A Crack in the Foundation

     Often you will hear someone make a statement about the reason that we are in the mess that we are in.  There are legions of reasons why the situation has become desperate.  In our own country, which Winston Churchill once called, "The land of the free and the home of the brave", which has now become the land of the spree and the home of the rave, it would take pages just to list the many reasons we are where we are.
     We hear constantly about the education crisis in our country and the deplorable condition of the number of students that are dropping out of school or finishing without being able to go to college with out remedial work.  I think you can lay many of our problems upon the breakup of the family.  Oh, it sounded good when a certain presidential candidate said years ago, "It takes a village to raise a child."  But, the truth of the matter is, it only takes a loving caring family to raise a child.  A village can't do the job for the family.  Oh, our government wants to do the job; make the decisions; provide the means of survival, etc; but it takes a family to raise a child.  It will be a rare situation that finds a child who will be able to succeed when placed in an environment that from all practical thinking, is doomed to failure.
     One recent statistic showed that 47% of the children are living in a home in which one or both parents are not present.  Many of these children are being raised by elderly grandparents, often living on a fixed income and many of them unable to stand up to the task of raising small children.
     May God help us to see the need of couples entering into marriage be as committed to completing the task and providing all that is necessary that their children will have the opportunity to survive in today's world.

A Rose by Any Other Name

     It sounds so wonderful, "a rose by any other name would smell so sweet".  It would be a peculiar type person who would not agree with that statement. However, today I wish to take a different statement that has been around for many years and elaborate upon it.
     The story has been repeated many times as an object lesson.  A man was walking up in the mountains and had reached the level above what is called tree level.  It was extremely cold at this high altitude.  He came across a rattlesnake that was almost dead from the cold.  The rattlesnake asked the man to take him back down where it was warmer.  The man responded that he was afraid of the rattlesnake because he knew they would bite.  The rattlesnake promised not to bite the man.  So the man picked up the snake, placed the snake inside his coat for warmth and started back down the mountain for warmer weather.  Upon reaching the warmer weather, the snake suddenly bit the man.  The man said to the snake, "You promised that you would not bite me."  The snake replied, "You knew what I was when you picked me up."
     I cannot believe that the American people are so blind in their acceptance of the Muslim people as to ignore what they have stood for all of these years; what they do in every country that they control; what the basic concept of their ideology toward others that do not belong to their faith is (convert or die); and yet any criticism of them is categorized as hate.
     Perhaps it is not the American people who are blind.  I think that the problem is the leaders of our country who would destroy our country to try to satisfy a blind "politically correctness."  Most of them do it ignorantly, however there are a few, the president number one, who has never tried to hide his concern and fondness for the Muslim religion.  Remember, he said in effect I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction.
     Some would like to label thoughts as I have mentioned as being Islamophobia.  Never!  I do not fear the rattlesnake.  I will never be bitten by a rattlesnake that I can see.  It is the one that I cannot see that I fear.  I do not fear the Muslims, but I have no intention of being a party to those who would turn our country into what the country looked like which they left, they did not like enough to stay there.  Now they would change our culture and our laws to be what they left behind.
     A rose by any other name still would smell just as sweet.  And they danger of the Muslim religion overseas is still just as dangerous over here.
    

I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist

     I have borrowed for the topic today the title of a book by: Norman Geisler, Frank Turek and David Limbaugh: I don't have enough faith to be an atheist.  That thought should prod our attention to a whole new concept of thinking.  We automatically believe that those who are involved in religion of necessity must have faith in that which they believe.  I suggest to you that the atheist also has to have faith in what he believes.  He must have faith that what the Christian is saying is wrong.  There is no way that he can prove that they are wrong.  Christians should never try to prove to others beyond the shadow of doubt that what they believe is true.  You see, a man cannot come into a right relationship with God without faith.  Without faith it is impossible to please God.  That being said, I just don't have enough faith to be an atheist.

     Let us think along this line a little farther.  Webster defines religion as being an organized system of beliefs, ceremonies and rules used to worship a god or group of gods.  (notice the small g in both cases.)  Webster farther defines religion as being: An interest, a belief or an activity that is very important to a person or group.  Dictionary.com defines religion as: a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects.

     Going along with the wider definition of religion I would say that atheism is a religion.  Oh, you say, they don't believe there is a god.  That is just one of the negative concepts of their religion that they do not believe in God.  All religions have specific things that they do not believe in as well as that which they do believe.  I will leave it up to the atheist to state what things he believes in.

     Now here we find the atheist wanting the government to make a law favoring their religion over other religions when they ask for the ten commandments to be removed, no prayer in public places and the removal of such statements as, "In God we Trust".  Surely, the government will cease trying to appease the Atheist Religion in their conquest to enforce their doctrinal beliefs.

