Never Die

I'm listening to radio commentator.  I've come in at the middle of his speaking, and am not sure exactly what his theme was, but...

Quoting author Jack London a few weeks before his death:
"I would rather be ashes than dust!
I would rather that my spark should burn out in a brilliant blaze than it should be stifled by dry-rot.
I would rather be a superb meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet.
The function of man is to live, not to exist.
I shall not waste my days trying to prolong them.
I shall use my time.”

But  modern day people are encouraged to do just that--prolong their days and merely exist.  People are afraid to live; to think; to dream.  They seem content to sit in front of the tube living their lives vicariously through people who are paid actors--people who memorize lines and spew them out like they are real--or through sports heroes, or...  Without much thought they just accept what is told them. 

Hebrews 9:27  "And inasmuch as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment;"

What is life?  Is it merely the breathing out and in of the body?  Is it merely going through the days of our life that are numbered to us?  Is it a job, a home, a family?  What is life...

Luke 12:15  "And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth... 22)  And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. 23)  The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment."


Luke tells us that life isn't the things which we posses in this life, it isn't what we eat, or what we shall wear.  Yet how many people go about their daily lives striving for things?  They strive for food--which is a necessity to some extent, and yes clothing is as well, but...


  
"If your clothes have any name on it except your own, we can't afford it."  I used to tell my children.  I told them that half serious, and half joking.  In my day (younger) a brand name would often indicate quality...in these days it is often just a status symbol.  It indicates a person has more money than sense.


An acquaintance recently sent me a group of pictures.  One picture shown was of Hitler's officers in 1939.  They were dressed in their uniforms sitting at a long elegant table with nice place settings.  The next picture in the series was of three modestly dressed young children sitting at a small child sized make shift table with some sort of cloth covering it.  The heading on the latter picture was: "Christmas dinner of cooked cabbage, 1931".  Any history buff would understand at least part of the stories behind both of those pictures.  I would rather be one of the three impoverished children of the second picture than affiliated with Hitler and the first picture.

 
Striving--striving after the wind. 

 

“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”  G. K. Chesterton

Quite a few years ago now I found that it seemed as if any time we made more money, some one took it for taxes, or it got sucked away in some fashion.  I determined that making more money did not solve our problems.  Being the thinker that I am, I decided that what I needed wasn't more money.  I needed to learn to live cheaper.  We have always kept a garden, so some of the other things we did were taking it to the next level.  We are country folk, so we got some laying hens, a milk cow, and even raised some of our own hogs.  We changed some of our habits in order to live better, and it improved more than our money situation.  Our family became closer in several ways.

James 4:14  Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

We know this life won't last forever.  We know that neither sorrow, nor joy will last forever.  Yet, sorrow makes joy much sweeter, and the combination makes heaven more anticipated. 

The test comes when we find we can say as the apostle Paul did in Philippians 4:11  "Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content."

1Timothy 6:6  "But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7)  For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8)  And having food and raiment let us be therewith content."

The reality is that our body will die, unless our Lord Jesus comes again before that happens.  Our body will not last forever, but we will never die.  The real question is, where will we live forever?  How comforting to make our peace with God, and know that there is a place waiting for us in heaven.  As we live our days it is necessary to really live those days, and make a difference while we are living.  So praise God, and live well now and forever.  Hallelujah, what a Savior!

What Difference Does It Make?! (part two)

What difference does it make?  Ask history.  History will tell us that any society that embraces such deviations from man/woman relationships also embraces the end of their society.  We can point to a Biblical example of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis nineteen.  We can point historically to Rome and Greece as well.  When the family structure began to fall apart, when the women began their decent away from goodness, and men began their decent away from moral principles, the society began their sure demise.

I'm taking a short sashay, a small aside here.  I ask the Bible class teacher, "I know people who aren't necessarily what we would call Christians, yet they have a very good marriage.  So, since they aren't Christians how would you explain this?"  (Now here's an aside from the aside.  When I speak of a 'very good marriage', I don't mean that they get along well.  I mean that although they may get along well, they also have the other attributes of a good Christian marriage.  For example, they uphold the traditional values of the husband being the head of the home--the bread winner--financial manager, etc.  She as a good homemaker, taking care of the children, managing her home finances etc.)

