restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

The Narrow Way

 David Alan Black 

As mentioned before on this website, man is totally depraved, meaning that there is nothing he can do to save himself. Even the faith he has to believe in Christ is the gift of God, not of works, let any man should boast. If you think that faith is the product of your own ability or will power, then you have completely misunderstood the biblical doctrine of justification.

The easy-believism so rampant in our churches is the result of a faulty view of justification. John MacArthur once spoke of a large church that reported 28,000 conversions in one year. Of these, only 9,000 had been baptized, and only 123 had joined the church. I often hear reports of dozens or even hundreds of people being converted on mission trips without any mention of how many of them were “added to the church.” This deeply concerns me. Jesus did not command us to lead people in the sinner’s prayer. He said, “Make disciples … by baptizing them and teaching them.” True believers, whether new converts or mature saints, will long for the milk of the Word of God and Christian fellowship (Acts 2:42).

In rural Virginia where I live, there are many people who have called themselves Christians for years but who have never truly understood the Gospel. Jesus says, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Sadly, far too many of our “converts” are mad-made. They are the trophies of evangelists who present the Gospel in way that will not offend the flesh.

We can now see the folly and danger of those who distort the Gospel in the cause of their own personal agendas. The true way is narrow, and few there be that find it. If we lead a person to the Lord, then it is our responsibility to see that this newborn baby is placed in a healthy incubator where it can grow. The church must welcome any repentant sinner, no matter what sins he has committed before his conversion, but it must not welcome anyone who refuses to repent. Meaningful discipleship involves sanctification as well as justification, and if a “convert” is not making progress in holiness, he is probably not saved to begin with.

The apostle Paul constantly prayed for the spiritual growth of his converts, that they would grow in love and obedience (Phil. 1:9-11). He emphasized sanctification every bit as much as he did justification. We who are messengers of God’s Word bear a serious burden and responsibility to be faithful to this message. The truth of the Savior’s propitiation must be preached, and preached often and with emphasis, but any attempt to preach Christ without His cross is to betray Him with a kiss.

February 18, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus, please feel free to write Dave.

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

Nader and Peroutka: Throwing a Left-Right Counterpunch at the Establishment’s Jaw in 2004

Mark Dankof

Michael Anthony Peroutka of Baltimore will use a presidential candidacy on the Constitution Party line to make an indelible imprint of his own on the 2004 Sweepstakes for the American presidency and, along with consumer advocate Ralph Nader, may play a kingmaker’s role in determining the eventual winner on the first Tuesday in November. On February 21, the day of his official declaration of intent to seek the presidency of the United States, he spent two hours with Lutheran pastor and free-lance journalist Mark Dankof to discuss the vision and roadmap ahead.

Two hours before the official declaration of his presidential candidacy outside of Baltimore this past Saturday, Michael Peroutka greeted me at his law offices in Pasadena, Maryland. At age 50, with an established law practice, a wife and three children, and full-time activity as an instructor and lecturer for the Institute on the Constitution, one wonders where the time and energy to run as a Third Party candidate for the presidency of the United States will come from. But Peroutka, armed with a Loyola College and University of Baltimore Law School education, an expansive intellect, seemingly limitless energy, and a charmingly disarming personality, would appear equal to the daunting task ahead.

His professional law office is a most interesting combination of literary and artistic classics and an atmosphere of the casually affable. Shelves of books dedicated to law, Christian theology, and American history line the perimeter of the room; the academic degrees on the wall are complemented by portraits of icons of the American historical past like Patrick Henry. An incased Civil War-commemorative Bowie knife with symbols of the mid 19th-century Confederate States of America on the blade and handle suggests other kaleidoscopic dimensions and themes in the Peroutka past and present.

Close friends and family members come in and out of the candidate’s war-room at will. Brother Steve’s jovial, heavy-set appearance manifests itself in the office during one point in the interview. He indicates to his brother that before the latter’s declaration for the presidency in a few short hours, the former has committed to attending a high-school basketball game. Several campaign aides, who look wholesome, naive, and barely old enough to shave, stop in to greet their boss by his first name. Wife Diane telephones to ask her husband routine questions about food, dress, and the afternoon’s impending activities. Later, she and the candidate offer me the opportunity to follow them personally in their white Chevy Astro van to the announcement gala and speech at Michael’s Eighth Avenue restaurant in Glen Burnie. It proves to be a two-vehicle motorcade.

Peroutka’s answers to the interviewer’s questions seem as direct and forthcoming as his persona and the ambience of his law office. The first question is a softball, designed to give the outside world a sense of his mission, his ideology, and the window to his soul. For Michael Anthony Peroutka, one senses that the first two are inextricably linked to the third. Why a heretofore nationally unknown Baltimore lawyer as a viable alternative to George Bush and the Democrats in the first Tuesday of November? The candidate’s demeanor remains affable as he answers, but the steely character of his eye contact with the interviewer suggests the fire that burns within.

My candidacy, and the existence of the Constitution Party itself, have to be seen in the context of a country—and a Republican Bush Administration—careening out of control. We’re in the middle of a constitutionally undeclared, preemptive war in Iraq with no viable occupation policy and no end in sight; a 2.3 trillion dollar federal budget with a 500 billion dollar + deficit; a non-existent immigration policy comprised of open borders and a presidentially declared amnesty for another 12 million illegal aliens; our New World Order NAFTA, GATT, and WTO treaties are exporting American manufacturing, service, and tech jobs abroad while allowing for the importation of cheap Third World labor at home; the USA Patriot Act threatens the civil liberties and constitutional protections of every citizen in this country; Bush’s budget and trade deficits (330 billion with China alone over 3 years) will have a long-term disastrous effect on the value of the American dollar; and we are stuck with activist Federal and State judiciaries trying to usurp legislatures by un-constitutionally imposing a radical, perverted social and economic agenda on the entire country. Our elected officials are not looking out for the interests of the average American or the country as a whole. This is where it is. Time is running out. But I must emphasize—most emphatically for your readers—that all of these terrible policies stem from a root cause: a complete ignorance and disregard for the Constitution of the United States and the underlying philosophy that characterized the Founders.

