The Way
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
Jesus Is the Way
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Category Archives: Issue 55
Excuses! Excuses!
Several years ago, a newspaper article focused on the speeders on the highways and the excuses they used for violating the speed limits. The title of the article was “Speeders Outgun New Limits.” The article pointed out that, in spite of many states and communities raising their speed limits, more people are speeding and at higher speeds above the limits than ever before.
The writer concluded that we are a nation of speeders and of excuses. He asked the question, “Why do we speed?” and proceeded to give five answers to that question. Interestingly enough, if you replace the word “speed” in his list of reasons with “sin,” it very well describes why people sin. It is serious to make up excuses for speeding on the highway. It is even more serious to make excuses for sinning and rebelling against the God of the universe.
1. Why do we speed (sin)? Because everyone else does, including our leaders.
The writer of the speeding article noted that a former governor of South Dakota is known as a speeder. He had received a dozen speeding tickets and had been involved in a half-dozen accidents. The writer noted that there is little or no stigma in speeding any more because “everybody does it.”
The Bible says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Yes, everybody does it, but that does not excuse us in the eyes of a righteous God. The Bible says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezekiel 18:20).
2. Why do we speed (sin)? Because we’re sure we won’t get hurt.
Where Will You Spend Eternity?
Where will you spend eternity?
This question comes to you and me!
Tell me, what will your answer be?
Where will you spend eternity?
Disobedience and the Blindness of Rebellion
We address this article to a culture that is long on equality, personal rights, and democracy, and short on the wisdom of obedience and submission to authority. Far from being immune to the problem, Christianity in the West seems hopelessly mired in these same misguided ideals. We live in a culture where attempted answers merely multiply the problems.
Recently, I asked a few jail inmates for a one-word description of sin. Their answers: drugs, alcoholism, lust, sexual immorality. Not a bad description. I didn’t expect such a stark admission of sins that strike so close to home.
But there is a deeper reason for raising the issue. The Garden of Eden had every kind of good tree needed for food. Yet, through the tempter, Eve came up with three logical reasons to eat of the only forbidden tree in the whole place: Continue reading
God Bless America?
I was fourteen years old when the Twin Towers were destroyed. I remember that day well. Of the many changes soon afterward, one thing that especially struck me. It was the sudden, prolific appearance of signs, stickers, posters, billboards, and banners proclaiming, “God Bless America. ” People planted them in their lawns and stuck them on their cars. They used the slogan in their advertising and even churches joined the fad and put them on their signs.
I suppose most people had good intentions. But it seemed a bit ironic to my fourteen-year-old mind. I guess I never knew untill then how much Americans cared about God. I would never have known it if they hadn’t put out all those signs.
Think about it. Is God blessing America now that people have started asking Him to? Does saying it make it happen? Hasn’t God already blessed America and other places in many ways? Will God bless sin in the live sof those who say “God bless America”?
Let’s think about some events since 9-11 that have received national and worldwide attention.
Developing Emotional Stability in our Children (part 1)
Present-day American culture is testing the emotional fiber of our children. Broken marriages, husband/wife conflicts, both parents working outside the home, TVs and videos portraying violence, sex, and crime are contributing to fear and anxiety in the lives of many children.
Social workers are busy helping individuals identify their inability to cope with the stresses and demands of life. The number of Attention Deficit Disordered (ADD) children is increasing.
Modern technology, which includes video games, camera cell phones, ipods, and computers with Internet capabilities, are having a programming effect on children’s character and values. Our world of technology has raised the stress level to Orange, and in many situations, to Red. Are there alternatives?
Jesus said, “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me: for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30).
- We must believe that Jesus Christ alone can save us. We have the promise in Matthew 28:20 that he will be with us, even to the end of the world That means in any culture, any circumstance or situation. The Holy Ghost reaffirms this promise in Romans 8:32. “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him freely give us all things?” Salvation is trusting Christ everyday in every experience, to give us victory in every conflict.
