Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one.
Today's Scripture:
Insight
The story of the Bible chronicles the stories of waiting—of individuals, of a nation, and of the early church. Noah waited for the rain to begin and the floods to subside; Abraham and Sarah waited for a son; Joseph waited to be reunited with family; the Israelites waited to be freed from slavery, to enter the promised land, to be freed from exile, and for the Messiah to save them. Hebrews 11, the faith chapter, lists many individuals throughout biblical history who by faith waited but “did not receive the things promised,” only seeing “them from a distance” (v. 13). Today we wait for Christ’s return and an end to sorrow, pain, and death. We’re longing for “a better country”—heaven (v. 16). The author of Hebrews tells us to “hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful” (10:23).
More than two hundred million people from a variety of faiths undertake a pilgrimage each year. For many throughout the ages, a pilgrim’s task has been to journey to a sacred place to receive some kind of blessing. It’s been all about reaching the temple, cathedral, shrine, or other destination where a blessing can be received.
Britain’s Celtic Christians, however, saw pilgrimage differently. They set out directionless into the wild or let their boats drift wherever the oceans took them—pilgrimage for them being about trusting God in unfamiliar territory. Any blessing was found not at the destination but along the journey.
Hebrews 11 was an important passage for the Celts. Since the life in Christ is about leaving the world’s ways behind and trekking like foreigners to the city of God (vv. 13-16), a pilgrimage echoed their life’s journey. By trusting God to provide along their difficult, untrodden path, the pilgrim grew the kind of faith lived by the heroes of old (vv. 1-12).
What a lesson to learn, whether we physically trek or not: for those who have trusted Jesus, life is a pilgrimage to God’s heavenly country, full of dark forests, dead ends, and trials. As we journey through, may we not miss the blessing of experiencing God’s provision along the way.
Reflect & Pray
How can you be open today to receiving God’s gifts along life’s path? How can you remind yourself that this world, as it is now, isn’t your real home?
Dear God, thank You for showing me that life’s trials are opportunities for me to grow a deeper faith in You.
Learn more about gardens and the history of humanity.
Jesus Christ is not whom evangelical Christians
worship. Donald Trump is the one.
I had been continuously and unremitting doing Bible studies with my fellow born-again evangelical Christians ever since I placed my life to Jesus Christ’s charge. Spiritually I learned and practice the same way as my brothers and sisters in Christ. But my spiritual applications of what I learned is very much different from that of my fellow believers.
I was reminded of that when I attended a Chinese Christian service on Father’s Day Sunday. It was the first time I attend this Chinese evangelical church, as almost all Chinese churches are evangelicals. It was a good sermon given by a relatively young Cantonese pastor on Ecclesiates 9:13 to 10:15 concerning Wisdom and Folly. During the sermon I made the connection between Wisdom of these words and the Folly of Christian evangelicals in their relationship with Donald Trump and American democracy. After the service a friendly sister came and welcome me as is the practice for evangelical churches. After the initial pleasantries I brought up what the pastor just taught and the follies of American evangelicals of supporting and even worshipping Donald Trump. The good sister, bless her heart, avoided a potential political discussion, saying different people have different thinkings. I took the wisdom of just letting matter stay and enjoy rest of the afternoon.
The pastor’s sermon was titled “While Wisdom is Precious,
Folly often Got the Upper Hand”. I don’t
know how closely he follows U.S. politics since he’s from Hong Kong and likely
have more understanding on what happens there than his understanding of the
United States. It’s possible than he’d
got wisdom on Hong Kong matters but folly for that of the U.S. Nevertheless we can take the wisdom from his
sermon and apply it to America.
Wisdom Better Than Folly
13 I
also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed
me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few
people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge
siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that
city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody
remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is
better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are
no longer heeded.
This passage tells the human inclination to admire material
goods and a life of luxury over a life of poverty. While vow of poverty is widely admired in
Catholicism but among evangelical Christianity, material success is an un-mentioned virtue. I heard Pentecostal pastors waxed admiringly of the luxury of the places they went as if
it’s a go to place. Definitely the allure of Donald Trump’s eponymous tower and Maralago can be paradise among Scriptural Christians.
During his first presidential campaign "Biblical" Christians counted on his business skills as well as his uncanny ability of not paying taxes as his expertise to make America great again. They said thru his knowledge of tax loopholes Trump can find and close them to pare down our federal deficits. These Christians projected superhuman skills to Donald Trump to justify their approval of his rhetoric and bloviation. As it turned out, Trump never closed those loopholes as doing so he would have to start paying tax. Of course, tax cuts only widen federal deficit under his watch.
17 The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
than the shouts of a
ruler of fools.