I became fully aware of how tactfully and skillfully the benevolently shrewd interviewee had maneuvered an experienced interviewer into asking the obviously begged question. Sensing that it would provide the Rosetta Stone of interpretation and understanding of the psyche of the Candidate—and his subsequent exegesis and analysis of every derivative policy position—I acquiesced with, “What are the cohesive philosophical principles in your understanding of the American Constitution, and how do they differ from the policy makers you believe have betrayed the American people?”

Michael Peroutka looked thoughtful as he stood up from his chair and made a purposeful beeline for the office coffee-maker. Pouring pure black octane into his cup, and that of his office interrogator, one sensed the interlude in conversation was a purposeful silence leading to the point he wished to softly brand into the center of the debate which will surround his fledgling candidacy and its public examination between now and the first Tuesday in November. Carefully replacing the pot on the burner and returning to his seat, he reacquired the eyesight line of his counterpart sitting across the expansive wooden desk. Simultaneously, he keenly reacquired the exact point of the conversation, resuming it as effortlessly as he did earlier after the departure of his brother, continuing with the segment of the hour’s conversation key to understanding him and his Constitution Party brethren:

America needs a president who actually applies the Constitution and the underlying principles of the Founders to daily governance. First and foremost, any fair understanding of the Constitution presupposes the acknowledgment of the existence of a Creator God. It must be foundationally emphasized that all fundamental constitutional rights of individuals stem from God and not the State. Government exists to secure these God-given rights for each person. Our rights are constitutionally inalienable only insofar as our acknowledgment of their Divine origin and conveyance. The notion that the State is the source of our rights is incompatible with the notion of the Founders regarding their inalienable, divinely-imparted character. If the State is the source of our rights, it logically follows that the State can always revoke what it has granted. The Federal Government and its allies, in the drive toward a New World Order infrastructure of World Government, are not in the business of securing the divinely-imparted, inalienable rights ensconced in the American Constitutional tradition—they are specifically in the enterprise of controlling and suppressing what used to be a free people. The specific purpose of constitutional government can never be the redistribution of wealth (socialism) or any other version of radical social engineering. And the presupposition of the existence of a Creator God as understood by the Founders preempts the neo-pagan view of Culture and State so pervasive today. Properly understood, it is clear that the prevailing view of the Founders which underscored the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, was that God’s revealed law, along with a proper understanding of natural law, were given absolute priority—to insure that municipal law was in harmony with the first two. This philosophical foundation would eliminate the acceptability in our government and culture of two of the biggest moral blights and cancers of our time—abortion-on-demand and the gay rights movement. Constitutionally speaking, there is no Federal or State court in the land, including the State Supreme Court of Massachusetts, that can make moral or legal what the revealed and natural law of God have made immoral and illegal. This is the bottom line, without equivocation or apology. And (emphasis) I’m not talking about a theocracy. Recognition of the doctrine of the existence of the Creator God and His role in the bequeathing of inalienable rights to the people has no inherent connection to the notion of theocracy as some charge. Freedom of conscience, freedom of religion, and the avoidance of a congressionally declared State Religion of America are all a part of the package of what I believe, and what the American Constitution teaches, foundationally. The charge that either I or the Constitution Party stand on the premises of governmentally induced notions of theocracy is absolutely false—a complete canard.

What would Peroutka do to rein in a runaway, activist Federal judiciary? It’s really simple, you see. I endorse the Constitution Restoration Act (CRA) recently introduced in Congress in the aftermath of the Judge Roy Moore controversy in Alabama. It basically states that; (1) the future jurisdiction of Federal courts in cases like the Supreme Court’s ordering of the removal of the 10 Commandments Monument in Montgomery would be restricted, per Article III of the United States Constitution; (2) United States Supreme Court judges will confine their rulings to what conforms to the United States Constitution, without reference to foreign constitutions or legal precedence established in foreign countries; and (3) Federal judges who consciously and continually ignore their oath of office to uphold the United States Constitution will be summarily impeached. Period.

The proliferation of books in the candidate’s office—and their weighty subjects—suggests a predisposition for personal and professional reading which clearly outstrips that of the incumbent 43d President of the United States. Any recent reading which has informed and enlightened the political and theological world view of the Constitution Party’s new standard-bearer? Michael Anthony Peroutka looks thoughtful before answering.

I read a lot of material, but Thomas DiLorenzo’s The Real Lincoln comes to mind. He makes a convincing case for the fact that slavery, however immoral, should have come to an end in the United States as it did in the rest of the Western, industrialized world—without a war. That Lincoln destroyed Jeffersonianism in favor of an all-powerful Central Government is self evident. He set the stage for the oppressive Federal Leviathan we know today and the presently sick state of an American Empire which has destroyed the Old Constitutional Republic. The statism and globalist orientation of Woodrow Wilson and FDR—to name two—was presupposed by what Lincoln did in the War Between the States. DiLorenzo and Charles Adams, the author of In the Course of Human Events, both recognized and affirmed the truism that Constitutional America lost the War Between the States. Pastor Steve Wilkens of Auburn Presbyterian Church in Monroe, Louisiana, states it succinctly when he says that Lincoln didn’t end slavery, he simply expanded the scope of the plantation—that we are all now slaves of the Central State and the globalist New World Order in partnership with it. As DiLorenzo puts it, Lincoln was the Great Centralizer and Consolidator of Federal power. Now we see the wholesale transfer of federally usurped powers to the United Nations, the World Bank, the World Trade Organization, the Import-Export Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation, NATO, and the like. We have become the classic expression of the Welfare-Warfare State. I would withdraw us from the entire mess. And I think DiLorenzo and Adams would agree with me that Article I, Section 8 and the Tenth Amendment explicitly spell out what the Federal Government of the United States is authorized to do. And outside of that, every single thing it involves itself in is specifically un constitutional. If we understood that, these budgetary and deficit-spending quandaries would resolve themselves. And getting the Central State out of areas that are the prerogative of the individual, the family, the Church, the Synagogue, and other voluntary associations, is the prescription for returning sanity to American government and the people whose God-given rights it should be securing.

