ThinkingInColor

Why the Single-Payer Health Care System Will Not Work 

The missing ingredient in the logic of single-payer healthcare proponents is extremely simple:  human behavior.  Their proposed system can only work if they can count on each player in the chain of health care events to behave exactly as they assume he or she will.  If anyone refuses to perform at his or her minimum, prescribed levels, everything falls apart.  

The statist mind has no problems in making such assumptions.  Players in the system are robot-like droids with on-off switches to govern their behavior.  Congress passes the law, and voila!  All switches turn on.  The machine purrs along precisely as planned.  Congress watches over the equipment with tiny screwdrivers to tweak it here and there, turn this up slightly from time to time, turn that down slightly from time to time, and that’s all there is to it.  It’s beautiful!  Everybody is happy!

Problem.  These robots don’t exist.  They never will.  That means that nasty human beings are doing what the robots are supposed to do.  These human beings are downright impossible to control.  If they don’t get what they want, when they want it, they reach up and turn their switches off.  And they are never satisfied.  The pay that motivated them a year ago no longer suffices.  They want raises, bonuses and perks.  The levels they performed at a year ago no longer hold true.  They do less and less and want more and more for it.  It’s maddening.

And so, let’s superimpose this template on the single-payer health care system and see what happens.  First, we have to identify the players.  To keep it simple, I will reduce it to six representative cogs in the system:  Society, congress, the taxpayer, the bureaucrat, the healthcare provider and the patient.  Will each of these players behave according to the prescribed guidelines?  Will they increase their demands or decrease their productivity?  Will they progress according to projected statistical norms?  Critical relationships exist between all the players and this interdependency cannot be overstated.  In the physical world, for example, if water doesn’t boil at 212 degrees or freeze at 32 degrees, the entire ecosystem will be thrown into chaos.  In a system as critical as health care delivery, if any player falls below minimums or exceeds maximums, chaos ensues. 

Society.  Societies are dynamic, not static.  Nearly any category we consider is capable of undergoing telling changes.  What happens if the labor pool is impacted by an excessive number of young and inexperienced workers coming into the system, an excessive number of retirees leaving the system or too many workers have earned benefits that exceed the optimum level that the system can sustain?  What if the population migrates to urban areas in significant numbers?  What if we suffer a major epidemic that affects millions of people?  What if we have another 9/11?  Moreover, social policy can have profound consequences on a society, e.g. abortion.  Since becoming legal in 1973, over fifty million citizens are missing from the population.  That represents a shrinkage in numbers of nearly 20%.  Who would dare postulate that abortion has made little or no difference in the state of the nation?  The point is that needs, trends, shifts and developments that occur in society do not happen in a vacuum.  

Congress.   Legislative bodies frequently pass laws that deliver unintended consequences to the constituency.  In taxation, the power to tax entails the power to encourage, restrict or punish the consumers of the taxed commodity.  For example, a tax hike of one dollar on Product A that sells one million units does not—as statists apparently believe—equal one million dollars.  Why?  Because the tax dampens interest in the Product A or puts it out of range for enough people that it may only raise a half million dollars.  Those who do buy Product A may not be able to buy Product B anymore, thus the tax generated by Product B is lost.  In the end, the tax revenue going to the government increases by very little, but those who manufacture and sell both products—and their workers—are deeply affected.   Real life examples abound in agriculture, energy, food processing, automobile manufacturing, construction trades and so on. Health care, in fact, may serve as the prime example of this occurrence.   What if congress bans a product or procedure in the health care industry, an action which occurs on a regular basis?  Shock waves reverberate through the industry, and health care practitioners may be forced to prescribe a more expensive substitute or perform a more costly procedure than the one now banned. 

The Taxpayer.  I have already alluded to the change in behavior of the taxpayer as a result of a tax hike.  (By the way, the taxpayer is not a nameless, faceless statistic somewhere on the face of the earth.  I am the taxpayer.  You are the taxpayer.)  The taxpayer is the one who makes all the government programs and policies viable because we fund them all.  For ease of communication, I will speak in the first person singular in this paragraph.  I don’t like paying taxes.  I avoid paying them as much as is legally possible.  If the government keeps narrowing my legal loopholes to force me to give it more and more of my money, it will change my behavior.   