When the pastor explained this I could hear the "shouts" of Donald Trump. Trump is full of words and ruler of the Trump
Nation populated in great part by American Christians.
Are my fellow bible study buddies "fools" since bible quoting Christians are citizens of Trump Nation?
My brothers and sisters in Christ are quite capable
people. But they are indeed
fools as seen by me and non-MAGA believers when they took approvingly all the bloviation coming out the 45th President's mouth. While the dear sister this Sunday was right
that people can have differeofnt opinions, I would like to hear, in her opinion, what Biblical wisdom can she quote of Donald Trump. There are opinions of men of wisdom and men of folly. 81% of American evangelical Christians, with their unChrist-like ideologies and their strain of anti-intellectualism, full of
self-righteousness, are fools indeed.
10 As dead flies give perfume a bad smell,
so a
little folly outweighs wisdom and honor.
Here the pastor instead of mentioning dead flies, used the metaphor of one piece of mice droppings in a pot of porridge
(for Americans, more apropo to say in a pot of clam chowder). Evangelicals are
general good people who espouse the words of God and tried to live according to
the wisdom of the Bible. But thru our ideology and actions we gave out "bad smell".
Indeed Christians did lots of good as exemplified by brave and selfless missionaries whom we support and doing their good deeds, by Trump Nation Christians, who went to Mexico, Haiti, and Africa. Christian good works are white porridge, the droppings of Donald Trump and White Christian Nationalism undone them all thus made Christianity inedible. Christians behaves like Christians in the early Church when they love and share with one another (Socialism anyone?). But once they achieve political power, all deals are off. Scripture Christians prefers the the Great Temptor as he offer the allure of earthly kingdoms. After all, Donald Trump and the Supreme Court overthrew Roe vs. Wade. Now Florida, Oklahoma, and Texas kept on piling earthly powers for Scriptural Christians. All they need to do is to worship King Cyrus Donald Trump.
2 The heart of the wise inclines to the right,but the heart of the fool to the left.
3 Even as fools walk along the road,
they lack sense and show everyone how stupid they are.
No wonder so many of my brethren's son and daughters forsook what they taught, disavowering Christ. It's up to my brothers and sisters in Christ to reflect on what they had done wrong instead of bemoaning about secularism. Early Christians without political powers didn't need to do this.
13 At the beginning their words are folly;
at the end they are wicked madness—
14 and fools multiply words.
No one knows what is coming—
who can tell someone else what will happen after them?
We like to say we take in the Bible as an integrated and consistent whole. I really don’t know what does it mean and I surmised my brethren don’t really know either. It’s a rhetorical device to call ourselves men of God who live according to the Words. We occupy a higher plane than the unkempt secular world and non-Christians. In actuality we used merely a smidgen of less than 25 verses out of tens of thousand to bludgeon our way through this world. It's very hard on God.
Trump Nation Christians never learned of their sins and repent to realize their role to promote the Kingdom of Heaven and not to promote Kingdom of the Air. Instead they made Christ into a secular King to worship in the altar of Trump. Like the wayward Israelites wondering in the desert, Christians made a golden calve in Donald Trump as well as other artifacts in their haste to create a Promised Land of their own. In the ultimate of blasphemy, Christ was made for the service of Donald Trump.
15 The toil of fools wearies them;
they do not know the way to town.
We can see it in stark relief as Christian cohorts ascended Capitol Hill in January 6, crosses on wheelies in tow, carrying nooses to hang Mike Pence. Christ put on a MAGA cap for the service of King Cyrus Donald Trump.
Satan couldn’t stage such spectacle much better. When Donald Trump become the face of American Christianiy, the power of the Great Deceiver and the reality of Anti-Christ in the Book of Revelation put into stark relief.
Wisdom Better Than Folly
13 I also saw under the sun this example of wisdom that greatly impressed me: 14 There was once a small city with only a few people in it. And a powerful king came against it, surrounded it and built huge siege works against it. 15 Now there lived in that city a man poor but wise, and he saved the city by his wisdom. But nobody remembered that poor man. 16 So I said, “Wisdom is better than strength.” But the poor man’s wisdom is despised, and his words are no longer heeded.
17 The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded
than the shouts of a ruler of fools.
18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war,
but one sinner destroys much good.
It's high time for Christians to heed the words of the Prophets than take in the shout of the Big Holler. Trump Nation Christians must repent before they put American Christianity to ruin. The best evangelical politics could achieve is to be stumbling blocks to our Heavenly Kingdom and the worst sending themselves and their children to Hell, salvation be damned. One sinner in non church-going Donald Trump is destroying much goods done by church-going evangelical sinners. Is it going to be the way? Let's pray not.
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