How does an American conservative oppose George Bush’s war on Iraq? Peroutka settles comfortably back in his chair with a cup of coffee before continuing the conversational tone and atmosphere of his exposition.

Opposing this thing is a no-brainer. When anybody asks me about this war, aside from the clearly un-constitutional way in which the Chief Executive started this thing—and with faulty intelligence and Congressional acquiescence—I simply tell them to check out the web site of the Project for the New American Century. One can clearly see in the documents posted there that the invasion of Iraq was part of a pre-9/11 agenda that is constantly obfuscated by the stated—and constantly shifting reasons—offered by Bush for the war’s prosecution. Cheney, Perle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld—that entire crowd—are signatories to these policy affirmations from years ago. One day it’s “Weapons of Mass Destruction”; the next day it’s “the freedom of the Iraqi people”; the day after that it’s “nation-building” and “democracy in the Middle East”; and the day after that it’s “Israel and pipelines.” The bottom line is that none of it meets the criteria for war laid down in Article 1, Section 8 of the American Constitution. The immortal words of John Adams come to mind here: “We are the friends of liberty everywhere; the guardians of our own liberty.” Washington’s Farewell Address foreign policy is similarly instructive: “Friendship with all; entangling alliances with none.” Simply put, it is clear that Mr. Bush’s preemptive, offensive war with Iraq is a war in search of a rationale. And the possible expansion of this madness will cost more American lives, money, and international goodwill than we can afford to spend.

The wall-clock warns us that we have only five minutes to go before departure to one of the most significant events in the half-century life of Michael Anthony Peroutka. Searching for a quick concluding query, I finally ask, “What are the bright lights for you as you look at this country? Anything to be optimistic about?” The candidate pauses, then smiles.

My faith and family, of course. And when it comes to America, I guess I’d have to say that the homeschooling movement is a particular source of hope for me where this great country is concerned. The writings of John Dewey, Horace Mann, and Robert Dale Owen remind us that the Government School Movement of the mid-1850s was a breeding ground for the secularism, humanism, atheism, and statism that State-owned institutions inculcate kids in today. The homeschooling movement understands that the primary purpose of education is to train up a child in faith and respect for God as the foundation of all subsequent learning. The home and the family are the proper and only jurisdiction for this—not the State and George W. Bush’s Federal Department of Education.

The conclusion of the interview is followed by Peroutka’s two-hour public event designed to formally announce his candidacy. I am incredulous at the large size of the gathered crowd at Michael’s Eighth Avenue ballroom. There is a small chamber orchestra comprised of a woman on electric keyboard, a man well-versed in wind instruments, another woman with brass, and a fine vocalist who would later begin the official portion of the program by a stirring, operatic version of The Star Spangled Banner. Prior to the beginning of the stage-podium portion of the event, individual diners were treated to a hauntingly beautiful series of melodies, ranging from a poignant tribute to the Old South excerpted from the movie Gods and Generals, traditional Christian hymns, and several extractions from Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos.

During the meal, I am seated next to a young man and wife in their 20s, obviously new to political gatherings and the rubber-chicken circuit. They voted for Bush in 2000, their first year of voting eligibility. Distressed at their own economic plight and the Iraqi War, it had crossed their minds to “. . . vote for Nader. But then friends of ours told us about this man, Peroutka. We decided to drive down here from West Virginia to find out for ourselves.” Their story is repeated throughout the day by large minions outside Maryland, from every section of the United States. The candidate’s speech of formal declaration of presidential candidacy does not disappoint either the faithful or the curious who have gathered—including a handful of print and electronic media reporters carrying note pads and portable TV cameras and lights. This is my first exposure to Michael Peroutka as a stump speaker in front of crowds and cameras. He does not disappoint. His poise and speaking ability betray years of toil as an attorney, lecturer, and political activist on the Right. The crowd is with him and he knows it.

After the speech, Peroutka, like all political candidates and aspirants to the highest office in the land, must answer the media while pressing the flesh of the gathered. The same aura and presence I encountered in the privacy of his law office endures here as well. I cannot decide whether his obvious passion for—and commitment to—his ideas is more admirable than the presence of a quiet compassion for people and spiritual faith which seems to be sensed in the hearts and minds of the well-wishers and searchers found every four years in halls and hotel ballrooms all over America when another presidential election cycle commences. The Peroutka brand of charisma is not the enchanting power of a John Kennedy, but a unique combination of cerebral gifts and quiet, contemplative spirituality which serves to calm and reassure the troubled and the fearful. After answering every press-media question posed, including some from a representative of PBS, the candidate spends the remainder of his time listening to the concerns and travails of people unknown prior to the afternoon’s event. This is followed by individual encounters with old friends and former students from his Institute on the Constitution. I suspect his parents, wife, and children feel the scene and scenario are surreal. Youngsters with Peroutka for President barrels are wading through the crowd looking for initial financial donations. Everything from literal nickels and dimes, $5 and $10 dollar bills, and Federal Election Commission-approved envelopes containing checks and pledges go into the containers from an amazingly diverse group of donors. One suspects that the evangelical doctrine of tithing may be assisting Michael Anthony Peroutka and his vision in this appointed hour.