Let me illustrate.  If I work hard enough to make one hundred dollars an hour (I don’t), then I want to keep as much of that as possible.  If the government now says that I have to give it forty of those one hundred dollars, I have less incentive to make the one hundred dollars.  Why should I work at a hundred dollar pace to make sixty dollars?  Instead, I will give my employer a sixty dollar hour because that’s all I am going to get out of it.  Each time my taxes go up, I have less reason to work harder.  At some point, I don’t have any motivation to work at all because the government is going to take so much of it that it doesn’t matter anyway.  

Studies in behavioral sciences demonstrate this very clearly.  If a monkey gets an electric shock every time he reaches for a piece of food, he will continue reaching only as long as the satisfaction of his hunger is greater than the pain of the shock.  When the pain of the shock becomes greater, he will choose to die of starvation rather than risk the electrical shock.  That’s what I will do.  

And guess what?  The government is not going to let me die of starvation.  It is going to force some other taxpayer (you) to work for me and give me your money.  You are now going to support me.  You are going to pay for my open heart surgery, my oncology treatments and my medications.   You are not going to do this, are you?  Let me guess what you are going to do.  You are going to quit working and let the government force some other taxpayer to take care of both of us.  If this keeps up, when are we going to run out of taxpayers?  I hope we never do.  Would you call that a wild, unfounded assumption?  Hey!  You’re starting to get it. 

The Bureaucrat.  The bureaucrat has a nice job.  He doesn’t know you or me.  We are just numbers to him.  He doesn’t have to worry about making a profit or a loss to his employer.  He has job security; he gets substantial raises automatically; he needs little aptitude and even less personality. He just has to keep the boss happy.  His boss cannot suffer politically for any decision or action that he makes or takes.  If he can avoid that, he’s in for life.  The bureaucrat need not be particularly bright or extraordinarily competent; in fact, too much competence can get him fired.  The bureaucrat makes decisions every day.  He decides whether or not I have to pay a tax, a fine, a fee, a tariff, a duty or a levy.  He decides whether or not I get the surgery I need from the doctor I want or if it is too expensive at my age.  It all depends on the budget of his agency and the availability of the surgeons.  He decides whether or not I qualify for an exemption, a privilege, a special consideration, a restricted status, an admission into a program or a payment.  He can pay me, charge me, stonewall me, ignore me, deny me or throw the book at me.  He can go as fast as he wants to or as slow as he wants to.  

What motivates the bureaucrat?  Little or nothing.  If he thinks I am a political nightmare for him, I might get my way.  If I am an obscure little nobody, he has no pressing reason to do anything for me.  He is guided by his political calculus and his budget—period.  At five o’clock, his lights go off and don’t come back on until eight o’clock the next morning—unless it is one of eleven federal holidays or one of thirteen sick days or one of twenty-six vacation days he gets.  Most of us despise the bureaucrat but we all have to work with him and through him.  As long as there are government programs, there will be bureaucrats.  As long as the government gets bigger, there will be even more bureaucrats.  

Will a government run, single-payer health care system overload the bureaucracy?  From our standpoint, yes.  From the perspective of the bureaucrat, no.  He continues at a steady pace.  Studies show that he takes care of a certain number of customers on average.  He has no need to beat the average.  Those he doesn’t get to will be handled tomorrow.  It really doesn’t matter if there are ten people or a hundred people in line.  He moves at his own pace.  Anyone who dies in line will be handled by another bureaucrat.  It’s just easier that way. 

The Health Care Provider.  The health care providers—the doctors, nurses and hospitals—bear the brunt of the single-payer system.  They have to deal with both the bureaucrats on the one end and the patients on the other.  Pressure from both sources will become increasingly intolerable.  Anticipating this colossal overhaul of the system, many would be health care professionals are already choosing alternative careers.  (More about this in a moment).  They understand that the demand for service will go up with the addition of millions of previously uninsured consumers to the clientele pool.  At the same time, they know that they will be forced to negotiate with one source of all their income:  the government run by bureaucrats.   

