Saturday, March 27, 2010
The Rat's Don't Have to Win
I will love thee, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. (Ps 18:1-2)
I have heard it said more than a few times in my life that it is rare for a man to have in his possession during his lifetime more than five or six good friends. Think about it, of the countless thousands that we meet in our lifetimes, only a handful can be truly counted as friends. We live in a time when people are surrounded by a multitude of other people and yet so many remain lonely and feeling alone. There are people everywhere. Faces in every place. Images of great star-studded people blink over screens of all sizes and shapes. Their names are broadcast over the many multifaceted mediums of exchange. Still, in the midst of so much, so many stand alone and aloof from all that goes on around them. Lonely and desolate of heart in need of a true and faithful friend. Though they are ‘apart’ of all these earthly happenings, their heart is distraught and in desperate need of a shoulder to cry on or a sensitive ear.
One might say or think that this is crazy. How can so much be available to us and yet so many people feel so alone? How could there be over three hundred million Americans and there be a problem in finding or considering someone to be a true friend to confide in. Surely there must be at least one person in the ‘land of the free’ to open your heart to and pour out your soul’s dreams and wishes. It is becoming increasingly obvious to me, sad to say, that it is a rare to find a good friend anymore, let alone someone to even say ‘hi’ to you as you pass them on the sidewalk. The neighborly way of living has seemingly died under the torrential downpour of technological advances of our society. The technologies that were once touted as making our lives easier are now suffocating the things that matter most...an inextricable need to have human contact with one another. The innate need to be with one another. To hear, talk, laugh, play, hug, listen and cry with one another is being obliterated by this technological onset that is taking over most every asset of our lives. It is much easier to sit in front of a glowing blue flow of light coming out of a tube than to communicate with your neighbor or even your wife for that matter. Where at one time in America the best family event of the day was situated around the dinner table, but such are rare events in this our modern, hectic life. Our cars are not like the wagons pulled by oxen of old, but enclosed instruments of multimedia effects. Wrapped in metal, sealed in glass, and consumed by what’s going on inside. Our automobiles seem to be a good natural picture of ourselves! We drive in our enclosed cars, go to our private homes, and step into our multimedia attention garnering gadgets. On any given night, you can drive down the street that you live on and observe nothing but the blue flourescent glow of televison tubes escaping into the darkness of each home. (And they think they are not controlled!) Most every person in America is doing the same thing at the same time! Watching the TV or something like it! With all this, who needs people? With all this, who needs anything outside of themselves? Who needs a preacher? Who needs a Pastor?
The scripture says that in the last days...’the love of many shall wax cold’. Could it be that all these things help our culture to wax cold against God’s Word? Could it be that the lack of desire to know God has been drowned out by all these ‘things’? The preacher was once the center of the American culture. When the pilgrims landed at Plymouth rock the first thing they did was bow their knee and thank God for their deliverance. And what was their first building erected? No, it wasn’t a home to shelter their family, but the first building that they raised was a church. When a problem would arise, it was the preacher that they called upon to help them resolve their differences. Hence the laws that remain this day on the books that are almost identical in word to the scriptures came from the counsel of a preacher! Laughed at as archaic today, but were the laws of the land during the colonial days when the preacher was held in high esteem.
Good is being called evil and evil is being heralded as good! Pleasures are being loved more than God and men’s imaginations are heading toward the flood stage of Noah’s time. Groping in the darkness, people are racing too and fro, frolicking to the tune of fables and the pied pipers of deceit. While the merchants are waxing rich because of her delicacies, the voice of the God called preacher is but a faint echo in the backdrop of the myriad of sounds and visions of a world gone mad. The sad thing is most people really talk as though they have it all together. As though they have it all figured out and are in no need of any understanding. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Yet, in the midst of all this tumult and turmoil, the inner man of every person is crying out for a human touch, a shoulder to cry on, or just an ear to hear. In the midst of all we have, we are dying. In the deluge of all these so called freeing technologies, we are dying of loneliness and despair. We are losing the rat race and no matter what we do within ourselves or no matter how many new technological advances we purchase with our money, we seem to fall further behind. The rat’s are winning. While our families suffer, our relationships suffer, our homes begin to fall into shambles, and the world collapses around us...few stop to hear the still small voice of God. The cry of one in the wilderness of hurt and despair. Looking for an ear to hear and a heart to prepare. “Oh that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and wonderful works!”
You see, the rats don’t have to win and in the end the race is not given...to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. (Eccl 9:11) There is a way out of the race of the rats and God gives all men a chance and day of visitation to step out from the helter-skelter entangling’s this world’s affairs. He told the Laodicean church what to do...I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Rev 3:14-22)
There is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother! There is a God who can and will personally see you through the race...BUT who will let Him!
Friday, March 26, 2010
The Outside In Upside Down Gospel
From the beginning of our nation’s existence, men of God stood upon the belief that they came to this New World to be a model for the Old World. That God had chosen them to create a new nation in His image...a city on the hill...a beacon of hope to all the inhabitants of the earth. When these men landed on these shores, they did not build their own homes, but they first built a church to praise God to give Him the glory. Even today, though somewhat murky, there is still this great ‘feeling’ that sheds its light abroad to the world that America is the place for the tired, poor, and restless. Here, in America, a man could enjoy the fruit of his labor because true freedom reigned. Somewhere along the way in America’s history there was a turning point. A place of profound change in how we conducted our affairs. This turning point can only be rooted within the spiritual side of our culture. It is people who make up a nation and how those people think, naturally and spiritually, will produce how that nation functions. Somewhere along the line the gospel was turned upside down and inside out. A basic tenet of the gospel was perverted and in this perversion our entire world view has changed and not only has it changed it has been flipped upside down and turned inside out. But what changed? What could have caused such a monumental shift in our cultural mind set?
What once was seemingly a basic understanding of the nature of man has become the exact opposite. Clearly the nature of man, at one time in our country, was deemed to be in a fallen state and in need of a Redeemer. This simplistic understanding of the nature of man was the underlying principle that compelled the colonists to stand up against the greatest nation on earth. This basic understanding of the nature of man was ingeniously grafted into our Constitution as a continual check against human nature. It is possible to even ‘see’ the evidence of this belief if one only takes some time and traverses through a pictorial review of American history. It is easy to see through the myriad of pictures that a certain standard and way of life was upheld. Most denominations at one time understood this elemental point concerning the nature of man. It can easily be observed in the pictures of the times. Women looked like women and at least upheld some form of modesty. A woman not only looked like a lady but acted like one too. Hard working men are pictured in their full clothing. Speedo’s and tank tops are no where to be found. Just where did these values come from? Since this was before the advent of the lamestream media and all the other distractions, there is no doubt (at least in my mind) that such morals were preached from a pulpit. Yes, there was a time where moral convictions were preached from our pulpits. But early in the nineteen hundreds a subtle change began to take place. Many may blame and point their fingers at certain movements that were occurring in America at the time. Such as the feminist movement or the Scopes Monkey Trial, but these events were really only symptomatic of a deeper spiritual illness, which can be traced to the perversion of the gospel.
When the gospel is preached...by this I mean the true gospel. The same gospel the Apostle Paul preached and said men would be accursed if they preach any other. The same gospel that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. If and when it is preached it will first confront the nature of man. The gospel stands flat footed and looks that old adamic nature right in the eyeballs and tells it to REPENT. The first step toward God is rooted in the understanding that this creature is in a fallen state. Yet, somewhere at the turning of the twentieth century the gospel was turned upside down and inside out. It became a popular notion to preach that man was not in despair nor innately evil but within him resides this abundance of goodness and virtue. If we would only fan the flames of man’s heart, nothing but sugar and honey would flow out of his being. No longer was there just one path to God, but now there were a million paths to God and all a man had to do was follow the goodness of his heart. Yes, we are living in a day where we are at the receiving end of the harvest of this gospel perversion. Most denominations don’t preach much against the flesh or the wickedness of man’s heart. How a man can stand in the pulpit and contradict the enormous amount of scriptural evidence concerning the nature of man is beyond me. When looking up the word ‘heart’ in the concordance it comes up 830 times! And that is just the one word, heart and not any of the words that may be connected to the heart. Most every book in the Bible has a scriptural reference concerning the heart of man. Where men like to cloud issues and create their own gospel, God does not mince words when he speaks.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart , I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jer 17:9-10)
What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? (Job 15:14-16)
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. (Prov 28:26)
This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. (Eccl 9:3)
And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: (Jer 16:12)
Most want to refuse the authority of God’s Word because it gets right down to the nitty gritty. God’s Word is quick and powerful, cutting straight to the bone, discerning the thoughts and intents of a person’s heart. No wonder people hate the name JESUS. Where the law left room for the flesh to find it’s own glory and the outter man to shine, JESUS narrowed everything down to it’s originator and that was man’s wicked heart! And he said (JESUS SAID THIS), That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:20-23)
A gospel that does not confront the wickedness of man’s heart is not a gospel at all. A gospel that preaches the goodness of man’s heart (whether that be literally or by omission) is a gospel that has been flipped upside down. A gospel that does not deal with the issues of the heart is a very shallow gospel and has been turned inside out. Focusing on the outer man rather the inner man is not really a gospel at all.
No wonder our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ compared the last days to the days of Noah! When man’s heart is set on a course to fulfill itself then the fruit of such pursuit will not be good. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5) Today, in these perilous times it almost seems impossible to reach this lover of pleasures generation. It is a generation that is founded upon the fruit of a shallow gospel. It is a generation that claims victim hood rather than responsibility. Far be it from us that the problem resides in us, it must have been someone else's fault. The mantra of this victim mentality is even found in the claim ‘The devil made me do it!” It is far easier to blame someone or something outside of ourselves then to be completely honest with ourselves. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.(James 1:14-15) Though some would like to blame the devil and his imps for their troubles, the Apostle Paul took full responsibility...Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Cor 9:24-27) Blame some flying demon in the air if you want to, but Paul said he wasn’t fighting or beating at the air but he kept his body, with all it’s appetites and lusts, and brought it under subjection to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Today, I thank God for men of God who are not afraid to preach the true gospel that was once delivered to the saints. The same gospel that pricked their hearts of men on the day of Pentecost is still the same today and if rightly divided by a God called man, it is still able to pull you out of these perilous times and any of the heart’s devices.
