DRUNK IN THE SPIRIT

            I wrote just days ago of the evils that issue from big players and small when they are drunk with power.  As Tolkien wrote so well in The Lord of the Rings, power manifests in a size and scope consistent with the grasp of the bearer, but it always devours the bearer as surely as it seeks to devour its victims.  The only alternative to eventual death for all concerned is to surrender the power to destruction – as Frodo did with the help of Sam and even Gollum.  It is actually true that – once we decide to obey rather than defy God – He works all things together for good as He promises in Romans 8:28.  Not always right away, but one way or another.

            Think of Israel.  How drunk with power must Secretary of State John Kerry be to convene talks on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, conclude an agreement, and exclude Israel?  The avowed purpose of Iranian foreign policy is the destruction of Israel first and the US thereafter.  Does Kerry actually believe Israel is going to say “Please and thank-you,” to the gathered might of the nations in these talks designed to seal her fate without so much as a howdy-do?  But, some would say, what can a nation of seven million do if we throw them under the bus?  The question should be, rather, how we will fare if we let Kerry lead us in his ignorance and his arrogance.  Israel is the only nation in the region already having a nuclear arsenal, and the only nation standing to have never lost a war.  She is the only nation banking on a promise from God Himself that He will never again tolerate injury to His first-born.  How drunk must we be to not get that? 

            Of course many will say it is blue-sky thinking to claim God has made – or will keep – such a promise. But it is a fact of history that no nation on earth has ever been resurrected after total destruction like that of Israel in the first century.  They have fought to victory in five wars against overwhelming odds.  They have made the desert bloom despite the poverty in which they arrived after World War II.  If there is a better explanation than God having their backs let someone share it.  Or we could decide God actually spoke the Bible – and the world – into existence with a particular plan and He is going to have His way.  We could become drunk in His Spirit.

            When we are drunk – on anything – we tend to discard our inhibitions, our judgment, and our ability to carry out our plans.  But when the intoxicant is power we tend to become full of conceit and when it is God’s Spirit we tend to fill ourselves with humility.  In His Spirit we tend to behave like He does.  That could mean engaging with Israelis as well as Iranians instead of deciding Israel’s fate and breaking it to them.  It could mean reforming healthcare along the lines of the Price Plan – advanced by Rep. Tom Price of Georgia – which provides all of the relief and none of the coercion of Obamacare.  It could even mean little things like observing the half century passed since the Kennedy assassination with all living former presidents attending, not just the Democrat ones.  (This is one of the crassest examples of official pettiness, rudeness, and vindictiveness I have ever seen.)  Being filled with God’s Spirit ultimately leads us to do right instead of what we want.  The fruit is better and a whole lot longer lived.

            Now in my own city of Redding the local government has engaged in talks with the McConnell Foundation – who leases land on the Sacramento Riverfront, which is owned by the Kutros family – on the future development of that land.  The owners have been excluded from the talks.  God has a few choice things to say about people who disregard the rights of landowners.  In Florence, Colorado, a school district is persecuting a group of high school girls because they and their parents object to a boy showering with them after the school board has made a policy permitting it.  God has something to say about arrogant authorities harming His little ones.  Officials in both cities appear drunk with power.  It might be Redding needs a better plan for these talks.  It might be Florence needs to come alongside its families instead of its social engineers.  It could even be we all need a whole new attitude about intoxication – are we after power or seeking the Spirit of the living God?

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

              

           

DRUNK WITH POWER

            Toronto Mayor Bob Ford is an alcoholic whose addiction is ruining his career.  (He admits he smoked crack during “one of my drunken stupors.”)  But alcohol is not the only thing on which to get drunk.  Former San Diego Mayor Bob Filner got drunk on his power and was forced from office.  In the case of Barack Obama we find a whole administration drunk with power.  His attorney general first covers up an arms debacle that costs American lives, then blames a previous president, and finally just stonewalls a congressional committee.  His secretary of Health and Human Services tells American citizens she does not work for them.  His IRS leadership lies repeatedly about agency persecution of political opponents and the illegal release of confidential materials.  And the president himself lies about murder in Benghazi, spying on American citizens, his own involvement in the IRS scandal, and what Obamacare will do to citizens who already have health insurance.  If that is not enough, he routinely re-writes legislation such as his signature healthcare law in blatant defiance of the Constitution as cooly as he deliberately mis-quotes the Gettysburg Address to remove references to God.  This president is so drunk with power that when the House of Representatives adopts – legally – a bill doing the same things the president illegally decreed to correct his own insurance cancellation nightmare, he threatens to veto the legislation.

            No good thing ever comes from drunken-ness and nothing ever will.  But the greatest damage comes from being drunk with power. 