When the government has no competition, they essentially own a monopoly over the industry.   All the bad things that corporations did a hundred years ago when monopolies were legal will be repeated by the government all over again.  They will force providers to submit to their demands.  They will pay when and how much they want to.  Anyone who doubts this must remember that everything is a function of the budget, regardless of a policy that sets the standard rates for all medical procedures and medications.  If the health care providers don’t get satisfaction, where can they run for relief?  Another government agency, of course—also run by bureaucrats.  Whistleblower laws?  Not likely.  Complaints will be moved to the second Tuesday of next week.  

Health care providers will be pushed into ethical dilemmas on a daily basis.  Will they sign off on a patient who needs a procedure that the system will not pay for?  Will they fail to schedule vital tests that are necessary for a correct diagnosis?  Will they factor in a patient’s age, gender, race, abilities or aptitudes in their decision to treat?  Will they walk away from a patient that could be cured but will not receive treatment because of non-medical factors? 

Back to career choices.  If fewer American citizens opt for a career in the medical profession because of low pay, the flood gates will swing open wide for foreign doctors and nurses.  Will their educational background be on par with U. S. doctors?  Will foreign health care professionals with specialties that don’t match the precise openings in the U. S. be allowed to practice here as a way to get a foot in the door?  Will the quality of health care go down as a result?  A nod in the affirmative seems likely for all questions. 

The Patient.  Patient behavior under a single-payer system will change from the status quo.  First, anything offered for free precipitates a flurry of activity in almost any field.  If patients know that the visit to the doctor, a trip to the emergency room or the dispensing of medications will not cost them any out-of-pocket expenses, they will access these services in record numbers.  This is known behavior, proven by hundreds, even thousands of years of observing how markets operate.  Why do retail outlets lower prices and have sales?  Because it works!  People flock to cheap and free.  Medical care will be no different from the typical marketplace experience. 

Second, free health care will encourage patients to remember—even manufacture—other medical conditions that need to be diagnosed and treated.  Conditions that were ignored or dismissed for years will suddenly become acute problems that require professional attention.  

Third, when health care becomes a right instead of a privilege, the level of legal involvement necessarily escalates.  For example, if the government denies certain treatments for too many persons diagnosed with the same condition, red flags will go up and class action lawsuits will pop up everywhere.  At the very least, test cases will be tried in jurisdictions all over the country until one of them yields the result that the lawyers were looking for.  Jurists will not be the doctors’ friend.  Why?  Because the primary reason that single-payer health care was passed into law was to extend health care coverage to the little guy who was shut out of the previous system.  In the end, I believe that the little guy will prevail in the courts.  

As a matter of fact, we have single-payer systems in place now.  Veterans receive their care through this kind of a system.  So do Native-Americans.  Medicare is a hybrid, but it depends on government support as the major payer.  If you were to ask those who are involved in this system if they like the way it is working, you will get a resounding NO!  Requests for reimbursements by insurance companies and billings from doctors offices and hospitals meet with the same interminably slow pace and illogical decisions that will surely become the norm for any future single-payer system.  Many doctors would be forced out of business if they had to depend on Medicare patients for all of their income.  The government pays pennies on the dollar for procedures and treatments. 

Those who believe in single-payer systems are either hopelessly naïve or maliciously attempting to destroy the finest health care system in the world.  I predict that if the government succeeds in taking over the health care industry, it will fall into shambles sooner than we could imagine.  

So what do we do about health care?  Doing nothing is better than the present proposal.  Yet, we don’t have to do nothing.  In a subsequent post, I will discuss some solutions that have a good chance of working.  Let’s not destroy what we’ve got in the dim hopes of getting something better.  Nearly two-thirds of Americans dislike the plan now before the congress.  Throwing them overboard will be a mistake that may be our undoing.

Ninety-two years ago today, that would be January 7, 1918, my Mother was born in Indianapolis, Indiana.  She now lives at the Goerlich Center, a facility for Alzeimer’s patients, in Sylvania, Ohio.  Happy Birthday, Mother!  The picture at the keyboard was taken when she was probably in her mid-forties.  Here are some more pictures of her and various family members.

Communism is about to kill the goose of capitalism in order to get the golden egg.  After dinner, it will relax, pick its teeth and belch, too stupid to fathom the loss of future golden eggs.

The economy is human behavior that can no more be controlled than human psychology or sociology.  

Communism:  Government for Dummies

In communist governments, dummies who are not smart enough to produce decide who will produce and what will be produced.  The smart people end up leaving the system. 