My final memory of the day is the setting of the sun in the west, accompanied by a beautiful hue of reds, purples, and blues in what remains of an earlier aqua blue dome with billowy white clouds interspersed throughout its wide confines. As dusk approaches, the candidate encounters one more young questioner before calling Campaign 2004’s first day to a halt—a young boy. “Mr. Peroutka!,” the blond-haired, starry-blue eyed junior-high schooler calls out. “My parents love you. They want to vote for you, but they say you haven’t got a chance. Tell them they’re wrong.”

The blond-haired Christian scholar and attorney’s eyes become slightly misted, even as his smile betrays good humor, a fatherly instinct for the young, and a keen sense of the historically ironic. “I don’t believe in chance, young man. I believe in a purposeful Lord who sent His Son and orders every phase and event in our lives. And George Washington told us to raise up the standard–leaving the outcome in the hands of a good and great Creator God.”

February 25, 2004

Mark Dankof is the editor of Mark Dankof’s America at http://www.MarkDankof.com.

For more on Michael Peroutka, see:

http://www.Peroutka2004.com

http://www.constitutionparty.com/party_platform.php

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

The Myth of Republican Conservatism

 David Alan Black 

In a recent essay entitled “Thank You, Tony Blair,” Cal Thomas defended the Bush-Blair axis of hubris with these words:

Saddam must be found and tried for crimes against humanity. Iraq must be rebuilt into a thriving democracy. To settle for less will invite more terrorism and more states seeking weapons to massively destroy, or at least blackmail, the United States and Britain.

Blair’s conclusion [during his July 17 address to Congress] sounded like an old-fashioned Fourth of July peroration: “Tell the world why you’re proud of America. Tell them when ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ starts, Americans get to their feet. Tell them why Americans, one and all, stand upright and respectful. Not because some state official told them to, but because whatever race, color, class or creed they are, being American means being free. That’s why they’re proud.”

“Free” did you say?

Today Americans are bound by the shackles of government interference as never before, and our taskmasters are not just Democrats but Republicans. What we must understand is that socialism and her handmaidens, atheism and secularism, are being promoted by the Republican Party just as much as they were ever flaunted by the Democrats. Gone forever are the days of the clear-eyed, free-market conservatism of Ronald Reagan, who actually sought to limit government, to lower taxes, to promote biblical values, and to create a climate of self-reliance and self-restraint.

The differences between America’s two major parties are purely cosmetic. As 2000 Constitution Party presidential candidate Howard Phillips said, the choice voters face is no longer a choice between the greater of two evils. Both parties are evil, he said. But, he added, “[The Republican Party] is the greater of the two evils, because it flies a false flag.”

I couldn’t agree more.

How can Americans reconcile the difference between Candidate Bush who claimed to espouse traditional American values and President Bush who gave adoption rights to homosexual couples in D.C. and who appointed numerous open homosexuals to high office within his administration?

What should Americans think of a president who campaigned on a promise to avoid nation building and then launched invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq and is about to send troops into Liberia?

And what happened to Candidate Bush’s promises to practice a “humble” foreign policy? They are now scattered about like the debris of a messy divorce, while the U.S. brazenly flexes its military muscle throughout the world (“Bring ’em on!”).

And now the nation is learning something else about Bush that proves something is seriously amiss. It isn’t just the “L” word but a much deeper issue his supporters have been trying to evade for years: the question of character. There is a dangerous “reality gap” between what Bush actually thinks and what he palms off on the nation. Even after the fourth or fifth attempt to pass the buck, the administration still clings to its innocence about the Mis-State-Ment-of-the Union speech.

Little wonder the Democrats are saying that Bush has done more for the fortunes of their party than anyone could ever have dreamed possible.

At the root of Bush’s troubles is not his arrogant management style—which is worrisome enough—but the fact that he does not represent the outlook of traditional American conservatism. Bush has touched the hot button of every ilk of conservative, from free market purists, to social issue conservatives, to right-to-lifers, to anti-tax crusaders.

The Bush administration confirms everything men like Howard Phillips and Chuck Baldwin have been saying for years, which is that the pro-family and pro-freedom movement’s fixation on the White House was a mistake. To think that simply electing George W. Bush to the White House would somehow solve our country’s problems was the height of folly.

The lesson should be obvious. If we conservatives want to control our homes, our children, and our most cherished freedoms, we must throw out once and for all the myth of Republican “conservatism” and demand leaders with personal honor and integrity.

This is one of the reasons we are beginning to hear new voices from Middle America telling us that there is right and wrong, that there is hope to restore the Constitution, and that the values this nation was founded upon are still worth fighting for.

The message to Bush is plain: You are in for an awakening. Through your backing of unconstitutional measures and godless judicial decisions you have rejected God and His role in our national life, and you have lost our support!

And to the American people the message is just as plain. Today the tide is turning. However dark the days may seem, voices of hope and renewal are rising even now. All across this great land of ours the chimes of freedom are ringing louder and clearer.

The most thrilling chapter in the history of America lies ahead.

July 28, 2003

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

My Life Story: Introduction

Becky Lynn Black  

It’s not everyday that an ordinary person writes an autobiography. The chapters that follow have come from my own typing. I suppose that people write about themselves for different reasons. My own desire to write came not too long after my diagnosis with an aggressive uterine cancer. I was not expected to live long, and there was an urge to do as much as I could to impact the world for Christ and His Kingdom.

At the beginning of our Cancer Journey, my husband Dave and I decided to live according to Truth and Transparency. We would embrace all truth (both physical and spiritual), and we would be transparent. The Truth was to help us; the Transparency was to help others.

God has blessed this orientation and commitment. Though we have gotten an occasional email criticizing us for something, in general the response from people has been appreciative and supportive.

And so, I begin this autobiography with the same focus: to tell the truth to the best of my ability, and to be transparent with you.