What once was seemingly a basic understanding of the nature of man has become the exact opposite. Clearly the nature of man, at one time in our country, was deemed to be in a fallen state and in need of a Redeemer. This simplistic understanding of the nature of man was the underlying principle that compelled the colonists to stand up against the greatest nation on earth. This basic understanding of the nature of man was ingeniously grafted into our Constitution as a continual check against human nature. It is possible to even ‘see’ the evidence of this belief if one only takes some time and traverses through a pictorial review of American history. It is easy to see through the myriad of pictures that a certain standard and way of life was upheld. Most denominations at one time understood this elemental point concerning the nature of man. It can easily be observed in the pictures of the times. Women looked like women and at least upheld some form of modesty. A woman not only looked like a lady but acted like one too. Hard working men are pictured in their full clothing. Speedo’s and tank tops are no where to be found. Just where did these values come from? Since this was before the advent of the lamestream media and all the other distractions, there is no doubt (at least in my mind) that such morals were preached from a pulpit. Yes, there was a time where moral convictions were preached from our pulpits. But early in the nineteen hundreds a subtle change began to take place. Many may blame and point their fingers at certain movements that were occurring in America at the time. Such as the feminist movement or the Scopes Monkey Trial, but these events were really only symptomatic of a deeper spiritual illness, which can be traced to the perversion of the gospel.
When the gospel is preached...by this I mean the true gospel. The same gospel the Apostle Paul preached and said men would be accursed if they preach any other. The same gospel that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. If and when it is preached it will first confront the nature of man. The gospel stands flat footed and looks that old adamic nature right in the eyeballs and tells it to REPENT. The first step toward God is rooted in the understanding that this creature is in a fallen state. Yet, somewhere at the turning of the twentieth century the gospel was turned upside down and inside out. It became a popular notion to preach that man was not in despair nor innately evil but within him resides this abundance of goodness and virtue. If we would only fan the flames of man’s heart, nothing but sugar and honey would flow out of his being. No longer was there just one path to God, but now there were a million paths to God and all a man had to do was follow the goodness of his heart. Yes, we are living in a day where we are at the receiving end of the harvest of this gospel perversion. Most denominations don’t preach much against the flesh or the wickedness of man’s heart. How a man can stand in the pulpit and contradict the enormous amount of scriptural evidence concerning the nature of man is beyond me. When looking up the word ‘heart’ in the concordance it comes up 830 times! And that is just the one word, heart and not any of the words that may be connected to the heart. Most every book in the Bible has a scriptural reference concerning the heart of man. Where men like to cloud issues and create their own gospel, God does not mince words when he speaks.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart , I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. (Jer 17:9-10)
What is man, that he should be clean? and he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous? Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man, which drinketh iniquity like water? (Job 15:14-16)
He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered. (Prov 28:26)
This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead. (Eccl 9:3)
And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: (Jer 16:12)
Most want to refuse the authority of God’s Word because it gets right down to the nitty gritty. God’s Word is quick and powerful, cutting straight to the bone, discerning the thoughts and intents of a person’s heart. No wonder people hate the name JESUS. Where the law left room for the flesh to find it’s own glory and the outter man to shine, JESUS narrowed everything down to it’s originator and that was man’s wicked heart! And he said (JESUS SAID THIS), That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. (Mark 7:20-23)
A gospel that does not confront the wickedness of man’s heart is not a gospel at all. A gospel that preaches the goodness of man’s heart (whether that be literally or by omission) is a gospel that has been flipped upside down. A gospel that does not deal with the issues of the heart is a very shallow gospel and has been turned inside out. Focusing on the outer man rather the inner man is not really a gospel at all.
No wonder our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ compared the last days to the days of Noah! When man’s heart is set on a course to fulfill itself then the fruit of such pursuit will not be good. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. (Gen 6:5) Today, in these perilous times it almost seems impossible to reach this lover of pleasures generation. It is a generation that is founded upon the fruit of a shallow gospel. It is a generation that claims victim hood rather than responsibility. Far be it from us that the problem resides in us, it must have been someone else's fault. The mantra of this victim mentality is even found in the claim ‘The devil made me do it!” It is far easier to blame someone or something outside of ourselves then to be completely honest with ourselves. But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.(James 1:14-15) Though some would like to blame the devil and his imps for their troubles, the Apostle Paul took full responsibility...Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible. I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air: But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. (1 Cor 9:24-27) Blame some flying demon in the air if you want to, but Paul said he wasn’t fighting or beating at the air but he kept his body, with all it’s appetites and lusts, and brought it under subjection to the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Today, I thank God for men of God who are not afraid to preach the true gospel that was once delivered to the saints. The same gospel that pricked their hearts of men on the day of Pentecost is still the same today and if rightly divided by a God called man, it is still able to pull you out of these perilous times and any of the heart’s devices.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
A Dirty Four Letter Word
"There are no traffic jams along the extra mile." - Roger Staubach
America seems to be losing something that was once instilled into its cultural mindset during its colonial beginnings. Birthed out of her rugged beginning, America came into being through nothing but hard work. The idea of 'take from the haves and give to the have nots' was first repudiated over 400 years ago in the English settlement of Jamestown. The first year of Jamestown revealed the repercussions of living under the guise of a 'community store house'. Half the men were of the gentry class and did not or would not work. Yet they could receive freely from the common storehouse. The winter of 1607 brought forth the fruit of despair, only 38 out of the original 104 settlers had survived. It wasn't until Captain John Smith 'forced' everyone to work, allowing them to enjoy the fruit of their own labor, did things begin to turn around at Jamestown. American history is littered with stories like these, from the Puritan work ethic to children stories like, 'The Little Engine That Could'. And don't forget the The Tortoise and the Hare and the many Aesop fables and their morals that touted basic principles of 'little by little does the trick.' The American dream was founded upon such rugged individualism and idea if a person worked hard, no matter the social class or place of birth, an individual could rise up and fully enjoy the fruit of his own labor. This idea is easy to observe if you just take out a history book and purvey the litany of pictures that house the image of the American Dream. Men and women, full of blood, sweat, and probably many tears, diligently at work in pursuit of what America offered her...freedom to use your God given gifts and talents to become whatever you desired to become.
Today, the word 'work' is a dirty four letter word. Many people have seemingly lost the understanding, value, and even the advantage of what it means to work. The principle in scripture unequivocally states! "If you don't work, you don't eat!" (2 Thessalonians 3:10) As it has been quoted and said, the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. Yet, there seems to be this growing movement within the American mindset to get something for nothing. That somehow someway everyone deserves the benefits that only comes with hard work! This recent generation has been branded with the label as 'The Entitlement Generation'! It seems that corporate America is receiving many college graduates who believe they deserve ALL the entitlements that only come with years of hard work. The twenty-two year old, fresh out of college graduate actually believes he should be given a contract full of the benefits only a fifty to sixty year old achieved after years of sacrifice and labor.
As a teacher, I have also witnessed this in the younger generation. There is a certain attitude that has crept in amongst the youth concerning laboring and work. Many, if not most, seem to want good things but don't see the connection that work has to getting those 'good' things. These youth want jobs, but don't want to work hard on their education. They want nice houses, material possessions, and riches, but they refuse to restrain themselves. They don't see the connection between denying themselves for the moment in order to obtain greater things down the road. They have 'pie in the sky' dreams, but refuse to get their hands and feet grounded in some good old fashion down and dirty work!
And God forbid if you ask someone to 'go the extra mile'. To be asked to do anything outside of one's job description is, as the cliche goes, 'like extracting blood from a turnip'. To many, the extra mile is tantamount to a marathon! Yet, this idea of work and not only working, but working through trials and tribulations used to be the 'bread and butter' of the American psyche. NOTHING could not be achieved if one were to put your mind to it and get too work. Once again, the myriad of inspirational stories of our Founding Fathers, to the early American inventors, are ripe with the wisdom of what a made up mind, backed up with hard work can achieve.
Charles O. Finley said it this way, "Sweat plus sacrifice equals success." There is no way around it, success comes through work and the idea of having to labor toward one's aspirations and goals. Not only does sweat plus sacrifice bring success, but within the bosom of this principle lays those elusive principles of character and self-esteem. The ideas of character and self-esteem are elusive because they can only be captured through that dirty little four letter word called, WORK! It is the continuous effort, doing a little more each day, and going the extra mile that will ultimately produce the fruit you so desire. And there is no pleasure on earth like eating the fruit of one's own labor.
About ten years ago, I began to take up running as a form of exercise. I was gaining weight and saw the beginning stages of what I deem 'furniture disease'. My chest had done fallen down into my drawers! I began to move to do something about the problem. I bought a treadmill only to find it became a very expensive coat and hat rack. And like the fig tree that spoke to Jesus, the treadmill laughed at me. Every time I walked past that treadmill, it taunted me! The point being, the treadmill did not and could not do the work for me! It took about two years before I finally got the revelation. No matter how I sliced and diced it, or how much money I spent, it was still up to me to put my body in action and get to work!
Now, ten years later, I have crossed the 10,000 mile mark. Wow! TEN THOUSAND MILES! That's about fifty pairs of running shoes, and over a million calories of energy burned! Its days of getting up early in the morning when I didn't want to. Its training for weeks on end for a yearly marathon. It was work and most of the time, there wasn't an immediate reward in the effort that I put forth. But its even deeper than just the plain number of 10,000 miles. If someone would have told me ten years ago that not only would I run over 10,000 miles but also run in eight marathons, and finished all eight marathons, I would never have believed it. It is only now, when I look back, I can see the benefits of all my hard work. The fact that I am writing this to you, is a benefit from what I have learned while running. I have learned many things about myself, naturally and spiritually. I have accomplished things I never dreamed I could or would accomplish. I have had the pleasure of taking a nice juicy bite out of the fruit of my labor. "Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you." (William James)
Marvin Phillips said , "The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!" Its time to put the 'umph' back in your dreams. Don't be deceived, as the scripture admonishes us, if we sow sparingly, don't expect to reap bountifully! As Percy H. Johnston said, "It is the height of absurdity to sow little but weeds in the first half of one's lifetime and expect to harvest a valuable crop in the second half." Its time to stop looking for a handout and waiting for 'your ship to come in'! There is no way around it, and that it is WORK! "No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined."(Harry Emerson Fosdick) What are YOU waiting for...??? GET TO WORK!