            Intoxification with power – and the vindictiveness that accompanies it – spreads to lower officials and civilians as well.  Recently fake blood was spattered on peaceful life advocates in Albuquerque, New Mexico, by so-called pro-choicers.  I say “so-called” because these people have no interest in the freedom to choose in – say – an election.  AG Eric Holder has no problem with voter intimidation by gangsters in Philadelphia at the same time he accuses legitimate poll watchers of suppressing the vote in that same city, demonstrating his soul brotherhood with the gangsters.  (In a city in which multiple precincts cast zero votes for the president’s opponent whom would a reasonable person expect to be guilty of vote suppression?)  A man was recently arrested for murder after shooting an armed man who broke down his door at 2 AM and charged him.  In Washington DC the insurance commissioner was fired by Mayor Vincent Gray for agreeing with a proposal to ask insurance companies to restore cancelled policies, and a low level Obamacare employee named Elaine was fired for answering the questions she is charged with answering when the questioner happened to be talk show host Sean Hannity.  Right here in Redding it turns out our own Mercy Hospital helped write the protocols for Obamacare; I learned this because my radio program was sponsored by Mercy.  When I blogged against Obamacare Mercy summarily dropped my program with that explanation.  It is about intimidating – not debating – opponents.

            The Bible has a wonderful passage addressed as Ephesians 5:18.  It instructs readers not to become drunk with spirits – including the spirit of power – but rather be filled (drunk, if you will) with the Holy Spirit.  Becoming intoxicated – filled – with God is how we come to authentic sobriety.  Confirmation occurs as people change behavior – and the fruit of it – sometimes over time but sometimes quite rapidly.  The recently concluded 40 Days for Life campaign reports forty-five abortion clinics have closed since 2007 as they prayed and blessed outside clinics with appointment cancellations as high as 75% when they are praying; these drunk in the spirit types do nothing more aggressive than prayer. The Rev. Martin Luther King led a civil rights movement for fourteen years – until his martyrdom – fueled by nothing but the Holy Spirit, according to King himself.    Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, asked how he remained at peace through seven years of trumped up indictments on perfectly legal behavior, criminal conviction, and eventual acquittal-on-appeal of felony charges, said he went to Congress not knowing his Lord and became filled with Him while there; he had no other explanation. Like former power broker Chuck Colson, DeLay now knows real power.

            The Bible also says His strength is perfected (2 Corinthians 12:9) in our weakness.  The Christians who took down autocratic governments in the Philippines and throughout Eastern Europe had no resources other than prayer and forgiveness without giving up their convictions.  I don’t say our present government does or doesn’t need taking down.  But like King, Colson, and DeLay, I recommend being drunk in God’s Spirit.  It is the only authentic sobriety, and the only real power.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

              

           

ADVENT

By James Wilson       

        Advent – the four weeks prior to Christmas – is celebrated by Catholics, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians and Methodists, a large majority of the Body of Christ.  Orthodoxy – another fifth of the Body – celebrates it as The Fast of Christmas.  The season originated somewhere between the middle of the second century and the middle of the sixth.  It focuses on two realities – active anticipation of celebrating the birth of Messiah or Christ, the Son of God, and active anticipation of Messiah’s return as King.  The name means “coming” or “anticipation” and it operates through the scriptural lens of the life and ministry of John the Baptist.  Jesus said of John that no greater prophet had ever arisen.  Why is this important? 

            John’s ministry has three features that mark him as a kind of second coming of Elijah, and again it is Jesus Himself who so identifies him.  First he recognizes Jesus as the incarnation of God Himself when the latter comes to him seeking baptism.  He speaks as God speaks, identifying acts of compassion and mercy as the fruit of repentance and thus the road to authentic worship.   Second, he treats Jesus as family; they are cousins after all, and when God comes among us this way He expects to be treated as He treats us.  This is what Richard Foster describes as real worship.  And finally he says that he must decrease as Messiah increases – in other words, he both humbles and empties himself before God, which is genuine worship.  All this makes John a forerunner of Messiah – then and now.

            Jesus Christ says mercy trumps sacrifice in one Bible passage while obedience does the trumping in another.  But He speaks of trumping the kinds of sacrifice that passes through ceremonial motions simply because it is that time of year.  When we actually recognize Him in the services of Lessons and Carols, the lighting of special candles, and the absence of certain frills in our worship we are led back to appreciate the spirit of John the Baptist.  When we take it a step further and begin sharing our food with the hungry, carrying the packs of the needy, and visiting the sick and the lonely before going home to a warm place of rest we begin to actively re-focus on God – the essence of repentance – and pragmatically anticipate the return of the King.

            The world is based on an economy of sacrifice, not survival of the fittest, and this should be as visible to people of no faith as to the most faithful Christians.  The vestiges have survived the epochs since the accelerating Fall of Mankind.  Astronomers know our planet is the fruit of the sacrifice of multitudes of stars that went nova over the billions of years since our universe has lived and kicked just the right amount of heavy and light elements into this sector of our galaxy so that a rocky and watery planet is born to enable the human race to walk and talk with God.  In the animal world zoologists know parents routinely sacrifice their lives for the sake of their children – as do most human parents.  Every human body is born of the sacrifice of individual and living egg and sperm, and your white blood cells sacrifice themselves in a kamikaze attack on anything that breaks into your body.  We reserve maximum admiration for the person who risks or gives his life for another.  Jesus Himself came into the world to ignite restoration of this world as it was intended by its Creator.

