schools, at his request. From the far left are my interpreter, Anya, the President of my board, John Taylor, myself, the Superintendent, and one of his key associates. It was at this meeting where the Superintendent said teaching Christianity to his students was more important than academics.

I Am Making A Moral Judgment!

If we passed more and more laws to keep greed at bay in the business world, would we eventually have enough laws to contain the beast? No. As long as there are postmodern lawyers, there will be no end to "creative financing."

Our economic problems are not fundamentally economic, legal or political. They are spiritual and moral. No amount of legislation, and no amount of bailout, can do what another Great Awakening could do.

Dramatic changes in moral sensibilities have occurred in America since I was born, in 1949. What is acceptable to many today was unthinkable to most in my childhood―Christians or not.

In some respects, things are much better now. I'll never forget the day one of my elementary school teachers told our class about her trip to the South, where she encountered separate drinking fountains for whites and "Negros." Some changes in this country have been right and good.

But in making the statement, "some changes have been right and good," I am making a moral judgement! I am saying that separate drinking fountains for whites and African Americans is "wrong and bad." How dare I say this!?

I dare so on the same basis Martin Luther King did. I make this moral judgment on the basis of a Christian God and Biblical Truth that says all humans are created in the likeness and image of this God, and therefore possess equal value in His eyes.

King's dream was openly biblical. He smartly infused his message with the Prophets, and connected his cause with Scripture. [See http://dan.drydog.com/helen/the_rhetoric_of_martin_luther_kings_i_have_a_dream.html.]

Thankfully, in those days, King had an American audience with some semblance of regard for Scripture. 

This is the big difference between today's battles over "moral order" and what went on in King's day. People no longer appeal to Biblical Truth. In an era when the idea of "Truth" itself is denied, appeals to Higher Law don't gain traction. "If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?" [Psalm 11:3] This is not to say the Bible could never be taken seriously again, for with God all things are possible, but for now, the Great Voice is muted.     

Could the Great Voice be restored? Is there enough "memory" left in our body-politic to hear it?

Unexpected things happen! Like the collapse of the Soviet Union. Who thought that was possible?

Next: Lessons from Western Ukraine.