- We must separate ourselves from those things that will eventually separate us from God and seek the fellowship and encouragement of God’s people. In Matthew 18:6, Jesus says if we cause a little child to be offended (or to stumble) it were better for us to have a millstone hung around our neck and be drowned in the depth of the sea. How many children and youth are stumbling in life because they are exposed to TV, pornography, drugs, and the like? How many are offended when they become victims of anger and abuse?
- Every child needs to feel accepted and loved. Acceptance and love provide security and safety from fear and danger. They lay a foundation for trust in God and His sovereign care. Love is to our emotions like an anchor is to a ship. It holds us steady in the midst of turbulent waves.
- We must prioritize on things that build character and integrity.
Forbidden Fruit
The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: But those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever (Deuteronomy 29:29).
From the beginning, God has restricted the amount of knowledge that it is good for man to know. Yet rebellious men have followed Satan’s invitation to acquire spirit powers, “intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind” (Colossians 2:18). The desire to “be as gods” (Genesis 3:5) has allured man to delve into mystical occult “wisdom” while corrupting himself in the knowledge God has given him (Jude 10). Eve, then Adam, fell for Satan’s deception, ate the forbidden fruit, and were put out of the garden. “Lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever” in his sinful state (Genesis 3:22).
Jesus acknowledged man’s godlike capacity (John 10:34, Psalms 82:6). Animal life has amazing instinct powers, and there it stops. But is there a boundary that man will reach? Only God can control that boundary!
God needs to limit human knowledge of the natural and spiritual realms because of the grief and destruction that selfish man can bring outside of God’s will. Satan is the ultimate expression of having superior knowledge (“the anointed cherub” — Ezekiel 28:14, 15) and rejecting God’s control.
For those who accept God’s revelation, they will eventually know it all, “Then shall I know, even as also I am known,” through the omniscient or all-knowing God (1 Corinthians 13:12).
The Dominion Mandate
The new enlightenment in Western Europe in the 19th century brought more scientific advances than in any previous millennium. Scientists as Sir Frances Reddi refuted superstitions such as meat generating maggots and flies (spontaneous generation). He established the law of biogenesis (that only life produces life). Many fixed laws God had established in nature were discovered and used in new ways. The everyday conveniences we enjoy in home, business, health, and travel are the result. These developments in technology are in harmony and obedience to God’s dominion mandate given at creation. “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the. fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Genesis 1:28) Scientists in reformation Europe such as Boyle, Pasteur, and the like also gave credit to God from whom all truth and knowledge originate.
Kabala Mysticism
Our Fallen Idols
The Old Testament Philistines captured the Ark of God from the Jews and brought it into the temple of their god Dagon (1 Samuel 5). Dagon was an idol cast in the image of a fish, but with a man’s head and hands. Next morning, the Philistines had to have a look at the trophy they had stolen from Israel and this strange pair of gods in their temple. What they saw was sobering. Dagon had fallen down before the Ark of God.
The Ark was a wooden box covered with gold and crowned with a mercy seat and cherubim [angel representations]. God had strictly forbidden any effort to make an image of Himself (Deuteronomy 4:15-19). He said that His invisible presence would be found between the cherubim above the mercy seat over the Ark, which had now fallen into Philistine hands. So it was deeply significant that men’s efforts to create a god (Dagon) now lay prostrate in the presence of the God of all the earth whose likeness could not be depicted by human art (Acts 17:29).
The Philistines picked up their lifeless, subordinate god and set him again in his place. Next morning they found him in the same posture of worship, but this time with his head and his hands broken off. All that was left of Dagon was the fishy part.
There is something “fishy” about our idols today, too — the singers, the sport figures, the actors, the writers of trashy novels, and even the more glitzy politicians. The unfolding revelations of performance-enhancing drug used by numerous sports figures is just the latest case of the fall of our idols. Their priests and worshipers scramble to restore them again to the place so many have made for them in their hearts. “Solutions” to the steroids problem are being debated on the floor of the Senate. Isn’t there something fishy about that august assembly concerning themselves with the transgressions of boys playing ball?