Communism is the modern equivalent to pre-Civil War slavery.  One family owns the plantation; all the slaves work for  their food, clothing and shelter.  Slaves who want more than these necessities are greedy, selfish and evil.  The master decides who gets rewarded, who gets special privileges, and who lives or dies.

Communists bad-mouth capitalists, but when communism wins over capitalism, the new capitalists are the communists!

He controls the most is to be feared the most.

The more help you get from government, the less you will help yourself.

Big government first helps, then supports, then finally controls.

Big government is worse than big business because big government has armies and voters to enforce its rules.

           From the department of practicality, we need to address this question: Who are the people most likely to be used in church services?  Do pastors, music directors and ministry leaders have favorites or do they apply certain rules of usability to everyone?  Should those who sing, play or speak better than others be used without regard to anything else?  Generally speaking, those who choose participants for worship services or ministries operate on a set of criteria that is the same for everybody.  If you want to be used, you should prepare to pass the usability test.

            Ability.  Do you have the ability? Let’s face it: if you have little or no talent or innate ability for music, teaching, leadership or whatever traits are necessary for a given ministry, give it up.  Don’t make yourself and everyone else miserable by pretending to have some ability when you really don’t.  If you are being used and someone comes along who has more ability than you, gladly and graciously surrender your position for the good of the whole church.

            Availability.  Do you have the time?  If you have a sporadic work schedule or are faced with some other situation you can’t control, then availability may pose a problem for you.  Anyone who professes to have a ministry must make it a priority.  That means you must sacrifice other activities you would like to do because of a ministry you are called to do.  If ministry is truly a priority for you, then it is up to you to make yourself available. 

            Reliability.  Do you have the commitment?  “Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).  Once you make a commitment to do ministry, your faithful execution of the task becomes paramount.  Most leaders will tell you that nothing is more important than faithfulness.  If you are asked to do something two or three times but fail to show up, you probably won’t be asked again. 

            Teachability.  Do you have the temperament?  Anyone who possesses a great desire to do something should also want to continually improve.  This calls for an openness to be coached, corrected, calibrated and changed in accordance with the leader or director who is in charge.  Even if you don’t totally agree with his or her style, your willingness to adapt has a great deal to do with your usability.  Every practice or training session must not turn into a tension-filled ordeal simply because you are not teachable.  To be effective in your performance, you must get on the same page as the leader.

            Accountability.  Do you have the character?  Having the ability and showing up on time at each practice or performance constitutes only part of the usability profile.  Basic Christian standards of character and behavior are absolute requirements.  If your discipleship is under question, you become a liability to the ministry team.  Moreover, many churches abide by certain platform standards that apply to anyone who a part of the worship team or music ministry.  If you take your ministry seriously, you must conform to these rules.

            Sociability.  Do you have the attitude?  Those involved in ministry must often work together with other people to get the job done.  You must be able to cooperate with others without insisting on having your own way all the time, being jealous or stubborn, or allowing or a competitive nature to dominate your attitude.   

            Possibility.  Do you have the spirituality?  Possibility has a direct correlation to faith in God.  Jesus said, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).  Without being saturated with God’s power, ministry can become a matter of technicalities or carnal considerations. But the anointing of the Holy Spirit is far more meaningful than anything we can do.  We ought to do everything in our power to make things excellent.  At this point, however, the spiritual possibilities through faith in God take our ministry into the dimension of God’s power.

            Leaders sometimes have to make hard choices.  They have to consider the feelings of the people they deal with in making their decisions, and they don’t always feel comfortable explaining the real reasons behind the choices.  Their job would be far easier if each prospective participant in ministry would understand this set of simple criteria.  Those who don’t understand will probably always be hurt or frustrated.  Those who meet each of these requirements will probably always have a place in ministry.  

It used to be so simple.

Tell the truth.  Honesty is the best policy.  A man is as good as his word.  You lie, you fry.

                No more.  Integrity, we are told, is old school.  Billed as a repressive value of a dying culture, a culture rooted in hypocrisy and phony idealism, it deserves our scorn.  Nobody believes that stuff anymore.  Funny thing about integrity, though.  The less we have of it, the more we long for it. 