"Well," the teacher answered, "there are Biblical principles that when applied to a situation whether the ones applying them are Christians or not--those principles still work."

The people who condemn Christians as closed minded because they don't accept deviations, because 'what difference does it make' haven't looked into the mirror of the past societies.  I don't want to go snooping around in other folks' sordid or unsordid life styles, however looking into the mirror of the past gives us a window into the society of the future.

 God created intimacy to be between one man and his one wife.  God created Adam and his Eve (not Eves).  Genesis 2:24  "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh." And Jesus says in Matthew: 19:4  "And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, 5)  And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?  6)  Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

The past tells us that any society that becomes obsessed with sex is doomed.  First it's a little not being quite satisfied with the mate you have, maybe a little extra-marital fling, a little bit of looking where you shouldn't be.  Going aside, outside the lines, blurring right and wrong--usually it doesn't seem all that bad.  I mean, what difference could it make?  At first people and society will put on the brakes, but soon there is no stopping point and it's a down hill rush.


It may have begun with the desire to relax marriage and divorce laws, as in no-fault divorce.  Adultery used to be the only reason for divorce, now--adultery is about the only reason that you can't get a divorce.  At one time a woman exposing a slender ankle was considered risque (in olden days a glimpse of stocking was thought of as something shocking, but now heaven knows...).  I'm sure we have a naive view of olden days, but we certainly have come to the --anything goes-- part.  Pornography is a sickness that we don't seem to be able to rid ourselves of.  Back in my youthful days there was the risk of venereal diseases, then std's, and now we have all of the above plus AIDS.

When we ask God what His opinion is of these perversions he calls them abominations.  He tells us not to even go there--and God is quite plain about it--perhaps even what some would call closed minded.  For all the flapping that has gone on here are some ideas for consideration:

Our society has for the most part been led to believe that adultery, fornication, pornography, homosexuality, and many other deviations are quite acceptable, but they aren't.  People that are in a life long monogamous--one man one woman relationship are still healthier and percentage wise happier than any other relationship.  Even in a male/female relationship if the parties aren't married there is more unhappiness, more violence, more problems.  There are so many fallacies surrounding same sex relationships where would a person begin?  Homosexuals supposedly should have the right to love their 'love'.  Problem is their definition of love isn't the same as straight people's definition of love.  Their definition of a relationship is different than a normal definition.  A standard same sex relationship doesn't usually consist of only one partner and one partner only.  During any relationship they may have several also runs, and during the life span one person usually has anywhere from 100+ all the way to close to 1000 partners.  They characteristically die earlier from self inflicted diseases such as AIDS. They have higher rates of suicides and violence in their relationships. 

If a doctor tells a patient that over-eating, over-drinking, or some life style habit is going to kill them, does that make the doctor a hateful person?  Does it make the doctor unjust, bigoted, or whatever  other hateful name--does it make the doctor anything but a messenger of truth?  The truth is that there are some things that are just flat wrong.

It is wrong for men or women to act in an irresponsible fashion.  It is wrong for people to bring children into this world and abandon them--but far more insidious for them to create a life with no intention to care, nurture, and love that life as the precious soul that it is.  Or as many do nowadays, discard human life created in the image of God as if  it were trash.

 Most people want to eat and drink healthy food and beverages.  They want to breathe clean pure air...if you were to take someone's water and begin to put just a little dirt in it, and hand it back to them--would they drink it?  If you asked them what difference does it make?  Would they see that just a little dirt in their water, or their food, or even in the air they breathe--doesn't make any difference?  Most people would not want to live in a cesspool.  Most people don't want to live in a world where they are afraid. 

There are no better principles, no better standards on which to base your life and your society on than God's principles found in the Bible.  Those principles are the difference between living in a pure society and a cesspool.  What difference does it make?  What difference does it make?  It makes all the difference in the world...and in the world to come. 

What Difference Does It Make! (part one)

Some time ago then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton while being questioned about the Benghazi debacle made the fateful statement, "What difference does it make!"  Much criticism has come her way for that fateful statement. In life we each have moments of --what difference does it make-- and our relationship to that statement comes with the context in which it's made. 

I would like to believe that I am a writer, that I am an intelligent thinker, but of all of these things that I believe, it is most important that I know I am a Christian.