Putting a New Slant on an Old View

    
There are a few concepts that I would like to consider today from a totally different perspective than that which is normal.  Albert Einstein once challenged a professor on three separate concepts that would be of value for us to consider today.  By no means are these thoughts original with me but credit goes total and completely to Mr. Einstein. 
     Mr. Einstein challenged his professor by making the statement that there was no such thing as darkness.  He suggested that darkness only existed as an absence of light.  You can have bright light, dim light, or even brilliant light but when you had no light all that was left was darkness.  He made the same argument about heat and cold.   There is no actual thing or even a measuring scale for what we call cold.  When you consider heat you can easily imagine all of the varying degrees of heat.  You can have high heat, low heat, warm heat, extreme heat, etch. but when you have no heat you have cold.  We measure heat by British thermal units (btu's) or degrees.  You can even go down to a point of -458 degrees F.  That is where all movement of molecules cease, the lower range of heat.  Why can it get no colder, because there is no more heat to be lost.
     Of particular interest to me, especially coming from Mr. Einstein, was his discussion of evil.  When he was confronted with the statement that God created evil therefore God must be evil, he countered with the argument that evil did not exist by itself; that evil was not present as an entity unto itself.  He argued that what we see of evil in this world, is not that which was the design of God but what was left in the absence of God.  Which is another way of presenting that God is love, but when his love is rejected what you have left is  the wrath of God.  It is as simple as flipping a coin--you get heads or tails.  When you deal with God you get--His wrath or His love.  The choice is up to the individual.

It's Friday Now, But Sunday is Coming

     The title, It's Friday Now, But Sunday Is Coming, is a sermon that has been attributed to different preachers down through the years.  I would like to think it may have been preached first by Dr. S. M. Lockridge, one of the greatest black preachers I have ever had the blessing of hearing.  The sermon is regularly preached on Palm Sunday and describes all of the events that happened on the day Jesus was crucified.
     The impact of the sermon is so dramatic in that it contrasts what happened on that day with what happened on the following Sunday.  It's Friday now, Satan is in control, but Sunday is coming.  It should serve as a warning to everyone who is living their life without God, that things may seem great today, but there is a payday coming.  At the same time those who may be struggling with problems in their life and have a strong faith in God.  It's Friday now, but Sunday is coming.  Lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh.

A Christmas Question--Is It So?

A Christmas Question

Is it so?

Isaiah 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Introduction:  Hundreds of years before Mary placed the baby Jesus into the manger, Isaiah foretold the fact that a child was going to be born and a son was going to be given.  He farther said that the mother would be a virgin when this occurred.  There were a lot of people who had their normal night interrupted by the strange goings on that night.  I would not be surprised that somewhere a blind man that night dreamed that he could see, a deaf man dreamed he could hear, a cripple man dreamed that he could walk and perhaps even some old bones inside a tomb near Jerusalem stirred slightly within the grave.

     This same Jesus that caused such a disturbance over two thousand years ago is still disturbing the hearts of men and women around the world.  I would hope this morning that he might in some way cause a slight disturbance in your life and lifestyle that would prompt you to do more for His cause.

     My question for today, Is it so? Is no questioning whether or not Jesus was actually born.  As far as I am concerned that is a settled fact.  When you consider that most of the nations of the world use a calendar that in essence says every time they write a document and date it, they are dated it—In the Year of our Lord.

     Ask a devout Jew today if Jesus, the Messiah came and he will say no.  Ask a Muslim if he came and he would say, he came but not as a Saviour.  The Gnostic's said he came but was all man and some of them said no he came but he was still all God.  Ask the atheist today and he will say he did not come.

     My question for you, Is it so that he was born unto you.  To an unbeliever the birth of a baby over two thousand years ago in a town so small there was no hospital and to such insignificant parents that there was no place for them to have a place for him to be born, except a stable, is completely insignificant.     But if the child was born unto you, it makes a world of difference.  The fact that Jesus was born into an earthly family enables you that by putting your faith in Him, you can be born into a heavenly family.

     The second part of Isaiah’s statement that deserves us seeking for an answer is that a son is given..  John 3:16 states so eloquently and yet so simply, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth on him shall have everlasting life.  Again John said, He came unto his own but his own received him not, but as many as received him gave he power to become the sons of God.

     Sometimes I think you can expound upon that verse and translate “his own” in several ways.  He came unto his own creation and his own creation received him not.  The creator was rejected by the creation.  He came unto his own beloved people and his own people received him not.  The Messiah is rejected by his own special people.  He also came unto those that he would choose and they received him not.

     You see when there is a giving of gifts there must be an acceptance of gifts.  The Christmas question is was he given unto you.  He was not given unto you unless you have accepted that gift as being your very one.

 

    
     There has been a long-standing disagreement between the Armenian and the Hyper-Calvinistic camps as to whether man has a free will to do as he pleases or is bound by predetermined factors established by God.  Somewhere between the views of the two camps is the area in which most people find themselves.  By no stretch of the imagination do I have any designs to change the view of either of the two extreme positions, but rather to give a rambling discussion in areas where most of us can agree.
     The majority of us never realize our full potential.  We neither use all the brain cells that He gives to us, nor utilize the time that is allotted to us.  God wants us to experience the abundant life that he has provided for us.  The statement to the church in Revelation, "Behold, I set before you and open door", can be applied to the individual as well.
     Unfortunately, most of us let circumstances dictate to us the type of life that we are going to have.  We begin to perceive that we are locked into a certain type of lifestyle and never struggle and endeavor to rise above that conception that we have.  To complicate things even farther, we can become a morning person or an evening person.  Whichever we are the rest of the day is obviously not going to yield 100% for us.
     There must be a purpose for living in your life, even beyond the life that you owe to God.  That purpose must be of such magnitude that it will transcend the moments of weakness that you may experience.  Often in the darkness and stillness of the night, I feel like an old man who is desperately trying to pick his final bale of cotton and at the same time pulling two children on the ten foot sack behind him.  But, come morning when God has restored my strength and renewed my will, I become the captain of an exploration ship and me and my trusty crew launch out in search of new worlds to conquer.
     May we each be found doing with all our might what God places before us behind the open door.