America seems to be losing something that was once instilled into its cultural mindset during its colonial beginnings. Birthed out of her rugged beginning, America came into being through nothing but hard work. The idea of 'take from the haves and give to the have nots' was first repudiated over 400 years ago in the English settlement of Jamestown. The first year of Jamestown revealed the repercussions of living under the guise of a 'community store house'. Half the men were of the gentry class and did not or would not work. Yet they could receive freely from the common storehouse. The winter of 1607 brought forth the fruit of despair, only 38 out of the original 104 settlers had survived. It wasn't until Captain John Smith 'forced' everyone to work, allowing them to enjoy the fruit of their own labor, did things begin to turn around at Jamestown. American history is littered with stories like these, from the Puritan work ethic to children stories like, 'The Little Engine That Could'. And don't forget the The Tortoise and the Hare and the many Aesop fables and their morals that touted basic principles of 'little by little does the trick.' The American dream was founded upon such rugged individualism and idea if a person worked hard, no matter the social class or place of birth, an individual could rise up and fully enjoy the fruit of his own labor. This idea is easy to observe if you just take out a history book and purvey the litany of pictures that house the image of the American Dream. Men and women, full of blood, sweat, and probably many tears, diligently at work in pursuit of what America offered her...freedom to use your God given gifts and talents to become whatever you desired to become.
Today, the word 'work' is a dirty four letter word. Many people have seemingly lost the understanding, value, and even the advantage of what it means to work. The principle in scripture unequivocally states! "If you don't work, you don't eat!" (2 Thessalonians 3:10) As it has been quoted and said, the only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary. Yet, there seems to be this growing movement within the American mindset to get something for nothing. That somehow someway everyone deserves the benefits that only comes with hard work! This recent generation has been branded with the label as 'The Entitlement Generation'! It seems that corporate America is receiving many college graduates who believe they deserve ALL the entitlements that only come with years of hard work. The twenty-two year old, fresh out of college graduate actually believes he should be given a contract full of the benefits only a fifty to sixty year old achieved after years of sacrifice and labor.
As a teacher, I have also witnessed this in the younger generation. There is a certain attitude that has crept in amongst the youth concerning laboring and work. Many, if not most, seem to want good things but don't see the connection that work has to getting those 'good' things. These youth want jobs, but don't want to work hard on their education. They want nice houses, material possessions, and riches, but they refuse to restrain themselves. They don't see the connection between denying themselves for the moment in order to obtain greater things down the road. They have 'pie in the sky' dreams, but refuse to get their hands and feet grounded in some good old fashion down and dirty work!
And God forbid if you ask someone to 'go the extra mile'. To be asked to do anything outside of one's job description is, as the cliche goes, 'like extracting blood from a turnip'. To many, the extra mile is tantamount to a marathon! Yet, this idea of work and not only working, but working through trials and tribulations used to be the 'bread and butter' of the American psyche. NOTHING could not be achieved if one were to put your mind to it and get too work. Once again, the myriad of inspirational stories of our Founding Fathers, to the early American inventors, are ripe with the wisdom of what a made up mind, backed up with hard work can achieve.
Charles O. Finley said it this way, "Sweat plus sacrifice equals success." There is no way around it, success comes through work and the idea of having to labor toward one's aspirations and goals. Not only does sweat plus sacrifice bring success, but within the bosom of this principle lays those elusive principles of character and self-esteem. The ideas of character and self-esteem are elusive because they can only be captured through that dirty little four letter word called, WORK! It is the continuous effort, doing a little more each day, and going the extra mile that will ultimately produce the fruit you so desire. And there is no pleasure on earth like eating the fruit of one's own labor.
About ten years ago, I began to take up running as a form of exercise. I was gaining weight and saw the beginning stages of what I deem 'furniture disease'. My chest had done fallen down into my drawers! I began to move to do something about the problem. I bought a treadmill only to find it became a very expensive coat and hat rack. And like the fig tree that spoke to Jesus, the treadmill laughed at me. Every time I walked past that treadmill, it taunted me! The point being, the treadmill did not and could not do the work for me! It took about two years before I finally got the revelation. No matter how I sliced and diced it, or how much money I spent, it was still up to me to put my body in action and get to work!
Now, ten years later, I have crossed the 10,000 mile mark. Wow! TEN THOUSAND MILES! That's about fifty pairs of running shoes, and over a million calories of energy burned! Its days of getting up early in the morning when I didn't want to. Its training for weeks on end for a yearly marathon. It was work and most of the time, there wasn't an immediate reward in the effort that I put forth. But its even deeper than just the plain number of 10,000 miles. If someone would have told me ten years ago that not only would I run over 10,000 miles but also run in eight marathons, and finished all eight marathons, I would never have believed it. It is only now, when I look back, I can see the benefits of all my hard work. The fact that I am writing this to you, is a benefit from what I have learned while running. I have learned many things about myself, naturally and spiritually. I have accomplished things I never dreamed I could or would accomplish. I have had the pleasure of taking a nice juicy bite out of the fruit of my labor. "Most people never run far enough on their first wind to find out they've got a second. Give your dreams all you've got and you'll be amazed at the energy that comes out of you." (William James)
Marvin Phillips said , "The difference between try and triumph is just a little umph!" Its time to put the 'umph' back in your dreams. Don't be deceived, as the scripture admonishes us, if we sow sparingly, don't expect to reap bountifully! As Percy H. Johnston said, "It is the height of absurdity to sow little but weeds in the first half of one's lifetime and expect to harvest a valuable crop in the second half." Its time to stop looking for a handout and waiting for 'your ship to come in'! There is no way around it, and that it is WORK! "No horse gets anywhere until he is harnessed. No stream or gas drives anything until it is confined. No Niagara is ever turned into light and power until it is tunneled. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined."(Harry Emerson Fosdick) What are YOU waiting for...??? GET TO WORK!
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Price is Right
What we obtain too cheap we esteem too little; it is dearness only that gives everything value. - Thomas Paine
Over this past year I have been trying to create a new ministry/business, where I am able to reach out and help others with the knowledge I have learned about health and nutrition. I am a people person. I enjoy being able to help people in any and all areas of life. I have always felt life is not about what I can get, but what I can give, and once the Lord called me out, it became obvious that I wasn't too far off in my thoughts. In the past twenty years or so, I have learned much about life. Health and nutrition have been at the forefront of my learning, of which, I thoroughly enjoy. So toward the end of last year, I launched something I called, 'Abundant Life Coaching' (www.beyondthemoment.org). It is a ministry created to provide help to people in all areas of life. From health to weight problems, from exercising to overcoming depression, the Lord has blessed me over the years with knowledge and information, if learned by others, they would be freed from the strongholds that have them bound. Now I don't claim to know everything, but what I do know, is what I know, can help people get on the right path to victory.
Since starting this ministry, I have struggled with the idea of what to charge for this kind of help. Some say it should be for free and to be honest with you, I sincerely struggle with making or even asking people to pay for these services. Most of the time, I look to the Lord for my help and believe He will touch others to give because they 'see' the value of the information I am able to give them. To help an individual come out of sickness, whether it be a mental stronghold or a dis-ease of body, one would think, would be of high monetary value. But I have learned and continue to learn that this seems to be a two edged sword. It seems, for the most part, if it doesn't cost a person something, then they are less apt to respond to the information given to them. Let me explain. I have found on a continual basis, if I don't charge the client anything, if I don't extract some kind of a cost from them, most of what I say goes unheeded. I can give them hours of my time, exercise plans, books and notes to better health, and if it doesn't cost them anything, within days, they are back to their same old habits and brought back into the captivity of the same old strongholds again.
Adam Smith said, "The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it." It is becoming quite clear to me, if it doesn't cost you anything, then you will not value it. To me, the information I give is very valuable. The Lord has blessed me with many great and wonderful experiences of life! After working and putting myself through college, I graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in Social Science and a secondary teaching degree. I have sat under an anointed preacher for over twenty years learning far more than a psychology class professor could ever offer me in secular knowledge. I was principal and high school teacher of our Christian school for twenty-one years. I have been married for almost nineteen years and been blessed with two wonderful children. It has cost me years of laboring to gain information and insight concerning health and the body. I have spent a lot of money on books, programs, and supplements. I have trained for eight marathons and learned about the benefits of exercise. Its not that people who know me don't respect me, because they do appreciate the information I have gained, but the principle still stands true, if it doesn't cost them anything to gain what I give them, most people will not do anything with the information I give them. The ole cliche holds true...'No pain...no gain!' If there is no pain in the wallet, then there is no value attached to the information. If the information doesn't cost anything, then there seems to be very little motivation to follow through with any of the information provided.
On the contrary, I have witnessed the opposite to hold true. If the client pays a certain amount of money, the value of the information goes up because it is costing them something and if they are spending their money, then they will get the most out of the value they have now attached to the information. No wonder a psychiatrist charges so much per hour and no wonder people give the psychiatrist so much credit for their 'healing'. Could the relationship of the psychiatrist/patient be based on the value or the cost of the counseling session? I have no doubt some of this plays into the dynamics of such a relationship.
I don't think any of you who are reading this article today would argue the fact that the things that are freely given to you, as Thomas Paine said, you esteem of lower value than the things you toiled to gain through hard work and/or purchased with your hard earned money. When I was a youth, my first car was given to me by my parents. Yes, I appreciated it, but there was nothing like the value I placed on the first vehicle I bought for myself. I can remember feeling quite upset the first time I saw a scratch in MY car in a parking lot! Why? Because I was making the payments! It was costing me money to keep that car on the road, and its value was intrinsically connected to any cost I had to pay for that vehicle!
I would perhaps venture into the arena and say this is not just an individual problem in America, but it is an American problem. Our freedoms have not cost us anything. Prosperity, like Israel in the Old Testament, has blinded us from the true cost of our freedoms. Many times Israel stood in a similar place of decision. "And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word." (1 Kings 18:21) "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 1:18-20) George Mason said, "As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this." Now we, as a nation, stand at the crossroads of life and death, or as Patrick Henry, in terms of value, said, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" What value is there to life if we are to live as slaves? What value is there to the lives of our children if they are straddled with the economic debt of this generation? Only now, after years of laziness, slothfulness, and ignorance are the American people beginning to wake up!
There is no doubt what you risk truly reveals what you value. The Founding Fathers, when they signed the Declaration of Independence they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Most of those who signed suffered dire consequences, but they esteemed their God given liberties higher than life itself! Thomas Jefferson said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Our slack has cost us our liberties and now we must make up our minds... As the individual deals with the sickness in their own body, and must put a worth or a value on the information I give them. So must our nation put a value on her God given liberties...are they worth it?