Because of the supposition that I am a writer I do quite a bit of research for my writing.  In researching things I often come across things hard to wrap my mind around.  A few years ago I came across a somewhat prevalent philosophy stated by some young --I would call them scoundrels.  The philosophy was that they didn't need marriage.  They had several women that would come and take care of their needs--be it clean their house, prepare food, or ...other.  And if for some reason the woman came up pregnant--well she could just go on her way and take care of the situation in whatever way.  It was none of their concern...what difference did it make?

Another prevalent philosophy is the one of living together...trying it out, seeing if as a couple they fit.  I mean, again, what difference does it make?

As an intelligent thinker I ask myself, what difference does it make?  We have heard Proverbs 14:34  "Righteousness exalteth a nation; But sin is a reproach to any people." for many years.  Often when people talk about the sins of our nation this is the verse that is used, but let's stop and consider a few things.

In a recent conversation I had another person reply to a statement --"I just don't think the Bible is the best way to live--why, what do you think people need it for?  You think people would be walking around stabbing one another with out it?"--  I don't know what la la land that person lives in, but even with God's moral code people are stabbing one another, knocking people out, and much more.   And no one has ever come up with a better moral code than the one God has provided.  As an intelligent thinker--what difference does it make?

 Jamestown was begun with young single men looking for gold and treasure.  They believed all they would need to do was walk along the beach and pick up gold and treasure.  So they came, some with their servants, but it didn't work out well for them.  The English investors found that men with families made much better subjects for building communities.  God could have told them that--matter-of-fact he did back in Genesis 2:18  "And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him..."  Genesis 2:23  "And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24)  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."

It is not good for man to be alone-- Some people say that marriage was for 'procreation'.  To bring children into a home environment, and according to their way of thinking, since we now have birth control they can shack up and just be fine.  Marriage is passe, just live together for your own pleasure...  However narrow minded it may seem to these folks that isn't what God said it was for.  Reread Genesis 2:18, God said 'it is not good for man to be alone'.  Marriage is for companionship for men and women, for love as well as having a 'help meet' for life.  It is a committment to love and honor your helpmeet.  Some 'one man, one woman' unions are blessed with children, some are not, but they can still be a strong building block in the community.

Recently there have been many 'flaps' centering around the narrow-mindedness of people of faith who  quote scriptures supporting the view that anything that veers from the 'one man, one woman' doctrine is wrong.  Because I believe that I am an intelligent thinker, one of the questions that I ask (again) is --what difference does it make?

Take a look around, just pause for awhile and look around.  Just as the woman back up a few paragraphs tried to dismiss the Bible and God's standards as passe with a ridiculous remark, when we dismiss God's standards for people's lives in any area we create havoc in society in  general and individual lives specifically, and it moves beyond ridiculous into horrendous. 

There have through the ages been both men and women who have kicked against their lot in life.  Within the last hundred years give or take a few years, women's rights and women's liberation has become popular.  Now, I'm not saying anything about injustice and basic human rights for either men or women.  There are times when basic human rights need to be upheld, when in the name of mercy and justice these rights need to be protected no matter if one is rich or poor, man or woman, weak or strong.  God means for women, children, the poor, and weak amongst our communities to be protected and cared for.   Sadly, women's liberation was not meant to help or protect women and children, and indeed it has not done so.  It has only torn down and destroyed much of what God put in place as a hedge and a protection for women and children. 

A few generations ago people threw off all traces of integrity.  Like a super nova flinging off fingers of light in every direction, people of the 1960's suddenly rebelled and questioned the bedrock of our foundations as a society.  Questioning is not in itself wrong, but apparently there either was no one with answers, or the rebels didn't have enough sense to discern what the right answers were.  People are their own worst enemies in all too many cases.  They are victims, but they are victims of themselves. And what difference does it make?

"I know I have the body of a weak and feeble woman, but I have the heart and stomach of a king, and a king of England too!"
(Tilbury speech, 1588. See section on The Spanish Armada)

Even Queen Elizabeth I acknowledged in a sense that she as a woman had her limitations.  Many is the time women of today have been encouraged to believe they can do it all.  They are super women.  They can bring home the bacon, and fry it up in the pan...but this mentality has left many women trying to juggle home, children, jobs, finances--by themselves as single moms.  No longer are they considered the fair sex to be protected and cherished, they are something to be used and tossed away.  To be continued...