Settling Down In A Strange Land

     Does it seem strange to you that some of the Children of Israel did not want to go into the promised land that God had promised them and He was willing to fight the battles for them.  They eventually decided they would go into the promised land, fight for the other tribes right to have the land and then return to settle down in a strange land.
     It ought not seem strange because that is exactly the situation that we have today in most of the churches across the land..  God wants each Christian to enjoy life to the fullest, yet many are content for a sermonette on Sunday morning, (unless it is too pretty a day to waste at church) and then spend the rest of the week "doing as the Romans do."  They ignore all warnings that God has given then in the Word about dedication and faithfulness.  The reality that they must face God some day and give accountability to him is a remote possibility instead of a certainty.
     I remember seeing an advertisement for a certain brand of automobile many years.  It showed an eloquently dressed lady getting out of a car without a wrinkle in her dress or a hair out of place.  The caption at the bottom of the picture said, "One of the nicer things about riding in a car with the body built by Fischer is knowing that you will be approved upon arrival."  I would think that would be the desire of every Christian as he considers arriving at the end of his/her life that they would want to be approved upon arrival.  However, it seems that those who settle down in a strange land give no thought about being approved upon arrival and are totally ungrateful that Jesus paid the price of the fare to get us to our destination.

First or Second: What difference does it make?

A cab driver picked up a passenger one day that was an evangelical Christian.  During the course of the ride the passenger asked the cab driver if he were a Christian.  The driver avowed that he was a Buddhist.  The Christian then said, "You need to be a Christian."  The cab driver responded, "If being a Buddhist is good and being a Christian is good, I will be a Buddhist-Christian."    
     There are many situations in life where it really does not matter if a person comes in first or second.  So often the things that we compete for is so trivial that it really does not matter.  Even in sporting events, where we live and die by each pitch, most folks don't remember who came in second a few years ago.
     But there is a totally different aspect to the first or second situation when you come to Go.   Make no mistake about it God is the "God of the second chance."  Thank God that he is that type of God, for all of us have found ourselves committing the same error over and over.  Paul referred to that inability of ours as laying aside "the sin that so easily besets us."  It is refreshing to know that God is faithful to forgive us of our sins when we confess them to Him.
     But make no mistake about it, even though He is the God of the second chance, He is not the God of the second choice.  THOU SHALT HAVE NO OTHER GOD BEFORE ME.  Yet there are so many Christians who seemingly believe as the cab driver believed.  For six days of the week they serve another god.  It might be the job, fame, popularity etc., but God does not accept competition.  Someone referred to these type of people as being worldly Christians.  Sounds rather strange since the two or opposites.  Why not call them heavenly devils?
     Be sure you understand the different; God is the God of the second chance, but he is not the God of the second choice.

County Line Sermon, Sunday Before Christmas

The Wisdom of God

     The wisdom of God so far surpasses the wisdom of the smartest man that it almost defies our trying to compare His wisdom to anything we can comprehend.  But just for this morning let us think for a moment what it might be like if God should ask us for help in making his decisions.  To do this we will need to go back into time so as we might have a little knowledge of what is being asked of us, since we have no understanding at all of the future.  So to begin, let us suppose that we had been involved in the greatest event ever to occur upon this earth, the birth of Jesus.

     For some strange reason God is asking you, not the person sitting next to you, you yourself.  I will be supplying verbally your reaction as well as the input of God.  You think along with me even though the exact words you might say may vary a little.

     God says to you, "Things have really gone bad down on the earth so I think I should send my son down to see if he can provide a way for mankind to get out of the mess that he is in."

     " Lord, I think that is a great idea.  It is about time that man gets put in his place, he has become so high and mighty.  Are you going to send a legion of angels down to help him get things carried out?" 

     To which God says, "No, he will have to do it himself." 

    " Now, God, do you think that will be wise, just Jesus alone." 

     "Oh, I think he will be okay.  I am going to send him back as a baby." 

     " Lord, you can’t be kidding.  A baby.  Why he won’t last long at all as a baby.  God, if you are going to send him down as a baby where will he be born, in Rome.  They have the finest doctors and places to deliver babies in the world." 

    " No, I’m not sending him to Rome." 

    "Then I guess the next best place will be Egypt." 

      "I’m not sending him to Egypt, either." 

     "Then Lord, where are you going to have him be born?"  

     "He is going to be born in Bethlehem." 

     "Bethlehem?     Why, Lord, there is not any place in that city for him to be born.  They don’t even have a decent place to lay a child down in that forsaken city." 

     "Oh, he has a place alright.  He is going to be born in a stable and he will be just fine in the manger where they feed the cattle." 

     "Lord, you must be kidding.  Why, who do you have picked out to be the mother of  Jesus?"  

     God said, "I have chosen a young woman by the name of Mary." 

     "Lord, you do know she is not even married." 

     "Yes, I know that." 

     "Why, Lord, the people will talk." 

     God said, "It is obvious that you do not believe the scripture.  For the scripture says, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Emmanuel."