Over this past year I have been trying to create a new ministry/business, where I am able to reach out and help others with the knowledge I have learned about health and nutrition. I am a people person. I enjoy being able to help people in any and all areas of life. I have always felt life is not about what I can get, but what I can give, and once the Lord called me out, it became obvious that I wasn't too far off in my thoughts. In the past twenty years or so, I have learned much about life. Health and nutrition have been at the forefront of my learning, of which, I thoroughly enjoy. So toward the end of last year, I launched something I called, 'Abundant Life Coaching' (www.beyondthemoment.org). It is a ministry created to provide help to people in all areas of life. From health to weight problems, from exercising to overcoming depression, the Lord has blessed me over the years with knowledge and information, if learned by others, they would be freed from the strongholds that have them bound. Now I don't claim to know everything, but what I do know, is what I know, can help people get on the right path to victory.
Since starting this ministry, I have struggled with the idea of what to charge for this kind of help. Some say it should be for free and to be honest with you, I sincerely struggle with making or even asking people to pay for these services. Most of the time, I look to the Lord for my help and believe He will touch others to give because they 'see' the value of the information I am able to give them. To help an individual come out of sickness, whether it be a mental stronghold or a dis-ease of body, one would think, would be of high monetary value. But I have learned and continue to learn that this seems to be a two edged sword. It seems, for the most part, if it doesn't cost a person something, then they are less apt to respond to the information given to them. Let me explain. I have found on a continual basis, if I don't charge the client anything, if I don't extract some kind of a cost from them, most of what I say goes unheeded. I can give them hours of my time, exercise plans, books and notes to better health, and if it doesn't cost them anything, within days, they are back to their same old habits and brought back into the captivity of the same old strongholds again.
Adam Smith said, "The real price of everything, what everything really costs to the man who wants to acquire it, is the toil and trouble of acquiring it." It is becoming quite clear to me, if it doesn't cost you anything, then you will not value it. To me, the information I give is very valuable. The Lord has blessed me with many great and wonderful experiences of life! After working and putting myself through college, I graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in Social Science and a secondary teaching degree. I have sat under an anointed preacher for over twenty years learning far more than a psychology class professor could ever offer me in secular knowledge. I was principal and high school teacher of our Christian school for twenty-one years. I have been married for almost nineteen years and been blessed with two wonderful children. It has cost me years of laboring to gain information and insight concerning health and the body. I have spent a lot of money on books, programs, and supplements. I have trained for eight marathons and learned about the benefits of exercise. Its not that people who know me don't respect me, because they do appreciate the information I have gained, but the principle still stands true, if it doesn't cost them anything to gain what I give them, most people will not do anything with the information I give them. The ole cliche holds true...'No pain...no gain!' If there is no pain in the wallet, then there is no value attached to the information. If the information doesn't cost anything, then there seems to be very little motivation to follow through with any of the information provided.
On the contrary, I have witnessed the opposite to hold true. If the client pays a certain amount of money, the value of the information goes up because it is costing them something and if they are spending their money, then they will get the most out of the value they have now attached to the information. No wonder a psychiatrist charges so much per hour and no wonder people give the psychiatrist so much credit for their 'healing'. Could the relationship of the psychiatrist/patient be based on the value or the cost of the counseling session? I have no doubt some of this plays into the dynamics of such a relationship.
I don't think any of you who are reading this article today would argue the fact that the things that are freely given to you, as Thomas Paine said, you esteem of lower value than the things you toiled to gain through hard work and/or purchased with your hard earned money. When I was a youth, my first car was given to me by my parents. Yes, I appreciated it, but there was nothing like the value I placed on the first vehicle I bought for myself. I can remember feeling quite upset the first time I saw a scratch in MY car in a parking lot! Why? Because I was making the payments! It was costing me money to keep that car on the road, and its value was intrinsically connected to any cost I had to pay for that vehicle!
I would perhaps venture into the arena and say this is not just an individual problem in America, but it is an American problem. Our freedoms have not cost us anything. Prosperity, like Israel in the Old Testament, has blinded us from the true cost of our freedoms. Many times Israel stood in a similar place of decision. "And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word." (1 Kings 18:21) "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." (Isaiah 1:18-20) George Mason said, "As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this." Now we, as a nation, stand at the crossroads of life and death, or as Patrick Henry, in terms of value, said, "Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!" What value is there to life if we are to live as slaves? What value is there to the lives of our children if they are straddled with the economic debt of this generation? Only now, after years of laziness, slothfulness, and ignorance are the American people beginning to wake up!
There is no doubt what you risk truly reveals what you value. The Founding Fathers, when they signed the Declaration of Independence they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Most of those who signed suffered dire consequences, but they esteemed their God given liberties higher than life itself! Thomas Jefferson said, "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Our slack has cost us our liberties and now we must make up our minds... As the individual deals with the sickness in their own body, and must put a worth or a value on the information I give them. So must our nation put a value on her God given liberties...are they worth it?
Saturday, March 20, 2010
A Defining Moment
I believe there are moments in people’s lives that help define who they are and where they end up going. These moments are not many but few. These moments not only impact a person’s life, but help to shape that person’s life from that point on. Sometimes they are intellectual and sometimes they are physical events that occur in a person’s life. They are sometimes moments of tragedy or sometimes moments of inspiration…glimpses of a better way or insight into a deeper understanding. These moments can propel people to greater heights or send them over the cliff to destruction. When these moments come they don’t last long…they appear for your grasp and if you don’t take advantage of it you may never retrieve it to your mind again. These defining moments are not just restricted to the individual but can also be seen in the a more broader historical sense.
Throughout history one can observe moments in the history of nations that for better or worse defined that nation. Our nation’s defining moment came with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The moment those signers penned their name to that document they were labeled traitors. And though they knew this, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Though I am sure there were many individual moments within that moment, as a nation, it defined who we were and even to this day is woven into our makeup as a culture. To the victor’s of the ‘Civil War’, the Union points to Gettysburg as their defining moment when the tide’s of war changed, yet to the Confederates, the defining point of the war came at the moment that friendly fire took out their great general and leader, Stonewall Jackson. When Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were together the Confederate Army could not be defeated. Therefore, Gettysburg was lost because Lee had to count on generals who could not match the military genius that Jackson had obtained too. American history is littered with such moments…’the day that will live in infamy’ is a quote by FDR that stimulates images of Japanese planes surprise aerial at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The ‘turning point’ in WWII can be found on the beaches of Normandy. Here thousands of U.S. soldiers stormed the beaches in a back breaking assault into the heartland of Nazi control. The ‘war on terror’ will forever have the surreal images of two planes crashing into the World Trade Center Towers as it’s defining moment. Germany is forever riddled with the image of Adolf Hitler and his campaign to conquer the world and create a super human race. The Catholic Church, though not a nation in itself will always be remembered for her leadership of the Inquisition. The blood of the martyr’s voices still testify of her quest to quiet their voices.
Israel had a few defining moments, one of the most obvious was the exodus from Egypt. With God as their head, Israel was moved by defining moments one after another. From the plagues to the Red Sea, these were forever embedded into the mindset the Israelites, which they still cling to in claiming to be special chosen people of God. What about the moment that Jesus stood before the religious order of that day and opens up the scripture of Isaiah, he finds the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:17-21) Wow! What a moment! This was a ‘God’ moment! One of those ‘declaration of independence’ moments, yet too Israel it was the first swing of the axe at the root of the tree.
And what of those individual’s who defining moments not only helped to shape a nation but also define who they were and forever forge their mark on the annals of time. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!” was an act of treason. Napoleon’s Waterloo forever vanquished him to defeat and an ultimate exile outside of his own country. The success of Jamestown owes it’s historical significance to a man by the name of Captain John Smith who abolished the communal system of taking from the haves and giving to the lazy have not’s and establishing the biblical principle of ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’! And what of George Washington’s amazing survival against all odds as an officer, under General Braddock in the British army. As they marched toward Ft. Duequene they were ambushed by the Indians who knew that their only way to victory to was to kill every officer. Two horses were shot out from under him and four bullet holes were found in his jacket. Fifteen years later an Indian war chief compelled George Washington to meet with him so he could meet the man that God protected. He told Washington of him personally taking seventeen shots at him and finally stopped shooting because he realized he could not kill him. Washington writes not only of this account, but of ninety seven defining moments in his life where the hand of God protected him and directed his path. King David’s life has a few moments that determined his destiny. Samuel stepping past eight of his brothers and asking David’s father if he had any other sons had to have been quite a moment. Imagine the astonished look on David’s eight brother’s faces as Samuel poured the anointing oil over their little brother’s head. An obvious one is in the Valley of Ellah. Here the young God chaser was brought face to face with the giant Phillistine, Goliath. Though Bathsheba comes too mind, David’s defining moment wasn’t really that he sinned, but was truly captured when his sin was revealed. Here is probably a universal defining moment for every inhabitant of the earth. How you respond to a preacher who tells you the truth is an eternal moment that places you at the proverbial fork in the road.
Historically, I could probably go on and on with this list of ‘defining moments’ that have transpired throughout the ages. In part two (next article) we will bring the examination of this idea to a micro level and step into the dynamics of defining moments of the ‘inner man’ in each of us. Though it is easy to look at history or the defining moments of those around us, it is a little more difficult to ’see’ how our own personal experiences have defined who we are and how they have shaped us.
In this day and age some people’s ‘moments’ may take place even before they even take their first breath. With the pollution, toxins, and addictions that have overtaken the land, could it be possible that a child’s life has been shaped in womb? Today there are babies that are born already addicted to the drugs of this world. Though these are no defining moment’s of no choice, just as genetic moments of definition come into play in our lives, these cannot be discounted as superficial or without merit. Though I am unsure nor do I remember anything from my own mother’s womb, I am sure there were a few of those moments that have affected me to this day.
There are not many moments in my life that I can remember before the age of two. Born in New York City in the boroughs of Queen and then moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, my ‘recall’ of any such moments at this age in my life are only from the words of those who are able to tell the stories. Whether they are actually still residing in my mind or just repressed I do not know, but they are there and are still affecting my life right now. Though I don’t remember this moment for myself, in my own life, I know that my parents divorce was a deep and defining moment in my life. Although just a baby, there is no doubt that this separation of my parents helped to define who I was too become and who I am now. Many go through life not realizing how family ‘moments’ like these actually help to define who they are. They search their whole lives looking outside of themselves to solve the broken riddles of their lives when in reality all they need to do is examine their own lineage and upbringing. For me, such a moment occurred when I was five years old…standing in the kitchen hearing that the man my mother was with was not really my father at all, but he was my step dad and the man that was coming to ‘visit’ me the next day was my real father. I remember crying and not really understanding what was going on, but it is obvious to me, the fact that I am writing about right now, over forty years later, tells me that it impacted my life from that point on. To grow up in a home and feel that kind of separation and division within your own family is not only confusing but painful. The mental torment was overwhelming at times…especially when a child is born from the new marriage, which then leaves you (and your brother) out of the family because of the natural bond at the birth of a child.