My goal is simple: that Jesus Christ be lifted up, so that He can draw men and women to Himself, and so that He can generate holiness in their lives.

My life has not been perfect. Is there such a life? I will not pretend that it has been. It has been blessed in many ways, but it has also been touched by sin, as all lives are. You will encounter both the blessings and the sin.

My hope is that, in these chapters, you will see a God who knows, who loves, and who redeems our lives from destruction. If there is anything good that you see in these pages, or that comes to your life through these pages, all praise goes to Him who has known me, loved me, and redeemed my life from destruction.

August 25, 2013

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

My Life’s Goal

 David Alan Black  

I keep hearing nowadays glowing (at times boastful) reports about churches that are growing numerically. Most churches, after all, have a “vision to grow.” To tell you the truth, I have very little interest innumerical size anymore. I’ll teach a class with 3 or 30 or 300 students in it. It doesn’t matter to me in the least. My goal is not class size or popularity. My goal in life, to paraphrase something Kent Smith once said, is to:

1)     Love, hear, and obey Jesus.

2)     Lead others to love, hear, and obey Jesus.

3)     Lead those who lead others to love, hear and obey Jesus.

How awesome! Christianity is all about Jesus! What it all comes down to is this: If you are a Christian, your life must say, “Come, my friends, let’s take our eyes off lesser things and reorient ourselves first to Him. He is worthy!”

So then, as I “re-imagine” church, here’s what I long to see: a congregation who is on fire for Jesus, whose loyalty to Jesus takes precedence over anything and anyone else, whose life centers solely on Jesus, whose every other activity witnesses to this one Jesus, who seeks first His kingdom and righteousness, whose empowerment and direction flow from Jesus, whose every activity is placed on trial before the judgment seat of Christ, who promotes the Christ-centered life, who sits in the shadow of His glory, who exists to minister to the Lord and others in His name, who refuses to “sell” Christ, and for whom the Righteous One is worthy of their focus and attention and obedience forever and ever.

F. W. H. Myers’ magnificent poem about the apostle Paul says it this way:

Christ’s! I am Christ’s! And let that Name suffice you; Aye, for me too He greatly hath sufficed. Lo, with no winning words I would entice you; Paul has no honor and no friend but Christ.

And let’s not forget: This same Jesus asks us to expand our horizon to the whole world, to wrap the entire globe in our arms.

Church, let’s love Jesus! Let’s hear Jesus! Let’s obey Jesus! Let’s get radical for Jesus! Let’s get dirty for Jesus!

If we do this, the church will “grow,” because it will be Jesus who is building it.

August 29, 2008

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

My Horses, My Teachers

 David Alan Black  

At church last Sunday I was kvetching with a fellow philippos about why we love horses so much. Our conversation was a nice break from the nattering and negativity of politics and world events. My horses were always infinitely patient with me and unstintingly generous. I could never have ventured into the joys of Equestrian Society without two very cool-minded hot-blooded geldings.

I’m grateful for what my horses taught me during my all-too-brief 15 year riding career. In the early 1990s our family went to wide and breezy Montana on a camping trip and we passed through Cody, Wyoming on the way. One visit to the local rodeo in Cody and I was hooked on horse flesh. I was a little disappointed to discover that my first horse – an excitable 6 year-old Arabian I had naively bought – was the kind of breed that led to a high number of unplanned dismounts. But eventually Cody and I became a glaring contradiction to the old saw, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” (the “dog” in this case being yours truly).

If anybody needed lots of help in learning to ride it was klutzy old me. Horses walk, trot, and canter intuitively. They are, unlike us humans, notoriously allergic to introspection and analysis. In our riding ring in La Mirada, I fretted that I would never learn to ride as good as Cody could perform his gaits. But eventually all those circuits paid off. Once we moved to North Carolina I could take Cody or Traveler on long rides in the countryside, demonically steering them from field to field as fast as we could go. Galloping Traveler along Hwy 15 always got a delighted horn blast from the passing truckers, while Cody’s dressage movements in our pasture provoked only silent wonder. I’d still be at it today had I not had to make a choice between farming and riding. I simply don’t have the strength or energy to do both any more.

I’ve rummaged around in my mental attic and come up with a few lessons I’ve been taught by my sterling steeds. I’m sure that they never knew they were the tutors and I was their pupil. I may have been quite firmly running the show, but they were the stars. For one thing, on horseback you can forget your stuffed résumé. Poor horsemanship can’t be hidden by bluff or bluster. At times I found the experience of watching myself fail very painful. More than anything, I suppose, I was learning stick-with-it-ness, a virtue required far beyond the world of horsemanship. I often wonder what my horses thought about me. Believe it or not, I always tried to treat them like I imagine Jesus tries to treat us. It begins with a profound understanding of the horse – of his place and purpose in creation, of his natural excitableness, of his love of companionship. It continues with patient and caring horsemanship that regards discipline as the basis for a successful partnership between horse and rider. A good rider is never a whip-wielding dictator, even though he might carry a riding crop (as I usually did). A horse’s energies and talents are best developed by following the pattern of nature – never by involving force.

As in the Christian life, progress in riding can be painfully gradual. The beginner makes rapid improvement and can feel himself advance with each ride. Then the law of diminishing returns kicks in. For the next two or three years the rider must learn how to sit and manage his horse and learn to ride the walk, trot, and canter. Then he can begin jumping and advanced riding. Progress is slow and gradual. Too rapid progress often leads to mistakes and bad habits that are very difficult to overcome. Riding, like living the Christian life, is a persistent and consistent endeavor. The rider must develop a “feel” so that he knows exactly what his horse is doing under him at all times. His actions and reactions must become instinctive. He must never be careless or inattentive to his horse.