                Professional athletes, one in particular whose name dominated the news at the close of 2009, but certainly not the only one, have been pilloried unmercifully in the press for their lack of integrity.  Political careerists, televangelists, church leaders, entertainment personalities, executives of international conglomerates, military brass, university professors, high school teachers, doctors, lawyers, judges and on and on have constantly had their dirty laundry hung out to dry.  (One has to wonder if the media types who traffic in this garbage are themselves as pure as the driven snow!)  Cheaters, infidels, embezzlers, frauds and liars—one is tempted to quote the scripture:

                “There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways: And the way of peace have they not known: There is no fear of God before their eyes.”  Romans 3:10-18.

                It seems unthinkable that anyone should be confused about something as basic as honesty and integrity.  For one thing, the Scriptures speak with such stark clarity about these matters that all of us should be solidly convinced.  But beyond that, common sense, the human conscience or the fear of consequences ought to serve as powerful deterrents to dishonesty.

                But, the carnal nature is too devious for such simplistic views.  The truth is that too many people find ways around the truth.  Moreover, they have discovered that they can define truth in many different ways.  They can have their own truths.  So, what is infidelity to one is merely creative therapy to another.  Or, what is lying to one is simply “truth in a larger, more meaningful context” to another.  What is fraud to one is “justifying a previous generation’s injustices” to another.  Look at the following excuses our culture often offers up for dishonesty:

                Managing impressions: Some believe they have the right, or even duty, to control their publicly perceived image.  If it means misrepresenting facts, withholding information or embellishing an image, it’s okay.  Agenda-driven actions:  Goals thought to be worthy or noble enough cause people to “sell” them by exaggerating, hiding or manipulating facts.  “Yes, I lied, but it was necessary to get the right outcome.”  Protection:  Some deflect threats to their persons, families, possessions, or finances by dishonest means.  They call it self-defense.  Context:  Those who champion the causes of the oppressed, aggrieved or injured often justify wrongdoing by reversing blame.  They believe the context of past wrongs in which their actions take place cancels out any moral turpitude of their own.  Competition:  Pressing for an edge in position or recognition leads some to believe that fairness is all that matters; eye for eye, tooth for tooth; get them before they get you.  Other excuses include greed, selfishness, prejudice and various forms of the works of the flesh.

                For the world, these equivocations come as no surprise.  It does shock us, however, that some professing believers would handle the Scriptures the same way.  But, we have been warned.  Peter wrote, “They that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other scriptures, unto their own destruction.”  2 Peter 3:16.  Also, Paul admonished Timothy, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  2 Timothy 2:15. 

                Someone has defined honesty as our relationship with others; integrity is our relationship to ourselves.  Integrity drives honesty.  As pastors, ministers, organizational and church leaders and saints, I am extremely concerned that we maintain our basic integrity because it determines the way we deal with each other.  This is more than a platitudinous “be good,” an insistence on doctrinal correctness or cosmetic conformity.  In a very real sense, integrity represents the backbone of the church and the organization.  It is believability, trust, shared conviction and good faith interaction.  It’s the “I’ve got your back” kind of commitment.

                Apostolic people who attend congregations in fellowship with the United Pentecostal Church, International should be very grateful for the integrity that exists among our ministers.  Our organization maintains a high standard for our ministers.  We ask them to sign an affirmation statement every two years that vouches for their integrity.  With few exceptions, we continue to embrace the same devotion to the expectations of the Scripture and the agreed upon provisions of our ministerial manual that we always have.

                Such vigilance is encouraged by the words of the Apostle Paul:  “In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.”  2 Corinthians 11:26.  He likens false brethren to every kind of danger imaginable.  Everything falls apart when there is no integrity to cement it together.  And so, when a saint interacts with a pastor, there should be absolute trust in each other’s character.  When ministers talk among themselves, there should be no question as to the motive, intent or substance of the conversation.  Everything we do must originate with who we are. 

                Should it be a struggle?  Yes.  Good comes from struggle.  It forces self-examination, realignment and re-commitment.  The maze of confusing new issues, the shifting sands of popular beliefs and pressure of insincere voices make the struggle necessary.  At day’s end, when the struggle briefly abates, we must always make sure that our integrity remains intact. 

                 “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”  Psalm 51:6.            