In these perilous times, those that are born within a broken home live in an inner psychological torment that never leaves them. When your hero’s fail, there’s not too many other faces or places to turn too. Your life revolves around those broken pieces. Some end up living a life of unfruitful frustrations, desperately trying to put the pieces back together again. Full of anger, resentment, and guilt, they try to undo the defining moment’s of those around them, not knowing they are allowing their life to be shaped by other people’s defining moments and not their own. Obviously, no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. All of us influence and are influenced of others, yet some choose to (yes it’s a choice!) to let those around them define who they are and what their lives are all about. These are those truly defining moments. Moments that forever shape your life and mold your being and affections. To me, though easily shrugged off by others, my parent’s divorce affected me deeply and still impacts me now.
Today I can look back and ’see’ it’s shaping affect upon my life. To hang around my friends and hear them call their father’s ’dad’ when I couldn’t go home and do the same affected me. To know that the man that my mother was married to was not my father and my real father was out ’there’ somewhere never left my mind. Now looking back, all of my actions were infused and framed within this moment.
Though my step-father was a decent man and took care of us, there is nothing that compares to the love that one feel’s when you conceive your own child. And this was definitely felt when my sister was born to the new marriage. All love…if any…was to be shown in our family went to her. Back then, as a young boy, I could not understand the connection. But today, now that I have experienced the love that prevails and overcomes your spirit at the birth of your own child, I can now understand the ’whys’ and no longer frustrated. Therefore, a moment in my life that was created by someone else no longer has any more control over my life, because I understand the ’why’. When one is no longer confined behind the bars of ’I am a victim’ prison, then the possibility of true growth can be obtained. We are the choosers of our destiny…these moments come and go…but it’s what we do with them that counts. Stepping stones or stumbling blocks. Victims or victors. Welfare or wealthy. They either weigh you down or stimulate a desire to rise above them.
Today, rather than wallowing in the despair of divorce and it’s impact upon my frail psyche as a child, I can now see the blessing that it brought to me in it’s entirety. From the emotional instability of these broken pieces came a deep desire within me to truly find out ‘what life is all about’. From a young age I began searching. Yes it may have been in all the wrong places, and in all the wrong faces, but there was a yearning in me too know the truth about life and it’s meaning. Though this yearning took me on a far journey, it allowed me opportunity, if you will, to seek things out for myself. The rejection of my upbringing, though rebellious in nature, was a blessing in the long run. For I developed an attitude to seek things out for myself. To question the status quo and look for the deeper answers. The Greek philosophers of old said, “Reality hides behind appearances” and I refused to accept things at face value. It breed within me a desire to know…so I read, I wrote stories, kept a journal, wrote poetry, took philosophy classes, and traveled abroad…in search of these all elusive answers to the truth of life. Instead of being a recluse, too me life was about living each moment as fully as one possibly could…with gusto I would live it and with all I had, and in this, I would find out the truth. When I think about it, this attitude was birthed within me because of that one defining moment that I had no control over.
Now looking back, it is truly a wonder to see how God orchestrates a man’s steps if he is truly seeking an answer. Though, in my mind, I rejected anything that had to do with religion or God, I was seeking Him and I didn’t know it. God’s longsuffering was wrapped in mercy as He waited for the end of my dabbling in the transgressions of this world. Worn out from chasing the empty promises of my carnal senses, God saw me. Though my searching could easily be placed into a category called stupid or absurd, God waited for me. Though I despised those who claimed to know Him and religions that mocked Him, God knew my heart. He knew that the gospel would one day be delivered to my heart by a God called preacher, by a man sent of Him. And once I entered His sanctuary of praise, heard the gospel truth of my salvation, He knew I would not reject it, because my searching’s had brought me to the end of the road. A long road of abrupt stops and painful harvests of wrong choices. But He was always there, drawing me ever so closer to His will, His ways, and His light. Step by step, choice by choice, the ironic thing is the defining moment of a painful divorce ultimately led me to a defining moment at an altar where I met the Master of all moments, and the God of the spirits of all flesh. It was here, at a literal altar of repentance that the God of the universe encamped upon the tables of my heart. As the one hundred and twenty basked in the defining moment of Pentecost, I too, stepped into the eluded questions of my life and fell into the answering embrace of His mercy. Oh what a moment! What a defining moment! Though my soul longed for answers, my rest came when my soul found Him who it had longed for. Oh what a moment! What a eternally defining moment!
Throughout history one can observe moments in the history of nations that for better or worse defined that nation. Our nation’s defining moment came with the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The moment those signers penned their name to that document they were labeled traitors. And though they knew this, they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. Though I am sure there were many individual moments within that moment, as a nation, it defined who we were and even to this day is woven into our makeup as a culture. To the victor’s of the ‘Civil War’, the Union points to Gettysburg as their defining moment when the tide’s of war changed, yet to the Confederates, the defining point of the war came at the moment that friendly fire took out their great general and leader, Stonewall Jackson. When Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson were together the Confederate Army could not be defeated. Therefore, Gettysburg was lost because Lee had to count on generals who could not match the military genius that Jackson had obtained too. American history is littered with such moments…’the day that will live in infamy’ is a quote by FDR that stimulates images of Japanese planes surprise aerial at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The ‘turning point’ in WWII can be found on the beaches of Normandy. Here thousands of U.S. soldiers stormed the beaches in a back breaking assault into the heartland of Nazi control. The ‘war on terror’ will forever have the surreal images of two planes crashing into the World Trade Center Towers as it’s defining moment. Germany is forever riddled with the image of Adolf Hitler and his campaign to conquer the world and create a super human race. The Catholic Church, though not a nation in itself will always be remembered for her leadership of the Inquisition. The blood of the martyr’s voices still testify of her quest to quiet their voices.
Israel had a few defining moments, one of the most obvious was the exodus from Egypt. With God as their head, Israel was moved by defining moments one after another. From the plagues to the Red Sea, these were forever embedded into the mindset the Israelites, which they still cling to in claiming to be special chosen people of God. What about the moment that Jesus stood before the religious order of that day and opens up the scripture of Isaiah, he finds the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.” (Luke 4:17-21) Wow! What a moment! This was a ‘God’ moment! One of those ‘declaration of independence’ moments, yet too Israel it was the first swing of the axe at the root of the tree.
And what of those individual’s who defining moments not only helped to shape a nation but also define who they were and forever forge their mark on the annals of time. Patrick Henry’s “Give me liberty or give me death!” was an act of treason. Napoleon’s Waterloo forever vanquished him to defeat and an ultimate exile outside of his own country. The success of Jamestown owes it’s historical significance to a man by the name of Captain John Smith who abolished the communal system of taking from the haves and giving to the lazy have not’s and establishing the biblical principle of ‘if you don’t work, you don’t eat’! And what of George Washington’s amazing survival against all odds as an officer, under General Braddock in the British army. As they marched toward Ft. Duequene they were ambushed by the Indians who knew that their only way to victory to was to kill every officer. Two horses were shot out from under him and four bullet holes were found in his jacket. Fifteen years later an Indian war chief compelled George Washington to meet with him so he could meet the man that God protected. He told Washington of him personally taking seventeen shots at him and finally stopped shooting because he realized he could not kill him. Washington writes not only of this account, but of ninety seven defining moments in his life where the hand of God protected him and directed his path. King David’s life has a few moments that determined his destiny. Samuel stepping past eight of his brothers and asking David’s father if he had any other sons had to have been quite a moment. Imagine the astonished look on David’s eight brother’s faces as Samuel poured the anointing oil over their little brother’s head. An obvious one is in the Valley of Ellah. Here the young God chaser was brought face to face with the giant Phillistine, Goliath. Though Bathsheba comes too mind, David’s defining moment wasn’t really that he sinned, but was truly captured when his sin was revealed. Here is probably a universal defining moment for every inhabitant of the earth. How you respond to a preacher who tells you the truth is an eternal moment that places you at the proverbial fork in the road.
Historically, I could probably go on and on with this list of ‘defining moments’ that have transpired throughout the ages. In part two (next article) we will bring the examination of this idea to a micro level and step into the dynamics of defining moments of the ‘inner man’ in each of us. Though it is easy to look at history or the defining moments of those around us, it is a little more difficult to ’see’ how our own personal experiences have defined who we are and how they have shaped us.
In this day and age some people’s ‘moments’ may take place even before they even take their first breath. With the pollution, toxins, and addictions that have overtaken the land, could it be possible that a child’s life has been shaped in womb? Today there are babies that are born already addicted to the drugs of this world. Though these are no defining moment’s of no choice, just as genetic moments of definition come into play in our lives, these cannot be discounted as superficial or without merit. Though I am unsure nor do I remember anything from my own mother’s womb, I am sure there were a few of those moments that have affected me to this day.
There are not many moments in my life that I can remember before the age of two. Born in New York City in the boroughs of Queen and then moving to Colorado Springs, Colorado, my ‘recall’ of any such moments at this age in my life are only from the words of those who are able to tell the stories. Whether they are actually still residing in my mind or just repressed I do not know, but they are there and are still affecting my life right now. Though I don’t remember this moment for myself, in my own life, I know that my parents divorce was a deep and defining moment in my life. Although just a baby, there is no doubt that this separation of my parents helped to define who I was too become and who I am now. Many go through life not realizing how family ‘moments’ like these actually help to define who they are. They search their whole lives looking outside of themselves to solve the broken riddles of their lives when in reality all they need to do is examine their own lineage and upbringing. For me, such a moment occurred when I was five years old…standing in the kitchen hearing that the man my mother was with was not really my father at all, but he was my step dad and the man that was coming to ‘visit’ me the next day was my real father. I remember crying and not really understanding what was going on, but it is obvious to me, the fact that I am writing about right now, over forty years later, tells me that it impacted my life from that point on. To grow up in a home and feel that kind of separation and division within your own family is not only confusing but painful. The mental torment was overwhelming at times…especially when a child is born from the new marriage, which then leaves you (and your brother) out of the family because of the natural bond at the birth of a child.