Xenophon was right when he said, “Be kind to your horse. Do not be rough and tough with him. Try to show him.” Horses have a right to a fair deal, like people and even nations. Especially if we are at odds with them. We must show people what we expect and give them time to understand. If the horse is to understand you, you must give your aids consistently. In correcting a fault you must try hard to avoid a fight with your horse because he may win. Learn to accept the least concession and quit for the day. Do this gradually and you are in for a treat. Eventually the horse will feel your thoughts through your body. Cody and I were so fully trained that I merely had to think and he did it. But we must proceed slowly through all the lessons or the horse will become upset and break down.

Why does the rider do all this hard work? Why does he apply all this concentration? Only because he believes that, in the end, it will all be worthwhile, repaid by the joy and infinite satisfaction that comes by riding a well-trained and obedient horse. His enjoyment is no longer vicarious. He now has experienced personal success as the result of his labors. He has felt the harmony and thrill of being one with a horse that is doing its very best for him.

I’ll not bore you with any more analogies. If you aren’t a horse person you are probably shaking your head about now. I can identify with you, believe me. That a surfer from Hawaii should have ever become an avid equestrian is a plot twist worthy of Arthur Conan Doyle. It’s hard for me to fathom what my world would have been like without Cody and Traveler. At the very least I hope they taught me a bit of humility and patience. I suppose these lessons could also be applied on the national level. As America enters Operation Eternal War, we will have to decide whether we will lead by fear, aggression, and force of arms or by diplomacy, moderation, and example.

October 2, 2007

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com and the former owner of an Arabian named Cody and a thoroughbred named Traveler (shown below).

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

My Horse, My Friend

 David Alan Black

Yesterday, during a break from doing yard work, I took my dapple gray Arabian for a long ride. Make that a long walk. The ground was too soggy to do anything else. So we departed from custom and did nothing but walk for an entire hour and a half.

A good walk is just as essential as a good trot or canter, is it not? Then why do we neglect it so?

One of the greatest challenges in riding is preserving the horse’s natural gaits, including the walk. In fact, in the 12 or so years I’ve been riding, I have learned that a good rider is the one who seeks always to preserve the horse’s natural movements.

Try this the next time you are near a horse. Observe how he walks, trots, and canters. Note how effortlessly he jumps. See the beauty, the harmony of his movements. That is the way we should ride our horses! When you ride, allow the horse his natural balance – his freedom, if you will. That is the meaning of dressage – or schooling, as we say in America. Just as humans are naturally balanced, so the horse’s body should function in a natural, balanced way. So the key to riding is allowing your horse to be himself, except, of course, that he has you on his back.

Do we give our horse the freedom to be what God made him to be? Do we see him as our slave or as our partner? Do we see our best friend in him?  2400 years ago, Xenophon put it this way: “Force will never produce anything beautiful.” He meant that we cannot use force with our horse if we want him to display his natural movements. Therefore we have to treat him like a friend. If you want to have an easy ride and enjoy yourself, respect your horse. Put him at ease. Avoid making him fight you. Give him his liberty. He must trust you, and then you can trust him.

It was hard for Cody to walk for four miles without breaking into a trot or a canter. Cody is an Arabian – an active, hot-blooded creature. It was hard on me as well. I too enjoy going fast. But there was no sense in exposing my horse to the risk of a torn ligament. We don’t treat a friend that way, and the horse is our friend. And what a friend he can be. My horses have never let me down. They have no treachery whatsoever, and they always return love with love.

The freedom of a Christian has nothing to do with riding a horse, but the same principles apply, do they not? We are free in Christ. But this freedom is never freedom to do what is wrong. It is freedom to be all that God has created us to be.

We are free, but free to do only what is right. The apostle Paul says that believers must “stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made us free” (Gal. 5:1). Paul meant that we are free from works-righteousness. We are accepted by God in the righteousness of Christ. Yes, obedience is required, but it is an enabled obedience. That’s the promise of God’s New Covenant (Jer. 31:31-14; cf. Heb. 8:8-12). Rather than writing His law on tablets of stone, God has written His law on our hearts and minds. And, because we know God personally, no longer do scribes have to teach the law to us. Obedience is now the result of an internal, intrinsic, God-given desire and enablement.

The result is that “the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us, those who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit” (Romans 8:3-4). The very Master who owns us is not ashamed to call us His “brothers” (Heb. 2:11-12) and even His “friends” (John 15:13-14). He said, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you.” A servant must blindly obey his master’s instructions without knowing the purpose or meaning of it; but a friend understands what is happening because friends develop mutual trust and love by communicating with each another.

And so it is with horses. Someone once said that all men riders are dictators. They dictate every step their horse should take. Well, I am not a dictator. My goal is to build up a mutual understanding with my horse so that he submits himself freely to me without a fight. And I exercise him frequently in order to enable him to carry out his different tasks with the greatest ease. By training him in this manner, I get the full benefit of his mental and physical potential.

Just another lesson from my wonderful horses.

September 10, 2004

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. His latest book is Why I Stopped Listening to Rush: Confessions of a Recovering Neocon.

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

My Fight

 David Alan Black  

It seems that Americans are fighting these days about everything – equal opportunity, universal health care, affordable housing, the American way of life, you name it. It’s all over the news. And the DNC isn’t the only one doing it either.

I don’t want to fight for any of these things. I don’t want to solve the problem of suffering. I don’t want to deceive myself into thinking that I can do that. I want to suffer with those who suffer, and by suffering in this way to draw the sufferers to the one way of salvation. Does that make any sense to you?

Christians can never consider health, prosperity, equality, or any such thing as the ultima ratio of living. What would be the meaning of the cross and the resurrection if Jesus-followers were to act just like the world? Christianity is profoundly revolutionary, not because it defends revolution, or because it fights for (or against) causes, or because it promotes “justice” (never defined). Christianity is revolutionary because the Christian acts out of love for the world by proclaiming to it that there is no other salvation than salvation in Christ.

