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Sarah, our oldest daughter, sent me a loving e-mail awhile back. I have her permission to share part of it with you:

“I am so happy and blessed to have both of my parents alive and living together. It’s something I take for granted sometimes, but I really do feel blessed. I am so happy to have such a great family. I look around at my friends’ families and feel sad for them sometimes. I wish people like (friend’s name) had the luxury of a loving family.

Maybe that is a good idea for your Viewpoints. ‘Cherish Your Family’, if you don’t have one to cherish, then cherish your dear friends. If you see someone who has no dear friends, make them yours. I always feel sorry for people who have no one. It makes me sad. I love you so much Dad. I am truly blessed to have such a great father. Thanks for loving me always! Sarah”

Sarah was being kind in her email as just last week I was extracting a foot from my mouth for being grumpy and rude. The apostle Paul describes the role of “great” parents, “For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory” (I Thessalonians 2:11-12). “But we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children” (2:7).

Sarah understands the meaning of family. Those of us who enjoy a good family are richly blessed. She speaks from the heart of a caring mother as well as a loved daughter. Family is what holds many lives together and gives us needed support. When you find someone without a family circle, it’s time to reach into their life and bring them home.

That’s exactly what God has done for anyone who accepts him. He gives us love, comfort, gentleness, and invites us into his family with every other saved person on earth. In God’s family there is no more loneliness, emptiness, or longing.

Thank you, Sarah.

                                                                                                                                            The Man of Salvation

All my life I’ve heard about the “Plan of Salvation”. In Churches of Christ the preacher closes each sermon by offering the “Plan”. Sinners were encouraged after hearing the Gospel to obey it by acknowledging their belief in Christ, repentance of sins, confession of faith, and baptism in water. These five points: hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized, with the admonition to remain faithful unto death, compose the plan.

I find each of these components in the Scriptures, but I’m no longer satisfied they truly reveal the Plan of Salvation. I think we’ve heard or said this for so long that we’ve developed, as someone wiser than me once said, “hardening of the categories”.

Please don’t misunderstand, I preach each one of these without hesitation, but not as a five finger “Plan of Salvation”. I fear we’ve lifted the “Plan” higher than the man.

I prefer the man of salvation over the plan of salvation. The plan doesn’t save, Jesus saves. The plan is nowhere encouraged to be lifted up, but Jesus is. “Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.  And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself” (John 12:31-32). It is not a plan that we are to exalt, but the man, Jesus.

If that sounds nit-picky, let me remind you of all those who have been rushed to the waters of baptism only to get wet, without ever understanding the necessary commitment demanded  before “The Plan of Salvation”. I’ll let you read and decide for yourself whether the plan or the man is of highest importance.

“Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.  And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
“Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, ‘This person began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (Luke 14:25-33).

It seems to me that the “Plan of Salvation” is invalid without: first, having an unrivaled love for Jesus, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple.” (vs. 26), second, having an unceasing death for Jesus, “And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” (vs.27), and third, having an unqualified renunciation of this world for Jesus, “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples” (vs.33).

It also seems we cannot be a disciple, a true believer, a real follower of Jesus without first coming to a faith that lifts up the man of salvation. After all, it was he who came to seek and save the lost. Could it be our emphasis has been misguided ~ directed to a “Plan” ~ when all along Jesus was saying “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

We said the Pledge of Allegiance every morning in grade school. I’m old enough to remember the day it changed ~ something was added.

In 1954 President Eisenhower encouraged Congress to add the words “under God,” creating the 31-word pledge we say today.

Not everyone likes this addition of “under God”. Atheists, advocates of religious tolerance, and even Jehovah Witnesses have attempted to remove it, some sighting its “reference to a single deity” which also doesn’t sit well with Hindus, Buddhists, and others.

Nevertheless, the Pledge still reads: “I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

Our country has changed in many ways, not always good, not always bad. This writer is thankful that the erosion of our Christian nation, at least regarding the Pledge of Allegiance, is left untouched so far, by those who would take God out of daily life.