In these perilous times, those that are born within a broken home live in an inner psychological torment that never leaves them. When your hero’s fail, there’s not too many other faces or places to turn too. Your life revolves around those broken pieces. Some end up living a life of unfruitful frustrations, desperately trying to put the pieces back together again. Full of anger, resentment, and guilt, they try to undo the defining moment’s of those around them, not knowing they are allowing their life to be shaped by other people’s defining moments and not their own. Obviously, no man liveth to himself and no man dieth to himself. All of us influence and are influenced of others, yet some choose to (yes it’s a choice!) to let those around them define who they are and what their lives are all about. These are those truly defining moments. Moments that forever shape your life and mold your being and affections. To me, though easily shrugged off by others, my parent’s divorce affected me deeply and still impacts me now.
Today I can look back and ’see’ it’s shaping affect upon my life. To hang around my friends and hear them call their father’s ’dad’ when I couldn’t go home and do the same affected me. To know that the man that my mother was married to was not my father and my real father was out ’there’ somewhere never left my mind. Now looking back, all of my actions were infused and framed within this moment.
Though my step-father was a decent man and took care of us, there is nothing that compares to the love that one feel’s when you conceive your own child. And this was definitely felt when my sister was born to the new marriage. All love…if any…was to be shown in our family went to her. Back then, as a young boy, I could not understand the connection. But today, now that I have experienced the love that prevails and overcomes your spirit at the birth of your own child, I can now understand the ’whys’ and no longer frustrated. Therefore, a moment in my life that was created by someone else no longer has any more control over my life, because I understand the ’why’. When one is no longer confined behind the bars of ’I am a victim’ prison, then the possibility of true growth can be obtained. We are the choosers of our destiny…these moments come and go…but it’s what we do with them that counts. Stepping stones or stumbling blocks. Victims or victors. Welfare or wealthy. They either weigh you down or stimulate a desire to rise above them.
Today, rather than wallowing in the despair of divorce and it’s impact upon my frail psyche as a child, I can now see the blessing that it brought to me in it’s entirety. From the emotional instability of these broken pieces came a deep desire within me to truly find out ‘what life is all about’. From a young age I began searching. Yes it may have been in all the wrong places, and in all the wrong faces, but there was a yearning in me too know the truth about life and it’s meaning. Though this yearning took me on a far journey, it allowed me opportunity, if you will, to seek things out for myself. The rejection of my upbringing, though rebellious in nature, was a blessing in the long run. For I developed an attitude to seek things out for myself. To question the status quo and look for the deeper answers. The Greek philosophers of old said, “Reality hides behind appearances” and I refused to accept things at face value. It breed within me a desire to know…so I read, I wrote stories, kept a journal, wrote poetry, took philosophy classes, and traveled abroad…in search of these all elusive answers to the truth of life. Instead of being a recluse, too me life was about living each moment as fully as one possibly could…with gusto I would live it and with all I had, and in this, I would find out the truth. When I think about it, this attitude was birthed within me because of that one defining moment that I had no control over.
Now looking back, it is truly a wonder to see how God orchestrates a man’s steps if he is truly seeking an answer. Though, in my mind, I rejected anything that had to do with religion or God, I was seeking Him and I didn’t know it. God’s longsuffering was wrapped in mercy as He waited for the end of my dabbling in the transgressions of this world. Worn out from chasing the empty promises of my carnal senses, God saw me. Though my searching could easily be placed into a category called stupid or absurd, God waited for me. Though I despised those who claimed to know Him and religions that mocked Him, God knew my heart. He knew that the gospel would one day be delivered to my heart by a God called preacher, by a man sent of Him. And once I entered His sanctuary of praise, heard the gospel truth of my salvation, He knew I would not reject it, because my searching’s had brought me to the end of the road. A long road of abrupt stops and painful harvests of wrong choices. But He was always there, drawing me ever so closer to His will, His ways, and His light. Step by step, choice by choice, the ironic thing is the defining moment of a painful divorce ultimately led me to a defining moment at an altar where I met the Master of all moments, and the God of the spirits of all flesh. It was here, at a literal altar of repentance that the God of the universe encamped upon the tables of my heart. As the one hundred and twenty basked in the defining moment of Pentecost, I too, stepped into the eluded questions of my life and fell into the answering embrace of His mercy. Oh what a moment! What a defining moment! Though my soul longed for answers, my rest came when my soul found Him who it had longed for. Oh what a moment! What a eternally defining moment!
The Witness Tree
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)
Recently I was blessed to be up North and had the opportunity to run the trails in the wood’s of Kalkaska, Michigan. I have a few set courses that I run and there is one course that I call the Kalkaska Figure Eight. Well as I came upon the intersecting part of the trails, I looked up and saw this very prominent sign next to a large tree. The area around the tree had been obviously cleared for this ‘special’ sign. As I approached the sign I noticed that the heading made this statement, "The Witness Tree". Below the heading was a paragraph describing what they meant by the heading, "The Witness Tree". Apparently, on September 26, 1850 a large sugar maple tree was planted as a witness and a testimony to future generations. On that day, back in 1850, they had a ceremonial planting commemorating the event. It stood for a past that had long ago disappeared from the face of the earth.
As I read the sign, I thought about those who had gathered around this tree one hundred sixty or so years before me. What must have gone through their mind? They knew that the tree had the potential to live way beyond their years and they would die long before the ‘witness’ may ever become a witness. Yet now, in the middle of this vast acreage of woods, here stood out a huge sign commemorating this ‘Witness Tree’. It had survived 160 years after the ceremony. It’s planters were long gone, but it was still here proclaiming that they had once existed. That there was a people who looked to the future and though they would not be there they wanted the future to be able to take a moment and acknowledge the past. To remember them, their toil, and their labor.
Immediately I thought about God. I thought about the past and I thought about the future. What kind of a ‘Witness Tree’ am I? What does the future hold? I thought of the many times when people who once were in church, whether it be student or adult, and they would come back to church. I am not sure what excites me more; the fact that they have returned or whether I am still here. That I am still a ‘witness tree’ standing in the midst of a crazy world commemorating a planting that took place over twenty years ago. As that tree endured 160 years of seasons, so I have endured a few years of changing seasons. Although the number of seasons are not as high in number, as a human ‘witness tree’, whose year’s of life are not as long as that tree, yet I have remained planted. Who knows what that tree may have endured over the years. Fires, droughts, competition for the light of the sun, pollution, and human encroachment. If one could open up the trunk of that tree and look at the seasonal ring lines, it would be possible to ‘see’ what that tree had to endure over the last 160 years. The amazing thing is I had run that road countless times over the past four or five years and I never knew that there was anything different about that tree. It was crowded out by other trees. It was nothing but a tree standing in the midst of the forest. Funny that I couldn’t see the tree for the forest, isn’t it! Yet, there it was, 160 years later standing as a ‘Witness Tree’. Grown up from a sapling to a full grown adult tree proclaiming victory over the natural course of this world.
In the instant I saw this tree my mind raced both to the past and to the future. From the natural to the spiritual. Life is but a vapor and how quickly it passes by. There in a moment I saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Rev 3:14) The TRUTH still stands and has withstood the test of time. Seasons come and seasons go, yet God’s word stands true. Though carnality tries to drown the truth out. Though the world seemingly makes the truth look insignificant IT STILL STANDS as a witness against it. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31) In the midst of a carnal Roman Empire God birthed a Witness Tree of victory. The ceremony was the day of Pentecost which declares that all who are willing can be a testimony of victory over the past and into the future. Trees of RIGHTEOUSNESS in the midst turmoil and death.
There is something about the past that emboldens me! Although I cannot go back I don’t have to repeat it. There are many in this life who have horrible pasts. Seasons of dismay, hurt, abuse, and pain. Yet to some the pain becomes something they live in, dwell in, and cast a bleak vision of their future in. But there are those who use their past to become springboards of a future witness of victory. It has been said that there are trees who only after the drought become stronger and there are trees who become more susceptible to disease because of the drought. There are trees that need fire, because it is the natural lightening strikes of fire that activate the cone of a pine tree to open up and release the seeds of the future. Oh Lord, help me to endure the fire that my life may release the seeds of victory and eternal life to my family and those around me!
It was the faithful and true witness of Jesus Christ that spawned saplings of victory in the Truth. Paul ran to the guillotine, Peter was crucified upside down, and the rest of the Apostles faced an similar fate! Leaving us a past as a witness to this Truth. Signs pointing to a clear evidence that the Truth existed before us, it still stands today, and it will still be here long after we are gone. Help me Lord Jesus to be that Witness Tree! To stand boldly in the midst of opposing forces proudly proclaiming my heritage and boldly standing as a witness in the present. Enduring the seasonal temptations of the flesh and lifting my hands up high toward the Sun of Righteousness, in faith, that the future will bring all that the Truth is empowered to give us!
Recently I was blessed to be up North and had the opportunity to run the trails in the wood’s of Kalkaska, Michigan. I have a few set courses that I run and there is one course that I call the Kalkaska Figure Eight. Well as I came upon the intersecting part of the trails, I looked up and saw this very prominent sign next to a large tree. The area around the tree had been obviously cleared for this ‘special’ sign. As I approached the sign I noticed that the heading made this statement, "The Witness Tree". Below the heading was a paragraph describing what they meant by the heading, "The Witness Tree". Apparently, on September 26, 1850 a large sugar maple tree was planted as a witness and a testimony to future generations. On that day, back in 1850, they had a ceremonial planting commemorating the event. It stood for a past that had long ago disappeared from the face of the earth.
As I read the sign, I thought about those who had gathered around this tree one hundred sixty or so years before me. What must have gone through their mind? They knew that the tree had the potential to live way beyond their years and they would die long before the ‘witness’ may ever become a witness. Yet now, in the middle of this vast acreage of woods, here stood out a huge sign commemorating this ‘Witness Tree’. It had survived 160 years after the ceremony. It’s planters were long gone, but it was still here proclaiming that they had once existed. That there was a people who looked to the future and though they would not be there they wanted the future to be able to take a moment and acknowledge the past. To remember them, their toil, and their labor.