Historians have called this the “radical” reformation. But “radical,” in this instance, does not refer to special social issues. It refers to the degree of thoroughness with which radicals attempt to implement their reforms. It refers to a kind of New Testament ethics that sees humble Jesus-followers as theworld’s most powerful people rather than politicians and heads of state. As with the Zurich radicals, modern-day radicals take the Zwinglian reformation “all the way.” They argue that Jesus’ love cannot be interiorized and individualized to a degree where we elevate politics above the cross. The kingdom of Jesus demands nothing less than radical obedience. Being well-off financially or being poor matters not in this kingdom.

My fight – yes, I am in a fight! – is to wield the Word of God. My fight – and it is intense! – is to sacrifice my life, my money, my success, my time for Jesus. My fight is to walk in Christ’s way, so that His Reign might rule in me and in others.

How am I to overcome the evil in this world? I am to overcome evil by good, to surmount evil even, by using a weapon the enemy knows nothing about. All it requires is sacrificial love and costly obedience.

What fight are you in?

August 27, 2008

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com.

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

My Father’s Daughter

Kelly Brown

This little article is dedicated to my father, who wasn’t going to be content with just reading the scriptures, but in living them out every day…no matter the cost.  He has inspired me to live the holy way, and not what might seem to be the easy way. I love you.

My son, keep your father’s command, and do not forsake the law of your mother.

Bind them continually upon your heart; tie them around your neck.  When you roam, they will lead you; when you sleep, they will keep you; and when you awake, they will speak with you.  For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light.  (Proverbs 6:20~23)

Every time I read the above verse, I am made to stand in awe at the power of God’s word.  The trueness of the scriptures is so comforting, and the seriousness of the Lord’s commands to us, so humbling. I have experienced this verse, and continue to experience it daily.

Through no strength of my own, God has given me a heart for the commands of my father and the law of my mother.  And I have found that as I have striven to please my earthly father, as well as my heavenly Father, by obeying this verse, that not only have I obtained a heart for honoring my parents, but I have also come to make those commands and laws my own.  This, my friends, is a testimony of God’s goodness.

As I observe the convictions and the passions for the things of God in my earthly father, I begin to make myself available more, in helping him.  Walking beside him in his ministry; asking for ways I can help him, and praying for him.  I want to know more about what he believes.  I want to know why he believes the things he does.  As I come to understand more and more each day the kind of “unit” that a family is to function in, I find myself wanting to be involved more. 

The beautiful thing is that as I begin supporting my father in his God given ministry, I find that his convictions are becoming my convictions, his passions my passions.  I daily have to bind them on my heart and tie them around my neck. For example, I saw how important the scriptures were to my father, and so I began studying them more, myself.  I could see how seriously he took the restoration of the family in America, and so I began to read about it, talk to him about it, pray about it; and now I long for restoration too! I knew the convictions he held regarding leaving a God honoring legacy to the next generation, and so I found myself striving after that in my own life as well. I began thinking multi-generationally. 

After ending a conversation, people began telling me how much they heard my father in me.  “I can hear your dad talking when I listen to you, Kelly!” They laugh, and inside, I feel ten inches taller.  I want to sound like him.  I want to be like him.  The reason for this?  I believe it is because I take seriously that verse.  I know that God has given me my father for the very specific reason of guiding me through my early years of life, helping me to see clearly the very narrow road before me, and offering me a light,  that will help to guide.  It is the same light he uses as he walks that road; and so we walk together. 

“Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet.  Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired, and success achieved.” (Helen Keller’s Journal)

There have been times when I haven’t understood the commands of my father; they haven’t made sense to me, nor have they seemed necessary.  I can remember times when a certain issue would come up in our family that my father had strong convictions about.  He would sit us down, talk it through with us, ask our opinions, pray with us, etc; and oftentimes, they were things that made me squirm!  They made me uncomfortable, because I knew that if I responded in the right way, it would require change in my life; I would have to go out of my comfort zone, and die to myself!  (Who wants to do that?) 

For example: One struggle I had a particularly hard time with the issue of girls’ clothing.  My father began to feel more and more uncomfortable with allowing us to dress by the world’s standards.  Not to say that our clothing was immodest, but that it didn’t portray my father’s understanding of the beauty and purity of godly femininity.  Also, he believed girls should dress distinctively from boys.  I always thought that I understood the saying, “The way you dress will tell people about your world view,” until this issue came up.  This issue made me think very, very hard about that saying; and compelled me to ask the question: “Do my clothes make me look set apart? (Which is what I’ve been called to do, be “set apart.”)  Do they paint a picture of what I believe?”   Unfortunately the answer for me, was no, they didn’t.  Now, this was a question that came after time.  When my father first asked my sisters and I if we would please start wearing more feminine clothing, I think I burst into tears.  “The way I dress isn’t that big of a deal, as long as it’s modest!”  I thought.  This is only one example out of the few our family has dealt with.

Out of all the members in my family, I am probably the most opinionated and strong willed.  My mother and siblings have never had quite as hard a time with these issues as myself.  Although they don’t always understand, they’re more willing to accept the direction of my father without complaint.  I, on the other hand, have a tendency towards questioning what he says. “Why?” I want to know. “Why is what you say right?  What if I don’t hold the same conviction you hold in this area?  Why do you have to make choices that will make our family so different from everybody else?  Why?”  (Sound familiar?)

There are many, many things I appreciate and admire in my father, but one of the things that has meant the very most to me is the way he responds to my selfish questions.  “I know this doesn’t make any sense to you,” he would often say.  “But because I feel so strongly in this area, so convicted by the Lord, I’m asking you to trust me. I know it won’t be easy, but I need the support of my family in this.  I’m sorry it’s painful, but I love you.” 