     "I’m sorry, Father.  We need to tell the whole world that you are sending your son down there to get things straightened out.  I have a plan for telling the world.  We can either write a message on the full moon that everyone in the whole world can see or either have an angel stand on the moon with a large megaphone and broadcast the message to the earth."

     God says, “I’m going to use angels to tell the world alright, just not like you are talking about."

      "How do you plan to use the angels, Lord?" 

     "I am going to select a special group of people for the angels to appear and tell the good news."    

      "That’s a good plan, Lord.  Do you have a certain group of nobility picked out to deliver the message to?"  

     "I have a group picked out, but you would probably not call them nobility." 

     "Who do you have in mind, God?  I have picked out a group of shepherds that are close enough to Bethlehem to walk and see my son." 

     "Lord, do you know what type of people those shepherds are?  Some of them are not very trustworthy.  Probably none of them even own a sheep themselves.  Their repetition is not much more than common thieves."

     "I don’t think you quite understand just yet.  My child you see, all men are common thieves.  Common in the sense that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.  Thieves in the sense they take what belongs to me every day and consider it to be theirs.  Think just a moment what all you had yesterday.  How much of that did you provide for yourself and how much of it did I provide for you.  Still think the shepherds or common thieves.  Makes you think a little more highly of the shepherds, doesn’t it."

     "You are right, Lord.  Of course you are always right.  But how will Jesus do on earth?"

     "Well actually, they won’t pay much attention to him and they will finally kill him."

      "Surely God, Jesus won’t have to die."

      "As usual, you are having difficulty in understanding.  You see my child Jesus must live to die, in order that you may someday day to live." 

     "I think you have everything well thought out and planned.  Can you let me in on how things work out?"

    " I could tell you the very end but I won’t tell you any farther than 2013."

     "Why just 2013?"

      "You see, the old world is really going to be getting messed up about that time in spite of all my son has done.  I am counting on some folks real special that year.  If they don’t become dedicated there will be a lot more folks that will die and go to hell.  But, I don’t want you to worry about what those folks will do; I just want you to concentrate on what you are going to do in the year to come.  Because of what you do this year folks there may be some folks who will go to heaven that would not have made it without you and there could be some who will go to hell if you fail to be committed as a Christian.  You thought you had all the answers and now you know that you have to depend upon me.  I’ll be there as you decide what you will do.  I have a feeling that the next time we get together it will be around my throne in heaven.  

How to Earn an F in Histoy

     When you begin to consider the history of our great country and the place that the Judeo-Christian ideas and beliefs have played in making us great, you begin to see why our country is where it is today.  The state constitutions off all thirteen of the original states demanded that a person be a believer in God in order to hold public office.  Not so today!
     During the 1830's, prior to Arkansas becoming a state, a man was brought into Federal court for the crime of desecrating the Sabbath.  That which he had done was to burn a brush pile on Sunday.  The end result of the trial was an acquittal because of relatives being on the jury.  But to think that the courts considered Sunday to be the Lord's day and was Holy is far removed from the concept today.  If the government does not consider it a Holy day, I want my mail delivered on Sunday.  If Christmas and Easter are not Holy days, I demand that all government employees work on those days, congress included.
     Many are alive today who remember the 'blue laws" which prevented many stores and/or certain articles from being sold on Sunday.  Now Sunday's have become one of the more commercialized days for stores.
     When I was a young person it was a rare occasion to hear a gun being fired on Sunday.  When a person heard a gunshot they wondered who it was that would be hunting on a Sunday.  Quite a change today when the Game and Fish Commissions will even set seasons to begin on Sunday as to attract more hunters.
     Need I even mention the greatest change of all.  If you had told me when I graduated from high school in 1955 that I would live to see the day when folks would scream, "Save the owl, but kill the babies," I would have told you that you were foolish.
     Never forget, the bible proclaims, "Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people."  Somehow we have failed to learn from history.

