Jesus and His disciples have just been on the mount of transfiguration. He had shone in that moment of brightness. His three most spiritual disciples had seen Him glorified. The thick, blinding, indescribable effulgence of Jesus' deity pounded into their retinas. Jesus had prayed for strength to endure His Gethsemene test on behalf of humanity, that they might witness a manifestation of His divinity to comfort them in the hour of their supreme agony. God had given it.

There's something wrong when a church bends itself into pretzels to go along and get along. In the world, sure. But not in the church. Jesus is not a plastic Savior; He did not change His tune to fit what was popular in that culture. He took our nails in His flesh—nails which otherwise justly would have pierced us. The wages of sin is death, and we have earned those wages. Jesus intervened and bought our freedom. That didn't take a weak or plastic person; it took a strong and unbending person, relentless in being love.

We haven't always responded to Him with the respect due Him. We get distracted. We forget the price paid and we forget the blessings that are ours as Jesus' redeemed disciples.

Every seven years the fourth of July falls on God's seventh-day Sabbath. God's gift of rest in His salvation on that day coincides with His gift of liberty to the nation of America in 1776. Rare is the worship service where I touch a secular holiday. But it seems timely this sabbath to highlight how special is God's gift of liberty to this nation, as Americans are presently under siege by those who do not love liberty.

The Bible claims that Christians do not grieve as others (1 Thessalonians 4:13). And, of course not. Christians believe that this life is the doorway to eternity. I live now and then I am judged. Afterward comes the resurrection. This life is part--potentially--of a life that will measure with eternity. The Bible teaches not that we are immortal but that immortality is the gift of Jesus to the believer (1 Corinthians 15:53).

In other words, the Christian frame of reference for living takes in today, tomorrow, and eternity. I am accountable for my past actions, my present actions, and I will be accountable for my future actions.

To a hammer everything is a nail. To some nonbelievers, other people are mere objects to be fed into the ideological meatgrinder. They want you to adopt their view of reality--one which, in 2020 America, is almost entirely politicized. We are red state people or blue state people; red state governors or blue state governors; Republicans or Democrats. Had they their way they would hurry us safely into categories of their choosing, marked as allies or enemies. You have to fit into the slots that have been cut into their own minds.

God shows us a better way.

Jesus said that the gates of hell would not prevail against His church. This saying is interesting to consider today when certain voices have classified churches and their services "non-essential." I want to explore these two ideas today, the one, that the church is not essential for the well being of society, and the other, that the church is so enduring that the gates of hell will not prevail against her.

Flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will (2 Timothy 2:22-26 ESV).