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.

To Forgive Is Divine

     The coach's star athlete had flunked math again.  The coach went to the math teacher and pleaded for the teacher to give the player another chance.  The teacher said, "All right, son, what is nine times seven?"  The player answered, "Sixty-three."  Quickly, the coach said, "Give him another chance, give him another chance!"
     Wonder if he would have gotten the correct answer if the question had been, "What is seventy times seven?"  That is the answer Jesus gave to Peter when Peter asked, "How many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?"  It is human nature to turn your back on those that offend you.  But God says to forgive others because you are forgiven and if you expect forgiveness for your own future sins.  To put it in perspective, you are only hurting yourself when you do not forgive others.

Matthew 6:15  But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Copied from So? Whatever--365 laughs and Devotionals, by Charles Jones and Mary Crisp.  Sold through Amazon.

All Changes Are Not Good

     Someone once said, "Pity poor Rip Van Winkle, he went to sleep and woke up with his whole world having been changed."  I am sure it must have been quite a shock for old Rip to wake up twenty years later and having to deal with all the changes that had taken place.  However, it could have been worse; old Rip could have lived in our day and age.  Then he would have really seen some dramatic changes.
      Those of you, if there are any left, who have lived as long as I have lived have noticed unthinkable changes.  Obviously we have been blessed with some wonderful changes that have made life more enjoyable, but there are changes that have completely offset much of the advantages.  Technology has provided us with so many labor saving devices that we have more free time than ever before.  But what do we do with that free time?  So much of it is being spent to entertain ourselves so as we will not become bored.  The freedom granted to us has almost become a slavery that binds us to "keep up with the Joneses".
     There once was a time, though the schedule was tight, we found time for the family, for friends to visit, and to attend church.  My what a change:  we don't want to become involved.  There once was a time when  a person would come to the aid of someone in distress, but no more.  It is not uncommon to hear of a woman being raped and killed and those who saw it would not come to her aid.  God have mercy on us!!!
      If someone had told me when I graduated from high school that I would live to see the day when some would say, "Kill the babies, but save the owl."  I would have thought they were insane.  I wonder how we are viewed in much of the rest of the world when we become, as well as we should, about a few hundred children being gassed to death and we have literally allowed millions of babies to be snuffed out in the past few years. 
     Perhaps more disturbing than the fact that things that once were wrong or now right, and things that were once wrong are now right is that so often many things are neither right or wrong, black or white, but a very confusing color of gray in which the only guiding rule is, "If it feels good, do it."
     If you are looking for something that is not confusing, that is constant in the midst of a changing world, consider God.  He is still unchanging and his 10 Commandments have not been changed to 10 suggestions.

Labor Day

     Monday is Labor Day.  Perhaps it is one of the holidays that should be eliminated from our calendar.  Gone are the days that God mentioned when he said, "six days shall thou labor."  Gone are the concepts of Paul, in the New Testament, and John Smith in Jamestown, when they both said, "he that does not work, shall not eat."  Gone, in many instances,  are the days when man took pride in his work.   I remember one of my grandfathers who had farmed until he was unable to physically farm, crying when he had to accept commodities.  Many are crying today if they cannot get the replacement for commodities, food stamps.
     There once was what was considered as--a dignity to work.  Now it is looked upon by so many as being beneath their dignity to accept certain types of work.  I might quickly add, it will stay beneath their dignity as long as the government keeps handing out checks for doing nothing.  It seems like the government looks upon the concept of giving out checks as a way to get the population to do what the government wants them to do.  We will control what is grown on the farm by paying the farmer not to plant cotton or not to plant peanuts.  It is past time for the government to stop giving out money.  If nothing else, those who are able to work put them to doing something even if it is picking up trash on the side of streets.  Oh, I forgot that would be beneath their dignity.
     Most of you remember when there was an element of pride for something to be labeled, "Made in the USA."  Also unless it was a camera, it was a joke if it was labeled, "Made in Japan".  Now our current president seemingly delights in farther destroying the concept of the dignity of labor.  Maybe we should just rename the holiday make it become, "Handout Day."  Only problem with that is pretty soon there will be nothing left to hand out.