Defining Saints In a Different Way

     The town reprobate passed away as all mortal men do.  His life had been one that did not leave a person much good to say at his passing.  His wealthy brother, from down in Texas, came for the funeral.  He approached the preacher who was to conduct the funeral services and said, "Preacher, I will give you $5000 to say, somewhere in the service, that my brother was a saint."  The preacher did not see how he could possibly say something untrue, but his family could certainly use the $5000.  So in the middle of the service the preacher said, "All of you know that the deceased was as bad a neighbor as any of us have ever had, he was an alcoholic, he beat his wife, he stole, and I could go on for several minutes, but compared to his brother sitting here, 'that man was a saint.'"
     Our country is involved in an ongoing discussion that some call "Islamophobia."  The term phobia is so often used for anyone who is opposed to a concept that the person using the word phobia believes in.  I will not waste my time discussing the term phobia or fear, for I fear nothing except God.  However, I think the concept needs to be examined.
     During the 1960's Anton LeVay formed a group called the Order of the Trapezoid, which became the governing body of what was to become known as the Church of Satan.  They even had their own  bible.  Their beliefs were almost totally opposite of the views of the church.  The word Lust would have been more at home than the word Love. However, they did not advocate the killing of anyone that disagreed with them.  From that standpoint I would say, "Compared to the Muslims, those folks were saints."
     Oh, I know the response, "That is only a FEW radicals."  The term few does not quite compute with the reactions that is portrayed on the TV screens around the world.  But, let us not quibble over a few numbers; let us look for a solution.
     Down through the centuries when Christians failed to agree upon something they always took a stand and opposed what they perceived as wrong.  The preponderance of Christian denominations that are in existence today, opposed the Roman Catholic Church, and split from it during the Protestant Reformation.  Then such issues as the method of baptism, church polices, etc, all brought about a breakaway from the established group.  Someone said that in the mountains of Kentucky a Baptist group split into the five gallon Baptists and the ten gallon Baptists over how much alcohol to have at the annual meeting.
     It is a few hundred years late, but in order to be accepted in a civilized world, it is high time for any honest Muslim to make a clean brake from the radicals that are murdering, robbing, stealing and burning the world down.  Of all of the millions of Muslims, tell me again that there are only a few bad ones when the masses refuse to denounce, brake away from and actually oppose those that would destroy everything that does not agree with them.  If it is only a few, then it appears that the tail is wagging the dog.
     In closing, Christians have nothing to fear from Muslims, but freedom loving people may eventually have a lot to fear.

Render To God The Things That Are God's

     There are two separate humerous stories about preacher's trying to raise funds for needed church activities.  The first preacher said to the church, "Concerning our drive to raise funds for the new building, I have good news and bad news.  The good news is we have located the much needed funds.  The bad news is, it is still in your billfolds."  The second preacher was more thoughtful. He began the finance drive by saying, "I want each one of you who will donate $100 to the building fund to please stand up."  As if on cue, the organist began to play "The Star Spangled Banner."
     Both of those should provoke us to think about giving.  There really should not be a problem for the Christian in the area of stewardship.  The only percentage of giving mentioned in the Bible is ten percent.  The Scripture boldly proclaims the tithe is the Lords.  There are those that try to evade giving the tithe to the Lord by saying that is an Old Testament practice..  Yet, Jesus upheld the giving of the tithe when he commented in Matthew chapter 23 of the Pharisee's practices by saying, "Woe unto you scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint, anise and cumin, and have omitted, judgement, mercy and faith.  These ought to have done and not to leave the other undone."
     Far to often we try to measure our giving my the amount we put in instead of by the amount we have left over.  Do not be misled into thinking that God is running a part-time organization.  Yet so many behave as if that was what God was doing.  We want to offer to Him our leftovers:  left over offering, left over time, left over talents.  God expects the first-fruits, not the left overs.
     The story is told of the business man who was having trouble in making ends meet in his business.  He came to the pastor and asked for help.  The pastor in his counseling advised the man that he should consider God first and give unto God that which was rightfully His--the tithe.  The man agreed and his tithe only amounted to ten dollars per week.  Over the course of a few years his business expanded to where his tithe was running twenty thousand dollars per week.  The man returned to the pastor and said that he could no longer afford to pay the tithe.  The pastor reminded him how important it was to pay the tithe and said, "Let's get down on our knees and ask God to reduce your income to the point where you can afford to pay the tithe."
     Back in 1958 Doris and I stood before the preacher and he asked, "Charles do you take the woman that you hold by the right hand to be your lawful wedded wife?"  How foolish of me if I had answered, "No, I can't afford her."  Love would not allow me to say such a thing and love should settle the question once and far all for the man or woman considering the act of tithing.

Getting Used To The Dark

   Vance Havner told of visiting a dimly lit restaurant with a friend.  Vance commented to him, "It is so dark in here I can't read the menu."  The friend replied, "You will get use to the dark."
     Something like that has happened all across our country, we have got used to the dark.  We have become accustomed to the ever changing society that we live in.  We watch things on television that thirty years ago we would have blushed if we had seen the same thing while in mixed company.  The decency standard has been lowered to the point that it often is embarrassing.  You now can see more cleavage in church than you once could see on television.  And that is just one thing we have grown accustomed to seeing.  Divorce at one time was an embarrassment to a family, it is the accepted norm now.
     Do you remember the emotion that was aroused over the Roe vs Wade decision.  It was unthinkable that a woman could end a baby's life.  Now it is done thousands of time each year.  So becoming accustomed to that thought, we precede to having the baby be partially born and then we kill it.  That is acceptable with many.  Read the reports of the votes of Obama when he was first in politics and you will readily see that not only is he in favor of partial-birth abortions but in favor of killing one that accidentally survives the botched abortion.
     Under no circumstance am I in favor of abortion except when the mother's life is in danger, but I almost wish we could back up things just a little and have the mother of all of these abortionists have the same believe as they have and then they would have been aborted and the world would be a much better place.
     Something like that happens in our churches on a regular basis.  A person gets saved during the revival with large crowds present, sees the same good attendance on Sunday Morning and then looks around on Wednesday night and asks where are the people who have been Christian a long, long time.  What would you tell him, "Don't worry you will get over it, too?"
     God, have mercy on us.