Immediately I thought about God. I thought about the past and I thought about the future. What kind of a ‘Witness Tree’ am I? What does the future hold? I thought of the many times when people who once were in church, whether it be student or adult, and they would come back to church. I am not sure what excites me more; the fact that they have returned or whether I am still here. That I am still a ‘witness tree’ standing in the midst of a crazy world commemorating a planting that took place over twenty years ago. As that tree endured 160 years of seasons, so I have endured a few years of changing seasons. Although the number of seasons are not as high in number, as a human ‘witness tree’, whose year’s of life are not as long as that tree, yet I have remained planted. Who knows what that tree may have endured over the years. Fires, droughts, competition for the light of the sun, pollution, and human encroachment. If one could open up the trunk of that tree and look at the seasonal ring lines, it would be possible to ‘see’ what that tree had to endure over the last 160 years. The amazing thing is I had run that road countless times over the past four or five years and I never knew that there was anything different about that tree. It was crowded out by other trees. It was nothing but a tree standing in the midst of the forest. Funny that I couldn’t see the tree for the forest, isn’t it! Yet, there it was, 160 years later standing as a ‘Witness Tree’. Grown up from a sapling to a full grown adult tree proclaiming victory over the natural course of this world.
In the instant I saw this tree my mind raced both to the past and to the future. From the natural to the spiritual. Life is but a vapor and how quickly it passes by. There in a moment I saw the Lord Jesus Christ. And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Rev 3:14) The TRUTH still stands and has withstood the test of time. Seasons come and seasons go, yet God’s word stands true. Though carnality tries to drown the truth out. Though the world seemingly makes the truth look insignificant IT STILL STANDS as a witness against it. Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away. (Mark 13:31) In the midst of a carnal Roman Empire God birthed a Witness Tree of victory. The ceremony was the day of Pentecost which declares that all who are willing can be a testimony of victory over the past and into the future. Trees of RIGHTEOUSNESS in the midst turmoil and death.
There is something about the past that emboldens me! Although I cannot go back I don’t have to repeat it. There are many in this life who have horrible pasts. Seasons of dismay, hurt, abuse, and pain. Yet to some the pain becomes something they live in, dwell in, and cast a bleak vision of their future in. But there are those who use their past to become springboards of a future witness of victory. It has been said that there are trees who only after the drought become stronger and there are trees who become more susceptible to disease because of the drought. There are trees that need fire, because it is the natural lightening strikes of fire that activate the cone of a pine tree to open up and release the seeds of the future. Oh Lord, help me to endure the fire that my life may release the seeds of victory and eternal life to my family and those around me!
It was the faithful and true witness of Jesus Christ that spawned saplings of victory in the Truth. Paul ran to the guillotine, Peter was crucified upside down, and the rest of the Apostles faced an similar fate! Leaving us a past as a witness to this Truth. Signs pointing to a clear evidence that the Truth existed before us, it still stands today, and it will still be here long after we are gone. Help me Lord Jesus to be that Witness Tree! To stand boldly in the midst of opposing forces proudly proclaiming my heritage and boldly standing as a witness in the present. Enduring the seasonal temptations of the flesh and lifting my hands up high toward the Sun of Righteousness, in faith, that the future will bring all that the Truth is empowered to give us!
The Truth About Freedom
Most of us have heard the often used cliche that ‘Freedom isn’t free’ and it will cost you something if you truly desire to be free. The world quickly looks upon us and immediately categorizes us into a group labeled ‘bondage’. The religions of the world (even many within our own so called Apostolic groups) call us ‘legalists’ because of what they deem as unnecessary constraints or rules to living for God. We are in bondage because we can’t (or won’t) do the things they get to do. We are legalists like the pharisees, they claim, because we live for God by rules (as though there are no rules because Jesus already paid the cost). Although these two accounts are somewhat shallow in depth concerning their ‘views’, in a nutshell, they summarize their vicarious perspective of what they ‘see’.
Over the years while teaching US History and Government classes to my high school students I have tried to pound a certain point home concerning the truth about freedom. It is a saying that most of my students hear over and over and over throughout the school year. It is something our Founding Fathers understood. It is something that generations of Americans understood for many years until just recently. It is a principle that most religions understood until about hundred years ago or so. But somewhere along the way, combined with the dumbing down of the American mind and the advent of a pleasure seeking generation, we lost this basic understanding....There is no such thing as an immoral free man!
I’ll say it again. There is NO such thing as an immoral free man. The more that a person is left to himself and allowed to follow his appetites and lusts, then the more laws have to be passed to make sure his lusts are kept in check. Therefore with the creation of more laws comes the creation of more government agencies to make sure those laws are enforced. The creation of more government agencies means government gets bigger and when government gets bigger the people become oppressed and lose their liberties and freedoms. These things do not happen by accident, but all these things happen because of the immorality in the people. This inability of the people to discern between good and evil leaves them laying in a bed of unbridled passions. The more unbridled their appetites become without restraint, the more oppressed society becomes with an overbearing burdening system of government regulation. Solomon said it this way, "For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged." (Prov 28:2) The way of the transgressor is not only hard for the individual but also for nations who turn their backs on God. George Mason said it this way, "As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this." Sadly enough, usually the punishment involves the gradual growth of an over zealous and burdening government.
I want to try and back up what I am saying here by quoting some of our Founding Fathers, so bear with me here as we step into their world and their mind set at the time of the American Revolution and a few years after:
Noah Webster
"All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." [Noah Webster. History. p. 339]
James McHenry– Signer of the Constitution
"Public utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience."
Jedediah Morse:
"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."
Charles Carroll
- signer of the Declaration of Independence
" Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." [Source: To James McHenry on November 4, 1800.]
Thomas Jefferson
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever." (excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in the nations capital) [Source: Merrill . D. Peterson, ed., Jefferson Writings, (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1984), Vol. IV, p. 289. From Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, 1781.]
Governor Samuel Johnston
"It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), pagans, etc., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, [unless] first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves. [Elliot’s Debates, Vol. IV, pp 198-199, Governor Samuel Johnston, July 30, 1788 at the North Carolina Ratifying Convention]
Thomas Paine:
" It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author."
" The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labor with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal." "The Existence of God--1810"
Benjamin Rush:
"I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism." "By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds." [Letter written (1790’s) in Defense of the Bible in all schools in America]
George Washington
Farewell Address: The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion" ...and later: "...reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle..."
James Madison (Federalist No. 51, 8 February 1788)
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."
What powerful words and understanding of the necessity of having a nation flowing with moral principles that can only be derived from the Word of God and Christianity. As James Madison said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary...." but seeing that men are NOT angels and governments are made up of men, there is of a necessity to create checks and balances to check and balance the passions, appetites, and lusts of the men who will obtain any office of political power. The beauty of the Constitution is not that it is so concise and well written, but within it’s make-up is this eternal understanding that permeated through all the minds of the men who wrote the document: It is of a truth that government is made up of men and if left to himself, with no checks on his lusts, he would oppress his fellow man and enslave him. The true beauty of the Constitution is that it incorporates this fact. True freedom can only be derived when human nature is checked and controlled. This is the inherent genius of the Constitution; it was written by our Founders with the intent to maintain a vigilant check upon human nature. John Adams said, "Power must NEVER be trusted without a check." Why? Because when a man gains or acquires power, history shows that in the end, he cannot be trusted to maintain that power or office with purity. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. (Prov 29:2)
The cliche that ‘freedom isn’t free’ is clearly true and in the end, if we truly desire to be free it will cost us something. As a matter of fact, true freedom will cost us our lives. Which, sadly, is a price that many will not or are not willing to pay. We talk a good talk, but our actions do not match our speech. We enjoy great conversations about the Holy Ghost, but discussion of discipline and constraint is kept to low roar, if even discussed at all. The Apostle Paul said it this way, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;" (Phil 3:10) YES! We want to know Him in the power of His resurrection, but we fail to connect these two ingredients. There is no resurrection without a cross. There is no power without stepping into the fellowship of His sufferings. And there is no freedom without a cost.
Most seem to disregard the words of Jesus or let’s just say, they may hear them, but to do them is a whole different story. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross , and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt 16:24-26) Too many of us are caught up in saving our lives rather than losing our lives for His name’s sake. We find the Word of God too constraining in a world that is so liberal and seemingly ‘free’. We are so apt to shun any preacher that preaches a standard or doctrine that warns about what we put before our eyes and ears. Our images are more important then His image. The image of Jesus on the cross is too painful of an image. In agony He hangs there, looking forlorn, forsaken and all alone, with no one to help Him. We think to ourselves, ‘There is NO WAY that all that blood, guts, and gore will bring freedom!’ We have a hard time seeing beyond the cross. We have difficulty seeing beyond obedience. Our senses create images of eminent death and we buy into the pictures of despair. The voices inside us cry, " I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" (Gen 25:32) "This is bondage not to have my desires fulfilled! This is crazy that I can’t go here or do that? Who does that preacher think he is telling me what I can or cannot do?" Edmund Burke said, "The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
In our inability to see beyond the cross, we cave and give in to the appetites of the flesh. When I run, going up hill is always a battle but when I go downhill, there is a momentary reprieve and a certain exhilaration. Like the back slider who walks away from the Truth...it’s exciting...but the excitement is just that... fleeting and brief. That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? (Job 20:5) Momentarily, we ‘feel’ as though we have obtained true freedom, when in essence we have unlocked the proverbial pandora’s box of bondage and enslavement. Soon we are encompassed with chains of darkness and our eyes have been plucked out by our enemies. I am sure that there was a sense of excitement in Lot’s bosom when he walked away from the oversight and rule of Abraham in his life. The ‘well watered plains of Jordon’ looked like real freedom. No more mountainous terrain to deal with. No more answering to his Uncle Abraham. But about thirteen years later, after being vexed day and night, by what he saw and what he heard, the freedom Lot thought he had obtained was really darkness disguised as freedom. A wolf in sheep’s clothing if you will. I don’t really believe in the beginning that Lot thought he would end up offering his virgin daughters to the queers of Sodom, but these are the things that happen when you don’t understand the truth about freedom. Another Founding Father said it this way, "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
The scripture says that ‘a good man’s steps are ordered of the Lord’. A man who follows after God cannot afford to believe that his appetites and lusts are in any way shape or form the pathway to freedom. A man’s whose steps are ordered of the Lord knows that sin always paints a pretty picture. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth , that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess 2:10-12) This man knows if he gives into his appetites, he might as well put a knife to his throat. Because somewhere down the road, a good man knows he will reap what he has sown. He understands it is a walk by faith and not by sight. His passions and lusts must first be screened by the Word of God and he can not maintain this walk without a preacher. He must have a God called man in his life that will preach what God has sent him to preach. Benjamin Franklin said, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" I am glad the the Lamb of God came to contest the vote! While the religious wolves of Jesus’s day divided and conquered Israel for their lunch, there came a well armed Lamb who kicked open the sepulchers of death and deceit. The Strongman came, He conquered, and He showed us the way to true freedom. Today, in the midst of this untoward generation, we still have an opportunity to truly be free. The promise is still being poured out and if you feel bound today, maybe its because you have not yet examined the truth about freedom. Besides, what has that pottage of lentils really gotten you anyway???
