Well this is the way I would have........

Well I can talk all day long about what gets under my skin....but when it comes to putting things on paper, I'm not so good. I always say that too many people have too much of an outlet for their thoughts and they always seem to come at issues from a perspective of their social bias or something similar. All opinions should be measured against a standard. In any building trade you have some kind of instrument to show a true measure. You may use a level, a tape measure, a plum line, survey instrument, etc. But if you don't use the correct tool or instrument, then you have a crooked, out of level, poorly built (and usually unstable) structure. Application of this principle is mirrored in life. We need a standard for our lives. Every opinion, thought, action or plan needs a standard of absolute truth to guide it. This truth must be rooted in what is really right and wrong, in the knowledge of how to go about our lives and how to know the one who created us. The standard exists, though it is much maligned. It is criticized as being out of date, a myth, just a lot of stuff written by a bunch of men, etc. These arguments always strike me as funny, seeing as how they are usually made by people who place great importance on ancient manuscripts from other cultures or plays or novels written by long dead authors. They will seek to define their lives by anything they find interesting, except the one thing that makes a definite claim to be God’s book .That book is of course the Bible. I attempt to measure everything I do by this standard. Sometimes I see clearly where I am lacking or not lacking. Sometimes I miss the point, sometimes I ignore what it says (by accident or otherwise), sometimes I flat out refuse its’ correction (always with a consequence that is brought home later). But I still seek to measure my life by it. That is the example set by Moses and Abraham and King David and every other saint whose lives it records. They kept coming back, even when they had messed up terribly. Just remember, life is full of Monday morning, arm-chair quarterbacks and self-proclaimed experts, and, there opinions are only as credible as people make them out to be. Measure them and their opinions against absolute truth. .It's true that God will use the Bible to show you when you're wrong and have sinned. You may be surprised to find that He will also use it to show you when you are on the right track and give you the peace and confidence to make the right decisions. Just a few thoughts...................

When liars and lunatics fail.

Feeling myself in a philosophical mood today, I have a question for you and please answer honestly to yourself. There will be no quiz. Was Jesus a good man? Please pause here and formulate your answer. This is by no means an original question and what follows will not be an original line of reasoning. It’s attributed to CS Lewis, yes the Chronicles of Narnia guy. So here we go, let’s discuss your answer. If you said no, then you may as well stop here, for what follows will probably not even strike a chord with you. If you said yes, then please proceed. Another question, was Jesus a good teacher? Again, please prepare your own original answer. Again, if no, then may as well stop here. If yes, here we go again.
So you stepped out and said yes! Then let’s look at a few things that Jesus said and taught. He said “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father, except he come through me.” Pretty exclusive statement don’t you think. He said, while referring to God’s people as sheep, “He who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber….I am the door.” Pretty strong language coming from Jesus, but it came from him nonetheless. One last quote now, he said “I and the Father are one.” Now you may say that he was just referring to a close relationship to God as oneness. If that were the case, then why did the Jews immediately pick up stone to stone him to death for blasphemy. So, you said yes to the good man and good teacher question. I ask you, would he lie to you if he were both of these. No, He wouldn’t. So is He a liar? Is He a bad man and teacher?
Maybe there’s another choice here. Maybe He wasn’t these things, but believed He was. That would make Him a lunatic. In today’s diagnosis He would probably be called delusional, or a paranoid schizophrenic. This also takes away that good teacher and good man status. I mean after all, He believed these things so strongly that He went to His death on the cross willingly. He went out of some perverse idea that His own death would save us. Was he a lunatic?
Here’s the gut wrenching decision we all must make, are these lies or the truth. Are they the delusional ravings of a crazy or demon possessed man? A lot of those that heard Him said they were. A lot of people who followed Him around the countryside and listened to everything He said just couldn’t get past these statements. We are told that they went back (to their former beliefs) and never followed Him again. If they are lies or ravings then they can be dismissed, but if they are the truth, then shouldn’t we pay more attention to all of what He said.
By the way, there is a third choice. That choice would be that He is Lord; just liked He claimed He was. By this, I mean that He was God in the flesh, come down to dwell among us, live in flesh like us and die in our place to take the punishment that we each deserved. He did all of this so we could be free to choose whether or not we believed Him.
So here we are at the end of my blog, no altar call, no hymns playing, and no pressure to either believe or not to. I’m just stating the facts as clearly as I can in my own muddled way. Oh, one last fact, He rose again from the grave. He was really dead and God really brought Him back to life. This was proof from God that everything that He said was true.
I hope that, in spite all of the garbage that has been said and taught concerning Jesus, this may clear a few things up in your mind.