I found myself embarrassed the other day.  Looking through my sizable collection of books for something on love, I discovered about three books, and two of them were marginal.  I was stunned that the one word that encapsulates Christianity has such poor representation in my library, and perhaps in our literature.  I wonder if our practical Christianity suffers from the same impoverishment.  I know this: if we major on doctrine, discipleship and ecclesiastical knowledge at the expense of genuine love, we will fail to rise to the full measure and stature of Christ. 

This point may be best illustrated in a scene at the sea of Galilee, about seventy miles north of Jerusalem, as Jesus spend His waning hours on earth.  The horror of the crucifixion and the glory of the resurrection were hardly a week old.  Many of us aren’t aware of this, but between Resurrection Morning and the Day of Pentecost, the disciples had traveled all the way home to fish, about four days journey.  They certainly didn’t expect to see Jesus so far from Jerusalem.

Jesus stood at the water’s edge and called out to the disciples, including Peter, who were fishing from their boat, “Children.  Have ye any meat?”

The last person Peter wanted to see was Jesus.  He had seen Him since He rose from the grave, but we have no record of reconciliation or any even conversation between the Master and His disciple.

                The real drama now begins to play out.  The disciples admitted they had caught nothing, so Jesus tells them to try the other side of the boat.  Their obedience was rewarded by a huge catch.  When they waded ashore, Jesus invited them to come and dine.  He had already prepared a meal of bread and fish over a bed of hot coals.  He then asked them to bring the fish that they had just caught.  Peter dragged the net full of 153 fish to the little camp. 

The disciples sat around the fire picking the meat from the bones and eating, but nobody dared to ask if this person who prepared the meal was really Jesus.  It was a strange, suspenseful moment.  Adding to the tension was the fact that not a word had been exchanged between Jesus and Peter.  It doesn’t take much imagination to sense the awkwardness that filled the air.

                When they finished eating, Jesus slowly turned his head around the group, finally settling His gaze on Peter.  Beads of sweat broke out on his flushed face.  “Here it comes.  I wondered when He was going to take me to task for my cowardly act.  Surely He knows what I did.  I was so disloyal.  I deserve whatever punishment he metes out.”

                But the Master always surprises.  The condemning words never came.  Rather than brow-beating Peter, He disarmed him with a simple question. “Simon, do you love me more than these?”  “These” referred to the six other disciples who had not denied Jesus. Moreover, in asking Peter this question, Jesus used the Greek word agape, the highest form of love.

                The kindness caught Peter off guard.  “Lord, you know I love you!” he cried.  Peter responded with phileo, a lesser form of love, no doubt because he felt unworthy to claim agape love.

                Three times Jesus repeated His question, one for each of the three denials of Peter.  You can find deeper theological truths here, but these questions reveal the loving leadership of Christ, perhaps one of the greatest displays of the transcendent power of love.  At the moment when He could have verbally assaulted Peter, He chose instead to lift him up, out of his misery and guilt.  In the end, Jesus repeated the words that began His relationship with Peter three and a half years prior.  “Follow me.”

Love lifts.  It has the power to elevate the human soul into a higher realm than any other emotion.  Love is so central to the very concept of the divine that the Apostle John equated love to God himself. 

John sat at the fire that day and witnessed the interaction between Jesus and Peter.  He saw love at its finest.  A half century passed after the incident, but it still influenced John’s epistle to the church.  The King James Version has the best rendition: 

“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him…There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.  We love him, because he first loved us.” I John 4:16-19.    

Agape love is meant for you today.  It is unexpected.  Undeserved.  None of us qualify for it.  God has a love for us today that that will lift us from the ordinariness of life, from our status as a faceless number, from existing as an inconsequential person, from being a pew occupant; and up to genuine significance.  God’s love reaches down into the turmoil and despair of life and pulls us to safety.

This attribute of love makes it the highest virtue and greatest attribute of God.  You may say, “Give up on me, Pastor!  Give up on me God!”  That language is not in God’s vocabulary.  You may take your trip back to Galilee.  You may go back to your old life.  You may convince yourself that God has written you off.  But He knows exactly what He is doing.  He is preparing an altar for you.

And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.  Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.  Ephesians 3:19.

Love is greater than hope.  It is greater than faith.  Transcendent love is not circumstantial or random; rather, it is planned and deliberate.  When you embrace the love of God you need never fear an encounter with God.  God does not settle his eyes on you to condemn you but to save you.  When you come to His altar, you are not going to find rejection and judgment.  You are going to find sweet release from the haunting of the past.  You may not know how God is going to take care of your problem, but that’s His problem! 