            Our generation of the Church, however we define ourselves, is clearly a John the Baptist generation.   The dark signs Jesus identified as signaling His near return are wars and rumors of wars, men calling evil good and good evil, and hatred focused on those who name His name worldwide.  Although no one can predict when or how soon He returns, we are clearly and factually in the last act of world history from that standpoint.  As the numbers of miracles and decisions for Jesus escalate we have to recall His apocalyptic prediction (John 14:12-14 and other places) that His return would be foretold in this way as well. Likewise, the prophetic witness is overwhelming that we need to become ready with every hour left to us – whether a week or centuries.  And, as in John’s day, so the Church practices Jesus’ commands selectively and coldly.

            Candles and carols are important if they light the season.  But the spirit on John is crucial – now more than ever.  The fruit of repentance is actively awaiting the Awakening in a season and lifestyle called Advent.  

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net

              

           

THANKSGIVING IS THE BEGINNING

By James Wilson

                                                    

            Bart was a priest I knew thirty years ago, when I was still in seminary and needing a mentor.  Shortly after he agreed to be in this mentoring relationship with me he revealed that he was being tested for a disease that robbed him of muscle control at the same time it seemed to be scrambling his brain and messing with various other bodily functions.  One of the possible diagnoses was Alzheimer’s Disease.  I asked him how he was praying for himself and – by extension – how I could pray for him.  He said his prayer was, “God grant me a eucharistic heart.  The word is Greek for great thanksgiving.  It is the name we Anglicans give the Lord’s Supper – the Holy Communion.

            Thanksgiving is not everything; it can be saccharine and sentimental if we just blandly and uncritically say thanks for everything, as though there were nothing we might beg a loving God to change in our circumstances.  But if we understand – as I do – that communion with our Lord Jesus is the core and context of our acts of worship – the name begins to make sense.  As I understand worship this context begins with praising God – and thanking Him for the opportunity.  It continues with hearing and commenting on His Word in Scripture – and thanking Him for the enlightenment and the marching orders He brings.  We acknowledge the shape of our faith in the words of the ancient creedal summary – and thank Him for giving a dependable shape to our belief.  We pray for those in need of healing, shelter, peace, and deliverance from evil – and thank Him for loving them more than we can.  And we thankfully celebrate the reality of His death and resurrection for the sake of our larger life; all this as we thankfully hail his sovereignty and protection over us while standing invisibly in our midst.  From inside the whole process of worship, this eucharistic heart broadens our awareness and expands our vision of opportunities in the context of this lifestyle of thanksgiving.  It is not a different viewpoint so much as it is a larger, more wholistic, and eagle-eyed perspective.

            I would love to say Bart was miraculously healed of his medical condition, but that did not happen.  He was eventually diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and he gave thanks it was not Alzheimer’s.  That was miracle enough for him and the peace of God was quite visible all over him the last time I saw him.

            When the Pilgrims celebrated their first Thanksgiving in the New World they were starving and riddled with disease.  The Native Americans who befriended them and joined their celebration were doing only marginally better. But these Pilgrims and their indigenous friends chose to believe the message of Romans 8:28 that God works all things together – ultimately – for good in those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.  They asked for and received a Eucharistic heart.  Such a heart enabled them to be more conscious of what gifts they were given than of what needs had not yet been answered.  It gave them both joy and a reason for that joy.

            A story is told of a country parson in the UK who ran out of petrol while out calling on members of his flock.  He knocked on the door of a church member’s home just up the road and the family offered him as much petrol as he could carry from the tank in their garden.  They added – regretfully – that the only container they had was a chamber pot.  The parson answered that he was thankful for whatever he got – being assured this was God’s gift and God’s gift is always precisely what he needs.  As he lugged the pot back to his car and began pouring the contents into the petrol tank a motorist drove by on the other side of the road and exclaimed, “Oh, if I only had faith like that!”  That faith was indeed what he needed, but not what he thought.

            The faith displayed by the parson was not an unshakable conviction that God can transform human waste into motor fuel; of course He can and of course He wasn’t.  The faith was as the parson said – that whatever we receive from God is precisely what we need for God’s good purposes to unfold in our lives, when we receive it.  Developing a eucharistic heart is the work of a lifetime.  It is the work that – from our end – enables a life to be lived well.  May readers enjoy a Thanksgiving as memorable as it is blessed.

James A. Wilson is the author of Living As Ambassadors of Relationships and The Holy Spirit and the End Times – available at local bookstores or by e-mailing him at

praynorthstate@charter.net