Awareness, the silent killer!

Did you ever stop to take notice of the awareness campaigns that consume us on a day to day basis? It starts when we turn on the TV or the radio. That will usually be within the first ½ hour after I get out of bed. You can get news and/or weather anytime of the day or night. You’re bombarded with billboards and commercials on the way to work. When you get there you have memos and reminders and FYI’s to keep you up to date. On top of these things there are the targeted campaigns. These would include global warming, pollution, illnesses, food warnings, terrorist alert system and so forth. By the way, every problem is passed off as being your responsibility, something that you must act now to help counteract. Did you notice that every time there is a new story of some impending catastrophe or extinction or environmental threat it is always the human race’s fault? All of us….period!

Now before you get out your soapbox and start defending your position, let me be clear on mine. We make decisions as human beings that affect everything around us. The Bible says that a man’s heart devises his way…but the Lord directs his steps. It gives a clear picture that these things are consequences of choices that we make. But it also gives the picture that God still has this thing very much under control. The sin nature that we inherited has consequences. But God is forgiving concerning those stupid choices and shows us grace that we do not deserve concerning those consequences.

Now back to my point about awareness…it takes our eyes off of Biblical truth far too often. It focuses us on the problems or false solutions to issues that are blown out of proportion. It causes stress and puts on us a load that we were not designed to carry. The Bible, speaking of the last days, talks of men’s hearts failing them for fear. I used to think that was due to the things that the Bible predicts are coming upon us. I now believe that this is referring to the fear and stress brought on by awareness of all of the things going on around us and what situations these things may cause us to be in.

Have you ever thought about that original stupid choice that got us into this mess to begin with? It had is basis in mistrust (of God) and was based on the promise that awareness would be a much better state of mind for us as human beings. Satan first questioned God’s integrity concerning what He had promised Adam and Eve concerning the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and eating its fruit. Then Satan made a promise of his own to Eve, “You’ll be like God, knowing good from evil.” All she had to do was to make a choice concerning who to believe. Boy, what a deal…paradise, innocence, true love and fellowship, traded for knowledge, for awareness of what was going on. I personally think that Adam and Eve got gypped.

Now I can hear you from here, saying to yourself “but I have to be involved and in control of all of these situations concerning me. I mean after all doesn’t God help those that help themselves. That’s what the Bible says isn’t it?” No it doesn’t. It actually says that God helps the helpless, those that can’t help themselves.



Guess I need to quit rambling and get to my point huh? So here goes. I read in the Bible that God knows my rising up and my lying down, and has numbered the hairs on my head. I’m told not to take a thought as to what I will eat or what I’ll wear. I’m told He has intimately known my days since before the beginning of the world. At that time He knew the day I would be born, the day and very second I will die and all of the details in between. By the way, He has also told us exactly how this world will pass away…yes I said pass away. That means how it will eventually be destroyed and then remade. That is in a literal sense. He has also promised that day and night and summer and winter and springtime and fall will not cease to be as they are until that time comes. He is clear that there is nothing that can be done to hasten or postpone this day ……the time is set in stone.

So what is awareness? The longer I live and the more I read the Bible and think about what it says, I see that it is just one more tool that Satan uses to keep us from trusting God with every detail of our lives. Jesus said that if a man were come to Him then the man must come as a little child. Just like our children trust us to feed them, wipe their hineys and snotty noses and take care of every little detail. As a matter of fact, they aren’t even aware that there are details. They just look at us and cry and know we’ll be there. God is better than the best parent. Think on that a bit. Just wanted you to be aware…….:)