To the church:  After all of our orthodoxy, after all of our discipleship, after all of our sacrificial living, the most enduring message we have for the world is “Yes, Jesus loves me; the Bible tells me so!”

“For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things.” Acts 15:28

                 Unnecessary necessaries clog our lives.  Junk drawers, packed closets and stuffed files illustrate the point.  A brief look inside many pockets and purses may reveal a lot about what we think are necessary things: Cell phone; chapstick; Kleenex, keys, perfume, eyeglasses, nail clippers, nail files, compacts, drivers’ license, credit cards, coupons, gum and pocket knives.  In a real emergency, however, many things we think are necessary would prove useless.  If you need food, water, protection from the elements and predators, the list of necessities would change dramatically.  From a spiritual standpoint, it’s amazing how many complicate life with burdens that hurt rather than with truths that help.  Man anoints the accessories, secures the superfluous and falls for the fluff, but tragically overlooks things critical to survival. 

                Are there necessary necessaries?  When the Apostle Peter opened up the door of salvation to the Gentiles, it touched off a huge debate over whether or not the Gentiles should be included in the church.  Many Jews thought that the Gentiles had to submit to circumcision, keep the Mosaic ordinances and observe many other Jewish rituals.  The first General Conference was called to settle the dispute.  Finally, the church leaders ruled that the Gentiles were not obligated to keep the Jewish observances with the exception to prohibit four things:  meats offered to idols, drinking blood, eating things strangled and fornication.  They wanted to “lay upon you [Gentiles] no greater burden than these necessary things.” 

                Note that this ruling was limited to the difference between the Jewish religion and the Gentiles.  It could not mean that these were the only requirements of salvation because it mentions nothing of faith in Christ, repentance, baptism or any other vital components of the gospel.  Yet, the idea of necessary things rings true. 

                Remember Naomi and two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth?  Uprooted, devastated, ravaged by adversity, Naomi had made a hard decision to go back to Bethlehem.  The story, however, is not really about Naomi.  It is about Orpha and Ruth.  It came down to deciding what they thought were the most important things in life.  “And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee …for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.” Ruth 1:14-18.  Orpha could not let go of those things that had no ultimate value.  But Ruth took inventory of her life.  She recognized that all she had in Moab were idols, superstitions, and a life of emptiness.  She had found something in Naomi’s God that far outshone anything she had ever known in Moab.  She reduced her entire life to the things that she knew she really needed. 

                I contend that we can we reduce salvation to a few necessary things.  It may look confusing.  Christianity is only one of twenty-two major groupings of religion in the world.  Moreover, under the Christian umbrella, hundreds of denominations, sectarian beliefs, branches and divisions vie for recognition.  Some hardly believe anything; others live in communes or caves.  Some compromise away whatever truth they had: others suffocate themselves with legalism and drop out of circulation because of fear.  The point is that we cannot entrust our eternal salvation to man and his beliefs.  If you will pick up your Bible and seriously investigate the things that are necessary, you will find everything you need to know.  Each of the following instances settles the issue of necessities.

                Faith.  This is square one.  “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  Hebrews 11: 6.  Nobody can find salvation unless he or she has faith.  You have to believe that man is a sinner, that the sin-contaminated soul cannot enter into eternal life, that Jesus Christ is the only savior of man and that the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is the gospel of our salvation. 

                Repentance.  Many scriptures speak of repentance, but this verse clinches it.  “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”  Luke 13: 3, 5.  Repentance means to feel genuine remorse for sin.  It means to turn away from a life of sin.  The deeper the repentance, the deeper the conversion.  Unless a person repents, salvation is impossible.

                Water Baptism.  Baptism is not optional.  If it were, Peter would not have risked losing his Jewish friends by supervising the baptism of Cornelius.  “And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord.”  Acts 10: 48.  Also, baptism is the way to get into Christ.  “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.”  Galatians 3: 27.

                Holy Spirit Baptism.  Birth of the Spirit is a salvation requirement.  “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.   Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” John 3: 5-7.  This is underscored by the New Testament pattern.