You would think that after hearing this response to my complaint I would be stuffing my mouth with humble pie…but only partly.  I would obey, but not for the best of reasons.  I wasn’t sure of very many things, but this I knew: If I claimed to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, then I had no choice but to obey the commands of my father; and so I would find myself saying, “Lord, I don’t understand this at all!  My flesh is not willing, and so I need your help.  Give me a heart that trusts in you even when I don’t understand.” 

At that point would begin the long process of slowly handing everything over to the Lord.  Spending much, much time in prayer, trying with everything in me to surrender what I wanted for my life, knowing that I was being selfish. 

I don’t want to be afraid of handing my life over to God.  I know people who are miserable, because they live their lives in fear of what might happen if they do give everything to God.  “He might make me do things I don’t want to do!” When I hear things like this, my heart cries out to them, and I think to myself:  “Oh God, give me a desire to be taken anywhere, a desire to do anything that you would ask of me.  I want to be able to look at the future and smile, knowing that it will bring all kinds of surprises from you.  I want to look forward to the ways you will stretch me, the ways you will change me, and the ways you will sanctify my soul, so that I might be more like your Son; and right now, help me to be content in knowing that You are revealing things to my father, for our good.”  

After having thoughts like this going through my mind, during these times I wish I could tell you that there was an immediate change.  I wish I could tell you that I never complained again, that I trusted without question and lived happily ever after.  But the truth is that these things had to be worked on by the Lord in my heart over a period of time. It was a matter of dying to myself every time the issue came up. It was a time of soaking myself in the word of God, seeking wisdom, direction, and guidance. 

As I look back now on all those issues that made me squirm, a smile comes over my face because now they fill me with gratefulness to the God of the universe.  I’m so thankful that He would choose to enlighten my eyes to the truth of God’s word, a truth that so many people don’t know!  I even have a whole soap box on dressing feminine now.  It’s a strong conviction I hold. You see, because I was faithful in obeying, even when I didn’t understand, God blessed me with a change of heart.  Not only do I obey and honor the commands of my father and mother, the convictions they hold are convictions I hold now!  My heart was melted, and God convicted me in those same areas my father had conviction in.  I can hardly believe myself (knowing where I came from) when I hear myself telling my mother, “Mama, even if you and Papa took back all of those convictions you hold, and said that we could make our own choices about those things, I wouldn’t change!  I would go right on doing those things you requested of us, because I believe so strongly in them now.”  Only by the grace of God can I say that today, and by the grace of God that verse holds true in my life. The commands of my father and the laws of my mother are in my mind and in my heart all the time. When I sleep, they comfort me, and when I’m awake, they speak with me. They do so because God promised they would…if I would trust in them. 

Postscript: 

I understand that some of you may be asking this question after reading my testimony:  “What if I don’t have a father that is involved?  What if my father isn’t guiding me in that way?  How can I be shaped and challenged?” 

I can say this: If this is the case in your life, I would encourage you to find a godly man that knows God’s word and loves God’s word.  A man you can trust.  Maybe it’s an uncle, a grandfather, or a pastor.  Ask him to shepherd you.  Maybe it’s your mother. 

A man once asked his father why he loved the scriptures so much, how come he knew so much about what the Bible said; and his father answered this way:  “When I was a young boy, my father died, and the only other father I had was my heavenly one. I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could and get to know him. I read, and read, and read God’s word.” 

Oh, ladies, if nothing else, do this. Immerse yourself in God’s word.  Soak yourself in it.  Develop a taste for the word of God by reading it continually.  The Lord will bless your obedience.  He will convict your hearts and challenge your thinking.  He will cause you to grow…if you trust what He says.

August 5, 2004

Miss Kelly Brown is the daughter of Scott Brown, an elder at Trinity Baptist Church in Wake Forest, NC.

Back to daveblackonline

   restoring our biblical and constitutional foundations

My Big Fat Greek New Testament

 David Alan Black 

Now here’s a title for a new movie. It’s based on Ephesians 2:20. Actually, on a stone that simply will not move. It’s the foundation of the church, and it’s a doctrinal foundation.

Take a look at the church today. It is built upon everything but a doctrinal foundation. The word of the apostles and prophets will hardly suffice for purpose-driven Christians. We need a “new” foundation, people say. Preferably one without a Christological focus. And certainly one without Christ as the cornerstone.

Call it “Neo-Christianity.” Call it a “No-Cost Church.” Call Him a “God of Convenience.” Tell people they don’t need truth – they need a BHAG, a “Big Hairy Audacious Goal.” Do you want to succeed? It’s easy. Just adopt the principles of Harvard Business School.

This has become the age of the sermonette. And sermonettes produce Christianettes. The standard of teaching in our churches is deplorable. There are few great pastor-teachers today. Our dictum is, “Do anything you can to get them to walk the aisle.”

Before there can be any true revival in America there must be a true revival of commitment to the Word of God – to the “all things” Jesus commanded us to obey (Matt. 28:19). He is the cornerstone of truth. And because of the faithfulness of His apostles and prophets, we have a sure word from God (Eph. 2:20).

The New Testament is our authoritative constitution. It is sufficient for all our beliefs and for all our practices. If I were to ask you why you do things the way you do in your church, would the answer be “Because it was done that way in the New Testament”? Apostolic principles and practices, my friend, are not optional; they are obligatory.

Jesus loves His Bride. He gave Himself for her. It is His institution. There is nothing on earth more important to Him. Why, then, do we have so many church leaders who are well taught in every area of doctrine but the church?

Could it be we are neglecting our Big Fat Greek New Testaments?

April 18, 2005

David Alan Black is the editor of www.daveblackonline.com. If you would like to know more about becoming a follower of King Jesus, please feel free to write Dave.

Back to daveblackonline