Over the years while teaching US History and Government classes to my high school students I have tried to pound a certain point home concerning the truth about freedom. It is a saying that most of my students hear over and over and over throughout the school year. It is something our Founding Fathers understood. It is something that generations of Americans understood for many years until just recently. It is a principle that most religions understood until about hundred years ago or so. But somewhere along the way, combined with the dumbing down of the American mind and the advent of a pleasure seeking generation, we lost this basic understanding....There is no such thing as an immoral free man!
I’ll say it again. There is NO such thing as an immoral free man. The more that a person is left to himself and allowed to follow his appetites and lusts, then the more laws have to be passed to make sure his lusts are kept in check. Therefore with the creation of more laws comes the creation of more government agencies to make sure those laws are enforced. The creation of more government agencies means government gets bigger and when government gets bigger the people become oppressed and lose their liberties and freedoms. These things do not happen by accident, but all these things happen because of the immorality in the people. This inability of the people to discern between good and evil leaves them laying in a bed of unbridled passions. The more unbridled their appetites become without restraint, the more oppressed society becomes with an overbearing burdening system of government regulation. Solomon said it this way, "For the transgression of a land many are the princes thereof: but by a man of understanding and knowledge the state thereof shall be prolonged." (Prov 28:2) The way of the transgressor is not only hard for the individual but also for nations who turn their backs on God. George Mason said it this way, "As nations can not be rewarded or punished in the next world they must be in this." Sadly enough, usually the punishment involves the gradual growth of an over zealous and burdening government.
I want to try and back up what I am saying here by quoting some of our Founding Fathers, so bear with me here as we step into their world and their mind set at the time of the American Revolution and a few years after:
Noah Webster
"All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible." [Noah Webster. History. p. 339]
James McHenry– Signer of the Constitution
"Public utility pleads most forcibly for the general distribution of the Holy Scriptures. The doctrine they preach, the obligations they impose, the punishment they threaten, the rewards they promise, the stamp and image of divinity they bear, which produces a conviction of their truths, can alone secure to society, order and peace, and to our courts of justice and constitutions of government, purity, stability and usefulness. In vain, without the Bible, we increase penal laws and draw entrenchments around our institutions. Bibles are strong entrenchments. Where they abound, men cannot pursue wicked courses, and at the same time enjoy quiet conscience."
Jedediah Morse:
"To the kindly influence of Christianity we owe that degree of civil freedom, and political and social happiness which mankind now enjoys. . . . Whenever the pillars of Christianity shall be overthrown, our present republican forms of government, and all blessings which flow from them, must fall with them."
Charles Carroll
- signer of the Declaration of Independence
" Without morals a republic cannot subsist any length of time; they therefore who are decrying the Christian religion, whose morality is so sublime and pure...are undermining the solid foundation of morals, the best security for the duration of free governments." [Source: To James McHenry on November 4, 1800.]
Thomas Jefferson
"God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are a gift from God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, and that His justice cannot sleep forever." (excerpts are inscribed on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial in the nations capital) [Source: Merrill . D. Peterson, ed., Jefferson Writings, (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, Inc., 1984), Vol. IV, p. 289. From Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia, Query XVIII, 1781.]
Governor Samuel Johnston
"It is apprehended that Jews, Mahometans (Muslims), pagans, etc., may be elected to high offices under the government of the United States. Those who are Mahometans, or any others who are not professors of the Christian religion, can never be elected to the office of President or other high office, [unless] first the people of America lay aside the Christian religion altogether, it may happen. Should this unfortunately take place, the people will choose such men as think as they do themselves. [Elliot’s Debates, Vol. IV, pp 198-199, Governor Samuel Johnston, July 30, 1788 at the North Carolina Ratifying Convention]
Thomas Paine:
" It has been the error of the schools to teach astronomy, and all the other sciences, and subjects of natural philosophy, as accomplishments only; whereas they should be taught theologically, or with reference to the Being who is the author of them: for all the principles of science are of divine origin. Man cannot make, or invent, or contrive principles: he can only discover them; and he ought to look through the discovery to the Author."
" The evil that has resulted from the error of the schools, in teaching natural philosophy as an accomplishment only, has been that of generating in the pupils a species of atheism. Instead of looking through the works of creation to the Creator himself, they stop short, and employ the knowledge they acquire to create doubts of his existence. They labor with studied ingenuity to ascribe every thing they behold to innate properties of matter, and jump over all the rest by saying, that matter is eternal." "The Existence of God--1810"
Benjamin Rush:
"I lament that we waste so much time and money in punishing crimes and take so little pains to prevent them…we neglect the only means of establishing and perpetuating our republican forms of government; that is, the universal education of our youth in the principles of Christianity by means of the Bible; for this Divine Book, above all others, constitutes the soul of republicanism." "By withholding the knowledge of [the Scriptures] from children, we deprive ourselves of the best means of awakening moral sensibility in their minds." [Letter written (1790’s) in Defense of the Bible in all schools in America]
George Washington
Farewell Address: The name of American, which belongs to you, in your national capacity, must always exalt the just pride of Patriotism, more than any appellation derived from local discriminations. With slight shades of difference, you have the same religion" ...and later: "...reason and experience both forbid us to expect, that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle..."
James Madison (Federalist No. 51, 8 February 1788)
"If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place, oblige it to control itself."
What powerful words and understanding of the necessity of having a nation flowing with moral principles that can only be derived from the Word of God and Christianity. As James Madison said, "If men were angels, no government would be necessary...." but seeing that men are NOT angels and governments are made up of men, there is of a necessity to create checks and balances to check and balance the passions, appetites, and lusts of the men who will obtain any office of political power. The beauty of the Constitution is not that it is so concise and well written, but within it’s make-up is this eternal understanding that permeated through all the minds of the men who wrote the document: It is of a truth that government is made up of men and if left to himself, with no checks on his lusts, he would oppress his fellow man and enslave him. The true beauty of the Constitution is that it incorporates this fact. True freedom can only be derived when human nature is checked and controlled. This is the inherent genius of the Constitution; it was written by our Founders with the intent to maintain a vigilant check upon human nature. John Adams said, "Power must NEVER be trusted without a check." Why? Because when a man gains or acquires power, history shows that in the end, he cannot be trusted to maintain that power or office with purity. When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn. (Prov 29:2)
The cliche that ‘freedom isn’t free’ is clearly true and in the end, if we truly desire to be free it will cost us something. As a matter of fact, true freedom will cost us our lives. Which, sadly, is a price that many will not or are not willing to pay. We talk a good talk, but our actions do not match our speech. We enjoy great conversations about the Holy Ghost, but discussion of discipline and constraint is kept to low roar, if even discussed at all. The Apostle Paul said it this way, "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;" (Phil 3:10) YES! We want to know Him in the power of His resurrection, but we fail to connect these two ingredients. There is no resurrection without a cross. There is no power without stepping into the fellowship of His sufferings. And there is no freedom without a cost.
Most seem to disregard the words of Jesus or let’s just say, they may hear them, but to do them is a whole different story. "Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross , and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matt 16:24-26) Too many of us are caught up in saving our lives rather than losing our lives for His name’s sake. We find the Word of God too constraining in a world that is so liberal and seemingly ‘free’. We are so apt to shun any preacher that preaches a standard or doctrine that warns about what we put before our eyes and ears. Our images are more important then His image. The image of Jesus on the cross is too painful of an image. In agony He hangs there, looking forlorn, forsaken and all alone, with no one to help Him. We think to ourselves, ‘There is NO WAY that all that blood, guts, and gore will bring freedom!’ We have a hard time seeing beyond the cross. We have difficulty seeing beyond obedience. Our senses create images of eminent death and we buy into the pictures of despair. The voices inside us cry, " I am at the point to die: and what profit shall this birthright do to me?" (Gen 25:32) "This is bondage not to have my desires fulfilled! This is crazy that I can’t go here or do that? Who does that preacher think he is telling me what I can or cannot do?" Edmund Burke said, "The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion."
In our inability to see beyond the cross, we cave and give in to the appetites of the flesh. When I run, going up hill is always a battle but when I go downhill, there is a momentary reprieve and a certain exhilaration. Like the back slider who walks away from the Truth...it’s exciting...but the excitement is just that... fleeting and brief. That the triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the hypocrite but for a moment? (Job 20:5) Momentarily, we ‘feel’ as though we have obtained true freedom, when in essence we have unlocked the proverbial pandora’s box of bondage and enslavement. Soon we are encompassed with chains of darkness and our eyes have been plucked out by our enemies. I am sure that there was a sense of excitement in Lot’s bosom when he walked away from the oversight and rule of Abraham in his life. The ‘well watered plains of Jordon’ looked like real freedom. No more mountainous terrain to deal with. No more answering to his Uncle Abraham. But about thirteen years later, after being vexed day and night, by what he saw and what he heard, the freedom Lot thought he had obtained was really darkness disguised as freedom. A wolf in sheep’s clothing if you will. I don’t really believe in the beginning that Lot thought he would end up offering his virgin daughters to the queers of Sodom, but these are the things that happen when you don’t understand the truth about freedom. Another Founding Father said it this way, "If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."
The scripture says that ‘a good man’s steps are ordered of the Lord’. A man who follows after God cannot afford to believe that his appetites and lusts are in any way shape or form the pathway to freedom. A man’s whose steps are ordered of the Lord knows that sin always paints a pretty picture. And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth , that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. (2 Thess 2:10-12) This man knows if he gives into his appetites, he might as well put a knife to his throat. Because somewhere down the road, a good man knows he will reap what he has sown. He understands it is a walk by faith and not by sight. His passions and lusts must first be screened by the Word of God and he can not maintain this walk without a preacher. He must have a God called man in his life that will preach what God has sent him to preach. Benjamin Franklin said, "Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote!" I am glad the the Lamb of God came to contest the vote! While the religious wolves of Jesus’s day divided and conquered Israel for their lunch, there came a well armed Lamb who kicked open the sepulchers of death and deceit. The Strongman came, He conquered, and He showed us the way to true freedom. Today, in the midst of this untoward generation, we still have an opportunity to truly be free. The promise is still being poured out and if you feel bound today, maybe its because you have not yet examined the truth about freedom. Besides, what has that pottage of lentils really gotten you anyway???
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