                Belief in the deity of Christ.  The fully enlightened  revelation of Jesus is to understand that he is God Himself!  “I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.”  John 8: 24.  Jesus is the Father!  “Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.  Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”  John 14: 8-9.  The phrase, “ye shall die in your sins” flags this as a necessary truth.

                Holiness.  Finally, separation from the world qualifies as a necessary doctrine.  Some assert that we need a more convenient message to preach to the world.  The bible, however, refutes this position.  “Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.”  Hebrews 12: 14.  Is this not a scripture that testifies to the necessity of holiness?  As long as this scripture and a host of related scriptures are in the Bible, it represents an indispensible component for eternal life.  Here is the secret to living a holy life:  “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.  But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Galatians 5: 16-17.

                Be wary of those who constantly pry around necessary things, treating them as unnecessary vestiges of tradition.  Whenever a cardinal truth falls away, the entire structure becomes weakened.  Ironically, the failure of every organization, denomination or sectarian belief was caused by people who were attempting to make things better. 

                One more point:  necessary things may be necessary, but don’t think they are difficult or dreaded.  Jesus said in John 10:10 “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.”  The good news is that the most important things, the necessary things, are also the best things! 

People ask questions according to their level of knowledge and their true motive.  Good teachers say they can tell how well a class is catching onto a new idea by the quality of questions that the students ask.  Like an old sage once observed, a well asked question is half answered.  This cuts to the heart of many dialogues, both in and out of the church, that boast plenty of sound and fury but signify nothing.  The twenty-first century church cannot afford to ask irrelevant questions that have little or no bearing on our mission.  Whether we ask questions that elicit unimportant answers or supply answers to questions that nobody is asking, we waste precious time on our critical mission.

            Most of us would agree that a soldier under enemy fire should not be asking about the polish on his boots or his weekend pass.  First EMS responders to a horrific crash on the freeway should not be asking each other about uniform styles or who the best manufacturers of ambulances are.  In these days of urgent soul-winning, we must not be asking questions rooted in pride, selfishness or inane trivia.  We must not fritter away our time with questions stemming from fear, bitterness or a gross misreading of the purpose of the church.  We can become so obsessed with carnal pursuits that we forget the spiritual nature of our mission.

            Jesus’ disciples painfully illustrated this point at Bethany, just prior to Christ’s ascension.  Their mood was a strange mixture of gloom and giddiness.  The gloom was brought on from the imminent departure of Jesus, but their giddiness showed their anticipation of a triumphant return of Israel to power, maybe even world dominance.  Barely able to contain themselves, they asked, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”  Good question.  Wrong question.

            Jesus stopped the question cold.  “And he said unto them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power.’”  When Jesus denied them access to this knowledge, he was not disparaging their curiosity; He was jarring them back to their mission at hand.  He went on to say, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”  (Acts 1:8)  In other words, Jesus was signaling his followers not to ask questions about their promotions; instead, ask questions about God’s power!  The success of the spiritual kingdom had priority over the restoration of the physical kingdom.   

            Two millennia later, this response of Jesus to His disciples should make us think.  Are we asking the right questions?  Are we gaining any advantage by asking who has the biggest, nicest or most expensive church building?  I wonder if we really need to know who gives the biggest offerings, has the finest music program or boasts the most luxury cars in the parking lot.  We all want our ministries to be more effective, but I wonder if we spend way too much time discussing computer paraphernalia, projection systems and state-of-the-art lighting. 

            I’m afraid to guess how many pastors host counseling sessions trying to explain why this person was promoted over that person or why they insist on dress codes and behavioral standards.  On a more personal level, how many countless hours do church members spend asking questions about who is to blame for their failures, how can they feel more accepted in this or that group and what are the minimums for spiritual discipline.  

            In the second chapter of Acts, the crowd gathered at the explosion of spiritual power in the upper room and asked “What meaneth this?”  When they were told, they asked “Men and brethren, What shall we do?”  Both were honest questions from sincere hearts and both received powerful answers. 

            Examine your questions.  Are you secretly revealing a selfish intent by the questions you routinely ask?  Are you hoping God will do something that serves a prideful motive on your part?  When you ask questions that focus on God’s power, on becoming a more effective witness, on giving yourself more completely to His cause and on sacrificing more of yourself to Him, then you get His attention.